Chapter 6 (part 1)

He thought about the threats that Sam and his friend had made. What were the chances that Sam and his friend had other members of their tribe riding up and down the road to spy on him? He supposed it was likely; if they knew enough to know about this elusive drug-trafficking bus, then they probably had the means to keep an eye on him.

Evan walked on, casting his eyes to the endless stretch of blankness that lay to both sides of the highway. Even the road itself seemed to be disintegrating, the black pavement crumbling away into the abyss that taunted him from both sides.

Evan walked to the center of the road, balancing himself on the broken yellow lines that ran down its surface. They seemed unnaturally bright in the middle of the night but they somehow served to anchor him to what was real. He was sure that if someone spent enough time alone staring out into the featureless dark of the desert night, they might start to slip a bit in the head, especially if they were in a similar situation as the one he currently found himself in the middle of.

A drug trafficking bus! The thought of such a thing slipping under the noses of the police or even the FBI seemed illogical to Evan. Part of him wondered if this wasn’t just Sam’s idea of a prank to play on the delivery boy of the man who had passed off phony money on his people. But then again, there was another part of Evan that thought the idea was genius. He ran a few scenarios through his head, trying to imagine how such a ploy would work, but could never come up with a surefire one.

Sometime shortly after eleven thirty, Evan saw a faint glimmer of light ahead of him. He continued walking towards it, wondering if this could be the bus already. The lights got closer and closer, and soon Evan could tell by simply looking at the headlights that the approaching vehicle was most certainly not a bus. Seconds later, he was proven correct when a beat up SUV went speeding by, probably coming from Shinoe.

Or, as Sam had promised, these could have been someone from Sam’s group that had been sent to spy on him.

Evan turned and watched the SUV’s lights grow smaller in the distance, its tail lights like retreating comets. He then turned around and started walking again. He looked up to the moon which was just barely a quarter full. It did little to illuminate the night and the only advantage Evan had was the fact that his eyes had long ago adjusted to the dark.

When he looked at his watch again, it was 12:06. His feet were killing him again, the pains of his walk to the bar having not yet diminished, and he wondered if he had ever walked so much in one day. Thinking of the bar and a cold beer made his mouth water and he could not remember ever wanting a drink so badly in his life.

Evan sighed and looked all around, still seeing nothing but darkness and the broken yellow lines in the center of the road. He felt exhausted and, in some very intangible way, lost.

“Screw it,” Evan said. He stopped walking and hunkered down on the side of the road. He sat about two feet away from the pavement, his butt resting in the hard packed dirt alongside the highway, allowing his legs to stretch out.

He sat that way for thirty seconds or so and then, from somewhere in the emptiness of the desert night around him, he heard the sound of an engine. It came from his right and it seemed to be pretty far away. Still, it took Evan about five seconds to realize that the engine was really of no concern to him. He wouldn’t be alarmed until he could see actual headlights.

Still, the thought of being caught by Sam and his partner had him paranoid. Who was to say that there weren’t cars parked out in the desert with some of Sam’s men behind the wheel? And what if they had binoculars or night vision equipment to spy on him?...

Bullshit, Evan thought. What sort of an Indian tribe has night vision equipment?

Despite this reasoning, Evan was still growing increasingly nervous. He slowly got to his feet and looked around again, searching for any form of light or signs of movement. But, as had been the case for the last hour or so, there was none.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Evan said loudly, but not quite at scream pitch. He enthusiastically gave the surrounding night the middle finger as he continued to scan the dark horizon.