Wyatt saw it all happen as if it was in slow motion. Tanika’s foot scraped the trunk for a foothold, but the sole of her sneaker slipped, sending a shower of bark raining down. Tanika shrieked and lost her balance. She slid down the tree, unable to grab anything to break her fall.
She had climbed down low enough that she didn’t have very far to fall, but she still landed hard. Wyatt had seen enough mountain bike crashes—at least on social media—to recognize a bad fall when he saw it. His breath caught in his throat. Tanika had landed in a half crouch, but now she rolled over onto her side, grasping her leg.
“Tanika!” Wyatt yelled as he rushed toward her. He knew from the way she was gritting her teeth and had her eyes squeezed shut that it would be pointless to ask if she was okay. So instead he asked, “How bad is it? What did you hurt?”
“My ankle,” Tanika managed to say without unclenching her teeth or opening her eyes.
Wyatt looked at Tanika’s ankle. It was already swelling and bruising, but the ankle wasn’t twisted at an odd angle, so that was good.
“Can you move it?” Wyatt asked.
Tanika grimaced. “I think I could, but that doesn’t mean I want to.” She groaned. “I’m not sure I can stand, though. It made kind of a popping sound, not a cracking sound, so I’m really hoping it’s a sprain and not a fracture.”
Now that he knew Tanika hadn’t been seriously hurt in the fall, Wyatt couldn’t resist teasing her. “Would you be mad if I said ‘I told you so’ right now?” he said, giving her a friendly smirk.
Tanika groaned, but this time in mock annoyance. “Just help me up, Wy,” she grumbled.
Wyatt let her put her arm around his shoulders, then carefully stood up, supporting her as she balanced on one wobbly leg, holding her swollen ankle away from the ground.
Tanika shifted her weight, then bit back a yelp of pain. “In case you were wondering,” she said with a straight face, “the answer is no—I can’t put weight on that leg.”
Wyatt helped her hobble over to the tree trunk so she could balance on her own for a second. “There’s no way you’re going to be able to push your bike in this condition.”
Tanika frowned. “But we already came this far with it. Maybe it will help me walk. Like a set of crutches with wheels.”
“Maybe if we were just walking down the block, but there’s no way you’ll be able to do that in the woods. It’s going to be hard enough to make it to the bridge as it is, without lugging the bike with us. It’s like you said with my bike. We’re just going to have to come back for it.”
Tanika’s eyebrows knitted together anxiously. “I guess . . .” she said reluctantly. “I just don’t want to leave my baby here.” She sighed. “I know, I know, we don’t really have a choice. But we should grab the headlight and my water bottle. And anything else that might be useful.”
“I wish we had some way to set your ankle,” Wyatt mused. “If it’s broken, then we want to keep it from moving. I guess I could use a part from your bike as a splint if we strapped it to your leg with the bandages from the first aid kit.”
Wyatt swore he could see Tanika’s eyes flash even in the dim light.
“Don’t you dare, Wy!” she said. “I already agreed to leave my bike here, but there is no way you are stripping her for parts! Especially not with that dinky little multi-tool on your pocketknife.”
Wyatt chuckled. “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’m not sure it would even do any good. And besides, we’re finally within reach of the bridge. It will be slow going, but at least we know we’re close and going in the right direction.”
“And we have the bike headlight,” Tanika added, her voice shaking as she stared at the dark woods around them.
For the first time all day, Tanika didn’t sound sure of herself. Wyatt realized that her positive outlook had been helping him stay calm. Now that her confidence was shaken, his stomach felt tight with anxiety. I’ll just have to be brave for both of us, he thought.
“Hey,” he said kindly, “we’ll be fine. Just take it slow, lean on me, and do your best to keep the headlight pointed at the ground in front of us. The last thing I want is for us to trip. We’re banged up enough as it is,” he said.
If anything, the forest was louder at night than it had been during the day. Wyatt had thought the sounds would be comforting after the damp stillness of the afternoon, but he found himself jumping at every small sound.
He had no idea what sorts of creatures made the sounds he was hearing, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. The rational part of his brain told him that they were probably all frogs or insects or owls, but some of them sounded otherworldly. Chatting hadn’t seemed too out of place in the daylight, but now that the dark pressed in around them, Wyatt found it hard to speak above a loud whisper.
The whitish circle of light from the headlight didn’t do much to relieve his fears. It lit the path in front of them and kept them from tripping over roots and rocks, but outside of its glow the forest seemed even darker by comparison. From time to time, Wyatt thought he saw shadows move in the dark or the greenish glow of the light hitting some creature’s eyes, but it might have just been his imagination. After all, he was beyond exhausted. All he wanted was to tumble into his bed and pull up the warm covers. Instead, he was dealing with the blisters forming on his feet and nothing but his thin blue jacket to keep him warm.
It was hard to tell distance in the dark, and Wyatt had never noticed how much he depended on his phone as a clock. He was losing track of time, and for all he knew they had been struggling along in the dark for hours. He was glad the creek made noise because he could barely see it anymore. But as long as they kept that sound to their right, they would have to reach the bridge sooner or later. And Wyatt hoped it would be sooner.
Their progress was slow, with Tanika using Wyatt as a makeshift crutch and whimpering in pain whenever she accidentally put pressure on her ankle or brushed against a rock or root with her dangling foot.
“Ugh, it’s probably broken,” she muttered. “That would be just my luck.”
“Just try not to think about it. Keep your mind on other things . . . like the dark and the wild animals,” Wyatt teased
Tanika snorted. “You should put that on an inspirational poster—‘Just think about all the other things that could make your situation worse!’ ”
Wyatt gave a small chuckle.
A branch cracked loudly somewhere in the forest off to their left. Wyatt and Tanika both froze for a moment, listening intently and hardly daring to breathe. Wyatt’s heart pounded against his rib cage, and he felt himself trembling—like he was a little kid scared of the dark.
“It’s probably just a deer or something, right?” he whispered to Tanika after a long moment.
“Yeah,” she said, taking in a shaky breath. “It’s probably not a dangerous predator coming to finish us off.” She gave him a small, tight-lipped smile.
“Well, we aren’t worth the trouble,” Wyatt pointed out. “There is plenty of other tastier prey out there.”
He tried to take some comfort from his reasoning. Logic seemed like a good counter to the fear he was feeling. But that didn’t stop hairs on the back of his neck from prickling uneasily as they resumed their slow hobble toward the bridge.