Miraculously, Allison led us directly to a cave.
The opening was just far enough back from the shoreline to not be flooded, and yet still deep enough to provide shelter from the pounding rain. Once inside, as our breaths echoed - well, Kingsley's and Allison's breaths echoed - I pulled down my hood and asked Allison if she was doing okay.
"Just cold," she said. She smiled at me faintly, her mind still closed off.
To me, she looked...distracted. And was blinking far too much. Perhaps she'd caught a cold.
Perhaps.
It was then that my inner alarm began sounding...as always a steady buzz just inside my ear. I looked again at Allison and she again smiled sweetly at me.
"Well, now what?" asked Kingsley, hands on his hips and dripping everywhere. His big cartoon feet were buried in the soft sand inside the tunnel.
"Here," said Allison, pointing. She'd brought her cell phone and was now using its flashlight app.
I didn't need a smart phone flashlight app to see in the dark, and neither did Kingsley, but we were polite enough. She aimed the light toward the back of the deep cave, and revealed something that none of us were too surprised to see: digging tools. Shovels and picks and strainers. It looked like a looter's hangout.