Trails Of Red Dust

Alice cruised across the flat landscape at an even pace. The ground beneath her vehicle remained untouched while she kicked up sizable amounts of red dust in her course. The soft engine hummed beneath her, barely producing enough noise to break the silence of the lonely path. She remained focused on the road, fixated on a nonexistent pre-drawn line based on the instructions she had been given on how to arrive to her destination. She remained so concentrated as to completely miss the sunset in the distance. The blue-tinged hue blanketed the sky before being obscured by the enormity of the Redwood forest.

    Entering the shadowing presence of the towering structures, Alice eased the throttle for a safer journey. The red dirt was still visible under the abundant shrubbery, but what drew most of her attention now that she could absorb her surroundings were the trees. Although not actually Redwoods, they were no less impressive. Standing up to four hundred feet above her, she received yet another reminder of how insignificant she was, even in her own home.

    Another half hour of driving left her wanting to turn back to see the skyline of the trees from a flatter distance, though she knew should couldn't risk turning around. Another flat plain of dirt greeted her, the cool, soft breeze licked at her uniform and ran over her hands, which were red from her grip. Her hair blew in her face for a moment, due to its reddish-brown color she couldn't immediately tell how much dirt had decided to take refuge in it, these were the consequences of a low budget that did not consider providing her with a helmet. But she didn't care, there were much more important things for her to take care of in that day.

    Alice started slowing down as her destination finally came into view. A sigh of relief passes through her, knowing she made it safely. Even with her matured sense of direction, Alice still had a certain satisfaction in accomplishing such an easy task, mainly for anticipation. Anticipation for what she was about to see, or at least had the chance of seeing.

    He contact stepped through the flimsy door and leaned against the rocky wall for a few moments, as if studying her. She disembarked her vehicle and pulled it closer to the front of the structure before either of them spoke.

    "I couldn't even tell how long it took for you to get here," Jactor stated as Alice heaved the veil over her transport.

    "Is that supposed to be sarcasm or an enticement for your curiosities?" Alice shot back.

    Jactor squinted as if he didn't understand what she was suggesting, but then proceeded to help conceal her vehicle. "I don't know who you are hiding from."

    Alice paused and faced him. "You're military, I thought you would have more respect for secrecy."

    "Yeah, but you aren't, nor will you ever be. Leave the dusters to the people who actually need to cover their tracks." Jactor pried open the door and led Alice inside.

    Jactor closed the door before turning on the lights, nearly causing Alice to fall over. He flicked a switch by the door and for a second the illumination blinded her. He nudged her to keep moving.

    "You did that on purpose. Why would you turn off the lights if you were about to come back in?" Alice asked.

    "I hid these things a couple days ago, I haven't been in here at all today" replied Jactor, intentionally ambiguous.

"You mean you have these in more than one place?" Alice's eyes widened, she only turned away after Jactor had noticed.

"Well, I came here to show you a few things. If you want to see more, you'll have to come back later."

Alice continued to creep down the lit path with an awkward shuffle of her feet. Every few inches there would be a rock, some metal, or other debris that her habitually clumsy nature would not complement. Every time she came to a fork in the tunnel, Jactor would give her another nudge in the right direction, which most often was directly ahead. She tried to focus on the passage ahead of her, worried that her curiosity would get the best of her in a place where she wouldn't know how to leave. Now that I think about it, Alice thought, it probably wouldn't be very hard to lose him if I really did want to sneak somewhere else. She discarded this thought after a while, knowing that even anything remotely dishonest would be hard for her to either pull off or maintain.