Southern Stars

by Melissa Good

  A little dangerous, and a little wild, and they both started laughing as they parted and didn’t want to. “Someone’s going to catch us,” Kerry said.

  “Maybe.”

  “Wanna risk it?”

  “Maybe.”

  “KNOW WHAT I figure, Dardar?”

  “You figure soon some scandalous picture of us is going to be posted on the Internet?”

  Kerry chuckled. “Well, it could have been worse.”

  Dar ran her fingers through her hair to start it drying. “Could have been worse. We’ll be out of here and in our camper van soon enough.”

  “Mm.” Kerry appreciated the new light as they walked back across the canyon. It painted the rock, and with the mostly clear skies the scenery was, at least for the moment, a little charming again.

  A steady breeze blew against them, and the air was drier than it had been. Kerry wondered if maybe their luck was changing.

  The rest of the party was emerging from the shelter as they approached. They headed over to the waterfall, one of them carrying the pot dangling from one hand. “Pretty bad when I wish we had oatmeal,” Kerry said

  Dar smiled. “I’d take a sticky bun at this point.”

  “You don’t like sticky buns.”

  “My point.”

  “Early birds,” Rich said, spotting them. “How’s the water?”

  “Cold.” Kerry said, with a somewhat cheeky grin. “Bring your own heat with you.” They met up in the middle of the flat path. “But it’s a nice morning.”

  “Lot nicer than yesterday,” Dave said. “We should make good time today. Pete’s standing up!’

  “Yeah?” Dar said. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Yeah. Don did a great job,” Rich said. “I’m glad he’s feeling better.”

  Kerry and Dar eased past and headed for the shelter, pausing as they reached the entrance and heard someone coming in the opposite direction.

  Kerry took a step back and got out of the way, glancing down at the ground as she spotted a shadow on it. ”˜What the...” She crouched to get a better look.

  “Easy.” Tracey said, as she helped Pete limp gingerly along. “Don’t go too fast.”

  “I won’t, no fear,” Pete said. “Just glad to be vertical.” He gave Dar a brief, wan grin. “Hey, thanks for standing up for me last night. I really appreciated that, after that bozo kicked me.” He glanced behind them at the shelter. “Customer or no, boy I could have whacked him.”

  “No problem,” Dar said. She edged out of the way to let him pass, and watched him as he did, then turned to look at Kerry who was standing at her side with a somewhat urgent expression. “What’s up?”

  Kerry pointed down between her boots.

  Dar leaned over and then she knelt, putting her fingertips down on the ground. “Hm.” There was an animals’ footprint, larger by half than the one she’d seen from the bobcat. In the dew damp sand, it was clear and distinct, right up to the indentations from flexed claws.

  “Holy crap,” Kerry said, in a low tone. “Dar, it was right here.” She looked around and then back at her partner. “Wasn’t it?”

  Dar stood up and dusted off her hands. She glanced over her shoulder at the group, some wandering across the sand while waiting their turn at the toilet. “I think those are fresh so It was.” She scuffed the print out with the toe of her boot. “But it’s gone, and no one got eaten. No sense in freaking everyone out.”

  Kerry took a breath to protest, then paused and thought about it. “Yeah,” she finally said. “I’m really glad we found shelter. That being out here, for who knows how long, creeps me out.”

  “Me too.” Dar put her hand on Kerry’s back and guided her inside. “Let’s get packed up. Hope we get as lucky tonight.”

  “Hope we find a taco stand.”

  Chapter Nine

  THEY WERE THROUGH the canyon and heading up the mountain trail hours past noon before the weather started to turn. Clouds gathered, bringing a cold mist down, obscuring the top part of the canyon wall.

  Kerry paused and put one boot up on a nearby rock, retying her laces as Rich and Dave went on ahead to see what they could find. Dar leaned against the wall next to her, listening to the thunder rumbling in the distance. “Not good.”

  “Not good,” Kerry said. “But we made some progress today.” She shaded her eyes and looked back the way they’d come. “Did they say around this mountain and down and then we’ll be at a ranger station?”

  “They did,” Dar said.

  Just down the path, Tracey and Pete stood, Pete with both hands on a gnarled stick Don had salvaged from the remains of the pine tree they’d burned for fuel. He was still in pain, and he was sweating through it, but he’d managed to move along with them as best he could.

  Relief for the crew, who now just had the dwindling supplies to worry about carrying. But on the other hand, they were now climbing up hill and everyone was tired.

  Water containers were passed around, filled that morning at the falls. Dar took a moment to uncap her water bottle and take a swallow, grimacing a little from the faint taste of iodine they’d used to kill anything in it.

  They’d passed on lunch, and she was hungry. She thought she had one package of crackers left in her backpack but she resisted getting it out, feeling a bit self-conscious about chewing on them while everyone was watching.

  Then something occurred to her, and she swung the pack around and fished the somewhat battered crackers out, opening it up and handing one over to Kerry. “Here.”

  Kerry eyed her. “How in the hell did you know I was just thinking about that?”

  “Been a long time since breakfast.” Dar crunched contentedly on her own cracker. “I don’t want you keeling over before we can stop.”

  Kerry stuck her tongue out, covered in crumbly peanut butter. She paused to swallow, and wash down the mouthful with water. “I’m not looking forward to more of the fish tonight,” she said ruefully. “It’s getting pretty funky.”

  “Salty,” Dar said. “Kind of dried and chewy.”

  “I can soak it I guess. Maybe make a soup again, but we don’t have anything else to put in it.”

  Dar pondered that. “Too bad we didn’t catch one of those sheep.”

  They were both silent for a few moments, standing there in the mist. “Mm.” Kerry sighed. “Now I really want lamb chops. Damn you, Dar.”

  Dar offered another cracker in mute apology.

  Janet came up behind them. “We better get moving. We don’t want to get caught on this path in the rain. Runoff comes down it, see?” She pointed at the ground with the stick she was using. “I don’t even know if there’s some place to take shelter but we better find something out of the water route.”

  Dar tightened down the pack on her back and started up the path, leaning forward a little and using her hiking pole as she climbed, listening for Kerry’s steps behind her, and the chance of Rich and Dave returning from ahead.

  The mist was giving her skin a clammy feel, and she licked her lips as she put her hand on the rock wall to keep her steps steady.

  She knew behind them was the crew, and behind the crew, bringing up the rear was Todd and Amy. Everyone had ignored Todd the entire day but he apparently didn’t care, and Amy stayed at his side as the group moved gamely up the path.

  Dar heard rocks tumbling down ahead of her. She paused and braced herself as the fog came down and blocked the long view. “Rich?” She called out.

  “Yeah we’re here!” Rich answered. “Not much to see!”

  Great. Dar continued up and came around a slight bend of rock to a more even part of the path and saw Rich and Dave ahead of her. They stood looking through an overhead arch that covered the path. It was too thin to provide any real shelter and they moved past it.

  The walls were again on either side, and the rock-strewn path provided uneasy footing. “Careful!” Dar said. “Lot of pebbles.”

  Kerry slid a foot just as Dar said that, and quickly
caught her balance with a hand on the wall. “Whoa.” She got her pole ahead of her and got closer to Dar. They caught up to Dave and Rich a moment later. The two men were speaking in low tones, and they turned to greet them.

  “There’s a few more arches,” Dave said. “I’ve seen this hike on the Internet. It’s supposed to be like a two day’er from the ranger station. If we can get through this part, it goes down again and maybe by sundown tomorrow we can get some help.

  “That sounds fantastic,” Kerry said. “If the weather doesn’t kill us again.”

  Rich made a face. “Yeah.” They started forward and walked along under the rock overhangs, all mostly thin and without any promise of shelter. The walls were also straight up, with no shelves they could even duck under, and of course the thunder was getting closer.

  Dar started to look at the walls, trying to find any shelter as she felt the first isolated drops of rain, along with a rising of the wind that was gusting through the canyon.

  The path started up again and they all leaned forward, now relatively far ahead of the main group, though they could hear the voices back behind them.

  There was no wood around, Kerry noticed. No trees or even shrubs, and she realized the rain was going to probably make building a fire unlikely.

  Now she was sorry they hadn’t stopped for lunch. “This is going to be a mess.”

  “Yes,” Rich said. “But maybe...hey, yeah.” He pointed ahead of them as they came around a bend. “There! Look!”

  It was another arch, but this one was wide, and on either side had a deep undercut that they reached just as the rain started coming down harder. Rich dropped his bags down and started back up along the path, waving at Janet as she struggled up the rise. “Hey! We found a spot!”

  Todd made his way up to the front and now pushed past Janet. “At least its big enough to be away from you and the rest of the pussies.” He went over to the far side of the path and motioned Amy with him.

  “Assholes R Us,” Janet muttered under her breath. They all worked to get the supplies under cover before the rain really started. The fog came all the way down and they stumbled around in the mist. Two of the crew and Sally climbed up farther, braving the weather to see if they could find some wood.

  Dar knelt next to their duffel. She looked up when she heard a yell of alarm, to see something relatively small scurrying toward her at a high rate of speed.

  “What the hell!” Janet got up and almost fell as it went between her legs and jumped over one of the boxes, careening toward the other side of the arch. “Hey! Hey!”

  The animal raced toward them and in utter reflex, Dar reached out and grabbed at it, feeling soft fur and muscle under her fingertips. It turned and fought her grip, and she saw large teeth go for her hand and she froze for a moment, not sure whether to hold on or not.

  “Dar!” Kerry bounded over to her. “It’s going to bite you!”

  Dar got it around the neck and held it up as the rest of the group came over. “It’s a rabbit,” she said. The rabbit panted in fear, eyes round wide in a terrified expression. Kerry arrived, lifting her walking stick in defense of Dar. “Take it easy, slugger.”

  “Oh.” Kerry relaxed her stance, then reached over and touched a fingertip to the rabbit’s ear, which twitched violently. “Aww. I wasn’t sure what it was. Poor little bunny.”

  Dar looked at the rabbit, then at her beloved. “Weren’t you the one who was just wanting lamb chops?” She asked, in a quizzical tone.

  “Psht. Dar.” Kerry touched the rabbit again, this time with more confidence. “We can’t eat this thing. We don’t even have any wood to cook the dried fish.”

  “Rabbit’s good,” Dave said. “But more important, if it came from around here, there must be grasses and stuff for it to eat. We can burn that.”

  Dar sniffed reflectively and peered at the rabbit, who had calmed a little, and was now eyeing her back with a twitch of its nose. Its long ears drooped and she felt one brush her hand with a feeling of damp velvet. She gave it a little scratch on the bottom of its jaw with her thumb.

  Then, without warning, she lowered her hands and released it, giving it a toss down the path. She watched it recover itself and race off just as a protest lifted from her companions. “G’wan, bunny.”

  “Why’d you do that?” Rich said. “We’re all hungry! We’d have figured it out!”

  “Go catch it yourself then.” Dar stood and dusted her hands off.

  Rich took her at her word and trotted off through the rain, in the direction the rabbit had scuttled, pausing to pick up several stones on his way. After a minute, Dave followed him.

  “Why did you do that?” Kerry asked. They started to lay down a much-folded tarp, and blocked out an area right on the edge of the overhang.

  “Why did I do that,” Dar repeated, as she moved down the path in the mist, collecting rocks and bringing them back over to put them down to make a small wall. “Because I knew you’d freak out if I broke its neck.” She knelt to arrange the stones. “And I really didn’t want to kill it.”

  “Aww.” Kerry leaned over and gave her a kiss on the shoulder. “You’re such a sweetie.”

  “And because butchering it and letting that blood smell get out is probably not a good idea,” Dar added, under her breath. “Know what I mean?”

  Kerry laid down the edge of the tarp for Dar to put her rocks on. “Hadn’t thought of that. Kind of like not going diving that time of the month?”

  Dar paused and looked at her. “Kinda,” she said. “Or with open cuts as if jumping in salt water wasn’t enough to keep you from doing that.”

  “Mm.” Kerry looked past the arch, where rain was now dampening the ground. “Good point.”

  Dar came around and under the overhang. The arch started along the ground about ten feet, and though low, it was definite shelter. She sat on the ground to save her head from smacking into it, and rubbed her fingertips together, still feeling the struggle of the rabbit’s body in her grip.

  Why, really, had she released it? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t eaten rabbit in the field, back in the day. That and frogs, and once, a big lizard. It hadn’t been tasty, but she wasn’t a cook and neither were the guys she’d camped with.

  After that they’d brought MRE’s stolen from base with them.

  She licked her lips and grinned, remembering the canned chicken with hot sauce on crackers, and PBJ in packets, and wished she had some right now.

  “What’s so funny?” Kerry regarded their little corner and grunted in approval.

  “Nothing.” Dar stretched her legs out and glanced to her right, where they were getting Pete settled next to her, with Don and Marcia on the other side. “How’s the back?”

  “Hurts,” Pete said. “But still better than it was.” He was on his side, brushing pebbles away and moving small stones from under the ragged sleeping bag Tracey had put down under him. “Hey.” He looked up at Dar. “Glad you let the bunny go.”

  Dar smiled.

  “Me too.” Tracey was sitting cross-legged on the other side of him. “I’d rather be hungry. Honest. Those guys are just wankers.”

  Kerry sat quietly, waiting to see what the results of the wood hunting was going to be. “They aren’t really,” she said. “They’re mostly nice guys. I just think the whole situation here is making people kind of crazy.”

  “Kind of?” Pete gave her a wry look. “Those guys are getting hangry. Seen customers get that way, you know? We have times we stop, and times we need to keep going, and they get all aggro because they’re hangry. You’re smart to have brought those crackers.”

  “Hangry.” Kerry repeated the word.

  “That’s why Janet is always running around passing trays,” Tracey said. “Speaking of, let me see if we’ve got anything left in the supplies. I thought I saw maybe some rice crackers.” She got up and went to the pile of boxes, notably smaller than it had been.

  A minute later Sally and the two crewmen returned with larg
e armfuls of what looked a lot like sagebrush.

  “We managed to find this. Did you guys see that rabbit? We surprised her out of her burrow.”

  “We saw it,” Kerry said. “Dar grabbed it but she let it go.”

  “Great, because it has babies back there.” Sally set down her burden. “I’m going to go back and get more brush, there’s a whole patch up about five minutes from here.” She looked around. “Anyone want to help?”

  The two crew members put their bundles down and pushed their raincoat hoods back, as PJ stood up and limped forward. Both she and Sally disappeared back into the mist, along with Tracey, who looked back over her shoulder at Dar and winked.

  Dar and Kerry looked at each other. Without comment, Kerry lifted one of Dar’s hands up and brought it to her lips, kissing her knuckles. Then she pulled their duffel over and started rooting around in it.

  Dar folded her arms as she listened to the rain increase, and the thunder rumble now more closely overhead. “One more day,” she said, watching the center of the path start to gather a little water in it. “One more day.”

  DAR WIPED MIST off her face for the nth time, watching the lightning bursting outside the shelter of the arch, outlining the driving rain and the flow of water down the center of the path.

  Kerry sat next to her, arms wrapped around her knees, and her chin resting on her forearms. She was in her waterproof jacket and its surface was shiny with moisture.

  The grass had allowed for a fire, but a fast burning one, and so they’d cooked as they could, and put what they hadn’t eaten back in one box for the morning, hoping that would be the end of that. They emptied out the cooler the fish had been in and washed it, and now were storing things in it they were hopeful of keeping dry.

  Including enough grass to burn to heat water to drink in the morning, as they were out of any kind of tea or other leaves.

  Across the arch, Todd and Amy had set up their own, isolated camp. If Dar squinted a little she could see their outline tucked into the corner of the arch on that side, much as she and Kerry were on the side they were on. “Be glad to finish this,” she said.