”But we weren’t,” Dar told him. ”There’s a spot over there.” She pointed. ”I think we could all make it up there, and if not, those of us who can, will go get help.”

”From who? That idiotic woman?” Eleanor snapped, obviously upset and frightened. ”Don’t be stupid, Dar. We can’t climb up there and I’m not sitting down here in this freezing muck.”

”Come now, El,” Mariana forestalled Dar’s rising ire. ”Either you climb, or you stay here. You can’t say you’re not going to climb, and you don’t want to stay here. Pick one.” She sighed. ”I’m going to be filling out workman’s comps on you people all of next week, aren’t I?”

”We can call for real help when we get up there,” Dar explained.

”But everyone should try to make it. We don’t know how long it’s going to take, and you don’t want to be stuck out here when it gets dark.”

No one looked like they liked the idea, but reluctant nods went around the group.

”It will be lighter if we eat those lunches they gave us first,” Kerry reminded her boss. ”I could use the break.”

”Oh yeah.” Mark pawed at his pouch. ”That’s a good idea.”

Everyone stirred, pulling out their packages with varying levels of enthusiasm. ”What is this?”

Dar had seated herself on a rock, easing her leg out in front of her Hurricane Watch

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and turning her pack over in her finger. ”They’re called MRE's nowadays” She remarked. ”Military food.” She looked up as Kerry sat down next to her cross legged on a flat piece of limestone. ”They won’t kill you, but I won’t guarantee anything else.”

”Oh, lovely.” Kerry pulled at the package, tugging out small foil wrapped containers. ”How does it work?” She glanced up, then put her hand on Dar's knee. ”Hey.”

Dar had been leaning her head against the rock she was seated against, her eyes closed. Now she forced them open and regarded her friend. ”Yeah?” She felt suddenly exhausted and the throbbing in her head was getting worse.

”Here.” Kerry tucked something into her hand. ”I think you need that more than I do.”

Dar peered at the packet. ”Oh.” She smiled in reflex at the army issue generic Tylenol. ”Yeah.” With a sigh, she put her package on her lap and unwrapped its parts. ”Okay, this is a self-heating pouch.” She picked it up and pulled two lurid tabs on either end. ”Do that and whatever’s inside gets heated up by chemical action.” She glanced up, startled to see the whole group of them, less Steven, gathering around her. ”It’s not that hard, people. We are a technology company. Please remember that.”

”Well, well.” Duks pulled his tabs, then set the large packet aside.

”And what’s this? Do not tell me this is what you give us atheists on Christmas.” He picked up a smaller packet. ”Crackers, graham, 2.”

”Oh my god. Is this that stuff they feed the soldiers?” Eleanor’s eyes widened.

”Mm, yeah, I saw a special on that the other day.” Mark investigated his package. ”Silverware too. Pretty neat.”

Kerry opened her heated package and sniffed it. ”Oh.” She pulled her head back in surprise. ”I think this is lasagna.” She poked a spork in and dug a bit out, tasting it warily. ”Hey, that’s not bad.”

They ate their meals mostly in silence, on top of the soft, limestone rocks which were slowly becoming flooded by water. Dar found herself pushing her food around with her spork. She glanced to one side, then offered the remainder to Kerry. ”Here, you want to finish this?”

Kerry eyed her. ”You don’t like it?”

A shrug. ”It’s not bad. I’m just not that hungry,” Dar admitted. ”Go on. I saw you thinking about licking out that pouch.”

Kerry blushed, but took the offering and finished it off, then passed Dar her container of apple juice. ”Here. I don’t like it. Why don’t you take your aspirin?”

Dar took her advice and swallowed both Kerry’s tablets and her own, washing them down with the juice. Then she regarded the group.

”Well?”

”Right.” Duks slapped his knee. ”Let’s get going. I can’t wait to get back to our charming camp and the peanut butter sandwiches I’m sure 90

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will be there for us.” He stood up, balancing carefully on his rock.

José joined him. ”Son of a bitch. I’m going to have a thing to say when I get back, I’ll tell you that.” He glanced. ”Come on Eleanor, let’s get this over with, eh?”

They moved to the far wall, slipping and sliding over the slick rocks, and started a slow path up. Dar went to the front, discarding her stick as she slowly moved from rock to rock. ”Okay, everyone get up here first.”

”I’m not going that way,”Steven stated. ”I’ll meet you all up at the top.” He turned aside and started his own path up, grabbing on to thick vines which trailed down from half dislodged trees.

”He’s right, it’s easier there.” Eleanor abandoned them and followed Steven’s determined form. ”Come on, José, Charles, no sense in taking the hard way up.”

”Si,” the Sales VP agreed as he edged away from them and followed her. ”I’m coming.” Eleanor's thin assistant followed obediently, pushing his glasses up nervously.

Dar gazed after them as though about to speak, then shrugged and turned back to her task, leaning her head against the cool branches for a moment before she straightened and looked for the next step up. The throbbing was starting to subside, but she felt an odd kind of distance to her thoughts that made her wonder if she hadn’t done more than get her bell rung.

A hand suddenly warmed her back and she turned to see Kerry next to her, ostensibly looking for a good hold. ”Is that a good way up?”

The blonde woman asked, stepping up next to her and gazing, then turning to watch Steven’s progress up the wall. ”Or do they have the right idea, much as I hate to admit it?”

Dar smiled wearily. ”Well, that’s an easier climb, but I’m not sure it’s worth it,” she remarked.

”Why?” Kerry asked curiously.

”Those vines are covered with poison ivy,” Dar replied, glancing over as Duks and Mark, who were right behind her, started chuckling.

”Oh, no, don’t say that.” Mariana pushed the frazzled hair back out of her eyes. ”I’ll never hear the end of that, Dar. You’ll have done it on purpose to them.”

Dar merely shook her head and continued her way up, finding easy holds for the rest of her group. ”Easy there,” she warned. ”Grab that root. Yeah, there.” They moved slowly up the slope, using the handholds to keep their balance. Fortunately, the walls weren’t directly vertical and they made fair time, stopping halfway to catch their breaths and take a rest.

Steven, José, Charles and Eleanor had already reached the top and disappeared, and Dar found herself glad of their absence, realizing the constant strain of their irritating presence had really been wearing her down. Duks and Mariana seemed to be glad too, as they leaned against Hurricane Watch

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each other and wiped muddy sweat off their brows. Mark engaged Mary Lou into a conversation about the Marlins, which left Dar and Kerry standing next to each other against the slope.

”How’s the knee?” Kerry asked.

Dar shrugged and flexed the leg in question. ”It’s all right.” She leaned back against the dirt, feeling the coolness through the fabric of her shirt. The joint had stiffened up, but was more a nagging ache than a sharp pain, for which she was grateful.

The climb wasn’t helping, though she’d been able to use her arms and shoulders to pull herself up most of the way. ”Come on,” she exhaled. ”I vote we commandeer the damn bus and get the hell out of here the minute we get back.”

They all looked at Mariana, who stuck her tongue out at Dar. ”Only if you stop at the first blessed Dairy Queen we find, DR. I have to get the taste of that mint jelly out of my mouth.”

Dar brightened a little. ”Dairy Queen, hey, yeah. They do have those up here, don’t they.” Ice cream would just hit the spot, she mused, as she resumed her hunt for roots to grab onto. Her stomach still felt queasy, but she knew she’d never, ever been too nauseous to eat ice cream.

”You had to mention that,” Kerry sighed, as she climbed up next to her lover. ”Now we’ll be hearing about chocolate bonnets until we get there.”

”What’s that?” Duks inquired, offering Mary Lou a hand up next to him.”It’s a hardened chocolate shell,” Dar answered, with a half grin.

”They dip the cones in it, and let it harden.” She pulled herself up one more level. ”It’s messy as hell, but it tastes great.”

”I take it you’ve been subjected to that, Kerry?” Mary Lou asked, as she edged up the rocks.

”Oh yeah,” Kerry answered, then realized how that sounded. ”Um, one of the last Dairy Queens in Miami is just down the road from our Kendall office. We have to pass by there to and from meetings.”

”Uh, huh, I see.” Mary Lou nodded.

They continued to climb until Dar, in the lead, was almost at the top. She slid over one final bit and grabbed a tree hanging off the edge, pulling herself up and over onto the rough path they’d come in on.

No one else was there. ”Bastards,” Dar muttered, as she turned to put a hand under Kerry’s elbow to haul her up. ”Went on without us.”

”Those pigs.” Kerry’s brow creased. ”I can’t believe they did that.

We would have waited.”

The rest of the group came up and sat down on the path. ”Well,”

Mariana exhaled. ”That’s more exercise than I’ve gotten since I was in the Girl Scouts.”

”You have that correct,” Duks agreed, sprawling with his legs outstretched and leaning back on his hands. ”But we have made it, and 92

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