Selina peeks in through the open driver’s door, then shakes her head. “The airbag has blown, and it’s stained with blood, but he’s gone.”
Dan steps off the scooter, puts it on the jack and takes off the helmet. He throws a look around but sees no one in sight.
“Shut off the engine for a moment,” Selina says.
Dan turns the key, and silence descends over the forest. A couple of birds are singing carefreely and a bumblebee comes buzzing by. Besides that, nothing.
“You think he went on down the road?” Dan asks.
“That would make the most sense, I guess,” Selina says, looking around. “I don’t know how to track people—do you? Do you happen to be a Boy Scout or something?”
“Nah,” Dan says. “But I think it’s something about looking for broken twigs and stuff. That’s how they do it in the movies.”
Selina runs a hand through her hair. “I just don’t get why he would drive in here in the first place. I thought he was going to the hospital.”
“Maybe he’s not aware what he’s doing. If he lost a lot of blood, he might already be—”
A shrill scream interrupts Dan. It lasts for some seconds and echoes throughout the forest.
“Fuck,” Selina whispers, her eyes wide. “I don’t think that was him.”
Dan shakes his head. “No. It sounded like a woman.”
EIGHT
They listen for a moment, in case there’s another scream. But there is not. The forest is once again dead silent.
“Which way did it come from?” Dan asks.
“This way, I think.” Selina begins running farther down the road, waving for Dan to follow her. “Leave the scooter, we can’t hear anything with the engine going.”
Dan leaves the scooter rather reluctantly. His ankle is still throbbing, but once he starts walking, he realizes to his amazement it actually feels a little better. Perhaps it’s not sprained after all; perhaps it just got twisted.
Still, he needs to hurry to keep up with Selina. She suddenly stops outside a driveway Dan almost didn’t notice. A small house is halfway hidden among the trees.
“It must have been here the scream came from,” Selina says, walking towards the house without a second thought.
Dan is for a moment struck by how determined and brave she is. In fact, she reminds him of Thomas. Had he been here, he would also have been the brave one, the one walking in front whenever there was danger.
Is the world full of brave people? Or am I just a coward?
Perhaps he’s simply the type to let someone else take charge, he reflects. And perhaps that’s why Thomas is dead and Dan is still alive. The brave die, and the cowardly live on.
He shakes off the thought and hurries on to catch up with Selina.
There’s a small gravel courtyard in front of the house. In the carport a tiny white car is parked.
Dan is just about to say something, when the front door of the house suddenly opens and a woman steps out holding a hunting rifle. “Who are you?” she shrieks. “What are you doing here? I already called the police!” As if to prove this statement, she shows them a cell phone.
Dan holds up his hands stupidly. “Uhm … we didn’t … eh …”
“We don’t want to cause you any harm,” Selina says. “We’re just looking for a young man who might have been here. Did you see him?”
The woman looks at them, assessing the situation. She’s around retirement age and wears a bandana around her head. Dan can’t see any hair, and combined with how thin the woman is, he guesses she might have recently undergone chemotherapy.
“It’s really important we find him,” Selina goes on. “He’s wounded and he needs help.”
The woman seems to decide to trust them, because she points the rifle into the ground and steps a little closer. She glances towards the carport and lowers her voice. “He ran into the workshop, so I locked the door behind him.”
Dan notices a small shack adjacent to the carport. The door is still closed, and there are no windows.
“Did he hurt you?” Dan asks, discretely scanning the woman’s bare arms for any visible scratch marks.
She shakes her head. She’s close enough now that Dan can smell peppermint on her breath. “He just ran right past me, like he didn’t even see me. He came out of nowhere, I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw him, his nose was all bloody and … and he was limping.” She shakes her head in disbelief and looks at them. “Goodness, what happened to him? I thought it looked like he was wearing a police uniform, so I thought he might have been … I don’t know, attacked by some criminals … that’s why I locked the door behind him.”
“He is a policeman,” Selina explains. “But he hasn’t been … uhm …” She glances at Dan for help.
“He crashed his car,” Dan says. “We came by the crash site and followed him here.”
“Yeah, and if we don’t help him, he’ll bleed to death,” Selina adds.
“I already called an ambulance,” the woman assures them, once again holding up the cell phone absentmindedly.
“They won’t make it all the way out here in time,” Selina says. “We need to get to him right now. Where’s the key?”
The woman hesitates, glancing from the shack to Selina. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea … I mean, he seemed very out of it … perhaps it’s better to leave him be until help arrives.”
“No, we have to help him!” Selina insists. “Please give us the key. I know him. His name is Allan. I’ll never forgive myself if he doesn’t make it …”
Dan is surprised at how convincing Selina sounds.
The woman still looks doubtful. Her hand goes to her
