Something Wilder

Leo let out a breathless “Oh my God. We have to go back.”

Lily turned, frantically digging into the bag. “Give me Bradley’s and Walter’s numbers.” He rattled them off, and watched over her shoulder as she texted the group: Photo was a mirror image. Don’t come for us yet. We’ll call when we know more.

Lily hit Send before shoving the phone back into her bag.

“Take two?” she said, grinning so wide he could count her teeth.

“Take two.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

THE CLEARING OPENED up in front of them and, once they were positive no one else lingered nearby, Lily and Leo raced toward the crumbled chimney—right back to where they’d been barely two hours ago. Though both their hands were covered in cuts and scrapes, they hardly noticed as they dug through the pile to unearth a stump that was in considerably worse shape than the one on the other side.

Years of being covered by rock and other debris meant it hadn’t dried out and aged in the same way. Some of the grain was swollen; sections of bark had rotted and sloughed away. Hopefully whatever remained would still be legible.

Leo leaned in to study it while Lily hovered behind him, her heart in her windpipe. “Do you see anything?” she asked. “Is it braille again?”

“There’s definitely something here.” Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his canteen and poured water across the surface, just like she had last time. “Right? Do you see those dots?”

She crouched next to him, and though the markings weren’t as pronounced, she agreed they were similar to what they’d seen earlier.

But she was tired, and the longer she stared, the more they seemed to swim in front of her, turning into nondescript, blobby masses. “Looking at this makes my brain malfunction.”

Leo picked up a stick, swiped an area of the earth flat and clear of leaves, and began drawing the patterns in the dirt. After a few minutes, he pulled back. “Does that look right?”

She compared the drawings to what had been burned onto the wood. “I think so?”

Below the drawings, he slowly wrote 2, F, e, n, w, e. “I’m less confident this time around,” he murmured.

She pointed to the final series of dots. “But if this is an intentional dot and not a spot of decay on the wood, that would turn this final e into an o.”

“Right,” he agreed. “But if the two is the slot canyon, and the F is which crevasse we turn into, then the next four letters are directional turns deeper into the Maze, an o wouldn’t make sense.”

“The way you’ve drawn it looks right to me.” She looked up, hyperaware of every sound.

“Do we really think the first code was a decoy? Is that something Duke would do?”

“It is absolutely something he would do. I almost feel stupid for not anticipating it.”

He gazed down at the dirt and up at the log, back and forth, confirming. “If the photo of Duke is a mirror image, then this is definitely the right tree stump.”

“Let’s roll with it,” Lily said, tugging on his sleeve. She looked back up the path toward the slot canyons, paranoid and unable to shake the feeling that they weren’t alone. “Those two idiots might not be the brightest stars in the sky, but assuming we’re right about the tree, it’s only a matter of time before they realize that the earlier directions were wrong. And if they find us, I don’t think they’ll just zip-tie us again.”

Feet crunched through leaves behind them and this time Lily knew she hadn’t imagined it. She whipped around, knife in hand, and saw a man backlit in the low-hanging sun, standing about ten yards away. They both pushed to their feet, Leo shoving her behind him, shielding her.

Lily moved to shove him behind her when she heard Leo’s relieved voice: “Dude.”

“Bradley?”

“Goddamn, there you are.” Laughing as he took in their expressions, Bradley shook his head. “You both look so panicked. It’s just me.”

Leo and Lily exchanged a brief, confused look.

“How—what are you doing here?” Leo asked. “Nicole said you’d gone back to New York.”

Bradley looked momentarily surprised. “You spoke to— Oh, right. I told her I was flying home, but really I just couldn’t handle knowing you two were going on without me.” He winced self-deprecatingly. “This was the most fun I’ve had in my life, and I couldn’t miss it. So tell me what’s happened! I bet it’s been insane.” He gave a wild Bradley-mountain-man shout and grinned at them.

Lily imagined that in any other circumstance Leo would walk over and embrace his friend. But he didn’t move from her side—and she didn’t lower her knife. She also couldn’t shake the weird feeling that coiled in her gut like a rattlesnake. Why would Bradley risk coming into the canyon alone? Why, if he trusted Leo, wouldn’t he meet them back in Hester, as planned?