Taylor gets in touch with Zack

While the search party was looking for Zack, Taylor paced back and forth at the rental cabin. Every so often, a member or two of the Azure Rocks Police Department would arrive, organize themselves, and then head out to join in the search. She watched in pained anticipation as reports came in from areas the search teams checked for any sign of Zack.

“Come on, Baby Brother, where are you?” she said out loud.

She eventually grew tired of waiting. She grabbed her cell phone and headed outside. As soon as she was away from the sounds of radios and rangers, she began dialing her brother’s cell. Each time she punched in the number, she was met with the sound of Zack’s voice mail message.

Taylor’s attempts to reach her brother failed for about an hour or so. Each time she heard Zack’s recorded message made her want to toss her phone into the lake even more than the previous time. Just when she was about to give up, her brother’s voice erupted over the phone.

“Hello? Tay?” Zack said.

“ZACK? OH MY GOD! WHERE ARE YOU?” Taylor shouted to her brother. A couple of policemen happened to hear the conversation and rushed over. They each took out a note pad and wrote as fast as they could.

“Taylor? You…there? ...phone got wet...rain…can’t hear… I’m…hurt…been sending texts…keep failing. It got pretty bad…find shelter…lost in the storm. Tell Heather…I’m sorry…special place…love…Vicky…care of her,” was all Taylor could hear before the phone call ended.

“ZACK! ZACK! SHIT!” Taylor screamed into her phone. She immediately called the phone again but there was no answer.

“NO!” she shouted.

“What happened?” Jennifer asked as she came running from the beach.

“She just got through to her brother but the call was garbled and couldn’t hear everything he said. We wrote down everything,” one officer said.

“CHIEF!” Jennifer shouted into her CB radio.

“WHAT?” he replied.

“The sister just made contact with the boy via cell phone. The message was broken, but apparently, he got injured when he took shelter in the storm last night,” she responded.

“Okay, we are heading back to the rental cabin to reorganize and resupply, ETA ten minutes!”