Page 2 of Searching for Bristol
No one would find her where she was, that was certain. She’d have to find a way to block out the pain and get herself back to the trail. She hadn’t gone too far off it while tracking whatever animal had made the noise. If she could get to the trail, it would be much easier to move. She could eventually get back to the trailhead and someone would come by. This was a fairly popular hiking destination.
It took two hours to get her tent and everything else back into her pack, and for Bristol to be ready to start moving. She’d given herself a pep talk and re-did the bandage around her leg to immobilize it—which she knew she’d done a shit job of, but was trying to pretend otherwise. Her backpack was on her shoulders and she was ready to move once more.
Deciding that maybe it would hurt her leg less if she got on her belly and crawled that way, Bristol took a deep breath and turned over. Black spots swam in front of her eyes as she turned. Panting, she rested her forehead on the dirt under her.
“Shit. Fuck,” she muttered as the world seemed to spin. Tears formed in her eyes, but she forced them back. “Suck it up,” she said out loud. “You got yourself into this, and you’re going to have to get yourself out.”
Lifting her chin, she eyed the landscape in front of her. She was going to have to go east, around the cliff, then turn south and hopefully catch the trail. She had no idea how wide the cliff was, or how far she’d have to crawl to get back around to the trail, but ultimately the distance didn’t matter. She didn’t have a choice. She’d waited around for three nights hoping someone would come looking for her, but after hearing hide nor hair of anyone, she couldn’t sit there any longer.
Inch by inch, Bristol began to crawl. Every foot seemed like a mile. Rocks dug into her forearms and hands, and her leg throbbed badly enough that she’d stopped to dry heave—since her belly was empty—twice. But she kept going. She did her best to throw rocks and branches out of her way so her leg wouldn’t bounce over them, but the rough terrain she was dragging herself through was brutal.
After what seemed like hours, Bristol looked behind her to see how far she’d gone—and immediately wished she hadn’t. The trees were thick, but she could just see where she’d spent the last three nights in the distance.
The urge to give up was strong. She wanted to blame the situation she was in on Mike, for being a horny bastard, but the reality was, she’d been the stupid one to go off trail. She’d been determined to see the overlook that had been their original destination, instead of immediately heading back to the trailhead and catching a ride to Fallport.
Taking a deep breath, Bristol clenched her teeth and began to crawl once more. She could do this. She literally had no other choice.
* * *
Cohen “Rocky” Watson walked quickly along the Falling Water Trail. There had been no other cars at the trailhead when he’d arrived, which was unusual for this time of year.
He still wasn’t convinced the supposedly “missing person” he was searching for hadn’t just forgotten her promise to visit Sandra Hain, the woman who owned the Sunny Side Up diner in town. People did that kind of thing all the time. Promised something, then simply forgot, not understanding how much the other person was counting on them.
But Sandra thought otherwise. She’d begged Rocky to go looking for Bristol Wingham, the tourist she’d befriended.
Rocky had no idea why Sandra had gotten so attached. She was notoriously picky about who she accepted and who she didn’t, like most people who lived in the small town of Fallport. Regardless, Sandra and this Bristol person had obviously clicked, and Rocky hadn’t had the heart to turn down Sandra’s plea to at least check the trail to see if the woman was in trouble.
He’d left after eating breakfast at the diner, going back to his apartment to grab his go-pack he always had ready for search and rescue missions, and to change into appropriate hiking gear. He hadn’t bothered to call Raiden, the other member of the Eagle Point SAR team who was in town at the moment.
The others had all gone with Zeke, Elsie, and her son, Tony, to the Eagle Point Lookout tower.
Rocky smiled to himself, knowing all about the surprise that awaited Elsie when they got there. She wasn’t much of an outdoors girl, and Zeke had wanted to make her as comfortable as possible at the tower, so he’d hiked the ten miles ahead of time and outfitted it with a blowup mattress, sheets, a comforter. Rocky was pretty sure he’d brought flowers as well.
He was thrilled for his friend. Rocky genuinely liked Elsie and her son. Tony was a good kid who was starved for positive male attention. He understood a little about what the nine-year-old was feeling, as his own father had died and he’d been raised by his mother. But his situation was a bit different, since he’d had his twin, Ethan, and their sister, for company growing up.
Rocky scowled when he thought about what Tony’s biological father had done to his own child. The scheme to kill him and collect life insurance after his death. What a fucking bastard.
He wasn’t sure he wanted children himself, but if he ever did, he’d protect them with his life. There was too much evil in the world already, making it too easy for kids to be hurt or corrupted. He’d seen it with his own eyes through his former job as a Navy SEAL.
He’d gotten out of the Navy the same time as his brother, because he couldn’t imagine not being close to Ethan. He didn’t miss it; he’d become disillusioned with the bureaucracy that came with the military. Moving to Fallport and finding people who got lost in the Appalachian Mountains was much less dangerous than what he used to do, but no less fulfilling.
The morning was beautiful, nice and warm, and while hiking would become miserable because of the heat in the afternoon, Rocky couldn’t complain at the moment. He adjusted his pack on his back—it was light compared to the loads he used to carry as a SEAL—and continued up the trail.
He’d been walking for about six miles when something caught his attention. A couple miles back, he’d seen evidence of a campsite. It was in an unauthorized area…not a place set up for camping. Rocky had been irked, but not exactly surprised. He used to be shocked when they found trash on the trail—poopy diapers, empty bottles and cans, even random items of clothing—but it was hard to surprise him anymore. Plenty of people were lazy, entitled, and didn’t care about anything but themselves. Certainly not others who might come along the trail behind them, not the animals who might get hurt by eating the trash that was left behind, and definitely not whoever picked up whatever junk was left in their wake.
So seeing that someone had camped in an area that wasn’t designated for it wasn’t all that surprising. Rocky figured the foursome Sandra had told him about had probably camped there for the night, before heading back to the trailhead and heading home to Kingsport, Tennessee. But because it was such a nice day, and because he couldn’t be certain that was their site, he’d decided to keep going to the overlook, the group’s original destination. It was only another four miles or so.
But two miles later, as he stood in the middle of the trail, Rocky frowned at the trampled weeds leading into the woods to his left. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was a trail left by a person.
Arecenttrail.
And just like that, his adrenaline kicked in. All thoughts of the easygoing hike he’d been on disappeared.
“It’s probably nothing,” Rocky muttered to himself. “Tons of people have been on this trail. Who knows how many have wandered off?”
But how recently? The trail he was looking at was maybe a few days old.
Cautiously, he stepped off the well-worn and marked hiking path to follow the trail that led into the woods. Rocky was well aware that there was a large drop-off not too far from the path. There was an outcropping of rocks that went on for half a mile or so, and every now and then, someone tumbled over the edge. It was possible to survive a fall from the cliff, as it wasn’t more than thirty feet down, but the potential injuries one sustained could be serious. He and his team had rescued two people who’d fallen in the past, and Rocky expected they’d have more in the future.
