The next morning, Aiden was still missing.
Kory sent the pair who’d found his trail last night to search again by daylight. Everyone else ate breakfast and broke down the camp while Dave watched from above. An hour later, the searchers returned, shaking their heads.
“Montgomery, you’re in charge until I get back. We’re nearing the far end of xTerra. By nightfall, we should be two-thirds of the way around our walls.” Kory joined the next pair of scouts as they set out, striding through the forest.
Cam took a deep breath, examining the remains of the group. Many people had shadows ringing their worried eyes. Like Cam, they might not have slept well with Aiden’s disappearanceforemost in their minds, some expressing concerns about their own safety.
“We continue today. If we set a faster pace, we should be back at the Outpost by dark tomorrow. We’ll have to hope Aiden got turned around or didn’t like the rain and snuck home.” The recruits nodded and finished packing, dividing the rest of Aiden’s belongings among them. Cam took his brother’s empty pack and shoved it in with the main supplies.
In the roiling pit of his stomach, Cam was certain Aiden’s disappearance was due to foul play. If the Slains were lurking nearby, they could have taken him as soon as he snuck away on his mystery mission. Cam clenched his jaw. Maybe his brother had gotten impatient and gone against orders, leaving to join the scouts on his own. He just hadn’t arrived. Unless whatever he’d taken with him had been the reason for his departure. Unless he was meeting with the Slains and it had been prearranged.
Aiden wasn’t the type to broker a backdoor deal. But something didn’t feel right. Cam didn’t voice his fears to the group, not yet. He’d rather get the civilians home and inside the walls without further incident.
The group continued, moving faster today on their perimeter sweep. Twice, Cam found muddy boot tracks, but they were too large to be Aiden’s. After rain overnight, they were fresh, and their path cut perpendicular to their own. Not the xTerra scouts.
Someone elsehadbeen here.
The Watch camped after another long day’s march with no sign of Aiden or the Slains. Dave watched from above while daylight held, and two other Watch members took shifts overnight wearing night vision goggles. After a second sleepless night, they broke camp early and moved out.
It was late on the third morning when one of the active scouts returned, yelling for Cam. “Sergeant Montgomery, there’s something ahead you need to see. I’ve been sent to get you.”
“Dave, you’re in charge until the rest of you catch up, or Lieutenant Walker or I return.” His gut twisting, Cam followed the scout half a mile forward, where they stopped on a slight rise. Kory crouched, waiting behind a thick tangle of junipers.
He passed his binoculars to Cam. “On the far left, at the edge by the big pines.”
Cam raised the glasses and focused on the trees. Something bright red rested near the base of one. The shadows cast by the evergreens prevented them from getting a clear picture. After several minutes, the object hadn’t moved.
Kory put his hand on Cam’s shoulder. “Could be Aiden, though I’m not sure how he would have gotten that far ahead.” Unless a vehicle transported him, or he’s been wandering since the first evening. “You continue. I’ll wait and bring the others. It’s on our direct path. Whatever it is, we were meant to find it.”
With his gut twisting further, Cam braced himself for it to be Aiden. How would he explain this to the rest of his family?
Before Cam left, the main group arrived, having made better time than usual. Kory called everyone together. “Someone or something in red appears to be positioned near the base of some trees ahead. Whatever is there isn’t moving. It could be Aiden. I’d like everyone to be alert. If we have to run, stay together and head toward the walls and the nearest Watch tower.” He pointed to one they could just make out through the trees across the cleared zone. “That’s 22 or 23.” He took a breath. “I’m not sure what we’re going to find. Be prepared for it to be the worst-case scenario.”
Cam met Kory’s eyes and nodded, bracing himself. The group continued through the forest, no longer searching for animals. The mood was like an iron weight as they approached. Cam paused on the far side of the large pines. “You stay here. I’ll check it out.”
Despite his suggestion, Kory, Dave, and the scout followed.
Cam pushed through the thick pine boughs, their fresh scent filling the morning air. He came around the last tree and stopped. The taste of bile filled his mouth. Ten yards away was his worst nightmare. The figure in red was Aiden. His skin held an unhealthy pallor, and his eyes stared vacantly toward xTerra’s distant wall. Flecks of bloody foam stained his lips.
Cam ran for the bushes and threw up his breakfast. He’d seen dead bodies twice before, but never someone he cared about, or someone who’d died by violence.
“Sorry,” he said, returning the others. He rinsed his mouth and spat.
Kory squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sorry about your brother.”
Cam still felt sick, but he took a deep breath and examined the body. At first glance, Aiden looked like he had sat down and died on his own. When they leaned him forward, closer examination showed that he’d been shot. Twice. In the stomach and chest. Cam struggled to keep from being sick again. His brother had probably bled to death or choked on blood filling his lungs. Either way, he’d died in pain.
Cam swallowed, his gaze casting across the ground for several dozen yards around the body. His voice shook. “There’s very little blood here. He might have been shot somewhere else and placed here for us to find.” He turned away. The first time anyone from his family had considered joining the Watch, and now, that someone was dead. His mother would never forgive him.
“Why would anyone do that?” said the young scout.
“To scare us,” said Cam, “or he stumbled onto something he shouldn’t have seen.”
“We can’t leave him here,” said Kory. “We’ll rig something to carry his body.”
As Cam stooped to zip his brother’s jacket and cover the wounds, he spotted a scrap of paper crumpled in Aiden’s hand.He pried it from his brother’s grasp and smoothed the paper on his thigh. He sucked in a breath and read it aloud.
“Payment insufficient. We want double the usual.” JS
