Deep Woods

Shit! I’d been trying to get to know him so I could help, not make things worse. “Cal—”

He just shook his head.

But I didn’t want to leave it like that. I ran forward through the bushes and got in front of him, then walked backward so he had to look at me. “Cal—”

He suddenly grabbed my waist with both hands and pulled me to him. I yelped. My whole front was crushed against him, my breasts soft against his pecs. My eyes searched his face. He was panting, as shocked as I was. I saw his eyes go to my lips and I swallowed. I could feel his cock hardening against my thigh—

He broke the gaze, then nodded over my shoulder...and down.

I shuffled around...and my stomach dropped to my feet. Just a couple of feet further on, the ground dropped suddenly away. The rise we were climbing had made it invisible until we were right on it and the bushes had hidden the edge, actually overhanging it in places. Walking backward, I wouldn’t have known it was there until my feet came down on air.

I shuffled closer and looked, very glad that Cal still had his hands on my waist. It was a canyon. The far side sloped gently down but our side was a vertical wall of smooth, dark slate. It dropped straight down at least forty feet. At the bottom, a wide river rushed and foamed over rocks, throwing up spray that made the canyon walls shine.

“The gas station’s about two miles from here,” said Cal, nodding towards the far side.

“How do we get across that?!”

“We climb,” he said. And finally—almost reluctantly—he let go of my waist and pointed at something on the rock wall. I frowned and squinted, not seeing what he was seeing. Wait—He didn’t mean—Oh Jesus….

There were steps...sort of. A series of rocks that stuck out from the sheer wall and that would let you climb down, if you were some sort of mountain goat. I wasn’t. I looked down at the rocky bottom, so far away. If I slipped, there’d be a horribly long time before I hit.

I looked around for another way. This couldn’t be it, we couldn’t have no other choice, just to reach a phone! But the canyon extended as far as I could see in either direction. I looked down at the drop again and gulped.

“You’ll be fine,” Cal told me, his voice a low, reassuring rumble in my ear. “I’ll go first, so if you slip, I’ll stop you.”

I took the plastic bags and socks off my feet to give me more grip and then Cal led the way, picking his way easily down the side of the canyon. Each “step” was less than a foot wide, with absolutely nothing to stop you from falling off the edge to your right and nothing except the flat rock wall to hang onto on your left. I took a deep breath and followed. I made it to the fourth rock before I made the mistake of glancing down. The river seemed to spin and my stomach churned as vertigo hit. I tried to flatten myself against the cliff but there was no room, the rocks were too narrow—

“Hey!” said Cal sharply. “Look at me!”

I found those blue eyes and locked onto them for all I was worth. Gradually, my vision stabilized. I started breathing again.

“Just keep your eyes on me,” he said, his voice worried but gentle. “Keep looking at me and you’ll be fine.”

I swallowed and nodded and we started to move again. This time, I kept my eyes firmly on his muscled back and shoulders. I couldn’t forget about the drop but it started to recede a little in my mind. Soon, we were halfway down and I breathed a little easier. Behind us, I could hear Rufus pattering effortlessly down the rocks, probably wondering why humans were so slow.

But then it got harder, and we were still twenty feet up. The rocks here were slick from the spray and the rocks sucked all the warmth from my bare feet, leaving them numb just as I needed to feel when I had grip. My thighs were soon aching from tensing to stabilize myself. And then, without any warning, I put my left foot on a rock, lifted my right—

My left foot shot out from under me, I went down on my ass and slid, heading straight for Cal. I screamed a warning, scared I’d knock him off. He started to turn—

I bounced painfully off a rock and went sideways into space.

15

Bethany

I TWISTED and flailed but grabbed nothing but air. I saw the river and rocks twenty feet below me and my stomach shot into my mouth.

A hand grabbed my wrist and I jerked to a stop, crying out in pain as all my weight tugged on my shoulder. I swung and hit the cliff—by sheer luck, with my hip and not my head. Then I looked down and saw the rocks and my brain shut down as panic took over. I scrabbled and kicked, frantically trying to find something to grab onto so that I wasn’t just dangling over the drop. My fingernails scraped smooth slate and my feet skittered uselessly at wet rock. There was a noise above me but I was too terrified to pay attention. All my fighting had set me swinging like a pendulum and my shoulder screamed.