Black Balloon

Chapter 3

"We're literally right where we're supposed to be and nothing's here!" I snapped.

"It's a big fuckin' area. Will you all chill out for a second?!?" Jonah snapped back.

I had correctly predicted that he would forgo all other plans in his hunt for "The Cracks". He had a "hunch" and felt that Mama June's confirmation was a sign from the Universe. I felt it was a sign of some idiot spouting off on the Internet and not knowing what they were talking about, and some old lady doing likewise. But, it was Jonah's Jeep and Jonah's Plan so we had no choice but to go along.

His head moved up and down as his eyes darted between the map and the horizon, attempting to identify landmarks and triangulate our position.

"Okay, so THAT, I think is here. Which would make that hill, here." He pointed to various markers as he spoke. "Meaning we are somewhere around here."

Jonah carried a handheld GPS device but it didn't do us any good with the map we had, as it displayed no coordinates. Nor had Momma June shared any with us, merely making a scratch with her thumbnail somewhere around where she thought the caves or the cracks might be, a rough estimate at best, a flat-out guess at worst. The lines of the scratch were two miles long per the map's scale, a vast area to search and all of it rested on the word of some lady that lived in a shipping crate with no running water. Needless to say, my faith in her accuracy was not strong. (Although, we did find the T-crossing with the rusty dune buggy sitting right where she said it would be, so she wasn't entirely full of shit.) We followed the road until it faded away and then we kept going just as she said we should...for miles.

To our distant southwest was a row of hills running north to south. To our much closer northeast was a small mountain range unidentified on Jonah's map. And to our immediate everywhere else was a whole bunch of nothing.

"In all likelihood," Jonah suggested, "the caves would be somewhere along the base of these hills, right? If we're being logical."

"I guess," Priscilla half-heartedly agreed, "but that's not where she said it was."

Momma June's hastily carved X stretched from the base of the mountains to far into the empty lowlands below. I stood up in the back of the Jeep, shielding my eyes with my hand and squinting into the distance looking for any signs, anything at all.

"What are we gonna' do?" Priscilla asked half-sarcastically, "Run a grid pattern until we find something?"

"You're joking, but that's pretty much what I was thinking," Jonah replied.

"How are we on gas?!" I shouted from above.

"I have half a tank and two Jerry Cans. We're good."

"How about we start here," he suggested pointing to a spot on the map, "and drive up and down, moving over a hundred feet with each pass. What do you think about that? We can map this whole area in what...an hour or two? Three tops?"

"If you think it's worth it," I reluctantly consented.

"Seriously, guys. It's literally the whole reason we came out here. Will everyone quit whining?" Jonah pleading in frustration.

He had a point. If we didn't have time to drive around looking for caves on our long weekend of driving around looking for caves, then what were we even doing out here? We were tired and cranky because we'd drank too much and slept too little the night before, just as Jonah warned us we'd be.

"Drop me off," Priscilla insisted. "I'll walk. We can cover more ground if we're not all together."

This was a good idea, but I think her true motivation was wanting to get away from all the tension for a bit. We had grown testy; tired, hungover, and suffering in the brutal heat...not finding anything so far.