More Than I Thought

3

This morning started like every first morning of a lake trip, to the lake. The crack of dawn, a half-mile run in the crisp air, then a swim in the...

Screw this, I was up to damn early, trudging my tail the half-mile to the cold has a witch's tit lake for a swim. If I could remember who started this tradition I'd beat the person, even if it was me. The idea was to run into the lake and outstay everyone else. Easy right? Nope, that water was fed by an underground aquifer, the water was freezing. Rom must have been part polar bear or Russian wolf because she was our reigning champion.

"Rom you're not going to be able to spend the day, we all agree that you're the winner. Come on, out." Greg hollered at her trying to get that seal pup out of the water.

"AWW, come on you didn't even spend 5 minutes in here", she complains splashing about. "I hate that I don't get to honestly bust your balls''. The rest of us were already heading back to the warmth of our tents and clothing.

"It's OK honey, you're good at other things", I yell back to her before tearing off to my tent. Our laughter echoed out across the lake. It's one of my best memories from there.

Anyone watching would have been able to see this wasn't our first rodeo. We broke down our tents, packed everything 'away-leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures', triple checked the fire pit, left enough wood so the next camper would have a starter for the fire pit. After everyone had done their last look over we started for home. I know that everybody else was bummed about returning so soon I wasn't. Greg was on my last nerve, he'd tried to crawl into my sleeping bag with me last night. I was surprised no one mentioned it, guess the beer/walk-in/food coma came in handy. We had reached Signal Point, it was the last place on this trail where any cell signal was halfway decent. Everyone had whipped out their phones, except Rom she'd forgotten hers, I wish I'd "forgotten" mine too.

"This is strange", Greg said, never raising his eyes from his phone.

"OK, hey Vanna wanna give me a vowel", Rommie jokes. I guess we gave her some weird look, "Uh, guys."

"No one has a signal", I tell her softly. This is really weird, we all have different carriers. Out of all of us, someone always has at least 4 bars here.

"Good grief, I thought there was something really wrong. All of you know how spotty the signal is out here. I thought the alert was about aliens or a snake invasion." Rom says as if this were an everyday thing.

"Only you would group aliens and snakes in the same boat."

"Bet you wouldn't mind if those aliens were like the ones in Sevannah Storms' books. I know I wouldn't."

"Don't worry I'll protect you fair maiden", Mark joked.

The jokes flowed fast and furious the rest of the hike back. The jibes never got too personal but as we neared the ranger's station the steps got faster and the claims on the bathrooms got stronger. We had just reached the head of the trail alerting us we had 0.3 miles from the Ranger/Welcome Station when a wave of stench hit us. I recognized old blood, gas, oil, smoke, and death. It smelled like a car accident, a bad one.

"What the frack is that". Nan gagged out.

I pivoted to Craig, "Stay here", his tone brooked no argument.

I reached into my bag pulling out the Vicks VapoRub, "Put some under your nose, don't pack your nose just a little under it. There ya go. It'll help mitigate the smell."

Craig's return was quicker than I would have suspected. "I need all of you to listen to me carefully", catching our eyes. "Greg, remember the logging trail we used to take up to the lake?" Greg nodded. "Take everyone up there then walk down, I'll grab the truck and meet you there."