Page 19 of Alluring Adventure

I’m torn.Think, Keeley, think!My eyes drop to the bright red of the hiking jacket I’m wearing. In an instant I unzip it and take it off. I’m only in a thin T-shirt and the cool air makes me shiver. Goosebumps appear on my arms.It’s only for a short while, don’t be a wimp.I pull the hood out of the zipped-up pocket on the collar of the jacket and yank. It doesn’t move. I lay the jacket flat on the ground, step on it to hold it in place and pull on the hood. Eventually I hear the satisfying sound of material ripping.

I step up to the nearest tree and reach as high as I can. It’s some kind of coniferous tree. I tie the jacket around the thin trunk on my tiptoes. When I drop back down, I admire my handywork. My new beacon is in place, which should allow me to go a bit further; not much, but maybe enough for some signal.

I throw one last look downwards as I stuff the hood of my jacket into my trouser pockets and carry on the climb. After another strenuous ten minutes even the red of the jacket is becoming just a tiny speck. I have to stop, there’s no other choice.

I pull the phone from my pocket and hold it up in the air. The trees are a bit thinner here and I can actually see the sky.

There, there was one bar. Just now, I saw one bar.I hold the phone steady, but the signal bar is gone. I take two more steps and for a brief second, I have another bar before it disappears again.

I cry out in frustration and tears sting my eyes. I open the messaging app and find Ols’ sister in his contacts. I type out a message and press send. I wait for the confirmation tick to appear but it doesn’t. Battery is showing sixty nine percent so it should last for a while; hopefully long enough for the message eventually to go through. I find Kurt and Jake in his contacts and send them a message as well, then I take the phone and place it inside the hood. The cords to tighten the hood around your face are still intact so I use them to tie the phone as high up on the nearest branch as I can.

Please get through, please get through, please get through. I mumble the words over and over as I slowly descend towards the red dot in the distance.

It takes me nearly thirty minutes to get close enough to our crash site to I can make out Oliver. Walking downhill should have been easier but the gradient of the slope and the roots, branches and bushes meant I had to walk slowly and carefully. The last thing we need is for me to get injured as well.

“I’m back,” I shout from further away to alert him to me approaching. There is no reply. Fear spreads through me like fire.No, no, no.

As fast as the incline allows, I run to him and drop to my knees.

“Hey, you’re back,” he whispers. His face is twisted in a grimace.

“How are you?”

“In pain,” he admits. “You look like you have been to war.” I can only imagine what condition I’m in. My hands are covered in dirt like I’ve been working in a coal mine. My hair feels sticky from sweat and I’m sure there’s leaves and twigs in it.

“Hey, I’m not a damsel in distress type of woman. I can get shit done if I need to,” I say softly and stroke his cheek. His stubble scratching my palm is oddly comforting.

“Oh, don’t I know it. Any luck with the phone?”

“We’ll see. There was some patchy signal up there. I sent a few messages and left the phone in the hope one would go through.”

“Clever. You’re not by any chance related to Ray Mears?” he tries to joke, but I can see that talking is exhausting for him.

“Nope, but I was a tomboy growing up. My sister was the girly girl. That’s probably why we aren’t close. We’re too different.”

“Tell me about her.” The last word causes Oliver to cough and wince in pain. I guess the initial adrenaline after the crash is wearing off and he’s in much more pain.

“About my sister?” I lean back against the hill, my fingers gently stroking his forehead. “I… I really think we have better things to worry about now. What if they don’t get the message?”

“Hannah will alert them anyway if we’re not back by three. We always have a safety check in time. If I go past that and don’t answer her call, she will inform mountain rescue. It’ll take them longer to find us but we should be safe here until then. The nights…” He winces again. “The nights are cool, but not so cold that we’d risk hypothermia. And someone could have seen our crash.”

I hope he’s not just trying to calm me down. It seems logical, but if they don't get the texts, it could take ages to find us, given that they’d need to search a wider area.

I press the button on Ols’ fancy watch and the dial lights up showing that it’s just after three-thirty p.m. So, if he is right, they should be looking for us already.

“There’ nothing we can do but wait. So, tell me about your sister?”

“Why?”

“To distract me.”

“Hmmm, I don’t think it’s a very interesting story. Lisa is two years older than me. Growing up, we never really played with each other. Whilst she was collecting posters of her favourite boy band I was the ringleader of the Merry People.” I grin at the memory.

“The Merry People?” Ols’ voice is weak, but he tries to give me a grin.

“Yes. We loved watching Robin Hood and it was a group of boys and me. They called themselves the Merry Men like in the book, but when I joined I challenged the leader to an earthworm eating competition. I won and renamed it the Merry People because they weren’t just men anymore.” Oliver laughs and then groans in pain.

“An early feminist?”

---