“List? What list?” Alexa relaxed, but only a little. He could just be trying to put her off guard.
“Oh. I guess you don’t know how the men’s half of the deal works.”
“Men’s half?” Alexa shook her head.
“Say, what happened to your shoes?” Will pointed. “Lose them somehow?”
“No,” Alexa spat. “They were stolen.”
“Uh-huh. Got another pair?”
“No,” Alexa replied.
“So you’re just walking around in your socks?”
“What else am I supposed to do? Just sit and wait to be found or rescued?”
“You have another pair of socks? With you?”
“Yes,” Alexa nodded. There was a pair stashed at the bottom of her backpack. “Why?”
“Well, if you put them on over the ones you’re already wearing it’ll give you a bit more protection.”
“Uh…thanks.”
“And try to walk only on the balls of your feet,” Will went on. “It’s hard on your calves after a while, but it won’t hurt your feet as much.”
“Uh…thanks again.” Alexa wondered who the hell this guy was: Some kind of guide or helper, waiting here to dispense wilderness advice to any woman who happened to pass by. No, wait, he couldn’t be.
“What did you mean about a list?” she demanded.
“Oh, that,” he chuckled. “There are more hunters out here than women to hunt. It’s usually that way. So to make it a little harder for us we have to pick our primary target and then a secondary one. We can’t just go after whoever we spot first. And we all have a one-woman bag limit.”
“And I’m not on your list?” Alexa asked.
“Well, no. You’re not.”
“Why not?”
“Really?” Will regarded her seriously. “You really want to know?”
“Yes, really,” Alexa replied, folding her arms.
“Well, okay,” Will shrugged. “You’re not bad looking, but your eyes are a little on the small side, aren’t they? And do you pluck your eyebrows, or are they just naturally that thin? And what’s with your hair?”
“What do you mean?” Alexa demanded, stung. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Well, it’s a nice dark blonde shade, I’ll give you that,” Will responded. “But geez, what’s with keeping it so short? Looks kinda like a boy’s butch haircut from the Fifties after it’s grown out for a month or so.”
“Hey!” Alexa objected.
“You asked me,” Will said. “I told you. Anyway, I like tall women. You’re pretty much average height, aren’t you?”
“A little taller than that,” Alexa answered defensively. “Anyway, you don’t look like you’re all that tall yourself.”
Will only laughed. “Didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m sure you’re the primary on somebody’s list.”
“Oh, go screw yourself,” Alexa grumped. “So who’s your primary target?”
“That tall, blonde volleyball player,” Will replied. “Martina.”
“You know that she’s like four or five inches taller than you are, don’t you?”
“Oh, hell, yeah,” Will smiled and nodded. “But I don’t plan on letting her stand up all that much, and lying on her back she’ll be just the right height.”
“Aw, geez,” Alexa groaned. “I’m
glad
I’m not on your list.”
“What sport do you compete in?” Will asked. “I didn’t look at your file too closely.”
“I compete in lots of sports,” Alexa said, looking away.
“Yeah, but which one do you specialize in? You don’t look like a volleyball player to me.”
“I don’t specialize,” Alexa replied, still looking away.
“So you just kind of dabble?” Will prodded.
“I’m a fitness instructor!” she rounded on him. “I’m a personal trainer! Sometimes I compete locally, but I’m not really good enough to win! OKAY?”
“Why are you yelling?” Will asked mildly. “What’s wrong with being a personal trainer?”
“Nothing!” Alexa snapped.
“Say, didn’t I see you in a commercial once? Or in an ad somewhere?”
“Maybe,” Alexa relented. “I do some fitness modeling some times.”
“Yeah. I think I did. You had your hair longer then, but I think I remember the eyes. You weren’t on for long, but you looked pretty good.”
“Thanks.”
“Well,” Will stood up. “It’s been nice chatting with you, but I’ve got to get back on the trail of my volleyball player.” He bent over and picked up what looked like a rifle. Alexa froze.
“What are you carrying a gun for?” she asked. “There aren’t supposed to be any dangerous animals here.”
“Oh, hey, relax,” he said easily. “It doesn’t shoot bullets. It uses compressed air to fire tranquilizer darts.”
“
What
? Why would you have that?”
“I’m out here by myself,” he replied. “Most of the other guys are in two-man and three-man teams. I need some kind of edge. You have no idea how hard it was for me to convince them to let me use this. It was even harder for me to qualify with it. I have to get pretty close to the target, and I can only shoot her in the ass.” He slung the air rifle over his shoulder.
“That’s barbaric!”
“I’m not after you, remember?”
“It’s still barbaric.”
“Okay, it’s barbaric. So’s huntin’ women in the first place, but here we all are, out in the woods, being barbarians. I don’t want to argue with you about it. I’ve got some trackin’ to do.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Alexa said as a thought struck her. “This tall, blonde volleyball player you’re stalking. Have you actually seen her?”
“I caught a glimpse or two from a distance,” Will answered. “The tracks I found are all from a tall, long-legged woman.”
Alexa snickered. Will looked at her, waiting.
“I think you’re actually on the trail of a long-legged skier: Lynette. She said someone was following her just before she hit me and took my boots. Is she on your list?”
“Yeah. She’s my secondary. Damn.”
“What’s the matter? Can’t you just go after her? She’s a real bitch. I wouldn’t care if you shot her in the ass at all. Hell, shoot her twice. She’s a big girl. You might need to.”
“Hey, what happened to the barbarity of it all? Thanks for the blessing and the advice, but I want my volleyball player. I spent more than half the day chasin’ the wrong prey. I guess I owe you for lettin’ me know.”
“If you mean that,” Alexa said, “maybe you could help me find my boots?”
“She’s probably chucked them down a hole somewhere. I don’t owe you
that
much.”
“Well…thanks anyway for the advice on the socks,” Alexa said.
“My pleasure,” Will replied. “But if you’re planning on doing much hikin’ out here you really ought to get yourself some new boots.”
“Can I get some at one of the trading posts?”
“It’s possible,” he shrugged. “I really couldn’t say for sure. I never had anybody steal mine.”
“She sucker punched me.”
“Well, then, if you run into her again, hit her first.”
“She knows some martial arts,” Alexa said.
“Well, that’s a useful thing to know,” Will smiled. “You should start when she isn’t lookin’, then, and use a club. It’s been nice talkin’ to you, Alexa Marx, but I’ve got to go. See you around, maybe.” He gave her a wink and strolled off, back in the direction Alexa had come from. He wasn’t wearing camouflage, but the drab browns he was wearing made him very hard to see once he’d passed a little way into the woods. Alexa sat down on the log he’d just vacated. Her feelings were not only mixed, but confusing. On the one hand, she’d ducked a bullet that Lynette had set her up for. On the other hand, who the hell did that guy think he was, putting her down like that? And then, on even another hand, if there could be such a thing, he’d been friendly and helpful, even though he’d seemed to find her predicament amusing. And he wasn’t bad looking with that tanned, weather-beaten face. It looked as if he lived most of his life in the great outdoors.
She took off her backpack, got her spare pair of socks out of it, and put them on over the ones she was already wearing. She took a few experimental steps and found that the trick worked. Oh, it wasn’t like actually having boots on, but it was an improvement. She shrugged her pack back on and looked up at the sky. The sun was almost directly overhead, so it was no use for determining direction. But she knew which way she’d been heading before the interruption, so she set off anyway. Later on, when she stopped to take a rest, she could check the sun’s position and see if she was still going the right way.
Will had seemed to be a nice enough guy, and so it irked her all the more that he’d preferred first Martina and then Lynette over her. He wasn’t that tall a man, so why was he intent on bagging one of the two very tall women in the contest? Well, girl, she told herself, you ought to be used to coming in somewhere behind them by now. At least this time it had actually worked out in her favor…but it still irked. She plodded on, walking on the balls of her feet, as Will had suggested, any time she came to rough spots. That worked too, but it was still slow going, and she had to stop and take a break more frequently than she wanted. She kept checking the sun to make sure that she was heading north, and late in the afternoon she finally came across the little stream. It was almost like meeting an old friend, and she celebrated the occasion by taking off her pack and using it as a lumpy pillow while she stretched out in a patch of sun to rest again. Her feet hurt, her legs hurt, and she was hungry. She was also almost out of water. She turned her head to regard the stream. The water seemed clear, and they’d been told that it was safe to drink from any of the streams in the area, though they shouldn’t drink from any ponds. That jibed with what she’d learned from some of the books she’d read. Still lying down, she looked around. This place didn’t seem familiar, so her camp was probably downstream somewhere. In a little while, she’d get up and head that way. Tonight, she’d risk a fire. She really wanted a hot meal.
It was almost dark when she finally found her campsite, and she was too worn out to do more than crawl into her sleeping bag. Even so, she had to take off her socks and hang them out to dry first. Crossing the stream without boots had been trickier than crossing it with them. In retrospect, she probably should have taken her socks off before trying it. She’d made a misstep, and in trying to regain her balance, had thoroughly soaked her socks. At least she hadn’t fallen in. After she’d been lying down for a while, she felt her legs starting to cramp up. She gave her calves a vigorous massage until the danger had passed and laid back down again. She was more tired than hungry now. She’d rest for a bit longer and then see about food.
When she woke, it was pitch dark. Her legs still ached, but it was the kind of ache that came from intense, sustained exercise. On the other hand, she couldn’t recall ever feeling as hungry as she did now. Groping around in the dark, she managed to find all the parts to the little camp stove and even found the can of fuel that went with it. She knew that a fire could be seen from a long way off at night, but it felt like it was three in the morning. It didn’t seem likely that anyone would be up at that hour, and she was really, really hungry, so she went ahead and took the risk. The resulting meal was filling, but that was about all it was. The freeze-dried stuff had hardly any taste to it at all, so she treated herself to a granola bar with some chocolate bits in it for dessert.
It was lonely out here. She kind of missed Will’s company. He seemed to be more at home in the wilderness than she was, and she’d welcome the opportunity to pick his brain. But he was off in pursuit of Martina, and she was here alone. She hoped he’d catch her. That would mean she only had Lynette and Naomi left to beat. And the thought of Martina going down with a tranquilizer dart in her tight round ass made her smile.
Waking up was a lot harder that morning than it had been yesterday. The ground under her sleeping bag wasn’t any softer than it had been, but Alexa didn’t mind it as much. She opened her eyes, saw that it was daytime, blinked, and closed them again. Just five more minutes, she told herself. She fell back asleep.
She wasn’t sure what woke her. Maybe it was a noise, maybe the realization that there was no snooze button to push, but she was suddenly completely awake and alert. She lay perfectly still, listening, and heard nothing. Still lying down, she turned her head first one way and then the other, looking. She didn’t see anything, so she drew back the top of her sleeping bag and sat up.
It wasn’t early morning. From how high the sun rode in the sky, it wasn’t even late morning, but getting close to noon. She muttered a curse and got up. She felt stiff and sweaty and she wanted a shower. There was no chance of getting one out here, though. She thought about using the stream for a sort of sponge bath and shivered. The water wasn’t cold, exactly, but it wasn’t even close to warm. She was planning to find out if that building she’d seen was really one of the trading posts, and, if it was, whether or not she could get new boots there. Maybe she could get a shower there too. In any case, given how slowly she’d have to travel, she’d better get a move on now.
She peeled off her clothes and underwear and stuffed them into a brown cloth bag. It still felt strange being naked outdoors, but today it felt a little exciting too. She stood up and stretched, as if to dare anyone to come along and spot her. It was almost a disappointment when no one did.
She had one clean set of underwear left, cotton panties and a sports bra. She put those on and wondered what she could do about washing her dirty clothes. Somehow that had never been mentioned in any of the books she’d read, and for all the stories she’d heard about that Elf-Girl, doing laundry hadn’t been mentioned there either. She pulled on a soft flannel shirt and donned her walking shorts. She checked her socks to see if they were dry before pulling them on. It was going to be a long, slow walk, but she really had to have some kind of shoes if she was ever going to get through this. She hid her stuff under leaves and pine needles again, took a last look to make sure nothing showed, and set off.
She was actually feeling pretty good about things. A big part of that had to be due to getting away…or, more exactly, being let alone. Thanks to not being on Will’s list, she still had a chance to win this thing. And, today she had a place to go and something to do. She was getting a very late start, which meant a lot of her walk back would have to be in the dark, but as long as she had the stream to guide her she should be all right. Early tomorrow, she’d have to move her campsite. It wouldn’t be a good idea to stay in one place for too long.