Page 95 of Refuge for Flora

They looked at a map, talked it over, and headed out. Everyone had an area, but Barrett stood on the back porch and looked out toward the horizon. He knew Flora. She’d go through the tree line, skirt the field, and keep going. Depending on how fast she ran and for how long, she could be a very long distance away, especially if she kept moving.

He followed his gut and the route he thought she would’ve taken. Flora was out there somewhere, and she had his heart with her. There was no going home?not until she could go with him.

* * *

The sun had come up,and Barrett hadn’t come. Flora had to face the painful truth?he wouldn’t. All along he’d acted as if he cared for her, but in reality, he’d just used her to get to Darryl.

Or had he? Was her mind playing tricks on her? She didn’t know how much farther she’d managed to walk, but it was maybe a mile or two. And walking wasn’t really accurate. It was more like stumbling. She had bug bites of some kind on her legs, there were sticks and leaves clumped in her hair, and her feet were tired. The shoes she’d been wearing were just little canvas athletic shoes she’d gotten at the store for three dollars, so she had blisters aplenty. And she was thirsty, so thirsty. That concerned her. She knew she could go several days without food, but not without water, and she’d kept an eye open, but she wasn’t in the mountains. There, they often came across springs, their water always safe to drink in the foothills. But there, she’d found none. The only thing she’d come across was a small stream, and it looked more like drainage, brackish and almost still. It certainly wasn’t something anyone should drink from.

Her thoughts deteriorated into one mantra:One more step. One more step. One more step.There was nothing else to do. If she walked far enough, maybe she’d eventually find… what? A road where Darryl could find her? A house that turned out to be his or his neighbor’s? A river? A sinkhole? What could she possibly find?

“I should just give up,” she whispered aloud to herself. She had nothing. Her parents had written her off when she married Darryl. Then there was Darryl himself. Staying with him meant certain death at some point. Mrs.Murphy… She was most likely dead, so that was over, and even if she wasn’t, she probably hated Flora.

And then there was Barrett. Maybe she’d been just a passing fancy for him, but his words had seemed sincere. His hands were gentler than any she’d ever known, and when he held her, she felt safe.Sure as hell don’t feel safe now. The longer she walked, the more certain she felt that she’d never get out of those woods. Barrett had told her the story about Renita, Martina’s daughter, and she could picture some hunter finding her someday, or probably just pieces of her.

Would anyone remember her in a month? Six weeks? Six months? A year? Probably not. Somebody down the line would say, “Hey, remember that woman…” And whoever they were talking to would answer, “No. I have no idea who you’re talking about.” Yeah. That was FloraDawn Stevens. Nobody. Nothing. A disposable person.

Mrs.Murphy had given her shit, but she felt safe with the woman, and there were times when she thought her charge was maybe even a little fond of her. But over the years, so many people had pretended to care about her that she wasn’t sure about that.

In that moment, she wasn’t sure about anything, even her next step.

* * *

Barrett followedthe edge of the field, staying just inside the tree line. When he reached the back edge of the field where the trees were at their thickest, he stepped through and stood there, scanning his surroundings. For as far as he could see, bushes, bramble, and piles of leaves cluttered the closed landscape. It almost felt like a tunnel or a cave, the vegetation dense and tangled. He kept walking, noting how uneven the ground was, how difficult it was to traverse. If she’d come that way, it had been rough travels.

His phone pinged and he took a look.Nothing yet, Zyan texted.

Me either, he texted back. There was no sign. None.

The terrain smoothed out a bit about a mile out, and it was easier to walk, even though brambles and branches snatched and snapped at him, slashing at his face and forcing him to duck and close his eyes over and over. He found himself chugging upward for a minute or two, and then on a decline down the other side. Before he reached the bottom, he noticed something.

Leaves were disturbed?a deer, a wild hog, raccoons, possums? It could’ve been anything, really. But as he walked along, he noticed several places where they’d been disturbed, so he kept following those. They ended about three miles back into the woods, and he stopped and spun around, looking here and there. Near some small trees he saw another spot that looked shaken up, so he stepped toward it and took a look. Peering through the small cedars, he found a dead space, and the leaves there had been crushed.Could’ve been a deer. A hog. A dog. Anything, he told himself.Maybe even a family of coyotes. He stepped through the little break in the trees and into the void, then turned around and around, staring. Was he missing anything? And that was the moment he saw them.

A few strands of reddish-blond hair.

Barrett copied his coordinates from his app and then pasted them into his text app with a message.Found something. Moving on. Move toward this location and then fan out gradually. She’s still here somewhere.

He pressed on. Flora was near, and he had to find her. Walking, walking, walking, he found spots here and there where he knew she might’ve stopped or stumbled. He checked his mapping function and discovered he’d walked five miles since they’d started. There was a sound nearby, and he looked up to see Conor picking his way across the forest floor. “On it?” the Texas officer asked.

“Yeah. Five miles in. She can’t be much farther if she slept the night, and I think I found her encampment. She’s gotta be exhausted and dehydrated by now, so she’d be moving a lot slower.”

“Yeah. You move a hundred feet that way and I’ll move a hundred the other, then we’ll walk in parallel. If she’s between us, we’ll find her.”

Barrett nodded. “Yeah. And we need to keep an eye out for a path that looks easier. That’s what she would choose.” They started off, walking, looking, scanning their surroundings. Barrett could hear movement behind him and turned to find Zyan there. “Go fifty feet to my right and walk parallel with me and Conor.” Zyan didn’t even answer, just moved that direction and walked along. In a few minutes, Kirby was on Conor’s left, and the team of four continued to move.

He checked his mapping app again. Six miles. They were on the outskirts of the wildlife management area, and he was pretty sure there weren’t any other people around for several miles. Sure, there were quite a few of them out there, but he was sure he, Conor, Zyan, and Kirby were farther out than any of the others. Still, even with all the help, it seemed impossible. Why hadn’t he thought to contact someone with a dog? They could’ve been tracking her! By the time they got one out there, it would be late afternoon, and she’d have to spend another night in the woods. He wasn’t sure she’d survive that.

One more step, followed by another. And then he heard something and stopped. It was strange, and he listened intently. Ten steps farther and he stopped again, only to hear the sound a bit louder from that spot. And as he listened, he recognized it.

Crying.

“Flora! Flora, I know you’re there! It’s Barrett! Baby, yell so we can hear you! Flora! Where are you?”

There was silence and he almost gave up when he heard a little voice call out, “I’m here! Help me! Please help me!”

He crashed through undergrowth, leaped a downed tree, and kept running. “I’m here, baby! Call out to me! Flora! Where are you?” Then he turned.

She sat under a tree, leaning up against the trunk. Her legs and arms were covered in bite marks, slashes from vegetation, and even her cheeks were scratched up. But she was alive, and she was lucid. “Babe! I’m right here!” Barrett dropped and slid on his knees the last two feet, his arms reaching for her, and in a split second, he was clutching her to him.

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