Chapter 21
As the sun dipped below the horizon clouds had begun to float in, covering a large part of the night sky. On the mountain side there were no street lights to break through the darkness, the only brilliant light source was the full moon that hid off and on behind the thick clouds.
The four men stood in a row attempting to peer into the black night to see if they could spot the other vehicles or at least their direction of travel. The moon was at present enveloped by a large cloud, making it nearly impossible for them to see anything more than a few feet in front of them.
"So what do we do now?" Danny was whimpering again. The visual of his mother slamming him in the head with a iron skillet made him physical shiver. He only hoped that to the others it appeared to be from the chilly night air.
"Danny....calm down! We aren't gonna get anywhere if we don't stop and think!" Derek chided his brother. His brother was about to go off on yet another tangent, which right now they couldn't afford.
"Well, they couldn't have gotten too far. The cars were banged up already and that is a steep slope to slide down out of control." Sid spoke calmly really only acknowledging his partner. He was eager to get this over with, in order to get be able to get rid of the irritating brothers.
"Yeah my friend, you're right about that! With any luck they'll be scattered around in pieces when we find 'um!" Burt's eyes lit up with glee. He was picturing them mangled in the wreckage. Although it would be a real shame if they all died at once, that we mean no fun time for him and his partner.
"Then what is the plan? We can't climb down from here, it's too steep to try in the day light much less in pitch blackness!" Derek brought himself up to Burt, invading his personal space. This whole thing could have been avoided if he and Sid hadn't left him out to dry, letting him serve all the time for a crime that they helped commit.
"Where's that map of the park? There has to be another way to down there." Sid motioned Danny with a shove to retrieve it from the pick up truck.
With an angry glare Danny walked over, opened the door, got in and leaned behind the front seat to feel around for the map. They had left Derek's car closer to the hiding spot. Well, in reality it wasn't Derek's since he stole it for the trip up here in the middle of nowhere. He hated the other two men that his brother had gotten involved with, they treated him like crap. They thought he was retarded..stupid but he had their numbers. He knew that if they had their way him and Danny wouldn't get any of the money, which meant he had deadly plans for them as well. Derek was the only person in this world who had ever tried to protect him from the drunken mother. If Burt or Sid thought they were going to cheat them out of the money or try to hurt his brother, they were underestimating him.
He walked back to the others with the crumpled map in his hands and handed it off to Sid who didn't even bother to thank him or really even look his direction. Then they gathered around while their only resource was opened up and smoothed out.
"Alright, here we can go a north up the road again, there appears to be another access road that leads down the mountain. It runs parallel to this one, which means we should easily come across them, if their not already dead." Sid could care less if they were dead already, if not they were going to end up that way.
There was nothing left to decide, at least not yet, so they men began their trek into the darkness. Since they were still on the main road they had a clear path to follow as long as they kept towards the center of it, to make sure they weren't close enough to fall over the edge of the embankment. Their only source of artificial light came from a small flashlight that Burt carried in his callused hands.