Josh had left the woods by now, and was pacing on the sidewalk. It felt like an hour had gone by, without any word from Dan, and Kyle still hadn't shown up. Josh wasn't sure what we could do. Searching alone had gotten him nowhere. The woods were big, and he couldn't cover all the ground by himself. He wasn't even sure Dan was still in the woods for that matter! He had walked back to the edge of the trees again, and peered in and hopelessly called out again, "Dan?!"
"Josh?!"
Josh froze, and called out again, "DAN?!"
"Josh... it's me." Josh turned around to see Kyle. Kyle said he'd ask Kevin to come too, but he had to make sure Jake made it home from school. It left Kyle rushing over as fast as he could, all the while getting so angry at Josh for doing such a stupid thing, and thinking of all the nasty stuff to say to him. But when he saw his brother's face, it all faded away. It looked like Josh had been crying, and it through Kyle off. He walked over to Josh, and gently spoke, "It's ok, we'll find him."
"K-Kyle..." Josh started to get choked up again. He covered his eyes so Kyle wouldn't see, but he was a bit late. Kyle walked right up to the front of Josh and put both arms around him, squeezing his brother. Kyle was surprised again. Was he actually giving Josh a hug? If so, it was probably the first they ever had. Josh was lost in his own guilt, and despite trying to fight it, he accepted Kyle's comfort, and hugged him back. "This is all my fault. I let this happen..."
"Hey, it's ok. We'll find him, I promise." Kyle let go, and they took a step apart. The moment was over, and they were back to their regular selves. "Ok... So what the hell?"
"I don't know, its like I said, Dan ran off into the brush." Josh turned and pointed to emphasize. Kyle came and stood beside him and looked in, but all he could see were the trees. "I have no idea where he is, or if he's even in there still. I tried calling for him, but there's no answer."
"What about your phone?"
"What about it?"
Kyle did a face palm, and gave Josh a glare, "Have you tried phoning him? Maybe he CAN'T answer you... so you could use his ringtone to track him." Josh put his finger in Kyle's face and wanted to say something, but knew that Kyle's idea was right. He turned his back to his little brother and dialed Dan's number. There was no answer, and it went to his voice mail. "Keep calling. We need to find him face." Kyle pointed to the sky, and Josh looked up to see dark rain clouds.
The brothers had been searching the woods for another fifteen minutes in the pouring rain, when they could faintly hear Dan's phone. They gave each other excited glaces and rushed to where the sound had been coming from. Josh's voice was still sore from before, so Kyle was the one calling out. "Dan?! DAN?!" They ran on, even though they didn't hear anyone call back. They were upon the ringing in seconds, but as they rounded a tree where the ringing was coming from, all they saw was Dan's cell, laying in the mud.