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“Clear. Looks like a mess in here though.” Teddi took in the scene. A long table connected to the wall looked like someone swiped their arm across it knocking down a toolbox, paint cans, and a bundle of rope.

“An accident or is he running?” Vera asked as she looked back at the house. No one moved behind the curtains and the lights were still on.

A deep muffled scream sounded in the trees behind them.

“Go, go, go,” Teddi barked quietly as she sprinted into the woods. The loud snapping of branches sounded underfoot as they barreled into a maze of tangled growth. Jumping a fallen tree, she paused, panting.

“Anything?” Vera whispered next to her, the beam of her flashlight finding only nature in the pitch.

Another sound came, a weak yell to their right.

“There.” Running as fast as she could, Teddi lifted her feet around the labyrinth of roots and bushes, a sharp branch whipping her across the cheek with a sting. She refused to slow down, thighs burning as she hurdled over treacherous ground.

Their lights moved haphazardly as they ran, reaching for the sound. Teddi panted, heart thundering inside her as hope and dread fought for control of her mind.

“Stop,” Vera’s voice hissed, both of them halting immediately. The trickle of a sunken stream sang a few feet ahead, the dip in the ground enough to twist an ankle in.

Scanning left to right, Teddi slammed her mouth shut so she could hear over her heavy breathing. Not a break of a twig or the rustle of a bush. The forest fell silent once more. It had swallowed the screams. Moving slowly, she tried to make out unnatural shapes. Trees, trees, more fucking trees for endless miles lay around her pushing in.

“We’re only a few miles from the glade.” Vera’s voice was so low she strained to hear it.

“It’s the opposite way,” Teddi replied. “Do you think they know we’re here?”

Vera lowered her gun, coming to stand by her at the feet of a monstrous tree. Teddi shrugged off the unease of how small it made her feel. Any other time she would revel in it, but now it felt looming. Too alive, too powerful against her.

“It’s possible. The question is if he’s running or if he was taken. One means he’s guilty, the other… ”

“Dead.”

“If it's the second, they’re going the wrong way.”

“And if it’s the first, he’s getting away.”

“Fuck. Fuck.” Vera dove her hand into her hair on a frustrated growl.

“We’ll keep pushing.” Vera needed something to do, something to control, Teddi recognized the frustration boiling over. “Don’t get mad, Vera, get smart. I’m not going to go down because you didn’t have my back.” The bitchy comment worked as Vera glared at her.

“Low blow,” she mumbled as Teddi leaped across the small stream.

They pushed on in the same direction, moving slower this time, walking purposefully a few feet apart. The temperature was falling fast but Teddi still wiped sweat from her brow. It was the idea of what they may find that kept her blood pressure spiked. Deputy Gunson running, maybe refusing to go down without a fight. The killer, possibly with him.

She trained, prepared, and envisioned scenarios like this for years but it never got easier. The not knowing. The hidden opponent waiting for the right moment to strike. She reminded herself that she was trained to meet every challenge head-on, like it or not.

“I can hear you thinking from here,” Vera whispered, her flashlight kicking back a muted glow on her face in the dark. Winding through the uneven backwoods without injury was tedious, so she took the bait.

“I was trying to figure out how the hell you forgot how to kiss after all these years,” she replied.

“Ha. Ha. Puta.” Teddi smiled to herself as she walked on, eyes locked ahead. “You weren’t complaining when I had my face between your thighs.”

“All your messiness is beneficial down south.”

“Oh, fuck off. I seem to recall you saying I was the best kisser you ever had. Or do you magically not remember now?” Vera cursed, nearly tripping over something.

“I was a young, dumb, inexperienced twenty-something-year-old. I didn’t know any better.” Passing her light back to an angular shape on her left, she hissed an exhale between her teeth when a large pile of wood took shape.

“If I recall you had already fucked six people by the time we got together,” Vera hissed.

“God, I love it when you get jealous.”