G is prepared. His pack, bow, and quiver are to stay with Ever and Bae. He carries only his fixed blade knife, attached horizontally to the front of his belt. Shirt and pants have changed. A strange new color of faded orange and light brown, like sand, weaves together across his clothes—so different from his daytime dress of khaki and green.
Bae takes note of G's new clothing, how it mirrors the soil of the surrounding landscape. The soil's orange coloring is a result of the sandstone substrate, much different from the dry, hard soil of the lower desert and also unlike the canyon substrate where their cave was located. G's face and hands are painted to match the shades of nighttime colors; he has slashed charcoal across them over a base of rust-colored clay he discovered next to a water seep back at the cave. G's scarf is draped over his shoulder-length hair, trailing off his head and down his back, covering its grey-white color.
The old man wastes no time once he's camouflaged. He hugs Bae and then Ever, holding her for a long moment. Then he's moving down the slope leading to the dump.
Bae and Ever watch from their perch. Bae casts a sideways glance at Ever, who was silent during G's preparations. She's still silent as they watch. Worry is etched in her expression. Even in the evening light, Bae realizes his cousin wears the same grim look her grandfather does when he's troubled. The boy smiles and turns to watch G's movement down the slope.
The old man is agile as he moves down the difficult terrain. He seems half feral, half human. Then, to Bae's astonishment, when he reaches the bottom of the slope, G simply vanishes into the shadows.
Ever watches through a small pair of binoculars, fished out of her pack. Bae strains to sight in G, with no luck.
"Can you see him?" Bae asks, breaking their silence.
"Yeah. Moving across the dump now."
Bae focuses on the interior of the dump.
"He's just right of the refrigerators. North side."
"Got him," Bae confirms. "He moves like a ghost."
"Sure does," Ever says, smiling with pride. "You will, too, one day."
Shocked at her words, he looks at the girl next to him. Ever says nothing more as she continues to look through the binoculars.
~
Once through the dump, G crosses the field. He's moving fast, although he pauses at times before hurrying on. Ever leans forward, as if trying to get closer to her grandfather. Bae can only stare into the gloomy darkness. Ever updates G's position in hopes Bae can spot the old man as he moves below.
"He's across the field now."
A quick sweep of the area with the binoculars produces no enemy to Ever's search. G's road-crossing area appears safe, free of danger.
"Good," Ever says quietly and returns the glasses to G's current position.
"What do you mean?" Bae asks. He searches the ground near the road. He wills his eyes to find G.
"No random movement from townies," she says.
"Has G crossed the road yet?" Bae asks.
"Yes. Just crossed. He's keeping the car between him and the buildings. Looks like he's scanning his route."
Bae focuses on the car. A sickly glow from the streetlight illuminates the immediate area around the car. He spies a movement, just barely and only briefly. Some form. A fleeting darkness in the pall of the streetlight.
"He's moving," Bae says, excited at spotting G.
"Good eyes," Ever encourages. "Keep it up."
"He's behind the buildings now. Can't see him," Ever says, concerned.
She drops the binoculars and rubs her eyes with her left hand. Briefly gazes down at the town, then puts the binoculars back to her eyes.
"There he is," she says. "At the back of the truck."
Bae strains to see, but it's too dark and far away for his eyes.
"Thank god," she breathes. "Doors are unlocked. He's in. Should only take a few minutes."
Tense at G's absence from her sight, Ever watches without moving. Bae notes her full concentration as he steals another sidelong glance. The boy finds he's swept up in too many emotions. Fear. Excitement. Hope. Despair. He doesn't know what to do, so he sits frozen in place and stares down at the town. Ever moves again and scans the immediate area around the ambulance.
"Oh, no," she blurts.
Bae jumps at the tone in her voice.
"What?" he nearly shouts.
"Oh, god," she says. "A man's walking toward the ambulance. G's still inside!"
Bae's panic rises, helpless and blind to what's happening below.
"He's getting in the driver's side," Ever cries. "Get out, G!" Then a quick release of breath. "G's out the back. He's running between the buildings. Hurry," she nearly shouts. "Hurry!"
The man in the ambulance appears out the back, arms braced against the open doors. He looks around and jumps down. His body tenses, and he looks around wildly. He runs around to the front of the ambulance, shouting. They can't hear his shouting, but Ever sees it.
The stillness of the night is shattered. Ambulance lights burst to life, and the truck's siren screams awake. Even without the glasses, Bae sees the emergency lights reflect across the front of the buildings and vehicles below.
Ever's body strains forward, almost off the edge of the rim.
"I can't see," Bae says.
"Got him!" Ever cries. "He's running away from the buildings."
"Where?" Bae says. "Point the direction!"
"To the field." She quickly checks back at the ambulance. "Shit! People are at the ambulance. Shouting. Waving their arms. They have guns!"
Bae wrestles with dark memories of the Bronco, Ghost, blood, being hunted. Then he hears engines start.
Helplessness is taking over his body, his mind. Below him, a town is bursting to life like a nest of angry hornets, and all he can do is sit on this rim.
Truck lights stab out in all directions. Tires screech, churning up clouds of dust that waft through the beams of light. One truck shoots north, up the darkened asphalt road, turns at the saddle where the road leaves the valley, and stops. Its engine idles as a floodlight searches, a two-eyed monster with a third eye that probes the darkness.
Bae, in shock, is back in his memories, at the cottonwoods in the desert, the battle zone between camps. His fear catapults him further back, to the truck with the stabbing beam that night at his Grandfather's house, bodies tossed into the truck bed. “We have enough!”
He remembers the Death Camp and the words spoken there on the hillside while he hid and the cooking fire behind the dealership below.
Bae shakes his head, forcing the images to flee. He looks at Ever. She, too, is frozen. He shifts his attention to the angry machines whirling around the north end of town. They aren't at the field. Not yet.
"Where's G?"
"In the field. Halfway," she cries, excited. "He's gonna make it to the dump!"
She stretches further out. Bae wonders how the hell she doesn't fall over the edge.
Two sets of headlights, two machines, shoot out from behind the buildings, racing across the road, into the field. A truck and a sandrail. The noise of the sandrail is tremendous! Even up at the rim where they're hiding, it's loud. The two vehicles start circling the outer edge of the field, moving opposite to each other. Their tactic is to fence in the field with their circling. They pass each other in a coordinated movement. Bae sees how they're closing the circle, round by round, like a trap!
"G's still in the field!" Ever says. She looks at Bae. "He's trapped!"
Chapter 58 - Dark Medicine
"Here," Ever shouts and thrusts the binoculars at Bae. "Locate G. He's in the middle, lying flat. Can you see him?"
"No!" The binoculars aren't helping. "Where is he?"
Bae feels the glasses being guided. Forced down and right. Ever's controlling them.
"See that little ditch?"
"Yes."
"He's lying flat, head towards us."
"I
see him!"
"Don't lose him."
Ever reaches behind her, grasps a bow, and pulls an arrow from G's quiver. It's G's larger, more powerful bow she grips.
"Keep talking!" she says. "Tell me what's happening!"
She ties her scarf to the point-end of the arrow shaft. Quickly, from an outside pocket of her pack, she fishes out a zip-lock baggie, opens it, and spreads a greasy substance on the scarf.
"Still in the ditch," Bae reports. He knows his voice sounds desperate. No helping that. He takes a deep breath to calm down. "The machines are closing in. Halfway to him."
He glances at Ever, not sure of her plan. Then she pulls out, of all things, a Bic lighter and lights the cloth on the arrow tip. The flame pauses, catches the grease on fire, and engulfs the entire scarf.
"Holy shit," he breathes and reorients with the binoculars.
"How close, Bae?"
"Almost to him. Hurry, Ever!"
Ever looks out to find her mark, raises the bow with its lit arrow, a torch in the night, and lets it fly. Bae pulls his eyes from the glasses and watches the flaming arrow arc high through the sky and gracefully fall to earth. Its trailing fire is like the tail of a comet. He looks back through the binoculars.
The flaming arrow lands between the two machines as they close in for another pass. Both slam on their breaks, the truck careens to its right, tips onto the two left-side wheels, rights itself on all four, and stops. Dust encases the two machines. The vehicle at the saddle screeches its tires and speeds to the enshrouded trucks. Bae focuses the binoculars on it.
It's the Bronco!
"Oh god," he breathes, nauseous. He refocuses on where G's pinned down.
"He's gone!" Bae shouts to Ever. He frantically scans the area. "Wait! There he is. Crossing the dump. But he's moving northeast," Bae says, confused.
"To draw them away from us," Ever explains. "Damn you, G."
Bae swings the binoculars back to the machines. The Bronco comes to a stop at the truck and sandrail. The driver gets out.
"It's the Bronco," Bae says. "It's the bad medicine man." He barely speaks the words. The air feels knocked out of him.
"Who?" Ever asks.
"The man who hunted me."
The binoculars feel to Bae like a link to this man. Bae becomes spellbound. Ever concentrates her efforts in G's direction, but says nothing about the glasses. Bae's heart freezes. The man is staring at the burning arrow shaft sticking in the ground. Then he turns, in one movement, from the burning arrow to the rim, in their direction. He looks straight at Bae. Somehow, with his eyes, the bad medicine man reaches through the binoculars and grips Bae's heart, holds it, and points at him, at them. For a dark moment, the boy is lost to this man.
The rifleman is next to him, at the Bronco. The barrel of the rifle rises and also points at them. Bae's shocked back to the moment. He drops the binoculars as if they burn.
"Get down!" he shouts.
He hits Ever across her shoulders as he ducks. She falls with him as a bullet rips through the bark of a pinyon pine just behind their heads. Immediately, the report of the rifle splits the night. Bae's mind reels.
"Oh my god!" Ever shouts.
The bushes above and behind them are instantly shredded by a hail of bullets. The air is split by the crack of rifles, rapid-fire and non-stop. Other guns are firing. When they stop, Ever grabs Bae's right shoulder and signals with her left hand to back out in a crawl, taking their gear.
Bae's still in shock from the man's grip on him. Silently, he follows Ever's directions. He doesn't see her pick up the binoculars but has enough presence of mind to grip his and G's packs. Ever carries G's bow and quiver. It's awkward and slow crawling, but the edge of the rim protects them when a second volley of shots splits the night. Frayed wood chips and splinters rain down on them, wickedly dancing in a spotlight that illuminates the rim looking for them. The tortured trees shed their skin as the bullets rip them apart. Ever and Bae keep crawling.
Two hundred yards back from the rim, the two stop. Ever quickly inventories the gear and looks at Bae.
"You okay?"
"I think so," he answers, the shock wearing off. "What about G?"
"Not sure," she answers. "I think he made it to the slope."
"Shouldn't we wait for him?" Bae asks.
"No. We go to our rendezvous. Now. Before they find us." She looks back at the rim. "Ready?"
"Ok," Bae answers, reluctant to follow the plan. It feels wrong to leave without G.
They jog northeast to the saddle on a trajectory that leads to the rendezvous spot along the north wall of the mesa. Sporadic gunfire erupts behind them, but it fades as they gain distance. He can't be sure, but it seems to Bae the gunfire is west of where they left the rim.
Walking fast now and moving along the mesa ledge, the two follow the game trail G wandered earlier in the day. The question hovers in Bae's mind: were those shots for G? He looks at the back of Ever, moving quietly in front of him. Does she wonder the same thing?
Chapter 59 - Rendezvous
Ever and Bae make camp at their rendezvous spot in the dark, no fire, no bedding. They simply brush out lay spots in the dirt for sleep later in the night, if it comes to either of them.
Bae has no sense of how long they've been at the rendezvous spot. He looks out into the night’s gloom. The moon hangs low. Both he and Ever are on alert, have been since arriving at the alcove. They watch and listen in silence, more unsure of G's fate as the hours drag on.
Bae jolts awake, the boulder he squats next to catching his fall. Damn, he thinks. Fell asleep. Ever glances over from her post, and returns to her watch.
"Get some sleep, Bae," she says. It's the first speech in hours. She doesn't look at him. "I'm not tired," she adds. "I'll keep watch."
"You sure?" Bae asks. He wants sleep. How does she stay awake?
"Yeah," she answers.
"Wake me if something happens, okay?"
"Sure."
Ever seems different—the tone in her voice, her actions. Or rather, non-actions. Different than her usual self. He's too exhausted to think much about it. Instead, he thinks of G as he drops to where he's going to sleep, of the old man running up the slope, out of the dump.
Did he make it? The boy's eyes close. A wave of exhaustion sweeps over him, and he's asleep.
~
Bae opens his eyes. First light. The sun has not yet crested the eastern edge of the world. Humidity in the early morning air coats the landscape with a haze.
For a split second, he's disoriented. Sleep was deep, and it takes a few moments of staring up from his prone position to reorient himself.
G is missing!
That thought bolts him upright. He looks at the lower, southwest entrance to the alcove. The watch-post. Ever's not there. Panic rises, and he scrambles to his feet and glances at Ever's sleep spot. No sign of her there. But her bag and G's bow and quiver are. He exhales, Thank god.
The few steps to the watch-post reveal nothing. The haze in the outside world makes him think of a storm, later in the day, perhaps. Now, though, the clouds are scattered and billowy in the growing light of the sky. The red hue diminishes with the coming day, as it does every morning. His eyes fall on the game trail they walked last night.
There!
Weaving in and out, between bushes and talus is Ever. She moves so much like her grandfather, almost glides around the obstacles along the bench. Bae waits, squatting at the watch-post.
Ever glances at Bae as she nears. No smile. No greeting as she walks past him into the alcove. Bae rises and follows.
"Where'd you go?" he asks.
She looks back as she sits next to her pack, that grim expression Bae saw the night before etched across her face.
"I backtracked to look for G," she answers. Her voice is distant.
"Back to the rim?"
Ever shoots a l
ook at Bae. He unconsciously flinches, confused at her agitation toward him. "Yes."
She looks away and concentrates on setting her bow and quiver down next to G's, almost reverently. Bae sits opposite her and waits. She is visibly upset, so he doesn't push her to talk.
"No sign of him," she says. "The townies are on the move. Getting ready to start a search. Loading their machines. That might be good. Might be bad. Not sure if it's for G or for us."
Ever's strong shoulders slump as she speaks. Not sure how to interact with an upset girl, especially this one, Bae simply sits, awkward. She stays silent, not offering any more news.
"Ever?"
"What."
"Remember G said that if he's not here by first light, we have to leave."
"I remember," she says. Ever stares at her fingers, turning an arrow shaft she's removed from G's quiver.
As they sit, daylight growing, Bae feels a sudden chill. Involuntarily, his body shakes, then stops. It’s like a chill one gets up the spine, but this chill is in his chest. Ever glances at Bae.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Bae answers, not wanting to appear weak in front of her.
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
Bae starts coughing as soon as she speaks these words. His heart palpitates an irregular beat. Then, it's gone. He breathes normally again and relaxes. What the hell was that? he wonders. Ever eyes him suspiciously.
"You feel sick?" she asks.
"I'm okay." He looks at Ever. "Don't you think we should go?"
Bae thinks back to the day the bad medicine man hunted him and Ghost.
"That man can track," Bae persists. "He'll follow us here. Well?" Bae asks, his fear growing.
"Stop pressuring me!" Ever cries. She stares hard at Bae, angry. "He's still out there!" She points past Bae to the southwest entrance. "I can't leave him!"
Tears well up in her eyes. Bae sits frozen, not knowing what to do. Is G still out there? Or did the hunters catch him? He shudders and quickly pushes the thought out of his mind.
"But," Bae pleads. "He said we have to go."
"No!" Ever shouts. "If it weren't for you, he'd be here. Not out there!"
Bae feels his face flush. So that's why she's acting strange toward him. Ever blames him for G missing. Shame and hurt envelop the boy. He's a burden.
"I'm sorry, Ever."
Sitting there, in the presence of Ever, he realizes he's alone again. She's family, he knows, but he's still an outsider. His wound hasn't ached for days. Now, it's a dull pain.
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