Bailey’s Estes Park Excitement (9 page)

Bailey scurried to the next tree, which took her several feet closer to the boys. Kate followed carefully. She pulled out her camera-pen and snapped a few pictures of the boys. Bailey did the same with her camera-watch, just for good measure. Biscuit caught sight of what the girls were looking at and a low growl rumbled in his throat.

“Shhhh,” Kate said softly as she scratched the dog's head to try to calm him.

Justin stopped mid-aim and looked around as if he'd heard something. Then he refocused his aim at the pop cans lined on a tree stump.

Bailey strained to hear what they said.

“We'll show them,” Justin said to his younger brother. “We'll have them so scared they never come back!” With that, he pulled his trigger and a loud pop rang out.

Biscuit barked and leaped from Kate's arms. He ran in the boys' direction, leash dragging behind him.

“What in the wo—” Justin turned and saw Biscuit flying at him, barking wildly.

“It's those girls' dog!” Joe yelled. He spun in circles, eyes searching the woods.

“Biscuit!” Kate jumped from behind the tree and raced after the dog, with Bailey close behind.

“Get that dog away from me!” shouted Justin.

“Biscuit! Come here!” Kate screamed.

The girls reached the boys just as Justin raised his airsoft gun and pointed it at Biscuit.

“NOOO!” Kate shrieked.

The gun went off. Biscuit yelped and darted into the woods.

“Biscuit!” Kate rushed through the trees after her dog.

Bailey strode squarely to confront Justin, whose gun hung limp in his hand. “Why did you do that?” she demanded, tears stinging her eyes.

“He was going to attack me!” Justin yelled.

“He was barking around your feet! If he wanted to attack you, he would have jumped at you.”

“Well, I wasn't going to wait to find out.” Justin ran his hand through his short hair, his face flushed. “It would have been too late to do anything by then.” He looked at his younger brother, who stood dazed nearby. “You okay, Joe?”

“I—I think so,” he stammered.

“Let's get out of here before that dog comes back and attacks us again.” Justin set his gun on the safety setting and stuffed it into his jacket as Joe gathered their targets and supplies.

Bailey wanted to grab the gun and knock both boys senseless with it. Instead she turned and dashed into the woods. “Kate?” she called. The wind in the trees was her only reply. “Kate!” Nothing.

Bailey looked back and realized she could no longer see the trail they'd been on. She stood for a few minutes, trying to push down her fear.
What should I do?
All she could think of was Kate and Biscuit, but she didn't know how to find them. In the shadows of the towering pines, the air felt chilly, even with her hoodie on.

Which way should I go?
Bailey looked around her again.
I can't think!

“Kate!” Still no reply.

Bailey sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Help me think, God. Show me what to do
. She tucked her icy hands into her hoodie pockets and fingered her cell phone.
That's it! Thanks, God!
Snatching it out, she dialed Kate. Thank heavens she could pick up a signal. One ring. Two rings.

“Hello?”

“Kate! Thank goodness! Where are you?” “I'm not sure.”

Bailey heard Kate's voice tremble. “Did you find Biscuit?”

“Yeah, he's here with me.”

“Is he okay?”

“I think so. I looked over him and didn't see any injuries. I guess he was just spooked by the noise of the gun.”

Bailey closed her eyes and sighed. “I about let Justin have it when you and Biscuit disappeared into the woods. He claimed Biscuit was about to attack him. I nearly decked him, even if he is bigger than me.”

Kate laughed. “Well, I'm glad you held yourself back. That's all we need is for him to say Biscuit attacked him and then you assaulted him.”

The girls grew silent. “Bailey, we have to find each other and get back to the trail.”

“I don't know which way to go.” Bailey's voice rose, fear once again curling within.

“Hang on a second.”

Bailey could hear rustling, as if Kate were looking for something. “Here it is.”

“What?”

“My mini-GPS. It's a trial product my dad brought home from work one day. What better time to try it out than now?”

“Trial product? GPS units have been around awhile.”

“But this one is tiny. It fits into the palm of my hand. I can clip it onto my belt if I want.”

“That's fantastic!”

“Let's see, I'll put in Estes Park, Colorado, and see what it brings up.” Kate punched in the city and state. “It worked! Now I just have to zoom in to find that street we were on.”

“I'm glad you're the one trying to figure this out,” Bailey said. “I'm directionally challenged.”

“Here we go,” Kate said. “Looks like we walked north to get to this hill from town. The sun was to our right, so that must be east since it rose only a few hours earlier, right?”

Bailey relaxed. “You're starting to sound like Sydney!”

“So to get back we need to go south, so the sun is to our left.”

Bailey looked up and shielded her eyes from the sun. “I'll hang up and yell for you. Hopefully, you'll hear me as you get closer. Then we can look for the trail together from here.”

“Okay,” Kate said, “but if I don't hear you soon, I'm calling you back.”

“Deal.” Bailey stuffed her phone back in her pocket and yelled, “Kate! Kate, I'm over here!”

She yelled for what seemed like a full minute, stopping only to listen briefly for an answer. A cool breeze swirled dry leaves around her feet, and she zipped her mud-splotched hoodie clear to the neck.

“Kate!” Leaves crunched behind her and Bailey swung around. “Kate?” No answer, but the crunching drew closer. “Kate, if that's you, you'd better answer me!” Silence. “Kate, this isn't funny!”

From behind a clump of trees, a huge elk with enormous antlers stuck out his head and looked at Bailey. She froze, not sure if the elk would charge or if he was as afraid as she was. They stood, eyes locked, neither one moving a muscle. Finally, the elk seemed satisfied that the girl meant no harm and munched on a nearby shrub. Bailey exhaled a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding and inched forward to get a better view of the elk.

Suddenly Bailey was startled by her cell phone ringing. “Kate? I'm watching a big elk eat. You should see him!”

“You're supposed to be calling for me, remember?”

“I did, but then the elk scared me and I was afraid to make much noise.”

Bailey heard rustling again and turned to look. The elk turned his head, too, ears twitching. “Kate! Over here!”

At the sound of Bailey's voice, the elk turned toward her and narrowed his eyes. He lowered his head, those gigantic antlers pointing in her direction, then took a few steps toward her. Hardly daring to take a breath, Bailey froze. Images of charging elk filled her mind.

Biscuit sniffed the air and leaped out of Kate's arms, barking wildly. The tiny dog ran at the towering elk, who seemed momentarily confused by all the excitement. He tried to keep his eye on the dog prancing at his feet, one minute in front of him and the next behind. In apparent exasperation, the elk turned and lumbered off into the woods.

Kate came through the trees. “Bailey! I was so afraid for you.” She hugged her friend. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine. But my legs felt like noodles for a minute there.”

Biscuit scampered up to Bailey and jumped to get her attention.

“I see you! Thanks for scaring that elk away. You really are a wonder dog!” She gave the dog a friendly rub. “But you scared us when you ran off into the woods!” Bailey slipped her lip balm from her pocket and applied some. “Now all we have to do is find the trail.”

“Shouldn't be too hard with this GPS.”

“Let's see that thing.” Kate placed the tiny device in Bailey's palm. “I've never seen one this small.”

“Dad says it still has a few glitches, but it works well for the most part.” Kate took the GPS back. “See? It shows where we are. It looks like this squiggly line might be a trail.”

“So we need to turn around and go to our right to find it. Let's try it.”

Kate started off in the direction the GPS indicated. Bailey and Biscuit followed close behind. She kept her eye on the device and could see the distance between them and the trail diminishing. “We're almost there!”

“I think I see it!” Bailey went running, Biscuit barking excitedly beside her.

“I was thinking,” Kate said when they were back on the trail. “I wonder if Justin and Joe know something about the elk being so agitated.”

“Maybe. They sure are angry themselves.”

“Maybe Justin is giving anger lessons to the elk.”

Seeing the twinkle in Kate's eyes, Bailey laughed. “Yeah, they were probably just waiting for their class to gather when we snuck up on them.”

“They seem to spend a lot of time on this hill.”

“Yeah. And with that ‘walking stick' that looked just like the gun they were shooting pop cans with today.”

Just then the ground trembled.

“Did you feel that?” Kate asked.

Before Bailey could answer, the trembling became stronger. “Don't tell me it's another—”

The girls heard loud rustling and soon Bailey spotted a herd of elk running through the forest toward them. “Stampede!”

Kate snatched up Biscuit, grabbed Bailey's arm, and pulled her behind a tree. About twenty elk thundered by so close Bailey thought she could stick out her hand and touch them as they passed. She saw what looked like fear in their eyes and heard their snorts and panting. When the last one was out of sight, the fading rhythm of hooves was all that remained, followed by an eerie quiet. Bailey and Kate cautiously stepped out from behind the protection of the tree and looked around. A cloud of dust marked the path the elk had taken.

“I hope they don't run clear into town.” Kate's eyes registered her concern.

“Something back there in the woods scared them. Why else would they run like that?”

“I don't know, but I think you're right.”

“Y–You don't think it was a wild animal, do you?” Bailey forced the words from her mouth, barely daring to speak them.

Kate turned to her friend, eyes wide. “Let's get out of here!”

The girls ran down the trail until they could see the town. “We're almost there,” panted Bailey.

“Are you okay? Do you need your inhaler?”

Bailey shook her head. “I'm okay. Just winded.”

They slowed down and walked the rest of the way to town. When they got on Main Street, they heard people talking about the elk.

“I can't believe they came through here again!”

“This is the worst it's ever been.”

“What are we going to do about them?”

“The elk are becoming too dangerous.”

“Something has to be done.”

Bailey pulled Kate aside where no one would hear them. “Do you think we should tell them what happened on our hike?”

“You mean our encounter with the elk, the elk stampede, getting separated and lost, or seeing Justin and Joe target practicing?”

Bailey giggled. “I guess we did have a lot going on, didn't we? Should we tell any of it?”

“I'm not sure. It might not have anything to do with the stampede through town.”

“Then again it might.” Bailey let out a giant sigh. “Maybe we should just go back to the hotel.”

“Yeah. We need to gather more evidence before we point fingers at people.”

“Let's take the shuttle back. I'm tired of walking.”

“Me, too.” Kate hooked Biscuit's leash on him and set him down. “It's a wonder you didn't get trampled by that huge elk or the stampeding herd,” she said in his pointy little ear. “You are so brave!”

“It's amazing none of us did,” Bailey added. “God must be working overtime keeping an eye out for us.”

“As usual.”

The girls joined a couple of people who were waiting at the shuttle stop.

Kate plopped down on the bench. “We should get in touch with the other Camp Club Girls when we get back.”

“Yeah, they'll want to hear about our adventure.”

A voice interrupted their conversation, and Justin and Joe's grandma joined them under the shelter. “Oh, hi girls!”

“Mrs. Perkins! What are you doing here?”

“I've been doing a little shopping this morning.” She held up her bags as proof. The shuttle pulled to the curb and the group boarded. Bailey and Kate sat across the aisle from Grandma Perkins and her shopping bags. Biscuit sniffed them curiously.

“What have you girls been up to?” Grandma Perkins asked.