Ashton finally closed in and made a final dive to recoup his prize. He lay out like a runner stealing home, except rather than sliding in gracefully, he hit with a ground-shaking thud.
The commotion was enough to cause the squirrel to abandon the biscuit and run off into the trees. Ashton crawled on all fours to reclaim it and gingerly tiptoed back to camp.
Approaching the group, he blew on his bounty. “I can still eat this, right?”
After the tussle, there wasn’t much left of the cake, but Tess understood that every bite was precious.
“It’s probably fine,” she said.
Ashton sighed with relief and gently placed the remnants into his mess kit bowl. Unfortunately, in the time he’d taken to run down the first cake, the second had burned to a blackened, hard disk.
Tess looked away when his eyes filled with tears. She’d give him a minute to regain his composure.
They gorged themselves on fried fish and ash cakes with mashed-up berries. Satisfied for the first time in days, they relaxed around the fire, patting full bellies.
“That was the best meal I’ve ever had,” Grayson said.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Carter said. “But the fact that we forged it with our own bare hands does make it a little sweeter.”
Tess didn’t say anything, but had to admit, a hearty meal did put a rosier tint on everything. Her full-stomach high only lasted about thirty minutes.
It was then that Carter emerged from the woods, loitering at the treeline as if not wanting to approach camp. “Tess, I have a problem,” he called.
“Ah, crap,” Tess muttered. She could smell the “problem” from where she sat, twenty-five feet away. “Go directly to the lake, strip, and get in. I’ll bring you some soap.”
“What’s his deal?” Ashton asked.
“Looks like Carter had a fight with a skunk and lost. Can’t you smell him?”
“I wondered what that was.” Grayson pinched his nose. “Will water alone get rid of it?”
“Doubt it,” Tess said. “But it’s all we’ve got.”
Carter took a wide berth to the lake, stripped to his boxers, and waded in. “Son of a…It’s cold!” he complained.
“Yeah,” Tess said, approaching with a bottle of biodegradable soap, which she tossed to him. “I bet. Here. Scrub.”
A minute later, Logan came up behind her, holding some of Carter’s clothes and a microfiber camp towel. “Got these from your pack,” he said to Carter.
“Thanks.” After scrubbing as long as he could stand the cold water, he waded out. It was dusk now, and without the sun’s warmth, the temperature had dropped significantly. Teeth chattering violently, he dressed quickly and beelined to the fire where everyone scooched away from him.
“You stink, brah,” Grayson said.
“We’re probably gonna wanna move his tent,” Ashton said. “And we’re burning the clothes, right?”
“Could this day get any worse?” Carter said.
“At least we got a good meal,” Logan said. Tess appreciated his optimism.
Later that night, her bladder demanded that she not wait until morning for a bathroom. It was dark, so rather than bother with the makeshift privy, she snuck into the woods and squatted.
It had barely been a minute when she heard rustling in the bushes. Crap, had someone else come to pee out here? No, it was too small a noise to be a person, and it was coming from multiple directions.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. If it was what she thought it was, she could be in big trouble. And, defying her own rules, knowing she’d only be gone a second, she’d left the gun in the tent.
The flashlight confirmed her fear, illuminating two glowing orbs directly in front of her. Swinging the beam in a circle, she found three more sets of eyes. They’d surrounded her.
She stood slowly, pulled up her pants—no way she was getting caught dead with her pants around her ankles—and screamed.
