Amanda watched Ray pull at the two sides of the fake wood. They parted, revealing a plastic bottle of water. Ray howled in victory and twisted the cap from the bottle. He raised the opening to his mouth.
Amanda tried to say, “Stop!” But her dry tongue felt paralyzed. She saw water pouring from the bottle into Ray’s mouth. His throat moved rapidly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed greedily.
Viv did manage to shout, “No!” But the upturned bottle kept pouring water into Ray’s mouth, some of it trickling from his lips and down his chin. He made gulping noises. Red-faced from holding his breath, he exhaled and lowered the empty bottle. His chest heaved. He seemed transported with satisfaction until he noticed Amanda, Derrick, and Viv watching him in shock.
It took him a moment before he understood their emotions. “Sorry.”
Amanda felt the start of hopelessness.
“I didn’t think. Really, I’m sorry.”
Viv moaned.
“I just wasn’t thinking straight.”
Derrick sank onto a pile of rocks, his head on his knees.
“Hey, there must be others. I’ll help you look for them.” Ray picked up a chunk of wood. He tried another and another. “It doesn’t make sense that he’d hide only one bottle for all of us.”
“Unless he wanted to see how we’d react,” Amanda said.
Ray hurled the empty bottle against the wall. Its plastic thumped hollowly. “Well, what did you expect? I told you I’m no damned hero.”
“Okay, okay.” Viv raised her hands. “Arguing isn’t going to help. It’s done. We can’t change what happened.”
Derrick stood, telling Ray, “But if we find another bottle, stay the hell away from it.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” Ray took out his lighter, snapping it open and shut.
“Quit making that noise!”
“Right, boss.”
Amanda interrupted, trying to break the tension. “Let’s see if we can find more water.”
5
The bottle was in another fake chunk of wood, this one partially covered by rocks near the altar. Amanda’s pulse surged when she found it. Her dry mouth made her want desperately to gulp from it as Ray had. But she merely told the group, “Here.”
She, Derrick, and Viv took turns drinking from it. Like the others, she watched to make sure that no one took a longer swallow than anyone else. Ray frowned in the background.
Amanda was the last to drink. Savoring the moisture on her tongue, she considered the empty bottle. “Where’s the recycling bin?”
No one smiled at the joke.
“On mountains, we always collect our trash and carry it back down,” Derrick said.
“Did anyone ever tell you what a terrific guy you are?” Ray asked.
“I was about to add that worrying about our trash isn’t high on my priorities right now.”
“It’s a piece of equipment we didn’t have before,” Amanda said. “I’ll hang on to it.” She started to lower it toward a pocket in her coveralls, but something caught her attention. “Numbers.”
“Where?” Viv stepped close.
“On the label. At the bottom. Someone wrote three sets of numbers.”
“Let me see.” Derrick took the bottle. “The numbers have ‘LG’ in front of them.”
Ray joined them. “Longitude?”
“They sure seem like longitude numbers. Hours, minutes, and seconds.”
“Where’s that bottle Ray threw?” Amanda made her way over the rocks, approaching the wall. She found the bottle next to the remnants of a bench. “Three sets of numbers. This time, the letters ahead of them are ‘LT.”“
“Latitude,” Ray said. “We’ll find out where we’re supposed to go next.”
“Wait. Something’s wrong.” Amanda tensed.
“Sure. This whole damned game is wrong, but—”
“No. Don’t you feel it.” The rocks Amanda stood on vibrated. The chunks of wood trembled.
Viv stumbled back. “My God, what’s happening?”
“I’m not sure, but I think we’d better—” Alarmed by the increasing vibrations, Derrick blurted, “Get out of here!”
The wall swayed.
“Go! Go!” Viv shouted.
As they scrambled over the rocks, Amanda lost her balance. The wall tilted. With no time to run, she dove to the vibrating rocks, wincing from the impact. Desperate, she pressed herself against the base of the wall and put her arms over her head. With a roar, the wall collapsed, rocks cascading. Impacts made her groan.
The rumble diminished. The vibration lessened. Soon everything was still, except for the pounding of Amanda’s heart. Dust made her choke. Can’t breathe, she thought, struggling to clear her nostrils and get air down her throat. The bulk of the rocks had fallen toward the middle of the church. Only the ones immediately above had landed on her, the higher ones following the trajectory of the wall and gaining distance when they plummeted. Even so, she felt crushed.
She heard shouts and charging footsteps, rocks being shoved aside.
“Are you hurt?” Derrick yelled.
“Sore.”
“I bet.”
“But I managed to protect my head.”
Viv and Derrick helped her up.
“And I kept this.” Wincing, Amanda gave Viv the empty bottle with the coordinates printed on it.
She couldn’t help noticing that Ray stood apart from them. He hadn’t made an effort to help dig her out. We can’t survive if there’s a split in the group, she thought. But then she saw Ray pointing down.
“More water bottles!” he said.
Derrick and Viv spun.
“The impact of the rocks broke open some of these fake timbers.”
As if attracted by a magnet, the group headed in Ray’s direction. The bottles glinted in the sun, their contents beckoning.
“There’s enough to go around,” Ray said. “Hey, Derrick, mind if I pick one up?”
Derrick considered him for a long moment. “Go ahead.”
“Thanks, boss. As long as I have your permission.”
Yeah, a split in the group, Amanda thought. She picked up a bottle, untwisted the cap, and drank, the wonderful liquid clearing the dust in her mouth. She was so thirsty she wanted to guzzle the water as Ray had, to flood it down her throat, but she feared that would make her sick.
Meanwhile, Ray drank from a bottle and continued to look angry.
Viv’s stomach growled. “If we don’t get some food soon…”
“Always complaining,” Ray told her. “In Iraq, I lived on bugs.”
“Go easy on her, man,” Derrick said. “All of us are hungry.”
“Whatever you want.”
“This is more entertaining than I anticipated,” the voice said.
The sound in Amanda’s ears made her cringe.
Derrick scowled at the sky. “Is this part of the game? Hoping we’ll fight each other?”
“Gold was found here in 1885.”
“Gold?”
“Thousands of miners flocked to the valley. A town was born almost overnight. An English real-estate speculator bought the land from a rancher who figured that the valley would be overrun no matter what, so why not take the generous payment he was offered and let someone else deal with the chaos he saw coming? As it turned out, the rancher was shrewd.”
“Gold?” Ray scoffed. “A while ago, you were talking about ice!”
“The Englishman who developed the town had a fondness for King Arthur stories. As you’ve already guessed, he named the place after the spot where Arthur lies in a death-like slumber, waiting for destiny to summon him. But after eight years, the last of the gold was taken from the valley. Most of the miners drifted on. That was in 1893, the year of a financial depression that spread through America and became known as the Panic. The people in town decided that there wasn’t much opportunity anywhere else in the country, so they stayed. The Englishman was forced to sell the valley back to the rancher, whose payroll kept the town in business. But that didn’t help the Englishman. Having counted on the boom to last longer, he was so financially overextended that, facing ruin, he trudged into the first blizzard of the winter. Months later, a crew cutting blocks of ice from the lake discovered his frozen body.”