He slowed to a walk. As far as he could tell, nobody was chasing him. He could hear voices coming from back by the truck but couldn’t make out the words. Occasionally he’d hear the revving of the engine, but the truck wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
He headed in what he thought was the direction of Big Thumb.
He couldn’t see it through the haze.
Walking helped calm him down and allowed him to think clearly. He doubted he could make it to Big Thumb, and with no water in his canteen, he didn’t want to risk his life on the hope that he’d find refuge there. He’d have to return to camp. He knew that. But he was in no hurry. It would be better to return later, after everyone had a chance to calm down. And as long as he’d come this far, he might as well look for Zero.
He decided he would walk as long as he could, until he was too weak to go any farther, then he’d turn around and go back.
He smiled as he realized that wouldn’t quite work. He would only go halfway—halfway as far as he thought he could go, so that he’d still have the strength to return. Then he’d have to make a deal with the Warden, tell her where he found Kate Barlow’s lipstick tube, and beg for mercy.
He was surprised by how far out the holes extended. He couldn’t even see the camp compound anymore, but he still kept passing holes. tust when he thought he’d passed the last hole, he’d come across another cluster of them, a little farther away.
Back at the compound, they had dug in a systematic order, row upon row, allowing space for the water truck. But out here there
was no system. It was as if every once in a while, in a fit of frustration, the Warden would just pick a spot at random, and say, “What the hell, dig here.” It was like trying to guess the winning numbers in a lottery.
Stanley found himself looking down into each hole he passed. He didn’t admit to himself what he was looking for.
After more than an hour had gone by, he thought he had surely seen the last hole, but then off to the left he saw another cluster of them. He didn’t actually see the holes. He saw the mounds of dirt that surrounded them.
He stepped over the mounds and looked into the first hole. His heart stopped.
Down at the bottom was a family of yellow-spotted lizards. Their large red eyes looked up at him.
He leapt back over the mound and ran.
He didn’t know if they were chasing after him. He thought he might have seen one leap out of the hole.
He ran until he couldn’t run any farther, then collapsed. They hadn’t come after him.
He sat there awhile and caught his breath. As he got back to his feet, he thought he noticed something on the ground, maybe fifty yards away. It didn’t look like much, maybe just a big rock, but in a land of nothingness, any little thing seemed unusual.
He walked slowly toward it. The encounter with the lizards had made him very cautious.
It turned out to be an empty sack of sunflower seeds. He wondered if it was the same one Magnet had stolen from Mr. Sir, although that didn’t seem likely.
He turned it inside out and found one seed stuck to the burlap. Lunch.
