“Mmhmm.”
Sage picked a golf cart from a row of them and drove it to the entrance to the passage, which was a partially collapsed cave that ran along the steep side of the bluff like a tunnel. The entrance was situated in the woods just west of the Inn itself and bricked over, with one tiny door placed directly in the center.
Sage unlocked the door, found a flashlight from the bin just inside, and shone it around, looking for phones. The cave ceiling was low in this part of the passage, only a few feet above her head. All around her was crap—Nana White’s military surplus collections—but no phones.
Thinking the phones were probably at the other end, Sage grabbed another flashlight and walked in, her lights playing over the walls. It was dry, cool, and quiet in the passage, and definitely creepy. Three-quarters of the way through, an unfamiliar noise caught her attention, something faint and repeating. She stopped walking and listened but couldn’t tell what it was, so she started walking again.
Ahead, light streamed in at an ancient cave-in, which marked the end of the passage. Sage walked around and through several piles of rocks under open sky. Trees and bushes grew for a short way, and then Sage stepped into another cave, filled with nothing but fox statues, most of them twisted or damaged in some way. Sage moved away from them all, walking directly in the center, feeling repulsed by them and not knowing why. Nana White had a place in the forest somewhere that she took the statues, trying to turn them into the bofox with magic.
Sage spotted the phones in a box on the poured concrete floor right away. She went to it, flipping through each one, looking for hers. It wasn’t there.
“Damn,” Sage said, looking all around the box on the floor and finding nothing. She hoisted the box up under one arm and turned to leave, but her attention was again caught by the strange, soft noise, making her wait a moment, head down, listening. The sound was muffled, but the longer she listened, the more certain she was that someone was calling her name. The sound was muted and far away.
ay, ay, ay
Sage moved around the area, listening. She put her hand on the cave wall, gently grasping the rock there. She pressed her head close.
‘Sage. Sage. Sage.’
Itwasher name!
“What?” she said softly. “I’m here.”
The noise stopped, and she thought she heard a whisper of a sigh inside her mind that said,‘Close your eyes.’
Caught up in the moment, Sage did as she was told.
‘Now open them.’
Sage opened her eyes, feeling open and curious. The box of phones in her hands was suddenly covered with a thick white-silver substance that looked like slime!
Sage stared at it, alarmed, wondering if the phones were damaged. She put the box down and knelt to put a finger to the stuff, expecting it to dissipate at her touch, but instead, it pulsed a pretty emerald green and thickened, climbing up her hand. Sage shook her arm in reflex and the stuff flung off, hitting the wall with a squishy sound, where it stuck, leaving a smell like burnt popcorn in its wake.
Mystified, Sage looked around. The slime-smoke stuff was all around the foyer in various places, but it was most pronounced on the phones and the box. Sage ran her whole hand through the stuff on the phones, turning it emerald green and stirring up more burnt popcorn smell. It wasn’t hot or cold;it didn’t shock or hurt. It felt like smoke, but it clung to her, making her rub her hands on her jeans.
Sage stared at it for several moments, thinking hard about what it could be.Magic,she decided. Or maybe the leftovers of magic. She plucked some from the door and pulled it between her fingers. It puffed up at first, then slowly disappeared.
Sage took one last look at it, then lifted the box of phones and hurried back through the passage, her mind working over what she had seen… and heard.
43—Abandon Truck
Canyon woke up all at once, catapulted from sleep by the feeling he was missing something important. He rolled out of bed, jumped to his feet, and hit his head on the ceiling. He dropped back onto the bed and rubbed his head, remembering he was in the MCU, in the front sleeper just behind the driver and passenger seats. The night before, they’d worked until four in the morning, when the steady stream of calls had finally died off. Instead of going home, they’d parked the MCU at the triage point near the bear statue and slept.
Canyon groaned and growled and stretched. Bright sunshine filled the cab. His phone was on the floor buzzing relentlessly.
Buzz buzz. Buzz buzz.
Canyon banged on the wall of the MCU.
“Wake the fuck up!” he shouted.
“Youwake the fuck up!” Timber shouted back.
Buzz buzz. Buzz buzz.
Canyon grunted, then checked his phone. It was 7:00 a.m. They’d slept for only three hours. They could get by on that. Trevor wanted them to drop the MCU off for equipment installation, then go to VF for briefing.
The passenger door opened. Timber stood there, already dressed.
