The Search Party

by Simon Lelic

The rest of us strained to listen.

  “Seriously,” Abi insisted. “I heard something.”

  “You’re imagining things,” said Mason, but he didn’t sound convinced.

  I looked out into the woods like the rest of them. I didn’t hear anything . . . but then I did. Footsteps, maybe, or . . . To be honest, I don’t know what I heard. But it was so dark all of a sudden, it could have been anything. And whatever it was, it would have been able to get right up close without any of us being able to see it coming.

  I’d been trying to get the torch working again, but this time it had given up for good. “This way,” I said. “Follow me.” I wasn’t certain, but I was pretty sure I knew the route back, or at least the general direction. And there was no sense us all just standing around, waiting for something to happen.

  “Which way?” said Abi. “I can’t even see where you’re pointing!”

  “Take hold of Cora’s hand,” I told her. “Cora, you latch on to Mason.”

  “No fucking way,” said Cora. “Not while he’s holding that bottle.”

  “I’m not exactly going to put it down now, am I?” said Mason, and even though he was trying to hide it, he sounded almost as scared as Abi did.

  “Here,” said Luke. “Take my hand, Cora. Mase, you grab on to me.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Mason snarled. “Just get moving, will you?”

  We set off, blindly at first, practically having to feel our way with our feet. But gradually our eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and soon I could see the outline of the trees. Enough that I didn’t lead the others right into them, anyway. Instead, what I did was, I led them all over the bank into the stream.

  I didn’t do it on purpose. One moment the ground was solid beneath my feet, the next there was nothing under them but air. Before I could pull myself back, I was falling, pulling Cora down with me. We were so wet by this point, it hardly mattered that we landed in the water, but the stream was low enough that it was mainly rocks, and I felt one of them jar against my spine. Cora must have hit her knee again, because she cried out, and I heard the others tumble after us, too. Luke was first on his feet, and he reached to give me a hand up. Abi, beside us, was doing her best to help Cora, in between sobbing and wiping at her eyes. Mason had stopped short of the stream just in time. His shadow was looming over us from the top of the bank.

  He slid down the mud, and stood watching as the rest of us struggled to our feet.

  “Everyone OK?” said Luke, looking mainly at Cora.

  “Just fucking dandy,” she replied.

  I stood up and rubbed at my back. “Well,” I said, through the pain. “At least we know we’re heading in the right direction.”

  Even so, it took us long enough after that to find the cave. It was so dark out there without the torchlight, it’s a miracle we found it in the end at all. By the time we did, Cora was limping worse than ever, and Abi’s breathing sounded so panicked, I was worried she was going to pass out.

  “I’m not going in,” she said, when we finally spotted the shadow in the bank. “I’m not. I don’t even care about my stuff.”

  “I’ll get everyone’s stuff,” said Luke. “You lot wait out here. And . . .” He looked behind him, at the wall of trees, and raised a hand to the cut on his head. “And keep an eye out, will you?”

  I swallowed, and turned to do as he’d said. Mason was the only one to go inside with him. They vanished the moment they took a step through the opening, and they were gone for so long I started to worry that something might have happened to them. I don’t know what. To be honest, I found myself imagining all sorts of things. That maybe whoever was out there had got ahead of us, and was lying in wait inside the cave. Or that Mason had decided to use that bottle after all. He’d dealt with Luke, and next he would be coming for the rest of us. I even found myself wondering if he might have used something similar on Sadie.

  But just when I was about to call out, a light flicked on in the darkness. There were footsteps, and Mason appeared through the shadows.

  “Where’s Luke?” said Cora, immediately, and I could tell she’d been having the same thoughts I’d had.

  Mason seemed to realize what it was she was really asking. He sneered—and just at that moment, I felt certain that all of it was true. Everything everyone had been saying about him.

  But then a second torch beam shone out through the darkness, and all at once Luke was standing at Mason’s shoulder.

  “Here,” he said. He tossed me my rucksack, and Abi hers. His own bag was already on his back, Dylan’s compass open in his hand. “You said west. Right, Fash?”

  “Right,” I said, with one eye on Mason. He was holding Cora’s bag, I noticed. She snatched it from him without saying a word.

  And then we were moving again. Luke had the compass, so he took the lead. Abi was next, and it was obvious she felt safest sticking close to Luke. Me and Cora were just behind her, Cora’s arm still looped around my neck. Mason was on his own farther back. I’d caught him glancing once or twice over his shoulder, but mainly he seemed to be watching us.

  The second torch lasted another hour. If we’d been smart, we would have used them one at a time, rather than having them both on simultaneously. Luke held one of them, obviously, seeing as he was the one acting as our guide. Mason had given the other one to me when we’d been outside the cave. Thrust it at me, actually. He wanted to keep one hand free, he’d said, and I guess he preferred to give up the torch than the broken bottle.

  It was the torch I was holding that went out first. Not like the first one had, in stages. One moment it was working, the next it wasn’t. I tried giving it a shake, but it didn’t help. I kept hold of it even so, because it was old, which meant it was also big and heavy. It wasn’t quite a broken bottle, but it was better than nothing.

  We walked for ages. Hobbled, rather, in Cora’s case. I guess the road was farther than I’d thought. I’d figured we’d reach it in a couple of hours—three, tops—but when my watch showed four o’clock in the morning, there was no sign we were any nearer where we wanted to be. We’d left the cave at just past midnight, meaning we’d been moving for four hours straight. Personally speaking, I was exhausted. Cora was doing her best to hold most of her weight, but every so often she’d stumble, and catching her was getting harder and harder each time. But it just goes to show how afraid we all were, that not even Abi asked for a break.

  “Why do you reckon whoever’s out there attacked Luke?” Cora said to me as we walked. Mason was still somewhere behind us, and Abi and Luke were up ahead.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe just because he was there. Because he was the one who got closest.”

  I didn’t know if that was reassuring or not. I didn’t even know if I’d meant it to be.

  We walked on, alert for any noises among the trees.

  “Cora,” I said, after a moment. “Those voices you heard. Back there near the clearing. Did you recognize them?”

  Cora shook her head. “To be honest I’m starting to wonder whether I heard anything in the first place. Or, if I did, whether it wasn’t just Mason and Luke.”

  “But you said one of them was a girl’s voice.”

  “That’s what I thought. At the time.”

  Which made it sound as though she might have changed her mind.

  “I’ve been wondering,” I said, after another pause. “About what Mason said before. I mean, you don’t think it could have been Lara, do you? Her and one of those cretins from the river? And this is all their idea of a practical joke?”

  Cora nodded toward Luke. “Some joke,” she said. “Trying to decapitate someone with a tree branch.”

  “Or not a joke then. Maybe they’re the ones worried about what we’ll find. Maybe Luke almost did find something. Maybe that’s why they attacked him.”

  “Maybe,” said Cora. Sh
e thought for a minute. “Although . . . I mean, this is probably going to sound stupid. But if Lara were behind what’s been happening, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t feel this scared.”

  She was wrong. It didn’t sound stupid at all.

  “Shit.”

  It was Luke’s voice, from up ahead.

  “What’s wrong?” I called to him, and he and Abi slowed down enough for the rest of us to catch up. Mason was hanging back, still keeping his distance from the group.

  “This torch is running out of juice, too,” said Luke. “It’s not going to last much longer.”

  I’d noticed the light flickering as we walked, but had assumed it was something to do with the trees coming between us and the beam. But Luke was pointing it directly at our feet now, and I could see exactly what he meant. The light was weaker—rusty orange rather than bright white—and when Luke moved the torch even a fraction, the beam wavered.

  “Turn it off a sec,” I said.

  “No, don’t!” said Abi, panicking.

  I was looking up at the sky. “Trust me,” I said. “Try it.”

  When Luke did, the world went black. But only for a moment.

  “You see?” I said. “It’s getting lighter. The sun must be coming up.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call this light,” said Cora, looking out into the gray.

  “But we can see each other, at least,” I countered. “Which is more than we could without the torchlight before.”

  “Jesus,” said Luke. “We must have been walking all night.”

  “Do you think we’re nearly there yet?” said Abi. “The road. Or the edge of the forest. Or wherever it is we’re supposed to be going.”

  I felt the slight optimism I’d been feeling wane. It wasn’t just the fact that we’d been walking for so long without any sign of progress. All of a sudden, the predawn light felt even creepier than the dark. It was like the difference between ducking your head under the covers at night, or daring to peer out into your bedroom. It should have been reassuring, being able to see better. But there were shapes out there in the shadows I didn’t trust.

  “We’re still heading west,” I said to Luke. “Right?”

  “See for yourself,” he answered, and he showed me the compass.

  “Unless west is the wrong direction,” said Mason. He was standing just far enough away that I couldn’t see his expression, but I was fairly sure he was looking at me.

  “Don’t say that,” said Abi. “Please don’t say we’ve been going the wrong way. Fash? We haven’t been, have we?”

  “No,” I said. “No, I . . . No. South would have taken us the way we came. North would have led us deeper into the woods. East would have taken us to the river.” It sounded logical when I spelled it out like that, but even so, I found myself uncertain. It was because I was so tired, I expect. And not just from walking. Being on edge for so long, being afraid . . . It takes it out of you. I could tell the others were feeling it, too.

  “I say we go back,” said Mason, and the rest of us turned to him, incredulous.

  “Go back?” I said. “Go back where?”

  “Where we just came from.”

  “Are you joking?” said Cora.

  But he wasn’t. “Has anyone heard anything?” he said. “Since the cave, I mean. The whole time we’ve been walking. Any footsteps? Any voices, Cora? Anything at all apart from the rain?”

  “Just because we haven’t heard anything doesn’t mean there’s nothing out there,” Cora said. “It doesn’t mean we should be talking about going back.”

  “Guys, look,” I said, interrupting. I pointed into the distance. The dark was definitely lifting, and I’d seen something through the gloom. Something that didn’t belong.

  “What are you pointing at?” said Abi. “I can’t see anything.”

  Mason didn’t even bother to turn his head. It was like, he was so convinced one of us was lying to him—that we all were, maybe—that he didn’t dare take his eyes off us.

  “There,” I said. “See?”

  “I see it,” said Luke.

  “Is that a building?” said Cora.

  “Where?” said Abi. “Guys, show me! I can’t—” And then I guess she could.

  “Oh, thank Christ,” said Cora.

  I looked at Luke and grinned. He gave half a smile back. Mason was frowning into the distance, but I could tell he’d seen it, too.

  “What are we waiting for?” I said.

  Cora had been holding herself up against a tree, and she wrapped her arm back around my shoulder. Suddenly, somehow, she was half the weight she’d been before.

  “Does that mean we made it?” said Abi. “Does that mean we’re out?”

  “It means we’re somewhere,” I said, glancing back at her. “Which is better than where we were before.”

  “Do you think they’ll have Wi-Fi?” said Abi. “Do you reckon they’ll let us use their password?”

  I glanced at Cora, and all we could do was laugh.

  It was Abi and Luke who got there first. They’d pulled in front of me and Cora as we’d started walking again, even though we were going as fast as we could. And right away, when I saw them stop abruptly up ahead, I could tell that something was wrong.

  “Guys?” I called. “What is it?”

  Luke turned to face me as we drew near. I looked over his shoulder.

  “I’m pretty sure they don’t have Wi-Fi, Abi,” said Mason, who’d appeared by my side.

  The entire place looked as though it had been abandoned decades ago. There were two barns, one of them basically a shell. And as for the cabin . . . Well. You know. You’ve been there. I suppose we shouldn’t have been so surprised. I mean, we were in the middle of the woods, twenty miles from civilization. What were we expecting, a McDonald’s drive-thru?

  Even so, it was a blow when we already felt battered enough. It was like in a movie or something, when a group of people get lost in the desert, and the oasis they spot in the distance turns out to be a mirage.

  “We should check it out anyway,” said Luke.

  So we started forward. But it didn’t take long for us to confirm that there was nothing there. Nothing we needed, anyway. No sign of life. Nobody we could ask for help. After five or ten minutes’ looking, we stood staring at the buildings in the rain.

  “If . . . if there are buildings here,” I said, “we can’t be that far from the road. Right?”

  “Unless the buildings were built before the road was,” said Cora. Which, looking at the state of them, seemed entirely possible.

  “But there must be a path or something somewhere,” I said, searching the tree line. “Look, there. That gap. That looks like it goes in the right direction. What do you say we keep walking? We can’t be that far now from—”

  “No.”

  We turned, to see Mason standing on his own.

  “Mase?” I said, and I could hear the uncertainty in my voice. “Mate, listen. We’re almost out. I can feel it. Maybe . . .” I brightened, remembering. “The phone. Maybe we should try the phone. At least now, if we get through to someone, we can let them know exactly where we are.”

  “And where’s that, Fash?” said Mason. “Because it seems to me all we are is further away from where we’re supposed to be.”

  I frowned, not understanding what he meant. “They’ll have maps,” I explained. “That’s all I’m saying. If we call, and tell the police we’re near some buildings . . .”

  “Call the police. That’s your solution. Because that was working out so well before.”

  “What the hell else do you suggest?” snapped Cora. “Try it,” she said, turning to me. “Try the phone. At least see if there’s any signal.”

  I patted my pockets. “I don’t have it. I . . .” And then I realized. We all did.

  When we lo
oked at him again, Mason was holding the phone in his hand. The one that wasn’t gripping that broken bottle. And then he slipped the phone back into his pocket.

  “The drinking water,” he said. “The first night. Which one of you did it? And the phones. Our phones. Which one of you took them? Because one of you did, I know you did—and whoever it was also stole my knife.”

  “Your what?” said Cora.

  “My knife! The one I brought with me! To protect myself!”

  “You brought a knife?” Cora cast around at the rest of us. “What, a broken bottle wasn’t enough for you?” She shook her head. “Luke was right. What he said to us all at the start. You are a psychopath!”

  Mason looked at Luke, who swallowed. And Mason’s smile . . . I mean, it wasn’t really a smile. There was just a little curl to his lips, as though what Cora had just told him confirmed everything he’d been thinking all along. That we were all against him. That the world was.

  “Wait,” said Abi. “Does that mean whoever’s out there has got a knife?”

  “There’s no one out there!” Mason said. “There never was! It was all just lies. All of it. Right from the start. Who here can prove they actually saw anyone? Even you, Luke. You told us. You admitted it. You didn’t see who attacked you. Meaning it could have been any one of the three people standing next to you.”

  “No, Mase, I told you, I’m certain it wasn’t. One hundred percent! Just like I know it wasn’t you. And what I said before, it—”

  Mason dismissed what Luke was saying with a flick of that bottle. “Oh, wake up, Luke, for fuck’s sake. Cora sees someone in the night. She hears voices that no one else does. Abi comes running because of a noise only she heard in the woods. Fash claims he saw someone, but surprise, surprise, nobody else is around to back him up.” Mason scoffed, and shook his head. “At least one of them has been lying, trying to get the rest of us spooked. Like with the water, the phones, my knife. It was all a trick to send us running, our tails tucked between our legs. And when we didn’t, they upped their game. Took a swing at you in the dark. Probably because by then we were getting closer.”

  “Closer to what?” I said.