To Protect Their Young

Part 4

He fell on his back and kept sliding as the rocks accumulated underneath him causing a small avalanche with him riding on top. He reached out for weeds, roots, anything to slow himself down, but nothing worked, and then he screamed as he headed towards the cliffs. He felt the air around him as he was suddenly felt weightless for a split second before hurtling several feet and tumbling down towards a ledge. He kicked up dust and small pebbles on his way down. When his head suddenly hit a large exposed boulder, Jarod's world suddenly turned black. The only movement was that of a cloud of dust that gently floated off the mountain and onto the treetops below.

Dinnertime arrived and Jarod had not come back inside for his meal, so Amy asked Derek to find him and bring him back inside for dinner. She remembered him going outside right after lunch that day but she didn't recall seeing him again after that. Derek went outside and began to call for Jarod, but he didn't hear a reply.

Derek checked out the barn and the stables constantly calling out Jarod's name. After searching around the farm for quite some time, Derek began to panic and he ran back to the house. When he walked into the kitchen, Amy saw that his face was flushed and there was panic in his eyes.

"Where's Jarod?" She asked in a worried voice.

"I can't find him, Amy. I looked all over the farm. Are you sure he's not already in the house?"

"I haven't seen him since lunchtime," she answered. "Where could he have gone?"

The pair went through the house calling for Jarod, yet there was no answer. The gravity of the situation was slowly weighing on the hearts of Amy and Derek. They tried to remain calm, but a feeling of dread was beginning to overtake them, and they felt like the life was being sucked out of them. They both went back outside calling for Jarod and looked over every square inch of the property. As the sun was slowly going down, they went back into the house and called the local authorities to report their beloved son missing. It didn’t help matters when they found the boy’s coat and they realized that on such a cold night, their son was out there somewhere and he wasn’t wearing protection.

Amy and Derek held each other tightly as they waited for the deputies to arrive. The silence was ominous as they were afraid to speak of the possible fate of their son. Amy began to weep as her fears began to take hold. Derek held her even closer as he tried to comfort her. Things seemed surreal from that point on as if they were walking around inside of their own nightmare, and unable to wake up from it.

When the deputies arrived, they took their hats off and respectfully began to ask the distraught parents questions about Jarod and what may have happened to him. They answered calmly as they held onto each other for comfort. It was the belief of the officers that Jarod may have wandered into the woods and had gotten lost. The town alarm was immediately raised and volunteers started to make their way to the farmhouse with their flashlights, first aid kits and such to aid in the search for the missing boy.

Sheriff Johnson joined in the search for Jarod. He was very worried that the temperatures would drop so low that that Jarod could succumb to hypothermia before the morning sunrise. The prospects of finding him in good condition were not very good and he felt a great sadness for the mother and the father who would do anything for their little boy. In most cases, they would have waited until the morning to begin their search, but time was of the essence. For every degree that dropped, the chances of the child being found alive grew less. Those grim thoughts were kept to himself, as the sheriff began to comb the woods with the other volunteers. There were about 100 people out there in the night unselfishly taking risks. The terrain was very unforgiving even in broad daylight and at nighttime, it was much more so.