Southern Stars

by Melissa Good

  Dar studied the rocks then picked a spot between two algae covered boulders and got a foot on either side of them.

  “How do you know where to stand?” Todd asked.

  “Find a gap,” Dar said, briefly. “We might have to go deeper.” She pointed to the right. “It’s a lot higher than it was yesterday.”

  Todd looked upriver. “It is,” he said. “No way could we use that raft. It’d come apart under us.” He eased sideways and carefully climbed over a submerged rock, getting into the water up to his waist. He almost lost his balance and reeled, waving his arms. “Oh shit!”

  Dar grabbed hold of the pontoon strut and swung over. She reached out to grab his wrist and pulled back. For a moment it was touch and go, then he rocked forward and got his footing and braced one hand against the rocks. “Watch it,” she said and released him. “Let me get a rope.”

  “Nah, I got it.” He wedged his feet into the crevices and bent forward. “Hey, Amy!” He let out a bellow that nearly made Dar’s ears ring. “C’mere!”

  Dar reached up and pulled a length of rope that was tied off and circled her waist with it, tying it off before she settled into her spot and let her elbows rest on her thighs. The early light reflected off the water, it’s rich green color and pungent scent flowing over her.

  Todd stared intently at the water, and then he lunged, grabbing at something. After a moment, he straightened and lifted his hands up, dripping but empty. “Shit.” He stared again, then plunged both hands into the water, chasing after something. “Shit,” he repeated.

  Dar felt the water flowing hard against her leg. “Might be going too fast to do this,” she said in a diplomatic tone. Then she felt a bump. Without really thinking her body reacted and she grabbed down by her shin and felt a body squiggling there.

  She tightened her grip and pulled her hand up, pulling a medium sized trout out of the water.

  Todd came back over to where she was standing. “Fuck. How do you do that?”

  Dar threw the fish into one of the broken topped bins on the raft. “It’s all in the reflexes.” She settled down to wait. “You get in the flow, and you feel the fish hit you. Then you grab them.”

  Todd studied her legs, his brow creasing. “The fish hit you?”

  “See the gap?” Dar pointed to two rocks. “Fish come through and I’m blocking their path.” She indicated her leg. “They can’t really control where they’re going in the flow, so they smack into me.” She felt another bump and grabbed quickly, feeling a bigger body that thrashed immediately. “Ah.”

  Todd got both hands under the water and grabbed and together they pulled a large fish out of the water. “Nice.” He looked at it with satisfaction, then peered past Dar to where not just Amy, but most the passengers were standing on the shore watching.

  Dar produced a somewhat pained smile, then turned her attention to ridding herself of the large, squiggling and croaking fish. From the corner of her eye she spotted Kerry arrive at the back of the crowd, and she handed off the animal to Todd for him to pose with as Amy focused her camera.

  The fish were a little slimy. She stuck her hands into the water to wash them off, and a fish swam into them, making her eyes widen a little as she simply closed her fingers on it. “Hey,” she told Todd. “Get rid of that I’ve got another one.”

  “What the fuck?” Todd stared down.

  “Throw it.” She jerked her head toward the raft. “We must be in the path of choice this morning.”

  Todd laughed, lifting the fish over his head and aiming for the cooler.

  THEY ASSEMBLED OUTSIDE the shack, ready to leave. The fish were packed in salt from Kerry’s cave find and the cooler rigged so that two of the crew could carry it, along with the rest of the salvaged stores. Water bottles had been filled by the now boiled runoff and they were as ready as they were going to be.

  Janet stood in front on the group holding a walking stick. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s move.”

  Dar had put her hiking boots back on, and had their duffel rigged for her to carry on her back, while Kerry had both their day bags. It wasn’t too uncomfortable, and she bounced a little on the balls of her feet as she waited for the group to get going.

  Todd and Amy were the first to start, both using backpack mounted water sacks. They wore the odd shoes that someone had explained to her were for rock climbing.

  Kerry had her camera around her neck, and a brimmed and ventilated hat on her head. “Might as well make the best of it, right?” she said as they started walking, just behind Rich and Sally.

  “At least you don’t have to be bored on the raft,” Kerry said.

  “True,” Dar said. She flexed her hands, and fell into the rhythm of the hike as they headed up and around the corner of the rock wall, following a faint path up a short rise.

  It was a nice morning, at least, the rain the previous day leaving clear skies and cool air behind as they continued upward, in the shadow of the canyon walls and the pungent blue sky contrasted with the striated rock and the gravel-strewn ground.

  Kerry touched Dar’s arm and pointed. “Hey a bighorn sheep. Look at it climb.”

  Dar watched the animal scale apparently without footing right up the cliff. “How in the hell does it do that?”

  “It’s got sticky pads on its hooves,” Rich supplied knowledgably. “And it keeps moving.”

  The animal gained a ledge and then trotted out of sight, and they kept moving between the walls. The sound of crickets suddenly loud around them, as grass about knee height grew in dusty tufts around ground that was visibly damp.

  They were still climbing up, and Dar leaned forward a little, shifting the duffel to a more comfortable position. She heard a scrape behind her and glanced back to see the crew members repositioning the gear, struggling a little with the big cooler.

  Just ahead of them PJ walked, using makeshift crutches that let her keep her weight mostly off her bandaged foot. Her classmates stayed with her, and two of them went back to help the crew, all of them roughly the same age.

  Not even a slight protest from the workers, who gladly shifted some of the load.

  Dar returned her attention to the trail, pondering if she should go back herself and assist. She looked up to find Kerry watching her over one shoulder, a faint grin on her face.

  She reasoned Kerry probably had a good idea of what she was thinking and returned the grin, with a slight shrug of both shoulders.

  “Hon.” Kerry hooked one finger into the waistband of her pants. “You did your part by providing food for all of us. Honest.”

  “Pffft.”

  “And everyone spent an hour scraping salt crystals for it.

  We’re all in. For a posh luxe ride down the river we’re doing plenty of work.”

  “I know.” Dar laid one arm over her shoulders, as the path widened and they could walk side by side. “I had a thought, though. What if we’re taking a different path than Josh did?”

  “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Kerry looked mournful. “C’mon, Dar. Isn’t it screwed up enough without inventing more problems?” she asked, in a plaintive tone. “What can we do? Split up?”

  Dar sighed. “No, I know.” She briefly fell silent. “They just haven’t made good choices so far.”

  And at that, Kerry had to be silent herself, because that was undoubtedly true. She sighed. “Well,” she finally said. “They know more about this than we do.”

  “Yrg.”

  The canyon was angling to the left, and they were on a steeper path. The gravel was damp and as they spread out a little Dar noticed that there was standing water in some places.

  “Folks,” Janet said from ahead of them. “Be careful, there’s some runoff up here and it can get slippery.”

  Dar felt the gravel shift under her in fact, and she moved over a little to where there was some scrubby grass growing. Kerry joined her and they kept their eyes on the ground as they walked in and out of splotches of sun coming between the
walls.

  Their boots slid a little, anyway. Kerry reached out quickly to grab hold of a piece of rock wall to keep from slipping. “Yikes.”

  Dar frowned. “We should have brought those softball cleats. Not much traction in these.”

  “Hold up, Dar. We have those collapsible walking sticks in the bag,” Kerry said, suddenly. “Let me get them.”

  “Great idea.” Dar paused and unslung the duffel, lowering it to sit on a rock and unfastening it as the crew coming up behind them paused for a rest, and PJ sat down and flexed her hands, with a grimace.

  Janet appeared next to them. “What’s up? We have to keep moving.”

  “We’re just getting something.” Kerry fished around in the duffel until she found the sticks. “Besides, I think those guys needed a breather.” She indicated the crew. “How much longer is the uphill?”

  Janet looked around. “Three or four hours. But once we get to the top it gets tricky.”

  Kerry handed Dar one of the sticks and opened one for herself. “Tricky?” She closed the bag and handed it back to Dar. “What does that mean?”

  But Janet just walked past them to the crew, and didn’t answer.

  Dar unfolded the stick and was now testing it, grunting in satisfaction as she looped the leather strap around her wrist. “I got a bad feeling about that.” She hoisted the duffel back up and tightened the straps. “But like you said, not much we can do.”

  The sticks helped, and Kerry made her way upwards with more confidence. They joined the rest of the party up the slope where they all were paused, watching the progress of the load bearing crew, who were picking their way up very cautiously.

  Don leaned on his wooden walking stick, and Marcia was seated nearby, a smear of mud along one side of her face.

  Janet climbed back up and past them, and the group started off again.

  BY THE TIME they got to the top, even Janet didn’t demur when they stopped for a break. The crew were all breathing hard. They put down their burdens and went to sit down, shirts drenched with sweat.

  Kerry was also glad to stop, her legs tired from the climb even with the help of the stick. She leaned against the rock wall and crossed her ankles. Dar stood nearby taking a sip from her water bottle.

  The sky had remained clear, but the downside to that was the sun remained bright. Kerry swung their day bags down from her back and fished inside hers. She pulled out a tube of sun block and opened it.

  Dar sidled over and lifted her hair off her neck, bending over to kiss her on the nape before she applied more of the gooey stuff.

  A little cool air, a little tickle from Dar’s fingertips, and the pleasurable sensation of Dar’s lips and Kerry dismissed the discomfort. She glanced up at her partner with an affectionate look as she applied some of the block to her exposed skin.

  Dar winked at her.

  Kerry winked back, and reached up to put some of the block along Dar’s cheekbones. Her base tan was enough to protect her, but there was no sense in taking chances. Dar stood there motionless as the block was applied. “You know what?”

  Dar straightened and leaned next to her, setting down the duffel bag she’d been carrying. “What?”

  “I love you.”

  Dar smiled. “I love you too,” she responded. “Especially at craptastic times like this.” She watched the rest of the party find rocks in the shade to sit on as the sun blazed down overhead. It wasn’t overwhelmingly hot. She was used to that.

  It was probably around eighty degrees, but dry, and now that they’d stopped hiking up the incline the light breeze made it almost comfortable.

  Dar stretched her legs out a little, pushing herself upward onto her toes as she watched Janet talking to the crew in a low tone she couldn’t make the words out in.

  Rich came over, holding his water bottle. “Now we go down and past that next ridge,” he said. “Glad we’re up here. If it starts raining again, we’re not going to drown.”

  “Is it likely to?” Kerry glanced up. “Seems pretty clear now.”

  “Heard them talking.” He indicated the crew. “That’s why they wanted to hump up here fast as they could.” He made a face. “We better find someplace to stop under cover.”

  Kerry pondered that. “How long is it going to take to get to that ranger station?” She asked. “It sounded like a short trip when they were talking about Josh going.”

  Rich glanced around casually then lowered his voice. “Three days.”

  “Three days?” Dar repeated.

  “We can’t go that fast, because of PJ, and the gear,” Rich said. “Josh would have gone faster, maybe a day and a half.” He took a sip from his water bottle. “Hope this lasts, or if it rains we can refill. You’re supposed to suck down a couple of these a day in this weather.”

  Dar and Kerry exchanged looks. “Especially with salt preserved fish,” Kerry said. “Or was the idea, Josh will get there ahead of us, and we’ll meet the rangers on their way back?”

  Rich half shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Why not? Makes sense.”

  Dar and Kerry exchanged another look. “We sure we’ll all meet up on the same path?” Dar asked, one dark eyebrow hiked up.

  “Well, there’s really only one major trail,” Rich said. He turned and pointed along the ridge. “Goes along there, and then down that set of switchbacks, and then back up to the slope, then back down there.” He shaded his eyes. “The ranger station’s on the other side of that mountain.”

  “Nice,” Dar said.

  “Should be fine,” Rich said. “I’m glad we’re off the river. I don’t think that raft was going to make it much farther. This way, at least, we’re making progress. If we’d dumped off the raft, who knows where we’d end up?” He looked up as Sally called him over, and went to join her.

  Dar opened her pack and removed a packet of crackers. She ripped it open and handed half the crackers to Kerry, then relaxed against the stone wall, chewing thoughtfully.

  Kerry nibbled one of the crackers. “Know what? Glad you brought these.”

  “Me too.”

  THE PATH GOT narrower, and now there was a short, but significant, drop off to their right-hand side. Dar was a pace or so behind Kerry, the soft scuff of her hiking boots audible amongst the silence of the rest of the group.

  Kerry looked quickly behind her, past Dar’s tall form to see the crew cautiously picking their way along the ridge.

  Two of the male crew had rigged a sort of sling between them, with the heaviest of the gear suspended by it. As she watched they paused to trade off their burden with two of the others, the first one swapping the ropes for a handhold on the rough seat they’d fashioned for PJ.

  PJ’s face showed a discomfort not only for the ride, but for the necessity of it. One of her classmates was walking alongside, the other two were back with the rest of the crew, helping carry boxes.

  “Watch it,” Dar said, gently, touching her back.

  Kerry refocused her attention on the trail and stepped over the rock in the center of the path before she tripped over it. “Thanks.”

  “Those guys bothering you?”

  “My helper gene is bothering me.” Kerry admitted. “As in, I want to be able to call in a helicopter or at least a squad of cute llamas to get us all out of this.”

  “Llamas are cute,” Dar said, “but— Dar straightened as yells came from in front of them. “What’s up?”

  Kerry stood on her tiptoes. “Hon, if you can’t see what’s going on what makes you think I can?” She shaded her eyes, but the group ahead had gone past a curve in the trail and were out of sight. “Should we go find out?”

  Dar sighed. “Probably. Maybe they ran into a tarantula or something.”

  Kerry paused. “Can those bite through hiking boots?”

  “No.” Dar started forward, then paused as the sounds started to come toward them, a mixture of boots and a tattoo of hoof beats. “Hold on.”

  “I was only joking about the llamas,” Kerry said with a nervo
us grin. “Honest.”

  They heard scrambling, yells of alarm, and then the sound of the hooves moving fast.

  Dar absolutely had no idea what was going on. “Go flat against the rock,” she said, pulling herself and Kerry back and sliding the duffel around so she could put her back to the wall.

  They heard more sounds of thrashing then a loud, frightened scream. A moment later two large figures came bolting down the path at them at full speed.

  “Holy crap!” Kerry flattened herself and grabbed hold of Dar’s arm as the mountain sheep, or goats, or whatever they were, thundered past inches away from them. The one in the lead half turned its head as its horns brushed Dar’s leg.

  Instinctively she kicked out, booting the animal in the ribs and it baa’d loudly, but kept going.

  “Watch out!” Kerry yelled after it. “Get to the side! Big sheep! Guys be careful!”

  “Mountain goat.” Dar started after it. “They may need help if it hits them.”

  Kerry scrambled after her as the animals reached the struggling crew. In a moment, it was a pileup and two of the crew went flailing over the edge of the path down the slope, as the men carrying PJ stumbled and she was almost launched off the seat onto the now confused sheep.

  Without hesitation Dar dove off the path after the crew, landing with a hop as she skidded down the rocky surface and continuing down to where they’d fallen in a cloud of dust and tumbling stones. She kept her balance and just let gravity take her the rest of the way until she was at the bottom of the slope.

  “Crap crap crap.” Kerry gave the nearest sheep a shove, it’s pungent, musky scent something she could almost taste on the back of her tongue. The animal baa’d in outrage but turned and leaped off the path, racing almost sideways across the rocks as its companion followed.

  A moment later, they were long gone, and everyone was catching their breaths. PJ was sitting on the ground, her bandaged foot held up in the air, scrapes visible on both elbows.

  One of the crew sat down on the cooler they'd almost lost and examined a bleeding cut on his hand. “Hey, are you guys okay?”