We picked up Julie last, and she came bounding out of her house with her usual jubilance, without a clue she was going to her death. "Hey, fuckers!" she called cheerily to Ashley and Fernie.

"Hey bitch," Ashley replied.

"What up," Fernie answered.

Then she climbed into the back of the jeep, beside me, and looked at me like I was some kind of purple alien. My dick immediately stiffened, pressing painfully against my jeans, and I tried to conceal my lust as I met her striking blue-eyed gaze. "Andy," she remarked cautiously.

"Julie," I returned the awkward salutation. As amazing as she was to look at, I really wished Fernie hadn't invited her. Or had invited her but not me. It'd been almost a year since I'd summoned enough courage to ask her out, but things were still weird between us.

She'd been completely courteous in her rejection, explaining that she just didn't want the drama of a relationship, and to her credit she still remained single, adding a ring of truth to that explanation, but it was a rejection all the same. I had poured my heart out, perhaps laying it on a little too thick, so any uncouthness between us was truly of my own making, but that made it no less unpleasant.

The morning of what would be her final day, Julie wore loose faded jeans and a beige rib cropped crew tee. It was not what most people would consider an exceedingly provocative outfit, but I was always a sucker for girls in jeans, and I absolutely adored a bare midriff. Julie had one of the sexiest belly buttons I'd ever seen, and here she was, sitting next to me with a small triangle of exposed skin around her navel, tempting my basest desire.

I resisted the urge to look for all of thirty seconds, maybe less. We had barely made it down the block from her house when my eyes wandered down to that cute little vertical slit set in the middle of her smooth, moon-colored flesh. I tried to be subtle. I tried not to stare. I believe I failed at both attempts.

She was hypnotizing. I don't know how long I lingered there, one second or twenty, but when I managed to tear my gaze away I saw her looking at me. Our eyes locked for the briefest of moments before mine flitted away in shame. Julie giggled and squeezed my shoulder, while simultaneously tugging at the bottom of her shirt in a vain attempt to hide her navel.

Neither action had the effect she intended. Instead of comforting me, her touch only fueled my untethered libido, and her shirt refused to meet the waistline of her jeans. Desperate for a distraction, I sought conversation with Fernie. "So where are we headed today?"

He glanced over his shoulder and grinned. "Deep into the jungle. I took my drone out last weekend and scouted a bunch of desert about thirty miles off I 40. There's a cave in one of those cliffs I want to check out."

"Nice, sounds like an adventure," Julie commented.

“That’s the spirit!” Fernie agreed with a little too much enthusiasm.

“You know me, always down for whatever.”

“That’s why I love this bitch,” Ashley said, “She’s fucking fearless.”

“Relax,” I butted in. “We’re going to explore a cave in the Arizona desert. We’re not exactly Lewis and Clark.”

“Way to dampen the mood,” Julie said admonishingly, and she made a pouty face that set my loins on fire.

Unruffled, Fernie stretched his right arm back behind the seat and offered Julie his phone. “Here’s some of the pictures I got of it.”

When Julie took the phone and began swiping through the photos, my interest was piqued in spite of my earlier scoffing. I didn't want to seem overbearing, so I tried to keep my distance and wait patiently, but I soon caught myself leaning over to get a better look. Julie noticed, and she moved closer and held the phone up between us.

I had to admit there were some interesting shots. This was no small cave in the side of a mountain. It went deep into the rock, too deep to properly gauge with these photos. As Julie scrolled forward, we saw another cave with a rope bridge anchored to the mouth, and Fernie explained that he thought the caves were connected.

"I think it's a tunnel. It comes out on the other side, and that bridge leads across a chasm to another tunnel in the next mountain. I was afraid to fly my drone through because I didn't want to crash it, but I'm curious to know what's inside."

"What do you think it was used for?" Julie asked, her eyebrows raised curiously.

“No idea, but we’re going to look for clues,” Fernie answered.

“Now we’re fucking Scooby Doo,” I muttered, and that got a chortle out of Julie.

“Maybe it’s cave people,” she speculated, and I could see the humor dancing behind her bewitching eyes.

“Cave people?” I asked.

“Yeah, like savages. Maybe they eat people.”

“You’ve seen too many movies,” Ashley told her with a giggle.

"Exactly, like some Hills Have Eyes shit," Julie continued, her soft lips now curled into a smile, "Or fucking Wrong Turn? Which one is it where the girl gets an arrow through her tit?"

"Wrong Turn 3," Ashley answered.

"Yeah, who's seen too many movies?" Julie asked with a smirk. “But wouldn’t that be something, if we have to fight some desert cave mutants?”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Fernie admitted. “I left my shotgun at home.”

“And I don’t want to get shot through the tit,” Ashley added.

“Aw, you guys are lame,” Julie lamented. “I guess it might just be some old mining equipment or something, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.”

“You think getting shot through the tit would be fun?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Probably not,” Julie conceded, and she looked down and thoughtfully cupped her perky right breast. A powerful surge went through my groin and I knew that was an image that would stay with me for a long time. “But getting chased by mutants? That would be a hell of a story to tell.”



The trip was around ninety minutes - thirty minutes of freeway followed by an hour of off-roading. Fernie pushed his poor Jeep to its limits trekking through the desert, easily averaging a steady thirty mile per hour clip, even when it meant our tires leaving the ground on the downward slope of a dune. I understand that’s part of the thrill of off-roading, but I’d prefer a more leisurely, and safe, approach.

Julie, on the other hand, was loving it. She kept her window down so she could pop her head out every few minutes, and the entire ride she was grinning, laughing, whooping and hollering with glee. She seemed almost disappointed when we reached our destination, but I suppose she took solace in the fact that we still had the return trip ahead of us. Sadly, she would not be making that trip.

Fernie was able to park less than a hundred yards from the cave he had scouted, so we had only a short climb before we reached the entrance. It was even more impressive up close. The mouth stood at least fifteen feet tall, and it was nearly twice as wide. We could see where it narrowed and a tunnel branched out to the right, but beyond that was a mystery. There were no obvious signs of human inhabitants up to this point, and I was convinced there would be nothing else of note besides the rope bridge. I had no idea how wrong I was.

"You ready, Clark?" Julie asked, nudging me with her elbow and sporting a stupid, goofy grin.

I knew she was referencing my earlier Lewis and Clark quip, but I pretended I didn’t. “Clark Kent? Are you Lois Lane?” I was trying to be witty and flirtatious, but her awkward laugh made me immediately regret it, and I felt the blood rushing to my face.

“Oh, Andy.” She spoke as an exasperated mother might when patronizing an unruly child, and I hated her for a moment.

“Dude, check it out!” Fernie called from up ahead. He was already in the cave and peering into the tunnel with his flashlight.

Julie and I were both eager to chase after him and leave yet another uncomfortable exchange behind us. She was far more nimble than I, so she beat me there, but I was okay with that. Being behind her meant an uninterrupted view of her gloriously rounded glutes flexing and contracting, and her ass was the perfect combination of both soft and firm, just plump enough to be sexy while still retaining a natural shape.

She glanced over her shoulder before we reached the back of the cave, and I tried to look away in time, but for the second time that day she caught me staring. We both pretended it didn't happen, but I knew she knew.

The tunnel began as little more than a crack in the rear wall, and it was not particularly maneuverable, with just enough room for us to squeeze through in single file. Fernie went first of course, since he had the flashlight, and Ashley followed. I let Julie go ahead of me, acting as if it was the gentlemanly thing to do, but once again I just wanted to look at her. I mean it was impossible not to.

Her shirt rode up as she turned sideways and eased herself past the outcrops of rock jutting into the crevice, and I caught a wonderful glimpse of bright, alabaster skin. I think she was conscious of my leering eyes by then, and as soon as she had enough room to adjust she yanked at the bottom of her shirt.

Once we were in the corridor we were able to face forward, but with little wiggle room. We had to remain in single file, and the ground was bumpy and uneven. It was clear that this formation was not created or shaped by humans. It snaked deep into the rock, and we followed it obediently for what must have been sixty or seventy feet, ducking at times and climbing at others, until it spilled into an expansive chamber.

This is where things really began to get interesting. The ceiling was initially scarcely over five feet high, all of us except Ashley having to hunch over just to move forward, but near the center of the alcove it rose to nearly twenty-five feet. Above that a crevice reached up to the surface of the mountain, allowing sunlight to bathe us in a soft, distant shimmer, and we could plainly see this for what it was - a living quarters.

Far to the left, where the western wall curved and became the northern wall and the ground was smoother, blankets and pillows were laid out, forming at least six makeshift bedrolls. Farther along the northern wall were niches in the stone which served as shelves, and clothes were piled within them. In the center of the chamber was a fire pit, with remains that had burned not long ago. The crevice that shed light on us also served as a chimney.

We drifted in different directions as we studied the scene. I gravitated left, toward the blankets and clothes, and Fernie moved towards the fire pit. The girls went right, where the ground was raised and I had seen what looked like a bucket of water, but nothing else of note.

The beds were matted and wreaked of sweat and what might have been piss. I knew long before I even got near them that their owners practiced poor hygiene, and I tried to imagine the hobos and vagrants that must call this place home. I wondered if they might be hiding in the shadows, watching us with a venomous mixture of fear, resentment, and contempt. "Maybe we should…" Shouldn't be in here, is what I meant to say, but I was interrupted by Ashley's scream.

Fernie was there within seconds, and I was still plodding past the fire pit when I heard Julie's high pitched voice exclaim, "Holy shit! Fucking Hills Have Eyes, I'm telling you." Ashley looked horrified, and Fernie's mouth was agape, but Julie had a wild glean in her eyes and half a grin on her lips. The poor girl really was fucking fearless. It would be her undoing.

There were piles of bones along the southern edge of the chamber. Most of them looked like animal bones. Canine and avian skeletal remains, which had most likely belonged to coyotes, turkey buzzards, and perhaps the occasional fox or owl, littered the ground. A few skulls lay among them, which were undeniably human.

“Okay, we need to get the fuck out of here, like yesterday,” I said.

Julie looked at me with those eyes of hers that could turn my knees to jelly. “Oh come on, Clark, don’t be a bitch.”

I didn’t know how to respond. It was madness - she was mad - but I felt my manhood being attacked. Clearly we needed to alert the authorities, not go playing Nancy Drew, but how could I tell her that and retain my chauvinistic pride? Instead it was Ashley that answered her.

“Julie.” It was all she said, but her tone and her expression said the rest. It was a plea for sanity. A plea to leave this place, and leave it in a hurry. Julie might have been rash, reckless, and headstrong, but she was not a sociopath. She was sensitive to her friend’s feelings. I thought for a moment she was going to relent.

She looked at me, weakening me with her gaze, then told Ashley, “Go on back to the Jeep with Fernie. Andy and I are gonna check this place out a little more.”

I should have rebuked her. I wanted to, but her stare melted my brain. It shouldn’t have even been possible for anybody to possess such beauty. I was powerless to resist.

I suppose some part of me thought it would be romantic to explore this cave with my crush. If by chance we did encounter danger, I might be able to prove myself a hero and save her life. It was every boy’s fantasy. I imagine she knew that, and she played upon it.

“I guess if you’re set on staying, I can’t leave you behind,” I conceded.

She laughed excitedly. “That’s my Clark.”

"Be careful," Ashley warned us with a worried look on her face.

"Five minutes," Fernie said sternly. "If you're not back in five minutes, we're leaving without you." We both knew he'd never leave us behind, but we nodded as if we didn't.

"Alright, Lois," I said, once it was just the two of us.

"Lewis," Julie corrected me. "You're my sidekick."

"Sure," I agreed sarcastically. "So what do you want to look at?"

"The tunnel continues over there," Julie pointed to the northeast corner of the chamber, opposite from where we entered.

"After you." I followed her to the shaft, which began almost as wide as the cave outside but quickly narrowed, and again my eyes drifted to her ass. It took all my self control to not reach out and squeeze one of those healthy, plump, round butt cheeks. Maybe I should have. Maybe things would have turned out differently if I had. She might have slapped me and decided she no longer wanted to be in my company. She might have appreciated the forward gesture and invited more of the same. Either of those things would surely have led to a better outcome than what we ended up with.

This tunnel was much more symmetrical and smooth, clearly shaped by human hands. It was also considerably shorter than the one leading into the chamber, and after less than forty feet we were back in daylight, staring across the rope bridge we had seen in Fernie's photos.

We looked at each other, and I could tell Julie had the same misgivings as I about testing the bridge's fortitude, but she was the bravest person I knew. "After me?" she asked, grinning that lively, bright-eyed smile that was always so eager to touch her lips.

I should have stopped her, but I agreed. "After you."

It was the first time I'd ever seen her hesitate, even if it was for the briefest of moments, but the moment passed and she took hold of the ropes that served as hand grips. Cautiously, she tapped her left sneaker on the first cross rope. After shooting me a quick glance, she leaned forward and screamed. I saw her start to go over, down into the deep abyss before us, and damned if I didn't freeze up. I wanted to reach for her and try to stop her fall, but I was afraid she'd pull me down with her.

I was standing still, eyes wide and jaw slack, when she looked back again and cackled with laughter. It had been a ruse, meant to get a rise out of me, and it had succeeded spectacularly. “You fucking bitch,” I told her, not without a smile. That only made her laugh harder.

She leaned forward again, in earnest this time, and the bridge held her. "It feels pretty sturdy," she noted. More and more of her weight shifted onto it, until there was nothing but rope separating her from a three hundred foot drop. Before trekking any farther along she bounced lightly, making sure there was no give. There wasn't. "Yup, it's sturdy."

The girl was deceptively graceful. Her figure was wasn't lithe or slender, but she moved with the dexterity of a gymnast. She was halfway across the bridge before I took my second step, and I was so focused on not falling to my death that I never noticed when she reached the other side.

It was only when she turned to watch me and cheer me on that I looked at her, and even then I had to tear my eyes away so I could focus on my footing. God what I wouldn't give to just stare into those magnificent blue eyes again. I was nearing the midway point when she warned me of the danger.

"Andy, run!" Her voice was hushed but urgent. Her earlier ruse flickered through my brain, but I knew this was not that. This was real. I glanced at her and followed her gaze to the cliffs behind me, and looking back, my heart stopped. It was what I had feared. There were four kids perched on the rocks, on either side of the opening from which we had emerged, with quivers of arrows hung at their hips and bows held at the ready. The cave’s inhabitants had found us.

Kids. They were fucking kids. The youngest maybe nine or ten, and the oldest no older than fourteen. It might have been reassuring, knowing that the ones keeping human skulls in their kitchen were even younger than we were, but they were comfortable with their weapons, possessing an air of confidence that chilled my bones.

I was a sitting duck out on that bridge, and I knew I had to move quickly. Unfortunately, panic got the better of me. I couldn’t feel my legs as my head swiveled back around, and my feet tangled beneath me. I didn’t know why or how, but I knew I had lost my balance, my grip on the rope bridge had eluded me, and I was falling.

I heard Julie scream, and I remember thinking that at least the last thing I'd hear before my life was cruelly snuffed out would be her lovely voice, even if it was a shriek of horror. Ropes went by me in a blur. I was tumbling; spinning; lost in vertigo and somehow upside down. I wondered how long it would take before my body was smashed against the rocks below, but for some reason I no longer felt like I was falling.

It must have taken a second or two to get my bearings, but I soon realized my foot had become entangled in the rope bridge. I tried to steady myself, fearing too much movement might loosen my already tenuous second lease on life. The slightest twist or turn could be the end of me. Then an arrow whizzed past my face and I forgot to be still.

I don't know how long I thrashed in panic, or how much piss I sprayed in my pants, but once I was finished screaming I tried to turn my head enough to see which kid would be the first to shoot me. Maybe if I was looking at the little cunt the arrow would go through my eye socket. I had time to wonder if it would have been better, easier, to have just fallen to my death and been done with it, but when I finally managed to catch sight of the little sons of bitches, they weren’t even aiming at me. Their target was above me.

Looking up, I was awestruck to see Julie back on the bridge. She had abandoned the safety of the cave in a bid to save my life. “Give me your hand!” she shouted, one hand pulling on my leg and the other reaching out to me. I immediately bent at the waste and grabbed her, and she hoisted me up like I was a bag of groceries. I must have outweighed her by forty or fifty pounds, but her strength was remarkable.

She helped me regain my footing and for a moment we looked at each other, my brown eyes dazed and shell shocked, hers steely blue, cool, calm, and full of compassion. I noticed a hole in her left bicep and realized it had been pierced by an arrow, but Julie must have pulled it out before she reached me. “You got shot,” I told her, and she simply nodded nonchalantly.

I had never been more thoroughly infatuated, more in awe of her beauty, than I was in that moment. I was admiring her high cheek bones, her strong jaw line, her perfectly white teeth glimmering beneath the goofy grin that played upon her soft lips, her celestial nose that tied it all together, when she broke up the moment with, “Hills Have Eyes shit, huh?” and she giggled inanely.

Reminded of how much danger we were in, I caught movement behind her and saw three more kids on the opposing cliff, the oldest a girl of maybe fifteen or sixteen, the other two boys who should be attending elementary school. Like their counterparts on the rocks behind me, they brandished bows, and I watched as all three released their drawstrings and sent arrows in our direction.

I clung tightly to Julie, using her body as a human shield, and I heard the sickening thumps as the sharpened tips met her soft flesh. I heard her quiet grunts as the shafts slid deep into her body, and I saw the smile fade from her face, replaced by dawning horror. I saw the tails of the arrows jutting in the air, one in her upper back, almost inline with her right tit. If there had been more force behind it, I imagine it might have slid right through her and exited her nipple, just like the Wrong Turn 3 scene she described earlier. Another had struck her lower and on the left side of her torso, and the third was embedded in her shapely left buttock.

She was reaching for the arrow in her upper back, perhaps hoping to pull it from her body as she had the arrow in her arm, but it eluded her. Instead, all she managed to do was pull her cropped tee high on her breasts, inadvertently exposing to me the entirety of her soft, flat tummy. I would have loved nothing more than to stand there, soaking in the view, but there were kids behind me, no doubt looking to do the same to me that the other three brats had done to Julie.

I spun around to face them, just in time to see them all fire on me in unison. I threw myself flat, no longer afraid of falling, and I heard the wind parting as the arrows buzzed over head. Again I heard Julie’s grunts as the projectiles buried themselves in her body, missing me and hitting her instead. Her reward for saving my life, I thought grimly.

“Fuck me sideways,” Julie muttered, and I wondered how bad the damage was.

Without looking back, I scrambled on all fours until I was close enough to dive to safety, and launched myself at the mouth of the cave from which we had emerged. I landed on my chest and skidded through dirt and gravel, but never had the feel of tiny jagged rocks tearing at my skin been so welcome. Having blissfully returned to solid ground, I flipped onto my back and surveyed the scene.

Julie hadn’t moved much from where I left her. She had given up on trying to retrieve the arrow from her back, but the arrows in her front prevented her shirt from settling, and I could still see all of her lovely midriff. It seemed the pale, creamy skin of her abdomen held both of our attentions, albeit for different reasons.

One arrow had been driven home just to the right of her navel, and she cupped that shaft gently with her left hand. Off in the left side of her belly were two more arrows, one nearly level with her navel and the other a few inches higher and farther to the side. Her right hand circled the latter of the two, and I couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince herself of their solidity or if she was considering plucking the shafts from her gut.

All three were jutting from bare flesh as soft and smooth as butter, and a fourth had pinned her shirt up, finding a path through her rib cage just beneath the swell of her right breast. I knew straight away she was dead meat, and I knew I'd never be in the presence of such an extraordinary girl again, so when our eyes met and she saw me staring at her midriff, I didn't look away. Her modesty no longer mattered, and I no longer had anything to hide.

"Lois Lane sure could use some help from Clark Kent right abouuuhhh," she said, her sentence cut short by another arrow in her back, courtesy of the teenaged girl behind her. It was a nice shot, directly into center mass as any good marksman is taught. One of the smaller boys on the far cliff sent a shot astray, missing his mark entirely, and the other found pay dirt in Julie's left hamstring.

Julie hobbled for a moment, torn between reaching for her wounded leg and clinging to the ropes for stability, and she had nearly steadied herself when another arrow whizzed forward from off to my left and buried itself in her right thigh. It brought her down, yet somehow she remained upright, her knees and shins delicately balanced on the shifty bridge beneath her, her hands clinging desperately to the ropes that acted as handrails on the catwalk.

"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck! Fucking fucking fuck," she cried, her voice full of heartbreaking frustration and pain and anger, and perhaps a touch of underlying fear, although on the surface she still appeared resolutely calm. Her string of obscenities was punctuated by another arrow, this coming from my right, which also found center mass and sank deep into her stomach, nearly two inches above her navel.

The other two kids on my side of the chasm fired, and one hit Julie in the fleshy part of her chest, up near her left shoulder, and the other pierced her right breast, right around where I imagine her nipple must have been. Julie grunted and moaned and her blue eyes widened, then she looked at me and said, "Shot through the tit. Hills Have Eyes shit."

"Wrong Turn 3," I corrected her, and that made her smile.

Incredibly, I watched as she began to stand. She had been hit with fourteen arrows and still she rose to her feet. Clearly she had not accepted her fate, and I could see her trying to move forward. She actually managed to take a step before the girl behind her shot her again, near the center of her back but a little low and to the left.

The other two boys on the far side put arrows in both her upper back, near her left shoulder blade, and in the upper curve of her left buttock. Grunting, twisting, torn between reaching for the numerous shafts buried in her body and gripping the ropes to keep her balance, Julie’s torment was palpable.

There was no reprieve for her, however. The kids on my side of the cliffs kept the volley going, and two more arrows smacked into her belly in quick succession, THWOK! THWOK! There was one maybe a centimeter to the left of her navel, and another an inch above and to the right. An arrow shaft appeared in her right breast, above the previous arrow already buried there, and another appeared in her right hip.

Her beautiful face contorted in a moue of pain, she told me, “I don’t wanna die.” I could hear the quiver in her voice, and I could see her fearlessness crumbling. Three more arrows quickly struck her, one near her spine in the small of her back, one in the back of her right shoulder, and one in the left side of her upper dorsal region. Her grunts had become small shrieks with each passing strike, and blood had begun to drip from her lower lip.

Her eyes went to the bridge, and I could see her trying to focus all her efforts on taking another step, but it was not to be. Yet another volley of arrows was launched from my side of the cliff, and all four found purchase in her tender flesh. The first pierced her right through the center of her perky left breast, the second through the lower curve of her right breast. The third drove deep into her abdomen, an inch and a half below her sternum, and the fourth sank into her right thigh, slightly above the arrow already embedded there.

Her immaculate balance was finally spoiled, and she flailed at the hand grips in desperation. The ropes evaded her and she fell through the bridge, into the vast chasm below. That should have been the end of it, but somehow she caught one of the cross ropes that made up the base of the bridge as she fell, and there she dangled, refusing to die with arrows jutting obscenely from all over her body.

Her stunning blue eyes looked up at me, and I could see the panic in her exquisite features. "Please," she told me, and then she reached out and grabbed the next cross rope, swinging herself forward like a kid on monkey bars. That was as far as she got before the teen girl behind her shot her again, this time in the lower lumbar region, just above the waistline of her jeans above her right butt cheek.

The two little boys accompanying the teen across the bridge fired their arrows, one missing entirely and the other finding the back of Julie's right hamstring. Julie scowled and reached for the next rung, faltered and nearly fell, swinging with her right hand grasping at air and her left clinging fiercely for life. It was in this position, dangling precariously over two hundred feet of empty space, that the next arrow found its way into her gut, slightly to the left and half an inch above her navel.

Julie cried out, and instead of reaching for the bridge her right hand went momentarily to her stomach, clutching at the latest shaft to puncture her flesh. Another arrow soon followed, driving through the outer rim of her pert left tit. With an agonized gasp, Julie waved her right hand wildly, then reached up and took hold of the bridge again. Seconds later an arrow punched through the muscles of her right bicep, and another pierced deep into her thorax cavity through her right armpit.

"Zooooo, I can't believe this is happening," Julie muttered, and she reached again for the next foothold with her right hand, but again she came up short. This time she did not make any effort to regain her grip on the bridge, and instead she simply dangled from one arm, her face the very definition of sorrow and dejection.

For a moment it seemed all of us, the murderous children included, could only watch the terrible tragedy unfolding - a wonderful, beautiful, courageous girl cut down in the prime of her life. The kids on the cliffs across from me had lowered their weapons, and for the first time since I spotted them they were not nocking arrows. I could see Julie wrestling with the reality of her situation, trying to come to terms with the fact that she was dying, but in the end her dogged perseverance won out one final time.

She made another stab at the next foothold, and at least one kid on my side of the chasm thought there was enough fight in her for him to quell, so he put another arrow in her stomach, an inch and a half above and two and a half inches to the right of her navel. The arrow punched into her gut just as the fingers of her right hand closed around the rope and she swung forward, her left hand now free and her right faintly clutching for dear life.

Two more of the kids on my side of the gap decided she hadn't had enough, and an arrow sliced through her right forearm, and another drove through the lower curve of her left breast. Julie wailed in horrible agony, her lips peeled back in a snarl, and she looked at me. I saw so many things in those expressive blue eyes - regret, terror, inconsolable sadness, despair and dismay - but what stuck with me, what still sticks with me to this day, was the resentment.

With those amazing blue eyes she was telling me she wished it was me. It should have been me. She had saved my life without a second thought, never thinking it would cost her her own, and I left her behind like a penny I'd dropped in a well. "Goodbye, Andy," she said softly, and her fingers slipped off the rope. She fell from my vision, and I never saw her again.

I turned and ran. I ran like the devil himself was after me. I made it back to Fernie’s Jeep and we sped away, leaving a poor, dead eighteen-year-old girl behind us. Well, she may have been dead. A forensics team later determined the fall didn’t kill her outright.

She was close enough to the cliff that she hit some brush and outcrops of rock on the way down, shattering her hip, fracturing her left leg in six places, and ripping open her belly. They said she crawled some forty feet from where she landed, her guts dragging in the dirt behind her, before succumbing to her wounds.