Wolf Stalker by Gloria Skurzynski

hungry.
    â€œWe’re gonna have to give it up,” he sighed.
    â€œWhy? Are you tired?”
    â€œWho, me? No—I was worried about you.” Turning around, he shone the flashlight right into her face, but it was such a puny little light that she didn’t even blink. “There’s no way we can find our way back the way we came, but we don’t need to,” he said. “If we just keep walking down the mountain, we’ll get to Slough Creek sooner or later. Then we can follow the creek to the parking lot and someone will be there to take us to park headquarters. They’ve probably got a whole rescue squad out by now.”
    Ashley sat down on a fallen tree and leaned her crossed arms on her knees. “That’s good for us. But what about Troy?”
    â€œWhat about him? We tried. We did our best, but it didn’t work. He’ll be OK. The biggest problem for Troy is that it’s going to get really cold here tonight—”
    â€œAnd we have our parkas, but Troy only has that jacket of his,” she said. “He’s going to freeze. And I bet he doesn’t know that if he goes down the hill he’ll get to Slough Creek, ’cause he doesn’t know squat about wilderness. Which means we’ve got to find him.”
    â€œWhat do you think we’ve been trying to do? What else is there?”
    â€œWe’ll yell,” she announced.
    â€œAshley, he’ll never hear.”
    â€œHe will if we yell loud enough. TROY! TROY! Where are you? Can you hear me?”
    In the cold, crisp air, sound traveled much more clearly than they would have expected. Although there was no telling how far away it might be, Jack and Ashley heard a faint, “Yeah, I hear you.”
    Ashley scrambled to her feet. “KEEP YELLING, TROY! Come on,” she said to Jack, “he’s up the hill that way.”
    â€œNo, wait a second,” Jack argued. “I think the sound’s coming from the other way.”
    â€œHey, Troy!” Ashley called. “Say something again!” Without waiting for Jack, she fought through brush to climb a steep incline. “Holler something, Troy!”
    The answering call sounded a little closer. “SHUT UP!”
    Ashley laughed. “That’s Troy, all right.”
    She climbed in a nearly straight line. If a tree got in her way, she circled around it, and then got right back onto her arrow-straight path, jumping over fallen branches, kicking aside rocks, pushing through ground cover. How could she be so sure where she was headed, Jack wondered—in the dark, and even after Troy stopped answering their calls?
    He shook his head in amazement, when, within 15 minutes, she’d found him.
    Troy was hunched over the wolf’s unmoving body, his hands hovering above it as though he could press some of his own life into the wolf by sheer will. Scarcely visible in the dim light from Jack’s little flashlight, blood oozed through the wolf’s thick, silver fur, melting into the earth.
    â€œWait—Troy—get away from him!” Jack cried. “You don’t know anything about wild animals. He’ll bite your hand off!”
    The wolf’s yellow eyes fluttered open, then closed, like butterfly wings.
    â€œHe won’t hurt me,” Troy muttered. “He knows I want to help.”
    â€œYeah, right,” Jack answered. “That’s just what he’ll say to himself when he crunches down on your arm. You can’t help the wolf, Troy. The only thing we can do for him is go back right now and tell people where he is. They’ll come get him first thing in the morning.”
    â€œIn the morning he’ll be dead,” Troy said.
    â€œNuh-UH!” Ashley shook her head vehemently.
    Jack thought the chances of the wolf lasting through the night were pretty slim, but he had to get Troy out of there.
    â€œHe’ll make it,” Jack said. “He’s got a radio