Death is Forever

taunting ghost of rain and concentrated on the land ahead. Pale gum trees were scattered haphazardly across flat red earth. Waves of heat shimmered above the dirt. Clumps of hard spinifex competed for space with weathered blocks of limestone.
    The flats were surrounded by broken hills. In the distance a long, flat-topped hill or ridge rose steeply, marking one edge of the basin where runoff water must certainly collect during the wet, for there was no notch or ravine or canyon where the water could break free of the depression.
    Yet no matter how carefully he looked, there wasn’t any sign that the flats became a temporary lake in the rainy season.
    A vague tendril of excitement uncurled in his gut, taking his mind off the hunger and thirst that had steadily eroded his strength.
    “What are you looking for?” Erin asked hoarsely, studying the landscape.
    “Some sign of where water runs off during the wet.”
    She looked around in silence for several minutes. Then she frowned and looked more closely. “Didn’t we come through here yesterday?”
    He gave her a sideways look and wondered if heat, hunger, and dehydration were blurring her mind.
    “No,” he said.
    “It looks…familiar.”
    “The landscape looks pretty much the same from here to the Admiralty Gulf.”
    “Are you sure?” She squinted through the shimmering heat, feeling more certain with each moment that she’d been here before.
    “Don’t worry. I’m not wonky enough from thirst to be walking us in circles. Go to sleep,” he added, pushing himself to his feet. “It will be time to walk soon enough.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “Up there.” He jerked his thumb at the small hill they’d just climbed down.
    “Why?”
    “I want to take a look from the top. I might be able to see a splash of green or birds flying.”
    When Cole left the rucksack but picked up the shotgun and stuffed extra shells in his pocket, Erin looked at him sharply.
    “Is there something you aren’t telling me?” she asked.
    “Sleep if you can. I won’t be long.”
    “Cole?”
    “It’s all right. I’ll be able to see you from the top of the hill.”
    He was gone before she could ask any more questions that he didn’t want to answer.
    Sighing, she lay back in a kind of daze while the clouds thickened, reducing the hammering force of sunlight and dropping the temperature a few degrees. The air thickened too, becoming a weight that was too heavy to breathe and too thin to drink. The density of various cloud cells increased as the indigo promise of rain climbed from the base of the clouds to halfway up the towering clusters of thunderheads. One of the cells was directly overhead. Thunder echoed through it restlessly, pursuing hidden lightning.
    Random drops rattled on the canopy Cole had rigged.
    She shot to her feet and ran out into the open, tipping her head back and holding out her hands to catch any rain. After a moment she felt a drop fall just above her upper lip. Her tongue flicked out. Even though the raindrop was mixed with her own sweat and the fine dust that coated everything in the Kimberley, the hint of water tasted sweet and clean.
    A dozen raindrops fell. Lightning winked and flirted while thunder cracked with startling force. More rain reached the thirsty earth. The drops were fat and heavy, pregnant with the possibility of life. Each drop made a dark splash pattern on the dusty ground and vanished.
    “Come on,” she said hoarsely, trying to coax a steady rain from the threatening cloud overhead. “Come on.”
    As quickly as the rain had started, it stopped. The storm cell moved on, driven by the sun’s savage heat.
    She went to her knees with the exhaustion that the promise of rain had made her forget for a few moments. Helplessly she stared up at the steamy silver sky where clouds had gathered a few minutes ago.
    She didn’t realize that Cole had returned until he pulled her to her feet.
    “Get back in the shade,” he said. “It’s too hot for real rain. Almost all the drops are evaporating before they hit the ground.”
    Numbly she nodded and walked toward the canopy that protected them from the savage sun. She sank to the ground, no longer noticing its stones or gritty texture.
    Cole stretched out next to her.
    “Find anything?” she asked hoarsely.
    “Any water here is underground.”
    “How far?”
    “That’s the million-dollar question, honey. I don’t have an answer.”
    The harshness of his voice was equaled by his