Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 45

[[This chapter and  is very long but really important for how sentinels work. Next chapter we get back to some good old bonding]]

They set out in the four ATVs, two to each. It's not an easy ride. This part of the forest isn't meant for access, but there is a narrow footpath just wide enough for the ATVs to travel for a while. About ten minutes out however, the trees become too dense to just bowl over. 

"Looks like we'll have to park 'em here. It's only about a half-mile from here. The squatter had a shopping cart when we found him, so we should be able to make it down easy," Officer Tang called from the front of the line. 

Fate felt Jack pulling back his senses as they dismounted. He'd been searching for tracks of any kind along the way, but other than the beer bottle indicators of naughty teenagers, there wasn't any activity in this part of the park. After the first mile in, the place was basically untouched. Only animal prints and bits of fur  in every direction. There was a carcass somewhere, but it was definitely a skunk, and broken trees caused by the falling of a larger one. There was nothing human at all.

He'd expected to see imprints of Marina's size 8 shoes at the very least, considering how fresh the blood on the envelope had been. Then again, footprints were often some of the first things to wash away from the scene, especially if the ground had been dry and cold. 

The group filed into the forest, picking their way over a few months of overgrowth to find the wheelbarrow path the squatter had carved during the few months he went undiscovered. 

Jack kept Fate close though they had to walk single file. There was some more human indicators here. Nonsensical carvings in the bottom of some of the tree trunks had filled with moss and the path was occasionally lined with stones. 

As they drew deeper into the Forest, Jack felt emotions pinging from Fate for the first time. it wasn't the fear or nervousness that he expected, but rather confusion. He'd felt it a bit earlier when she'd met Anton and discovered he was a guide. Now as they continued on it felt like a feather tickling the back of his skull, insistent but hard to grasp.  

Jack turned and raised an eyebrow, not wanting to disturb the silence that Santos needed to listen to the surroundings. 

Fate only shakes her head in reply. Jack turns his concentration back to the area as Fate tries to think. The area feels familiar in the same way a McDonalds in a new city does. She know's she's never been here, well, she thinks she knows. 

There's a long time unaccounted for in her memory. She can never be really, truly sure. 

It keeps digging at her as they walk. She manages to put it in the back of her mind as the satelite tracker pings that they've reached the location of the coordinates. 

The hillside ends in a thirty foot clearing before climbing sharply left. Beyond the clearing is a sheer rock face that goes down a story or two overlooking the rest of the forest. From this vantage they could see the entire valley, the big river-fed lake in the center and the smoke from early morning camp fires. 

It's an absolutely breathtaking sight. Jack lets Fate take in the sight before they begin combing over the clearing. The two weaker sentinels go first, but can't find anything amiss. The area looks undisturbed. It would be too treacherous for a squatter's camp to set up, so there's not even trash or trample marks. It looks as pristine as the day God made it.  

Santos plants a marking flag on the exact coordinate location before stepping back to let Jack try. They would obviously dig the spot, but they needed to see what they could find without disturbing the earth. 

Fate places her hand back on Jack's arm, she placed her thumb at the five and they began to pace the circumference of the outcrop slowly and methodically. They cycled through Jack's senses to see if anything was different than normal in one area versus another. Sight, smell, hearing, all came up with nothing. Taste was out of the question, so Touch was all that was left.