Somewhere in Alaska

Chapter Eight

Stephanie wakes suddenly and notices that David is no longer lying next to her.

"Leon!" she heard being shouted in the distance, "Leon can you hear me?!"

Suddenly feeling wide awake, she quickly found her clothes and got dressed,

"David?!" she called out, "Are you ok?"

After getting no reply, she ran out of the tent before even putting her boots on. There was no sign of David anywhere near the tent.

"David! David where are you?!" she shouted.

"I'll be there in a moment," she heard faintly, "Get ready to leave Steph."

Relieved to hear his voice a little closer, Stephanie went back into the tent to put her boots on.

Just as she'd finished tying her laces, she heard branches breaking under someone's feet, she popped her head out of the tent to see David had returned to camp. Despite what had happened the night before, Stephanie noticed straight away that his troubled look had returned.

"Are you ok David?" she asked whilst getting out of the tent again.

"As alright as I can be, it's just that rock," he said as he glanced towards it, "It turns my stomach, there's just so much blood, look at it," he said as he pointed towards it, "the rock is covered, it's all over the floor, I tried following the trail, it's all over the place. I don't even know where to start," he said as he started pacing back and forth.

"David please try to calm yourself," Stephanie said whilst walking towards him, she placed her hand on his arm, "we'll find him. We'll go back and get the others, then we can split up and cover a wider area."

"They're hours away, even if we walk fast it will still be at least four hours until we are back here and ready to set off," he replied as he walked towards his backpack,

"Well I'll go to get them by myself, you can get a head start it you want to?"

As Stephanie waited for David to reply, she noticed that he didn't look quite right. He looked red in the face, beads of sweat gathered on his forehead, and he stood awkwardly, as though he had a stich.

"How far have you walked this morning?" she asked.

"Not far," he replied whilst wiping the sweat from his forehead with his arm.

"Well you don't look good, maybe you should have a sit down? Get some rest while I go get the others?"

"No, no I'm fine, it's not a good idea for us to split up either," he said as he put his backpack on, "We'll just stick to the plan, come on let's get moving."

Stephanie didn't know what to think, she'd noticed a change in David. She couldn't help but to think that it was because of what happened the night before.

"David are we okay?" she asked looking concerned.

David walked up to Stephanie, "We are fine Stephanie, I just feel a little tired that's all. Come here." he said as he held his arms out towards her.

Stephanie walked up to David and wrapped her arms around him, he gently cuddled her and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sorry Stephanie, please don't think I'm being off with you. Last night meant a lot to me, it's just, last night I felt more relaxed, I couldn't think about anything except for you, but today is a new day. I'm not in that tent anymore, I'm stood out here, seeing all this mess," he said as he again glanced towards the blood stained rock, "I'm worried, really worried, and to top it off I'm feeling really lousy, maybe I'm coming down with a cold."