Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(95)

If the supplies were even still there.

“You don’t suppose they’ve been here, do you?” I asked suddenly. “You don’t suppose this is another trap?”

Jace cast a look in my direction, his eyes narrowed, and put out a hand to hush me. The rest of the group stopped as well, and Jace began to creep forward, his bike left standing on its own. He melted into the shadow of one of the trees in his path, and then moved silently to the next, and then the next, while the rest of us stood there watching him, out in the open.

Several long moments later, Kory broke away from the group, and then Nelson, and then Abe. They each darted toward one of the trees and ducked into the branches—the safer way to check the hidden sections under the trees for intruders. Kory reappeared and gave us a nod, then went to one of the other trees, and within moments all our friends were walking back toward us, their faces clear.

“No one here,” Jace confirmed. “And from what I can see, they haven’t been here. The leaves around the other trees are undamaged, totally undisturbed.”

“That doesn’t mean they won’t show up at some point, though,” Kory muttered.

This copse of oaks was at least in a completely different direction from the cave area the Authority had homed in on earlier, which was one positive thing going for us. And we knew that they hadn’t been planning to search this part of the forest. But that didn’t mean we were safe.

We never knew when they might change their minds.

“Hopefully, they’ll think we’ve moved along,” I said. “The team in Samsfield will inevitably have called the other teams in the area and reported that they saw Jackie and me. Maybe they think we’re traveling from city to city and moving toward… something else.”

Moving toward what, was the question. Something even we hadn’t figured out yet.

“We can only hope,” Jace said. “But for right now, they’re not here, and our priority is getting Jackie stabilized.”

We all agreed with that and quickly pushed our bikes toward the tree that Jace had chosen, shoving them right through the branches and into the large, sheltered spot underneath. This tree was bigger, which gave us more room around it, and we parked the bikes on one side and started spreading out, moving the oak leaves and grasses around to make a more even foundation, the way we’d done with the other tree.

Ant and I took Jackie and transported her to the base of the trunk, where Abe had scooped together a bed of leaves for her. We sat her down and leaned her up against the tree, and then I stood quickly.

“We need our supplies,” I said.

“Kory and Nelson are already on their way to the other tree for them,” Ant noted. He looked up from where he was crouching next to Jackie. “Do you think we can even help her?”

I grimaced. “I’m no medic, Ant,” I said. “I’m not going to be any good at figuring that part out. And we won’t know for sure until we get her out of some of those clothes. We need to see if there are any external wounds, what they might be, and whether we can treat them. And if there is nothing visible…” I exhaled. “It’ll make finding someone who can treat her all the more urgent.”

At that moment, Nelson and Kory stepped into the shelter of the tree with two of the boxes, and I walked toward them and started searching Nelson’s box for things that would help. Water, I thought. The first thing we needed was water. Nelson’s box had one of the large leaves we’d brought down from the mountain, and I grabbed it and darted out of the tree’s shelter. I took a moment to orient myself with the grove of oaks, then started walking straight back from the last one.

This part of the forest had a lot more streams and gullies than the part where my cabin was located, and Jace had made sure I knew where the closest one was. It took me five minutes of walking quickly through the forest to get to it, and I went to my knees next to the stream and held the leaf down, cupping it and filling it the way Jace had showed me.

On the list of things I never thought I’d be doing, I thought wryly.

Once the leaf was as full as possible, I stood and walked quickly back toward the tree. When I got through the branches, I found the others huddled around Jackie, talking amongst themselves.

“Is she awake yet?” I asked, coming to my knees next to them and handing Jace the leaf.

“No,” Ant replied. “Nothing is working.”

I frowned and nodded, trying to decide whether we should attempt to wake her up, using the water, or attempt to locate any injuries while she was still out cold.

“We search for wounds first,” Nelson said authoritatively, before I could consider the options much further. “Search for them while she’s out and she won’t feel as much pain.”

“Sounds fair,” I said, glad to let someone else make the decision. “Then we need to get her shirt off and the suit down so we can check her torso. I think that’s the logical place to start.”

Ant gave me a look of horror, and I almost laughed. “Don’t worry, Nelson and I will take care of it,” I said. I had no idea how close he and Jackie had gotten, but evidently the thought of seeing her disrobed without her knowledge was more than he could handle.

The others moved away, and Nelson and I quickly went to work, my hands supporting Jackie’s body while Nelson carefully and gently pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her T-shirt. With one more quick tug, she pulled the shirt up over Jackie’s head, and the girl was left in nothing but the second-skin suit. Unfortunately, that covered her from neck to wrists, so it had to go as well.