White Water (17 page)

A new rush of tears warmed her cheeks.
That means it's up to me
. She closed her eyes and tried to think. Where should she search?
Farther inland?
She shook her head.
No. Ryan would stay near the river. Back downstream, past where they'd grounded the raft?

“Where is he, God? You've got to help me. Show me where to look!” It wasn't really a prayer, more like an angry demand. And that's exactly how she felt: angry, desperate, and deserted by God. And Colin's betrayal hurt almost as badly as Ryan being lost. He had made a choice to run the wilder rapids. He had deliberately put them all in danger. She would never be able to forgive him for that.

Kara stood and strapped her backpack over her jacket. The afternoon sun didn't penetrate into the forest. It would be cold tonight. She was dry, but Ryan had been in the river. If he was unconscious and unable to get warm, he could freeze to death.
Some choice
, she thought bitterly,
freeze or drown
. She hurried down the deer trail, not stopping to call or even catch her breath until she reached the clearing where she'd met Colin a few hours earlier. There'd been no sign of Ryan between here and the rapids. Was it possible he'd been carried past them downstream? The current had been pretty fast, but the river wasn't deep. Surely they would have seen him. Besides, his life jacket was on shore a long ways back. Even if it had come off in the water, it made sense to think Ryan would have been washed ashore at about the same place.
And what about his backpack!
she reasoned. There'd been no sign of it, either. Ryan must have caught it and carried it with him away from the river. Maybe the water level had risen for some reason and washed his footprints away.

And maybe pigs can fly
. She shook her head
. Get over it, Wako. All this maybe stuff won't find him
. She had to keep on looking.

When she reached the tree where they had been hung up in the raft, she shed her pack and shimmied out onto the trunk. The branches dipped perilously close to the water, but held her weight. For once, she was glad to be small. The tree limbs carried her almost to the middle of the river.
She sat up, and when she was balanced, searched the river and its high, brush-choked banks. It was a long, straight stretch of water, but it was like sitting in the end zone of a football field. Things were pretty clear for the first fifty yards, but after that details were blurred. As far as she could tell though, there was no sign of a backpack, or a little boy wearing blue jeans and a dark green jacket.

He made it to shore. He's disoriented. He's holed up somewhere and can't hear me call
. Her mind spun with possibilities as she resumed the search, this time walking a zigzag course downstream, inland from the river. It was nearly dark when she heard the sound of the chopper blades.

Kara felt a surge of hope. Colin and Tia had sent help! She dropped her pack and unzipped the outside pocket, searching wildly for the waterproof matches she always kept there. She had to light a fire or the chopper would never see her in this light. She ran toward the sound of the churning engine, then froze. A feeling of sharp despair nearly brought her to her knees.
So what if they find me? Ryan's the one who needs rescuing
. It was almost dark. If she got into that chopper, they would take her back to Eagle Lodge and suspend the search for Ryan until morning.

She hurried back to where she'd left her pack and practically dove into a cluster of juniper and wild rhododendron bushes. A squirrel scolded her from the nearest tree, and a pair of crows took flight, setting up enough ruckus to stampede a herd of cattle. Thankfully, the chopper crew wasn't looking for crows.

Kara made herself as small as possible and held her breath as the helicopter passed overhead. It flew slowly, stopping every few yards to hover. She knew they were trying to cover every foot of ground between here and the rapids. She hoped they wouldn't stop until they had.
Please, please don't let them see me; they have to keep searching, they have to
.

“I will never leave you, or forsake you.”

That Bible verse was not the answer she'd expected from her desperate prayer.
“It's not me I'm scared for,”
she wanted to shout,
“it's Ryan. I don't want anything for myself, God. Please just let us find him!”

She huddled in her hiding place until the sky grew dark. The helicopter made one more pass with its searchlight blazing only inches from her hunched over form. She squeezed her eyes shut and listened as the engine noise faded into the night. She knew they would not be back until morning.

W
HEN SHE WAS SURE THE
helicopter wasn't coming back, Kara dug a flashlight out of her pack and started inland, looking for a grove of trees where she might find wood to build a tepee and start a fire. She'd gone only a couple hundred yards when she tripped. She caught hold of a tree to keep from falling, then trained the flashlight on the ground to where a wooden stake held down a piece of rope. She followed the rope with her light and gasped when she found an old, square-frame shelter covered with a green canvas tarp, almost identical to the one Dad had used with their old army tent
.

Kara could hardly believe it! She peered cautiously inside. The shelter was empty, and from the looks of things, no human had occupied it for awhile. She scooped out old pine branches littered with animal droppings and small bones. She studied the debris carefully, then decided none of it was fresh enough to worry about. When the floor of the small shelter was clean, she cut some fresh pine boughs, laid them down, and covered them with a space blanket. She was so tired, it took every ounce of energy she had just to crawl inside, roll into her sleeping bag, and close her eyes.

When she awoke, the thick darkness had given way to a million stars winking like diamonds in an ink blue sky. The world outside her sleeping bag was sharp with cold, and her face and nose felt numb. She rubbed some feeling into her cheeks, then looked at her watch. The luminous dial told her it was close to 11:00
P.M.
Her stomach churned, reminding her that it had been hours since her last meal.

Keeping as much of her body as possible in the sleeping bag, she rifled through her pack and found the raisins, a piece of jerky, and her canteen of water. She wanted more than anything to look for Ryan, but she knew better than to try. The woods were no place to roam in the dark. She could only hope and pray that he was holed up like she was, safe and warm.

She chewed the dry meat, enjoying the salty, smoky flavor. If Ryan had managed to grab his backpack, he wouldn't go hungry either. The packs were waterproof, and he had a change of clothes, not to mention extra socks and a sweatshirt
. He'll be fine
. She tried to convince herself of that, but the tears came anyway, and she knew there was a good chance he wasn't fine. A good chance he wasn't even alive.

Don't think like that, Wako, it doesn't help
.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you.”

First Peter 5:7. They had memorized that verse at youth group a few weeks ago, and Mr. Andrews had given the illustration of anxiety or worries being like a heavy coat. “When something is worrying you,” he had said, “you can mentally take it off, as if it were a coat, and lay it across Jesus' shoulders. No burden is too great for Him.”

“There are no problems too big for God, but a stubborn heart can muffle His voice.”
Anne's words again. Suddenly Kara realized they were true. “I have been stubborn, haven't I, God?” she whispered. “I should have turned it over to you
a long time ago.” She thought about her family back at Eagle Lodge. Tia would be in Lariat by now. But the rest of them would be awake. Colin had probably told them that Ryan had drowned, and now she was missing too. She could picture Anne crying and Dad on the radio organizing volunteers and supplies for a search the next day.

“I messed up, Mom,” she said aloud. “I should have flagged the helicopter and talked them into searching with an infrared scope.” Sheriff Lassen might not have one, but the forest service would.

Another Bible verse popped into her mind.
“If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Still snug in the sleeping bag, Kara drew up her legs and rested her chin on her knees. Staring out into the beauty of the moonlit forest, she said simply, “I'm sorry, God. If I could take it back, I would, but there's nothing I can do. So please forgive me and watch over Ryan. I know he's out there somewhere. Please keep him safe.”

She started singing softly, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound . . .” By the third verse, she felt drowsy again. She curled up on the lumpy pine mattress, closed her eyes, and fell instantly asleep.

The scream shattered her sleep like an arrow striking glass.

Kara jumped up. Thwack! Her head hit the top of the shelter. She went down again, rubbing the instant lump that had formed on the top of her head and struggling to fight her way out of the sleeping bag.

The scream came again, louder this time, followed by, “Get out of here, you big bully!” Then, “Help! Kara, help meeee!”

Ryan! There was no mistaking her little brother's howl. Kara finally pulled free of the tangled bag. Grateful that she had slept in her clothes, she bolted out of the shelter into the pale, gray light of early morning. Her thick cotton socks did little to save her feet from becoming a pincushion for pinecones and sharp twigs, but Kara hardly noticed as she sped toward Ryan's continued calls for help.

“Leave me alone! Kar-raaa!”

His screams sent chills through her, spurring her on. She started to yell, “I'm coming, Ry,” but stopped in time. She would need stealth and a weapon. She came to a halt in front of a huge boulder. Ryan's frantic cries came from the other side.
Please, God
, she prayed silently,
show me what to do!
An instant picture of David preparing to do battle with Goliath flashed through her mind. She nearly laughed out loud, but the message was clear. Quickly, she searched the ground. She needed stones, good-sized ones. She settled for two that she could stuff in her jacket pockets and quickly began to climb the boulder, thankful for stocking feet that kept her approach somewhat quiet. Not that it mattered much. Ryan's clamor continued with the same force as before. Whoever was after him wasn't doing any damage to his voice. And, she realized, it didn't sound as if anyone was hurting him. He sounded as mad as a cornered cat!

At the top of the largest boulder, Kara froze. There below her on the ground were the remains of Ryan's backpack and jacket. It looked like they had been fed through a shredder, with pieces of blue canvas, green nylon, and white cotton padding strewn all over the ground. Heart pounding, her eyes followed the trail of debris across the small clearing to a tall ponderosa pine. She found Ryan about halfway up the trunk, firmly wedged between two stout branches. Eyes squeezed shut and still yelling like crazy, he hung on with one hand while beating at the tree below him with a long, bushy pine frond. At the base of the tree, a large black bear stood on its back legs, clawing the tree trunk, staying just out of reach of Ryan's flimsy weapon.

Kara's chest tightened in fear when she saw the radio collar around the bear's neck. Was it the same animal that attacked Lyman? That ranger, Brad, said it would probably work its way back to its home territory. Was it possible for a bear to travel this far in just a few days?

Kara tried to slow her breathing. So far the animal didn't seem to know she was there. She must be downwind
.
“Once they've tasted blood . . .”
The memory of the warning made her stomach churn
.
Stay calm
.
She couldn't call out—that would scare Ryan, and he might fall out of the tree. She'd give anything for Colin's rifle, but it was back at Eagle Lodge. The only weapons she had were the stones in her pocket
.

Okay, God, this time it's all up to You
. She hefted a baseball-sized rock from her pocket, drew back, and pitched a hard fastball straight toward the back of the animal's head.

The instant she threw, the bear must have caught the sound of her movement. It turned, and the rock smacked hard into its nose. With a bellow of fury, the animal started toward her, still on two legs, roaring and acting more like a grizzly than a black bear.

Crazy!
The minute the thought crossed her mind, Kara knew it had to be true. For whatever reason, this bear was insane. It was capable of anything, and there was no way she could know what it would do next.

“Kara!” Ryan's yell of recognition distracted her for only a moment, but by the time she had snatched up another rock, the creature was already at the base of the boulder. If she didn't give it a good reason to leave, and soon, she was literally dead meat.