He could have left April and her kid there too, and maybe that’s what the other guys wanted, but his hatred of humanity did not extend to everyone. A woman like her would be a good thing to have around. He firmly believed that in these circumstances, no matter what he had to do to make her comply and go with him back to the camp, she would come around eventually. She would warm up to him and the others as well and be grateful just to have a safe place to live with plenty of food for her and her child. Wayne was certain of this, because what other choice did she really have? He’d seen enough by now to know that no matter what people said, or what they believed, when conditions were hard enough, they would break down and submit. And this April, no matter how strong-willed she was, would be no exception.
Seventeen
WHEN HE LEFT THE sandbar and entered the heavy woods in the direction he had seen the men go with April and Kimberly, Mitch found plenty of evidence of their passage to know for sure he was on the trail. The most obvious signs were fresh-cut briar vines and small branches still oozing fresh sap where they had been sliced through with a sharp blade. And there were more subtle signs that did not escape his practiced eye; things like clumps of overturned pine needles and leaf litter kicked up by a shuffling boot. It was easy to see they were fresh by the still damp undersides that had been holding moisture against the earth before being disturbed. Actual footprints mattered little to Mitch; he knew he would find them again from time to time, as there would be many areas of mud and sand that the group would have to cross.
He came to the first such place not far at all from the sandbar where the trail began. It was a deep gully that would be half full of water during rainy times such as late winter and early spring, but now it was mostly dry in the bottom, with only a few puddles of still water remaining in the deeper holes. The banks were steep and slick with mud and clay. Deep ditches and gullies like this one were typical of the many obstacles that anyone attempting to follow the creek on foot would encounter.
Mitch knelt at the edge and examined the tracks, seeing a long slide mark from near the top on his side that went all the way to the bottom of the ditch. That one of them had slipped while climbing down was not surprising. Mitch had done the same many times while scrambling in and out of such gullies. Some of them in the area were deep and with near vertical banks, making them impossible to climb into or out of without using exposed roots and the trunks of small saplings for handholds. There was nothing to hold onto at this particular spot April’s captors had picked for crossing however, and he figured they probably didn’t want to spend the time to look for a better route.
Mitch carefully climbed down to the bottom to see if he could determine which one of them it was that slipped, thinking that because of the way April was carrying Kimberly, it could have been her. When he got to the dry streambed, the footprints he found were a confusing mess that was impossible to decipher. He could clearly see one set of tracks continuing across and up the opposite bank, which was equally steep. Whoever made them had difficulty going up that way because each print was smeared with slip marks on the downhill side, leaving little indication as to the type or size shoe or boot that made them. Mitch figured it was probably one of the men, because in the bottom of the gully he saw that there were many more tracks leading downstream, in the direction of Black Creek. Whoever had climbed up straight across obviously had a difficult time of it, and the others went looking for a better place to gain the top bank on the other side.
Mitch bent low and followed the main group until he came to sandy wash some three feet wide in the bottom of the ditch. Here the individual footprints were distinct, and it was here that he finally found what he was looking for. Dropping to his hands and knees in the wet sand, he examined a print that was clearly made by a foot that was significantly smaller than any of the others. Tracing the distinct outline made by the edges of her shoe sent shivers down Mitch’s spine. April had been right here, her foot landing in this exact spot he was touching now! This knowledge was one of the things he loved about tracking, whether following the trail of an animal or a fellow human being. The tracks told a story he could read like a book, and there was no question that the one he sought had occupied this exact same space where he now knelt, and just a short time prior. If only she could know he was here; that he was right on her trail not far behind and coming to get her! Surely that knowledge would give her hope in a situation where she must have little left. Mitch couldn’t imagine what must be going through April’s mind right now, alone with her child in the hands of four armed men she had little chance of escaping on her own. She would be frightened for herself but even more so for Kimberly, and she would surely be grieving for what happened to her little girl’s father. Mitch knew she would be wondering where they were being taken and what their fate would be when they got there. She would be sick with worry for her child, but he was determined to catch up quickly and make sure her time of distress was as short as possible.
Looking for her next track beyond the left shoe print he was touching, Mitch could not find the expected one from the right shoe in the place it should have been. The tracks of the men were all over the place as well, and maybe one had landed over April’s, but as he looked farther down the streambed, he kept finding her left prints, but never any from her right. As he considered this, he dropped to his knees again to look closer. The left prints he found were deep, and always beside them where the boot prints of one of the men, both the left and the right. Mitch began to think that his first assumption that it could have been April who slipped and fell down the bank was correct. If so, had she injured her right foot or leg so that she was unable to walk on it? Would that explain why she and the others had not attempted to climb the opposite bank?
Mitch followed the trail until the ditch ended where it opened up and entered Black Creek. There was a small sandbar at the mouth and the prints here told the same story. There were several more made by April’s left shoe, but not a single one from the right. The tracks led right to the water’s edge and there, cut deeply into the edge of the sandbar, was the telltale V-shaped groove where the bow of a canoe had recently landed. Mitch’s heart sank with the realization of what had happened. This explained why the canoe was missing from the sandbar where April and David left it. She must have fallen hard enough that she was unable to walk without help. That was why he had not seen any prints from her right shoe. One of the men had to have been helping her along until they reached the water’s edge. Another of them must have gone upstream to get the canoe, paddling it back and then landing here to pick her up. Mitch checked the sand and mud along the bank to confirm this, and sure enough, he found the boot prints from one man heading back upstream.
He could find no evidence that April had gone anywhere other than straight into the creek. They must have put her and Kimberly into the canoe and one of them had set off with the two of them, paddling it downriver. There was really no other explanation. Mitch checked every track on the sandbar and followed those that doubled back until he found the place where the others had continued on foot. It took him a few minutes to find a good spot where the tracks were clear, but finally he came to another mud flat where he could identify three distinct sets of footprints, all made by man-sized boots. At this point, there was no doubt in his mind. These three had continued downstream on foot, following the creek along their original route before the mishap at the gully. But April and Kimberly were in the canoe with the forth. It was not what he’d expected when he first picked up the trail where it began at the sandbar. Mitch had been confident that four men and a woman would leave a trail he could not lose, but he had not foreseen the possibility of the group splitting up. People on foot could be tracked but canoes could not. And April was in the canoe rather than with the group still traveling on foot.
His mind was racing with the implications of this and Mitch felt the pressure to make a quick decision. Surely since the four men were traveling together before chancing upon April and her family
, they would not remain separated for long. If April was injured too badly to walk, the men had probably seen the canoe as the only option for taking her with them, and it was feasible to do so only because they were headed downstream anyway. They couldn’t all go in the boat of course, but if one of them had taken it with her and Kimberly aboard, it was likely they planned to rendezvous soon, probably before dark so they could camp together. If that were the case, then following the trail of these three would lead him to her anyway. Trying to catch up with the canoe might not be so easy. He didn’t know if any of these men had experience with canoes, but he did know that a skilled paddler could get down the creek much faster than anyone hiking at a normal pace on foot. This was mainly because it was impossible to follow the waterway bend-for-bend, making walking slow and difficult, while the current in the creek would assist even a casual paddler in making good time.
He had no idea where they were going or how far they intended to travel, but Mitch knew if he were to have any hope of catching up, he was going to have to move and move fast. He could follow the three on foot without much difficulty and if he was right, they would rejoin the one who had paddled off with April and Kimberly. But if he was wrong and they didn’t have plans to meet up somewhere downstream, then he would have no way of knowing where or how far the one in the canoe was taking her. Catching up to the other three and taking them out would be easy enough, but if they did not rendezvous with the canoe, he was going to have to take at least one of them alive to find out their intended destination. It was a risk, but Mitch decided the risk of not being able to catch up to the canoe was greater. He needed to stick to the trail of the three because that was a trail he could follow. If they didn’t lead him to April and Kimberly directly, he was determined to make them do so by whatever means necessary. And if he had to follow Black Creek all the way to the Pascagoula River and beyond to find them, he would do that too.
Eighteen
JASON BURNS STOOD WATCHING until Mitch disappeared into the woods on the opposite side of Black Creek, then he set out to make his way back to the Henley farm and house. The trail they had been following since Mitch had found the spot where one of them hit the deer with the arrow had led them quite far from home this morning. Jason was familiar with the woods in the immediate vicinity of the farm, but every time he followed Mitch farther afield on a hunt, he realized just how vast these river land forests really were. He hoped he could find his way back without too much difficulty, but he would have preferred not to have to do it alone. Mitch was depending on him though, so he was determined to get there as soon as he could. He had to let Lisa and the others know what was going on and just as importantly, get them to come back with him for David.
Jason had checked one last time before he left to make sure the unconscious man was still breathing and that he still had a pulse. Nothing had changed in that regard but he still showed no signs of coming to, so there was nothing more he could do by himself. A part of him wished he was going with Mitch instead, tracking down the men who took April. Jason barely knew her, but he felt like he owed her a lot. First, she had helped Mitch get him back to the house after the two of them found him beaten half to death on the side of the road. Then she’d risked her life to help Mitch rescue his little sister Stacy, who along with Mitch’s sister Lisa, was in the hands of those worthless Wallace brothers who’d done that to him and left him for dead. After that, she had fought fearlessly by Mitch’s side when they were attacked in Hattiesburg, helping Mitch defeat a gang of looters. From everything Mitch had told him about their journey together, Jason knew April was really something special.
Jason was so out of it when he met her that he couldn’t remember many details of her face or her voice. But Mitch had been infatuated with her and even all these months afterwards; she frequently came up in conversation. Jason knew it had to be an incredible shock for Mitch to see her again today, especially out here in these woods after all this time. And it had to be much more of a shock to see her in such a dangerous predicament. If Mitch had asked him to, Jason would have certainly gone with him to help find her, not only for his sake but for what she had done for him and Stacy as well. But despite this sense of obligation, another part of him was also relieved that Mitch sent him on this other, far less dangerous task.
Perhaps he had in him a bit of cowardice; Jason was not afraid to admit, at least to himself. But he didn’t relish the idea of trying to track down four heavily armed men with the intention of taking their prize away from them. It had been one thing this morning, tracking the unknown lone hunter with Mitch, who was leading the way and knew exactly what to do. Jason hadn’t expected that they would have trouble, but if they did, he had confidence in Mitch and the numbers were two to one in their favor. But when that one had turned into four, and the four had proven what they were capable of and willing to do, the picture was suddenly different. There could only be one thing at the end of the trail Mitch was following—and that was a fight—almost certainly a fight that would end in death for the loser.
Jason knew fighting for survival was a part of the new reality they all found themselves in, but still, he didn’t like it. He was doing better than before, without a doubt, but he had a long way to go yet and knew he would likely never be even half as competent as Mitch. Adapting to a life without cars and electricity was hard enough. But then he had to learn how to hunt and kill animals just to eat. Hunting and woodcraft were things Jason had no interest in before the grid went down, despite the fact that he lived in a small community practically surrounded by national forest lands. Most of the other guys he went to school with had grown up hunting squirrels, deer and other game with their fathers and brothers, but Jason had neither of those to take him or teach him how. He and Stacy lived with their mom and only saw their dad for a couple of weeks in the summer, when they went to visit him and their stepmother at his home in Dallas.
Jason’s only passion before the pulse shut down the power grid was music, and he spent most of his spare time after school locked in his room with his guitar and amp. Though it was only a cheaper, imported imitation of the Fender Stratocaster he dreamed of, Jason learned to play it and play it well. He had been determined to get as good as the rock stars he idolized when he suddenly found himself unplugged by the effects of the solar flare.
Weeks later, after he was healed from his injuries and he and Stacy still had not heard from their mother, Jason and Mitch had made the journey back to the little town of Brooklyn on foot. Following the Black Creek hiking trail that roughly paralleled the stream, they went back that last time to see if his mom had somehow made it back home, but found no sign that she had. To this day Jason did not know if she was alive or dead, but he had come to accept the greater likelihood of the latter possibility. They had taken a few things from the house, and though it was a burden, Jason shouldered the guitar as well and carried it back to the Henley farm. He still picked it up now and then, even though it would never sound the same without the amplifier and his effects pedals and he sometimes wondered why he bothered. It didn’t look like the lights were ever going to come back on again, and his dream of someday playing on stage in front of his screaming fans seemed farther away than it ever had.
Now instead of learning new lead riffs, he was studying the habits of game animals and learning to move quietly through the woods. Under Mitch’s tutorage, he was slowly getting more proficient at shooting guns and even the bow and arrow. He had made a few kills of his own; although Mitch brought home far more of the meat they needed than anyone else staying at the house. Mitch had shown him how to skin an animal and gut it, and though he still hated the feel of the slimy entrails and warm blood on his hands, he could do a passible job with everything from a rabbit to a whitetail buck. It no longer bothered him to kill, but so far he had avoided having to kill another human being—something Mitch had done numerous times since the blackout. Jason had no doubt he would be doing it again soon too, he just hoped his friend could indeed maintai
n the element of surprise that he so badly needed in his favor. If things went as he expected, he would soon be coming back home and bringing April and her little girl with him.
“I sure wish he would have waited for the rest of us!” Lisa said when Jason finally made it back and told her where her brother had gone. “He’s so nuts about April he just couldn’t wait. He’s always taking chances he shouldn’t, and it really worries me.”
“He didn’t want them to get that much of a head start,” Jason said. “He said he didn’t even want to let them out of his sight long enough to come find me, but he knew he had to. It would have taken way to long to come all the way back here first, especially if we were trying to bring David back on a travois.”
“It’s still stupid for him to take off tracking four men by himself. I think we need to follow that trail too, just in case he’s in trouble and needs help. We could all go back to the creek together, and Stacy, Corey and Samantha could get David moved back here. You and I could go after Mitch. I’ve been shot at before. I’m not afraid.”
“Yeah but what if we can’t follow the trail? No one can track people and animals like Mitch. And what if we make too much noise and mess up his plans? We could make it worse, and besides, by the time we even get there, I’ll bet he will have already caught those guys and taken them out. He might have already done it now.”
Into the River Lands (Darkness After Series Book 2) Page 9