As she walked, Sommer tried to send Sloane calming thoughts.
In return, Sommer got a headful of her sister’s true crime addiction.
Sloane would think Sommer’s present position was idiotic.
If this were written into a TV show, Sloane would be yelling at the screen that she shouldn’t be so stupid. “Don’t be out on a country highway as a lone woman hitchhiking, you dumbass.”
According to Sommer’s hiking app, it was still a long way to the store, and she was hitting her wall. So stupid or not, when the next car rolled by, Sommer tried to signal it to stop.
That car rolled on by.
The next rolled on by.
“This is getting scarier,” Sommer muttered to herself.
She’d never take this course if she didn’t think her friends were in such grave danger.
Sommer hated that her sister had planted those thoughts in her head, making fear tingle up her spine and down her limbs.
She thought of herself as a pretty brave woman. But alone on a mountain road without cell connection was where she drew the line.
“First purchase when I get home is an emergency satellite contraption,” she said.
As much time as she and her friends spent in the woods, she should have had one all along. But it also seemed like a luxury item when she had a hot water heater to fix.
Hindsight being twenty/twenty, it would have been well worth the investment.
“Live and learn,” she said.
As the third car drove by, Sommer started to cry.
So great, now she looked weak, scared, and sad. She was the perfect lure for the local serial killer.
A fourth car drove past, then hit the brakes so hard the tires shrieked in protest.
The passenger door popped open.
And Sommer jogged forward to stick her head in, seeing a mom-looking woman clutching her steering wheel to pull herself back upright.
“I’m having an emergency on the mountain,” Sommer explained. “Does your carrier have cell service in this area?”
“No cell connection in these parts,” the woman said. “Quick, quick, get in.”
Sommer pulled off her pack, slung it onto the floorboard, climbed in, and pulled the door shut. “I’m having an emergency on the mountain,” she repeated, clipping her safety belt in place. “I need to call emergency services. Can you help me get somewhere where I can make a phone call?”
“On it,” the woman said and took off at top speed, then slammed on her brakes.
Sommer stretched out her arms to catch herself on the dash.
The woman laughed nervously. “Look at that, you’re my lucky charm. If I hadn’t stopped for you, those thirty seconds would have put me right in that deer’s path. I swear to god I hate this patch of road. I have since I can remember. I grew up just down the road and was out here to check on my grandma. She’s doin’ right poorly,” she said as they waited for the herd to move across the road and up the slope into the woods.
“I’m sorry to hear,” Sommer said. She couldn’t believe the luck of being in a car and heading for help. Her exhaustion had chased her all the way down the trail, and it had finally caught up with her.
“Gives me the heebie-jeebies every single time, the cold shiver up my back since I was a tiny girl. I always think about dying when I’m on this stretch. I swear this section of the road is haunted. You,” the woman said, turning and really looking at Sommer, “look terrible, all covered in mud. What were you doing up on the mountain?”
“Oh, I’m sorry about your car.” Sommer could smell her own stench, so she reached out to lower the window.
“Never you mind about that. This car has seen a lot worse. Kids and a husband and such. How did you find yourself on this stretch of road?” Without waiting for an answer, the woman looked to the side. “Do you think that’s the last of them? I think that’s it.”
