Chapter 10.

Joey glanced at Annja and rolled his eyes. Annja herself wasn't quite sure what to make of Jenny's statement. She seemed so utterly certain that it was almost hard to argue with her conviction.

"Big foot?"

Jenny glared at her. "I know you think I'm being crazy."

"I don't-"

"I do," Joey said. "Completely bonkers. You need serious help for that condition."

Annja frowned. "Joey...maybe we should just let her talk and get it out of her system."

"Get it out? That's not going to happen. She's completely obsessed about this stuff. Like I said earlier when I saw you on the trail."

Annja held up her hand. "Regardless, we have to let her speak her mind and tell us why she thinks that the Sasquatch had something to do with her disappearance."

"He had everything to do with it," Jenny said. "I was almost asleep when Joey left me, just about to drop off into deep rest, when I sensed this presence around me. As if I was being enveloped by it. And then I was rushing through the forest."

Annja frowned. What Jenny said sounded similar to the experience that Annja had had when she was spirit tracking. Was it possible that the Sasquatch really did exist? Or was it something else? Something far more sinister?

"Did you see it?" she asked.

Jenny shook her head. "I was asleep, remember?"

"Yes, but if you didn't actually see it?"

Joey sighed. "What about a smell?"

"Smell?"

Joey nodded. "A lot of people who have claimed to see the Sasquatch say that it smells really awful. Some kind of body odor. But it's supposedly awful stuff. Nose-pinching quality. Did you smell anything?"

"Well, no, actually, but..." Jenny's voice trailed off.

Joey shrugged. "Seems weird that a giant ape creature could stroll in and pick you up, run you through the woods and yet you didn't think to open your eyes or take a whiff? Doesn't fly with me. I think you hallucinated the whole thing. Maybe you were sleepwalking or something. In your condition, right there on the brink of hypothermia, anything's possible."

Annja took a breath. "He might be right, Jenny."

Jenny frowned. "I didn't ask you to come all this way just so you could belittle my experiences, Annja."

"I'm not trying to belittle them. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. It doesn't add up. Surely you can see that?"

Jenny took a sip of her tea and then sighed. "I guess. But why did I think that it was a Sasquatch, then?"

"Maybe because that's all you think about," Joey said. "You're so keyed up on the idea that it exists, you're filling in parts of your brain with the notion that anything even slightly unexplainable is due to something Sasquatch related."

Annja c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. "That was awfully insightful, Joey."

"Thanks."

Jenny shook her head. "Well, I don't know what to make of what happened. But if you guys won't believe me, then I suppose there's no sense arguing about it. I'll just chalk it up as unexplained and leave it at that."

Annja helped her to stand. "And how are you feeling otherwise? Still cold and shivering?"

"No. Joey's fire saw to that. And the tea. I'm much better now. I think I just needed to recharge the battery."

Joey watched her. "You should be careful all the same. Ideally, you should sleep and let your body restore its balance. What about if we pitch camp here and get some rest?"

Annja glanced around. "Can we bushwhack off the trail some? I don't like the thought of those guys roving around the hills looking for us."

"As far as they know, we all went back to town," Joey said.

Annja nodded. "Just the same, I don't want us easily found. Can you make us a camp that's nice and concealed?"

Joey shrugged. "Take me a bit of time, but yeah. How far off the trail should it be?"

Annja looked around. It was still quite dark. The sun would start coming up in a few hours, however. "Far enough so we can't be seen. For that matter, it should be far enough that we can't be heard, either. Talking's going to be a no-no until we get this figured out."

Joey erased all signs of a fire pit and then stood. "All right, follow me." He led them up the hill and into the dense vegetation.

Annja made sure to keep Jenny between them. She had to watch her step. In this part of the woods, the trees grew thick together, their trunks entwined like snakes oozing all over the soft pine needle carpet.

Joey led them for the better part of half an hour. Annja was lost in thought. There were still a lot of questions to ask and she wanted answers.

But would Jenny be in any shape to answer them? Or would she even answer them honestly? Annja didn't necessarily think that Jenny would deliberately mislead her, but she also knew that big foot was an all-consuming pa.s.sion of hers. Back in school, Jenny had forsaken an active social life for her studies. She devoured everything she could get her hands on on the legends of big foot. Not just the sightings in the United States, but also the reports from China and the Himalayas.

Jenny had even gone so far as to undertake an expedition to Nepal as part of her work on her graduate thesis. She'd endured an amazing amount of adversity only to come home with very little to show for it.

Annja admired her resolve and her perseverance, but when it came right down to it, part of her wished that her friend would give up the ghost chase and get on with studying something much more concrete in origin.

Annja sighed. But then again, what would people say about her if they knew the half of what she herself had been through, including her own trip to Nepal and her encounter with what some people would claim was the infamous yeti?

They'd think I'm a nut, Annja admitted to herself, and they might be justified.

Annja grinned.

As they walked on, Annja pressed closer to Jenny, trying to keep her voice quiet. "So tell me about David's disappearance."

"What about it?"

"I'm sorry to keep bringing it up, but do you think we should contact the sheriff?"

Jenny shrugged. "Would it do any good?"

"I don't know. Would it?"

Jenny stopped and turned. "Are you driving at something here?"