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“What?” she asked. The corners of her mouth turned up as she forced back a giggle.
“Nothing,” he replied, momentarily forgetting why he woke her after seeing the cute, confused look on her face. And the way her messy hair was uncharacteristic of her, yet still charming. He remembered the way she felt in his arms when she’d cried earlier. The warmth of her body against him. The way his heart fluttered as she leaned into his chest.
Then it hit him like a pile of bricks, ripping him from his reverie as he remembered the search for a tracker. “No, not nothing,” he corrected himself. “I was trying to figure out how the hawk seems to know where we are.”
“And?” she asked, running a hand through her hair, taming it back down.
“There must be a tracker somewhere.” He pointed back to the mess he’d made after going through his pack. “I couldn’t find one in my stuff, so…”
“There may be something in my bag.” Her brows furrowed together. She chewed on her bottom lip, staring at her sack as if it were some evil creature lying in wait. Ellie pulled it toward her, dumping out its contents.
“May I?” Brett asked before reaching for the empty bag.
“Knock yourself out,” Ellie replied as she began inspecting her belongings and supplies.
Brett pulled the bookbag toward him, opening up the remaining zippered pockets. They were empty. He was about to drop the bag in defeat when he noticed a small tear in the lining of one of the smaller pockets in the front. A long, loose thread dangled where the seam split apart.
“What do you see?” Ellie asked quietly, noticing his change in demeanor.
“I am not sure yet,” he admitted as he picked his flashlight up from his sleeping bag and put it in his mouth to light up the inside of the bag. He prodded a finger into the ripped lining of the pocket. At first, he felt nothing but soft material. Then he poked something small, flat, and solid. Something that didn’t belong.
Brett pulled out the metal device. It looked almost like a round five-volt battery, thin and no larger than a nickel. A tiny bead of red sat at its center, blinking.
It felt as if they both held their breath at the same time. He looked to Ellie, watching the worry wash across her face. Her eyes grew wide, like two pale moons, as she stared at the device in his hand. Her eyes flicked up to his face. In the silence, she seemed to ask,What do we do now? Her lips pressed together in a thin line, forcing her to swallow her question.
Being unsure if it was just a tracking device or if it was also some sort of bug that could hear them, Brett raised a finger to say,Give me a minute. He clutched the round disk in his fist and moved toward the door of the tent. Hearing the gentle patter of rain continuing on the roof, he grabbed his waterproof windbreaker from his pile of stuff on his sleeping bag and threw it on. Before unzipping the door and exiting the tent, he spotted his pocketknife in his pile of stuff. He picked it up and tossed it to Ellie, and gave her a wink before walking into the dismal night.
With the flashlight still gripped in his teeth, Brett could see the wet ground around him. Some small branches lay around, shaken loose from the recent wind of the storm. He found one about as thick as two of his fingers with a crack in it. He stuffed the tracker inside and shook the branch to make sure the device stayed put. Satisfied that it didn’t fall out, he glanced back to the tent. Though he didn’t want to leave Ellie for long, he knew it would be worth it if he could toss the tracker in the river and throw their pursuer off their scent.
Brett turned slowly around, scanning the trees around him for any movement. Shadows played around the trunks of the trees as his flashlight turned with him. It made it nearly impossible to tell if anyone lingered out there, watching them. He stood in silence for a moment, letting his sloth ears take over—his hearing ability being much better than his vision. He heard nothing but the sound of rain dripping in the trees and pattering on the mucky ground.
Satisfied that nothing seemed out of place, he walked away from the tent and toward the cliff’s edge. He stepped as close as he dared before whipping the stick as far as he could into the air and toward the raging river below them. It was his hope that whoever was on the other end of the tracker thought they’d started moving again. If they did, then he and Ellie might have a restful night.
Which they needed. They were both beyond drained. Emotionally and physically.
Then Ellie’s scream pierced the night.
