Scotty scratched his head. "There are a few buildings we haven't searched yet."
"No, but they wouldn't be in those. If the men were going to leave them here, they'd drop them nearby and not hide them in one of the distant buildings. But I suppose we'd better look, anyway."
"We'd better. I'm fresher than you are. Go stretch out in the hotel lobby and I'll look."
Rick was too tired to argue. He walked into the comparative coolness of the rickety old hotel and found a section of undamaged floor. He removed his shoes, stretched out, and was asleep almost at once. In a short time Scotty joined him after an unsuccessful search.
When Rick woke again it was dark and Scotty was stretched out beside him, sound asleep. He turned over and went to sleep again.
Both boys woke up, stiff and bleary-eyed, as dawn light flooded the hotel. They grinned at each other.
"I must have slept for two days," Rick said.
"Not quite. Just about sixteen hours. But you needed it, and there wasn't anything to do."
"We're okay so long as the water lasts, but then what?" Rick knew without even putting it into words that they could never walk to civilization. Their water would run out and heat exhaustion would get them before they were halfway to anywhere. The base was closest, and it was over thirty miles away, across desert and waterless mountains.
Scotty walked over to what had once been the hotel desk and held up a can. "Want some breakfast?"