Page 102 of Little Girls Sleeping

“Where are you?”

“Can you see the truck?”

Chad didn’t see any truck, so he moved carefully to the left and stepped across an area between several trees. There it was—Charles Rey’s truck.

“I see it!”

He waited with trepidation, nerves raw, yet relieved that he had found her. He glanced behind him; Cisco was still in the down position.

“I’m a few yards from the truck,” she said.

Chad hastened to move closer to her voice. He wanted to make sure that she was okay, and that it was really her—to make sure she wasn’t a mirage. His survival instincts told him to stay low to the ground. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but he obeyed his senses and moved toward her on hands and knees. He saw clearly that there was a long sunken area, in addition to some sort of sinkhole.

“Katie,” he said.

“Please, Chad, don’t come any closer. It’s not safe.”

A low rumbling reminiscent of the noises he had heard earlier erupted from underneath him. As he scrambled back, part of the ground in front of him fell inward. He gasped in disbelief; he had never seen anything like it before. The area resembled the collateral damage after a bomb had detonated. He saw Charles’s truck bounce from side to side; it would soon be the next thing to disappear.

“Stay still,” he ordered. “I’ll be back.”

Katie sobbed quietly as she heard Chad leave, calling Cisco’s name. They had found her, but she had sensed the earth moving and shifting again, and she knew that she had mere minutes and not hours before she was buried alive. Despite her terror, hearing Chad’s voice had helped to ease some of the emotional pain.

Chad ran as fast as he could back to his Jeep. He knew that Katie’s time was running out. Out of breath, he put Cisco inside the vehicle, where he would be safe, then retrieved his cell phone and dialed Sheriff Scott.

The sheriff answered on the second ring, “What do you have?” His voice sounded strained.

“I found her,” replied Chad. “She’s okay right now, but we need to move fast.”

“Slow down. What do you mean?”

“She’s fallen into some type of cavern or underground cave. The ground is extremely unstable and could drop further at any time. We could lose her.”

“What about Rey?”

“I don’t know. He’s gone… The ground is falling in and it’s unclear how far the danger extends.”

“Text me your coordinates and I’ll send help.”

“Sir,” Chad began. “I’ve got a winch on my Jeep and I’m going to try and pull her out. Do I have your permission?”

There was a pause.

“Sir?”

“Do what you need to do,” was the reply.

“Thank you. My location is coming to you right now.” He ended the phone call and sent a text with his GPS location and specific instructions about the unstable area, then jumped behind the wheel.

He knew that no matter how fast he wanted to drive, he had to watch the ground and go slowly. He stopped the Jeep, then inched forward; stopped and then inched forward again. Cisco seemed to feel his heightened energy and trepidation, which made him bark and pant in turn as they made their halting way toward Katie.

When he calculated that they were approximately twenty-five feet away, Chad got out of the vehicle and ran around to the back, opening the cargo area. Inside, he had several two-by-fours used for fencing. He pulled four of them out and placed them strategically on the ground so that he could drive the Jeep onto them. Then, taking out two more, he wedged them behind his back tires.

Cisco jumped around in the cab, barking every so often as though to encourage him in his efforts.

Chad carefully stepped in front of the Jeep and moved toward Katie as far as he dared, calling her name.

He waited. Then a weak reply: “I’m still here…”