Webb's a dead guy with no memory of his life, and that's how he likes it. He'd sworn he'd protect After, the city of the dead, from monsters, but the monsters have all been killed off. Now he has only one thing left to do: go through the Gate and fi...
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Snakes of sand slithered across the wavy terrain, tossed around by the wind that only howled louder by the minute. I glared dead ahead, shielding by eyes from the flying sand and squinting into the desert that I could hardly see anymore.
At my side, Jake let out a sudden yell, and I had to reach back and snatch him by the arm before the storm could carry him away.
The kid flashed me an appreciative smile, despite the fact that he could hardly keep his eyes open against the wind.
"Webb!" he shouted over the gales. "Are we lost?"
"What?" I called back. "No! We're not lost!"
I scanned the desert through the black storm. The trail we'd been following was long gone, but I was sure we were heading in the right direction. ...Right?
I trudged through knee-deep sand, dragging Jake along behind me.
I only stopped when I almost shuffled into some tall object sticking out of the sand. I blinked at the crooked heart monitor screen. It didn't have any wires attached to it, much less a patient, yet the glowing green line on the beeping monitor bounced up and down steadily. Eyes narrowed, I tapped the screen.
Instantly, the readings flat-lined and a prolonged tinny beep shrieked over the wind.
"Webb!" Jake shouted.
I turned back to him, realizing that he'd been trying to yell at me the whole time.
"I said I think we need to find shelter!" said the kid, hair and clothes buffeting in the storm. By now, he was nearly buried up to his waist in sand.
I growled inwardly. As much as I loathed the thought of falling farther behind Void, Jake was right. We wouldn't last much longer out here in the sandstorm.
I turned back to the monitor, only to find that it had completely vanished. I swallowed. But behind the shifting dunes ahead, I could just barely spy what looked like a yawning cave in the side of a sheer cliff face. "There!" I shouted. I grabbed the boy and fought the wind, practically swimming through sand until we reached the cave. The stark silence inside was a shock to my ears as we escape the storm. My pulse was deafening in my head. I realized that it had been pounding the entire time.
Both Jake and I slumped against the far wall of the cave and watched the storm outside while patting sand off ourselves.
The kid made a disgusted noise and wiped his mouth on the front of his shirt. "I got sand in my mouth. Blech." Then he fixed me with that huge-eyed stare of his. "How long is this storm gonna last?"
"Dunno," was my monotone answer.
He turned back to the mouth of the cave. "Do you think those other ghosts caught up to Void? Or did they get lost in the sandstorm too?"
"...Dunno."
Jake huffed, annoyed by my mono-syllabic answers. He unlaced his sneakers and pulled them off, spilling out sand from them. "Do you think we'll catch up to him?"
