Roderick jumped inside the jeep, then began searching for the clothes. But there were none of them. He had thought clothes would be in the bag or a sack, but it was in a locked box under the seat.
He pulled the lock and discovered he couldn’t break it.
The case was same with other jeeps. He could see Mitchell struggling to convince them he was on their side. Roderick assumed he couldn’t be in more trouble than this until he saw the baby duck right beside him.
When did you come here? Roderick hit his own forehead multiple times with his wrist. He wanted to tell duckling to leave but feared it would quack and ruin their plan.
Roderick made his mind of taking a chance. He was going to ask for help with his adopted son.
He pointed at ground then spoke in a low voice, “You dig a hole in the sand…” Roderick pointed at the car, being glad the duckling had decided to listen, “I will push these jeeps in there…”
It gave him a confused look.
“Understand?” Roderick asked.
Baby duck hopped inside the jeep.
Meanwhile, Mitchell was terrified by seeing the berserk situation going in the background. Roderick was holding its beak while trying to bring it down from the jeep.
Sun had almost disappeared in horizon so they needed to act much faster than their schedule.
Somehow Roderick’s words went in the duck’s head and it started digging a big pit in sand like a dog. In no time, it made a crater big enough to fit the jeeps.
Roderick pushed the jeeps inside the pit, minimizing sound whereas the duckling pedaled sand over it. Within minutes, the duo had buried the jeeps. Roderick gave the duck pat on its furless back. Before coming there he had plucked out fur from baby duck’s back and had stuffed them in Mitchell’s clothes for warmth.
The duck looked at the ground. A beetle had come out from there because temperature had dropped. Roderick saw the duckling drooling.
“No, it’s a dirty beetle. Be a good boy.” Roderick said, trembling in cold.
The beetle noticed them and ran away. Seeing its food escape, it quaked.Its noise grabbed attention of Moffet and his men. They turned towards Roderick with their guns drawn at him. Roderick raised his trembling hands in air. It was because of cold rather than fear. He smirked as his breath turned into thick vapor.
Muscles of gangsters started tightening the moment sun settled. Their guns were shaking even while aiming.
“Where is our jeep?” Moffet couldn’t believe his eyes. His teeth were rattling in severe cold. Roderick had a killer one liner in his mind but was unable to move his tongue for the temperature.
Gangsters dropped their guns and began attempting to warm themselves. They had no other way left than digging pits in sand before they would get petrified.
Somehow they dug pits to cover. Moffet was the fastest man to do so. Moffet was completely inside the sand while the others had just their faces out. Yet their faces were starting to turn blue in cold.
One by one they became victims of hypothermia.
“Roderick!” Mitchell said, pointing at his face, which was losing colour.
“Light fire!” Roderick said to Mitchell.
Mitchell took out a bottle where he had collected fuel from the river. When he unscrewed the cap, he was horrified to find that the fuel had frozen solid. Their plan to light scraps lying around to keep themselves had failed in every extent.
