Page 92 of Dark Sky

“Maybe if we let them get ahead of us,” Joe said softly, unsure of himself. “Maybe if we follow them down the mountain instead of being chased by them.”

Price shrugged as if he had nothing to add.

Joe said, “I’m running out of ideas.”

“At least we can see a little bit now,” Price said, indicating the breaking dawn sky.

“Which means they can seeus.”

—

In the half-light of the morning, Joe studied the hillside to the north. There was a big gap in the trees cleared by a rockslide an indeterminate number of years back. The slide was filled withpiles of talus and scree and lengths of trees that had been snapped off in the incident. A pile of huge rock slabs were stacked like a collapsed accordion at the bottom.

There were dark horizontal openings between several of the big slabs. One opening, he saw, looked wide enough that a man could enter it. He couldn’t tell from where they were standing how deep it went back and if there was enough space for both of them to fit inside.

Joe nodded toward the slide pile, and Price followed his gaze.

“It’s worth a try,” Joe said. “We can lay low and let them wonder about us for a while.”

Price nodded, and sighed. “So now we’re cave dwellers,” he whispered. “I started out this trip posting my experiences from my phone to a satellite. We’re going backward through human history one hour at a time.”

—

Joe approached the horizontal opening. At its widest, it was about eighteen inches.

“Let me borrow your headlamp,” he said to Price.

Joe turned it on and shone it into the mouth of the crevice. He couldn’t see how far it stretched back, but it appeared to get narrower the farther it went into the mountain. Itlookedbig enough in there for the both of them.

He shone the beam on the crevice floor. There was loose but dry dirt broken up by small white bones and blackteardrop-shaped animal scat of some kind. He noted the surface of the dirt was lined like corduroy. Scratch marks.

“We’re a little early for bears to hibernate,” Joe whispered. “But I can’t promise that.”

“It looks too small for bears,” Price said. Then: “As if I know anything at all about bears.”

“I’ll go first,” Joe said. “If there’s enough room I’ll curl into a ball so you can come in and get around me. I want to be near the opening with the .22 if anyone gets too close.”

Price smiled bitterly. It didn’t need to be said that the chances of the cartridge in the rifle firing were fifty-fifty at best. Joe found himself grinning back, filled with a shared dark humor at their situation.

“We’re ready for something to go right,” Joe said.

“Let me know when that happens,” Price said.

Suddenly, out of view but above them on the rockslide, Joe heard Earl say, “Let me do the talking, boys.”

—

Joe slid into the opening on his belly as quickly as he could. It smelled dank and musky inside. He motioned for Price to follow as he jammed himself into the righthand V of where the slabs of rock met. He bent his knees up to make room for Price to scoot by. It was tight quarters, and Price grunted as he clawed his way over Joe’s legs and settled in parallel to him behind his back.

At that moment, Joe could feel a slight vibration in the rock ceiling itself. Heavy footfalls right over their heads.

Joe turned to Price and brought his index finger to his mouth. “Shhhhhhh.”

Then, through the opening, he could hear the clicks of horseshoes striking rock just a few feet to their left. One by one, the party went by, headed downhill toward the direction of the creek.

TWENTY-SIX

Sheridan tried to keep both warm and alert to her and Nate’s surroundings in the early-morning cold as they rode up the drainage. It was difficult to do both because the cold didn’t allow her to feel loose and aware. Instead, the chill made her want to fold in her arms and legs and tuck her chin into her coat collar.

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