Uncharted Destiny (The Uncharted Series Book 7)

by Keely Brooke Keith

  Revel grabbed Bailey’s body beneath her arms and held on with determined force while Levi’s machete sliced through the air and struck the vine. The blade barely nicked the plant, but it released her and slithered back down the western slope of the mountain.

  Revel slid her away from the cliff. “Are you all right?”

  She shook loose of his grip and jumped to her feet. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Stay back from the edge.” Revel was still panting. “Did it hurt you?”

  “No, it just startled me.”

  Levi sheathed his knife and growled, “What was that thing?”

  “I don’t know.” She rubbed her ankle where the vine had found flesh between the top of her shoes and the bottom of her jeans. The skin reddened and felt hot but didn’t hurt. “It’s some type of vine species capable of rapid plant movement.”

  Connor gave the ships one last scan. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Bailey stretched her foot out in front of her and drew a circle with her toes to make sure her ankle was steady. Her heart pounded in her ears from the biggest dump of adrenaline she had ever experienced. She took a few slow breaths and waited for her parasympathetic nervous system to kick in and settle her insides.

  As she stepped toward the eastern edge of the summit, she thought one of the men said something, but she couldn’t decipher the words. “What?” she asked looking back at Revel.

  He shook his head. “I didn’t speak.”

  The voice murmured again. “Who said that?”

  Revel furrowed his brow. “I don’t hear anything.”

  She was certain she heard a voice. It must have come from somewhere beneath the fog. She willed her pulse to regulate so she could focus on the sound. Though she didn’t hear it again, she knew the sound of that voice.

  * * *

  “It’s him!” The words escaped Bailey’s lips as she scrambled to get down from the summit, her heart still pounding.

  Revel shouted from above, “Bailey, wait!”

  She wasn’t waiting for anyone. Her toes quickly found holds in the rock as she descended. When she got close to the bottom of the summit’s massive boulder, she let go and hopped down to the dirt path. Her right ankle felt as if the skin were numb, but there was no time to stop and check it.

  “Tim?” she called out. “Tim?”

  “Shh,” one of the guys shushed from behind her.

  She was so close to finding Tim, to finding her father, which would validate her identity, which would reveal her destiny. No, she wasn’t waiting for anyone and she certainly wasn’t shushing.

  The fog thickened the farther she ran down the path. The steep incline added to her momentum. Soon, she had to force herself to slow down so she could see when she was approaching a crossing path. She stopped at the first dirt trail intersection she came to and listened.

  All she could hear was the guys leaving the summit behind her. She scanned the ground for Tim’s boot prints as far as the fog allowed her to see.

  Nothing.

  She would have to search the path in both directions unless she heard his voice again. If only he would use his radio!

  Turning north, she followed the hazy path as it veered around boulders and passed craggy hollows in the mountainside. She paused in front of each dark rock shelter and called to Tim. He never answered. She was half relieved he wasn’t in some cave because she didn’t want to squeeze into a dank space to search for him. He was out here on the path somewhere, and she would find him.

  Her right boot felt tight but not as tight as the grip that creepy vine had used on her ankle. Pain had never stopped her in a fight and this strange feeling wouldn’t stop her now. She held her backpack straps with both hands and rushed along the narrow path until it looped back upon itself by a scraggly fir tree.

  Turquoise blue ovals on the ground by the tree’s trunk gleamed in stunning contrast to the surrounding brown dirt and gray fog. She pushed back a branch to get a better look. Three large blue eggs were nestled in a pile of twigs, each egg at least nine inches long.

  Bailey’s breath caught with delighted interest. She wished she had a camera. The eggs had to belong to the giant bird that made the paths. Or birds. Levi had been right when he said there were more than one of the creatures.

  The mountains could be full of territorial birds that aggressively defended their mating grounds. Maybe that was why the old stories claimed no one made it out of the mountains alive. If these birds possessed the kick of the ostrich, the aggression of the cassowary, and were as big as the moa, no human stood a fighting chance.

  Something rustled the shrubs in the fog behind her. It might have been one of the guys or it might have been the bird coming to protect its young. Bailey wasn’t going to harm the bright blue eggs, but there was no telling that to an angry parent, regardless of species.

  She backed away from the nest and hurried along the side path into new territory. The farther down the mountain she went, the more the thick fog disoriented her. The pebbles in the path’s surface lessened and softer dirt made footprints visible again. She scanned the path and found a boot heel’s outline. Tim was close by.

  Most of his erratic prints were partially overlain with the bird’s deep tracks. She stopped when she came to a boot print that was sideways on the path. The ferns along the ground were broken between the path and the opening of a rock shelter. She tiptoed toward the dark hole and stooped to look inside.

  The air around the blackened passage reeked of mildew, just like the ship’s cabin, just like the closet she’d been locked in as a child. A wave of nausea broke her concentration. What had happened to her strong stomach since coming to the Land?

  She couldn’t go in. Tim probably wasn’t in there anyway. She could just move on and keep searching in the open air.

  No, she shouldn’t leave without checking. She braced a hand on the cold stone and tried not to inhale. “Tim?”

  Her voice resounded inside the chasm. It sounded too deep to be a simple rock shelter. It had to be a cave. After a quick check around her for any signs of the giant bird, she lowered her backpack off one shoulder to get her compact flashlight. She aimed the light inside. “Tim? If you’re in there, it’s me, Bailey.”

  Her light didn’t hit anything around the entryway and there was no way she was going to poke her head in. Something crackled inside the cave. She pulled back and prayed she hadn’t awoken the bird.

  A gravelly whisper said, “Bailey?”

  “Tim?” Even with a numb foot and a nose full of putrid air, her heart swelled with gratitude when she heard his voice. She ducked to walk into the dark, wet cave; her teeth set in defiance to the claustrophobia that constricted her throat. “Where are you?”

  “Over here.”

  She pointed the flashlight’s beam across the cave’s damp floor. It landed on Tim’s unlaced boots. He was slumped against the side of the cave, his clothes soiled with weeks of wear.

  “Tim! Thank God.” She tried to hug him but he was too weak to hug her back.

  His limp hands lightly touched her. “Am I dreaming?”

  “No, it’s me. I heard you call out.”

  He whispered, “I haven’t uttered a word since we spoke over the radio last night. It’s too dangerous to talk.”

  She was certain she’d heard him when she descended the summit, but it must have been in her head. She kept her voice quiet too. “I found you. I told you I would.” She quickly looked him over for signs of injury and saw none. “I have to get you out of here. Can you walk?”

  His once trimmed gray mustache was now long and lost in a wiry beard. His wrinkled hands dropped to the ground beside his emaciated body and he shook his head slightly. “Bailey, I don’t have long. I wanted to spend time with you as my daughter. I’m sorry I won’t get to.”

  “Don’t talk that way.” She checked for the pulse at his wrist but couldn’t feel anything. “You’re going to be fine. We just have to get you down to the other side of the ri
ver where it’s safer. Sophia has gray leaf medicine waiting there for you. I’ll help you out of here.”

  A sudden spark filled his bloodshot eyes with primal fear. “No! We can’t leave the cave. This is the only place that thing hasn’t come. It’s going to kill me. I can’t go out there.”

  Her dry tongue felt like it was doubling its size in her mouth. She had to get out of this suffocating space regardless of what was waiting for them outside. She drew her water bottle out of her backpack but put it to Tim’s lips instead of her own. “Drink this.”

  His swallows sounded like pebbles caught in a garbage disposal. Between the tattered edges of his collar, his skin drooped around his bones. She opened a paper bag of Levi’s venison jerky and handed him a piece. “You have to eat.”

  He squinted, deepening the grid lines in his forehead. “Is your radio still on?”

  “Yes. I’ve been trying to call you all morning.”

  “Turn it off.” He tore the jerky with his teeth and chewed with his mouth open, which she’d never seen him do. “That creature is waiting, listening. It comes to loud noises.”

  She turned off her two-way radio, silencing its static hum. “I think it’s a moa-type bird. They’re supposed to be extinct.”

  “It’s deadly.” His wild eyes widened and he whispered, “Did you get a good look at it?”

  “No, have you?”

  “Only once and not all of it. Just the legs and feet.” He tore off another bite, this time with more verve. “But it’s been stalking me for days. It’s going to kill me, whatever it is.”

  She was glad he was eating. “When I saw its tracks over yours on the path, I thought it had chased you,” she gave his gaunt body a quick glance, “but if a creature that size wanted to catch you, it would have.”

  A short laugh interrupted his chewing. “Believe me, that beast has plans for me. It will gut us if it gets the chance.” He lowered his whisper even more. “That’s why I told you and your friends to stay quiet. Where are they?”

  She looked back at the cave opening. “The guys shouldn’t be far behind.” Somehow, she needed to let them know where she was and that she’d found Tim. But Tim refused to leave the cave and the giant bird’s nest was close enough they were definitely in its territory.

  The smell, the darkness, the low ceiling all battered her mind. She had to get out of here. She could drag Tim outside to fresh air, but even if the creature didn’t attack them, Tim’s fear might stop his frail heart. Her breath felt trapped in her burning lungs. If she stayed in the cave another minute, she was either going to panic or going to puke. Or both.

  She had to focus her mind, and deep breathing was not an option. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the truth. Yes, she was in a small dark space, but she wasn’t trapped. Yes, Tim was weak and scared, but she’d found him and Sophia had medicine waiting. Yes, a huge, aggressive animal might attack, but there might be a way around it.

  All at once, Coach’s words played in her mind: Threats are challenges; disasters are opportunities. And then John Colburn’s: Lord, I pray You comfort Bailey with Your peace. May she learn to trust You fully. And then the Scripture: I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

  She’d spent her life thinking she had no father, and now, while stuck in this dark space, her mind was full of her many fathers’ voices.

  Tim spoke in a whisper again, and at first she wasn’t sure if his voice was real or in her mind like it had been when she was on the summit. “This is tougher than the exams in my biology classes, isn’t it?”

  “Hm?” She shined the flashlight between them so they could see each other’s faces. His teeth looked artificially white surrounded by his dirty skin and the blackness of the cave. “Not if we get the guys to help us. They have crossbows and can protect us while we leave the mountain.”

  Her stomach churned at the smell in the cave and the memories it ignited; she didn’t used to be so sensitive. Focus on the truth. She wasn’t a little girl helplessly locked up anymore. She would not vomit or scream. She would meet this challenge and crush it.

  First, she had to find a way to let the guys know where she was without attracting the creature to her and Tim. “Where is your radio?”

  “What? No. Why? If you make noise that creature will come closer. It will kill us both.”

  She patted his arm. Giving him reassurance somehow calmed her too. She offered as much of a smile as she could muster. “I think two scientists can outsmart one bird, don’t you?”

  Trust softened his frightened expression. He opened a pocket on the side of his cargo pants and slid out his two-way.

  She examined the radio with her flashlight. “I need two rubber bands or pieces of string. Do you have anything like that?”

  He popped the last bit of jerky into his mouth then pointed at his boots. “I had to use my laces to tie the boat to a tree.”

  She hadn’t thought of using shoelaces. “Good idea. I’ll use mine.” With each task, her fear lessened and only a slight quaver like what she felt before a match remained.

  Dry twigs outside the cave snapped, drawing their attention to the foggy opening. Leaves swished in steadily approaching thuds. Then, the long, pole-like legs of an ancient bird species passed the entrance. Its thick, scaled feet lifted with the motion of knees so high they weren’t visible at the top of the cave entrance.

  Tim grabbed her arm and they sat clinging to each other in silence as the creature walked past. After a moment, the sound of its footsteps faded in the opposite direction. Tim didn’t relax his grip, and everything that had calmed in Bailey started to burn again.

  “Just do the next thing.”

  “What?” Tim whispered.

  She hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud. “Nothing.”

  She quickly unlaced her right shoe and the pressure of her swelling foot filled the extra space. Whatever that vine was, it had injected her with some type of poison. Now was not the time to mention it to Tim.

  Or was it? Maybe having something else to focus on would steady his mind.

  She cleared her dry throat. “When I was on the summit, there were strange vines on the western slope of the mountain. Thick vines like nothing I’ve studied,” she glanced up at him while she unlaced her other shoe, “not even in your classes. Anyway, it moved and caught my ankle.”

  He shifted his weight and bent his legs at the knee for the first time since she’d found him. “Seed type?”

  “I couldn’t tell.”

  “Vascular or nonvascular?”

  She grinned at his trick question. “Duh. Vascular.”

  “Good, you didn’t forget everything I taught you.” The food’s energy gave strength to his whisper. “Angiosperm?”

  “I don’t know. It all happened so fast. It yanked me hard and I fell back. The guys were trying to force it to let go of me. Levi whacked it with a machete and the blade didn’t even cut it.”

  “Wow!” Tim’s eyes brightened. “I want to see this vine.”

  “I’m glad to hear your scientific curiosity is awakened, but I’m never going back up there again. Once I get us out of here, we’re leaving this mountain for good.” While she quietly told him about the vine on the summit, she tied one shoelace around his two-way radio so it would hold the talk button down. “The vine was about as thick as my wrist and notched, not with thorns but with nubs. Do you know of any vine species with rapid plant movement capabilities like that?”

  As Tim launched into an explanation sounding like his professor days, she tied the other shoelace around her radio in the same manner as she had his.

  When the radios were ready, she remembered the white bucket hat she and Revel had found on the beach in Good Springs the day she thought Tim was dead. She pulled his lucky hat out of her backpack’s main compartment and handed it to him. “I’ve been carrying this around for weeks.”

  He grinned widely. “My lucky hat!” He ran his fingers over the little giraffe embroidered on it, the
n put it on. “Still fits.”

  “It looks great. And here are your glasses.”

  “Oh, thank God!”

  “Indeed.” She checked the cave entrance. It was still quiet outside, but that didn’t mean the bird was gone. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you walk?”

  He raised himself as much as he could in the short cave and supported his weight by propping his bony hands on his knees. “I’ll give it my best try.”

  She switched his radio on first and turned the volume all the way up. It hissed loudly. She stepped outside the cave and threw the radio as far as she could in the opposite direction than she planned to walk.

  Tim rushed toward the entrance. “What are you doing?” His sudden pop of energy gave her hope.

  She wiggled her eyebrows at him then turned her radio on with its talk button also tied down. “This is the only way to save us. Get ready,” she warned as she turned its volume all the way up and then threw it in the same direction as the first. Feedback screamed loudly from both of the radios.

  She grabbed Tim’s hand and smiled. “Let’s get out of here, Dad!”

  Chapter Ten

  While Bailey was in the cave with Tim, Revel was franticly looking for her. He raced down from the mountain’s rocky summit, hurrying through the swirling fog and whispering ferns. Connor and Levi were close behind him. He listened for the animal that had cut the path he was following, and for Bailey, and for the voice she said she heard while she left the summit.

  He heard nothing but his own footsteps.

  Where had Bailey gone? Every move that woman made shook him to his core. It was as though she lived to defy nature and physics and, sometimes, common sense. He’d begged her to wait for them, but she hadn’t listened, just like when she inched too close to the summit’s edge and a vine almost pulled her off the cliff. If he hadn’t been there to save her… His guts tightened at the thought of her falling to her death.