I stepped out of the shade of the building and into a sliver of sunlight and sharp tingles raced along my skin. The light was intensely hot. I glanced down at my hands and watched as blisters began to form.
I ducked back flat against the building.
I brought my hands up. They were beginning to regenerate slowly, but they weren’t clearing up nearly as fast as they should. This is why no demon is outside right now. We’ll have to use the daylight hours while we still can. I don’t think the sun is going to do us any long-term damage, because our skin is already healing, even if it’s doing it slowly. There’s enough shade to weave our way through the buildings. I’m assuming eventually we’ll hit some kind of town center or hopefully a building marked Hostages, but regardless, we have no choice but to move forward.
I hadn’t felt my connection with Tyler at all since I’d landed. He had to be here, but I wasn’t picking up on anything from him specifically.
Tyler? I called in my mind, just to be sure.
Nothing.
Who knew how our mind powers worked on this plane? I wasn’t expecting anything to work right.
It was time to move. I ducked along the building, hugging the walls to stay in the shade. Once I reached the end of the first building, there was another one about ten feet away. I raced toward it, the sun barely singeing me because I moved so rapidly.
Once I was clear, I started to jog. I darted through the sun when I needed to, but it was easy to keep to the shade in between. None of the buildings I passed had any windows. That made it easier not to worry about being spotted. As I ran, I held my nose in the air and my wolf was on high alert.
Do you see that break up ahead? Looks like the buildings are coming to an end. There was a definite change of scenery coming. Once we make it to the last building, we need to gauge the sun and see how much more time we have left. We’ll need to find good cover by the time it goes down. That’s when Demonville must get active.
A shudder ran through me. I was not looking forward to seeing a bustling Underworld.
Once we reached the end, I placed my back up against the side of the building and stuck my head out. The alleys I’d been running through had apparently dead ended into a town square of some kind.
No yellow grass in sight, instead the entire square was covered in neatly clipped green turf, which I knew wasn’t real grass, but the demons were obviously trying hard to mimic what we had at home. Surprisingly, the open expanse in front of me looked remarkably quaint, but incredibly off at the same time. The town center, from what I could gauge, was roughly the size of two football fields. The far side was flanked by a much bigger building, which looked fairly official. It was about as long as five of the regular buildings, and twice as high, and held a clock tower. I was happy to see it. Official meant I was closer to finding Tyler. To the left and right of the square were more regular buildings, evenly spaced apart.
But the most interesting aspect of the square, by far, was the number of white gazebos it held.
There were hundreds of them dotted all over the place.
The small structures appeared polished and shiny and seemed to have been lifted right out of some small town in Maine. The entire area looked like a decent place to take a Sunday stroll—if you were on the East Coast of the United States and not in Hell.
Look, all the gazebos have low railings. We can duck into one of those. I say we make a run for it and once we get out there, we can see the layout of the square better. They’re also shaded. My wolf was hesitant and a low growl issued from her muzzle. What, do you have a better idea?
She flashed me a picture of us scaling the side of the building and landing on the roof. I turned and craned my neck up. The walls of the building were smooth, but if I launched myself between the two with enough momentum, I could literally bounce between them and propel myself to the top fairly easily.
The building was no more than twenty feet high at most.
You’re always thinking, I praised my wolf as I backed up. Let’s give it a try. The top of the building would keep us concealed if we could duck below a lip, and it would give us a great vantage point to scout the area. I just hoped there was some kind of shade or we were going to burn up. If there’s no cover, we’ll have to make it quick.
I took a running leap and pounded off one side of the building and jumped to the other, and back again until I was within reach of the top. On the last leap, I stretched my hands up, grabbing the edge. I hauled myself onto the roof and readied myself to spring onto the flat surface, but stopped myself just in time.
Holy crap, what are those? My wolf howled in distress. The roof was covered in dark cone-shaped structures. They were roughly the size of mailboxes. The sun burned my skin and it started to blister as I stood gaping at the display, riveted in place.
I turned, shielding my eyes from the sun, and scanned the horizon.
Every rooftop as far as I could see held the same structures. And the buildings never seemed to stop.
Then the smell hit me.
Oh, good gods. These are devil bat houses. They must come out after the sun sets. We have to get out of here right now. I’d come in contact with the dreaded Camazotz already and I’d managed to purge their wicked poison from my veins, but this many would surely kill me. Back to the original plan. We go scout out the gazebos, but it was worth the trip up, because now we know we can’t stay out here. We’ll have to search for a way inside the big building. Come nightfall this place is going to suck boatloads of ass.
If the distance was right, the sun was going to set in ten to fifteen minutes at most. We barely had any time left to find cover.
My exposed skin was bubbling in earnest now.
I turned and jumped, landing cleanly in a crouch between the buildings.
With a sigh, I leaned back against the building closest to me and gave myself a few precious moments to heal. If we can’t find an easy way in somewhere, we’re screwed. Once the sun goes down this place will be crawling with demons and devil bats and who knows what else. We go out there—I gestured to the gazebos—and try to find a way in or a good place to take cover until nightfall. We have no other choice.
I took off before my wolf could argue and sprinted across the short expanse, hoping that if a demon spotted me they would only see a blur. I barreled into one of the small structures, hopping the rails in one jump. I immediately lost my footing, slipping in something on the floor and crash-landing under a bench, my body sprawled beneath me. What the hell just happened?
The smell was putrid.
I gagged, rolling over, banging my head on a bench seat that ran all the way around the small space. I was covered in gunk. I brought my hands up and grimaced. Good gods, what is this crap? It’s all over. My wolf snarled, her lips curled back to expose her canines.