The going was rough -- especially since she didn't have shoes, but Lisa was determined to tough it out. What choice did she have?
The rain started falling again. If they didn't find someone to help them, they'd wander in the forest and might die of exposure. Even though the days were warmer, there was still a lot of rain and it got quite cool at night, even in June. The small pup tent Kira had barely had enough room for them both and with one sleeping bag between the two of them, they would be cold even when the night was relatively warm.
Plus, the rain meant they would both stay soaked -- Lisa in particular.
They had to find a road, and then flag down a passing motorist. Kira was afraid of doing so, because she had been caught once already when Eugene had come in a different vehicle, but that was the only way, save happening onto someone's cabin, that they would be okay.
"I know that we can navigate by the sun. We know we're somewhere in Washington State, and we know that we're on the side of a mountain. Which mountain?" Lisa asked.
"That looks like Mt. Rainier," Kira said, pointing to one of the peaks in the distance. "That means we're north of Mt. Rainier and so we're probably not too far from Seattle. He captured my dad and me in Yakima, and then must have driven us here."
"I was in Tacoma," Lisa said. "I thought I was meeting an old friend at a truck stop."
"He lied to you," Kira said. "If I'm right, I think we're closer to Tacoma than Yakima."
"How come you're so good at figuring out where we are?"
Kira smiled. "I'm a Girl Scout. I took orienteering. I've done some camping, too. We had to figure out how to find our way out of the forest using a compass and the sun. I wish I had a compass now because these roads are so confusing. I thought I was on my way down the mountain and I came to the end of the road and had to come all the way back."
"I wish we had a cell phone," Lisa said.
"He took mine, and probably yours," Kira said. “Probably sent fake texts from our phones to make our family and friends think we’re okay.
Lisa didn't say anything. Kira was pretty smart for her age. It was obvious to Lisa that Eugene had selected Kira because she was a pretty twelve-year-old girl.
He was a monster. From what Lisa had read, after he raped her back when she was ten, he'd gone on to kill dozens of young girls. Lisa considered herself blessed to have escaped that fate, even though she had gone on to live a terrible life in the child sex business, but at least she was alive and had her life somewhat together.
Or at least, she had it together until Eugene pretended to be Thad McClintock and had tricked her into meeting a non-existent Tess.
Lisa felt so stupid to have not insisted on speaking to the woman on the phone and had accepted the text messages, expressing happiness to have found Lisa and wanting to meet at a truck stop outside of Tacoma.
Lisa had been so happy to finally reconnect with Tess. She felt like she could face her past and maybe even connect with her family -- at least, the ones who remained. With Tess on her side, Lisa had imagined that she could visit her mother and reveal the truth about what happened to her.
Now, that was all a big lie and Lisa was afraid that she wouldn't get the chance to do anything unless they found help.
They trudged on for what seemed like hours, and finally, Lisa's feet were bloodied and sore.
"I have to stop," she said. "My feet are cold and wet, and they've been scratched and cut by rocks and twigs."
She sat down on a fallen log and examined her feet, wishing she had something to put on them so they could keep going. "Maybe I should stay here, and you could keep going. You could leave marks on the trees and could find help and bring them back to me."
Kira shook her head. "No. I don't like that. We have to stay together. Maybe we could cut some of the cover off the sleeping bag and wrap it around your feet so you could keep walking."
Lisa shrugged, not certain that it would work, but she was willing to try. She unwrapped the sleeping bag and used the small knife to rip a hole in the nylon cover. Then, she pulled a long rip in the fabric. "I don't know if it will be enough or do much good, but we can try."
She managed to rip some of the stuffing out of the sleeping bag and used it to pad the bottom of the makeshift-boot. After about half an hour of work, both feet were covered in dark green nylon with batting from the sleeping bag, offering some cushion against the ground.
"How do I look," she joked, modeling her feet for Kira.
"You look great," Kira said and high-fived Lisa. "Let's get going. It's going to get dark soon."
They trudged through the brush, keeping their eye on the sun as it started to set to the west.
From their vantage, they could see what looked like a road winding through the forest lower down the mountain.
"Look," Lisa said. "That's a road. Let's head for it and see if we can flag someone down."
"It's pretty far from everything," Kira said. "Would anyone be driving up here except him?"
"All we can do is try. At least we can camp close to the road if we have to."
They picked up the pace, and Lisa was hopeful that at least they could follow the road down the mountain. It would eventually join up with a more well-traveled road.
At least, she hoped it would.