Page 97 of Turn the Tide
Beyond Home
A Florida Wildlife Warriors Novella
Connie Mann
Chapter 1
Sarah Dutton kept one eye on the angry, churning clouds, hands tight on the steering wheel as she fought the rising wind. Conducting an emergency home-health check in the middle of a storm was not how she’d envisioned her second day as a Forest Medical Center nurse. It was barely 8:00 a.m., but the landscape was already dark, tinted an ominous green.
She double-checked the map on her phone as she pulled off the pavement and onto a dirt road. The wind whipped up dust devils, and the spinning sand and dirt made it almost impossible to see where she was going. After five years in California, she’d forgotten how fast Florida storms moved in. Her aging little Mercedes coupe was absolutely the wrong vehicle for the Ocala National Forest, especially on a day like today, but she hadn’t had time to beg or borrow anything else.
When the electronic voice instructed her to turn right, she slowed too fast and almost got stuck in the sand piled up on the corner. She eased the car around the turn and found herself on an even narrower dirt track than the one she’d been on before.
She glanced at her phone, groaned at theno signalnotice, and took a deep breath. Her new coworkers had warned her this would happen. Cell signal in the Forest was always sketchy. On a day like today, even more so. She grabbed the hand-drawn map someone had given her and made sure she was still headed in the right direction.
All the while, worry churned in her gut. Everyone in the office assured her that Mama T was regular as clockwork, coming in with her grandson once a month to pick up her insulin. But she hadn’t shown up for her appointment yesterday afternoon, and Sarah hadn’t been able to reach her by phone since. After a sleepless night, she had rushed to the clinic this morning and learned that the one time Mama T had missed an appointment last year, she’d almost gone into a diabetic coma before anyone realized it.
Sarah had tucked the insulin in a padded bag and hopped in her car, determined to get to Mama T’s before the roads became impassable. When she’d first become a nurse, not taking immediate action had almost cost a patient her life. Sarah would never make that mistake again.
The road hooked a sharp left, and Sarah kept steady pressure on the gas pedal as she spotted the heavy sand up ahead. If she remembered right, the trick was to keep just enough speed to get through without sinking down into it and getting stuck.
“Come on, come on,” she muttered, heart pounding. “Please let me get through.”
She patted the dash as the car started into the turn like a champ, steadily plowing through the sand. “That’s it, Beauty. You can do it. Just a little further.”
But between one heartbeat and the next, she lost traction. The wheels started spinning, and the car began to sink. “No! Oh, please no, don’t stop!” She gave Beauty a teensy bit more gas, and that proved to be her downfall.
The tires spun faster, sand flying out from under them as the car settled down into the groove like a tired turtle.
Sarah hit the gas, hard, desperate to break free, but that only dug the car in deeper. She laid her head on the steering wheel as frustration washed over her, but then she jerked upright. No. She didn’t have time for a pity party. Mama T needed her insulin. Sarah tried to open the door and had to fight to push the sand aside so she could climb out.
Once she was free, one look at the car confirmed what she already knew. There was no way she could get it unstuck. She didn’t even have a shovel in the back, though she’d never leave home without one again.
The wind whipped her hair into her face as she surveyed the area around her. There was nothing but trees and scrub in either direction. No houses or any other buildings resembling a source of help. She shivered as she realized how alone she was.
In San Francisco, she might be by herself, but she was never truly alone.
She reached into the car and pulled out her medical bag and the hand-drawn map. It wasn’t until she reached for her windbreaker that she realized she’d left it at the clinic in her rush to leave. She scanned the eerie green sky again. She was going to be very wet before this was over.
Sarah slung her bag over her shoulder cross-body style, clutched the map in the other hand, and set off toward Mama T’s. She regularly jogged all over hilly San Francisco, so this part should be easy. As long as she didn’t miss the turnoff. “Now is not the time to be a wimp,” she told herself. “With this nasty weather, all the really scary critters will be hiding.”
She hoped.
***
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Marco Sanchez kept an eye on the darkening sky as he flew through the Ocala National Forest on his ATV. Even though the meteorologists had predicted the storm wouldn’t hit until later in the day, Marco and his squad members knew better. Anyone who worked outside learned to sense these things. They’d already checked on a few elderly residents in this part of the Forest, but they were running out of time to check on Mama T and get the community center battened down before Mother Nature unleashed her fury.
He scanned the area as he drove, cataloging every tree and stump, making sure all was as it should be. Behind him on their own ATVs, FWC officers Josh Tanner and Hunter Boudreau and former FWC officer Charlee Tanner did the same.
Marco saw a flash of silver behind a stand of trees and slowed to get a better look. What was he seeing? He aimed the ATV in that direction and wove around trees and scrub until he came to a stop on one of the many unpaved Forest roads.
A shiny little Mercedes coupe was stuck in the sand.
Hunter and Charlee pulled up beside him. Marco slipped off his helmet and unsnapped his holster as he approached the vehicle.
Hunter approached from the other side.
“Anybody here? Hello?” Marco called as he walked up to the vehicle and peered inside. Empty. And locked. He touched the hood. “It’s still warm, so they can’t have gone far.”
