The team spread out in pairs calling Clint’s name in a frantic attempt to find him before the timeshift. Jake and Lexi sprinted toward the lake; Finn and Tyler jogged through the bush south of the camp. Riley and Owen checked the work shed. Whether or not Clint had grabbed the tools he wanted before disappearing was impossible to tell—tools and miscellaneous parts were strewn about like debris after a tornado. Riley sprinted out of the work shed and across the camp, intending to follow Clint’s hunting path east into the forest. She heard Owen call her name and she turned to see him zipping northward on the rocky ledge away from the camp.
Owen flew across the rocky floor on his floating crutch platform, leaning as far forward as gravity would allow before losing his balance. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Riley on his heels.
Riley gained on Owen as he sped over the rocky surface, the small stones and dips in the rolling, rocky surface inconsequential as he flew effortlessly over them. Riley watched her every footstep carefully, aware that a broken ankle now would throw a serious wrench into everything. She steered clear of the steep cliff to her left with the jagged rocks below and hugged the treeline to her far right where the rocky floor met thick forest. Ahead of her, she saw Owen stop and step off his crutch platform—his progress halted by a three foot step-up in the stony surface. As she approached him, he pointed ahead. She saw someone sitting on one of the rocks in the distance. Without hesitation, she leaped up the ledge and charged forward. She called Jake on the com-sys and gave him a status report and location.
“Copy that. On our way,” said Jake.
Riley ripped ahead of Owen toward Clint, dodging the maze of boulders in her path. As she approached, she saw him sitting on a rock, only a few dangerous steps away from the ledge. His bound limbs flailed in front of him as he desperately tried to communicate something to Riley through the duct tape covering his mouth. He wobbled dangerously atop the rock, his exaggerated arm and head movements rocking him perilously on the stone seat.
“Clint, what the hell? Who did this to you?” As she approached him, his eyes bulged as he jerked his head around trying to communicate something. She reached out to pull the piece of tape from his mouth and heard Owen shout her name from behind.
As Riley had sped toward Clint, Owen abandoned the crutch device, too heavy to lift up the ledge with a bad knee. He pulled himself up the ledge and hobble-hopped toward them. He approached as quickly as his throbbing knee would allow him. He turned to look over his shoulder to see if anyone was coming and his bad knee collided with a large boulder. He collapsed to the ground as electrocuting pain shot from his knee in every direction, down into his foot, up his leg, his back and up the back of his skull. He gritted his teeth through the pain and pulled himself up using the boulder. He saw Clint and Riley, then something that turned his stomach. A man wearing a familiar black backpack was crouching behind a large rock beside Clint, hidden from Riley’s view. As he called out to warn her, the man lunged at her just as she reached out to remove the tape covering Clint’s mouth.
Owen watched in horror as the man grabbed at Riley. With lightning speed, she spun, simultaneously grabbing a handful of his hair and the hand he had on her shoulder, she threw him to the ground. The man looked up at her and a crazed smile grew on his face. Owen presumed she recognized the man as she froze in surprise after seeing his face. She paid for her moment’s hesitation when he swept her feet out from under her. He grabbed her around the neck, yanked her to her feet and pressed a gun to her temple.