Diego before driving into the desert. When it beeped her awake in the morning, an hour before sunrise, she knew that Dieter and Larry were also waking up at their own campsites. She shook Mick awake—he had been expected to be encamped in a motel, so he didn’t get one of the spiffy watches—and started a pot of coffee. While the water boiled she went off into the desert to fulfill her toilet needs, and when she got back he was up and preparing breakfast for them both.
They ate quickly and headed out to get their first task accomplished before the sun came up. Using satellite photos they’d purchased on the web, they had identified what looked like reasonably flat, bare spots in three different areas in the mountains. Penny and Mick hiked quickly to the one nearest their camp. The aerial view had been fairly accurate, it turned out. To be exactly the blank slate they wanted they’d had to clear away some stray rocks, but for the most part, it was a wide stretch of brown earth with no plants, flat as a city street.
“This is perfect,” Mick said.
“Not perfect, but close enough,” Penny replied.
“Close enough.” They set to work.
Within thirty minutes they were done. With light-colored rocks, to show against the brown dirt, they had spelled out NO MORE BOMBS in letters big enough to be seen from hundreds, maybe thousands of feet up. Dieter would be writing WAGE PEACE, while Larry’s slogan was WAR NO MORE. This kind of stone art, geoglyphs or intaglios, was actually very traditional in this part of the world, with a string of images, maybe thousands of years old, still visible from the air from Blythe all the way down to the Yuha desert near the Mexican border.
Every day until they were caught, they would either change their messages slightly or make new marks upon the land, so that fly-overs would reveal that there was still someone alive within the Impact Area. Their continued presence would ensure that the bombs wouldn’t fall. At least, that was the theory.
As they walked back to camp, Penny touched Mick’s arm. “Hey, I’m sorry I shut you down last night when you wanted to talk, Mick.”
He looked at her and smiled. “No problem,” he said. “I’m getting kind of used to it.”
She didn’t know exactly how to respond to that—it was true, but not something she wanted to get into just now. Instead, she veered in a slightly different direction, focusing it on herself in a desperate attempt to keep him from thinking there might ever be a them. “It’s just something I do, you know? I kind of keep people at a distance, I guess. Keep walls up.”
“You have to let them down sometime, Pen.”
“That’s what they tell me. I guess I just haven’t found my time yet.”
“Have you tried?”
“Now and again,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism, or what. I just don’t seem to be comfortable letting people get too close.”
Penny began to wish she’d initiated this conversation last night, in the dark. She kept her head down, picking out a path in the early morning light. But she felt the heat of his gaze on her, studying her.
“Maybe you should give it another shot, Penny. You might find that you like it.”
“I…I don’t know,” she said. “I like sex. I like physical contact. I like having people to talk to…except when I don’t. I know it doesn’t make sense.”
“Not a lot,” Mick agreed.
“And it’s not that I don’t want a relationship,” she went on. “But even if I’d found the right guy, which I haven’t, that takes a lot of…you know, time and energy. And I’ve just been too busy for that.” Which is true, she thought. But maybe a bit of a dodge all the same. And I don’t think I could get much more pointed without cutting his throat.
“So,” Penny said, changing the subject completely. Another wall, another defense. When it gets too personal, step aside. “So, you think this will work? Really?”
They had all agreed that
They ate quickly and headed out to get their first task accomplished before the sun came up. Using satellite photos they’d purchased on the web, they had identified what looked like reasonably flat, bare spots in three different areas in the mountains. Penny and Mick hiked quickly to the one nearest their camp. The aerial view had been fairly accurate, it turned out. To be exactly the blank slate they wanted they’d had to clear away some stray rocks, but for the most part, it was a wide stretch of brown earth with no plants, flat as a city street.
“This is perfect,” Mick said.
“Not perfect, but close enough,” Penny replied.
“Close enough.” They set to work.
Within thirty minutes they were done. With light-colored rocks, to show against the brown dirt, they had spelled out NO MORE BOMBS in letters big enough to be seen from hundreds, maybe thousands of feet up. Dieter would be writing WAGE PEACE, while Larry’s slogan was WAR NO MORE. This kind of stone art, geoglyphs or intaglios, was actually very traditional in this part of the world, with a string of images, maybe thousands of years old, still visible from the air from Blythe all the way down to the Yuha desert near the Mexican border.
Every day until they were caught, they would either change their messages slightly or make new marks upon the land, so that fly-overs would reveal that there was still someone alive within the Impact Area. Their continued presence would ensure that the bombs wouldn’t fall. At least, that was the theory.
As they walked back to camp, Penny touched Mick’s arm. “Hey, I’m sorry I shut you down last night when you wanted to talk, Mick.”
He looked at her and smiled. “No problem,” he said. “I’m getting kind of used to it.”
She didn’t know exactly how to respond to that—it was true, but not something she wanted to get into just now. Instead, she veered in a slightly different direction, focusing it on herself in a desperate attempt to keep him from thinking there might ever be a them. “It’s just something I do, you know? I kind of keep people at a distance, I guess. Keep walls up.”
“You have to let them down sometime, Pen.”
“That’s what they tell me. I guess I just haven’t found my time yet.”
“Have you tried?”
“Now and again,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism, or what. I just don’t seem to be comfortable letting people get too close.”
Penny began to wish she’d initiated this conversation last night, in the dark. She kept her head down, picking out a path in the early morning light. But she felt the heat of his gaze on her, studying her.
“Maybe you should give it another shot, Penny. You might find that you like it.”
“I…I don’t know,” she said. “I like sex. I like physical contact. I like having people to talk to…except when I don’t. I know it doesn’t make sense.”
“Not a lot,” Mick agreed.
“And it’s not that I don’t want a relationship,” she went on. “But even if I’d found the right guy, which I haven’t, that takes a lot of…you know, time and energy. And I’ve just been too busy for that.” Which is true, she thought. But maybe a bit of a dodge all the same. And I don’t think I could get much more pointed without cutting his throat.
“So,” Penny said, changing the subject completely. Another wall, another defense. When it gets too personal, step aside. “So, you think this will work? Really?”
They had all agreed that
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