Chapter 16
Hunter woke when there was a faint light in the eastern sky. Stars shone everywhere in the night above them. She scooted away from Adan so he could sleep longer, and the movement sent jolts of pain through her knees when the scabs tore open. She made a silent grimace, but still didn’t waken the boy.
The more she moved, the more pain she felt. In her stiff neck, where the tendons seemed as tight as cables, and her shoulders, which caused a white fire of agony in the joints from her position in the air shaft. She moved slowly, until her limbs felt able to function. The fire burned down to a few coals, so she used the small pieces of grass and twigs to get it going again. Once flames rose, she added other wood to it, and soon had a nice blaze the size of a hat. There were three pitaya fruits left from the day before, and she ate one, leaving the other two for Adan when he woke.
Thirst was a big thing, so she walked out of the shelter and looked fo
r small potholes or depressions in the rocks where yesterday’s rain left water. She found one, fifteen feet from the shelter and lay on her stomach to suck out the water from the small depression holding a cupful of moisture. She spotted several others nearby, but wanted to wait for Adan to rise so he could also drink.
When she returned to the shelter, Hunter sat down and pulled back the torn cloth over her knees to check her wounds. Both were crusted with half-dollar sized scabs that wept blood from the cracks.
“Those look like they hurt,” Adan said, startling her. She hadn’t heard him rise.
“Yeah, they sting a bit.”
“I saw some prickly pear yesterday, wait here.” He rose and picked up a shard of thin stone before walking out of the shelter and back along the way they had come. He knelt beside a small growth of the cactus for a moment, then returned with four pads of the young, green ones. He sat beside her and took each pad to scrape clean and get the interior of them exposed. Then he said, “These will help.” He took off his shirt and tore several strips off it, using them to hold the cactus on her knees.
“That already feels better,” She said. “How’d you learn that?”
“My mother.”
“That’s a good trick to know.”
“I bet you knew it.”
“I did, but I didn’t see the cactus.”
He smiled, then looked around, “Is there water near?”
Hunter pointed to several small depressions holding moisture, and Adan went to two of them, drank and came back.
He ate the fruits and asked, “When do we go?”
“Today. No reason to wait.” She led the way from the shelter, going down the mountain toward the mine entrance. “We’ll go to the mine, see if Ellis and RL have left.”
“If there is a car or truck, maybe we can take it.”
“Maybe so.”
They walked with care, partly because of their aches and pains, and partly to keep a watchful eye out for Ellis. The further they descended, the aches and pains lessened because of muscles warming up and blood pumping at an increased rate.
Hunter took a path the last third so they could approach the shed undetected. They worked to a point in the junipers that was two hundred yards from the mine entrance. Hunter and the boy found a comfortable spot and watched the area for an hour, but saw no other life. She said, “Let’s go,” and the two walked across the slope and through the juniper and cedar to the shed, or where the shed had been.
The slope above the shed had collapsed on it, leaving only a small piece of corrugated tin protruding from the huge pile of rubble.
Hunter checked the tracks for both people and vehicles and recognized those of Ellis and RL and their SUV. She checked close, putting her face a foot from the tread tracks to see evidence of insects and weathering. When she rose to her feet, she said, “They left this morning, for sure after last night’s rain and today’s morning dew.”
“Good, I don’t want them around anymore.”
“Me either.” She scanned the area in all directions, “Well, you ready?”
“Yes.”
They walked a steady pace that gradually increased in speed as they reached more level ground and their muscles warmed to the task. She stopped every fifteen minutes or so to scan the horizon. An hour later, she saw a pale column of dust in the air coming from behind them.
“I think we might have someone on our trail.”
Adan turned and watched it with her. “They are coming right where we walked. Look, they’re where we followed the shallow ravine.”