Bared

An enormous bear, the nose black and the fur a pale brown, came from a thicket of trees and in ten seconds, three people were dead. Neither Seth nor Bailey saw much of it; a Kodiak bear, a mass of fur, a claw rushing past and finding its target, a scream, a snarl, and a single broken tooth. That was the thing Seth remembered most about the bear: a tooth, shattered and flowing with red pus. This image remained as he and his sister became lost in the endless pines.

On Saturday they left the cruise ship near Hoonah. It was a little town on a big island, which itself was part of the Panhandle. Known for halibut and totem poles. From the beginning, Bailey seemed anxious and bored. She had stayed on deck for the past week and was set against anything that didn't include reading, watching T.V, and eating the occasional turkey burger.

"Can't I just stay on the boat?" she asked her parents.

"No, you can't just stay," Mom said deliberately. "We're going ashore as a family. Case closed."

"I don't have a problem with family," Bailey said. "What I have a problem with is being bored out of my mind."

"You'll like the totems," Dad said, and his voice held conviction. "If you go to Alaska, you've got to see Totem Park. You'll have fun. You may even see the animals you wanted to."

Bailey sighed, a fourteen-year-old, beautiful in a light rain jacket and flower boots. She brushed her brunette hair and packed her day bag, slipping inside the book she'd been reading.

"Bailey, leave it behind, will you?" Mom said.

"I can't even take a book? Come on, let me take it."

"Don't let her take it, Mom," Seth said. He'd been sitting on his bed, watching. "It'll distract her from--"

"Oh, it's absolutely none of your business!" she said. "And what's wrong with distractions if they're the good kind?"

Seth smiled and rose, ready to engage. Eighteen and fresh from a poor academic year. The first semester of the college experiment. "Bailey, anything that distracts from Alaskan culture is hardly a 'good' kind. You've got to admit, that was a pretty silly thing to say."

"I've got to admit, you're a phony and you probably care less about totems than I do!"

"Mom, she's being unreasonable."

She didn't respond, so he turned to his father.

"Dad?"

"I'm not interesting in mediating. Bailey: leave the book. Seth: don't incite. I want both of you to learn something new."

"But she hasn't had to!" he said. "She hasn't gotten off the boat once! She doesn't even got to after-dinner lectures, even though I've been--"

"Seth!" Bailey shouted.

"No squabbling!" Mom said. "We're all getting off today and you're both going to have a good time."

And they did try, though neither was particularly successful. Seth hid his dissatisfaction, and Bailey never raised her voice (though she did complain a bit), but the totems held nothing for either of them. One was not particularly interesting, and neither was two hundred. They walked along a gravel path that led into cold, damp, misty weather. There were few tourists out; most decided to stay on board and enjoy their fiftieth buffet.

"Everyone's on the ship, guys. Maybe we should--"

"Not having fun?" Seth asked.

"Enjoying Alaskan summer without a raincoat?"

He didn't respond and Seth could tell that she felt a twinge of regret at his condition. He had forgotten his coat in the room. His parents had offered to wait for him, but Seth had refused.

"Don't tease Seth," Mom said and Bailey apologized, but it was clear the Hoonah excursion was failing. Neither parent seemed to be having a good time, either. Even Dad, who had wanted to see Totem Park more than anything else, was discouraged when he came across the condition of the towers. Worms, perpetual damp, rot, all of it had turned them unrecognizable. For her part, Mom was having enough of the sibling squabbles and sent them into the gift shop for a moment's reprieve.

Once inside, Seth and Bailey split. He went into a bait shop to read Field and Stream, and she into a small museum on Hoonah's history. After fifteen minutes, Mom came back for them. In her hand was a brochure that she passed to them both.

"Decide if you want to go on that together," she said.

"You mean just the two of us?" Bailey asked.

Mom nodded. "Making castles in the sky."

It was a hike, no more than two miles long. It snaked up into the woods, neglected the larger forests, and hugged a few ponds and lakes before turning back. There was an easy, intermediate, and difficult trail. All three contained "views of brooks, wild grasses, bald eagles, and bears." There would be a ranger escort. All in all, a bargain, assuming they were up for it.

"Are you?" she asked them.

Seth and Bailey didn't answer, instead occupying themselves with ignoring each other. Soon enough, Mom said: "I've decided you're going." And that was that.

Seth and Bailey left around 1 PM. They kissed their parents, joined the guide and two others, and began the hike. As they walked, the terrain became gradually harder to traverse, but it never really became a problem for either of them. They were the youngest in the group, in fair shape. Throughout the hike, the ranger, clad in brown and a grey wide-brim hat, lectured them on Hoonah history.

"In 1906 the town was engulfed by a fire, probably started by accident. It spread through Canning Road and reached the mayor's house before it was stopped."

Why bother rebuilding? Seth thought and laughed to himself. He tried his best to feign interest, especially in front of his parents, both of whom rewarded him for it. He tried his best to chastise Bailey, as this seemed to win points with them as well, but he couldn't deny himself: this was boring, in every sense of the word.

"Are you holding up?" he asked Bailey.

No answer, which he had anticipated. He tried sweetness as best he could.

"Sorry," he grunted.

"For what?"

"For throwing you under the bus earlier. For throwing the book at you."

"Or not, in this case," she laughed, and he was glad to see it.

"Right. My apologies."

"I'm still mad at you."

"I know. That's sort of a constant."

"Why do you always have to team up against me?"

"I don't always do that!" he said.

"You do, Seth. Any argument, any time. I can't count on you to even stay out of it."

"I don't do it," he maintained.

She shook her head. "Well, if you did, what would be your reason?"

He thought about it and answered honestly, "I don't know."

They walked another forty-five minutes before coming across a totem, sticking out the grass like a bone in a graveyard. The ranger let everyone stop for a moment to admire it. They were under a canopy of pine trees and though it was rainforest, this area of the hike was probably the driest. The totem was the best-preserved Seth and Bailey had ever seen; the original red paint and figures all remained. At Totem Park they had learned the meaning behind the images: the clever raven, the mighty thunderbird, the roaming orca, and at the bottom, the great bear.

And almost immediately, the other two tourists, a man and woman in matching khakis, began to touch the pole.

"Please, take only photographs!" the ranger insisted, and it worked for a moment.

"Oh, ha-ha, sorry," the man said. The woman snickered.

"Morons," Seth said and Bailey laughed. Critical humor always went over well with her.

Why did he give her a hard time? He didn't know. Maybe he was jealous. There was much to be jealous about. Fourteen and so much promise. A straight-A student, the youngest person in their country to ever enter MENSA, and already showing a strong interest in being a lawyer, which pleased their parents greatly. He knew she could do it, too; no one could argue or read like Bailey.

So perhaps he felt a slight need to even the score. He was less impressive, no question. B's in college, less focus career-wise, no discernible talent. It bothered him greatly. His parents did not seem to pick his sister as their favorite, but anything could change. That scared him: one day losing their favor and suddenly being relegated to "Bailey's older brother."

"I'm sorry that you feel I gave you a hard time," he attempted.

She stared at him, waiting.

"I'm sorry I gave you a hard time."

"It's okay," she answered.

"But I feel you should know I'm not the only person at fault. I think Mom and Dad make me feel like I--"

"The blame game, eh?"

He said nothing, as usual. Beaten again by his little sister. As he tried to formulate a response to save face, the ranger's shrill voice stopped him:

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Followed by a crash, a cracking, a splintering and somewhere, Seth was sure he heard animals howling through the trees. The air was thick was ancient pine resin. There was no wind. He turned to see the same couple as before, this time holding a selfie stick and staring at a mess of splinters lying before them. From what he could tell, they'd been leaning on the totem and had nearly toppled over with it.

"I told you not to touch it!" the ranger shrieked.

The couple looked at each other and the women finally said, holding up the stick, "We couldn't get it at the right angle."

Now the husband: "Yeah, ha-ha, sorry. So we kinda had to lean on the thing to get the picture and it just, you know, toppled. What can you do?"

"I told you not to touch it!" The ranger was heaving as he inched his way to the toppled totem. He looked over the ruins and began to cough violently. The couple looked at him shaking their heads and holding up their arms.

"Too bad," the man sighed.

The ranger hitched up his brown pants and tightened the belt. "Too bad is right," he said. "Well, I guess we're all gonna have to head back now."

The couple was going to protest but the ranger cut them off with force and a pulsing jugular. "And you two better get your pocketbooks out."

There was protestation at that point, but little headway; the ranger shook his head and brought the group back around. Eventually, the couple quieted down and began to rail at how the ranger was making a "federal case out of a simple mistake." Seth and Bailey said and did nothing, aside from the occasional eye roll. He supposed she was just as happy as he was to be done with it all. Soon they'd be back on the ship, a hamburger in his hand and a Poirot mystery in hers. Both bored out of their minds once again, but at least with a funny story to tell.

They were nearing their starting point when a copse of pines began to quiver in the distance. Blackbirds flew from the tops and squirrels chattered. As before, Seth could feel no wind.

"Why are those trees moving?" Bailey asked the ranger.

"I don't know," he muttered. He hadn't attempted to answer any of her questions, which irritated her immensely.

As they came upon the pines, the trees stopped moving and the ranger grunted, "It was nothing." None of the animals returned.

The couple was beginning to complain again; both were slow and the husband was only slightly obese. As they passed the trees, he said, "Thank God we turned back when we did. I don't think I could've gone much further."

That was it. The ranger turned around to the man and his hand began to curl into a fist. It fell loosely to one side when he saw the bear. The ranger's mouth quivered and he had just enough time to utter an "Oh, Christ!" before the Kodiak swung a single clawed hand and sliced the fat man's head in two, like a plane going through a cloud.

"Oh Christ oh Christ oh Christ oh--"

Hot blood rising from the cracked skull sniffling black snout brown fur loosely attached to limp rag skin wife screaming with hands comically pressed against cheeks second claw cleaving embedded in eyes nose slicing open mouth in two. Above all else: a splintered red tooth.

Quickly, desperately, the ranger ran his fingers to his pistol. Not bothering with the holster, he tore the gun from its space and frantically flipped the safety off. He pointed and fired at the Kodiak, which promptly shrugged the bullet off, removed itself from the woman's head, and turned on the ranger. He fired a second time and, seeing the Kodiak begin its run on him, the ranger dropped the pistol and turned on his heels. In a dream, Seth grabbed Bailey's arm and ran with it, nearly tearing it from the socket in his attempt to get away. She came with him easily, herself in a daze.

He ran aimlessly, over rocks and pine needles and a motionless squirrel. He turned just once and saw an open ribcage and a bloody snout inside. Brown tatters everywhere. Sinews ripping. He did not look back again.

"Seth, let me go!" she cried and tried to pull away from him.

Unsuccessful. He was stronger than he looked, and intent on keeping her close.

"Seth!" she said loudly and only then did he release her. She fell back when he loosened his grip and she scraped her knee on a rock. Quickly, Bailey's voice quivered and in a moment, her eyes were soaked.

"Jesus Christ!" she said. Seth shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Jesus Christ!" she repeated and he snapped out of himself. He'd never heard her swear before. Never really even seen her cry past age fourteen.

"Amazing what a bear can do," he said.

"Jesus."

He forced himself to smile but it felt like his lips were set in concrete. He tried humor.

"Jesus? I guess a traumatic experience really can make you religious," he said.

She said nothing. Her lips were moving without noise.

His knees turned to gelatin and he slowly fell down beside her. Bailey's knee was only a little bloody, so he tore a leaf from a nearby bush and began to dab the wound.

"That's not poison ivy, is it?" she asked without concern.

"No," and he said it without certainty.

"Okay. Are you all right?"

"No." This time a little more sure.

"Me neither. Do you think we're safe?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe we should just stay out here for another hour or two. Just to make sure it's gone."

Her mouth began to quiver again and her words tumbled out. "I… It's not going to... How could it find us because we're not..."

He shook his hands a little to reassure himself. "No, I really don't think so, either, but it's still best to wait, right?"

"Right!" she said and he knew then that he was in command. No question about it. He stood up to formally assume his duty.

"Good. Then let's go find something to eat first. Then we can go back safely."

"You mean leave?" she asked.

"Not really, we're just going to take a short walk. A few feet in either direction, and the path is close."

"Where is it?"

He pointed vaguely. "That way north. Along the tree line. I heard a brook along the way, so it's near water."

"Oh, my God."

"It's near water!" he said.

Take control, he thought. We're not in a library. She doesn't know what to do. You know nature. Hobbies. Field and Stream. Shark books since the age of ten! You've got this.

It was true. After all, he had been in Cub Scouts. He knew something about the North Star and if worst came to worst, he could make a fire, and if worst came to absolute worst, he could just make it up as he went along. They were fine.

"Seth, I really don't want to leave this spot. I want to head back."

"Bailey, I'm not entirely sure how to get back."

"Oh, my God!" "No!" he said immediately. "I mean I do. I just think it's going to take a little while. We're both tired, and you're scared. I want to find us food."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I mean absolutely positively?" And she extended her pinky, the ultimate sign of desperation.

He took hers in his. "We'll be back before night."

"You broke that pinky promise," she said. "You broke it."

Goodness, he thought as he skidded over rocks and through brambles. His breath was short and he felt his small intestine snaking up to his throat. Goodness, goodness.

"Please, Bailey."

"You broke that promise and we're dead."

"Please! You're scaring me!"

"What about me?" she nearly screamed.

"Don't yell! Oh, for God's sake please don't yell at me."

Don't cry. Don't let her see that.

"All for your vanity, too! We could have just turned back! And we haven't even found food!"

True, yet so false. They couldn't have really just turned back, because in the excitement following their encounter with nature, Seth had completely lost track of which tree was which and which moss-covered rock belonged where. They could have turned back, but for all he knew, they would end up in Japan before they could get to Hoonah. As for the food, it seemed little of his Cub Scouts education had come in handy. Not even his years spent making pinewood cars and little twig figures could help, and if those precious skills were useless here, then what more could he do but walk and walk in a panic, all while assuring Bailey that her big brother knew just what to do?

They came to a riverbank as the sun was beginning to set. The water flowed and burbled over rocks, shimmering like golden thread. It was completely clear, though he was having trouble seeing through the waterweeds and forget-me-nots.

"Fish for dinner," he said, his smile back. "Fresher than any you've ever had, Bailey!"

"How are you going to get them?" she asked.

"Oh, that's the easy part. I've seen this a thousand times on Man vs. Wild."

He looked around in the brush before finding what he wanted. He approached a pine and, raising a leg, brought his foot down to bear on a part of the tree limb. It was awkwardly handled, however, and the branch tore a large gash in his pants leg.

"Seth!" Bailey said. "Please don't hurt yourself! We can just look for berries or something."

"Don't worry!" he said, grimacing.

Please, let there not be blood. Don't let her see blood.

He looked at his leg and was pleased to see only a trickle of red. He quickly lapped it up and finished tearing the branch away. It was exactly what he wanted: two-pronged, sharp as is. Good, seeing that he didn't have a pocketknife.

"Now we'll fish and you'll be eating in seconds," he said to Bailey.

"Is your leg okay?"

He shrugged the question off, raised the wood, and waded into the fast-moving stream. It was cold, but hardly icy. Bracing was the perfect word. He would tell her.

"It's bracing, Bailey!"

"Don't stay in too long!"

"I'll stay in as long as I need to," he whispered and got to work. Fish were everywhere, but each time he blinked they vanished under the golden water. Sockeye salmon, red as his cut. Fresh flesh, flesh good to eat, raw sushi fish. Slightly piney, nutty, brook flavor whisking past his leg and a little fin with a spine on the end sliding past his leg.

"Fore!" he yelled for no reason, and the wood dove below. An inch away, only an inch! Lands on rock instead.

"You can't eat rock!" he again yelled without cause.

"What?" Bailey asked.

"I said you can't eat rock out here! Only fish!" And the wood dove again, and again, and again.

Around 7 PM, the dulled wood finally came in contact with a salmon. When it did, Seth lifted his prey out of the water and yelled: "I got you, you little mother!"

Bailey looked up from the rocks she was arranging. Now she was excited and her eyes were fixated on the wriggling mass of red and pink.

"You actually got one?! And here I was thinking we were gonna have rock soup!"

"Sushi!" Seth said and repeated as he wiggled his way over to his sister. "And you'll eat until you're satisfied. Just remember that I got it by myself."

"You did. Now just how do we cut this thing open?"

As always, they found a way. Bailey took the sharpest of the rocks she'd been playing with and sliced the sockeye in two. They feasted. They even talked a little. Bailey made jokes and Seth laughed and it got to the point where Bailey started roaring, too. She laughed so hard she broke wind, which of course made them both laugh all over again.

After the festivities, they lounged around on the grass near the water and covered themselves with pine needles.

"You really think this will keep up warm?" she asked him.

"Absolutely! This was from an episode of Survivorman."

"Which one?"

"We'll find our way back tomorrow. We just need to follow the water and we'll find civilization. That's a rule of thumb."

"But how do we know which part of the river to follow? And what if it splits at some point? And what if it takes us weeks? This place is huge."

Seth sighed. It was getting very dark and soon it would be cold. Alaska was unpredictable, but worst-case scenario, they could just stay by the river and fish and wait for a hunter or helicopter, and, he thought for the first time in his life, at least they had each other.

"You ask too many questions, Bailey," he said. "It does you well in the classroom, but out here, you just need to act quickly and not think too much."

"I don't know if that--"

"If you trust me, and if you help me, we'll do just fine."

"Seth, we had a chance to turn back today. I trusted you, and now we're lost."

"We're lost because of randomness. You can't plan for that."

"True," she said. "But now that we're here, every single mistake is more dangerous. We need to plan."

"So then what's the plan?"

She thought a moment, looking up into the stars. He heard her humming a familiar tune, and it took him a moment to recognize it as Alaska's state anthem; they had learned it during a lecture on the cruise ship.

"The gold of the early sourdough's dreams, the precious gold of the hills and streams. The brilliant stars of the northern sky, the Bear, the Dipper and shining high, the great North Star with its steady light, o'er land and sea, a beacon bright. Alaska's flag to Alaskans dear, the simple flag of the last frontier."

"Okay," he said finally. "What do you think we should do?"

"Let's catch more fish in the morning. Stock up. We'll eat and wrap the rest in leaves. Then we'll follow the river."

"North," Seth added.

"Then tomorrow we go north, but now we go sleep."

He woke up in great pain a few hours later. His back was throbbing from the pebbles embedded in it. Seth turned over, brushed the pine needles off his stomach, and pulled the stones out. Some were quite sharp. He had rolled onto them in his deep sleep.

I'm going to have to find better arrangements tomorrow, he thought. He looked over at his sister. Underneath her was a bed of moss, dirt, and pine needles. She was sleeping perfectly.

Smart, he thought with no real jealously. Lots to learn.

He looked up at the sky. The stars were all in the same place as before, but the moon now hung low and cast a bright shine over the whole forest. The stream looked like a sheet of sapphire in the light. Seth could still hear fish jumping in and out, dancing around each other. He was getting hungry again.

And as he reached for the wooden spear that lay beside him, he heard a rustle from behind. He'd been hearing noises for hours: birds, squirrels, the incessant gurgling of the brooks. This noise was louder.

Seth turned just in time to catch a glimpse of a moving branch and a quivering bush. It stopped. Then, as he was getting ready to assume nothing out of the ordinary, the rustling started up again and Seth pulled the spear closer to his chest. He heard an odd noise, unlike anything he'd ever known. A snapping or perhaps a clack, like two pieces of ivory being knocked against one another, and as he began to move closer to Bailey, he saw two pinpricks of yellowish light emerging from the bushes. They were still far off in the distance, almost obscured by a mess of pine branches and leaves, but unmistakable. They did not move and before Seth could question whether or not he was somehow in a living dream, he heard a low throaty growl and the same clacking noise.

"Bailey!" he yelled in spite of himself. She turned and her eyelids fluttered. Not fast enough. He shook her, screaming her name and keeping his head and spear trained on those two yellow dots in the darkness.

"Wha--" she began.

A roar turned his bowels inside out. The pinpricks were getting bigger, brighter.

As before, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up. He screamed her name over and over again, begging her to come to until finally, he let go and she gained control over her legs. She followed him as he ran helplessly into the stream.

"Seth! Please stop!"

"Into the water!" he yelled and dove. She followed him, crying and wheezing at once.

He turned and was unsurprised to see the same pair of yellow lights behind them, same distance as before but now belonging to a large mass, a body that trembled with every step. He thought, harder than ever before: I want to go home I want to go home please I want to go--

The roar again and now Bailey started screaming. Her legs became turbines and she flew past Seth, out of the water and into the closest copse of trees.

"Bailey!" he yelled. "Don't leave me!"

With an incredible exertion, she stopped and waited. He lagged behind and trotted, his pants wet from two liquids. Seth looked behind his shoulder and was relieved to see the pinpricks just a little bit duller. His strength renewed and together, he and Bailey continued into the brush. Ten minutes later, he looked again and now the yellow light had turned faint. Fifteen minutes more and it was out.

They found a small cave, overgrown with moss and millipedes. Bailey wanted to keep looking, but Seth was almost spent and his sister eventually acquiesced. They moved in and soon enough, both began to cry. The night passed slowly.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her.

She nodded loosely.

"Okay," he sighed, getting up. "I'll try to find something. Sit tight."

"I don't want you leaving here."

"Please, don't argue. I'm so freaking tired."

"So am I!" she said. "I don't want you going out. You haven't had any sleep. You might collapse, Seth!"

"We'll both collapse if we don't eat." He staggered to his feet, trying to get blood into them. A horrible night. The floor of the cave was cold and icy. It was uneven, too, and covered in sharp rocks and granite. Noises echoed loudly and both of them were terrified that any sound could mean that it had found them again. If so, if the mouth of the cave were blocked, they would be trapped and doomed. Seth thought of their skeletons being found twenty years later. His scalp felt like it was getting tighter and tighter. Horrible night, indeed.

"Seth!" Bailey screamed, her voice filling the cave. "I'm scared! Please don't leave!"

Tears were coming, he could tell. In that instant, every harsh word against her, every ill-tempered thought born from ego, vanity, or whatever it was, all of it vanished. He held his arms out to her and she fell toward them, inward, and they stayed like that for a while. When they both calmed down, they decided to stay in the cave for at least another day.

"It's for the best," she said mostly to herself.

"But if we stay in here, what do we eat? We didn't have time to fish again."

They looked around the inside of the cave. They were about twenty feet away from the mouth, and behind them was a tunnel that continued onward into abyss. Dripping noises in there. A shriek now and again. No intention of going deeper. Seth pulled up one of the rocks and found lunch. He grimaced at the worms and millipedes that squirmed away when disrupted. He pulled one creature from the soil and tore the head off with a rock. When its body finally stopped moving, Seth dangled the millipede in front of Bailey.

"That's the most vile thing I've--"

Seth let it fall into his open mouth. A crunch ensued, followed by the sounds of Bailey retching.

"C'mon, you can't throw up," he told her. "You need to conserve energy."

"Energy smnenergy. I'm not eating one of those."

"Fine," Seth said. He knelt down and retrieved a grub. "Have one of these instead."

She refused adamantly. Bailey was always a picky eater, but he couldn't blame her on this one. The millipede had tasted like vinegar and sand. So they waited inside the cave, huddling together for warmth, although Bailey was the only one who shivered.

"You'd be warmer if you had food in your stomach," Seth said.

"I don't know how you're the warm one, seeing that you don't have a jacket."

"I'm full. You should be, too."

"No way, no how."

But six hours passed and her stomach's growling became too much for either of them to bear. Bailey looked around the cave in desperation. Anything would do, she told the walls. Anything but the crawlies, she begged a slab of quartz. The cave offered no answer, and she slowly returned to Seth. Bailey held out her hand and he paid her in grubs.

"Cruise food, where art thou?" she said and swallowed one. Her face revealed her surprised at its taste, and she ended up asking for five more. Seth had to stop her at eight.

"Sorry, Bailey," he said. "We need to keep them for later."

They passed the time well. They told stories of home, reminded each other of silly little happenings from when they were young, discussed school, college, dreams, and so on. They learned things quickly. In addition to being a readaholic, Bailey was an aspiring writer. She told him about some of the plots she'd been tinkering around with. He liked them, and told her so. In return, he told her a little about college. At first he skirted around the problem areas, specifically his grades, but her prodding led him to be more open. He didn't care for his major and was worried changing it would upset his parents.

"Do you have a replacement major in mind?" she asked him.

"Zoology," he said immediately and she laughed a little.

"Even after all this?"

"Oh, especially after all this!" he laughed and she joined him.

Conversation eventually turned to the ranger and couple.

"Do you think they're okay?" Bailey asked.

He stared at her.

"Do you think they've been found?"

"I'm sure of it. Someone must have gone looking when we didn't come back. A team's probably looking for us as we speak."

"They can't come fast enough," Bailey said.

When night fell, they were lost in darkness and depression came with it. It was the most complete and pervasive blackness either had ever experienced. Seth felt it seep into his clothes and mind. He held his sister's hand tight and when he needed to cry, he did so without shame. He knew he would not sleep, so he resigned himself to keeping guard in case the lights came back. After a few hours, he heard the light rumble of his sister's snoring and knew that at least she would be all right. He was not tired in the slightest, so he got up and went outside the cave for just a moment.

The moon was out again, just as bright as last time. Seth looked around the rainforest they were in. Thank God they were in a dry cave. He couldn't imagine spending a night on a damp forest floor. The dark wasn't much better out here, either; the only thing he could possibly see would be those pinpricks. Seth searched the forest and saw nothing. Relived, he blindly felt around for a stick that could make another fishing spear. His stomach was growling again and how he wished he could just go up the elevator to reach the midnight buffet. Seth thought of his parents and shuddered to think of what they were going through. The park ranger and couple had probably been found, but it would only take a minute to realize that two young hikers were missing from the carnage. The state police would dispatch a search team and they would comb the nearby area for a week or two before finally giving up. By that point, he and Bailey would have already returned to the soil, unless he and she acted. His thoughts turned to the bear and its tooth. Horrible to have a broken tooth like that. Seth wondered if the animal was in pain. He hoped so.

Tomorrow will be the last day you spend out here. Promise yourself that.

He rubbed his temples and felt the stress push his fingers back. Slowly, outside the cave and with frigid mud caking the webbing of his toes, he formulated his escape plan.

"I can't believe you want to head back," she said when he laid everything out.

"We need to find that stream, Bailey. We're sticking to the original idea of following it until it takes us to people."

"But last time we were almost--"

"I know," he said. "But it's either that or staying in this cave, or we can wander aimlessly again."

"And it worked well last time," she said, puckering. "Back to the stream it is."

They packed up a few grubs and a millipede wrapped in leaves and headed out. The day was the warmest they'd had so far. It brought out the smells of the forest: putrid forget-me-nots, dying moss, ancient dark water. The sounds were great and while neither of them could see any animals, they imagined that the tops of the trees were teeming with songbirds.

It took them a little while to gather their bearings. They had last left the stream in a panic and neither Seth nor Bailey was entirely sure of the way back. They eventually decided to try a different method. Seth found a sturdy looking pine in a nearby clearing. Its branches were long and covered the tree like spines on a sea urchin. He climbed the pine with ease, and was surprised to see himself do it. He had expected to fall on his back a few times, but only suffered a few scrapes and bruises in his ascent. Bailey cheered him on from below.

Once atop he said, "We're getting out of here today, Bailey!"

"Oh, please don't joke. Do you see anything?"

"I see smoke. There's a fire! Someone has a fire!"

"How far away?" she asked.

"I can't tell. Maybe three miles. It's near the river."

"You see that, too?"

He answered yes and climbed down, and when he did she hugged him close again. He got a whiff of her armpit and was glad that soon, they'd both be taking a shower and enjoying a plate of fettuccine Alfredo. They began the walk to the river, picking random fruits along the way. At one point, Bailey found a green bush with little berries on it. She plucked off three and showed them to Seth.

"They look like tiny cherries!" she said.

"You're gonna eat them?" he asked.

"Sure, why not? They don't look too bad." She let them tumble from one hand to the other.

"Okay," Seth said without thinking and she swallowed the three.

And promptly spat them out.

Seth would later remember the rest as a blur. Her face turned inside out and the color drained away. Her skin went clammy and the only noise she could make was a horrible "Urrrrgghh." He remembered feeling utterly and hopelessly useless. He prodded her onward, they were so close to the river and thus the fire and thus the rescue, but she couldn't do it.

"Wait, I need to lie down," she whispered through her phlegm.

So he tried shocking her into health. "If you lie down, you'll never get back up."

She stared at him and for a moment, color ran back in and he thought he'd saved the day until she began to cry.

"No," she pleaded. "Don't say that."

"I mean it! If you lie down, you'll never see Mom or Dad again!"

"It hurts, Seth."

"Get up or it'll hurt even worse!"

"Seth, please!"

And she rolled over onto her stomach and vomited into a puddle. He pulled her face from it and with all his remaining strength, hoisted his sister up and onto his back and continued moving. She groaned and apologized for eating the berries again and again. He told her to stay calm, that everything would work out. She slowly massaged his ears and he was so close to crying again, and only biting his lips to blood stopped himself.

When Seth reached the river and entered the stream, he and Bailey were nearly knocked right back. He had so little left. The stream had somehow become more powerful than before. He asked his sister to try and hand him a few grubs, but Bailey made no response. He looked at her and was horrified to see white froth forming on the sides of her lips.

"Bailey!" he screamed and poured water down her throat. She coughed and heaved and her eyes fluttered. He screamed her name again and applied more water until she was back.

Now, got to do it now.

He took the chance and raced through the stream. His shoes finally gave way and broke into pieces.

Bye-bye, old friends.

His feet immediately began to feel the rocks and the water became warm and red. The bottom most certainly did not look sharp before. Fish were slamming into his back and they, too, seemed larger than the one he had caught the previous night. Their fins sliced into his leg and arm but he managed to keep Bailey above them. He trudged forward, incredibly. With superhuman strength, they were free from the water's grip and were back to their former fishing spot. He trudged through, over the sand, past the deep gashes in the earth and the odd markings in the silt, and Seth began to sing to Bailey.

"The gold of the early sourdough's dreams, the precious gold of the hills and streams. Do you remember that?"

"Mmmmm."

"Have you seen any gold yet, Bailey?"

"Ohhhhh."

"Okay, sounds good. You'll see plenty in a minute. Hang on, love."

A few minutes later, he saw the smoke again. The clearing it belonged to was just up ahead. He felt incomparable joy and told Bailey that the end was almost near. She made no response.

"Help!" he screamed to the forest. "Is anyone here?! Please help!"

As if in answer, he heard a rustling behind him and knew that they were doomed.

"HELP!" he roared and broke into the clearing.

No one there. A smoking fireplace and a few bits of litter. Beer cans. No one there. He was hyperventilating. His entire body felt fluid as water but why did it feel so cramped in here? He was in the middle of the one of the greatest clearings in one of the greatest states and yet it seemed as though everything was falling in on him.

He turned from the fireplace and saw the pinpricks again. No trick of the light. He knew the lights were coming for both of them and that his time had run out. Hers had been gone long ago and he could only delay the inevitable for himself. Seth wished desperately to be back at the totems.

A gunshot. It seemed so foreign here. Loud and unnatural. No bird, stream, or bear could make that kind of noise. Seth pivoted around again and screamed for help and this time, he was answered by another voice.

"Where are you?" A man's voice, very deep.

"At your campsite!" Seth yelled. "The one with all your beer cans."

"Coming!"

He fell down and Bailey came on top of him. His hand reached out for hers not in solidarity, but in conformation. Yes, her pulse was still there. Faint. It all depended on how fast help could come. Seth craned his neck to see if the pinpricks were present. He found none and slept.

Fortunately, both hunters had radio and emergency help was en route soon enough. A helicopter arriving in minutes, along with medicine.

"You ate baneberries, girl," one of them said to Bailey. "How many?"

"She had three," Seth said.

"Good thing, too. One more and she would've been done."

"Good thing, too," he whispered to himself and his sister. "Something's been following--"

"And that's another thing!" the second hunter chimed in. "So many goddamn bears in this spot, you gotta be careful. We just shot a big boy a little bit ago."

Seth looked up at the hunter. The man had leather skin and his eyes were bright blue. He held a rifle in both hands.

"A bad tooth?" Seth asked him.

The hunter gave him a weird look and whispered something to his friend. They both shook their heads and shrugged.

"Maybe," he said. "I didn't really look."

The helicopter touched down ten minutes later and they were loaded on board. Bailey received treatment immediately. Seth held her hand the whole way. He was relieved to see the return of color and a smile. She winked at him and he told her it was his turn to apologize.

"What for?" Bailey asked.

"For anything at all," he said.

She squeezed his hand and told him it went doubly for her. Then she turned and drifted off to the sound of blades whirring.

Seth looked out the window and got a final complete view, far better than the one he had seen atop the pine tree. This one was a veritable bird's-eye look. He scanned over everything: rocks, trees, bushes, crags, caves, streams, snowy mountains, birds, and even a moving mound of brown fur in the distance. Though he never told anyone, Seth was fairly sure he could see the animal snapping at something as it moved in and out of sight before being swallowed up by the green.

I wonder if its tooth is bothering it, he thought and closed his eyes.

THE END

Bio: Mr. Sonnenberg has been published in Pseudopod, The Telling Room, Meizius Publishing, Canvas Literary Magazine, Janus, Unbound Literary Magazine, and Heater Magazine. He was a two-time finalist in the Laura Thomas Communications Junior Authors Short Story Contest
Writer for the University honors newsletter, 'The Saunterer.' He has had Op-eds featured in a University student newspaper, 'The Diamondback.'

E-mail: Benjamin Sonnenberg

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