“Fries,” Alexei agreed with a smile, more natural this time.
In fact, with each bite, Alexei felt something returning to himself. Energy. Gratitude. The belief he could keep walking without dying.
The bread of his sandwich was perfectly toasted, the tomato slices fresh and juicy. And the cheese—thebacon—
He tried to slow down. He hadn’t eaten much at all in the last two days; didn’t want to make himself sick. He tried to savor each remaining part of his meal, every fry, each delicious bite of sourdough. And he hadn’t even yet picked up—
An idea. A small one, but one that still took effort.
He looked at Ben until Ben returned his gaze. Slowly, pointedly, Alexei lifted the pickle in his hand.
“Pickle,” he said.
Ben’s smile this time was gentle, almost intimate. Like Alexei had really earned it.
“Pickle,” Ben agreed.
It was the best pickle Alexei had ever tasted.
He should have known the whole thing was too good to last.
“All right,” Faraj said once his burger was demolished, leaning back and taking a long sip from his beer. “Ryan. It’s time, man. Tell us what the hell happened with Leon.”
Alexei studied the men at the table. Reached back in his memory and realized there had been another person, another part of their crew who had walked by when he first met them, who was missing.
Ryan started laughing, holding his stomach.
“Shit. I keep forgetting I haven’t told y’all yet.”
“Yeah, because you’ve been weirdly holding out on us all day,” Tanner said.
“Well, it’s a damn good story, and I was cranky as hell this morning,” Ryan replied. “Wanted to wait until I could tell it good.”
“You definitely were that,” Tanner muttered as he loped an onion ring onto his finger.
“Screw you. Anyway, so last night. All you losers are sleeping.” Ryan shoved his empty burger basket away, leaned his forearms across the table. “Somewhere towards midnight, I hear a noise coming down the trail.”
Alexei’s head started to buzz, an indistinct itch creeping beneath his skin.
He had felt good while they were eating. Had been able to handle the introductions. But as Ryan commenced his tale about how he and Leon had met a night hiker high on shrooms outside their campsite last night, Alexei began to dissociate from the conversation.
It was a familiar feeling. Alexei didn’twantto be an antisocial person; he just…didn’t have anything to say about shrooms. For so much of his life, he simply didn’t have a lot to say about the things people around him often wanted to talk about.
Ben, for his part, didn’t participate much in the conversation, either, sipping his water across from Alexei, occasionally distracted by his phone on the table. Alexei felt disappointed in himself as he became more and more uncomfortable, as the guys next to them became more and more animated—something about coyotes, and looking for aliens; Alexei had lost the thread. But he had been proud of himself for a minute there. Talking with a guy like Ben, even if it was only in small syllables. Feeling semicomfortable in his skin.
Now, all he could think about was getting away. Being alone again. He probably wouldn’t even be able to muster a decent good-bye.
He was halfway into a mental spiral when he was saved by the call.
It was a fast, repetitive staccato, and it sounded like relief to Alexei’s ears, something natural and pretty. He turned his head toward it, away from the conversation, away from Ben’s smile, away from blisters and swollen feet, toward the lawn at the side of the patio, the large tree there. He focused on hearing the sound again, to make sure. If he had been alone, he would have brought out his monocular.
But bringing out his monocular seemed…not quite the thing to do, here, in this moment.
“Oh my God.” Tanner covered his face with his hands. “Leon is such a fucking idiot.”
Alexei’s stomach started to churn. He prayed the food would settle.
The bird in the tree was a junco, he thought. Or, no. Hm. Maybe—
