Part 9 (1/2)
”How about a coyote burger?” I snorted.
”Ha. Ha.” He rolled over and closed his eyes. ”Get me some water from the supply box, please.”
I groaned and trudged over to where he left it.
”Ummm, Tex? There aren't any of those gallon jugs in here,” I said.
Tex was up now and made his way over to me. I guess he had to see for himself.
”Dammit. I didn't realize it yesterday when I opened it.” He pointed to our backpacks that were leaned against the stony wall. ”How many do we have left?”
I unzipped the bags and pulled out the bottles. What I found made me uneasy. ”Five empties and two full ones.”
Tex cursed again. We were going to fill the empty ones up with the water we found in this cave. ”This is c.r.a.p!” He hissed. ”Today is one of the longer trips too.” He ran his hands through his hair and down his face, obviously wracked with anxiety.
”What are we going to do?” I squeaked, putting the bottles back in the packs.
”The only thing we can do. Conserve.”
I would be back to my old mantra tonight, hoping that our next stop would have the water jugs.
We both ate and took a single sip of water each.
The night was eerily still. It had always been silent and lifeless in this southern California desert, but tonight just felt different. The tiny hairs on my body stood on end and a chill ran down my spine. It was like the air had been sucked from existence, replaced with an electric stillness.
An hour pa.s.sed since we had left the cave, but feeling this way, I almost wanted to turn back. I felt like I was in the eye of the storm again, just waiting for everything to explode around me.
”Do you feel tha-”
”Yeah,” Tex breathed.
”This is new.” I hugged myself. ”It feels different than the meteor attack.”
”Let's just keep going,” he said.
After making our way up a mountain razorback, we found that our water bottles were half empty. It was a steep climb, so it was probably inevitable. Everything around still felt empty; everything felt wrong. Tex and I kept silent most of the time, alert to our surroundings, just waiting for something to happen.
Standing on the thin mountain edge, Tex retrieved the map from his pack and unrolled it. Tracing his finger along our traveled path, he stopped at our next landmark. It was a hill that had ”oysters” written above it. We both raised an eyebrow.
He laughed and said, ”Don't look at me; I don't have a clue. We'll walk straight for another couple miles and hopefully run into it, whatever it is.”
We had to walk down the razorback mountain, up a smaller one, and back down until we were on flat land once again. I was already aching for more of that sweet liquid life, but I tried to ignore the dull emptiness in my stomach.
”Need some more H20?”
”Don't remind me,” I groaned as I almost tripped over my shoelace. ”c.r.a.p.” I knelt and went to work on the laces.
”Your hair,” Tex said. They were two simple words, but they seemed to hold intense meaning behind them.
”It's blonde,” I said, dully.
”It's moving.” I looked up at him and his mouth stood agape; his eyes were wide.
”What do you mean it's mov-oh, what the!” There was a breeze. It was so light that I hadn't noticed it brus.h.i.+ng my skin. ”What does this mean?” I stood up.
”Your guess is about as good as mine.” He took the flyaway strand that was dancing in the breeze and placed it behind my ear. I s.h.i.+vered as I felt his skin against mine.
Remembering the stillness earlier, I frowned. ”Why do I feel like this isn't a good thing?”
”Because you're a pessimist?” Tex said, sticking his tongue at me.
I shoved him. ”Oh, act your age, will you?”
”Yes, Mother.”
We walked on. Whether this breeze was a blessing or an omen, at that moment, I didn't care; I savored it. I relished it, taking in the feeling of its embrace. The gentle wind wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either-it danced between warm and cool. It made me feel childish and I spun around with my arms out, feeling like I could fly if the wind would just pick me up. I heard Tex laughing behind me, and before I would have felt self-conscious; now, I was overly comfortable around him, more so than I had been with my best girlfriends. I wanted to know what he was seeing and how he saw me at that moment. I felt my age for the first time in a long time and I wanted that feeling to last; I wanted Tex to join me in whatever the h.e.l.l you would call what I was doing, but it ended abruptly and with a loud crash as the entire sky lit up like Independence Day at the beach.
We both hit the ground and covered our heads. I guess it was the obvious reaction to a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot in the night. And then it boomed around us again, the same cras.h.i.+ng noise, the same bright light that blanketed the night sky. It went on and on. I closed my eyes, afraid to see what was happening, afraid that this was finally the end for me. I felt a pang of sadness, thinking I had survived all this time just to die now.
”Blondie, get up.” Tex said as he grabbed my upper arm and pulled me up. ”Look.”
I slowly opened my eyes and I didn't quite believe what I saw. It was lightning and it struck the horizon in front of us continuously. Every time I saw the light, I covered my ears because I knew what was coming next.
Cras.h.!.+
And suddenly the still, electric feeling that the environment had been giving off the last few hours finally made sense. The closer we got to the lightning storm, the more the wind picked up; it was no longer a whisper of a breeze, but a gentle blow.
In the illumination of the lightning, I saw a jagged hill outlined against the navy blue sky. It was straight ahead, not even a mile away; I pointed to it and Tex nodded.
”It's the oyster hill,” he confirmed and we picked up our pace.
I knew it wasn't the smartest thing to head in the direction of the lightning storm, but there was no other way. A detour could mean death in this forsaken world.
I was parched beyond recognition, so I took a long pull from my water bottle, leaving it only a quarter full. I didn't tell Tex. I knew he'd want me to take his if I finished my own. He was a selfless man, whether he knew it or not.
Cras.h.!.+
”So this is what I was missing hiding away in my bunker.” I yelled, running alongside Tex.
The strikes were close to us now. The booming noises rattled my bones and shook the ground we were treading on. We finally made it to the oyster hill and the reason for the name became obvious. The hill was made entirely of large oyster halves. They were gray and eroded, but completely recognizable. I picked one up while flinching at the thunder and examined it.
”Weird,” I commented, brus.h.i.+ng my hand over the ancient sh.e.l.l.
”This whole desert must have been flooded over at one time,” he said.
”Noah,” I muttered to myself. It made me think of Eden and how much I wished we were there already. It made me think of G.o.d and how maybe this whole end of the world thing was like a second flood. Maybe He got tired of the bickering and hostility of mankind and He wanted to cleanse the Earth of it, just start brand new. I wouldn't blame Him. If it was up to me, I probably would have had ten floods since the first one.