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“Idiot!” Garrett shouts. He might be right—I would call him the same if our places were reversed—but I currently don’t give a damn what he thinks.
I carefully hike, zigzagging my route. If it weren’t for my shoulder and if Garrett still had my climbing gear in his SUV, I could have easily descended.
As I draw closer, I call out Jess’s name.
Again, no reply.
I don’t bother to check where Garrett is. I assume he’s by his SUV, waiting for the emergency vehicles to arrive.
I keep going, my hiking boots slipping every few feet. The muscles in my lower body strain with each step, taut with tension at the thought of finding my girl’s mangled body in the wreck. Taut to keep me from falling or losing control of my descent.
The pain in my shoulder intensifies with each step. But hell if I care about that.
“Jessica!” I yell her name every ten or so strides.
Each time I call out her name, I’m met with silence.
My heart hammers in my chest, the force of it vibrating through my body. Please be okay. Hang in there, Jess.
After what feels like too many hours, I arrive at the truck. Sirens wail in the distance.
Holding on to the wreck with one hand, I move along the length of it, searching for signs of Jess through the rear window. The glass is cracked, but it’s still in place. She didn’t try to get out that way.
What could be footprints in the mud lead away from the truck, but it’s hard to tell if that’s what they are. The rain has partially washed them out. They look like they belong to the same person. It doesn’t appear as if any first responders have already been down here. There’d be more footprints trampling the area if they had been.
“Jess?” I move to the front of the truck and peer into the windshield. It’s cracked, but like the rear window, the glass is in place.
And still no sign of Jess.
A rush of air forces its way out of my lungs, and I scan the area for signs of where she might have gone.
It doesn’t take me long to find what could be the remains of Jess’s prints. I’m not experienced at tracking and interpreting what the different tracks mean, but she might have been limping.
“Jessica!” I follow the footsteps until they disappear under a carpet of dead leaves, fallen needles, and undergrowth beyond the tree line. I have no clue which way she went. “Jessica! It’s Troy!”
Again, no reply.
I curse. Why didn’t she stay with the vehicle? The slope would’ve been too slippery last night for her to climb it. But her only chance of getting out of here was to get to the road and not to go into the forest and get lost.
But if she had a head injury, she likely wouldn’t be thinking clearly.
My training tells me I should stay at my truck and wait for the first responders so we can do a systematic search for Jess. But I also know they’ll have to call in Maple Ridge Search and Rescue to find her.
I remove my phone from my pocket, but the cell reception is weaker here than from the road. I try anyway.
“She wasn’t in the truck,” I say as soon as Garrett answers my call. “It looks like she went into the forest.” I keep walking, alert for clues as to where she could’ve gone, my brain in search-and-rescue mode.
“Okay, I—” Static crackles in my ear, garbling the rest of Garrett’s words…and then the line is dead.
Great.
I retreat a few steps until the bars indicating cell reception reappear. I call Garrett again. “Contact the hospital to see if she’s been found.” There’s no evidence first responders or anyone else has been here since the accident, but she might have made it to the road and flagged down help. Something has just kept her from calling or texting me. “If she isn’t there, you need to call in the SAR team to help me locate her. Unless the police or hospital can confirm she’s been found, we have to assume she’s still out here somewhere.
“If the hospital gives you bullshit about not being able to tell you anything, call Samuel.” I resume walking. This time when the line goes dead, I don’t bother calling my brother. I continue searching for Jess and yelling her name.
The ground squelches under my boots, but the promised heat of the day will leave it solid in a few hours.
I scan the tree line. Shit, she could be anywhere. I cup my hand around my mouth. “Jessica!”
