These Awkward Moments

Part 64 Trapped

Max's POV
Hollis and I started out early and made good time on the road. We caught up with the search party just before noon. Uncle Roe and Uncle Jesus filled me in on where they had been tracking Da, where he had entered the water and what they thought might be his path leaving the stream and heading away from Alexandria.

I took my uncles with me into the water, and the rest of the group kept up with us along the bank. We had them follow far enough behind us that they wouldn't accidentally stumble across any tracks and obscure them. I was grateful for the fact that there really wasn't much need for stealth at this point because they were a very noisy group of people. It was clear that no one had ever really taken the time to teach them how to walk through a forest quietly. My thoughts turned back to the man who had taken me under his wing and taught me everything I knew about tracking and surviving outside the walls of Alexandria. It didn't take too long before I started picking up signs my da had left along the stream. I pointed them out to Roe and Jesus. They shook their heads and agreed that they never would have noticed such subtle signs if I hadn't pointed them out. He must have been afraid that someone was following him for him to suddenly become so difficult to track.

We came to the area where they thought Da had left the stream. I studied the tracks they showed me and shook my head. "I don't know whose tracks these are, but they're not my da's and they're at least a week old. They were made when the ground was wet from the rain we had about a week ago. And Da woulda left some sign at the bank there that he was leaving the water, but he didn't." They nodded in agreement and we re-entered the stream.

We continued to follow the trail that Da left. A few miles down stream I noticed a rocky area on the opposite bank from where we entered the stream. I thought that this might be an ideal place for someone to leave the stream if they were attempting to obscure their path. I looked more closely at the branches of the bushes along the bank. I caught a glimpse of a length of thread tangled in a branch. It was almost invisible, but the way it was wound around the branch showed that it was clearly not just the wind that had blown it into place. Da had woven it through the branches to indicate which direction he would be going as he left the water. We signaled for the rest of the search party to join us on the the rocky bank.

I scouted the area around the bank before we followed the path marked by my da. I saw signs that there had been walkers in this area within the last few weeks. I also saw a set of footprints that looked similar to those we had seen further upstream. These were headed away from the stream though. I rejoined the group and told them what I had found. I quickly reviewed hand signals with them as we would want to keep as quiet as possible if there were walkers nearby. I began to follow the path Da left. He followed along parallel to the stream as I expected he would for some time, then his signs stopped. I looked around for signs that indicated he was changing direction, but couldn't find any clues. I signaled for the group to stay put, and I moved forward along the path next to the stream.

I came to an area where there had recently been a lot of activity. It looked as if there had been a small herd of walkers in this area under the trees. Strangely though, the footprints were clustered, almost as if they had been milling about for some time. I looked closer and noticed that the base of several trees in this area looked as if something had rubbed across the bark around the circumference. There must have been rope or something tied around the trees. But that would mean that someone had tied up a fairly large group of walkers. And where had they led them off to? More importantly though was why would someone go to all the trouble of tying walkers to trees?

I realized that someone could have set the walkers here to force a detour around them, and I turned and headed back to join the group. As I approached, I could see that some of the men had spread out a bit to find places to sit and rest. They stood and began to reassemble when I drew near. We all heard a sudden snapping sound and a voice cry out. Everyone turned to look in the direction of the noise. "Where's Chris?" Hollis asked. "He was just right over there." He pointed to the area we had heard the noise come from.