Page 106 of Doing Life

“How many trees? Like five? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?”

“Think more like…three.”

“Three?”

“Yep, like three. Three trees. That’s about what there is. In fact, that’s exactly how many. Three wet trees.”

“That’s not super helpful.” He winked, not sure if Chris could even see him.

“Nope. I mean…” Chris was breathing hard, and Lance realized he was in physical distress.

“Hey, no big. Seriously. Come on, let’s eat that granola bar. We can pour your water into my bottle and then start gathering again.”

“Okay. Okay, I’m?—”

“Breathe, sailor. In and out.” He was going to have to find some dry-ish wood. He didn’t have a choice.

They needed to keep themselves, and Boone as warm as possible… And send that damn beacon through the dark.

The baying would have awakenedthe dead.

Abby was barking right along, but Maynard would put his head down and scent, then bay and run.

Sloan and Stan followed, trying to stay back enough not to foul the trail with fuel smells, but Maynard was steady. Sure. He shot off in a straight line, heading into the interior of the ranch.

And then at some point, he took a right turn. Like boom. Moving on a whole new heading. Abby ran along behind him, barking like a fiend, and he hoped the guys weren’t shoutingfor them. They’d never hear it between the motors and the dogs.

Maynard’s bays got more and more hysterical, and Stan called out. “Does that mean they have something?”

“Yeah. Yeah, just keep following. He’s on a trail.”

At least he hoped so. Maynard wasn’t acting like a flunked-out scent hound.

The rain had stopped altogether, and the dark was pushing all of the light out of the day when Abby alerted, bouncing toward him so fast that he had to stop on a dime or hit her. He waved at Stan to turn off his engine too.

“Lance! Lance? Report soldier!”

“Not Lance!” A truncated arm started waving, moving furiously in the receding light. “But I need help!”

Fuck.

Fuck.

It was Brick, and he was alone.

“Were you with Lance?”

He stepped out as Maynard and Abby spun around Brick, splashing and pushing the man toward the four-wheelers.

“I was. But I was hunting a cell tower. My phone ran out of battery.”

“Good boy! Good boy, Maynard! You did it! Good boy!” If he praised Maynard now, he had a better chance of finding Lance later. He pulled a treat out of his pocket where he’d shoved a handful. “Where are they? Is anyone hurt?” He hopped out and started moving Brick to sit on Stan’s four-wheeler.

“Boone was knocked out. We lost all the horses. Lance and Chris seemed fine, really. Just bounced around.” Brick sat hard on the seat, shivering violently.

“We need to get him back,” Stan said.

Sloan frowned. “We need to findthe others.”

---