little love

115

"Maddie? Maddie honey call out?" Andy, Vic, Travis, Theo, Ben and Miranda took turns calling out for Maddie as they made their way through their assigned section of the park.

"Hey guys" Travis said hesitantly. The group converged on his position and followed his outstretched finger.

"Is that—" Theo started

They all looked at the pair of denim shorts that had been tossed haphazardly off the path. They had blood stains on them.

Vic pulled up a picture of Maddie, Shannon and Lily at the party and swallowed.

"The shorts she was wearing, yeah i think so." Andy finished his sentence.

Theo put on gloves and picked up the shorts, placed them in a bag that Ben held out. He squinted a bit then called the rest of the group over as he held up a single beat up high top converse. There was sharpie drawings on the sole and a little heart that had an 'M+S' written on it. They had all seen Maddie wear these shoes countless times. They added it to the bag with her shorts and kept going.

Just a couple yards deeper into the path, they saw the other shoe about 100 yards away, but this time, it was still on Maddie's foot.

They took off running, Andy reached her first. Someone had haphazardly thrown leaves over her, and she wasnt moving.

"Herrera, gloves" Ben tossed her a pair

"Mads? Maddie mija?" Andy brushed the leaves away and reached towards Maddie's neck with 2 fingers, checking for a pulse. She nodded to the group and they all exhaled in relief. She was alive. "This is Andy Herrera with search group 9, we've got her!" Andy called into the radio.

She heard follow up questions and other chatter coming through the radio and she shot a pleading glance at Ben and Travis who nodded and fielded all the questions about their position.

Vic crouched down next to Andy, along with dr. Bailey. Theo hung back. They all wordlessly agreed that it would be best to let the women handle this.

Maddie was bruised and filthy. She had cuts and scrapes all over her arms and legs.  Her hair was matted in places and wild, full of dirt and leaves. Her tshirt was torn, and her wrists were tied together with her bra. Her underwear was torn, and there was dried blood coming from between her legs.

"Ben, give me your outer shirt" Miranda said, her husband was quick to comply and Bailey draped it over Maddie's lower half to give the girl a bit of privacy.

"Maddie, mija? Open your eyes sweetie" Andy said gently stroking the girl's bruised cheek. At her touch, Maddie's eyes flew open. Or they tried to. The left one was practically swollen shut. "Maddie, you're okay. You're safe now. We are gonna take care of you." Andy tried to soothe the girl whose eyes had begun to dart back and forth frantically.

Maddie winced as she tried to scurry away. Everything hurt. She coughed and tried to catch her breath. The figures in front of her blurry. She blinked a few times and things started to come into focus. The first person she saw was Andy. Concern running deep through her aunt's expression. She blinked again, just behind Andy was Vic, a similar concerned expression on her face. Behind Vic was Dr. Bailey. She was holding a flannel. She blinked a few more times and saw Travis, Ben and Theo a few yards back, with a map out, talking into a radio.

Andy took the flannel from Miranda and held it out to Maddie. Maddie then realized that she wasnt wearing pants. She winced and hesitantly reached out to take the shirt and lay it in her lap.

"Mija? Can i come closer?" Andy said softly, she wanted to make it very clear to Maddie that whatever had happened, from this point forward, she was in charge. Maddie bit her lip, and looked down at her bound hands. She took a sharp intake of breath and tentatively held out her hands that were still bound by the sports bra. Her hands were practically blue her wrists were bound so tight.