Chapter 25 Backtrack
TWENTY-FIVE
BACKTRACK
Krellix
It is nearly nightfall yet, uncaring of the many obstacles in my way, I rush through the forest, breaking through the thick branches that dare be in my path to locating Julia.
Using every sense I have, I search for her tracks and strain to catch a whiff of her scent in the breeze. But even once I return to the area where I last saw Benjamin and Quinton before leaving with Olivia, there is nothing, not even a hint of Julia anywhere. She has not been here.
Instead, another scent reaches me. One I have not smelled since Zaku’s. One I had hoped I would not smell again.
My hands clench and my jaw tightens, breathing Sada’s unwelcome smell deep into my nostrils. I had thought Julia and I were free of the other nagas from the mountain…
I was wrong.
Sada has found us.
And Julia’s gone.
As I catch Benjamin’s and Quinton’s trail back through the crumbling walls and trees, I soon come upon a small clearing with a lone standing doorway in the center. Behind that is the long wall of a ruined building, with more broken walls beyond.
Julia’s been here.
Sucking in the air, I smell her now. But spinning around, scanning the ground for her bootprints, all I see are Sada’s tail tracks everywhere I look.
He has her.
I move past the standing doorway and follow Sada’s tracks towards the wall.
It is worse than him just having her. I detect something sharp and putrid the closer I get to the building, which worsens when I round its corner. As I breathe more of the reek in, it grows nauseating, more pervasive, covering even Julia’s and Sada’s smells.
Furious and upset and more worried than I can recall ever being, I search the forest floor frantically, looking for where the smell could be coming from, hoping it’s not been caused by a gruesome death.
After a few moments of following the stench, I discover a small cement building hidden within the trees and the brush.
Finding the entrance to it wide open and smashed to bits, I duck inside a room that is overcome by the foul smell.
In the back, through a second door, I see a staircase pouring smoke up toward the open air.
If she’s down there, I have to get her out.
I press forward to the interior door until I am peering down into the dark. “Julia?” I shout, seeing if she is close enough that she can hear me. “Julia!”
All I get is silence. Taking one more clear breath before I dive below, I notice something on the ground outside the door and against the wall, almost hidden behind a desk and chair. Julia’s rifle and pack.
She would not go anywhere without her rifle. Scouting the floor outward from her stuff, I find her flashlight on the ground and, picking it up, discover the lens cracked and the power switch not working.
I look back at the darkened staircase and the pathway downward. She is not down there. She was, but not anymore. Growling, I grab all of Julia’s stuff and leave the small building behind.
It has only gotten darker since I went inside. Soon, the sunlight will abandon me completely.
Swiftly searching the forest for any clue to the direction Sada took her, I come upon a series of broken branches—branches that were not broken by me. Heading into the damaged trees, I find more snapped branches leading me back the way we came. He is taking Julia in the direction of the river.
If he gets her into the water, I will lose them. I will lose her. Unless…
He does not know that I know where his clan’s nests are.
The Boa’s territory resides on the scattered mountains north and east of here. Pressing forward as the shadows lengthen around me, I wind for the same forested, half-ruined road I traveled with Julia this morning. If he hurts her…
I will do anything to stop that from happening. Anything. I have saved others. I can save her too.
I have to. I must.
I do not know if I can survive another loss.