Song of the Sand Demons-Chapter 4

Karla wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. She had just finished pouring more water into her overheated radiator. The heat now becoming more intense. The steam and heat thrown off from the removal of the radiator cap with the bottom of her skirt made her feel like a drown rat. She stood on top of the papers she had laid down on the pavement. The bottoms of her swollen feet now their own screaming rage, she began lightly shifting from one foot to the other. She checked to make sure the water was staying down before putting the radiator cap back in its place. Once it looked safe, she twisted the cap back on. She quickly half hobbled, and tip toed the best she could, back to the car. She slid back in the drivers seat and grabbed the jug she had left on the passenger seat. Her water that was left, was now warm too, almost hot, but she was thirsty and drank down a large gulp of it. It did not do much in quenching her aching thirst, she knew she would have to find a town soon. If wishes came true, anything cold to drink would have been a sincere enough wish. She picked up the worn map she normally kept in the glove box. Now she kept it close by and within easy reach. Resting her head back against the hot vinyl seat, also not helping much either, she closed her eyes before looking once again at the map. Karla had taken a few road trips in her time, but never anything like this. She knew which line on the map indicated the road she was on. She just had no idea as to just where on that line she was sitting on the side of the road at. She looked at the road again, it was just a long winding line that seemed to go on and on with nothing between the last town, and the next one that sat at the end of a long stretch of nothing. An irritating moan seemed to work its way out from somewhere deep down inside her chest, making its way to her parched lips. Karla was just about ready to toss the map back over on the seat when suddenly she caught what appeared to be another road. It lay somewhere between the last town, and the one farther down at the end that long nothing-less stretch of road. It didn't appear to have a number to it, and she looked up at the tiny box that was shown on every map that described what kind of a road you were looking at when going by map rules. This road looked like just an undeveloped dirt road that hooked up to the darker lined two lane road she was on. There was also a dot there, a town maybe? it must be, it had a name next to the dot. Tapahe.

~~~

Tom finished his lunch, tossed away the sandwich wrapper and styro-foam container into the trash basket. Greg was going over another section of the newspaper now, and gnawing away at a toothpick. Still, from what Tom could tell, very unconcerned about the article he had pointed out to him earlier.
He got to his feet and grabbed his cap, slapping it on his head, headed toward the door. Greg glanced up now. "Going anywhere special?"
Tom turned with a slight shrug and glanced at him.
"No, nowhere special, just going to check out something. Nothing important, I'll be back in about an hour. Go ahead and do what ever it is you are planning on doing." With that, he turned and walked out the door, headed to his black Chevy Blazer parked around the side of the white stucco building. The quickest way to the Chocolate pass area would be to just drive the ten miles up to the main road, and take it straight down. Eventually the main road curved off and another dirt road led into the park from there. Chocolate pass was around another twenty miles straight down the forked dusty sand packed road. That stretch of road led right into the park area. It was chained off there, right at the park boundry line. Not being one of the main enterances into Gila Bend, he had the keys to unlock the chain. Something tugged at his gut instincts now, he had to go or there would be no rest. He had a feeling he might find a little bit more than just dead sheep carcasses now. Greg had just nodded and went back to his paper and toothpick chewing, content with Tom's going to do what ever it was he had to do. He too had something he wanted to do also. It concerned a walk to the tavern.

~~~

Karla turned the key and listened as the engine went through its grinding, pause, grinding, turning over sound. Letting out a big sigh when the engine finally caught and started, she grabbed the gear shift lever and tugged it into 'Drive'. The car shuddered a bit when her foot punched down on the gas pedal, but feeling the tires catch and kick the grit of sand and stones, her car was well on its way. She pulled it back on the two land blacktop road and gradually got it up to a good speed. Keeping her eyes aware of any upcoming possibility of the road, a sign, anything.
Tom pulled out of the small dirt lot and onto the only section of 'Main Street' and headed toward the only road headed west, eventually ending up on the two lane blacktop highway. He slowed, making the left turn on the dirt road simply called '16W'. No signs marked the roads actual number. If one was not a local, or at least familiar with the area as a whole, they would never know it even had been labled a number at all. Much less, not even a name. He rolled up his windows and kicked on the air conditioner. When he turned up the radio, the DJ made sure to note that the temperature was now hovering just over the 100 degree mark. 16W was, from this end of town, the only road in and out of Tapahe. After turning onto Main Street, that turned into the only road in or out on the other end of town. His mind flooded with different thoughts and theorys of just what might be going on out in the Chocolate pass area. Whatever it was, he was going to find out.
Karla, squinted a bit when she seen what looked like a shimmering sun baked small sign on the right hand side of the road. It wasn't large, but as she moved closer to it, she could see it definatly was a sign, it read 'Tapahe 11 miles' with a small arrow pointing to the left. She hit the brakes and even then, she just about passed up the dusty flat road she so despiratly wanted to find. Making the turn fast, not even bothering to stop or even look for any other cars coming or going. There were'nt any. She had to actually wonder to herself, if there really even was a town called Tapahe down this road. There was a sign. There was a road. Right now thats all she needed to keep up her hopes, and pressed on.
Not more than two or three miles down the nameless 16W to Tapahe road, there came that all too believable "Hisssssss, hissssssssing sound again. Karla hit the steering wheel with the heel of her hand, letting out almost what sounded like a dying wail. Something between a half scream, and a half cry sound, followed by a loud "WHY!"
She didn't even turn on the air conditioning, and there it was, overheating again. Now she really was in a desolate area. There wasn't even a shoulder to pull off on, just road, and the road was not a very wide one at that. All she could do now was stop again, wait, then pour more of the quickly disapearing water into the choking, steaming radiator again.
Tom, by now had the Blazer well cooled off, running the air on full max. He was sitting back with the radio now turned up, keeping beat to a well played song he remembered from his high school days. Behind him, nothing but billowing dust rose into yellow white clouds swirling over the road and leaving a long trail marking where he had been. He now leaned forward. Seeing some distance down the road ahead of him, what appeared to be another white cloud of foggy mist raising up against the turquoise cloudless sky. His first thought was of Jon, figuring he was either on his way to town to turn in the count sheet of the tour bus's daily delivery of new campers, hikers, and vacationer's. Normally anyone coming from the main areas of the park would have made the trip into town from the other direction. Then again, Jon was odd, at least to Tom he was, so he would no doubt come up with some good reason for being out there. He kept up his same speed, the road was narrow, but there also was no way Jon could miss seeing Tom coming in his direction. Tom just assumed who ever it was would just keep on driving and move to the edge of the road, creating ample room for both truck, and van to pass by the other. The closer he got, the more of what appeared to be smoke, kept rising, and the other vehicle did not seem to be moving anywhere near the edge of the road now. He seen it also was not a van or a truck, which he first assumed would be Jon. Slowing up now, he could see it was not Jon, it was a car. From the view he had, it looked like it was either on fire or overheating, something was not right. The Blazer now at a crawling speed, pulled up along side of the the car completely shrouded in a non stop, overheating smoke cloud. Tom now shoved open the door of the Blazer, leaving it running, he slid out. Even from where he stood, not even two feet from the other car, there wasn't even a break in the hissing steam to see who might be inside. He had not seen anyone walking down the road, At least not in the direction he came from. Reaching out he grabbed the door handle of the yellow car and jerked it open. That was a mistake! The sound he now heard was one of the loudest, bone chilling screams that pierced his eardrums beyond decibles of any rock concert he had ever been to.

"Lady!!" Tom attempted to match or at least be heard above the wrenching crack of thunder that jolted him so bad, he almost fell over. It was a woman alright, who she was or where she even came from was not even an issue right now. He wanted to fall to his knees and thank the Creator above for giving him at least a strong heart. If he had a weak one, he would have just dropped dead on the spot after hearing a sound like that one. Between the scream and his own voice reflexively shouting out, one hand still on the door latch, the other one was flying around like he was batting a swarm of bee's to try to clear some of the hot steam and dust away. Even with buckled knees, his mind flew into some sort of a sanity mode to even make an attempt to see if the woman inside the car was hurt or suffering severly from heat stroke.
"Lady, Lady are you alright?" This time he did shout, so loud he almost shocked himself. Then, out of the blue, reality hit him and an instant brace of his legs now readied him for just about anything. A cannister of mase flying out at him? a crowbar? The woman inside the car was now in his mind, about as unpredictable as he could imagine. All of a sudden came the silence before the storm. He didn't hear a thing, but could at least partially see her pried back against the console between two bucket seats. Then there it came, now she was yelling at him!
"Get away, don't touch me!"
Yes, it was the hysteria phase coming loud and clear.
Lady, I'm not going to hurt you" Like she would believe that after all that noise.
"I said get away, I have a knife"
Oh, there it was, he figured that was coming. He didn't think she had anything, but at this point, he was not going to put anything past her either.
He did back away now, he left the door open, and continued to try to speak to her in what he thought was a quieter tone now.
"Lady look, Im not going to hurt you, believe me, I would not even try to."
Nothing.
"Lady?"
Nothing again.
"Look lady, let me help you, before your car blows up or something"
Quiet.
"It's got to be burning up in there, lady really, I won't hurt you, let me help you.
He waited.
Nothing.
The next thing he knew, she practicaly flew out of the car, almost knocking him to the ground. He raised his arms in a reflex motion while he almost tripped over his own feet, she landed up against him. He somehow managed to grasp her upper arms to hold her still. He dug in a boot heel into what ever he hoped he would find and despiratly tried to keep from falling over with her along with him. The only thing he recalled going through his mind at that moment was, "My God, What have I been hit with now?" With that thought, they both hit the dirt.

~~~

Joe and Dave both came across their trails, and each moved off in their own directions. Joe gave a wave before setting his feet in motion, moving down a trail heading into a small valley. Dave parted on the trail ahead of them which went up, and would eventually wind around a rather steep hill.
"Hey, take care Joe, maybe I'll see your campfire down there in a day or two" He laughed with that, and his attempt to try and make it come out in a joking manner.
"And maybe I'll see yours way up there one night, feel free to come running down if you hear any strange noises" With that, Joe did laugh, to him his confidence outweighed Dave's by a long shot.
Dave just gave him one of his looks as if to say, "yeah, yeah"
On that note, they parted, both wanting to pitch camp before nightfall.

~~~

Michele. She only cared about one thing as she rounded the dense trail, which now was slowly turning into a line of dirt picked up here and there, between beds of small cactus, patchy scrub plants, and an occasional blade of thick sweet grass. She could tell that hardly anyone took this trail, and she herself started to become a bit unnerved not realizing just how far out this trail was, and how little it had been used. She figured since it was a national park, consuming a few thousand visitors a season, more had ventured out this way before. This proved to be wrong. She didn't think anyone had been along this trail in about a hundred years now. Michele too had one idea in mind, and that was to find a place to pitch her campsite before dark also. The farther she hiked down the trail, or what was left of one, just seemed to become more harsh, and rockier of a terrain. Up ahead she seen some large boulders, and another hill, and decided she would push on toward that spot. Hopefully she would find some level ground, with less rocks to make it easier to drive in her tent stakes. The boulders and the hill in the distance didn't appear to be too far ahead. For some reason, she was still walking toward them at dusk.
"How much farther can it be?" she muttered.
Her feet were now starting to ache some, she had been hiking this trail for a good five or six hours now. Checking her watch, she seen it was now almost 7:30pm. The hot sun was now setting behind the boulders and hill that she had set her destination for. Finally stopping again for a drink of water, she uncapped the plastic bottle and took a sip turning in a 360 degree circle, trying to locate any flat area available now. She took a few more steps ahead, still keeping the water bottle open in her hand, and finally sighed, seeing the only small flat area she was going to see for the rest of the night. Stepping off the faint trail to her right, she moved over a few sage brush clumps, stepping carefully, not able to see if any rocks were jutting up under the brush plants, and moved slowly now, the flat area now only about fifty feet away now.
"Yes, thats home for the night it seems, at least for now" She talked to herself, to cover up what she assumed were animal movements not too far away.
"Probably rabbits, or something" she said as she took another step, this time her hiking boot caught on something. What ever it was, was down under the brush, and she stepped forward with her other foot now, stepping down, this time not hitting the ground with her free foot. She stumbled. The weight of her backpack throwing her off balance even more.
"What?"
She hit the ground face first, her water bottle flew from her hand as it hit a rock and scraped her palm. When she opened her eyes, she could only lay there, her mouth working silently, she felt her throat constricting just before she heard herself scream the most hideous scream, loud, and choked, eyes wide and her face contorted into some wild frenzied state right before everything went black.





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