It wasn't much, just a gulley that ran down into the canyon. It was six feet deep at its deepest and got more shallow as it went up the canyon wall. At least it kept them out of the wind. The wind had gotten worse. It blew up the canyon like a cyclone and caused the ambient temperature to drop several degrees. The warm day was going to turn into a chilly night. As much as Johnny didn't like the idea, they were going to have to start a fire to keep warm. None of them had the physical reserves to do it themselves.
"Stay here with Roy," Johnny said to Chris once they had the older paramedic settled on the ground and reasonably comfortable. "Helen will stay here as well while we look for food."
"Okay," Chris responded. She really hadn't wanted to go wandering around by herself anyway. She wasn't at all familiar with the area and was feeling a little overwhelmed again. Chris was sitting beside Roy. The man appeared to be sleeping. She hoped he was anyway, the trip here had been really hard on him. A short distance away she could see that Jon also seemed to be asleep. "What about them?"
Johnny followed her line of sight and saw Sam and Jake sitting at the bottom of the gulley. Sam was careful to stay a good distance from his former partner. Jake, meanwhile, radiated menace. Leaving him alone would be a really bad idea. "I'm not dragging them around while I look for food. We'll leave them here."
"I'll stay here with them," Spencer offered. The man was cuffed. He didn't really present a threat but Spencer wanted to face it anyway. He was tired of feeling like a victim, like a coward. Now was as good a time as any to take positive action. "If I can have one of the officer's guns." He wasn't stupid after all.
Ponch had been listening in on the conversation. "I don't know if that's such a good idea," he said. He didn't want to leave Jon and the others staying behind in danger but he didn't want to hand over his partner's service revolver to a civilian either.
"I'll take him with me," he finally suggested. Sam, Jake's partner in crime, wasn't in good enough shape to really cause any problems. Ponch wasn't sure he would even if he was given the chance. "I'm going to head down the canyon a bit and then hang left. Hopefully I'll be able to find something before the sun goes down."
"I'm going to climb to the top of the canyon and see what I can find from there," Johnny replied. He was relieved that the CHP officer was going to be taking Jake with him. The farther the man was from the injured the better. There was hardness to his eyes that set the paramedic's nerves on edge.
"I'll keep going along the road. Maybe there'll be something along it," Thomas volunteered. He hadn't contributed much to their survival yet. He was going to change that.
"I'll look around, see if there's anything interesting nearby," the other man stated. He was all ready headed down to the road. He crossed the broken pavement and scrambled up the other side.
"Here, take this." Ponch pulled his baton out of his police belt and handed it to Spencer. He didn't want to leave the others here without some form of protection. Even skinny Spencer was better than nothing. "We'll be back just after nightfall."
"Okay," Spencer responded. The baton wasn't as impressive as the gun but that was all right. He hoped desperately he wouldn't have to try to use it.
Ponch moved over to Jake and pulled him to his feet with the change between the handcuffs. Silently he slid down the gulley and continued down the road in the direction they'd been going. Jake struggled against being pulled and complained the entire time. Johnny was happy when they got far enough away that he couldn't hear them anymore.
"That boy has a dirty mouth," Helen muttered from her position below Chris and Roy.
"That he does," Johnny agreed. "It would be a good idea if you collected some wood while we were gone. Make sure the wood is dry and old, it'll burn better. Just don't go too far away from camp." He'd turned his attention to Spencer and Chris.
"No problem," Chris said as the younger paramedic scaled the gulley to reach the top of the canyon. In a matter of moments he was gone. Fear gnawed at her stomach. Angry with herself, Chris checked on the still sleeping Roy and then made her way over to Jon. A quick check confirmed that he was also all right. She thought about checking Sam but she still didn't trust the man.
"Keep an eye on him," she said to Helen as she passed the woman. "If he does anything that makes you nervous just call out and we'll come back."
"Certainly, dear," Helen responded, smiling up at her from her position on the ground. "Just don't be gone too long."
"I'm not going far. I'm too scared of getting lost." Chris glanced over at Spencer and saw the tall man start searching their immediate area for firewood. Steeling herself, she scrambled a few yards away and took up the search as well.
