Chapter 15 - The Return
Within ten minutes, Mrs. Gable had packed a sealed mason jar of warm goat's milk and a small rubber syringe into a canvas satchel, along with a small vial of sugar water.
""Keep it close to your body so it doesn't cool,"" the old woman instructed, patting Leo's arm. ""Feed them half a milliliter every two hours. Gently. Don't let them aspirate.""
""Thank you, Mrs. Gable,"" Leo said, strapping the satchel across his chest.
They stepped off the porch into the howling darkness, retracing their steps along the rocky trail. The descent was faster, but the storm was mounting a second offensive. Sheets of rain began sweeping horizontally across the hillside, turning the rock path into a slick slide of mud and gravel.
As they neared the bottom of the ridge, just three hundred yards from the farmhouse, Copper suddenly halted.
A sharp cracking sound echoed through the trees above.
""Look out!"" Leo roared, lunging backward and tackling Clara into the wet brush.
A massive, lightning-scorched pine tree sheared off at the trunk, crashing down directly across the path with the sound of thunder. Branches exploded into splinters, and a shower of mud and bark rained over them.
When the dust and leaves settled, the trail was completely obliterated by a massive wall of tangled, heavy branches and crushed timber.
Leo pushed himself up, spitting dirt, his hand immediately checking the canvas bag. The jar was intact.
""Clara! Are you hurt?""
""I'm okay,"" she groaned from the ferns, clutching her bruised arm.
Leo turned his flashlight onto the wreckage. The fallen giant completely blocked the narrow ravine path, flanked on both sides by sheer, slick mud embankments that were crumbling into the gully below. There was no way around it in the dark.
Behind the wall of timber, they heard the distinct, frantic sound of scratching.
Copper was not on their side of the tree.
May you like
""Copper!"" Leo yelled, lunging toward the impenetrable tangle of branches.
From the other side of the massive trunk, Copper barked once—a sharp, muffled sound—followed instantly by the deep, terrifying rumble of an earth slip sliding down the hill toward the farmhouse."
