by J. T. Cross
Tukia yelled, “I don’t believe it; they’re not dead. They’re just lost. They can be found. We just need a few men to go in after them. Won’t anyone help?” she asked and looked around at the people in the room. There was only silence in response to her question.
The Village Hall entrance door opened. Kate turned around and saw Luc’s grandfather enter. He wore the thick flannel shirt she had given him for his birthday. Luc quickly stood up and met him at the door. He grabbed a chair from a stack at the side of the room and unfolded it, setting it up next to theirs as his grandfather joined them.
“Hi Matooska,” Kate said softly, reaching out her hand.
His wrinkled and calloused hand felt as tough as stone, yet he shook her hand gently. “It’s good to see you again,” he whispered.
Anyu stood up and looked around the room. “I see five of our best hunters sitting in this hall. Will any of you go out and look for the boys?” No one in the room spoke or looked in his direction.
Yudi stood up and looked down at the Anyu, then out at the audience. “Miki and I warned the boys to stay close to camp while we scouted for game. We told them several times. They didn’t listen. When we got back, the boys were gone. We followed their tracks into the eastern mountains, and then we lost them. We had to turn back. There’s nothing that can be done for them now.”
Kate looked at Luc. She saw him start to stand, but his grandfather grabbed his shoulder and shook his head no. He sat back down with a frown on his face and stared at the floor.
“Someone has to do something. Kevin is only sixteen. He can’t survive out there another night. He could be hurt,” Tukia said.
Anyu stood again. “We called the authorities. Early this morning, they sent out a plane to look for the boys. When the plane went into the eastern mountains, its navigation system failed and it had to return here to the airport. There are no other search and rescue planes available and they wouldn’t come anyway. We just got a report that bad weather’s moving in.”
Kate looked at the small woman sitting at the end of the table. Her long dark hair fell on either side of her swollen face and her reddened eyes were wet with tears. Her heart went out to her.
“Are all the men in this village cowards?” Tukia said.
“That’s enough! There’s nothing more that can be done. You should go home now,” Yudi scolded.
“This is your fault,” she screamed back at him. “You should’ve listened to Ishki. She told you not to go, but you had to be stubborn. You owe it to the boys to go out and find them.”
Yudi crossed his arms and stared stone-faced at the floor. He shook his head. “There’s nothing to be done.”
“Does anyone have anything else to say?” Anyu asked.
Kate looked around the room, hoping that someone would offer up a suggestion, but there was only silence.
Anyu motioned for several of the men in the audience to come forward. He met them in a corner of the room and they talked. After several minutes, they went back to their seats with solemn looks on their faces.
Anyu returned to the front. “By order of the town elders, it has been decided there will be no search party to find the boys. It is too dangerous.”
He turned to face Kevin’s aunt. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more that can be done. You know that hunting in the eastern mountains is forbidden. I’m sorry, but it’s just too dangerous.”
Kate was startled as Luc stood up, knocking over his chair. “I’ll go in and try to find them,” he said angrily. She had been wondering if he might volunteer.
Luc’s grandfather stood up beside him. “Luc, no. This is not your responsibility.”
“I’ve heard about as much as I can take,” Luc said angrily. “Is anyone willing to go in with me, or do I have to go in alone?”
His grandfather looked around the room. “Well, is anyone willing to help my grandson?”
Kate couldn’t understand why everyone was so reluctant to help. Sure, maybe the eastern mountains were an especially dangerous area, but there were two boys’ lives at stake. What in the world were these people thinking?
“I’m going with you,” Kate said, standing up.
Luc turned to her, shaking his head. “Kate, thanks for offering, but I can’t let you come. You don’t have the experience. It’s really rough out there.”
“Since when are you the boss of me?”
“I’m not trying to be bossy, but you’re not going and that’s final,” he said firmly.
“You’re the most pig-headed man I’ve ever met,” she said, her voice rising in volume. It was then that she realized the room was silent and everybody’s eyes were focused on her. She could feel her face getting hot, and knew it was probably bright red.
“Whatever,” she said softly, and sat back down. How did he know what she was capable of?
Yudi stood up and turned to Kate. “You’re a very brave woman to volunteer, but Luc is right. You shouldn’t go. The village can’t afford to have two more dead people on its conscience.”
Her anger slowly faded.
Yudi stared at Luc. “So, you’re willing to go into the eastern mountains and look for the boys?”
“Yeah. Are you willing to go with me?”
A particularly uncomfortable expression came over Yudi’s face. “No. I have a family to take care of. I can’t go into the eastern mountains, but I’ll take you out to where Miki and I lost the boys’ tire tracks.”
“Okay, let’s do it,” said Luc.
There were some serious reasons no one would go with Luc. Kate hadn’t felt this scared in a long time. She looked at him. He gently lifted her chin up and looked into her eyes. She felt her heart race and skip a beat.
“Are you worried about me?” he asked, smiling down at her.
“Well, yeah…” she said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I do this kind of thing for a living, and I know how to take care of myself.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said, hugging him.
“Let’s work out the details,” Luc said. He walked up to the front where Yudi and Miki stood with Anyu. Kate followed.
Anyu reached out and shook Luc’s hand and then reached around and hugged him. “Thanks for stepping up and helping in this emergency. Believe me, the village won’t soon forget this.”
“I just hope I can find them,” Luc said.
Kate saw Luc glance back across the room to where his grandfather sat watching. There was a little smile on the old man’s face that she was pretty sure spoke volumes to Luc. He was proud of him for volunteering.
Luc turned to Yudi and Miki. “In cases like this, time is of the essence; you both know that. I need to get out there as soon as possible.”
“How do you want to work this?” asked Miki.
“Can you guys get your quads ready and pick me up at my grandfather’s in two hours?”
“Our quads are already in Miki’s truck. We just need to get some gas,” Yudi said.
Luc looked at his watch. “I’ll meet you guys at my grandfather’s place at one.”
Kate watched the two men nod at Luc and quickly leave the building. Luc turned to her. “Could you drive my grandfather and me back to his place?”
“Of course.”
They made their way through the crowd and out to her truck. She hurried ahead of Luc and opened the passenger door for his grandfather. As Kate helped him in, she saw Luc rest his head on the roof of the truck.
“Are you all right?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. My stomach just felt like it dropped a couple inches and I’m a bit dizzy.”
“Do you think it’s something you ate?”
“I don’t think so.”
She wondered if maybe she should take him to a doctor. He seemed a little disoriented.
“I’m going back in to get a drink of water,” he paused then added, “I need to check on something.”
She watched him walk back to the entrance and disappear in
to the building.
Chapter 3
Luc walked back into the village center and looked around the eerily quiet room. He had never seen it empty out so quickly, but he wasn’t surprised. One person was still there, folding up chairs and storing them in a large closet at the opposite end of the room. He glanced at the other end, down a long hall that led to a series of offices. As his gaze fell on the door at the end, he felt a dropping sensation in his chest. Without thinking, he walked down the hall toward the door.
He touched the doorknob and another wave of nausea filled his stomach. Maybe it was the breakfast he had eaten with Kate earlier that morning that upset his stomach. He tried to ignore the feeling. He turned the knob halfway, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn’t. He opened the door and walked in.
An old woman stood with her back to Luc at the side of the small room, looking out a window. An ocher scarf covered her head and long gray hair trailed out from under it, falling down her back. She turned and stared at him with milky-gray eyes.
“It took you long enough,” she said.
He recognized the village medicine lady, Ishki. He had never had direct dealings with her. But he did know of her, mainly from his grandfather’s stories of life in the village in the old days.
“What do you mean? It took me long enough?”
“I’ve been waiting here since nine this morning for you.”
Luc looked at his watch. It read 11:10. “How was I supposed to know you were back here, wanting to talk to me?”
“Maybe you’d do better to ask yourself that question. You’re the one who just walked in,” she said, with a curious expression on her face.
Luc felt his frustration grow. “Look, I’m not sure why I came back here. I just had a feeling I should check things out, and I wanted to get a drink of water.”
“You should ask your grandfather about that feeling. Has he ever told you have the Heart of the Hunter?” she asked, staring intensely into his eyes.
The nausea got worse for a moment. He took a deep breath.
“You don’t look so well, Luc,” she said with a smirk.
He didn’t remember telling her his name. Maybe she had been listening to the meeting in the other room, he thought. “I’m just feeling a little nauseous, that’s all.”
“You’re feeling my will. The Traveler’s Tea I drank this morning when I searched for the lost boys made it more forceful.”
Luc had heard of the Traveler’s Tea. According to his grandfather, it was something the village medicine lady drank to get in contact with a higher source, or something along those lines. It didn’t really matter to him because he considered it nonsense.
“You were looking for the boys?” he said.
“I saw where they went,” she continued. “I don’t know what drew me to their lifelines, but I saw them go dim several days ago. This morning, I was drawn to a place in the mountains. I drew a picture of it. I thought it might be important. You might say I just had a feeling.” She stared at him blankly, and the room was filled with a silence. He felt foolish, and he didn’t know why.
“Are you saying you were out there with them?”
“No. Days before they left, I saw them falling into trouble. I warned Yudi. He had his chance to listen.”
“How could you have known they were going to fall into trouble?”
“I know how to see some things before they happen,” she whispered. “Sometimes, there’s a chance to stop them, if people listen, but sometimes, they won’t.” she said sorrowfully.
She pulled a folded piece of paper from her bag and handed it to him. “This is what I saw. When you see this mountain, look for the boys.”
He unfolded it and saw a crude sketch of a mountain with two peaks. They appeared to form a V. “So, you’re saying the boys are near that mountain?”
“Their lifelines began to fade there.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means they’re either dead or close to it. Maybe you can find them before it’s too late.”
He folded the paper and put it in his shirt pocket. “I’ll keep my eyes open for it.”
“You should hurry. You don’t have much time,” she said. She looped her bag over her shoulder and turned away from him.
He watched her walk out of the building through a rear door. As the door shut, his stomach began to feel better.
He left the room and walked back to the front entrance. It was cleared of the chairs, and the lone worker was gone. Outside, he found the parking lot empty except for Kate’s truck. He quickly walked to it and climbed in the backseat.
“I just had the strangest experience,” Luc said looking at Kate.
“What happened?” she asked.
He looked at his grandfather and then back at her and shook his head a little. “I’ll tell you later. We should probably get going. I’ve got a lot to do to prepare for the search.”
Kate wasted no time and drove them directly to Matooska’s house. His small home was sandwiched between a neatly manicured cottage on the left and an empty weed-filled lot on the right. She pulled into the driveway, and they got out and went inside.
“Kate, do you think you could do me a really big favor and make a couple of sandwiches for this afternoon and tonight. Peanut butter and jelly would be good since it has to keep for a while.”
“Is that all you want?” she asked.
“There should be some snack bars in the cupboard. Pull out a box and put it with the sandwiches.”
“You got it, babe,” she said, and went into the kitchen.
Luc worked fast. First, he got his grandfather’s Winchester shotgun and a box of shells. Next, he pulled his own hunting rifle off the wall and grabbed another box of shells for it. He took the firearms and ammunition into the living room and put them by the door.
He went out to the garage and pushed his Yamaha ATV into the driveway. He filled the tank with gas and pushed the start button. The engine started immediately. A reassuring feeling, he thought, since he planned on riding into the eastern mountains. He rode it onto the road and then back into the driveway where he parked it. It was a damn nice machine, he thought.
He went over to the shelves lining the back of the garage and pulled down his backpack, hiking boots, compass, and GPS. He took them into the house. These were the tools of his trade and he never went into the country without them. He knew from experience that it was far too easy to get turned around and lost in the remote Alaskan mountains, especially when the skies become heavily clouded.
He packed his equipment and his sandwiches into the backpack. Within an hour, he was ready to be picked up by Yudi and Miki.
“I have something for you,” Kate called out.
He headed back into the kitchen and found a steaming bowl of chili and beans waiting for him on the counter.
“It’s out of a can, but it should keep you going for a while,” she said.
“You don’t know how good that looks right now.” He picked up the bowl and began shoveling it down.
He had barely finished the chili and beans when several loud knocks came at the door. Kate opened it, and Luc saw Yudi and Miki waiting on the porch. He picked up his supplies and carried them out the door.
“You can put those in the back of my pickup with my stuff,” Yudi said.
Luc tucked his things in between several sleeping bags. He then started his ATV and drove it up onto Miki’s trailer. Yudi and Miki ran straps over the quad and tied it down. They were ready to leave within a few minutes.
“Luc wait,” Kate called out from the porch and ran down to meet him near the truck. She put her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest for a brief moment, then looked up at him. “Take care of yourself,” she said softly.
“I always do,” he said. He took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Honestly Kate, please don’t worry about me. I’ll be back before you know it.” He kissed her gently then jogged back to the truck and climbed in n
ext to Miki.
Yudi pulled away from Matooska’s house, heading toward the north side of the village. Luc looked out the rear window and saw Kate wave goodbye from the driveway. He was thankful for her presence in his life.
Yudi drove through the small village until he reached Whidbey Street. It ran only five hundred feet until it changed into the dirt road that led to the village hunting grounds.
Ninety miles to the north, Luc could see the purple-tinged peaks of the northern mountains shrouded in patches of white puffy clouds. He looked at the speedometer and saw Yudi going close to forty miles an hour.
He calculated they would reach the base of the mountains sometime around four that afternoon. It didn’t leave much time to search before the sun went down, but fortunately he knew that night would have an almost full moon.
Despite the condition of the road, Yudi set a fast pace and by 4:15, they were pulling into the campsite. Luc saw the tents that Yudi, Miki, and the boys had set up the previous day. The small campground brought back memories. He remembered having camped there with his grandfather the times they had gone hunting with other villagers. Those were much simpler times, he thought.
Yudi parked the truck and they quickly unloaded the quads and strapped two five-gallon gas cans to the rear rack of Luc’s machine. He put his shotgun in the rifle boot and strapped his hunting rifle and backpack to the front rack. He also strapped a small toolbox next to the gas cans.
Luc took out his GPS and turned it on. He marked their current location and put it back in his backpack. Wasting no time, they started the engines and the three men rode off.
Yudi led the group into the rift and then to the east as he followed the tracks they had left the day before. Luc loved the mountains and would have enjoyed the ride if it hadn’t been under such tragic circumstances.
They rode for a little over an hour as Luc made mental notes of the relevant landmarks and trees he would use to find his way back to the campsite. Luc sometimes stopped them and added the landmarks and notes to a map he was drawing on a notepad. He did this frequently when going into areas for which he had no maps. He didn’t like to rely completely on his GPS, especially in these mountains, and it wouldn’t take very much rain to erase their tracks.
