Uncharted Territory

Expedition 184: Day 5

It took me all the next day to fill out the reports on the tssi mitss, which was probably a good thing. It kept me from standing in the door of the Wall like Ev, staring out at the rain and the rising water.

And it kept me from thinking about Stewart, and how he’d drowned in a flash flood, and about his partner Annie Segura, who’d gone off looking for him and never been found. It kept me from thinking about Carson, washed up somewhere along the Tongue. Or sitting at the bottom of a cliff.

The chamber wasn’t much of an improvement on the overhang. The ponies got the runs, and the shuttlewren flew frantically back and forth around our heads. With the rounded floor, there was no place to sit, and the wind kept blowing rain in. Ev and I could’ve used one of Bult’s shower curtains.

Bult didn’t need one. He sat under his umbrella watching pop-ups all day. Carson had left it behind, too. I tried to take it away from him, which got me a fine, and then made Ev show him how to make it not take up the whole chamber, but as soon as Ev went back to watching out the door, Bult put it back to full size.

“He’s been gone too long,” Tight Pants said, swinging up onto her horse, which was in the middle of the ponies. “I’m going to find him.”

“It’s been nearly twenty hours,” the accordion said. “We must report in to Home Base.”

“It’s been more than twenty-four hours,” Ev said, coming back in from the door. “Aren’t we supposed to call C.J.?”

“Yeah,” I said, and started filling in Form R-28-X, Proper Disposal of Indigenous Fauna Remains. In all those trips up the ridge in the pouring rain, I hadn’t thought to bring the tssi mitss, which meant I was going to get slapped with another fine.

“Are you going to call her?” Ev said.

I kept filling out the report.

Toward evening C.J. called. “The scans have been showing the same thing all day,” she said.

“It’s raining. We’re waiting it out in a cave.”

“But you’re all all right?”

“We’re fine,” I said.

“Do you want me to come pull you out?”

“No.”

“Can I talk to Ev?”

“No,” I said, looking at him. “He’s out with Carson seeing how bad the flooding is.” I signed off.

“I wouldn’t have told her,” Ev said.

“I know,” I said, looking at Bult.

Carson and Fin were standing in front of him. “It’ll be uncharted territory,” Carson said, holding out his hand.

“I’m not afraid,” Fin said, “as long as I’m with you.”

“What are you going to do?” Ev said.

“Wait,” I said.