Chapter 89 – The Woods

• My feet carry me quickly through the woods as I survey the map, swiftly making sense of it and matching physical landmarks with the points on the page. Inwardly, I think gratefully of my dad and my uncle Roger, who brought me along on those early camping trips and showed me how to do this sort of work, not leaving me out. I mean, Rafe and Jesse certainly got more training in this than me as we got older – they could find their way home in the dark, just by looking at the stars.
• But me? I’m confident in my map reading skills, and I bless them now.
• When I identify a ridge running along my right and realize that I simply have to follow this until I reach a man-made bridge – which seems, honestly, a little too easy – I fold the map and shove it deep into my back pocket. Then I set my sights ahead and hurry my steps, keeping my ears open for any other movement in the forest around me.