Chapter XXI

A Missing Wolf

After the battle was all but won and the remains of the hoard had either fled or been destroyed. Barca and Dave then begin the process of gunning down the few remaining zombies within range, that was until Codsworth signals them to stop, in order to preserve what little ammo they had left. As they stopped firing Vernon mops the sweat of his brow thinking, this had seemed remarkably easy for a hoard attack, he remembered the attack on the manor, and how the hoard there had managed to wipe out most of their forces. This seemed more like it had been meant to distract them from the real intention. With this in mind he begins to look around, partly to check to see if there was anyone attempting to make a sneak attack, but more importantly to do a head count of the group. Brutus had gone chasing after the remaining hoard after the battle, but even so, Vernon realised that they were one short and, looking around it was easy to see who was missing.

“Where's Martin?” Vernon asked, he continued to look around at the group, but the kid was definitely not amongst them.

“In the forest, I told him to hide.” Codsworth replied as he too mopped the sweat of his brow as he helps Dmitri back up to his feet from where he had chosen to lay down and shoot, rather than even attempt to do it standing up. This answer for a moment at least seemed to put Vernon’s mind at rest. Until Charlie voiced the doubt in everyone’s minds.

“Then, why hasn't he come out? The battle's over.” Charlie said, looking around and then into the thick woodlands behind them. Her initial thought of maybe Martin hadn’t heard the sound of the battle finishing were dashed then, as the small Forrest wasn’t big enough to mask that much sound. She looked over at Codsworth who seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he turned back to the group.

“Right. Barca, Dave come with me, we need to go looking Martin. Charlie see to the wounded. The rest of you start setting up camp.” Codsworth said, with a lot more urgency in his voice that he had intended, as Charlie was right, the battle was over, and the kid should have known that it was now safe to come out.

As Codsworth and Dave begin to walk through the woods looking for any sign of Martin, the commanders hopes of finding any sign of the boy, were slipping further and further away, as reality set in. Barca had gone on ahead, although not a skilled tracker, he agreed on the basis that there might be enemies located in these trees.

“Do you think he's alright?” Dave asked, looking up at the commander for answers, during the battle he had seemed almost a man, but now, with his youngest brother missing and the way he looked at the commander. He looked more like the young teenager that he really was.

“He'll be fine lad don't worry.” Codsworth said, although he knew that it was a lie. However, he saw no reason to tell Dave exactly what he was thinking when it was clear that the boy was looking for comfort regarding his youngest brother. As they continue to walk, the sound of Barca from behind a slight hill calls out.

“I've got something!” Barca shouts and Codsworth’s stomach plummets, although if it were a body, he doubted that the lieutenant wouldn’t have just shouted it out, not with Dave so close by. All the same though, it was unlikely to be anything good. As Codsworth and Dave run to the top of the hill and look down into a small gap in the slight hills to see Barca kneeling down on the muddy ground. The commander rushes down the hill to join Barca followed closely by Dave.

“What is it?” Codsworth said as he ran down the slope and thanking the gods that there was not a body down there, although that only raised more questions that it answered. As if in answer Barca holds up the gun that Martin had, the gun seemed to have jammed and they had not told him how to rectify that situation if it happened. But that wasn’t all, next to it was an empty syringe, along with few shell casings that Martin had obviously managed to fire of before the gun jammed litter the ground around them.

“Found this, looks like the kid fired at something.” Barca said looking up as he handed the gun to Codsworth before picking up the syringe. It was empty, apart from some blue residue liquid, and a faint drop of blood on the needle. Codsworth didn’t need to have it tested to be certain that the blood was Martin’s.

As the two examined the syringe, both coming up with theories about what it was in their heads. Dave was more interested in the ground and walking over about ten meters away he found a pair of tire tracks in the grown leading away from the scene heading towards the south.

“Or someone.” Dave said as he found the tracks, at which point a scene crossed his mind from a few years ago, involving three men and a black car and as he looked between the tracks and the gun in Codsworth’s hand, his heart plummeted.

“This isn't good.” Codsworth said as he too noticed the tire tracks, they looked reassembly fresh, and putting it with the found gun, did not lead to a great conclusion.

“We should head back.” Barca said observing the scene, all in all Codsworth was right, all the evidence pointed to the fact that martin was probably already miles away from here by now, and their continued search would achieve nothing, other than getting lost in these woods. However, Dave looked up in horror at this suggestion, something that the lieutenant could have seen coming, after all it was his brother who had gone missing.

“What about Martin?” Dave asked angrily, he couldn’t believe that the two soldiers were going to abandon the search so quickly.

“We can't search the whole area alone, we need help. And my guess is Martin and whoever took him are long gone.” Codsworth said as Barca picks himself up and starts to head back towards the edge of the forest to tell the group the bad news. As Codsworth begins to follow he turns around to see Dave standing there stubbornly. “Come on lad. There's not much point staying here.” Codsworth said, that was the truth of the matter, as the odds of either Martin, or whoever kidnapped him being here anymore were most likely less than zero. However, as he sees that Dave has made no attempt to follow them, he guesses that the thirteen-year-old had not yet come to that hard conclusion.

Dave looks at Codsworth with murder in his eyes. Because of this man’s actions, his youngest brother was now missing in action, that was the point that he decided to take matters into his own hands as he decided to at least follow the tire tracks and see where they led. He could hear the commander shout to him, but he didn’t care. As he began to head away from the group towards the south.

Following the tire tracks Dave, and a somewhat curious but doubtful Codsworth walk along the same dirt path, in truth it wasn’t even really that. But because of the two sets of tracks, it meant that they had at least something to follow. Despite this they have no luck, as Codsworth had initially suspected, the kidnappers were most likely long gone by now.

He didn’t know how much time they had spent battling the hoards whilst Martin was in these woods, but he guessed that even if he had managed to hide for close to an hour, it would still give the kidnappers at least another hour’s head start on them, combine that with the fact that they were clearly a lot more mobile than they were, meant that he was doubtful.

Dave however, seemed to still believe that there was a chance that he could help his youngest brother out of this situation, as Codsworth doubted given the determined look on the teen’s face, that any kind of rational explanation of their lost cause would do nothing other than make the kid angrier.

Choosing to just follow along on this apparent wild goose chase that Dave seemed to be determined to believe in. The pair eventually came across a river, too large to cross or ford, but seeing that the tracks lead along it, gave Dave that little bit of hope that he needed, and he picked up his pace and rounded a corner, before coming to a grinding holt.

A bridge that the tracks led up to was completely destroyed, and there were no other tracks along the ground, pointing to the fact that the kidnappers must have destroyed the bridge in attempt to stop anyone from following them.

Seeing this Dave collapses to the ground and buts his head in his hands, as the realisation washes over him, which leaves Codsworth speechless. He could have told Dave that this was bound to have happened, but he wasn’t that heartless after all, the kid had been set on get his youngest brother back.

“You did this.” Dave said as he continued to stare at the ground, taking Codsworth by surprise. But it was clear that it was him that Dave was addressing. As Dave got up of the ground, he continued saying those same three words over and over again, this all came to a head when Dave turned around and punched Codsworth across the face and then stormed off, back to where the rest of the group was hold up.

The commander felt his face, whilst nothing seemed to be too damaged, he was sure that he would have a nice black eye come the morning he set off after Dave, keeping a respectable distance, whilst also being within eyesight of the teen, as the last thing he needed would be for Dave to share his youngest brother’s fate.

By the time that the pair had exited the forest, Barca having not gone on Dave’s fool’s errand of a rescue plan, the sun had already begun to dip behind the hills, it was still daylight, but wouldn’t be for much longer. And now the commander had the difficult task of telling Vernon that they had been unsuccessful in finding the kid. He would have preferred to do this in private, but quickly realised that that wasn’t an option when he found the old butler waiting for him. Not looking at all pleased that they had returned empty handed.

“Where is he?” Vernon said striding forward and looking at the weary faces on the three of them, but Codsworth only shook his head in return.

“We can't find him; my guess is he's still alive. But...” Codsworth started, but he was halted when Vernon takes his stick and proceeds to start hitting the commander around the head as hard as possible. Whilst it didn’t hurt, as he had just received a more vicious attack from Dave not half an hour before, the shock was enough to cause Codsworth to fall to the ground as Charlie rushes up to restrain the old butlers’ furious attacks. Once cooler heads had managed to prevail, Codsworth gets back up and spits blood out of his mouth, along with a couple of teeth to boot. “I guess, I deserved that.” Codsworth said as he got out a map. “Right, there's a town about a mile away from here to the north. We can go there and regroup. I don't want to be out here in the open.” Codsworth finished rolling up the map, he was about to continue and suggest that they could ask the people who would be inhabiting the town for help in their search but was cut off when Dave spoke up.

“Erm guys. I think there's something watching us.” Dave said as he pointed towards the hills ahead of them, where a short dark figure on top of a goat, was clearly observing their current position.