Towns mean people.
People mean questions.
Questions mean scrutiny.
And I can’t afford that.
But I can’t worry about the possible fallout of having to lie my way through McBride Mountain.
I’m on a mission—one far more important.
I have to find him.
For the millionth time this morning, I blink away the burn of unshed tears. The feeling is so foreign now. It’s been so long since I’ve allowed myself to feel anything, and even longer since I allowed myself to cry that my body forgot how—until I woke and found Gizmo gone.
He’s all I have save for the items in my backpack, and I cannot lose him.
I won’t.
The worn soles of my Chucks eat up the pavement as I make my way around the bend and spot the first buildings in the distance.
Thank God.
It feels like I’ve been walking forever, even though the sun is barely up. But maybe time just moves at a glacial pace when something so important is at stake.
Anything could have happened to him.
He could have wandered off and fallen into the water or some deep, dark ravine…
A wild animal could have gotten him—a coyote, a mountain lion, a bear…
No.
I shake my head to clear away those dark thoughts that could lead to a spiral I won’t be able to get out of, and a car slows as it passes me, the driver leaning forward to glance out his window at me.
Wide eyes take me in before he speeds up again and drives into town.
Shit.
Wincing, I angle my head down, using my bright blue dyed hair to conceal my face.
It seemed like a good plan at the time I did it—change my appearance, do something that I normally never would so no one will recognize me, hide by being loud. But people always say hindsight is twenty-twenty, and now, the way it is going to draw attention to me seems like a horrible idea.
What the hell were you thinking?
Once the car is well past me, I tuck my locks behind my ear and continue my hike into town, keeping my head dipped as a few people who are up at the asscrack of dawn start to trickle past in their vehicles.
I walk past a stop sign that seems so lonely and out of place on the empty road and almost laugh, scanning all directions of zero traffic to search for any sign of a vet’s office.
If someone found him, that’s where they would have brought him to get scanned for a microchip. At least, that’s what anyone with any human decency would do, but I’ve experienced the worst of human nature and know not all people are good.
Some are inherently evil and get off on the pain and suffering of others.
Unfortunately, that’s most people.
Hopefully, someone found him and is one of the few good ones…
That’s the thought I cling to as I proceed onto Main Street.
