“But what about Warner?”
Noah takes a deep breath and lowers his voice. “Warner told me something yesterday. I think you should know.”
My legs suddenly feel like jello. Whatever he’s about to say, I’m not sure I want to hear it.
“The night Michelle disappeared,” Noah says, “Warner saw him go into the forest with Michelle.”
“What?”
I think I’m choking. I lower myself onto my knees on the ground. I feel dizzy. What Noah is saying couldn’t possibly be true. Yet…
Jack did want out of his marriage. That’s a fact. Despite our conversation yesterday, I don’t believe he was lying about that. He told me once he felt sick at the thought of being married to “that woman” for the next thirty years.
Sometimes I think it would be worth it. To lose everything just to get rid of her.
Maybe this trip was his clever way of doing exactly that. And maybe he knew Warner saw him, and he had to get rid of him too. And it is all awfully convenient for him. Here we are, lost in the woods thanks to Jack’s faulty compass. It would be so easy for an animal to do away with one of us. Or more than one of us.
And what about Lindsay? She ate those berries, and it seemed like an act of God at the time. But Jack knows the woods more than anyone. Maybe he was hoping Michelle might eat the poison berries.
We started this trip with six of us. Now only three are left.
Maybe Noah or I will be next…
“Do you really think Jack killed them?” I whisper.
Noah rubs at the back of his neck. “I… I don’t know. I’ve known Jack since we were eighteen, and… No, I don’t think he would do that. He’s not a bad person.”
Would Noah say Jack wasn’t a bad person if he knew Jack slept with his wife?
If Noah suggested taking off now, just the two of us, I would be very tempted. But it seems cruel at this point to leave Jack behind. Of course, he’s the one with the rifle.
“Anyway.” Noah shakes his head. “We better get going. I’m sure we’re just letting our imaginations run wild.”
Noah gets up off the rock and I follow him. But as I walk back to the campsite, I can’t shake the horrible feeling that I might not make it home from this trip alive.
Chapter 29
CLAIRE
We walk due north, guided by the sun. We’re not even attempting to use Jack’s compass anymore.
The map is gone. Even though Noah said the map was wrong, I can tell both of them are uneasy navigating without it. We are walking forward into the unknown. We’re just hoping we find something before we collapse.
The food is gone. We finished the last of it before we set off. And now I’m getting hungry, but I’m afraid to even think about what the options are. If Jack tells me we have to eat bugs, I think I’d rather starve. But I might feel differently by tonight.
We find a small stream and fill up the water bottles. Fortunately, the stream isn’t too muddy, so we don’t have to filter the water through a shirt. I watch it swirl around inside Jack’s water bottle, and I practically salivate.
“So I’ve got some bad news,” Jack says.
Bad news? We’ve been trapped out in the woods for two days. We don’t have any food left. How much worse could it possibly get?
“This is my last purifying tablet.” Jack drops the tablet into the water bottle. “So we really need to ration this.”
My stomach sinks. This is pretty bad news. How long can a person live without water?
Noah puts his arm around me, but it doesn’t do anything for the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmurs in my ear.
How is it going to be okay? How?
We all take measured sips from the water bottle and Jack puts it back in his bag. As we start walking again, I wonder if Penny has contacted anybody about us. Surely by now, she knows something must be wrong. We would never have gone two days without calling to speak to the kids. I’m sure Emma is freaking out.
Penny knows the name of the inn. She could call them and find out we never checked in. There could be a search party looking for us right now.
I squeeze my eyes shut. I just have to hang onto that hope. Somebody is surely looking for us by now. I have to get through this. I have to get back home to Emma and Aiden.
“Look!” Jack’s voice interrupts my tortured thoughts. “Up ahead!”
If it’s another coyote, I don’t want to know.
I open my eyes. And my jaw drops open.
It’s a cabin. About a quarter of a mile away. I can just barely see it, but it’s real. And it doesn’t look abandoned either. At the very least, we can go inside and get supplies.