Page 83 of Escape Velocity

For long moments, nobody spoke.

Looking from Max to Rafe and back again, she said, “That was too close.”

“Yeah,” Max answered.

She could feel the thick mud starting to harden on her clothes and skin. Maybe when it dried, she could brush it off.

She gave each of the men a direct look. “If we keep on like this, we’re going to get killed.”

“What do you suggest?” Max asked.

“Staying put until morning when we can see where we’re going.”

“That may not be any safer,” Rafe objected.

“What if we find a spot to sit down in a circle with our backs against each other? Then each of us is standing guard in one direction.”

“Okay, that make sense,” he conceded.

“But not here,” Max put in. “In case the Inheritors heard us making all that noise.”

She nodded, accepting his logic, yet at the same time thinking that she didn’t want to walk very far through the darkness, now that she’d had a couple of lessons in the dangers of this place. Every step could be deadly.

Rafe had lost his staff. Looking around for a replacement, he found a slender dead branch and pulled it down from a tree.

“Amber needs one, too,” Max said.

Rafe nodded and handed her the staff. When he had acquired a replacement, they started off again, moving carefully and skirting the lake of muck.

They were walking up a slight incline. Every time they emerged from under the dense vegetation, Amber took advantage of the moonlight, trying to see where they were going.

The men were apparently doing the same thing because Max called out, “There’s something over there.”

She and Rafe stopped short, looking in the direction he was pointing. At first, she saw only trees, underbrush and more mucky ground. Then something out of pattern coalesced in the greenery.

Peering at the anomaly,” she said, “That looks like a building.”

“Yeah,” Rafe agreed.

She took a step back. “We’d better stay away from it.”

“Or maybe not,” he countered.

“What if the Inheritors are in there?” she asked.

“Does this place look like anything you saw in their camp?” Max asked.

“No . . . but . . .”

“You two stay here,” he said, “I’ll have a look.”

A dart of fear stabbed at her chest. “Wait. Don’t go over there.”

“I’ll be careful.”

When he started off, she tried to follow, but Rafe held her in place. “Safer if just one of us investigates.”

Max was already halfway to the building. Maybe he was trying to move quietly, but now that they were stopped in the darkness, every sound he made seemed to boom out at her like the thudding hoofs of a herd of orex.

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