Joule leaned back in the passenger seat as she and her brother headed into San Antonio. It was a haul, definitely.
After the police and the crime tech had taken the shoe, the Walkers had needed a break. Cage and Joule agreed, but first they’d driven by Sarah's apartment, to see about the white sedan. It wasn’t there. So, they'd headed to their little rental house and crashed hard.
Now she was running her fingers through her hair, pulling a ponytail holder from her pocket, and thinking how she needed to cut it much shorter than this. Though she was grateful that the sleep had been hard and dreamless this time, she couldn't say she'd woken up refreshed. Joule had to wonder if she ever would again.
Then her brother had suggested the trip, and she’d seen no reason to say no. They could ask around in the city and see if anyone recognized Sarah’s picture. They could try to find out if she was involved in some organization—which was more likely in San Antonio than in El Indio. The other nearest option was Piedras Negras, but it also wasn’t big enough to have what they needed.
“We'll get some decent food,” Cage said into the air of the car and Joule found herself looking forward to a lunch that wasn't from the same lone drive thru. Or crackers and cheese from the limited variety at the small chain grocery in El Indio. It was disturbing to Joule that the mom and pops hadn't even survived out in the middle of nowhere.
Their car rattled as a huge semi rolled past them. Joule found herself wondering what was in it. It was unmarked. The cab was red with swirls inexpertly painted down the side. The trailer was white, battered, dirty and dented in spots. But nothing suggested what it was carrying, packages or produce?
She remembered a story from a few years earlier, when a truck had had an accident and had been left on the side of the road. Fifty people had been stuck in the back of it, most of whom had died from the impact or right after.
Had that happened here, or had it been somewhere else along another freeway? She didn't remember and she couldn’t. She felt drained, so much of her effort going into looking for Sarah. They lived in a near constant state of panic, using every ounce of food she could force herself to consume just to stay alert.
“I wonder if they have an all you can eat buffet,” she asked. Even though she knew she could put food away sometimes, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d done it. Only that at one point she’d been able to take out an entire pizza or return to a buffet line multiple times.
Cage shook his head, knowing that she wasn't actually suggesting that. After their stint with the disease scientists, food that was available to the collective public was not high on their list.
“We do need a salad, though.” She meant that part and watched as her brother's lip curled. But he didn't deny the fact.
Now that she was talking, it was easier to continue to do so. “The other night when you were out with Dr. Murasawa—”
“Last night?” he asked.
Jesus, she felt her fingers rake through her hair again. Only this time it was held back with the ponytail holder. She shook her head and looked out the window. She'd slept twice since then. If it could be called sleeping. “Yes, last night. You said you ran into people, and you think they were migrants crossing the border.”
“I didn't think anything. That's what Dr. Murasawa said.”
“You just ran into them?”
“Not really. We had our lights aimed down. I guess I heard a little bit of rustling, and I thought it was an animal. But there were lots of eyes.” He seemed to be thinking now. He rested one hand in his lap, the other at the bottom of the steering wheel. Hardly any effort was needed as the car followed the straight line of the road almost by itself. “Their eyes didn't reflect like animals. But I didn't really process it until we shone the light on them, and they all froze.”
“What did they look like?” Joule asked, wishing that she'd been there to see for herself.
“They had backpacks, all kinds. The guy in the front had a pretty good pack and good shoes. Some of the others were in flip flops.”
“Flip flops? In the desert at night?” Dr. Murasawa had warned them about snakes and even scorpions.
“They definitely weren't casual night hikers.”
Who would be? she thought.
“I mean, what do I know?” he said. “I have no ability to identify any nationality on sight. They were people, out in the desert. That’s all I know.”
Joule nodded. “Which way were they headed?”
He paused for a moment, and she could tell he had not thought of that before.
“This way.” He lifted one finger pointing down the road. “If I have my orientation right from where we were, they were headed towards San Antonio.”
“So why would they cross the border? In a group at night?” she asked, “when you can present yourself at the checkpoints and ask for asylum?”
Cage shrugged, his lone hand still on the wheel. “I don't know much, but I want to say that asylum isn't that easy to get. You might need it, but you still might not qualify. If you don’t get it you get sent back to die. For a lot of people, it's safer not to hit the checkpoints.”
That was a harsh reality, she knew. Joule quoted a line from one of her favorite poems about the water being safer than the land.
Her brother nodded. Whatever had brought those people there, she didn't know. And maybe, maybe, they were just a group of ill-prepared local night hikers.
Then her brother asked a question, “Do you think Sarah might have run into someone out in the middle of the desert? I'm guessing her shoe didn't come off by itself.”
“It almost couldn’t have.” Then Joule said the words out loud for the first time. “Sarah ran into someone.”
The question was, who?