They awoke to find the world calm after its violent scrubbing by the storm. Feeling better rested and more confident with a full night's sleep under their belts, they ate a quick breakfast, packed up, and slipped out of their hideaway before the sun could fully peek over the mountains. Today, they told one another several times, they would put away some serious miles.

Despite their determination, they started off slow. The ruined forest that stood between them and the river took time to traverse, and the fact that Dick's leg had stiffened up again didn't help their pace. It had improved by the time they reached the waterway, but Tim still found himself having to slow his steps in order to allow his brother to keep up. Lingering close to his side, he couldn't help but wonder how the older man was going to challenge a villain when it took him several hours each day just to manage proper movement. All he could hope was that adrenalin would prove as effective then as it had during the bear attack; if it didn't, they were going to be in trouble.

Thinking about the adversary they were heading towards caused a vexing question to rise to the top of his mind. "...Dick?"

"Yeah?"

"Does it seem weird to you that we haven't seen anyone else out here?"

Dick shot him a sideways look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if there's someone under the dome with us, where's their support? We can't be more than eight or nine miles out from that tower that Damian mentioned, and you know that the Batplane's probably been hanging around, so why aren't more steps being taken to make sure that there's no one inside who could oppose them?" There were only two good ways of reaching the falls, at least according to the map, and they had been on them both in the days since the quake. How was it possible that there was no defense along either route?

"...Maybe we're still too far out," a suggestion was made. "We were what, five miles away when we turned back before?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"And we're more than that away now."

"Right."

"So maybe they've got their forces concentrated around wherever they're working from. I mean, they can't have gotten too many henchmen in here without anyone noticing. There are only a certain number of people each year who get permits to go back to the falls, and when I was setting this whole thing up the park said that they're really careful about making sure everyone makes it back to base okay at the end of their trip. They'd have noticed a bunch of people who went out and didn't come back. It would make sense for the baddies to keep what little help they have close to home. Besides, they might figure that anyone who was hiking in the area was either killed in the quake or has no way of knowing what's going on." A grin flitted across his features. "They sure as heck aren't expecting us to show up on their doorstep."

"...I guess that makes sense," Tim allowed. The explanation didn't completely quell the uncertainty bubbling in his stomach, but it at least put a lid on it. Shortly after their conversation ended Dick began to speed up, his wounded calf having finally loosened enough to be used somewhat normally, and he had no more time to dwell on what lay ahead of them. Trying to pick their way upstream required all of his attention; they'd just have to play the future by ear.

By late morning the broad banks and steep but surmountable hills that had flanked them the day before were long gone. In their place stood thin traces of scrub-covered soil that backed up against vertical walls, the remnants of many millennia of erosion. The river bed itself narrowed to a mere ten or twelve feet in width, the middle third of which was occupied by swift-flowing water. Shortly after that they started to come across the feeder streams that Tim had predicted, and every time they crossed one the main current became noticeably smaller. Wary lest they soon find themselves walking along a completely dry course, they began to refill their bottles at each intersection, exchanging grimmer and grimmer looks.

Their path became steeper as it tapered, forcing them to pant for breath. It was nothing compared to the scrambles they had completed before the earthquake, but in their wounded and weakened states the grade was enough to drain them of what little energy they had. They began to take more and more frequent breaks, dropping to the ground with groans at each stop and leaning back-to-back so that neither had to lay on the coarse, damp sand. It was during one such pause that Dick pointed vaguely upward and said a single word. "Sheep."

Tim opened his eyes and frowned. "...Heh?"

"I said, sheep."

Craning his neck, he managed to look over his brother's shoulder. "Where?"

"Up there, on the rocks. See them?"

"...Hold on." He scooted around until he was facing the right direction. "Oh..." There they were, several whitish blobs making their way slowly down the face of the nearest mountain. "Huh."

"Kinda cool. They must be coming for a drink or something."

"...They'd better hurry up," he remarked, pointing upstream. "It looks like there's another storm building."

Sure enough, the vague mist that had been hovering far overhead almost since they'd set out was quickly descending. It thickened as it fell, giving the air the same grainy quality it had possessed just before the wind and rain had come the day before. Knowing what they were in for offered no relief, for here there were no caves in which to hide. When the weather came they were going to be as exposed to it as the short line of sheep walking along the naked, impassable cliff above.

"You thinking we should pull off? Try to set up camp before it starts up?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "but..." But where? he pleaded. The animals at least had their thick hair coats to keep them warm and dry; he and Dick would be lucky if they could find a place to bed down. There was nowhere even remotely sheltered within sight, and the wind was likely to be worse tonight than last thanks to the high-sided canyon they'd ventured into. The tent would surely be whipped away in an instant in such an exposed setting.

"We could backtrack," Dick proposed, seeming to read his worry.

"What do you mean?"

"Well...there was a little nook off to the side, back where that last creek came in. It's not much, but it looked like it would be big enough for the tent. I think there was a little rise separating it from the main valley here, too, so that should cut down on the breeze."

Tim glanced over his shoulder, measuring the distance they'd come since their last ford. "What is that, a half mile?"

"About that, I think."

He sighed. We need to move forward, not backward, he grimaced. There was no telling what they would find for shelter up ahead, though, and if they forged onward they'd be walking into the storm rather than away from it. Besides, the last thing he wanted to do was get caught out in a thunder symphony like the one they'd barely escaped the night before. "...Alright. Let's do it."

"You're sure?"

"Not much choice. We'll end up plastered against the force field like bugs on a windshield if we don't get out of the way of what's coming. If we're going to die on this trip, I'd rather it was in a slightly nobler fashion than that preferred by millions of insects each year."

Dick chuckled. "Agreed. Shall we?"

"No time to waste."

There really wasn't. It took them less than an hour to retreat to the small outcrop Dick had seen and set up camp, but they had barely finished when the rain started in earnest. To Tim's relief there was no thunder, and as a result he was able to sit a hundred yards from the tent and work on dinner much longer than he might have managed otherwise. Eventually the combination of wind and water shut the stove off, overriding his determination and forcing him to call it quits. "Sorry," he apologized as he ducked inside, dripping everywhere. "It's not really done, but..."

"Jesus, Timmy, you're soaked! Here..." Dick traded him a towel for the pot. "Dry off before you catch pneumonia. Don't worry about dinner; it's done enough."

They ate directly from the container, wincing as their teeth crunched over half-cooked rice. When they'd scooped up the last few grains with their fingers, Tim braved the storm long enough to put the dish just out of sight of their sleeping quarters. It was all the bear defense that they could muster until and unless one came into the tent after them. A drizzle of rain ran down the inside of his jacket as he turned back, and he shivered; would the pepper spray even work in such wet conditions? He didn't see how it could...

Fortunately there was no chance for them to find out that night. They lay close together, cold in spite of their shared body heat and the clothes they had piled on top of the sleeping bag, and whispered through half of the dark hours. When he finally drifted off Tim slept fitfully, his ears straining to hear movement outside and his dreams haunted by vague, threatening shadows. Dick seemed to have issues with slumber as well, and gave out tiny groans of pain and fear that only quieted when he offered a reassuring hum and pressed himself closer.

He left his brother alone under the covers shortly after the patter of droplets ceased. There was gray light filtering in, and he thought he might see how much the creek had risen in the night. As soon as he stepped outside, however, he froze. "Uhhh...Dick?"

"Mmph...five more minutes, Alfred..."

"Dick, seriously. Wake up."

"What...ugh...hey...Timmy?!"

"Right here. Take a look at this, would you?"

There was an odd dragging sound, and a moment later Dick's head appeared beside Tim's knee. "What...oh, hey. We've got visitors."

"Yeah. Visitors." They had evidently chosen a prime location in which to set up camp, for they had not only survived the wind and rain in it but they had also acquired neighbors. "Problem is, we're not shepherds," he remarked as he gazed at the bedraggled creatures laying a few dozen feet away. "So what the hell do we do with a bunch of sheep?"

"Um...hope that one of them wants to give me a lift the rest of the way to the falls?"

"What..." He glanced downward and took in the embarrassed look on his brother's face. "Oh, no. Your leg?"

"Stiff as a freaking board. I think it was the cold that did it."

Well, that explains why it sounded like you were crawling to get to me, he groused silently. "Do you think it will loosen up once we get going?"

"We'd better hope so. I'm not exactly a pro at riding sheep bareback, you know?"

"Yeah. The problem is, how do we move around these guys?" Several of the animals had raised their heads and were staring at him while they chewed their cud. "Being headbutted by a wild sheep isn't exactly on my bucket list."

"...I think the answer is that we go back to sleep."

"But-"

"But what, Tim? They've got us surrounded. As peaceful as they're being now, that's no guarantee of what they'll do if we try to break down camp in the middle of them. Besides, it's early, neither of us slept well, and we'll hear them react if anything dangerous tries to come in close. So...I vote for sleep."

There was no argument he could come up with against any of those points, so he didn't object. "Okay. You win. We sleep."

"Good. Now come back inside, would you? I think you're making them nervous..."

He didn't know whether it was simple exhaustion that let him pass out almost as soon as his head hit its makeshift pillow or something to do with having an ovine honor guard, but by the time he woke up several hours later he didn't really care. What mattered was that he'd gotten some rest and, he found when he unzipped the door, that their 'visitors' had crossed to the far side of the river. On top of that, the sky was clearer than he'd seen it in two days, and that alone was such good news that he found he could overlook the cold wind still blowing down through the canyon.

Dick stumbled in circles in an attempt to warm up his useless leg while Tim focused on packing up camp. He had just finished tucking their clothes and the sleeping bag away when panicked cries erupted from the distant sheep. Not the bear, he begged as his hand flew to the can hanging from his waist. Please, not the damned bear...

What had actually set the creatures off was almost worse. Before he could do anything more than straighten up, the earth shifted under his shoes. "Shit!" he shouted as he lost his footing and fell. "Get away from the cliffs!" he directed at Dick. "Go towards the water!"

They met halfway, groping out for each other as they tripped their way across the rolling, clattering gravel that lined the feeder creek. Something hit the ground with a mighty crunch behind them, but neither looked back. All they could do was trying not to be separated as they were pitched forward into icy, ankle-deep water.

The world trembled to a stop just as their socks soaked through. For a second they merely stood, leaning together and waiting to see if it would start again. When it didn't, they exchanged a weary glance. "...You okay?" they asked at the same time.

They almost laughed, but nothing was quite as funny as it had been even two days before. "...I'm okay," Dick nodded. "Dropped my stick somewhere, though."

"We'll find it," Tim sighed. "We'd better, at least. I haven't seen a tree your height since yesterday morning." Wrapping his arm around the older man's waist, he helped him hobble back in search of his crutch. They found it halfway between the water and the tent, but before either could bend to pick it up something much more dire caught their attention.

"...Oh, shit," Dick breathed, his voice shocked. "That's...that's bad."

"Bad? We're screwed," Tim answered, stunned. Not even the bright sun above was enough to brighten the scene before them. It's going to storm again this afternoon, he gulped. In such a small, dynamic area as the one that was enclosed by the force field, more extreme weather was all but guaranteed. Clear skies or none, another atmospheric cataclysm was already building, and with the rain would come the wind and the cold. It was a dangerous trio that was fully capable of sucking the life out of them before they ever saw the villain they were chasing, and now... And now we have no shelter, he panicked as he stared at the massive boulder that had pancaked their tent. Now we're halfway to dead...