“Archeology or army? Ah, forget it.” Matt also lay down, resting his head on his pack.

Andy said, “Do you really think there is a book that’s going to tell us what’s going on with these earth-drop occurrences?”

Matt shrugged. “A week ago I would have called bullshit. But with the holes, the birds, roaches, and seeing the pages that Albadi had, predicting the events we are experiencing, well, then, yeah, I think there’s a good chance we’ll find something.”

“Good.” Andy cleared his throat. “Because when I was at the bottom of the Iowa sinkhole, I saw something. Freaked me out. First time I ever felt like that in my life.”

Matt stared up at the sky. There were a billion stars sprayed across the velvet darkness – pinpricks of light showing through a black blanket. Directly overhead, lighter and bigger than the rest, was a line of six dots. Matt knew there’d be two more behind the Earth – it was the solar system’s convergence, and would complete within a few days.

“Yep, we’ll find something,” he hoped aloud, and closed his eyes and prayed for sleep.

*

Abrams, first on watch, had draped a camouflage net over his head to break up his profile. He had a long, bulky set of field glasses to his eyes and moved them over the landscape – nothing showed. He flicked them over to light enhancement and then up to thermal – a few rocks still glowed pink, as the day’s heat slowly left them, but for the most part, there was nothing – not a bat, rodent, lizard, or even bug he could detect. Unnatural, he thought, as a desert night was a hive of activity for nocturnal hunters. The heat of the day forced most creatures below ground, but at night, it was showtime…Unnatural, he thought again.

He was about to move back to light enhance when a lump grew in the sand a few hundred feet out. He frowned and focused in on it – the thing was big, and moved slowly, only raising the sand by a few inches. Where it lumped the dry surface there was a red glow, as if there was intense heat being generated. He blinked to clear his vision. The small sand wave travelled for hundreds of feet. He wished the geologist was with him to ask, as he doubted it was anything artificial. As Abrams followed it with his eyes, it began to sink lower and lower, until it vanished.

“What the fuck was that?” he whispered. Must be related to the sinkholes, he guessed. He made a mental note to ask Andy Bennet when he woke. He exhaled, feeling unsettled. He’d feel better after they got to their destination, and at least had some cover at their backs. He put the glasses to his eyes again, and scanned the now cold and motionless desert.

*

Matt felt the toe in his ribs and looked up to see Captain Tania Kovitz standing over him. “Rise and shine, Sleeping Ugly.”