Page 28 of South of Nowhere

“And enjoy the flight,” Sonja said. “What the flight attendants tell you before you take off. Like what else is there to do?”

George gave a faint laugh, and squeezed his wife’s hand. He had no idea if the children smiled. They gave no verbal reaction.

Was that the last time the two of them would laugh together?

He reached for the seat control to recline it, so he could lie back some.

But then thought: Spark.

The gasoline fumes were stronger now. Wouldtheykill the family before the lack of oxygen? They had to be poisonous.

Again a fierce burst of panic.

Travis gagged, then it stopped.

“Son.”

“That smell.”

Sit back…

In the silence he closed his eyes, then opened them. The blackness was actually more intense with his eyes open. When they were shut, phantom light bursts wandered in his vision, which was oddly comforting.

Relax…

He had a thought.

So this is what it’s like to be in a coffin.

He didn’t share those words with anyone, of course, but he allowed himself a faint manic smile.

And enjoy the flight…

11.

Shaw was driving quickly, but not motocross fast.

A decision dictated by the slick surface of Route 13, south of Hinowah.

Tomas Martinez, HFD chief and town council chairman, was ten miles south and heading north toward him, on the way to the geotagged spot; Shaw’s drone and float had spotted something.

The camera offered only a vague image of a discoloration in the water, which he hoped might be the roof of a vehicle otherwise embraced by the mud of the riverbed. The radar, similarly, showed nothing beyond a shape.

Had the family escaped? Were they currently hiking through the woods or even along the shoulder of 13 somewhere for him soon to see, drenched and exhausted, waving him down?

Martinez had discovered nothing on his search so far; he had had to rely on his eyes and ears and much of the Never Summer was hidden by trees and brambles and its course created a constant rush of noise that would obscure all but the loudest shouts.

And what of his calculation about oxygen?

From what he’d seen on the drone images, the vehicle might have been sealed in mud up to a point, but above that, water would leak in.

Had they drowned or suffocated?

Both would be hard ways to die, but suffocation was slower and accompanied by the agony of CO2poisoning.

He put those thoughts aside and continued the drive. He was one mile out from the geotagged spot.

He reflected on Dorion’s decision to pull off the other searchers and rely on Shaw’s drone-floatie system, alongside Martinez’s physical search.

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