Mason
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I held my breath and listened.
Nothing.
Then a faint scrape near the tent wall, like fingers on fabric.
The pressure was light, testing.
I didn't move.
I didn't speak.
I held the zipper and waited.
A moment later the pressure stopped.
Footsteps moved away, quiet and careful.
The next sound was Mason's voice, low and strained, coming from outside my tent.
"'Don't move,' he said.
I unzipped my tent slowly, keeping my headlamp off, and looked out.
Mason was standing, his headlamp in his hand but not turned on, and he was staring at the ground between our tents.
There was something there, a stick, maybe two feet long, planted upright in the mud.
At the top of the stick was a small bundle wrapped in wet cloth."
Mason leaned down carefully and used the tip of his trekking pole to nudge it.
The cloth fell open.
Inside was a piece of jerky.
Not ours.
Not in our packaging.