“Honestly, Zina, I’m starting to get a little bit frustrated here,” Sumner said, as Zina crept forward. His voice echoed eerily around the mine, sounding both very close and very far away at once. “Do youreallythink you can make it out of here? Of course, Ioriginallyplanned to just blow up the exits with you down here, until my colleague the Bloodhound told me you’d brought those creatureswithyou, so I had to come down here myself to get them. Which isn’t something I appreciate, you know. But I think it’ll be worth it. For me, anyway.”
Gritting her teeth, Zina ignored him. She groped along the wall, letting her antelope’s sensitive nose tell her which way to go. She had one source of comfort, and that was that if Sumnerknewwhere she was, he’d simply come to her and put a bullet in her brain. He must have lost her while he’d been pursuing her through the maze of tunnels that made up this mine.
So hopefully, I can sneak out past him again, and retrace my steps… or find another way out…
“In any case, do you really think I came here unprepared?” Sumner asked, his voice ringing. “Of course I didn’t – I’ve rigged up explosives all over these tunnels, and I’m the only one who knows where they are. I could set them off at any time. I could cut off your escape route at a moment’s notice – just like…that.”
Zina gasped as she heard the samebeep beep beepthat had sounded in the moments before the ceiling had caved in, when she and Trent had gotten separated.
It’s coming from behind us!her antelope just had time to cry out, and Zina threw herself forward as the charges went off, rolling herself in a ball around Dusty and Goldie, as small rocks and stones pelted off her back.
Thank goodness I’d just left that area,Zina thought, as she uncurled slightly, glancing back over her shoulder. She couldn’t see anything at all, of course, but she could sense the churning air and smell the dust and rock that had been stirred up as a section of the ceiling had caved in.What the hell?!
Maybe Sumner was getting frustrated – it didn’t make sense otherwise for him to be randomly blowing stuff up.
She’d always known he had an explosive temper, however – no pun intended.
Lifting her hand, she checked on Dusty and Goldie, nestled in her shirt. Theypiruped andcheeped softly as she patted her hand over them comfortingly.
I’m sorry, guys – just a little while longer. You can hold out while I get us out of here, right?
At least it seemed like Sumner’s explosive charges were small ones – they weren’t intended to cause a huge explosion or bring the whole mine down on her head. They were just meant to box her in, give her fewer places to go.
He wanted to corner her – not kill her. Not yet, at any rate.
I just have to keep one step ahead of him… wherever he is.
Creeping along the tunnel, Zina paused as her hand brushed over something smooth and cold in the middle of the floor – something hard and metallic, and completely immovable. A moment later and she realized it was a track, set into the stone.
A small track for mining carts,she thought, as she moved her fingers up and down, feeling how it extended beyond where she could reach. She’d been sticking closely to the walls before now, so she hadn’t noticed the track down the center of the shaft.
I wonder if it still works, and where the carts are,she thought as she continued to feel her way along it, moving while still folded into a crouch. She didn’t have to wonder for long, though – in the next moment, her head had bonked against something hard and boxy, sitting on the tracks.
Ah – well, this feels kind of cart-like,she thought, as she moved her hands over it. It was rough-hewn, made from wood, and clearly old. But it moved when she pushed it, though the wheels squeaked horrendously. Zina held her breath, waiting, wondering if Sumner had heard the squealing sound and if he could use it to find her.
But there was no sound, no evidence he was coming after her.
“Okay, little guys, I have an idea,” Zina breathed, as, slowly, she stood up. Dusty and Goldie shifted a little inside her shirt as she reached inside it. “You guys are going to have to get out of there for a little bit.”
Neither of the baby dragons protested as she lifted them gently out of her shirt, reaching down carefully to place them at the bottom of the mining cart. The sides were pretty high – Zina had to bend almost all the way over to put Dusty and Goldie on the floor – and she figured the wooden sides were thick enough to protect them from any bullets Sumner might have left in his gun.
“Just stay there,” she whispered to them, hoping they understood. In the darkness, she could see their big yellow eyes gazing up at her, blinking as she lifted her finger to her lips. “And stayquiet.”
Standing up straight again, Zina began topush.
After some initial squeaky resistance, the cart came to life surprisingly swiftly, moving on its four wheels over the track. Zina sped up, pushing it faster, making sure to hold on tight to the lip of the cart – the last thing she needed was it speeding off without her, taking Dusty and Goldie with it.
I need your speed and strength,she said to her antelope as she began to speed up – and immediately, she felt the antelope’s power surge through her, propelling the cart down the track.
Okay… now!
As soon as she’d built up a good head of steam, Zina leapt into the cart, springing up easily over its side, the way a normal human never could have managed. But her antelope was with her, lending her its strength, and she made the leap easily.
As the cart sped down the track, she saw a dark, shadowy figure appear from one of the forking tunnels, clearly drawn by the sound of the cart’s wheels.
Sumner,Zina thought – she ducked down as they passed him, but she still managed to catch sight of his enraged face as they whizzed by, before he raised the gun again.
Zina covered Dusty and Goldie with her body as she heard the gun firing, but the bullets had no hope of penetrating the thick, sturdy wood of the cart.
