“She’ll be okay.”
“She’ll be okay,” Spencer repeated. “And when I see her again, I’m going to kill her.”
“Me first,” Gherring said with a wry grin.
*****
Emily stood on the trail with Josh and Brad, looking at the fork leading to the Tombstone Campground. It was six o’clock—almost eight hours of hiking. No, not hiking. Crawling, climbing, scrambling, stumbling, falling, with a small amount of walking. She’d never hurt so much in her entire life. And the temperature was beginning to drop. She’d already had to add a layer for warmth. On the last climb, her ankle started aching, so now she was limping.
“I know you’re hurt. Will you take a pain pill if I give you one?” asked Josh.
“I don’t know.” Emily hesitated, but her ankle had settled into a constant throb. “I tend to over-react to drugs. I don’t take much medicine.”
“Let me see your ankle.” He pulled up her pant leg to probe around on the tender area.
“Ouch!”
“You see—you need to take something. Your ankle’s already swollen. There’s no way you’ll be able to hike tomorrow.”
“I will, too. I have to. How else will I get home?”
“Fine. Then at least take something for the pain.”
“All right. At least my ankle is making me forget about all the other places that hurt.”
“Are you allergic to codeine?” he asked.
“No, but it makes me sleepy.” She accepted the pill from Josh and downed it quickly with some water.
“Too bad we don’t have any anti-inflammatories,” Brad commented.
“Yeah,” said Josh. “We really need to ice it, too. You should seriously consider abandoning this hike. We could get Smiley’s Taxi to pick you up here.”
“Please, I can’t leave now. I need to talk to him first. Maybe I could leave in the morning.”
“I still don’t get why you’re doing this hike,” said Brad. “What guy could possibly be worth this? If we hadn’t happened along, you might still be out there.”
“I know, and I’m grateful. I really am.”
“I still say this guy’s a jerk,” Josh insisted.
“No, he’s not. I was the jerk. I went out with this other guy, and he saw me. But now I know it was a mistake. I only want the chance to tell him.”
“And you had to do this hike just to talk to him?” asked Josh.
“No. I... Oh, I’m stupid, I guess. I wasn’t going to have a chance to talk to him until Monday. And I was afraid if he went on this big weekend hike, he’d hike me right out of his system. And I wanted to prove he was important to me.”
“You’re not stupid,” said Josh. “I think you’re really brave. And really cute. And I hope you drop this other jerk and date me instead. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.”
“Josh, you don’t even know me. But thanks for the sentiment. That’s really sweet.”
“Are you sure that’s where your friends are going to be?” asked Brad, indicating the trail to the camping area. “It’s a public campground, and it’s usually full in the summer. The backpackers usually camp up here on the trail.”
“I don’t know. I thought they’d probably catch up to me on the trail.” She blinked back a few tears, angry with herself for losing control.
“Look, Emily,” Brad said. “We’re going about twenty minutes from here to set up camp. If your friends don’t show up, you can camp with us.”
Josh and Brad exchanged a look. “I don’t think we can leave you here,” Josh said. “We’ll walk down with you and make sure you find your friends. If they don’t come, you’ll camp with us. We can set up in the dark. We’ve done it before.”