The Journey Home (6 page)

“And help Mom,” Taylor said. The thought seemed to cheer him up.

Jake smiled. “Right. So let's do it.”

They helped each other back into their packs, and
then Jake looked down at their dog, who pranced in circles, raring to go.

“Lead the way, Cody!”

They reached the highway two hours later. The sun lay buried behind a layer of cloud as thick as grease-fire smoke. The cold was really beginning to bite, and by the time they reached the road, the first few flakes of snow had begun drifting down out of the sky.

We're getting out of here just in time,
Jake thought. If they'd waited, as Abe had wanted to do, they'd never have been able to leave the cabin.

They found a wide patch in the road that would allow vehicles to pull over, and Jake stuck out his thumb. He wasn't sure if you were supposed to smile at the oncoming traffic or not. On their way out to Wyoming last summer, they'd hopped a freight train, caught a ride with a trucker they'd met at a truck stop, and then stowed away on a tour bus. Hitchhiking, though, he only knew from movies.

“I hope we don't get picked up by someone super-creepy,” said Taylor.

Jake had been thinking the same thing. “Did you bring your slingshot?” he asked.

“Got it right here.”

“Then, we're covered. Besides, we've got the world's best guard dog, don't we?”

Taylor tried to smile but barely pulled it off.

After ten minutes Jake felt numb and frustrated. The highway was almost empty. The few cars and trucks that passed didn't even slow down to give the boys a glance. The snow was falling faster now.

“Let's put our ponchos on,” Jake said.

“Maybe we should start walking,” Taylor suggested, glancing over his shoulder.

“Let's give it a few more minutes,” Jake said.

Taylor shook his head and sat down on his pack. With his poncho on, he looked like a little tent. Cody crawled under the poncho with him.

Cold and worry gnawed on Jake as they waited.

Dad will have found Taylor's note by now.

Jake expected to see Abe at any moment, running at them, his face full of hurt and betrayal. Maybe he'd have the cops with him. Either way, he'd try to stop them.

He glanced over his shoulder one last time. “Okay,” he sighed. “Let's start walking.”

“Look!” Taylor yelled.

An old Volkswagen camper van was swerving off the road and slowing down next to them. The two boys sprinted for it, hollering until it stopped.

With a rattle of rusty metal, the VW's side door flew open.

A girl with brown hair stuck her head out. “Pretty cold to be backpacking.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jake panted. “Can you give us a ride?”

“Where you headin', dudes?” a guy with curly blond hair asked from behind the steering wheel. Jake noted another girl perched in the front passenger seat, also staring at them. They looked like college kids.

“Uh, we were trying to get to Casper,” Jake said.

“Cool,” said the driver. “We're not going that far, but we can drop you in Riverton.”

“Or at the junction to Casper—what's that called?” said the girl in the front seat.

“Shoshoni,” answered the girl who'd opened the door.

“Any good to you?” asked the driver.

“Awesome. Is it okay if our dog comes too?”

On cue Cody leaped up into the van. The two girls squealed in unison. “He's so cute!”

Jake took that as a yes.

“Climb in,” said the driver. “Just throw your stuff in the back.”

Jake and Taylor hauled their backpacks into the camper van and slid the door shut. Moments later the boys and Cody were seated comfortably in the van's main compartment, warm, dry, and trundling noisily down the highway.

“Oh, I'm Brittney by the way,” said the girl who'd opened the door. “That's Destiny, and Chase is driving.”

“Yo, what's up?” Chase said, holding up his hand. “I ain't gonna ask what you two little dudes are doing, all on your own, miles from the nearest town. None of my business. We all got our road to travel, y'know?”

“Sure,” Jake said, not knowing what else to say.

“Just make sure you find yourselves someplace safe and warm to stay tonight? The snow's gonna come down hard and deep.”

“Chase knows his snow,” said Brittney, giving Jake a wink.

The driver laughed. “That's what brought us out here. Gonna check out the boarding at a place called Meadowlark, up near Ten Sleep.”

Jake noticed half a dozen snowboards stacked behind the backseat.

“Nice,” he said.

The VW didn't seem to go faster than fifty miles per hour or so, but Jake didn't care. At least they were on their way, putting distance between themselves and Abe's cabin.

“See, Taylor?”

“Huh?”

“I told you this would be a piece of cake.”

Taylor shrugged, looking far from convinced. “So far so good, I guess.”

Jake yawned, stretched, and relaxed. He closed his eyes and let the thrash metal music blasting from the speakers wash him away for a while.

A loud noise jolted him awake. By the looks on their faces, the others had heard it too.

“What was that?” Destiny asked.

Chase looked over at her. “I dunno, babe, but the van's still going. I think we're okay.”

“Uh, guys?” Taylor shouted over the music. “Is there supposed to be black smoke coming out of the back of the van?”

“What?” Chase shouted, turning around while still gripping the steering wheel. “Oh, crap!”

He hit the brakes, and the van swerved onto a wide pull-out on the highway. Chase flung open his door and leaped out of the vehicle. After yanking open the side door, he pushed aside a pile of bags and luggage and pulled a small fire extinguisher out from under one of the seats. He ran to the back of the van and tried to open a rear panel, but jerked his hand back.

“It's hot!” he shouted.

“Well,
duh
, it's on fire!” Brittney shouted.

Taylor and Jake leaped out of the van into the driving snow, and Taylor took off the baseball hat he was wearing. “Here, use this!”

Using the cap as a hot pad, Chase again tried to open the rear panel. This time it sprang open—releasing black smoke, and flames.

“Oh God!” Destiny moaned.

Cody began barking, so Jake picked him up and backed away from the flaming engine.

Chase pulled a pin on the fire extinguisher he was holding and sprayed white foam onto the fire. The flames died immediately, but black smoke kept pouring out of the van.

“What happened?” asked Brittney.

Chase gingerly approached the engine. As the smoke cleared, he peered into it.

“We cooked it. That's what happened,” he said, and groaned, pulling out a black wire that had most of its insulation melted off.

Jake set Cody down on the ground, and the brothers drew nearer.

“Can you fix it?” Taylor asked.

Chase flung the wire away in annoyance. “No, can you?”

“Um . . . no.”

“The oil warning light's been on for a while. I guess we really were low and the engine overheated.” Chase sucked his teeth. “Well, whatever happened, we're not going anywhere for a while.”

Jake let out a groan.

While Chase and the girls discussed what they should do, Jake pulled Taylor to one side and rummaged in his bag for the map.

“Now what?” murmured Taylor, staring through the falling snow at a sky as gray as an old photograph. “I knew that rustbucket was a death trap!”

“We keep moving, is what,” Jake shot back.

“Look. Riverton's about another twenty-five miles,” said Taylor, pointing at the highway on the map. “We could hitch another ride. . . . Or we could go back . . .”

Jake frowned, ignoring Taylor's last suggestion. “It took
us forever to get
this
ride. We might not get another one. And if they call the police for help . . .”

He pointed to the map and said, “We're in the foothills of the Owl Creek Mountains. See? Check out this road here. It looks like it heads almost straight over the mountains and could bring us into Thermopolis. We could walk it.”

“It's forty miles, Jake!”

“Yeah, but most of it's along dirt roads. We can cover that in a few days. We've done it before. And there's less chance of Dad or the police finding us.”

Taylor looked doubtful but said, “I guess we have to do whatever it takes to get back to Mom.”

Back by the smoldering van, Chase was looking downcast. “Van's junked, man. We're gonna have to get it towed back to Jackson.”

“Sorry,” said Taylor.

“Yeah, sorry,” said Jake. “Look, ah . . . we'd better hit the road. We'll call our mom. She can come and pick us up.”

Chase just nodded. “Your mom, huh? Whatever you say.”

“Thanks for the ride.”

Chase waved his hand. “Just wish we could've taken you further. You guys stay warm, okay? There's a big storm on the way, but I'm not going to be boarding anytime soon.”

A good three or four inches of snow had already stacked up along the side of the road.

“We'll be okay,” Jake said, hoping he sounded convincing.

“Here,” Chase said, digging into a duffel bag in the back of the van. He pulled out a pair of thin, metallic thermal blankets, along with two tightly knit wool ski hats. “These are for when you hit the slopes.”

“Uh, we're not going skiing,” said Jake, “but these'll be great. Thanks.”

“What? No skiing?” Brittney said. “Have you ever snowboarded before?”

Jake and Taylor looked at each other. “Um, no. We've sledded.”

“We've got to do something about that.”

She reached in to where the snowboards were stacked, and pulled out an old one covered in a graffiti pattern.

“It's a little beat up, but you'll have fun with it. I always did,” Brittney said, handing the snowboard to Taylor.

“Thanks!” said Taylor, running his hand over the smooth surface.

“I, uh, guess we'd better get going,” Jake said.

“
Namaste
,” said Chase solemnly. “May the wind be ever at your back.”

Taylor strapped the snowboard to his backpack, and the girls helped them get loaded up. They said their good-byes and began the long walk down the highway, without looking back.

Above them the weather began to close in. Soon the light gray clouds turned a deep charcoal color. Heavy, fat
flakes began to fall, kissing Jake's face with deathly cold. As he walked on into the swirling snow and the deepening darkness, he realized it was far too late to turn back now.

Piece of cake,
he'd said. His own words echoed in his ears, mocking him.

8
Jake and Taylor walked along the highway for about half a mile, looking out for the turnoff. Not a single car passed them.

“Where
is
everyone?” Taylor said uneasily.

“It's just a quiet stretch, is all,” Jake replied.

“I guess even the locals don't come down here much.”

To Jake's relief he eventually spotted the turnoff he could see on his map. They crossed the highway and stood by it; a straight, unpaved road, heading north and looking as bleak as the surface of the moon.

“You're sure this is the right one?” Taylor asked.

“I think so,” said Jake. “Even if it's not, we've got a compass. We'll figure it out.”

As they set out up the track, Jake wondered again if he'd
done the right thing. Around his dad's cabin, where the trees grew thickly, shelter was easy to find. Out here nothing grew but sagebrush and rabbitbrush. There was nothing to shield them from the cold winds that blasted them in the face and made their eyes water.

The hats Chase had given them were warm, but they weren't enough. The snow was coming down fast now, in thick flakes that made it hard to see.
Dad was right
, Jake thought ruefully. The storm was here, and they were walking right into it.

Before long the snow was crusted on their shoulders, and their fingers were numb. Jake could just make out the dim shapes of the Owl Creek Mountains through the constant snowfall, but barely anything else. The road, once a dark smudge, was now completely hidden by white snow.

“I'm cold,” Taylor moaned.

“Hang in there.”

“We're on the wrong road, Jake! I'm sure of it!”

Jake was sure of it too. He'd been suspecting it for a while but hadn't wanted to say. This was on him. He'd talked his brother into coming and had taken them down a deserted road to nowhere. He wanted to throw back his head and yell for help, but he knew that wouldn't do any good.

“Okay, let's say we are on the wrong road. What do we need to do?”

“Dad would know,” Taylor said.

“Well, he's not here,” Jake snapped. “It's up to us to find somewhere to ride out the storm.”