Sarah wasn’t quite so desperate. “What makes you think we’d trust you to take us anywhere? We’ve been on our own so far—why should we just go along with the first person waiting for us?”
“He has food,” Michael whispered, leaning closer to say it.
The stranger unfolded his hands, letting them rest at his sides. Nothing else on his body stirred, not even his cloak. “I am a man of peace. You can trust me, young ones. Come. Come with me and visit for a while.”
Michael almost laughed out loud, but again, he was starving.
“Okay,” he said. Sarah started to protest, but Michael held up a hand for her to stop—the scolding he’d get later would be worth it if he was able to eat. “But if you try anything weird, we’ll send you back to the Wake without a second thought.”
The man smiled, not a trace of fear in his glowing eyes. “Of course,” he said.
The stranger turned to walk down the trail that disappeared into the woods. As he took his first step, a furry creature scurried up the man’s back and planted itself on his shoulder. It looked like a ferret or a weasel. The creature stood upright with its ratty nose sniffing at the air.
“Look at that,” Michael whispered to Sarah.
He saw her eyes widen in surprise as she took in the man’s companion.
“Okay, that’s a little freaky,” she replied quietly. “Reason number three hundred why we can’t go with this guy.”
Logic had begun to seep in, overpowering his hunger, and Michael was beginning to agree with his friend. But at that moment the stranger turned and called back to them, ending the debate.
“You’ll never reach the next stage of the Path without me,” the man said. “No matter how much you hack away at the code, you’ll never reach the Hallowed Ravine.”
Then he continued on his way, vanishing into the gloom of the forest.
3
“Come on,” Michael said, grabbing Sarah by the arm as he started following their new friend.
She pulled free but walked along beside him. “It feels like we’re following a snake back to its lair. I bet this guy’s killed a hundred kids.”
They’d entered the woods, and the massive trees towered above them. They were thick with foliage and laden with long, wispy trails of moss. And they grew close to each other, with the trail cutting a neat line down their center. The magic of programming.
“He’s probably just a Tangent,” Michael said, craning his neck to take in their surroundings. The only light in the woods came from the trees themselves, their scarred trunks glowing an eerie blue. As they walked deeper into the forest, the branches and leaves stretched closer to the path, as if they wanted to snatch the newcomers away.
“Then why did you tell him we’d send him back to the Wake?” Sarah asked.
“It was something to say,” he answered. He didn’t really feel like talking.
The man kept a steady pace about twenty feet in front of them, his odd pet somehow keeping its perch on his shoulder. The air was cool, and everything smelled wet and earthy. It was almost pleasant, Michael thought, but a stench of rot tainted its edges. The only sounds were crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.
“I guess we didn’t really have a choice,” Sarah murmured. “I can’t see another direction to go in the code.”
“You’re still debating this?” Michael responded.
“I’m just saying,” she answered with a shrug. They walked for a while in silence until she spoke again. “We need to talk about what Bryson said. It was like something had really clicked for him, but why did he freak out? What did he see in the code?”
Michael could play back every detail of his friend’s final moments in his mind. “It was such a strange thing to say. What if Kaine isn’t really a gamer? What does that mean?”
Sarah snickered. “All we’re doing is asking each other questions. We need answers.”
“Yeah.” Michael pushed aside a low-hanging branch. “It really bothered Bryson how complicated the code of the Path is. I can see why he couldn’t accept that Kaine was able to program it. Seems impossible.”
“So he thinks Kaine isn’t real?” Sarah asked. “Like he’s just a made-up name by a whole group of people doing all this?”
“Maybe,” Michael answered with a shrug. “Keep thinking about it. Look at the code every once in a while. We can figure this out.”
“Okay. Just … let’s be on our toes and stay sharp.”
“Let’s be on our toes?” he repeated, going heavy on the sarcasm. “Stay sharp? Really?”
“What?”
He let out a short laugh. “You sound like Sherlock Holmes. You gonna pull out a magnifying glass? A pipe, maybe?”
Sarah smiled. “You can thank me later when I save your life.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep my eyes peeled and my ears perked. What do I do with my nose?”
“Shut. Up.” She quickened her pace to get ahead of him.
Michael shot a glance at their guide—the man walked smoothly, the weasel on his shoulder swaying with every step but not losing its posture. Then Michael turned his attention to the forest on both sides of the trail.
The glowing trunks of the trees were thick and tall, rising toward the black sky above. The way they shone that pale light—and how it barely penetrated the darkness of the night—for some reason made him feel like he and Sarah were floating along in the forgotten depths of the ocean. It threw him off a bit, and he pulled in a few deep breaths to remind himself that he was walking out in the open air.
The trail rounded a tree even larger than most of those they’d seen so far, and as Michael passed it his gaze naturally took in what waited behind it. Just a few feet into the woods, a pair of bright yellow eyes stared back at him. He jumped, stumbled, then kept moving along the path backward, not daring to look away. Visions of the KillSims filled his head.
The eyes followed him, but their owner stayed put, and soon the path took a turn so that a group of trees blocked the sight of the animal. The creature. Monster. Whatever it had been.
Michael bumped into Sarah and finally turned around.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Sorry” was all he got out. He’d been spooked royally, and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to reach the stranger’s home, even if he had to share it with the weasel-rat-ferret thing.