The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,74
under a fir tree, I leaned against the soft bark and closed my eyes. I’d gone through nearly all of my water reserve and was relying mostly on the Capri Suns to keep me hydrated.
Twigs crunched nearby, startling me awake. Before I reacted, Kate came around the tree and held out her palm, in a “stop right there” formation.
She unsheathed the stun gun I’d given her. Irony at its best.
“You’re here?” I gaped. “How?”
She snapped. “I followed your footprints. Surprised I made it this far?”
No point in lying now. “Yeah, I am. How are you even walking?”
“This German guy came running up to the cave and saw me wrapping my ankle. I traded him my map for some heavy-duty painkillers. And steroid tablets. He was a walking dispensary. He grilled me with questions and assumed I wasn’t a threat since I was injured. I didn’t bother to tell him he had the map upside down when he walked away in the wrong direction.”
A roar from my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten anything before I passed out from exhaustion. “Well, good for you.” My tongue was chalky with those four words. I needed water. Not Capri Suns. Badly.
As if sensing my thirst, Kate pulled her canteen from her side and took a long swig. “I’d offer you some, but you know. You’re an asshole.”
Kate was smaller than me. It would be easy for me to take everything she had, along with her stun gun and backpack of supplies, with a swift tackle, headlock, or choke hold. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Because it was Kate.
I swallowed hard. “It’s still the best this way.” Her dad sure as hell made that crystal clear with me. “When the steroids and pain meds wear off, you’ll slow down.”
Her chin thrusted up. “I don’t want you back, anyway. I’m leaving. May the best person win.” She took a few steps and turned. “After all of this, I never want to see you again,” she spat. The look on her face said everything. She loathed me.
Her words pierced through my heart, and air left my lungs. I was doing this for her, but she could never find out.
Up and over the hill, with her back to me, she disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kate
Walking was easy now.
I’d dumped most of my gear and supplies in the cave to lighten my backpack load. Everything except water, food, bear spray, matches, and a stun gun. And, of course, my hand sanitizer.
I’d wrapped my ankle tightly in my boot, and the swelling had finally subsided some. That German guy gave me really good painkillers too. Even if both of my ankles had twisted, I could probably speed walk a 5K without any physical pain. I’d taken a few breaks off the path to rest and refuel so I didn’t push my body too hard.
Emotionally, though, when I saw Nate resting in the woods, pure anger flared inside me, compressing my heart and squeezing my lungs so hard I could hardly breathe. It pushed me to confront him. Made me want to fight. Made me want to win. Just to see Nate lose.
Nate. Him kissing me was one of the best moments of my life. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to push the memory out of my mind. Every time I thought of zombies, or roller-skating, or campfires, I would think of Nate now. He tainted them, forever.
I’d taken a photo of the map on my phone, which was why trading it with the German wasn’t a big deal. The longer route to the finish line was a hiking path that wrapped around the side of a narrow cliff. There was a slightly shorter route, but it was steep and slippery, following a boulder-strewn path to the waterfall where you had to cut across a fast-moving stream. Surviving that, you would take the Indian Falls trail to the end. Slippery stones and sprained ankles didn’t go well together, so I had to take the road less treacherous.
Sunlight gilded the tops of the swaying trees, sporadically blinding me as I walked. The trails had been easy to follow up to that point,