Simpsational

Kayla Goes to Prison

Kayla

Seven hours of driving was plenty of time to get her anger worked up. Unfortunately, it was time for other things to get worked up as well. If there was even a little privacy when she found him, she'd accept whatever excuse he offered.

Since she'd heard nothing from him, she had no idea what would happen. She'd debated calling the business office, but ultimately decided she would just show up and see what happened.

Almost as soon as she got out of the car, a pretty woman in a turtleneck and jeans ran up, her curly blond hair sticking out from under a cap.

"Hi, you must be Kayla. I'm Emily. Jace has told me so much about you."

"Hi," she shook the offered hand. "Yes. Is he here?"

"Oof, I'm sorry, you just missed him. He had to leave on a two day climb but said I should bring you up when you got here." She looked at Kayla's flip-flops. "It's not a hard climb, but maybe you'd rather wait?"

Kayla wasn't going to let this twig of a woman intimidated her. "I brought my joggers, will they do?"

Emily shrugged. "Can't hurt to try. You want to follow me? It's about a half hour north."

"Sure. Can I grab a bathroom first?"

Emily looked at the building hesitantly, then said, "Ours is being cleaned, but we can swing through the Phillips station on the way up there."

Kayla wasn't terribly excited about more driving, but she didn't see that she had much choice. At least Emily was being understanding. The little gravel lot they drove to was empty and well back from the road, but it was the mountain stretching uphill away from them that had her worried.

Emily grabbed a light pack but assured Kayla she wouldn't need anything. Jace was expecting her and had added an extra lead-out to the gear they took with. If Kayla knew Jace, he'd probably added a great deal more than that for her.

The walk up to the cliff face was exhausting. Emily didn't act like it was more than a Sunday stroll, so Kayla did her best not to show her discomfort.

"Hopefully we'll catch them on the low climb. He's got a bunch of tourists with him, so they'll probably be pretty slow," Emily said, offering encouragement. It felt a bit condescending, but as the cliff face loomed ahead, Kayla felt herself hoping the girl was right.

"I don't know, Emily. That looks pretty steep." Kayla now looked up the rock face. Jace was nowhere in sight."

"Jace!" Emily shouted, repeating the call several times before giving up. "Sorry, I was hoping he could come down and get you. His group must be a noisy bunch. The climb is easy, though. We don't even use ropes for it. We can head back if you want. I'm sure Jace will understand."

"No," Kayla said, "I'm already here."

The first part of the climb really did turn out to be easy. Emily was clearly familiar with it and gave her useful advice in a few places. The only tricky part was when they got to a long drop onto an outcropping below them. Emily went first and waited patiently to catch Kayla as she worked up the nerve to let herself drop.

Once on the ledge, Kayla felt some relief. It felt like a nice, stable place to take a break. Then she watched as Emily took a run and flung herself off the side and into space.

"What the heck?"

Emily smirked at her. "Yeah, don't try that. Even if it didn't kill you, the wolves would get you long before anyone found you."

"What are you doing?" Kayla was afraid she already knew.

Emily shrugged off the backpack she was wearing. "This is a survival pack. It has food, sunblock, a thermal blanket, and, most importantly, water. Everything you need to survive for three days."

"You're going to leave me here?"

"Yes. But I'm willing to trade this pack for all of your clothing."

"Excuse me?"

Emily shrugged, hanging there by one hand while she held the pack. "I considered making you cut off your hair, too, but I was afraid your vanity would get you killed. Hurry up, princess, I can only hold on here for so long."

Kayla didn't know if she could trust Emily to actually deliver the pack, but she had carried it all the way up here. She needn't have bothered if she was just going to keep it. "You're just going to kill me, otherwise?"

"Nah. You won't die. You may have to drink your urine, but you'll have clothes to soak it up with, I guess. Just throw it off the edge and hurry up."

Kayla didn't see that she had any choice. She stripped down to her underwear and, when Emily didn't budge, she took that off, too. She watched as her clothing fluttered to the rocky ground far below.

Emily tossed the pack over to Kayla's new prison. "I'll be back in three days. Hopefully, you'll learn enough humility in that time to agree to my terms for your release."

Kayla resisted the urge to pick up a rock and throw it at the girl as she scaled away down the cliff face. If Emily got hurt or died, would anyone find them before it was too late? The survival pack was as advertised, though the flares, lighters, and radio equipment listed in the instructions were all absent.

This had been such a bad idea. She understood what had happened now. Jace had found a new girl to simp for, and she wasn't the type to share.