A Tight Spot

The overhang wasn’t much and both of us had trouble keeping our bodies back inside the shadows and out of sight. The sun was sinking quickly and we tried to stay still and listen to the sounds of the forest, particularly the sound of something continuing to move methodically below us.

“What is it, Ben?” Jake whispered.

“I’m not sure. It’s pretty far below us and doesn't seem to be getting closer.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

I held up my hand to signal for Jake to be quiet.

“Stay here,” I whispered and I eased forward to try to catch a glimpse of the creature. The last rays of the sun were bleeding through the leaves, casting long shadows over the already dense foliage below. As I inched carefully to the edge of the ridge and slowly peered below, the darkness was already overtaking the woods making it difficult to see. Squinting, my eyes slowly adjusted to the low light. The woods was eerily still and I scanned the trees and the ground below for any sign of movement. Now that the sound had stopped, I was even more nervous. Hearing the movements of the creature had been frightening but at least we knew where it was. I quickly decided that the silence was much worse.

A strange low growl began to rumble through the air and I could see some leaves begin to move in the brush directly to the right and below where I was. My heart thumped so loudly that at first, I thought it was a drumbeat. The light was fading fast and I froze in place, listening to the sounds of the creature. Leaning further forward the dirt beneath me began to slide, sending a few rocks cascading down the side of the mountain. The creature stopped moving again and I pulled back and plastered my body on the ground and waited. After several seconds, I lifted my head and strained to see what was below once again, praying that we would be okay. The woods was completely still and several minutes passed as I laid there on the ridge without flinching. Finally, I could hear the creature began to move again, this time heading away from where we were hiding. I slid back beside Jake, who was curled in a ball and trembling.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” I said as the full effect of our predicament began to bathe me in fear. I didn’t want to admit it to Jake, but I was more than a little bit scared.

“Well, what did you see?”

“Not much. But there was something moving through the brush — probably a bear.” I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. Jake was too easily upset as it was. He didn’t need to see me exhibit any fear.

“That was no bear making all that noise! We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Shhh. Keep your voice down. It moved back down the mountain so we should be okay. There’s no way we can find our way out of here tonight. We just need to stay here and keep quiet.”

Jake shook his head and began to rock back and forth. “I don’t wanna die out here, man.”

“We’re not gonna die! Keep it together. Let’s just get some rest and we’ll start moving again at first light.”

Jake nodded. I was only able to see Jake’s outline in the growing darkness. “I’ll stay up for a few hours and you rest, and then we can switch.”

“Like in the movies.” Jake sighed and curled up on his side.

Moving toward the opening of the overhang, I silently prayed that that thing was tired and headed home. “Yeah, I guess.”

Leaning back against the rock, I stared out into the darkness. My mind wandered back to a few days earlier when we had started on this hike. Why had this trip been so important to Sam, who wouldn’t take no for an answer? I loved hiking; but I had had to trade days off in order to get here, causing a lot of trouble for me there and at home. Sam had made it sound urgent — like the trip was something we had to do as if it were life or death. And now it really was.

What happened to Sam? Was he back in that cave too?

There was nothing we could do for him until we could find some help. For now, we were still in danger as well.

Two hours passed and I was starting to get tired. Jake had rolled to his back and had begun to snore and make strange noises, so I pushed him back onto his side. The night was clear and cool with no signs or sounds that the creature was back. The tops of the trees swayed gently as I thought through the last 24 hours. Last night we were just friends heading to bed after a great day of hiking and anticipating being in the next and final town by today. Eating a large meal and getting a clean shower had dominated our thoughts all day on their last hike. Now, I was stuck on a ridge with Jake and our friend Sam was missing. My mind rummaged through anything I had learned about survival in the woods from the short years with my father.

How long has it been since I’ve eaten anything?

I wasn’t even sure. All of our supplies were gone, including cell phones, which were dead anyway and had only sketchy service out here when they did work. Water was the main problem. I knew that we needed water by tomorrow or we would be in trouble.

I need to make it another hour and then I can wake Jake for his turn.

My stomach growled again and I tried to remember any of the plants my father had mentioned that were edible in the woods but nothing came to mind.

Why didn’t I pay more attention to my dad back then?

Deep down, I knew why. My father had been hard on me and I had deeply resented it. The hiking was fun and it was really the only time that we agreed on anything, but taking my father’s advice was too hard back then.

Stupid! I should’ve listened.

Even so, my dad and mom had made their choices and now it was all over. For now, I knew we needed to get to the creek in the morning and get some water. Even though we’d be risking getting sick, without the water we wouldn’t live much longer anyway — creature or no creature. The creek bed would be an easy way to find the trail since it ran close to the creek most of the last few miles. My thinking was that we could backtrack to the last town and call for help.

I woke Jake for his turn to keep watch and then moved to the back of the overhang to get some sleep.

“Make sure you stay awake. I just need a couple of hours — three if you can make it that long.”

“I got it,” Jake said and he moved to where I had been sitting and leaned back on the rock.

I watched Jake for a few minutes to make sure he was fully awake and then drifted off to sleep. In what seemed like only a few minutes, Jake was shaking me violently.

“There’s something out there! It’s moving up the mountain!”

The sounds of something moving were clear even inside the makeshift shelter so I slid forward and turned back to Jake, “Follow me and stay as quiet as you can,”

We moved quickly out onto the ridge and along the edge. The sun was just coming up but there wasn’t enough light to see anything clearly. The strange sounds of the creature moving through the woods echoed up to us, indicating it was getting closer. When we reached the edge of the ridge, I could easily see that it dropped off at least 100 feet. As the creature came up the mountain, I looked around for somewhere for us to hide. A thick cluster of wild azaleas stood against one side of the ridge and we both ran and crouched behind them, each of us grabbing a few loose rocks on the way. Within seconds, we could hear the creature move onto the ridge. It seemed to be tracking where we had been and we could hear it move into the overhang. Jake was trembling but I was beyond fear and had entered some kind of warrior stage where it was either us or the creature. For some reason, this gave me peace. I kept my eyes glued on the edge of the rock where not long ago we had taken turns keeping watch during the night. There was nowhere to go now. If the creature came around to the ledge, we would have to fight for their lives or jump to our deaths. I had already decided what I would choose and hoped Jake had done the same.