Lily’s heart slammed against her chest. I can do this. I can get us through until we come up with another plan. She let out a slow breath, worked to clear her mind, and straightened her spine. I can do this.
The brunette woman peered at her, her mouth curled in a crooked, uncomfortable smile. “I’m not backing out, but I gotta tell you, the extent of my wilderness prowess involves RV camping.”
Lily glanced at the woman and saw barely masked fear peeking through her expression. Lily assumed her face looked the same. “I have some skills. Earth skills. But what I know might not matter in there. I think I can at least keep us alive until we figure out our next move.”
She tried to remain humble about her wilderness training. Truth be told, she could hike into most jungles back home with a machete and elbow grease and live off the land without too much trouble. The miserable annual treks she took with her parents had ensured her skills remained relatively intact but…this was different. Being too cocky would do nothing but land them in hot water down the line if Lily found she couldn’t be the self-sufficient badass she thought she was.
“Good enough for me.” The woman held out her hand. “I’m Alejandra. You can call me Alex.”
“Lily,” she replied and gripped the outstretched hand. She turned back to the woods and stared into the darkness, limbs itching to move even as her mind urged her to turn back. This is gonna be fucking awful.
***
“Motherfu—” Lily stifled a curse as yet another thorn stabbed through the flimsy soles of her flats. They were bright red, snug, and had cute leather ankle straps that chafed. She glared down at them and decided against tearing off the straps. Although painful, they at least kept her shoes from flopping off. The worst possible shoes for a daring escape. Well, maybe not the worst, Lily thought, picturing her favorite pair of strappy, royal-blue stiletto sandals from her closet.
Their trek so far had reminded Lily why she now hated the great outdoors. City sidewalks never tore up her feet. Manicured window boxes didn’t scratch at her face or pull at her hair like these twigs. If she were back in Portland, all she’d have to do to get where she wanted was call an Uber. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. A nice, air-conditioned Uber.
They’d been walking for what felt like hours through the increasingly dark forest, and Lily had begun to doubt herself more and more. Everything was so different. Where she’d expected thick undergrowth, there was only damp moss. It didn’t make sense. The air was heavy and saturated, as it would be if she were cutting through a thick jungle, but their path was clear save for the trees. A crisp, astringent scent hung in the air, undercut with a sweet, minty aroma so unlike the deep, earthy scents of most forests on Earth.
What kind of canopies overlapped like this? Lily glared up at the large, round leaves of the trees blocking most of the light. She’d been in forests all over Earth, but she’d never encountered a place like this. All the survival skills in the world would be useless if she couldn’t see what she was doing. Is it time to call it quits?
“Maybe we should stop for the night?” Alex panted behind her.
Lily placed her hand on her hips and turned back, breathing deeply. “I’m worried we’re still too close. If more aliens arrive and the other women tell them where we went, they might come after us.”
Alex leaned against a tree and clutched her side. “We’ve been walking nonstop for hours!”
“Yes, but we’ve been moving at a snail’s pace. You saw how fast that guy ran.” Lily let out a huff and took in their surroundings once again. Rustling from the treetops to her right drew her gaze, but she couldn’t make out much in the dim light. Unease lifted the hair on the back of her neck. They’d need to find shelter soon. “You’re right, though. We can’t keep trying to hike like this. Let’s just go a little farther. We need to gather dry branches and kindling anyway.”
“Okay. Okay. Just give me a minute to catch my breath.” Alex sank to the ground and tilted her head back against a tree. “Where are you from?”
That was always a difficult question for Lily to answer. Her upbringing had been…interesting, to say the least. She wasn’t from anywhere, not really. “Right now, I live in Portland,” she said without elaborating.
“Cool. I’m from SoCal.”
Lily was relieved to see Alex’s breathing slowly become more even. The rough days ahead would be a hundred times harder if she wasn’t in shape. Lily took the pause to sit and catch her own breath. She squinted to her right at an odd vine that appeared frayed at the end.
“Do you think they did a West-Coast grab or something?”
“Could be,” Lily answered, half paying attention. She forced herself not to reach out and inspect the vine until she could examine it in daylight. Might not be a vine at all. She cringed.
“What do you think they want with us?”
“No idea.” To be honest, Lily hadn’t spent too much time thinking about her abduction. Her parents had always trained her to focus on one problem at a time when in a survival situation. Expending mental energy worrying about the past, when she should be keeping her mind focused on their safety, was dangerous. For now, it didn’t matter how or why she’d been taken. What mattered was how they could make it until tomorrow.
In the dim light, Lily witnessed Alex roll her eyes then shift until they were facing each other. “Look, I get that you’re not super chatty, but I’m barely keeping it together here. You realize we’re on another planet, right? And we’re breathing? Not crushed by a difference in this planet’s gravitational pull? These are things I can’t not discuss! If I’m gonna make it, I need someone to talk to.”
Lily gave Alex what she hoped was a sympathetic smile. “Sorry.” She caught the woman’s exasperated look and continued, “Sorry! I just don’t talk a lot. I get stuck in my head.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t like people. She loved people. One of her favorite pastimes was plopping herself onto a picnic blanket and people-watching. She liked to observe, though, not participate. It was the one downside of her otherwise awesome job as a hairdresser. People expected to chat while they spent hours getting their hair done.
Alex let out a deep breath and studied Lily for a moment longer. “It’s okay. I’m just being needy.” She rose and brushed the dirt off her jeans. “Alright, Lily from Portland, what now?”
“Now we cover our tracks so anyone following will lose our trail.”
***
“Here they are,” Alex panted. “Another load of rocks for your perusal, madam.”
Lily cracked a smile and paused her digging as Alex trudged toward her, arms full of stones. They’d been attempting to identify knappable rocks after finding a small stream yesterday and settling into their camp but had yet to find any that fractured well enough to use as a blade. While Lily had been in charge of digging a Dakota fire hole, Alex had been tasked with grunt work.
The stones tumbled from Alex’s arms, and Lily bit her lip, recognizing a few gritty ones she’d already explained wouldn’t work. Poor girl would get that frustrated, defeated look in her eyes again if Lily pointed out she’d hauled some of those heavy stones for no reason.