Gravity Check by Alex Van Tol Page B

a couple of years ago, he gave up on school altogether, turning his energies toward making friends and having fun.
    I had no idea he still carried around that old dream.
    Here I’ve been resenting Seth all this time for being popular, and he’s been jealous of me for being smart! I feel like an idiot. But I can’t think of what to say. For once, my “great mind” fails me.
    And I’m still worried as hell about what’s happening here.
    This is all getting to be a bit much.

chapter thirteen
    I sit back down by the fire and put my head in my hands. “I can’t believe the camp would send us out with a dead phone.”
    â€œYeah, well, they did,” Seth says, his voice angry. “And no spare batteries. So where does that leave us?” He’s almost shouting now. “We’re in a real tidy heap of crap now, huh, Jamie? Our friends are lost in the forest at nighttime, in the middle of a massive grow-op with who knows how many armed guards.” His voice rises, closing in on hysteria. “Maybe they’re already all dead and lying there in pools of their own blood,” he says, gesturing toward the ground, as though their bodies were right in front of us.
    I wince at the thought. “Seth,” I say.
    He ignores me. “Maybe those guys are coming for us now,” he says.
    His last words fill me with cold dread. I sure hope not.
    And then it dawns on me that no one else is coming to help us. Whatever happens next is our decision. The way this situation will shake out is entirely up to us. I take my head out of my hands and look at Seth.
    â€œSeth,” I say, keeping my voice calm. “Listen to me.” I touch his arm. The words and my hand work like a magic salve, soothing him. He looks into my eyes. Listening. He doesn’t listen much anymore, but he sure is now.
    â€œWe need to figure out what we’re going to do,” I say. “We need to make a plan. We can’t just sit here.”
    He nods.
    â€œWell, we could just sit here,” I continue, “but I’m not sure that’s our best option. The way I see it, we have three choices. One is to try to ride out to a road and then try to get help. But I have no idea where we are or how far in we’ve come. I wasn’t paying attention when we drove up here. And then we biked for a full day to get in here. We could spend days on the logging roads and not see anyone.”
    â€œOh, man,” Seth groans.
    I keep going. “Option two, we wait here until someone from camp comes looking for us. But we’re on the second night of a four-day trip, so that means no one will even know we’re missing until suppertime the day after tomorrow. That’s over forty-eight hours until someone even launches a search. That feels like a long time to wait.”
    â€œWhat’s option three?” Seth asks.
    I take a steadying breath. “Option three is we go after them.”
    Seth swallows. Nods. Stares at the ground for a while. “It’s what we’ve got to do, isn’t it, Jamie?” He raises his eyes to meet mine.
    I nod.
    â€œNow?”
    I look up at the sky. More stars have edged their way out of the blue velvet. The last of the daylight is a whitish fringe around the mountaintops. There’s no moon tonight. It’s bloody dark out here.
    And it’ll only be darker in the forest. Taking headlamps would be an exercise in stupidity. They’d turn us into easy targets in terrain that’s completely unfamiliar to us. We would be at a distinct disadvantage.
    I refuse to think about what—or who— would have the advantage.
    I look back at Seth.
    â€œWe’ll go at first light.”
    I’m sure I won’t sleep well. But I am surprised when I wake early the next morning after a deep and dreamless sleep.
    I sit up and shake Seth, who’s snoring beside me.
    My body is sore from all of yesterday’s action. I guess