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I suddenly understood that my friends would go as far as I needed them to. They were right there with me, and they’d go to the ends of the earth for me or Jamie if they needed to. I wasn’t sure why I kept doubting them. They’d never failed me, even when they thought I was losing it. I was so grateful that I’d found this unlikely group who had become family.
None of us said much on our hike through the woods. Caitlin kept up her nail polish trail. Jesse smacked a mosquito on his arm. It was hot, and really humid that day. I couldn’t imagine having to stay outside in the elements for weeks. It still got fairly cool at night but was miserable during the day. I kept an eye out for any sign that someone had been hiding in the area but saw nothing. Just some squirrels, a hawk, and a few deer. People didn’t walk through there anymore.
We’d been walking for over an hour when the whole plan started to feel futile. There was no sign a vehicle had been through there in decades. What would Wally have done? Dragged Jamie miles through the woods? Unless there was another road to the same location, I couldn’t imagine the spot he’d chosen being so inaccessible. Even if he’d somehow managed to walk it, that meant a car would have been left somewhere out there in the open for days or weeks, and someone would have noticed and grown suspicious. The farther we walked, the worse I felt about the whole thing.
What if we went all that way and didn’t even find any answers? What if the whole journey turned up nothing but empty woods? If we left his hometown empty-handed, I’d have nowhere left to look. I would be out of ideas. What if I never found answers? What if I went the rest of my life having to wonder if Wally was right, and he was telling the truth, never finding proof of what actually happened to Jamie? What if they never found him, even his body? What if he remained one of those missing people whose face was still on posters thirty years later, seemingly gone without a trace?
I didn’t think I could handle that reality. My heart was breaking as my brain finally caught up, and those dreams of finding Jamie whole and uninjured slowly faded away. That was impossible. If Jamie was alive and ok somewhere, he would have found his way back. He would have found someone, anyone, who could help him. He would be in my arms on campus, and I wouldn’t be combing the largest forest in Florida with our friends. I was having trouble coming up with a plausible reason that he would still be missing and still be alive.
I should have told the detective where we were going. He could have sent out search parties, and I wouldn’t be trying to cover such a vast area with four other people. I knew there was a good chance he wouldn’t have listened to my reason, but my friends and I would never be able to cover even the section of woods we’d started in, since we didn’t even have a clear trail. The entire thing suddenly seemed like a horrible idea. “I need a break.” I wasn’t even tired. I just needed a break from my thoughts. I found a log and sat down on it. My friends all stopped and looked at me. My face must have registered my thoughts because Caitlin and Amber sat down on either side of me, each putting an arm around me.
“Hey,” Caitlin said softly, “Caden, are you ok?”
I shrugged. No. “This whole thing is starting to feel like a dumb idea,” I said miserably, “I mean, if Jamie was ok, he’d be home by now, right? And I need closure, either way, but if Wally was telling the truth, and he was right, then I’m probably not even going to find that by walking in the woods. I mean, I don’t know what we’d even find out here at this point, but I doubt the five of us would realize it was Jamie. We aren’t like, forensic experts, or anything.” It was probably the most bluntly I’d spoken of it other than when I was quoting Wally, but I was feeling completely discouraged.
Caitlin sighed and gave me a squeeze. She knew I was right. About all of it. I looked up, past all my friends. “I just want to see him smile again.” I missed it so much. “I just want to hear him laugh. Even just one more time.” And I broke down in sobs right there, even though I didn’t mean to. Amber hugged me tight as she started to cry herself. She missed her best friend almost as badly as I did. It was probably the most hopeless I’d felt since he’d gone missing, and I wondered if the reality my friends, his family, and the police had already accepted was finally just dawning on me. Happening, of all places, in the middle of the woods five hours from campus. But my friends had all followed me there, anyway.
No one said anything for a minute, but finally Caitlin spoke up. “But if your idea was right, Caden, and even if Wally was also right, if there is a cabin out here that he brought Jamie to, maybe we can prove they were here and then there will be closure for you, and peace for Jamie because the police will find him…in whatever condition he’s in.”
I knew she didn’t mean to hurt me, but she cringed after she said it. Another sob slipped out of me. I closed my eyes and felt a tear slip out. “I miss him so much.”
“I know,” Caitlin whispered.
Jeff stepped over to me, holding his hand out to help me up. “Come on, Caden,” he said, gently but with no room to argue, “Let’s go a little farther. We came all this way. Let’s see it through.”
I composed myself, wiping my tears with the back of my hand, and nodded. I gripped his hand and let him help me up. The girls stood with me, and we all started walking again. Caitlin marked another tree along the way.
We were approaching a hill. It was a decent sized hill for the relatively flat state of Florida, but fairly small compared to other places. Jeff and Jesse plowed forward and started up it, but it was all I could do to keep going. How far were we going to walk? We had to be over two miles in.
Jeff and Jesse both stopped at the top of the hill. “Uh, guys?” Jeff said, looking down to where the girls and I were still climbing. They were moving slowly, too, probably just trying to wait on me. My feelings were dragging me down, and I was the weakest link. The three of us finally made it to the top and looked at the spot Jeff was pointing at. There was a large concrete foundation on top of the hill that had probably been where the fire tower had once stood. It was nothing but a big square of cracked cement with weeds growing through it. There were no other buildings around it, and there was no sign anyone had been there recently.
I looked at the foundation sadly, wallowing in the fact that I’d been so wrong. Jeff tapped my shoulder as I stood there staring at the cement. “Caden.” I looked back at him. Everyone else was surrounding him, and they were all looking at me with wide eyes.
“What?” I asked, confused. Jeff pointed down the other side of the hill. Through the trees and overgrowth there, I could make out a structure. A cabin. It was covered in vines and weeds. The windows were boarded up. But it was there. It was still standing. A cabin.
I couldn’t move at first. Just because it was there didn’t mean I was right. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure what would be worse- finding that no one had been in the building for decades or finding evidence that Jamie had died there. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to look anymore.
“Come on,” Caitlin said quietly, taking my hand, “We have to look. We made it all this way.” Amber took my other hand as Jeff and Jesse slowly led the way down the hill.
The cabin was bigger than it had looked from the top of the hill. It was only one level, but it was probably built for at least two rangers to stay in while they were working, if not more. It wasn’t huge, but it was the size of an average house.
We approached slowly and quietly. I knew Wally wasn’t there, but there was still the possibility that he’d had an accomplice, and that person could still be around somewhere. With that thought in mind, I pulled out one of the heavy, metal flashlights we’d bought at the hardware store. The others looked at me a little strangely. I shrugged. Not only were the windows boarded, so it would be somewhat dark in there, but I could do some serious damage if I hit someone over the head with it.
By the time we reached the cabin, I was leading the group. The structure was run down but still seemed sturdy. There were steps up to a small porch, with lattice covering the space between the porch and the ground. Something drew my eye there, something a little bit sinister that I couldn’t explain. Looking through the lattice quickly with my flashlight, I didn’t see anything that seemed unusual. I swallowed and made my way to the steps.
I tested the boards before stepping on them. They were creaky but seemed stable. Amber gasped behind me as I took the first step, and I looked back to find her staring at the floor of the porch. I followed her eyes. Blood. That looked like blood. Just a few drops clustered together. I closed my eyes and tried to convince myself it was old paint or rust that had dripped from somewhere. But it wasn’t. There was nowhere for rust to fall from, and it wasn’t paint. It was blood, and it wasn’t years old.
“Maybe it’s from an animal,” Caitlin suggested, but I knew that none of us believed it, including Caitlin. I had to keep going, though. I tried the door. It was locked.
“Should we break it?” Jeff asked, instantly turning to brute strength as the best solution.
I shook my head. I didn’t think we should draw that much attention. What if there was an accomplice inside, or in the woods nearby? “I’ll see if there’s another way in.”
Jesse followed me, and we walked around the building to find that all the windows were boarded, even though there were a few boards missing, but while we wandered, Caitlin was working her own magic. When we got back to the front of the cabin to report that we didn’t find any openings big enough to fit through, we found her with her credit card in the door frame. By the time we got back onto the porch, there was a click and the door creaked open slightly. “Nice,” I said.
“Well, they sure didn’t care much about security out here,” she commented.
“Because bears can’t pick locks, Caitlin,” Jesse put in.
