AZ Mystery – chapter 3

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When I woke the ground was trembling and I heard the goats baying in fear. Holly rubbed her side on my knee, and her baby tried to hide under her. Thankfully, the earthquake didn’t last long, probably only thirty seconds. The sun was starting to rise over the omnipresent clifftop.

I petted the goats to calm them and got nearly a whole bottle of milk. Holly was recovering well. I walked to my bathroom corner and noticed a lot of loose black rocks at the base of one of the cliffs. Was it coal? There were tons and tons of it! If it really was coal, firewood wouldn’t be a problem for a long time.

I picked up an armful and carried it to the fire. I put a few pieces on the remains of the fire from last night. It took a while, but the coal started burning. Great! Coal would burn a lot longer, too, so I wouldn’t have to check the fire every hour or two.

I walked over to the wall where I had talked to Anna yesterday, to check if she was still there. A large pile of loose rocks laid below a gap in the cliff wall! I only had to climb five meters of loose rocks, before seeing a shoulder-wide path! I could see the tops of palm trees!

I yelled “Anna? Hello?”

I heard, “Pedro! Help! Please help me!”

I carefully walked through the gap. Anna’s area had hundreds of palm trees in the sand, and at least a third of the trees had a coconut or two hanging from them! Coconut would be a nice change from avocados and carrots every day!

“Over here! Help!”

I ran toward her voice, and found her laying on her back, with a large palm tree across her lower legs. I thought of digging her out, but she was on a large rock, instead of the sand.

“I woke up when a tree fell on me, then the ground started shaking!