The pack was heavy with the cans and the humidor took up space that Cole really couldn’t afford. He should set it aside, but as he jogged out to the barn, the square corner of the box dug into his back with each step.
He nudged open the barn door. If there had been animals, they were gone, the stalls open, but something smelled putrid. Expecting the remains of a cow or horse, he started when he found what was left of poor Dennis hanging by a rope tied around the rafters.
Cole stumbled backward and crashed into a couple of metal trash cans, catching the lid of one as it started to slide off. He stopped and peered into the can. Oats. He replaced the lid and checked the other can. Corn. Excellent. It was too much to take now, but they could return in a day or two. This should help the horses, goats, and chickens survive the winter.
When he left the barn, Cole swore when he saw how low the sun was. He’d taken way longer than he’d planned. Quickening his pace, he made it to the end of the driveway, and looked to the copse of trees. Nobody was there. His heart raced as he passed through the trees and scanned the area.
“Jake? Sophie?”
17
“They’re coming!” Hunter turned and called back to Elly and Sean in the boat as soon as he saw his dad’s car come around the bend in the road. He’d topped up the horses water, pulled armloads of grass from a nearby field, and dumped them in the yard. Then he brushed both horses while he waited. He was eager to tell his dad about the deer he’d shot with his bow.
“Dad?” His mouth went dry. His dad was driving awfully fast, and he instinctively edged towards the sidewalk. Why was he driving so fast? His dad pulled up beside him, his tires screeching at the sudden stop. His window slid down.
“Have you seen Jake and Sophie?”
“No… aren’t they with you?”
His father shook his head and slammed his fists down on the steering wheel, letting an f-bomb fly. He sighed. “Shit! I… I was hoping they were here already.”
“No, I haven’t seen them. Why would they be here?”
His dad swore again as he turned and scanned the area. “I just hoped, dammit. They were supposed to wait.”
“Wait? For what?” Hunter scanned the area too although he knew if Jake and Sophie were nearby, they would have greeted him already.
“I went to check out a farm right off the road about a mile back.” He exited the car, pacing to the front and looking around as if he could magically make the two appear. “We didn’t find anything on the hunt, but found a few other things—cattails and clams. I thought I could find something useful at the farm, but since we were getting close to the rendezvous time, I had them wait at the end of the drive, inside a stand of trees. It would be faster if I went in alone and they were both tired.” He stopped pacing and swore again as he slammed his hand down on the hood.
“I was only gone about fifteen minutes, and when I came back, they were nowhere around. They didn’t leave any indication of where they’d gone. I just figured they’d decided, since it was so late, they’d get a head start back to the car.”
“Did you look for them? Call their names?”
His dad shot him a look. “Of course!”
Hunter threw his hands up, palms out. “I’m just asking! Jeez!”
“I know. I’m sorry.” His dad rubbed his forehead as though he had a headache. “Where could they have gone?”
“Was there anything where you last saw them that looked suspicious? Did you hear anything out of the ordinary?”
“No. Not a thing.” He drew in a deep breath and looked back the way he’d come. “There was… ” His eyes narrowed in concentration. “Their packs were still there. They wouldn’t have left to meet me at the car without their packs. The weeds were matted quite a bit, but I just figured they had been lying down, resting.”
“And? You think something happened to them?” Matted weeds? It set off alarm bells, but probably not the kind his dad had. He and Sophie had ‘matted some weeds’ away from the houses while out gathering acorns a few times. Would she and Jake? He shook his head. No. Jake and Piper seemed to have something going on and Sophie wouldn’t do that to him.
“I don’t know. Maybe they heard something and just took off.”
“Well, come on! We have to go find them!” Hunter took a step to bolt around the SUV to jump into the passenger side but his father grabbed his arm.
“Wait, we have to let Sean and Elly know what’s going on. They can head back to the island and you and I can spend the night here.”
Hunter didn’t like that they had to waste time and if he ever missed his cellphone, now was the time. They jogged back, his dad dumped their packs filled with what he’d found into the boat— minus a couple of cans of tuna and other provisions so they would have something to eat. They made sure they each had a flashlight, a lighter, their rifles, side arms, and ammunition.
Elly went into the cabin of the boat and returned with a couple of sleeping bags. “Here, take these. Jake and I used them when we slept here. They’re warm and you’ll need them tonight.”
His dad nodded and passed one over to Hunter before moving in close to Elly, his hands resting on her hips as he leaned in to say something. Hunter turned away to secure the sleeping bag to the bottom of his pack with straps. Living in such close confines on the island, and the way Elly had taken care of his dad when he’d been injured, Hunter was aware that there was some kind of relationship going on, but he still felt weird about it, then felt guilty for feeling weird.
Uncle Sean fired up the engine. “I guess we’ll be back tomorrow about noon.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you lost them, Cole.”
His dad moved away from Elly, his mouth set in a hard line, but he didn’t respond to Uncle Sean’s comment. He grabbed his gear, caught Hunter’s eye, and tilted his head towards the dock.
They stepped out, shouldering their packs.
“Be careful, y’all.” Elly waved as the boat edged away from the dock.
“We will. See you guys tomorrow.” Hunter waved back then turned to follow his father up to the road.
“There’s only about twenty minutes of light left, but there’s almost a full moon. If we stick near the streets, we should have no problem searching around.”
Hunter tightened his pack. “Do you want to use the flashlights?”
“Not yet. I don’t want to waste the batteries, and frankly, until I know what we might be dealing with, I’d rather not be seen.”
“But how will Jake and Sophie know we’re nearby?”
“If Jake and Sophia could have, they’d have been at the dock already, so that makes me think something happened to them.”
Hunter’s stomach flipped. Nothing better happen to either of them. Jake was his best friend and Sophie meant even more to him. “What?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing. Could be they just went to check something out and got turned around.”
Hunter nodded, but he didn’t think it was likely. The lake was east and they were within sight of it. The land was fairly flat but dipped down to the shore, although they couldn’t see the beach itself, the blue water stretched out to the east. All they would have had to do was walk with the lake on their left and they would have reached the town. After several forays into town already, they all knew their way around pretty well. Even if they had ended up on the wrong street, continuing to walk south would have brought them to the river, and with the setting sun, they would have been able to find the right direction to walk.
The moon rose and lit their way. Every hundred yards or so, they stopped to call out softly to Sophie and Jake, pausing to listen for a reply, but they heard only the wind rushing through the treetops, the faint sound of the surf, and somewhere to the west, a pack of coyotes.
His father halted and gestured to the side of the road. “Here’s the driveway to the farmhouse. Jake and Sophie were supposed to wait just over in those trees.” He pointed to a stand of about six trees a hundred or so feet off th
e road. The moon shone through their empty branches. “I looked all around and didn’t see anything, but I wasn’t suspecting anything except they had decided to head back to the boat without me and left me to carry their packs.”
“I don’t think they’d have done that.”
“You’re right, but I couldn’t think of where else they might have gone.” His father traced the beam of his flashlight on the ground, sweeping it on his left side.
Hunter switched on his flashlight and aimed it into the weeds along the road to his right. It looked a little more disturbed than the patch directly in front of him and he moved that way, bending to brush his hands over the crushed grasses. The mud near the bottom of the ditch had a heel print. It was small enough to be from Sophie’s boots. It definitely wasn’t Jake’s. He and Hunter wore the same size shoe, Hunter knew because they had both wanted a pair of sneakers that Hunter had scavenged with his dad. Hunter had won the coin toss for them, but he’d decided to give them to Jake as a Christmas present.
“I found a footprint, Dad.” Squatting, he played the beam around the ditch looking for more footprints.
His dad examined the print. “This is a little away from where they were when I left them. Nice catch. It’s pointing east, so I guess we’ll go in that direction.”
They continued on, and his dad found a small bit of blue rubber that appeared to come from one of the gloves they all carried in their pockets. A dozen feet farther, they found another bit, and a small piece beyond that one. “Either Jake or Sophie are leaving us a trail.” His dad knelt by the fourth piece and shone his light forward in the direction they were heading. “There’s another. This is definitely not an accident.”
“What do you think happened?” Hunter noted a few more shoeprints on a wet patch of weeds. He studied them but couldn’t tell if any of them matched the one he’d first seen.
“I don’t know, but I’m positive they aren’t going off willingly.” He took the rifle he’d slung over his shoulder. “You use the flashlight, but try to keep it aimed only on the ground. I don’t want to give away that we’re here if we can help it. But make sure your guns are within easy reach.”
“Won’t they see the light on the ground?” Hunter made sure his rifle wasn’t tangled with his backpack straps and unbuckled the flap on his holster.
“Sure, but it’s not the same as a light coming directly at them.”
“Right.” Hunter led the way, finding more bits of blue, but at one point, they lost the trail and had to re-trace their steps until they picked it up again. While they had been going east, the trail turned north. The sound of the waves slapping against the shore filtered through the trees. The lake was probably less than a hundred yards away, just through the edge of the woods. “Dad, I think whoever it is, they’re going to be near the lake.”
“I think so, too. Like us, they’d need water and it makes sense they’d want to be near a source of food.” He motioned east. “Let’s see if there’s a beach that way. We’ll be able to see farther.”
“First, let’s mark this spot so we know where to pick up the trail again.”
“Good thinking.” His dad looked around, found several branches, and made a teepee with them, putting a big, round stone on top of the blue bit of rubber. “There, that should do it.”
They came to a bluff and they followed it. Suddenly his dad pulled Hunter’s arm. “Get down!” It was a harsh whisper.
Hunter complied. “What?”
“I see a light down there.” His dad pointed.
The moon lit the shore, shining pale light onto the sand and water and Hunter had a hard time discerning the sparkle of the light on the water from a light his father pointed to, but once he did, it was obvious that it had a yellowish tint more like a fire than the beam of a flashlight. He sniffed but didn’t smell smoke, but he glanced at some weeds on top of a dune and noted the wind was blowing on shore.
His father motioned towards the woods on their left. “Let’s get back in there.”
Hunter sat on a fallen log and took out his water bottle for a quick sip, watching as his father did the same. “Now what?”
“I think we have to stay put for tonight. The last thing we want to do is stumble around in the dark. We know there are people around, but not exactly where. We can make a lean-to with some branches and try to get a few hours of sleep.”
Thirty minutes later, they sat inside the lean-to munching on nuts and dried fruit. They had dried fish and Elly had given them a few pieces of extra bread she’d carried in her pack, but they were going to save that for the morning.
“How did you know how to build a lean-to, Dad?” They couldn’t see each other as they lay on a bed of leaves, their packs stacked to form a door of sorts. The lean-to wouldn’t keep anyone out, but it protected them from the wind and held their body heat inside. Hunter had no doubt they’d have been much colder sleeping without it.
“I’ve read about them in books.”
“Like survival books?” Hunter ate his last handful of nuts, took another swig of water and curled on his side, pulling his sleeping bag high. They had unzipped their bags, putting one beneath them, and sharing the other. Neither wanted to be trapped inside one if they heard someone approaching.
“No, just novels. You’d be surprised how much you can learn from them.”
Hunter grunted. He had never been much of a reader. He read what he had to for school, and that was pretty much it.
“My uncle was a pretty big reader. I guess I got it from him. Anyway, I’ve been reading Robinson Crusoe a little bit. When there’s time.” He sighed after that, sounding wistful.
“Is that the story about a guy on a deserted island?”
“Yes. I’ve read it before, but it’s even more… ” He paused as though searching for the right word, “… relevant now.”
The house had built in bookshelves along one wall in the front room, but Hunter hadn’t paid much attention to what kind of books they contained. The winter could be long and boring without much to do. Maybe he would check out some of the books and see if any looked interesting. Maybe even Robinson Crusoe. He fell asleep dreaming about a deserted island.
18
Cole opened his eyes. He’d only dozed during the night, waking to listen for anyone or anything approaching. Too bad they hadn’t thought to bring Buddy. He could have given them an early warning of anyone approaching. Light filtered through the branches but that wasn’t what had awakened him. It was a sound, he was sure, but whatever he’d heard had slipped away from his consciousness upon awakening. He lay still, listening to Hunter’s deep, even breathing. The sound he’d heard hadn’t come from his son.
Then he heard something. Someone calling out, but whoever it was, they were fairly distant, but close enough to make Cole stiffen. He reached over and gave Hunter a gentle shake. “Wake up,” he whispered as he sat up.
“Huh?” Hunter started, but thankfully, he didn’t make any loud sounds and seemed fully alert after a few seconds. “What is it?” He rose on one elbow.
“I heard someone. Get up.” Cole was already gathering the top sleeping bag, rolling it into a bundle and tying it to the top of his pack.
In minutes, they had the lean-to disassembled and the pieces scattered to look as if branches had fallen from trees, kicking dead leaves over parts of the branches to appear as though they had been there for a while. They spread leaves over where they had slept as well.
Hunter tied his bag to his pack and shrugged it on, his rifle in one hand as he drank the last of his water. Cole had a half a bottle left. With the lake only a short distance away, he hadn’t expected water to be an issue, but it might be if they couldn’t get to the lake without the threat of being spotted.
Cole shouldered his pack and made sure his rifle was ready, stilling when the voice he’d heard came again. Hunter started to speak, but Cole held up his hand in a stop motion.
The voice came again, but this time, other voices sounded as well. They
were low and angry sounding.
Hunter edged up and whispered in Cole’s ear, “I think that’s Jake shouting.”
It could have been. Cole wasn’t sure, but he nodded and motioned for Hunter to follow him. Finding the blue pieces of glove was much easier in the light and he had to wonder why nobody with Jake had noticed the trail.
The forest dropped off on the edge of the bluff and when they came to the edge, they dropped to a crouch behind some bushes. Below them to the north about a quarter-mile away stood two houses. The bluff was lower there, more of a steep hill and the homes were built on the side of the hill. A narrow ribbon of beach separated the homes from the lake. Two piers jutted out into the water with a boat docked at each.
At any other time, Cole would have looked at the houses with envy and wonder how someone could afford the homes. Last year they would have easily sold for a million dollars or more. One home was a large, dark, wooden A-frame with floor to ceiling windows facing the water. A deck appeared to wrap around the house, although he couldn’t tell for sure if it was on the other side too, he assumed it was. Stairs from the deck to the side of the hill continued down to the beach. A fire pit surrounded by logs large enough to sit on made the whole home look like a vacationer’s paradise.
“Dad! Look!” Hunter’s voice was low, but the urgency the same as if he’d shouted as he pointed beyond the first home to the second. A man with a rifle seemed to be watching over a slim young woman—Sophie? The woman sat on a log bench, her arms behind her, and while they weren’t close enough to see bindings, the way she held them made it appear she was tied at the wrists. Her build and coloring was a match for Sophie.
Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set Page 42