CHAPTER FOUR
Every corner of the winding trail brought with it a new set of exhausted hikers. The greed and wind had been knocked out of them by the trail, but with every step I found myself walking faster until I was almost at a brisk jog.
I reached another bend with a tall standing rock that I knew from maps was the three-quarter marker of the trail. A pair of angry voices stabbed my ears, and I didn’t need to see their faces to know who they were.
Victoria and Doug sat in the middle of the path with Victoria a little farther up the hill than her boyfriend. He lay on his back sprawled on the dirt with his chest heaving and his angry eyes looking up at the starry sky.
“I said get up and help me!” Victoria wheezed as she tried to stand, but her shaky legs dropped her back down to re
