Chapter 20
Riker POV
"You think you heard something?"
"Yes! What if it's Dylan!?" Riley whispered.
"Riley, I'm almost positive it's not Dylan."
"Will you go look?"
"Sure. Do you want to come? I'll show you there's nothing out there."
"I guess so..."
I held Riley's hand as we unzipped the tent door. We walked out into the woods for a few feet, and looked around.
"See? There's nothing there. We're fine," I said, pulling Riley back to the tent.
"You know, I almost wish it was Dylan, just so you'd be wrong for once," Riley said, getting back into her sleeping bag.
Riley looked back up at me as I was leaving.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"I have to go to the bathroom."
"You're leaving me here all alone?"
"Well I can't wait until morning."
"But what if something happens while you're gone?"
"Riley, I'll only be gone for a minute. Come on, don't look at me like that. Don't make me feel guilty."
"Then don't go!"
"Riley, I have to go to the bathroom! What do you want me to do?"
"Wait until morning..."
"Riley."
"Fine, go. But promise you won't go far?"
"I won't go far."
"Promise you'll be back in less than a minute?"
"I'll try."
"Promise you'll-"
"Riley, can I please just go?"
"Fine. But if something happens to me, it's on you."
"Ok."
The Next Morning...
Riker POV
"Riker wake up!"
"Huh? What?"
"Come on!"
"What?"
"We're going to leave in like 10 minutes."
"What about breakfast?"
"We're eating on the way. Come on! We have to pack up the tent and our sleeping bags and stuff!"
"Ugh..."
"Riker! Get up!"
Just as I turned over on my back, a pillow came flying into my face.
"Riley!"
"Get up!"
"Ok, ok, I'm up!"
I helped Riley pack everything up, and then we were off again.
Later...
Riker POV
"Riley, stop!"
"What?"
"A bunch of stuff just spilled out of your backpack."
"Oh..."
Riley knelt down on the ground, and took off her backpack. There was stuff everywhere. I helped Riley pick everything up, which took a few minutes. She shoved everything back in her backpack, and then laid down on the ground.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah. I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night, and we've been walking for ages!"
"I know. But we have to keep going. Come on."
"Ugh!"
"Riley!?"
"What?"
"Your parents are gone!"
"What!?"
Riley and I looked around. We weren't even exactly sure which way we had been moving before. There wasn't a trail.
"MOM!? DAD!?"
Silence.
"Which way do you think they went?" Riley asked.
"I honestly have no idea."
"What do we do!?"
"I'm not sure... We don't have our cell phones, so we can't call them or anything like that..."
"Oh, great. My dad was all like, you won't get lost, you'll be fine, we'll all be together! Ugh! What do we do?"
"I don't know."
"Well you're older! You'll have better judgement! What do we do!?"
"Uh..."
"Riker! Do something!"
"What do you want me to do!?"
"Get me back to my parents."
"I don't know that I can do that."
"Well which way do you think they went?"
"I don't know."
"Well what do you think?"
"I think they went... that way."
"Ok, well let's start walking that way."
"But what if that's not the way they went?"
"Then... we'll figure something else out."
"Are you sure?"
"I think it's our best chance right now."
"Ok, let's go."
After what felt like 20 minutes, I felt like we had gone the wrong way, because we hadn't seen her parents yet.
"Riley?"
"What?"
"I think we should probably turn around and go back."
"But what if we're only a few minutes away from them?"
"But what if we're not?"
"I think we should keep going."
"Fine..."
Later...
Riker POV
"Riley, it's getting dark, and we still haven't found your parents yet. This is bad."
"I know..."
"Well what are you planning on doing?"
"I don't know, Riker! I thought we were going to find them, but now we're lost, and we don't have cell phones! What are we supposed to do!?" Riley shouted, starting to cry.
"Riley, we're going to be ok. Please don't cry."
"Riker, we're lost in the woods! We're on a mountain somewhere! We're going to die!"
"We're not going to die. But you have to stay calm, ok? If you're not calm, we aren't going to be able to think straight. And we need to be able to think straight if we ever want to get out of here."
"Riker, I can't do this! We're lost! We're going to die! We need help!"
"Riley, shhh! Please! We're going to be fine. Calm down!"
"How can you say that!?"
"Riley, listen to me. You need to calm down, ok?"
"Riker!"
"I'm right here. Shhh. Come here. Sit down for a minute."
Riley sat down next to me, and leaned her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her, and waited for her to calm down.
"Riker, what do we do?"
"We need to head down the mountain, and find people."
"How do we do that?"
"Well... I think that way is down."
"But it's getting dark."
"Well we better start walking then."
"Walk? What about sleep?"
"Riley, where are we going to sleep?"
"In sleeping bags in the tent...?"
"Which is where?"
"With my parents..."
"Come on. Let's start walking. We might be able to pull an all nighter, and make it back by morning if we don't take a lot of breaks. Then we can call your parents. They brought their cell phones, right?"
"Yeah, they're not stupid! They brought them in case they got lost."
"Ok. Well let's start moving, ok?"
"Fine."
Riley and I walked until it got dark, and then Riley stopped.
"What?" I asked.
"Let's put the radio on."
"Uh... Ok."
Riley pulled the small radio out of her backpack, and then found a station. She put it in one of the water bottle holders on the side of her backpack, and we kept moving.
"Riker, I can barely see anymore."
"It's ok, keep walking."
"But the guy on the radio said it's almost 1:00."
"Just keep going."
"Wait, shhh! What did the guy just say?"
Riley and I stood still, listening to the guy on the radio.
"No... That can't be true..." I mumbled.
"Riker, this is Cat Mountain, right?"
"Yup."
"And they said Dylan escaped in the woods of Cat Mountain, right?"
"Yup."
"So that means I'm going to die, right?"