Page 88 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
She explained where she’d seen him, next to one of four trailheads scattered across the back and side of SERA’s compound. I thanked her and made my way out, calling to Chickie, who didn’t need any encouragement to follow.
I strapped Chickie’s raincoat on her and we hiked for twenty minutes in the wind and cold rain before my radio crackled.
“Base to Blake. You copy?”
I reached for the handset on my pack strap. “Blake here. Go ahead.”
“Storm’s coming in faster than expected. We’re getting gusts over 40 down here already—any sign of him?”
Unfortunately, even the best tracker would have trouble differentiating any sign of Tommy this close to the trailhead on a popular route. Hundreds of hikers had most likely already been up this trail in the past month or so, but no one was still out to give me any idea of whether or not he’d been spotted. I didn’t expect to see any signs of him until I got a little fartheralong the trail, past the meadow that featured the popular lookout point this trail was known for.
“Wind and rain are picking up. Visibility’s down. I’m about a half mile below Devil’s Backbone, heading northwest along Elk Fork Trail. No sign of him yet.”
“There’s a cave just under the ridge on the southeast approach from your location. Be sure and check it on your way past. There’s also an abandoned hunting shack just over the saddle between Devil’s Backbone and Slingshot. He could be there waiting out the weather.”
I thanked him and assured him I’d check in again once I got to the cave.
Another fifteen minutes later, I was almost to the base of the ridge when he called in again.
“Base to Blake.”
“Go ahead, base.”
“We’ve got reports of a rockslide on the southwest side of Devil’s Backbone. Repeat: rockslide reported near your location.”
My stomach dropped, and I felt a strange kind of numbness. “A rockslide?” I asked stupidly, forgetting to click my radio first.
I glanced up in hopes of seeing any sign of what he was reporting, but visibility was way too low. Could Tommy have been caught in a rockslide? It would have explained why he’d never returned, why he hadn’t been able to get back before the weather turned.
I needed more information and scrabbled for the button on the radio. “No way to see from here. Cloud cover too low. What do we know?”
The radio crackled with static before his response came through. “Local climbers in the area almost didn’t make it out. Said half their gear was covered, and one of them reported a leg injury.”
My ears perked up. “They need medical attention?” Maybe Tommy had witnessed the incident and had made his way over there to help.
“Negative. They helped out their injured friend and headed straight to the clinic in town to get her checked out. They reported no sign of anyone else in the area.”
Damn.
“Let me know if you hear anything else,” I said.
“Foster… I know I don’t have to tell you this, but don’t do anything stupid. I know you care about him, but use your head.”
I knew the only reason he wasn’t commanding me to stand down was because he knew how much experience I had in situations like this. Threat assessment was my job. I’d just spent four weeks telling others when to take shelter and not be stupid.
“Copy that.”
After a few more minutes of slogging through the mud on the trail, there was a brief thinning of the cloud cover, enough to see the wet, rocky mess down the west side of Devil’s Backbone. I stared at it, horrified at the sight. It had shoved full-grown trees over and left others with broken branches. Rocks, mud, and other litter were strewn all over the hillside in a path leading away from town.
Fuck. Those climbers were damned lucky to have survivedbeing anywhere near that devastation.
Please let him be okay.
The swath of destruction was wide enough that he could have easily been caught in it without the other witnesses seeing anything. Before I had a chance to catch my breath from the sight, Chickie took off like a rocket up the east side of the ridge.
“Chick!” I cried after her. “Come!”
She ignored me, leaping across downed trees and bushes, straight in the direction of the saddle between Devil’s Backbone and the main peak of Slingshot Mountain.
