Little by little the marshes grew more tangled and the water darker and deeper. She supposed they were headed toward the Great Dismal Swamp though she couldn’t imagine why. Just when it seemed they could go no farther because of the choked bogs, Garrett steered them into a large pine forest, which, to Lydia’s relief, was far cooler than the exposed swampland.

He found another path. He led her along it until they came to a steep hill. A series of rocks led to the top.

“I can’t climb that,” she said, struggling to sound defiant. “Not with my hands taped. I’ll slip.”

“Bullshit,” he muttered angrily, as if she were an idiot. “You got those nurse shoes on. They’ll hold you fine. Look at me. I’m, like, barefoot and I can climb it. Lookit my feet, look!” He held up the bottoms. They were callused and yellow. “Now get your ass up there. Only, when you get to the top don’t go any farther. You hear me? Hey, you listening?” Another hiss; a fleck of spittle touched her cheek and seemed to burn her skin like battery acid.

God, I hate you, she thought.

Lydia started to climb. She paused halfway, looked back. Garrett was watching her closely, snapping his fingernails. Staring at her legs, encased in white stockings, his tongue teasing his front teeth. Then looking up higher, under her skirt.

Lydia continued to climb. Heard his hissing breath as he started up behind her.

At the top of the hill was a clearing and from it a single path led into a thick grove of pine trees. She started along the path, into the shade.

“Hey!” Garrett shouted. “Didn’t you hear me? I told you not to move!”

“I’m not trying to get away!” she cried. “It’s hot. I’m trying to get out of the sun.”

He pointed to the ground, twenty feet away. There was a thick blanket of pine boughs in the middle of the path. “You could’ve fallen in,” his voice rasped. “You could’ve ruined it.”

Lydia looked closely. The pine needles covered a wide pit.

“What’s under there?”

“It’s a deadfall trap.”

“What’s inside?”

“You know—a surprise for anybody coming after us.” He said this proudly, smirking, as if he’d been very clever to think of it.

“But anybody could fall in there!”

“Shit,” he muttered. “This is north of the Paquo. Only ones who’d come this way’d be the people after us. And they deserve whatever happens to them. Let’s get going.” Hissing again. He took her by the wrist and led her around the pit.

“You don’t have to hold me so hard!” she protested.