Read Escape From the Badlands for Free Online Page B

and flung the covers off, checking underneath and in the small closets.
    No Charlie.
    She slammed into the small bathroom and checked every cupboard and cranny.
    He was gone. Charlie was gone.
    Body moving in spite of her fear, she ran out the front of the trailer, the door banging into the metal siding. Chenko and Devin were in the golf cart, headed back toward their cabins.
    “Help!” she screamed, but they were too far away. She whirled in a circle, looking for some sign of the little boy. A light rain fell in icy needles, but she did not feel it.
    “Charlie!” she yelled over the pattering drizzle.
    Then Shane was there, turning her in his arms. “What is it?”
    “Charlie’s gone. He’s not in the trailer.” She looked helplessly around until her eyes went toward the riverbed beyond the campground.
    A strange look crossed Shane’s face as he followed her gaze, a mix of disbelief and horror. Without a word, he turned and ran toward the water. She was about to follow, when a flicker of movement caught her eye. Several yards away, illuminated by a porch light fixed to the side of the lodge, she saw a woman holding something.
    Kelly moved closer until she could make out that the bundle in the woman’s arms was a boy.
    Charlie.
    She ran, yelling his name, and the woman looked up. It was Gwen, her face eerie in the dim light, a faraway look on her face amid the swirl of hair.
    “Charlie,” Kelly said, tears on her face. Gwen held him out and she pulled him into her arms. “What happened?”
    Gwen blinked. “He was walking around looking for you. I was going to bring him back to your trailer.”
    “Walking around?” She looked at Charlie, who seemed dazed. He had been known to sleepwalk when he was disturbed about something, and the day had been traumatic, to say the least. Had he awakened and been disoriented? She kissed his forehead and tucked him under her chin, gently squeezing the comforting weight of him to reassure herself that he was really there, safe, unhurt.
    Forcing in a calming breath, she looked at Gwen. “Thank you for finding him.”
    Gwen’s eyes were fixed on Charlie. “He’s so sweet.”
    “Yes, he is.”
    Droplets of water collected on her hair. “You’re lucky to have him.”
    Something in the way she said it, the longing in her voice, made Kelly draw back a pace. “Definitely. Thank you again, Gwen.”
    She nodded and shoved her hands in her pockets before she walked into the rain.
    Kelly hunched her shoulders to keep the cold wind off Charlie as she headed back to the trailer. Shane ran up, face wild and desperate until he saw her holding the boy. The emotion shimmered on his face, intensified perhaps by the watery moonlight, and it confused Kelly. The raw anguish she saw there disappeared under an easy smile.
    “He’s okay, Kell?”
    “Gwen found him sleepwalking.”
    Shane opened the door for her as she eased Charlie up the steps. She unwrapped him from the wet blanket, and he blinked at her.
    “Charlie, honey, did you go outside?”
    He mumbled something and allowed Kelly to ease him under the covers.
    Shane gave her a questioning look as they tiptoed into the kitchen area.
    “He sleepwalks sometimes when he’s upset.”
    Shane nodded. “The flood?”
    “Probably.”
    He cocked his head, water droplets plunking softly to the floor. “Why do you look worried?”
    She stiffened and turned away to drape the blanket over a chair. “It’s nothing.”
    He put his hand out and gently caressed her shoulder. “Nope. I can tell when nothing is something. You used to call me a mind reader, remember?”
    She felt the flicker of familiar comfort from his touch, hands that had held and reassured her, thrilled and strengthened her. Pulling away, she turned to face him. “Maybe you can’t read me so well anymore, Shane.”
    “And maybe I can.” He fixed her with eyes so intense, she could not look away. “You think something isn’t right.”
    She folded her arms. “Not