“Where can we go? Aren’t we trapped?”
The air thickened with smoke. He took her hand. “We have to hurry.”
She covered her mouth.
He pulled her along, fast, and through a far door, as far away as they could get.
The fire suppression system kicked in.
Freya stood on her toes to see through the window as the fire dissipated.
“Did that suck the air out to stop the fire?”
He nodded. “One cannot have a fire if there is no fuel for it.”
“No, one cannot.”
14
The underground tunnel system beneath the island was a maze.
If a maze had a drugged nightmare.
Freya wasn’t sure where they were or what they were doing. Kian kept leading her onward. They would run down a hallway, then through a door. Then up a set of stairs, only to descend a few more stairs and all around.
Over their heads, the root systems from all the farmed land created a kind of woven ceiling in varying states of growth. The roots undulated in their own pattern, so the movement was all around her. She'd gotten used to the gentle stir of the ceiling. This background ambiance amplified the organic nature of the world.
Though it was mesmerizing to look at.
Kian got a few steps ahead of her and crossed into a new section.
The lighting in that section clicked on, and where Freya lingered, staring at the roots, went black.
The darkness closed in on her, and the light around Kian was all that was left.
A noise made her jump.
What was that?
A footstep?
Surely not.
A step that was an echo of hers or Kian's.
She tried to see something in the darkness, but it was only the shadows. “Kian?”
“Come on,” he said, his silhouette in the light ahead.
She headed for his shape. “It doesn’t recognize me,” she said as she hurried to catch him.
“You will just have to keep up,” he replied.
“Your legs are half a meter longer than mine.”
“I can carry you,” he said, that ornery grin back on his face.
“Um, no.”
