StV: Florida Man, part six

"Okay first of all," said the park ranger, "no you can't, and second of all, even if you somehow did what the hell would you do then? Armed and extremely dangerous is what every law enforcement agency in Florida is calling him."

Cloudburst said, "Gaunt, would you point towards the park ranger's home?"

Gaunt blinked, looked around for a moment, then lifted his arm. "That way."

The woman blinked, looked at Gaunt, then said, "All right, I'll humor you. Keep pointing." She pulled out a compass, walked over to him, and held the compass under his hand to get a reading. Then she stepped back and pull out a folded paper map. 

"Madre..." Nightfall trailed off. "You just keep a map of Florida on your person?"

"Can't use GPS if you don't have a cell signal," the woman pointed out. "I keep a couple of maps on me, some general and some local." She spread the map out, put her finger on the tower, then put another finger down on a spot in Miami. "All right. I met my best friend at Arch Creek Elementary School. Where's that?"

Gaunt blinked, then shifted his finger slightly to the left. 

"Well, two out of two could still be chance, but... all right. My worthless ex-husband, assuming he's still alive?"

Gaunt shook his head. "If he's alive, he's out of my range. Florida Man was too, when we first got here."

The woman's face softened into a smile. "All right. I was going to pretend that I hadn't heard everything I heard -- I really wasn't trying to eavesdrop -- but can you convince me that you're Anomalies?"

Cloudburst considered that, but only for a moment. "Nightfall, you're in the best position to be convincing without being threatening."

Nightfall nodded, and darkness gathered around them. They could still see the light -- back down the wooden walkway, and out in the grasses -- but in some ways that made it worse, harder to see anything close by. 

"Okay," said the park ranger. "You're all Anomalies. I guess that means you can defend yourselves?"

The darkness lifted, and Cloudburst nodded. "I just don't want to demonstrate anything destructive."

"Well," said the woman, "and don't think I don't appreciate that. I'm still a little worried, though, because -- no offense -- you all look like children to me. Young adults, anyway."

"You aren't wrong," Cloudburst admitted, "but... this pendejo, he's shot two police officers, done a ton of damage, and kidnapped people, even if he seems to forget and let them escape later. If he's an Anomaly like us, then we need to be pushing back against that shit. So we'll find him, and catch him, and turn him over to the proper authorities."

The woman leaned back, studying her. "You're all committed to this?"

Cloudburst didn't look back. She trusted her team.

"All right, then. Good." She smiled. "Today's your lucky day. I'm Rachel, and I can get us access to a boat... and my brother-in-law is a Sheriff's deputy."