A/N: Hey just a quick note...to anyone that may still be following my stories. Writing and posting may be sporadic in the coming weeks. I don't know yet at this time if things will be affected. I'll have to adjust my schedule to accommodate an uptick in parental medical appointments that require a two-hour commute one way.

Reviews are appreciated and make my day to hear from people that have read and liked my stories.

Thanks.

The day went off without a hitch. Alan and his dad finally had some important discussions, despite Alan losing his temper briefly and stalking off down trail about five minutes distance until he'd calmed and returned to carry on the discussion with a clear head.

"Son, I realize you would rather homeschool. I'm not ignoring your multiple requests to do so, but you need to complete your education on the mainland. Once you graduate, you'll become a member of the family business and you'll be practically bound to the island. I don't want to prematurely make you a hermit like myself or your brothers. You deserve to experience a taste of life on the outside before you come home for good."

"I know that dad, but I hate being so far from home. I miss you guys and it doesn't seem fair that I miss out on practically everything. I haven't been home for any birthdays in God only knows how long and honestly, sometimes I don't even feel like a member of the family anymore." Alan said, keeping his voice calm despite wanting to state everything he just said with as much passion in his voice as he could muster.

"Alan, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You have no reason to not believe that you're a part of the family. You have two and a half years left of schooling and if you can buckle down you might be able to graduate early. After that if you want to return to the island and skip college, I can't stop you. I mean, I'd prefer it if you went to college like myself and your brothers did before you but that's entirely up to you once you turn eighteen or graduate high school."

Alan frowned at his and his dad's continued argument. It was the same thing over and over. Alan would prefer to homeschool meanwhile his father believed he'd do better to obtain an education in person rather than online.

"Can we talk about something else; we aren't getting anywhere re-hashing old arguments." Alan asked, frustrated that his dad would not accept a different stance on Alan's schooling. He didn't know what it was like being over a thousand miles away and not having any ability to lift a finger to help on rescues as his dad went out on some frequently. The stealth agreement with the news agencies didn't help either because Alan couldn't just watch the news to see how his brothers and father were doing while out on missions.

"Did you have any plans for this summer vacation besides terrorizing your brothers with Gordon?" Jeff asked, glad for the change in topics.

It wasn't that he was callus to his youngest offspring's wants and desires, but he truly believed that keeping Alan home on the island would be doing him a great disservice. He deserved to experience life away from the island while he still could. He never took Alan to be such an antisocial kid, but his desire to be homeschooled was mildly concerning. He couldn't imagine why his youngest begged for a home education such as he was every chance he got. He'd have to talk it over with Scott and John. Those two were very good at figuring out all that made their baby brother tick. Even Gordon was sometimes talented at getting his brother to squeal even if his methods were a bit…unorthodox.

"No, not really. At least, nothing planned. But I haven't been able to really talk it over with Gordy or for that matter Tin and Ferm." Alan said referring to his late-night meetings with his next older brother and two close friends. They all typically hung out in the tree house on the far side of the island to plan strategically and they hadn't yet had the opportunity.

The brief time Alan was home before he and his dad left to go camping was two days and of those two days, Tin-Tin hadn't been in the mood to strategize…that time of the month usually made her quick to anger worse than a black mamba. Not that she told Alan that was the problem, he guessed…having gotten adept at predicting when it was safer for the male residents to keep out of Tin-Tin's way and when she'd accept their company. Being friends with three boys that would just as soon as run when she lost her temper made for interesting interactions.

"Well, we're going to be back home soon enough and then you and they can run circles around us all for the whole of summer vacation." Jeff said smiling kindly at his son. He hoped they didn't break anything during their pranks either limbs or furniture, but Jeff wasn't holding his breath. Jeff extended a hand, from where he stood and ruffled Alan's hair affectionately. "Did you want to go for a walk with me to go gather some more kindling, or would you rather stay here?"

"My legs are still pretty sore; I think I'll stay here." Alan said rubbing one of his calves for emphasis of just where his legs were sore. "I might also change into some shorts while you're gone. These jeans are a little warm in this weather."

"Okay, well if you do leave camp for any reason, make sure you smother the fire before you go, though I'd prefer you not venture far. Neither of us are very familiar with the area." Jeff said as he turned to hike up trail to the spot, they'd found much of the kindling the night previous. "I'll be back shortly."

"Kay." Alan said as he remained sitting where he'd sat earlier. He'd waited a few minutes before he stood up and went to the tent. He slipped inside and zipped the flap closed so he could change out of his jeans into shorts. He wasn't so brazen as to take his pants off outside the tent, just in the off chance that someone decided to hike this same trail this very day.

So, it came as a petrifying surprise to Alan when he heard the same laughter barely eight minutes after his father had hiked up trail. Alan had just been about to step into his shorts, and he dropped them in shock. Freezing where he stood, Alan covered his mouth so as not to call out. He was tempted to speak up, ask aloud if this was his dad attempting to scare him. But he knew the voice didn't belong to his father. He was familiar with the sound of his dad's voice genuine and playful, and this wasn't it.

Something sharp tore through the side of the tent just about half a meter behind the teen, making Alan jump with a terrified wail and he didn't dare turn to see what had attacked the tent. Tearing through the zippered flap, Alan took off in the direction his dad had gone. He didn't care that he was clad solely in socks, his t-shirt, and boxers. All he knew was that He. Had To. Run. Fast!

Sucking in as deep a breath as he could while running, Alan released a bellow so loud that it scared a flock of nearby birds.

"Dad!" Alan heard nothing aside from his pounding heart in his ears, but he knew that whatever it was that'd attacked their camp was following him. He just knew it. "Help me!"

Whatever it was that was following Alan in the middle of the afternoon reached the teenager before his mind could register what was happening. Alan felt his breath leave him in an explosive rush as he was tackled by a heavy weight. Yelping in fright, Alan toppled to the ground. He was roughly flipped onto his back and what stared back at him made Alan scream in terror. He frantically began scrambling backwards, barely registering pain in his hands or the back of his thigh as he was cut by sharp rocks.

The menacing figure stared back at Alan, face obscured, the only visible feature were a pair of slate-blue grey eyes that stared back into his. Virgil and John, both poetic in their own way often said the eyes were the windows into the soul…but these eyes were hollow. Alan didn't think the owner of these eyes knew what it meant to be human. Alan tried to get to his feet, but his terror kept him from getting very far. A gloved hand grasped Alan's ankle and pulled him back closer. Alan kicked out a leg, making a solid connection with the side of the masked figure's face and he heard a grunt of pain.

Tugging strongly, Alan managed to escape, and he immediately began booking it. So, it came as an additional unpleasant surprise when the 'monster' or rather 'human' ran forward, grabbing Alan around the waist and unceremoniously flipping him up over a pair of strong shoulders. Alan kicked, his feet meeting air and punched, his fists having no effect on the back he pounded against.

"No! Let me go! No! Stop! No! No! No!" Alan looked around for anything to grab and as they began moving, his eyes caught on an object attached to his captor's hip.

Alan cried out as the figure that had him took off, loping through the woods as if the trees didn't exist. Alan sucked in another breath, hoping his dad heard him.

~.~.~.~.~

Jeff's heart beat a rapid tattoo in his chest. He dropped what kindling he had gathered upon hearing the only voice no parent ever wanted to hear. The voice of terrified offspring. Alan's voice echoed off the nearby canyon walls, the panicked edge to his voice cutting through Jeff's heart even more.

"Alan!" Jeff ran, or rather he sprinted in the direction of his son's voice. His fastest running speed didn't feel fast enough and as he tore down the trail towards camp, all he could hope for was that Alan had merely been surprised by a mouse or a spider. But Alan wasn't as affected by fears of those little critters, not like two of his older brothers. His kryptonite was a purely natural weather pattern. But the sky was clear, and the sun was hot. There wasn't a cloud to be seen, so Jeff doubted Alan's fear of storms came into play here.

When Jeff made it into camp, just a few short minutes later, he felt his heart stop. Alan was gone and in his wake was destruction. It was clear that there had been a struggle, but with what…Jeff didn't know. Holding his breath, Jeff heard a far off and very distant cry.

"Dad! Help me!"

Jeff couldn't identify the direction in which the voice came from, and he spun on his heel, looking for any obvious signs that Alan was nearby if not trying to yell through a hand covering his mouth. Seeing an object glint on the ground, Jeff ran up to it. His heart clenched in his chest. Laying on the ground in front of him was a knife, one that was as unfamiliar as his very first time holding his firstborn Scott moments after birth in the delivery room.

Jeff was breathing heavy as he ran in the direction, he thought Alan was taken. All he could hope for was that he'd find his son and he'd be relatively unharmed. He looked all around the area from where Alan left scuff marks to where the knife had been dropped and found nothing. So, either the person that took Alan was exceptionally light on their feet or Alan literally was abducted by a ghost.

"Alan!" Jeff held his breath after yelling his son's name, hoping to hear his child call out again and when he did hear it, it was barely discernible. Jeff took off running in a different direction than he thought Alan was taken and stopped after a few minutes. He still couldn't see any footprints, no signs that anyone other than Alan and himself was here. Realizing he needed help immediately, Jeff whipped out his phone, glad there was a modicum of coverage, and he dialed an all too familiar phone number.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Please help me! My son has been abducted."

~.~.~.~.~

The very next thing Alan recalled after being taken, was waking up in a room that was cold and strongly smelled of mildew. Sitting up suddenly, Alan felt his head give a particularly painful throb and as he tried to scramble to his feet, he found that he couldn't. At least not as easily as he ordinarily could. To his horror, he had a pair of manacles fastened to his hands and even worse, a chain connecting him to the wall by his ankles.

Realizing that this was an incredibly difficult position to be in, Alan scooted back and began tugging against his restraints. They wouldn't budge. Alan tried to slip his hands from the manacles and found that he couldn't. They were clamped tightly around his wrists and had no give nor much room to even rotate his hands. Glancing around, Alan found the room he was in was decrepit. The floors looked old, there were a couple rotten holes in the floor and the surrounding walls. Clearly, Alan was being held in an old outbuilding of sorts. The only familiar thing he saw though was the bear bag he had observed his dad making and tying high overhead in their camp the night previous. At least now he knew what happened to it. It wasn't taken by a bear as originally believed. But enough about that.

Keeping his wits about him, Alan carefully stood. Alan was shocked to discover that the manacles were fastened to the chain that kept him attached to the wall, so he was unable to stand to his full height because the chain connecting his wrists to his legs was short. Alan was hunched over, unable to stand much higher than his Great Grandma Tipke. That old gal before her passing had never been able to stand straight, his brother Virgil always said she stood like that because of something called a dowager's hump. Whatever that was.

"Hello?" Alan spoke, trying to keep his voice neutral. He didn't hear or see anything around him that hinted there was anyone else. But from his vantage point, he could see outside, and it was dusk. The sun was going down. He had no idea at present how long he'd been gone. A brief glance at his wrist told Alan the watch his father gifted him for his birthday a couple months ago was gone. Without it, Alan would have no means of communication. He didn't have a cell phone, the school he attended frowned on cell phones being kept in possession. So, Alan would use the portable video phones that were usually provided by the school in each of the dorm rooms.

Another glance around the room, Alan spotted a nail nearby. He had to drop to his knees and lay on his side, extending his neck out as much as he could and using his chin to press down on the nail. Slowly inching back like an inchworm, Alan gave a small cry of triumph when he was able to sit on his butt with the nail in hand.

Alan used his lips to grasp the nail and turn the pointed end down with his tongue. He tried not to think of the taste of the rusted steel he held with his mouth. Once he got the pointed tip of the nail into the keyhole, Alan began trying to turn the crude lockpick. It took far longer than Alan ever imagined it would but with a little creative finagling Alan managed to hear the moment the manacles opened, and the weight of the restraint fell away with a loud thud.

Alan looked around, fearing that he'd caused too much noise. When nobody came to search out the noise, Alan grabbed his makeshift key and started trying to unlock the shackles upon his ankles. He kept looking around, hoping not to see anyone else that may be watching him or for that matter, the thing that snatched him from his and his dad's camp. Once he'd gotten the shackle unlocked, Alan stood up. He moved fast over to the only window in the building and peered outside. Spotting an aged sign, Alan tried to make out the writing from a distance. Apparently, he was being kept in a federal land cabin somewhere. The area around him looked like it was off the beaten path. He wondered where he was at and then he decided. He wanted no part in wherever this place was.

Trying to raise the window, Alan was soon disappointed to discover the window was nailed shut. Crossing quickly, Alan tried the door and heaved a sigh when it opened. Not even sparing a second glance around, Alan wrenched the door open and made a break for it. He glanced over his shoulder ever so briefly, not seeing anyone and just ran for the trees. Hopefully he could find a road or highway and get help. He hissed as he ran through the knee-high grass, dutifully ignoring the feel of broken tree saplings poking the soles of his sock clad feet.

Alan had no idea how long he'd run for, but soon he couldn't see more than an inch in front of his face if that. He guessed that because sunset around these parts in early summer were around 8 or 8:30 that now that it was dark meant it was at least nine PM if not later. But the only other problem, apart from knowing where he was also raised the big question. If he tried finding his way back to his and his dad's camp, Alan worried he'd be putting his dad in danger and that was the last thing he ever wanted to have happen.

~.~.~.~.~

The moment Jeff put in the call to authorities regarding his child's abduction was a hard pill to swallow. Jeff knew better than to touch anything and so he sat where he remembered Alan sitting just prior to his going off to gather kindling. As soon as the call disconnected with dispatch, Jeff did the next hardest thing he'd ever had to do. He called the family home. That was another increasingly difficult pill to swallow. Scott had been in the middle of a run inside their home gym, and he answered the phone, keeping a steady rhythm and his breathing level. Jeff wouldn't have known Scott was running if he couldn't hear the steady pounding of Scott's feet.

"Hey dad…what are you doing…calling? Shouldn't you be…spending time with…Alan?" Scott asked, his questions broken in between breaths.

"Scott…I just called the police." Jeff admitted, feeling his heart clench in his chest.

"Geez, I know Al has a temper sometimes, but I never thought it'd be bad enough to call the cops on him." Scott said, half joking and half serious. He thought his dad was joking, he didn't pick up on the desperation in his father's voice. His father never outwardly showed panic. He was always very collected, even amidst the most trying situations. Scott worked hard to keep his breathing even, so he didn't have to speak in broken intervals.

"Scott, your brother has been abducted. I can't find him, and I was only gone for ten minutes." Jeff admitted, painfully so.

"Are you sure he's been abducted and not just wandered off? You know he's always been the curious type, maybe he saw something that caught his interest." Scott said, keeping his pace going uninterrupted.

"I'm sure Scott, I could hear him screaming for help. He kept calling for me and when I arrived, the camp was in shambles. The tent is torn, the gear we had setting outside the tent is all over the place and I found a knife that wasn't here earlier. That and given the fact that your brother is gone…and I mean gone. I can't find him. I found a spot near the mouth of the trail where it looks like your brother fell because I can see handprints and drag marks. I think he was trying to escape. He was running towards me, at least I think so."

Scott quit running at that, quickly getting off the tread to stand on the side runners. He now felt his breathing stutter, and it was torture.

"Hold on dad, he was wearing his watch…right?" Scott asked, leaving the gym so fast that he could have been confused with a locomotive. The eldest son hustled to his father's office, completely bypassing Virgil in the lounge who was playing The Swan (The Carnival of Animals). Scott couldn't hear the melody though as his attention was laser focused on the whereabouts of his youngest brother. The moment Scott breached the doorway of his father's office, he immediately activated the tracking module on his dad's desktop. The watches were all designed with a specialized homing beacon that allowed for the wearer to be tracked. "Okay dad, he's not far from you…the module indicates he's maybe two klicks from your location."

"Then why can't I hear him? I would think he was screaming earlier, and it seemed to me that in a short span of time he went from close by to the distance of fifty football fields." Jeff asked, feeling like the longer he waited in searching for Alan, the further his son was taken from him.

"His abductor could have him incapacitated. Like his mouth taped shut or gagged. He may be forcibly being kept quiet and not far from where you are." Scott suggested. He felt like he was grasping at straws now, but he didn't know what else to suggest. "So, are you going to go search?"

"I can't Scott, I just called the police. They could be here any moment and if I go off searching, I could decimate any potential leads. As much as it kills me to stand here, I'd do better to wait until they get here." Jeff said, hating the fact that he had to do nothing but sit idle and hope this was all just a big mistake or an elaborate hoax on Alan's part. Though if it was, Jeff was going to wring his son's neck, then hug the life out of him. And ground him until he was one hundred.

"And while you're doing nothing, Alan could be taken farther away!" Scott exploded. He only just barely noticed the piano quit playing abruptly." You know as well as I do that as soon as the police get there, you will be labeled a suspect in his disappearance. Things are not adding up!"

"Scott, you think I don't already know that. Your brother is missing because I let him stay back at camp. He said his legs were sore after the hike yesterday. If I'd only insisted, he come with me, he'd still be here." Jeff said, voice thick with worry that was beginning to come to the surface. "Scott, I can't do this right now. The police could be here any moment and it will look bad if I'm on my phone. I'll talk to you more later."

"Keep me in the loop." Scott insisted, then going quiet as his father disconnected the call. The moment the call was terminated, Scott dropped his head in frustration. He did however notice that his middle and second youngest brothers were peering around the corner. "You might as well come in."

~.~.~.~.~

Scott felt positively sick with dread. He hoped his dad was wrong and would get a phone call soon informing them that he'd jumped the gun in phoning the police. But, that little voice in the back of Scott's mind told him to believe it. His little brother, the last one he of all people ever thought would be the first of his brothers to be abducted.

Virgil and Gordon both entered the office, faces scrunched in worry and concern. Scott himself was no better as he submitted a call to John to bring him into the folds of this conversation. Scott didn't want to explain it more than once if he could help it.

Once all the brothers were assembled, Scott dropped the bombshell. The eldest son was scared and there wasn't much in the world that scared him. Unless it involved one of his brothers, then it terrified him.

"Alan's been kidnapped."

Virgil for his part stiffened up, eyebrows shooting practically up into his hairline, meanwhile John's mouth flattened into an almost straight line. Gordon's legs just gave up the ghost and he dropped into one of the overly cushioned chairs.

Not Alan, was their collective thought. Virgil looked up, opened his mouth to speak and closed his mouth just as fast. He didn't know what to say and he doubted that anything he said would make a difference now. John was equally as silent as he normally was. But this silence from John was unnerving. When Scott looked at Gordon, he could see the shock that was etched deeply in his next to last brother's face. Gordon was angry, there was no denying that. They all were.

"I'm going to kill him, if whoever has taken Alan has harmed a single hair on his head, he's going to wish he'd never been born." Gordon growled, which for his part was just as frightening as their father's temper combined with Alan and John's. It wasn't often that Gordon's temper flared, but when it did…WATCH OUT!

Scott looked at his father's desk and his gaze landed solely on the picture of Alan when he was a baby, swaddled snugly and held firmly in their father's arms. Scott couldn't help but to recall the day of Alan's birth, he and John had been nine and ten respectively and neither of them had known the first thing about childbirth, but they both had helped to deliver Alan. That had been a wild ride. Scott could never forget that moment he was holding his screaming baby brother, staring at his next younger brother and mother in surprise. None of them were expecting the back cramps Lucy was experiencing to produce a baby.

The collective look on his father's face and other younger brothers' faces had been practically laughable. Jeff had been like Scott, almost pressing his nose against the nursery glass at the tiny, wriggly newborn with blonde fluffy hair.

Gordon had immediately fallen for his baby brother, excited to be a big brother. Virgil however hadn't been happy. He said he didn't want another baby brother, or sibling. Gordon was enough, but his attitude soon changed, from the first moment the little seven-year-old got to hold the newborn. That had been a magical moment. All the boys getting the opportunity to hold Alan and bond with him. He managed to wrap every one of his brothers around his little finger. Those big blue eyes, the puppy pout…a very disarming tactic the youngest used to his advantage often. Scott hoped in this case, the same tactic could be used to seduce mercy from whoever took the youngster.

~.~.~.~.~

The moment the police received the call, the responding officers stared at one another. They'd gotten missing and abducted calls before, but never had they ever thought they'd get a call from the exalted Jeff Tracy. But the fact that the description of his location sent a ten-ton boulder careening into the pits of their stomachs, didn't help to assuage concerns that Mr. Tracy's youngest son had simply wandered off. This was a well-known and not well-liked location, for reasons the police unit didn't like to think about. Mr. Tracy's son was in horrible danger if what they believed came to be true.

"Come on, let's go. This is a tender age abduction and I want all units there. Get police dogs, police choppers, on foot patrols. No volunteers! We don't know who we can trust in this instance, and we need to find the kid. Hopefully before he's found…by."

"You don't think The Hunter is involved, do you chief?" A young woman, new to the force asked as she gulped audibly. She'd never dealt with the aftermath of The Hunter; it sickened even the most seasoned of officers that a person that lived within their very community could be committing these heinous acts.

"I hope not. For Mr. Tracy and his family's sake, I hope not. If The Hunter is involved, then God have mercy on his soul for ever nabbing any of Mr. Tracy's sons." The chief said as he stood from his desk, pistol strapped to his hip. "Now let's go."

~.~.~.~.~

Alan stopped for all of three minutes, his chest was tight and burning. He hadn't stopped flitting through the trees since he left that outbuilding. The only downfall of running through the trees, apart from the obvious was doing so in the night. He couldn't see obstacles until he was practically face to face with them. So as expected, Alan was forced multiple times to back track or brave the tangled limbs and hope he wasn't going to get hung up.

He was certain that whoever took him was following him. He knew it without doubt a few times when the guy he assumed it was would laugh from a distance in that same tone he'd heard the night previous. The only thing was, knowing his father was not close by at all, it unsettled Alan more than the last. He couldn't seek comfort from his dad, and he just wanted his father. Why couldn't his dad find him and protect him?

~.~.~.~.~

A pair of slate-colored blue grey eyes stared emotionlessly off into the distance. He'd laid it out perfectly. The kid took the bait and now, everything was in motion. The owner of said eyes smirked as he raised a hand, reaching behind himself into a quiver that was slung over his shoulder. Most people couldn't see in the pitch blackness of night. But he could, he'd spent years honing his abilities and doing exercises that required him to see in the dark. That boy ran right past him, completely unaware that he'd been with grabbing distance. This was going to be fun. He could already feel the excitement thrumming in his veins. He followed from a distance and continually stopped moving every time the boy thought he could hear his movements. No matter, the boy wouldn't know what hit him. Fingers grasped the shaft of an arrow, the weapon of choice was soon nocked and drawn back. Holding the arrow, despite the darkness that pervaded, it was soon released. The bowstring snapped with a thwang, and the arrow was gone. The hunt was on.