CHAPTERS 3 AND 4

CHAPTER 3

Monica started to take care of the wounded children, and suddenly Mrs Peters stirred and moved her head, whining with pain:

“What happened Monica?”

“There was an accident with the bus, Mrs Peters.”, she informed. The woman’s face changed into a desperate one:

“Oh my God! The children!...”

“Please stay calm. Andrew and I managed to take everybody out of the bus... Can you move?”

“I think so... I must have broken some bones, my entire body aches. My head too, I think I hit it when one of the emergency windows accidentally detached itself from the bus... Where are Mr Stokes and Andrew?”

“Mr Stokes is over there, I believe he’s broken his leg and is badly hurt too, and Andrew...”, she was hesitant for a second and Mrs Peters noticed:

“What is it Monica?”

“Mrs Peters, John and Sally are missing. Andrew is looking for them...”

“Oh no... They were sitting near me, I remember...”

“Yes, and now I think I know what happened.”, the Irish angel concluded.

*

Andrew walked for some time, calling out the children’s names, when, suddenly, he found Sally’s doll in the grass. Noticing that the toy was a bit distant from where the bus had passed, he sighed with relief:

“They are alive...”

The blond angel came back to where the others were and was even more relieved to see that Mrs Peters was conscious again and able to move herself:

“Monica, I think Sally and John aren’t distant from here, I found this...”, he said, showing the little girl’s doll.

“As Mr Stokes said, they must have fallen through the window while the bus was descending the hill.”

“I’ll go find them!...”, he decided, “You stay here with the others”.

But, before Monica could reply, Mrs Peters interrupted:

“Let Monica go with you, Andrew!”, she asked, “You two are in better condition than Mr Stokes and I, and it won’t be easy to look for the children in the middle of the night. On the contrary, it’s far too risky. Two people together will be able to find them faster.”

“But what about you and the children?”, asked the Irish angel.

“I already know what to do: we’ll all go up this hill until we are near the road. That way, if a car passes by, we’ll sign with the flashlights to ask for help. And I can look after the children and Mr Stokes.”

The bus driver agreed with her:

“Mrs Peters is right. The children are alright, none of them was badly injured, they can do it if we help them. And if we stay here nobody is gonna see us.”

Realising that was the best solution, and that there weren’t many options left, they accepted the woman’s suggestion.

With Monica and Andrew’s help, all the children were brought to a place near the road, under a high tree. Although she had some bones broken, Mrs Peters was strong all time, and could walk and take care of the others. Due to this, and sensing they were the only ones who could rescue Sally and John, the angels headed to the dark woods, in search of the two siblings.

*

Sally and John walked for about 20 minutes. Hand in hand, brother and sister were trembling with cold and fear. The only source of light they had was the boy’s key ring, which had a small flashlight in it. At the moment of the accident, both had been expelled from the bus because the emergency window was detached when the vehicle started to descend the mountain. The two children ended up rolling down to the other face of the hill, opposite to the one followed by the bus. Miraculously, none of them was severely hurt: Sally had some scratches on her face as well as John, and the boy had also hurt his left arm.

“Oh John, I want mummy and daddy... I want to go back to our house...”, cried the little girl.

“We will go back home, Sally, but we gotta find help first.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know, but maybe we’ll find a farm or something.”

“What about the other people in the bus?”

For a moment, the boy frowned: he didn’t want his little sister to know the tragedy that he himself was thinking had happened an hour ago:

“Oh Sally... I think... I think that, if we find somebody to help us, they will be able to help our friends too. Do you understand me?”

“Yes...”

“So that’s why we have to keep on walking, we have to be brave for us and for the others!”

“You’re right, John. But... can’t we stop for a second? My feet hurt...”

“That’s ok. Hold me tight.”

They sat on the ground and remained there in silence.

*

Hand in hand, Andrew and Monica started to walk through the woods surrounded by darkness and an annoying silence. The only trace of light was coming from the flashlight he carried with him. The Irish angel’s heart was beating  fast and she couldn’t hide how much she was afraid of the dark. Her best friend could feel all her anguish and it broke his heart to know how terrifying it was for his Angel Girl to face such a dreadful scenario. He stopped walking and looked at her, his compassionate green eyes reflecting all the love and care he felt for the little angel:

“Monica, sweetheart, I will always be here, holding your hand in mine, ok? I’ll never leave you alone, not for a second, and it’s not because Tess has told us to stay together. That I would do even if I had to climb up these mountains on foot!”, he said, squeezing her hand.

She shot him a look of love and gratitude:

“I know that, my friend.”, and gently stroked his cheek, “And now I know exactly why the Father has sent you to stay with me in this assignment. And I thank Him for this.”

Andrew leaned and gently kissed her forehead:

“We’ll find those children!”

Monica managed a slight smile:

“Yes... I’m sure we will!”

*

Sally and John walked for about 2 hours more, and the batteries of the boy’s flashlight started to fail.

“I wish it was day... I’m so scared John.”, whispered the little girl.

“But we can’t stop, Sally. We need to find help, as soon as possible.”

“What if we don’t?...”

“Don’t say that, of course we will find somebody to help us... and the people in the bus. I’m sure about that...”

John stopped talking when he saw something on the ground:

“...hey! Take a look over there! It’s a trail!!!”, he announced, with enthusiasm evident in his voice, “Do you know what it means? It means that people use it to walk in the woods!”

“So we can find people in here?...”

“Yes!”

With the help of the flashlight, they could see that it was a long trail, and the ground, once rocky and inclined, now was plain.

“I think we’ve come to the foot of the hill, now all we have to do is to follow that trail; it surely will take us somewhere we can ask for help!”

His excitement faded a bit when he looked to his sister and saw exhaustion in her face, as well as the tears that never abandoned her eyes:

“Well, I think we’d better stop here and rest for a few hours. Let’s wait for the sun to come out, because these batteries are low and will soon be over.”

“I’m so afraid John...”

He held his little sister:

“Take some sleep, Sally. I’ll be awake and watch everything around, ok?

*

After walking for some hours, calling out the children’s names, Monica and Andrew decided to stop and sit for a while. Being in human form made them feel extremely tired and their bodies were aching with all the cuts and bruises. Not mentioning that Andrew had fallen over his left arm and probably had sprained his wrist when the accident took place.

“How is your arm?”, she asked.

“It’s nothing that I can’t bear. It hurts a bit, but I don’t think it’s broken.”

They were under a tree and he was reclined on its trunk. Monica sat on her knees, right in front of him, and, affectionately ran her fingers through his blond hair:

“You’re hurt...We were so busy trying to save the others that we didn’t have much time to take care of ourselves.”

He smiled slightly:

“I guess that’s what makes us angels.”

“Yes, but now you’re going to let me take care of these cuts!”

She looked for some first aid equipment in the backpack:

“Monica, it’s just a few scratches, you don’t need to worry about...”

“Oh, but I do!”

“You should be taking care of yourself...”

But she didn’t listen to him: with a piece of cotton soaked up in alcohol, she started to clean all the cuts on his forehead. After disinfecting them, she put some medicine and bandages on the nastiest one.

“That’s it, I’ve finished. Now, it’s much better!”, the Irish angel announced, satisfied with her work. Andrew sighed, looking at her not only with love but also with admiration, and stroked her cheek:

“Thank you, Angel Girl.”

Monica took his hand in both of hers and squeezed it:

“Taking care of you is always a pleasure.”

But, before he could reply, the blond angel noticed something on her face and frowned:

“Monica sit here...”, he patted on the grass on his right side, and, when she did so, he gently took some strands of auburn hair off her forehead, revealing a bad cut on her temper:

“Look at this...”

Immediately, Andrew took the alcohol and the medicine and started to follow the same procedures his friend had followed minutes before.

“Is it that bad?”, she asked, a bit worried.

“It can be if we don’t treat it properly.”, he was concerned and upset, “The fact is that you were so busy trying to treat a few silly scratches on my head that you forgot to take care of yourself!”

Despite of his seriousness, the little angel smiled at him sheepishly:

“Well... I guess that’s what makes me your Angel Girl...”

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that comment, slightly blushed. Keeping the first aid material inside the backpack, he passed his arms around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him:

“So come here, my insubordinate Angel Girl...”, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest:

“We must stay close together ‘cause this night air is pretty cold.”

“I hope those poor children are alright, Andrew.”, Monica said, with some tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

“I know it might sound strange, but, actually I think the fact that we haven’t found them is a good sign...”

“I don’t understand...”

“It means they’re moving, they keep on walking. And, if the two can do that, so they’re not badly hurt.”

“Oh my God... You’re right. I’d never thought about it myself...”

He looked down to face his dearest friend:

“We’ll find them, sweetheart. I’m sure we will.”

She smiled at him, more confidently. They cuddled up under the tree and tried to sleep a little. But, despite their exhaustion, that was not easy, once the tragedy that had taken place that day was constantly echoing in their minds, like a never-ending nightmare. Besides this, the darkness and the coldness in the woods, as well as the pain in their bodies, made them wake up every hour. Andrew held the Irish angel tightly, doing everything he could to protect her from the cold air, and desperately wishing that the sun would come out.

But little did they know about all the danger that was yet to come.

CHAPTER 4

The first sun rays started to shine from behind the mountains, waking the children up. Only then, in daylight, they could have a better idea of where they were and their surroundings:

“I think we’ve managed to go down all the hill, Sally. Look around, it’s a pretty plain terrain.”

“I can hear a noise...”

“It seems to be water. There must be a river somewhere near here.”

“I’m so hungry, John.”

The boy checked his pockets, but could only find some candies:

“I’m sorry...”, he was disappointed, a sad look upon his face, as all he wanted was to protect his little sister. The girl shared the candies with him:

“What do we do now?”

“We’ll follow this trail. I’m sure we’ll find someone or someplace where there’s food and clean water.”

He grabbed her hand and they set off through the woods, following the narrow trail that lay ahead.

*

“Hey, sweetie...”

Andrew stroked his best friend’s auburn hair, taking some strands off her forehead, and watched when she sleepily opened her brown eyes:

“Andrew... what time is it?”

“Half past six. The sun rose some minutes ago.”

“I would love a cup of coffee...”

“I guess me too."

The Irish angel straightened her body, as she had been leaning against Andrew most part of the night, and rubbed her eyes:

“I’m so glad it’s day. Shall we restart our search now?”

“Sure!”

But, as the blond angel stood up, he felt his entire body aching: it was worse than before, and he couldn’t help whining with pain, as he barely managed to stand up:

“Andrew...”, Monica murmured, with deep concern, and immediately helping him to stand on his feet.

“It’s ok, Angel Girl; I guess the accommodations of the night were not the best ones I’ve already had.”

“Don’t you think it would be better if you stayed here while I’ll go after the children?”

He stretched his body and gently touched her cheek:

“Monica, dear, there’s nothing in this entire world that would make me leave you alone in this place!”

“But...”

He pressed his finger against her lips, to silence her:

“Now, let’s go find those kids and get out of here as soon as possible.”

*

The children walked for about 40 minutes, and their disposition was beginning to fade again when, suddenly, John spotted something in the sky that made him cry with enthusiasm:

“It’s smoke!... I can see smoke over there! And it’s coming from some place ahead! There must be someone camping near here!”, the boy grabbed his sister’s hand: ““C’mon, Sally, I think we’re safe!!!”

In fact, it was possible to see a trace of smoke not far away from where they were, and the two ran through the trees into its direction.

Minutes after, they arrived at a small clearing, and found out an improvised campsite there. A little tent was pitched in front of a fireplace, which was producing the trace smoke the children had spotted. And, on an old fallen tree trunk, there were two plastic bags with some cookies and some bottles filled with water.

“Look Sally! It’s food!”

Hungrier than never, they ran as fast as they could, and finally unpacked the plastic bags, eating and drinking eagerly everything they found inside.

*

Some time later:

“It’s awfully quite in here...”, the girl observed.

“Yeah, the person who was here must’ve gone hunting or something...”

“Isn’t he going to be mad at us because we’re eating his food?”

“We’ll apologise and explain what happened. And I’m sure whoever is camping in here will understand and help us.”

Suddenly, a man’s voice echoed through the air:

“Don’t count on that, kid!”

The siblings stood up immediately, quite scared with that angry tone, and saw a tall, thin man, with black dirty hair, staring at them with black threatening eyes:

“I’m sorry sir... We didn’t mean to steal your food, it’s just that...”

“Shut up!”, he walked towards the two and, only then, they realised something that made them freeze with fear: the man was holding a dead squirrel on his left hand and a gun on the right one.

“How come two damn kids could find this place?!”

At that moment, another man, also tall and thin, with blond dirty hair and wearing a beard, came up from the woods. He too had an unfriendly face and was dressed with worn out clothes. And he also carried a gun:

“What the hell is that?!”, he stormed, as furious to see the siblings as the first one.

“Seems we have some thieves here, Jack...”, stated the other, “Isn’t it ironic?!”

“I-I’m s-sorry sir... My sister and I... There was an accident with our bus and we came to ask for hel...”

“Haven’t I told you to shut this mouth up?! Are you deaf or what?!”

They held each other, trembling terrified at those two strangers.

*

“Andrew, I’m starting to think the children headed to another direction. On the contrary, they would’ve already answered to us.”

Andrew shook his head negatively:

“No, there’s no way those children have gone into a different direction...”

He looked at their surroundings, and, suddenly, spotted something on the ground, meters ahead of where they were: “Angel Girl, look at that...”

“It’s a trail...”

The two angels got closer to the small path that crossed the woods:

“Is it possible that John and Sally have followed it?...”, wondered the Irish angel. A smile appeared on his face:

“They surely have followed it! Look!...”

Covered by the grass there were the papers that wrapped the candies the kids had eaten about an hour ago. They looked at each other with their hopes renewed by that discovery:

“We can’t be far from them!”, said the blond angel, and grabbed his best friend’s hand, “C’mon, sweetie, let’s walk faster!”

*

“That’s great, we thought these mountains were the perfect place to hide from the cops for some time, that nobody would find us, and then, out of nothing, a damn bunch of kids comes up to eat our food and drink our water!”, the black-haired man stormed, angrily tossing one of the food bags, now empty, on the grass, near John and Sally. “What the hell are we gonna do now?!”

“Well... the kids saw us... Soon they will be blabbing about us to the entire world... and it won’t take too long until the police finds where we are.”

Hearing to that, John and Sally’s hearts started to pound, and some tears formed in the girl’s eyes.

“P-Please, don’t hurt us... We won’t tell anyone that we saw you here...”, the boy pleaded. The black-haired man approached them and faced the two with irony and evil eyes:

“Yeah, of course, we believe you!”

*

In a hurry, Andrew and Monica followed the trail for about 40 minutes. Although they knew the children were not badly hurt, it was sure that they were scared, cold and hungry; and the woods represented a permanent risk to their lives.

“I can hear water not far away from here...”, the Irish angel said.

“Yes... we’re near a river.”, the blond angel’s face became more concerned than never: “We have to find those kids pretty soon; this isn’t a place for them to walk around alone.”

At that moment, Monica noticed some smoke in the air:

“Look!... Maybe there’s a campsite or even a house nearby... And maybe John and Sally are there!...”, she concluded, now with her eyes were full of hope. Andrew heaved a sigh of relive:

“Oh... thank God!...”

They ran as fast as they could, going in the direction of a small clearing, not far away from there.

“Oh Father, I hope they are alright...”, Monica silently prayed, eager to find them. But, as soon as they got closer to the place, the two angels could hear some altered voices echoing through the trees and stopped walking:

“Damn! These stupid kids drank all our water, Jack! Now we gotta go back in the river to get some more! And if we hadn’t arrived here in time they would’ve eaten our food too! Damn it! ”

Monica and Andrew looked at each other confused and frightened:

“Andrew, what...”, she tried to speak, but he pressed a finger against her lips to silence her:

“Shh...”

The blond angel grabbed her hand and, slowly, they moved closer to the clearing. From behind the vegetation, they could see the place where the young children were being kept prisoners by the two strangers. The look of fear in the little one’s eyes, as well as the evil expression on the men’s faces, made the two angels freeze with shock and fear for the lives of the poor John and Sally.

They watched as one of the men walked towards the children running his fingers through his dirty blond hair:

“Yeah... These two made such a mess around here...”, he said, pensively, and stared at the two scared siblings, “How in the world did you get here?”

They were so afraid that they could hardly speak: “C’mon kid, I made you a question! You said there was an accident!...”

“Yes... an accident with our bus. We were going to the Green Valley Campsite, up in the mountains... But the bus got out of the road and fell down the hill...”

A look of complicity came up on the two men’s faces:

“The Green Valley Campsite, um? That’s what I call a coincidence... Tell me, were there many people in the bus?”

“Yes. About 30 children, plus Mrs Peters, Mr Stokes and two camp instructors...”

“I see... And where are they now? What happened to them?”, the black-haired man asked.

The boy silenced at that question. He didn’t want his little sister to know that all of their friends were probably dead, as she was already experiencing too much suffering and fear. Besides this, he wasn’t sure he should tell those men the truth, because this would mean confirming that they were alone and vulnerable. In other words, this would mean confirming that they were in their hands.

“Answer me kid!”, he screamed, and pointed his gun to Sally, “Now!”

But the vision of that man threatening to hurt Sally at any moment made him tell the twosome everything that had happened to them:

“No!... I think they’re dead!... They’re all dead! The bus rolled down the hill and my sister and I only escaped because one of the emergency exits opened and we fell out of the bus... Please stop pointing this to her!”, John pleaded, even more nervous to see the look of shock in his sister’s eyes.

Satisfied with that answer, the man moved away from the children and put his gun down:

“That’s good. Nobody’s gonna mess around at least for a few days.”

 “...they have guns, Andrew...”, the Irish angel whispered, with her entire body trembling.

“Criminals running away from the police...”, her friend concluded, “...And I’m afraid John and Sally have just found out their hiding place...”

One of the men started to prepare the squirrel for lunch, opening the animal with a knife. Monica put her hand in her mouth, even more scared at that scene:

“...we have to take them out of there as soon as possible...”

“Yeah, but how are we going to do that? We are in human form, remember? We can’t just go in there and grab those children by their hands...”

While his partner was preparing the lunch, the black-haired man, whose  name was Bill, looked to the two children pensively:

“Look at them... they’re not ordinary kids... wearing good clothes, good shoes... Soon the cops will be looking for them; I bet they’re already doing it...”

“So, I think you’d better have a pretty good idea of what we’re gonna do with these two, Bill...”

“But I think I’ve got an damn good idea buddy... Maybe we can make some money with these two...”

“I don’t get it...”

“We’ll keep them as hostages, Jack!”

The blond man shook his head with indecision:

“I don’t know... The plan was to rob the Green Valley Campsite! To get all the money and food we could and get the hell outta here after that.”

“The plan’s changed. You’ve heard the boy, the bus didn’t arrive at the campsite and the few idiots that work there must’ve called the cops already. If we go there now, we can even be caught.”

“Yeah... Maybe you’re right...”

Bill looked at the children and an evil smile appeared on his face:

“And sure mom and dad are gonna pay anything to get their precious babies back...”

Hidden in the trees, the two angels heard everything, and Andrew shook his head with impatience and frustration:

“... if we don’t have a good plain to rescue John and Sally, I don’t even want to think about the consequences... Oh God, how come all of this could happen?!”

Still very scared, Monica took his hand and squeezed it:

“Andrew, even if we were in angelic form we wouldn’t be able to rescue them without a good plan because they are humans and mortals.”

Sensing the truth in his best friend’s words, he nodded, and she kept on talking:

“We have to think about a way to take them out of there safely; and I’m sure a good idea will come up soon.”

*

Some time later, the two thieves started to eat their lunch. They had tied up Sally and John with some ropes and seemed to be excited about the possibility of taking a good profit from the kidnapping of the two children.

“We can take the money and get out of the city with false documents, it’s gonna be easy.”, Bill said. Jack agreed:

“And it’s been 3 months since we’ve escaped from prison, I bet the cops won’t expect to find us in here, in a different state, miles away from that hell we were in!”

“Yeah... seems that our little visitors were not so inconvenient...”

Both started laughing sarcastically. Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from the trees:

“What was it?...”, the black-haired thief turned serious.

“I think it came from that side...”

Again, the noise broke the silence of the woods, and Jack stood up:

“I don’t like it, Bill...”

“It could be an animal...”

The blond man grabbed his gun and loaded it:

“Let’s see...”, he moved away from the campsite, going in the direction where the strange noise had come from. Minutes later, the other man stood up too and, after checking if the rope around the children were held tightly, headed in the same direction his partner had gone:

“Hey Jack, did you find something?!...”

Soon he also disappeared through the woods. Only then, the siblings could talk:

“Oh John, I’m so scared... What are we going to do now?...”, the girl murmured, with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know Sally, but we’ll find a way...”

At that moment, they heard a familiar voice, with an Irish accent, calling out their names:

“John, Sally!”

The kids looked in its direction and saw Monica coming from behind a tree, which was opposite from the side the thieves had gone:

“Monica!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here, children.”, she whispered, already untying the ropes that kept them.

“I thought you were dead, like everybody else...”, the boy was surprised and happy to see her.

“No, John. Everybody managed to escape from the bus; some people are hurt, but all are alive.”

“Oh cool!”

“I wanna go home, Monica, these two bad men are gonna do something bad to us...”

“No, they won’t Sally. I’m gonna get you out of here in a minute...”

But, before she could untie the ropes completely, somebody trained a gun barrel on her head.

“I don’t think so, lady...”

It was Bill, who had returned to the campsite in silence and was unnoticed by the three. Monica’s face paled at the sound of his voice and she felt barrel of the gun hard against her head; he was ready to shoot at any moment: ”You’d better stop messing with these ropes and stand up very slowly, unless you wanna see things get pretty ugly ‘round here!”