Excerpt
The twins walked slowly along the narrow trail, stopping often to rest on rocks. At each break, they shared proofs that they were going the right direction, and encouraged one another to ignore the doubts that trudged along beside them. They watched the canyon darken as the moon set, and watched it lighten as dawn broke. The doubts weakened at first light, and fell back, but when the increasing light showed no familiar landmarks, the doubts became stronger. They dogged the teens' footsteps, and when the twins sank onto rocks for the second time in five minutes, the doubts attacked.
Hailey surrendered immediately, closing her eyes to hold the swelling flood of tears. "We're hopelessly lost, Charlie. We have no idea where either the cave or the campout is, and nobody at the campout knows where we are. They wouldn't even know where to start looking for us.
Charlie slumped on his rock, staring past his sister into the canyon. It seemed so unending — wild — filled with death — with the bones of people like themselves — people and burros who came for gold — who met a tragic end. They lay there, in company with scorpions, snakes, and spiders — among those jagged, bizarre boulders and rocks — bleached interruptions in a brown landscape.
