Chapter 16 - The Road That Shouldn't Exist
The engine noise grew louder with every passing second. Elias Reed stood perfectly still, listening instead of looking. Experience had taught him that sound often revealed more than sight.
"It isn't coming from the park entrance," the rescue team leader whispered.
"No," Elias replied. "It's coming from the old service road."
The ranger frowned.
"That road was destroyed after the landslide twenty years ago."
"So everyone believed."
Branches shook in the distance before a dark utility vehicle slowly emerged between the trees. It carried no license plate and no company markings. Its windows were heavily tinted, hiding whoever sat inside.
The vehicle stopped nearly fifty yards away.
Its engine remained running.
No one stepped out.
The silence became heavier than the sound of the motor itself.
One rescuer instinctively reached for his radio.
Elias gently lowered the man's hand.
"Not yet."
The driver's door finally opened.
A tall man wearing a dark cap stepped onto the ground. He never approached the cabin. Instead, he stared directly at Elias, as though recognizing him immediately.
Then he smiled.
It wasn't a friendly smile.
It was the smile of someone who had been waiting years for this meeting.
Without saying a single word, he climbed back into the vehicle.
The engine roared.
The mysterious truck disappeared deeper into the forest, leaving fresh tire tracks behind.
Elias watched until the sound faded.
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"He wanted us to follow," he said quietly.
"But this time, we're going to decide when."
