Sunday Morning
Don paced around the graveled parking lot. Twice he started up the trail and twice he turned himself back to wait for the others. By the time everything had been reported, gathered, and ready, it had been dark. The search team captain, once apprised of the situation, said that the area was too dangerous to search by night. They would get started at first light.
Looking at the sky again and comparing it to the slow-moving hands of his watch, he made another circuit around the parking lot. Waiting until first light was killing him.
Within ten minutes, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, cars began showing up. The search team assembled, and just as the sun was peeking over the horizon they set out.
Don had gotten a GPS fix on his brother's phone, which let him know that at least his brother had turned it on. He knew the basic area to start looking, and led his group there while the rest of the party spread out to check surrounding areas.
The scene last night had not been pretty as Alan wavered between bemoaning that they didn't start looking for him earlier and assuring Don that his apologies were unnecessary. His father had wanted to come out and search, too, but somehow or another he managed to convince his father to stay at home and wait by the phone.
The trek out was very slow. Once they saw footprints that could have been the missing hikers, but no one was sure. The area was widely used. Then, too, evidence of debris from the earthquake had obliterated large stretches of the trail, leaving treacherous conditions in its place.
By midmorning the only excitement was calling for help to escort a searcher out of the area. He had slipped in the loose soil and sprained his ankle. Don chafed at the delay while they stayed with him, but understood the necessity.
They stopped for a quick cold lunch on top of a ridge. Don sat and looked over the sight as he ate. Charlie should be all right. He and Don had been train by Alan from their teens to take care of themselves. Briefly he wondered if Charlie had spent his free time calculating the odds of being found.
They followed the ridge all the way out to the point. There were no signs of the missing pair, so after consulting maps and data, the decision was made to start covering the area to each side of the ridge. Don looked around and decided to start out from the point where they'd stopped for lunch. He couldn't understand why, but he just felt like that was a good place to start.
Looking around carefully, he began trying to find a safe way down the hill. The geological structure of the area showed a lot of fresh earth, showing the damage caused by the recent tremor. He was several feet down when his feet slid out from under him. Digging his heels in, Don slowed his decent. Still, he ended up about halfway down the slope before he stopped completely. Carefully, he felt around, trying to find solid ground to stabilize himself on. As his hands cast around, he touched something that was definitely not a rock.
Sifting through the gravel and sand, he pulled the item out to find that he was holding Charlie's cell phone. Don called out to the rest of the team as he pulled the phone out of the torn case. It was not broken.
Don looked around. If they fell, they would've gone straight down. Seeing a boulder sitting several yards below him, he carefully scooted toward it, keeping his eyes open for other clues that Charlie and Amita had been there. He reached the rock and used it to look around. The debris had been disturbed here. Looking more carefully, he investigated a suspiciously familiar smudge on the rock. His stomach dropped as he realized that it was blood.
He breathed a small sigh of relief when he realized that there wasn't very much of it. Odds were, they slid down the hill and scraped something against the stone. He tried to determine if he could see whether there were tracks there. A gouge in the debris caught his attention, and he looked closer. It was a shoe print.
From there on the trail became clearer. He could see tracks and some kind of strange markings. Within minutes, he found the cave.
Charlie and Amita had packed all their belongings up as soon as they woke up that morning. The fact that they had woken in each other's arms had started the day on an uncomfortable note. Conversation was minimal; their energy was spent straining to hear if here was anyone coming to find them.
He tried to keep his spirits up, but he found himself dealing with an extremely irrational desire to not be found. The relationship that he and Amita had begun here in the cave was the best thing that he could remember in his life, and he knew that the rescue would tear them apart. Realistically, he knew that they needed to get home. His knee, despite his assurances to Amita, would need medical attention. Their food situation would last them maybe two more days, and after that… The odds were not particularly
good if they were out here longer than that, but Charlie had to believe that the search party was out there right now.
A weight on his side startled him. He hadn't noticed it, but Amita had given up and fallen asleep against him. Carefully, he eased her down so that she could lay across him a little more comfortably. After her nightmare she couldn't go back to sleep soundly. In fact, she kept him awake with her tossing and turning.
He was absently stroking her hair when a noise outside got his attention. Listening closer, he could hear gravel shifting, then again. The footsteps got closer. By the time he had prepared himself, Don appeared in the opening.
"Charlie!" Don stared at his brother and decided that he'd never looked so good. "Are you all right?"
The sound of Don's voice woke Amita with a start, who sat up quickly. Don saw that Charlie had been touching her but didn't process the information as he rushed over to them.
"Hey, Don. Nice to see you," Charlie joked weakly.
"Amita, are you all right?"
She nodded and moved away from Charlie slightly.
"How about you, buddy? You hurt?"
"He can't walk on his knee. It's twisted or something," Amita said, her voice subdued.
Don immediately began checking Charlie. He noticed the bruises on his head, but since he was sitting up and talking clearly, he wasn't as worried about them. Instead he focused on the knee.
It was easy to see which one was injured, even through his jeans. Don pulled out his utility knife and sliced the leg off above the knee.
"Hey, these are my favorite jeans," he protested.
"Now they're your favorite shorts," his brother returned. Carefully removing the wrap, he assessed the injury. "Yeah, looks like you've really torn it up." He looked at them. "Is this why you came down here and stayed?"
"Statistically, there's a better chance of being found if you stay in one place and together," Charlie quoted absently.
Once the physical problems had been assessed, Don began to wonder about Charlie and Amita's behavior. Neither one of them acted like they were really happy about being found, which surprised the agent.
"Hey. The rest of the search party's out there, and we can get you guys out of here now." Dutifully, Amita rose and reached a hand to Charlie. He took it and began pulling himself up to a standing position.
"Here," and Don pulled his brother's arm up over his shoulder and began moving him forward.
"My stuff," Charlie began.
"I'll send one of the others for it," Don said quickly. "Let's just get you home."
The trip back out was quiet except for the steps crunching in the gravel. Neither Charlie nor Amita spoke; Don noticed the odd looks were exchanged more than once.
The ambulance ride was anticlimactic, although Alan fussed over Charlie once he met them at the hospital. Amita was checked and released, but they kept Charlie overnight for observations.
