Page 29 of Grid Search

With a new pilot enroute, I look over the map, comparing it to the video footage and street camera sightings. Together with the other members of the search and rescue team that I’m a part of, we come up with a plan. We found footage in town of the car turning up a road leading toward the trailhead where hikers typically head. The Prominence trailhead has several cabins along the way. We have a direction now. I need a clear plan so that when I get into the helicopter, I’m not just searching randomly. The other members head out in their trucks to begin their ground searches.

The helicopter lifts off, and I’m glad to have my mind focused on getting my wife back. Both Logan and Lance decided to come with me, likely because they’re afraid of what I’ll do. They saw Rowdy hand me a gun. I’m not going to let that man think he can take my wife. She’s not his anymore. He fucked that up, and I was there to pick up the pieces and help build her up again.

Lynae

Icome to and instantly know something is wrong. My body feels fuzzy and exposed. I look down and scream. I’m lying on a bed, blood and fluids staining the area around my lower body, but that’s not why I’m crying. My legs are tied to the posts of the bed, keeping me open on stirrups. I’m naked, and then I realize my water broke. My hands clutch at my stomach as a contraction hits me. I spot the IV pole and the line inserted into my arm. I try to pull it out, but my head swims when I sit up. What are they pumping into my veins?

I don’t know how long I’ve been unconscious or what they gave me, but I don’t feel right. Everything is dulled, and I’m slow to respond.

“Stop it right now,” Cherise yells, and I tilt my head back to see Sayler standing behind her. “No one can hear you.” She walks over and examines my exposed body. “Almost ready. Breaking her water after you drugged her up was perfect. Our baby will be here soon, son. Then we can finally get rid of her.”

“Yes, Mama.”

He looks at her, and bile rises in my throat. It’s a twisted, sick look of affection. I knew there was something off between them, but I never could have imagined this. She smiles at me with a sinister grin before turning and pulling Sayler closer.

“You guessed it. My son loves me very much. You were just a means to an end. I will kill for our love, and so will he. Just yesterday, we finally got rid of that pawing asshole father of his.” She chuckles, and I turn my head and vomit. “Stop being a big baby. It’s the way it should be. A son should love his mother above all other women. She teaches him what a woman wants and needs.”

Sayler wraps his arms around her, and my body shakes in revulsion. She starts to laugh.

“Do you know what I did when your grandmother found us?”

“No. No. That’s not possible.” I cry harder as I think of my grammy.

“Being a former nurse, I knew exactly how to make it look like a natural death. A perfect bubble of air placed just right in her vein.”

“Nurses are supposed to help and heal people.”

“We do. I just couldn’t have her revealing the fact that my son was alive, not missing. I helped him escape. I paid the right people to make it look like an attack on his unit, and then they put him in hiding. Enough money will buy you just about anything. I even paid some actors to portray beheading Sayler so he wouldn’t be considered AWOL.”

“What?” It was all a setup. She’s a sick individual, but so is her son. “Sayler, don’t do this. Just let me and my baby—” I stop as a hard contraction hits me, and I feel the urge to push. “Please don’t do this,” I beg him, but there is nothing in his eyes.

Cherise and Sayler stand there for a moment longer and then get to work. My son is born roughly thirty minutes later. It’s so painful. I feel like I’m being torn in half. I try to fight against the restraints as my baby makes a soft cry. I’m scared he’s not strong enough. He’s four weeks early, and the labor could have been too fast for him. Cherise cleans him up, and his cries become louder. I pray Ryker finds him.

“Please don’t take him. He’s my baby. Please,” I beg, over and over. I scream and cry right along with him.

Cherise hands the baby over to Sayler and walks over to me. She starts pushing something into my IV, and I feel a sudden coldness spread through my veins.

“Take him to the car, my love. I’ll take care of her.”

She looks away from me, and I pull the IV away from her hand. I scream and fight her as Sayler walks out. I get a grip of her clothes and rip them. She drops the syringe in our struggle. I grab it and stab it into her leg. Cherise screams as I push theplunger. Whatever fate she left me to, she’ll face it too. I realize that she only got a small amount into me, but I’ve gotten a full dose into her.

She falls to the floor as Sayler rushes back into the room. She’s watching me but doesn’t do anything. She lifts her arm, but it falls back to her side, and she just stares at me.

I’m sitting up now, untying my feet from the ropes and stirrups they installed on the bed. Breaking a stirrup free, I swing at Sayler when he gets close. My baby is nowhere in sight. The metal hits him, and I roll for the other side of the bed. I hit something on the floor and rear back when I look into Ken’s sightless eyes. His corpse is shoved under the bed, along with something else—my possible salvation.

“Come back here, you bitch. What did you do to her?” Sayler comes around the bed.

I lift the gun that was beside Ken and pull the trigger. It fires, and blood blooms on Sayler’s chest. My baby cries from the other room. Cherise makes a gurgling sound as Sayler falls to the floor. I stand up on shaky legs and use the bed and wall to get out of the room. I step over Sayler’s dead body and ignore Cherise as she mumbles shit at me. In the main room of the cabin, I find my son strapped into a car seat. There’s a phone sitting on the table next to him.

I dial the number and pray he answers.

“Who is this?”

My legs are getting weaker. Blood flows from between my legs, and I start to get dizzy. The need to protect my child overwhelms me. I look around at my surroundings and out the window. I can see the sign for the trailhead. I know what cabin we are in. Ryker pointed it out to me one time when we came up here for a drive.

“Ryker, help him. They forced me to deliver him.” Gently, I take JJ from the car seat and walk to the sofa. I don’t have muchenergy left in my body. I lie down and turn so he’s protected between me and the sofa as I give him my breast. There’s a blanket on the back of the sofa that I pull over our bodies.

“We are at the old Forest Service Cabin. Hurry, I don’t know how much longer I can keep him warm.”

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