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Boyd Baker walks around the still smoldering wreckage of the home he had hoped would provide him and his men with a decent amount of food and water. Having Claudia would have been an extra bonus. He fumes silently as he watches some of his men pick through the ashes but there’s nothing left to scavenge. He should have noticed sooner that girl was better fed than most of the people left in the town but he hasn’t seen her in months. He wanders over to a wooden platform with a hand pump in the middle and gives it a few pumps. When nothing but the thinnest dribble of water comes out he walks away in disgust. Gone, any water or food they had been hiding was now gone. Speaking of gone - he turns his head and sees Marco making his way towards him.
“Well?”
Marco shakes his head. “Sorry, Boyd. No one’s seen him since last night. Pete saw him leave the house right before we headed out to come here but he did see which way he went. You think he left town?”
Boyd smirks and turns his head to scan the yard hoping for a hidden patch of garden, but all he sees is dead grass and sand.
“Oh, I think he left. But I don’t think he left alone. Beck used to be real sweet on that Claudia girl. I think he made his move on her before I could.”
He starts to turn away from the yard when he sees a break in the back hedge. He heads that way thinking he should see where it leads before they move on to the next house they plan on visiting. When he gets close enough to see that there’s a gate, he turns and waves a few of his men to follow. Boyd sees the old building as soon as he goes through the gate and starts to grin. Maybe, just maybe, his little brother and the girl didn’t go very far after all. The three men move quietly across the field and over the ditch before splitting up to go around the building. Boyd pulls his gun from the waist of his pants and readies himself at the corner before peeking around. When he sees his man on the other corner, he nods once and they both move quickly to the open doors, guns raised. With a glance, he sees that it’s empty so he drops his gun arm down and curses.
“Where the HELL did they go?”
He spins to leave when the sun catches a shiny object on the ground. He leans over for a closer look and grunts in disappointment. It’s just the old railroad tracks. He takes a few steps back towards the house when he stops at a thought. Why are the tracks shiny? They should be covered in sand and dust like everything else. He spins around and strides back to the tracks but this time follows them towards the main line. Half way there he’s rewarded with another clue. A glob of black oil is slowly dissolving into the sand as the sun heats it. Boyd moves past it until he comes to where the siding track splits. The junction going west is dull and can barely be seen under the drifting sand and dust but the one going west is exposed steel like something cleaned it.
Boyd climbs the rest of the way up the slight incline to the main tracks and faces east. What’s out there besides the desert wastes? Where could they be going and what are they traveling in? He reaches up and rubs at the oil burn on the side of his face, causing the bullet wound in his arm to flare up. A scowl crosses his face. The old woman who burned him might be dead but the girl shot him and his brother betrayed him. That was two offenses he couldn’t overlook. Boyd spins back to the building where his men are waiting and barks down to them, “I need a map!”