Page 58 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
To Damien's relief, the feral light in Shudder's eyes died. "OfcourseI remember. Ha. Trust you to think of it."
Palm phones held close, Blaze and Shudder bent their heads together doing…something. Damien let it go on for a few minutes before he cleared his throat. "Could someone explain what you're doing?"
Shudder's brow furrowed. "You didn't whisper line as a kid?"
"Not everyone goes to boarding school, idiot," Blaze growled as he tapped at his device. "It's a thing kids do. To talk so the grownups don't hear. I kinda figure the grownups all know, but whatever. With these cheaper phones, you can reconfigure to a local signal. Sync to someone else's. The range is shit, but it's a specific frequency radio transmission. Not something that'll show up on comm sweeps."
"Too weak of a signal." Shudder nodded at something on his display and sat back.
Damien let out an amused huff. "Centuries' old tech to circumvent new tech."
"Exactly." Shudder clipped the phone to his cuff and crawled off into the high grass of the open field. "Just taking a look around. Another gate, a door, a grate—there's usually at least one other way out."
Relative silence reigned for nearly five minutes with only the distant sounds from the compound and the calling of field crickets interrupting the whisper of the wind through the grass.
"Still an idiot," Blaze muttered as he took the scope and resumed watching the compound.
I heard that.
Damien scooted closer to hear better, since Shudder's voice came through compressed and tinny. Anyone else probably would have gone through a round ofcan you hear me?, but at least they knew it worked. Good thing, since he'd already lost sight of Shudder's progress through the grass.
Soft humming came over the connection, and Damien had to hide a smile when he realized Shudder was hummingRing around the Rosie.
Whew. Okay. Crawling is hard. I'm behind the wall opposite the gate. No door or sluice gate, but there are pipes running through the wall. It's a weak point, at least.
"Nothing else?" Blaze bent his head to speak into his phone. "No windows? No changes in wall structure?"
I would've said if there was, Blazey.
"Then get back here, dimwit. Before someone realizes you're not a snake in the grass."
There's still three walls.
"Just get back here."
Fine. Fine. Don't need to get all snarly. I think you're the only person I know who can whisper snarl.*click*Oops.
"What was that?" Damien leaned closer as if it would help. "Shudder? What was that sound?"
I, ah. Ha-ha. Funny thing. The ground's suddenly depressed under my elbow. Fancy that.
Blaze stared at his phone in horror for one precious second before he took off in Shudder's direction, crawling as fast as he could. "Shuds, don't you fucking move. Don't. Move. You hear me?"
The answer was more difficult to make out with Blaze speed-crawling and Damien trying to keep up, but the strained quality of Shudder's voice still came through.
Yes, yes. I'm on a landmine. Probably never hear the end of it. Calm down. I have an idea.
"No!" Blaze wasn't even whispering any longer. "No stupid harebrained ideas! Just stay the fuck still! Don't even breathe!"
It occurred to Damien that they might run into landmines as well—perhaps old ones left over from the wars, perhaps new ones placed in a partial ring around the compound—but Blaze was careful to take them around the outside perimeter of Shudder's trail through the grass. Not that the thought slowed him down, the fear adrenaline pounding through his system momentarily drowning out the misery of the captives inside the walls.
I've got this. Though it's sweet that you're worried. I just need a big enough mound and—
A muffled thud cut Shudder off, followed by enough disturbance in the grass to indicate something hurled with force.
"Fuck this." Blaze rose to a crouch and sprinted the rest of the way to Shudder, leaving Damien to hurry after him with a growing ball of dread in his stomach.
The anxious feeling nearly exploded into panic when he tripped over Shudder's arm—images of dismemberment and gore flashing through his racing thoughts. But the arm was still attached to hand and shoulder, none of it covered in blood. As Damien shuffled closer, he spotted the explosion of dirt that had probably been Shudder's earth mound, what he'd been hoping would contain the blast.
