Christian looks scared. He looks young. He looks like he always knew he was coasting on Amber’s competence and all-around boss status, and now that she’s gone, he’s got eight teenagers to keep safe and one gravely injured colleague to get rescued.

He looks like he’s not really sure he’s up for the job.

Fortunately, Warden seems like he’s ready to fill the void. “You guys go,” he tells Dawn. “Take the group down. Christian and I will stay up here and make sure Amber’s okay.”

Dawn looks at Christian, wondering how the counselor is taking Warden’s little speech. To her surprise, he actually looks relieved.

Lucas tugs at her arm. “Come on, Dawn,” he tells her. “Let’s go.”

Dawn glances back at Warden and Christian one more time. Then she turns and makes a break for the summit.

Chapter 47

THEY SAY THAT coming down a mountain is even tougher than climbing it. You expend so much energy on the climb that when it’s time for the return trip you’re running on fumes. You’ve already reached your goal, too, so now you just want to get back down to base camp, have a hot meal, climb in your tent. Celebrate.

You get tired. You get careless. You spent too much time on the come up, and now it’s getting late and the weather’s starting to turn. And just the technical act of descending is often tougher than the climb was in the first place. So people screw up. They lose focus. They get injured and die.

And that’s in the best circumstances. Throw a wrench in the gears—like, I dunno, your only competent counselor falling, probably to her death—and it’s bound to mess you up even more. The Bear Pack is in a hurry to get down the mountain to camp. Even Brandon and Evan, who don’t give a shit about Amber, look like they’re damn eager to get back to their tents.

But getting down isn’t simple, even after they’ve covered the last hundred feet up to the summit. They’ll take the standard route down, the route they should have come up, but it’s not exactly a Sunday stroll.

It’s basically a long drop down a sharp, narrow gully. There’s a little bit of snow, but it’s mostly loose, slippery rock and bare mountain underneath. Nothing to hold on to. Nothing to break your fall if you trip.

They take it as fast as they dare. Alex is in the lead, Brandon and Evan right behind him. Dawn barely notices who’s ahead of her. She’s mid-Pack with Lucas, trying to keep up, trying not to slide on her ass off the side of the mountain.

She can see the tarn where they camped last night. It still looks a long way down.