The metal extension ladder still stands against the cabin, where I placed it. To bad that I’m at the foot of it, neck broken, unable to move. Cooper, my half-shepherd, half-wolf and mostly wild, is tied outback. No one knows we’re here and I can’t help wonder which of us will starve first. I think…

After a couple of hours, traveling back across the desert, Charlie offers, “By this time Billy was looking like hell, you look…you still have color.” “Maybe Billy didn’t infect me after all,” Jack says. “It’s a good possibility,” Charlie replies. Very little is said between the two riders as they trail their way back to…

He was interrupted by a sudden guttural growl from an animal he didn’t recognize. He turned to look in the direction of the sound and was met by a horrific sight: Billy was sitting up, drooling and manically bellowing. “What the…” is all Charlie can get out before Jack lets out a painful howl. Billy…

A deep gash covered the flats in a straight line along with bits of dusky rubble. The sand, where the object had collided with the ground, had become a glass scoria, where bits of phlogiston from sage brush still smoldered in tiny flickering flames that naturally put themselves out. But what was most interesting is…

From the Nevada State Journal, February 6, 1894, “Last Thursday night the people of Candelaria were startled by a dazzling flash of light….The explosion was followed for three or four minutes by a terrible ripping and hissing noise and the afrighted people expected to see the very sky with its bright stars come down on…

Seated outside by a giant umbrella tree for shade, the man watches bees and other assorted flying insects flit from leaf to upturned leaf, searching for the water of a night time dew. Each hover effortlessly from above, looking deep into leafy folds as other’s disappear inside their depth, only to reappear seconds later in…

The following day, and against the doctor’s wishes, Hutch checked himself out of the hospital to return home. He pulled into his driveway jus’ as Deputy Melton was preparing to pull away from the curb in front of Hutch’s home. “Heard you left the hospital,” Melton greeted Hutch as both men exited their vehicles. “Yeah,…

Hutch didn’t have time for tears as in the distance he heard the fast pace of an oncoming runner. Hutch reacted by crawling like a wild animal into a nearby drainage ditch at the far end of the dirt piles. He burrowed beneath the dried clusters of sage brush and freezing snow, the thorns and…

A new year had come and Spring was beginning to show, melting winter away one warm digit after another. By this time, while George’s murder was not forgotten, Hutch’s life continued on and he felt the need to stretch his legs. Still chilly, he pulled his long coat on, covering the pistol he had holstered…

“It’s a damn good thing you had your dog with you,” commented the Deputy Dan Melton “I suppose so – and what a time to go wandering around the desert without a gun,” Hutch replied. “Kind of glad you didn’t have one,” stated Melton. “Yeah, why’s that?” Hutch asked. “She had kittens and we would’ve…