“Shit. That I could easily have done without, my friends,” he said with a remarkable understatement.
Jak, always practical when it came to such matters, ignored this and asked, “How far from ville? Any chance hear that?”
Tilly considered this. “It’s an empty old space between here and there, but I reckon it won’t reach that far. Even if it does, you get trading parties traveling across this desert. They might expect a wag in a few hours at the most, but they won’t expect us in about a day.”
Jak nodded. “Good.” He sniffed the now cold night air. “Should move on some, then set camp. Too cold travel now.”
Lonnie agreed. “A half hour’s walk should get us well out of range of that bastard hole—just in case there are any other of those mutie bastards ready to poke their ugly heads out. Let’s move out.”
The members of the party assembled, checked that they had everything they needed and nothing was left behind in the confusion—Doc handing the ammo bag back to Mik—and they began to march back onto their prescribed route to Charity.
A few miles passed before they felt safe enough to pitch camp in the partial shelter of a dried scrub oasis. Jak set a fire for warmth and they erected their tents, Lonnie allotting a watch rota.
Now calm after their encounter, they settled down to rest until morning, hoping that the remainder of the journey could be quick and incident free.
THE SUNRISE next morning was sudden, the night dissolving into day in a matter of minutes as the engorged orb of the red sun rose in the rad-blasted sky. Jak was on watch, and woke the others as the light infused the atmosphere.
“Eat, then go, yeah?” he said. “Make good ground before sun hot.”
Lonnie agreed with the albino, and after they had breakfasted on their rations and taken as much water as they could to keep them going until their next break, they packed the tents and were ready to leave.
“Let’s hope we don’t have any more problems today,” Danny remarked in a weary tone.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Tilly admonished. “We just keep our eyes open and deal with what comes…no more, no less, yeah?”
” ‘Spose…” Danny agreed reluctantly.
Lonnie took his bearings with the minisextant, and they began the long march to Charity. At present, although they were exposed, there was enough space around them for any distant wags to be spotted long before they would be spotted on foot. So it was safe for them to march in the open, although they all kept a watch for activity on the horizon, and for any shelter that might be close enough to provide them with shade from the burning sun when they rested.
The march was tedious, like the day before, and although they endeavored to keep alert, it was all too easy to fall into the stupor of following the beat of their footsteps and walking and thinking to that rhythm and that rhythm alone.
The only one of the party who avoided this was Jak. The albino teen’s hunting senses told him to keep alert. Something was warning him that there was danger ahead, but he couldn’t tell as of yet what that may be. So, as he walked, he kept all his senses on triple red, his eyes scanning the horizon and to all sides, no matter how much the harsh, bright light may hurt his pigmentless irises; he listened above and beyond the tramp of their feet and the sound of their breathing, filtering that out so that all other sounds came within his provenance and were analyzed for any possible signs of danger. More than that, he allowed his whole body to become attuned to the environment and the elements. Years of hunting in the bayou and after were brought into play by his subconscious mind.
He didn’t know what it was, but something was bothering him. And while all this was operating on an unconscious level, his conscious mind was focusing on the events of the previous day, trying to remember anything that may give him a clue as to why he was feeling this way.