MissTaken: Ch11

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Chapter 11

Jessica and Alyona awoke as the world around them shifted from black to grey. The rain was still falling, and the tree which had so valiantly protected them from the water during the night was beginning to lose the battle. The persistent rain penetrated the canopy drop by drop. It worked its way down the labyrinth of leaves and began to drip on them.

Alyona groaned and stretched.

“Good morning sunshine.” Jessica said cheerily from behind Alyona. She had awakened a few minutes earlier, and was sitting with her back against the tree, watching the rain. Alyona turned her head and scowled.

“Yes, we are probably going to get wet,” Jessica responded to the unspoken statement. “On the bright side, it will be much harder for them to find us, what with the reduced visibility.”

Alyona grunted.

“And,” Jessica continued, “we’ll get a refreshing shower, and our clothes will get washed while we enjoy a nice hike.”

Alyona fixed Jessica with a hard stare. “Good. You need a shower. You’re starting to smell.”

Jessica gasped, eyes wide, with an open-mouthed smile. “I think you need some protein.”

She dug into the pack, fished out two strips of dried venison, and offered one to Alyona. Alyona grunted again but took the meat and began gnawing on it. Jessica tore off a bite of her strip and chewed on it.

She stood and stretched, shaking out her arms and legs to get her blood flowing. Her calves were tight from the impromptu cross-country race they ran yesterday. She rubbed and stretched them to loosen them up.

“How long until we go back?” Alyona was up too, working out the kinks in her muscles.

Jess considered a moment, tilting and twisting her head to stretch her neck. “A few days, maybe a week at most. I think by then they ought to have moved on or given up.” She cocked her head, looking upward. She shrugged, then proceeded to pack up the slightly damp netting, stuffing it into the pack.

“How far are we going to go?”

“I think we’ll continue up this way to the peak. That should give us a good view, and hopefully, we’ll be able to spy out what they are doing and where they are going. We can go in whatever direction makes the most sense from there, depending on their actions.”

“Aah, very strategic, Polkovnik.”

Jessica shot her a half smirk. “Let’s go get wet,”

Wet was an understatement, the clouds descended to meet them as they ascended the slope. The rain drenched them from above, and the air soaked them everywhere else. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either—a sort of unpleasant, clammy coolness, that left their skin feeling numb and almost corpse-like to the touch. Their damp clothes clung to their damp skin, adding to their discomfort.

The ground was treacherously slippery in places, slowing their progress. More than once, Jessica misjudged it. A loose rock, or a patch of slippery ground cover would send her foot shooting out from beneath her and her heart into a gallop. However, each time she caught herself a split-second before landing face down in the mud. Alyona snickered every time. Jess didn’t mind though. Alyona’s chortling lifted their moods.

One upside to the weather was the bad guys wouldn’t be able to see them since visibility was less than forty feet. Of course, it meant the high ground wasn’t going to help them keep tabs on their hunters either.

“Weather can change,” Jessica mumbled to herself. This might even work out better for them; the clouds were giving them excellent cover for the climb. Maybe the weather would clear after they got on top and situated in good cover.

“What about the weather?” From Jessica’s left side, Alyona turned her head to fix Jessica with a querulous gaze.

“Oh, I uh, just thinking this is a nice change from all the sunshine.”

Alyona rolled her eyes and groaned. “How does your optimism not cause you to strangle yourself?”

Jessica chuckled. “C’mon. You must admit this is giving a little relief from the sunburn.” Jess gazed at the bright red, peeling skin on the tops of Alyona’s arms and hands, then raised her own arm next to Alyona’s, comparing their burns.

Alyona scowled, then sighed. “Yes, is nice.”

 All of the sudden, a tall rock face emerged from within the fog, blocking their path and forcing them to a halt. It stretched above them, disappearing into the clouds.

Jessica studied the rugged wall. “I don’t recall seeing that. To be fair, I doubt we came straight up. Hard to keep direction straight in weather like this, and we’ve been back and forth.”

“You think we walked around the mountain?” Alyona asked.

“A little more than a quarter of the way around. That’s all it would take to get to a part we hadn’t seen.”

“Do you think we went more left or more right?”

“Not sure, that’s the tricky part. Pick the wrong one and we may end up walking around the whole mountain.”

“Well, at least we are closer to top, so is short distance to walk.” Alyona grimaced, “Ugh, your optimism is getting into my brain!”

Jessica smiled, “Feels good, doesn’t it?” She turned serious as she scanned the rock in front of her for some sign or clue to tell her which way to go. “I’m thinkin’ we probably went more to the right than left, ‘cause we were favoring right to avoid the trail.”

Alyona grunted.

Jess stared at the cliff again, second-guessing her instinctive choice. “Climbing is a bad idea in this weather. Rocks’ll be slippery. Yeah, let’s follow the cliff to the left.”

Alyona nodded and fell in beside Jessica as they started walking to the left, along the base of the cliff.

They had walked for no more than 10 minutes when they came to the end of the rock face and began working their way up the steep slope again.

“Wait a minute,” Alyona paused, “won’t we be trapping ourselves if we go up?”

“Yeah, it’s a risk, but I think it is worth taking the chance to get the view.” She looked up into the impenetrable fog. “Not much of a risk at all if the weather stays like this.”

It was a surprisingly short climb to the summit. The cliff disappearing into the fog gave the impression it was much taller than it really was—probably only thirty or forty feet tall in reality. The top was a small, tree covered dome, roughly 30 feet in diameter.  The sides sloped steeply after that. Off to the right of where they climbed up, the slope abruptly ended in a rocky edge marking the top of the cliff they had been below earlier.

“What now?” Alyona asked as they peered into the damp fog.

“Let’s hang for a while, see if it clears up.”

They sat on a dry patch of ground under a group of large trees with a thick canopy for a moment to rest their legs and to enjoy a brief respite from the constant drizzle on their heads, running into their eyes.

The weather finally broke in the late afternoon. The drizzle stopped, and the clouds melted away. The temperature rose quickly, leaving the girls uncomfortably warm in their wet clothes.

Staying low and watching their step, they worked their way to the edges to peer down at the areas below. Several men were fanned out in the meadow they had made tracks to the day before, searching it and the perimeter.

“Looks like they are trying to find our trail that isn’t there.” Alyona’s voice was smug.

“Yup,” Jessica smiled grimly, “Wonder if we should’ve crossed the meadow, broke a few branches or something.”

“If we had, right now you would be wondering if we should have gone another hundred feet to break some more branches.”

Jessica smiled, “True.”

The girls watched the men continue their fruitless search for an hour or so, frequently scanning the rest of the valley to make sure nobody else snuck up on them. For Jess, it was a bit like reconnaissance before the hunting season—watching animal movement, figuring where they were likely to be, and where the best cover for approaches would be. It was a game of patience, and one which she enjoyed. It was relaxing, just sitting, watching, enjoying the beauty of the natural world.

Alyona was not enjoying it quite as much. She fidgeted. “Shouldn’t we be doing something?”

“We are doing something,” Jess said, focused on the activity below.

“What are we doing?”

“Waiting for black to make their move.”

“What?”

“Chess,” Jess took her gaze off the men to stare at Alyona, “We made our move, now it’s their turn. We’ll see what they do, how are they going to play it? Cautious? Aggressive? How much energy are they going to invest? Are they going to just throw a few pawns at us? Or will they break out the queen and knights?”

“I am not following,” Alyona shook her head, drawing her brows low over her eyes.

“I count seven men down there. Is this the whole hunting group or are there others looking for us elsewhere? It was hard to count while we were running from them last night, but I think I counted five, maybe six. One or two more aren’t exactly reinforcements. I would expect if there were several groups working from a base camp, the other groups would have been called in to help here, since we had been sited, but nobody has shown up. So, are they going to keep tracking us or are they about to give up and go back? Is a fresh group going to arrive soon? How careful will we have to be? And for how long?”

Jessica shifted her weight from side to side in her crouch to ease the stiffness in her joints.

“You see those two guys on the far end of the field?” Jess pointed at two figures standing close together. “They’ve spent most of the day standing or sitting around. They only act busy when those three in the middle of the field,” she closed one eye as she pointed, “get too close. One or more of them appear to be in charge.”

Alyona followed her hand, gazing between the groups of men and nodding along to her explanation.

Jessica turned her focus to Alyona, “The other thing I’ve noticed is they keep searching the same spots over and over again. They aren’t methodical at all. One of the guys will search a spot, then a while later another guy will search it. Sometimes the same guy will come back and search it again. These guys aren't particularly good at this, and they don’t really want to be here. Hopefully, it means they will move on soon, and that we are hitting the limits of what they are willing to invest to get us back. Maybe the hunt will be over soon, and we will be able to move with less caution.”

The two were quiet again for a while as they watched the men pace in circles around the field.

“So, what is plan after?” Alyona glanced across at Jessica.

Jessica thought for a moment. “First, we get everyone over the withdrawal stuff—get everybody healthy. Then we’ll hang here for long enough to pull together enough food, water, and containers to be able to travel—”

“And where are we traveling to?”

“Still working on that,” Jessica said. “The closest option was the city they took us from.”

“Risky, perhaps.”

“Yeah, at one point before I found you, I was outside a village, and overheard some guys mentioning a reward, so it might not be safe to go back there.”

“What are other option?”

Jessica shrugged, “I think Mexico City is east of here, or maybe northeast—bit more of a hike.” Jess stared off in the direction of the cave. “Not sure everyone is really up for that.” She glanced back to Alyona. “Of course, another option is north to the border. That’s gotta be something like …maybe a thousand miles, I guess? Be next year by the time we get there.”

“We could drive.” Alyona suggested.

“We don’t have a car,” Jessica paused, then remembered. “Oh yeah, the van. I wonder if they will retrieve it or just leave it? It was pretty beat-up; they might just abandon it. Of course, don’t know if I can get it running or not.”

“That van isn’t the only vehicle in Mexico you know.”

Jessica shook her head, “We don’t have any money. How we gonna get a car?”

“How did you get the van?”

Jessica bit down on her lip and scowled “I suppose that might be an option. I’d rather not steal though. Maybe we could hitch a ride …”

“And how you know who to trust not to take us for the reward?”

Jess sighed, twisting her fingers together in her lap. “There is probably a radius of effectiveness for the reward. Hike far enough north and we should be clear of it, then hitch a ride.”

“But how far is far enough?”

“Don’t know,” Jessica shrugged.

“Sometimes you know,” Alyona said, “you can do wrong thing for right reason.”

“Said every villain ever,” Jess retorted.

Alyona cocked her head to one side, confusion shining in her eyes.

“Nobody picks bad guy as their career choice,” Jess said. “Every villain sees himself as the good guy—the hero whose means are justified by the end.”

Alyona rolled her eyes, “I’m talking about ‘borrowing’ a car, not committing genocide.”

Jessica opened her mouth to respond, but the words died on her lips in a croak, and she shut it. She opened it again, raising a finger, then closed it again. Was Alyona right? Was there perhaps a circumstance where stealing became justified?

She shook her head. “We’ll find another way.”

Alyona stared at her for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “uprjámyj,” she muttered to herself as she stalked away.

 Jessica continued her patient vigil, watching for an arrival of reinforcements, trying to gauge the mood and morale of the men below. Nobody else came into view, and the men continued going over the same area.

The sun was low when the men finally gathered and started back along the trail. Jessica watched as they crested the ridge, then started down toward the river. It was dark by the time they reached the clump of trees where she dug the pit on the trail, but the flicker of flashlights gave her an easy way to track the men as they continued down the path.

The lights disappeared for a while as the men traversed the steeper part of the canyon near the base, then they came into view again as they neared the black ribbon of river. They were close to her fish traps, and the submerged basket full of venison. Would they find it? She contemplated whether leaving it in place had been a good idea. It wasn’t easy to see, and the girls needed the food. Although, with the men camped right next to it, they couldn’t access it anyway.

Before long, she saw flickering light and shadow, indicating a fire had been built. It looked like they were going to be there for the night anyway.

Jessica frowned. She really didn’t like that they were so close to the cave. If somebody sneezed, or coughed, or even snored too loud it would give them away.

A bright flash to her left caught her attention. It was followed by an ominous rumble. The grass rustled around them.

“Jessica!” Alyona hissed.

“Here!” Jessica whispered back. The rustling continued, moving directly toward Jess. Alyona’s face came into view out of the darkness. “You saw that, yes?”

“Saw and heard it.”

“I think on top of tall mountain, under tallest trees is not so good place to be right now.”

“Yeah, I think you’re probably right. Let’s work our way down and find someplace to shelter.” Jessica stood, brushing and straightening her clothes.

“Difficult in the dark.”

“Yep. And remember the cliff. Let’s not go down that.”

Alyona grunted. “Yeah, no trying flying tonight.”