Wraith

Chapter 33 - Longshadow

Chapter 33 - Longshadow

Chancer and Redcliffe crested a ridge at the edge of the treeline, looking down onto a flattened expanse below that stretched on for a few hundred feet in every direction. Rows and rows of stripped logs ran the length of several thin dirt roads, a thin assortment of battered yellow bulldozers and small cranes for loading the lumber for transport. For the moment all was quiet, save for the howling wind. The lumber yard seemed abandoned, to a passing glance.

"You sure they're down there?" Chancer asked, eyes scanning the lumber yard below.

"Hamish isn't stupid, this is his clearest way out. He made a beeline the only area in miles with plenty of places to hide, and connection to roads. He'd just be running deeper into the woods otherwise. He's here."

"Which means the Wraiths are here."

Redcliffe took a deep breath, rolling the ache out of his shoulders as he scanned over the sprawling masses of piled logs.

"Yep."

"And we're just gonna walk down there into the middle of it?" Chancer asked, tightening her vest.

"Yep."

Chancer merely shrugged, as they both started the swift descent down from the ridge into the flattened area, beelining for the nearest cover in a shallow ditch by the roadside. Both agents took a knee behind the lip of the ditch in tandem, sweeping the area for any sign of movement that may have presented itself since their initial overlook. Still, nothing. Redcliffe had learned to trust the instinct buried deep in the pit of his stomach long ago; the instinct that told him they weren't alone here, and more likely than not that they hadn't gone unnoticed.

Standing from his position kneeling ankle deep in the muddy water that had collected in the bottom of the ditch, a quick hand motion from Chancer saw them both breaking away to flank either side of a parked bulldozer. Scanning the ground, Redcliffe could see the imprints of many boots in the dirt, weaving paths this way and that, but there was no telling which ones were fresh, which ones could possibly belong to Hamish if he'd passed through this way. His hopes of tracking the Wraiths were even slimmer.

"Clear," he muttered quietly into his comms, rifle stock held against his shoulder, finger hovering over the trigger, "Moving forward on your two o'clock."

"-Copy,-" he heard Chancer's quick reply.

He moved forward quickly, darting to a position mostly covered by the thick tracks of a bulldozer that lay nearby, still and silent. It was only a few moments after he gave the all-clear that he heard the faint crunching of Chancer's boots behind him, sensing her pressed into cover and covering his back as they made their way deeper and deeper into the lumber yard.

"Check the cabins of the trucks," Redcliffe whispered into his comms, "any signs of forced entry. Hamish is going to want to hole up somewhere and find a radio. If the Wraiths haven't found him yet, that's where he'll be."

"-On it,-" Chancer muttered.

Redcliffe saw her out of the corner of his eye, swinging up and checking the door of the bulldozer they were crouched behind. He kept his rifle trained into the gloom as she scanned through the mostly-glass walls of the cabin, changing her angle slightly to check over every nook and cranny she could see.

"-Clear.-"

"Big Rig up ahead," Redcliffe called out over the comms, his voice lost in the rain but carrying clear over the radio, "I'm moving up, keep me covered."

He crossed a thin section of dirt road between the loosely organised stacks of logs, dropping to cover beside the detached trailer of the large truck parked close by. It was empty, aside from the heavy chains that lay spooled over the top, and with a quick glance at the nearby crane he assumed that this was how lumber was transported out from the yard. Slowly, ears open, he crept towards the cabin of the truck with his gun raised. His eyes scanned the side of the cabin, noting the small smear of mud along the step leading up from the ground. As he watched, the last traces were slowly stripped away by the rain. Someone had passed here recently, very recently.