Steve could feel his eyes getting tired from the strain of checking every square inch of road ahead of them against the beams of sunlight breaking up the otherwise shadowed path.

They were proceeding slowly, downright agonizingly slow, but at least they were making headway.

Fifteen minutes into their unplanned detour, they'd entered a densely forested area. Not a road sign, hiking path or any sort of civilization could be found anywhere. Steve was starting to get a bad feeling about the situation and he could sense that Mike did too.

Glancing down, he checked the gas gauge for what felt like the tenth time, knowing from two minutes ago that they were fine. The car was running at low RPM's and the tires acted fine. There was nothing that should go wrong from the mechanical angle of things.

"If we don't find anything in the next five minutes, let's turn back around, okay?"

Mike's voice was quiet, downright foreboding, as the Lieutenant continued to stare straight ahead.

"Well, that kind of depends on whether we find an area large enough to turn this beast around…"

Steve hit another deep rut that had been concealed by the shadows, causing an echo of springs and shocks on the car to protest heavily. Holding his breath and making sure they hadn't gotten stuck, he slowed down a bit more, squinting against the sun rays that were beginning to hurt his eyes.

Relieved to notice that the Galaxy was none the worse for wear, he stole a brief glance over at his partner. Mike sat rigidly straight, the map in his hand rolled up into a tight pipe, eyes focused sternly ahead, his mind far away from their questionable backroad.

Steve sighed inaudibly, grinding his teeth at the unknown outcome ahead. Subconsciously grasping the steering wheel tight enough that the white of his knuckles was showing, he slowly maneuvered the large sedan around another curve, carefully shifting it toward the center and away from the tracks that were becoming too deep for them to safely drive in.

Mike snapped out of his brooding when the Galaxy's tires balanced on the outer edge of the road, with nothing but a deep ravine on the Lieutenant's side.

"You…ehm…you got this? Right?"

Showing off his immaculate smile despite his frayed nerves, Steve nodded slowly.

"We have to ride the middle; the tracks are too deep. We're going to ground out the frame otherwise."

"We're going to do a lot more grounding if we roll down this mountainside…"

The tension in Mike's voice wasn't lost on him, and he briefly looked back over at his partner, nodding confidently, before moving the Galaxy off the edge again.

For five more minutes, he resumed his balancing act of keeping the tan sedan somewhere between the deep and muddy tracks and the edge of the road, before an opening ahead came into view.

"If that isn't the best thing I've seen all day…", Steve mumbled relieved, finally relaxing his tight grasp on the steering wheel, when Mike reached over and put a hand on his forearm.

"Stop right here. I want to see if there's tracks…"

Following the order, Steve carefully pulled the Galaxy as far over to the left as possible, just enough to give Mike room to get out of the car, without getting too close to the edge.

Exiting himself proved to be the more difficult task, with the large sedan sitting in between tracks, putting the deep and muddy rut right beneath his position. With one foot in the door frame, Steve launched himself out into the open, landing palms-first against a small incline covered in damp moss.

Wiping his wet hands on a napkin from his breast pocket, he followed his partner, who was several feet ahead, eyes pinned to the ground and looking for tire tracks.

"Anything?"

"Not yet.", came Mike's quick response as he crouched down next to one of the deep tracks, then stood up again and walked the length to the clearing ahead.

By the time Steve joined him, they found themselves in the middle of a five-way crossing, with two roads heading northeast and farther uphill, one straight ahead, and another one perpendicular to theirs heading downhill into deeper wooden terrain.

The additional sunlight from the clearing made it easy to see that the tow truck had come from the road straight ahead.

"What do you think, partner?"

Steve hesitantly crossed the intersection and looked down the two-track. Judging by the improved road grade and the assortment of tire tracks, it was a well-travelled path.

"I don't know…is this…this road on the map at all?"

Resurfacing the heavily crumpled document from the breast pocket of his black overcoat, Mike studied it for a moment, then shook his head.

"None of this is."

"Figures…"

Both men fell quiet for several long seconds. Finally, Mike pulled his sleeve back and checked his wristwatch, then the sky, before shrugging.

"We've got a couple hours till we start losing daylight. Considering the time it'll take us to travel back, we've got a half hour or so. We've come this far; I say let's go on a treasure hunt."