The Disappearance of Taylor

Chapter 9

"I see the others up ahead!" Alyssa cried when they all saw Danny and Max coming toward them through the forest.

"Cole! Merrick! Alyssa!" Max called when they got close. They all met together and embraced each other.

"How's everyone been doing?" Danny asked.

"Fine," Merrick responded. Cole nodded in agreement and so did Alyssa, but her face gave away more than anything.

"Any luck?" Cole sighed.

"Not a trace," Danny said sadly.

"We'll find Taylor soon, I hope," Cole exclaimed as the five Rangers began walking in the direction they had agreed to head toward.

Alyssa was silent as the group continued on. The rest of the Rangers scoured the ground, looking for clues as to where Taylor might be.

"Look!" Max yelled when he spotted something gold and weirdly-shaped lying in the grass. Cole bent down and slowly picked it up and the moment his hand touched it, he knew what it was.

"It's Taylor's growl phone!" Max was getting jubilant. "We must be on the right path!"

Alyssa took the growl phone from Cole and turned it over gently in her hands.

"There could be more things along the way if we-" Cole began, but then stopped as Alyssa suddenly let out a shriek and dropped the growl phone. Cole quickly retrieved the clue and looked strangely at Alyssa. "Why did you just do that?"

Alyssa started to breathe faster as she pointed at the growl phone in Cole's hand. "Look...on...the back."

Cole turned the growl phone over and what greeted him startled him. A bunch of worlds and letters- a message -was printed on the back in bold, black letters. Cole looked closely at it and began to read it aloud.

"This is weird. It says, 'Don't get so excited about finding your precious yellow ranger. I sent another org to track her and destroy her. I am sure he will do his job. Worst wishes, Master Org.' This is- I can't believe this is happening." He deposited it into his pack.

"We still might be on the right track though," Alyssa told him, placing a hand on his shoulder and trying to comfort him even though on the inside, she was more scared than him. "I'm sure we'll find her soon."

"You don't understand." Cole looked at each of his friends and took a deep breath.

It's finally time to tell them, he thought. He took another deep breath. "Guys, there's something I need to tell you."

Cole felt four pairs of eyes on him as Max said, "Go on."

Here goes. "So, before this whole thing began, I had, well, been a little bit in love with Taylor. That's why I wanted to find her so much, even though I wasn't crying my eyes out." He looked at Alyssa, who was flushing red, then back at all of them. "And... I'm afraid that if we do find her eventually, she might be... gone."

The Rangers were silent as they started off again. They traveled for several more hours without speaking, but no more clues or Taylor herself turned up, until it started to get dark.

"Can someone please get out a flashlight?" Alyssa complained. "I can't see a thing right now."

Cole reached into his backpack and produced a large, blue flashlight, which he then clicked on. The light shined brighter into the forest than he thought. The group sighed in relief as they continued on. Alyssa soon gained control of the flashlight and shined it along the ground as they walked.

Suddenly, she froze, with the flashlight still lighting up the ground in front of her. Cole nudged her gently, but she didn't move. Her face was a mask of horror.

"What's wrong this time?" He sighed and followed Alyssa's eyes to where they now rested. Cole's eyes grew wide as he saw what Alyssa was looking at.

A dark spot of red, spread across the ground. Alyssa's eyes traveled farther across the forest and she dropped the flashlight. Cole picked it up again and shined it to where she had been looking. He gasped in horror.

A piece of yellow fabric covered in a red substance. Right beside it, a still blonde-haired girl laying in the dirt. A yellow jacket with an eagle head stitched into it covered her, stained half-red with blood.