Chapter 10

Nearing the center of the woods, Don seen group one with Thomas. Reaching to grip Mac's arm he missed, as he charged towards Thomas. Storming to face him, he knocked him down, beating his face. While Don and the others tried to lift him off, Mac wouldn't budge.

"Mac... you need to listen. Mac... if you kill him, we will never find Calista. Do you hear me Mac? You will never find your daughter,"yelled Don.

Finally releasing a bloody Thomas, he hissed... "where is she Thomas? Where's my little girl?"

Spitting out blood, he said... "dead. You'll never find her body, I fed it too the wolves."

Mac went to attack him again. This time, Don knew he would kill him. Grabbing Mac with ease, Don and two others held him tightly.

"Get him out of here, Peter. Take him to the Sheriff's office. Tell Terry, to place him in a cell," said Don. "The rest of you, start searching where you found Thomas, Calista must have ran that way."

As Don finished speaking, they heard the howl of the wolves. A high pitched hunger cry, as if they were surrounding a meal.

"Move... now," yelled Don.

Seperating into pairs, the searchers headed back into the woods with their rifles loaded, and ready to fire.

"Not you Mac, you stay here. We are going back to town to question Thomas. He could have hidden Calista, somewhere."

With silence filling the air, Mac hopes of finding his daughter were becoming slim. "I think we should call the family, Don. It's time to let them know," whispered Mac, as his eyes filled with tears.

"Listen Mac, don't you dare give up. She's still alive, and we will find her," choked Don trying to stay positive for them all.

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Back in the woods, the searchers were nearing the spot where Calista fell into the hole. Flashing their lights they could see nothing. Then nearing the hole, Emerson shinned his light down. Looking around, all he could see, were tree branches and leaves.

"Carter." yelled Emerson.

"Yeah Emerson?"

"Take Stevens, and grab the three planks from my truck. We need to cover this hole, the last thing we need is for Calista to fall into it."

"You got it, Emerson."

As they placed the planks over, not one of them realized that little Calista was down there passed out. Yet... if they had of looked a little more closly, they would have seen her little white sneaker.

"Okay guys, keep moving," yelled Emerson.

"Hey Emerson..." yelled Dean.

"What is it, Dean?"

"I just heard the weather report. It seems we are in for another storm, in two days. This is a bad one. According to the report, this one will bring extreme rainfall, which means the woods and paths will be flooded. So we need to find the Taylor girl, fast."

"Okay guys, you heard that. We need to search faster, and harder. The Taylor girl must be found."

Seperating down different paths. Emerson knew he would once again have to be the one, to tell Mac about the storm.

tbc...