Fatigue hit them hard. Even the machines gave up with the fight with the burning sun.
It was not beeping anymore. For a while they had been thinking the signals had gotten weak, but soon they realized it was the machine’s fault.
“Pipe was straight till now.” Eduwardo said, “Rest must be straight as well.”
Nobody had doubt on what he said. They walked on a straight path for another hour till they met a canyon in their way. Everybody had horrible things to say to Eduwardo about his judgment.
“It was my assumption, you s****.” Eduwardo yelled, “Nobody seemed to have a problem with my idea back then. And now blame goes on me only?”
“We need metal batteries for metal detector.” Roderick intervened, “No battery, no oil.”
“Getting a battery means involving another person in this confidential task.”
“Doesn’t matter. We don’t believe in sharing, do we?”
Eduwardo grinned, “Behind me.”
Near the Rig,
Mitchell was under the shade, watching nothing but dry land.He was not open with talking to the people who had tried to murder him a while ago.
His eyes fell on sand shooting out of ground as if the wind was pushing it upwards. They went near to observe it.
“What is this? Poisonous gas?” one asked.
“No. It’s plain air.” Mitchell said, not finding the fumes odd, “Is someone pumping air in this pipe?”
“How did this survive metal detectors?”
“Plastic pipe, I reckon.”Eduwardo said and began to dig.
He noticed a small plastic pipe leaking air a few inches underground. He did not know if someone was pumping air in it or it was the hot air escaping through.
While he was trying to guess what reason behind it, those bandits in cars returned to the rig. Mitchell was surprised to see them back there again. The ones who had been suggesting them to leave were still around there.
“Why did you come back?” Mitchell asked them.
“We felt like you need some help.” Bandit leader – Gary answered him, “Come with us. We will give you cars and water for you guys to piss off.”
They could not ignore thirst. On the other hand, they were about to give them a vehicle as well. That didn’t stop them from a brief discussion. After getting into a conclusion, they agreed to leave with Garry.
