North by North Tree-st

North By North Tree-st - Part 4

The kids are still lost, and the search continues. 
  
   "Right, it's time to extend the search!" called Ranger Kevin, as the adults gathered around him. "It's quite obvious that they're not in this area, so we need to spread out further."

   "What do we do? Where do we go?" asked Linda.

   "We think it's best to climb down the ravine, and start looking from there," said Kevin. "There is a hill we can climb down, and we can look for tracks down there, too."

   "Okay," said Bob, and he and Linda set about climbing down. It wasn't so much of a hill, as it was a very, very steep, rocky incline. Thankfully, they were able to use the large rocks as handholds, and soon enough, they had all made it down to the bottom. "Whoa, that's high," Bob looked up at the top of the ravine. "I really don't think the kids went down this way, Lin," he said honestly. "I mean, that was an effort for us to climb, and our kids aren't exactly good at that."

   "Yeah, maybe." Her eyes were fixed on the ground, "but they're somewhere! We gotta look everywhere."

   "We will," he assured her. "We'll look everywhere." Hitching his tote bag full of snacks, water, and a blanket, he started walking. His map and walkie talkie were in his pockets, while Linda was holding hers.

The rangers were carrying little medical kits, which didn't make him feel good at all, but Bob told himself that it was just a precaution. They wanted to be prepared, right? That was all it was.

He continued walking, keeping his eyes focused on the ground, hoping that he would see footprints. There had to be something, he told himself; they couldn't have vanished into thin air.

   "Do ya think they could have gone down here, Bobby?" Of course, Teddy was practically pressed to his side.

   "I don't know," he admitted. "But those rangers think so, so we might as well look, right?"

   "Yeah," Teddy adjusted his own tote. "It's too bad we can't get a car down here, or something. We'd get so much further."

   "Well, I'm sure I heard one of them say that they've got cars -"

   "Why aren't they using them, then?" Teddy growled.

   "They are," Bob couldn't refrain from sighing; he really disliked being interrupted. "There's, like, another station in the forest, maybe more, so I think they said that some of the others would be going out in the car." 

Teddy nodded, pausing to examine a discarded leafy branch.

   "The leaves are unbroken," he said, after standing. "That's what they said, didn't they? If the leaves are broken, it might be because of footprints."

   "And grass that's bent," Bob remembered. "But there's no grass here." He sighed again. "They probably did go off into the forest." Although he was very worried about his children, he couldn't stop that little twinge of annoyance. Why did they go walking? He let out a tiny groan as he realised that it was probably Louise who had lead them wandering away. He knew his daughter, he knew she meant well, but why couldn't she just listen, for once?

Now, Bob was falling into a mental rabbit hole; what if they'd gotten separated? What if one of them had tripped and hit their head or something? It was just as unlikely as it was likely to have happened, and now he couldn't stop thinking about it. "Teddy, they're okay, right? I mean, they're just walking around, aren't they?" Bob stopped and stared at the ground.

   "They're fine," came Teddy's unusually soft voice. "They're complaining, I know that," he chuckled lightly. "When we find them, they'll be the ones telling us off."