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Xander looked ahead to see who was calling his name. That was when he spotted Nia running towards him. Her brown colored skin was covered with sweat. Apart from that there were no signs of damage on her. She hugged him when she got close enough. He held her tight too, glad that he had found her. It meant he had found the girls. He pulled apart.
“Boy, am I happy that you’re alive. Where are the girls? I need to see them,” he said in happiness. Joel and Harper stood by the side, sharing in the joy without interrupting the reunion.
Xander noticed the way Nia’s face darkened at his question.
“Nia, where are Grayson and Prim? They are here, aren’t they?”
Nia broke down in tears.
“I lost them. Before the EMP, I had gone to get something for them to eat. Then all the power went off and I was trapped in the diner. By the time I came out to look for the girls, they were gone. I reported to the guards. They’ve been looking all over for them since yesterday but they’ve not been found,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks.
Xander wished the ground would open up and swallowed him as all the hope drained from his heart. Joel stepped forward.
“What were they putting on?” he asked.
“Grayson was wearing a jeans jacket and jeans pants with a white shirt inside. Her hair was tied with a pink ribbon. Prim was wearing a blue thick long-sleeved shirt with jeans pants,” Xander said.
“Have you asked the people around using this description?” Joel asked Nia. Nia didn’t seem sure.
“Well, I told the guards about it. I guess they did. I also asked a couple of people back at the park. None of them had seen anything,” she said.
Harper nodded. “I think we know what we need to do now,” she said.
The four of them spent the next couple of hours describing the girls to people at the shelter and on the road in hopes that someone had seen them. No one on the road had seen anyone matching their descriptions. They stopped for a while and sat on a broken down car, more because Xander needed to rest his hurt leg. He had convinced Nia to return to the shelter to take care of herself. Her stomach had become upset. Xander suspected it was due to her ulcer. The three of them were left to handle the search.
“I know we’re getting tired but I feel we should go to the zoo and search there. There might be clues. Someone there might have seen something,” Joel said. Xander looked up at him with a small frown.
“How come you’re not tired?” he asked.
Joel laughed. “Oh, I am tired but I endure it. I ran track and long distance back in high school. Those things don’t go away too quickly and we need them now,” he said and Xander found himself nodding in surprise.
Harper got up and turned to face them.
“Joel has a great idea. We should check it out as soon as possible,” she said and Xander groaned.
“Somehow, you guys have become more enthusiastic about this than I am,” he said as he got up.
The park had almost been empty save from some guards and zoo attendants who were left to oversee the zoo till it was decided what would be done with the wild life. None of them had seen the people the trio had described. The three of them had gone as far as a secluded floral shop close to the woods. They hadn’t made any progress still. Xander gave up and sat in the snow.
“This is hopeless! How could those girls just disappear from off the face of the Earth?” he asked in exasperation.
“They couldn’t have disappeared. They are out there somewhere. We just need to know where and we won’t know that if we give up,” Harper said. She spotted an elderly lady sitting in front of the flower shop. The flower shop stood opposite the small woodland that was covered with snow. Harper went to the lady. Joel and Xander watched from afar as Harper conversed with the woman. Suddenly Harper yelled for them to come over.
“See, you would have given up right at the edge of your breakthrough. Tell ‘em what you saw, ma’am,” Harper said with excitement. The lady told them how she had seen two men carrying two unconscious girls with the same descriptions into the woodland a day before.
“I wanted to call the police but there was no signal on my phone. These telecom companies nowadays. As unreliable as my drunk grandpa. Anyways, I couldn’t accost them to ask what they were doing. An old lady like me must mind her business if she wishes to live any longer,” the lady said.
“You mean abduction?” Xander asked, mortified.
“I don’t know. Go find out yourself,” the lady said.
Xander nodded slowly. Joel was deep in thought as well.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Harper asked. “Are we going to stand here all day or are we going to go searching?” Turning to the old lady, she added: “You’ve heard of the order to move to New York, haven’t you?”
6:45pm
Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois.
