Landon set off in that direction while keying his radio to report in. “I might have something.” He pushed hard through the mud, mindful of staying on the path so he wouldn’t fall down the side of an embankment. Their team knew this mountain so well they rarely had to worry about falling. However, situational awareness was critical so they didn’t end up needing to be rescued themselves.
“Are you out there? Let me hear you!”
“Help! Over here!”
“I’ve got them,” Landon reported.
The team would use his coordinates to send in backup.
One of the boys was standing, waving to him as he battled his way through brush to reach them. “Are all three of you here?” Landon asked.
“Yeah, but Michael… He stopped talking an hour ago.”
Landon pulled his backpack off and moved quickly to withdraw thermal blankets for each of them. “Help me get him wrapped up.”
The boys had created a bunker of sorts under a grove of trees, and from the indentations in the mud, he could tell they’d been huddled together to share body heat, a smart move that had kept them warmer than they would’ve been on their own. “Which one of you is Connor?”
“Me.” They wore sweatshirts and jeans that were completely soaked through. Even in late spring, hypothermia was a real concern in the mountains, especially under these conditions.
“That means you’re Jeremy?”
“Yeah.”
Landon gave them protein bars and bottles of Gatorade to start getting them rehydrated and then reported in. “All three are alive. Michael is unresponsive, possibly hypothermic. We need to get him out of here.”
“Can you two still walk?” Landon asked the other boys.
“I can,” Connor said.
Jeremy’s teeth chattered so hard he could barely speak. “I-I th-think s-so.”
With Hunter’s help, Landon could carry Michael out.
“We’ve got a two-mile hike to get out of here. We’re going to have to move fast for Michael.”
“We can do that,” Connor said, glancing at Jeremy.
Jeremy nodded.
“We’re really sorry,” Connor said, sounding tearful. “We never should’ve left the hotel. We didn’t mean to go so far.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s stay focused on getting you guys warmed up.”
“N-never b-be w-warm a-again,” Jeremy said, shivering.
“Yes, you will. I promise.”
Hunter arrived on the scene, and between the two of them, they hoisted Michael up and headed for the trail, following it for two long miles before they reached a clearing where a fire department SUV waited to transport the boys. They loaded Michael into the back, while the other two boys got into the back seat.
“Let’s go with him,” Landon said.
Hunter got into the front seat with one of the other searchers driving, and Landon crawled into the back with Michael. On the way to the hospital, he removed Michael’s soaking-wet sweatshirt and used the supplies in his pack to start an IV to pump some fluid into the boy. He was grateful to feel a regular, though shallow, pulse.
“Is he going to be all right?” Connor asked, looking over the seat, his face muddy.
Landon noticed a cut under Connor’s left eye that would need attention at the ER.
“I think so.” Landon didn’t tell him that he’d probably found them with very little time left to spare for Michael.
Jeremy sobbed as he shook violently.
The boys had learned a tough lesson about mountain life, and it was one they weren’t apt to forget any time soon.
The dogs were in the yard when Molly returned home to the barn she’d shared with her husband, Lincoln, for close to forty years now. It never failed to stir her to see their home lit up at night and to think about how the place had looked the first time they saw it. Linc had bought a wreck, sight unseen, and they’d created a home where they’d raised ten children. And now, as their children settled into marriages and long-term relationships, their family continued to grow.
“There you are,” Linc said when he met her at the door. “I was just starting to wonder if you’d forgotten the way home.”
“Never.” She kissed him and let him help her out of her coat. “We’re going to need to towel off those pups. They were rolling in the mud.”
“They do love them some mud season.”
“Indeed.”
He grabbed the old towels they used for the dogs and handed one to her. “Ready?”
“Let’s do it.”
He let in George and Ringo, both of them female yellow Labs named for members of Lincoln’s favorite