The Desert's Going To Get You If You Don't Watch Out
Part 3

Burt took Tyler back to the hole that afternoon, trying to discover what the creature was. They found the body lying at the bottom of the hole, dead.

"Got to be a mixmaster critter," Tyler said.

Burt nodded, squatting next to it. "But I'll be damned if I can figure out what it might be made up of."

It didn't seem like much of anything familiar. It looked like a jellyfish, a spider and a bear had been put in a blender on frappe. There were eyes, a cluster of them, at the top of what Burt was going to call the "head," and tentacles that sort of trailed out of the "back." The skin didn't completely cover the thing, and there were only patches of fur on on what skin there was.

"Ugly though," Tyler observed. "Kylie get a good look at it?"

"No, thank God," Burt said, standing. "I don't think I could have peeled her off if she knew what had her."

Tyler laughed. "Think there are any more of them?"

"Only one way to find out," Burt replied. He pulled the rifle he held from his shoulder, settled the headlamp more firmly on his head, and started into the cave. Tyler followed.

They found two more of the creatures, both in worse shape than the one Burt had killed.

"I don't think the one back there would have lived much longer," Burt said after examining the other two. "They don't look viable to me."

"You think these caused that hole?" Tyler asked.

Burt shook his head. "Couldn't have," he said, considering. "But I'd like to know what did."

~~~

The next day, Kylie made it through her run - barely - under protest from Burt. And then only after he'd made her wait while he drove her course in the Power Wagon to make sure the ground was stable.

For all her protests, Kylie was secretly glad he did, and made sure to stay strictly in the tracks the Power Wagon had made. Afterward, she leaned against the truck, panting, and intermittently gulping mouthfuls of water from the bottle she kept in her pack.

"If you'd carried it," he said, "you could have taken water breaks along the way." He didn't like the angry flush that lit her cheeks.

"Burt!" she said, for what seemed the thousandth time. "Don't you ever run? You're supposed to get hot, and thirsty, and out of breath." She paused to gasp a few more times, and gulp down another mouthful. She was almost out of water. "It's part of the fun." She brought the bottle to her lips again.

He took the bottle away from her. "You're going to make yourself sick if you keep that up."

"Geez, Burt, lighten up or I'm not going to let you come with me next time." She reached down and pulled her shirt over her head.

Burt turned quickly away.

"It's okay, Burt," she said, sardonically. "I've got another shirt on under this one."

He turned back around, cautiously. She had what looked like the top of a bathing suit underneath. Didn't look like much of a shirt to him.

"Though it's nice to know I have a way to shut you up on occasion," she said with a grin. She took another long-sleeved shirt out of her pack and pulled it on. After draping her sweat-soaked shirt over the door, she slid her pack out of the way, then pulled herself up into the truck. "And now, I need a shower." She looked at him expectantly until he walked around to the other side of the truck and got in.

After he'd started the Power Wagon and pulled out to the dirt road, he said, "I've got a web belt. You could use it to carry a canteen and the radio, at least."

"Thanks Burt, but I'm not carrying fifty pounds of gear with me on a run. That would defeat the purpose of the thing."

"Not even close to fifty pounds. I'm just suggesting a few basic precautions. Didn't yesterday teach you anything?"

"We've had this conversation before. I didn't let LA beat me, and I'm not going to let this weird valley do it either." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you just arguing with me because you enjoy it or do you actually think you're getting somewhere?"

"You need to be prepared in the desert. It is not a forgiving environment."

"Yeah, I got that part. But you're prepared, I've got you, so therefore, I'm prepared."

He glared at her and took a turn too fast, then started in again. "It wouldn't hurt to at least keep your radio."

"You know, Nancy was right. You are the most stubborn man alive."

He rolled his eyes. "Nancy doesn't listen to my very reasonable suggestions either."

"Now that's just not fair," she protested. "I listen to you." She grinned and shot him a look. "I just don't always do as you tell me to. It's a longtime failing of mine."

"You are the most stubborn, headstrong--"

"Don't forget 'irritating'," she said, unconcerned. "I get that a lot too."

"I'm sure you do." Burt's eyes narrowed and he pulled the truck to a stop.

"What is it?" Kylie asked. She followed his gaze but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Something in the brush," Burt said, his voice speculative. "A jackrabbit, maybe..."

"But..." she prompted.

He shook his head. "It was moving all wrong." He stared intently at spot where he'd last seen the animal, as if that would make it reappear.

"And you want to chase it down and see what makes it tick, right?"

"Affirmative. I'll get you back to Nancy's and come back." He started the truck moving again.

"Negative," Kylie said, her mimicry prompting a glare from Burt. "In spite of my heavy schedule of hanging out at Chang's and watching Burt Gummer Monster Hunter videos--" she gave Burt a grin "--I think I can squeeze in a bunny hunt."

Burt looked torn even while swinging the truck in a wide arc back to the area he'd last seen the animal. "It could be dangerous..."

"In this Valley, breathing is dangerous. As you are so fond of reminding me at every opportunity." She paused while he shot her a look, then gave him her "gotcha" smile. "Just go, Burt."

They drove for miles of twisting, bumpy, off-road trail, over rock and scrub alike. Burt got out several times, inspecting tracks and trying to teach Kylie the difference between rabbit and a lizard tracks. They followed trails and fleeting glimpses of fur-covered tails.

At last, Burt left the Power Wagon behind and followed the creature on foot, urging Kylie to silence. They stopped at a large boulder and peered over the top.

Or rather, Burt peered over the top - Kylie stood impatiently behind him, waiting for him to report what he saw.

He didn't.

She fidgeted, wondering what was going on. He seemed intrigued, and Kylie was curious about what.

She took a cautious step to the side, then another. She could almost see around the boulder. One more step...

She saw a flash of fur and feet as whatever it was disappeared into a hole.

She stepped back and looked up at Burt. He was glaring at her.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

He ignored her and walked around the rock.

She followed. Quietly.

The area was covered in what Kylie had come to recognize as rabbit tracks. Burt squatted down near the hole the rabbit had disappeared into, examining the opening.

Kylie tried not to disturb anything Burt might think of as "evidence."

Finally, he turned to her. She tried not to look guilty. "It's not too deep. It'll hide there until it thinks any predators in the area are gone, and then it should come out." He walked toward the boulder they'd been hiding behind and grabbed her arm as he passed, pulling her along. "If we hide - quietly - it will think we're gone." He took one last look at the area as it disappeared and settled them both in to wait.

Periodically, Burt would peer over the boulder.

Kylie went back to fidgeting.

She opened her mouth to speak once, but Burt glared her to silence.

The desert had a wild beauty all its own, Kylie had discovered in the past month while living in the Valley. She hadn't explored much, just the hiking trails and Chang's mostly, but she found something savage, untamed and untamable about it. The desert didn't have the spectacular views of the mountains she'd grown up in, but the browns and grays and occasional green of the desert had seemed so vivid and somehow alive, just the same. Even the occasional terrifying monster made her feel somehow full of life.

Until today.

It felt like they waited for hours, though her watch told her it was no longer than twenty minutes, and she found herself wanting to scream from the inactivity. She had this wild urge to leap up and down and run screaming off into the desert, sure Burt would follow her and probably strangle her. That vivid image almost brought a giggle forth, but Burt glared her to silence. She looked down at her running shoes and tried to stifle her mirth.

And had to stifle a gasp.

Something rolled down the slope to their rock and landed against her left foot. It was small, and round, and covered in brownish gray fur. She glanced once at Burt, but he was absorbed in looking over the rock and paying her no attention. Slowly, to avoid alerting him to her movement, she bent her knees and lowered herself enough to pick up the little ball.

It was covered with incredibly soft fur, but the ball was made of some hard material. It didn't weigh very much. She tossed it up in the air and caught it a few times, almost surprised it didn't float away. It had an extra tuft of fur on one side, and a pair of little tabs of some sort sticking out the other end. She pulled on one of the tabs and let out one of those girlish little yips when the ball moved.

She threw it away from her, but it rolled back down the slope and over the toes of her shoes. She backed edgily away until she crowded up against Burt's legs.

He was already glaring down at her after the noise she'd made, and that made him no happier.

She shot to her feet, trying her best to get behind him by the most direct route possible: straight through his hunting vest. "It moved!" she hissed.

He grabbed her shoulders and held her at bay. "What moved?" he hissed back.

Kylie pointed down at the furball at her feet, which had now been joined by another.

Burt set her to the side and she promptly took up a station behind him as he squatted to examine the balls.

He poked carefully at it with a stick he picked up, ready to jump away if it showed signs of hostile aggression. It didn't, just rocked this way and that. "Why did you pick it up?" Burt asked her irritably.

"It was cute," she said defensively.

"And probably dangerous," Burt groused.

She shrugged weakly.

"Fur seems a lot like the jackrabbits around here. Too hard to be a jackrabbit hide..." He flipped it over, noting the tuft of fur and tabs sticking out. "I wonder..."

He stood and went around the rock a bit, watching the hole.

Kylie followed him, but didn't see anything interesting about the hole he'd been so concerned about. She kept one eye on the furball.

When she looked back at Burt's hole, the rabbit had come out. He was right, it looked like a rabbit, but... not, somehow. It started scrabbling at the dirt around the hole. When it stopped digging, it stuck its long tongue in and snagged a bug, then promptly swallowed it.

"Eeeew," Kylie whispered.

Burt glared her to silence.

He quietly circled around, motioning Kylie to stay where she was when she made to follow him.

The rabbit looked nervously around, seeming to sniff the air, first one side, then the other, but made no move to run into the hole.

Slowly, Burt bent to pick up a good size rock, then tossed it into the burrow entrance.

Startled, the rabbit turned to dash into the hole, found it blocked, then promptly curled itself into a ball.

"I suspected as much," Burt muttered, and went to poke and prod at the ball.

Kylie stood over him. "What is it?"

"Jackrabbit," Burt said. "Maybe."

"I didn't know rabbits could do that."

"They can't." He picked up the ball and stood, then took it over and set it near the other two.

Kylie followed, arriving as the two smaller balls unrolled and started digging at the ground. She got a few feet closer and they rolled into balls again.

"I think they're cute," she said, squatting down beside them. She picked one up and rubbed it against her face. "And they feel nice."

"And they probably have strong teeth, so you won't want them that close to your face," Burt pointed out.

Kylie held it away from her and turned it this way and that. "They're hard," she noted.

Burt looked up at her.

She knocked on the side of the fluffy round ball she held. "See?"

"Will you put that thing down!" he grumbled. "It could be dangerous!"

"It's cute," she said defensively.

He tapped his knife hilt against the one he was holding. "Like it's got some kind of shell under the fur." His large hands felt carefully around the ball, looking for an opening. "It is a shell," he pronounced at last. "Three pieces." He tried to pry them apart and couldn't. "Strong..." he commented.

She looked up at him. "Mixmaster?"

He nodded slowly. "Other than the fur and ears, it's not like a jackrabbit at all. Not the shape or the size. And the tongue is all wrong." He reviewed the little he'd seen of the creature near the burrow before it rolled into a ball. "I think the forefeet were different, but the rear were jackrabbit. "Probably armadillo and jackrabbit, at least."

Kylie reviewed the information she'd learned about the Valley. "Do you even have armadillos around here?"

He shook his head. "Might be something they had in the lab. The shell on an armadillo could have military applications..."

"Oh look, there's more," Kylie said, and gathered up two more of the little balls. She looked at hers and the one Burt held. "No fair, mine are smaller than yours."

He rolled his eyes toward her but said nothing, only taking one of the balls from her. He scanned the area, stepped behind her, and picked up another. This one was the same size as Burt's. He handed it to her.

She smiled. "I saw them first - can I name them?" she asked eagerly.

"No," Burt said, afraid of what she'd come up with.

Kylie yipped and dropped the balls she had. "It moved again," she said sheepishly at a glance from Burt.

She watched them, from a distance this time, while Burt poked and prodded at the large one he held. "It's a rabbi-dillo," She decided. "No, that sounds like something you'd find in a sex store."

He looked at her, brows raised.

"I hear," she added.

First one, then another of the balls unfurled while they watched, then gathered around Kylie's large one. "Babies!" Kylie exclaimed.

Burt nodded, irritated. "Most likely."

"How about... Oh! Bunny-ball!" She smiled up at Burt. "I like it. It's a bunny-ball."

Burt set his large one down a few paces away and backed toward Kylie. Another had unfurled and all three were swarming Kylie's larger one, who eventually also unfurled. They all dug at the ground, eventually sticking out long tongues to scoop up insects.

"Can I keep one?" Kylie asked.

"Certainly not. It's a wild animal, and we don't know what else it might be mixed with." He picked up one of the smaller ones, which promptly curled into a ball. "Still," he said, "we might want to take one back for Twitchell..."

"Not that one," Kylie insisted. "Not one of the babies."

Burt rolled his eyes, but put the ball down and reached for the large one.

"Not the mommy!" Kylie exclaimed. "The babies will die."

"They'll probably die anyway," Burt said. "They're not adapted to desert life." But he turned to chase down the large one he'd had, which by now had scrabbled some distance away.

Kylie smiled at his efforts to catch it, though she was careful to make sure he didn't see her.

He finally caught the animal by throwing rocks at it until it curled into a ball. After retrieving it and returning to where Kylie sat watching the little family, Burt thrust the ball at her and let her carry it back to the truck.