AFTERMATH [until dawn]

Chapter Nineteen

EMILY

"What time is it, anyway?"

Mike's question jarred Emily out of the happy bubble she was in, wrapped tightly in Matt's arms. The group that had stayed behind were getting a little too comfortable in Jessica's room.

"Ummm," Matt checked his watch quickly. His eyes widened. "Holy shit—It's 12:42 already?"

"Oh no!" Emily quickly scrambled out of Matt's embrace and picked up the landline from the table. "We've got to call the cops, like, now!" She quickly glanced at Jessica, who was a little frozen by Mike's side. "I'm allowed to use this to call, right?"

"Uh," Jessica frowned and shrugged. "I don't know, I guess so? I doubt the hospital cares who I call."

Taking Jessica's uncertain answer as an affirmative, Emily quickly typed in the number and was about to press "dial" when Matt suddenly stopped her.

"Wait, Em," he said, sounding thoughtful. "Are you sure we should be calling the cops? The park rangers were the ones who sent helicopters for us last year... The cops just questioned us at the end."

Emily paused.

"Right, fine, you're right." Emily muttered. She cleared her entry and was about to search for the ranger service's number on her phone when Mike spoke up.

"I've got the number, Em," Mike said with his phone in hand. He seemed to have realized what Matt was going to ask a split second before Matt himself did, and had searched it up quickly. He read a series of numbers which Emily inputted into the landline hurriedly. She pushed "dial" without a second thought and placed the receiver to her ear. Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up... Emily chanted in her mind.

After a few antagonizing seconds, a woman answered the phone and spoke to Emily.

"Hello, this is the park ranger service for Blackwood County. How may I help you?" The ranger said formally.

"Hi," Emily gulped, trying to stay calm. She remembered calling the service using the radio last year—her voice was shaking so badly the ranger could barely understand what she was saying. Not wanting the same thing to happen this time, Emily attempted to sound calm and collected. Matt gave her an encouraging smile, and she smiled back feebly before responding to the ranger.

"Three of my friends went hiking on Blackwood Mountain..." Emily tried to formulate a convincing lie. "Yesterday. They were supposed to return last night but they haven't, so we assumed they camped on the hill, but they're still not back and we're getting a little concerned." Mike gave her a thumbs up, and she breathed a sigh of relief—at least the story was convincing enough.

"Okay, I see," the woman responded. Emily could hear her typing something on a computer in front of her. "Do you have any idea where your friends may have been headed on the hill—which direction they may have gone?"

Emily was ready to answer this.

"Yes, they said they wanted to check out the remains of the Blackwood Mines," Emily said confidently. The group had pored over the map of the mountain carefully, deciding on a large clearing outside one of the entrances of the Mines as the rendezvous point, as it would be easy for a helicopter to see the people. "They said something about the North entrance." She added. Matt made a face, and she could practically hear what he was thinking—as if anyone would want to visit the Blackwood Mines willingly!

"Okay, I see," the woman responded in the same manner as before. "Just to confirm, you said the party consisted of three people, is that correct?"

Emily nodded, before realizing the ranger couldn't see her.

"Yes," she said quickly.

"Okay, I see," the woman repeated again. This is getting a little annoying, Emily thought. Does she not have anything else to say? "Could you provide a description of them, please? Just general features and clothing, to aid in our search."

"Um, give me a second," Emily placed her hand over the microphone and asked her friends to give descriptions of Sam, Chris, and Ashley.

"Blonde girl, blonde boy, and red-haired girl?" Jessica suggested.

"Teenagers, I guess? A tall boy with glasses, a girl with a ponytail, and a girl with a beanie?" Matt said.

"Clothing, huh?" Mike mused aloud. "Yeah, Ashley's got the beanie like Matt said... Sam's probably got a backpack... And Chris, he's probably wearing a lot of layers. Just tell them to look for someone wearing too many jackets." Emily couldn't suppress a laugh at Mike's last statement.

"Okay..." She took her hand off the mic. "Hello?"

"Hello," the woman responded indifferently.

"Okay, here is the description of the people—teenagers, actually—on the mountain... A tall blonde boy with glasses, wearing—thick jackets," she decided not to mention all the layers—the ranger didn't sound like someone who would appreciate the joke. "A blonde girl with a ponytail and a backpack... And a shorter, red-haired girl with a beanie." Emily realized that their descriptions were generic at best, but the ranger seemed satisfied.

"Okay, I see," the ranger responded again. If she says that one more time, I'm going to hang up on her, Emily thought, rolling her eyes. There were a few seconds of silence before the woman spoke up again. "We'll be sending out a helicopter shortly. Thank you for notifying us, I'm sure your friends are alright—"

"Hold on," Emily interrupted with a frown. "What do you mean "shortly"? Our friends need to be found now, they could be in danger—" Her voice cracked as she imagined Wendigos attacking the trio on the hill. No, no, that isn't going to happen. She steeled herself and refocused on the ranger's words.

"When I said 'shortly', Miss, I meant as soon as we end the call and I notify our helicopter pilots of the incident," the woman said, sounding a little annoyed now. "Our park ranger service has always been reliable and I can assure you, Miss, we will find your friends and bring them back to safety in no time."

Emily had to bite her tongue to prevent snapping back at the ranger. 'Has always been reliable' my ass, she thought angrily. Where were they last year? They left us to fight for our lives on the hill all night because of some fucking storm, and we lost Josh as a result. Reliable, right.

"Okay, I see," Emily said instead, mocking the woman. "Thank you," she forced out and hung up before the ranger could respond. Emily let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and sat back down next to Matt.

"So...?" Mike asked carefully, not missing Emily's annoyance after the call.

"They're sending out helicopters soon," Emily said, and she heard everyone in the room sigh in relief.

"That's great!" Matt said reassuringly. "I'm sure we'll have Sam, Chris, and Ashley back with us in no time with the cure—and then we can move onto phase 2!"

"Phase 2?" Jessica asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Well, I thought we'd call it phase 2," Matt blushed a little and laughed awkwardly. "Like stage 2 of this mission-type thing, you know—acquiring the cure is phase 1, curing Josh would be phase 2, I guess." He's so cute, Emily couldn't resist thinking affectionately and pecked Matt on the cheek.

"Woah, okay," Mike said jokingly. "Someone's been reading lots of... Spy novels, huh?"

Matt was about to open his mouth to respond when the landline Emily had just put down rang, a piercing, shrill sound that made Jessica jump in surprise. Emily quickly went over and picked it up, thinking it was the ranger calling again asking for more information.

"Yes?" Emily said rather rudely, still miffed at the woman's previous attitude towards her. "What do you want?"

"Um," the voice on the other end was not the ranger—it was a younger, more nervous-sounding girl. Emily quickly realized her mistake and apologized.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else," Emily explained quickly, feeling bad for being so disrespectful. "Who is this?"

"This is Harriet... Nurse Smith, actually, of the Centre." the girl sounded a little confused. "Is Ms. Riley here? My apologies, I may have called the wrong room..."

"Oh!" Emily exclaimed. Quickly covering the mic again with her hand, she addressed a curious Jessica. "Jess, it's for you... Nurse Smith, or something."

"Oh?" Jessica asked, eyebrows raised. "Harriet? She's a younger nurse here, a friend of mine... Why would she call me, though?" She wondered aloud as Emily handed her the phone with a shrug. Jessica held up the receiver to her ear and asked "Hello?" softly.

As Emily watched Jessica apprehensively with Matt and Mike, she couldn't help but feel a little worried. The nurse didn't sound like she was bringing good news... What could it be, though? Some treatment for Jess? An update on her condition? She couldn't figure out what it could possibly be.

"Um..." Jessica said into the receiver. "He's not my relative... But I guess, yeah, I'm an acquaintance... Why?" Emily watched Jessica's brows furrow as she listened to the nurse's words carefully. Before the nurse finished speaking, though, Jessica's expression morphed into one of horror and she almost dropped the receiver.

"No!" Jessica cried. "That's not— How—? Why?"

"What is it, what is it?" Mike asked, agitated by Jessica's reaction. Jessica quickly held up a hand to quieten him, listening intently to the nurse with tears in her eyes. She gasped and muttered "no..." to herself from time to time as the nurse talked on.

Emily exchanged a nervous look with Matt, but neither of them dared interrupt Jessica. Matt's hand found hers and they held onto each other tightly, awaiting Jessica's reveal—neither with any clue what could possibly be wrong.

When Jessica finally got off the phone, now with tears rolling down her face, Mike quickly reached over and embraced her, whispering reassuring words in her ear. After a few tense seconds, Jessica seemed to have calmed down enough and disentangled herself from Mike to look at all three others in the room.

"It's—" Jessica gulped, and Emily gripped onto Matt's hand even tighter. Letting out a shuddering breath, she steeled herself to speak. "It's George. George Murphy." Jessica closed her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath, before looking up at everyone again. "He's—He's dead."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Things are snowballing! What do you think is going to happen? Will the rangers find them, and get to them on time? Will they be able to cure Josh in the end? Comment any predictions or speculation—we'll see if you're right, soon!

Thank you so much for reading, again—I hope you're enjoying the story. I can't believe it's going to be over in less than 10 chapters; when I first thought of the plot and concept I wasn't expecting myself to actually go through with it, but look where we are now...

Just a quick warning: The next chapter is going to be... Intense. Really. I can't wait for you to read it, though.

Thanks again for reading—don't forget to vote and comment :)