City Out of Time. William Robison III
in particular, “Famous last words.”
He stopped, took another sip from his canteen and looked back towards the highway. He could no longer see it. The road had long since blended in with the starlit desert to form one long seamless expanse of nothing at all.
Lanz remembered getting a call from Seth one morning about a year after Lanz had graduated from High School. Seth had taken Uncle Pete’s jeep and some girl from his school and headed to the desert with the hope of a little moonlit nookie. Unfortunately, after going about thirty-five miles out into the desert, Seth had tried to impress the girl by four-wheeling over a large boulder. Instead of impressing her, however, Seth had high-watered the jeep on the rock. Seth and his date had spent the entire night walking back towards the road until they’d come across another campground where someone gave them a ride as far as Baker. Lanz had laughed the entire way out into the middle of nowhere as he drove another friend’s truck to help Seth get their Uncle’s jeep off the rock before Uncle Pete found out about it. The young lady had never spoken to Seth again. Lesson learned. You never took the desert lightly.
Lanz shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t dying of thirst just yet. He might as well keep going until he’d reached the point of no return. Besides, he was actually enjoying the walk.
Lanz and Seth had both had just about the same amount of luck when it came to women. Though Seth certainly had more luck when it came to dating, Lanz more than made up for it by having had several of his relationships last long enough to actually call someone a girlfriend. Seth’s dating attempts almost always ended with Seth getting slapped. Lanz’s relationships had almost always ended with the girl finding another guy. This lack of success with women, while frustrating, had certainly given the two brothers interesting things to talk about during their teenage years. A little beer, a little desert moon, and talk about girls just seemed to come naturally. Lanz missed having those discussions with his brother.
In the end it all seemed so pointless. They’d gone their own separate ways to make their own separate lives. Seth had joined the Army, had never gotten married, and had never contributed anything to society. Now he was dead – his ultimate sacrifice was a waste of human potential with absolutely nothing to show for it.
On the other hand, Lanz thought, he hadn’t exactly contributed anything to society either. He wasn’t married – didn’t even have a girlfriend. He had contributed nothing to society – and after failing his pre-med classes, he doubted he ever would. Now he was walking around in the middle of the desert trying to find…
Well, hell, ultimately he was trying to find himself, wasn’t he? This happy little jaunt into the middle of Death Valley with a single bottle of water was like some American version of a walkabout, or vision quest, or some such dorky mid-life crisis thing.
Lanz suddenly felt like some cheap yuppie in loafers looking for spiritual enlightenment. He stopped walking and stared straight ahead at the hill he’d been walking towards just as the first rays of dawn peaked over the top of the craggy hill and bathed the desert plain in deep purples and oranges. It was beautiful, but completely beside the point.
“What am I doing out here?” Lanz said aloud.
This was stupid. He wasn’t some sort of spiritual guru looking for enlightenment. He wasn’t some lost Hippie or Burning Man wannabe. Sure, the past few days had thrown him for a loop, but he was made of sterner stuff than that.
He looked at the hill ahead of him and knew what he had to do. He needed to go back to his car and drive back to his apartment and get some sleep. Then he needed to go back to work and back to school and plead for a second chance – tell them that his brother’s death had had him at a loss. He could get back on track for med school and finish his degree and become a doctor.
Someday, when he’d finally finished his residency and made something of his life, he’d come back here, dig up that old six pack of beer, and have a few beers in honor of his brother’s sacrifice. But for now, it was time to go home.
Lanz turned around and tripped over a rope he hadn’t seen in the early dawn light. He fell hard and landed on something soft and cloth which groaned instantly and sat upright. Lanz rolled to his feet and stood.
He’d walked right into the middle of a campground without even realizing it and he’d just tripped over someone’s tent rope and landed on another person’s sleeping bag – occupied.
“What the…” grumbled the sleeping bag’s occupant.
The sleeping bag unzipped and a bright flashlight beam suddenly splashed into Lanz’s eyes. Lanz raised his arms to cover his eyes, but lost his balance in the process and fell backwards on to the hard sand of the desert.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Sorry,” Lanz said, “I didn’t see you out here in the brush.”
The camper looked skeptical as he passed his light over Lanz’s ill-prepared clothing.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I was hiking.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The camper became wary. He slowly climbed out of the sleeping bag, but kept one hand inside the bag the entire time.
“What are you really doing out here?” he asked again.
“I should ask the same question,” Lanz replied. “Who camps in the desert in the middle of nowhere?”
“We’re an Explorer’s Post out of San Francisco doing a cross-country backpacking trip in Death Valley,” the camper explained. “My name is Paul. Now… your turn.”
The tent flap opened and two young ladies poked their heads out.
“Everything okay, Paul?” they asked quietly.
“I’ll let you know in a moment,” Paul told them, “Stay in the tent.”
Lanz stood back up in case he needed to beat a hasty retreat and said, “Don’t be alarmed, Paul. I really was out here hiking in the middle of the night. I know that that is unusual, but I can explain.”
“Explain.”
“My brother recently died. And last night, I met with his lawyer in Baker for the reading of the will. My brother loved the desert and, I guess, as a sort of last joke the only thing that the will contained was a set of coordinates and a compass.”
“Like a treasure map?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“So you came out here in the middle of the night?”
“Pretty stupid, huh.”
Paul dropped whatever he’d been holding in his sleeping bag and stood up as well.
“How are you fixed for water?”
“I’ve got about a quarter canteen left.” Lanz answered.
“Rita… Bring me some water.”
One of the girls came out of the tent carrying a large thermos full of water. Paul poured it expertly into the canteen, filling it to the rim.
“How far away is this treasure?” Rita asked.
“It’s just up that hill over there,” Lanz pointed to the hill that was maybe a half-mile away from where they were standing.
“Well, we can probably help you get to it,” Paul noted. “We’re headed that direction anyway. We can all go after breakfast.”
“No… no thanks,” Lanz said, “I’ve already decided that I’ve been running a fool’s errand as it is. I was just turning around to head back to my car when I stumbled into your camp. You’ve been kind enough already, but I’m not going to be a further burden.”
“You parked your car on the highway, didn’t you?” asked another