Nevada Confidential

The Spinning Needle

Nightfall.

They were supposed to arrive by nightfall.

"Why won't it work? I don't understand," Brinley groaned, staring down at the compass in her hand. Simon was quiet, just sitting back against a small desert stump and inspecting the dirt under his thumbnail.

The red needle on the compass was spinning, and it wouldn't stop. Simon had given up trying to fix it; he just wanted to wait until morning and then call the man with the quad to pick them up. Brinley's frustration kept her at it; trying to figure out what could be wrong with the compass that could be causing it to spin on its own accord. She and Simon hadn't gone through all of that trouble just to let it be thrown away.

"Any ideas?" she asked Simon hopefully. He hadn't said a word in half an hour, and Brinley was worried that he was blaming himself for them getting lost. Simon shook his head without looking up.

Brinley pulled out her sleeping bag. Simon hadn't set up the tents, and she doubted that he would get up to do so. .

The stars were so much easier to see when there weren't the lights of civilization to minimize their glow. Brinley snuggled into her sleeping bag, and put her arms behind her head as a cushion. Though she and Simon were lost in the middle of the desert, Simon wouldn't speak to her, she had no idea when the next time she'd see her family was, and her current craving for baked ziti was agonizing, Brinley was content. She was comfortable, she was free, she was alive and young, and had the world to explore. Seeing the stars made her realize that there was so much more out there for her.

Brinley didn't dream that night. She was counting the stars one moment (a feat that she knew was impossible but had to try anyway), and the next moment she felt the burning sensation of the sun on her skin. Simon was sitting where he had been the previous night, but now his eyes were closed and he was snoring softly. Brinley wanted to let him rest for a while. He'd been pretty stressed out the day before, and he looked peaceful when he slept. Then again, he'd want to set off as early as possible.

"Simon," Brinley said quietly. He didn't react, so she spoke louder, and prodded his shoulder. He opened his eyes quickly, alert. It took him a moment to realize that there wasn't trouble, he just needed to wake up. His face changed from vigilance to reluctance. He put his hands over his eyes to block out the sun's blinding rays.

"Hand me the radio," Simon finally muttered.

Brinley unzipped the backpack that sat beside Simon, and pushed through some extra articles of clothing, batteries and water bottles to get to the radio. She handed it to Simon before she zipped the bag up again.

Simon brought the radio to his mouth, and held down the button on the right side, his eyes still covered with his left hand to block out the sun. "Sandwich to base."

Brinley stared at him in surprise. Sandwich?

"Sandwich to base," Simon repeated. "Do you copy?"

The radio beeped a few times, and then was taken over by static. Simon groaned, and threw it down onto the ground. "It's useless," he spat.

"Why? Why won't it work?" Brinley exclaimed.

"There's some sort of magnetic field interfering with it. It's the same reason why the compass wasn't working," Simon said, standing up and pulling his pack onto his shoulders. He picked up the radio, and stuffed it into his pocket. "For when we get out of this area," he explained.

Brinley began packing up her sleeping bag. "Where are we going to go?"

"We'll keep going the way we were going before. There's no way I'm turning around... let's just hope we were on the right track before we hit this magnetic field. If we're lucky, we'll get out of it soon and we can try the radio again," Simon said with a sigh.