Emma appreciated his optimism . . . but she wasn’t convinced it was going to be that easy.
They met Claudio and Alessandro, along with the staff members, on the edge of the main road. The other staffers that had driven the carts handed over the keys to the Golden Girls and everyone else stood by for instructions.
Claudio took charge. “We spread out, but not so far that we have more lost guests. Every thirty minutes, check in on the group chat messages.”
The sharing of phone numbers and location settings then took place so they could find each other.
Emma looked over at Nicole and Chris. “Be careful.”
They spread out in the space of a football field and moved into the dense brush and trees.
Emma followed Gio into what looked like a trail. “How long did we walk before it got steep?”
“Twenty minutes maybe? I was too busy looking at the view to pay much attention to the time that passed.” He was making light of the situation, but Emma heard concern in his tone.
“At least it’s a little cooler now.”
“That helps.”
“Do you know any first aid?” she asked.
“No. Do you?”
Emma kept looking at the ground, searching for evidence that someone had recently walked through this area. “No. Let’s hope all that time watching medical TV shows kicks in.”
She heard someone calling Kimmy’s name in the distance and followed suit. “Kimmy! Weston!”
No reply.
“Does this look like the trail?” Gio stopped, looked left, then right.
Emma pointed to the right. “That way.”
Gio dug his heel into the dirt, making an arrow. “I forgot to bring bread crumbs.”
“We should have thought of that.”
“I have a pretty good sense of direction,” he told her.
Emma glanced above her head at the angle of the sun. “I do, too . . . in the mall.”
Gio laughed.
“Kimmy . . . Weston?”
They kept the same cadence until the ground started its descent. The trail had somewhat fizzled out, but the terrain around them was much more open than on the trail they’d taken earlier in the day.
Gio picked the path with the easiest footing. Because they were walking much faster, they started to hear the water right as their first thirty-minute check-in needed to take place.
They could hear the others calling out Kimmy’s and Weston’s names, which gave Emma a sense of relief.
“Did the text go through?” Gio asked.
“Yes.” Good thing, since they didn’t have one of the radios to communicate with. “I don’t think this was on the tour packet,” she said.
“Ha. The stories we’ll tell our families when we’re home.”
Emma slapped at a mosquito that was having dinner on her arm.
They met the edge of the river with no sign of anyone.
“Do you think they went for a swim?”
Gio shook his head. “They don’t seem that adventurous.”
Emma looked each way. “Do we go upstream or downstream?”
“I say down. They could have slipped in, and even though the current doesn’t look that strong, that can be deceiving,” Gio said.
“Solid plan.” Emma typed their intention into the group text before putting her phone in her pocket.
“Weston . . . Kimmy?”
An hour flew by. According to the group chat, two of the search parties were moving upriver instead of down. Pierre and Rob had to double back when the terrain became impossible and had yet to meet the river’s edge. The authorities were on the scene and had added to the search party.
“An hour and forty-five minutes till sunset,” Emma announced. “Kimmy must be freaking out.”
“We’ll find them.” Gio placed a hand on Emma’s arm.
Noise from downstream caught their attention at the same time.
“Kimmy?”
They both started running toward the sound.
“Weston?” Gio yelled.
“It’s us. Nicole and Chris.”
Emma’s heart fell in her chest.
“We see something,” Chris called out.
Gio and Emma picked up their pace.
Both of them ignored the branches that rushed past their bodies, scraping their skin as they ran by.
The bright orange shirt that Nicole was wearing stuck out in the green brush.
They came to a stop by Chris’s side. He pointed to the riverbank that was now a few feet below them.
A chunk of earth looked like it had recently fallen away. A long-scored section of earth looked like it could have been the heel of a shoe sliding along the ground.
“Does that look right to you?” Chris asked.
“No,” Gio said.
The current of the river had picked up in this section, with larger rocks breaking the water’s path.
Gio looked at Chris’s radio. “We should call this in and then walk downstream.”
Chris lifted the radio to his ear. “We think we found something.”
They all started walking, swiftly, as Chris informed the others of what they saw. “Kimmy?” Emma yelled.
The terrain they could walk on rose in elevation before it started to dip back down.
All four of them called Kimmy’s and Weston’s names over and over and scrambled alongside the river’s edge, looking for any sign of their friends.
Sunset felt like it was working double time as the light of day was becoming a memory. And the bugs were starting to feast.
They must have walked a quarter of a mile before Emma heard a noise. “Everyone stop.”
“Please help me.” A female voice.
Hope flared. “Kimmy?”
“Here.”
The four of them turned in circles. “Downstream?”
“I think so,” Gio said.
They half jogged.
Chris was on the radio. “We hear Kimmy.”
There were cheers over the radio.
“Kimmy, keep yelling,” Nicole called out.
“Here!” Her voice was closer.
They marched up what felt like another hill before coming down the other side. That’s when they saw them.
Weston was lying on the ground, his back propped up against a tree, and Kimmy was on her feet, waving her hands in the air. “Over here.”
An outcropping from where the river had eaten into the earth and carved it away and then receded at some point was where Kimmy and Weston had found refuge.
From the appearance of their clothing, they’d both been in the river, their clothes molded to their bodies, Kimmy’s hair fell in damp strands down her back.
Gio took the lead and found a way around the steep terrain, but there was still a good four-foot drop.
“Chris, stay behind so you can help us back up.”
“You got it.”
The static from the radio countered the river’s current as Chris gave the others an update.
Gio reached for Emma’s hand to help her down. Once there, Gio reached for Nicole, and Emma rushed to Kimmy’s side.
The woman threw her arms around her. “I was so scared.”
She was shivering from head to toe.
“You’re safe now.” Emma released Kimmy and dropped to a knee. “What happened?”
“We fell and the river took us here.”