"Betsy got out?"
Sophia Ridge takes the metal frame she and Jack was hauling out from his hands and nudges him aside. He squinted at her thinking to himself that she could have carried that out by herself all along. The group joined Greta back on the desert floor. Elle had finally caught up out of curiosity.
Tossing the metal sheet ten feet away Sophia spotted tiny hoof prints and looked at their distant trail.
"She took off this direction." Sophia marches after the calf.
Greta returns to her horse Quiver and mounts up to follow.
Jack looks at James, "Go get me binoculars."
The boy fidgets and pulls out his all purpose keypad, "Right here."
He activates a telescopic mode then passes it off to Jack. As he does Ruby creases her brow at James. James swallows hard and follows Jack rather than deal with Ruby's scrutiny.
Ruby always followed her intuition. That boy had a secret. As she studies them Elle steps down beside her from the ramp.
"What's going on?"
"Not going to believe this. We just fought off a lizard the size of a tractor trailer. Greta's a fighter."
"I saw that in her the second she showed up."
"Her calf got out of the pen. At least Sophia and Jack are more suited to fight off something that big. Our bullets barely stung it. Get this, it was invisible until James' drone zapped it. Somehow it must have lost concentration and became visible."
Elle narrows her eyes, "That would require intelligence."
"Fuck!" Ruby realizes that herself.
"Think maybe we should warn Malcolm and Cam?"
"It was heading their direction. Dammit." Ruby races up the ramp to retrieve a walkie talkie.
Under a mile out the dynamic duo were heading home when their chatterbox acted up.
"You out there Guys?"
Cam unpacks his talkie and replies, "We're here Ruby. Headed home now."
"Be careful out there. We just fought off the mother of all lizards. Greyhound size. And, I'm not talking Xander's wet dream."
"That was a gross thought." Cam chuckles.
In their returning stride Cam looks over at Malcolm swaying in step. He was getting worried for his friend.
"Not sure if you would meet up with it but just be careful. Jack, Greta, and Sophia are out there looking for the calf. If anyone has a chance of killing that lizard it's Sophia probably."
"Keep you posted Boss." Cam shuts off his talkie, "You doing okay Big Guy?"
Mal says nothing and continues on his journey. Cam could only eye his partner off and on. After three minutes of silence Mal reacts.
"Stop worrying. I'll survive."
Cam offers him a water bottle, "Sun getting to you?"
It was like Malcolm was off on another world. His thoughts fevered and lost to time. Cam couldn't help but wonder if his friend was seriously sick.
As they trudged along Cam witnessed Mal reach into his pack behind him and produce an apple. He began biting off bits of it in his shuffled pace.
"Is that the fruit James swatted from your hand in that garden?"
Mal says nothing and continues to eat. As he did his demeanor grew more aware.
"Yeah. It's damn good."
"Can I have a bite?" Cam reaches out.
Mal defensively sneers at his touring partner. He wasn't in the mood to share.
"Okay then. I'll settle for beef jerky." Cam swallows harshly, his friend began to scare him.
It was going to be a long walk home.
Greta rode side by side with the walking Sophia. This was the first chance for them to really talk. Under the circumstances not such a good time.
"Over there. I see Betsy." Sophia points toward a dead fishing yacht from the 80's.
Greta squints into the distance, "You got good eyes. I can barely see her."
"Ever since I got bathed by my new friends my body is amped up. I can see further than most people. I can do lots of things. Still learning as I go along though."
"Your friends?"