An Ounce of Prevention

They never saw the helicopter; only its shadow as it passed over them. The horses plunged into the arroyo and up the other side, obviously frightened by the helicopter.

Carmen looked at Alex. "Do you think they were after the horses?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think they saw us?"

"I don't think so." Alex slowly rose and brushed the sand from his jeans. He made his way to the edge of the arroyo and peered over. After a few minutes he returned to her. "It's gone. I don't think they were after the horses." He sighed. "It was fortunate that the horses came along when they did. They probably thought our horse was part of the herd…but now we don't have a horse."

Carmen gave him a wry smile and patted the saddle. "But we have a saddle."

He reached down and untangled the canteen from the horn. "More importantly, we have water and a rifle." He retrieved the gun and stood, looking around.

Carmen stood and brushed sand from her clothes. "Do you think they'll come back?"

He glanced at her. "I wish I knew who they were. We might have hidden from a rescue helicopter."

That was a sobering thought. Bad as that might be, it wasn't nearly as bad as if they had waved their hands for attention and been shot down by drug dealers. At least they knew where they were. Well, Alex probably did. She wasn't sure. They were on foot now, but fortunately they were both fit and able to walk.

"Are we just going to leave the saddle here?"

His eyes mocked her and his smile was wry. "Unless you want to carry it."

She shrugged and waved a hand. "Lead the way Kemosabe."

He put the canteen strap over his shoulder and held the rifle in his other hand, pointed down. His steps were not hurried, which surprised Carmen.

"Shouldn't we be traveling faster than this?"

"It would be nice," he said, not breaking his stride, "but we need to conserve both energy and fluid. Sweating causes a loss of body fluid. We're fortunate that it isn't as hot today as it usually gets." He waved a hand at the mountains in the distance. "See those clouds forming? We need to be careful. Even if it isn't raining here, water can come down these arroyos from the mountains."

She eyed the mountains. Surely he was exaggerating. That would take a lot of water.

They left the arroyo when it turned away from the low spot between the mountains that Alex had indicated. It looked like it couldn't be more than a half-mile, but after a half hour of walking it didn't look any closer.