Like Bullfrog had reported, the trail was easy to follow. Wide enough for two, though they walked single file. Mara had not explored the woods in this direction, but they were basically the same—a little swampy in parts, low-lying, though the trail traced the highest ground. She saw a bear track in the path and hesitated, wondering if the others had noticed. When no one was looking, she scuffed it away with her foot.

They spotted the wall tents minutes before they reached them, flashes of white through the trunks and leaves. One was small, but still tall enough to stand in. The other was round and large. The small tent held four cots. No pillows or bedding, and nothing else.

There was another lake beside the tents, narrow and long. Tiny waves crawled over its surface.

“They came by float plane,” said Mara.

“How do you know?” said Kyle.

“I don’t. But it makes sense, right? A perfect landing place. And float planes are pretty quiet. We might not have noticed them from camp, not if they weren’t flying overhead.”

“What would we hear?” said Ashley. “If there were loud noises here. Would we have heard them from our camp at all?”

“Hard to say,” said Mara. “What kind of noise?”

Ashley shrugged.

“HELLO,” she yelled.

“No one here,” said Bullfrog.

Mara shushed him. She listened. There was a rush of breeze in the trees, leaves swishing together. The slight lap of waves on the pebbled shore. But even these were a kind of silence. There weren’t even birds.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s yell on the count of three. One, two, three.”

They yelled. Bullfrog was the loudest. Ashley covered her ears and closed her eyes to scream. Afterward Mara’s ears rang so much that she could hardly hear. But the ringing faded into the same textured silence as before.

“What are you expecting?” said Kyle.

“Nothing,” she said. “It was just good to try.”

“But who do you think would hear us?”

“I said it was worth a try, okay?”

They went into the round tent. The door was unzipped, and Mara wondered if that was how Bullfrog had found it, or if he’d left it unzipped on his own. It was maybe fifteen feet across, with a peaked roof and a wrinkled tarp floor. The walls were lined with plastic shelves, which mostly held chargers and battery packs. There was a foam cooler with about six inches of lukewarm water and a few floating cans of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew.

The whole place seemed emptied out. The crew members must have had their own sleeping bags, at least. Bags of clothes. A camping stove, or instant meals. An espresso machine. All of it was gone.

Mara cracked open a Mountain Dew and sipped it, once the fizzing slowed. It was too sweet. She took another sip.

“See any Sprite?” said Bullfrog.

She didn’t.

“Damn,” he said. “I like Sprite.”

Ashley found a bottle of vodka. She took a swig before offering it around. Bullfrog brushed it away with one hand. Kyle glanced at Bullfrog, then shook his head. “I’m only nineteen,” he said.