The Hike by Drew Magary Page B

itself. The lactic acid was building up in every muscle, chewing away at the fibers. He let out a deafening grunt with every step. He wasn’t going to make it. He would fall, and this time he wouldnot land safely on a magical resort beach. He would land exactly where he expected to land.
    â€œPush!” Crab yelled.
    â€œI can’t. Crab, I can’t breathe.”
    â€œYou’re almost there. Don’t puss out on me.”
    Ben pressed on. The movements were automatic now, an afterthought in his mind, given all the neurological fires his brain had been tasked with putting out. He reached the lip of the cliff face and rested, gathering his last few scraps of energy before heaving himself up onto the ledge. The last part of any journey is always the longest.
    â€œI wish you were bigger,” he said to Crab.
    â€œI was wishing that long before you were, Shithead.”
    Ben hoisted himself up and rolled onto the vast ledge halfway up the mountainside and then lay flat on his back. He made it. He started to laugh. At first a chuckle. And then, a guffaw. Crab backed away.
    â€œFuck you!” Ben screamed over the edge. “I did it! WOO-HOO!”
    â€œHey,” said Crab.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI know you’re having fun trash-talking a mountain and all, but you better move.”
    Crab stuck a pincer out. From the right, there was a thick black cloud approaching. It swept along the sea like a ghost unshackled. There was only one place for them to find shelter: the gaping cave mouth above them, a winding ledge leading directly into its maw.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FERMONA
    C rab and Ben did two laps around the mountain, ever so slowly, finally arriving at the cave mouth. Ben could see skulls and large femur bones strewn about the entrance. He could see the pores in their surfaces. All the bones were broken open, the marrow inside frozen black.
    They ducked into the cave. Ben only got a few feet in before he realized there would be little in the way of natural light to guide them. He slumped to the ground, opened up his rucksack, and choked down more of the stew, plus some hard cheese. The cave entrance grew five shades darker as the clouds pounced and the pelting rain fell outside in wide, dense sheets, as if the sky itself were now entirely underwater.
    Ben slid down onto his side and rested his head on a family of spiders. They burst apart like a firework and ran mad dashes across his face. He stood and shook them off, the sensations of their little legs lingering all over him.
    â€œYou’re here!” a voice called from deep inside the cave. It was a woman’s voice. Warm. Friendly. “Come on! Let’s go. Don’t keep me waiting forever.”
    Ben looked to Crab. Crab threw his pincers up.
    â€œNo idea.”
    â€œYou should stay here,” Ben said.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œIn case I need you.”
    â€œIt’s boring here,” Crab said.
    â€œPeople get bored because they’re boring.” Ben must have said this to his children a thousand times.
    â€œI’m not a person. I’m a crab. I’m allowed to get bored sitting here in a shitty cave.”
    â€œJust wait here so you don’t die. I bet death is even
more
boring than this.”
    â€œIt better be.”
    â€œShut up.”
    Crab planted himself down by the cave wall and covered himself in grime. He was impossible for Ben to see now.
    â€œWhat if we don’t see each other again?” Ben asked Crab from the darkness.
    â€œThen it’s been real, I guess.”
    Ben unstrapped his crampons and tucked them back into his bag, and then he began walking along the path into the growing darkness. It was damp here. You could feel it in the air and smell it in the rock. Fungi thrived in the cave. . . . They were probably growing inside Ben’s nostrils already. He clicked on his flashlight and saw the path curve to the right. There was a hint of light coming from