IT’S FASTER WITHOUT THAT WEIGHT.

Dawn leaves her gear behind and she and Lucas follow the cairns off the ridge along a trail through a boulder field curving down to their left. They’re dropping altitude again, and in the distance, Dawn can see the first of the lakes they’ll have to pass before they climb to the second and final ridge. Beyond that second ridge, headquarters is maybe a half a day’s hike, but just to get up on that ridge is another four hours’ hike and maybe two thousand feet of elevation changes.

They’re nowhere near safety.

Dawn is exhausted. She hasn’t slept well since Amber fell. Even before that, she was half-dead from fatigue from all the hiking. That’s the point of the Out of the Wild program, after all: grind down the bad kids until they’re too tired to talk back. Until they’re so broken they’ll agree to do anything just to get the chance to sleep in an actual bed again.

Right now, a bed is a foreign concept. Same for a shower, or an actual meal.

But there’s no point in dwelling on it. Right now, it’s move or die. Dawn and Lucas descend from the first ridge toward the lakes in the distance. Beyond the second lake, Dawn can see the second ridge rising high into the sky again. Her legs ache at the thought of climbing back up to altitude. Her brain’s weary and her thoughts are getting fuzzy.

But there’s no point in complaining.

Dawn gobbles down a handful of trail mix and hurries to keep pace with Lucas. They keep hiking.