“Jamie?” Art called out as he walked into the empty bar of the surf shack, the bar stools and tables now all ripped out and leaving the place hollow and desolate in some ways. “You here?”
“In the back.”
Art strode through the bar and into the storeroom at the back. He found Jamie sitting on an empty beer keg as he inventoried their supplies.
“What’s up man?” Jamie asked. “Everything okay?”
“Not really,” Art replied, “have you got a minute.”
Putting down his pencil and paper, Jamie saw the serious expression on Art’s face and nodded, indicating to a chair.
“It’s about your brother.”
“Oh great,” Jamie sighed. “What’s he done now?”
Taking a deep breath, Art began to tell Jamie what he had overheard Dennis talking about, naming the others that he had recognized in the group as well. He repeated what he could remember, making sure Jamie got the gist of what Dennis and the others were planning to do..
“I had a feeling he might try something like this,” Jamie sighed and shook his head. “I just never imagined it would be this soon. We’ve barely been going a week. I would’ve thought he’d have more patience.”
Art grimaced, unsure what to say. Dennis was a piece of work, but he was still Jamie’s brother and he knew the surf shack owner still cared about him. He’d never want to see his brother leave for any number of reasons.
Jamie was just opening his mouth to speak when April called his name from out in the bar.
“Back here,” Jamie called.
April stuck her head in through the doorway to the back room. “You better come have a look at this.”
“What?”
“There’s a boat!” A voice shouted from outside. Jamie and Art jumped up and rushed out, just behind April.
“There’s a boat out there!”
As they rushed out of the bar, they found a young man standing there and pointing toward the ocean. “It looks like it’s coming in to dock,” the young man said.
On the beach, a large group of people had already gathered and were looking out to sea. Sure enough, on the horizon there was the outline of a large ship, the angle of its body seemingly coming into port on Kauai.
Jamie squinted out into the sunlight, trying to make out any details on the vessel. Surely a boat of this size approaching could only mean good news. Perhaps Trident’s collapse had been resolved quicker than anticipated and this boat was coming to set things straight on Hawaii. As he watched it, Jamie licked his lips in anticipation, anxious to learn more about the new arrival.
Chapter 20
Opening his eyes, Austin saw a tangled mess of leaves and branches above him, their edges fuzzy and undefined as he blinked and tried to focus. Turning his head slowly from side to side he felt his neck crack and groaned, a twang of pain erupting from the back of his scalp. It took Austin a couple of seconds to realize he had his head inside a bush, shuffling backwards across the forest floor until he was free from the shrubbery. Taking a deep breath he laid flat on his back, staring up at the tops of trees in the dim twilight.
The last thing he remembered; he had been running for his life from a black bear. Now he was lying dazed and confused on the ground, the pursuing animal nowhere in sight. His rucksack lay to the side of him, one of the straps torn and broken, but otherwise undamaged. What had happened to him? Crunching upwards into a sitting position, Austin rested his forehead against his knees and tried to remember.
The back of his head ached like he had been hit with a mallet. It throbbed like a heartbeat that filled Austin’s ears and echoed through the forest, a steady and constant reminder that he was still alive. Focusing on the heartbeat, Austin closed his eyes and remembered running through the forest. Samuel had tripped and the bear was closing in on him, so Austin made himself the target and stole the bear’s attention away. But then he had been forced to run.
He darted through the trees, hearing the sound of the bear behind him as it ran on all fours, its heavy paws padding through the undergrowth with ease and precision. Unlike Austin, the bear didn’t have to look out for protruding tree roots or fallen branches, it knew the forest and could sense its path, running without hesitation or hinderance. Austin didn’t have that luxury and he knew he needed to act fast to even the playing field or fall victim to the bear’s sharp and deadly claws.
The Glock 19 jabbed against his spine as he ran, jolted by each movement of his rucksack slamming into the small of his back. Wearing it there as he walked didn’t bother Austin, but due to his increased speed and the uneven terrain, his rucksack slammed into his body much harder, pressing the cold metal of the handgun into his skin. It was a painful but welcome reminder of the weapon he carried there. Without slowing down, Austin reached around his body with his right hand and grabbed hold of the weapon, looking back at the charging animal at the same time and realizing he had precious seconds left to act.
The gun was already loaded, all Austin needed to do was aim and fire. He was a half decent shot, but he wasn’t going to pretend he was capable of hitting the beast without stopping. He needed to make this moment count and he needed to hit the target.
It all happened so fast. Austin dropped to one knee and aimed the weapon at the bear, firing off all eleven rounds that were still in the magazine, plus the one in the chamber, right into the animal’s face. It visibly wounded the creature, but it didn’t stop it. The animal continued forward, teeth gnashing at thin air like a rabid dog as it hurtled toward Austin, the man now left defenseless as he didn’t have time to reload. The bear was going to crash into him; he was going to die and his body would be abandoned in a forest, his family never finding out that he was coming to save them.
Then – just as Austin thought it was all over – the bear collapsed, the effect of the bullets Austin had fired finally flooring the beast and bringing its rampage to an end. Though not before slamming into Austin and sending his body flying backwards, his head smacking into the base of a hard tree truck and knocking him cleanly unconscious, leaving his head blanketed by the shrubbery that surrounded the tree at its roots.
As the memory returned to Austin, he opened his eyes and looked around him, fixating on the body of the bear just a few feet to his right. The animal lay motionless in the soil, the greenery around it damped with red from its blood. It was dead, a fact that Austin took great solace in knowing.
Standing up he groaned once more, his body aching from the impact of both the bear and the tree he had been thrown into. That part had happened too quickly: the bear almost dropping its shoulder and colliding into him like a football player with their opponent, flinging Austin backwards as it lost control of its limbs and slumped to the ground. As he stood over the animal and picked up the handgun from beside it, Austin swallowed and slowly came to terms with what had just happened. Thankfully that was one battle he had won, but looking around the forest now, Austin could see nothing but trees in all directions. He had no clue which direction he had come from and no clue where the road or his companion were. He might have survived the battle with the bear, but he was now engaged in a fight against time to find safety again before darkness fell. There was maybe an hour until the last of the sunlight left the forest floor, time wasn’t on his side.
“Samuel! Samuel, where are you?”
He was well aware of how much more danger he might be putting himself in by shouting and making his location known to whatever or whoever was lurking deeper within the forest, but as desperation took hold of him he also knew he had to do everything within his power to escape. He shouted for his friend at the top of his lungs, picking a path through the forest that looked somewhat flattened already. Austin hoped that was because it was where the bear had torn through, making an educated guess and following it. But as he walked, Austin knew he could well be heading in the entirely wrong direction. Without a compass – the one item which Samuel wore tied around his neck – Austin had no way of knowing if he ha
d chosen the correct path.
Meanwhile, by a stroke of sheer luck, Samuel Westchester had managed to find his way back to the road. But darkness was creeping in quickly and as it did the forest became more unforgiving and frightening than it ever had been before. Shadows from the trees cast unfamiliar shapes across the tarmac and creatures that hooted and cawed in the trees caused him to shudder and tremble. He donned more clothes from his rucksack to keep him warm, but even with the additional layers Samuel shivered, fear shaking his bones even more so than the cold.
Questions tormented his head as he paced along the tarmac: where was Austin, but more importantly, how long could Samuel wait for him? It wasn’t really a matter of how long he should wait, but rather how long was Samuel able to remain isolated and vulnerable in the middle of the forest before he had to think of himself. He had no idea how much further it was until the road would bring him out of the other side, but Samuel knew he needed to keep heading in that direction otherwise he’d be forced to spend the night amongst the trees.
“Austin!” He eventually cried out into the night sky, bellowing his friends’ name as he cupped his hands around his mouth and leant back into his words. His voice cracked as he repeated the name over and over again, longing to hear a reply in the darkness, something to point him in the right direction. The rest of the forest quietened as he yelled, making his voice the only sound audible within the trees. Surely if Austin was nearby, he would be able to hear him.
“I’m sorry, Austin,” Samuel murmured in a quieter voice after several minutes of shouting, hearing no reply or response to his words. “This is all my fault.”
Samuel looked down at his feet and shook his head, ashamed of himself for stumbling amongst the trees and falling down. He couldn’t believe what Austin had done for him, putting his own life on the line and distracting the bear just in order to give him a better chance of survival. When he thought of it, Samuel realized it wasn’t the first time Austin had done something like that for him. Thinking all the way back to the first day they had properly met in the Trident building on Wall Street, even then Austin had put himself second in order to help Samuel survive, then and so many more times afterwards.
Yelling out for his friend again, it dawned on Samuel that no matter how long it took to find him, he couldn’t just leave Austin behind. Not after everything the man had done for him and not when he considered how much more Austin had to fight for. They were doing all of this for his family – for his little boy. Samuel had felt the love resonating from Austin when he had spoken about his son, Bowie, earlier on their journey. Austin was a father and he deserved to see his son again, if he could do anything to help that become a reality, Samuel was willing to try. He might not be lucky enough to have a family yet, but Austin was and he deserved to see them at least one more time.
“Austin! Where are you? Austin! Come to my voice!”
Behind the tree line in the darkness of the forest, Austin finally heard his name being called. It was faint at first, more like a murmur in the wind than the bellowing cry of his companion. In fact, he didn’t properly register it at all until he turned and stood with his back to the wind, cutting out the sound of leaves and grass rustling in the air around him. Then he heard it properly. It was like the voice of an angel calling his name. Samuel. Samuel was nearby.
“Sam! I’m here, I’m over here! Where are you, Sam?”
Austin shouted back and then paused to listen, cupping his hands behind his ears to block out more of the surrounding sound and focus on Samuel’s voice. When he heard it again, he couldn’t even make out the words, the sound of them being carried away on the wind and getting trapped amongst the trees. But it was definitely human and that was good enough for Austin. Slinging his rucksack back over his shoulder with the one unbroken strap he started walking in the direction of the sound, begging Samuel internally to keep shouting. So long as he had the voice to follow, he could find his way back to his friend.
“Austin?”
“Sam!”
“Austin!”
The two men charged into one another like childhood best friends reuniting after a long summer apart. They embraced with such a force that it knocked Austin’s rucksack off his back onto the ground, landing there with a thud as Samuel tightened his grip around the man’s back, holding his body against his own.
It was an unfamiliar display of affection between the two men, but the second they saw one another again – Austin emerging from the trees like a shadow against a painting – they wanted nothing more than to feel the safety the other one carried with them. After several minutes of walking around blindly, Samuel had finally been able to hear Austin’s cries back to him through the trees and between them they navigated him back to the road and back to safety.
Despite everything else they had been through, all the trauma in the city and the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen to them next, both men felt like finding one another in the forest had been their greatest achievement. They held each other and both fought back tears, Samuel being slightly more successful than Austin. At moments he had felt like his life truly was over, to see his friend again and know he was saved brought on feelings of raw emotion that Austin didn’t even know he had been carrying. He had been given a second chance at life and Austin was determined that he was not going to waste it.
Chapter 21
After walking through most of the night, the two men finally managed to make it out of the forest and took in a view that they were sure had to be a mirage—an empty summer camp that sat on the edge of a calm lake. The chance to rest for a short while in an empty camp was far too promising an offer for either of them to pass up.
“Do you think we’ll be able to get in?”
“Probably,” Austin nodded as they headed to the gates. The sign at the front said Camp Placid. “And besides, I doubt anyone has used this place yet this year. It won’t do any harm for us to crash here for a few hours. Let’s hope the place lives up to its name.”
Austin was utterly exhausted. The pounding in his head had intensified with each passing hour that they had walked through the darkness, not helped initially by the shouting match he’d been forced to endure to find Samuel and reunite with his friend. Despite taking a number of painkillers that he’d picked up back in the city, he could still feel the throbbing, lulling him into a daze when he walked but making him uncomfortable and short-tempered whenever he focused on it. Sleep, he knew, would do him a world of good.
“Place is deserted.” Samuel said as they walked through the open gates and into the middle of the camp. The campfire area was all set up with wooden logs situated around it and the occasional haybale, but there were no laughing children, no camp counselors and no one to tell them not to make themselves at home.
“I’m not surprised,” Austin replied, “first thing I’d be doing was getting my kid back from camp if they were out here. Not sure I’d want Bowie out here at all to be honest.”
“Valid point,” Samuel nodded, now used to Austin’s increasingly worsening attitude now. He could tell his friend was in pain and suffering from what had happened; Samuel didn’t know what to say to make him feel better though. Austin had literally put his life in danger to save his, Samuel was now more indebted to him than he could’ve ever anticipated and he didn’t know how to even begin repaying him.
“Boys’ dorms, this way,” Samuel pointed out, reading from a wooden signpost. “Why don’t we go and crash for a bit, then see if there’s anything else around here we can use?”
Austin didn’t do much more than grunt in response, angling toward the boys’ dorms with a scowl on his face. He slammed his shoulder into the wooden door upon finding it locked and forced his way inside, practically collapsing onto the first bed he came to and rolling onto his side. His rucksack slipped off his back easily with one of the straps still broken and landed on the floor with a thud. Austin was asleep before he heard the sound.
Walking in behind his friend and
shutting the door to the dorm, Samuel picked up his friend’s rucksack and set it at the end of Austin’s bed, before sitting down himself and taking a deep breath. It was weird being in a children’s summer camp, especially as he’d never even been to one when he was younger, but it was a bed and a place to rest and that was all either man was bothered about. Lying down on the thin mattress, Samuel closed his eyes and he too quickly succumbed to a peaceful sleep.
The hot sun streaming in through the window woke Samuel a few hours later. It had just been threatening to rise as they entered the dorm and now by its position in the sky, Samuel guessed that it was nearly mid-morning. He’d probably had about four or five hours sleep and while it might not be what he was used to before the crash, it was more than enough to prime him for the day ahead.
Austin was still passed out. Samuel figured he could let him sleep for another hour at least. In the meantime, he’d scout out Camp Placid on his own, so that when Austin woke up they didn’t have to delay their journey any longer. Arming himself with a protein bar and his flask of water, Samuel crept out of the dorm and made his way out into the campsite.
In the light of day, the forest seemed different from the night before. The wind whistled cheerfully through the trees as birds sang their morning songs. It seemed friendly and welcoming, not dark and foreboding. The State Park was probably one of the few places untouched by Trident’s disaster. The trees would still grow without money in the bank and the shimmering water on the lake would still be cold and refreshing.
Samuel knelt down at the edge of the lake and splashed his face a couple of times, further waking himself and washing away the memory of the night before. He didn’t want to think about it any longer. The main thing that had allowed him to push on each and every day since Trident went down was that he hadn’t been focused on the negative stuff. It had happened. It was over and done. Neither he nor Austin could change it and they simply had to keep going forward, focusing on the things they could change, not what they had no power over. Today was a new day and Samuel was determined to make it a good one.
Wipeout | Book 2 | Foul Play Page 15
