"Mr. Kratt? Yeah, I think you should come down here immediately, there's something we found you might want to see."
Martin's eyes darted throughout the trees as he rode with Aviva in the Createrra to the coordinates the rangers gave them to meet, awake despite not getting any sleep for over forty-eight hours. Even though he had combed through these woods well through the past two days, and then again at night with the spycam, he was still on alert looking for any sign of Chris. While him and Aviva were outside searching, Koki and Jimmy had stayed behind on the Tortuga, monitoring the systems in case Chris found a way to contact them, just in case.
Martin had filed the missing person's report as soon as the ranger station opened the morning after Chris first went missing and didn't turn up, and gave them the information of what they found so far, including the missing gorilla reports, the creature pod data, and the areas he found the snare traps. The station had opened at seven AM, and Martin was at the door ten minutes before then. If Chris had been there, he would have been proud he had actually managed to be somewhere on time for once.
That thought made his chest constrict painfully. He had been up for almost two whole days despite Aviva and Koki repeatedly telling him to go to bed, and they still hadn't found even a sign of Chris since he had gone missing. And then when the rangers were saying they found something and to meet them immediately, his heart froze in apprehension, now starting to fear for his brother's life.
Just please be okay, bro...
Aviva kept glancing over at him from the driver's seat, a concerned expression on her face. Why was she worried about him? It was Chris who needed it more.
"What do you think they want to show us?" Martin finally spoke. The call they received earlier from the ranger still left him with anxiety, his mind racing with possibilities of what it could be.
"Maybe they found some kind of clue," Aviva suggested. "It sounded like it's important."
"It's even further out than where we found Chris' creature pod," Martin brought up. "I just hope it'll help us find Chris faster. It's been two days, Aviva."
"I know, Martin," Aviva said quietly, giving one last glance over at the elder brother before turning back to the dirt road.
The rest of the trip was in silence, Martin's thoughts a whirlwind of scenarios of what Chris could be going through. Was he hurt? In pain? Lost somewhere and looking for them? Was he dead? (No, absolutely not. Martin pushed that thought out quicker than it came.) And while he was thankful no more gorillas have gone missing since Fizz, it did little to make him feel any better.
Oh no...
Once Aviva stopped the Createrra, Martin knew exactly what the rangers were talking about, his eyes widening in horror as he took in the sight before him. Chris' buzz bike and bag, ransacked and abandoned with the owner nowhere in sight. His gear, or what was left of it, was scattered across the forest floor, as if someone had went through it and left behind what they didn't want.
"What the..." Martin trailed off in shock as he climbed out of the vehicle, his fumbling fingers unbuckling the seat belt and untangling it as it pulled him back. Being careful not to step on any of his brother's gear, Martin started to weave through the maze of remnants.
"What happened?" Aviva asked, picking up the mangled remains of a part for the buzz bike as she looked towards the two rangers. "All of his stuff's been pulled out and thrown everywhere."
One of the rangers came over to meet them as he, Martin noticed with a bit of anger, cut through Chris' belongings. "It could mean a few things-"
"Chris would never do this," Martin cut the ranger off, turning back at the mess that was left behind. Pages of his brother's carefully written and organized research journals were torn, ripped, and in pieces. These were some of Chris' most prized possessions; years of work gone, just like that. Even if there was a possibility to piece them back together for Chris, Martin wouldn't even know where to start. "He's too organized and careful to let something like this happen to his stuff, he'd never-"
Martin couldn't finish his sentence, running a hand down his face as he tried to keep himself together. Breaking a creature pod, he could look over, it's definitely happened before. Wandering around afterwards, unusual, but it probably could happen, especially if creatures were involved. But pulling apart the buzz bike? And tearing apart his gear, his research? That wasn't Chris.
Why would someone want to do that in the first place? It was almost like someone was looking for something but wanted to hide it, taking it to a secluded spot and then ripping through all of his stuff until they found it.
There was no doubt about it now. Someone else did this, and they kidnapped Chris and the gorillas and potentially were who knows where by now.
Martin shook his head. "This wasn't Chris. Somebody did this, someone took my brother," he managed to choke out of his quickly closing throat. He felt like the air around him was closing in, he was slowly suffocating with the feeling that he might never see Chris again, and it was all his fault, all because of some stupid bet.
Aviva came up beside him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Martin could not tear his eyes away from his brother's belongings. All he could think about was that he should never have left Chris two days ago. This would have never happened if Martin never left, this should have never happened in the first place.
They checked in with the rangers a few hours later, to see if there were any more updates. While waiting in the meantime, Martin had picked up as much as Chris' stuff as he could to sort through later, and then constantly switched between keeping an eye out for his brother and checking the time until the rangers contacted them again for an update (and hopefully the first piece of good news for once since they've landed here).
"What do you know so far?" Aviva asked.
"We've been doing some research into these disappearances, and we think it could potentially be some kind of underground trafficking going on in the area."
So much for hoping for the good news. So Martin was right. All of the animal traps, the missing gorillas... Damn it, he couldn't stop thinking about what he could have done to prevent this from happening; if only he had just stayed with Chris in the first place.
"We've reached out to other nearby parks, and they reported similar disappearances within the past year as well," the ranger said. "No people have been reported missing, at least until Mr. Kratt, but a few animals vanished here and there. All young and healthy, no signs of predators or any explanation. Just gone."
"I know that Chris was investigating the disappearing gorillas before he went missing. So if it's only been animals, then why Chris?" Martin asked. "What would they want with him?"
"He was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time," the ranger offered. "But someone like Mr. Kratt, who knows about their operation, is dangerous to them. They'll either kill him outright-" Martin shuddered at the thought "-or if they know about the rest of you and think you're trouble too, they'll use him as ransom. Animal traffickers can very dangerous."
Paling at the news, Martin bit the inside of his cheek in worry. His worst fears seemed to be quickly becoming true; he prayed they were only worst case scenarios
"We need to find him," Martin said firmly, bringing himself back to what needed to be done. He couldn't let his mind wander with the possibilities of what could be happening to Chris, not while he was still out there and needing him. It only made him feel sick. "Before any of that happens."
"Well we've contacted the local police, so they're going to be helping in the search. The park's closed until further notice while we resolve this, and we have someone watching the gorilla troop too," the ranger said.
At least the rest of the gorillas will be safe, Martin thought, but unfortunately it didn't do Chris or the other ones missing any good.
"It's already been two days, and these traffickers could be anywhere by now. So with the extra hands helping with the search, it should hopefully help in narrowing down Mr. Kratt's location and find him a little sooner."
Martin sure hoped it would. He had already searched practically a twenty mile radius from the location of Chris' last coordinates, but the dense forest made it hard to see sometimes (especially when his missing sibling was wearing green). Not to mention the park was hundreds of square miles in total, if they were still even there, which could take days, if not weeks, to search. Time which they, and Chris, might not have.
Martin wrung his shaky and cold hands together as he started to feel grim before Aviva squeezed his shoulder, her hand warm against his skin. "Don't worry, we'll find him, I know it."
Everyone was telling them to wait and let them take over the search for Chris after the newest revelation, but Martin was never one for patience. Desperate to keep looking himself, he told Aviva where he was going and quickly booked it out of there before she or anyone else could stop him.
Of course he appreciated the extra help, but there was no way in hell he would be able to just stand by and do nothing while Chris was out there somewhere, kidnapped for God knows why and was probably scared, hurt, and alone.
Martin swallowed, his throat tightening as the ranger's words kept echoing in his mind. Chris wasn't out somewhere lost, or caught up in their usual villains' schemes. There was little doubt now that he had been kidnapped, and his life could potentially be in danger.
What a great older brother he was. All of this for a stupid gorilla creature power disc, which was now on the bottom of his list of priorities. All because of a stupid bet Martin made.
Pulling out his canteen to quench his parched throat, Martin downed half the water before climbing up the first tree to continue with his search, hardening his resolve. He wouldn't stop until Chris was found.
Aviva glanced at her watch for the fifth time in the past twenty minutes. She was anxious; it was already pushing midnight, and Martin had yet to return back to the Tortuga. Even with the extra security throughout the park with the rangers and now police, she still felt uneasy about Martin being out so late.
Koki glanced over from the computer screen she was looking at, giving Aviva a concerned look. "Everything alright?"
"Ever since we talked to those rangers..." Aviva trailed off, shaking her head. The police and rangers had warned them that it could be dangerous for them as well, but Martin was bull headed and spontaneous enough to head out on his own anyways. "Martin's still not back yet. He told me he was gonna keep looking for Chris and then took off."
"I'm sure Martin's fine," Koki reassured the inventor, her thumb pointing back to the screen that still had the GPS map on it. "His creature pod signal's been moving around all night, and Martin'll call if he gets into trouble, he's usually good about that. He's just worried about Chris, can you blame him?"
Aviva had tried to call Martin earlier, but he didn't answer, later sending a text that he was fine. Looking back up at the map, she mentally counted to make sure all of the blinking dots of their creature pods and the gorillas were still there. She still kept a sharp eye on them ever since the first day, afraid they could disappear as well.
That's how Chris went missing, after all, and she would do everything in her power to make sure no one else did either.
Her thoughts drifted back to the missing Kratt brother, her chest constricting as she wondered what could be happening to him right now. Everything they had found so far, as little as it was, only pointed to bleak possibilities, and the newest update when the rangers told them that Chris had most likely been kidnapped by dangerous criminals left her feeling even more hopeless.
But she knew whatever she was feeling, Martin was feeling it a hundred times worse. Koki was right, she couldn't blame Martin.
"I know," Aviva finally agreed as she down in the chair next to Koki, crossing her arms on the desk with a sigh. "Poor Martin, he's going to make himself sick, he's running himself ragged!"
"Between not sleeping and being out in all this rain every day, it's a wonder he's not already," Koki said.
Martin claimed he was getting sleep each night, but as Jimmy put it when he saw Martin first thing this morning, "you're not, the bags under your eyes are so big, they're designer, so watch out for Donita Donata". Aviva wanted to laugh at Jimmy's attempt to lighten to mood that had been so heavy lately, but it only highlighted just how rough Martin was taking it.
"He's too worried about Chris to even think about stopping for a break," Aviva said, her mind flashing back to earlier today. "They told us Chris might be dead, and of course Martin didn't take it lightly. I'm just worried about him, he's been gone for a while."
"I don't doubt that he would. He's been upset ever since Chris and those gorillas went missing," Koki said. "We'll get him to take a nap when he gets back. Even if Jimmy has to put something into a soup and force feed it to him."
"Chris... no no no no-"
Martin suddenly shot up awake, immediately scrambling to keep his balance when he realized he was propped up on a high branch in a tree. "J-Just a dream..." he muttered to himself, closing his eyes as he leaned back against the trunk, trying to calm his racing heart. He had felt exhausted earlier but he had pushed himself on in his search, not wanting to waste any time sleeping. He must've fallen asleep and didn't realize it.
Not anymore, he mused, still trying to shake that nightmare out of his head. The nightmare was his living one as well, the worst case scenario he was trying so desperately to avoid. Martin was so afraid of Chris dying it was starting to eat into his dreams. He mentally cursed himself for falling asleep and cutting into time he could be searching for Chris.
Looking up at the clear night sky, it felt ironic compared to Martin's stormy conscious. He smiled wryly as he remembered how Chris used to climb into his bed at night when he was little, afraid of the dark and the monsters under his bed (yet there were never any under Martin's just across the room). His stomach tightened at the memory; he only hoped that wherever his brother was, he was safe.
Martin winced as he wondered how mad the crew was with him for being out so late. Glancing at his creature pod to see how long he had been asleep, he sighed when he saw it had been over two hours. 1:03 AM. It had now ticked into day three of Chris being missing. Carefully standing up on legs that had long since fallen asleep, Martin climbed down the tree and started to head back to the Tortuga, his thoughts heavy with too many what-ifs.
