He was hoping to see it up ahead, but the trees were distributed densely in the area to his right, making it impossible to see anything past them.
The road curved slightly to the right. He skirted another pothole.
His mind was preoccupied with the mystery of the boat. It was hard to grasp. In his mind, he saw the image of it sitting forlornly in the middle of the still lake. His theory had been wrong. There was no evidence suggesting that it had floated out there by accident.
Admit it. They abandoned the boat. That’s the only explanation.
It went against everything they knew about the rabid things. If his parents and Angie had been in danger from them, then the safest place would have been inside the boat. Those things wouldn’t go in the water.
Or had they purposely left the boat there so that the walkie-talkie could be found. It was such a small lake, a solitary boat floating in the center of it stuck out like a sore thumb. Had his father known they would come to find them and that the boat would catch their attention? Wasn’t it also odd that there had been nothing else in the boat other than the walkie-talkie? Almost as if it had been left on purpose. If all of that had been part of his father’s elaborate plan, then it had worked.
The only reason to leave the walkie-talkie was to communicate. Maybe his father had a hiding place and leaving the walkie-talkie for them to find was the means by which he could give them directions. Somehow his mom and dad had been separated from Angie, and Angie had the walkie-talkie. He had been able to figure that much out from Angie’s static-filled transmission.
These thoughts reminded him of the urgency of the matter. Driving along at fifteen miles-per-hour was agonizing, but it couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t take the chance of losing their only means of transportation.
Then, to his right, the lake was visible through the trees. As the trees fell away, he could see the boat exactly where they had left it. The dirt road followed the northern side of the lake and then curved to the left, unwinding to the north. He had to squint to make out the tire tracks from inside the car. He rolled down the window.
Almost there, he thought.
The terrain had grown more rugged since they had left the path. The ground was rocky, and Tina’s slip-on shoes were thin enough to make it seem as though she was walking barefoot over every branch and rock. The pack on her back was growing heavy. Don’t complain. You asked for it. With a sense of purposefulness, she pursed her lips together and carried on, watching Carl’s back as she followed behind him.
The two of them hadn’t spoken since they had diverged from the road. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, she would only end up complaining about the weight of the pack or the condition of her shoes. She didn’t want to come off as whiny; she didn’t want to sound like most other girls she knew.
A change had come over Carl since he had heard Angie over the walkie-talkie. He had become solemn and preoccupied. His withdrawal scared her a little. He kept talking into the walkie-talkie. He would say different things, but it was almost like he knew he was only talking to himself but doing it anyway. He would say things like It’s okay, baby. I’m coming for you or I love you so much, honey. The constant repetition of it gave the words a chant-like quality that Tina found disquieting. Especially since the only response was a transitory burst of static.
As part of her studies, she had been required to take a course in psychology. They had covered stuff like this. In certain extreme conditions a person’s mind could snap as easily as someone stepping on a twig. She wondered if that was what was happening to Carl.
“Can you slow down a little?” she asked. “I can’t keep up.”
Carl didn’t respond, but he slowed down until she caught up with him. Tina came up beside him, looked at his face and tried to judge his condition. His face was blank. He brought the walkie-talkie up to his lips and whispered something into it. Pretty soon he’ll start hearing voices coming back through that thing when there aren’t any, she thought. When that starts happening, that’s when you’re going to have to be on your guard.
Despite having covered another half mile, the looming rocks appeared as far away and unattainable as they had twenty minutes ago. It’s like they’re moving away from us.
“They don’t seem to be getting any closer,” she said, once again trying to spur him into conversation if for no other reason than to gauge his state of mind.
Carl said, “It’s always like that. But we’re making progress. Trust me.” He picked up his pace. “It’s a kind of illusion. You can’t focus on the peaks. The highest ones are actually the farthest away. The trick is to let your eyes follow the ground.”
Tina trailed a few behind him, focusing her gaze on the ground directly in front of her. The rocks still seemed a long way off, but she trusted that he knew what he was talking about.
“Maybe another mile,” he said. “Tops. From here it seems pretty open, but up close there are plenty of hiding places.”
“Caves?”
“No caves. Not that I know of anyway.”
She was glad to have him talking again. It helped to keep her imagination in check.
Carl tried the walkie-talkie again. When there was no response, he fiddled with the volume knob. He tried a second time, and this time the burst of static sounded oddly like a high-pitched human voice.
“Baby? Was that you? If you can hear me, say something...anything. Even if it’s just one word.”
Nothing.
Carl brought the arm holding the walkie-talkie back, looking as if he were about to launch it into space, but then thought better of it.
“This is bullshit! She’s alone out here and I’m too dumb to know how to find her.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re doing the best you can.”
“Yeah? And what if that’s not good enough?”
“It has to be, Carl,” she said. “That’s all there is.”
He made a disgusted look and stuffed the walkie-talkie into his back pocket. He said, “Let’s just concentrate on getting there. We don’t need to talk.”
I think he’s losing it, she thought.
The tire tracks ended. Gone. He parked the car along the side of the road and stepped out, inspecting the tracks as they veered to the right, disappearing when they reached the rocky soil where the road ended.
Taylor stood next to a tree, running his palm down the rough bark, gazing ahead in the direction of the rocks. No way to go off-roading with this.
He spotted them far ahead in the distance. If the distance between them hadn’t been uncharacteristically flat, he would have missed them. They were little more than blurry specks, but Carl and Tina stood out among the more subdued tones of the landscape.
His first thought was: I brought the car for nothing. All that time wasted to go back for the car and I can’t even get to them.
And then he saw something else in the distance as well, hidden amongst the trees like the secret figures in an illusionist’s paintings.
Then he started to scream.
Chapter 10
The End of the Road
Carl heard a twig snap.
“Did you hear something?” he asked, pulling the walkie-talkie from his pocket and holding it up to his ear.
“No. Why?”