Page 87 of The Wild Zone

Zuri pried at the ground with her fingers, but Benny was right. Even at the fissure’s widest point, there was no way she could even get her hand inside.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe it’s closing up? Do fissures heal on their own?”

Zuri studied me, as if wondering whether I’d made up the whole story. I fought down a surge of irritation. I’d told them the truth. At least…about this.

Benny scanned our surroundings. His flashlight beam came to rest on a gnarled oak tree across the creek.

“That’s it!” he said. “That’s where I saw the Hermes rune.”

He took a running start and jumped to the other side of the creek. Harper, Zuri, and I did the same, catching up with Benny beneath the tree.

He pointed out the rune on the trunk—a lowercase Greek eta. Definitely carved by someone, or rather slashed. It looked like Zorro had come along and sliced this symbol into the wood with two quick strokes of a rapier. Except to cut the bark so deep, the blade would’ve had to have been incredibly strong and sharp, like Celestial bronze….

Benny’s hand hovered over the mark, though he was careful not to touch it. “It’s not glowing anymore, but I know this is it.”

I glanced back across the creek. The location of the rune fell along the same line as the fissure. “Do you think they’re connected? The sign on the tree, the crack in the ground?”

Harper scanned the treetops around us. “Either way, I’d say we’ve made good progress on the clue front. How about we call it a night and head back?”

“Are you kidding?” Zuri asked.

“We’re on a roll!” I said. “You mentioned a tunnel entrance. We should check that next. Do you remember where it is?”

Harper winced. “If I say no, can we leave?”

“No,” Zuri and I said at the same time.

Harper turned to Benny, who smiled sympathetically. “They’re right. We’re making good progress, and we’re doing okay for time.”

Harper held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. I think it’s this way.”

We tramped through underbrush and between stands of trees, heading north into an area I hadn’t put on my mental grid yet. We kept our weapons ready, ever alert to any sound from the trees above us.

At first, I was grateful we weren’t tripping over monsters every two minutes, the way Grant and I had on our first trip. Then that same fact started to make me anxious. Where were all the wild things in the Wild Zone? It felt like we were heading into territory where even they didn’t dare trespass.

After about five minutes of walking, Harper halted, staring at the ground. “I…I didn’t notice this before.”

He pointed at another fissure zigzagging through the dirt. And this crack lined up perfectly between the tree we’d come from and the direction we were heading. I mapped this new information onto my mental grid.

“I don’t like this,” I murmured. “It’s as if…”

Benny gripped his sword tighter. “As if what?”

“As if that rune in the tree caused these cracks. They splinter out from it in two different directions. I bet if we looked, we’d find more radiating out from the trunk.”

“All in favor of not looking?” Harper raised his hand.

Zuri swatted him lightly on the arm. “Where’s that tunnel entrance you found?”

He sighed. “I was afraid you’d ask. Pretty sure it’s right through those bushes.”

“Along the same line as this fissure,” Benny said.

Harper made a sour face. “Exactly.”

Benny turned off his flashlight. As dark as it was, navigating by the moon seemed safer than advertising our presence.

We didn’t have to go far. Another few minutes pushing through briars, and we found ourselves crouching at the base of a large boulder. The fissure we’d been following snaked straight down into the clearing ahead.