Rattled (19 page)

Camie shifted The Finder into her own arms so Erin could let go. “Take your time. You’re looking pretty flushed.”

Erin nodded and turned toward the outcropping where they’d left Tiger and their gear. The air seemed to shimmer with heat. She paused by the edge of the cliff, scanning the ground below to see if the sun had dropped enough to offer any better shade. She hated to leave Camie to work alone but thought she might be sick if she didn’t cool off for a while. She felt lightheaded and a bit dizzy just from looking down the slope, and it wasn’t even that steep here, where flooding had collapsed the wall into a 45 degree slope that spilled partway across the canyon. Was this the first stage of heat exhaustion? Or maybe even the second?

A sound caught her attention—a faint hum that might have been a motor. She scanned the sky, wondering if a plane were flying overhead. Should they try to hide? She couldn’t see anything, but with the sun so bright, she knew she might not notice a speck in the distance.

“Erin!” Camie’s voice was shrill with excitement—or fear?

Erin swung around, her heart rate soaring. The sudden movement made her stomach lurch. Her vision grayed and her limbs felt suddenly limp. The thought ran through her head—if I’m not careful, I could fall right off this cliff.

Erin tried to sit down so she wouldn’t fall. The world seemed to spin and she hit the ground with a jarring bump that sent her sprawling onto her back.

The ground seemed to shift beneath her.

Then she was sliding, rolling, with dust clogging her nose and lungs and her tangled limbs scraping rock. The memory of the accident sliced through her, the feel of falling, smashing against the ground, skin scraped raw. A scream built in her throat but she couldn’t choke it out.

She skidded to a stop sprawled face down. The dizziness receded as she felt the solid ground underneath her. She rolled onto her back. Dust swirled around her and she blinked, trying to bring the world back into focus. Had she really just slid down that whole slope into the canyon? She couldn’t quite believe it, but her aching body and the blurred sight of the cliff wall rising beside her seemed to prove it. In fact, she’d apparently rolled down the slope and across the narrow canyon, nearly to the other side.

As Erin’s head cleared, she noticed a strange noise. A kind of dry rattling. She turned her head toward it.

A shaded hollow cut into the base of the cliff. Inside it, three feet from her head, Erin saw a writhing mass of rattlesnakes.

Erin felt her heart pounding, but wasn’t sure if she was breathing. Sweat dripped down her face even as an icy cold started in her belly and slid out to numb her limbs. She wouldn’t have said she had a fear of snakes, but the sight of that writhing mass and the hoarse rattling sound scratched some primitive part of her. Instinct told her to leap back, while her conscious mind knew she should move slowly. Her body refused to take any directions at all.

A snake two inches thick rippled its coils and slithered closer. Its tongue flicked out. The tip of its tail stayed high, a blur of movement, the sound a sickening threat.

Erin wheezed in a breath, trying to move her chest as little as possible. Her body tingled as if some poison already coursed through her veins.

“Erin! Are you all right?”

Erin realized she’d been hearing Camie’s shouts, a muted distraction in the background. Erin didn’t try to answer. She heard scuffling behind her as Camie skidded down the hillside. Erin prayed she wouldn’t slide too close to the snakes.

Dust billowed over from Camie’s descent, choking Erin’s lungs, but she didn’t move. Erin sensed her friend stop a few feet behind her. Tiny pebbles stung Erin’s back and sent the snakes shifting angrily.

“Erin—” Camie’s words broke off in a gasp, then she whispered. “Don’t move. I’ll get something to distract them. A stick or—damn!”

Erin knew how barren the bottom of the arroyo was. It might take Camie precious minutes to find a stick long enough to keep herself safely out of reach while she poked at the rattlers.

“All right,” Camie said, “I have a rock. You back up very slowly. If they get more aggressive, I’ll throw the rock in the middle of the bunch, and hopefully they’ll attack it and forget about you. I don’t want to stir them up more, though, except as a last resort.”

Erin was lying on her back, her right side toward the snakes. She could roll away, except she couldn’t bear to take her gaze off the snakes and have her back to them. Instead, she eased her butt a few inches over, then her shoulders, then her feet. A few inches, then a few more, her eyes always on the snakes.

The closest snake edged forward, seeming to follow her. Its coils slid over each other, hypnotic brown diamonds on a paler background. Erin stared at the slitted black eyes, the flicking tongue. The snake was mesmerizing, beautiful, terrifying. Erin heard a whimper and realized she had made the sound.

A drop of dusty sweat slid into the corner of her eye, stinging and half blinding her. She wanted to keep her breathing slow and even, but she couldn’t control the rapid rise of her chest or the faint keening cry that seemed to come with each gasping breath. Her mind screamed at her to flee, get away. She eased over another few inches.

The snake moved forward too.

It unwound from its ball, sliding forward in a tightly coiled S. It reared up and hissed, its mouth open wide to show curved fangs that looked an inch long.

Erin couldn’t take any more. With a wild cry, she flung up her arm and rolled away. She felt a blow on her hand. The pain shot down her arm, a jolt so severe it gagged her.

Camie screamed.

Erin rolled to a sitting position and scrambled backward, away from the snakes. An orange blur moved across her vision, between her and the rattlesnake nest.

Erin didn’t stop moving until she hit the wall at the other side of the arroyo. She pressed back against the rock, shaking and gasping. Tears flushed the sweat out of her eyes. Across the arroyo, 15 feet away, a rock as big as two fists now lay among the tangled mass of angry snakes. Tiger’s attack had carried him and the snake a good five feet past the nest. Camie stood nearby, hands pressed to her mouth, while Tiger wrestled with the snake.

Erin thought she might pass out or throw up. Before she could decide which, Tiger dropped the snake with a shriek of triumph. He stood with his fur bristling and tail held high.

Camie scooped up Tiger, rushed toward Erin, and collapsed next to her. The women hugged and cried while Tiger muttered and tried to wriggle free.

Finally Camie pushed hair out of her face and gasped, “Are you all right? Did it get you?”

Erin’s whole body felt numb and she couldn’t stop trembling. Her right hand ached, but she’d been hugging it to her chest, afraid to even look at it. She knew if she’d been bitten it would take hours to get to a hospital. People survived rattlesnake bites, but they didn’t enjoy it. The flesh rotted off your bones.

She held her hand up in front of her face. She could see the marks on the silver brace where the fangs had scraped.

Erin gasped and sank back against the rock. “It’s all right,” she whispered. “It hit the finger brace.” The pain had been from jarring her broken finger, not from a bite. Relief flooded her, leaving her limp.

“Thank God,” Camie murmured, hugging Erin close. “I threw the rock but I was sure I was too late. And then Tiger—”

“Yes. I had forgotten about him completely.” Erin stroked her hand over his smooth head and Tiger gave a satisfied purr.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier,” Camie said, “about finding you a rattlesnake.”

Erin managed a weak laugh. “You never do things by halves, do you?” She pushed herself into a more comfortable position, moving stiffly. She felt as sore and exhausted as she had after the bike accident. She didn’t know how much was from new bruises and how much just from the adrenaline overload.

She rested her head back against the rock wall and closed her eyes. As the cold fear left her, the pounding heat of the sun made her feel like she was melting. She wanted to be farther from the snakes but couldn’t make herself move. She didn’t know if she had the energy to do anything more that day, even hike back to camp. She didn’t want to be in the desert. She wanted a cool shower and an air-conditioned room for a long nap. She felt like crying, but forced back the urge. She reminded herself that she was all right. She hadn’t been hurt. She hadn’t panicked—outwardly, anyway. She should feel proud. Maybe someday she would.

“I want you to promise me something,” she said.

“What?”

“When we’re done with this whole treasure hunting thing, we’re going away for a spa weekend. Someplace luxurious, where the most dangerous thing I have to face is the temperature of the sauna.”

Camie chuckled. “I’ll buy the massage.”

Erin tried to gather her strength, at least enough to get her water bottle. The thought of over-warm water wasn’t appealing, but she knew she needed it. The desert air echoed with the buzzing of insects, an eerie sound, but almost comfortable after the snakes’ rattle. Then another sound grew louder, becoming dominant. The thrum of an aircraft.

Erin opened her eyes and sat up straighter, remembering the sound that had distracted her before her fall. “Someone’s coming.” She prayed she wouldn’t have to run and hide. She didn’t know if she could.

Camie cocked her head, listening. She smiled. “Drew’s helicopter!”

Relief flooded Erin. She wasn’t even sure why she was so happy—the thought of seeing him again, of having a possible escape, of not having to deal with a new enemy, all swirled together, her joy only hampered by nagging anxiety. “You’re sure it’s his?”

Camie nodded. “I recognize the engine. It’s his or one just like it, which seems unlikely out here.”

But why was he here now? They weren’t expecting him for two more days. “What does it mean?”

Camie shook her head. “He could have news for us, or maybe he’s just checking up on us.” She grinned. “Maybe he couldn’t wait to see you again.”

“Ha,” Erin said, though the idea pleased her. “I just hope it’s good news.”

Camie braced herself on the cliff wall and got to her feet. “Do you think you can move in order to see a handsome man who’s crazy about you? Or shall I bring him down here?”

Erin sighed. She didn’t want to move yet, but she didn’t want him to see her there looking weak and fragile, tear-stained and covered in dust. Plus, she wanted to get away from the damn rattlesnakes. “Where’s my backpack?”

They spotted it a few feet away, where it had rolled down the slope after her. Erin had a baggie of damp baby wipes and decided this was a good time to use them. She handed one to Camie and they mopped their faces.

“Don’t forget to reapply sunscreen,” Camie said. “I’ll run up and wave to Drew so he doesn’t miss us. Take your time.” She scrambled up a sloping side crevice a good distance away from the rattlesnake nest.

Erin dragged herself to her feet and tried to dust off her clothes. She used another baby wipe to clean her hands, smoothed her hair back, and put on sunscreen and lip balm. She couldn’t do much more to make herself presentable. She was glad she didn’t have a mirror, as she didn’t really want to know what she looked like. At least the simple grooming tasks had left her feeling steadier as well as a little fresher.

When she stepped away from the edge of the arroyo, into full sun, she realized she had lost her hat. She spotted it in the direction of the rattlesnake nest.

She stared at it for a good 30 seconds, refusing to look directly at the snakes. She considered asking Drew to retrieve the hat, but with a sigh decided she wasn’t going to start playing the helpless female now. The snakes had settled back into their nest and the hat was 10 feet away, surely a safe distance. “Get back on the horse,” she whispered. “Face them now or you’ll never want to look at another snake again. Don’t let them have that kind of control over your life.”

She slowly stepped closer. Holding her breath, Erin crouched and stretched out her hand until her fingers touched the brim. She snatched up the hat and hurried away, barely holding back from a full-fledged run. The new surge of adrenaline helped get her up to the top of the canyon.

Erin joined Camie as the helicopter blades stopped spinning. The women met Drew as he opened his door. Erin resisted the urge to throw herself at him but didn’t try to hide her smile. He winked, reached into the back seat, and pulled out a cooler.

Camie moaned. “Please tell me you have cold drinks.”

He opened it on a selection of sodas. They each snatched their favorite and started guzzling like they were being filmed for a commercial. Erin thought she had never tasted anything better in her life

Drew watched them, grinning broadly, pleased that his gift had been such a success. He seemed to smile a lot around these women. They looked dusty and exhausted, but that didn’t detract from the graceful slope of Erin’s neck as she tipped back her head to drink. Her thin cotton shirt, damp with sweat, clung between her breasts. Drew’s hands itched to touch her.

Erin lowered her soda at last and smiled at Drew with half-closed eyes. She looked pale, except for the dark circles under her eyes and flushed spots on her cheeks. She swayed, as if she might fall over at any moment. Drew frowned. “You don’t look so good.”