Journey for the Truth

Chapter 6: The Search

This chapter is told by the POV of Antonio

A bright light flashes followed by an explosion that sounds a lot like the outlet blowing in the weight room. Then everything goes dark.

"I'm blind!" Jacob yells from somewhere behind me. I blink my eyes and rub them trying to regain my vision. What the hell was that?

"What the hell was that?" Kelly says grabbing my arm "I can't see"

"Everybody calm down, the bright light just stunned your eyes, give them time to adjust and you will be fine" I say louder then I probably needed to because I don't know how far away everybody is. I start to see blurry images followed by colors then finally details and in a minute or two my vision is back to normal.

"Oh my god!" Kelly screams backing up. I look up and see Milton laying there smoking. Wait, smoking? Holy shit!! Milton is literally smoking!! I get up and run to the edge of the creek and swim across. I kneel next to Milton and inspect him. His clothes are burnt and black but his body seems to be fine. I reach out to touch him and his whole body shakes like he's being electrocuted, then he stops and goes limp.

"Antonio, what's happening?" Steven asks getting up out of the water

"He's breathing, he'll be ok, but he's hurt" I say reaching under his head "grab his legs, we have to get him to the other side" Steven grabs his legs and lifts. We carry him to the other side and set him next to Kelly and the first aid kit.

"Where's Devin?" Beth asks standing up and looking around. I lower my head to avoid eye contact. I feel a hand gently grab my chin and pull my head up.

"Antonio. Where is he?" Kelly asks looking deep into my eyes

"I.. I don't know.." I say tearing up a little bit. "He might have passed out like Milton did"

"But that would mean.." Beth starts saying "He was in the water.. No.."

"Beth, no. We will find him" Kelly says hugging Beth. I walk up to her and put my hand on her shoulder

"He's ok. I promise." I say to her not believing what I'm saying

"We'll find him" Oliver says standing up

"Really?" Beth says tearing up "you promise?" she says looking up and into my eyes

"I swear, we will find him" I say turning away from her so she doesn't she the non belief on my face. "Steven can we talk?" Steven walks over to me and gets close so I can whisper. "Dude, did you see what happened?"

"Yeah, there was an explosion from across the river" he said confused "right?"

"I don't think that's what happened. I think someone did this to them on purpose. The flash of light was blue before it got bright enough to blind us. It might have been my imagination but that's what it looked like and Milton was quaking like he was being shocked when I went over to him. I think someone murdered Devin and tried to kill Milton as well" I explained quietly so not to cause a panic to the others.

"Oh my god are you saying that you think Devin is dead? No. He can't be. Not him." Steven backs away in slight horror

"Milton is almost dead and he was passed out. He wasn't even in the water. I'm sorry to say but Devin couldn't have survived that" I say clenching my fist. "We aren't looking for Devin, we are looking for his body"

"No! He's alive!" Steven shouts "How could you say that?!"

"Shhhh, be quite" I whisper at him. "We don't need Beth knowing he's dead"

"He's not dead asshole!" He yells. he needs to be quite. Fuck it. I swing and contact my fist to his face sending him to the ground. He lays there for a second before standing up and wiping blood from his lip.

"Let's just go look for Devin" I say not wanting to waste time kicking Steven's ass. "We'll split up. Me, Kelly, and Beth. You, Mike, and Desmond. Milton, Oliver, and Jacob. We'll take different sides of the creek. Look for anything relating to him, footprints out of the creek, lost pieces of clothing, blood.... anything. At least one of you from each group meet back here at 7pm, Go" I say then walk over to Kelly "You about ready to go search for him?"

"Yes" she says then turns to Beth "You ok?"

"No. No I'm not. My boyfriend is missing and he's all alone" she says staring to cry again

"Then let's go find him" I say turning away from her and Kelly and walking away expecting them to follow. We search for about an half hour before we find something.

"Omg! Is that... his shoe?!" Beth exclaims as she runs towards the creek edge. She picks up Devin's shoe and runs it back to us. "Antonio, where is he?!?!" she says bawling

"I don't know. I'm sorry to say but I think Devin's gone.." I say trailing off towards the end not really wanting to be the one to tell her this. "I think we need to call the cops and report the accident. They can search better then us. I'll leave u two out of the questioning if u want?"

"No, I want to do everything I can to get him back. I'd do anything" she says holding his shoe and shirt close to her. I pull my phone out and dial 911.