CONVEX

7: The Aftermath

Jeremy stares at his controller intently as the drone roars to life across the trail. The motion of the small contraption makes a couple of leaves flutter in the breeze as he inspects the trail ahead of him. In the back of his bag, the drone sits in a repurposed case. Previously, it contained his glassware. Now, it contains a drone and a small portable generator.

Jeremy straps a first-aid kit on the side of the motorcycle with a bit of rope and shoves a couple of water bottles in a compartment box on the back of the bike. When he gathers enough adequate supplies, he sets out onto the trail to look for Hector.

"Mama, look!" Sammy calls over the roar of the engine, "That man's going on the trail!"

"Is that Molly's bike?!" his mother exclaims. Sammy's mother promptly crouches down and puts both his hands on his shoulders. She gives the squirming child a stern look and says, "Mommy needs to go talk to Mrs. Jenkins for a couple of minutes now, sweetie."

"It's dangerous inside the store, so I want you to play at the park," the woman orders sternly, "Can you do that for mommy?"

"Okay!" Sammy replies. The little boy promptly raises his hand in a mock salute before scampering into the park. When his mother smiles and disappears into the store, Sammy sits directly in front of the woods. After thinking about it for a couple of minutes, the little boy decides to ignore his mother's orders. The little boy gets up on his feet.

When Sammy heads into the woods to follow after Jeremy, he disappears.

. . .

Jeremy flips through an operator's manual at the bottom of the compartment of the motorcycle. The manual informs him about the basic mechanisms behind the throttle, the breaks, and the other components like the cruise control and the lights.

When the biochemist kicks up the bike stand and turns on the throttle, though, the motorcycle immediately lurches forward. On the bumpy trail leading outside of Redwood, the suspension jolts and wobbles until the path turns into a stable, dirt road.

Jeremy's knuckles turn white on the handlebars.

Along the trail, grass and plant life seem to be reclaiming the way into the mountains. Jeremy stops his bike to clear out foliage. Sometimes, he takes an alternate route around fallen trees.

Half way through the trail, the ground becomes too unstable to travel by bike. As a result, Jeremy leaves it at the edge of the trail and hoists his supplies on his back. The scientist heads up the bumpy mountain and removes the drone from the backpack. In its place, he haphazardly tosses the medical kit before he rushes into the woods.

Beneath the trees, a drone emerges from the woods. The contraption soars overhead to scout the area until it reaches a series of landslides on its tiny camera.

"Hector!" Jeremy calls. He spends a couple of minutes inspecting the dirt and rubble before he presses forward. The hairs on the back of his neck stand as he grows closer to the base of the mountain.

Jeremy hears no response after a couple of minutes, and the scientist screams incoherently in frustration. His tantrum manages to startle a couple of birds, startling them into the air. He slides onto his knees in the grass and covers his face in despair. Then, he takes a couple of short, ragged breaths.

Jeremy forces himself to his feet.

Just when he prepares to turn around, he glances at the drone's controller. On a small camera at the bottom of the handheld device, he manages to see Hector's face.

Jeremy nearly drops the controller.

Hector tries to say something, but the drone doesn't have a microphone. The paranormal investigator grimaces a little at the video feed from the drone's camera. The dirt caking Hector's sandy blond hair shows that he barely made it out.