Page 38 of Face Her Fear

Josie finished her coffee. “I’ve got candy bars.”

Sandrine clapped her hands together. Her hopeful smile was back. “This is wonderful. I’m so happy to see all of you coming together to help the group.”

Taryn pushed her empty plate away. “Josie is right, though. We all need to eat less so we can stretch out the food longer.”

Alice leaned over and looked into Josie’s empty mug. Then she pushed her own half-filled cup toward Josie. “That’s food settled. There’s nothing we can do about the generator fuel, but what about wood? There’s an axe in the rage room. We could use it to chop more wood.”

“You’re talking about taking trees down,” Taryn said. “That’s more work than you think.”

“We brought up the log-splitter from the shed,” Alice pointed out.

Josie thought about turning down the rest of Alice’s coffee but already knew Alice would never take it back. She drank it.

“Yeah, but have you ever tried to chop down a tree?” Taryn asked. “It’s not as simple as you think. My parents loved outdoor stuff. Not just hiking and camping. They used to take me off the grid. We did stuff like that. I’m telling you, chopping down trees in these conditions is probably a last resort. What we should do is scavenge the other cabins for stuff to burn.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Brian. “Each one has a wooden dresser. They’d be easy enough for two people to carry.”

Taryn smiled, enjoying the rapid problem-solving. “Then we use the axe from the rage room to chop up the dressers.”

“What about here? In the main house?” Josie asked. “Shouldn’t we use whatever we can do without here first? There are coffee and end tables in the breakout rooms we could easily chop up and burn. The cornhole games are made of wood.”

“Yes,” Alice said, bumping her shoulder against Josie’s. “Great idea.”

Josie didn’t want to get into an argument about why she wanted to keep Meg’s cabin sealed off so she said, “Once we’ve used up everything we can find in here, then we start with the dressers. We don’t need them all at once. We should start with one—the dresser in the cabin closest, and then as they’re needed, we can work our way up. It will be less effort that way.”

She was relieved that everyone agreed with her. They’d have to go through three cabins before they reached Meg’s. Josie hoped they would be rescued by then.

Sandrine offered, “When we go to get the axe, we could also gather what we can from the rage room that can be burned. All of that stuff is already in pieces.”

Josie saw an opportunity to check the shed to make sure Meg’s body was undisturbed. She knew no one had snuck out overnight but there was still a bear wandering around outside. “I can do that.”

“I’ll help you,” Alice offered.

Sandrine stood up and began taking their empty plates, holding them in a pile in the crook of her elbow like a waitress. “We just have to get by until rescue comes. Someone somewhere is already working on it. The snow has stopped, so hopefully they’ll be able to get to us soon.”

Nicola waved toward the windows. Thick clouds hung low in the sky but the snow wasn’t coming down any longer. “Have any of you even looked outside? We’re not going to be able to do any of that stuff unless we move some of this snow. Are there any shovels?”

Brian stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “We have two that Sandrine brought up from the shed. We can take shifts.”

Taryn leapt to her feet. “I want to be in Sandrine’s group.”

Nicola scoffed. “This isn’t elementary school, Taryn. We’re not picking teams for gym class. I know you’re in love with Queen Sandrine and everything, but she is really not all she’s cracked up to be.”

Alice sprang to her feet and pointed an accusing finger at Nicola. “What is your problem?”

Pink circles appeared high on Nicola’s delicate cheeks. “A woman died yesterday, Alice! On her watch. Or were you too busy playing survivor with everyone else to remember?”

Alice put a hand to her chest, fingers splayed. “Playing? You think we’re playing? You’re the one who lied to get here so you could ‘play’ trauma mom.”

Josie heard Taryn gasp. Brian, staring down at the top of his wife’s head, flinched. Sandrine opened her mouth to intervene but Alice was on a roll. “The only person here who has forgotten about Meg is you! You’re so concerned with Sandrine being a fraud all of a sudden that you don’t even care about anything else. Where is this even coming from? It’s not Sandrine’s fault that Meg died!”

Nicola’s eyes narrowed. Her voice was low and taut, a razor’s edge. “How do you know that Sandrine had nothing to do with Meg’s death? How can you be so damn sure?”

Taryn said, “What are you talking about? Meg died of hypothermia.”

Nicola was firmly focused on Alice. “How can we know that?”

Josie watched a flush creep from Sandrine’s neck to her hairline. Whether it was anger or embarrassment, she couldn’t tell. Maybe both. What she knew for sure was that she could not let this go on any longer. Matching Nicola’s tone, Josie said, “That’s enough, Nicola.”

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