By nightfall, the counselors were getting extremely worried about the missing camper. I was too, testing my leg to join them in the meeting circle. They had recalled everyone from their search before they needed to start looking for anyone else in the darkness.
I found Lola sitting on a log, exhausted. “Are you okay? What happened to your leg? I looked around and you were just gone today.”
I used her shoulder to lever myself down onto the log. “Stupid me fell over, nothing major. You know how clumsy I am. Did anyone see any trace of Heath?”
She shook her head sadly, the fatigue evident on her face. “Nobody found anything. It’s like he just disappeared. Someone said he might have been taken, can you imagine that? The thought creeps me out.”
It didn’t creep me out, it terrified me. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” I tried to reassure her.
We were all told to have some dinner and the night’s activities were cancelled. I was pretty sure nobody was disappointed, no-one felt like having fun when Heath was missing.
After dinner, some of the counselors were gathering in the meeting circle. I lingered long enough to get the gist of the conversation. They were heading out again, continuing the search into the night.
I thought about all the training my parents had drilled into me. They had prepared me in ways of finding people and things. They had prepared me for a lot of things in case I would need it. I could actually help the search, there was no doubt in my mind I was better trained in search and rescue than any of the counselors.
I approached the most senior of them, Johnny Balero. “I want to come with you.”
He looked me up and down, lingering on the bandage around my leg. “We’re going to be covering a lot of ground tonight. I appreciate the offer, but we’ll be all right.”
“Please let me come, I’ve been trained in searching and first aid. I’ll be able to help you.”
“You’re hurt.”
“I can walk fine, it’s just a cut.” I hoped that was true. The painkillers had worn off a few hours ago and it didn’t seem that bad. “I can look after myself, please just let me come with you. I’ll be able to help, I promise.”
Johnny looked me up and down again, this time with a resigned sigh. “You really know what you’re doing out there? It will be dark, dangerous.”
“I know what to expect,” I replied.
“Fine. Grab a backpack, we’ll leave in ten minutes.”
“I’m coming too.” The voice came from behind me but I knew exactly who it belonged to. Lochie’s presence wherever I went was seriously starting to get on my nerves.
“You can grab a backpack too,” Johnny told him.
I bit my tongue so I didn’t argue with Lochie. The more people looking for Heath, the better. It didn’t mean I had to like it though. I slung one of the backpacks around my shoulders and waited on the other side of the crowd.
We set off as a group of eight in total. Strong flashlights guided our way. I kept moving my light, trying to find any traces of someone walking the track before us. A broken twig, some flattened leaves, kicked up rocks, they were all supposed to be signs of human interference.
“We’re going down the eastern track,” Johnny called out to the group. “None of the campers checked there today because of the steep descent. Keep an eye on each other, I don’t want to have to look for more people in the morning.”
He wasn’t kidding about the steep descent. I walked sideways so I didn’t fall over my own feet. My knee was throbbing before too long but I tried to ignore the pain. I hadn’t done anything to help Heath all day, it was the least I could do now.
We walked in silence, the only sounds being those taking turns calling out for Heath. I didn’t have to hear Lochie to know he was always a step behind me. I could feel his gaze constantly drilling into my back. I don’t know why he even bothered to come.
“Do you have to do that?” I asked, sick of him almost running into me whenever I slowed down.
“I’m just walking,” Lochie replied innocently.
“Yeah, walking into me.”
“Sor-ry.”
“Why did you even-” I was distracted as I let my question go unfinished. On the ground, just off the path, were snapped twigs. “Johnny, someone’s been here.”
I waited until they stopped and gathered, looking at the spot I was pointing to.
“It’s just a bunch of sticks,” Johnny commented.
“They’ve been broken clean, an animal doesn’t do that. Somebody has walked down this path and not that long ago, the break is still fresh.” I picked up the twigs and showed them the still-fresh sap in the break. “If none of the other campers came this way, it has to be Heath.”
“Okay, it means we’re on the right track then. Well spotted, Amery. You should lead the way.”
They started walking again, each one looking out for the telltale signs. Johnny asked me a bunch of questions as we went, mostly about the finer details of tracking someone. It was nice to be able to share the skills I always hoped I wouldn’t need.
“So the secret is getting inside their head?” Johnny asked.
I nodded eagerly, happy he was understanding. “Exactly. At every crossroad, the person has a choice to make. You have to work out what they were thinking to make the same decisions they did. If you can do it correctly, they can lead you right to them.”
“That’s pretty clever.”
“It’s logical.”
By midnight, we decided to take a break. The others had been going all day, the weariness was starting to show in their walk. We rested by the path, our ears always open for the slightest sound in the forest. We hoped for a human noise rather than an animal one. Apparently there were bears in the woods, I was desperately trying not to think about it.
I took a gulp from my water bottle, letting the cool liquid sliver down my throat. Even in the dead of night it was still warm in the summer air. The physical exertion wasn’t helping either.
As I screwed the lid back on, I couldn’t help but notice Lochie watching me. He was like the worst stalker ever. I didn’t know why he was hanging around so much when he hated me. Every conversation we’d ever had was an argument. It was like he enjoyed being punished.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, seeing his brow wrinkle as he concentrated.
“You’re the weirdest person I’ve ever met,” he replied. That was just what a girl wanted to hear, right?
“Thanks,” I said, sarcasm dripping from the word.
“No, I mean, not in a bad way. How do you know all this stuff about tracking someone?”
I shrugged, hoping to come off like it was no big deal. “My parents take me camping… a lot. They think it’s important to know this kind of stuff. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, kind of deal.”
“You, camping?”
I gently punched him on the shoulder. “Yes, I go camping. Why not me?”
“I don’t know, you just never struck me as a camping kind of girl. I guess we don’t really know a person…”
“No, you don’t know me at all.” And if he knew exactly what kind of a person I was, he would freak out. Like, spectacularly freak out.
“I guess I don’t.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “My mom used to take me and my brother camping all the time too. She wasn’t exactly into it but she thought we would enjoy it so we went anyway.”
“Your mom sounds nice.”
“She is. Although I think she sends me to summer camp so she doesn’t have to go camping anymore.”
Mrs. Mercury sounded like a smart woman. “I think I like her already.”
“She’d like you too.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant but Johnny beat me to it. Our break was over.
We all got to our feet without complaint. Our discomfort was nothing compared to what Heath might be going through. Even my aching knee wasn’t going to elicit a groan from me.
We must have walked for miles throughout the night. We all saw the
sun rise over the top of the trees as we headed back to camp for another group to take over.
When we arrived, the police were there. They were organizing a group of professionals to start the search in earnest. Twenty four hours had passed since Heath couldn’t be found and they were concerned.
I heard Johnny explain the route we took while he drew it on a map. He reported the track we had been following, suspecting Heath might have gone that way.
I retreated to my cabin and found it empty, all the girls were either at breakfast or already joining the day’s searching activities. I climbed into bed and immediately fell fast asleep.
My dreams were a chaotic mess of running through the forest and being chased. A person without a face gained speed on me, constantly reaching out to grab my legs and make me tumble to the ground.
When I awoke with a start, my heart was pounding. I was momentarily disorientated as music flitted through the cabin. It took a few blinks and a head scratch to realize the noise was coming from my cell phone. I saw the caller ID was Mom and groaned.
“Amery, thank God,” Mom shrieked down the line.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” I mumbled, too fuzzy to make sense of her panic just yet.
“We heard there was a missing child at Camp Soho and were so worried it was you. Are you okay?”
Great, so they knew about Heath. I was probably only three hours from being picked up by my parents, sooner if they had jumped into the car already. “I’m fine, it wasn’t me. It was one of the boys here, nothing to do with me. Everyone is looking for him.”
“We’re going to pick you up, I knew sending you to camp was a bad idea. Too much can happen when you’re away from home.”
I sat up quickly, bumping my head on the ceiling – again. “No, you can’t come, I want to stay. Heath going missing has nothing to do with the project or the Department. Nothing is going to happen to me.”
Silence. Hopefully that meant she was reconsidering smothering me. She whispered something to my father, they probably had me on speakerphone. I could picture them in the living room at home, having a whisper debate about whether to leave me alone or not. I had eavesdropped on many of their whisper fights over the years.
“Mom? You still there?”
“Yes, honey. We want to pick you up.”
Alarm bells started ringing in my head, at least I was wide awake now. “No! Seriously, don’t. If you pick me up, everyone will know. You want me to fit in and that will be doing the exact opposite. You know the rules.”
I didn’t have any doubts she was rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone. She hated it when I turned the rules back around on them. “The rules also say we have to protect you. Leaving you in the middle of nowhere while who knows what is going on could constitute neglect. Do you want us to get into trouble with the Department?”
Just like my misuse of the rules, my parents were always blaming the Department. They made them the big bad wolf in my life whenever they tried to make me do something I didn’t want to do. The problem was I feared the Department more than them so it usually worked.
But not this time, I couldn’t abandon camp. If I left, they would never let me come back again. “I’m in absolutely no danger. In fact, I’m probably more protected now because the police are here. Please don’t make me come home, please?”
“The police are there?”
“Yeah, they’re organizing the search.”
More whispering between my parents. I briefly wondered if my birth parents would be as protective as my adoptive ones. Considering they gave me up, I guessed probably not.
I decided to use my best weapon – distraction. “Hey, you’ve looked for missing kids before. How would you go about finding out what happened to Heath?”
“I would speak to everyone who knew him to find out if it was likely he left on his own recourse or not,” Mom answered quickly. “If you can work out the motive for his disappearance, you can decide on the course of action.”
“Great, thanks, that’s what I’ll do.”
“Wait, Amery, we want you to come home.”
“They need me here, I can help.” I probably couldn’t, but they didn’t need to know that. If I could perhaps appeal to their sense of community, I might be able to stay.
She sighed. “You’ve got one more day. I’ll call you again tomorrow and, if he’s not found by then, we want you to pack your things and we’ll pick you up. Got it?”
That would be a problem to squirm out of tomorrow. “Fine, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Good, stay safe, honey. We love you.”
“I love you too. Bye.” I hung up before they could change their minds. If they were really determined to pick me up, there wouldn’t be anything I could do to stop them. All I could do was hope Heath was found within the next twenty-four hours.
I took a quick shower and visited Nurse White for a new dressing on my knee before grabbing some food. I lingered around the meeting circle, trying to find out if there was any news. According to Ella, they had found no trace of Heath. How did a kid just disappear into thin air like that? It made me shudder.
With my mother’s advice in my head, I limped through the camp until I found one of Heath’s friends. I had seen Bailey Summit conspiring with Heath on the school grounds for years. If there was a reason behind his disappearance, Bailey should know what it was.
“Hey, Bailey, how’s it going?” I asked casually, wishing I had paid more attention to my parents’ interrogation techniques. They had tried to teach me and I discarded the information in the not useful pile.
“Oh, hey Amery.” He seemed friendly enough, that was a good sign considering the circumstances. “What happened to your knee?”
“Fell over. I’m really sorry about Heath, I know you’re friends.”
Bailey shrugged, focusing on the ground. “I keep imagining he’ll just walk back in like nothing’s happened, wondering what all the fuss is about.”
“I pray he does.”
“At least the counselors finally called the police so we have a proper search and rescue team now.”
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my shorts, unsure how to proceed. I decided I just had to dive in, there was no sense in beating around the bush. “What do you think happened to him? Was he the type to wander off by himself without telling anyone?”
Bailey’s eyes shot up to meet mine. “No, not at all. Heath may be pigheaded on the football field, but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t take off in the middle of the night.”
“Sorry for asking,” I said gently, knowing his anger wasn’t directed at me.
He managed a smile. “It’s okay, it’s just frustrating, you know? The counselors didn’t believe me when I told them he was missing, they should have been out looking a lot earlier than they were. Those few hours might have made a big difference.”
I didn’t like to say the difference between life and death but I knew he was thinking the same thing. So the counselors hadn’t taken him seriously, did that mean campers went missing all the time? Perhaps my parents had a legitimate reason to be so fearful of letting me come here.
“We’re going to have to keep looking for him, not give up and-” Bailey never got to finish his sentence as the alarm bell sounded in the meeting circle. We exchanged a worried glance before hurrying toward the bell.
There had to be a development in the search, why else would they call everyone back? Unless someone else had gone missing too. My stomach gripped with fear and dread.
There were people everywhere in the meeting area. It was hard to believe the entire camp fit there with room to spare just days ago. Now, it was full to the brim with moving bodies.
I spotted Lola amongst the moving mass and made a beeline for her. “Lola, what’s going on?”
Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, taking a moment to gather her thoughts together. “They’ve found Heath.”
CHAPTER 5