Scavenger by David Morrell

three. More is better for accuracy, but three is sufficient. In this valley, the usual number of links is five. The satellites are thirty miles above us, beaming signals at a mere fifty watts, and yet they’re amazingly precise.”
    Amanda watched vertical bars appear on the bottom of her unit’s screen. Five of them darkened.
    “These receivers work best in open spaces,” the voice said. “Buildings and dense forest restrict the signals. But now that you’re outdoors, your units have registered your current position. Pay attention to the following coordinates. They indicate your destination. North ...” The voice dictated a series of numbers. “West . . .” The voice dictated other numbers.
    Amanda was bewildered as Ray, Bethany, Derrick, and Viv pressed buttons on their receivers.
    “Not so fast,” Bethany objected, adjusting her microphone. “Tell me the second set of numbers again.”
    The voice repeated them.
    “Okay,” Bethany said.
    Amanda continued to be baffled.
    “It’s easy.” Sounding annoyed, Viv took the receiver from her. “The buttons on each side cycle through the main pages and access the menus on them: a compass, an altimeter, a map.”
    “No map on mine,” Ray said.
    “Mine neither,” Bethany said.
    “Great. So we still don’t know where we are.” Viv showed Amanda how each button worked. “With a little practice, you won’t have trouble remembering what they do. Here, I’ll enter the coordinates for you.”
    Viv showed Amanda how it was done, then handed the receiver back to her.
    “Excellent,” the voice said. “Team spirit.” “Anything to get out of here,” Viv said.
    “That depends on how everyone performs. The forty hours begin . . .” The voice paused, as if double-checking something “... now .”
    Everyone frowned.
    “I advise you not to waste time,” the voice warned.
    They continued to remain in place.
    “You’ll find something you need at the coordinates I gave you.”
    “Water?” Bethany asked. “Food?”
    The voice didn’t answer.
    “Hell, if there’s water and food, let’s go.” Derrick glanced at his GPS receiver.
    Amanda did the same. On the screen, a red needle pointed away from her. Above it, a box was marked DIST TO DEST and indicated one mile.
    “In this mode, the compass doesn’t aim north but instead toward the coordinates we entered,” Viv explained. “Looks like we’re supposed to head toward that clump of trees in the distance.”
    The trees were opposite the valley’s exit, Amanda noticed. She assumed that her thoughts were the same as the others’. The moment she was far enough from the building that she couldn’t see it any longer, she’d watch for a chance to escape.
    The guarded expression in everyone’s eyes told her that the rest of the group had the same plan.
    They started walking. Dry grass crunched under Amanda’s boots. The sun’s glare pained her eyes. Despite its heat, she shivered. Staying behind the others, she couldn’t help noticing how unnatural the combination of their blue, green, gray, red, and brown jumpsuits looked. When she looked around, the expanse of the sky seemed overpowering.
    A sudden movement attracted her attention. Ahead, something darted from a bush. A rabbit. It zigzagged away from them, racing toward the mountains.
    At once, something else appeared, a larger animal bounding from a depression in the ground, chasing the rabbit. For an instant, Amanda thought it was a wolf, but then she realized that its markings didn’t match any pictures of wolves that she’d seen. It’s a German shepherd , she realized. The dog and the panicked rabbit disappeared down a hidden slope.
    No one spoke. It struck Amanda as odd that when they were in the building, they hadn’t hesitated to talk, but now that they were in the open, a hush fell over them, broken only by the sound of their boot steps.
    “Ever see Hitchcock’s North by Northwest ?” Bethany asked unexpectedly.
    Her voice came from two