“Could they have flown through this?” Derek wondered.
Roman glared at the deadly obstacles for a moment. “No way. Even at top speed, we’ll have a tough time. If they had tried, they’d be splattered all over the walls.”
“I think you’re right,” Summer said, trying to hide her disappointment. Even with everything three or four times slower than usual, some of the blades were moving quite fast. She couldn’t see a route she would take to fly through the sharp-edged maze. Nate almost certainly didn’t have the Protector. She would have to find a way to deliver it.
“Then we just need to claim our prize,” Roman said.
“Might not be easy,” Ruth remarked.
Roman grunted his agreement. “No point in all of us risking it. Should we draw straws?”
“I’ll do it,” Summer said. If she had possession of the Protector, she might find a chance to get it to Nate.
“Really,” Roman said, impressed. “You’re volunteering?”
Summer shrugged. “I’ve always liked a challenge. I’m a Tank. At worst I’ll get pushed around a little.”
Roman eyed the frenetic corridor. “I don’t know, Summer. I wouldn’t want to test myself against those mashers down at the end.”
“Or some of those blades,” Derek added. “They look sharp and they’re swinging hard.”
“I wouldn’t ride through there in an actual tank,” Ruth said.
“I get it,” Summer said. “I’m not thrilled about the risk. But we need the Protector. At top speed I bet I can dodge everything.”
“Okay,” Roman said. “Be careful.”
“Give me a second to recover,” Summer said. “We shouldn’t have run here so quickly.”
“Take your time,” Roman said. “Ruth, go watch the entrance. Make sure the Jets don’t try to sneak up on us.”
“Sure,” Ruth said. Summer watched her walk away, her shoulders hunched. Ruth rarely spoke much. She always followed whatever Roman told her.
“I’ll come help out if you get into trouble,” Roman said, patting Summer’s arm.
“We’ll be watching your back,” Derek pledged.
Summer stared down the deadly corridor. She felt like she had most of her energy back. When she switched into her fastest mode, the frenzy of blades and spears slowed. Nothing was terribly fast now, and many things were comically slow. Some stretches of the corridor still appeared dangerous, but now it seemed survivable.
She started forward. At first she advanced diagonally, zigzagging down the corridor, navigating from one side to the other while stepping over blades and dodging razor pendulums. Then she reached a portion of the hall riddled with holes. Spears thrust from the walls, ceiling, and floors fast enough to make her dance forward in a precarious rush. Twisting, sliding, and leaping, she narrowly avoided sharp points as they came up from below, down from above, and sideways from all heights.
The next stretch of the obstacle course became a mix of everything. Slow pendulum blades got in the way as other blades scythed out from the walls and floors. Jack-in-the-box spikes continued to poke at her in unpredictable rhythms. Axes swung back and forth menacingly.
At their seemingly reduced speed, any one of the obstacles would have been avoidable, but together they made Summer duck, jump, dodge, and contort as never before. The result felt like a wild game of hopscotch and dodge ball all at once. Breathing hard, Summer relied on instinct and reflex. She felt out of control as she spun, rolled, and lunged. Her progress slowed as the increasing onslaught of obstacles forced her to skip backward or focus on lateral movements rather than advance.
A blade nicked her shoulder, slicing her sleeve but not her skin. A spear grazed her leg, tearing her jeans. Staying at top speed was making her weary. After jumping a curved blade, she fell to one knee, and a spear poked her square in the shoulder, jolting her sideways into a sweeping blade that flung her forward.
Summer ended up on her hands and knees. Before she could recover, a spike from the wall hit her in the side of the head, rolling her onto her back. None of the blows had broken skin, but they felt like hard punches, and they left her unbalanced.
Summer could feel exhaustion setting in. She worried that if she remained at top speed, she might pass out. Rising to her feet, Summer shifted down into race mode.
Everything sped up around her. The formerly slow pendulums became a threat, and everything else became too quick to process. Summer skipped forward a couple of steps before she started getting hit from what seemed like all directions at once. Her body flopped around the corridor. It was like being caught in a stampede. There was no dodging anymore. She just closed her eyes and tucked her head as her body was mercilessly hammered. She was heaved forward and backward until she lost all sense of which direction was which.
Finally she came to a rest, flat on her back. Blades whirled above her. Spears protruded and retracted near her. But nothing was currently striking her.
Summer downshifted out of race mode, and everything sped up even more. Still nothing hit her. She had found a safe little pocket in the midst of all the chaos.
“Are you all right?” Roman called, his voice faint due to the surrounding commotion. “Want us to come after you?”
“I’m okay,” Summer managed. She was over halfway through the inhospitable hallway. She wasn’t bleeding. She felt pummeled and dizzy, but she didn’t think anything was broken. “I found a quiet place. I need to rest for a minute.”
Slowly her breathing returned to normal. Her clothes were tattered—her jeans had lost most of one leg, and both of her sleeves hung in shredded ribbons. At least her body was holding up.
Pressing her cheek to the floor, Summer closed her eyes. She needed to let herself fully recover from running at top speed or she would end up getting battered again. There was no big hurry. In fact, the delay was probably just what Nate needed. It would give him time to strategize how to steal the Protector from the Tanks.
Mostly unaware of the passing time, Summer paid attention to how her body was feeling. The dizziness passed. Her heart rate lowered. Her breathing slowed. Still she waited.
“Are you awake?” Derek asked. It was hard to hear him over the pounding pillars and noisy devices all around.
“If we hadn’t run so much at top speed for no reason, I wouldn’t need a break,” Summer replied.
“We’re just making sure you’re all right,” Roman said. She didn’t think that was completely true. They were getting impatient.