William Dietrich - Getting back

"Who the hell are you, really?" he asked.

Ethan glanced at the shorter man. "I'm you, three months ago. Hapless. Clueless."

"Gee, thanks."

"My equipment lost. My clothes still in tolerable shape. My fat reserves still intact and my self-confidence gone. Dropped into Australia like a virgin of fraud."

"And now you're an old pro who saved us."

"Not me. The deal was to take your chances in the desert." He nodded up toward Raven. "She's your Good Samaritan."

"Why?"

"Your buddy, obviously. I think it's foolish, letting you tag along."

"Who is she?"

"One of us, she says. Outback Adventurer."

"You don't believe her?"

"I don't disbelieve her. She just knows a little too much. For example, how does she know you?"

"She doesn't," Ico said, "unless Dyson mentioned me somehow. And if he did, why would she even remember?"

"Why indeed?" Ethan looked ahead.

"Unless word of my charm gets around."

Flint laughed at that.

"Listen, what in hell is going on?" Ico persisted. "There's something wrong with this whole deal, right?"

Ethan smiled faintly. "Let's just say you have more company out here than you expected."

By mid-morning the six of them had consumed Ethan and Raven's remaining water supply, and Daniel was worried they'd soon be in the plight they were in before. It was hot again, the weight of the sick man oppressive. They seemed to march in a cloud of flies. The land was featureless, intimidating in its monotony, and Raven seemed distant, as if still trying to decide something, glancing occasionally back at Daniel. Then shortly before noon Ethan led them into a crack in the earth that had been invisible until they came to its lip. It widened to a curious ravine enclosing a kind of oasis. A few gum and palm trees huddled in the geologic wrinkle, hiding from the worst of the sun. They dragged Tucker down into its shade and collapsed with relief.

"Where did this hole come from?" Daniel asked.

"I'm guessing a collapsed cave," Raven said, "but I don't really know. There's a spring at one end but it's too mineralized to drink from."

Ico's nose wrinkled. "It stinks like rotten eggs."

"Sulfur," Amaya guessed.

Raven looked at her with curiosity. "You're a geologist?"

"Just an amateur naturalist. I never liked the jobs I had so I studied for ones I hadn't. I wish I'd been a scientist on one of those old sailing ships, finding hundreds of new species at every landfall. Australia is so unfamiliar it's almost like that."

"She's found us plants and stuff," Ico said. "Things to eat. But not enough to drink. And if we don't find water, I don't know how much farther we can drag Tucker. He's just too big."

"If we don't get some fluids into him he's going to get too small," Daniel worried. "He'll dry up like a raisin." He turned to Raven. "I thought you were taking us to water."

She looked at him with smug amusement. "I have. Like the tunnels."

They looked around. "Do we have to dig?" Amaya asked.

Ethan laughed. "In this heat? Outback adventure! Outback murder is more like it."

"You've got water right under your nose," Raven said. "Or above it."

"Where?" Amaya said, frustrated. "I don't see it."

"Didn't you notice the rain the other night?" Raven asked.

"Notice it? We almost drowned in it," Ico said. "But the water's long gone. All I see are sand and bugs." He was watching a line of ants march up a tree.

"Exactly. The desert holds its floods in all kinds of places. Haven't you ever wondered why those silly ants spend their time parading up and down a tree?"

They all looked at the insects now. "Foraging for food, I suppose," said Daniel.

"And water." Raven stood. "First lesson: think like an animal. Like any animal, no matter how small the brain, because they need the same things we do. Birds need water, so a zebra finch can lead you to it. Trees need water, so you can cut into the roots of a bloodwood tree to drink. Ants need water, so they'll climb halfway to heaven to find it…" She sprang up, grasping the smooth trunk, and shinnied, grasping a branch to haul herself clear of the ants. Above was a dark opening in the wood. "Some of these trees have hollows," she called down, "and the cavities are a good place to look for a drink. The rain funnels into them and takes a long time to evaporate out." She snapped off a twig and cautiously probed, then lifted it out to show the end moistened like a dipstick. "Ethan! Throw up a cup and water skin!"

They spent an hour resting and drinking in the shade. Amaya foraged and found some bush plum. Life began to seem bearable again. They didn't ask how their guide had learned so much about the desert.

Raven looked at the fruit with approval. "Very impressive. I hope you can find other things that are useful."

"Like an oasis that doesn't stink so much," Ico said.

"Actually, sulfur's useful," Amaya said. "For a million things. Old medicines, pigments, dyes, food preservation, gunpowder…"

"Gunpowder!" Ethan exclaimed.

"The old black powder. Sulfur is one of the basic ingredients. The ancients used to call it brimstone."

"I knew we were in hell," Ico said.

Raven looked thoughtful. "Maybe you should collect some of your sulfur."

"What for?"

"We're in a world of scarce resources. Something like that could be useful."

Amaya shrugged. "I could. We don't have much else left to carry except Tucker." She got up to gather some.

"I'll help," Raven said, standing to brush herself off. "Knowledge like yours is vital. It's the only edge we have."

"Yes. It's just when the facts get ahead of wisdom that we get into trouble."

Raven nodded. "So are you finding it?"

"Wisdom? More than I bargained for, I think."

Her new companion smiled. "It's nice to have another woman along."

Amaya looked surprised at that. "Is it?"

"You can talk to men only up to a certain point."

She winked. "Then you think of other things to do with them." Jaunty now, glowing from Raven's appreciation of her abilities, she led the way to scrape some sulfur.

Daniel watched quietly, going over his previous encounters with Raven in his mind and wondering at her coincidental appearance. What exactly had she said to him? Why wouldn't she say more now? Who was she, really?

The women came back with the mineral. "The prospectors of hell," Ico greeted.

"Fruit of the land," Amaya replied.

As they gathered their things to move on, she drifted to Daniel. "Your friend Raven seems adept," she murmured to him.

"Yes. The only problem is, I'm not sure she's really my friend."

Before they set out again, Raven opened a packet of dried leaves and distributed a small pile on each of their cupped fingers. "Chew this," she instructed. "It will make the last few miles before camp go faster."

"What is it?" Ico asked dubiously.

"Rock pituri. The aborigines used it as a stimulant. It gives you energy and relieves thirst."

Ico stuffed some between gum and cheek as instructed. "Like cardboard," he said thickly. "What happens if I swallow?"

"Don't. It's a stimulant, not a food. You can also put the juice on cuts and stings to relieve the pain and promote healing." She spat, businesslike, and rubbed a gob on Tucker's bitten hand. He jerked at the touch and then relaxed again. "It helps fight any poisons."

The drug worked as promised. The travelers felt a flush of energy like a jolt of caffeine that helped get them through the afternoon heat. Tucker groaned in delirious dreams, his face and body spotted with flies, but some of his normal color seemed to be returning. Indeed, it looked like he might live.

The country they were trudging through was parched, however, the plain beginning to break toward low hills, the vegetation gray and dead-looking. Part of it had been burned black by fire. To the exhausted Daniel, Australia seemed an ugly place getting uglier, a sand and rock waste that led nowhere. A prison, Ethan had called it. What did that mean?