Chapter 9
"This is so exciting!" Vicki said, as she stepped out of her car. "I haven't been hiking in ages! Well, I mean, I go for runs and walks around the neighborhood, but I haven't gone into the mountains in years. And I haven't been to this particular area before, and I brought my camera so we can take pictures of bird and animals and the scenery and take selfies and…"
"She doesn't even stop to take a breath," Erez whispered to Samantha, as the two of them exited Vicki's car.
"That's just how she is," Samantha replied. "You get the same way when you get into a project."
"Yes, but how can she be this excited about just regular stuff?" Erez said, as he shielded his eyes from the sun. "And why'd we have to do this today? It's already super hot out."
"Stop complaining," Samantha said. "It'll just be a little hike; nothing too strenuous for even a shut-in like you."
"And I got sunscreen and bug repellant and water bottles and snacks," Vicki continued. "I was thinking about bringing pepper spray, in case we get attacked by bears. Pepper spray is useful against bears, I think. But there aren't that many bears in this area. But then again, what if they're wandering through and by chance we happen to come across one and its hungry and we look tasty?"
"I don't think we'll have to worry about bears," Samantha said, shouldering her day pack. "Thanks again, for agreeing to this last minute, Vicki. We wouldn't have been able to drive out here on our own."
"No problem, this is fun!" Vicki said. "What a better chance than to hang out with my best friend! And also Erez! I haven't seen you out and about for so long. You never come to any parties, and I hardly see you in school."
"Yeah, but now we can go hiking together," Erez said sarcastically. "Fun."
"What were you coming out here to do again?" Vicki asked.
"Um, it's this Geo-Hash game Erez showed me," Samantha said quickly. "We found some coordinates online and need to find this object. It's like this kind of treasure hunt."
"Oh that sounds like so much fun!" Vicki said excitedly. "Maybe we can have a competition to see who finds it first, so it'll be like a race!"
"It's not really a competition," Erez said, pulling out his GPS. "It's more like a challenge for those who like to get outdoors… or so I've read."
"Have you done this before?" Vicki asked.
Erez blushed. "Well, okay, I've looked into doing this before, but I'm not really into going out, so this is the first time I've actually done it."
"Oh that's great, you're overcoming your fear of leaving home to go on an adventure!" Vicki said. "Oh look, there's the trailhead! Let's get going."
"Are you sure it's okay to bring her along?" Erez asked Samantha as Vicki pressed on ahead. "She's nosey, so she'll keep asking questions and try to figure out what we're up to."
"Relax," Samantha said. "As long as we keep this to half-truths, she'll be content. We'll just have to make sure not to activate the Hero Core once we find it."
Earlier, the two of them had decided to keep Vicki out of the loop. The less she knew about this potentially dangerous secret, the better. But they had needed her to drive them into the mountains, and that meant that she was going to accompany them on the hike. Luckily, Vicki was eager enough to go on the hike that she took their explanations without suspicion. In fact, in the hour it had taken her to drive them out to the mountains, Vicki had been the one talking far more than Samantha or Erez.
Samantha nudged Erez in the side. "Are you grumpy because you're actually embarrassed that I took you on a hike with a pretty girl?" she asked jokingly.
"I'm grumpy because it's hot and I don't like walking around too much," Erez grumbled. He started typing in commands to his GPS, and added, "That's all there is to it."
"Ooh, what's that?" Vicki asked, addressing Erez.
"Oh, this is my hand held GPS," Erez said.
"Why not just use your cell phone," Vicki asked. "Mine has GPS in it."
"Cell phones only have a very basic form of GPS in them," Erez said. "Most of them rely on cell towers to convey the information, anyway, so they're not ideal for when we're out of cell range. But a real GPS can work anywhere that you can get a clear signal from the sky. GPS stands for Global Positioning Satellite, and there are now dozens of those satellites in orbit. The GPS I have here needs to get a ping from at least three satellites in order to determine our precise location based on pre-existing maps of the planet. Standard ones can be effective to within a few feet."
Samantha grinned. "What were you saying about rambling on again, Erez?"
"Oh, that's fascinating!" Vicki said. "I use the one in my phone to tell me where to go when driving, but sometimes it's slightly off and I'll take the wrong turn and…"
"Well, it's different out here," Samantha said, cutting her off. "We know roughly where we're going, but we don't have the exact location. With any luck, we can just wander around and find it without too much issue. But it's still a couple of miles from here."
"Then let's get started!" Vicki said, leading the way. "Although we have to be careful, it is forest fire season. There's a forest fire burning not too far from here. Started last night, according to the news, but it could possibly spread this way, so we'll need to be careful. I didn't even bring any fire safety equipment; although I guess a fire extinguisher wouldn't be too much help. Ooh, maybe we'll run into some hot firemen while we're hiking, and then we can chat while they fight the fire and…"
"At least my rambling makes sense," Erez muttered under his breath.
Their hike took them high into the hills of the Sierra Nevada. They quickly gained elevation, and found themselves cresting ridge after ridge. Erez quickly tired out, and even Samantha's stamina began to wane after an hour. But Vicki continued to lead the way, somehow powered by unseen energies that the other two did not have. Meanwhile, Vicki filled the silence with many various topics, from random facts about the outdoors to local politics to the classes she was planning to take when the school year resumed. Erez did not have the energy to spare to talk on his own, so he mostly kept silent and drank copious amounts of water to keep himself hydrated in the heat.
They reached the top of the highest ridge, and Vicki came to a stop, much to the relief of Erez and Samantha. "Look at this view!" she exclaimed. "You can see for miles in every direction! I can just make out the edge of the cities when I look back, and I think that smoke over there is from the forest fire I mentioned earlier. Looks like it's a good ways away, so we probably won't have to worry."
"That's great," Samantha said, taking a seat on a nearby rock. Erez, meanwhile, just lay down on the dirt path, completely burned out.
"So how are we doing on your treasure map?" Vicki asked, sitting down as well as she pulled out some snacks.
Erez forced himself to sit up and check his GPS. "We're actually pretty close," he said. "It should be somewhere around that last ridge."
"Then why are we resting when we're so close?" Vicki asked, jumping to her feet. "Let's go!"
"Why'd I have to mention that?" Erez complained, as Samantha helped him to his feet.
"Look on the bright side," Samantha said. "It's only a short ways to go."
"Yeah, but then we have to turn around and cover that distance all over again," Erez pointed out.
"It'll be easier since it's downhill," Samantha said. "Now hurry up or we'll lose Vicki."
They crossed over the next ridge, and Samantha peered around for some sight of a collision, similar to when Furno had crashed into her garage. At their current altitude, the hillside was mostly covered in browning grasses with a few midsized trees spread out. There were also a lot of exposed rocks that were lacking in any vegetation. But as Samantha looked around, she didn't see anything that would be an obvious landing site for a Hero Core.
She frowned. "How do we even begin looking for it now? I was thinking there'd be… well, some more evidence pointing it out. But nothing up here looks out of the ordinary."
"It wouldn't be much of a treasure hunt if it was too obvious," Vicki said. "Come on, let's start searching! What are we even looking for? Is it in a treasure chest of some sort?"
"No, it's just a…. well, it's a silver trinket, with an H symbol on it," Samantha said. "But if it's hiding in the grass, we could pass right over it without spotting it."
"That's a good point," Vicki said. "Maybe we should've brought a metal detector with us, like they use at the beach. Except those are quite heavy, and this was a long walk." She turned to Erez. "Do you have any ideas?"
Erez was standing to the side, and he was fidgeting nervously. "No, nothing from me," he said quickly.
"Are you alright?" Vicki asked. "You seem like you're shaking. I know you are tired, but maybe you're too dehydrated? Or maybe it's heat stroke, or maybe the thinner air up here is starting to get to you."
"No, it's nothing like that," Erez said. "I'm fine."
"You don't look fine," Vicki said. "Please, Erez, be honest with us. If you're feeling sick, let us help you."
"It's not that," Erez said, blushing. "It's just… look, I have to go to the bathroom."
Vicki suddenly started laughing, which confused Erez all the more. "That's it?" she asked. "You're a man; just drop trouser and go wherever. There's nobody here to see you."
"The two of you are here," Erez said, looking down.
"Ah, of course," Samantha said, giving Vicki a knowing look. "He's pee shy around girls."
"Well then we'll just turn away," Vicki said. "You can go walk into those bushes over there and do your thing."
"That's not really necessary," Erez muttered.
"Sure it is," Vicki said, as she and Samantha dropped their packs on the trail. "It's not good to hold it in too long, after all. You go ahead and we'll look the other way."
"Fine," Erez stammered, walking away. "Just don't look."
"Of course!" Vicki said. "Hurry along, we still need to look for that treasure!"
As Erez departed, Vicki giggled to herself. "He's so cute when he gets embarrassed. I almost want to push it to see how flustered he can get!"
"Be nice to him," Samantha said, frowning. "I mean, he does have some social anxieties going on. There's a reason he doesn't leave his house too often."
"Right, I know," Vicki said. "But this treasure hunt must be really important to him. I mean, he's complained the whole time but he still keeps pushing forward. That's impressive."
"Yeah, I guess it is," Samantha agreed, allowing herself a brief smile. Vicki always chose to see the best in people. But her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a new sound in the air. It was the whirl of helicopter blades. "I think something's coming this way!" she said.
"Yeah, I hear it too," Vicki said, looking around for the source of the sound. "Maybe it's some kind of plane? I hope they don't spot Erez; I bet that would embarrass him to death."
But Samantha has already sighted the black spec as it flew over the adjacent ridge. It was a black quad copter drone, and it quickly locked on to the two girls and flew towards them. And she realized she recognized the various parts of this drone, and focused specifically on its charging laser. "Look out!" she shouted, shoving Vicki to the side.
The drone opened fire, burning a hole in the rocks where the two girls had been standing moments earlier. But it realized that they had evaded its first shot, so it zoomed in closer to take them out for good.
