Джордан Шор - The Search

“When you say we, I take it you mean me . ” Jack looked at Andrew.

“Well, there’s no point in me going up there, I can only see a road if I’m standing on it. Julie can’t walk, and Candy shouldn’t walk. So, that leaves you and Bigfoot.”

“What did you call me?” Kevin yelled, and looked aggressively at Andrew.

Andrew twitched. “Take it easy, Kevin. I meant it as a compliment.”

“How is being referred to a hairy ape, a compliment?”

“He’s not an ape, he’s…” Andrew shrugged. “…Bigfoot . ”

Kevin kept staring aggressively at Andrew.

“I just meant you’re a big guy. No more.” Andrew looked cautiously at Jack.

“He’s right, Kevin. We should pair up. There could be wolves in these woods.”

“Wolves?” Julie said in a trembling voice.

“I wouldn’t worry about that, Julie. If they come too close, just stand back to back and wave a branch at them. They’ll go away,” Jack said. “Wolves hardly ever attack people. That’s just in the movies.”

“What if we come across a bear?” Kevin asked.

“Don’t run.”

“That’s the best you got, Jack?” Kevin looked appalled. “Don’t run.”

“If we come across a bear, then we walk slowly in each direction…” Jack bowed his head. “…and we let the bear decide.”

Kevin slumped his shoulders.

Monday morning

The office landscape was buzzing, as more or less all employees were still busy keeping in touch with the passengers’ families. However, George thought the word cloud that filled the room seemed slightly diminished from the loud furor over the weekend, and he assumed less screaming and crying could be heard on the other side of the lines. He felt thankful that he was a part of the crisis team, and therefore in charge of press relations, relieving him having to call the distraught and angry relatives.

Emergency crisis coordinator Cayla Marsh kept herself busy, constantly keeping in touch with the various agencies involved in the missing plane search and investigation. But the same authorities also communicated directly with the press, so whatever information Cayla received was presented on the news shortly after she had announced it to the crisis team. George’s work seemed pointless, as the information on each of the press releases he’d written only stated the obvious, all the facts already known to the general public.

George wondered if he’d overestimated what part an airline played in a search for a missing airplane, or if he perhaps had overestimated this particular airline’s capability in doing so. The company didn’t comply with his idea of an airline, and he thought the way the company was run showed too many irregularities. However, he didn’t think the mistakes were due to corruption; the errors were more a matter of incompetence.

George noticed how his boss, the CEO, sometimes stared at him through the glass walls of the man’s office, and he also observed that now Williams was actually alone for once. George opened the crisis contingency plan and tried his best to give the impression that he was working. Once again, he couldn’t help but notice how Cayla Marsh had wrongly used the word “personal” for the word “personnel.”

The CEO kept staring at him, and then suddenly Mike gestured with his hand that George should join him in his office.

“What’s the latest?” George asked.

“The ELT isn’t providing a signal. They’ve found some debris in the lake, but it doesn’t necessarily derive from the plane. It could just be garbage.”

Mike Williams hadn’t disclosed anything that George didn’t already know.

“In addition to being the spokesperson for this crisis team, I also fill in for Jeff as human resources manager,” Mike said, sounding a bit annoyed. “And I also have responsibilities as the CEO of this company.”

George felt his boss had just accused him of laziness.

“How can I help?”

“I thought you could visit the captain’s mother tomorrow, and make sure she’s taken care off. Mrs. Daniels lives on the outskirts of Paradise, only a few hours’ drive.”

“What about tomorrow’s press release?”

“I can handle the press release just fine,” Mike responded in a short tone.

George felt that his boss had come to realize what little workload George had at this time of calamity.

“Okay then,” George said. “You want me to visit the co-pilot parents also?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Mike responded. “His parents live in Calgary. Besides, I’ve already talked to his father. He has yelled at me on and off throughout the entire weekend.”

“Do any of the flight attendants’ families live near San Francisco?”

“Yes, but I’ve already scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with the mother of the flight attendant Susan Olsen.”

“Is she the one who sent the text message to her husband?”

“No, that’s Elisabeth McAllister,” Mike said, and sounded even more annoyed.

George felt embarrassed since he realized he should’ve known her name by now. George always had a hard time remembering people’s names.

“Elisabeth’s family lives in Alaska,” Mike added. “Her husband has been on just about every news channel there is.”

“That text message really helped us.”

“What do you mean?” Mike’s eyes narrowing.

“Now the press is focusing on the terror angle. If not for the text message, the crash could have been an accident, and then the press would be all over us, instead of blaming the rest of the world,” George explained.

It didn’t seem as Mike Williams cared for George’s analysis.

“Susan Olsen is a twenty-six-year-old single mom. No siblings, and her father passed away last year—and it was her first day on the job,” Mike said in a sharp tone.

Her first day ? George felt a tension in his chest.

Monday morning

The sunlight broke through the dark silhouette of the forest and illuminated the lake’s surface. At the same time, the wind ruffled the water, breaking up the sun’s hypnotic radiance.

Julie woke, blinked several times, and then squinted across the shoreline. Kevin walked fast and determinedly toward the mountain. Jack tried to catch up with him, and when he finally did, he put his arms on Kevin’s shoulder. Kevin then lashed out with his right arm in Jack’s direction.

“Get away from me!” Kevin roared, and then picked up the pace.

“Jack!” Julie shouted.

Jack stopped, and looked toward Julie with a startled expression.

“Is everything all right between you two?”

“We’re heading for the mountain. We’ll be back before sunset,” Jack said loudly. “Take good care of Nancy. Make sure she doesn’t run away.”

“Are you on bad terms with Kevin?”

“It’s nothing, Julie. Everything is fine.”

Jack ran fast to intercept Kevin, and then the two of them disappeared into the woods. Eventually, Julie turned her attention toward the lake, and then suddenly, she burst into tears, covering her face with the palm of her hands.

“This can’t be happening,” she mumbled.

“Are you all right, Julie?” Andrew asked in a groggy morning voice.

Julie jolted and quickly wiped the tears away. “I was just thinking of all the people who died in the crash. It’s so sad.”

“Did you know any of the other passengers?”

“No, it was just me.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s tragic too, but at the same time, people are dying every day.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I didn’t know any of the passengers. They were all strangers to me,” Andrew said. “Thousands of people die each day, but I don’t feel sorry for them, because I didn’t know any of them.”