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“Anyone else see the trees moving?” Troy asks.
“Just the wind,” O’Hara says without conviction.
“This is unnatural.” Mayn’s voice slithers through my mind, louder than the others, tickling at my senses to draw me back to my body.
I struggle to maintain my focus on the rodents, my mind divided between their efforts underground and the restlessness of the humans around me.
Deep beneath the ground, the rodents race back toward me, dragging the bones.
The roots return to the tunnel, crushing some, and I flinch at their pain before I release their souls.
Sharpe’s voice fills my ear. “Flint, stop. You’re panicking Anny.”
“We’re almost there,” I mumble, the words hard to form. “Just a little farther, and I’ll bring the evidence to the surface.”
As if they heard me, the roots surrounding the pit’s opening writhe, closing over the hole.
The ground rumbles beneath us, and Sharpe’s curse fills the air. “Everyone, get back! Mayn, bring Flint!”
Mayn doesn’t hesitate to pick me up with a surprising show of strength. My feet barely touch the ground as she drags me backward, away from the vanishing hole and the evidence I so desperately fought for.
Orianna’s sharp barks fill the air as she races along beside us.
Still linked to the rodents, I witness their desperate struggle against the roots as, one by one, they’re crushed, their pain searing through me like a white-hot blade, until only one rodent remains.
It cowers, a finger bone gripped between its small teeth, its tiny heart pounding with terror. Through its eyes, I watch as the roots gather up the bones and drag them back toward the pit.
I direct the rodent to release the bone it carries. With the hole closed, there’s no reason for this creature to die, too. As soon as the rodent drops its prize, a root snags the bone and retracts, leaving the small creature alone.
The ground continues to rumble beneath us, and the trees sway, their branches clattering together.
Webb smacks falling leaves from her hair. “Is this another earthquake?”
“We’re not waiting around to find out!” Sharpe gestures for his people to head toward the road. “Everyone, move out!”
Mayn bends and scoops an arm under my legs, lifting me bridal style as she races ahead of the other officers.
The move barely registers as my mind remains with the rodent, riding along as it follows the roots back to the bone pit.
If I can’t get the evidence, I can at least see what this monster we face looks like.
The roots slither over the bones, settling them back in place like some kind of dragon hoard before withdrawing into the earthen walls.
Across the pile of bones, a dark shadow in the earthen walls shows a larger tunnel. I send the rodent scurrying across the bone pile, its small body too light to disturb them.
The rodent climbs into the tunnel, its little legs racing forward, traveling farther and farther away from us.
Distantly, I register Mayn stuffing me into the back of a car, of Orianna nipping at my fingers, demanding I return to my body.
But I can’t, not yet.
I travel with my furry companion as it comes out into another, smaller cavern filled with hundreds more bones. Roots slither through the grisly remains, weaving around and through them, a grotesque form taking shape, as the ground shakes once more.
All at once, I snap back into my body, and my eyes fly open.
Lurching upright, my heart races as I grab Mayn’s arm. “We need to go to the Bone Yard, right now! Something is happening!”
maze of death
