“Everything is all right.” Frank let out a breath. “I rigged something.”

Frank got to his feet and turned to look at the man. The man had pieced together a carrier using two small trees with a tarp strung between them. Frank asked, “Is it sturdy?”

“Everything I build is sturdy. This will be easy to carry. This will get you two to the road.”

Frank and the man gently placed Nancy on the carrier without waking her, although she did moan a couple times from the movement. As Frank covered Nancy with a blanket, the man took Nancy’s bag and put it under the blanket beside her.

Frank looked at the man once she was covered. “Thank you for taking care of her. You don’t know how many people will be glad to see her.”

“I would do it for anyone.”

Frank picked up the end of the carrier as the man opened the door. Frank dragged the carrier out of the building. The man pointed through the woods and said, “Go straight through the woods. You’ll reach the river if you go that way. Just take it slow.”

He looked at the man. “Aren’t you coming along?”

“There’s no need. I know you’ll get Nancy back to where she needs to be.”

“Okay. Thanks for everything.”

Frank lifted the carrier and started through the woods taking it slow.

* * * * *

It was morning. The sun had just come up and Joe was leading the others and the police to the spot where they had found the footprints. Once the police took a look at the footprints, they started into the woods. Joe, Ned, Callie and Vanessa followed close behind.

They came to the spot where the footprints disappeared. Detective Allen split the dozen officers up. Ned and Callie were on the detective’s left side while Joe and Vanessa were on his right. They spread out about 15 feet apart as they started searching the woods going away from the river.

Everyone was looking for something. They didn’t know what, but they continued looking. They walked for a couple hours, but came up empty.

Joe couldn’t believe there was nothing there. He was getting frustrated. He wondered if it was a wild goose chase.

Joe then noticed some movement in the distance. He figured it was an animal, so he kept walking. He focused on the movement a few minutes later and realized someone was walking toward them.

“There’s someone over there,” Joe said pointing into the woods.

Everyone looked into the woods. They saw the person. When the person was closer, Joe realized it was Frank. Joe yelled, “FRANK!”

Joe took off running toward his brother. He could hear people running behind him. He ran as fast as he could. As he got closer to Frank, he saw his brother was dragging something. He slid to a stop when he reached him.

“I’m so glad we found you,” Joe said breathlessly.

The others also slid to a stop. Callie hurried to Frank and put her hand on his arm. She asked, “What do you have here?”