This was the worst thing in the world to have happened.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Presley asked.
He didn’t answer her. Becauseeverythingwas wrong.
He had to get it back. At any cost.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Bobby ran and fell. He got up and kept running, which was really hard to do in the mud. But if he couldn’t run fast, neither could anyone else. When he dared look back, he didn’t see the crazy-eyed woman anymore, but tripped and fell again, his clothes completely soaked and now muddy. He scrambled up and kept moving forward, even though he’d lost a boot in mud that now went almost to his knees. Even though he was so wet he felt heavy and exhausted.
Then he reached Whisper Creek and realized he couldn’t get home.
The creek cut through the valley from the Red River, usually only a trickle when it hit their property. Though years and years of rain and storms had cut a trench through the valley, it was usually easy to cross.
Not today.
The creek was now ten feet wide and he couldn’t tell how deep. He could swim pretty good, but the water was moving fast, and he knew better than to go into any water that was moving this fast. There could be a flash flood, trees could fall and hit him, he could get trapped in the culvert under Orchard Lane.
He could die.
As he watched, rain falling all around, the creek continued to grow, spreading closer to him. He couldn’t go back to the Mendozas; though he desperately wanted to help his sister he had no idea what to do. But there was one place he could go that should be safe. A shelter that had withstood far worse storms than this one.
He walked parallel to the creek, but far enough from the edge that he wouldn’t accidentally fall in. He kept one eye on the water as he walked as fast as he could to the equipment shed where he had first looked for Cleo.
His bottom lip trembled as he lost his other boot. He was cold, wet, sore, hungry. Avery was in trouble and he couldn’t help her. His mom was probably super worried about him, and what if she came out and got stuck in the creek looking for him? And he hadn’t even found Cleo! What if she ran up a tree and couldn’t get down?
He shook his head. He would not think bad thoughts. Avery was going to be okay, his mom was too smart to get stuck in the creek, and Cleo had found shelter.
It was takingforever, he thought, as he passed his ATV, now buried so deep in the mud he could barely see the seat. But food… he always had snacks in the storage in the back.
He unclipped the cage that he’d brought in case he found Cleo, and under the cage, in the storage box, were a couple apples, a can of cat food, a jug of water, and a bag of popcorn Grandma had given him. He put everything in the cage to make it easier to carry. They’d get wet, and wet popcorn was gross, but it was better than not eating anything.
Bobby kept walking, moving slower and slower as the water and his fatigue weighed him down. The creek was noisy, the water creeping closer and closer to him. He kept moving, thinking he should be at the shed by now. He couldn’t have gotten lost, he knew all these fields, but everything looked different in the rain and he could barely see more than ten feet ahead of him.
And then he saw it, practically when he ran into it. He wasoverjoyed. The ground was saturated, but he’d climb into the loft. There was old hay there, he could find something to sit on, maybe something to dry off with, like an old horse blanket. But even if there was nothing, at least he would be out of the wind, and he could bury himself in hay for warmth and to help get dry.
In his wet socks, he climbed up the ladder to the loft, balancing the cage carefully. He slipped twice but finally made it up, his heart racing. The wind shook the old wood outbuilding, but it had withstood worse storms, including the pounding hail over the weekend. It was mostly dry in the loft, except for one steady drip in the far corner.
He took off his socks and squeezed out the mud and water as he looked around. There really wasn’t much here. Mostly tools and some wood crates. He took off his jacket and hung it on a protruding nail. He squeezed the water from his shirt as best he could, and his radio fell out of his waistband.
Then he had an idea. Why hadn’t he thought of it before?
“Dumb, dumb, dumb!” he said out loud. His voice was scratchy and he drank a little of the water, then coughed to clear it.
He couldn’t communicate on the channel his family used because the bad guys who had Avery and the Mendozas might hear. But hecouldchange channels and find help from someone else.
Avery talked to her boyfriend, Ryan, on Channel 9. It was the strongest channel, because he lived down in Callisburg. They talked when Avery was grounded and couldn’t use the phone, usually because she broke curfew. Bobby wasn’t positive that he would be able to get through because rain and stuff messed with the radio waves, but he had to try.
“Ryan, Ryan Perez, this is Bobby McKenna. Are you there? Please answer me. Over.”
Nothing but static.
Bobby tried again. “Ryan, it’s Bobby. We’re in trouble. Please answer. Over.”
Static.
Tears burned, but Bobby tried again. And again. And again.
