CHAPTER SEVEN
Tess
The next morning, Tess dressed in her tent, swearing this was the last weeklong campout they would do. She was hungry, exhausted, and tired of putting on a brave face. The middle-of-the-night Bigfoot sighting had made her even grumpier.
Over breakfast, she found out that the men felt the same. But rather than voice her own misgivings, she set them aside and prepared to quash the mutiny.
“This coffee is disgusting,” Ashton said, frowning into his cup. “I’m ready to tap out. Anyone else done with this farce?”
Grayson and Carter glanced at each other.
“I mean, if everyone else wants to go home, I’m down,” Grayson said.
“You talking about quitting?” Tess asked.
“Hey, we’ve made it four days,” Ashton said. “That’s longer than the weekend guys. We’ve hardly had any food, barely any sleep, been attacked by a bear, and almost lost Joseph. I don’t feel like it’s gonna get any better.”
Carter and Grayson nodded. Logan remained quiet and noncommittal.
This was normal. Usually, about mid-trip, even on the weekend campouts, campers would get frustrated and start thinking about throwing in the towel. It was her job to make sure they didn’t.
“Y’all paid good money for this experience,” she started. “You wanted to learn to survive in the woods. To prove you could face the elements and the hardships and come out on top. I warned you this wouldn’t just be a physical challenge. That the experience would make you have to dig deep, mentally and emotionally.” She paused for a second before continuing. “This is your chance to look inside yourself and find that source of strength you may need somewhere, sometime in the real world. You’re used to life being easy, but it’s time to man up. If you go back now, you’re letting weakness win. Is that really what you want?” She gave each man a pointed stare.
“Tess is right,” Logan said. “We’ve survived this long. We can finish this. Think how much better we’ll feel than if we quit early.”
“I guess you’re right,” Carter said. He seemed to blow whichever way the wind did.
“Yeah. We probably would regret it if we caved,” Grayson agreed.
“Fine,” Ashton said, conceding loss and not seeming too happy about it.
Tess sighed. Morale usually hit bottom at some point, and this was not the first time she’d had to give a speech like this. But they would regret quitting, so she pushed them to keep going. And they were always glad she did.
“Let’s make food our main priority today,” Tess said, knowing full stomachs would help restore fortitude.
“Praise the Lord,” Grayson said, throwing his head and hands skyward.
“We’ll put off rappelling until tomorrow and focus on fishing. Two of us can go to another place I know where there are berries too.”
“What if we build some kind of raft to get out into the middle of the lake?” Grayson asked. “Fishing from shore is hard.”
“We can try that,” Tess said. “If you wanna take the time to find branches, I can teach you how to lash ’em together.”
“Should we waste time doing that?” Ashton asked. “The hours we spend hunting for branches and building a raft is time we’re not fishing.”
“Tell you what,” she said. “How about we work on a raft until noon? Then, regardless of how far we get on it, we stop and start fishing. And by two, if the fish aren’t biting in the lake, I’ll take a couple of you back to the river to try our luck there.”
They all agreed with her plan and set out to search for branches. She planned to teach a knot-tying class anyway. Assembling a raft was a very practical way for them to learn the square and diagonal lashing knots, as well as the clove and half-hitch knots.
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” she said when they finished the raft by eleven-thirty.
“You sure this thing is sea-worthy?” Ashton asked, nudging the rickety bunch of sticks with his toe. “I’m not a very good swimmer.”
“It’s ugly, but as long as everyone tied the knots like I showed you, it should stay afloat. Who wants to give it a go?”
Silence met her question, and she couldn’t blame them for not jumping at the offer. The patchwork of sticks looked like an oversized kindergarten art project and did not inspire confidence regarding buoyancy.
“You weigh the least,” Ashton said to Tess. “You should try it first.”
