City Out of Time. William Robison III
“Yeah,” Lanz answered. “Of course I parked my car on the highway.”
“They don’t like it when you do that,” Roger noted and pointed.
Lanz turned and looked west towards the highway where he’d left his car. The road was still lost in the overall size of the desert, but now with the sun rising Lanz could clearly see the reflection of the sun’s light off his windshield – like a flared beacon pointing directly to where his car was parked on the road. Unfortunately, as Roger pointed, Lanz could see another larger windshield flare approaching his car from the direction of Baker, and more, he could just make out the rotating red lights of a tow truck.
“Son of a…” Lanz muttered.
Rita put her hand on Lanz’s shoulders and said, “Might as well stay for breakfast now.”
“And you’re close enough to that treasure,” Paul added, “You should see what it was that cost you a towed vehicle.”
Lanz stayed for breakfast. There were two other members of the group, the youngest brother Stanley and the younger sister, Barbara - who turned out to be quite adept at whipping up a gourmet meal using a campfire and regular cooking equipment. They served everyone three egg omelets with cheese, bell peppers, and reindeer sausage. The eggs were perfectly fluffy without being runny in the slightest. Lanz felt like asking for seconds, but knew he was already intruding on their lives enough. He offered to wash the dishes, but the others insisted that they would wash the dishes at the next campground where there was available water.
During the meal, each member of the group took turns subtly interrogating their guest. Lanz knew that they didn’t entirely believe his story, but they were too polite to call bullshit on him. Lanz didn’t know what else to tell them. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t find any way to make the truth sound any less bizarre.
But the interrogation wasn’t entirely one-sided. Lanz discovered that Barbara and Rita were the sisters of Roger, Paul and Stanley Citroen. Five grown children camping out in the middle of nowhere – it made Lanz wonder whether the parents had dropped them off on their way to Vegas for a nice quiet weekend alone. He didn’t dare ask.
After breakfast, Lanz helped the Citroen family break camp. The Citroen’s were truly expert outdoorsmen, however, and Lanz felt like he was more in the way than helpful.
As much as he and Seth had traveled this area of the desert, they had rarely packed more than a pup tent and a cooler of beer and water. Besides the tent, sleeping bags, and cooking equipment, the Citroen’s were also packing a telescope, four folding chairs, and enough survival gear to last in the desert for an entire month. Lanz was quite impressed.
He offered to help carry something, but they shook their heads and said, “No, we’ve got it.”
Within half an hour, there wasn’t a single trace of the camp left. Paul turned to Lanz and said, “Let’s go find that treasure of yours.”
They climbed slowly; working their way up the lower part of the foothills. After an hour, Paul called for a water break and everyone gladly complied. The sun was well above the horizon now. When Lanz looked back towards the highway, he could clearly see that there was no car parked along the side of the road. He turned and looked up into the hill that rose above him. In another hour or so, he’d be near the coordinates on the map.
The water recharged his flagging energy. He didn’t want to dwell on the fact that he’d been awake nearly 36 hours straight. It might not have bothered him when he was younger – like 18 or 19 – but now that he was 26, he expected a little more sleep.
It seemed that only a few seconds had passed before Paul called the family back to the hike.
The terrain became steeper and the sun rose faster in the sky. The morning chill baked away quickly. Fifteen minutes later, sweat was pouring from Lanz’s brow. He welcomed the feeling of the air pounding in his lungs and the sting of the salty perspiration in his eyes. Lanz was really feeling alive.
The counter to that was Lanz knew he was getting close to his limits. He was going to have to put a stop to this madness if he was going to have the energy to hike back to the road and hitch a ride back into town. But the top of the hill loomed ahead of him, tantalizingly close, and Lanz felt that he had no choice but to move forward.
Lanz was completely lost in thought when Stanley tapped him on the shoulder. Lanz turned, slightly startled, but recovered quickly.
“Yeah?” Lanz asked through puffs of air.
“I think we’re here,” Stanley noted.
Lanz looked around. They were indeed on top of the hill… well, more like a shoulder of the hill. There was a slight bald rise off to their right, and to the left, the ridge they were on sloped down to an abrupt cliff about 800 yards away. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular.
Behind him, the desert floor that he’d just crossed stretched out for miles – empty except for sage brush and rocks. Its emptiness was filled with a sort of unseen energy that shimmered on the wind. Lanz took a deep breath and felt refreshed – one with the nature around him.
He looked ahead now. The ridge stretched forward about a quarter mile before becoming the balcony overlooking another desert basin. Somewhere in this quarter mile stretch, Seth had hidden an object for Lanz to find.
Without a word nor command, the Citroen family and Lanz started walking slowly towards the other side of the ridge – each one looking for something, anything, that looked out of place.
Before they’d gone halfway, Lanz knew there was nothing here. The ridge top was just too barren to hide anything effectively. As much as his brother could be a pain in the neck, he wasn’t a fool. If it had been here, someone else would have found it.
Still, they searched the entire ridge. As they reached the other side of the ridge, they each shrugged their shoulders, then turned back and tried to retrace their steps with their eyes – hoping to see something that clearly wasn’t there. Lanz was the last to arrive and by the time he reached the other side of the ridge, the entire family surrounded him with looks of pity and condolence.
“Are you sure you got the right coordinates?” Roger asked, hopefully.
Lanz didn’t answer. They all knew the answer anyway.
“Maybe it’s buried? We could get out the shovels and…” Barbara let the suggestion die on her lips.
Lanz felt miserable – far worse than he would have felt had he gone home and never come and looked. Too late he realized that he’d been holding out hope for one last tangible piece of his brother’s story – as if some buried treasure could compensate for all the missed late night conversations, Christmas cards, and other assorted communications that they’d have shared for the rest of Seth’s natural life. Standing on top of the ridge, looking down into a desert basin still covered with a misty residue from the night before, Lanz suddenly felt a gulf open up before him – a deep chasm beyond which he could not pass. Seth was truly and finally gone.
The revelation hit him physically. His knees buckled and Lanz tottered and slowly collapsed. He was immediately joined by the two sisters while Paul and Stanley each pulled out their thermoses and offered Lanz some cool water. Lanz drank deeply, but it didn’t help. He could almost feel Seth’s arm reaching out from the coffin to pull Lanz down into the chasm with him. Lanz loosened his shirt and lay back on the sand. The sky began to swirl and Lanz felt his body tipping over and over and over again with dizzy gravity. Lanz dug his fingers into the sand to keep from falling off the swiftly tilting planet.
The Citroen Family gathered around him, concerned, but out of ideas for helping him. They tried cooling him down, elevating his feet, giving him air. When they set down their packs and started to dig out their tents in order to erect one around him, Lanz finally held up a hand.
The world stopped spinning and Lanz was able to catch his breath. He felt embarrassed. Barbara bent over and asked in a slow, patient voice, “Are you alright?”