Darwin Expedition by Diane Tullson Read Free Book Online Page A

knees. My boots are like sieves afterthe scree slope, and water squishes in and out as I run.
    The creek climbs, and every mile feels like ten, but I’ve gone more than five miles, I know it. The clouds have dropped so low that if there is any smoke from the quarry, I can’t see it in the cloud cover. The daylight is just about gone.
    Did I leave him enough wood? If I take too long, Tej will run out of wood. If he runs out of wood, the fire will go out. If the fire goes out, he could freeze. Or the bears could come. I jam all thoughts from my head. Just run.
    The rocks on the creek bed are slimy and my feet slip. It feels like I’m running with a hundred pounds hanging on each leg.
    I crash through a willow tree overhanging the creek, and a flock of crows takes off from the branches. They swoop around my head, their crow voices screaming. One dive-bombs me and I feel its talon brush my shoulder. “Get away!” I swat at the birds. They take off in a clatter of cawing.
    I think about the crows feeding onthe elk calf bones, their big black beaks breaking into the bones to get the marrow. I think about the crows peeling the skin back to eat the bits of fat. Then I think about them landing on Tej.
    My foot slips on the rocks and I crash to my knees. A bolt of pain shoots through my kneecaps. Get up. Run. It’s just a bit of pain compared to what Tej must be going through.
    When we’re fishing, we usually see old beer cans in the stream, and cigarette butts. But now I don’t see any sign of people. I sure don’t see any quarry. All I see are rocks and trees.
    Maybe it wasn’t smoke from a smokestack. Maybe we just imagined it. Maybe I’m running the wrong way. If Tej were here, he’d know. And if he didn’t know, he’d make me feel like we’d be okay.
    Fat drops of water hit my cheeks. I tell myself it is just water from the creek splashing up on my face. But it’s rain. Raindrops pelt into the creek and downmy neck. It’s raining, and now Tej won’t be able to keep the fire going.
    I fall to my knees, not bothering to lift my hood against the rain. I let it pour down on me. I should never have left Tej. When the bears are done with Tej, they’ll come for me. We’re not going to make it. I’m too slow and too stupid and now we are going to die.
    The creek water is like ice. I let it numb my hands and knees. I let it soak into my pants and up my shirt until my teeth chatter. I haul myself to the bank of the creek.
    Too slow. Too stupid. I am an idiot.
    Still on my hands and knees, I crawl into the trees lining the creek. In the forest, the last of the light is already gone.

Chapter Fifteen
    It is black, a night so dense that trees vanish in front of my face. I walk until I collapse. I sleep, a weird half-sleep with the sound of owls in my ears. But when I wake up, the forest is black and all I hear is pounding rain. Then I walk again.
    My wet clothes rub my skin raw. I’m so cold that I can’t close my fingers. I’ve stopped shivering. It’s like I have nothing left to burn. Each time I fall down and close my eyes, I think, This is it. I’m not going to wake up.But then I do. Part of me is glad. Part of me hates that I have to get up and walk in the black forest.
    I could walk with my eyes closed and it wouldn’t make a difference. My face is beaten by tree branches, my eyes jabbed so often that I imagine they run with blood, not tears. Maybe I do walk with my eyes closed. Maybe that’s why the lights seem to appear out of nowhere.
    Lights. It takes a second for my brain to register them.
    Just two lights, like headlights, not too far away. Are the lights moving? Panic blocks my chest. Don’t go. Don’t leave me.
    I blink and rub my eyes. No. The lights are not moving.
    I thrash through the forest. As I move, the lights seem to disappear, but only because of trees blocking my vision
    As I get closer, I see the