Noctuidae Read Online Free PDF Page B

He moved fast and soundless for a guy his size, even traveling over this gravel. A finger first over his mouth then pointing back into the shallow recess of their meager shelter. He turned, crawled, and she followed.
    Opposite where the bats had hung, all the way against the east wall, they were just out of sight of the entrance itself. Pete scrunched down in the farthest spot and Sue-Min did the same, keeping a full two meters space between them to her left though thus forced to leave herself the barest hair in view of the mouth.
    Pete turned to her, whispered —The bats . . . did it get any? I wanted you to see.
    —Yes. I saw one get stuck and melt. Poor thing.
    —I watched the same thing happen to an owl while I was looking for Ron. Fuck!
    Ron’s unwitnessed yet presumably parallel dissolution filled the silence between them.
    He didn’t open his eyes as he half turned toward her to speak. . . Cocky Pete seemed at a loss for once, for a moment at least, arms hanging loose and head tilted up against the arching wall.
    She looked full at him. He’d taken charge since she woke or even before but was he conceding now? After a good two minutes he drew a deep breath and spoke—
    —My gut is it’ll leave when the sun comes up. Probably just disappear. Fade away back to wherever it came from. We just have to wait it out. Have you got your cellphone?
    She shook her head without turning his way. —Left it in the truck. What was the point? No signal out here.
    —I know that—It’s the time I wanna check. What about a watch?
    —Ha! Not for years. . .
    —I’ve got a watch but it’s too dark to read it. I was hoping you had something digital. He dug out his own phone, flipped up the cover, cupped the screen’s glow with his left hand and angled it away from the entrance best he could. —3:37. Does that seem right to you?
    —I guess.
    —I don’t know. It feels wrong somehow. Too late, or too early. Anyway my battery won’t last much longer so I’m shutting down to conserve power. We can check the time again in an hour or so. Right now it’s all we got. We are all we got. Each other. We’ve got to work together to survive.
    Sue-Min hugged herself. She knew she was all she got, the only one she could trust, and she had to rely on herself. The rest of Pete’s ideas made some sense though. Wait and see what happened at sunrise. And if the thing was still there at that point, well at least she would see better what she was dealing with.
    —What time does the sun come up? she asked.
    —This time of year, 6:00? 6:30 maybe? But we’re in a canyon, so it may take another hour or so for it to shine down here.
    He stared at her as if expecting her to run calculations in her head and announce the results to contradict him, but she neither replied nor met his gaze. After several seconds passed she felt him turn away.
    —We should take turns keeping watch.
    —Fine, you first. Her response came without hesitation, and she spun at once and crawled back to her bedroll. She had to think these things through. Lie down, maybe rest. Maybe sleep through it all if she could, wake come morning, deal with what was left to deal with then. From one side she heard Pete’s mumbled —Okay. I’ll wake you after what I think is an hour.
    —How about you don’t wake me at all unless it’s life or death, or you find some sign of Ron. Turning away from Pete once more she bent and gripped the matched edges of the tandem bedroll she and Ron had shared, hands splayed wide as leverage allowed, dragged it toward the cave’s back wall as far as she could get from Pete, though careful not to disturb the moth wing Sargasso.
    Once arrived at this terminus she wriggled down inside the sack, back against the wall, head bent on bended knees, not caring if Pete witnessed her undisguised display of weakness.
    She crouched and cried in silence. Thoughts of the thing outside never left. Thoughts of Ron never left. Sleep refused to come. Her tears