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AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK, Allie and Drake left the schoolhouse and headed to the church. Of the thirty-five puzzles they completed, they only needed to get two answers checked. Allie sat in the last pew while Drake got in line behind three other teams and waited for his turn. Ten minutes later, they had a plan plotted and were on their way.
“I don’t believe we can catch up with the red team,” Allie said.
“I agree, considering we’re almost two hours behind them. The best we can do is run into them with pure luck. In the meantime, we’ll need to do our best to get these caches.”
“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we radio T.R. and have her find out where the red team is? Then we could go straight to their location and see what they’re up to?”
Drake veered the UTV around a tumbling tumbleweed and got back on course. “Good idea, except for two things. First, the radio is on an open channel, so everyone would hear what we were up to, including the red team. And second, we would seem suspicious to Bruce and Andy if we checked in, having found only a dozen caches over the course of a whole day. No, we need to keep to the plan. Besides, have you forgotten we have fifty grand on the line?”
Allie didn’t answer, and instead studied her map. As they had completed puzzles, Drake entered the corrected coordinates for each one into their GPS. Along with that task, he made a small mark on the paper map where the general area of the cache was. Once Allie finished solving puzzles and Drake drew two lines, which divided the map into a grid of four squares. They were currently on route to the southeast corner of the grid, which had eleven caches within it. From there, the plan was to go to the southwest, the northwest, and finally finish with the northeast, which only held four caches.
“How close are we?” Drake asked.
Allie checked her GPS. “Three tenths of a mile dead ahead.”
Drake slowed the UTV to go over a small ditch. Although he barely crawled over the obstruction, the jostle was enough to cause a bolt of pain to run through Allie’s leg. In reflex, she inhaled sharply and grabbed her knee. Once Drake was back on solid ground, he parked the UTV.
“Okay, no lies. Are you going to be okay today to do this?”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Of course. I’ll be fine. I simply wasn’t expecting that big lurch.”
“Big lurch? We slinked through something only three times the size of an average sidewalk crack. Hey, if you can’t cache today, say the word and we’ll go back to the hotel and spend the day by the pool. I’d be fine with that, really.”
Allie shook her head. “No. If we did that, we’d have no chance at the money. Keep going.”
“Allie, the money doesn’t matter if it means you’re going to be in pain all day.”
Allie looked straight ahead and pointed in the general direction of the cache. “The geocache is that way, Drake. Hit the gas and go.”
Drake shook his head in disbelief as he put the UTV into Drive. “You know, you’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”
Allie smiled. “You’re only saying that because you’ve never met my mother. Go. We’re burning daylight.”
Drake took his foot off the brake and headed for the cache. It wasn’t long before they arrived at a large mesquite tree.
“There’s something you don’t see every day,” Drake said.
The tree itself was a normal-looking tree. Except for baseball-sized Christmas ornaments hanging from its branches.
“Looks pretty,” Allie said. She approached the nearest ornament, unhooked the orb from the branch, and studied it. “Plastic. I was expecting glass.”
Allie shook the ornament, and something rattled inside.
“You don’t think...” Allie unscrewed the ornament’s top where the hook connected to the ball and tipped the ornament upside down. A small plastic vial the size of a pen cap dropped into her hand. She put the ornament on the ground, opened the vial, and fished out the piece of paper inside.
“Oh, boy.”
“What does it say?” Drake asked.
Allie read the note aloud. “Congratulations. You have found a fake log. This log will not count as a find for this geocache. Find the official log for credit.”
“I’d guess there are over fifty ornaments here,” Drake said as he looked through the branches.
“Well, I guess we should get to work on them,” Allie said. “Let’s not put the ornaments back until we’ve found the right log. I don’t want to waste time checking ones we’ve already looked at.”
Drake nodded and grabbed the nearest ornament. He fished out the vial, read the note, and put the container all back together before he set the ornament on the ground. “This is going to take us forever,” Drake said.
“Just keep going,” Allie answered.
On the thirty-third ornament, Allie struck pay dirt when she unrolled the log and noticed the team stamps on the paper. “I got the right one!” she said as she waved the log in the air.
“Great. Any chance the red team has been here?” Drake asked.
“No. Only purple and gray. I’ll take care of the log. You hang the ornaments back up. Make them look pretty, okay?”
Drake laughed. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll do my best.”
Allie stamped the log, put the geocache back together, and hung the ornament back on the branch where she found it. Rather than help Drake hang the rest, she limped back to the UTV and dug out the bottle of prescription pain killers that Dr. Liz had been kind enough to give to her. She dumped the contents into her hand and counted them. She had six to last her the entire day, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to rely on all of them. Allie dumped all six back into the bottle, removed one, and took the white pill, followed by a drink of water. While she waited for Drake to return, she plotted the way to the next geocache.
At the fourth geocache, they found themselves at the top of a tall ridge. Allie studied the compass and looked off into the distance. “Yep, it’s down there somewhere.”
“How far?”
“Quarter mile. What would you guess?”
Drake looked to his left and over to his right. “We should pick a direction and see if there’s a way to drive down this thing. Otherwise, we’re going to skip it.”
“Skip it? Why? We need the points.”
Drake shot her a look. “There’s no way you can climb up and down this thing, and I can’t carry you, so if we can’t drive there, we’re going to cross it off the list.”
Allie sighed. “I understand, even though at the moment I feel like I’m personally costing the team any chance we have at the grand prize.”
Drake glared at her, wordless.
In the end, she capitulated. “Okay. You’re right.”
“Left or right?” Drake asked.
Allie consulted the map. “Left. If we can’t find a way down, that’s the direction of the other caches in this sector.”
Drake followed the ridge for ten minutes, and by the time he came to a stop, they were already almost two miles from the cache. “Scratch this one off the list. Unless you can see something on the topo map to get us down there.”
Allie studied the map for a moment. “No. Actually, it looks like that cache is in the middle of a big bowl. I’m not sure there’s a way down there besides walking.”
“Okay, put a line through this one and pick out the next,” Drake said.
“Are you sure? I don’t like the idea of skipping caches, especially since we’re so far behind in the point count.”
“We talked about this, Allie. It’s not worth you further injuring yourself. Tell me, if we were back home and one of us wasn’t fit enough to go after a cache, would we do it?”
Allie answered right away. “Of course not. We would leave whoever couldn’t make it behind and the other would go for it.”
She meant her response as a joke, but it didn’t hit. Drake ignored her response.
“We’d skip it. So why is it different here? Because there’s a prize on the line? Not worth the risk. What’s the next one?”
Allie consulted the sheet, set the GPS, and pointed the way.
“I wish this thing had a radio.”
Drake glanced over at Allie. “What?”
“A radio. You know, tunes? Music? An adventure around the desert would be more fun if we had music.”
“I don’t know. That’s more your thing than mine. Hey, there’s another team up ahead.”
Drake stopped a hundred yards short of the cache and shut down the UTV.
“Come on, I bet you’d love it if I sang to you all day while we were out here,” Allie said.
Drake looked at Allie. “Really? I honestly don’t think you recognize how bad you sing.”
Allie laughed. “You’re jealous. The people at the bar tell me I’m great when we go for karaoke.”
“Yeah, but those people are always drunk and don’t know any better. They’d say a goat bleating along with an old country song was great. Can I look at the map?”
Allie passed the map to Drake, and he studied it. “This isn’t working out. We need to pick up the pace. What’s taking the gray team so long?”
Allie took the map back and slid it above the sun visor, then took off her helmet. “I don’t know. It looks like another tree cache. They’re both in the tree.”
Drake got out of the UTV, took off his helmet, and set it on the hood. He moved a few paces closer to the gray team, then stopped. “Listen. Can you hear something?”
Allie tilted her head and concentrated. “It seems they’re calling for help. We’d better go over.”
“I’ll go. You stay here,” Drake said.
Drake left Allie and walked toward the tree. When he got to within twenty feet, Geneva called out to him.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!” she yelled.
Drake froze. “What’s wrong? Do you need help?”
“There are snakes! Don’t come any closer.”
Drake’s eyes shot from the women clinging to the tree trunk to the ground. He did a quick scan and saw nothing, so he took a few steps closer. When he was eight feet from the tree, he spotted the serpent. A rattlesnake sat coiled at the tree’s base. It moved, then Drake heard the distinctive rattle.
“It’s no problem. I’ll throw some rocks at it and chase it away.”
“No. Wait. There are two more,” Geneva said.
Drake watched his step as he slowly crept around the tree. He sighted three additional snakes, not just two.
“Where the hell did they come from?” Drake asked.
“I pulled on a rope I thought was the geocache, and a tarp fell from a limb and the snakes were inside. As soon as we saw them, we jumped into the tree,” Ingrid said.
Drake had overlooked the tarp at first since it was the same hue as the ground surrounding the tree, but once he saw it, he couldn’t unsee it.
“You’re going to be okay. Can you climb up a little higher?” Drake asked.
Ingrid nodded and started up the branches right away. Geneva, however, stayed where she was.
“Geneva, can you go up more?”
“I’m... I’m afraid of heights.”
Drake nodded. “I understand. I’m not a fan of heights either, but right now, these snakes can harm you more than a fall from the tree would. Going up is the lesser of two evils for you. Understand?”
Geneva nodded, then looked up.
Ingrid wrapped her legs tightly around a branch and held out her arm. “Come on, Geneva, grab my hand. I’ll help you up.”
Drake watched and waited while the women climbed up as far as they could go. He had the thought of warning them that snakes could climb trees, but he didn’t want to panic Geneva more than she already was.
“I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t move and you’ll be fine.”
“No, don’t go,” Ingrid begged.
“I’ll be right back. I’m just going back to the UTV for a minute, okay? Don’t worry, I will not leave you. Trust me.”
Drake jogged back to his UTV.
“What’s going on?” Allie asked.
“You’re not going to believe this, but they’re stuck up a tree and surrounded by rattlesnakes.”
“You’re right. I don’t believe you. What’s really going on?”
Drake gave her a look that conveyed to her he was serious.
“Should I call for help?” Allie asked.
“No. I think I can handle it myself.” Drake got into the UTV and drove it half the distance to the tree, then parked it. “Hand me your cane, will you, and if I give you the signal, then radio for help.”
“What’s the signal?”
“A blood-curdling scream after the snakes have bitten me.”
Drake took the cane with him and went back to the tree. When he got to within eight feet, he picked up a large rock and threw it five feet from the nearest snake. It landed with a thump, and the vibration it caused when it hit the ground caught the snake’s attention. Drake picked up another rock and tossed it toward the first. The second rock hit the initial stone with a clatter and came to rest right next to it. He was about to throw a third rock, but the snake took the hint and slithered away into the desert.
Drake watched the snake move away and after he determined the reptile left the area, he circled the tree again. As he did, he stomped hard against the ground and waved his hands in the air. In doing so, two of the other snakes left of their own accord.
“There’s one coming!” Geneva screeched.
Drake looked up and watched the last snake slowly making its way up the tree trunk. “It’s okay. Don’t move. I got it.”
He approached the tree, and he reached toward the snake with the cane. Using the handle as a hook, he dragged the snake’s head slowly away from the trunk. The snake rattled its tail and Drake was momentarily worried the snake would hasten its journey up the tree. Drake pulled on the cane a little harder, and the snake separated from the tree and dropped back to the ground.
The unhappy snake rattled louder, picked its head up and reared, ready to strike. It flicked its forked tongue a few times, then lost interest in the humans, turned, and disappeared into the underbrush.
“Is it safe to come down?” Ingrid asked.
“Hold on just another minute,” Drake answered.
Drake went to the tarp laying on the ground, found the end of the rope, then pulled the tarp away from the tree. He walked backwards, and as he did, he eyed the tarp as he pulled it along to make sure no other critters came out of it. Once he was a respectful distance away, he grabbed a corner of the tarp and flipped it over. It was empty.
“Okay, it’s safe to come down now,” Drake called up to the women in the tree.
He waited at the trunk and helped Geneva and then Ingrid out of the tree. As they got their feet on the ground, they each gave him a hug, and Ingrid kissed Drake on each cheek like they were old friends.
“Thank you so much,” Geneva said. “I thought we would be stuck up there forever.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad neither of you got hurt.”
“What happened?” Allie asked as she limped over to the group.
“I pulled on a rope expecting the cache to drop from the tree and got a tarp filled with rattlesnakes instead,” Ingrid said.
“That doesn’t sound like a pleasurable surprise. Do you know if another team was here before you?” Allie asked.
“We didn’t see anyone, and we didn’t find the geocache, so I couldn’t tell you,” Geneva said.
Allie checked her GPS. “Are you sure you’ve got the right coordinates? Mine is pointing a hundred feet to the west.”
“Let’s go that way then,” Geneva said.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Drake said as he handed Allie her cane.
As the women walked away, Drake returned to the tarp to examine it further for any clues that it might have. The tarp itself was only four feet square and had grommets at every foot. The rope was tied to one corner, and Drake suspected it had looped through the other corners as well before being placed in the tree, but he knew it was only a guess. He noticed nothing else of consequence, so he folded the tarp as small as he could get it, then stuffed it into the storage unit of his UTV. He turned and was about to head toward the geocache when he saw Allie, Geneva, and Ingrid coming his way.
“You find it?” Drake asked when Allie got close.
“Yeah. Ammo can beneath a rock pile.”
“Who else has been here today?”
“Purple, pink, and red.”
A look of surprise passed over Drake’s face like a lone cloud passing over the sun on a summer’s day. “The red team, huh? Can you tell which team they were to stamp the log?”
Allie shook her head. “No. They weren’t in a line. They are stamped in random places all over the log.”
“Too bad. It might have told us something.”
“Like what?”
“Like who might have hung a tarp full of rattlesnakes in that tree? I doubt Bruce did it. It wouldn’t make sense to have Cacheland kill the people they’re trying to target as tourists.”
