Gregg Hurwitz - Minutes to Burn

Justin nodded, looping the bag over his shoulders, and Diego cranked the throttle. The Zodiac sped off, the sound of the engine fading into that of the waves. The others sat in the rocking boat and waited. Savage unsnapped the button on his knife sheath, then snapped it again with a click. After a while, Cameron heard the drone of the approaching motor. Diego steered the empty Zodiac to the side of the boat, thumping against the wood.

Cameron tossed her kit bag into the Zodiac and hopped down. The others grabbed several more cruise boxes and the weapons box and fol-lowed her. They motored quietly to shore.

Waves seethed up the barren, rocky shore at Punta Berlanga, sending crabs scuttling across the moist, black lava and through the tide pools. Large blocks of rock rose in the foreground of the sculpted cliffs, stained white with guano. The wind lazed slow and steady, rousing an occasional swallow-tailed gull from its roost.

To the right, the beach stretched along the curve of Bahia Avispa, a white strip. Glancing west to east, Cameron saw the abrupt line where the upthrust blocks of Punta Berlanga ended, giving way to the low sand dunes protected by the reef and subject to the quiet erosion of the southeast tide.

The soldiers leapt overboard when they felt the lava skim the bottom of the Zodiac, pulling the small boat forward with splashing steps to keep momentum from sea to land. The water was different from the nighttime air only in consistency; the temperature seemed identical. The surface of the pahoehoe was rippled and intestinal; it had been formed during flows when fresh lava oozed forth in tongues from beneath the quick-hardening crust. Mats of Sesuvium herbs, dense patches of ever-green mangrove, and low tangles of saltbush with fat green leaves had somehow pioneered the barren lava.

The rest of the squad met them, hoisting the Zodiac to keep the scraping to a minimum. With their woodland cammies and jungle boots, the soldiers were blurs in the night. They jogged the boat back toward the cliffs, setting it down where Rex and Juan waited. Aside from the birds stirring in the cliffs and the hiss of the surf, the island was surprisingly quiet. A few Opuntia cactus trees broke the skyline at the edge of the cliffs.

Cameron gazed up at the stars, more than she'd ever seen in the night sky.

"Not a creature was stirring," Justin murmured.

Tucker and Szabla unloaded the comms boxes and kit bags from the Zodiac as Cameron deflated it. They dragged them a few feet and stacked them side by side by the gear from the previous trip. Rex watched them carefully when they got to the GPS equipment. Szabla pretended to drop the box filled with tripods, and Rex nearly fell over trying to catch it.

Tank grabbed the two heavy cruise boxes that housed the general purpose tents and tugged them along the lava, the muscles standing out on his thick arms.

"All right," Derek said. "Someone grab the weapons box off the Zodiac. We're gonna camp-"

A howling split the air above their heads. Savage ripped his knife from the sheath as they instinctually backed into formation. The howling died into a moan and then faded away. Savage slowly lowered his knife.

Justin and Tucker scanned the area, still trying to adjust to the dark-ness. Rex and Juan found Tank immediately, crowding him from each side. The wind kicked up again, blowing the blunt edge of Cameron's hair across her cheek, and she pulled it back and hooked it around an ear. The howl resumed. She backed down toward the water, gazing up at the cliffs.

"Cam," Derek hissed. "Get back here."

"It's the wind," she said, smiling. She pointed to a gaping black hole in the side of the dappled cliff walls. "A cave. The wind's sucking across the entrance." She was surprised at how quickly the wind had kicked up; a few moments prior, the air had been almost deathly still.

"The salt and wind have worked hollows into the cliffs all along here," Diego said, wiping his brow with a nylon sleeve. "And there are irregu-larities in the basalt where land fell away from the fissures." He smirked. "Nothing to be frightened of."

A blast of wind hit them so hard that Justin staggered a little under its force. Rex put one hand on his Panama hat to keep it from blowing off. The howl reached a scream.

"What the fuck!" Justin said, as Savage slid his knife back into its sheath. "That's a little embarrassing." The others joined his laughter.

Derek cleared his throat. "I think we can safely say-"

The ground rocked violently beneath their feet, a grinding noise filling the air. Szabla was knocked over, thrown against the base of the cliff.

"! Mierda!" Diego yelled, his voice almost drowned out by the rum-bling. "We've got a shaker. Head down to the water."

The sound of cracking rock filled the air above them, and a shower of dirt slid from the cliff, falling over their heads. Juan ducked the debris, banging into Szabla.

"Move away from the cliff!" Rex yelled. "It could slide."

A rock about the size of a skull struck Justin from behind, but fortu-nately, his backpack took the brunt of the blow. He went to a knee under the force of the rock but was quickly up and running again, hustling Rex and Diego along before him.

Szabla went down, almost taking Juan with her. She struggled to find her feet, and Juan stepped toward her, arms spread wide to keep his bal-ance on the rocking earth. He tried to pull her up but was having trouble maintaining his own footing.

Cameron grabbed Derek's arm and yanked him down toward the water, his shoulder popping with the force of her pull. He stumbled after her until the water was up around his thighs, fighting to keep his balance in the suddenly thrashing waves. Tucker, Justin, Rex, Diego, and Savage were already in the water, and Tank was running toward them on the slippery rock.

"Where's Szabla?!" Derek yelled. He looked around frantically. "Fuck, where's Juan? Where's Juan?"

Cameron saw them at the base of the cliff, trying to stand under the shower of rocks and silt. Juan slipped and landed on his back. He rolled to his hands and knees and Szabla hoisted him up under one arm.

Cameron backhanded Derek's chest. "There!" she yelled, pointing.

Derek turned to the others. "Stay here!" he yelled. "That's an order." He ran toward Szabla and Juan, smacking Tank on the shoulder as he passed him. "Tank, come!" Without hesitation, Tank turned and fol-lowed him.

Juan was finally on his feet, but the ground was loose because the freshly fallen rocks kept rolling and shifting. His canteen dangled from its strap, dancing around his stomach. Grabbing Szabla around one of her biceps, Juan stepped forward onto a mound of rocks. A creaking sound from above startled him, and he turned to see an Opuntia bending over the brink of the cliff. With a screech, it split, snapping in a fork up the line of its meter-wide trunk. The weighty cactus tree plummeted down at them.

With all his might, Juan flung Szabla away from the base of the cliff, lifting her off her feet. She hit the ground in a roll and didn't stop until she was up and sprinting for the water. The force of hurling Szabla threw Juan backward, his shoulders striking the base of the rocky wall. He slid down onto his ass, slumping into the ground, blinking hard as if to fight off a haze.

The cactus tree sliced the air a few yards in front of him, smashing into the lava. For a moment, it rested upside down, creaking and moaning, as though deciding which way to fall. Juan raised his arms to protect his face, his mouth open in a silent yell. With excruciating slowness, the cactus tree fell away from him, toppling toward the water.

The ground slowed its shaking and then, aside from the light pebbles drumming their way down the cliff face, it was still. Juan's breath left him in a gasp of relief.