Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Cap motored them up to the small beach area of their campsite where Bianca lay on a towel in the small patch of sand. She lifted her head and shielded her eyes from the beaming sun.
She pulled a frown, cocked her head to the side, and fixed her gaze on Hannah. “I thought you were hiking?”
Her friend was clueless as to what had happened. Good, Hannah supposed, but she’d have to tell her about Alyssa.
“I was, but...” A sob clogged Hannah’s throat.
“Bianca?” Chief asked.
Bianca stood and walked toward the four of them as they jumped out of the boat.
“Yes.”
“I’m Chief Ricco of the Iron City Police.”
He gestured toward Hunter’s brother and sister. “This is Cap and Cici. They work for Yooper Adventures, and they’re Hunter’s siblings.”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Bianca asked, then focused her attention back on Hannah.
“Alyssa and Hunter have been...shot. Didn’t you hear any gunfire?”
“What? How?” Bianca squeaked out before her hand flew over her mouth.
No tears like the ones running down Hannah’s face. Just the surprised hand-to-mouth gesture.
After a couple of beats, Bianca lowered her hand. “How is it you’re okay? I don’t understand.”
The tone she used seemed as if she were surprised that she hadn’t been shot, but the other two had been. If Hannah were in Bianca’s shoes, she would have asked how Alyssa and Hunter were doing rather than comment about why Hannah hadn’t been hurt. Odd.
“Alyssa was hit first, then Hunter shielded me from the gunfire.”
“Oh.”
Oh, that was it? That was her reaction to that news?
Bianca’s eyes watered as if the information was finally sinking in.
“Did you hear any gunfire?” the chief asked Bianca.
“No.”
Seriously, how could she not have heard the shots? The falls weren’t that far from the campsite.
“None?” Chief persisted with furrowed brows.
“No. I fell asleep after everyone left for the hike.”
“Did you see anyone else today other than your group?”
Bianca shook her head.
She still hadn’t asked about the status of Alyssa. Was she afraid to ask?
Hannah closed her eyes, and a vision of Alyssa’s lifeless body haunted her. She lifted her lids to rid herself of that sight, then she drew in a long breath and let it out.
“Bianca, Alyssa...didn’t make it.”
“What?”
Hannah shook her head, stepped toward her friend, and embraced her. They took a moment to comfort each other.
“Ladies,” the chief said, “we need to find Hunter.”
Bianca pulled from the embrace first.
Hannah focused on the chief, then glanced at Cap and Cici.
Cici wore a large red medical backpack. The large white plus sign on it was the giveaway.
Cap sported an orange, oblong bag, hooked over his left shoulder.
She figured it to be a stretcher. This group was prepared. Thank God, for Hunter’s sake.
“I’ll lead us to the pool of the falls, Hannah, then you’ll have to lead us from there,” Cap said with urgency in his tone.
Hunter needed medical attention. She knew that and needed to focus. Silently, she prayed she’d be able to find him again. The woods were large, and she’d been so preoccupied with worry for Hunter and running from the shooter, she hadn’t observed her surroundings as well as she should have.
Cap’s long legs led them quickly. He moved effortlessly over the terrain.
Cici did, too. It was obvious that hiking and this trail weren’t new to them.
Bianca’s labored breaths behind her weren’t a surprise either.
She glanced from side to side, and then over her shoulder to the chief, who followed.
Worry lines sculpted his face. She suspected, like her, he wondered where the shooter was.
When they arrived at the base of the incline to the top of the falls, Cap stopped and spun to face her. His chestnut irises focused on her. The color matched Hunter’s. Her heart seized for a moment. Hunter.
“Where from here?” he asked.
Hannah’s gaze rose to the top of the falls. A horrible vision of her friend lying atop the falls made her want to cry again.
“Hannah?” Cap said, pulling her attention back to him.
She pointed to the left. “We landed in the pool and then went that way. We went through that clump of cedars.”
“Okay,” he replied as she backtracked a few steps and led them around the pool.
They followed along a stream flowing out of the pool for a bit until he found a narrow area with stepping stones to cross.
It was as if he and Cici didn’t even have to look down to cross. She, on the other hand, placed each step carefully, and when she teetered on the last stone, Cap reached out and grabbed her upper arm, then pulled her toward him. His touch reminded her of Hunter’s.
Once on the other side, she spun to see how Bianca fared. Chief Ricco had her by the arm and kind of pulled her across with him. Bianca was tall, about five foot nine. Still, the chief towered over her.
When they reached shore, he released her arm, then he took a moment to study their surroundings.
He focused on Cap. “I haven’t seen or heard anything unusual.”
“Me either.”
Both men blew out a sigh of relief.
She followed suit, relying on the chief’s skills as a trained observer.
Cap gestured to the area she’d pointed out earlier.
Wanting to put herself in the exact spot she and Hunter exited the water, she walked back to the pool of water, then up to the cedar trees she remembered walking through.
“We went through here,” she said.
Cici nodded and pointed at the ground. “Yep, we can see the disturbed soil.”
Hannah’s pulse ratcheted up a notch. Would Hunter’s siblings be able to track where she and Hunter had walked to?
Hannah led them through the small, thick patch of cedars and then stepped into the hardwoods.
Ten feet into that section of the woods, the trees and vegetation closed in on her. All sense of direction was lost. They had moved quickly. Hunter had led. She just followed. She spun in a circle. Everything looked the same except for the cedar section she’d just come through.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder. “Just breathe and take a moment,” Chief Ricco said.
His warm, dark eyes emitted warmth with a tinge of concern.
As he suggested, she drew in a long breath and let it out, then looked around again before dropping her gaze to the ground. Still, it all looked the same.
She looked at Cap. “Can’t you track where we went?”
“Depends on the signs you left behind. It was easy to see your footprints in the moist soil close to the falls, but it’s more difficult in the hardwoods. From where you came out onto the street and what you said Hunter told you, you went south,” he said as he lifted his arm and pointed.
“Can you recall any landmarks you saw? Any unique trees or terrain?” Cici asked.
The memory of the direction Hunter had given her suddenly flashed clear in her brain.
“Yes! When Hunter knew he couldn’t go any farther, he collapsed and was on the brink of passing out when he told me to describe where we were.”
“He couldn’t see?” Cap asked worriedly.
The fear in the man’s eyes matched that in his tone. He probably worried it was already too late.
“He could, but I think at that point it was blurry from the pain. I don’t know.”
“What did you see...tell him?” Cap asked.
“There was a huge white pine stump full of woodpecker holes. Just past that was a steep hill with a rock ledge that teed into it. The ledge sloped to the left as it leveled off with the ground. Where we were was beside the clump of downed trees. I put Hunter into the hole made by the uprooted root ball. He said we weren’t far from the river.
He said I should follow the river. We would have canoed there tomorrow.
There is a spot we would have portaged, but he told me to keep going south to get to Iron City,” the words rushed out of her mouth.
“I know where you mean!” Cici exclaimed. “The general area, anyway.”
“Me too,” Cap said as he spun away from her and bounded through the woods as if he were a creature of the woods.
His long legs carried him swiftly. Cici trailed behind him. She wasn’t quite as quick, but she too moved swiftly, just like her brother, and just like Hunter had.
She followed Cici. With a glance over her shoulder, she looked at Bianca, who seemed to move sluggishly, like she had no interest in getting to Hunter quickly. Chief Ricco prodded her along. What was her deal?
“There, there,” Hannah yelled as she pointed to the clump of downed trees.
Cap and Cici stopped and looked over their shoulders.
“He’s over there.”
Cap nodded and then moved even quicker than he had been, but now, in her excitement, she kept up.
When they reached the hiding spot, Cap bent over and pulled away the leafy branch she’d camouflaged Hunter’s existence with, then he and Cici peeled back the survival blanket along with the light layer of soil used to conceal Hunter.
Hunter lay motionless. His sun-kissed skin was pasty white. His lips held a bluish-purple hue. Her gaze flew to his chest, hoping to see it rise and fall.
Chief slipped between Cap and Cici and placed his fingers to the side of Hunter’s throat.
“His pulse is weak.”
A rush of relief surged through her. They weren’t too late.
Cap and Chief went to work, slipping a cervical collar onto Hunter, then they slipped the field gurney under him and lifted him out of the large hole. Hunter didn’t move or make a sound the entire time.
They set him on the level ground and quickly assessed his other injuries. The wrapping she’d fastened around him to put pressure on the gunshot wound to his shoulder was saturated with blood but didn’t look glossy, so it must have slowed, or even stopped. That had to be a good sign.
Chief studied the wrap. “It looks like it’s working. We’ll leave that for now and get him to the ambulance.”
“Ambulance?” Hannah questioned.
“Yes, there should be one waiting for us where you came up onto the street, by the bridge,” he replied.
Cici knelt next to Hunter’s head. “Stay with us. We got you.”
There was no response from Hunter.
Cici fought away tears.
The chief took a moment to study their surroundings. She presumed he looked to see if they’d been followed.
Cap and Chief each grabbed a handle of the stretcher near Hunter’s shoulders, and she and Cici grabbed the handles by his legs. He was heavy, but come hell or high water, she’d hold her own and get Hunter to safety as quickly as possible.
Bianca followed them, carrying the backpack that Cici had been wearing earlier.
Hannah’s breathing labored as she stepped on the uneven terrain and over downed trees. There was no simple path in sight, so she did the best she could.
When they got to the river, the chief looked over his shoulder and bounced his gaze between her and Cici. “Should we take five?”
“I’m good,” Cici immediately responded.
If Cici could continue, she could as well. She didn’t want to be the one to let everyone down, and she knew Hunter needed medical attention long before now.
“Me, too.”
“Okay, but you have to say something if you need a rest. We don’t need to be carrying two people out of here or hurt him any further if we...”
“We’re good,” Cici cut off his words.
“Okay.”
Chief and Cap continued along the river, but just inside the woods for cover, like Hunter had instructed her to do, just in case someone was watching them.
Within minutes, the refreshing sight of that stone bridge she’d come across earlier came into view. Soon, Hunter would get the medical attention he needed.
Atop the bridge sat an ambulance.
Her feet moved quicker in response to the chief and Cap’s increased pace. With the end of the trail in sight and help waiting for Hunter, it suddenly became easier to keep up with the long-legged men leading the way.
When they reached the low rocky bank, where she had to hurl herself up on earlier to reach the road, they paused and set Hunter on the ground.
The chief directed them to switch positions. He and Cap grasped the handles of the gurney, one at Hunter’s head and one at his feet. He told her and Cici to lift from the side away from the bank to help guide him and Cap, as they lifted the gurney to the awaiting EMTs and two firefighters.
Once they handed Hunter off, the five of them climbed up the bank. She ran to Hunter’s side. He’d been loaded onto the ambulance gurney, so when she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, she didn’t have to lean too far. His pasty white cheek was cool.
“Please be okay. Please,” she whispered.
His eyes fluttered open for the briefest of moments, and in the split second before they closed again, those amber flecks in his chestnut irises flashed.
“We gotta go,” one of the EMTs said.
Hannah stepped back.
They whisked him into the ambulance and took off.
Hannah focused on Cici. “He opened his eyes. Did you see that?”
“He did?” Cici asked as she blew out a relieved breath. “Thank God.”
“Are you sure?” Bianca asked.
“Yes.”
Bianca averted her gaze.
What in the hell was wrong with her friend? Everyone else looked relieved to know he’d opened his eyes, and she looked...she wasn’t sure how her friend looked, but she knew it wasn’t relieved. Why not?