Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,17

next boy. Though Garrett had been out for three days in these same mountains, it had happened in the summer, not during a storm. The fears had been mountain lions and snakes—which were only concerning if you ran into them. There was no way to avoid freezing temperatures or icy rain.

The drops had stayed few and far between and Leo simply hoped that the weather report was wrong. It was the best that could happen, well, after simply stumbling across the kids in the next five minutes.

“Hey, Boss.” Bethany reached out with her elbow, tapping his hard enough to be felt through the thick jackets they wore. She was only trying to get his attention, maybe get his head back in the game.

He nodded, but she’d turned away, already accomplishing her task. She headed down the path, easy to follow with “Search and Rescue” emblazoned on the back of the jacket in reflective tape. They all wore the jackets and bright red hats. He’d made the county spring for them, for exactly a night like this. At least, he thought, Bland might be down in the ravine, but he'd be easy to spot.

About ten minutes later, the comms crackled with Bob and Doug’s arrival to where Stanford waited. Bethany commented, “Well, that's good. They've already arrived. I guess they weren't that far apart.”

Leo nodded along, he’d been tracking them all via GPS tags—which was great, as long as he continued to get cell service. He swept his flashlight again. He wasn’t just the team leader, he was also responsible for clearing his portion of the area.

Only now did he see that Bethany had stepped from the edge of their section of forest into an open field. As much as it might seem that a field would be easier to search, it was actually a bitch. The grass was tall and, while the rain had just passed them over, it left the grass wet. They would have to walk almost every inch of it, because they could get close to a small, hiding child and miss him otherwise. The grass hid everything. Including snakes and other things that bit.

“Jason! Dalton!” he called out. As he yelled, he put his hand out, effectively stopping Bethany. Together, they stood still and listened, but a crackle came over the comm. What he heard was details about getting the rope down to Bland.

All good news. But Leo had to call out the boys’ names again.

Even so, even with the quiet the second time around, he heard nothing but the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. Another few hours of this and he would hate that sound. The comm continued to crackle with updates, ruining their chances of hearing any return cries.

Still, he yelled each boy’s name, over and over, until Bethany made a motion to him and took over the job. Maybe they would answer a female voice. Maybe they would answer Bethany.

He yelled until he was almost hoarse, even though he knew better. While they did it, they continued their very methodical search of the tall grass. Sure enough, his pants legs were wet. But he’d dressed for the weather and, so far, he wasn't feeling it on his skin.

They weren’t even halfway across the field when the comms crackled again with a shout of “He’s up! We've got him!”

Leo took a moment to be relieved. Within a minute came another piece of info. “Yes, the ankle looks broken.”

Gritting his teeth, Leo told himself that he was just as upset about Bland having a broken ankle as he was that he’d lost twenty percent of his already small team. He knew he should think more about them, but his brain was so focused on finding the boys.

The next announcement was that Stanford would, in fact, piggyback Bland out to the ambulance. Though Bob and Doug offered to go along, Leo let Stanford wave them off. It might be the wrong decision for the searchers. It was a good decision for the missing boys, and he hoped that Stanford had the stamina to get Bland to safety without hurting himself.

The comm crackled again, as Stanford chimed right into his thoughts.

“It’s probably only two miles, Boss. I got this, but I’m sorry we're tapping out.”

Leo didn't know what to say to that. He was sorry they were tapping out as well and he had no idea if the accident was a dumb mistake or an unavoidable mishap.

He said the only thing he could. “Thank you