The Brigade

owwoo werewolves of Nevada

We traveled all night nonstop. We were about halfway there, and do I dare say it? Living on a prayer. At about 1:00 in the morning I handed Alice to Ty without a word. I sank back with Bruce and held his hand. Finally I saw the eastern horizon light up pink, and red. Sunrise.

"All right guys," Agent Bond said. "Let's get some rest." Instantly everybody plopped down exhausted. We were walking all night. Hardly any rest stops, we were very concious about drinking water. Nobody wanted to run out.

"Yo, Daniel can you help me pitch the tent?" Vanessa called. Somehow I lifted myself off of the sand, and moved like a zombie over to Vanessa. I was on auto pilot. I pitched the tent, wandered back over to my bag, and heaved it up with effort. I staggered back to the tent, and rolled out my sleeping bag. I slept on top of it so I wouldn't sweat to much, and dehydrate. The hard rocks under the sand felt like the worlds fluffiest pillow. I had absolutely no trouble going to sleep. I thought nothing, I felt noting, I dreamt nothing. It was the best sleep you could get stranded in the desert. The sun beat down, heat waves shimmered in the air, but I slept like a rock. After what seemed like a minute or so Vanessa shook me, or so she says. Apparently I did't wake up. So then she got the bright idea of stinging me. She only stung me with one stinger, but it still hurt like the dickens.

"****!" I yelled leaping off the ground. "God Vanessa that hurts!"

"Well don't sleep so heavily. It was either ones wasp sting or a body slam from Bruce," She said throwing her hands up.

"hmph," I said rubbing the red welt Vanessa had left me.

"Pack up your stuff," We've got to go," Vanessa said tossing me my pack.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"About 11:00 in the morning," she replied immediately. "Oh yeah, and there's a certain someone who just woke up.

"Where's Alice?" I blurted out.

"Calm down. She's with Bruce outside the tent," Vanessa said, laughing. I stepped outside, shielding my eyes from the blinding light.

"Hey Daniel," said a weary, but familiar voice. I turned my head, and saw Alice. Her leg had so much gauze on it that her bad leg was an inch thicker than her other one. Other than that plus a few minor cuts she looked great. Like everybody, she was sweaty, stinky, and grimy. She was doing better though. She looked a little bit feverish. It was hard to tell though because it was about 200 degrees out.

I was so incredibly releived. I didn't know what to say. Instead I didn't say anything. I ran up to her and hugged her tight. I held her close, and thought about my dream a few days ago where Alice had  fallen. I would never let her fall again. Never. I pulled away, and saw Alice's dazzling smile shining brighter than the desert sun. She was like a desert rose. Wasn't there a song named that. Whatever. She looked so happy, yet  I knew she needed stiches, I knew we were on the clock, and I knew that with each passing hour N.E.W. era was getting closer, and closer to acessing the launch codes. Suddenly Agent Bond dashed over to us. 

"We need to get moving," He said.

"I agree," I replied. "But why are you so worried all of a sudden?"

"I just found a heck of a lot of coyote prints. Looks like they have been following us," He said looking over his shoulder. Now I personally did not want to run into a pack of of vicious, hungry coyotes so I immediately went to inform the others. Not suprisingly they weren't to fond of ecountering anymore desert killers. As fast as we could we dismantled the tent, and packed our stuff. I was prepared for a grueling journey ahead. We were about to hike through the Mojave Desert at noon while some hungry coyotes want us for lunch. after we had packed our things, and erased our footsteps, and imprints the best we could our little group headed east once more. Another thing about being in the desert is that you are very easy to track. Alice leaned heavily on me, and Ty for walking support. We really needed to go faster. It was agonizing how little progress we were making. Alice knew it too. She looked full of guilt. We traveled for a long time with periodic rest stops. Our water supply was slowly diminishing.

Las Vegas seemed to be on the other side of the world. I felt like a snail moving only yards a day. I couldn't take being a snail for much longer. Finally sunset came. We took a rest, and watched vibrant pinks, golds, and reds paint the sky like a giant canvas. If I wasn't running for my life I would love to come here. Soon the sun went down, and I could hear small animals scurrying around once again. We walked, and walked, and walked some more still following our little dusty road. Then finally we saw the first sign of civilization. We saw a road sign. It read Las Vegas 72 miles. We all jumped for joy, and  high fived we were going to make it. Everybody was elated that is until we heard the howling.

My blood turned to ice. We all froze like time itself had stopped. The coyotes were close. They are fast ruthless killing machines. They travel mostly by night. They would catch up to us before we got to Vegas. They would flee, at the sight of all of the neon flashing lights. We might be able to fight them, but this would not be like fighting a human, and we were down a fighter. In fact, Alice was a sitting duck.