Matt

He went to take a leak like two minutes ago, right?

He's probably just, you know, taking his time.

I stared into the dark where the voice had come from.

Yeah, I said, probably.

I told myself I was being paranoid and that the weird howling earlier had put me on edge.

Then I told myself I was an idiot for standing around debating it instead of just walking thirty feet to check on my friend.

I stepped beyond the ring of firelight.

Immediately the temperature seemed to drop five degrees.

The wash felt bigger, the sky taller.

The beam from my flashlight carved a narrow, shaky path through the black.

The sand at the edge of the wash still held our footprints from earlier.

I followed the more recent ones, Miguel's, down the slope.

They were easy to pick out at first, a clear set of boot tracks leading toward a cluster of low shrubs.

Then they stopped.

There was a patch of bare, scuffed sand, like he'd spun around or shuffled.

And then… Nothing.

No clear direction of travel.

Just the usual random pox of desert ground.

I swung the beam in a wider arc, trying to catch a line.

My mouth was dry.