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Scene #45
No way around it, he was lost. It was time to stop and consider his
options. Colin Campbell rested against a tree as he tried to catch
his breath and get his bearings. Twenty minutes since he left the
road and entered the forest. In hindsight it had been an extremely
dumb move heading off-road, but by cutting through the trees and
underbrush he'd hoped to shorten the distance to the cabin and make
it more difficult for them to track his movements. In theory
it was a sound plan. But somehow he'd miscalculated. He should have
reached the cabin by now. He had no idea if he'd already passed it
or if it was still ahead somewhere in the dark. There was nothing
as far as he could see but pine trees and boulders. Colin
slammed his fist against the tree. He was lost and it was starting
to get cold. Too damn cold to be wearing jeans, a T-shirt and wind
breaker. He had currently in his possession two sticks of stale
wintergreen gum and a flashlight with low batteries. Not exactly
winter survival gear. He blew into his hands trying to warm
them as he looked around for a high spot. If he got high enough he
might recognize a landmark. What a mess his life had become.
If he had only played it smart, but no he'd been too arrogant, too
busy trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to worry
about getting caught. He started up the steep embankment. So
far no sign of a tail; it didn't mean they weren't somewhere close
by, but then again how would he know, he was a research scientist
not a gun toting action figure. How much time did he have to
find reinforcements? How long could he stay alive? If he could just
get his bearings, make it to the cabin and find his sister Katlin.
He needed Katlin and more importantly he needed Ryker - a fully
qualified gun toting action figure. They were his only chance out
of this mess. But both of them had disappeared. Katlin's cell phone
went straight to voice mail and Ryker's office was closed. The two
people he needed to help him survive had dropped off the face of
the earth. He had one place left to look - Rebecca's cabin.
Rebecca Evans, Ryker's gorgeous but deadly partner. Colin could
imagine the expression on Rebecca's face when she found him
pounding on her door in the middle of the night. He was probably
the last person she expected or wanted to see. Each time they met
Rebecca made it blatantly clear he annoyed the hell out of her.
Their personalities seem to clash like oil and water. He
climbed a large boulder, his muscles bunching with the effort, his
fingers frozen and barely able to feel the surface of the rock.
Pulling himself to the top, he looked around and realized he was no
closer to figuring out where he was. Lake Tahoe spread before
him. God it was beautiful. Surrounded by tall white peeks;
mountains carpeted in a thick layer of dark trees. The full moon
slid out of a curtain of storm clouds and the lake suddenly lit up.
It became a massive ink black mirror; its calm surface reflecting
the distant lights of the casinos on the south end of the lake. And
the stars - in the clean mountain air they seemed impossibly close
and bright. Nature at it's most grand. But none of this
distant beauty helped him find his path through the trees. Although
a thousand lights sparkled around the lake, there was not one
visible light in the dense trees around him. Colin cursed
Rebecca's taste for isolation; most of the land around her cabin
was national forest and what neighbors she did have were mostly
seasonal. If there were any lights close by they were somehow
swallowed up in the mountain landscape. With a sigh, Colin
closed his eyes and cleared his mind, if one kind of light was of
no help then try another. He took a deep breath and dove into tide
of energy around him. Far-sensing was not one of his strongest
Talents, but all of the living things around him gave off a warm
glow in his minds-eye. He turned slowly in a circle while looking
for the bright flare of a talented mind. The chance of finding more
than one talent in this deserted stretch of mountain was
non-existent, if he spotted someone it had to be Rebecca. He
only hoped that she wasn't guarding herself against detection, as
he had been until he became lost. Now with his defensive wall
dropped any decent Tracer on his trail would know exactly where he
was. Nothing, he couldn't sense anything. It wasn't working.
He was too damn tired and hungry to mentally focus; a pretty
pathetic state for a Talent of his caliber. He was a proud
member of a hidden subculture trained from childhood to manipulate
energy. Even within the subculture Colin was special - the son of a
Rogue, he was one of the few talents with multiple abilities. But
as strong as his mind was it was always affected by his physical
state. He tried to ignore his growling stomach and cold limbs
as he took a deep breath and tried again, forcing more energy into
his search. Seconds and then minutes ticked by, he almost
given up hope when suddenly he sensed a presence, strong and clear,
almost directly back the way he had come. Now at least he had a
direction. Huge white snow flakes swirled around his
head, he ran a hand through his short red hair, and wished for the
hundredth time he was back home; back in Arizona and eighty degree
weather. Yesterday they had forced him out of the state and on a
grueling seventeen hour drive into the Sierra Mountains in search
of his sister.
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