Follow The Current

•25•

•Callie's POV•

The rest of the week passed by surprisingly smoothly. I had told Jarrod about what happened with Ric, and he agreed that we had to be especially careful with our next steps.

Thankfully it was Christmas break now, which meant that I didn't have to think about school for a few weeks, apart from the small amount of study I had to maintain.

Ric had gone MIA, I hadn't seen him since our little run-in last week, which wasn't too bad, but I think it made me more anxious not knowing where he was.

The snow had become a problem, it was masking surrounding scents, making it harder for our warriors to track any hunters or trespassers.

"William and Sarah found new traps in the north and north-west forrest, approximately here and here." Uncle Josh says, adding two crosses to the map in front of us.

"Why another in the north forrest?" Trent says to the group of us, "It's already the area with the most traps."

"That we've found." Alec adds from besides me. Since he was helping Uncle Josh with being Alpha, he was now attending our meetings.

Uncle Josh nods, "Exactly." He leans on the table, studying the map, "I just can't figure it out."

Everyone is silent for a little, looking at the map.

A sudden thought comes into my mind and I stand to get a better view of the map. Everyone turns their heads to watch me intently.

"What are you thinking Callie?" Uncle Josh asks.

My eyes wonder from cross to cross, "What if we're thinking about it the wrong way?"

Trent frowns, "What do you mean?"

I look at him and gesture to the map, "We're looking at this our way, the way we have mapped our territory. The hunters don't understand how we segregate our territory."

Uncle Josh rubs his stubble thoughtfully, "You might be onto something here."

"But how do we figure out how they map it?" Alec asks.

I think for a second and my eyes drift to a part of the map that I remember as clear as anything, "T3." I mummer.

"T3? What's T3?" Trent asks.

I grab a marker and write 'T3' next to the traps that Cason and Abby were caught in, "I know that these traps were in an area called T3, I heard Ric, the lead hunter, say it one time."

"So they must refer to numbers then." Uncle Josh states.

I nod and continue to study the traps, trying to pick up any pattern. I could just ask Jarrod, but I'm trying to keep him as out of all this as I can.

"We segregate our areas by cardinal and inter-cardinal directions around the town centre." I say aloud, mainly for myself. I then swivel the map around so that south is pointing towards me, making it easier to get a sense of direction.

Everyone is silent, just watching me. My eyes frantically move around the map, and land back on where I labelled T3.

It was directly to the east. I purse my lips and think, suddenly the sound of the ticking analogue clock hanging on the wall sounds in my ears, and I glance up to look at it.

"Got somewhere to be?" Alec asks, noticing me looking at the clock.

I ignore him and look back at the map, a pattern suddenly appearing to my eyes.

Taking the marker again, I circle the town centre and then branch off eleven lines from it to the outside, they perfectly glide past the marked traps.