“I can’t hear anything you’re saying,” I say, even though he’s still talking away on the other end. “I’ll call you right back, okay?”
When I hang up, I turn to tell Sadie I’m off to find higher ground, see if the connection is any better up there—
But she’s already gone.
“Pick up, Matteo,” I mutter under my breath ten minutes later, when I’ve managed to find a slim two bars of signal on the high hill acrossthe stream. I can see our entire camp from here, but it’s far enough away that no one will be able to listen in. “Pickup.”
I’ve tried calling twice now. Twice, it’s gone straight to voicemail.
Third try’s the charm, hopefully.
“Thorn?” Matteo says when we finally connect. “You there?”
The signal is a thousand times clearer here than it was down on the nature trail.
“I’m here,” I say. “Is everything okay?”
“We’re, uh…how do I put this?” Matteo says, a panicked edge to his voice. “We’re extremely lost.”
“Defineextremely,” I reply, as calmly as I can manage. “Also please definelost.”
There’s a long pause, but I hear his ragged breaths on the other end. He’s either been running or hyperventilating—from the sound of it, my guess is the latter.
“I think we’ve been going in circles,” he says. “Or maybe we took a wrong turn? Or maybe both.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to mentally calculate how far they would’ve been if they’d managed to stay on track.
“Did Joshua find the engagement ring, at least? Did you even make it back to the lake?”
Matteo heaves a sigh so loud and crackly I have to pull the phone away from my ear.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere near the lake,” he admits. “I tried to tell him he should just forget it…”
“But?”
“But he’s not really the forgetting type, as it turns out.”
I take in all of this, not sure what to make of that statement—and not sure what Matteo’s asking me todoabout it.
“So, what do you need from me?” I ask. “You’ve still got yourphone, obviously—so youshouldbe able to get back on track with GPS, right?”
Though maybe I shouldn’t make any assumptions, considering they’re this lost already and the park itself is huge.
“That’s the other thing,” he says. “I can’t find my charger, and my phone is at two percent.”
I mutter a curse.
If they got this lostwithGPS, there’s zero chance they’ll get back on track without it.
The only way Matteo and Joshua are getting un-lost is if I go and find them, then lead them back to camp myself.
“Send me your coordinates before your phone dies,” I say, suddenly all out of patience. “Stayexactlywhere you are, Matteo, do you hear me? I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
We end the call, and he texts their coordinates a minute later.
I do a double take when I see where they ended up—it’s not anywhere near where they were trying to go, but on the bright side, it’s not terribly far from here. I won’t have to leave camp for too long…but I will have to leave.
A wave of realization comes over me: if Matteo’s gone, and I’m gone, that means the seven hikers who’ve entrusted themselves to our care are going to be out here alone.
