Please let that be a squirrel.
She watched the trees, looking for a hint of movement. She saw nothing. No more twigs broke. She felt her skin prickle, certain they weren’t alone.
“You two sleep,” Reyva said. “I’ll take first watch.”
She couldn’t imagine being able to sleep. Her mind felt as ifit were whirring as loudly as the motorboat’s engine, incessantly tossing up terrible thoughts.
“What will you do if someone comes?” Mariana asked.
“No idea. Guess I’ll punch their gun.”
It was going to be a very long night.
Claire hoped they survived it.
Four
We aren’t dead yet, Claire thought.Yay.
With her arms wrapped around her knees, she watched the sun rise over the lake. It bled yellow over the tops of the trees first, and then the light spread, bleaching the sky until the last of the stars vanished. The moon hung on longer, fading until it nearly looked translucent. She supposed she’d appreciate the view more if her mouth didn’t feel gummy, her eyes didn’t feel crusty, and her hair didn’t feel matted to her neck. At some point in the night, she’d slipped off her flannel-shirt pillow, and now sand coated her cheek. She’d tried wiping it off, but her skin still felt gritty.
The birds had been tweeting since predawn, at least a dozen different calls all jumbled together like an orchestra tuning up. They’d woken her, and she’d told Mariana, who was on watch, that she’d take over.
So now she was awake alone. Hopefully alone.
The lake sparkled, obnoxiously cheerful.
It had been sunny like this on the day of Grandpa’s funeral, the first time her brain and body had betrayed her so badly, thefirst time her parents had voiced the thought that Claire had been stuffing deep inside:There’s something wrong with me.She had managed to put on the black dress that her mother had laid out on her bed, but when it came time to clasp the pearl-drop necklace around her neck, her fingers felt as if they’d frozen into claws. She couldn’t make herself do anything but gulp in air like a fish on land. Her heartbeat had sounded so loud that she couldn’t hear her parents screaming at her to calm down and just breathe. She’d thrown up, then passed out. When she woke, she was covered in sweat, and her parents had never looked at her the same since. It was her least favorite memory, and she wished the sun on the lake hadn’t reminded her of it.
She didn’t dare have an episode like that out here, in front of Reyva and Mariana. Better to think of something—anything—else. Like what they could do to continue to avoid dying.
They were stranded on the distant shore of a very large lake, surrounded by uninhabited forest. Not great. But... if they hiked along the edge of the lake for long enough, they would eventually reach the dock that they’d departed from with Jack. It had had a boathouse—a shack, really. Jack had let her in to use the bathroom before they’d crossed the lake. She couldn’t remember if there had been a phone inside, but it had to have one, didn’t it? The dock with the boathouse had been about a two-hour drive from the nearest town, but if they could find a phone and call for help... The trick was the wordeventually. As Reyva had pointed out, it would take several days to skirt the lake. And that was assuming they didn’t get lost or injured. Without food... especially without fresh water... She wastrying not to think about how thirsty she was already. She hadn’t had anything to drink since yesterday, and her tongue felt thick and gluey. She eyed the lake as it lapped the shore. Dehydration wasn’t a pleasant way to die, nor was puking out one’s guts after drinking bacteria-laden lake water. In fact, if she had to rank deaths based on undesirability—
“You’re thinking hard,” Reyva said behind her. “I can practically hear the squeak of the hamster wheels turning in your brain.”
Claire wondered how long she’d been awake, watching her, and decided not to ask. “We can’t just set off into the woods and think we’ll find help after a few hours,” she said. “It’s going to be a several-days walk around the perimeter of the lake. At the very least, we’ll need to bring drinkable water.” It would be best if they could each carry at least a quart... if they could find a way to carry it—yet another problem.
“I know it’s not recommended, but given that this is an emergency... thereisan entire lake full of water we can drink.”
“With bacteria, viruses, and brain-eating parasites.”
Reyva blinked at her. “That’s not really a thing.”
“Seriouslyisa thing. It’s an amoeba. Lives in warm fresh water.”
Reaching, Reyva dipped her fingers into the water. “The lake’s cold.”
“Giardia, then,” Claire said. “Extremely common. Causes cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting, which leads to dehydration, which could be...”
“Deadly,” Reyva finished the thought.
Claire nodded. Drinking untreated water was a fast way to death out in the wilderness. Plus she hated throwing up. You couldn’t breathe, and she hated that feeling more than anything. No matter how thirsty she got, it was not worth the risk. “We need a way to boil water and a way to carry it.”
“You still want to light a fire,” Reyva said. “What about the killer in the woods? He might not just let us hang out and boil water. Or she.”
“Statistically speaking, most likely he. And he won’t have to shoot us if we die of dehydration or starvation.” She didn’t see a way around taking a few risks. “Look, we make as small a fire as possible. Only in daylight, and as soon as we’ve boiled the water we need, we put as many miles between us and this place as possible.”
Mariana spoke. “You aren’t saying we should leave here, are you?” Both of them turned. She was awake and sitting up. Her hair was poofed on one side and flat on the other, and her partially removed makeup was smudged around her eyes. “Not sure that’s the best idea. When someone comes to rescue us, they’ll come to the Lake House.”
