Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

30. Signals

As she pushed open the heavy top, the smell of trees filled her nose. She wasn't sure which ones, but it smelled of life and green. She took a deep breath for just a moment, still amazed that she was in a place where trees and wood were so vibrantly alive. But when the moment was over she began to dig through the contents of the trunk.

It was filled with things, but she barely paid any attention to them. It was mostly clothes or blankets, at any rate. She dumped them all on the ground without a glance, coming closer and closer to the noise with each armful. As she lifted a folded sheet, she noticed a heavy metal key tangled around its own string. She wasn't sure what it belonged to, but she pocketed it anyway. As soon as it disappeared from sight, she forgot about it and focused on digging for the distress signal.

It was when she reached the bottom that she spotted it. One of the radios from home. In fact, her own radio that she'd used to find her dad's coordinates all those days ago. The Beast had taken it from her when she had been captured, but here it was in her hands again. She nearly cried at the battered sight of it, and quickly lifted it to her lips to press the switch that let her talk to the other side of the broadcast.

"Hello? Hello!" Bo said, trying to keep her voice down but her nerves making it pitch louder with each word. "Is someone there?"

She let the switch go and the sound of crackling replaced the distress signal. She crackled with nerves, her stomach flopping inside of her. Her knuckles went white as she clutched the radio to her ear.

"B- Bo? Is that you?" The sound was horrible, like talking into a tin can while in a cave, but Bo could tell her sister's voice anywhere.

"Felicia! Oh! Felicia!" she sobbed, clutching the radio as if it were her sister's hands.

"I can't believe we got you!" Felicia said, her voice cutting in and out. "We've been trying for weeks! We thought you were dead."

Bo shifted, getting into a more comfortable position on the floor. "I'm fine, but I haven't had access to my radio in weeks. I had to pick a lock to get at it today."

"No offense, Bo, but I can't listen to your stories right now," Felicia interrupted. "I need to tell you something important."

"Go ahead," Bo said, her hands shaking.

"Dad's really bad. He's just been getting worse since he got back from... wherever it is that you are. He only told us that you were captured, but he wouldn't say by who. Bandits? But, anyway, he's barely conscious. It's all we can do to get him to eat." Felicia's voice paused, and when it returned Bo could hear the tightness of hidden tears. "He's dying, Bo. And the only thing he wants is you."

"What?" Bo said, her face going numb. "Dying? What are you talking about? That's ridiculous. He's Dad. He can't die."

"He's thinks it's his fault that you were captured. He's blaming himself and it's killing him. You need to find a way to come home, right now."

Bo bit her lip, trying to imagine her dad laying somewhere dying. It was impossible. He was the man who led the camp when the war still raged. He had made sure they were all safe. He wasn't someone who just died so senselessly.

"Hold on, Felicia. Wait a minute, I need to see something." She stuffed the radio in her waistband and shot to her feet. She couldn't sit here and just imagine her father in such a condition. She had to see it.

She ripped open the door and ran out into the hallway and down to where she was only allowed on good behavior... and this was certainly not good behavior. By the time she reached the sky room it had been a few minutes and she could only hope Felicia was still on the other end of the radio. She pulled it out of her waistband as she crossed the room and dug out the display screen. She swiped the screen like she'd seen the Beast do a thousand times, and called up the feed of her camp. The stealth robot was stationed in the Dead Woods when she wasn't using it, but she saw only dark blurs as it crossed the short distance to the camp walls. After a minute, the lightbulbs they used to light the paths between tents came into view, and the view hovered to a stop over her tent.

Raising the radio to her lips, she prayed Felicia was still there. "Bring Dad outside. I've got a live-feed of the camp here in front of me."

"How-?" Felicia asked, but then stopped herself. "Never mind. I won't ask. Give us a minute. I'll need to get Aston to help." There was some scuffling and then the radio returned to static. Bo placed it beside her on the table, staring at the empty view of the camp.

It took them a minute and a half to come into view. She saw Aston first, backing out with something in his arms, and then she saw Felicia edge out beside him. She waited for a moment for them to position themselves awkwardly, and then she picked up the radio.

"Is Dad there?" she asked.

Felicia raised her own radio up. "Aston's holding him. Where are you looking from?"

"Directly above." They adjusted so that Bo got a clear view of a withered form in Aston's arms. Her dad looked more like a blanket roll than the man she remembered from even just a few weeks ago in the Beast's dungeon. He looked impossibly old. And he didn't look like he had much time left.

She choked on a sob, tears springing to her eyes. Her hands shook as she held the radio to her mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what.

"Bo, are you still there?" Felicia asked.

"Yes. I'm here." She stared at her dad's unnervingly still body. "But I'm going to come home, Felicia. I'm going to come home, so don't worry. I'll be-"

But she never got to finish her thought. Before she could tell Felicia anything more, a blue hand ripped the radio from her grasp. Bo whipped around to see the Beast staring down at her and the display screen showing her family staring at something they could not see.