In “Blood Merid­i­an,” Part Twen­ty-One, the nar­ra­tive cen­ters on the grim jour­ney of the Kid and Tobin, who are reduced by wounds and hunger as they tra­verse a des­o­late desert land­scape. The expriest Tobin, appear­ing drawn and wretched, offers lit­tle emo­tion as they face their dire sit­u­a­tion. They drink from a water bot­tle savored in moments of weak­ness before resign­ing them­selves to their mea­ger con­di­tion, prompt­ed by thirst and the oppres­sive bar­ren­ness sur­round­ing them.

As they press on, their pre­vi­ous water sup­ply dwin­dles, becom­ing specters amidst the void of the dis­ap­pear­ing tracks in the sand. With the sun glar­ing over­head, the land­scape is devoid of dis­tinc­tive fea­tures, and they find them­selves lost in the vast­ness of the desert. The dead and dying car­cass­es serve as grim mark­ers of impend­ing dan­ger. The Kid con­tem­plates the thin­ness of his foot­prints, the shift­ing sands eras­ing traces of their exis­tence.

Amid their des­per­ate plans for con­ceal­ment, the dia­logue touch­es on the impos­si­bil­i­ty of hid­ing from the Judge, an omi­nous pres­ence clos­ing in. Despite Tobin’s insis­tence that they could hide, the Kid’s fears of esca­lat­ing threats from the Judge emerge. They find shel­ter near the remains of dead mules as they con­tem­plate their fate while lying prone.

The Judge appears omi­nous­ly with his drool­ing assis­tant, sur­vey­ing the land­scape but unaware of their pre­cise hid­ing place. He taunts their reluc­tance to con­front him, assert­ing that they are not true assas­sins, for they still cling to some shred of human­i­ty. The Kid and Tobin watch as the Judge, donned in a bizarre out­fit, dis­ap­pears over the hori­zon, car­ry­ing illu­sions of pow­er with­in a grotesque dis­po­si­tion.

As the night evolves, the two men encounter a group of Dieguenos, who exhib­it a mix of curios­i­ty and cau­tion. Their sub­se­quent inter­ac­tion illus­trates ten­sion and intrigue around sur­vival, weapons, and cul­ture among weary trav­el­ers. Through sur­vival tac­tics, the sto­ry empha­sizes the harsh real­i­ties of life in the unfor­giv­ing wilder­ness, set­ting the stage for their next uncer­tain move­ments into an expan­sive, bleak hori­zon filled with per­il. The descent into a harsh real­i­ty con­sol­i­dates the themes of sur­vival and the human con­di­tion embed­ded in the Amer­i­can wilder­ness.