As the car traveled through the rain to the park, Alex couldn't help but smile. They were on their way, and getting somewhere. Damn the odds, they'd find Faith! He didn't honestly care if they found her first, so long as they found her, alive and hopefully unharmed. If she had died, they'd have found the body by now, right? Which meant she had to be alive. Good logic, solid logic.

At least, that's what he would tell himself. He wasn't sure what black mood had possessed him earlier, but he felt quite free of it now. Amnell's useless flashlight helped with that, funnily enough. A little bit of unintentional humor was fine by him, and it lightened the mood slightly enough for him to forget the strange man. Probably an optical illusion of a much shorter man. But who would be walking outside at this our with no hat, umbrella, or coat to speak of? Forget it, he told himself.

Soon, the trees of Halbrooke Nature Park loomed before them. Alex put his hood back up as he stepped out of the car, and gave a small smile and thumbs-up to Seth as they made their way away from the car, and into the woods. A few steps, and Alex then realized his problem. "Wait, I'm forgetting a flashlight. We do have flashlights, right?"

They arrived at the park in no time, ahead of the other two groups, and pulled into the parking lot that was out front. Amnell unbuckled her seatbelt and slid out of the jeep, once again making use of her umbrella to keep her dry. She started to follow Alex into the gloomy woods when he stopped abruptly, questioning their lack of flashlights.

“Sorry! I just have this one,” she replied, clicking it on again. Thankfully this time a sliver of light immediately shot out of the end, illuminating a section of the path in front of them. “Hey, Seth? Did you bring any?” She squinted at the thick clusters of trees on either side of the muddy path as the rain continued to beat down on her umbrella. They were tall and spindly, jutting into the sky like the serrated edge of a blade. The first stirrings of fear sliced into her warm chest. “Maybe Miss Cardiff was right about waiting until the weather clears up a little. It's really hard to see anything out here when it's this dark and rainy.”

But what else was there to do? Wait in the car until the rain let up? Or at least until Evan and Colin arrived with supplies and directions? That was probably the smartest idea. Giving up on the idea of being the first to find Faith, Amnell shrank back towards the jeep. She could vividly imagine a young girl of six or seven hiding amidst the trees, huddled fearfully beneath a tangled web of branches. If that was the case, there was no time to waste, but there was no good in wandering around aimlessly and ill-equipped.

Alex sighed in response. His moods felt all over the place: one moment he was out of it and numb, next he was gung-ho and ready to find Faith, the next he had a moment of common sense, and now his optimism felt deflated. What was next?

Through the rain, he heard a child-like voice. "Is someone there? Hello?" Alex whipped around and looked in the direction he thought the voice came from. He could not tell for certain, but he thought he saw a child standing at the edge of the forest. Faith?! Instinct took over, and he ran back to the forest. If she was there, they would be fine, they would be all done, everything would be back to normal again.

As he reached and passed the treeline, he realized his mistake. Faith was nowhere to be seen. And for that matter, neither was anybody else, certainly not through the rain. Even though the trees kept the rain from making him wetter, the cover only made him more nervous, as it also darkened the area around him. He looked around, trying to see what the source of whatever optical illusion had convinced him charging headlong into a dark forest was a good idea. After all, it could have been a person.

A sudden noise behind him made him jump again, whirling around to find...nothing.

Shit.

Enid didn’t much mind the car ride. Nothing really happened. It was rather boring with little to nothing being said. For once the silence she usually hated allowed for a small reprieve from earlier when she felt the open hostility to herself. At least she was with the other new girl as well as with the one person in the group who hadn’t been mean to her.

From what she knew about him, he had been an outsider for a while as well. That fact alone put her at ease. Maybe there was a chance to slide her way into the group. This search might actually help the fact. At least she really did hope that it would.

Turning her mind from the past few minutes, she brought herself back to the present. They didn’t have any flashlights. The whole reason she had left the safety of her house was to get batteries. Now she was going into an even worse situation. Her chest tightened and she fought to get her breath. This was not what she wanted to think about.

Forcing herself to calm down as they reached their destination, Enid pulled herself out of the low riding sports car. She shut the door quickly glad to be out of the tight space and letting the rain wash over her to help calm her nerves. Finally she glanced around the area. One other vehicle was there, but only two of its passengers. Where was the third?

The young woman was sure that it was a male that was missing, but she didn’t know his name. Oh this wasn’t good. Maybe it was because they had just got there and didn’t know what was going on.

“Where is the other male?” She asked before she lost herself to her nerves again. She would be going home and taking an extra dose of her pills so she could get to sleep or at least lay in bed without the lights on. She took a deep breath as she walked over to the others. She was trying to push past the fact that the girl was one of the ones that really hadn’t liked her. But if something had actually happened, maybe the other would forget about it and Enid could actually be of some help. Or at least not be hated so much.

Shielded by her trusty umbrella, Amnell leaned against the side of the jeep and watched curiously as Alex's skinny frame darted off into the trees. "Alex, did you see something?" she called out to him. However, there was no reply. Perhaps she hadn't been loud enough. What concerned her, however, was the fact he was going into the forest, by himself, without a flashlight. This warranted further investigation.

Before she could make a move, however, another car pulled up. Amnell was slightly relieved to see it, though she would have been happier if it had been the other car. Her relief at being joined by new companions, however, melted as soon as Cardiff stepped out and quietly raised her question. "He ran off alone into the forest," she said flatly, pointing with her flashlight. She wasn't sure what it was about the other girl that made her act this way. Enid seemed to siphon away all her fearful feelings and replace them with annoyance. Whatever it was, Amnell found that all her anxiety about entering the forest had vanished. "I’ll go find him." She marched over to the place where she had seen him last and started calling his name between the trees. "Alex! Where are you?"

Although she was careful to tread slowly and not venture too far in, Amnell still found it difficult to navigate. "Alex," she yelled again over the roar of the rain, "Where are---" Suddenly she lost her footing. Screaming, Amnell slid uncontrollably down a slope for what seemed like ages, until the earth suddenly opened up to swallow her. She plummeted feet first into a trench half filled with muddy rainwater, and managed to stay upright by bracing herself against the slick earthen walls. Water poured in at an alarming rate. "HELP!"

Alex walked forward carefully. What the hell caused that? I swear something could have been right here... He edged forward, straining to see in the dark, his pulse racing in his head and his breath held. He investigated the tree to find nothing. This is not okay...

A sudden prolonged scream made him jump and almost scream himself. Even through the rain he could hear it clearly, but could not tell who it was. He turned in the direction of the voice, and started to make his way through the woods towards it. A second later, another scream came.

"HELP!"

That time the voice was unmistakeable. Amnell?! He began running into the dark, trying to find her. "Amnell!" He tripped and fell, bracing himself with his hands for the inevitable impact with the ground. He hit the ground and grunted as the impact ran through his arms, little shocks of pain that traveled to his elbows and shoulders. "Shit," he muttered as he tried to pull himself up and continue forward.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the steep slope in front of him, and he slipped on the slick leaves and mud, falling again and sliding down the hill. As he reached the bottom, his view was forced uphill in a roll, and atop the slope he could have sworn he saw someone remarkably similar to the mysterious figure outside the cafe. Before he could think about it, he had landed in deep water, and forced his stunned body to move and drag himself from the water, coughing and shivering.

It was obvious the other girl didn’t want her around. She sighed lightly to herself. So much for this making things easier. Why was it that no one ever wanted her around? Her businesses were great, her customers loved her. But this… making friends had always been a challenge. It was probably one of the reasons she only stayed in college long enough to get general education classes out of the way and never declared a major.

Watching Amnell head into the forest, Enid glanced around herself uneasily. The hairs on the back of her neck were picking up and she rubbed at the sleeves of her shirt nervously. It didn’t help she was soaked all the way through, but she hardly noticed. It was so dark and the rain made everything impossible to tell what was what.


The hallway had been just as dark when she’d opened the door to her room that night. Something hadn’t been right. She had awoken from a deep sleep, covered in sweat. She’d cried out screaming for her parents, but they never came. That was when she smelt something. It didn’t smell right. Like when she had tried to cook eggs once and only managed to burn them. Stepping out into the hallway, the young girl could only see the blackness around her as it threatened to encompass her. She had stood in the dark hallway for minutes on end until she had the courage to start down the hallway to where she knew her parents were supposed to be…


Enid tore herself away from the memory, not wanting to relive it here. She didn’t want to go through the emotions now not with people she didn’t know. People who didn’t know the truth about her. That was when she heard the first scream. Her eyes widened and she glanced around to see if any of the others were going to do anything. She sure didn’t want to be the one to go into the forest and find the source of the help.

But what choice did she have?

Gulping past her fears of the darkness and what she knew it could hold, but ventured in as slowly as she could without a light. She hoped that once she found the source, she would be able to find the light too that had disappeared into the woods. Her steps were tentative as she made her way slowly feeling with her feet before taking steps. It was slow going, but she eventually made it to where she felt a drop off.

She could hear something not too far off to one side that sounded like another person, but she was sure she could just make out Amnell only a few paces away. She gulped and made her way slowly over to the girl.

“Hang on.” She muttered more to herself than to the other girl. She wanted out of the forest as quickly as she could get or at least to have a flashlight of some type. Curse running out of batteries.

Bending down onto her knees, she stuck out a hand and grabbed onto one of the other girl’s shoulders before hiding the other one and started to slowly try and pull her out of the watery hole. It was probably an old creek bed that had filled with water because of how hard it was raining.

Enid’s breathing was heavy and she fought to go backwards on the slick surface. If the other girl could help in any way, now would be the time. She wasn’t sure if she had the arm strength to do pull her out on her own, but she was going to try. Maybe now Amnell wouldn’t dislike her as much if she only managed to help her out.

Seth was still in the car, locking the doors and all that. Everyone had gotten out already. Nel held her umbrella and Alex was already on the move. Seth stepped out of the car, closed the door, and made his way to Amnell, just as a new carload of people showed up. The woman from the bar stepped out first and Seth immediately felt a sense of disgust eminating from Nel. Alex had ran off into the forest on his own. Brilliant. Nel went after him with her flashlight, and Enid shortly after. Seth stood alone in the rain waiting for the others to get out of the car. They were just sitting there. Odd, maybe they were going to wait out the rain... He shrugged and headed into the forest with a small keychain flashlight. He really wished he had been more prepaired.

He couldnt see anything. This was hopeless. Why did they split up, wasnt the point of having groups so they would be able to... group together?? Seth growled and march through the woods looking for Alex or Nel. After a while of walking alone, hearing only the pouring rain, he heard a scream. "HELP!" He whirled around to face the sound and sprinted towards it. It was Amnells voice.

He arrived at the scene shortly after Enid had. She was unsuccesfully trying to pull Nel out. He squatted next to Enid and took Nels hands. THey were slippery and muddy, and hard to hold onto. He wrenched her free of the mud and began to pull her up. She wasnt very heavy, but the mud was sucking her in like quicksand. He grunted and the mud smacked as he freed her.

She was shivering and freaked out, but she would be alright. He dropped to the ground panting. This was too stressful, and he couldnt imagine what Faith was putting up with right now... He looked at Amnell laying next to him, also panting. "Maybe.. you sould watch... where youre going... next time." He joked in between breaths of air.

Amnell wasn't sure where her umbrella went, but she had managed to hang onto the flashlight because of its little loop, which she had wrapped around her wrist. Unfortunately when she attempted to use it, the blasted thing sputtered and died, leaving her completely in the dark. Chilled to the bone and cursing her own stupidity, she struggled to climb up out of the trench, but the sides were too wet and slippery. In the end she gave up and banged her fists against the earthen barrier, calling out "HELP!" periodically so that someone might find and rescue her. Her fear was full blown now. There could be all sorts of things lurking in the murky water, and she swore the mud around her feet was slowly sucking her in.

It wasn't long before she heard a faint noise --- the slope claiming another victim --- and a figure dropped into the water a few feet from her. As it coughed and stood up, Amnell caught the familiar sight of a drenched but visible three-quarter sleeve shirt on a rail thin frame. "Alex?" she whispered incredulously, inconceivably happy that she was not shivering in the dark alone. "Is that you? Are you hu--?" At that point she trailed off, because her flashlight, which she was pointing upward, had decided to start working again.

There, illuminated in the patchy circle of its weak beam, was an impossibly tall figure. She almost mistook it for a tree, it was so dark and slender. A sudden spike of paranoia and fear rocketed through her system, and she began shivering even more fiercely, backing away into the side of the trench and feeling trapped. She could not see any eyes, but she knew for certain that it was looking at her.

A few more seconds passed, and then her flashlight died again.

She heard footsteps above them, and then a quiet, female voice murmured, "Hang on." At this point Amnell was freaked out enough that when a hand closed around her shoulder she immediately reached both of her arms upward and frantically hurled herself at the source, thrashed violently and probably unhelpfully. Another pair of hands soon reached down for her, a much stronger pair that wrenched her from the mud and lifted her to safety. A flash of lightening revealed that the two people who had come to her aid were none other than Seth, who lay panting on the slope beside her with his joking smile ("It was dark!" she huffed defensively to his suggestion), and... Enid? Amnell did a double take, hardly willing to believe that the young woman had actually come to her rescue (though Seth had done most of the work, truth be told). Still, Cardiff had somehow been able to navigate the dark woods without a flashlight and find her. Maybe there was more to her than Amnell had previously thought. However, she did not devote much time to think about it, for there was still one person in trouble.

"Alex is down there too," she informed both of her rescuers coolly. Seth looked a bit exhausted, so she nodded at Enid before leaning over the edge to grab the young man's arms. "Help me bring him up."

Enid was almost relieved when someone else showed up and helped her pull Amnell from the muddy water. But she didn’t doubt the fact that she probably would have jumped three feet in the air had the other girl not been fighting her back as she tried to pull her out.

See if I help again. She thought lightly to herself. She understood the fear, the need to fight back even if the one you were fighting was only trying to help. Taking a deep breath, she fought the urge to look around her again. The hairs were standing up on the back of her neck as well as on her arms. She hated the feeling. She only wanted it to go away.

But when Amnell asked for him, she walked over and grabbed onto the other male, who was definitely heavier than the girl had been. But it seemed they were managing well with the both of them. Now, she was exhausted and wanted to go curl up into bed. Not like they weren’t very far from her house to begin with. It might not be a bad idea.

She was still afraid to speak, but she hoped that now something, no matter how small had passed between them and she could at least make comments without getting her head torn off.

“I don’t think we’re going to do much good in this weather. My house isn’t very far from here. We could all crash there. I’m sure I can make room for everyone.” She whispered, knowing that despite how low her voice was, she would still be heard. Though, the young woman had still refused to completely focus her gaze afraid of what she might see.

Alex tried to slog through the water and mud to Amnell, and picked up speed in hope as Seth pulled her from the trench. He saw a not-as-familiar face there, a newcomer to the group and the search party, extending her hand to him. He gratefully took it with both of his own, and pulled cautiously, wanting to get out of the ditch but not wanting to pull her in with him. Fortunately the former was the result, and he finally escaped the ditch. His breath came in the quick gasps that follow stress and heavy exertion. He listened to the unfamiliar woman carefully, then listened to the awkward silence that resulted. He decided he had to break it.

"Look, miss, I know we're all very tired and it's raining like a sonofabitch out here, but we can't give up so quickly on this! I mean, what would the others say? What are we supposed to say to them? I can't give up on this, and I'm also not sure I want to abandon the others to deal with whatever that thing is I keep seeing." Seeing blank expressions, he hastily continued, "I'm not crazy, am I? There was this weird tall figure...person...thing outside of the cafe when we were leaving; that's why I was so out of it then! But I saw the same...thing when I was falling into that ditch. Please tell me I'm not crazy! Am I the only one seeing this thing?!" He sighed and put his head in his hands. "I did not sign up for this crap...I just wanted a brief change of setting to stave off some writer's block. And now I'm going crazy in Halbrooke Nature Park while..."

Grudgingly, he had to admit in retrospect, Seth was right in that shutting up was the best idea.

Seth was soaked from head to toe. He just wanted the rain to stop. A little bit every now and then was fine, but this was bullshit. He grumbled and stood slowly as the girls pulled Alex from the pool. He seemed alright, maybe a little shaken up. Seth wobbled a bit from fatigue when he stood, but ignored it and walked towards the group. They were all looking pretty scared right now, but who wouldnt? They were in the middle of the woods looking for a girl that might not even be alive.

He shook his head. He couldnt let that thought into his head. She was alive. Definitely.

Enid announced that they could all hang at her place until the rain stopped. Seth shook his head no, but didnt say anything. Alex took that role. He began to speak, and it didnt seem like he was going to stop for a while. He kept going on and on, speaking a mile a minute. A person? A weird tall figure? What the hell was he talking about. The stress must be getting to him. Seth walked forward slowly and put his hand on Alex's shoulder midway through his rant.

"Alex, might want to quiet down. Your scaring the girls" he said quietly. He was sure Alex's speach didnt scare the girls any more than they already were, but Alex was getting weird on them, and he couldnt have that.

After they pulled Alex out of the ditch, Cardiff suggested holing up in her house until the weather cleared. After what had happened, Amnell was inclined to agree with her, for once. She was drenched from head to toe, getting wetter by the second without the protection of an umbrella, and also started to become slightly annoyed at Alex's speech. She blamed him for indirectly causing her fall, even if he had fallen in minutes after her, and besides, anger was a welcome replacement for fear, an emotion she would have had a lot of otherwise.

"Well, I'm for it!" she snapped. "Do you want us to freeze to death or something? Because that's what's going to happen if I don't get out of these wet clothes!" She jabbed a finger in the air for emphasis but only succeeded in sending a few droplets of water flying in the young male's direction. This made her start wringing out the edges of her dress furiously. "And don't be stupid, Alex, it was probably a trick of the light. This creepy weather's got you seeing things."

However she neglected to say that she had seen it too. What good would that do anyway? It would only cause Alex more panic and confirm that there was some freakishly tall person watching their group for some eerie reason. That didn't even come close to making sense, so she avoided it altogether. Faith was a topic that she cared little about at this point. As close of a friend as Evan was, she wasn't quite as emotionally invested in the search as he was, and she certainly wasn't going to risk her health in such hopeless, inclement weather.

"Anyway, there's supposed to be an informational cabin if you continue up the path from where we parked, right? It's probably locked, but there's at least an overhanging where we can get out of this bloody rain! The others can just stick it!" Squishing water noisily in her boots, she stalked away, raven hair plastered to her face. The others could stay and search all they wanted, but she was getting the hell out of these woods, and away from that creepy thing.

Despite the rebuttal from the male, Enid was glad for once that Amnell was on her side. Maybe I’m making slow progress after all. She thought to herself as she picked herself up off the wet ground. She wanted to change too. She hated the way the clothes were sticking to her body. Wasn’t sure if she’d even be able to peel them off. Not like she would any time soon to begin with. She resisted the urge to rub her right hand down her left arm in nervousness as she glanced between the three other people.

A weird tall thing. Not much of a description and the young woman bit her tongue to keep from asking anymore details. It was plain to see that it was freaking the male out, and she didn’t want her questions to make anything worse. Not with where they were at. Turning away from the group, she finally did look out into the woods around them trying to see something she was terrified to actually see.

When she didn’t see anything, she turned back to them. Information booth. That was about all of the conversation she heard and she watched Amnell walk off away. Turning on her heel she followed after her. She had a flashlight working or not. She caught up with the girl.

“Thank you.” She whispered lightly. “For agreeing with me. I might have some clothes that can fit you if we head to my house.” She was afraid to bring it up again, being alone with Amnell but she had to risk it. They needed out of the weather. She was right. They were all risking their health for this. They wouldn’t be doing any good if they got sick or worse.

Alex was left momentarily stunned by both Amnell's harsh retort and the reality of the situation. He had somehow lost his jacket, and was already shivering noticeably. They were no closer to finding Faith. Everyone was on edge. He personally was scared out of his wits. Amnell was right, as much as he hated to admit it. Altruism would have to take a back seat for now.

Very slowly and carefully, trying to keep himself stable, Alex rose, shrugging off Seth's hand. He looked back towards the slope, and found his jacket, caught by the hood on a nail sticking out of a tree. Alex chuckled. "Seth, look at this! I tripped right there, got back up, then fell into that ditch. Somehow my jacket got pulled off by that nail, and I didn't notice. Ah, how much dryer I might be, but for want of a nail." Humor was Alex's best stress relief, and no humor was better to him than a good old dark-humor pun.

He took his coat back off, and put it back on (like that would help). "Let's go, Seth. I should probably apologize to Amnell. My mind has been all over in the past hour. And I'm about to freeze to death." After a beat, he then continued, "I'm sorry I've been so weird and crazy lately. I don't know what it is."

Regardless of apologies, he would not take back one thing.

The tall figure was no trick of the light. But truthfully, he would rather argue about that in a safer place than right in its domain...if this place was its domain.

Alex then took off to catch up with Amnell and...whoever the other person was. Enid? No, that couldn't be right. Was it? Maybe. Either way, apologies first.

"Amnell! I'm sorry about earlier. You're right...freezing to death won't help us find Faith."

By the time Amnell had reached the information booth and stepped gladly into the shelter of its protruding slip of a roof, her temper had cooled off. Enough so that when Enid approached her and thanked her for agreeing with her, Amnell only muttered a low, "Don't mention it." Now that the adrenaline had faded, she was started to feel the effects of the few injuries that slipping into a ditch had wrought upon her. Underneath the mud, her palms, calves, actually, the entire underside of her legs, were now stinging from scrapes and bruises that she didn't want to think about, and several other parts of her throbbed rather painfully, including her ankle, forearms, and bottom.

As enticing as hiding out in Enid's place and getting into some dry clothes sounded, it wouldn't do to abandon ship before their commander even arrived. Amnell dug a clammy hand into her raincoat pocket and scooped out her cellphone to given Evan a ring, but as she suspected, it was not in any working order. She had just given up fiddling around with it when Alex came up to her and apologized. "It's fine. I'm sorry too. I'm just feeling miserable because it's so cold and dark and because tonight hasn't been going well as expected. Look, we should at least explain things to Evan before we do any taking off. My phone's fried, so someone else will have to do it."

Amnell then paused, wondering how well her next idea would be received. "Hey Seth, do you mind if I take these off," she gestured demurely at her drenched clothes, "and warm myself up inside the jeep?" She eyed the curly haired brunette beside her carefully. "Perhaps... Miss Cardiff would also like to join me in drying off?"

The girls had secluded themselves under an information booth. Seth wasnt in a hurry to join them. Tempers were kind of high between the ladies and he didnt want to be the brunt of one of Amnell's verbal attacks. He shrugged as Alex walked away from him and towards the hill, explaining where he fell and grabbing his soaking wet coat. Lot of good that would do. He gave a small laugh at Alex's dumb joke. At least someone was in a good mood. Alex headed towards the girls. Seth was in no rush. He wasnt gonna get any wetter...

Alex was apologizing when Seth made it under cover. They all seemed to agree with hanging at Enids until the storm blew over. Seth wasnt too keen on the idea of leaving Faith in the rain. But what else could they do?

Amnell's next question threw him off. Seth raised an eyebrow. Nel, naked, in his jeep, with another naked woman... He tried to force down a smirk, but couldnt resist. Amnell looked a little embarassed about the idea, but Seth smiled. "Go ahead, we wont peek. I'll keep Alex's eyes covered." he joked. He gestured to his jeep. "Just dont get any funny ideas in there ok?" he winked.

Standing under the covered shelter was a nice change of pace from being pelted by the rain, but she was still unsure about being alone with Amnell and was glad that the other two had shown up rather quickly. She of course understood the need to call the man who was reason they were all out in the woods looking for Faith about waiting out the storm, but she knew she couldn’t do it. She didn’t know the number nor would he know hers.

Listening to the other woman speak, her breathing hitched in her throat and she shook her head. “Uh… no thanks.” She muttered a reply lightly not wanting her response to be taken offense to. She wasn’t going to take off her clothes any time soon and let Amnell see all of the burn marks. She always did her best to hide them from everyone including the people who knew they were there.

Enid hated ruining the one male’s idea of fun, but she wasn’t going, she couldn’t force herself to go through with it. She mentally planted her feet to the ground beneath her. “I’ll… wait until we get to my place.” She said again trying not to make the other girl feel like she was trying to push her offer away. She liked the fact that she had asked, but it was simply something she couldn’t do.

Alex gratefully huddled under the awning, glad Amnell wasn't intent on biting his head off soon. He listened, and had to agree, they couldn't just leave without telling somebody. He continued listening as she then addressed Seth...

Wait, what?

To be honest, Alex wasn't entirely sure if Amnell was joking or not. Either prospect had its own twist on his mind, so he elected to pretend he hadn't heard it. He did acknowledge Seth's quip. "I-I think she was joking," he shot back with a playful punch. "But, uh, I think Seth needs to call Evan. I'm pretty sure my phone got fried too...let's see." He pulled out the phone, and tried it. "Yup," he continued, unamused. "Amazing how a bit of water can wreck a phone, when a one-story drop won't." He sighed. "I guess we have no choice. At least we found a place out of the rain. Anybody know if it's going to let up anytime soon?