“Maybe they’re afraid of heights and it was their plan.”
“You’re giving them too much credit.”
Izzy made her way down the tree. Nick stood with the manager of the group, probably explaining they wouldn’t be testing their courage anytime soon.
Sure enough, Ethan was already down and putting away harnesses.
She walked toward Nick.
“…take them for an easy hike,” he was saying. “They can burn off the alcohol.”
“They work hard. They deserve to party.”
“No one needs to party this much.” Nick sounded frustrated.
Izzy moved closer. “I’ll go on the hike with you,” she said. “I can make sure there aren’t any stragglers.”
The manager looked unconvinced. “They’re fine.”
“For guys at a frat party,” Nick said. “I want everyone out of here by sundown.”
“What? We’ve paid for the whole weekend!”
“You’ll get your money back. We don’t want a group like this around.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m cutting off the beer as of now. They have five hours to sober up, then get out of here.”
The manager muttered something Izzy couldn’t hear, then stalked off.
“Now what?” she asked.
“We wait until they stop acting like idiots. If they want to continue without the beer, they can stay. Otherwise, I’m throwing them out. I need to go see Ethan. I want him to stick around and help me make sure no one does anything stupid.”
“What are the odds of that?”
“Tell me about it. You okay?”
“I’m fine. They’re harmless. I’ll stay out, too. Maybe I can shame them into better behavior.”
“Interesting plan.”
He headed toward Ethan. Izzy did a quick head count to make sure everyone was still in the area, then frowned as she realized four guys were missing.
She hesitated, trying to figure out which way they’d gone. She heard male laughter off to her left and walked in that direction.
“Get it! Get it!”
“You get it. Man, look at it.”
“It’s pissed, bro. You are so dead.”
Izzy couldn’t begin to imagine what the four guys were up to and she didn’t much care. She would herd them back to the main group and count the hours until they were gone.
She stepped around a bush, only to find four very drunk men had trapped a rattlesnake between a tree and a fallen log. They were taunting it by jabbing it with sticks. The snake was fair-size, maybe six feet long, coiled, rattling its tail like mad and, from the crazed look in its little snake eyes, out for blood.
“Are you insane?” she yelled.
The guy closest to the snake dropped his stick and leaped back when the snake lunged.
“Jeez, lady,” the guy complained. “You nearly made me drop my beer.”
“And what a shame that would have been.” Izzy kept her attention on the snake, telling herself not to panic. While she wasn’t technically afraid of snakes, she didn’t have any as close friends. “Step away from the rattler and head back to your group. No sudden moves, just a general easing back.”
“We’re not afraid,” a guy said, poking the snake again.
“Then you’re really stupid.”
“I’m wearing boots. It can’t bite through boots.”
“Great. Did you know rattlers can jump nearly as far as they are long? Hmm, let me think. If that snake took a flying leap, by my calculations it would hit your balls. You wearing boots there, too?”
The men moved back.
She drew in a breath. Everything was going to be fine. She just had to stay calm and speak firmly. Pretend the guys were actually four-year-olds, although in her opinion the average four-year-old showed a whole lot more sense.
“All right, gentlemen. If you’ll follow me.”
“You think you’re so smart,” one of the guys said and grabbed her arm. “Let’s see how you like the snake.”
Before Izzy knew what was happening, the man was drawing her forward, between him and the snake. The creature’s fury was palpable. It coiled tightly and lunged.
The next few seconds were a blur. Izzy screamed. Something hard slammed into her, pushing her out of the way. The snake made contact with someone, although she was pretty sure it wasn’t her. Then she was falling.
The ground was as hard as it looked. All the air rushed out of her, but she forced herself to roll onto her side, gasping. Even as she sucked in air, she saw the snake slithering back into the underbrush, the guys scattering and Nick standing next to her, two clear bite marks on his left forearm.
Izzy scrambled to her feet. The phrase blind panic suddenly made perfect sense because it didn’t matter if she could see. Nick was going to die, right here, in the semiwilderness and she didn’t know what to do.