Jo was excited for the rogaine season starting up, she always loved the orienteering events because she got to see trails and places she never knew existed. The maps for the rogaine events were utterly different to anything else, they had trails marked that sometimes you could pass three times looking for the intersection before you found it. The map points were often in places you wouldn't visit on a run and the event felt like an adventure.
She had been doing the local rogaine runs for years and still the organisers managed to pick new areas to run courses on. The first one this season was brand new, Jo had run some of the trails but it wasn't exactly her stomping ground. Susan was going to join her on one of the later ones, once it was less dark at night, she wasn't overly fond of downhill running in the dark yet. This event Jo was doing alone. She was planning on pushing hard, going to the furthest out points first, they normally scored the highest points. She was feeling fast just now, strong, she was going to do well.
She packed her small camelback bag with the required gear, gloves, hat, emergency blanket, windproof jacket, first aid kit, water and food and of course her new compass. She also packed a spare battery for her head torch, fresh socks, some home made energy gels and some boiled sweets. She slipped her phone in the back and fitted her new GoPro to the backpack strap.
She was wearing her good thermals and her high vis wooly hat so she wouldn't be cold. Susans mum had bought her new shoes for her birthday too and they were only just worn in.
Her dad was going to drop her at the starting point on his way to work and she always got a lift home from the organiser. She looked again and realised she had forgotten a pen, she grabbed her favourite one, the one she kept for special occasions, Susan's purple gel pen. She smiled recalling her girlfriend giving it to her, it definitely brought her good luck.
She got in the car with her dad and realised he was listening to her CD, it gave her a little warm feeling in her chest. They didn’t say much on the way to the start point, it was a rural one, she far preferred the courses in the countryside to the urban ones but it did mean her dad had to drive a long way out of his normal route to take her. She knew he didn't mind but she still felt bad.
“Okay dad, have fun at work. I’ll text you to tell you I’m home safe.” She said, getting out of the car.
“Here, take this just in case.” He said, handing her a twenty. “You never know.”
She smiled at him and put it into her backpack, “I’ll give you it back tomorrow. But thanks.”
She watched him drive off before turning to the registration table which had been setup behind the organiser’s car. “So, is there going to be less gorse than the last one?” she asked cheekily.
“Nope, if anything more.” her friend replied. “It builds character.”
She laughed and gave the old man her entry fee, receiving a map, a code sheet and a plastic zip lock bag in return.
“So, any hints?” She asked, peering at the map and working out her planned route.
“Yep, run fast, find lots of map points, write the numbers down.” He said gruffly. He had never given her any other advice, it was almost a mantra now.
She laughed, “Good advice old man. Many people show up yet?”
“Nah, you're pretty early. Want a biscuit?” He asked, offering her a pack of digestives.
“Sure, budge up.” She answered, sitting down beside him in the boot of his car.
She helped him hand out the maps for a while, passing the time before the start.
“You’d best warm up.” He said to her, she had lost track of time and there was only a few minutes until the start.
Whilst she was stretching and warming up her friend did the pre-race brief, “Right, most of you, if not all, have heard this numerous times but listen up anyway. Time starts when I blow the whistle, it stops in three hours. If you are late, points will be deducted for each minute past the time. If you know you will be late and are not in trouble, call the number on the code sheet, if you are later than thirty minutes and have not called me, I will call you, if you do not answer, we will send out search and rescue.” He waited to let this sink in. “Do NOT make me send out a search party if you got cold and went home!”
“Now, scores are marked on the code sheet, if you get to a map point and cannot find the code on the shiny piece of fabric, take a photo of the location, if many people are unable to find that code we may still award the points. Take care and have fun!”
He blew the whistle and everyone scattered, some walkers heading to nearby points, some runners going clockwise, some anticlockwise. Jo headed with the people going anticlockwise as she knew the steepest bit would then be downhill.
She overtook many of the slower runners within the first few hundred meters and then kept pace with a group who were travelling at a decent pace. There were a few map points they passed at the beginning but they were only worth ten points, she had no plans to stop until the first fifty point one and then if she had time at the end she would grab as many of the local tens and twenties that she could.
When the group eventually reached the first point it wasn't obvious, the group she was behind milled about looking whilst she looked at the map. She worked out the point was actually off the track and about fifty metres up the hill, noticing a tiny side trail she followed it and found the marker. She wrote the four letter code on her sheet in her nice purple pen and took off, making a good distance on the group she had been following.
She looked at the map as she ran, using her compass to determine her location relative to the next point. It looked like it was up a stream bed to the right of the track so she figured she would see the stream easily. With her next attack point in mind she pushed on faster, hoping to get further Infront of the pack.
Right enough, a couple of kilometers in she heard the stream and after getting her feet wet wading she easily found the next marker. She was already a hundred points up and was only a half hour in, the next four codes were worth a hundred each.
She knew from the sheet that there were one thousand seven hundred points in total and there had been groups that almost got that number last year so, with that in mind she pushed on even harder.
By the time she reached the furthest marker she was fairly exhausted, she took a breather to have a drink and one of her energy gels. After catching her breath she checked the map again, marking some good geographical features as attack points and pushed on down hill.
It was down hill she loved, pushing at breakneck pace, trusting in your shoes and gravity to keep you upright at the edge of control. Her head torch lit the trail in a circle, outside of which was pitch black. She was hoping the footage from the GoPro would come out well, she hadn't tried it in the dark yet.
She passed a single runner coming the other way and waved, he was panting so hard that he couldn't talk and they were both going so fast that he was gone in a fraction of a second.
She rounded a bend and came across the first of her attack points, a cliff dropping off on the right hand side of the trail, so she slowed down, not wanting to miss the next feature.
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Just as she slowed, a figure in dark clothing lept from the shadows with a scream of "Die bitch!" Jo however was quick on her feet and had really good reaction times, she spun out of the way of the arms reaching to shove her and skidded to a halt a few meters down the track.
She turned around and there was no sign of anyone on the track. She looked around, her posture defensive and ready for a fight but there was no one there. Confused, she warily looked over the edge of the cliff. There was no obvious sign that anyone had fallen, her head torch only illuminating the closest foliage at the bottom of the rocky cliff.
“Shit.” She said out loud. She backed away from the edge and looked up the hill, wondering if her assailant had fled upwards.
“Fuck it.” She eventually said and pulled her phone from the depths of her backpack.
She dialled the organisers number and her friend answered on the first ring, “Jo, everything okay?” He asked, obviously having her number in his contacts.
“Erm, something weird just happened. Someone just jumped out at me and then disappeared. I don’t know if they ran off or if they fell down the hill but by the time I turned around they were gone.” Jo explained. “I don’t know whether I should be calling the police or mountain rescue or if I should just ignore it. What should I do Abe?”
The old man thought for a minute, “Well, they didn’t go past you? Is there anyone likely to be behind you?”
“Yeah, there was a group I passed a ways back, probably a few minutes out.” Jo replied.
“Okay, where are you?”
Jo looked at her map and estimated her position, then read out the map reference and said, “I can give you the GPS location once I’m off the phone.”
“Okay, wait for the next group to come and call me back. I’m going to tee up the mountain rescue guys.”
Joe hung up and sat down on the side of the trail. “Well shit. I guess I’m not winning this one.” She said sadly.
It took a few long minutes before the group she had passed arrived. They stopped, thinking she may have hurt herself considering she was sitting down.
“Did you pass anyone on the way down? Someone dressed in black?” She asked them.
They hadn’t passed anyone but the runner Jo had seen up the top.
“Damn, they probably fell in that case. Okay, I’m calling Abe to get search and rescue.” She picked up the phone, “You know, you guys may as well continue, no point all of us dropping out” she said before making the call.
The runners discussed this whilst Jo was on the phone.
“We’re going down the hill to see if we can find them, Lisa is going to stay and keep you company.” One of the men said, “The sooner we find her the better the outcome is likely to be, even if it’s just directing the rescue team.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.” Jo replied.
Jo then called her mum and explained before calling her girlfriend.
“Yeah, it might have been Tanya. I don’t know, it all happened so fast, I didn’t see anything really. Hopefully it’s on the GoPro. Yeah, love you too.” She finished the call and sat back with the other runner waiting for help to arrive.
“So, you think you may have known this girl?” The woman asked her.
“Yeah, she’s been terrorising my friends all year. We’re pretty sure she pushed one of them down a flight of stairs.”
“Well, I must say I’m impressed you even called the emergency services. I’m sure it would have been tempting to just leave her.” The woman suggested.
“Yeah, I guess, I never really even considered it.”
They sat in companionable silence, waving at passing runners and occasionally explaining the situation until someone called Jo’s phone.
“Abe! Did they find her?” She asked.
“Yeah, they're showing the rescue guys where she is just now. You can come back now, we don’t need you to wait up there.” Abe told her.
They left off at a fast run, the woman, Lisa, leading the way. Seeing that Jo was easily keeping up she sped up, and kept speeding up until they were both at breakneck speed. They stayed running flat out until they reached the carpark where the finish point was, whooping and high diving each other as they stopped, panting by Abe's car.
"The police want to see you Jo, that girl they pulled out says you pushed her." Abe said, returning from the Ambulance sitting a little way off with it's lights dark. "They're going to be another hour before they get the girl out. The place she landed is pretty far off the track and she's strapped to a stretcher in case her back’s broken. You'd better give them your side of the story before she gets here."
"Oh man, I swear she's a nutcase!" Jo said, walking towards the police officers at the other side of the car park.
"Hey, I'm Jo." She introduced herself, unhooking her GoPro from her bag strap. "Look, I know she's telling you some bullshit about me pushing her but hopefully the footage on my camera will back me up." She handed the camera to the police woman, "Honestly, I think she was trying to kill me up there, we're pretty sure she pushed my friend Lucia down the stairs at school and she's been verbally harassing us for months."
The police woman took the camera and placed it in an evidence bag. "Okay, come over here and we can take your statement." She led Jo away to the police car where Jo gave her as much detail as she could.
"Okay, you say she's been harassing yourself and your friends. Can people corroborate your story?" The officer asked.
"Oh, we have some footage of her attacking us at the ice rink, and my friend has some clips of her abusing us in the corridors. The guy in the ice rink would back us up, and we reported her to the school a few times." Jo said, not sure what else they could want.
"Hey, that's great, can you get your friend to bring in the footage? And we can talk with the guy at the ice rink, do you remember his name?"
"Erm, no but he was the manager, a huge dude, you know, man mountain sort of thing."
The officer smiled at the description and wrote it down. "Okay, I have your details. There's no point in keeping you so you can go home when you're ready."
"Okay, I’m getting a lift with Abe, the organiser so I need to stay till the end. Anyway, I don't want to miss the pizza!" She got up to leave.
"Oh, here's my card so that you can contact me. You've had quite a night, so make sure you talk to someone, and if you need to you can call me, even if it's just to chat about what happened." The policewoman said, handing her the card.
Jo thanked her and headed over to Abe.
"You know, Lisa here says she can take you home if you like." Abe said as she approached. "We still have an hour till the race ends and another half till I can leave."
"Not to be crass but, I'm really hungry, I was looking forward to the pizza!" Jo admitted. "Not so much looking forward to them carrying out the cray cray though!" Her slang for crazy amused Abe.
"Hey, I'm hungry too, how about I buy us pizza and we eat it at your house? We can talk to your mum on the way?" Lisa asked.
Jo thought about this for a bit, she didn't know the woman but Abe seemed to. Eventually realising she was quite cold and shaky she relented, "Yeah, I can call mum and Susan on the way. Thanks."
They picked up enough pizza to share with Jo's mum and Susan, it turned out her girlfriend had gotten her dad to drop her round when she heard about the attack.
They arrived at the flat and Lisa was really helpful, fielding questions from Susan and Jo's mum whilst Jo tucked into the pizza. She found that even after eating her fill and warming up, going so far as to change clothes, she was still shaking.
"Jo, you did well today, it's okay to be shaken when someone tries to kill you! You did everything right so you have nothing to worry about. Okay?" Lisa assured her as she made her way to the door. "I would have a hot shower and go to bed. It will all seem better tomorrow."
She said her goodbyes and left. Then Jo realised Susan had no way of getting home.
"Is your dad going to collect you?" She asked, coming back to the kitchen table.
"Your mum said I could stay the night." Susan explained.
"Oh, I should change the sheets!" Jo said with panic in her eyes, it would be the first time Susan had stayed at their house.
"I did it already Jo." Her mum said.
"Mum! You're not meant to be doing things like that!" Jo complained.
"Hey, I'm no invalid! Now, you and Susan go shower before bed. No hanky panky!"
It was dawning on Susan that Jo's mum might be daft.
They stood in the shower, Jo's body was actually cold to the touch, and she was shaking. Susan just held her, standing under the shower until the hot water ran out. It turned out she possibly wasn't daft at all.