Blood Bourbon

River Tracks

Daryl 

Daryl was just pulling his plate out of the oven when the house phone rang, causing him to lift his eyes to where Mary and Charlie's oldest daughter answered it. He took a few bites of his supper, frowning as he watched her listen, before turning and calling for her mother. Sarah handed off the phone to Mary before turning to look at him.

"Kelly and Ryan didn't come home yet. They were riding down by the river this afternoon when I was out with dad." Sarah offered, frowning and looking to Charlie as he stepped into the room.

"I found cougar tracks on our lands, think that might be the culprit of the coyotes and the two calves we've found dead in the last week." Charlie watched Daryl curiously, his words soft.

"The horses just came back?" Mary winced into the phone before nodding. "We'll go out to look, Sarah says she saw them a couple hours ago."

"I'll take Buck." Daryl was standing and grabbing one of the rifles from the rack by the door on his way out before Mary could yell at him as she hung up the phone.

His brother's wife caught up to him in the barn, where he was saddling the palomino gelding, he considered bomb proof and Mary was glaring something fierce.

But he cut her off before she could start her tirade.

"You guys take the four wheelers. But there are places you can't get to, near the river. The kids may have tried to make it to the road to walk back, or they may have tried to follow the river." Daryl pointedly ignored the glare, sliding the rifle into the holster on the saddle, before tightening the girth one more time.

"Daryl, your head." His sister in law gave him a considering look, though she knew as well as he did that the more people out there, the more likely it would be to find the kids. She was a nurse, a combat veteran nurse who was no bullshit. If there was anyone who he couldn't lie to about it, it was Mary.

Daryl offered a slight shrug. "Mary. It's fine."

She glared at him even more, though she didn't stand in his way as he pulled the horse out of the barn. Charlie and Sarah pulled up beside Mary's four-wheeler, all sporting rifles or shotguns and first aid kits.

"You break your head, I'm going to leave you to piss in your hospital bed and drool vegetable mash all on your lonesome." She shoved a walkie-talkie into his hand. "Dirk and Bonnie are here at the house, you'll be able to reach them at least. If others come out, they'll probably be bringing their own four-wheelers. As soon as you find them, let us know. And don't you dare go after those cats on your own."

Daryl paused, frowning softly. "Cats? Plural"

"Yeah, tracks looked like two were hunting together. Big ones too." Sarah piped up from her helmet, her words muffled slightly.

"That's odd." Daryl frowned at the three of them, trying to remember the last time he had heard of cougars hunting in pairs.

"Might be a mom and her cubs, s'all." Charlie shrugged, unconcerned. Maybe Daryl was wrong. His brother finished it up with a firm look and an order. "Check in every fifteen, Daryl."

Daryl nodded, and swung into the saddle before wheeling his gelding around to pick up a fast canter towards the river. Belatedly, he flicked on the lights that were attached to the horse's breast strap, illuminating the ground a few feet in front of his horse's pounding hooves.

Not the best lighting, but better than none, with the cloud cover rolling in.

Daryl kept the pace steady but not breakneck fast, having to slow down to an easy trot as he reached the rockier forested area, swinging wide around where he presumed the kids would be heading to and making his way back along the river.