Gray After Dark

The narrative skips to three months earlier. Miley is focused on reaching peak physical fitness for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. She hopes to win a medal in the biathlon—a sport that involves repetitive cycles of cross-country skiing alternating with rifle shooting. She takes a seasonal job at the Hidden Springs Resort so she can train in the Frank Church Wilderness, which spans over 2 million acres.

On a training run, Miley works on slowing her breathing and pushes through the pain in her shoulder. Although her joint has healed from a car accident years earlier, she experiences phantom pain in this area. Miley’s sports psychologist believes the pain is caused by trauma and guilt, as Miley blames herself for her mother’s death in that accident. However, Miley has dismissed recommendations to see a therapist.

Enjoying her solitude in the majestic landscape, Miley sees a great horned owl. She thinks of her mother, Jane, who enjoyed seeing animals in their natural habitat. However, Miley’s pleasure is spoiled when she sees a severely injured rabbit in the brush. She realizes she interrupted the owl’s kill, leaving the rabbit suffering.

Miley’s best friend, Brent, is also a biathlete. While Miley is an ace shot, Brent is one of the fastest skiers. In February 2022, Miley and Brent competed in the mixed medley at the Beijing Olympics. When Miley rushed a rifle shot and had to undertake a penalty lap, Brent stated she should have taken longer to control her breathing before shooting. Miley, in turn, criticized Brent for losing his cool when another skier overtook him. Both were disappointed when they didn’t place.

After the race, Brent signaled he wanted to be more than friends, but Miley was not ready for their relationship to change. Still devastated by the loss of her mother, she felt she did not deserve love.

Miley becomes friendly with Wes, a staff member who has worked at the Hidden Springs Resort before. Wes describes himself as “a plant nerd” (28) as he loves nature but is not athletic. He is shocked to learn that Miley has been out running alone, revealing there are bears in the Frank Church Wilderness.

Wes gives Miley a pepper spray can on a keyring to take on her next run. Miley thanks him but believes his fears are unfounded.

Miley misses Brent, but when she calls him in Colorado, she is unable to say so. Brent is concerned to hear there are bears in the Frank Church Wilderness and warns her not to stray too far from the resort.

Brent misses Miley. They met as teenagers on the biathlon team, and he has loved her for years. He hoped that Miley felt the same way.

Miley reluctantly joins a staff event led by Jennifer Douglas, the resort’s owner. Jennifer asks Miley to share what she has learned about herself since arriving at Hidden Springs. Miley cannot think of an answer, and Wes intervenes, saying Miley has realized she is stubborn. Miley admits she was reluctant to carry bear spray when Wes first insisted. Jennifer reveals that a staff member named Rayna Carposa went missing in the Frank Church Wilderness four years earlier.

Jennifer explains that a bear killed 19-year-old Rayna, who had just graduated from high school and had a cross-country running scholarship at Yale. Like Miley, Rayna trained when she was not working. After her disappearance, the bloody shreds of Rayna’s clothing were found. Wes confirms that he met Rayna during his first summer at the resort and liked her. Miley privately reasons that more people die in car accidents than bear attacks.

On Sunday morning, Miley declines Wes’s invitation to a social event, explaining she is going for a run. Midway on her route, she stops at an alpine lake and swims in her underwear. Miley hears gunshots, and a terrified bull moose runs out of the trees, plunging into the lake. A second gunshot hits the moose, and the animal drowns. Miley is shocked, reflecting that it is not hunting season. Two bearded men appear on the lake’s shore. The younger man congratulates himself on killing the moose while his older companion points his rifle at Miley, ordering her out of the water.

Miley dives down, holding her breath underwater for as long as possible. When she reemerges, a bullet narrowly misses her face. Miley reluctantly swims toward the men while removing her fitness tracker and hiding it in her hand. She prepares to run.

As Miley tries to escape, the older man, Fred, cuts her arm with a knife. His son, Hamish, grabs Miley, staring admiringly at her long blonde hair. Miley hopes to reach the can of pepper spray attached to her abandoned shorts, but Fred gets to it first and rubs Miley’s clothes on her bleeding arm. Miley is horrified when Fred pulls up her sports bra, exposing her breast, and she drops her fitness tracker. Before she can retrieve it, Hamish grabs her by the hair. Fred rips Miley’s bloodied clothing to shreds with his knife and throws the tracker into the lake. He refers to Miley as his son’s “prize.”

Hamish suggests that they should give Miley her shoes back. Fred refuses, pointing out that she cannot run away if she is barefoot. The men chain Miley around the waist, and Hamish pulls her along like a dog, taking her deeper into the forest. Miley tells the men her name, hoping it will “humanize” her. However, Fred declares that Hamish will choose a new name for her.

Hamish announces that Miley’s new name is Ruthie Sue. Miley struggles to walk as splinters and pine needles stab her bare feet. Fred slaps the back of her head to make her walk faster, telling Hamish he must “break” a woman to tame her. When Fred rips out a handful of Miley’s hair, Hamish gets angry, warning his father not to touch “his woman.” However, Hamish cowers when Fred lunges at him. Miley notes that Hamish seems more merciful than his father and wonders if she can exploit this. When Fred punches Miley in the face, knocking her to the floor, she locks eyes with Hamish, but he turns away. Noticing the bundle of her hair on the ground, Miley has an idea.

Brent receives a call from Jennifer Douglas. She reveals that Miley listed Brent as her emergency contact and tells him she is missing. Jennifer reported Miley’s disappearance to the police on Monday afternoon. However, she was last seen on Sunday morning when she told her coworker, Wes, she was going for a run. Miley’s Jeep is missing; they have no idea which of the hundreds of routes in the Frank Church Wilderness she took. A police search is underway.

Brent drives through the night and arrives at the Hidden Springs Resort the next morning. He is greeted by Wes, who asks how he knows Miley. Brent guesses Wes has a crush on Miley and immediately dislikes him.

At night, Fred and Hamish set up camp, chaining Miley to a tree. By the second night, the pain in Miley’s feet far exceeds the ache in her shoulder. She realizes there is little chance of rescue as nobody knows her running route or where she parked her Jeep. Her only hope is that someone might see and follow the trail she has left. While walking, she surreptitiously pulled out strands of her hair, leaving them on trees and shrubs at waist height.

As the men sleep, Miley saws away at the tree trunk with her chains, hoping to escape. However, Hamish wakes and catches her, tightening her chains. Miley spits in Hamish’s face when he calls her Ruthie Sue, insisting her name is Miley. He slaps her, declaring Miley no longer exists.

Fred declares that Miley will be grateful that she is with them “when SHTF” as they have plentiful supplies to outlast “any disaster.” He is scornful when Miley asks if they are “preppers,” asserting they are the last of the “real men.”

When a doe runs in front of them, Fred shoots it, but the wound is not fatal. The doe drags itself into the trees with a shattered leg. When Fred does not follow, Miley asks why he does not kill the animal. The men laugh, asserting that the land belongs to them and they make their own rules.

As they walk deeper into the forest, Miley’s fighting spirit deserts her, and she hopes that Brent will find her. They reach a sign that states, “Protected by God and Guns” (107), and Miley sees a cabin. A woman stands in the doorway holding a chicken and waving. Fred whispers to Miley that Mary belongs to him, but Hamish will “share.”

Mary wears a “long, pioneer-style dress” and has a patch over her left eye (109). She looks unhappy to see Miley but seems reassured when Fred introduces her as Hamish’s fiancée. The cabin is clean and tidy, but metal shackles are chained to the living room wall. Hamish instructs Miley to sit beneath the shackles, explaining she will remain chained up until she is sufficiently tame to marry. Miley is too weak to disobey, and as Hamish places her in the shackles, she begins to hyperventilate. Taking slow breaths, she regains control. Miley asks if she can clean her feet, but Fred refuses. Referring to her forthcoming marriage to Hamish, Fred jokes that while his son may not be handsome, “[all] cats look gray after dark” (112).

When Miley asks to use the bathroom, Mary brings a bucket and toilet paper. Hamish reveals that he and Fred are going on a hunting expedition the next day. He instructs Mary to only clean Miley up once she has “earned it.” Miley cannot believe they are leaving her alone with Mary, anticipating an imminent escape.

At the search party’s base camp, Brent asks the officer in charge about nearby lakes. He explains that Miley liked to swim on her running routes.