Griffin Rock's Secret: A Cody Burns Fanfiction

Chapter 12

     "Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Kade stomped his boot into the ground, crushing plants and a few twigs in his anger. "A whole day out here and nothing.. There's no sign of Quarry anywhere here. No tracks, no robots, nothing!" Heatwave looked down at his angry partner. They had been scouring the east side of the lake where Cody had been found, but they hadn't discovered any sign of Quarry. Their coms had been used multiple times by their family, checking in on each other in the field and making sure that no one had missed anything.

     As Kade kicked a rock, the smell of sulfer wafted into the air, only for a moment. It dispersed quickly and Kade paid no attention to it. What did catch his eye was the fact that there were boot prints in the ground leading towards the lake. He followed the trail backwards with his eyes until they were covered by some foliage.

     "Heatwave, do you see these?" Kade called to the firebot, who leaned over Kade to get a closer look at the footprints.

     "These prints don't seem like they would be big enough for someone like this Quarry you've told me about," Heatwave remarked. Kade crouched down to look closer at the marks. As he did so, it dawned on him who the tracks belonged to.

     "These are Cody's boot prints!" He exclaimed, jumping up and pressing his com link. "Hey guys, I found some boot prints from Cody when he was out here. They seem to be coming from the northeast, me and Heatwave are gonna follow them for a bit. We'll tell you if we find anything." Kade informed his family, who all were asking him questions on if there were any other tracks near Cody's.

     They followed the footprints backwards, heading away from the lake the prints were headed towards. Sometimes they lost the trail and had to look around for a few minutes to locate the next part. After about an hour or so of searching, Kade came across a small creek, which wasn't shown on the map he had pulled out from Heatwave's glove compartment. He stared at the creek for a few minutes while Heatwave walked a little ways ahead.

     The trees were thicker, and the fire bot had to crouch and move branches aside to keep them from hitting his face and obscuring his vision. As he was about to head back, he noticed something behind a large tree.

     "Kade, get over here and tell me if you can see what I'm seeing," Heatwave's gruff voice echoed through the trees.

     "Alright, I'm coming, geez," Kade muttered as he splashed through the creek. The water only came up to his knees, but something told him that if he was Cody's height, his pants would probably be completely soaked. The water was freezing too, and Kade was relived that Cody had only been gone for one day with his pants soaked. It would have been better if Cody hadn't disappeared at all.

     As Kade arrived next to Heatwave, he saw what looked to be like a burnt tree, far up a hill. He looked around and noticed that it wasn't a steep hill at all, but gradually sloped down to the stream he had crossed. If someone was walking, it would be a bit before they reached the stream, but running.... Kade bit his lip and started to jog up to the tree.

     His senses were heightened now, after realizing how scared Cody must have been in the woods. Especially if Quarry was with him. Kade was noticing more details, like the crushed foliage and scuffed dirt near the burnt tree. All he could think was when Cody had said he had gotten away from Quarry, been chased and nearly kidnapped again.

     A jagged stick nearly caused Kade to trip, and he started to kick it. However he grabbed it instead as he saw the dried blood on it. His mind flashed back to the bandage on Cody's hand, and pictured Quarry using the stick to keep Cody from using his hand. He looked back to find Heatwave struggling to keep his temper in check before he started uprooting trees in his way.