The Ritual

back to where we started from yesterday at noon.’
    ‘As long as we don’t get lost again,’ Luke said. No one else took him up on the observation. Hutch and Dom stared at each other with tense faces.
    Dom’s jaw trembled. ‘And then another day to get back to the STF cabin we left two days ago!’
    ‘Agreed,’ Hutch said to Dom. ‘Or the same amount of time again to get to Porjus on your bad leg. So I think we should see where the track we used to get here goes, in the
opposite direction. Then see if we can cut down south from it at some point.’
    Dom frowned. ‘Well, it ran from west to east in a straight line. It’ll take us straight back out west. What’s west?’
    ‘Norway,’ Luke said.
    Dom slapped the map down against his thighs. ‘We need to get south, H, to come out on the other side of this blasted heath.’
    ‘You don’t say. But we can’t get through, dufus. There is no way we can move south from here. And we’ve enough food for one more day, tops. Considering how many calories
we’re going to be expending walking on this terrain today, we’ll need every crumb of it. For argument’s sake, if it takes us all day to get out, we’ll have to camp tonight
above the river. Tomorrow, on the outside of the blasted heath, our army will be marching on an empty stomach for about half a day. And that’s the worst-case scenario we are facing. So there
is no need to panic, but we have to make the right choice now. No indecision. I’m confident that if we just retrace the path it’ll lead us, more or less, above a good point to make an
exit. With any luck, the trail might naturally turn south at some point. Skaite can’t be that far. A day, day and a half tops at a very limited pace.’
    Luke lit another cigarette. ‘We cannot . . . cannot risk staying lost in this wood for much longer, H.’
    ‘Spark us one up, mate,’ Hutch said. Luke placed his cigarette between Hutch’s lips. He took another out of the packet for himself. Hutch squinted through the smoke at Luke.
‘The trail must go somewhere. It was cut out of this wood a long time ago. We didn’t follow it from its source, we just kind of happened across it yesterday and followed it east. We
originally came in on the far westerly side of a narrow band of forest. I brought us east to correct our position. Out west it gets really thick again. About thirty kilometres deep, I’d say.
But if we stay on the track we came in on for as long as we dare, we’ll move faster and avoid all of the fallen logs and shit that made Domja bitch like a baby yesterday. If we can then cut
south at some point, we could be out by late afternoon.’
    ‘But then . . .’ Luke rested the tip of his tongue between his teeth.
    Hutch looked at him, surprised Luke would object to his idea, again. ‘What?’ He heard the irritation hardening his tone.
    ‘That’s if the woods south of the track clear up at all. And following the track further west will mean new ground again. The unknown. Going somewhere else in this wood that might
not be an exit. Our precise downfall yesterday.’
    ‘Why would you make a track that just endlessly snaked around inside a wood?’ Hutch asked. ‘It has to be the vestige of a way in and out. There’s no sensible alternative,
Chief.’
    ‘I think there is. It’s total ball-ache, but we go back in the direction we came in, then try and pick up from where we crashed through yesterday. Or take that track north and hope
it leads to the top edge of the forest.’
    ‘Oh, fuck off!’ Dom cried out. ‘We’ve been through this! We’d have another day walking across those pissing boulders to get to where we started from. Or another
day’s walk to Porjus in the opposite direction.’
    ‘But we know the way we came in leads out of here for certain. This path might just stop two miles deeper inside this shit. Or run in a straight line to Norway. As soon as we put one foot
on it, it’s already leading us in totally the wrong direction.’
    Hutch blew out another geyser of grey smoke, and winced. ‘We got so turned around in there, mate. I honestly cannot say whether we will pick up our tracks again. And these two won’t
make it back through that crap. We have to stay on the level as much as possible. Phil, how’re your feets?’
    ‘Not good,’ he said, without turning his head. He’d put his hood up.
    ‘Fucking fucked up is what they are, like my knee,’ Dom snapped.
    Luke turned to face Dom. ‘Well, if