I told my parents about my new discovery and we high-fived all around. Dad’s high-five was reversed and tentative since he was still driving and watching the road. A few minutes later, dad pulled into the main parking area of the South Mountain State Park where the search for the mother and daughter was being coordinated and where the volunteers were being assigned their groups and area to cover. Mom and I stayed in the car while dad headed over to find out in what area they had gone missing and in what areas the search was being conducted.
Dad returned a few minutes later with a map of the park, a starting location and more on the story of how the mother and daughter got lost. The family of four had gone camping together, two parents and two children, aged seven and five. The seven-year-old’s inhaler had been almost empty and the father and son had gone back home to get a fresh one, leaving the mother and daughter to hang out at the campsite by themselves for two hours. When the father and son returned, the campsite was deserted. They searched the whole area before heading to the ranger’s station to get help. Speculation was running deep as to what happened with everything from abduction to getting lost in the woods being thrown out as a possibility. The silver lining in all this is that the night had been relatively warm and dry so there wasn’t any danger of them succumbing to the elements.
Mom and dad started debating the best area from me to start my search. Mom was in favor of driving out to the backwoods camping area where the family had stayed, clear across to the other side of the park, and searching from there. Dad liked her idea, but felt that given the massive range of my abilities, it didn’t really matter where I started and that I should just start looking now and if I didn’t find them, we’d drive however many miles we needed until we reached the limits of where I’d already searched and start again.
With nothing to lose, I gave dad’s idea a try. I shaped the adult and child fields again and sent out a powerful pulse. “I’ve got five sets of parent and child in a two-mile radius of here. I’m sending out a field to check each one. Four of the adults are male and the one female adult is with a boy. All are healthy and near a campsite or a trail. Let’s drive out a few miles towards where they went missing and I’ll try again.”
Three more stops with no luck brought us to the other entrance to the park. Dad parked the car and we all got out. Mom began heading for the trail that led to the campsite and I called her back. “I need a few minutes to get into my gear.” I got my duffel bag from the trunk and took out my exosuit. As I strapped on each of the sections, I explained to them what was. “If either of them is hurt, I’ll be better able to carry them out.”
“If you find them and they’re injured, we should call in the paramedics. You shouldn’t risk injuring them further.”
“It’s ok, dad. I’ll scan them before I move them. Also, if I shift them to L2, then I can carry them without worrying about hurting them. Our biggest problem will be explaining to any paramedics or police how we found them and how we brought them out.”
I strapped on the final piece and made sure no one was looking my way before sending the exosuit into R2. I’d bring it back later, if it was needed. In the meantime, it would just limit my movement through the forest. Dad shook his head in wonder at the way the suit seemed to disappear.
Mom had the map in hand and she set a brisk pace. With so many other search parties around, we didn’t need the map, but I think that it was helping mom with her anxiety over the missing mother and daughter. I could have scanned for them from the car just as easily, but I got the feeling that mom needed to do something, to feel useful, so I kept quiet. From dad’s expression when I caught his eye, he agreed.
We came up to the campsite fifteen minutes later. I’d expected to see more park rangers and policemen around, but then I remembered that they’d all be out searching. There was a temporary command post off to the side and I could see the father and son inside of it, listening intently to the constant reports from the search parties. Dad led us to an empty picnic table and had us sit down. Mom said she was ready to head out, but dad insisted. “You’re six months pregnant, Hannah. That doesn’t make you an invalid, but it does mean that you should rest more. Besides, Abby needs to scan again. It’s probably easier for her if she’s not walking through the woods while she does it.”
We sat and I sent out my pulse, searching for the mother and daughter. I put a lot more power into this pulse because mom was so impatient. It was weird, the closer we came, the more anxious she was getting. “They’re almost three miles away. Much farther south and to the west than the search parties are looking. Hold on, I’m sending a field to scan them and the area. Ok. The little girl is fine. A few scraps and cuts. The mother has a concussion. There’s a small gash on the back side of her head. She also has a small fracture in the lower part of her tibia. It probably hurts to put weight on it. She’s going to need help to get out of there. She has two nasty lacerations. One on her right arm and one on her broken leg. She’d lost a lot of blood and the wounds will need stitches. She’s probably very weak right now, but there’s no permanent damage. They’re huddled up at the base of a small cliff. There aren’t any dangerous animals around.”
Mom was about to get up and dad stopped her with a light touch to her shoulder. “They’re safe, Hannah. We can take a few minutes to figures things out. Abby will keep scanning the area to make sure that nothing changes. Abby brought up a good point back at the car. We have to find a way to explain how we found them. It’s also a six-mile round-trip hike and I don’t think that you should be doing that in your condition.”
“I’ll be fine for the hike. Abby can keep scanning me to make sure that I don’t overdo it and I promise to stop if she says that I need to. Josh, I need to see that they’re ok. I don’t know why. I just do.”
“I suspect that you’re identifying with the mother and daughter and comparing their situation to your own. The little girl is almost the same age Abby was when you were both abducted.”
Oh wow. How had I missed that connection? Looking back on the morning, I can see it so clearly now. Mom’s weird anxiety, near panic, to get out here and help out, was a form of post-traumatic stress. Her mind was reliving the terrors of our abduction. I got up and went sit next to her and give her a hug. Dad’s massive arms joined us in the hug and I felt mom’s rigid frame relax, probably for the first time since she’d read about the missing mother and daughter.
Mom wiped a few tears from her eyes and gave me a determined look. “I still want to see this through and help them get back. What’s the plan?”
“I have one idea. I’ll need to try something new with my new searching skill. If it works, it could be what we need. I just need a minute.”
Finding the mother again, I put a tiny field around the some of the dried blood at the back of her head and then I paired that blood with a pulse going from us towards her direction. The pulse lit up a trail of blood for me to follow. The first traces of the mother’s blood were on a few rocks at the edge of a stream. Either she’d been walking along and fallen or she’s slipped when she’d tried to cross it. I think she fell, smacked her head and tore her arm open against a rock. Following her trail after that was easy, if confusing. The concussion was probably affecting her judgement considerably. Between the occasional bloody hand-prints trees and the drops of blood from her arm wound, I had enough to explain how we found them. The fresher blood from the tear in her leg wasn’t much help, since she hadn’t moved too far from the place where she’d fallen and damaged her leg.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
We brainstormed for another few minutes, making sure that our stories would match up, if anyone questioned us, and then we set out. Once we were out of sight, mom and dad continued down the trail while I went back to the command tent and snagged one of the walkies-talkies they were giving out to search parties. Keeping the pen in R1 and sending just the tip into reality, I wrote in dad’s name on the check list, along with how many we were in our search party and marked us off as searching the area where I’d found the blood. The handwriting wouldn’t match, but I saw that several people had filled in the form so I didn’t worry about it.
A few minutes later, I caught up with mom and dad and it wasn’t long before we found the blood. I led us from one trace to the next, going slowly both for mom’s sake and so that anyone who followed our track would see signs of hesitation. In truth, we were carrying it a bit far. No one was going to question us or follow our track with suspicion. They would be impressed that we’d found the trail of blood and been able to follow it. Hopefully, they would chalk it up to good observation or something. After all, it’s not like a crime was being committed and there was no monetary reward for finding the family. However, dad insisted on the extra precautions. I’d been involved in too many unusual happenings and this was only going to add to them.
Taking our time, it took us over an hour and a half to walk the three miles and it was almost noon before we were a few hundred feet away from the Carolyn and Melissa. I’d caught their names while in the command tent. Melissa was the little girl. As per our plan, mom and dad started calling out their names as we approached their position. If we hadn’t been listening so keenly for it, we wouldn’t have heard the little girl’s cry for help.
We rushed over and found them sitting up at the base of the short cliff, just as I’d described. They’d barely moved positions from when I’d first scanned them. When she saw us, Melissa got up and ran to us. “My mommy needs help. She’s hurt.” I nearly started crying at the desperation in her voice. Putting my emotions aside, I shifted my trauma backpack to reality and started working on cleaning and binding the Carolyn’s wounds. Carolyn was in a confused state and I kept up a running commentary of what I was doing so that she’d have something to focus on. Meanwhile, Mom reassured Melissa that her mom was going to be ok. For his part, dad used the walkies-talkies to report to the command tent. When he relayed our find, I could hear cheering in the background and the Head Ranger pressing him for information about our location.
I paused my ministrations long enough to pull out my phone and get our GPS coordinates. Dad passed on the information and gave them a rundown of Carolyn’s injuries and explained that I was caring for her wounds. When the Head Ranger, Ian Thompson, wanted more details, dad handed me the walkies-talkie and I gave him the full rundown, using all the appropriate medical jargon that I’d learned over the past few months. At his request, I handed the speaker to Carolyn so that her husband could speak with her. Her confused state didn’t lend itself very well to a conversation and soon we handed him over to Melissa, who started telling her daddy all about being lost in the woods and how hungry she was.
That jogged my memory and I shifted my regular backpack to reality from L3 and took out some rations bars and water. Melissa continued talking to her dad while she ate. I managed to get Carolyne to eat a few bites and drink a few sips of water while I finished wrapping up her wounds and applied a splint to provide support for her fractured leg. She’d either need to get a cast or a boot for it at the hospital. I left the head wound untouched for the moment. I could see that the blood had crusted over and starting to clean it up would only bring her more pain. The doctors at the hospital would decide what sedatives to administer to her, given her concussion, while they sewed up her wounds. It was definitely not something that a non-medical school trainee like myself would know anything about.
Five minutes later, Ranger Thompson was back on the line explaining how the fastest way to get Carolyne to the hospital was by helicopter. He’d located a potential landing site half a mile from our location and asked if we’d be able to get her there. Dad assured him that we could. He gave dad the GPS coordinates and I entered them into my phone. I scanned the area and, now that we didn’t have to follow a trail of blood, I was free to choose the easiest path. In this case, the best path was using a well established game-trail for most of the way.
We set out with me leading the way, dad following and holding Carolyne, and mom bringing up the rear with Melissa in hand. I’d offered to carry Carolyne, but dad refused my help, explaining that the exosuit would just confuse everyone. He was right, but I hadn’t planned on anyone seeing me. Regardless, dad managed easily enough without my help.
The helicopter arrived in the small clearing not long after we did and we all got a ride to the hospital. This alone was worth the price of admission. I’d never been in a helicopter before and the best way I could describe it was to say that it felt like being carried around in a basket. It was a great way to travel and probably the closest thing I’d found to the joys of driving in L2. No traffic, no stop signs, no pedestrians to watch out for. Just going from point A to point B. I’d have to look into getting one of these.
Ranger Thompson and Mike Brenner, Carolyne’s husband, met us on the roof of the hospital along with a team of medical professionals. Carolyne and Melissa were fussed over and taken to be x-rayed and examined, while Ranger Thompson thanked us for our assistance and asked us to take him through our rescue for his reports. Dad did most of the talking and we were done in twenty minutes. We graciously accepted Ranger Thompson’s offer of a ride back to our car and when we pulled into the park we were surprised by a small crowd of park rangers, paramedics, search and rescue personnel, and several policemen who wanted to congratulate and thank us. Ranger Thompson had radioed of our upcoming arrival and an impromptu lunch had been set up. Mom, dad and I were given Guest of Honor status and couldn’t say no to joining in.
“Abby! We didn’t know that you were moonlighting as a Search and Rescue Specialist.” I turned around to find Jose and Carter coming my way, along with Dean and Janie.
“Hey guys. What brings you out here? This isn’t your patrol area.”
“Missing people. It was all hands on-deck, especially for those of us who were off-duty. Besides, when we end up finding lost hikers, Ian always sets up a lunch for us. We wouldn’t miss that.”
“How do you guys know Ms. Smith?” Ranger Thompson was eyeing me with confusion while mom and dad both seemed very interested in the answer to that question.
“Abby’s the one that did the imaging for the entire police department with that new ultrasound machine. After the insurance company verified some of her results, they practically forced us all to have the scans done. Did the scanning for the paramedics and fire-fighters too. It was great.”
“What new scanning machine? You guys been holding out on us?” Ranger Thompson interest was piqued. Jose, one of the paramedics I’d scanned, gave Ranger Thompson the basics. “It was the easiest scan I’d ever had. I just walked in, talked to Abby for a few minutes, and it was done. It saved Nathan’s life. He had no idea he had lung cancer. Wasn’t even a smoker. Anyways, Abby’s machine caught it so early that he was able to have it removed before it could spread and he was out of the hospital in less than a week. Lots of other were saved the same way.”
“I’ll call your rep after lunch and get the details. I can’t have my rangers playing second-hand citizens to you guys.” Looks like I’d have to open up my schedule a bit to accommodate more scans.
I introduced mom and dad to the everyone, along with their job title and their health assessment. Jose, paramedic, early onset clogged arteries due to too much fast food and too little exercise. Carter, paramedic, in excellent cardiovascular shape. Dean, rookie police officer, too much acid in his stomach due to overindulgence in apple juice, and Janie, Dean’s senior partner, in need of a psychiatrist for putting up with Dean’s constant chatter. “Guys, these are my parents, Hannah and Josh.”
Janie looked confused. “Hannah? As in Hannah’s Home that you named after your missing mother?”
“Yes. She was rescued a month or two after you guys came in for your scans.” This statement was followed by a new round of congratulations and cheers.
“You were abducted?”
“My mom and I were when I was four. Mom got me away, but she disappeared from our lives for thirteen years. She’s only been back for around five months.”
“I guess that explains why a woman in your obvious condition was out here today, helping out.”
“Yes. I had to make sure that this family got the rescue that our family missed out on for so long.”