The Scream of the Hill

Chapter 3 - Nobody Without You

"Fanda, Fanda wake up... It is me Tomáš."

"Why, the actual f- did you wake up at 6:30 AM?" I asked him.

"Vojta did not return to his room and Richard wants to speak to us." he replied nervously.

"WHAT? HOW?" I shouted out of my lungs.

I was shocked. Vojta disappeared without any clear reason! He was not like this. He always told us if something was wrong and he was about to leave. To be honest, it was pretty strange. I got dressed and ran to the hall to join my teammates. All of us were really sleepy and worried about Vojtĕch. What could have happened to him while he had been on his way back to the hotel? Was he kidnapped? Was he robbed and went wrong? I thought of the worst things possible. We didn't know what could have happened to our friend. Richard tried to calm us down without any success. It was way too much for us. All of us were anxious and tired... or were all of us? It seemed so.

"Guys, are you all here?" Richard asked seemingly in a peaceful way.

"Yes, we are here." Lukas answered in a heartbeat.

"Okay. We have to find Vojta as soon as possible before it is too late. You all know that the first 24 hours are most critical period." Richard continued.

"Hello! Can I help you?" a voice said. It was Andreas Wank, the German ski jumper.

"Sure. We are glad that you are joining in." Roman answered. "Our teammate Vojtĕch Štursa got lost yesterday evening after a walk with Damian."

"Okay my Czech friends. Form groups of two and we are starting the search for the lost one." Andreas told us his plan.

Richard formed our groups and I got the German. You can guess how happy I was when I realised that I will have to speak German. Andreas brought a map and gave us the parts of Hinterzarten. Damian mentioned where they had walked yesterday. He mentioned the forest, the hill, the school, the gym, the train station and many others. He had a good memory. At least we knew where to start. Andreas chose the forest because he knew it really well and others would get lost easily in it. It was really nerve breaking cause we didn't know what had happened to Vojta. Maybe he had injured and he had screamed for help as his phone had been in Damian's hands. We all agreed if we know something or find Vojta, we call eachother on Viber. Also, we made the gym as a meeting point at noon. So we left for our places. In my case it was the dark forest.

"Vojta, where are you?" I shouted in hope that he is hearing it. No reply at all.

"Štursa!" Andreas also yelled but no response as well.

As we were walking in the forest, we saw something suspicious. It was a pair of feet. We came close and closer when I saw Vojta lying on the ground. I ran to it to wake him up. I thought that he was just sleeping deeply. I wanted to shake him up but Andreas stood in my way and grabbed Vojta's icecold hand. Wank touched out his pulse and shook his head.

"František, I hate to tell you but we arrived too late. Your Vojta won't wake up no matter how much we are shouting to him. He is dead. I have to send a short text to our investigator. What is Vojta's FIS code?" Andreas told me.

"I-It's 6414. W-why is this happening?" I cried.

"Thank you. I am sending this in case you are wondering. It is 5-CZE-6414" he continued as he was sending the text to a name Kornélia. "She will call us back immediately."

I stayed mute. I was crying like a little child who broke his toy. I had no strength to call Richard and the others. It was too much shock for me to see the dead Vojta. Everything was gone in a heartbeat. Someone might have attacked him. Who could do this to an innocent Czech ski jumper who had the life in front of him? He was the most ambitious one of the team. He always worked hard to reach his goals.

"František, did you call the others?" Andreas asked me and I shook my head. "Do you want me to do it for you?"

"Yes, please. I can't talk... I am not strong enough to make calls... I feel like a nobody without Vojta." I replied with tears in my eyes. "He was like a brother to me."

"I know..." Andreas commented and called Richard but he didn't answer as the others found us.

"VOJTA!" they screamed and tried to come closer to the dead boy. Andreas closed the way in front of them.

"Call the police instead!" he shouted with anger. We did it for him.

The police arrived really fast. They closed down the area. Andreas even helped his colleagues. They didn't find anything yet. The German jumper asked if his friend can solve the crime. He trusted in her more than the cops. They were okay with it and told him that she will have to turn up for the administration. At that moment, Wank got his waited call from Kornélia. She was busy with her beloved husband. They went to their car to get it back so they could come to Hinterzarten. Around this time the cops put Vojta in a huge black bag and took him to Freiburg to find the cause of his sudden death.

"OK. We will meet soon. Bye" he ended the call. "Sorry, I was a bit angrier than usual. We have arrived too late. This made me really angry. It's not you, it is me."

"No problem. Will we wait for the girl here?" Richard asked

"No. We are going to wait for her and her Polish husband at the train station. It is always our meeting point. It's been for 4 years or so" Andreas replied.

"Wait... what? Is she married?" Damian asked.

"Yes, she married to a member of the Polish B ski jumping team. I am not sure who her husband from the team is. However, I know that it is a bit strange as she is in the same age as Čestmír." Andreas gave the answer to Damian's question.

So, we followed Andreas Wank to the train station to meet his friend and her husband. It was a really long waiting. We arrived to the train station at 11 and Vojta wasn't with us anymore to tell jokes to pass the time. He was dead and we all were shocked to accept this fact. Honza, Viktor and I cried really heavily. Vojta was close to us. I was his little brother from Prague. He always joked with this. It was gone in a second. I hoped that the young lady will solve the crime soon.