Miriam shifted the backpack and rotated her shoulders in an attempt to ease the sore muscles. Her brother was at the front leading the exhausted and confused group to an unknown destination.
"Break," he called back to the line of tired hikers behind him. With an audible groan of relief, people eased packs off their backs and sat haphazardly on the dry Colorado dirt. By this point, twenty miles more than they had planned to walk, they no longer cared about the silly pretensions of masculinity or being a strong woman. They were tired and their sunburned faces showed it.
Miriam dug a water bottle out of her pack and drank a few precious swallows of the water, lukewarm by now but worth more than gold in the dry, hot weather. Her brother, Dan, had brought a hand-pumped water filter to use on any streams they would find but they had yet to find one that wasn't clogged with refuse from the storm the night before.
Dan walked back to where she was sitting at the end of the line, offering words of encouragement to the weary hikers on the way back. He had emerged as the natural leader after TJ, their careless hike leader, had slipped over the edge of a cliff and fallen to his death. Miriam shuddered, swallowing down bile as she remembered the wrong angle of his neck and Dan's pale face as he reached the body, finding no life left. They had buried the body in a shallow grave, covering it with stones so mountain lions wouldn't dig him up. When they reached civilization, they would notify the authorities so TJ's body could be properly buried but, as it was, it was highly impractical, even dangerous to carry it with them.
"How are you holding up, Mir?" Dan asked, squatting down to her level.
"As well as can be expected, Moses," Miriam said with a grin. Moses had been her nickname for him in high school because the Biblical Moses and Miriam were siblings.
Dan grimaced. "Don't say that so loud."
"What? Moses? I think it's rather appropriate for the situation. After all, you're leading us out of the desert, or mountains as the case may be."
"I'm not the leader, Miriam. TJ is-was. I'm just filling in because-"
"Because there's no one else here with the skills and confidence to do it," finished Miriam, arching an eyebrow. After TJ's untimely demise, Dan had immediately risen to the occasion of getting the lost hikers out of the mountains. They had instinctively followed him and though some of the men grumbled at his pace, no one else stepped forward for no one else, except for Miriam possibly, knew the mountains as well as he. Even with Dan's expertise, it was still some surprise to discover that TJ had been completely lost when he died. Somehow, he had lost the map and gotten off the faded path that marked the usual hiker's route up into the mountains. It had taken them hours to cross the rocky, uneven terrain as they descended the mountain.
"Whatever," Dan snorted and ruffled her sun-bleached hair like he had when she was little. Miriam swatted at him but missed.
"How are you doing on food?" he asked, still grinning.
Miriam opened her pack. "I'm down to two granola bars and an apple. I assume that everyone else has about the same. I haven't seen anyone gobbling down their food and on our last break we ate only sandwiches."
Dan stood and squinted at the sun. "Okay. Make them last. We're about ten miles from where TJ fell and we still have at least five more miles to go. Hopefully, we'll reach the town before dusk."
"Why dusk? There'll still be plenty of light left," asked Miriam but he had already stridden off, his well-muscled legs glistening with sweat as he clambered on top of a rock.
"We're almost there, guys. Hang in there. Please use your food and water sparingly, though." Dan climbed back down and the hikers slowly got to their feet.
About a mile and a half later, Dan called another mini-break.
"Hey everyone, I know we just had a break but I think that we should all follow Tom's example." Dan nodded at a middle-aged gentleman who had a stout walking stick. "Get a walking stick. This terrain is uneven and a walking stick will help keep your balance. Fan out and get one but try to keep within sight, we don't want you getting lost."
As the group dispersed, Dan trotted back to her end of the line.
"What gives?" Miriam asked, not bothering to sit down when she saw the serious set of his jaw.
"I don't want to cause a panic but it would be in our best interests for everyone to have some kind of weapon," he said in a low voice.
Miriam's heart gave a cold lurch. "Mountain lions?" she whispered.
Dan nodded. "At least one. He won't openly attack, not with so many of us, but he may try to pick off any stragglers. And-"
"And I'm at the end of the line," Miriam finished, fear running a shivering race down her spine. Dan nodded.
"Be careful. You know what to look for. I'm keeping us as far away from trees as possible."
Miriam nodded. Lions would often lie in boughs of a tall tree and pounce on any creature that happened to be underneath. One hundred and fifty pounds of muscle is hard to escape. With these thoughts, she quickly searched for and found a smallish but solid branch that had broken off of a young tree. She stripped the twigs and, using her pocketknife, whittled the end to a sharp point.
New walking sticks in hand, the hikers moved forward.
It happened two miles later when they stopped for a bathroom break.
Miriam was telling two of the younger hikers not to guzzle their water when a scream shattered the air.
Dan and Miriam looked at each other and ran toward the source of the scream. They found Tom cornered against a boulder by a full-grown cougar. Blood flowed freely down Tom's leg but he held his walking stick firmly, taking a swing at the lion's head.
Dan and Miriam shouted, waving their hands in an effort to appear bigger. The mountain lion snarled, showing its two-inch fangs and paused. It obviously did not want to leave behind such an opportunity but two more of these noisy, big creatures would be too much to handle. Miriam grabbed a few fist-sized rocks and threw them in the lion's direction. Leveling his pointed walking stick in the cougar's direction, Dan advanced and the animal seemed to make his decision. Turning swiftly, it bounded into the thicker trees.
"Tom!" Dan ran to the injured man and helped him away from the rock. "Come on, we have to get away from the trees."
Tom, white-lipped, nodded and hobbled forward. Miriam came behind, holding her staff in a white-knuckled grip in case the cougar decided to follow. Alarmed shouts reached her ears once they got to the clearing.
"Circle around!" Miriam ordered as Tom sat against a rock, gray-faced, while Dan got out his first-aid kit. "Circle around!" she shouted again, "numbers will discourage it."
The hikers surrounded the injured man and Dan, walking sticks at the ready. One woman started to cry.
Dan, grim faced, examined the wound. "You're lucky he only swiped with his paw. One bite and you might have needed an amputation." He carefully picked pebbles and dirt out of the deep gashes with tweezers sanitized by alcohol. "Here," said Dan, offering a rolled up t-shirt to Tom.
"What's that for?" he asked, teeth gritted. In answer, Dan held up the small bottle of first-aid alcohol. Tom registered his understanding and went ashen as he clenched the cloth between his teeth.
Carefully, Dan poured the alcohol on the wound, dried it and wrapped it securely with a rolled bandage. Tom's face streamed with sweat but aside from a muffled groan, didn't make a sound.
With effort, Dan helped Tom to his feet and they formed back into line. The hikers quietly followed; no one mentioning that they would go slower than before.
The last bit of daylight was fading fast when they finally reached the small town they had started from early that morning. Too tired to even cheer, the hikers hugged, cried, or simply stared, smiling at the many lights that indicated civilization.
"Thank you, everyone, for making this a whole lot easier," said Dan when the group turned to him expectantly. "Go home. Get a bath. Relax while you can. The police will want to hear everyone's statements about TJ's death." The hikers nodded and after an awkward pause, separated to their various destinations.
Miriam and Dan each slung one of Tom's arms over their aching shoulders, and walked him toward the hospital. After they reached the ER and passed him off to a waiting gurney, Dan and Miriam sank down into the cool plastic chairs lining the wall. The nurse who had just sent Tom off turned to the siblings with a raised eyebrow.
"You two look like you could use gurneys as well."
Dan shook his head, too tired to smile. "No, thank you. We're just tired. No injuries although I imagine we'll be sore tomorrow."
The nurse nodded and turned to mark something on a chart. When she turned back, Dan and Miriam were asleep.