Kickass Anthology (41 page)

The van Luke drove wasn’t at the campsite when the men finally arrived, but Josie and Darcy were there cooking dinner, talking with the deputy who was waiting to get their statements. Luke had called earlier and let them know he and Cameron would be in town a while longer talking to the Sheriff about the woman they’d found. She was in the hospital and hadn’t woken up yet, but it appeared someone had beaten her. The Sheriff wanted to warn the rest of the group to be on the lookout for anything or anyone suspicious while they hiked.

When Luke and Cameron finally returned from town, the group held their nightly conference to assess the next portion of the trip. Justin said, “The next nine miles or so of the trail is the county road and the state highway. We don’t need to hike any of it if you don’t want to. I don’t have to hike it for my paper, but I really want to see the portion over by the visitor’s center where the trail goes by several lava tubes. If you want to walk the road though, that’s fine, but there’s not that much interesting stuff along the way. I’m for driving down and starting the hike there.” After their short discussion, they voted to drive the short distance, and found a camping site near the center.

THE THREE miles to El Calderon was easy, so Luke and Darcy decided to join them while Cameron and Josie drove the vans. Justin and Ron were the only two who wanted to see the lava tube caves, so he and Ron grabbed helmets and flashlights while the rest of the crew took a break at the picnic tables in the shade.

Justin started in his tour guide speech again as they walked to the nearest lava tube. “Lava tubes are formed when the lava flows slowly and cools at the surface first.”

Ron let him ramble on as they climbed down over the rubble to the entrance of the cave. They were hit with a blast of refreshing cooler air as they entered. “Wow! I didn’t know it would be this cold.” He said, teeth chattering.

“Yes, the lava is a really good insulator and most caves stay between forty to fifty degrees all year round. Be glad we didn’t pick an ice cave, it would have been much colder then,” Justin informed him.

They scrambled over the rubble on the cave floor until they came to the split in the cave. Justin said, “Let’s go down this right fork first. The pamphlet said it is only a short tunnel. Its unusual for a lava tube to have these off shoots. They are mostly straight.”

As they hiked down the smaller side tunnel, Ron couldn’t shake the creepy feeling he got. He felt like he was being watched or followed. He wondered if it was just the smaller space or some odd premonition of the future.

Once they were finished exploring the caves, Luke and Darcy decided to switch places with Cameron. Justin, Ron, and Cameron started down the trail while Darcy and Luke drove down the road with Josie, and started setting up camp.

Cameron got further ahead of them as Justin explored, and examined the geology of the area. Ron found that he was becoming more interested in geology and volcanology as they hiked past the lava tubes and collapses. “So these pits are formed when the roof of the lava tube collapses?”

“Yes, the tube can go on for miles and in spots the roof may be weaker. So here, you see a series of long collapsed pits and bridges. If the covered area isn’t big enough to be totally dark like a cave, they often call them bridges because you can walk over them to get to the other side of the tube. The collapse areas are how the caves and tubes can be accessed. As you can see, the tubes can get quite deep. These are all about thirty to forty feet deep and almost seventy-five feet in width. That's a lot of lava flowing through here.

They’d just passed another county road and had seen more lava tubes when Justin and Ron heard screaming. “What the hell?” Justin asked.

Hurrying up the trail, they found Cameron struggling to keep hold of a woman’s hand as she dangled over the side of a collapsed lava tube. Justin rushed to their aid. Before Ron could get his backpack off and move in to help, Cameron and Justin had the woman safely back on solid ground. As soon as the woman looked up and saw Cameron’s face, she jumped back from him nearly knocking Justin into the pit.

Justin grabbed the woman and shoved her away from the pit as he stumbled forward trying to avoid slipping over the edge. He watched Rob quickly grab the woman as Justin righted himself.

“Easy there,” Justin told her. “We won't hurt you. Let's get you to the road and we have a friend who can take you to town. Are you OK?” when she didn't respond, Justin held out his hand and said “Your hands are scratched up from the lava, let me take a look and put bandages on them.”

She finally relented and let Justin dress her wounds, and then Justin helped her hike to the highway, and sent her into town with Luke and Cameron. The woman looked troubled when Cameron climbed into the van’s back seat, but she didn’t speak a word to the group except to thank Justin for his help.

That night, Cameron didn’t come back to the camp. Luke told them that Cameron wanted to talk to the Sheriff, and then he’d stay in town and make reservations for the rest of them for tomorrow night when they finally got there.

The group camped across the highway from the next portion of the trail, near the Zuni-Acoma trailhead. During the after dinner discussion, it became clear that Ron and Justin would make this part of the trip by themselves. No one else wanted to hike across the rugged lava flows.

THE NEXT day they passed a few other brave souls who decided to test their skills on this long, rugged, lava trail. This portion of the trail still contained mostly bare lava rock with a few scrubby trees and brush growing from the cracks.

“Why is this part still so rocky?” Ron asked as they navigated the lava trail

Justin went off on his tour guide talk again. “This is the youngest lava flow. The part I told you was only a thousand to maybe three thousand years old. Because of the climate and everything, there hasn't been a very good buildup of organic material to create soil. Over where we first started hiking, the organic matter has had longer to build up.” Ron loved to listen to Justin as he explained in detail the differences in the ages of the lava flows

Shortly after they stopped for lunch, Cameron approached from the direction they’d just come.

“Cameron? What are you doing here? I thought you were still in town,” Ron asked.

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he suddenly swung his arm and threw a rock that had been hidden in his hand. The large stone hit Ron hard in the center of his chest, and he staggered back, tripped, and fell on his ass.

He struggled to breathe as he watched Justin rush to tackle Cameron. The pair clashed in an impressive display of martial arts. Ron watched as his protector fought beautifully and powerfully against a much larger opponent. Suddenly Cameron nailed Justin in the side of the head with a strong roundhouse kick causing Justin to stumble and fall.

Ron grabbed the first thing he felt under his hand and quickly threw it at Cameron to distract him from advancing on Justin. Cameron turned and stalked towards Ron while Justin scrambled to his feet holding one hand to his head. Ron's chest really hurt, but knowing that he needed to keep Cameron distracted a while longer, he struggled to his feet coughing painfully. “Hey! Leave us alone! We weren't doing anything to you, besides why aren’t you still in town? I thought you went to talk to the Sheriff about those women?”

Cameron laughed as he moved towards Ron. “You’re no better than those women. So weak and helpless. Look at you, I barely hit you with that rock, and now you can't even breathe.”

Ron caught the movement from the corner of his eye just as Justin launched himself back at Cameron and the fight resumed. Finally, a lucky blow from Justin knocked Cameron unconscious. Justin pinned his attacker to the ground and called to Ron. “Quick get the cords from my pack.”

Ron’s chest still hurt, but he scrambled over to where Justin had set down his backpack. The para-cord roll was attached to the side and Ron called back, “I found it, but it’s all knots.”

“Just undo the first knot; all the rest are slip knots. Hurry! I need to get him tied up before he wakes up.” Justin called out

“I can’t believe Cameron did this to us. Why would he attack us like that?” Rob asked as he stretched out the string, cut a length with his pocketknife, and handed the cord to Justin.

“I don’t know, but are you OK? It looked like you took a pretty bad hit,” Justin replied softly.

Before Ron could answer, they heard a noise behind them and suddenly Cameron appeared. “It wasn’t me. Meet my twin brother Colin. I knew yesterday, when that woman looked at me like she’d seen a ghost, that he was here. Colin’s always tried to get me into trouble. Because we look so much alike, it’s hard to tell us apart. He learned early on how to imitate me or incriminate me in his schemes. That’s why I had to go in and talk to the Sheriff. I had to see if they had any more reports of attacks along this stretch of highway. They kept me for a while to make sure my story wasn’t a lie.”

Ron and Justin looked up at Cameron in shock as he approached with a sheriff deputy and a Park Ranger following closely behind.

“We thought he’d try again,” the deputy said as he stepped forward to take custody of Colin from Justin. “We missed you at the campsite and had to follow you here. The reports of attacks have been increasing in frequency along this portion of the trail. We think he has been hiding out in one of the lava tube caves, but there are so many that it’s hard to pinpoint. Now that we have him in custody, we should be able to find his hideout and see how many attacks we can tie him to.”

The Park Ranger looked both Ron and Justin over. “It’s about four miles either way we go from here and there’s no way a helicopter can land on this uneven ground. If we have to call in a chopper, they’ll have to pull you up in a harness. Can you guys walk out or do we need to call one in?”

Ron shook his head as he allowed Justin to pull him up and help him stand. “I think I can manage to walk out. My chest still hurts, but I really don't think anything's broken. The pain's been easing slowly.”

Justin’s nose was still dripping blood, but he replied, “Think my nose is broken, but I can walk out. Let me get something to stop the bleeding”

Justin slid his arm around Ron's waist and supported him as they slowly walked out to the main road.

***

After being cleared to leave the emergency room, Ron and Justin were back in a hotel room for the first time in over a month. Finally, they had a soft place to sleep instead of a sleeping pad on cold, hard, ground. As soon as they got into the room, Ron wrapped his arms around Justin and pulled him in for a long kiss.

“Thank you for saving me out there today,” Ron said as he pulled back from the kiss. “You really are like Kíli the dwarf: Brave and strong and true. You’ve helped people. You saved me from being really hurt.”

Justin’s face flushed as he tried to think of a good reply, then he just asked, “How’s your chest?” as he gently lifted the hem of Ron’s T-shirt. He wanted to make sure Ron was OK. “Let’s get that looked after first. I was so worried when he hit you with that rock. I'm glad you didn't break a rib or something.”

“I love how you always take care of everyone, how you take care of me,” Ron said. “The doctor said my chest is fine, just bruises, but really I should be taking care of you and your broken nose. I love you.” Ron paused when he realized what he’d just said. He looked down into Justin’s amazed gaze.

Justin’s heart jumped at Ron’s word. Warmth bloomed in his chest as he realized that was the confirmation he’d been waiting for all along. He’d needed to hear those words directed at him before he’d accept his own feelings toward Ron. He moved in a hugged Ron tightly as he laid his head against Ron’s chest and listened to his heartbeat. Then Justin pulled back, stood on his tippy-toes, stretched up for a kiss, and replied, “I love taking care of you because I love you too. My nose will be just fine, though I might have trouble breathing for a while.”

Rob spun Justin around, wrapped himself around his small boyfriend, and kissed him on the top of his head. “We will just be careful for a while until you heal. Let’s go get cleaned up.”

THE END

Author’s Note:

While the events and people in this story are fictional, the setting is not. El Malpais National Monument managed by the National Park Service and El Malpais National Conservation area managed by the Bureau of Land Management each host a portion of the scenic Continental Divide Trail in New Mexico. The area is considered “wilderness.” The remote location and the presence of lava rock formations lead to a beautiful, but treacherous setting. The portion of the story depicting emergency services not readily available is a fact. The County Road 42 in question is a sometimes impassable, and sometimes one lane dirt road. I worked for seven years with both the NPS and BLM in this area and Emergency services are exactly as described. If you can’t get to a passable road, the ambulance won’t come get you.