My throat rasped with the harshness of new sandpaper. The storm passed long ago, but night brought little relief. The heat radiating off the shimmering dirt blinded me and sapped more energy than I had. We needed something to protect us, and Todd was worrying me.

Ever since we’d broken free of the storm, he’d been silently stewing behind us. His glare heavy on the back of my head. I’d rather have him glare at me than have to explain what happened to Melody. I wanted to cry about it, but I doubted I had any water left in my body to spare for tears. I’d tried to swallow the bits of vomit that came up as we walked, though there were times I self consciously spit more than mucus into the dirt.

Chuck marched ahead. Every once in a while he’d stop, bend over slightly, clear his throat, and check his watch. His curses faded the longer this trend continued. I fiddled with the strap of the small bag over my shoulder. The weight cut deeper into my sandblasted skin with each step.

Todd grabbed some supplies at some point. Though he hadn’t spoken since we escaped the dust storm. He distributed the four packs in silence. One for me. One for chuck. Todd held onto the last two. Chuck offered to take the other one. It might have helped Todd to heal better from the bite wounds. Todd ignored his offer and kept walking. 

I bit my lip under my shirt. He’d obviously planned for Mel to be with us. The extra supplies didn’t bother me, but somehow not being the one to grab them made me wonder why he would have grabbed all four. It made sense, but my mind couldn’t make sense of it. 

I pressed my fingers into my temples as the headache returned. The world shifted as I closed my eyes for a moment. A bout of nausea forced alcohol and stomach acid up my throat. I swallowed the burning liquid. We needed shelter. I checked my wrist, expecting to find my smartwatch, but groaned with the realization. I’d forced everyone to stow their smartwatches in the cars. Any technology might have been enough for someone to track us. Todd mumbled something behind me. I stopped

“Did you say something, Todd?” I asked.

Todd stopped walking and stared at me. He raised a fist to his chest and pressed. 

“Can’t… catch my breath. It’s nothing.”

With his shirt covering everything but his eyes. Red veins filled his eyes and took away from the beautiful hazel of the pupils. I’d always thought the green parts of his eyes were like emeralds, but now they glowed a sickly green, reminding me of my nausea. 

My gaze fell to his dirt-caked boots, and my face flushed with heat. The world spun again, and I stumbled to the side. It wasn’t just the physical state of his eyes that scared me, but the anger behind them pulling at my guilt. I told myself to turn back around and keep walking. I wanted this weekend to bring us together, not tear us apart.

“Todd, please,” I said.

Todd muttered something under his breath. It repeated, the same cadence. At first I thought it was numbers, but no, they were words. No words I recognized though.

The heat pounded on the back of my neck, reminding me again that we still needed some kind of shelter from the damned sun. Trying to talk anything out now wouldn’t help anyone, and if the boys weren’t keen on talking, maybe they were right.

“Todd, Alice,” Chuck said. “I think I see some buildings. One might be held together with more than a broken foundation.”

A broken foundation? I scanned the area. In the bright moonlight, slabs of concrete peeked out of dry vegetation. Outlines of what must have been houses sillhouetted in sections of the sand. I wondered if I’d ever been out in this neighborhood before. It was crazy to believe that this entire area, the Salt Lake Valley, had been one of the most densely populated areas in Utah. Now, the surviving population has moved to the other side of the mountains. I didn’t understand until now.

An old cinderblock building stood against a background of a starry night sky. I walked faster. Chuck matched my pace before I passed him. He’d become the leader I expected Todd to be. Mel wouldn’t have let Todd boss us around. Not if I took charge. 

My elation fled. With Mel gone, and Todd silent, I didn’t have the support I was used to. My shoulders hunched and pace slowed. We neared a metal door with no glass in it. Why did Mel fight so hard for everyone to listen to me? 

Chuck reached for the metal door. He pulled his hand back with a curse.

“Shit, that’s hot.”

He pulled a small scrap of fabric from his pocket and opened the door. Despite the door’s missing glass, I didn’t notice the shimmering sand on the carpet in the building’s entrance. Chuck held the door open and gestured for me to enter first. I wasn’t sure if that was smart. The building might have housed another coyote den. With caution in my mind, I took a tentative position behind Chuck and let move deeper into the darkness. In all the madness of this weekend of “fun,” he tried to be a gentleman.

As I passed him, I noticed the fabric matched Mel’s flannel she’d thrown on before we went on the joyride in the side-by-side. I held my gaze on Chuck’s eyes, hoping he would tell me how he’d gotten that scrap of fabric. I wanted to take it, because Mel was my best friend and not his, but Todd pushed me inside. He gasped for breath as he limped forward.

“You’re going to kill another of us if you keep standing in the doorway,” Todd said.

I turned to yell, but he’d already pushed deeper into the building and into the shadows of the hallway. Old fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling though a test of the nearby switch proved they didn’t work. The inside of the building made my skin relax and the nausea dissipate. I dropped my bag from my shoulder and let it drag across the ground as I slipped into the icy darkness. It wasn’t anything equivalent to air conditioning, but it was better than being cooked by sand.

The hallway ended at a T-intersection. The door in the center stood open. Todd’s feet stretched out in the opening. I crept into the room, keeping my eyes on the crusted carpet. Each step crunched as the crust fractured. I sat against a desk that spanned the width of the dark room. Chuck entered last and took up a seat on the wall opposite Todd. None of our feet touched. I felt like they should. 

Todd brought us supplies. Chuck found us shelter. It was my turn to contribute. 

We had to find a way back. It was simple, but my opinion caught in my throat with a gag. My decision got us into this mess. I didn’t see a way out.

My shirt hung heavy on my face. I looked to Chuck for permission to drop my shirt. Surely, we were safe. The toxins couldn’t be in here. Chuck, however, stared through the far wall. I shifted until I found a corner of the room, and tried to ignore the crunch of a bug under my hand. Once settled, and my hand rubbed raw on my pants, I rested my head on the corner. I passed out. 

Pale dawn light outlined Chuck in front of me, his shirt over his mouth. Chuck’s pale skin and furrowed brows made me jump. I turned to find Todd glaring at me. A circular patch of salt and sand caked on his once-green T-shirt. My white undershirt had a similar collection of muck on the front.

“We’ve all slept about six hours. I’m guessing we’ve been out here 20 hours,” Chuck said. “We’re all showing signs of heavy metal poisoning.”

Chuck returned to his spot facing the door. I registered the sunlight pouring in through the doorway and a hole in the roof. Where were we? I shifted my head left and right, and it felt like water inside my brain shifted.

“What do we do?” I asked.

Todd grumbled something before taking a deep breath through his nose and blowing it out. With that, he leaned forward and slid his pack into his lap. He pulled the first zipper open before he spoke, keeping his eyes only on the contents of the bag as he laid them out.

“I grabbed four because Mel was supposed to be here.”

I stopped watching him and turned my focus to my bag. Somehow his voice sounded more like an attack on me than anything, and I had nothing to say in my defense.

“Why isn’t she here, Alice?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

What more did he want me to say besides she disappeared during our escape. And it pissed me off Todd would go straight to blaming me. Wasn’t Mel my best friend? I chewed on my fingernails until the disgusting metallic taste registered. 

“Why didn’t you find her on our way back to us?” I asked.

Screw his self-entitled victimhood. He had found us somehow in the storm. It was almost illogical that he didn’t find Mel as well.

“What, you sent the coyotes running after Mel while you grabbed these stupid supplies?”

Todd stopped messing with the supplies and set his bags down.

“Mel didn’t want to come this weekend,” Todd said. “Mel lost her apartment and her job a few months ago. She’s been couch surfing ever since.”

I knotted the hem of my shirt in my shaking hands. We should worry about food and water, not what Mel was dealing with.

“I didn’t force her to do anything,” I said.

Todd grumbled, and finally turned to me. The hate in his eyes made me wish I could pull deeper into the wall at my back. The morning light shone on Todd’s blue and quavering lips.

“Alice, all you do is force people to do things. Everything you think of is the best idea ever. Screw logic. Screw what anyone else wants. You take charge because your mommy and daddy won’t listen to you.”

Chuck’s whispered words were more like a light breeze before a massive wave that someone had held back for years.

“It’s not her fault that we lost Mel.”

Todd staggered to his feet, kicking the supplies at Chuck and me. His right pant leg tight from shin to knee, his limp worse than before.

“Don’t defend her. She’s been this way since we met.”

He turned to me and pointed, but his finger aimed two or three feet to my right. His gaze fixed on where I’d laid the night before. 

“You’re the reason Mel’s dead. She never wanted to come on this trip, and neither did I. We stayed friends because you wouldn’t let me leave this damned town behind me. And now we’re here, most likely all of us will die, and it’s all your fault. Alice.”

Todd limped out the doorway holding his right arm to his chest, breathing short breaths. I braced a hand at my hip, and leaned forward. I wasn’t ready to let him take the last blow in this fight. Everyone here was an adult, and they could have said no if they didn’t want to be here. 

“You’ll regret it if you follow him,” Chuck said. “I know I’m not part of your friend group.”

Chuck’s words were more effective than if he had physically stopped me. He groaned in pain as he bent over for a moment.

“But, it’s better for you to let him cool off. Not to mention the effect of the arsenic on his mind.”

I’d stopped before Chuck explained why I shouldn’t go after him, but no, he had explained. My mind slipped back to the high school classes talking about some issue with letters. But that didn’t seem right. What did I remember about arsenic? Just that the toxin had been in the air here ever since the Great Salt Lake dried up. At first, it was nothing more than a minor toxin to add to the already polluted Salt Lake City, but then it got worse. I remembered people getting sick before the government stepped in.

“If it’s affecting his mind,” I asked, “does that mean it’s affecting ours?”

Chuck nodded.

“It will vary based on our body types, diets, and something else.”

Chuck’s face twisted, and one eye closed.

“Maybe eighteen hours of exposure,” Chuck said. “I can’t.”

Chuck put a hand to his head and leaned back against the wall.

“Stress makes it worse. Let’s organize our supplies and let Todd cool off.”

I nodded and pulled my bag onto my lap. For a long time, the only sounds were the shuffle of bags and the crinkle of vacuum-sealed supplies. Nothing in the bags would help us communicate with the outside world.

Chuck excused himself to find a restroom. I focused on my task, hoping Todd would come back with Chuck. A heavy thud that sounded like something falling over came from outside. 

I stopped my organizing for a moment. After a few breaths I dismissed the thud as the wind blowing a door closed. Or Todd probably punched a wall or something. That’s how guys got their anger out. We should talk it out. I’d stay calm this time. Todd couldn’t stay angry with me. The accident and exhaustion must have gotten to him. He couldn’t have meant everything he said. It was the arsenic talking, not Todd.

By the time Chuck returned, he frowned at the laid out supplies. Four freeze-dried food or what my dad always called MREs. Terrible food unless you were trying to survive. I remembered him saying that a single MRE had enough nutrients to fuel a full day’s march. Eight bandages, some kind of string, and four of those silver blankets. Chuck’s ghostly white face didn’t provide hope for a positive assessment of the situation.

“You don’t look so good,” I said.

Not a useful comment, but nicer than saying he looked like shit. My appearance wasn’t very appealing either. Chuck got to the floor awkwardly, lying on his side, almost making an obvious effort not to sit on his ass. A rush of air sent a god-awful scent of bitter shit. I gagged silently as Chuck stared at the pile of food.

“Not enough,” Chuck said. “We don’t know the distance or direction.”

I stood up, and the smell worsened. I held my forearm to my nose as if that would do something. Chuck wasn’t wrong, but we’d fallen down the opposite side of the mountain we were camping on. We must be in a small city on the east side of the mountain. We’d never fully explored the city, but if I recognized something, then we might find our way home.

“If you’re going out looking for Todd, he’s not down the right hallway,” Chuck said. “Please trust me.”

I nodded and kept my walk as fast as possible with my hip tight from whatever had hurt me the day before. The wind picked up and fresh sand blew into the entry hallway. Or the exit? Either way, it left a clear direction for my search.

I found a window at the end of the hallway. Clear of any glass, the heat rippled over the metal like illusory water. My mouth opened and closed on its own, reminding me I had drunk nothing since the vodka the day before. Or had it been longer? I walked toward the window in a daze. There was no logical justification for it, just something else to watch.

Close to the building was a strip of blacktop exposed by the wind. Sand and dirt flowed onto and off the cracked and slanting chunks of road. The bright yellow and red paint of a clown reminded me of a gas station we always stopped at on the way back from a concert for drinks and junk food. In the ripples above the road, I thought I saw Todd’s old station wagon full of high school kids headed to a concert. It didn’t matter which one, every concert we went to, it was the same group. Todd, me, Mel, a random guy Mel invited, and our three other friends that we’d long lost contact with. Ashley, Taylor, and Tiffany had all gone out of state, but in high school they went everywhere with us.

I always made sure we had the band blasting that we were going to see, but something in the memory flickered and I saw the strain on each person’s face. The memory pulled something more recent to my mind. A discomfort clear to me as I reflected on how hard I fought to get Mel on this camping trip. 

“Hey, bestie, what’s going on?”

I’d texted her two days prior to the camping trip. I’d seen the read report. The sound of screaming children in the background filled the gap between her question and my response. I shifted my phone to my shoulder as I fought my clothes into a camping backpack.

“Where are you, Mel?” I asked. “Why do I hear kids?”

The hiss of a sliding door opening and closing with a clunk came through.

“Sorry, I’m at the park with my nieces and nephews.”

Parks didn’t have sliding glass doors. But I’d never thought Mel needed to lie to me.

“So, you’re coming this weekend. Right?”

“Alice, I don’t know if I can.”

“Come on, Mel, you’re my best friend, aren’t you? And you wouldn’t let me be the only girl, right?”

I’d already gotten Todd to agree, and even to bring a friend that might be interested in Mel. Everyone would be happy. Mel’s silence went on too long. I put some extra whine in my voice.

“Please! Todd’s bringing a friend.”

More silence.

“I can’t afford to miss any more work,” Mel said.

“Girl, we have our whole lives to work,” I said. “Don’t people always ask you to cover their shifts? You can work an extra shift next week.”

Mel responded with a heavy sigh.

“I promised to watch my nieces and nephews this weekend.”

“Come on, Mel,” I said. “One weekend of babysitting will not make a big difference. You’ll get what — twenty, thirty dollars? You’re stealing pocket change from teenagers. I need my best friend this weekend.”

Silence. I had one more tool in my back pocket. 

“You gave me a rain check the last time I asked you to hang out. I’m calling it in.”

There was a soft thunk on the other side of the line.

“Fine,” Mel said. “But only because I’m your best friend.”

A blast of hot air pulled me from the memory. I had the signs needed to see Mel’s issues, but I’d blinded myself to them. My gaze fell back to the road in the sand.

Wait a second, I knew where we were by this road. And this building. It was a city building of some kind. The city name remained foggy, but if that road was the one we took to concerts, I knew the way home.

I turned to run and tell the others I had a plan, but stopped. We were out here because of my brilliant weekend camping idea. I’d insisted Chuck bring his side-by-side after Todd mentioned it. Then came the fall, and if we’d left when Chuck told us to, survival might have been possible. My chest tightened, and the tears stung like fire down my face.

I’d killed my best friend.

I’d completely ignored the signs that she’d been struggling.

When was the last time I’d asked Mel about her life instead of barraging her with mine?

I leaned against the wall, headache back in full force, and a new pain gnawing at my stomach. My ideas were useless and got people killed. Todd might offer some feedback, though there was no sign of him my entire time walking around. Chuck might be a better bet. He’s more logical and a better leader than Todd. 

I wound my way back, pushing open every door on the way. It should be a group decision. After a series of empty offices, I found a door that didn’t budge.

I heard Chuck’s groans from down the hallway. He needed me. After a few more attempts I collapsed against the door. The wind must have blown over a book case or something. I returned to our room and found he hadn’t moved since I’d walked away.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

He shook his head. I stayed in the doorway, where the fresh air blew the stench of bile away from me. I covered my mouth with my shirt.

“Could I run an idea past you?”

Chuck rolled to face me, but didn’t show any effort to move.

“I’m listening.”

His words came out clipped and stated between jagged breaths.

“I think I know where we are,” I said.

I bit my lip but flinched at the sharp pain on my dry lips. Chuck’s lips resembled mine in their dryness and cracking. I wanted to make sure I didn’t try to boss him around.

“And if I’m right, we might make it home.”

That may have been a stretch, but Chuck had seemed to lose hope. Not feeling well wasn’t an excuse. My dad taught me to push through when things got hard. Chuck shrugged.

“We can’t survive another dust storm.”

There was anger that rose inside of me, and I wanted to kick the door frame, but that would hurt more than anything.

“Will you at least listen to my idea?” I asked. “What else do you have to do?”

Chuck let out a long groan of pain, and possibly annoyance. My response was bitchy, but I needed him to listen. To at least get someone’s input on my idea.

“Fine,” Chuck said.

I took it slow, keeping it simple since Chuck was struggling with more pain than the rest of us. The headache was also pounding a spike into my skull, so short sentences worked best.

“I saw a familiar road. We used to drive it a lot. It can lead us home. North, then west. We just have to walk it.”

If I remembered correctly, we wouldn’t be climbing up any sheer rock walls. Hopefully, the winds, along with everything else, had eroded the on major hill. The National Guard soldiers should be somewhere on the road, patrolling.

“See what Todd thinks,” Chuck said. “I might as well not die in my own shit.”

I smiled, and would have skipped if I could. It was simple, but if Todd agreed, this idea could save all our lives. Moving around became easier as I checked each doorway I’d missed. Each door swung open a little harder. 

Most were empty office space with desks and some dusty books still in place. I didn’t blame them for leaving the books behind since they were as thick as manuals. After checking all the offices along the first stretch of the hall, I went back to the hallway, where I found the window. My attention immediately went to the door that was stuck close, but it was slightly ajar now.

A sliver of light shone through the crack as if it were a beam of white, feverish light. My heart stopped. As I drew closer, I noticed a small, rounded shadow outline blocking the bottom of the light beam. Possibly an old vase on a desk. Yeah, that’s what it had to be. 

A smear of dried blood wrapped around the stainless steel doorknob. I reached up and pushed on the wooden door, the once heavy weight giving with a series of thuds. I stopped pushing on the door, but it swung open as if pulled by an invisible cord.

Tears should have scorched my skin, moistened my eyes, or threatened to appear after a knot formed in my chest. The jeans and familiar flannel shirt wrapped around the waist were enough to tell me this wasn’t some long-lost employee.

I ran from the room, hand covering my mouth, trying not to fully process everything. I knew Todd was dead, but my words came out in a sputter as I tried to tell Chuck what I’d found. The words came with cracked sobs, as dry as the world. Chuck, broken out of his spell of misery, handed me a packet of food and told me to eat. He disappeared for a little and came back with a somber expression.

“I don’t know exactly what it was, but Todd had bloody foam in his mouth. Rabies takes more time to kick in, so I don’t believe it was from the bite on his leg. His lips were kind of blue too, and that’s not good. I wish I could tell you more.”

Chuck took his lying position back up and faced the pile of food. The water bottles inside cracked and dried long ago. I slurped down the MRE applesauce that sent a rush to my head. I wondered how long it’d been since we fell off that cliff. The bit of food was enough to refuel my mind, though.

“So, what do you think of us moving on?”

Burying Todd would be the proper thing to do, but I didn’t have a shovel, energy, or strength to do so. Chuck was, well, he looked like he was lucky to have the energy to go check on Todd’s corpse. The heat of the day had already drenched us in sweat, but now I was dry and my skin tight. Something in my mind said that was a bad sign. I just wanted to shut off my mind. We could make it if we turned off our brains and walked like robots in the sun. Had it been long enough for my father to organize a search party once they found our vehicles? That’s if they cared to look for me.

“Alice?” Chuck asked.

“Huh?”

“I’ve been talking to you for five minutes.”

I frowned and tried to recall, but all I remembered were my thoughts.

“Don’t go back there again now,” Chuck said. “Listen. We can’t survive a long stretch in the heat of the day. Night is the safest bet. Moving will keep us alive longer than layers.”

I nodded. It made sense.

“What do we do for now?” I asked.

Chuck nudged the food packets with a finger and frowned.

“The sun is sinking. We rest for now, eat half of our food, and wait until the sun sets” Chuck said. 

We ate, and I laid down to sleep after. My mind ran in hyper drive. Two of my friends gone because I wanted to hide from my parents. They always thought I needed to be ordered through my life, and I’d been doing the same to my friends. Now I’d lost a best friend and a man who might have been something more. I trembled and fought back the tears.

Updated 02/03/2026: Significantly improved medical plausibility of Todd’s deterioration with progressive symptoms (breathing difficulty, blue lips, leg swelling, confusion). Added timeline marker (20 hours since crash). Streamlined heavy metal exposition. Clarified Alice’s recognition of the escape route.

The Great Salt Bowl Chapter 2

The Great Salt Bowl Chapter 4