Chapter 3The Mudslide's Echo

Chloe just casually dropped the suggestion, but Ethan reacted as if he had just heard a bomb threat.

Without conducting even a basic safety assessment, he issued a hard command.

"Chloe is right! That is a high-probability indicator of an imminent secondary mudslide! Immediate retreat, right now!"

His squad members were deeply unsettled.

"But Captain, we absolutely heard a distress signal. Retreating without conducting a preliminary sweep is a direct violation of search and rescue protocol."

Ethan glared at them.

"If we stay, and a secondary slide hits, and we suffer casualties on my team... are you taking responsibility for that?!"

"RETREAT!"

As the rescue team moved away, the vibrations caused a massive, suspended boulder above our heads to shift and crash down, slamming directly onto my back.

I was crushed down onto my hands and knees. The already suffocatingly small pocket of air I was maintaining for Lily was compressed even further. She was instantly starved of oxygen, her little face turning a terrifying shade of blue.

I violently arched my back, taking the crushing weight of the boulder to give her an extra inch of space, forcing myself to take shallow, agonizing breaths to conserve the oxygen.

With trembling fingers, I reached for the glowing star bracelet on my daughter's wrist. I found the small, raised button on the inside of the band and pressed it hard.

It was an emergency GPS beacon my parents had custom-ordered for her the day she was born, right after a nurse almost handed her to the wrong family in the maternity ward.

The interface was foolproof. You push the hidden button, and the microchip instantly blasts an SOS text and live GPS coordinates to all emergency contacts.

Simultaneously, the local police dispatch receives a high-priority 911 alert.

My parents received the SOS text.

But they didn't even bother to read it. They just powered their phones completely off.

A minute later, the local police dispatch called Ethan's satellite phone.

"Captain Sterling, we just received an automated SOS beacon from your daughter's device. The coordinates essentially match your team's current grid location. Have you located the victims?"

Ethan frowned deeply. Chloe immediately reached into her designer bag and pulled out a nearly identical, though significantly more expensive-looking, star bracelet.

"Oh no, Lily texted me right before the storm hit. She said she was worried about me being alone, so she snuck her favorite bracelet into my purse for good luck."

"It must have gotten bumped in my bag and accidentally triggered the SOS."

"Ethan, I'm so sorry... did I cause another problem for you guys?"

Ethan shot her a deeply reassuring look, entirely validating her lie, and spoke into the phone.

"Dispatch, we have not located Maya or Lily Sterling."

"However, my team has determined that the grid is unstable, and we are initiating an immediate retreat."

The dispatcher sounded alarmed.

"Captain, your wife and daughter have been missing for ten days. Their probability of survival is already critically low."

"If you pull out now, you are essentially abandoning the search."

Ethan's voice rang with absolute, righteous authority.

"I am not just Maya's husband and Lily's father. I am the captain of this rescue squad!"

"My family is important, but the lives of my volunteers are equally important! A secondary mudslide is imminent, and I will absolutely not risk the lives of my men on a suicide mission!"

"Furthermore, Maya has formal wilderness survival training. I have absolute faith that she will hold on until the storm passes!"

The dispatcher tried to argue, but Ethan hung up on him.

He ordered his men to pick up Chloe's stretcher and double-time it down the mountain.

His squad was incredibly conflicted.

"Captain, I really feel like we need to do a quick sweep."

"I have the thermal life-detector right here. It'll take sixty seconds."

A few of the guys grabbed the equipment and started moving toward the rock pile where Lily and I were buried.

But my parents sprinted forward, violently ripping the scanner out of the volunteer's hands and slamming it onto the rocks.

"Sweep what?! Are you blind?! Can't you see Chloe's ankle is swollen?!"

"She is a professional ballet dancer! If you delay her medical treatment and ruin her career, are you going to pay for it?!"

The squad hesitated. "But Maya and Lily haven't been found... the Captain said a secondary slide is coming. What if..."