Drought by Graham Masterton

Author:Graham Masterton [Graham Masterton]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2014-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

They lit a fire in a natural hollow in the rocks. From the soot-blackened granite and the heaps of ashes they could see that campers had lit fires in this hollow many times before, because it acted as a natural hearth. For them, though, the greatest advantage was that nobody on the highway would be able to see it, and it was sheltered by so many trees that it would be difficult to spot from the air.

‘Before dark tomorrow we should reach Lost Girl Lake,’ said Santos. He had taken three Tylenol with the coffee that Susan had brewed, and now he was sitting upright and his eyes were brighter. ‘To start with we can make a camp in the cave there, and then we can think about building a better shelter.’

They grilled hot dogs in front of the fire on sticks, and heated up cans of baked beans and vegetable soup by burying them in the embers. When they had eaten, Peta and Susan made up blanket-beds for the younger children in one of the cabins so that they could settle down to sleep. The moon had risen over the treetops, and Camp Knobcone was now illuminated by a hard white light.

For Rita’s sake, they had taken nine six-packs of Budweiser from the Chevron food mart, and she had already managed to drink five cans. None of them had been happy about bringing along so much alcohol for her, especially Peta, who never drank; but even Peta understood that if Rita suddenly stopped drinking altogether, she was liable to suffer from hallucinations and tremors and even a stroke or a fatal heart attack.

‘Let’s sing something!’ said Rita. ‘Here we are, sitting around a campfire, we should sing something! How about Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts? We always used to sing that when I was at camp! Come on, all of you! Join in!’

She started to sing, shrill and off-key, waving her beer can from side to side so that it sprayed into the fire.

‘Yankee Doodle went to town a-ridin’ on a gopher

Bumped into a garbage can and this is what fell over:

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat, chopped up parakeet.

French-fried eyeballs rolling down the street.

Oops, I forgot my spoon!’

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