Her sleeping bag and tent are gone, too.
I rub my forehead, thinking about what we can do. The four of us are sharing a tent. We could fit her in, but I don’t think she’d be okay with that.
On the other hand, if she even attempts to sleep with the others, they’ll wake up with an extra smile.
“Okay, so we need to have a very important discussion.” She looks at Kendall and Justin, ignoring the rest of us. “We’re not where we need to be, but half the paddles are missing, and I don’t think anyone here wants to get back in the water. So we have two choices: we can try the rapids, though at this point, I think that’s not an option. Or we can go on foot. But,“ she holds up her hand for silence when everyone starts murmuring opinions. “My pack is gone with all my supplies, and most importantly, the food and suppressants, which means from here on out, we’ll need to forage for food and prepare to be hit by our designations.”
“You lost our fucking suppressants?” Rojer shouts.
I glare at him, willing him to twitch a finger, just one.
“Unfortunately, yes. They are gone. So, now we have to deal with the situation.”
“And what is the situation? Why can’t we go back the way we came?” Kendall asks. He looks exhausted and scared.
“We could go that way, but it’s risky. In order to do it safely, it would put us an extra week out here. If we try to follow the river, we’ll get caught in the canyon and need to swim, and no one here is a good enough swimmer to safely get up out of the river. Our best option is still to continue on. We’re making good time,and the river puts us a third of the way. If we cut through, we can easily get where we need to be and continue on as planned.”
“Won’t we be out here longer because we aren’t on the river?”
She shakes her head. “No, the shortcut will marry up with the marked path on the way. I have done it before, we won’t gain any extra time out here, in fact, we could get out a day early.”
“You stupid fucking bitch!” Nathan hisses. “You’re going to kill us all.”
To my surprise, Bonnie shakes her head but remains completely calm in the face of the enraged alpha.
“No, I’m going to save you.”
“You?” he sneers. “What could you possibly do?”
She inhales, and I can almost feel her anger in the air around us. “I’m trained for this. I am your best bet for getting out of here.”
He grumbles, but Kevin hisses in his ear, and he subsides.
“I vote we keep going on foot,” Quincy pipes up. To be honest, I’m surprised he’s the one speaking first.
“I agree,” Kendall says.
I look at Vale. He hesitates for a moment, and I know he’s worrying more about her safety than ours, but then he nods.
“We’ll vote for the on-foot path, too.”
“Well, I guess we have no choice,” Nathan spits. He stands up, tosses his bowl on the ground, and goes into his tent.
“Tonight, we eat and get an early night. Tomorrow, we need to cross the river and get moving,” she says calmly.
Bonnie stands up and walks into the darkness. The dark is so complete out here, like another personality. It’s loud and quiet at the same time. The darkness out in the wild is oppressive; it’s a world that most humans don’t belong in anymore.
I love it.
I corner her and shove my sleeping bag into her arms.
“No, I can’t-”
“Just take it, Bonnie. I’ll cuddlewith Rory.”
She scowls.
“And you’ll be taking our tent.”
