Page 16 of Legend of Scorpio
“Me? What about you?”
“I will join you once I’ve located what I came for.”
“You want to die for this mystery object? Go ahead. I’m not that brave. So, get off me you, heavy lug.”
“I’m not fat,” he huffed. “It’s muscle.”
“Which is still squashing me.”
Again, not a complaint he’d ever heard. He rolled from her, and she scrambled to her feet, moving back to the door, only to stop abruptly.
“It’s closed.”
“What do you—Oh.”
The opening they’d come through had shut, and unlike the other side, no hole existed with a mechanism for her to unlatch. It didn’t stop her from running her hands on the smooth stone before she huffed, “I can’t figure out how to open it. What are we supposed to do?”
“Explore?”
She pursed her lips at him. “Why aren’t you more worried? Were you expecting this?”
“Nope.”
“You knew there were traps,” she accused.
“Didn’t know so much as suspected. Someone went through a lot of trouble to create this place. And if it does indeed have this object I’m looking for, it stands to reason they’d have placed safeguards.”
“And how are we supposed to spot these traps?” She pointed to the floor. “I can’t even see where I triggered the blade.” A blade that now hung motionless. He glanced to the ceiling, where a section of it had moved to let it swing free.
“We’ll need to move carefully.”
“You move carefully. I’m staying right here,” she huffed, crossing her arms.
“That sounds like a great plan.” She couldn’t accidentally cause trouble if she didn’t touch anything.
She remained planted in place as he crouched to eye the floor. Seeing nothing, he placed his hand upon it. Unlike the walls, it didn’t glow, but up close, he could see faint striations in the stone. A glance behind and he could see where she’d stepped, a convergence of lines. A clue as to where to put his feet. He moved cautiously and paused before the next bundle of markings.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Testing a theory,” he murmured before lightly pressing the spot. He barely had time to fling himself backwards, as the floor suddenly dropped, revealing a deep chasm.
“Holy crap on a cracker,” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“Seeing as how I didn’t fall, yeah,” was his sarcastic reply.
The gap, while wide, was jumpable. He leaped to the other side, carefully so as to not accidentally land on something he shouldn’t. A good thing he’d shown caution, as his toes were a mere half-inch from the next set of lines, which formed a knot.
He skirted them and the next before coming across a thick band of them. Once more, he hesitated. He eyed the floor, the ceiling, and finally the walls. This section was darker, as he’d not touched the walls since he’d left Rebecca’s side, and that initial glow was fading.
A light brush of his fingers brought light, but also a grinding sound.
“The tunnel is closing in,” Rebecca yelled as she backed slowly from the moving stone.
“Quick, get to me.” He headed in her direction.
“I can’t jump across the hole. It’s too wide,” she stated, standing by the edge of it.
“Fuck.” He sprinted as the wall kept coming, heading for Rebecca. He dodged the marks on the floor and leaped over thechasm with only two paces between them and the moving stone. He slung an arm around her waist, took one step back, and then launched them back over the hole. A bit too forcefully. His foot partially hit the next trigger, and he flung them forward away from the holes in the wall, which suddenly shot metal darts.