Uncharted Journey (The Uncharted Series Book 6)

by Keely Brooke Keith

  Bonus Chapter One of Uncharted Destiny

  Bailey Colburn clung to a plastic two-way radio. She held it close to her face as if the voice coming from the speaker was the last puff of oxygen left in a suffocating world. Her scarred heart raced with all that she wanted to tell Professor Tim, and all that she couldn’t. She drew a calculated breath and pressed the radio’s talk button.

  “It’s all true, Tim. Everything Justin Mercer told me about a ship full of American families being marooned on an uncharted land in the eighteen sixties. The part about there being a storybook village here called Good Springs. And about my relatives living here. It’s all true.”

  Her words poured out as fast as her life was changing. “I met my cousins—well, my distant cousins. John Colburn welcomed me into the family home.” She glanced around the lamp-lit bedroom John said was hers for as long as she needed it. “It’s really nice. Antiquated but nice. I wish you had made it to the shore with me. John and some of the local guys helped me search for you for days. We found your oar and life vest and hat—your lucky hat. That’s why we thought you were dead. That’s why I quit trying to contact you over the radio. I’m so sorry.”

  Bailey released the talk button, and Tim spoke. His voice was filled with the father-like affection that had been her anchor since the world war began. “Don’t blame yourself, Bailey. Not for any of it.”

  That was easy for him to say. She was safe in a lovely bedroom while he was lost on the coast somewhere because she’d wanted to come to the Land. Her guilt would never go away completely, but saving him would make some of this right. “When I tell John you’re alive, he will know how to find you. Tell me everything you can about where you are.”

  She peeked in the bedside table’s drawer for a pencil and paper. It was empty, except for a sachet of dried lavender. She would have to memorize the details he gave her, like when she crammed for one of his botany exams back in Virginia. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for his response.

  Only static hummed from the speaker.

  Maybe she had lost him. “Tim?”

  “I’m here.” Another long pause.

  Something wasn’t right. “Are you okay?”

  “No. I need my medication.”

  She couldn’t lose him again. “They don’t have insulin or anything like that in the Land. They use the gray leaf tree to cure almost everything. I had to drink tea made from it after I was—” She released the talk button, having said too much. Later she would tell him what happened when she and the rest of their group had arrived in the Land, but not now. Not over the radio.

  “When you were what, Bailey? Shot? I heard the gunfire from the lifeboat. I knew something happened when you and the guys reached the shore. That’s why I stayed back. Where is Micah? Is he okay?”

  She splayed her free hand, which had been sticky with Micah’s blood the night they came ashore. Her skin was clean now, but not her conscience. Tim deserved to know what happened, but how could she tell him his nephew died because he shielded her with his body?

  “Bailey? Tell me the truth.”

  She also valued the truth. That didn’t make speaking it any easier. Her tongue scraped the roof of her dry mouth. “It was dark and everything happened so fast. We heard a man’s voice, but we didn’t see anyone. Our two trigger-happy crewmen got scared and shot at the tree line. I told them to stop. They didn’t listen. The locals returned fire with arrows. They killed the crewmen… and Micah.”

  “He… he wasn’t armed.”

  “I know. Neither was I. The locals thought they were being attacked. They were at the shore for defense training when we arrived. Since our crewmen shot at them, they thought we were invading the Land. I never should have brought us here.”

  She lowered the radio from her face and waited for his reply. If he didn’t want to speak to her ever again, she would understand. Micah was Tim’s last living relative, and now he was gone because she’d wanted to come to the Land and connect with her family. Now, Tim had no connection to his.

  His voice held the gentleness she imagined a father’s would as he spoke to a beloved child. “That must have been horrible for you. I’m sorry, Bailey.”

  He was sorry? This was more her fault than anyone else’s. She’d been the one to get mixed up with Justin Mercer and his story of a hidden land in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, far from the world war and water poisonings and plagues. She’d been the one to insist they wait at the coordinates of the Land for it to appear on the equinox. Micah had wanted to turn his yacht around and leave.

  “Are you all right, Bailey? Were you injured badly?”

  She rubbed her thigh where itchy scar tissue hid beneath her only good pair of jeans. “I’m fine because of the gray leaf medicine. It’s all you need, too. One drink of gray leaf tea and your diabetes will be cured. I’m sure of it.”

  “You’re sure of it, huh? Well, you said the same thing about the Land existing and you were right, so I’m inclined to believe you about the gray leaf. I would make the tea myself, but I haven’t seen any trees around my campsite that resemble the gray leaf saplings we destroyed back home.”

  “No gray leaf trees? They’re plentiful here around Good Springs. Justin said the tree grows throughout the Land.”

  “Maybe he was wrong.”

  Men’s voices mumbled in quiet conversation out in the living room.

  Bailey walked toward the closed bedroom door and stopped. “Listen, Tim, John Colburn and the guys here don’t know I have this radio, but I need their help to find you. They are in the other room. If I take the radio out to them, will you tell them what you saw as you floated along the coastline? They might know where you are.”

  “Sure, but my two-way’s charge is getting low.”

  She looked at her handheld radio, which was identical to his. “Turn the black plastic crank on the front for a couple of minutes to charge the battery.”

  “Can’t. The handle snapped off weeks ago. I’ll have to let the sun charge it through the solar panel tomorrow. If you want me to talk to Mr. Colburn tonight, we need to be quick about it.”

  “You got it.” She threw open the door and hurried out of the bedroom. “If I lose you, promise you will contact me as soon as your battery is recharged tomorrow.”

  While she rounded the hallway, Tim replied, “Make it noon so you don’t have to leave your radio on all morning.”

  She didn’t speak as she entered the cozy living room where John and Revel were seated, talking about the Inn at Falls Creek and Revel’s family there.

  Static buzzed from the radio, then Tim’s voice filled the room. “Bailey? Are you still there?”

  Both men snapped their faces toward her. John Colburn stood stiffly from his armchair, his blue eyes soft with concern and wisdom. Revel Roberts stood too, but with the speed of an athletic man in his late twenties.

  John stepped over his cushioned footstool and met Bailey between the sofa and a glass-front bookcase. He pointed at the device in her hand and disappointment sharpened his solemn gaze. “What is this? Have you been sending electronic signals from the Land?”

  Tim’s static-chopped voice came again. “Bailey? Can you hear me?”

  She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet standing in front of the Colburn family’s patriarch holding an electronic device made her feel like a troublemaking foster kid. Well, she wasn’t that kid anymore. Raising the radio to her mouth, she pressed the talk button. “I’m here, Tim. I have John Colburn with me, and Revel Roberts—”

  Revel’s hazel eyes bulged. “Tim? As in Timothy Van Buskirk, your professor friend from America?” The surprise in his voice grew with each word. “He’s alive? Where is he?”

  She released the button and glanced from John to Revel then back to John. “I can explain everything, but we don’t have time right now. Tim needs our help.”

  John touched Revel’s shoulder, calming his excited questions, but he didn’t take his eyes off Bailey. “How can we help him
?”

  She spoke into the radio again. “Tim, I need you to tell them everything you saw when your boat was swept down the coast. Describe any landmarks or…”

  Revel pressed his palms together in front of his lips as if praying through the anticipation. While Bailey talked to Tim, the shock on Revel’s face turned to amazement. The light in his kind eyes gave her hope. At least one man here appeared to be glad she was in contact with Tim even if it was through a banned device.

  She continued speaking into the radio. “Go ahead, Tim. John and Revel are listening.”

  She released the button and held the radio in the center of the tight circle the three of them had formed between the sofa and the bookcase. John squinted in concentration as Tim began to speak.

  “I couldn’t see much that night after the first tender went ashore, but I heard gunfire, so I kept my boat back. After about an hour, the ocean currents changed and the ocean tossed me every which way. I managed to hold on to the boat, but I lost my oar and some of the gear. When the sun came up the next morning, I could tell the currents were pushing my boat south.”

  The static grew louder than Tim’s voice and cut out half of his words. “I passed two villages… couldn’t get to shore without an oar. The second village… saw a river inlet… made a sail with a tarp… wind carried me into an estuary.”

  Static pulsed from the speaker, so Bailey pushed the button. “Tim? Tim? We’re losing you.”

  John nudged Revel. “Go upstairs and get Connor. Hurry.”

  As Revel rushed up the stairs, Bailey tried again. “Tim?”

  “I’m here.”

  John opened his hand for the radio. “May I?”

  Though everything in her told her not to let go of her only connection to her mentor and friend, her six weeks in the Land assured her John would give it back. She nodded at him and pressed the button once more. “Tim, John wants to speak with you.”

  She handed the radio to John, her fingers burning to keep holding onto it.

  John pushed the talk button as if he knew how to use modern technology, but his eyes narrowed at the two-way radio. “Mr. Van Buskirk, the two villages you passed along the coast south of Good Springs were Stonehill and Southpoint, respectively. The estuary you mentioned… was it near the mountains?”

  “Mountains? Yes. I’m camped on the eastern base of one, and there are more to the north of me. Across the river, it looks like there are foothills. I can’t see too far without my glasses. I’m finally able to bait a hook without poking myself, but everything past twenty yards away is a blur.”

  As John released the button, Revel and Connor thundered down the staircase. Connor Bradshaw’s bare feet smacked the hardwood floor as he dashed across the living room. The former American pilot wore locally made trousers and the white tee shirt he’d worn under his flight suit when he was ejected from his fighter jet over the Land four years ago. His dark eyes beaded beneath his thick brows. He reached for the radio without asking, but John raised a steady hand, halting him.

  Tim’s intermittent voice held everyone’s attention. “I sailed up this narrow river maybe a mile or so… camping between it and the mountain. There is some wreckage… river bank… I’m using a U.S. Navy jet canopy as a shelter.”

  Connor’s astute gaze shot toward John.

  John nodded at Connor, acknowledging something between them, and then he spoke into the radio. “I will send my men to find you, Mr. Van Buskirk.”

  “Losing you…”

  “Mr. Van Buskirk?”

  Bailey grabbed the radio. “Tim? Tim?”

  He’d said his battery was low, but her heart lurched as if he were dying. She’d already lost him once and couldn’t bear losing him again. “Tim?”

  Revel put his warm hand on her back. His show of support was sweet, but she moved away from his touch. She was fine. Tim was alive, maybe not safe or healthy but alive. “If you can hear me, Tim, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Tim?”

  Static buzzed from the speaker. She powered off the radio then clasped it with both hands as she looked up at the men she would need if she was going to save Tim.

  * * *

  Revel Roberts wasn’t qualified to judge anyone, especially a wounded woman from the outside world like Bailey. So what if she’d been secretly using an electronic device? She’d probably survived more evil than he could imagine, and he could imagine plenty. Right now, she needed help to find her lost and dying friend.

  And Revel would do anything to help her.

  Connor pointed a finger at Bailey’s angst filled face. His calculated military tone mixed with his noble desire to protect the Land. “What are you doing with a radio? You know that is banned here because it could expose the Land to the outside world.”

  A flash of challenge flared behind Bailey’s daring eyes. “Banned by you.”

  “To protect the Land.”

  “To protect yourself.”

  There was no way Bailey would ever see Connor’s good side, nor he hers, if this hostility between them continued. It was probably rooted in their struggle to survive in the outside world, but they were both in the Land and safe now. They had to put their pasts behind them and treat each other with respect.

  Revel touched Connor’s arm so he would lower his finger before the intrusion of Bailey’s personal space triggered her martial arts training. “Ease off, man.”

  John must have had a similar thought. Graceful authority strengthened the older man’s voice. “Connor, we must—”

  “No, John, let me speak. Anybody out there listening,” Connor redirected his pointing finger toward the parlor window, “could have picked up her radio signals over the past few weeks. By now they would know the Land exists. You have no idea what a starving, disease filled world will do to this place if they find it.”

  Revel didn’t like where this was going. Maybe outside the Land men treated women as indignantly as they treated each other, but not here. He inched closer to Bailey. “She thought her friend was dead, but he is alive. We should be celebrating with her, not arguing. But first Mr. Van Buskirk needs our help. He should be our focus.”

  John spoke again, this time not allowing Connor to interrupt. “Revel is correct.” He motioned gently with his hands the same way he did during his Sunday sermons. “The narrow river Mr. Van Buskirk mentioned might connect to the Land’s main river or it might not since it is beyond the foothills. No one has mapped that terrain.”

  Connor blew out a long breath. “I have to protect the Land. I can’t not do that.”

  John interjected, “You also must help a person in need.”

  The former Unified States warrior passed a hand over his closely shorn black hair, the battle still raging behind his eyes. “Tim said he is camped at the base of a mountain a mile up river from the estuary. That means he is west of Southpoint. It will take us a week to get there unless we ride horseback to Riverside and take one of the trader’s ships to Southpoint.”

  John nodded. “And then continue riding west until you reach the river Mr. Van Buskirk mentioned and locate his campsite.”

  Connor smirked faintly. “Shouldn’t be hard to miss since he is using an aircraft canopy for shelter. Has to be mine.”

  “At least he has some shelter,” John said. “But he will not stay warm down there for long.”

  Though only a month into autumn, the Land’s position in the South Atlantic Ocean meant the Antarctic winds would soon make travel a bone-chilling ordeal. And they were talking about going to the Land’s southernmost tip. The skin on Revel’s spine prickled. “When do we leave?”

  John answered quickly, “At first light. Men, ready your packs tonight. I will prepare food for your journey and have Lydia gather the medical supplies you might need to treat Mr. Van Buskirk.”

  Connor turned toward John as they made plans, putting his back to Bailey. Before Revel could find a way to include her in the conversation, Bailey moved around him and addressed John. “Wait, you said men. I’m going to
o.”

  Connor crossed his arms and looked down his angular nose at Bailey. “No, you are not.”

  “Tim is my friend. I told him I would find him and I intend to keep my word.”

  Though her resolve was admirable, the thought of a woman going on a treacherous journey to the Land’s deadly mountain terrain made Revel’s stomach tighten. “It’s too dangerous.”

  She drew her head back. “Dangerous? Anything in the Land would be a cake walk compared to what I survived in America.”

  Revel tried to talk her out of it with the soft tone that sometimes worked on his sisters. “Bailey, listen—”

  “She should go,” John said. His august demeanor silenced everyone. “I have come to know Bailey well enough to believe she will be in more danger if she stays here in Good Springs doing nothing to save her friend than if she went with you.”

  A slight smile relaxed her striking features. “Thank you, John.”

  Revel wished Bailey was thanking him instead. He wanted to protect her from whatever had kept past explorers from returning from the mountains. But he should have known she would want support for her courageous plan rather than protection.

  “Besides,” John pointed at the radio Bailey held, “she has a connection to Mr. Van Buskirk and will be able to stay in contact with him so you can locate him more quickly.”

  Connor tightened his crossed arms. “She shouldn’t have used the radio here to begin with. It has to stay turned off. She is endangering the Land every time she turns it on. What about the people here, the children?”

  Revel opened his mouth to defend Bailey, but she beat him to it.

  “Is that what this is about?” She stepped closer to Connor with her petite chin lifted. “You have your safe life here in the Land and want to keep it that way even if it means someone else dies.” Before Connor could respond, Bailey spun on her heel and faced John. “Tim will still use his radio to contact me, so radio signals are going to be sent inside the Land whether I use mine or not.”

  The room fell silent. Bailey was right. Connor was right too.