The Rescue - Nicholas Sparks [14]
“But if we tell him that we’ve been looking for him, that his mom is worried?”
She shook her head, a wave of nausea sweeping through her. “He won’t answer.”
How many times had she said these words before? How many times had it simply been an explanation? How many times had it really meant nothing when compared with something like this?
Neither man said anything. Drawing a ragged breath, Denise went on. “Kyle doesn’t talk very well, just a few words here and there. He . . . he can’t understand language for some reason . . . that’s why we were at Duke today.”
She turned from one man to the other, making sure they understood. “You’ll have to find him. Simply shouting for him won’t do any good. He won’t understand what you’re saying. He won’t answer . . . he can’t. You’ll have to find him. . . .”
Why him? Of all the children, why did this have to happen to Kyle?
Unable to say anything else, Denise started to sob.
With that, Taylor put his hand on her shoulder as he’d done earlier.
“We’ll find him, Miss Holton,” he said with quiet forcefulness. “We’ll find him.”
Five minutes later, as Taylor and the others were mapping out the search pattern, four more men arrived to help. It was all that Edenton could spare. Lightning had sparked three major fires, there had been four auto accidents in the last twenty minutes—two with serious injuries—and downed power lines were still a hazard. Calls were flooding in to police and fire departments at a furious pace—every one was logged by priority, and unless a life was in immediate jeopardy, they were informed that nothing could be done right away.
A lost child took priority over nearly everything.
The first step was to park the cars and trucks as close to the edge of the swamp as possible. They were left idling, headlights set on high beams, about fifteen yards apart. Not only would they provide extra light necessary for the immediate search, but they would also serve as a beacon in case one of the searchers got disoriented.
Flashlights and walkie-talkies were handed out along with extra batteries. Eleven men (including the trucker, who wanted to help) would be involved, and the search would start from where Taylor found the blanket. From there they would fan out in three directions—south, east, and west. East and west paralleled the highway; south was the last direction Kyle had appeared to be headed. It was decided that one man would stay behind, near the highway and the trucks, on the off chance that Kyle would see the headlights and return on his own. He would send a flare up every hour on the hour, so that the men would know exactly where they were.
After Sergeant Huddle had given them a brief description of Kyle and what he was wearing, Taylor spoke. He, along with a couple of the other men, had hunted in the swamp before and laid out what they were up against.
Here, on the outer fringes of the swamp near the highway, the searchers were told that the ground was always damp but not usually underwater. It wasn’t until half a mile farther into the swamp that water formed shallow lakes above the ground. Mud was a real danger, though; it closed in around the foot and leg, sometimes holding it like a vise, making it difficult for an adult to escape, let alone a child. Tonight the water was already half an inch deep near the highway and would only get worse as the storm wore on. Mud pockets combined with rising water would make for a deadly combination. The men grimly agreed. They would proceed with caution.
On the plus side, if there was one, none of them imagined that Kyle could have gotten far. Trees and vines made the going rough, hopefully limiting the distance he might have traveled. A mile, maybe, definitely less than two miles. He was still close, and the sooner they got started, the better chance they would have.
“But,” Taylor went on, “according to the mother, it turns out that the boy probably won’t answer if we call him. Look for any physical sign of him—you don’t want to walk right by him. She made it very clear that we shouldn’t depend on him answering us.”