What Used to be Arkansas Chapter 5

with audio

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Axel shoved his shoulders back and barked out his orders. “Fan out. Search every blade of grass, the smallest pool of water. We have to find him before—” His voice cracked. “We have to find him.”

His gaze glued to the ground, Axel walked through the grasses that overspread the lowlands. He and the search team splashed across marshy ground and large puddles. When they came to one body of water the size of a small pond, a teen swam across but found nothing.

Axel put a hand to his forehead, shading his eyes. He searched the visible part of the river for any movement. There was none.

Still, his head buzzed with worry. Alvie must be down here—somewhere.

They couldn’t lose this boy. He meant so much to Ginny. He glanced at the girl and caught her swiping an escaping tear.

No, Big Red. You won’t take one of us today.

He hoped—prayed—it was true.

The river was bad enough. The monster within— worse.

Wolf walked beside him. He glanced from his friend to the river. “Axel . . . ”

“It’s not there. It’s somewhere else—wherever it goes when we don’t see it.” He kept his voice quiet so Ginny, who trailed behind them, wouldn’t hear.

Wolf closed his eyes for just a moment and took a deep breath. “I hope so.”

A shout from the line of searchers making its way across the lowlands captured their attention.

“Here! More prints here.” A boy waved his arm and pointed to the ground.

Wolf and Axel sprinted over and stared at the ground. The boy pointed at the outline of not one, but two small footprints.

“See it?” the young teen asked.

Wolf’s mouth twisted as if trying to hide his amusement. The prints were clear as day. No one would’ve missed them.

“I do,” Wolf said. “Good catch.”

The young teen’s chest puffed at the praise.

Axel examined the marks in the mud. “Are they his?”

“They are from the same person as the print in the village. See how the right big toe twists a little toward the toe beside it.” Wolf said from where he crouched, inspecting them. “Since they are the same, I’d say they are most likely Alvie’s.”

He stood and squinted as if seeing a path. “He’s heading for the river.” Wolf swung his arm from the village behind them to the water in front, revealing the vaguest of paths. “There is a bit of high ground through here. He’s following it.”

“Why didn’t he just take the regular path?” A girl asked.

“Who knows how the mind of a kid that young works.” Wolf shrugged. “But I’m glad he didn’t. I doubt there would’ve been a print anywhere on that packed ground.”

“We’d better concentrate the search in this area then,” Axel said.

“I would.”

“Okay.” Axel turned to address the entire group. “Let’s move closer together. Keep your eyes peeled.”

The group walked the drier ground Wolf had pointed out. But, other than bent grass or a broken twig, found nothing. But it was enough for Wolf.

Axel’s friend looked ahead with an eagerness he hadn’t had before, and more than once, quickened his pace on the winding trail. Wolf’s behavior would’ve encouraged Axel—if he hadn’t still been making a beeline for the Red.

As they made a last turn, the view of the entire river opened up to them.

Axel held his breath. Beside him, Ginny became stiff as a board and still—so very still. Her fear flowed his way, overtaking him.

His eyes darted from the far side of the river and back again. He glanced to the right and the left.

Axel wished he were higher. He wished the entire length of the river was visible, not just the bit he could see from here.

Alvie might be along the shore—or he might be long gone, somewhere downriver.

Ginny whispered to herself. “I don’t see him. I don’t see him anywhere. Is that good? Or bad?”

Axel turned toward her. “It’s good, Ginny. It’s hope.”

She bit her lips closed and nodded, but despair still haunted her eyes.

He grabbed her hand. “Come on. Let’s go and find him.”

She let Axel take her hand, something out of the ordinary for her. More than that, she wrapped her fingers around his, clinging to him.

Everyone ran the few yards to the river’s edge, except Wolf. Instead, he took the same slow, deliberate steps he had all along as he stared at the ground. Every so often, he bent for a closer inspection.

Eventually, he caught up with them. “We should split into two groups—one go right and one left.”

Axel agreed. He pointed up at the lookout. From here, Sasha and Markie seemed small, but they had put up the signal.

It was a simple warning system for the monster. A cloth on a stick. They used a large piece of material so a canoe full of people fishing would spot it. If anyone needed to know the position of a river monster, it was them.

Green meant no monster. Red meant the monster swam in their waters.

Axel gave a sigh of relief. It was green.

A bit more of Axel’s anxiety drifted away.

From the riverbank, much more of the Red was visible. To the right, two canoes, each holding two of their village mates, had fishing lines in the water. If they noticed Axel’s group on the shore, they gave no sign of it.

A sound came from Wolf—something like a deep groan mixed with a heavy sigh. Axel couldn’t really describe it, but he knew what it meant—not good. He tensed as he turned and looked at his friend.

Squinting, Wolf stared downriver toward a large clump of trees growing out of the water.

They’d explored those trees before. There wasn’t enough of it to be called an island. Just a few bits of earth barely above the water—only enough for the trees and a few clumps of grass. That was all.

“What is it?” Axel asked.

Wolf said nothing, but Axel watched as his friend’s naturally tanned skin turned paler than he’d ever seen it. His gaze darted from Wolf to the trees and back again.

“What is it? There’s nothing there.”

“He’s there.”

Two simple words yet they meant so much. They crept under Axel’s skin and stayed there, pricking him. This is what he had feared all along.