Narrator

And now we were here.

Up on the ridge, the forest changed again.

Less damp, more wind.

The world opened enough that my brain could think.

Tessa found an old logging cut, faint, overgrown, but it gave us a line.

We moved along it, staying quiet, stopping often to listen.

Several times we heard distant whistles.

Once we heard a whoop, low and throaty, far off.

It made my skin crawl because it reminded me that whatever big thing lived here was still moving, still in the same system as the men.

By mid-morning, we reached a point where we could see down into a broad drainage, the same drainage where we'd been pulled into the hollow.

The trees there looked darker, thicker.

The air seemed to sit heavy in it like fog even when there wasn't fog.

Tessa pointed with her chin.

"'That way leads back toward the cabin,' she whispered.

My throat tightened.

"'How do we get him?'

Tessa didn't answer immediately.

She watched the trees, eyes narrowing.

Then she said, We look for signs first.

If he's alive, they'll have him somewhere they can control.