Wilder Boys: Chapters 10–13

"Yes, we are.” Jake tried to control the quaver in his voice.

“We gotta get on that bus,” Taylor hissed. "It'll take us right to the park!" Jake’s heart thundered again, but his grin faltered.

Jake heard Taylor rummaging around, and a moment later a dim yellowish light filled the compartment.

The water helped, but Jake still felt queasy as the coach bumped and jerked along the road.

“Taylor—” Jake was getting exasperated, but before he could continue, the bus began to slow.

The boys sprinted away, the driver making a feeble attempt to stop them.

"You mean, like, when you sweat?”
Despite being hungry and tired, Jake laughed. “No, that’s perspire."

Although the Tetons rose steeply only a mile or two to their left, the trail undulated up and down through the hilly sage country. Sometimes it veered through lodgepole pines or aspen groves, but then it returned to the sagebrush, and before long the boys spotted a group of hikers getting closer to them.

Although the Tetons rose steeply only a mile or two to their left, the trail undulated up and down through the hilly sage country. Sometimes it veered through lodgepole pines or aspen groves, but then it returned to the sagebrush, and before long the boys spotted a group of hikers getting closer to them.

“Sorry about that,” Jake said. "He likes people.”
"So cute!” the woman crooned. Cody basked in the attention.

Jake nodded. “Yeah. Until then, we’re going to have to ration our supply.”
"No problem,” said Taylor. “I'm part camel.”

The boys continued their trek to Bradley Lake, where the trail forked.

“Its pupils are round,” he told his brother. “There’s only one snake in the United States that has round pupils and is venomous. The coral snake. And this doesn’t look anything like a coral snake.”

“Here,” he said. Reluctantly, Taylor moved closer. Jake pointed to a pencil drawing his father had made of a skinny serpent with stripes on it.

Cattails grew on the side of a small pond, and two ducks—mallards, Jake thought—paused in their feeding to warily eye the intruders.

“Here, let me try,” said Taylor, trying to coax some sparks out of the knife.

Cody snuggled between them, carving out a place for himself in the makeshift bed.

Jake looked over at him, and they laughed. But Jake felt a twinge of guilt, thinking about Sharon.

He spit in his hands and rubbed the dirt off his face in an effort to look a little less disheveled.

Pulling the flyer off the board, Jake shoved it into his pocket and started to cross the foyer of the information center.