Aegis Rising (20 page)

Nageau ushered Akol out of the building quietly. Before the Elder closed the door, he called out, “I shall see you later, old friend.”

“What? Oh, yes, yes. Close that door.”

Outside, Akol listed off the names of youths he had got together and split into two search teams. “One of the groups will head out to the eastern opening of the valley, and the group I am heading will take the western route through the adjacent valley. We will take a few horses with us, and have packed everything we need.”

Nageau smiled warmly at Akol. “Wonderful.” He gazed into his grandson’s eyes. “You are growing up to be a fine young man, Akol. I am very proud of you.”

Akol smiled back and the two shared a brief hug. As he turned and began walking away to find his group, Akol stopped. He looked over his shoulder and said quietly, “I had intended to ask Hutar to join us, considering his skills, but I do not think I trust him enough to work confidently with him.”

Nageau tilted his head slightly, then nodded after a moment. “This is your decision to make, and I trust
you
to choose wisely.”

Akol allowed himself a small grin.

“Have you asked Tikina for assistance?”

“Yes,” Akol replied. “She said not to worry and that she will be with us, just so long as we keep looking out for her.”

“That should not be hard. She will be using either of her favorites, Akira or Tyse.”

Akol waved to Nageau and jogged away to rejoin the group he would be leading to search for the missing five.

20

K
ody stared at the wrecked plane, dread knotting his insides. With his heart pounding, he raced toward it, quickly gaining speed until he was sprinting. “Dad!
Dad!
” His yells rang across the small clearing.

His friends reached the mangled plane shortly after he did and eyed the aircraft. They shuddered at the thought that they had been inside when it crashed and somehow survived. The first thing they noticed was that the plane was upside down on the forest floor with its right wing charred. The second thing that caught their attention was that the Piper’s left wing was nowhere to be found; not even a quick eye-sweep could help the group locate it. As they ran their eyes over the aircraft, they also noted that the tail had been torn clear off and was buried under two large broken branches.

Immediately Kody headed for the cockpit and the other four cautiously followed him. He knelt down by the pilot’s side of the cockpit. “It’s dark inside. I’m gonna go in and see if”—Kody took a breath—“see if he’s there.”

His friends nodded and watched him get down on his hands and knees and wriggle through the broken windshield. They waited quietly for a few tense moments before Kody crawled back out. The look in his eyes told the others that there was no sign of his father in the cockpit.

“Hey, you know, he could have been thrown out of the plane,” Mariah suggested softly. “Tegan, let’s go. We’ll look around. You guys just see what we can salvage from here, and find the radio too.”

“Hold on, Mariah,” Kody said. “He’s my dad. I’ll go with you to look for him.”

Mariah and Tegan exchanged glances and blocked him as he tried to skirt around them. “Let us do the searching,” Tegan said.

“If you find him, I want to be there.”

“Then we’ll call you over if we find him”

“Don’t try to talk me out of this, Teegs. I’m going.” He tried to maneuver around the girls but again they held him back.

“Kody, listen,” Mariah insisted; neither she nor Tegan wanted Kody to be around if they found his father and he wasn’t alive. “Just stay here with the guys, and leave the scouting to us. Okay?”

Kody looked from Mariah to Tegan, noting the firm look they both wore. He didn’t feel like arguing with them, but threw them a glare and turned to slowly walk up to Jag and Aari, who each clasped his shoulder. The girls wandered away from the plane into the surrounding trees. The boys stood back and observed the aircraft.

“Tell you what,” Aari said gently. “Let’s clear off the rubble from the plane and then you two can go inside and see what you can find.”

Jag nodded. “Right.”

It took them a few minutes to clear away enough debris that Jag and Kody could get into the plane safely. Inside the remains of the plane, Jag and Kody surveyed the scene. The cabin appeared to be mostly preserved, although it was a little hard to tell with the ceiling inverted. Jag, on his hands and knees, began shoving away debris from inside the plane. He looked up at the seats to make sure he wouldn’t bump his head and saw some brown fabric hanging down. He stretched an arm under one of the seats and yanked at the fabric. When it wouldn’t come free, he used both hands to wrench the item out and it fell on him. He held it up and saw that it was a knapsack. Without thinking, he rummaged through the bag’s contents and looked up at Kody with a mildly amused expression. “’Riah’s. It’s got her, er . . . stuff in it.”

“Oh. We should take it, then.” Kody poked his head out of a broken window and was somewhat surprised to come face-to-face with an ankle. “Um, hello?” He tapped the jeans-clad leg wearily. “Who might this be?”

“It’s me, genius.” Mariah crouched down. “I’ve switched with Aari. He’s with Tegan now.”

“Haven’t found my dad yet?”

“Not yet, Kody.” Her tone was sympathetic. “You guys find anything?”

“Your knapsack.”

Mariah’s eyebrows rose. “It didn’t get burned or damaged?”

Jag good-humoredly nudged Kody aside to stick his head out the window. “Not really. It was hooked under the seat, so it probably got luckier than any of our other things.” He pulled his head back and stuck the bag out. Mariah took it thankfully. “If you guys find other things, just call out and I’ll grab them.”

“Sure thing.” Kody turned around and continued searching inside the plane.

“Kody, where’s the plane’s radio?” Jag asked.

Kody scoffed. “In the cockpit, where else?” He crawled into the cockpit, finding it odd that he was kneeling on the ceiling of the plane, and looked up at the pilot’s seat. A quick glance into the chair was enough to see dark red stains splattered across it. The display sickened him but he continued searching for the radio.

Meanwhile, Jag had found a can of clam chowder and passed it to Mariah. She looked alarmed. “Don’t tell me this is all that you found.”

“Relax, there are still a few cans here. If you ask me, though, it seems like some of the animals beat us to most of the provisions.” He withdrew, then returned a few moments later and stuck his hands out. “Here are two cans of tuna, and more cans of other stuff.”

Mariah took them and stuck her tongue out in distaste. “I love fish, but not tuna. Better than nothing, of course,” she said quickly. She placed it down, then looked back at him with a hopeful glint in her eyes. “Are there any cans of Dr Pepper in there?”

He shook his head. “You Peppers and your obsession. No, there’s none.”

She sighed. “So that’s it?”

“Yep. I’m gonna go check on Kode-man.” Jag turned in time to see Kody crawling out.

“Found the radio,” Kody informed him. “But it’s not working.”

“Needs batteries?”

“Wouldn’t help. The thing’s broken. The crash busted it.”

Jag sat back with a groan. “We’re up the creek, then.”

“Pretty much.”

They sat for a while until Jag started to crawl out of the plane. “Let’s head out. It’s too stuffy in here.”

Once outside, they waited until Tegan and Aari came back. Kody looked at them with tentative hope but the unsmiling faces of his friends told him they hadn’t found his father.

Aari was sullen. “I’m sorry, Kody. No sign of him anywhere.”

Kody ground his teeth, holding back the tears he wanted no one to see.

“Maybe the search and rescue folks found him and took him to an ER somewhere,” Tegan suggested.

Kody shook his head and sat beside the plane’s fuselage. With a sigh, he leaned back and said, “No. If they found the plane, there’d be signs of investigations to figure out what might have caused the crash, like taking away the propellers or parts of the engines. They’d also leave emergency supplies here in case any survivor returned to the plane. No one’s visited this place. No one knows where we are.”

“Well, what about the radio? Is it working?”

“It’s broken.”

Tegan covered her face in exhaustion. “Okay, fine. So two choices, then.”

Jag scratched his head. “Let’s hear them.”

“We stay here and build a land-to-sky SOS signal like a smoke fire or something of the sort, or we keep walking toward what would hopefully be a town.”

“I’d go with whatever the brighter option is,” Mariah muttered. “But by the looks of it, neither one is great. Why should we stay if the plane’s been here for two weeks or so and no one’s found it? Then again, why should we keep walking? Who said there’d be a town around here? Who said we might be heading in the right direction
to
a town?”

There was an accusatory pause as the others turned to look at Jag. Jag threw his hands up. “Oh, come on! We talked about this in the village. Some support would be appreciated. And besides, we may still be heading in the right direction. We found the plane, didn’t we?”

Kody rose to his feet and turned around to stare at the dirt-covered aircraft. Swiping one finger over it, he said, “We could write a message on here, in case people find the plane.”

“So you don’t intend to stay here?” Aari asked.

“No. Mariah’s got a point. Staying put here probably won’t do us much good. And we can’t forget about Akol and Huyani and their village. If they catch up to us, do you honestly think they’d let us stay here?”

“Oh, Scarecrow, you do have a brain,” Tegan said with teasing affection. Kody gave her a look but then cracked a smile.

“Alright, Kode-man and I will write a message. You three . . .” Jag stopped short. “What’s that over there?”

“Huh?” Aari looked around. “What are you talking about?”

“That thing under there, where the plane’s tail used to be.”

Aari, bemused, looked around again until he spotted what Jag saw and went to retrieve it. He came back rummaging through a medium-sized canvas bag. “Some rotten little critter’s already been through it,” he grumbled, showing several small holes at the bottom of the bag. “If there was food in there, then we have nothing.” He dug around some more. “We’ve got a couple of flashlights here, but I think one’s broken. Got some fire starters, a box of matches, a portable first-aid kit . . . Ah, this must be the emergency bag. And—hey, look. A flare gun.” He pulled out the pistol with a grin.

Jag took it from him and smiled. “I remember using this last year. Dad showed me how to load one up and fire it.”

Aari looked into the bag again. “I see only two flares.”

“Here, hand it over. I’ll carry it.” Kody reached out for the bag. Aari passed it to him once Jag handed the gun back.

Mariah looked at Jag. “You gonna write the message?”

Jag blinked. “What? Oh, right. Yeah.” He found a pair of serrated rocks and passed one to Kody. “Better use these than just writing on the dirt.” The boys began scrawling letters onto the plane and when they finished, stood back to gaze at their message.

“Good enough?” Jag asked the others.

Mariah read it out loud. “‘Left to find a town. Samuel Tyler is not with us. Please send help. Signed Aari, Jag, Tegan, Kody, and Mariah.’”

“Not great, but it will have to do.” Tegan walked up to the plane, took Kody’s rock and added an arrow. “So they know the general direction of where we’re headed.” She picked up Mariah’s knapsack and tossed it to the other girl, who caught it and slung it over her shoulders. “We should get moving.”

The rest picked up their packs and the five continued trekking northward, resisting the urge to look back at the Piper Comanche as it slowly disappeared from sight.

21

T
he sun was beginning to set over the mountains ahead of the group as they walked. Tegan gazed up. “Can we call it a day?” she asked quietly. The other four nodded wearily. Aari, who’d been heading the group, stepped back and allowed Jag to lead the friends.

Tegan slowed down to fall back beside Mariah and Kody, whom she noticed to be uncharacteristically quiet. Kody looked at the girls, his face expressionless, lost in his own world. No doubt a world far away from here, Tegan thought.

They continued walking for the next several minutes in complete silence as they took in their surroundings. A raven swooped down and landed on the ground in front of them, peering at them suspiciously, then took off again.

The group halted when Jag stopped and looked up. They were staring at a rock face that was about thirty feet high and stretched for dozens of feet. Jag eyed it quietly for a moment then glanced to his left where something caught his attention. He moved toward what appeared to be a crevice in the granite wall, but was actually an opening just wide enough for him to squeeze through. He slid in, then motioned for the others to follow.

When the five reached the other side, they found themselves inside a large enclosure. The rock wall curved around, making a circular shape like the Roman coliseum, lacking only columns and seats for spectators. Creepers and vines hung down ornamentally from the top of the wall. To the right of where the five stood was a fair-sized pond. The sun lit the surface of the water, rendering it a deep, vibrant shade of blue.

“This is amazing,” Tegan murmured as she gazed around.

“It’s like it was meant for us,” Mariah said. “Our own haven.”

“I wanna check this place out.” Aari trotted toward the pond and placed his pack down a few yards away from its edge. The others followed him and soon the five were all over the enclosure, calling out to each other animatedly as they discovered interesting spots.

“Look at these huge boulders around the base of the wall,” Kody commented. He scaled one quickly and assumed the King of The World position. His friends smiled, glad that his mind was currently occupied on something other than the fact that his father was still missing.

Tegan was gazing up at a grove of black spruce and lodgepole pine trees to the left of the pond. Jag couldn’t help himself and clambered up one of them. The trees were tall, seeming to reach for the sky.