Page 31 of Chasing Dreams
“Come with me, then,” she said.
“Shit.” He snatched a hooded sweatshirt from its peg by the door, pulled it on and made the call as he grabbed a bottle of water and a flashlight.
He’d accompany her. Maybe she had to see once and for all. Maybe it would take something this awful to convince her that there was nothing she could do about her nephew. Stuffing the few items in a knapsack, he followed her out the door.
She pointed out the direction they needed to travel, and he asked for a description of the surrounding area. He led her down a sloping deer trail to the south of the cabin, often checking their direction against her internal compass. Daisy darted in and out of the brush, recurrently running off and returning later. Forty-five minutes passed before Shaine stopped, both hands in the air before her.
“Here,” she said. “Right here.”
Austin inspected the ground and the surrounding area. Slipping between some willowy young trees, he discovered a spot where someone had camped. The nearby foliage was just as Shaine had described it, with the clearing and the windbreak. He dug up a patch of freshly disturbed earth and found two empty cans.
Someone had definitely been here. And not too long ago. But where was he now? There was no sign of blood or animal tracks that he could make out.
“This way.” She moved off, in the opposite direction of his cabin, and he followed. She went as fast as the undergrowth would allow, finally breaking into an awkward run among the fallen and decayed limbs.
Daisy barked and led the way.
Austin saw the red flannel shirt on the ground ahead after Shaine did. He reached out to stop her, but she hurried forward. To his astonishment, a second person sat beside the one in the flannel shirt, a girl with a blond ponytail and an oversize sweatshirt. Tears streaked her dirty cheeks, and her eyes were opened wide.
“Tommy! Tommy!” she cried, shaking the shoulder beside her. “Someone’s here! Look!”
The figure on the ground moaned and sat up, his youthful face distorted in a grimace of pain.
Shaine knelt beside the two young people. “Are you all right?”
“Thank God you found us,” the girl said with a hoarse voice. “Tommy hurt his ankle and he can’t walk. We’ve been lost since yesterday.”
“How did you find us?” Tommy asked.
Shaine glanced back at Austin, an expectant look on her eloquent face. Austin tried to come to terms with the fact that she’d envisioned this, and that the young man sat on the forest floor, very much alive. His surprise stole every coherent thought.
“He’s familiar with the woods,” Shaine said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder toward Austin. “He lives not too far away.”
Her explanation hadn’t told them anything, but they obviously didn’t care.
“How are we going to get Tommy out of here?” the girl asked.
“We called the rangers,” Shaine offered. “They’ll have rescue litters.”
“It could take a while for them to get to us,” the girl said, her face fallen.
Austin sized the college student up. “We’ll make a travois and drag him back. I’ll call and have the rangers meet us at my place.”
“Brilliant!” Shaine said with a smile that disappeared immediately. “How do we do that?”
He unzipped the bag he’d carried. “We cut down a couple of saplings and lash our jackets between.”
Twenty minutes later, she watched him maneuver Tommy onto the makeshift conveyance. “How’d you learn to do that, anyway?”
“Boy Scouts,” he replied, and packed his survival gear back in the bag.
She grinned and took it from him, leaving him free to pull the travois.
The trip back up the trail took a lot longer than the one down, and even after pausing several times to rest, Austin had broken out in an honest-to-goodness sweat by the time they reached the log house.
Shaine and the girl they’d learned was named Tricia, helped Tommy into one of the wooden porch chairs.
Austin collapsed on the steps, and Shaine brought him a jug of water. “I think I’ll skip my run today,” he said, panting.
