Part 73: Day 13

The morning had finally arrived. The sun light was just appearing over the horizon, blanketing the entire beach in a gray haze. Tony moaned as he felt Marita’s forehead near his lips. He immediately kissed her. The Latina moaned, bringing the blind doctor closer to her. They were sharing their bed before but after what happened yesterday, things were differently. They were no ashamed to show their closeness. Marita didn’t mind it the slightest; she wanted to the whole beach to know that Tony belonged to her and her alone.

John groaned as he slowly twisted away. He looked over and felt a sting on his arm. Leaning up, he looked at the long sleeve he was wearing to keep him warm at night. There was a small burned hole in the upper sleeve. John blinked; realizing an ember from the fire had burned him in the middle of the night. It was so small, it didn’t even wake him. He just smirked and stoked the fires with a nearby stick.

The Archer looked over at his friend Tony, smiling. Marita was exhibiting a new closeness to the blind doctor that she hadn’t shown before. John was stupid; he knew what they did yesterday. The fact that Tony was out of breath with they came back from the woods was one clue. The second was the small amount of debris that Marita had to pick out of her hair. The Olympian just chuckled to himself, glad that his friend was bonding with Marita. John then blinked when he realized something was amiss.

Eddie was not sleeping next to Tony.

John blinked and looked around, noticing the little boy was not in his field of vision. The archer then grabbed his friend’s cane and tapped him on the foot. “Tony, wake up.” John said.

“Hmm?” He turned his head toward John, “What’s wrong, John?”

“Eddie is not there.” He said, trying not to panic.

“He’s probably by the ocean, peeing.” Marita groaned with her eyes closed.

Tony leaned over and felt of the area where Eddie slept next to him. He felt of nothing, obviously. Then his hands brushed a furry object. The blind doctor then picked up Mr. Kangaroo, Eddie’ toy. He took a deep breath, fearing the worse. “John, could you do me a favor and confirm Eddie is at the ocean.” He said, holding the doll.

“Yeah,” the archer said, standing up.

John walked out between the tent’s entrance and looked out into the distance of the beach. The ocean waves erupted on the beach in steady patterns. However, there was not a single person near the water. John then immediately stormed back and looked at his friend. “Tony, I don’t see him!” John said abruptly.

“What’s going on?” Yolanda woke up.

“Head toward the rock where people use the bathroom too, John.” Tony said, standing up.

The archer turned around and ran as fast as he could toward the entrance to the rock where most people had bowel movements. Marita finally got up, holding Tony’s arm. “Maybe Eddie went for a walk, Tony?” the Latina suggested.

“Without his favorite toy?” Tony replied, holding out the stuffed kangaroo plush, “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“What’s all this noise?” McKay said, finally waking up.

“McKay, Eddie’s missing,” Marita said.

“How long?” he said, rubbing his eyes.

“We don’t know. We just noticed as we woke up.” Tony said, gritting his teeth.

“Uh, McKay?” Mandy whispered.

“Yeah, Luv?” he turned around.

“Where’s Taylor?”

McKay then grunted as he saw Taylor was not in her sleeping spot. He then quickly scanned the beach and didn’t see the familiar blonde hair had had grown to love. “Oh, my god,” he whispered.

“What’s happening?” Mandy said, trying not to become afraid.

John finally jogged back to them. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. “He’s not over there either.” He coughed.

“We got bigger problems, John, “ the Australian hissed, “Taylor is missing too.”

“Taylor’s gone too?” the archer said in disbelief.

“FAN OUT!” Tony ordered them, “Make sure no one else is missing!”

John, McKay and Mandy started to run to the other encampments in the beach. Yolanda quickly turned around and went back into the medical tent. She made sure that Kristy and Jenny were still there. The two young girls started to wake up, hearing all the loud talking out.

Outside, John looked to the other encampment. Martin slowly woke up, wondering what was happening. McKay looked to his right, seeing that Cecil was still there, plus nearby was Martin. Mandy pointed into the distance seeing Natasha slowly waking up from her own tent. John then ran toward Mia’s encampment. He found his legs moving faster as he ran. Then he felt his heard sank as he saw Shanna, Seth and Brendon.

But no Mia.

“No, no, no, no,” he repeated.

“Guys, wake up!” McKay called.

As they arrived, Shanna and the others stirred awake. They looked at them in shock at their sudden approach. “Where’s Mia?” John demanded.

They looked to the makeshift bed that Mia created only to find it empty. Brendon looked around in horror, knowing the others wouldn’t be upset if Mia was just simply walking through the woods. Seth was panicking even more, cause Mia was no more than three feet from them and the fire. McKay looked around and then looked down at her bed. “John, look,” he pointed at it.

The archer looked down and noticed it too. The makeshift bed was in disarray. It had been tugged to the left as if . . . .as if Mia was pulling it and someone had grabbed her. John needed to know nothing else. He quickly high tailed toward the woods. “John, wait!’ McKay called, “We can’t off this half cocked!”

John the stopped as he reached the woods. He tried to contain his anger and his fear. McKay was right. How could he find Mia if he hadn’t the slightest clue where she went to? John looked back to his Australian friend as he motioned for him to follow him. They were going to get their gear and look properly.

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Marita looked through the woods, holding Tony’s arm. They had been looking for the past twenty minutes and found nothing. The Latina was growing upset. The thought of something happening to that precious boy was more than she could bear. Even though she was upset, she could only imagine how much it was tearing up Tony inside. “Tony, what do you think happened to him?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” the blind doctor whispered.

“Do you think . . .do you think that Ethan guy took him?” she cried.

“If he did, then he’s a dead man.” Tony grunted.

“We have to get him back, Tony,” she said, holding his arm tighter.

“We will. I swear to you, we will,” the blind doctor replied, holding her tighter as well.

“TONY!” McKay screamed.

The couple paused as the Australian fast approached them with John in tow. Tony could hear they were very much out of breath. Marita looked at them in panic, wondering if they found something awful. McKay coughed and then said, “Tony, we found this on the trail leading toward the waterfall.”

Tony felt his friend place a small item in his hand. The doctor felt of it, realizing it was a small piece of cloth. It was also soaked. “What is that?” Marita whispered.

“It’s some kind of a white cloth, “ McKay said, so Tony could hear, “I found it snagged on a tree branch near some broken underbrush near our path toward the waterfall.”

Tony then lifted the cloth to his nose. Once he smelled of it, he reeled back, getting the cloth away from his nose. “Chloroform.” He whispered.

“Jesus,” Marita wept, “They were really taken.”

“By who?” demanded McKay, “Who would take them?”

“The Masked Men,” coughed John.

The others then looked at him. McKay was stupefied by what his friend suggesting, even more so by Tony. Marita had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “John, what Masked Men?” she asked.

“The men from Mia’s dreams.” He whispered sternly.