60 The Anabasis

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"So, Grace, you still in hot water over my inviting myself on your camping trip?"

"Yeah. Freddie was ticked, but he'll get over it."

Grace watched her trying on a third pair of hiking boots. She was so small, maybe Grace outweighed her by 20 pounds and was 5 or 6 inches taller. She didn't look like…she wasn't sure what she looked like…a high school girl. George seemed more concerned with the boots' color than whether they fit well. That concerned her. Rube was pretty clear with Grace that George needed to get out and do a practice day hike, or two, or maybe three, and Grace had tried to get George to go on a short day hike or three, but she was always too busy. So here they were picking up boots, a sleeping bag, and a hat, plus socks, and the backpack, and maybe a tent, and a groundcloth, food plus a dozen other items all on Grace's list the day before they were to leave. George was not taking this seriously. George had cash to throw around and bought anything Grace's eyes settled on, but the prospect of two weeks out backpacking in a wilderness area did not faze her in the least.

"So again who are these people? And do I need to be nice and like know their names and all? You know I will never meet them again."

It took her a second to get that last twist. "Ahh, maybe not. These are the seniors for this coming year for an important club."

"And you fit in how?"

"I've graduated so I and one other graduated ex-classmate were selected to lead this year's outing. We do this every year for the incoming senior class members. I went last year as a senior and it was great."

"These are people intending to go into law enforcement…right?"

"Yes…"

"Mostly guys?"

"Yes. There'll be 10 seniors - two will be girls."

"And how did you explain my presence?"

"Ahh…I told them you were my distant cousin that showed up unexpectedly and I have to take you with me. Ahh, George. We will need this first aid kit too."

George looked up from pulling on her boot. "I don't think so."

"Rube said you would be fitted in" - odd way to say it - "but he told me to make sure…"

"Rube can blow me." She pushed her foot into the boot and stood. It obviously was not fitting all that well at all, way too tight. "How does this look?"

"George. How does it feel? You don't want to get blisters."

"It's maybe too tight." She pulled it off and reached for the next box. "This one looks good."

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That night at George's house Grace removed everything from its packaging and laid everything out on the floor. Mason stood in the doorway watching. John sat in a chair resting. Grace went over what each item was for and how it was best placed in her pack. It was getting late so they packed all her brand new shiny new never used stuff into the backpack and George tried lifting it. "Jesus." She put it back down. "How far is the campground going to be? This thing weighs a ton."

John, not so long out of the hospital and on leave recuperating, sat and watched the proceedings from an easy chair. "Grace, isn't this a hike like last year's?"

"Yes." Grace turned to George. "We're going into a wilderness area. There's no campground."

"No campground? How will we take showers?"

John smiled, got up slowly, and carefully made his way out. Grace watched him leave. He and Rube shared some traits. She could tell from that borderline friendly type smirk he was suppressing a thought and that he had decided discretion and retreat were better than disclosure. She turned her attention back to her charge. "George, there won't be showers. We'll wash off in streams and pools - pools formed by rocks, and there will be lakes. We'll be roughing it. You'll love it. George, why is this so heavy for you?"

"I can move souls and last time I checked none of this shit had a soul. Maybe I could ghost some of this stuff."

Mason listening from the doorway asked, "Georgie girl, didn't Rube say you couldn't cheat?"

"Rube can blow me." George frowned looking up at Mason, whose shit face grin reminded Grace of Goofy a bit. He knew Georgie girl well.

Daisy popped her head up from behind Mason's shoulder. "Rube will not be there in the woods with you, Sweetie, but he will be dropping by here soon."

Grace was seeing a pattern. "George, why don't you double check your list, or try on your new boots? I'll be right back." She went looking for John.

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The next day early morning at the rendezvous point Mason driving George's SUV - soon to be her ex-SUV - pulled into the wilderness access parking lot and, as far away from a cluster of people as he could get, stopped the SUV. Grace could see several of her people were already there. She got out and waved, and could feel their eyes from across the parking lot no doubt wondering who all these people with her were. Word about her bringing George, or Millie - she had to keep reminding herself it was Millie, Millie, had gotten around - not a popular thing to do. She could see that Gary had brought his damn dog - also not popular. Didn't quite balance things out but every little bit helped.

This place had a small campground for car campers, and a ranger, at least some of the time. For most hikers it was a place to park vehicles until they returned, but for them this would only be their jumping off point. They would be ending their trip several miles from here, where their rides were to return for them. Rube had explained, last night in their final meeting, what she needed to know, what she and George needed to know. John told her afterward that Rube's wording concealed a lot like not mentioning what she might want to know as opposed to what some higher power decided she needed to know. She and George towards the end of their two week vacation in paradise were going to hike to Trip's vacation house which was edging a different boundary of the wilderness area. Most people didn't hike over that way because it bordered private property, Trip's private property, and couldn't be used to park cars or for access into the wilderness. On the way there, very near Trip's house, George would be dying somehow. George took it all well - even seemed happy about it. John explained that it probably meant she could stay in Seattle. Her old identity needed to be extinguished and she would get a new one. Rube didn't know how she would die, and George didn't seem overly curious about it so Grace tried to leave it alone. Still Grace was feeling uneasy about the whole dying thing particularly since she was going to be with George and very close by when this happened, so she kinda felt like she did have a need to know more details. Was it a coincidence that Trip and several others were planning to be up at his vacation house within a couple hundred yards of the exact place George was to die? It was great to know that just George had an appointment, but still… John suspected, as did Rube and the other reapers, that the people trying to kill them would make their attempt on the rest of them at the same time and place, and they were way too comfortable with this idea.

John stood by and watched as Grace and Mason unloaded their stuff from the back. For having almost died he was recovering super fast, but he still was taking it easy. This little trip was the farthest from the house since he was released from the hospital. Grace checked her list. She had to make sure that all their stuff was out of the SUV. George was not really helpful. Grace took the lead and had tried to put everything inside each pack or in the trunk. There were a few things, the hats, she needed to make sure were with them. Mason moved off to the side out of the way to stand with John while she went over her list. Mason was there to drive and guard John and Tommy. Tommy had come too, along with Mabel. He was excited and wanted to go along on the hike if just for the start. At least he would be well away from George's appointment. Ray was hovering talking to Tommy filling his head about outdoors stuff. When Ray was alive he also liked to rough it outside, he had been in some sort of elite military unit. Once everything was out of the trunk they said their goodbyes and Mason and the rest drove off leaving just Grace and George with their packs. George struggled to get her backpack up and they walked over to the small group already gathering loosely around a big board map marking the main trailhead. The board map was there mostly for day hikers showing with big icons possible loop hikes, but it did have farther points of interest. Grace had wanted to get here early since she would be leading, but herding the crowd this morning proved daunting and plus she wasn't driving.

Her partner leading this expedition was a former classmate named Freddie. She couldn't see him anywhere. They had talked about the proposed routes several times and agreed on an itinerary which included several of the old places they had visited in prior years and a few new possibilities. They were flexible and wanted to keep options open for the unexpected that was sure to come their way. The only two absolutely fixed points were the start and the end. Freddie drove up with four people in his car and parked next to the trailhead. One of those four would meet to pick them up with the car in two weeks at another location. She introduced her cousin Millie around. Somehow…BZ and Gary seemed to know something of George already and George recognized them. The little flaw in her cover story is that George, or Millie actually, had recently already registered as a student so the 'unexpectedly showed up' reason she threw out there was kinda already obviously a lame excuse to bring in an outsider. The others all knew each other from classes over the last three years and from other hikes. This capstone hike was to be their last chance before their final year. They did not know Millie and only the fact she was female, Grace suspected, scored a few points in her favor, but only with a few of the guys. Whether that netted favorably overall given Millie was not a hit at all with the two others sharing her gender. Those two refused to talk to her and were noticeably cool towards Grace too.

George had moved unnoticed by the main cluster of future law enforcement candidates and she stood in front of the board map where she seemed to be studying the various trails. George had a grasp of maps far beyond the average - she had seen her in action reaping and she was busy absorbing the details of this map. Rube had gone over a much better map with her a few days ago. Grace wasn't sure about that. It made her nervous. Reapers thought nothing of not sharing information with the living. She shrugged inwardly and called everyone over to the big map. George gave way moving over to the side out of the line of sight of the group. Freddie and Grace wanted to confirm with the group their first destination camp site. They stood on either side of the board map since it was handy and easy to see for everyone. It would be an easy 10.7 mile hike in total with modest net changes in elevation. There was a detour included - a quick jump over a side mountain - to drop in on a popular waterfall and big natural pool, where they would have a late lunch, and get back to the original trail in time to arrive at their destination by nightfall. George frowned. Grace raised an eyebrow, did she have a question, but George shook her head.

The group gathered their packs and by twos and threes headed out on the trail. George was hanging back still frowning. Grace with her pack on walked up beside her. George said, "Eleven f*cking miles?"

"It's 10.7."

George looked her way. After a lingering pause, she said, "What if I don't take that little detour? Then what would it be?"

Grace pondered that. It hadn't occurred to her not stay with the group. "Well, George. It would be more like six miles."

George got her pack up and wobbled almost falling over. She lurched again and this time Grace helped guide her pack into place. She held it while George buckled it up. She looked unstable, uncomfortable. George took the lead and started walking down the trail. Already the others were distant voices. "Grace. Why don't you go with your club and I will just keep walking straight…you know at that turn off you showed us?"

That didn't seem like a good idea. "I think we should stick together." She let George walk ahead of her. Obviously George was new to all this and she could get lost or whatever.

George seemed to read her mind. "Look, Grace, nothing really bad will happen to me. At least not for…what? Just about two weeks. Right? I'm OK." She smiled. "You should worry the least about me, you know, in this little flock. Think about it."

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Grace filled both canteens from the spring and headed back to her tent, or their tent. She had nixed the idea of George carrying her own tent and left it back at the house once she had seen how overloaded she was. They were sharing, as were most of the others, two people to one tent. By mid afternoon Grace also had taken to carrying most of the food, too. If she hadn't George would be prostrate somewhere miles back along the trail, probably near death or whatever approximated that for one of her kind. Well, now she knew George's kryptonite. She had placed their tent far enough away from the others to keep their conversations private without being too obvious about it. The others, all the others, had passed them on the way here even though they had all taken the detour, gone over the other mountain, had lunch, a swim, and then climbed back over that mountain to overtake and pass them on the trail. George's feet it turned out blistered easily. And she had several really raw open wounds. Most people, most living people that is, would have realized long before the need to do something, or in this case stop doing something, pain being a great motivator for most people, but George didn't seem to appreciate what was happening to her feet and ignored the warnings, so by the time the blood started to flow it was too late. She unzipped the door flap and crawled inside. "George, I've got some water." George didn't respond. She really wondered if maybe they had this all wrong. Maybe her death in two weeks… "George." Still no response. "George."

"What God damn it? I'm in a lot of pain here. Jesus Christ. I'm hurting all over, but especially my feet, and then my legs, and my back too, and…"

"Sorry." Grace, head down in the tight tent space, crawled up onto her sleeping bag and put George's water bottle next to her head. "Maybe. Just maybe. Think positive. You could be going to die of some lingering painful infection over the next 13 days instead of being shot or knifed or whatever."

George's head lifted and she studied Grace's face. Grace had no idea what she was thinking. George plopped her head back down.

"Think about it. You and your team always deal with violent deaths, right? So that's what you guys are kind of conditioned to expect, so now the idea of dying from something on the less violent side doesn't occur to you." She thought it better, maybe in some ways, than dying by getting shot or knifed or whatever, but then again she wasn't the one who would contract the infection that would kill her towards the end of the next two weeks.

"Grace. How far are we from Trip's vacation cabin?"

"Ahh, I don't think it's a cabin. I hear it's a mansion." She picked up the map. They still had enough light. She spread it out. There would be some crisscrossing of paths but if they followed the planned itinerary…let's see… "I would think it's about maybe 20 - 25 miles."

"It can't be that far away. I saw it on that map at the trail head."

"Well, yeah that's true but we're not staying more than one night in any one place. We will cross trails sometimes but we will do a big zig zag in a big near loop and so in about 2 weeks we will be about 20 or 25 miles away."

"What? Why? You can't be serious. We're going to march from one lake campsite to another and then another for two weeks?"

"Of course. Well, we plan to stop next week for a few days at a real neat little known place up a rocky basin, but usually we will change locations every day and eventually cover a little over 130 miles. If…if we stick with our original itinerary."

"What about that little valley Rube mentioned? We need to stop by there…sometime on this vacation through paradise."

Grace had marked it when Rube pointed it out to her at their final meeting - the night before they started. "Here it is. It's not currently on our itinerary…so right now I don't see how it will happen…but."

"Grace. Grace. You should not throw out these challenges."

"What challenges?" John would talk like that too. "We'll work it in somehow. I just don't see how right now. That's all. Anyway…tomorrow's campsite…"

George propped herself up on one arm and interrupted her, "We're marching tomorrow?"

Something John would do particularly when he was being, in her opinion, a know it all and condescending… "Hiking. Of course, we're hiking tomorrow."

"How far?"

"Well, if we stick to the current plan…15 miles."

Grace could see George's eyes widen. "Let me see your first aid kit."

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The next night George and Grace set up a camp site with BZ, Gary, and Gary's damn dog, a beagle mix named Bouncer. The rest of their group went on ahead to the originally planned camp site because George, or her feet, couldn't do the planned 15 miles, and because Bouncer was limping, or BZ said she was. Grace couldn't see any problem with the dog's foot, but whatever. Bouncer was of limited talents but one skill she possessed was the ability to bark on command, when Gary made a speaking motion with his hand flapping his fingers open and closed repeatedly. It was entertaining…the first time, and her barking was guaranteed to scare the crap out of any chihuahua sized dog or cat, but the inventory of tricks ran to empty after Bouncer demonstrated her barking trick. On the positive side, for a beagle out in the wilderness, Bouncer was well behaved and stayed close by to Gary. Grace once camped with someone who brought a dog out here. The dog took off chasing something and their group spent most of a day looking for the damn dog. She told Gary that if he brought his dog and she took off that Grace would not participate in any rescue missions. She could become cougar food. Bouncer kept her distance from Grace and close to Gary. It worked for Grace.

The group having to split was disappointing at first but she felt better about it now and it would work out. The main group would loop back around and meet them at a camp site just a few miles from here tomorrow night. This particular spot was a mile up a little used dead end trail along a modest creek not on most maps. Grace had come by here a few years ago exploring with some old little remembered and even less mourned former boyfriend when they were looking for isolated. This was it.

Upstream from this spot, the creek came down steeply from the mountain. The stream itself was small, she could jump it easily, and there were only few bathtub size pools upstream from the camp before the trail ended and a hiker had to clamber over large rocks. This camp site was bounded on three sides by a big wide loop the tiny stream formed. On the inside of the loop was an open area, the size of half a basketball court, bounded by several large trees. Inside this flat area they pitched tents and made a small fire in a well used pit enclosed by a ring of small rocks probably first placed here many decades prior. The other side of the stream was a rocky cliff. On the remaining fourth boundary marking their campsite was the base of a mountain, itself mostly invisible for all the trees and bushes that covered its broad dry leaf covered slope which came down at a 35 to 40 degree grade to meet this flat camping space. They were very much alone here. The only way in or out was by the trail they took along the creek.

At first Grace was a bit peeved with George's totally foreseeable and preventable sore feet problem which prevented her and them from keeping up with the group, the group she was supposed to be leading. But now…away from the crowd she was glad they had this excuse to take their time. This short hike back up to this little used camp site, and Bouncer's alleged sore foot was OK too because it made for this cozy smaller group. Grace appreciated being chosen to lead the club's annual outing, but last year's group got to be too much. She didn't choose to take 12 people out here and if it were up to her the group would be smaller or broken up into smaller groups hiking independently coming together for a few nights only, but…

The late afternoon sky was clear. The four of them plus Bouncer had gathered around the fire pit. They already had a bigger than necessary fire going. Elmer, the guy enforcing all rules, real and imagined, was with the others, where no doubt he was making sure that no more carbon than absolutely necessary was being released from dead wood prisons. There was plenty of wood within reach here and plenty of carbon was finding its way back into the atmosphere.

On one side of the fire was a large log from a tree fallen decades before. The sides were worn smooth from people sitting on it. It was close to the fire so it was a convenient bench for sitting and placing food and utensils. There were also three large rocks within warm range of the fire.

As twilight settled in she could already see some of the brightest stars through the gap between the branches overhead. There would be an explosion of stars soon.

For dinner Gary opened an actual can of soup he lugged in and shared around. They all pooled their portions of bread and cheese which they lined up on the log. Gary gave Bouncer her food from her own pack. Grace and BZ both had small pocket knives they passed around to take chunks off the bread and cut cheese with. To top dinner off BZ made a show of pulling out a small carton of wine from deep within his pack. She had a few heavies like that herself that would get consumed before long and would make each day's pack progressively lighter. It was a trade off - the weight vs the heightened pleasure with each passing day as the value of the heavy treasure increased.

George was the first to give in. "Grace, guys…and Bouncer…I'm turning in."

Grace asked, "Millie, you want something for your feet?"

"I'm OK. I really need to sleep more than anything right now."

She limped to their tent. After she was inside, they resumed talking keeping their voices low. Gary left for wood, his turn. Their tent was only twenty feet away from the stream. Grace liked to pitch close by moving water because the white noise from the creek flow helped her to sleep. Gary came back from a wood retrieval mission and dropped an armload of branches near the fire. He added three chunks to the fire and built it up.

Gary asked, "Grace, how did your cousin Millie decide to come register at school here?"

She studied his face. Her first story was obviously bullshit and both BZ and Gary knew it. Fortunately, they hadn't made a big deal of it in front of the group and so far it hadn't become a topic of open conversation - at least in front of her, but that might change. This was opportunity for some preemptive damage control. "Well. She's actually an ex-girlfriend of my brother, John. And he asked me to bring her out here." That had enough truth in it to ring true and was a defensible fall back position.

BZ said, "We saw her pull up in a faculty parking lot when she first arrived at school. She got a ticket. Drove that huge SUV."

"The big black one, right?"

"Yeah. Big and black. The same one we saw at the trail head." He seemed to consider his words. "She seems older than she looks."

Grace didn't like this talking about George. She was not so good at lying and there were too many ways this could come back. "Why were you taking summer classes?"

Gary said, "If we want to graduate on time we had to get a few courses in cause we couldn't get into them for our senior year."

"You have priority?"

"Yeah, for most, but…"

Bouncer's ears hitched up and she sat up looking out into the last of the twilight.

Gary stood and moved to where he could see between the two closest trees and a small bush. "Hello?" He took a step farther away from the fire.

She got up as did BZ and they looked out in that direction. A woman was just standing not 10 or 12 feet away. Her hair down, clothes a bit roughed up and dirty, maybe in her late 20's or early 30's, just watching them unblinking listening. Grace said to the woman, "Ahh, you OK lady?"

Gary said again, "Lady?" He took a step closer towards her.

She could hear them for sure and they for sure could hear her, if she spoke, which she did not. She started to move back. She didn't turn around and walk away. No, no she just moved back and away, to Grace it looked like she floated backwards and away, slowly, and all the while her eyes never left them and never blinked. They all watched as the woman within a few seconds was lost in the gathering dark and shadows among the trees and bushes.

Gary turned to BZ wide eyed and asked, "Who…or what the fuck was that?"

BZ said nothing but glanced from Gary to her and back to Gary. His eyes were wide open too.

Grace had no idea who but a pretty good idea what the lady was. One day when Mary and Grace were showing Daisy their family secret on how to make rolls with a sweet frosting, Daisy gossiping had told them about an incident at the reaper house when George had taken a nap during the day and her ability to alter perceptions of that in-between place over distance had gotten loose making ghosts become visible to the living, in particular visible to Mabel. A zombie ghost came into the yard guided by Tommy, who knew about such things, along with Lin. They had taken it by what was left of the hands and brought it close to the house so one of the reapers could help it cross over. And here, apparently, they were not alone in these woods. Maybe this ghost came close to hear what they had to say. It or she realized they could see her and had decided to exit. That worked just fine for Grace. But a thought occurred to her. If that ghost…she remembered John, without a reaper nearby and visible, could get swamped by ghosts when they realized he could see and talk to them. If she…Grace wondered how many ghosts there might be out here. The discomforting thought occurred to her that this particular ghost, not understanding what was happening, could go recruit a shitload more of her kind who might come their way…in numbers. What if…what if there were an old cemetery…a lost cemetery from way back…and little miss unblinking brought her friends, all of them. Well…if George were awake it wouldn't matter. They wouldn't even know and likely when they caught sight of George they wouldn't dare come close, but…if George were asleep, then things could get really uncomfortable very quickly. None of this could she explain. She decided to play dumb. "I didn't see anything."

Gary wasn't having that. "Grace, come on. You didn't see that? You asked her a question."

BZ said, "Ahh, yeah, Grace. We didn't see it first, Bouncer did. She still senses it or something out there. Look at her."

Yep. Bouncer was looking around ears all perky. She did a doggy groan. Gary put his hand on her head. "It's OK, girl."

Maybe Bouncer knew her master lied, or maybe she knew her master was, compared to her doggy super senses, effectively unable to smell or hear shit, because she wasn't reassured. She looked up into Gary's eyes and then back out in the direction of that ghost or out where she had last been visible. She moved up against Gary's leg and leaned into him. They all sat back down. Grace with some effort focused back on the fire. Part of her wanted to get them all focused on the fire, but another part was afraid the woman wasn't gone, or worse would come back with others, many others. That fear kept creeping back into her mind and wouldn't let go. Gary got up and put some more wood on the fire. Both Gary and BZ kept checking out where the ghost had been. Grace checked the location of her tent. It seemed farther from the fire than she would have preferred given this new fact. At least, she was pretty sure that ghosts would not come into the tent. At worst they would peak inside and see George and stay away. Yeah, and for these two guys it wouldn't matter anyway. Maybe the woman would just stay away altogether now. Please. The supernatural seemed altogether too close. George wasn't here a gateway as John once suggested to her she could be, but here she was just an unintentional leak, an unwelcome leak that brought the supernatural side of things too close to Grace's reality, too close to where it and they weren't supposed to be seen at all.

An uncomfortable silence stretched for what Grace felt to be an hour, but she knew was more like a minute. Nothing more appeared and Bouncer stopped fidgeting. Both BZ and Gary seemed to calm down, too.

Gary asked, his face focused the fire, "Do you believe…you know…in ghosts?"

BZ said, "Well…we've got two choices."

She turned towards him. She sure didn't know what the two choices were and was curious. So was Gary. Bouncer didn't care and didn't look up. She groaned again, but Grace was sure it had nothing to do with their talk.

He continued, "If you don't believe in ghosts…then there is a woman just…over there…somewhere back there who is obviously in trouble…and if that's the case we need to do the right thing, which…would be to get up and go out there…" He waved back towards where they had last seen the woman. "And help her." He paused. "And, then, on the other hand, if you believe in ghosts, then in that case…well, the smart thing to do is to sit right here and do nothing." He looked at each in turn. "I, for one, am not going to do the stupid thing, like they do in those…movies." Grace was sure he wanted to say 'horror movies' but chose not to. "And get up, or better, we all stand, split up, and go wandering in the dark looking for the source of that apparition." He paused. "I believe, truly, firmly, and with all the faith I can muster, believe that as long as we stay right here next to this fire, no evil can touch us." He reached over to the pile of sticks and put a few more on the fire. He paused, got up and retrieved the biggest of the remaining wood and placed that carefully in the middle of their fire.

Even Bouncer watching him talk seemed to understand - at least the part about not wandering around in the dark, out there. Bouncer looked back out there and put her head down on her paws. She knew better and she hadn't seen any stupid movies.

Nobody made a move to get up. BZ said, "Well then, Gary, your question is answered." He let that sink in and then asked, "OK, so next question is can you hold it all night?"

Gary wasn't done. Once on that deep philosophical groove he wasn't easily deflected. He threw out for consideration another question. "So, then, after we die we end up wandering around…doing what I wonder?"

Grace was not comfortable talking about this stuff. John had warned her repeatedly as had Rube, especially Rube, about accidentally saying something that some power took offense to and acted upon. For her, knowledge of ghosts, however incomplete, was not theory. She had absolute first hand knowledge about the issue. And matter of fact she had a sort of ex-ghost sharing her tent asleep just a few feet away. She decided discretion was in order and said nothing. The night time dark had settled in. Above them the stars formed a bright stream across the night sky. In a way the dark was good because they couldn't see any ghosts…unless they came right up to within range of the fire. Please, that would really freak her out and she knew what was going on. It would seriously freak out these two.

While she worried about new visible things disturbing her, someone, or something playing with her or them decided to approach from the hearing side of possibilities. A shrieking began, very loud and altogether too close. She looked up toward the mountain side. It came from the higher elevations, much higher of the mountain that began just a few feet away. They could see nothing beyond what light from the stars and the fire let them see which extended less than a child's stone throw to several bushes at the base. Gary and BZ both went wide eyed as they focused their attention up the mountain on this new challenge. They all pulled from their pockets their flashlights meager as they were. The shrieking was in a distinct pattern. Three calls, a pause, then three more, pause, repeat. And it was moving. Thank God it wasn't coming this way. It was moving…fast…across the mountain side way up high across from one side to the other as the shrieking pattern repeated allowing them to track its movement with uncomfortable precision.

Gary finally said in a loud whisper, "What the fuck is that?"

Bouncer wondered too. She leaned into Gary and looked up and then back to him and back up the mountain. Grace stood up. So did Gary and BZ.

BZ said, "That is fucking loud. And it's big. It has to be big to be moving that fast."

Grace said, "I've never heard anything like that before." She added, "What could it be?"

The night was quiet except for the shrieking. They jumped when they heard a tree branch fall and hit the ground off to their right. They all turned that way. Grace turned back up the mountain and listened closely.

BZ said, "It sounds…like somebody is strangling a cat, a big one."

"It sounds to me like a baby crying, a human baby, and a cat screeching somehow mixed together." Gary considered and continued, "With a terrified woman thrown in for good measure."

Ahh shit. Ahh shit. They all turned back to look into the woods where they had seen the ghost. It was too dark to see far at all. Grace asked what they were all wondering, "Could it be that ghost?" It could very well be that ghost as far as her incomplete knowledge of ghosts went. Maybe George was allowing them to hear something that only existed, usually, in that supernatural realm they couldn't normally perceive. When ghosts haunted houses, didn't they shriek, scaring the crap out of people. If she heard this in a house, she would run, not walk, out the door and not come back. Fuck the mortgage, rent or for that matter boyfriend, husband, kids, clothes, even her shoes would not be worth coming back for.

Then from her tent George yelled, "Would you guys shut the fuck up? Jesus Christ. I'm trying to sleep over here."

Ahh shit. They all paused. At George's voice, for a little woman she could be loud, the shrieking in fact paused too. Grace had time for relief to go through her. It was George doing something while asleep to mess with and let them sense something from that in-between place, that place that can't really touch them. This would make a funny story for John and the… It started up again. Shit…Shit…Fuck… The fucking shrieking started up and continued in that same monotonous pattern, and it still was moving back and forth way up there on the mountain. And George was awake now.

BZ said, "Oh fuck me. We are so fucked."

Gary said, "What? Why?"

"Listen." They couldn't help but listen. BZ said, "It's getting closer with each sweep from side to side."

He was right. Fuck if he wasn't right. The god damn shrieking whatever it was, in fact, was getting closer. It was slowly moving down the mountain with each fast moving sweep side to side.

George exited the tent. She walked up to the fire. "Jesus Christ. Is this some college prank?" She hunched close to the fire and put her hands in front to get some warmth. She listened. And asked deadpan, "What is that?"

Grace asked, "We don't know. We've never heard it before."

"Well, it's annoying as hell. I can't sleep with that thing making all that noise." She paused. "Sounds like somebody is killing a baby or a cat, a big one."

BZ moved over to his pack. He was looking through his top pouch.

Gary asked, "Dude, what are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for that knife. Where's yours?"

Grace got her knife out. BZ brought his closer. They gathered around the fire. They held out their respective weapons. Neither blade was longer than 2 and half inches, three with a bit of self delusion and wishful thinking thrown in.

George looked at the blades. "Guys. Seriously, I do not know what the fuck that thing is up there, but I'm pretty sure it's going to laugh at those."

BZ said, "Yeah, Millie, I think you're right." He looked at them each in turn, except Bouncer. "Didn't anyone, maybe, bring something a little bit lethal? A hatchet, or really great would be a gun, even a small one would work right now."

Grace said, "We're not supposed to bring guns."

Gary said, "You weren't supposed to bring her either, but she's here."

George said, "OK. OK. Come on now. Let's think logically. I'm sure it's not human. So what kind of animals are out here? It's not like we're camping in Africa somewhere. Come on. Don't panic."

George did look calm. But then she was dead, wasn't she? Grace said with more conviction than she felt, "I don't believe in Sasquatch or what? Bigfoot?" She would have laughed at the reaction she could read on the faces…in another time or place. Right now out here, they all were reviewing their long held beliefs more thoroughly than they might in, for example, a bar in downtown Seattle over beers. After all, they all just minutes before had come to an agreement that ghosts are very real. They all had seen a ghost. It seemed so appropriate, and so well timed for a genuine Sasquatch to enter onto the stage.

George said, "Fuck that. Come on. What kinds of animals are out here? I've never hiked in the woods before, but you guys have, so come on. What kinds of animals are out here? And don't say unicorns or whatever."

The shrieking had not let up or deviated from its pattern, not even a little, and it was getting closer, probably half way from where it started up to where they were standing, coming this way altogether too fast.

BZ said, "Well, there are bears."

George said with conviction, "No. Not a bear. I've heard bears up close and that's not a bear. Come on. Next."

Gary offered. "OK. Fox. There are foxes out here."

Grace said, "Foxes are not all that big. And it's moving too fast. Can a fox cover that much ground that fast?"

Grace offered. "Cougar?"

They all looked up the mountain and listened. BZ said, "Well, I think a cougar could move that fast. But I've never heard that sound come out of cougar."

Gary said, "It sounds fucking supernatural to me. Let's say what we're all thinking. It's that fucking ghost."

George raised her eyebrows and looked her way. "I wasn't thinking about a ghost. What ghost?"

Grace said, "Millie, while you were asleep…we kinda…sorta…"

Gary said, "Fuck that." He said to George, "We all including Bouncer saw a real ghost."

George asked, "Did she say anything?"

None of them had mentioned it was a she.

Gary perhaps had been expecting a bit more skepticism, recovered, and said, "No. She just looked fucked up. When we tried to talk to her she…" He looked to her and BZ, but not Bouncer, and continued, "She just sort of receded back into the shadows…away from us."

"So what's the problem? She went away. If I were in your shoes, and saw a fucking ghost, I would have shit myself if she came closer instead of moving away."

The shrieking was getting closer and as interesting as George's reaction was, neither guy had noticed George's slip up on gender because both BZ and Gary were really much more interested in the here and now sounds…that were coming closer. BZ asked, "So could this be that ghost…come back?"

George said, "I don't think it's a ghost and I do not believe it's Bigfoot or whatever. If it's a ghost it can't hurt us anyway, right?"

Gary said, "How do you know that? We are miles from any help. I didn't believe in ghosts before tonight." He looked up to the sky. "But I do now. I believe now." He turned back to them. "I've seen way too many horror movies that end badly for the leading characters, out in the woods, alone, without weapons…" He held up one of the tiny blades. "Shit. I should have brought a pistol instead of the soup."

BZ said, "You don't own a pistol."

Gary looked up at the night sky and said, "Well, God, if you get us out of this, I will get a pistol. I will join the NRA…"

BZ wouldn't let go. "Fuck, Gary, you don't believe in God."

"An hour ago I didn't believe in ghosts. I'm rethinking…a lot…like what other things from horror movies might be out here."

Grace looked up towards the screams. They were really close and really loud now. This was way past theory. Whatever it was it was getting close and would be coming through those bushes soon. She could hear it rustling leaves as it ran through the undergrowth…like the undergrowth wasn't even there. George was even looking a little peaked and that was worrying Grace a lot more than their inability to identify whatever this…creature might be. The fact was that except for when George yelled so loudly from the tent the thing had not stopped its shrieking.

BZ said, "Bouncer."

Grace added, "Make her bark. The only time it stopped making that godawful noise was when Geo..Millie shouted at us from the tent. Come on Gary, make her bark. As loud as she can."

Gary also thought that a great idea. He looked down at Bouncer and started doing his hand flapping, bringing his fingers and thumb together, imitating a flapping mouth, or, hopefully, in this case a barking dog. But Bouncer didn't bark. She looked up the mountain and then at Gary and refused to make a sound. Fuck. Even dogs have free will.

Gary had a back up plan for cases where Bouncer might not understand what he wanted by just the hand movement. He said in a very strong whisper, a firm voice command, direct from her food dispensing master, "Bark. Bouncer, bark. Come on, girl, bark. Bark."

BZ added his encouragement. "Yeah, girl. Bark. Come on."

Grace joined in. It was getting way too fucking close. Soon all four of them, George too, were making little hand flapping movements and whispering in circle around and directed at Bouncer, "Bark, bark."

But…nothing doing. Bouncer, whatever her flaws, Grace believed she understood exactly what they wanted of her, she was smarter than all her sniffing and begging had led Grace to believe. She had done the calculations in her doggy brain and any possible reward, which wasn't in sight anyway, couldn't possibly compensate her for the downside danger she heard coming down the mountain side, which Grace suspected, she also was nervous about. Bouncer's silence revealed a devious dog planning on them protecting her. It occurred to Grace that of the five of them she was sure which two were going to come through this unscathed. George, because she was dead, or undead, and Bouncer because while whatever appeared out of those bushes in the next few minutes made its way through their two cheese knives and dealt with the three living, slow, two legged, packages of protein, the faithful loyal, Bouncer, with her four legs and ability to run so much faster than the three of them would be able to escape. She would live, like Lassie, to bring the rangers back to recover their remains, and George, would make sure their souls got to wherever they were supposed to go. How inconvenient though she would have to explain how she managed to survive and her three companions had not. And she could just hear her great great great fucking grandfather saying, 'Well they got to where they were supposed to go. Roxy, what kind of pasta sauce tonight?' She wouldn't cross over just to tell him what she thought of his pasta sauce. She would haunt him…forever…

Simultaneously a spark went off in all their brains, except possibly for Bouncer's.

George said, "We need to bark." She added, "The deeper the better…bigger dogs."

They all started barking, all four of them, and even Bouncer, after the four of them got to barking, jumped in, but Grace noticed she put all four of them between her and whatever was coming down the mountain. God damn dog was a lot smarter than Grace had given her credit for. Bouncer planned to get out of this. She was a surviver. She would find another Gary.

Whatever it was stopped, cold. No more shrieking, and it stopped sweeping back and forth, because the leaves stopped rustling. God damn it had gotten so close, just on the other side of bushes maybe 10 yards up the slope. Nothing now.

They stopped barking and looked at each other. They waited standing. The fire was just in front of them crackling. It was dark all around with bright stars above. No other sounds than that fire. Nothing. Grace took a deep breath letting her shoulders drop. They all moved tentatively back to their seats around the fire even Bouncer tiptoed with them. BZ added some more wood to the fire. Grace sat down on the log. Suddenly, they heard the shrieking again, but distantly and safely from across the creek and way up another mountain side mercifully far away. It sounded so much less whatever, so much less dangerous so far away. She put her hands to her face and shook her head. What a night this had turned out to be.

George walked over to a large rock. She sat down, grimaced, no doubt because the rock was a bit chilly, glanced to each as she extended her hands for warmth, and asked, "Anyone got a good ghost story?"

.

.

The next morning no one was anxious to get moving. The sun was late arriving down here and then the morning clouds dropped some rain. The next leg of their hike would be short - something she planned so as to take the pressure off George, who wasn't going to be hiking 15 miles to anywhere anytime soon unless she died early and ghosted. They would meet up with the others later that day towards evening just a few miles from here. That left them plenty of time to take it easy well into the afternoon. Late morning they took a short hike with day packs up the creek and visited the small pools and large rocks where they talked and sunned themselves.

First Gary and then BZ brought up the ghost last night, but neither she nor George held up the other side of that discussion, so it fell off. George hadn't seen the ghost anyway and played dumb and or sometimes skeptical without asserting any opinion one way or another.

That afternoon they got out on the trail. Clouds covered the sun. Gary and Bouncer took off and were soon out of sight. They would stop occasionally and wait for them to catch up, but then their natural inclination would separate them once again. BZ also hung back at first but soon joined Gary getting out front. After BZ was well away Grace asked George, "George."

"Yeah, Grace."

"You saw that ghost last night from before?"

George didn't say anything for long moments. Grace let it settle. She was not letting this go. It was clear to her that their ghost last night was somehow already known to George before they had seen her, and well, she felt she had a need to know here. Finally George said, "Yes."

"OK. You want to run with that thought?"

"I've seen her."

"Do you know who she is? Why she's hanging around? Why she got close last night?"

Grace stopped and faced George. The trail was narrow and George slow so that brought George to a halt and she looked up towards Grace. "No. I do not know who she is. I haven't talked to her. She doesn't come close, and I haven't seen her since yesterday." George smiled. "However, Grace, there is another one following along with us right now."

"Really?" Grace knew her eyes widened. She couldn't help it. She asked in a whisper, "Where?"

George put her hand on Grace's arm, and nodded off the trail to her left. "Look over that way."

She did and sure enough there was a ghost standing, or hovering, watching them only about ten yards away. He didn't react to her fixing onto his gaze their way. He didn't try to talk, didn't make any signals, just watched them, hovering from between two trees. He was a man, youngish, very Indian. He had three short finger painted stripes, yellow, marking his left cheek and longish hair down to his shoulders. He was wearing animal skins, obviously not cloth or wool, of a cut or pattern she had never seen in any TV show or movie. She couldn't see his feet, which seemed to blend down into the ferns and part of a bush. No weapons. "Ahh, George, why is he…just standing there watching us?"

"I don't know. He hasn't tried to say anything. He knows what I am. That I'm sure of. But why he's staying so close I have no idea."

"Why don't you talk to him?"

George looked the ghost over. "Well, Grace, he's some sort of Indian, and he looks a bit on the old side. I mean he's been around a long while. You notice he doesn't have anything about him from European culture."

"OK. Weren't there a lot of Indians like that right up until the end, or whatever?"

"I don't know. He feels really old though. Why don't you talk to him?" That hadn't occurred to her. She glanced at George. George did a side nod towards the Indian. "Go ahead. It's OK."

Grace focused on the ghost. She raised her hand. She almost blurted out 'How' or some such nonsense but she caught herself. She said, "Hello. Do you speak English?" She tried a smile.

The ghost responded raising his hand in kind, but did not speak leaving unanswered whether he understood English. He did not return her smile. He didn't come closer but didn't move away either. She tried another tack without taking her eyes off their silent companion. "George, what happened to that woman from last night? She was European and I'm pretty sure she could have talked to us."

"Maybe she will come back. Grace, keep in mind what I am. They…maybe they're curious…but they know what I am and what my purpose is for being here among the living. If they don't want to go into their lights then they are not going to get too close to someone like me."

The overhead clouds felt low and started a light drizzle. She looked up and then returned her attention to George and this ghost. "Would you grab them and send them over?"

She didn't answer the question. "The only ghosts you're going to see, especially if they're old ones, you know who've been here a long time, are the ones who have been careful not to get too close to reapers. The ones who get careless aren't here anymore. Remember…didn't John mention the quota theory a lot of the reapers hold to?"

"I've heard of that. Is it true?"

"I don't know, but a lot of reapers believe in it and even if you're a reaper and aren't sure it makes sense to grab any and all ghosts you can and send them over. Each one would be one less on your quota if that quota thing turns out to be true." She smiled. "Sending them over couldn't fucking hurt…except maybe the ghost. The ones who stay get real upset when they're shoved into their lights."

Grace lost interest in their silent companion turned and resumed their walk up the trail. "Ray doesn't seem to worry about that."

"He's an exception. Believe me, Daisy not only wanted to send him over she wanted to hurt him, a lot, before he left."

"He's not an exception anymore. Isn't Trip hiring more of them? Where's that going?"

"I don't know. But yeah, it's getting weird. He's got me helping the Father to screen candidates and I suspect he's got plans. He thinks big, like two or three moves ahead of most people, which is why he's rich and I suspect going to get much richer."

Grace said, "John told me what Henry said…at the booth. A lot's going to be changing." George said nothing. The rise was steep and she was focusing on her climb. She was getting stronger but it was only a couple of days and her feet were still a problem. "Do you think Henry slipped in telling Trip what he did? About his becoming a major AI producer?"

"No. No, I don't. I don't believe Henry slips at anything."

"Charlotte tells me that Trip's preparing for some major push, a shift in his investments. He wants John to take charge of collecting intelligence from ghosts he's yet to hire. He's got your mother training to take over internal operations to control and pay for that group. She says your mother has an obsessive attention to detail." Grace could see a pattern taking shape. She wondered how she might fit in. She was sure she did. She was pretty sure she was fitted into some pattern from before she was born. That didn't scare her. Somehow, it made her feel like she had a purpose in something bigger. And death wasn't an obstacle or a danger, it was actually her ally.

"So George, how come you can't heal, or ghost or whatever?"

"Some God Damn thing is suppressing my abilities along those lines."

"You can control others, other souls, over some distance, right?"

"Could. That God Damn thing is keeping me from doing pretty much anything. Even something as simple as healing my feet, or ghosting to heal is too much."

"Why?"

"I don't know. And I don't know why our friend stays so close."

"Maybe he knows Henry."

"Why would that be?"

"Because Henry takes an obvious interest in you and the goings on in Seattle, which I believe are unusual as Taylor explained, and Henry is so old, as is our shadow over there, and like you have your ghost mascot, Ray, I would be surprised if Henry hasn't accumulated a large number of his own mascots over the centuries."

George, Grace was surprised, had nothing to say. George was a long way from being a well conditioned hiker, but she kept up a solid if slow pace. Grace dropped into a hiking rhythm, a sort of meditation, and forgot about their friend, and pretty much everything.

.

.

They trudged into camp close to nightfall. The others of their larger group including BZ, Gary, and Bouncer were already there, tent pitched, and about to put something together to eat. This camp site was well within day hiker range of a trailhead, and on a lake, which meant it was heavily visited. And tonight would be no exception. Their group found a relatively isolated area a bit far from the lake but separated by a line of bushes and a few trees from most others. BZ had saved them a good spot to pitch their tent - very close to his own.

They got situated and joined their group around a fire. She could see at least four other fires with maybe a fifth just getting started. This place had some of the feel of a refugee camp - too many people, too close together without walls. Freddie was not happy about being here and everyone was well aware that they were here only because George's foot problems had caused an adjustment in their own itinerary. By the time they had finished eating twilight was well on its way. There had been some mingling and a few outsiders shared their fire. And Grace knew it was coming, Gary and then BZ, but not Bouncer, brought up ghosts. The night was chilly and the fire warm and so George didn't, as Grace expected, leave. Or maybe this was no time for her to doze off. They sat next to each other.

Gary said, "Last night we had the crap scared out of us."

BZ said, "I swear we saw and maybe heard a real ghost."

Elmer, already agitated, likely because he had to stand by while oodles of carbon were being released by the mob around him, asked, "Oh really? What did it look like?"

Gary tried to get Grace's attention but he was refused as she kept fixed on the fire. He said, "It was a she and she looked…" He trailed off. Grace understood his problem. But didn't offer to help. "Ahh, she looked like a woman."

Chuck said, "That's helpful. I'll know her when I see her for sure."

BZ said, "What he means is that she seemed pretty normal except…" He pondered something. "She didn't act right or like someone alive would have behaved."

Chuck said, "Oh come on. Do you have any evidence? Like did you take a picture?"

BZ considered that. "It happened too fast. Bouncer, here, detected her first. She got us looking out from the fire, and just about 10 feet away there this woman stood unmoving. We all saw her." He looked at her too but Grace was keeping her eyes on the fire.

He glanced George's way, who also didn't look up. "Millie, didn't see her because she was asleep already. But we others did."

"And what did this apparition have to say?" Chuck asked.

Gary said, "Nothing. Not a single word. It was like as soon as she realized we could see her, she just started backing up, and I mean she didn't turn around, she just moved backward through the ferns and stuff until she disappeared into the shadows. Gone."

An outsider, somebody Grace had never met before tonight named Eric asked, "Was it an angel?" He stood out in his bright yellow waterproof coat.

Several people turned to face him at that. There were a few long seconds, but Gary said, "I don't know what an angel would look like, Eric, but for sure it, or she, wasn't something alive."

Elmer asked, "Were you guys drinking or maybe smoking a little something?"

There was a very long pause and he said, "OK. No ghost. I bet it was wine wasn't it? You guys always bring some."

BZ said, "Look Elmer, the four of us shared a carton of wine, a small one, after we had our dinner. We weren't even close to failing a DUI test. I'm sure of that."

"OK. Sure. I believe you." Elmer had his hands up but sounded like he had them pegged as staggering around the campsite that night unable to stand they were so plastered. "So that's it. This woman looked at you and walked, no, I think you said she floated back into the night." He glanced around. "And the point of this ghost story would be?"

Gary flared a tad, got control, and said, "Elmer. There is no story. It…just happened. We don't know what it or she wanted either."

Eric said, "Maybe she's lonely. She just wanted to pretend she was alive again and be close to other people."

Grace took a long look at this Eric. She checked George, who was still intensely interested in the flickering flames. Last night Grace had been scared out of her gourd. That was probably because of what had happened to John. She hadn't talked to many ghosts, maybe Ray and Lin, but she remembered little Lin saying something exactly like that about wanting to feel, or was it pretending to feel alive again. And she was sure Lin was lonely. Maybe if they hadn't acted like jerks and got all worked up the woman would have come in closer and actually talked to them. Why was she out there in a wilderness area? How had she died? Christ. When had she died? Where was her family? Why hadn't she passed into her lights? These two had an excuse but she sure didn't. She knew something about ghosts and she had sent the poor lonely woman off back into the dark. Totally rejected totally denied the poor woman any human contact with them.

Chuck couldn't contain himself. "Come on, Eric. A fucking lonely ghost? Sure. That would make a good horror movie. Maybe we could call it Casper Strikes Terror…"

"Eric. You're probably right. I bet she was just looking for company. Just another lonely soul too afraid to cross over." Grace turned towards this new voice from behind her. Henry walked out of the dark. This was the man who had come into the Waffle Haus and caused so much commotion. He had shaken her hand and she remembered feeling so safe with him.

George jumped up no longer interested in the fire. Henry said, "Oh please, don't stand for me. I'm just a slow walker getting in a little late." He had a half pack. For sure not out on a long trip, but he did have the essentials. Behind him his companion came into the light. She was somewhat average looking, dark hair, dark eyes. She smiled at Grace. Grace was sure she smiled right at her. George's eyes were still on the wide side of normal, but she sat back down.

The group made some more room and the two got closer to the fire. They put their hands out and warmed themselves.

"Hi, my name's Chuck. Glad to meet you." He extended his hand and Henry took it. He shook with the woman too.

"My name's Henry." He looked to the woman.

She said, "I'm called Summer. Glad to meet you. It's a bit cold tonight isn't it." She was wearing only a light long sleeved cotton shirt, no coat.

Introductions went around with a lot of cross talk. George deliberately turned Grace's way. George raised her eyebrows. She extended her hand and gently placed it on Grace's arm. She guessed as she saw the hand coming her way so slowly George was signaling to get ready. But Grace was ahead of her. Henry wasn't so far from his appearance to the living. Summer though, or better known in supernatural circles as Ice, looked radically different. Summer knew what George was doing and grinned broadly Grace's way as Grace took in the woman's real appearance. Every hair on the woman's head was snow white, the skin pale, and her eyes were as white as the hair. George let her go and Summer popped back into her put-on appearance for the living. Her build seemed lighter boned in this world, and her appearance would not, did not, draw attention. She would go unnoticed in a crowd as she did not stand out here, nor did her manner attract attention.

.

.

Later when it was just the two of them inside their tiny little tent Grace said, "George. I'm…scared. Why would those two show up. Are all these people about to die?"

George thought about it for long few heartbeats. "I don't think so. But I'm pretty sure that last night's slip up won't be happening tonight or for the rest of this trip."

"What? You mean we saw that ghost because you fell asleep, right?"

"Yeah, it's happened before."

"The zombie at the house and Mabel fainted."

"Yup. That. And last night. Not a good thing that. Henry's doing some damage control."

"Why the two of them?"

"I don't know. What did she say to you?"

"She got me alone. She remembers Rosie. She's pleased that I showed up and met Rube. And she gave me a hug."

George smiled. "Henry said some nice things to me, too. He mentioned he's looking forward to our dropping by that place Rube mentioned." She considered something or maybe was getting a reap, but then she said, "He said sometimes resurrections can be a challenge." Her brow furrowed a bit at that.

Grace didn't like the sound of that at all and she wasn't the one getting resurrected. Before the resurrection part came the dying part.