THE FIRST PART of Warden’s escape route is the same way they took to get up to the Raven’s Claw in the first place. They have to drop down into that very deep, narrow trench that separates the tarn from the ridge on which Dawn embarrassed herself by crying about her nana to Warden.

If they were going back to Out of the Wild headquarters, they would climb out of the trench and up onto the ridge and continue south.

By Warden’s reckoning, they need to follow the trench east as it swings around the base of the Raven’s Claw and eventually joins the river that they’ll follow northeast to the highway.

It’s still early morning when they set out from the tarn and start down into the trench. Dawn’s backpack feels weird on her shoulders after going the better part of a day without wearing it. Her legs, though, and her feet still remember how much hiking sucks. She’s feeling her blisters within the first fifteen minutes.

Only nineteen and three-quarter miles to go.

Lucas falls in beside her. He doesn’t say anything for a little while, as they navigate the steep trail. Then he glances at her. “So we’re really doing this, huh?”

Dawn shrugs. “I guess so.”

“You really trust Warden to get us out of here?”

“He saw the counselors’ map,” Dawn says. “He has a photographic memory.”

“Ah,” Lucas says. “Right.”

“Anyway, why did you come if you don’t trust him?” she asks. “You could have gone back to headquarters with Alex if you’re really that worried.”

Lucas hesitates.

“I just think we all need to be careful,” he says.

Dawn looks over at him, and Lucas meets her eyes, and Dawn can see he’s as nervous as she is. “We’ll be fine,” she says, though she doesn’t quite believe it. “In a couple of days, we’ll be back in civilization.”

They stop for water when they reach the bottom of the trench and prepare to branch off from the trail back to headquarters. They’ve dropped maybe six hundred, seven hundred feet, back below the tree line, and it’s warmer down here and darker, overgrown by trees and moss and ferns. There’s less snow, just patches here and there; the trench is only about forty feet wide.

Dawn has to pee. She curses herself for not going before they left the campsite, but in her defense the whole Pack was waiting on her, and anyway, she didn’t really have to go.

She has to go now, though. She tells Lucas to tell the others to wait for her a minute, and then she slips off into the trees to find somewhere private.

It seems like an embarrassing inconvenience at the time. Within minutes, it will have life-changing implications, for Dawn and for everyone else.