I don’t know how long we had been hiking. It felt like an hour, but it was probably less than that. Or maybe it was more—I’d lost all sense of time in the mountains. With no cell phone, no computer, no alarm, or classroom bells, one moment stretched into the next in an endless stretch of despair divided only by meals and darkness. With Kyle in the lead, we came to a hillside covered with brush. It wasn’t that steep, but Tuck’s weight made me feel like I was drowning. The heat hadn’t even set in, but already sweat streamed down my face. At a boulder, I paused to catch my breath. A couple of Dunklings scampered around. When Karessa reached the boulder, she paused to readjust her straps. Sassy held up her arms to give me a two-handed wave. I lacked the strength to wave back. I tried to smile, but even that was too much of an effort. My breathing came in labored gasps. If we didn’t reach our destination soon, they’d have to leave me behind. At this point, I didn’t even mind being left for dead as long as someone removed Tuck before he started kicking me in the head.
