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She picked her way downstream until she cae across to the other side

She didn't wait to get up her nerve She could be across in three big steps

But she'd underestimated how slick the bark was, how ht She was halfhen she slipped, threw her walking stick into the air, and pitched into the water

Her ared into her nostrils Her clothes weighed her down; the current spun her and rushed her backwards downstream She tried to stand, only to be swept back in Finally, she clawed herself to the bank, pulling herself up by a tree root, and collapsed in the h in your damn face

She had no idea how far she'd been carried She couldn't see the tree trunk she'd tried to cross Her whole body trembled, and she wasn't sure whether it was from the cold or the shock, but she realized it didn't et warone

She walked downstrean of the pack It had been ripped off her back and carried away

Now, for the first time, Mallory felt truly alone She looked at the GPS bracelet--that sive up She was in deep trouble She could die out here Just her goddamn luck, to freeze to death in Texas

No, she told herself You can do this

But the darkening sky and the river and the trees see her otherwise

She tried to reency

SOS Survey Organize Strategize

Okay, the survey was easy Night was falling She et and cold--her clothes soaked through, her backpack and one Her lianized her supplies She stripped off her jacket She checked her leg sheath to make sure the knife was still there The metal match they'd shown her how to use was still in her pocket That was it That's all she had

Strategize? She needed warood thing that had come from her river ride was that she see her She couldn't hear it anyht attract it to her again, but she had no choice She had to have warmth

After a fire, she'd create a shelter She'd have to spend the night here,Thirdly--only thirdly--she'd need to satisfy the gnawing hunger in her stomach

She'd done lots of fires in base camp It had been one of the prerequisites for the solo trip Nevertheless, she had to reh

She found an enormous tree that was hollow inside and decided that would be her shelter She'd build her fire next to it She used the hard dirt as her platform, put dorist-sized branch for the brace, piled the tinder on this It took her three strikes to spark a fla feeling In a few an to add the kindling She got to the fuel stage, began adding larger twigs, then ss

She stood as close to the blaze as she could, feeling like so that had been pulled pre on one side, frozen on the other

A dot of ice , a scatter of oversized dust reat

When her hands felt war out the tree trunk Grubs and worms and beetles squirmed out of the dark, and these she threw onto the tarp of her jacket by the fire Just in case, she told herself Just in case

By the ti in, she had round like a crust of salt Mallory backed into her hollow tree, now lined withwater frorubs for now

She couldn't see She wondered if hypotherined she was back on the ropes course above the river, suspended in the dark, her harness tearing She was ready to et her the hell out of here

Her last visit to her father's, just before she'd run away to the East Bay, she had walked into his bedroom and found him on his knees, his back to her, hunched over his bed in his business suit, praying She couldn't have been more embarrassed if she'd found him in his underwear Her dad, who'd never been to church in his life, who'd told her when she was a kid that God was a fairy tale, like Cinderella--her dad was praying He didn't notice her His fingers were laced, his lips alh to hear hi Please

Then she'd left, easing the door closed behind her