The boy thinks about the haunted valley where he failed to get water, how he hit the wall of sickness in the yard. His body shudders at the memory. Here, the feeling pulsing up to him from the town is strange, different from the haunted valley. It’s hard to describe but recognizable. It’s not sickness.
It's fear.
He feels the impact of this insight. The town he's looking at pulses fear from every street, every house and vehicle, from the very land. It reminds him of the Death Camp. Another shudder shoots through his body. This place is dangerous.
In the darkened, broken-out windows of the houses and shops, Bae feels a watchfulness, as if someone or something, maybe many, stay awake. This place is alive, oozing with fear and deadly vigilance.
The boy keeps his own fear muted, thankful he's on this rim and hidden in the thick green branches of the juniper. He has a job to do. And staying focused on it helps him forget what lurks below.
Rioting. That's what the town reminds him of. He'd watched coverage of the rioting in their city on television at Grandfather's house. The news coverage showed how rioting was spreading to other cities after the sky turned red. Angry mobs started in the inner cities, but soon moved out to urban areas and quieter neighborhoods. Nowhere was safe. The carnage, paraded endlessly across television and computer screens by the media, looked similar to what's below.
In his peripheral vision, Bae sees a movement on the north side of town. The building in that sector looks like the remains of a car dealership, with a front parking area between large display windows and the street. Mostly, the lot's empty with faded paint for lines where cars were parked for display. Now, only a couple burned-out shells that were once cars sit on the black top.
He stares, waiting. Had his eyes played a trick? No. He's sure someone or something disappeared inside the building.
There!
Behind the dealership. A thin line of smoke rises from the back of the building: smoke from a fire. Not something on fire, but a controlled smoke. Yet the temperature is warm, getting on to late spring. Why would someone have a fire going?
At that end of town, some vehicles look deliberately positioned across the road, burned out and dismantled, forming a barrier blocking anyone from entering or exiting the town. On the outside of the barrier sit four parked vehicles, noses pointing north. They seem poised in position for a quick exit or response or chase. One sandrail and one 4x4 pickup. A rusted white car—Camry or Honda Accord. The fourth vehicle, furthest out: Bae squints to be sure.
"Oh, shit."
It's the Bronco. The one that chased him, with the men who killed Ghost.
They are down there, then. G guessed right. The evil man is here.
~
The horrifying memory of Ghost's death floods back to Bae. How the driver knelt down, across the creek, in the dirt, and touched Ghost's track. How Ghost reared back, whinnying in pain. How the man looked straight at them, through the thick stand of oaks, his fingers still on the ground. How Bae had become nauseous.
The boy had pushed away that darkness, pushed it out of his memory since the first morning with G and Ever, but now, seeing the Bronco, the pain and fear are back.
A metallic taste coats his mouth as a shudder rushes up his spine. What kind of man is this that can touch the ground and make a person, an animal, sick? Some kind of magician?
The boy will ask G what he knows about men like that and warn him. G and Ever are not safe. None of them are. The eerie watchfulness he felt earlier is now clear.
The boy pulls his eyes away from the Bronco and re-focuses on his task. The area with the barrier looks like the only place of life in town. He looks north, along the rim that extends around from his watch spot. Somewhere in that direction, G and Ever are moving. They’re at the dump by now, surely. He scans from the rim down the slope to the dump area. No sign of either of them.
The dump is small, an open pit dug out by heavy machinery like a dozer or front-end loader. A single track for vehicles winds its way into the pit. Large piles of trash, household junk, are scattered in the bottom. Other large mounds of scrap wood and brush lie along one side.
Bae returns to surveying the town. His eyes fall on the compound of barrier vehicles and sees something he missed earlier. An ambulance is parked in front of a small building to the left of the car dealership.
A gentle, yet firm, hand grips his right ankle, from inside the juniper. Bae jumps, startled by the touch, nearly cries out but catches his breath. The touch turns to a quick pat on his ankle to reassure him. It's G.
Back in the canopy, Bae spies a motocross tire slung across G's chest. Ever is removing her scarf. G already has his off.
"You good?" Ever asks Bae.
"Yes. Glad you're back."
"A motocross tire," she says and nods at G. "It's perfect. Much easier to make into sandals. Fewer cuts."
G pulls the tire over his head and leans it against the juniper trunk. Bae studies it. The tread of the tire is for street use, with ridges. That's good, he thinks, running his fingers over the tread. They'll grip, and the mark will be unusual, like a tire, not a foot. Bae smiles.
"Thanks."
"What did you see in the town?" G asks.
Bae almost blurts out his discovery but catches himself and pauses. He wants to do this right. Give important facts first. No opinions.
"The town is quiet," he begins. "It looks like a barrier of cars at the north end, cars blocking the road. At the dealership, there's smoke from a fire behind the building." He hesitates. "I thought I saw someone go inside the building. Not sure. Next to the dealership, an ambulance is parked."
G leans forward.
"An ambulance?" he asks.
"Yes," Bae answers. "It has P A R A M E D I C on the side and back."
G smiles. "Nice job, son."
Bae hears the compliment but doesn't smile. He looks at G, then at Ever. It takes a moment for him to speak. They watch him, waiting.
"What is it?" Ever finally asks.
"There are four vehicles pointing out from the barrier. Like they're ready to go. A 4x4 truck, sandrail, small car—and the Bronco's down there, too."
G looks grim. "It's what I guessed," he says. "The dump run went smoothly. No trouble. The ambulance will be trickier."
G looks at Ever and nods to the small tire against the tree trunk.
"You two get to work on Bae's sandals. Do you have what you need?"
"Yes, G. It'll take about an hour," she says.
"Good. A few hours to sunset, then dark. I'm going to Bae's perch to survey the town for tonight."
Bae says nothing about the evil man and his powers.
Chapter 55 - Huaraches
Ever and Bae get to work. Ever uses her knife and slices out two sections that are longer than the size of Bae's foot, templates for the huaraches. She tucks the leftover tire out of the way under some low branches. Bae retrieves the paracord from his pack, then sits, ready for Ever's instructions.
"Take off your right shoe," she says. "Hand it to me."
Bae removes his shoe. Ever takes it and places it inside the curled-up sides of the rubber.
"Good," she says. "Your shoe size fits between the sidewalls."
Bae watches the girl work, eager to learn. Ever first cuts the tire to the length of Bae's shoe. Next, she picks up her honing stone and runs her knife-edge over it several times.
"If you don't keep your blade sharp, cutting the rubber becomes a nightmare."
Next, Ever cuts away the curled sidewalls, leaving a flat sole of rubber, tread down. She places the shoe on top of the template and nicks out a rough pattern for the sandal. It follows the shape of Bae's converse shoe, but she makes the template somewhat wider at the front and narrower at the heel.
"Here, put your bare foot on the sole."
She passes the rubber sole to Bae as he strips off his threadbare sock. Ever sco
ots over, sits back on her heels, and helps center Bae's foot on the sandal. She looks satisfied. About one-half inch of the rubber sole sticks out around his foot.
Bae smells a strong odor and realizes it's his foot. But Ever doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't show it. She takes the rubber sole back after marking a spot between Bae's big toe and second toe. With her blade tip, she drills a hole, checking to confirm it comes out between the treads on the bottom of the sandal.
"This hole's for the paracord," she says and turns over the sandal. "Needs to be between treads so the knot sits down in the groove."
She points with the knife tip at the hole located between two raised treads of the tire.
"If you don't put the hole in the groove, the knot will stick out beyond the tread and hit the ground before the rubber does." She continues to point the blade at the spot. "Feels like a bump under the sandal every time you step. It sucks."
Bae nods, understanding her instruction. Ever puts the sandal on the ground and drills out two more holes, one on each side of the heel. Next, she carefully measures a three-foot length of Bae's paracord, rechecks the length she wants and cuts. Gripping one end of the length of cord, she pinches the exact middle with her fingers and folds it. Now it's a double strand of cord, one-and-a-half feet long.
Taking the cut ends, she pushes them down through the toe hole, turns the sandal over, and ties the ends together in a small knot. The tied knot is too big to slip back through the hole. After pounding the knot down into the groove with her sharpening stone, it fits snuggly between the raised treads. No bump.
Turning the sandal over, she threads the two lines through one of the heel holes and has Bae put his foot under the line on the rubber sole. He snugs the cord between his big toe and second toe, leaving it to ride up over the top of his foot and back to the outside where Ever loops it through the outside heel-hole. Holding the loose end of the cord, she continues from the outside heel-hole, around behind his heel to the other heel-hole on the inside. Once through this, she guides the cord back up and across the top of his foot to connect with the section coming from the toes. Bae sees how the cord is one long loop around his foot. To finish, Ever ties the end of the paracord in a slipknot to the part riding up from the toe-hole section. The slipknot rests on the top of his foot allowing him to pull the cord close to the front of his ankle to adjust the sandal's tightness.
Bae's amazed. The double cord begins from his toes, travels across the top of his foot to the outside of his heel, around the back of his foot to the inside of his heel, and finally wraps back at the top of his foot to the original section from his toes. His foot fits snug, braced by the paracord wrap, and the sandal feels comfortable.
"Wow."
"Cool, huh?" Ever says. "Those Tarahumara are geniuses."
Bae looks confused.
"The Tarahumara live in Copper Canyon, Mexico," she explains. "That canyon's so big, four Grand Canyons can fit inside it! They use this version of the huarache to cover miles and miles through the canyon."
"Really?"
"Yes," she says. "They run, like, 90 miles at a time. Can you believe that? You do the next one." Bae looks at her, unsure.
"Don't worry. I'll walk you through it," she says. "They won't last forever. If you do the second one, you'll remember the steps. Doing it is remembering it."
Bae starts on the second sandal. His work's not as clean as Ever's, but she guides him, and in just under an hour, Bae's huaraches are finished. As the boy is about to pull them on his bare feet, G backs into the juniper sanctuary. He takes a quick look at Bae's sandals, nods to Ever, and cuts off one of the rabbit skins from Bae's pack. He wraps the skin, fur on the inside, around Bae's foot and holds it in place as Bae slides into the sandal straps. Then he nods for Bae to tighten the paracord.
"So the cords won't cut your skin."
Bae takes the second skin and wraps his left foot the same way. He tightens the paracord and stashes his old socks and shoes in the bottom of his pack. The sandals feel so much lighter than his converse did, and comfy with the softness of the rabbit skins. He's ready.
Chapter 56 - Mission
"The paramedic truck is my target," G announces, as all three settle to plan the night's mission. "That's our best shot for finding medical supplies. It looks like it still runs."
"Do you think needles and syringes are in the truck, G?"
"I don't know, Granddaughter," he says. The old man pauses. "I'll get one chance. And it will be slim."
G sweeps the dirt clean in front of him. He bends forward and draws the town and ridge where they are hiding. He sets a small pebble next to his mark for the dump, north of their current position.
"This is where we'll stage." His index finger rests on the pebble. "You two will stay up on this bench, hidden but watching my movement. There's a good spot over there."
His finger traces from the pebble, through the dump, to where the paramedic truck is located inside the barrier.
"I'll move down through the dump, across the field . . . "
"But that's open ground, G!"
"Can't help it, Ever. There are a few low spots I can flatten into as I cross. Maybe fifty yards of open ground."
Ever looks worried. G continues.
"Once across the field, I cross the road. On the other side of the road is a car—cover. From the car, I move behind the buildings west of the road. Third building up will put me square with the medic truck. I'll move between the third and fourth buildings to the truck."
G draws his route as he speaks.
"This puts me at the back doors. I enter the truck there."
"What if it's locked?" Bae asks, caught up in the plan.
G smiles. "I'll get in. Once I get the needles and syringes, I'm out the back. Hate to, but I'll have to retrace my route. Don't want to cross the street at the medic truck."
He slides his finger back over the first line.
"Once I clear the buildings, I move further north before crossing back over the street. I'll cross the north end of the field, through the dump, and back up to you two."
"I don't like it, G," Ever says. "Too much open ground. What if you're seen?"
"It can't be helped, sweetheart," he answers. His eyes soften as he looks at her. "It's our only chance to get the supplies we need. And that's the best route I can see."
"I know," she responds. "I just don't like it."
The old man reaches across the space and squeezes Ever's forearm.
"I'll be okay."
~
With light still in the sky, the trio abandons the juniper camp and repositions north to a spot above the dump using the same route G and Ever originally took. On the ledge above the dump, G guides them to a space between a small stand of pinyon pines and clumps of rabbitbrush that hug the rim in front of the pinyons. Here, there's enough cover to conceal Ever and Bae and still offer a clear line of sight for watching G's progress into town.
An hour before sunset, they hide their gear in the rabbitbrush and, with G out front, hike through a saddle north of town, looking for a rendezvous spot in case they get separated during the night mission to the ambulance. Once through the saddle, they hug the eastern slope. G studies the landscape and notices how the bench above them curls back northeast, away from the valley with the town. Perfect for their needs.
Walking along a ledge that winds its way below the higher mesa forces them to move with caution. The edge of the ledge drops suddenly just ten feet below where they're walking. As he always does and just as Ghost did, G locates a small game trail that meanders through the broken and tumbled rock of the ledge. The whole of the mesa, of which the ledge is only a small slice, angles up to the east, rising as a result of the striation of the rock. The game trail continues upward. The saddle from the valley is now behind them, at the lower end of the rising mesa.
Halfway along the bench, a shallow alcove appears. It's positioned
behind an ancient slide of large boulders, at the edge of the ledge. The alcove lays hidden behind the slide. It's more like a short tunnel, the roof and sides made of fallen boulders.
Walking out the far end, G spies where the game trail continues and notes how it cleverly follows the bench angling to the top of the mesa. He returns to the other two waiting at the southwestern opening.
"We'll meet here if the mission goes wonky," he says. "If I'm compromised in any way, can't get back to you, I'll meet you here. Understand?"
"Yes, G," Ever answers. Bae nods his head, anxiety mounting from the force of G's words. The old man looks steadily at Ever.
"If I'm not here by first light tomorrow, go. Get Bae to our people."
Ever looks stunned.
"No! We'll wait for you, G. I'm not leaving without you!"
"Ever," G says. "If I'm not here by sunrise, something's wrong. You must go. Get Bae to our clan."
G looks at Bae, then Ever. "You know the formula for the serum. Make it."
Ever glances at Bae. A quick, furtive glance. He catches the glance and feels the burden of his presence.
"Promise me, Granddaughter. You will go."
"Yes, Grandfather," she says.
"Bae?" The old man turns to the boy. "Make sure she follows this instruction. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," he answers.
But Bae's not sure. How can he be? Regardless of his attempt to sound able, he is not sure of anything that is about to happen. Like Ever, Bae doesn't want to hear of potential problems with the mission, especially of G not returning or being left behind.
Chapter 57 - Exposed
On the rim directly above the dump, Ever and Bae sit watching G. The route to their rendezvous point is clear, on the other side of the pinyons. When they returned from the scouting trip, G positioned the two of them in the rabbitbrush at the edge of the rim. The new growth of the bright yellow leaves on the brush affords them good cover.
The sun drops behind the far mesas to the west. The first stars peak through the sky, light red dots in the deeper, blue-red afterglow.