* * * * *
Mr. Gordon's and Caera's survival parties had split up to catch lunch two minutes after the path had turned. They had stopped near a small river, so it was only natural for everyone to have a go at catching fish. Emily Miles objected to the thought of having to handle anything slimy, but Caera insisted that she had to do her share to prepare lunch. Honestly, she wondered why Emily had signed up to come at all—Emily certainly wouldn't survive if left to her own devices—except that she had her suspicions that where Erica Miles spurned all of Jason Robinson's efforts to be friendly, her little sister would settle for his acknowledging her existence.
Still, she had to pull her weight like everyone else, so Caera set her to the task of building a fire. Emily grumbled and got out an apron to pin over her new pink hiking outfit to protect herself from getting dirty.
When the two parties joined again, Mr. Gordon realized that Alex Davenport was nowhere to be found. And the fact that his own twin Andrew didn't know where he was was a really bad sign.
Andrew volunteered to walk back to Jason's group still behind them on the trail to see if Alex was with them. Mr. Gordon decided that his and Claudia's group would continue on the trail, while Caera's group stayed by the river to wait for Jason and the others.
Caera agreed reluctantly, then turned her attention to her group to survey their preparations once the other groups had gone. Emily was arranging the wood that Jessica Ford had gathered and dropped off before she left to get some more into little piles to ignite. George Stuart helped her to start the fires because his allergies prevented him from handling fish. In a minute, Caera had moved to the riverbank to instruct the others in how to use their fishing poles if they didn't know already and to remind them to be quiet so as not to scare the fish. As it was, most people were too tired and hungry to want to talk, or, she imagined, didn't want to scare the fish.
Soon Caera's group found her advice rewarding, when they drew their first fish from the water in silent excitement. Three quarters of an hour later, there was plenty for everyone, at least for non-vegetarians who liked fish, and the group started to haul their prizes over near the now blazing (and smoking) fires to be cleaned and cooked.
All of a sudden, Andrew tore through the woods and sprinted over to them on the muddy bank. Caera sighed in exasperation as she watched him skid to the edge of the water and fall in with all of his clothes on. Luckily, the current was much slower than in the spring, or he might have been swept away. Luckily also that Caera knew what to do when the open-mouthed, expressionless stares of her classmates told her that left to them he would drown.
As quickly as she could, she tied a rope around a life preserver that she had a large, reluctant eighth grade boy carry instead of other supplies and then tied a rope around an enormous rock on the riverbank. Yelling for the others to secure the rope, she braced herself and jumped into the icy water. Andrew was swallowing gallons of water when Caera swam over to him and put the life preserver over his head. A lifetime's worth of swimming lessons that Caera never thought would pay off allowed her to swim against the current with relative ease; she was a strong swimmer and helped the others to pull him in to safety.
Andrew had never appeared more scared in his life than when he was fished out of the water, his usual jauntiness having turned into panic. Both of their lips were blue, and Caera wondered if Andrew was regretting never learning how to swim. She didn't pause long, however--getting a dry towel was the most important thing to her at that moment.
During Andrew's rescue, Todd Miller had run back to the camp and rummaged through the supplies for two dry towels, and he was now by the river handing them to Caera and Andrew. It wasn't long before the two of them had changed into a pair of dry clothes and were huddling close to the cooking fires for warmth.
"Now then," Caera began in a wry tone, "can you tell us what was so important that made you charge in here and nearly kill yourself?" She didn't have time to wait for an answer though, because at that moment she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to face Mr. Gordon.
"Alex Davenport really is missing."