The convoy regrouped on the upper road while Ning checked the household count against the carts. Two were missing.
One had turned toward the old orchard to retrieve a family that had not received the evacuation signal. The other was the cart whose wheel had snagged near the ravine. Vessa remembered the drivers’ names and marked the time each had left the line.
“We can search the safer trail,” she said. “But we can’t send a crowd.”
Han limited the search to a small party: Yan, Noma, a scout who knew the orchard road, and two soldiers. The rest of the unit stayed with the families. Ning gave them one water barrel and marked their return route on the map.
Yan offered to go alone.
Ning shook her head. “Take the scout. You don’t know which track the cart took.”
He looked at the dark road beyond the trees, then nodded. “Show me the wheel marks.”
The scout found them in wet ground beyond the ridge. He had Yan follow the wheel ruts while Noma checked the softer ground at the edge. The cart had left the main track and slid toward a ditch. Its wheel was overturned, one spoke broken. The passengers lay still beside it. The driver’s lantern had shattered near the axle.
