Riley's Journey Read Online Free Page A

break! Totally disgusted, Riley considered the possibility that Dr. Collins was either on drugs or in the throes of some outlandish hallucination. The “map” was nothing more than a few lines on a cured animal skin, rather like something from a child’s treasure hunt. Nothing of any substance and certainly not detailing any land masses she recognized from the outline. Frustrated, she gathered up the objects and stuffed them back in the pack, realizing she might need them later. At the last second, she kept out the largest knife and tucked it under a strap of the pack where it could be easily accessed if needed. Jonas’ training whispered through her mind, watch your back!
    The silence was eerie and her anxiety increased. Self-preservation dictated that she find a place to hide, but she was not going to budge from this spot. Surely someone would come for her if she just waited long enough. That was originally the plan as she understood it and that was what she was going to do. Maybe she was just overreacting and they just were running late.

CHAPTER FIVE
    H ours later, Riley was still waiting and growing colder and angrier by the minute. She pulled the skin from the pack and wrapped it around her for added warmth. If she only had some matches, she could build a fire. Wait just one second! She remembered that Jonas had worked with her one afternoon, making a fire using a drill stick, and unless she was mistaken, the pack contained one of those. Moving over to the nearest stand of trees, she foraged for dry tinder, managing to gather a small supply. She packed the snow down, forming a small bowl-shaped indentation and then lined it with stones and a layer of the dried tinder. Now all she needed was some fire.
    Sitting down, Riley braced the drill stick on a small piece of flat dry tinder on top of the hearth stick, as Jonas called it, and wrapped the bow string around as he had instructed. Okay, she was ready. Back and forth, back and forth, she spun the drill stick as fast as she could, applying pressure down as hard as possible. She wished she had paid more attention to this part of the training. After about twenty minutes of this, and about the time her arms were beginning to give out, a small puff of smoke drifted up. Encouraged, she spun the stick faster until a small flame sparked. Barely breathing, she lifted the hearth stick up, carefully blowing on the tiny flame. Setting it down on the tinder, she added more of the smallest dried sticks, working slowly and carefully, fearful of smothering the flame, but it kept burning and soon she had a small fire burning.
    She actually had a fire going! Running back over to the stand of trees, she gathered as much dry or almost dry wood as she could find. Fortunately, there appeared to be a good supply. Very soon thereafter, she had a nice fire roaring and had warmed up considerably. Because some of the wood had been damp, the fire smoked a lot, but she didn’t care, at least she was warmer. Although she wasn’t big on jerky, she pulled out a couple of strips and settled down to eat, munching hungrily and wishing for a nice hot cup of coffee as well.
    Riley was just deciding to walk a short distance to the top of the small hill to her right when in the distance she saw five or six figures approaching. Thank God! They had finally come for her. Excited, she stood up and waved her arms, yelling and laughing as they neared. They were dressed much the same as she, but appeared even more burdened by the weight of the clothing. They were still too far away for her to see their faces clearly and their progress was slow through the knee-deep snow. They all carried tall walking sticks and she decided she probably would need one as well. One of the sticks she had gathered for firewood fit well for the purpose. She caught up the back pack and put it on, eagerly awaiting their approach. They were within fifteen or twenty feet when she finally got a good look—and froze. Something was not