Isolation

The Fall at the Start

I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere, Eye-Sore, New Mexico. Iesaw is the real name but everyone calls it Eye-Sore, it's fitting. There is a population of 238, well I guess it's 237 since Mrs.Dedrickson died last Tuesday. The people are all the same here, they are always the same. The newest addition is little Suzie May who's one and a half now. There's someone born maybe every 2-3 Years, and there's only 23 kids in the whole town. The older ones are my cousin Moxie who's 15, Me, and I'm 17, and then there's Xzavier who's 18. We are the closest in age that there's been since the glory days of the 60's. Most of the people who live here are elderly, holding onto the Golden days of Iesaw. With there not being many kids around my age I took the only option I had, Xzavier and Moxie. The three of us were really close when growing up, until I was 13.
***
It was a typical Saturday for us, walking around, towards the mountains, looking for the slightest adventure in our mundane world. We weren't headed anywhere in specific, just making our way out into the vast desert. As we were meandering, Moxie was joking around and turned her back to the direction of travel when she stumbled over some tumble weed and fell into a mysterious hole in the ground. Panicking, Xzavier and I rushed over to see if she was ok.
"I've landed on a little ledge not too far down but I think it goes way further down, I have to be careful."
"Just wait, I'll look around to see if there's anything to pull you out with. Xzavier, you stay here and make sure she stays safe."
I rushed away looking for any kind of branch or anything long enough to reach little Moxie. As I hurried around I came across a fence post with a faded sign which I didn't bother to read. I just grabbed it and ran back to Moxie and Xzavier. With Xzaviers help, and the fence post, we managed to pull her out, quite the feat for two small kids.
Once she was out we both hugged her and stayed there for several minutes, yet Moxie remained stiff. As we stood there in our embrace I read the sign.
"Isolation mines. Authorized personnel only." There was a subtext of, "Danger: can cause amnesia, impaired vision, and blindness"
I thought it was strange, yet intriguing, but I didn't care about that right now. All I cared about was getting back to town and making sure Moxie was okay. By her current signs, I wasn't so sure.