"It's possible she just ran away."

"And it's possible she was abducted by the government for reproduction if that's your only reasoning," Evan replied with a roll of his eyes. "Look, people disappear at a rate of something like 3,000 people a day, most of them kids and teenagers."

"She wasn't a teenager," Andrew muttered.

"No, she was a twenty-something scientist. My point is, it wouldn't be that hard for the government to cash in on all the disappearances."

"Her parents told the police she'd done this before. She went off to Italy without telling anyone."

"I know. Can we just drop Katie Scott for a minute? She's a high profile case because she comes from a small southwestern town, won that big-time fellowship award, and came back to her same small town as a know-it-all scientist. First one in the family to earn a degree and blah blah blah. She probably wasn't abducted by the government. Or aliens. I can agree with that."

"Then what's your point?"

"What's my point? Have you been listening to me at all? My point is that all these teenagers going missing might have been kidnapped for science being conducted by the government."

"All of them?" Andrew stopped and uncapped his water. The bottle was getting low. Evan kept walking. "You should have a drink of water."

"I'm fine." He stalked on ahead while Andrew dropped his pack in the shade of a boulder and sat down. He wouldn't go far. He was probably already turning around.

Alerted by feet running from the direction they had just come, Andrew pulled his pack behind the rock. Another hiker rounded the bend. Holding his hat on his head, the hiker wildly searched for something but suddenly slowed to an ambling walk. Andrew looked for Evan, but he had passed an outcropping of rocks.

A moment later, a soldier on an ATV rode up behind the hiker and parked. Andrew strained to hear what was being said by the two men. Only the words "restricted area" carried to him, but he could see the tense bearing of the soldier and he sensed the calm demeanor of the hiker was feigned by the overly casual way he stood after having been running.

Andrew watched the hiker hold something out to the soldier and suddenly they were wrestling. The soldier put the man in a chokehold, his muscles straining against the fabric of his shirt until the other man's face took on an ugly purple hue. The hiker swung the soldier's knife and wrenched the gun from the ATV. A fraction of a second later, a shot rang out and the man dropped to the ground.

Andrew couldn't breathe. The butterflies in his stomach metamorphosed into hornets as shock turned to horror. His heart pounded so hard against his shirt, it was deafening. Pulling back out of sight, he closed his eyes and clasped his head between his shaking hands. His breathing returned in fits and gasps, and his hands flew to his mouth to silence his gulps of air.

"Move," he commanded himself. He took a quick look to see what was happening in the canyon. The soldier was doing something in the storage compartment on the back of the ATV.

Keeping low to the ground, he crawled through the canyon away from the two men, all the while waiting for a bullet to pierce his body. Passing the bend, he stood up and took wider steps to put distance between himself and the man with the gun. He moved as silently as he could to keep his footsteps from being heard.

Evan was running back toward him. "Was that a gunshot?"

Andrew spun him around. "Run!"

Together they sprinted toward the mouth of the canyon. Evan had the advantage of longer legs, but Andrew was in better shape from all the hiking he had done with his mom over the summer, so they kept pace until they reached the open area outside the canyon. They sprinted for the next rocky crag, scrambling to a halt and balancing at the edge of a sudden eight-foot drop. Andrew caught Evan's arm and hauled him back from the edge.

"Stop. Here." He tossed his pack down and snatched Evan's from his shoulders. It hit the ground with a dull thud. "What the hell do you have in there?"

Evan took Andrew's outstretched hand and lowered himself over the edge. "Your mom's nightie."

"Funny." Andrew jumped. As he hit the bottom, his foot caught a small stone and turned sideways. The loud snap of the tendons reached his ears in the same instant the pain washed over him. He rolled over, clutched his ankle and swallowed a cry of agony.

"Oh, shit. Did you just break your ankle?"

"I don't think so. I'm going with sprain. We need to move." Tears sprang to Andrew's eyes as he climbed to his feet and pulled his pack onto his shoulders. The extra weight on his ankle felt like the bones were being crushed and ground together.

Evan pulled on Andrew's arm to help, but Andrew pulled away.

"Go," he ordered with a nod. "Find a way out. I'm right behind you. Watch for holes."

Evan darted away. Gritting his teeth and limping painfully, Andrew walked until he came to a vee and looked for clues revealing which way Evan had gone. It was a sandy bottom, not a fine dust like what was on the top of a mesa, and he didn't see any footprints. He looked closer at the wall. A light-colored scratch marked its surface.

"Nice work, E."

As he neared the end of the crevice where it pinched together, Evan was pushing small boulders into a pile.

"Wasn't feeling feng shui? You needed to tidy up a bit?"

"Look who's making jokes now." He added another large rock, then climbed up the wobbling pile and raised his head to look toward the canyon. "Coast is clear."

Evan pulled himself up and reached down for their packs. Andrew cautiously took a step up on the rocks and reached out his arm for Evan to catch. Together they hauled him up and over the edge.

With a hobbled run, they made it to the base of another low mesa and dropped their bags. Evan sneezed and waved away the dust that had risen up. Andrew looked back at the canyon as he leaned against the stone wall and rubbed his sore ankle. He glanced up the rocky face. The bright sky caused him to squint, but it didn't look like a hard climb. There were plenty of hand and footholds. They wouldn't even need a rope.

Andrew took another quick look at the canyon. The soldier burst through the opening and ducked back. "Get down, Evan."

Evan pointed. "Don't we need to climb?"

Andrew stood to pull him down by the straps of his pack.

The bullet pierced Andrew's side, passing through his pack and his skin at a velocity of 2,480 feet per second. Confused by the sudden prickle of pain in his waist, he reached back and swiped his hand between his pack and his back. As he brought his hand in front of his body, he reeled with the sudden onslaught of dizziness at the sight of blood covering his hand. His legs gave out, and he found himself falling against Evan, the awkward weight of his backpack pulling them both down.

"Gunshot!" Evan hollered. He rolled away from Andrew and sat up. There was blood on his shirt. "Oh my God! I've been shot!"

"Me too."

"But I only heard one shot."

Andrew looked across the terrain they had just crossed. The soldier ran back into the gap between the towering rocks. Seconds later, the ATV roared out of the canyon headed in their direction. He blinked in surprise when the ATV dropped out of sight without slowing down.

The crevice had swallowed him whole.

"Holy shit! Did you see that?"

Andrew nodded and they waited. After a count of twenty, the man hadn't come out of the crevice or even showed his face. Evan lifted up his shirt but closed his eyes. "How bad is it?"

"I don't see anything."

Evan looked down at his stomach. He lifted his shirt higher and patted his chest.

"I wasn't shot! It's a miracle! I wasn't shot!" Evan let his shirt fall and stared hard at Andrew. "It's your blood, isn't it? How bad is it?"

"Not bad. You'd think getting shot would hurt, but it's not that bad. Really."

Evan squinted at him. "It's the adrenaline."

"I know. I should patch it before..."

Andrew sat up and pulled his pack between his legs. Blood was smeared along one side and soaked deep into the weave of the fabric. Another wave of nausea passed over him, and he turned the bag so Evan wouldn't see the bright red stain. He opened the flap and dug around frantically for his medical kit. As his hand closed on the box, the low patter of the rotor on a distant helicopter reached his ears and he froze.

"Get down, Evan!"

Andrew grabbed Evan's arm and pulled at him for the second time. Evan had just pulled his phone from his pocket and fumbled when he was jerked off his feet. His phone clattered away into the rocks.

Not as distant as Andrew thought, the chopper abruptly appeared overhead. He watched it fly toward the canyon, then swoop back around in a narrow arc after it passed the crevice.

Andrew and Evan flattened themselves against the wall. They would find out soon enough if they had been spotted. Andrew could see the men inside looking down as the chopper hovered over the crack. The pilot pointed and the helicopter edged to the far side and set down.

The rotors slowed but didn't stop as a soldier leaped out and swung side to side with a large black rifle raised and ready. The scope winked in the sunlight as he swiped left and right. He motioned back to the helicopter and another man jumped out. Covering each other, one sprinted to the canyon while the other stalked to the crevice. His rifle came up ready to shoot as he reached the lip of the eight-foot drop, and it suddenly occurred to Andrew, the soldiers may not be on the same side as the man in the rocks. The soldier dropped down out of sight.

Evan shifted to stretch for his phone.

Movement at the canyon caught Andrew's eye.

"Wait," Andrew ordered. Evan froze.

The soldier was returning. He carried the dead man across his shoulders and, as he reached the helicopter, Andrew saw he was also carrying the man's pack. He dumped the body and bag into the waiting helicopter and ran to the crevice.

When he crouched down, he held his hand to his ear to hear something over the noise of the rotors. He rushed back to the helicopter, swung his rifle onto his shoulder and pulled a board from the underbelly. Back once more at the crack in the earth, he handed the board over and hopped down out of sight.

Andrew shifted where he lay. He was getting a cramp in his side from twisting around the bush providing cover.

Evan noticed. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Adrenaline's wearing off."

Seconds later, a soldier climbed from the crack and reached back for the board. It was lifted up to him and now bundled tightly with a body. He hauled it over the lip of the crevice and set the end down long enough to assist the other soldier out. The two lifted the board and hustled to the helicopter.

Andrew pulled his pack tighter to his body, knowing the helicopter was going to pass back over them. It sped by without slowing and, after a count of fifty, he could no longer hear the thrum of the receding rotors.

He crawled free of the bush and rolled into a seated position. Large beads of sweat covering his lip and forehead pooled together and dripped onto his tee shirt. The ache in his side screamed when he twisted to raise the hem of his shirt. Blood rimmed the belt at his waist.

"Oh, shit." Evan turned to the side gagging. With his head low between his legs, he pointed backward at Andrew. "You definitely got shot."

Andrew flinched when the mountain howled in a low whistle. The breeze had found some hollow in the rocks above. Maybe death moaned when he came to pick up souls.

His phone. Where was his phone? He patted his pockets and pulled his phone out. The battery was low. He should have turned it off when he wasn't using it. His fingers flew over the face of the phone. Wrong password. He tried again. Wrong password. In his head, Andrew heard his mother's voice. "Stop. Slow down. Take your time and think. One deep breath. Accidents happen when you rush."

"Mom." A hard lump formed in his throat. "Shit. It really hurts. I don't want to die."

"You aren't going to die." Evan searched the rocks for his phone.

Stop it.

Slow.

Down.

He forced himself to take his time and entered the code correctly. No signal.

"There's no signal." Andrew stared at the bars, willing them to appear as hot tears made their way into the corners of his eyes. The phone dropped into his lap as he brought his fists to his temple. Fingers of pain were making their way outward with burning intensity from his hip to his groin making it harder to concentrate.

Evan was staring at his phone. "I don't have one either."

Andrew arched his back to escape the pain and looked up high overhead. They would need to climb. It would take too long to skirt the base, and a cell signal was more likely at the top of the mountain than where they were. First things first, though. The bullet hole. He needed to stop the bleeding.

He looked down at his shirt. Blood had soaked through and covered an area a little larger than his fist. He lifted the dirt-encrusted hem of his shirt once more and located a fingertip-sized hole in his waist.

"Please tell me there's two holes." The hole welled with blood as he twisted to get a better look.

"I'm not telling you any such thing," Evan replied. "Please tell me I don't need to look for you.

Andrew tenderly reached back. His skin was slippery with blood and, as he felt around, he found the second small hole.

"Yep, there's definitely two holes. In and out. I just won the lottery."

Evan had his hands over his ears, but he flinched hearing Andrew's gasp of pain when he peeled his shirt over his head. "I don't think I can–"

"It's okay. Don't look. Just hand me the stuff I ask for. You don't have to watch."

"What do you need?"

Andrew took a roll of medical tape and a couple of packages of gauze bandages from his medical kit and set them aside. He pushed the bag toward Evan. "Tea bags."

Evan dug deep and near the bottom, he found the tea bags. He swallowed hard and passed them to Andrew without looking. "This doesn't seem like a good time to make tea."

Andrew tore the paper off them, and then set them on top of the medical kit beside him.

"Shit, this hurts," he gasped when another finger of pain jolted up his side.

Evan's hands waved in the air. His face had taken on a sickly pale color. The freckles were more olive than Andrew ever remembered seeing them. "I...you–"

The roll of medical tape bounced away across the rocky slope.

"Grab that."

Evan went after it.

Andrew swiped the sweat from his forehead and then quickly ripped the packages of gauze open. Another drop of blood splashed to the ground between his legs. It was joined by a bead of sweat from his temple. He waited for the pain to subside enough to get to his knees. Evan was peeling strips of tape and laying them lightly on Andrew's pack.

The gauze stuck to the blood at each of the bullet holes long enough for him to grab the strips of tape and stick them to his side. They curled back bright red with blood.

"See if you can find the duct tape." He toed his pack, and Evan dug around in it.

The duct tape glinted dully in the sunlight when Evan got it out.

"Again...Not what I thought I would need it for," Andrew said.

Evan was working hard to avoid looking at Andrew. "What did you think you would need it for?"

Andrew gritted his teeth. Talking was better than hearing the rocks howling out his location to Death, and Evan was being too damn quiet. "I don't know, but this was definitely not anywhere in the short list I might have written for this adventure. Adventure. Doesn't that sound like a fun word? Adventure."

Evan pulled off a long strip of the duct tape and mouthed the word 'adventure.' He nodded. "Yep, slides off the tongue like it's going to be a good time. This sure is fun."

Andrew placed the tape over the gauze and then tore a couple of strips in half to run perpendicular on each side of the bullet holes. Blood leaked below the tape so he took another long strip and ran it across the bottom. He flexed at the waist and found he was no longer leaking blood at the bottom, but it welled up over the top where the tape gapped.

"Morning brew," Andrew commanded.

Evan held up the tea bags though he still wouldn't look in Andrew's direction. He affected an English accent and said, "Chamomile or Earl Gray, sir?"

"Oh, Earl Gray for sure," Andrew said through gritted teeth. "I could not possibly have Chamomile for breakfast."

"Don't be ridiculous. That is an afternoon tea, my good man. A tea for after the fox hunt."

"Right-oh. Let's go with the chamomile for sure."

"Quite right, my good man."

Andrew took a tea bag and carefully pulled the small staple that held it together. Plucking at the loose tape at his waist, he shoved the tea bag down over one of the bullet holes. He flinched as it found the mark. Gritting his teeth, he repeated the process on the other hole, and then started a new strip of tape around his waist. He glanced at Evan. His color looked a little better.

"Remember teabags?"

"The Survivalist. Season four. Episode six."

"That's the one."

No more blood leaked out when they checked his handiwork, but it was too tight for Andrew to bend. "Probably don't need to bend much when climbing a mountain, right?"

"Probably not."

Andrew noticed the eerie howling of the wind had subsided. Not today, Death. Not today.

He reached into his medical kit and took out the scissors to snip at the edges of the tape. It had less resistance when he bent over to test it.

"Better." He made a couple more slits where it crossed his stomach.

"Want a fresh shirt?" Evan was reaching into his bag.

"Nah. No sense in ruining another one." He slipped his bloody tee shirt back on over his head and pulled it down. "Okay, I'm good."

He unsnapped the gun holster at his waist and pulled the map out. Evan moved closer and they looked at the map together. Andrew traced his finger over their route. They could either go back to the road, where he knew there was a signal, and call his mom, or they could continue into the circle that Evan had drawn in red on the map and labeled 'Area 52.'

"Wonderful sense of humor."

"That's what it said on my third-grade report card."

Back to the road was the safer bet. The path forward led straight toward men with guns. If he estimated correctly, the secret was on the other side of the mountain. It was less than two miles to find out what was worth shooting a man to protect.

"Two men," he said aloud. Evan quirked an eyebrow at him. "Let's go see what's on the other side of this mountain."