The Pursuit: part two

Chad and Jake stopped walking long enough to put their rain gear on.
“Arty, you should really put your parka on. The rain is really coming down.” Chad didn’t like to call his father-in-law “Dad”. Since his own father passed away it felt like he was replacing him. Arty just grunted and put the ear flaps down on his hat. A little rain wasn’t going to hurt him, he had survived much worse than this. When he was ten he fell through the ice on the creek behind the farm. As his clothes grew heavy with water he sank slowly to the bottom, it felt like knives pierced every inch of his body, and as the current flowed he moved further away from the opening and under the ice. Before he passed out he could see blurred figures struggling to break the ice, to set him free. The next thing he remembered was being covered in blankets in front of the fireplace. Surviving that gave him the ability to assess true risk, if he survived falling through the ice, he could survive rain and the cold that might follow.
“Are you sure we should go back to the cabin without Ethan? Will he know to go back?” Chad asked.
“I’d be surprised if he wasn’t there when we get there.” Arty said. “He’s got the maps, he knows where to go.”
“Sure.” The drumming of the raindrops on the leaves drowned out any other sound that floated in to them. The faintest of yells did not register. Neither Chad nor Jake heard anything because the sound of the rain was amplified by the hoods on their raincoats. Arty stopped for a moment and turned. He motioned for the others to stop and listen. They stood frozen listening for anything other than the rain. No other sound waves could pass between the drops and they went unheard. They walked the rest of the way in silence.