Flashpoint, page 18
part #8 of Commitment Series
Given the blood at the site, the drag marks at the river's edge and the torn and bloody condition of the life jacket, Billie's disoriented mind settled on the last possibility. How else could such a large blood stain have occurred? How else could the life jacket have been torn? How else could Tara have disappeared without a trace? Billie was convinced it was the bear. The bear that had been growling at her for invading its feeding grounds. Tara had encountered the bear, and the bear had emerged victorious.
Billie was distraught with grief. She slid to the ground from the rock she sat on, and weakened by her head injury and emotional state, she fell into unconsciousness.
***
The midday sun was directly overhead and the intensity of heat it cast was nearly unbearable. Combined with the throbbing in Cat's foot still trapped below the tree limb, Cat was miserable. She eyed the pile of branches from the makeshift shelter that Seth had thrown off them that morning. She tried desperately to reach the branch, intending to use it to shield herself from the sun. She strained to reach as far as possible, but her fingertips fell just short of their destination.
"Ah!" Cat screamed in frustration. She strained to reach once more, only to pull a muscle in her side in the process.
Cat curled into a ball to protect her injured side and began to weep and pray. "God, please don't let me die here. Please!" She summoned her remaining strength to try reaching the branch again.
"If I could just reach an inch further," she growled while stretching her arm forward as far as she could. Still, her fingers fell just short of her target. "God damn it!" she screamed and in anger as she lunged her body forward in one final effort to reach the branch.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Cat finally reached the branch, but in the process snapped the tibia in the leg lodged under the tree. Waves of searing pain radiated up her leg and into her hip and she fought to retain the contents of her stomach, to no avail. She retched for several moments before she finally regained control and raised herself into a sitting position.
"Oh, my God!" Cat grabbed her injured leg with both hands and tried her best to stabilize the break in order to minimize the pain. "Seth, where are you? Please come back. Please!" She looked around desperately for any sign of her son.
Cat located two small branches within her reach to use as a splint. She inhaled deeply and then used her trapped foot as an anchor point in order to shift her body to manually align the two halves of her leg bone. She screamed loudly against the pain throughout the process, and stopped only after the alignment was complete. Then, she placed the branches on both sides of her leg and tied them tightly around the limb using strips of cloth she had ripped from her T-shirt.
By the time she finished splinting her leg, Cat's hair, face and neck were drenched in sweat. She felt light headed and physically weak and she forced herself to lie down and to remain as still as possible to avoid jarring her broken leg.
Cat lay there helpless, parched and dehydrated. Her mind started to wander. Billie, did I tell you I loved you before we parted yesterday? I can't remember! I love you so much. I'm so sorry! Please don't let me die. There is so much I want to do. My kids need me. Billie, take care of the kids. I'm so sorry. I'm...
Finally, the pain was too much to bear and Cat's defenses shut down as she drifted into unconsciousness.
***
"Hey! Hey! Over here!" Seth waved his arms frantically above his head. "Over here!"
"Stay where you are!" one firefighter called out to Seth. "We'll come to you."
For what seemed like an eternity, Seth stood and watched four firefighters make their way toward him from the top of a burned-out knoll. "Hurry!" he shouted. "My mom needs help!"
It took a full fifteen minutes for the firefighters to reach him. The first thing they did was to provide him with drinking water and then to look him over carefully for injuries. Considering his bare-chested, soot-covered appearance, they insisted on a quick physical examination.
Seth brushed off their attempts to examine him and insisted that aside from the cut on his palm and the smoky air he had inhaled, he was fine. "Look! I'm fine. It's my mom that needs help. She's stuck under a fallen tree limb," he explained quickly.
"Whoa. Slow down there," one of the firefighters instructed. "First, we need to know who you are," he stated.
"Seth Charland. I was hiking with my mom, Cat...I mean Caitlain, when the wildfires trapped us. We were looking for a way out of the forest when a strong gust of wind knocked a burned-out limb from the treetops. It hit my mom and trapped her leg beneath it," he explained.
"How long ago was this?" the firefighter asked.
"Sometime yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, I think," Seth replied impatiently. "She's still trapped. We need to find her," he insisted.
"Was she alive when you last saw her?"
"Well of course she was alive!" Seth shouted.
"All right. Calm down," the firefighter said soothingly. "Do you think you can find your way back to where you left her?"
Seth nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. I marked the trail. Follow me."
***
Rick Ellis made his way over several large boulders, using his walking stick as leverage. He stopped many times to recapture his breath. Having worked in an administrative capacity at the park for the past several years, he'd had little opportunity to hike and as a result, was no longer in top physical condition. Nevertheless, after the hotshots had discovered the Charland girl earlier that morning, Ranger Ellis felt a personal drive to assist in the search for the rest of her family.
Rick led his crew to the base of the waterfall that Billie and Tara had fallen over the previous day. He turned to face the men. "Since the girl was found a couple of miles downstream, we can only assume she and her mother traveled this part of the river. I need half of you to cross the river and search the other side and the other half of you to remain on this side. We will move slowly downstream. Search the water, river banks and short distance into the forest on both sides. The woman we are looking for is tall, with long, dark hair. Any questions?"
One man raised his hand. "Do you believe she may still be alive?" he asked.
Rick ran his hand through his hair. "Well, considering the condition the girl was in, we should be prepared for anything, but let's hope for the best," he replied. "Any more questions?" He looked around once more at silent faces. "Okay then. Let's go."
***
Seth led the team of firefighters into the forest in the direction from which he had come. He stopped every few yards to locate the markers he had built after running out of material from his T-shirt. Nearly an hour and a half later, they came across the last cloth marker he had left.
"Look! Over there," Seth pointed. "I left that marker about an hour after I started out for help. We're about half way there!"
The firefighters looked at each other and nodded. From the looks on their faces, it was obvious they were impressed with the forethought this young man had put into his search for help.
The firefighters were barely able to keep up with Seth as he ran from marker to marker. They called for several rest breaks as they were struggling to run through the forest in full gear. Finally, after another hour, they approached the clearing where Cat lay trapped under the tree.
"There! There she is!" Seth ran directly to Cat and threw himself onto the ground beside her. He expected to find his mother in the same condition she was in when he left, so he was shocked to find her unconscious and unresponsive. "Ma! Ma!" She shook her, but was unable to rouse her. "Ma! Wake up!" he insisted.
Seth felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hold up, son," the firefighter instructed. "Let me take a look at her."
Seth climbed to his feet and stood behind the firefighter. He looked over the man's shoulder as he tended to Cat. The other three men surveyed the site and discussed how to remove the tree from her leg.
"I need water here!" The firefighter shouted. A member of his team brought a bottle over to him. He pulled the spout on top of the bottle and drizzled water over Cat's face.
Seconds later, Cat began to moan and toss her head slowly from side to side.
"Ma!" Seth began before being silenced by the man tending to her.
"Caitlain," the man said. He softly tapped the side of her face. "Caitlain, can you hear me?" he asked.
Cat struggled to open her eyes. "Seth?" she said softly.
"I'm here Mama. I've brought help," her son replied.
"Caitlain, I need to you lie still. You've succumbed to dehydration. I'm going to lift your head and give you some water, a little at a time, okay?"
Cat drank sparingly before the firefighter gently laid her head back down. "What's your name?" she asked hoarsely.
"Jack. Jack Kilburn," he replied.
"Thank you, Jack," Cat said.
"You're welcome." He looked down at her leg. "Caitlain."
"Cat. Please, call me Cat," she interrupted.
Jack grinned. "Okay. Cat, my crew is trying to figure out how to remove the tree limb from your leg without causing further discomfort or damage. Hang in there for a few more moments, okay?" he asked.
"Well, I guess my plans for running to the store just flew out the window!" Cat tried hard to smile through the pain.
"Yep, the store can wait," Jack quipped back. "I'll be back in a moment." He went to consult with his crew.
Seth moved into the spot that Jack had just vacated and held his mother's hand.
Cat looked into her son's face and smiled through the tears that filled her eyes. "Thank you, honey. I am so proud of you," she said.
Seth just nodded, unable to speak through the emotion that had constricted his throat. He looked her over and noticed the new splint on her leg. "Ma, what happened to your leg?"
"I tried to reach a branch to put over me for shade and I snapped my tibia."
"I…I'm sorry. I should have thought to protect you from the sun before I went for help. I'm so sorry," he said sadly.
Cat grabbed Seth's hand. "Do not blame yourself, Seth. Neither of us thought ahead. Please don't blame yourself."
Just then, Jack returned. "Okay," he said. We've radioed our location to the station and they will have an ambulance standing by as soon as we carry you out of the forest. We're going to try to throw a rope over that tree limb up there and then tie the other end to the log. Once that has been done, all of us will pull on the end of the rope. Seth, when we get the log high enough to set her free, we need you to grasp her under the arms and pull her out. Then we'll release the log. Cat, you'll need to brace yourself. This will probably be pretty painful," he warned.
"It can't be much worse than it has already been," Cat replied. "Let's do this."
***
Jen picked up the phone and called the Ranger station for what seemed to be the hundredth time looking for news of her friends. As with the prior ninety-nine times, she hung up disappointed.
She returned the phone to its cradle and turned to Skylar. "Nothing yet, sweetie."
The hope on Skylar's face when Jen hung up the phone quickly faded, and she sunk dejectedly into the couch.
It broke Jen's heart that she couldn't provide more hope to the child. No news is good news, she said to herself. Who the hell made up that saying? No news is good news? Hell no! No news is NO NEWS! Geesh, what do I look like, an idiot?
Suddenly the phone rang and Jen jumped out of her skin. "Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed as she reached for the phone. "Hello?"
Jen's knees suddenly weakened and she reached forward to brace herself against the wall. "Oh, my God," she whispered into the phone. "Yes, please. Call me as soon as they get here. Thank you. Thank you so much!" she hung up the phone.
Jen turned to Skylar and opened her arms to the child. She ran into them without hesitation. "They found Mama and Seth," Jen said in a voice made shaky by emotion. "They're going to be okay!"
Skylar hugged Jen tight around the neck. "When are they coming back?" she asked.
"Soon, sweetie. Soon."
***
Rick Ellis and his men combed both sides of the river bank for two miles before coming across the location where Tara had been discovered. So far, the search had yielded nothing. Rick called a break and the men rested for a bit. Before moving on, they scanned the area, looking for clues that might assist them in finding Billie.
"Wow, there seems to be a lot of blood here," one of the men remarked.
"The girl had some pretty serious injuries," another replied.
"What are those marks? It looks like an animal has been here," a third man observed.
"I wouldn't be surprised. With human blood on the ground, it might attract some of the larger park animals," Rick replied.
"I hope whatever animal made these marks doesn't find our victim before we do!" one of the crew remarked.
"Well, let's hope we find her first," Rick rose to his feet. "Okay guys. Break is over. Let's get moving." His team spurred into action.
The crew split in half once more to scan both sides of the river and the men began to move forward in a relatively straight line. An hour later, they had covered two more miles when the river opened into a calm, shallow lagoon.
They continued their search until one of the men on the opposite shore shouted out, "There! I see something over there!"
Rick looked in the direction the man was pointing and saw something that didn't quite fit with the surrounding environment.
Soon, everyone in the crew pinpointed the target and a stampede of feet ran in that direction.
"We found her! We found her!" one of the crew members exclaimed as they descended on the body laying partially obscured by a large rock.
"Give me some room," Rick made his way to the front of the crowd. "Ethan, come with me!" The paramedic that attended to Tara moved in behind him.
Ethan broke through the crowed and knelt beside the body and immediately began taking vital signs while Rick Ellis searched her pockets for some sort of identification. Finding a slim billfold in her back pocket, he opened it.
"Billie Jean Charland," he read from her license. "We've found her."
A cheer rose up from the crowd of rescue workers as they celebrated their find.
"Ethan?" Rick asked softly as he watched the paramedic work.
"She's alive, Rick. Her pulse is strong, but judging by the lump on her head, she no doubt has a concussion. She also has similar bruises on her body that the girl had. They must have taken one hell of a ride down the river," he commented.
Just then, Billie began to stir.
"Billie? Billie, I'm Rick Ellis, and this guy beside you is Ethan. We're here to take you out of this hell," he explained.
Billie opened her eyes and stared in confusion at the men poised above her.
"Billie, can you hear me?" Ethan asked.
Billie turned her head toward the voice. "Tara?" was all she could say.
"Let's not worry about that right now, Billie. We need to get you out of here," Rick said.
Billie's eyes grew wide and she struggled to sit. "The bear. Tara. She's gone. The bear..." she repeated, near hysterics.
"Calm down, Billie. You're going to be all right. Jeff, bring the stretcher!" Ethan called over his shoulder.
With efficiency born of experience, the rescue workers strapped Billie onto the portable stretcher and they headed out of the forest.
***
"Okay, ready? One, two, three!" Jack counted as he and his men tugged on the rope that was slung over the tree.
Seth was poised behind Cat, with his hands under her arms, ready to pull her out as soon as her leg was free.
The men grunted loudly while they pulled on the rope. Loud creaks came from above as the limb which bore the weight of the fallen log cried under the load.
Cat laid on her back with her eyes closed and fought against the pain in her foot as the log began to shift.
Jack and his crew managed to take three or four steps backward before the log was high enough to free Cat.
"Okay, Seth. Pull her out!" Jack yelled.
Seth quickly lifted his mother from beneath her arms and pulled her several feet away. Cat screamed out in pain as her injured leg bounced along the ground while Seth pulled.
"She's free!" Seth yelled and signaled to the firefighters that it was okay to release the log.
"Okay, guys, slowly move back." Jack and his team stepped forward three paces and lowered the log to the ground before releasing the rope.
"Phew!" Jack exclaimed. He walked toward Seth and Cat. "That was harder than I thought it would be!"
"Jack! Watch out!" One of the men in the crew suddenly screamed as a deafening crack exploded above them.
"Wha...?" Jack looked up just in time to see the limb they had used for leverage come crashing down on top of him.
"Jack! Jack!" Seth watched the limb make violent contact with their rescuer.
Cat looked on in horror.
Within seconds, Seth and Jack's entire crew were pushing on the limb, trying desperately to move it.
"Come on! Move!" shouted Seth. Angry frustration clearly filled his voice.
From Cat's vantage point, she could see the lifeless body of Jack trapped under the limb. She pulled her professional mask over her features and called out for them to stop as she struggled to crawl over to Jack.
The firefighters looked at her questioningly and continued to push.
"It's okay. She's a doctor!" Seth said frantically. Immediately all activity halted.
Cat reached under the log and felt Jack's carotid artery. Several moments later, Cat bowed her head and cried.
