Trail of Breadcrumbs

A/N - I loved Wilderness+Training+Survival, but like a lot of you, I wished Jack was there. Rid even said she was hoping for someone to write about it in the note to her beautiful tag to the episode. I've had a lot of stress the last few weeks between some stuff I've had going on personally, my day job, and my professional writing. A tag seemed the perfect way to depressurize, and maybe offer something we're all craving. Here's my version of the episode. As always, I own nothing, but I hope you enjoy what I've done with other people's characters. ~ J

"Hey, Jack," Riley said, glancing over her shoulder. "Pass me a drink, wouldja?"

Mac kept his eyes on the road, but couldn't quite help the smirk that appeared on his face.

"Jack?" Riley tried again. "Hey, Old Man!" she said loudly. She was answered by a snore and the sound of Jack's broad form shifting in his seat. Like any good soldier, Jack knew well enough to nap while the napping was good. Mac snickered and Riley sighed, gesturing at Bozer to get his attention away from his phone. "Hey, Bozer, you want to hand me one of those waters back there?"

"Yeah." Bozer opened the cooler, grinning. She could have a water. He was about ready for the Starbucks Frappuccino he'd bought at the gas station a while back. He froze. "Uh … Can't."

Jack snorted awake when Riley loudly demanded to know why. "What're you two bickering about now?" he grumped, rubbing his eyes.

"I think somebody robbed us at that last rest stop," Bozer whined anxiously, tilting the empty cooler he'd just discovered so Jack could see it.

"Aw, Mac! C'mon, man!" Jack huffed.

Mac laughed.

Bozer frowned, trying to catch Mac's eye in the mirror. "Uh, Roomie, why's he yelling at you about people robbing our supplies?"

Mac met Bozer's eye, then looked back at the road. ""Because nobody robbed us. I unpacked the coolers, Boze."

Jack sighed again. "Probably the packs, too, huh?"

Mac tossed him a grin. "You know it, pal."

"Why!?" Bozer demanded.

"Because he's got a sadistic streak," Jack groused, but Mac could hear his partner's amusement.

"Because," Mac said firmly. "Packed coolers are for camping trips. This is wilderness survival training."

"Which he takes insanely serious. Emphasis on the insane part," Jack teased.

Mac laughed. "Says the guy who jumps out of planes recreationally." Mac glanced at Riley who just looked game for whatever he threw at them. "It's not supposed to be fun anyway."

"But it's fun for you. I can tell by the look in your eye," Riley observed.

Mac shrugged. "Usually, yeah. I don't mind roughing it. Which is what we'll be doing."

"And roughing it means no water?" Bozer asked, sounding less enthusiastic by the second.

Mac nodded. "No water, no food, no tents, and no cell phones, certainly," he said pointedly since Bozer's face had been glued to his screen since Oregon at least.

"Here comes the speech about Mother Nature providing everything we need," Jack laughed.

Mac rolled his eyes, making sure Jack saw him in the mirror. But that didn't stop the predicted speech one bit. "Just us and the Great Outdoors," he grinned. "Anything we need we're gonna have to find it or make it."

"So this outdoor survival stuff is right up your alley because it's all about improvising," Riley smiled.

"Kinda," Mac agreed. "And it's important. That's why Matty tasked me with bringing you guys out here. Immersive training is the best way for you to really remember what you've learned. And every agent finds themselves in a survival situation at some point. When it's you out there I want to know I did my part to get you home alive."

"How come the old man gets to come too? I know he knows all about this stuff from too many crappy camping trips when I was a kid," Riley said, throwing Jack a teasing smirk and an eye roll.

"Gets to?" Jack laughed. "You mean has to! I didn't volunteer for this little field trip. I know what our boy here is capable of. Sadistic streak, just like I said."

Mac was grinning a little at the idea of Jack dragging a young Riley and Diane out into the woods on a weekend. "Liar," he chuckled. "Don't let him fool you guys. When Matty asked if I was up for this Jack turned down a pretty cushy security detail for the very attractive daughter of an ambassador that Oversight wanted to send him on just so he could tag along."

"Aw, Jack, that's kind of sweet, you wanting to come out here and protect us," Riley said with a fond smile.

"Yeah, it is," Bozer agreed.

"You wish," Mac laughed. "He wants to see you suffer. Had Tactical taking bets about which one of you would fold and beg for a rescue airlift out of there first."

"Hey!" Jack said, kicking the back of Mac's seat lightly. "It ruins the odds if they know!"

He and Mac cracked up together nonetheless. "Sorry, pal. Wouldn't want to eat into your winnings. I know the Vegas fund is important to you."

"Well, that's just with an eye to retirement, kid. And you and I both know keeping your skinny ass alive is too much of a 24/7 occupation for me to be thinkin' too hard about that just yet."

Mac's eyes flicked to Jack's and he grinned. "Make it up to you with the usual wager?"

"Fifty?"

"Oh, let's make it interesting … A full bill?"

"Each?"

"Greedy bastard," Mac sniffed. "Alright, why not?"

"You two aren't betting on which one of doesn't survive this weekend are you?"

"You're gonna survive," Mac assured him. "You're probably not gonna like it much though," he added with a snicker. Boze had never been one to show much interest in his more outdoorsy adventures, either when they were kids or on weekends once they'd both moved to LA.

"I'm guessing that means no s'mores by the campfire later, huh?"

"Not unless you find yourself a marshmallow tree out there, Boze," Jack said, grinning.

"Is that a thing?" he asked hopefully.

Riley flipped through the guidebook Mac had assigned them both to read. "Says here there's a marshmallow root but … it doesn't sound all that tasty."

"It also doesn't grow in the mountains of Washington," Mac laughed. "But, in addition to its medicinal uses marshmallow root used to be used in candy …"

"Don't!" Jack interrupted. "Don't you start ruining candy. And you two, don't encourage him."

"Encourage me?"

"You know damn well you're already just dyin' to get yourself some gross root and make candy and make us all eat it and all anybody is gonna want by the time we hike outta here is a big ole steak dinner."

Mac snickered. "Alright, but it's not gross."

"Says you," Jack snorted, knowing full well the sorts of culinary adventures the unsuspecting Phoenix agents sharing this ride were in for.

The rest of the ride mostly consisted of Jack dozing back off, Bozer whining about things that hadn't happened yet and were unlikely to happen ever, and Riley flipping through the book and asking Mac questions to clarify things she didn't understand.

"You seem to have a pretty good handle on this, Ri," Mac observed.

She flashed a sort of shy smile. "Well, like I said … Jack was pretty enthusiastic about camping and all that stuff. He thought getting me away from the city, away from all my tech, would be good for me. You know, keep me outta trouble."

"Did it?"

Riley snorted laughter. "Not by half. I used to disassemble my phone and put parts in everybody's gear, then reassemble it when we got to the campsite."

Mac started laughing quietly. "What's so funny?"

"Well first of all, twelve year old you thwarted one of the best operatives I've ever met. And second, I did something like that when I got sent to the training academy. Great minds."

"You snuck your phone to spy school?"

"No, I snuck a burner phone to spy school. Turned out it was a good thing, too."

"Do I get to hear the rest of that story?"

Mac turned on his blinker and pulled into a dusty parking lot out in front of a defunct looking general store. He slid the Jeep into park and tipped her a grin. "Pass this course and I'll tell you the whole thing on the ride back." He paused, suddenly tense. "I wonder if this place is even open … I'd like to park the Jeep here."

He climbed out and the others followed. He and Jack exchanged a look that both Bozer and Riley caught. Jack sighed. "Only one way to find out, kid."

"Um, Mac, where are we?" Bozer asked. "Cuz it looks like the kind of place where serial killers get their start."

"It's fine, Boze. You can grab one last pre-packaged sugar fix to make up for the s'mores you're not gonna get later and I'll just check with the owner and see if I can park the Jeep here over the weekend."

"Owner? What owner? It doesn't look like anyone's been here in years."

Mac and Jack glanced at each other again. Jack called out, "Hello! Anybody home?"

As they walked slowly, somewhat hesitantly across the parking lot, a huge hairy beast of a man lumbered out onto the porch carrying a banjo.

"Um … Mac …" Riley stammered.

"He's got a banjo," Jack said flatly.

"I've seen this movie!" Bozer squeaked. "I know how it ends! I die first!"

Riley couldn't disagree with his almost panic. "We need to get out of here."

"He can hear you," Mac pointed out. "Hi there … ahem … Sir," he called out somewhat nervously.

The man stroked the strings of the banjo. "You folks ain't from around here."

Bozer was mumbling about dueling banjos under his breath and Jack elbowed him quiet.

"No, sir," Mac said with another tentative step forward. "My friends and I are from Los Angeles. We're up here for the weekend. We're planning to hike out in Walker Gorge."

Riley hissed a warning about sharing their plan with strangers, Bozer has started to mumble about being the red shirt on a Star Trek away mission but was also still inserting phrases about Deliverance, and under his breath, Jack was egging them both on.

Msc took another step toward the steps, offering to pay for the spot, even after the intimidating stranger tried to warn them off the trail. The man rose and took several heavy steps toward them. Mac dropped back a step, and heard all three of his companions do the same behind him.

Silence hung in the air for what felt like a year.

The man on the porch cracked a smile. The others could see Mac's shoulders shaking. Then his infectious laugh bumped out and he started up the steps, pulling the giant bear with the banjo who was now laughing too into a hug.

Jack started laughing and slapped Bozer and Riley on their backs. "Hey Freddy!"

"Hey Jack! Good to see you!" the man called back with a wave as he released Mac.

"How you doing, man?" Mac asked with a huge grin.

"Good! It's good to see you, Mac!"

"Good to see you, too, Freddy."

"Um … Mac?" Bozer started.

"Sorry, guys," he grinned. "This is Freddy. He owns the place."

"You'll have to forgive me," the man smiled warmly. "I've known Mac since he was a kid. Since he started being people up here on his own, we been having a little fun."

"Sure, fun," Riley mumbled.

"So these two a couple more newbies for the meat grinder?" Freddy asked Mac.

"This is Riley and Bozer, Freddy. And yeah, I'm going to take them up into the gorge for the weekend."

"And Jack's getting dragged along for the ride, huh? Didn't you punish him enough last time out?"

"Wait," Bozer interjected. "Jack had to come up here for training with you?"

"Nah, man," Jack said. "We come camping up here sometimes. Just to unplug a little, man. It's nice."

"Bullshit!" Mac coughed into the crook of his arm.

"You're admitting it's not nice up there, Mac? That's not like you," Freddy teased.

"More like I'm i incredible about what I think about it," Jack said, finally reaching the porch to shake Freddy's hand.

"Incredulous," Mac corrected absently. He handed Freddy the keys to his Jeep. "You sure it's not a bother?"

"Never is, Mac," he grinned. "You have fun out there, ya here."

Freddy turned to go back inside and Mac jogged down the steps, followed closely by Jack who was once again struck by how at ease Mac was right now, headed up the side of a mountain for days worth of what anyone else would deem punishment. At ease, but excited too. The kid couldn't wait.

"Alright, wallets, keys, phones, right here guys," he said, extending his hands to take their personal items. "That means you too, Jack."

Jack grinned and shook his head, handing Mac his wallet and keys. "You enjoy this way too much for it to be healthy, kid."

"Phone, too, Dalton," he smirked. "Matty said if you wanted to come you had to play along."

"I don't have it."

Mac frowned. "You came all the way up here without a phone?"

"Yeah … I … uh … I left it a Phoenix."

Mac's frown deepened. "What for?"

Jack's voice dropped, though Mac didn't think he realized it. "I've been getting weird texts from an unknown number. Matty's havin' the tech folks go over it. Figured I wouldn't need it up here anyway, cuz if I didn't just give it up you'd pick my pocket," he chuckled.

It sounded forced as hell and Mac cocked an eyebrow at him, but decided to let it go. "C'mon, you guys, too. I'm gonna go leave this stuff with Freddy. He's got a safe in there I can stash our stuff in."

Riley and Bozer both made an elaborate show of handing over their stuff. Mac ran it inside and Jack got out their backpacks.

Bozer took his and made a face. "Why are these things big enough to lug a body? There's nothing even in them …"

Mac rejoined them then. "There's rain gear, a canteen, and a knife. That's not nothing," he grinned. "Anything else we need, we'll pick up along the way."

Riley looked around. "I'd say goodbye to modern civilization, but I think we left that a while ago."

Jack laughed. "You like givin' that phone up about as much as you did when you were a teenager."

"Payback's a bitch old man. You just wait. Next time you're laid up, I'm gonna hide your Bruce Willis collection."

"Don't be mean to him, Ri," Bozer said earnestly. "He's the one we'll have to grill for answers when Mac just sits back on a log laughing at us."

"Mac wouldn't do that!" Riley defended.

"You didn't go to Scouts with him!"

"Alright, Alright," Mac said, blushing faintly. "Let's not start telling Scout stories."

Freddy had come back out onto the porch after securing Mac's keys and their other belongings. "You guys be safe out there," he called out to them. "Been a little flash flooding up here lately."

That got Mac's attention. "I didn't see that in the weather service reports. Anything coming in I might have missed?"

"Nah. Gonna be a bitch to find a dry place to sleep I bet, but other than that … nothing you don't already know about."

"Sounds good, Freddy," Mac said with a nod of thanks.

Freddy waved and they started across the parking lot toward the trail. Jack called back over his shoulder, "See ya in a couple days!"

"Don't be so sure!" he called back. Bozer and Riley both stopped and turned to look at him. "Not everyone who walks into those woods walks out." The twinkle in his eye belied the maniacal laugh, but neither of the inexperienced mountaineers thought it lessened the impact of the General ominous vibe one bit.

Mac and Jack, on the other hand, were both shaking with silent laughter as they led the way into the woods, laughing harder as the strains of Freddy's banjo followed them.

For a while, Bozer kept up complaining about the bugs, which Mac said he was imagining based on the cool weather, and the mud (which Mac had to concede was actually slowing them down a little), and the steep climb. Soon though, the fact that no one else, even Riley, was joining his complaints, combined with how out of breath he got trying to keep up with Mac, he gave up and focused on not falling behind.

Jack preferred the quiet to Bozer's bitching, but he kept an eye on the younger man. He and Mac did stuff like this for fun, and he knew Ri had at least a little experience roughing it from his days as her almost step-dad, but he'd never met an indoorsy-er guy than Wilt Bozer. And Bozer worked out, sure. You couldn't be an agent at Phoenix and not be in shape. But Jack had noticed Bozer's routine at the company gym was more focused on what he saw in the mirror than what it would help his body accomplish.

Once the silence from the back of the pack had gone on for several hours and all that could be heard was huffing and puffing from that direction, Jack slowed his own pace.

"You doin' alright there, Boze?" he asked, dropping back to the rear of their party to check on him.

"I … uh … 'm … fine," he puffed.

Riley laughed from her position next to Mac where she had tried to stay, continuing her earlier endeavor of getting as much information out of him as she could before he slipped out of instructor mode and into testing mode. "Told you you should start hitting the treadmill more before all this, Bozer! Your guide runs the Hollywood hills every morning for fun!"

Mac slowed down though, then stopped, concerned. "Am I pushing you guys too hard? Be honest. I want this to be a learning experience, not get anyone hurt, okay?"

Riley shrugged. She was still enjoying herself. She hadn't expected to, but she meant what she said about being away from a keyboard. This actually felt good. She could sort of understand why Mac did this all the time. "I'm alright. I mean, I'm tired, but I'm kinda looking forward to being able to sleep even though I know it's gonna be on the ground, so I figure it's probably a good thing."

Jack glanced at Bozer before he answered. "I'm not sayin' I need you to slow down or anything, but I'm also not sayin' I'd hate it."

Bozer's eyes broadcast his gratitude at not being left to be the only one wishing he was home. "I'm with Jack, Mac. I'll follow you right to the peak here even if I drop at the top, but … I'd like to be able to breath. Especially since we don't have much water on us."

Mac nodded, thinking. Bozer needed something to focus on other than the unpleasantness of the journey. In the Army Mac had always sort of liked calling cadences as a way to get his mind off a run or a march. Knowing class time was back on might help Bozer, since he wasn't about to suggest a rousing rendition of The Army Colors or Captain Jack, although he figured he had at least one teammate out here who would be down with it. "So, let's start thinking about our needs," he began.

Riley moved so she could see both his face and their surroundings well, because she recognized his teacher tone immediately. "We're really far out now, so … we need to know where we are," she said, remembering that orienting yourself was one of the most important things in an actual survival situation.

Mac grinned his approval and took them through determining direction and landmarks. He flushed faintly a few times at Jack's grinning approval. Jack was always saying if he ever got tired of the spy game, Mac should be a teacher. When Mac had rolled his eyes at the observation recently, Jack had said, "You just listen to yourself some time when you're trying to explain a thing to me or anybody else for that matter."

At first the observation had irritated him. Turning things into a lesson, using a teacher sort of persona, was something he associated with his f … With Oversight. He really didn't want to remind himself of the man if he could help it. He was trying to be okay with all of that, but his dreams lately, his unease with the work, were clear indicators that all was not well with house Phoenix, not for Mac and Oversight anyway. After he'd sat with it for a bit though, he realized that if he was going to be like James Macgyver at all, being someone who could teach something important just about anywhere, especially if that lesson kept his friends alive, wasn't the worst thing he could have inherited.

The rest and trying to absorb the lesson gave Bozer the wherewithal to start complaining again. This time it was about being hungry. Mac took almost perverse pleasure in introducing them to cattails. He and Jack kept looking at each other, trying not to laugh as Riley and Bozer chewed their way through their first few bites. Later, or maybe tomorrow after they got the feel for what it would be like to survive on truly lean rations and proved themselves capable of applying the tracking lessons he was integrating into the hike, he'd introduce them to the roots, to pine needles for seasoning, to finding eggs to cook them with. He'd discovered you could eat pretty well out here, if you knew what you were doing. But they'd have to earn it.

He and Jack crunched happily away on their own cattails, Mac because he really thought they were pretty good and was also sort of enjoying getting to put his friends through this little exercise, and Jack because he had no less than four Snickers and a couple of bags of beef jerky hidden in his coat for later.

Bozer grumbled some more about the wet cotton taste of the cattails and Mac just laughed. "Survivin' in the woods ain't easy," he said in an almost perfect parody of Jack.

"That's why no one comes out here!" Bozer asserted.

Mac started to laugh, but it morphed into an observation as his brain put together the things he was seeing in the clearing. "Actually, it looks like someone did," he said, picking up a scrap of fabric.

Jack squatted down for a better look at the ground, and picking up a wet cigarette butt with a nose wrinkle of disgust. "And they brought a lot of equipment with 'em," he observed, looking at the scratched up earth around a poorly tended fire pit.

Mac agreed. "But they pretty clearly have no idea how to use any of it." He grinned again. A bunch of amateur campers was a good opportunity to see if his pupils had been paying attention. "So … can you two tell me what mistakes they made." He flashed a grin at Jack. "No helping them, Old Man. I know you already know, so don't show off."

Jack chuckled, but rose to his feet, almost as curious as Mac as to how the others would do.

"They didn't ring their fire with stones." Riley walked around thoughtfully. "And they camped in a valley, which is a no-no with the flash flooding Freddy mentioned."

"Very good," Mac nodded.

"And they left cigarette butts all over, which isn't just a fire hazard that's set this coast on fire more times than we can count, but it violates the Leave No Trace Rule, too."

"Not to mention being extremely rude," Bozer chimed in, feeling the need to contribute something to the conversation.

"What else?" Jack prompted, seeing Mac still looking for more from them.

"Um … Nothing that I can see," RIley hedged, looking around again.

After a minute or two, Mac let them off the hook. "Cotton fibers. They are asking for trouble out here dressed in cotton. Can either of you tell me why?"

"Um … It's not a cold weather fiber?" Riley tried.

"Well, cold enters into it," Mac acknowledged. "But not so much because of the air temperature. You can layer enough of anything to stay warm temporarily. Cotton is death out here because it gets wet and stays wet. That'll lower your core temperature even on a warm day and this time of year puts you at risk for hypothermia the minute you get wet. And given the frequency of the rains here …"

"You never dry out, so you'll just get colder and colder," Riley finished for him, earning an approving smile from Mac and Jack both.

"And that's why we're dressed head to toe in nylon and that wool you keep bitching about, Boze."

"Well, it's itchy!" he defended.

"It's itchy," Jack mocked, laughing.

Mac shook his head. "Alright, you guys. We don't have all that much daylight left to us. Let's get out of this valley and start talking about sheltering for the night."

Jack took his cue from Mac and started back up the trail, patting Riley on the shoulder as she fell into step beside him. "You're a real pioneer woman out here, Ri."

She flashed him an almost shy smile. "I do remember one or two things you taught me, Jack," she said, glancing at him, then away. "I always told you I hated it, but … I kind of looked forward to those camping trips, you know."

Jack's face split into the hundred fine lines one of his big genuine smiles could crack it into. "Me too, kiddo."

She glanced back at Bozer and Mac. Mac was engaged in trying to get Bozer more on board with what they were doing and reviewing what they'd already gone over since he hadn't contributed much. Mac took this very seriously and definitely didn't want to think about Bozer in a situation where he needed these skills and didn't have them. She felt like they were busy enough that she could be a little vulnerable. "I'm glad you could come out here with us, Jack. It's … nice. Reminds me of some good times we had before …" she trailed off, not wanting to bring up something painful.

"Before I chickened out and bailed on you. It's okay, Ri. You can say it."

"I don't want to dwell on that anymore, Jack."

He slung an arm around her shoulders. "You can't get rid of me so easy anymore, Ri." She put an arm around him too, and they walked along like that for a few minutes. Jack's silence grew thoughtful, and he cleared his throat. "Believe me, if I'm ever out of your life again it's because you asked me to be or …"

"I would never ask, Jack."

He smiled at her. "Good. So the only reason would be if I had to be to protect you or …"

"Or anyone in your family," she finished for him, giving him an affectionate squeeze before letting him go.

By the time they got to a suitable campsite, even Mac was leg sore and ready for a break. He and Jack kicked back on some large rocks while Bozer and Riley struggled to build a shelter for a while. Finally, neither of them could stand it anymore and they stepped in for a demonstration of the correct technique. After that the shelter went up quickly and Mac set them to trying to start a fire.

It was getting dark and his two students were getting desperate. They were also giving him the sorts of dirty looks that said they thought he was enjoying this. To be honest, he had been at first, but now his feet were wet, he was tired, too, and he wanted a fire almost desperately. Based on how Jack was massaging his bad wrist, which Mac knew had some arthritis in it even if Jack wasn't ready to admit that, he knew his partner was ready to warm up, too. Time to offer a little wisdom that would both instruct these guys and get all of them warm sometime before they actually needed to be airlifted out of here like he'd joked about with them earlier.

"I once spent two full days trying to start a fire. I'm not kidding. 48 hours straight, two sunsets.
But it was all soaked. I was convinced I was gonna freeze to death."

Jack frowned at him. "You've never told me that story."

"Was that during Phoenix survival training?" Riley asked, trying another frustrated strike of her flint and steel.

"Uh, no, this was a camping trip with my grandfather. He used to take me out here a lot after my mom died. He always used to say, all you need to survive the wilderness is what's up here and what's out there."

Riley and Bozer both looked ready to throw in the towel on this whole training mission. Mac took pity on them, not to mention Jack who looked on the verge of chattering teeth, and showed them fireweed. It was handy stuff to know about.

Once the fire was blazing, and imminent death by urushiol inhalation, they were more comfortable. Although, Mac was wishing he'd made them do a written test before coming out here, because he might have told Bozer he needed to study more before being included. Him almost burning poison oak when he was twelve and still learning was one thing. Bozer doing it, after weeks of supposedly studying the assigned reading was something else. He was a little worried Bozer might not pass this course.

Oh, well, nothing for it but to keep moving forward with the lesson plan.

If he failed, Mac would just take Bozer out closer to home for a few weekend camping trips and bring him along more slowly. Mac unlaced his boots and took off his socks to dry them. Riley and Bozer looked at him like he was crazy, but Jack clamped his current cattail between his teeth and started doing the same thing. "Good idea, man."

"Are you out of your mind?" Riley asked.

"Wet feet are bad news," Mac began.

"Ask any soldier," Jack threw in. "You gotta take care of your feet."

"Because of hypothermia?" Bozer asked, trying harder to remember what he'd read over the last couple of weeks. Riley was kicking his ass as far as being good at this went, and he could sense Mac was a little frustrated with him, though his friend was doing an admirable job concealing it.

"Well, it can be a contributing factor, Boze," Mac said with a nod, acknowledging the effort. "But mostly … How did we get here?"

"Um … hiking … Oh, you mean like … On foot," Bozer said, grinning when he saw Mac's expression melt into one of clear approval.

"And how are we gonna get out?"

"On foot," Bozer said with more confidence than he'd had previously.

"Exactly. So we want to minimize the chance of blisters, scrapes that could lead to infection, all that sort of thing."

"Not to mention the pain those things cause," Jack added. "Sore feet slow you down. And if you're out on your own, on the run, or chasing somebody … Which, let's face it, is what you're out here training for …"

"We don't want anything to get in the way of us being on someone's tail, or us getting away," Bozer finished.

"Welcome to the class," Riley teased lightly.

Mac started to arrange his pack into a pillow and position himself for maximum exposure to the radiant heat of the fire. The others weren't ready for sleep yet, but Mac had plans to be up before them to set the challenge for the following day. From his position on his side, he said, "Go ahead and let them have a bite, Jack. I'll pretend it never happened," with a grin.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mac," Jack said, almost sheepishly.

"Sure, you don't partner," Mac chuckled, but didn't bother opening his eyes. "There's not like ten granola bars hidden in your inside pockets right now, of course."

Mac grinned broadly when Jack whispered, "They're Snickers bars and I only brought four," to the others.

As long as Jack packed out the trash, Mac wasn't about to begrudge any of them something that felt like a reward after the long day they'd put in. He dozed off listening to their pleasant chatter, Jack offering some words of wisdom along with nibbles of chocolate and the others asking him questions it had felt too dumb to ask Mac along the trail.

As the darkness grew more complete, one by one, Jack, Riley, then Bozer all curled up in their own spots under their shelter, and fell into the deep sleep only an exhausting day in the mountain air seemed able to bring on.

None of them smelled the faint tinge of tobacco that wafted over their campsite from time to time. Nor did they feel the watchful, malevolent eyes on them. But both of those things were there, hints of the danger to come.