You Have 86,400 Seconds To Find Me

7:37am (Jeepers)

Thirty seven minutes later, Sam pulled up next to us on his army green dual sport motorcycle, sending a small puff of smoke out from the motor and into the air, where it then blew up into the sky and faded away.

"Thank you for coming," I mustered as Kelly and I lifted our butts off of the curb in which we had perched ourselves for the past half hour. "You have no idea how happy we are to see you, Sam."

Sam lifted his black helmet up off of his head and gave me a half smile, "Yeah, I'm sure you are. Listen, I passed your car on my way here. It was parked right in the middle of this long industrial road. It's only about ten minutes away from here. I also drove by a gas station that's only a few blocks away. It should only take me like a half hour to pick up some gas to at least get your car to the station, and then I can come back and get you."

"What?" Kelly fumed, her arms crossed. "You're going to leave again?"

"Well, yeah. We can't all fit on my bike and we will find Macy a lot faster if we have a car, don't you think?"

Kelly was silent for a moment, considering. "Yeah, I guess so," she relented.

I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and handed Sam a twenty as well as my car keys. "Drive fast," I said, as he shoved the money and the keys in his pocket and pulled his helmet back on.

"I always do," he said, and then he was off again, sending another puff of dark grey smoke into the atmosphere.

Twenty minutes later Sam returned with my car, shaving a whole ten minutes off his time. Impressive. He opened the drivers' side door and got out, gesturing for me to take over. "That was fast," I said as I got in. "I told you, I drive fast," Sam replied as he then walked over to the passenger side door and held it open. "Kelly," he said, as he flashed her a smile. "I told you I wouldn't forget your name again."

"You did, thank you," she smiled back as Sam shut the door behind her and then proceeded to hop in the backseat. "The guy at the gas station let me leave my motorcycle in his parking lot. Said he would keep an eye on it for me. So later on, you're going to have to give me a ride back there to get it."

"After all you've just done for me Sam, that is the least I can do," I said, as I checked the time on the dashboard. It was now 8:00am on the dot. We had exactly ten hours, 39,600 seconds left to find Macy.

"Okay, Sam," I said, turning around in my seat. "Does your Jeep have some sort of tracking device?"

"Yes it does, I hooked it up to my phone. I can program it on the GPS and it should lead us straight to it."

Sam handed Kelly his phone and then sat back in his seat, after all the running around he had just done for us, he could sit back and chill all he wanted. I owed him that much. "So, tell me what happened," Sam said, just after Kelly told me how to get back to the main road.

"Well," I said, as I took a left off of Beacon Street. "I stopped by Macy's house yesterday afternoon, since she hadn't shown up at school. When I got there, she was nowhere in sight. I thought maybe she had gone out grocery shopping with her Mom or something so while I waited for them to return, I logged into my e-mail." I picked my phone up off the center console and carefully, with one eye on the road, logged into my e-mail. "And Macy had sent me this." I handed Sam my phone and listened to Macy's voice fill the car once again. It had felt like forever since I had heard her voice even though it had only been a few hours. I listened to her say how she felt no one in the world loved her, how no one cared about her.

No one except me.

Sitting in the car right now, Kelly next to me and Sam behind me, I knew for sure that was not true. There were two people right here who loved and cared about Macy just as much as I did. Two people who were willing to put their lives on hold and drop everything to find her, to make sure she made it home safe and sound.

The car remained quiet until the video ended. I knew Sam had shed a few tears throughout it, just by the sound of his voice. "Wow," he said hoarsely as he handed my cell back to me. "Did you ever find the thing that was missing from her room?"

I nodded. "It was Jengo, the teddy bear she left with you at Howard's. She usually puts him right on her bed after she makes it. I didn't even realize he was gone at the time, not until you handed him to me later on that night."

"Okay, so how did you end up all the way out here?" Sam gestured to outside, Greenfield, Massachusetts.

"The day my Mom and I took Macy to the Franklin County Fair for the day, I won Jengo for her in a game of Balloon Darts. I know it doesn't sound like much to go on, but I'm almost one hundred percent sure that's where Macy is. I think she went back to the fair site. It's September 3rd, this is the only weekend the fair is open for."

Kelly led me down a few more streets, I took some lefts and some rights, and then out of nowhere, there it was.

Sam's Jeep.

It was sitting in an abandoned parking lot, the back window busted open. It looked as though someone had taken a baseball bat to the glass, probably thinking there were valuables inside for them to steal. It had taken us a little over a half hour to get to it. We never would have been able to walk all the way over here. It would have taken us hours. Not to mention we would have gotten lost along the way. Calling Sam was by far the best decision we had made all night. I just felt bad for his Jeep.

"Oh my God," Kelly said, as we pulled up next to it. Sam hopped out of the car and walked over to the side with the broken window and peered in.

"Luckily, I don't keep any of my stuff in my Jeep," Sam said as he unlocked the doors and then knelt inside to get a better look at the interior. From where I stood, all I could see was a lot of shattered glass.

"Well clearly Macy's not here," Sam said as he looked over at us. "What do we do now?"

"Well, this is the last place she was," I said, walking over and looking into the Jeep. Wow, there was a lot of glass.

"Maybe she left a clue or something," Kelly said from behind me. "You know, like before?"

"I don't think so, Kelly. I mean she stopped sending us clues a while back. Why would she all of a sudden leave one now? Besides, she wasn't planning on us finding the Jeep. The only reason why we did was because Sam's alarm system went off."

"That's right," Sam said, leaning up against the Jeep. "I don't think she would leave you guys another clue, the only thing I can't figure out is why the Jeep is here. I mean, she parked it. It isn't like she ran out of gas in the middle of the road like you did. She intentionally left it here."

"That's true," I said. It didn't make sense. Why would Macy leave the Jeep parked in an abandoned lot when she could just drive it to the field and be done with it? Isn't that what she needed it for? So she wouldn't have to take all those buses? Or wait... Maybe she had another plan for it all along. And then I thought of something. "Unless..."

Sam and Kelly both turned to look at me. "Unless what?" Kelly asked.

"Sam, how many times has Macy been in this Jeep with you?"

"Um, I don't know," Sam answered, running one hand through his hair. "A lot, I guess. Every couple of weeks we get together and go see a movie or something so, enough."

"And do you talk about the Jeep a lot? Like, more specifically, about the alarm system?"

Sam smirked, nodding his head. "I'm sure I may have mentioned it."

"What are you going on about, Max?" Kelly asked, clearly she didn't understand what I was saying.

Sam laughed, "That little minx."

"She knew we were going to get stuck," I said, looking at Kelly. "Macy doesn't do anything without a reason. She knew she left us hanging and that we were going to need help. So she intentionally parked Sam's Jeep in this lot knowing his alarm would go off. She planned the whole thing."

Kelly's eyes widened. "Are... Are you saying that...?"

"Yes, Kells, that is exactly what I'm saying," I said, looking at the Jeep. I was having trouble believing it myself. She thought of everything. Sam was her plan B.

"Macy sent Sam to make sure we were on track. She busted the window."