Signal Lost, Heart Found

Jordan's iPhone died at 2:47 AM—the exact moment Maya finally messaged him back. Three weeks of ghosting, and now this? His charging cable had frayed somewhere between the campfire s'mores and his tent, leaving him staring at a black screen like it held the secrets of the universe.

"Bro, you look like a zombie," Malik whispered, unzipping his own sleeping bag. "What's wrong?"

"Maya finally replied, and my phone died. Right as I was gonna respond."

Malik snorted. "That's not the zombie part. That's just being chronically online. The zombie part is your face."

Jordan flipped him off, but they both froze when something rustled outside. Not squirrel-sized. Bear-sized.

"Yo," Jordan breathed. "Is that—"

"Shh."

The tent fabric bowed inward. Something sniffed, hot breath steaming through the nylon. Jordan gripped his dead iPhone like it was a weapon, which was pathetic, really. What was he gonna do—text it to death?

"Bear," he whispered. "There's literally a bear out there."

The creature huffed, clawed at something—probably their cooler, which still had Malik's mom's orange chicken from last night's dinner—and lumbered away. They waited ten minutes before breathing again.

"Dude," Malik said, shaky laughter bubbling up. "That bear was totally gonna rob us for that orange chicken."

Jordan stared at his useless phone, then at Malik, who was still grinning even though they'd almost died. Maybe that was the thing about being sixteen—everywhere you looked, something was trying to eat you alive. Bears. Anxiety. The way your stomach dropped when someone finally noticed you.

"Tomorrow," Jordan said, "we're buying ten backup cables. And locking the cooler in the car."

"Deal." Malik fist-bumped him in the dark. "And, bro? Maya's reply can wait. You literally survived a bear attack. That's gotta be worth at least, like, three cool points."

Jordan smiled into his sleeping bag. Maybe the zombie look wasn't so bad. At least zombies got through stuff, one brain at a time.