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A cool breeze blows across the weed stubbled hills of southern New Mexico, quickly cooling off the sand and various plants and animals from the heat of the day. Deep red beams of light escape the setting sun behind the Gila Mountains to the west, illuminating the large storm clouds to the east, creating an oddly beautiful image out of potentially lethal thunderstorms. �Isn�t that beautiful?� a young man lying in the back of his pick up said to his friend, which happened to be bending over at the time. She stood up quickly, then whirled around and narrowed her eyes at him grinning. �You�d better be talkin� �bout the sunset buddy� He smiled widely then turned his head back towards the horizon, �of course,� he pauses for a bit, slightly shrugging �what else would I be talkin� �bout?� he then chuckles slightly and closes his eye letting the breeze surround him. �Oh, I wonder� she said sarcastically as she slowly wandered toward the passenger edge of the truck bed, and then leaned over it lifting herself slightly from the ground. �So, Bob,� she paused as she said his name, looking at his eyelids carefully. He slowly opened his eyes and found her blue green eyes staring right into his. He smiled softly as his lips parted slightly �hmmmm?� �Tell me, are we gonna?� a smile spread wide across her light pink lips, as she slowly lowered herself to the ground and gave bob some room to sit up. He follows her with his eyes, as his brows bend down in a small frown and the edge of his lips turn down slightly. As he moves his hands from his stomach he laces them under his head so that he can see her better. �Gonna what?� She rolls her eyes and starts to pout slightly. �Oh come on Bob, you said we were gonna go �splorin, not just lay around camp all day� she pushes off of the edge of the bed, and walks to the tailgate, then exaggerates her pout, �please?� He chuckles lightly as he watches her theatrics, knowing he cant refuse her pout, but he has to try, �and where, Tina,� he pauses to think �do you think we will go �splorin?� he closed his eyes and put his head in a comfortable position. �Especially at night?� he said thinking he put the final nail in the idea. She suddenly started laughing at his attitude, �Well if you remember, there is a full moon out t�night, and you know how much that lights up the ground, �specially out here in the middle of nowhere.� She was smiling sweetly to him, knowing she had won as he sat up slowly and sighed. Then she started trotting happily toward a small card table they had set up a few feet from the truck where two bags rested, one dark blue the other a bright red. She picked up the dark blue one and tossed it toward him, �I already packed our bags,� she smiled widely as he barely caught the bag. �How far are you planning on going?� his voice startled and slightly worried, as he slid off the tail gate and slung the backpack over his left shoulder. �I don�t know,� she shrugged slightly as she put her bag over both of her shoulders and started walking off in a random direction, �I guess until when I want to stop� she smiled widely again as she started skipping. He shook his head slowly and walked up to the driver side door, �Hey, wait up for me,� he yelled to her as he opened the door, �I have to roll up the windows�. He started to roll his window up and glanced quickly at the seat and noticed the two canteens they had brought with them to go hiking sitting there, he shook his head slowly and closed the door. Then he walked around the front of the truck and opened the passenger door, rolling up that window as he glanced over to Tina, waiting by a mesquite bush tapping her foot impatiently. He smiled as he slid his bag off of his shoulder and onto the seat, then un-zippering the main compartment, he put both of the canteens in it. Then he put the bag on both shoulders and closed the passenger door, and started walking after Tina. �Hurry up,� she whined slightly as he walked slowly toward her. The wind picking up some speed, blowing her golden brown hair to the side, and across her face, she frowned and pulled a small hair tie from her pocket and quickly put it up in a pony tail. He walked up to her side and began looking at the direction she chose, seeing some slight hills off in the distance, thinking it would be a nice calm moonlit walk. He smiled and started walking slowly as she put up her hair. She caught up to him quickly and laughed lightly as they both started moving off toward the setting sun. ������������������������������. A few hours later the moon was completely blocked by the dark thundering clouds, the wind blew fiercely across the desert, blowing the occasional mesquites and greasewood so that the tallest branch touched the ground. Two figures stumbled through the darkness, small points of light leading their way. �Damn it Bob! Could you have gotten suckier flashlights!?� Tina smacked the side of her flashlight as it flickered slightly. Then she leveled it along the edges of the arroyo they were walking through as the beamed steadied out. Bob was using his flashlight to light up the animal path they were walking on. �I doubt it, these were the cheapest ones I could find.� He shook his head slightly realizing why they were only fifty cents each. He turned his head slightly behind him to check on Tina, then stopped and turned to face her so they could hear each other over the wind. �Tina, its gonna start raining, we need to get out of this arroyo.� He blinked a few times as dirt blew into his eyes. She stopped and looked at him, and leaned closer so she could talk to him without yelling. �Why?� she blinked her eyes trying to focus on him as the wind dried out her eyes. �Because when it rains over there in the mountains, these arroyos flash flood,� he pointed off toward the Gilas in the west, where most of the lightning could be seen. Her eyes quickly widened and her face flushed slightly in the dim glow of the flashlight Bob was shining on her face, �We have to get to the tops of these ridges,� she more whispered to herself than to Bob. He nodded and moved his flashlight along the cliff of the ridge closest to them, seeing a sloping part down the trail a ways, he pointed to it, �There, we can go up there.� He moved down the trail quickly, the fear of drowning in a wall of water taking over him. Tina close on his heels, looking behind her every so often, trying to see if it�s coming. Within a few minutes he found the part of the cliff that had fallen down, creating a sloped trail to walk up, he quickly started climbing trying not to knock off to much dirt on to Tina. When he reached the top he looked around seeing lighting flashing all around, not just over on the mountain, then he glanced down the hill to check on Tina, who was having a hard time getting up a small sandy area right before the top. He reached his hand toward her, she grabbed it forcefully then pulled herself up using his arm. He winced slightly as he tried to stay on his feet, and then took a step back to help her up. Finally she made it to the top, the wind blowing much harder up here, almost making her take a step back when she looked into it. Bob looked around with his hand covering his eyes from the wind, trying to find some shelter. He spotted a large juniper tree growing down the ridge. He shook his head quickly and looked down the other side of the ridge, where he noticed some thing unusual, a small gully, but closed off on all sides, as though water had never ran through there. He looked closer, and tried to shine his light down towards the bottom, which was maybe 10 feet down, he could see where a small pool of water collected, and a dark shadow he couldn�t figure out. He quickly turned to Tina and pointed into the gully, �There, in that gully we will have some protection from the wind,� he started walking off toward the sloppy edge. Tina quickly grabbed his shoulder, �I thought you said we needed higher ground incase of flash floods!?� He nodded his head and pointed his flash light to all the sides, �Look, its sealed off, no way water is getting in there unless it falls down into it. Tina let go of his shoulder and followed him down into the gully slowly. The deeper Bob walked into the small depression, the muddier it got, causing his boots to slip now and then, he turned around and offered Tina his hand incase she might slip he could catch her. She shook her head and made her way down carefully right behind him. Once at the bottom the mud was more like clay, holding their boots in one place, so it seemed they couldn�t move away from it. Bob turned toward Tina, �We should stay here until the storm passes, then we�ll make our way back to my truck.� Tina nodded and looked around the bottom of the small depression they were in, grateful for the little protection it gave from the wind. Then she noticed on the other side of the depression was a deep shadow. She nudged Bob and pointed toward it, then tried to light up the area with her flash light. Bob nodded as he did the same, �I noticed it when we came down here, it looks like it might be a small cave or overhang.� He pulled his foot out of the muddy clay and started walking toward it slowly. Tina followed close behind him. �What if an animal is in there???� she touched his shoulder lightly trying to warn him. Bob shown his flashlight in the mud where they had stepped, and noticed the clear boot mark left, and then moved the light around the rest of the mud. �There aren�t any animal tracks; they would have stayed in the mud if there were.� He continued to walk toward the overhang again. He could feel Tina walking close behind him, afraid of the possible threat that lies within. As he reached the threshold he shown the light inside, looking at the edges, then trying to find where it ended, he shook his head and looked at Tina, �It looks like it goes back a ways,� he bit his lower lip slightly as he looked back into the opening, �do you wanna go in there and see what there is to see?� he looked back at her, seeing her obvious fear. She shook her head slowly and backed away a bit. Bob nodded slightly as he followed her. He then heard the sound of drops hitting the dirt around them. He looked around with his flashlight and saw little dots littering the dry sand. He held out his hand and felt small droplets of water hitting it lightly. Then he closed his eyes and strained his hearing. Off in the distance through the wind he heard the roar of hard rain. He opened his eyes quickly poked Tina�s shoulder, �Rain is coming.� She held out her hand and looked at him, �its only sprinkling,� she continued to look at him then heard the rain off in the distance, �SHIT� she grabbed his hand and ran into the opening quickly turning on her flashlight and looking around the small tunnel like cave. She looked back at Bob, then looked down to his hand which was trembling slightly and let go quickly, and looked back into the cave hiding her blushing face. �Why�d you run into here?� Bob also started shining his flashlight along the walls. Trying to see if there was any danger. Tina shrugged slightly as she started walking down the tunnel, �Panicked I guess.� She moved the flash light along the walls, keeping it on the floor in front of her most of the time. Bob followed closely behind, paying more attention to the walls than Tina was. After walking for a bit bob stopped and looked at the wall a little closer shining his light right in front of his face where he was looking. �Hey Tina,� he called out as he noticed her light was fading a bit in the corner of his eye. She turned around quickly and saw his light behind her a ways. She quickly jogged down to Bob, �Why did you stop?� He moves his finger along the wall, �here feel these walls.� He taps where his finger used to be. �Why would I want to touch a dirty old wall??� she huffed a bit and crossed her arms. He looked over to her knowing she was rolling her eyes and crossing her arms even though he couldn�t see it through the darkness, �oh just feel it Tina.� She rolls her eyes and reaches out and touches the wall where the light is, �oooh, wow, so nice and smooth,� she stopped touching and turned to keep walking down the tunnel. Bob sighed and turned to follow her light. �don�t you find that odd in the slightest??� She shook her head, then realized he couldn�t see her head in the dark, �nope, why should it?� �Think, a cave in the side of a hill, and the walls are now as smooth as marble, doesn�t that seem a little weird to you?� he kept shining his light on the walls, looking for some thing else. Then suddenly he hit Tina who had stopped walking and was shining her light at some thing right in front of them. �No, but I find that weird� Bob shined his light where Tina was, and took a deep breathe, �Yeah, I agree with you on this one.� He moved past her in the small tunnel, and moved closer to what appeared to be steps, carved perfectly out of stone. He bent over slightly and ran his finger gently over one of them, �They feel just like the wall,� then he stood straight and looked around the steps with his flashlight, �well it looks like if you want to keep going, we have to go up.� He moved his flash light to point up. �What I don�t get, is if this just goes up, where is the water?� she moved her flashlight looking for any sign of water. Bob looked at her with his flashlight, �What do you mean?� She shook her head slowly, �it�s raining like hell out there, if this goes up and out then there should be water here.� Bob nodded slowly, then turned to Tina and smiled, �Then it means it doesn�t go out, just up.� He pointed upward with his index finger and started walking up the steps slowly. Tina breathed deeply and dropped her head slightly then started up after him. Mumbling under her breath slightly and reaching behind her to her pack feeling for some thing �why did I even have to come in here.� Bob turned his head slightly back, �Did you say some thing Tina?� She shook her head then frowned, stopping suddenly on the step she was on and slammed her hands to her side, �FUCK, I forgot the stupid canteens,� Bob laughed and pulled his pack off and pulled out her canteen, �yes you forgot them in the truck,� he held it out towards her and sat down on one of the steps and pulled out his canteen. She took the canteen laughing, and unscrewed the top quickly, raising the opening to her lips and poured the cool, clear water into her mouth. |
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