Mine

Mine

Brett Battles

To the Dreamers,

the Risk Takers,

the Defenders of the Defenseless,

and all those who do the right thing

NIGHT HIKE

O
NE

Rocky Mountains, Colorado

July 13, 2005

Joel

T
HIS WOULD BE
the last summer of Camp Red Hawk.

Arguably its glory days as a top-notch summer destination had passed a few years earlier, when the camp’s aging owners had turned day-to-day operations over to the competent but far from visionary Karl Eames, Camp Director.

Still, it wasn’t a bad place. Most campers returned home after a week or two—or in a few cases, three—smiling and sharing tales about canoe races, water fights on the lake, ghost stories by the campfire, and hikes up Winston Peak, which was really just a tall hill with no official name. When summer 2005 rolled around, no one predicted the doors to the camp would soon be closed forever.

A few campers, mostly kids who’d spent time at Red Hawk in the past, had learned how to exploit the camp’s growing weaknesses. They knew they could easily break into the snack shack by removing the loose pins from the hinges, and if they took only a few candy bars and cans of soda a night, no one seemed to notice. They also knew if they didn’t want to participate in a particular activity, all they had to do was make an excuse that would get them sent to Nurse Nancy’s office. If she was there, they’d be allowed to lie down until they “felt better,” and if she wasn’t, which was often the case, they could sneak back to their own cabins, where they could play on smuggled-in Game Boys while chowing down the goodies they’d stolen the night before.

These kids also knew that after ten p.m., when the evening campfire was over and the lights had been turned off, the counselors, who were supposed to be keeping an eye on them, gathered in the boathouse to drink beer and smoke pot, providing the perfect opportunity for the kids to sneak into the woods for a little adventure.

On that pleasant mid-July night, Mike Hurst was whispering for the millionth time, “Come on. Come on.” His gaze had been glued to the cabin’s door since Dooley had snuck out just after curfew.

Antonio Canavo, on the other hand, lay quietly on the bunk above him, glancing through a
Sports Illustrated
magazine with the aid of his head-mounted flashlight.

Joel Madsen also lay on his bed, the lower one of the other bunk. But he wasn’t reading anything or watching the door. He was daydreaming about Leah Bautista, one of the other campers. She was in the same activity group he was.

He had tried to talk to her once. The candy-bar incident.

Just thinking about how stupid he’d sounded made him groan. He was so sure he’d botched things that he hadn’t said a word to her since.

Tomorrow
, he thought.
I’ll say hi and then walk away before I add something ridiculous.

On the other bottom bunk, Mike started in again with a
come on
, but before the words escaped his mouth, the door swung open, causing him to jerk in surprise and whack his head against a crossbeam.

Joel snorted in amusement while Antonio and the just returned Dooley—his last name; he didn’t allow anyone to call him George—laughed out loud.

Mike rubbed his skull. “It’s not funny.”

“Maybe not to you,” Antonio said, hanging over the edge of the bed and looking at his bunkmate.

When the laughter died down, Dooley said, “Are you guys ready or what?”

The three boys climbed off their beds, Mike still wincing, then, with Dooley in the lead, they slipped outside.

Their cabin was one of twelve designated for male campers. The girls were in an identical set not too far away. Each group faced the trail that led back to Campfire Plaza, a wide grassy area with a gentle rise, ringed with log benches facing the large fire pit. Beyond Campfire Plaza were the cafeteria, snack shack, admin building, counselors’ quarters, and the road to the highway.

Dooley, however, led them the other way, toward the bathrooms and showers—a large building between the boys’ and girls’ areas that was divided into separate spaces for the two groups. Upon reaching it, he signaled for everyone to wait and then hurried toward the girls’ cabins.

Joel could hear Mike breathing nervously behind him.

“Relax,” he said.

“I
am
relaxed,” Mike replied.

Antonio turned and glared at them. “Will you two shut up?”

Mike put a hand over his mouth and nose as if that would quell the noise, but it only made it louder. Joel didn’t say anything else, though. Mike could be a little annoying at times but he meant well.

Dooley returned a few moments later in the company of the girls who were joining them on the excursion. It was Joel’s turn to exhale nervously. He’d known Courtney and Kayla were coming. They were Dooley’s and Antonio’s summer girlfriends. What Dooley
hadn’t
mentioned was a third girl.

Leah.

Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap.

Leah glanced at him as she and the others approached.

Did she just smile at me? Was that a smile? Did I smile back? Oh, crap.

“Until we get to the stream, no talking,” Dooley said as they huddled together. He looked at Mike. “That means you, a-hole.” A-hole was the nickname Dooley called pretty much everyone when none of the camp staff was around.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about me.”

When Dooley first mentioned the idea of an after-curfew hike to someplace cool in the woods, it wasn’t a surprise that Mike hadn’t been interested. He was a rule follower, and this kind of outing was definitely forbidden by camp guidelines. What got him to change his mind was the promise of free candy bars for the rest of his stay. Now all he wanted to do was get it over with and return to the cabin.

They headed down the trail, Dooley holding Courtney’s hand and Kayla tucked in tight to Antonio’s side. Leah glanced at the two couples, and then looked back at Joel and rolled her eyes. He knew he should have probably rolled his, too, but a sudden warmth in his cheeks caused him to look quickly away.

After they passed the stables, the path narrowed, forcing them to walk single file, and didn’t widen again until they reached the bank of the stream.

“Anyone need a rest?” Dooley asked.

“I gotta pee,” Mike said.

“Gross,” Kayla said.

“What? Everybody pees.”

Dooley pointed into the woods. “What are you waiting for? Hurry up.”

Trying to hide his embarrassment, Mike disappeared between the pines.

“Anyone else?” Dooley asked.

There were no takers.

“So how much farther?” Leah asked.

Dooley made a show of looking across the river and assessing the trail. “I’d say about twenty minutes.”

“Now you going to tell us where we’re going?” Joel asked.

“Dude, trust me. You’re going to be glad you came.” If it weren’t for
a-hole
, then
dude
would have been Dooley’s favorite word.

Antonio opened his backpack. “Anybody hungry? I got Snickers, Kit Kats, a couple Almond Joys…”

Kayla and Courtney swarmed him, making oohs and aahs as they hunted through the bag. By the time they made their selections, Mike had reemerged from the forest.

“Let’s get moving,” Dooley said, “or we’ll be out here all night.”

A series of stones created a makeshift bridge across the water. Joel would have made it without getting wet if Leah, who was in front of him, hadn’t slipped. Without thinking, he jumped into the stream and caught her before she hit the water.

“Thanks,” she said as he helped her back up.

He wanted to say, “No problem,” but whatever came out of his mouth had little connection to the English language.

“Quit goofing off,” Dooley yelled back at them. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

A little way beyond the stream they passed through a clearing and the night sky came into full view. Joel couldn’t believe how many more stars could be seen here than back home on the outskirts of Denver. It was just…wow.

“Hey, a-hole, what’s the holdup?”

Joel suddenly realized he’d stopped in the meadow while the others had kept going. They’d almost reached the trees on the other side.

“Sorry.”

The others disappeared into the woods before he caught up. All except for Leah. She waited until he reached her and smiled. “They
are
beautiful, aren’t they,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“The stars. You can barely see them back in Denver.”

She was from Denver, too? He should probably ask what part, see if they lived close to each other, but he only smiled and nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Do you know any of the constellations?”

Actually, he did. Thanks to the Science Channel, he knew quite a bit about astronomy, but he worried she was just baiting him to expose him as a geek, a side of his personality he’d fought hard to keep under wraps since arriving at Camp Red Hawk.

When he glanced at her, though, he detected no hidden agenda, so he ventured a tentative, “I know the Big Dipper. And, um, Orion.”

“Did you know that if you line up the two end stars of the Dipper’s cup they point at the North Star?”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Yeah. Polaris.”

Maybe he wasn’t the only geek at camp after all.

He tried to come up with something to keep the conversation going, but his mind was a blank. Soon the trail narrowed again and he let Leah move in front of him.

Several minutes later, Mike said, “How far is this thing?”

“Stop whining,” Dooley called back. “We’re almost there.”

After a few more minutes, Joel began to wonder about Dooley’s definition of
almost there
, and was opening his mouth to ask him when a fence appeared directly in their path.

“Don’t tell me you brought us out here to see
that
,” Mike said.

Leah tilted her head up. “That’s…pretty tall.”

The chain-link fence was at least twelve feet high, and that wasn’t even counting the additional few feet created by the strands of barbed wire strung across the top.

“No. Not the fence, a-hole,” Dooley said. “This just means we’re almost there.”

He followed the fence into the darkness, Courtney, Antonio, and Kayla immediately moving after him. Mike, however, hesitated, causing Leah and Joel to do the same.

“Maybe we should head back,” Mike said. “I’m tired and it’s going to take a while to get to the cabins. And if all this was just for a fence…”

“He already said it wasn’t about the fence,” Joel said. “Besides, if this thing he wants us to see is as close as he says, we might as well check it out, right?”

When Mike still didn’t move, Leah tapped Joel on the arm and nodded after the others. He and Leah moved around Mike and hurried to catch up. Only a few seconds passed before he heard Mike jogging behind them.

As they caught up to the others, Dooley said, “What took you guys so long?”

Joel glanced at Mike and said, “Had to tie my shoe.”

Dooley scoffed, but his annoyance changed to excitement as he said, “This is what I wanted to show you.”

He shined his light on the fence. Attached near the top was a weathered and chipped metal sign.

RESTRICTED
AREA

NO
TRESPASSING

US
GOVERNMENT
PROPERTY

VIOLATORS
WILL
BE

DETAINED
AND
PROSECUTED

At the bottom was a line of smaller print, blotched by rust stains that obscured most of the words.

“Whoa,” Mike said. Whatever reluctance he’d been feeling seemed to have momentarily disappeared. “What is this place?”

Dooley shook his head. “No idea. It’s not on any map.”

“Of course it’s on a map,” Leah said. “Everything’s on a map.”

“I checked online myself after I went home last summer,” Dooley said. “I even zoomed in on the satellite view. This is all just part of the national forest. Nothing but trees. Not even the fence is visible.”

“No roads? No buildings? Nothing?” Leah asked.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

“That’s not possible,” Joel said. “You must have missed something.”

Dooley’s jaw tensed. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“No. I said you must have missed something.”

“I didn’t
miss
anything.”

“Hey, over here!” Antonio’s voice came from the darkness farther ahead.

The tense atmosphere forgotten, they jogged toward his voice. Before they reached him, they encountered a tangle of branches and rocks and dirt pushed up against the fence, blocking the way.