by Cheree Alsop
“They're going as wolves?” Nora asked, surprised.
“When we find the hikers, we can attribute it to the miraculous tracking of our faithful pets,” Traer replied. He climbed into the front passenger seat, leaving Nora to ride in the back next to the wolves. I considered asking him to move, but changed my mind at the stubborn look on her face. Traveling next to phased werewolves might slow her thoughts of escape.
She climbed stiffly into the back and tried to ignore Max and Seth the best that she could. The two gray wolves did the same to her. “When in fact it'll be your tracking skills that find them?” she questioned.
“Vance's. He's the best tracker we've got,” Traer replied with a hint of pride.
I climbed into the driver's seat and drove us down the back trail the led away from Two. We took the hour long trip through sandy roads that were little more than dirt trails and ended at the Search and Rescue outpost. Ron, Dave, and several other members we had worked with before met us out front.
“They've been out since Tuesday,” Ron said without preamble when I got out of the jeep. The others stayed in their seats to wait for my orders. Ron tipped his hat at them. His eyes lingered on Nora for a split second, then he gave me his usual cheerful smile. “We've had the troop out for the last day and a half, but no good. Either these kids have walked off the face of the earth, or gotten themselves stuck in a crevice somewhere and can't find their way back out.”
“How do you know they're missing?”
“The mother of one of the boys called, then came in. She and several of the other parents are staying at the motel awaiting word.” He held up a worn red baseball cap. “She brought this from her son Alex. Think your dogs can track them?”
“Haven't failed us yet,” I replied, accepting the cap.
Ron nodded toward a red and yellow jeep. “I'll lead the way.”
I climbed back in the driver's seat, took a surreptitious sniff of the cap, then handed it to Traer. He tossed it back to Max and Seth. It landed on Nora's lap and both wolves eyed her warily.
“Oh, it's not like I'm going to bite you,” she said crossly before setting it in the seat between them. “I'm the one who should be worried.”
Both wolves gave snorts of offense and turned their attention to the hat.
“So how did you get a reputation for Search and Rescue?” Nora asked as we followed the jeep up the road.
Traer smiled without looking back. “Vance found Ron's ten year old daughter out in the Spires when everyone had already written her off as dead. Since then, they call us whenever they have difficult cases.”
I glanced at Nora in the rear view mirror and met her searching gaze. Frustrated, but unable to explain why, I turned my attention back to the road and concentrated on the scenery.
We pulled up to a sandy wash about five miles from the station. A green lifted jeep and a beat-up red car sat side by side just off the faint tracks that made up the road. From their tire marks and the sand that coated them, it was obvious they had been there a few days. We climbed out of the jeep and followed Ron and his men to the beginning of the wash. The wolves ran ahead and started sniffing the trail.
“We've searched to the end and expanded half a mile to each side to no avail. This one's been a challenge,” Ron said. He took off his cap and mopped his bald head with a handkerchief before replacing it.
“I like a challenge,” I replied.
Nora gave a soft snort of mockery behind me, but I ignored her and glanced at the sun. “No time like the present to find what we're looking for.”
“If you find something,” Ron replied amiably.
I laughed, “When we find something.”
He chuckled and fell in behind us so they wouldn't mar the tracks any more than they already had.
“What's that about?” Nora asked Traer from my left.
“Ron hates the fact that we can find the hikers they've misplaced,” Traer said.
“We don't misplace them,” Ron replied from a few paces back. “Hikers are very good at misplacing themselves without our help.”
I smiled at his disgruntled tone. “These valleys are full of so many pockets and crevices it takes a team to find them,” I replied to soothe his ruffled feathers.
He tipped his baseball hat at me like an old cowboy and turned his attention to Nora. “Glad to meet a new member of Vance's group.”
I watched her out of the corner of my eye and fought back a smile when she bristled. “I am not a part of his group.”
“Well, uh, a friend then?” Ron pressed, confused at her hostility.
“An acquaintance,” she allowed without looking at me. She tripped over a stone and winced.
“Are you alright?” Dave, one of Ron’s rescue team, asked quickly.
Nora brushed it off, but her face was pinched with pain. “It's nothing, just sprained my ankle a while back and I’m still working to return it to full strength.”
Traer threw me a worried look, but I knew if I sent Nora back to the jeep someone would have to go with her. She was stubborn enough to put up quite a commotion at the suggestion, and I preferred not to deal with that kind of headache while looking for people in a possibly dire situation. Riff's face flashed in my mind and I shied away from the fact that it was the same thinking that might have gotten him killed.
The sun beat down from straight overhead and made waves in the air around us. The trail passed two stone pillars that marked the turn-off for the regular hiking path, then narrowed as we continued down the wash to the point that we had to walk single file with the wolves running ahead. Seth and Max always enjoyed trailing and were usually the werewolves I brought along. They raced ahead, then loped back to encourage us on.
The wolves whined once at several scents that left the wash up a trail to our left, but the smell from the boy's hat wasn't one of them, so I motioned discreetly for the wolves to go on. The pounding in my shoulder faded as my senses sharpened and I focused on the scent of the boy ahead of us mingled with those of his friends. There were at least three different human scents mixed with his that wove in and out of the baked sandy sage aroma of the trail.
Nora started limping slightly, but I pushed on, anxious to reach the group before they had to spend another night in canyons that cooled rapidly after sundown. Traer fell back with her and the Search and Rescue team and the distance slowly increased between us. The wolves trotted silently in front of me, gray tails waving slowly from side to side and fur rippling in a stray spring breeze that made the sand dance like tiny tornadoes in their paw prints. I pressed on after I heard the others take a snack break, reminding myself that as far as we came in, we would have to return and possibly with incapacitated hikers.
We followed the scent down a second wash and I left an arrow of stones to show the others where we had gone. The wolves trotted up the sandy furrow, but I stopped after a few paces. The scent had vanished.
I spun around, testing the air for the guiding scent. When I couldn't find it, I went to the mouth of the wash where it had been, then crouched and studied the landscape carefully. A sandstone wall rose on my right with a slight crack in it. The wash on my left was shallow and had a few boot prints in the bottom, but none of them belonged to the boy's scent. I grabbed a handful of sand and let it flow through my fingers as I looked around.
A broken twig on a sage bush at the top of the wash across from me caught my attention. I rose and dusted off my hands. The ground around the bush looked unbroken, but closer observation showed it to be sandstone that had been swept clear of the top layer of sand that covered everything else. The hard surface wouldn't show footprints.
I crossed the wash and climbed carefully up the other side. The boy's scent covered the bush and a gnarled root he and his friends had used to reach the top. The wolves appeared a moment before I whistled for them. When they climbed the wash next to me and saw where the boy had gone, both Seth and Max looked comically relieved. They ran on ahead and I decided to wait for the others
to make sure they didn't miss the trail.
The wolves came back a few seconds later whining and looking anxiously in the direction of the scent. I knew better than to question their judgment. I tore off a strip of cloth from the bottom of my green tee-shirt and tied it to the sage brush, then followed Seth and Max up the trail.
The top of the wash led to a narrow canyon with sheer walls on either side. My wolf instincts cringed at the thought of being trapped in the enclosed space, but the wolves jogged through as though they had other things to concern them than being cornered. I took a calming breath and followed, my hands trailing on either wall.
The sound was muffled. It was obvious why the Search and Rescue team hadn't been able to find them. The sheer walls and thick sandy floor effectively prevented any yells from reaching the wash where they had turned off. The wolves started running and I jogged after them until they stopped at a hole in the ground that dropped into a red rock cave far below the rim. The hikers started to yell at the sound of our approach.
“Hello? Is anyone up there?”
“Yeah,” I shouted down. “I'm Vance. Search and Rescue is close behind.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” a female voice said. She then shouted, “Don didn't see the hole and fell through. He broke his leg pretty bad. We were climbing down to help him when the rope broke and we got trapped down here.”
“How many are there?”
“Four,” a male voice called up. “Tina was hurt in the fall, but she says she can climb.”
“Just give me a rope long enough get us out of this hole,” she replied with a threatening tone that made me smile.
“The others'll be here soon,” I promised. I turned to the wolves. “I'm going to climb down and make sure they're alright. Seth, go back to the others and help them find this place without falling in. Max, keep watch in case I need anything.”
Both wolves snorted in assent and Seth trotted back down the trail. I studied the hole. Sunlight from high above filtered down through several similar holes to light spots along the floor quite a ways below. I could just make out the hikers under the lip of the cave. It wouldn't be hard to reach them with my werewolf strength. The problem was making it look realistic and I didn't have any rope. I could either wait for the others, or get creative.
Patience wasn't one of my virtues. I lowered myself down the rim, then eased slowly along the wall with my hands and feet on either side.
“What are you doing?” one of the hikers asked in alarm.
I moved down to where the wall suddenly distanced itself, jumped to one side using my hands and feet to slow me, then pushed off to the other side and slid to the bottom. I stood and dusted myself off, then turned to face four surprised stares.
“That was awesome!” one of the boys said. He walked over to meet me with an excited expression on his face. His scent matched the baseball hat, confirming that I had found Alex and his friends.
“Awesomely stupid,” the girl who had spoken before replied, her dark eyes flashing. “You didn't bring a rope or anything?”
“I brought this.” I tossed her my water bottle. She caught it and gave it to the boy on the ground without looking at me. He took a few thirsty swallows and handed it to the girl next to him. “My team is close behind with ropes, a stretcher, and everything we need to get you out of here. My job is to assess the situation and do what I can before they arrive.”
“Don's leg is in bad shape,” Alex said. He knelt by his friend and pulled up his pant leg to emphasize. Blood soaked through bandages that had been loosely placed on an open fracture.
I crouched by him and felt for the edges of the break. Don winced but didn't stop me. “The bandages are too loose.”
“We didn't want to hurt him,” the girl snapped.
I refrained from commenting that blood loss was a lot more dangerous at this point and swiftly unwrapped the bandages. Sharp shards of bone showed stark white through the bleeding tissue. I tossed the dirty rags aside and glanced around for something else to use. There wasn’t anything readily available, so I took off my tee-shirt and proceeded to tear it into strips.
I wound the cloth gently but firmly around the open fracture, binding it tight enough to last until we got him back to the Search and Rescue base. Don gripped Alex's hand tightly, but kept silent. I looked up and found him looking at my chest. I glanced down and my stomach turned at the healing bullet wound I had forgotten about. The edges had closed and the skin was a healing pink, but it was obviously from a bullet.
“Where'd you get that?” Don whispered.
I gave a wry smile. “Hunting accident.”
His eyes widened, but he nodded. “Looks painful.”
“It was,” I said with a laugh.
“How'd you get that knife scar?” the girl with the sarcastic tone asked.
I rubbed my eyes and rose. “Same accident, ironically.”
“You should probably stop hunting,” Alex said with a concerned expression.
I chuckled. “I probably should.”
“Is everyone alright down there?” Ron called from above. “Vance, you down there?”
“I'm here,” I shouted back. “We have a fractured leg and,” I glanced at the bad-tempered girl and the way she favored her foot. “Possibly a sprained ankle.” She rolled her eyes, but couldn't hide the pain.
“I'll send Dave down with the harnesses and a splint. I'm getting too old for this stuff.”
“You should retire,” I called back.
He swore softly and tossed the harnesses down. I caught them and gestured to Alex. “You first.”
He shook his head. “Don and Tina are hurt. They should go first.”
“We need to secure their injuries before they ascend.”
“Then ladies first,” he said, gesturing to the other girl.
I nodded. “Fine.” I helped her secure the harness and had it ready by the time Dave reached the bottom of the cave. He handed out some nutrition bars and more water to the hikers, then clipped the girl's harness to the rope.
“Ready,” he called to the others.
The girl rose slowly, using her feet to walk up the rock face as the team above pulled the rope. She disappeared from view and I helped Alex into the next harness. Dave secured a splint around Don's leg over my bandages, then wrapped it in another set of cloth strips while we waited for the rope to clear.
“Good to go,” Ron called down as the rope fell back to the bottom.
Alex rose slowly to the top, his face white and eyes on the sky above the canyon rim.
I took the remaining strips of cloth Dave had brought down and wrapped them around Tina's shoe and ankle while Dave attached her harness.
“Shouldn't I take my shoe off?” she asked dryly.
I shook my head and tied the wrapping tight. “It'll help support your ankle. We have quite a hike back down. The more support you have, the better.”
I helped her to her feet and she tested the ankle gingerly. She gave me an approving look. “Definitely better.”
I smiled. “You just have to trust me.”
I clipped her harness to the rope and watched her walk slowly up the rock. Ron's team tossed down a second rope which Dave used to secure himself so he could rise with the injured boy.
“Ready chief?” Dave asked Don. The boy nodded, his eyes tight. Dave called that they were ready and I helped steady Don as he was lifted into the air. Dave kept him away from the rocks and they rose slowly out of sight.
I glanced around the sandstone cave. The floor was covered in sand so soft it felt like powder between my fingers. I doubted many people had ever been down there. It always felt like a breath of fresh air when I found somewhere few had been, like despite all the chaos and treachery in the world, there were still sacred places left.
“Coming up?” Ron yelled.
I looked back to find the rope tracing patterns in the sand. I glanced around the cave one last time, took a breath of the still air, then slipped into the harness
Ron had attached to the rope and walked up the wall.
The first person I saw when I cleared the rim was Nora. She stood with her hands on her hips, her face slightly pale from the strain of the climb and a spark of anger in her green eyes.
“You just jump into a cave with no regard for your safety?” she demanded.
I glanced at Alex and he shrugged apologetically for having told on me.
I sighed. “What? You’re concerned about me now?”
She sputtered. “I, well, you have people counting on you and shouldn't be diving headlong into granite caves.”
“Sandstone,” I corrected with a smile.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” Her gaze found the bullet scar on my chest and some of her spark faded. Her eyebrows lowered and she looked like she wanted to say something, then she turned and limped gingerly away.
I pulled off the harness and dusted the red sand off the knees of my pants. Traer put a hand on my shoulder, his gaze also on the healing bullet hole. “Just a scratch, huh?”
I was trying to come up with some way to defend myself when Alex piped in, “It's from a hunting accident. Cool, right?”
“If by cool you mean idiotic,” the irritated girl said from behind us. “What kind of idiot gets shot while hunting? What, you forget to wear orange or something?”
“Something like that,” I replied in a dry tone. Traer turned away to hide a laugh and I slapped his shoulder. His laugh turned into a pained cough.
Ron, Dave, and two other members of the Search and Rescue team had a stretcher assembled and finished strapping Don onto it. Seth and Max waited in the shade of the canyon with their tongues lolling out and pleased expressions on their faces. One of Ron's girl teammates had brought them water and was making a big deal out of them. I refrained from telling her they had missed the trail entirely and vowed instead to give them extra chores when we got back to wipe the smugness from their faces.
“Hup,” Ron called. His team lifted the stretcher and they started out ahead of us. Traer conversed with the team's medical lead while the wolves gamboled on ahead wagging their tails and looking like foolish dogs.
“You'd think they found a missing city the way they act,” Nora said with a quiet laugh.
