Eden

“That’s fuckin’ water, mate.” Jack downed the last of his canteen, refilled it, drained it again, and swiped his arm across his mouth, throwing shimmering droplets into the air. “Ahhh. Damn good water, clean and clear as hell, but still just water.”

Liam leaned against the cliff wall, face in hands. “It can’t just be water.”

“Yeah, but it is though.”

“We need to take a sample back to camp.”

“It’s water, buddy. We’ve got gallons of it back at camp.”

“Well, we can’t go back empty-handed.”

“If you think bringing water back is better than coming back empty-handed, then be my guest.”

“The things we went through, the people we lost. All for nothing.”

“Water’s not what we were looking for, but it’s not nothing.”

“It’s nothing to us!”

“Sure, but it wasn’t nothing to the people what came before us, was it? Look around!” Jack spread his arms and did a slow, full turn, taking in the stunning array of plant life, the waterfall cascading into the lake, the great dunes in the distance, peeking into the mouth of the valley. “Nothing but hundreds of miles of desert in every direction, and here, smack-dab in the middle of the hottest, most miserable nightmare of a place on the planet, we’re standing in a bonafide goddamn paradise. That really not get your noggin going?”

Liam paced, one hand stroking the patchwork beard he’d grown the past few weeks. “What are you suggesting?”

“Not suggesting nothing. Just saying we should keep looking!”