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Notebooks and journals fi l ed with absolute dreck"
Dessert arrives, ice cream This is one of the few foods for which I don’t have to fake an appetite I scarf it down, slowing down only when a sharp pain pinches my forehead
The other hunters continue to stuff their faces, especial y the two sitting on my left
They’re in their twenties, both students at the Col ege He’s a phys ed major, she’s undeclared Physical speci in h he doesn’t fl aunt it She’scutoffs that show off her abdoh- bridged noses, and doorknobs for cheekbones Both Phys Ed and Abs have a natural bounce to their step that speaks of effortless strength and agility But du’s instantly clear: They’re the top contenders One of the to fi nish what ever hepers are left over No wonder Gaunt Man is unhappy
Fril y Dress springs in fro across the hal like a shattered plate "And did we all have a stupendous lunch?" she asks It’s apparent she has: her chin is still dripping with fresh blood "Time to move on to the next part of the tour In fact, we’ve been enda My, my, my, you all really should pace yourselves slower You won’t learn anything at this breakneck speed!"
I catch Gaunt Man shootlook, as if to say: Didn’t I tell you? This whole thing is a less exercise in redundancy
"So," continues Fril y Dress, "the only thing left reht’s itinerary is the visit to the Do to be a real treat Mind you, we’l likely not see any hepers since they sleep at night, but their odors are really pungent there To die for, real y"
A few necks twitch around the table
"So, shal we? Make our way now?"
And like that, we’re all standing, waiting for our escorts
And then, ae go
By the quick pace of our feet rushing down the stairs; by the force hich the exit doors are fl ung open; by the look of excitement on even Gaunt Man’s face; by the spasmodic and minuscule vibra-tions of our heads-- I knoe are excited I knoe are desirous
As if by tacit agree the hard ive of the brick path Even as alk past the library, nobody says anything Only Gaunt Man peers inside, curiously, then atwhy I, of all of them, have been housed in there
When the brick path coravel of the Vast, it is as if nobody dares even breathe, we are so wordless
"It never gets old," an escort fi nal y says And at that, the pace quickens eveneveryone into running It wouldn’t take much to set them off If that happens, I’l be exposed Because I can’t run, at least not as fast as everyone else
Not by half, in speed or starade how all my class as if I were in a vat of mercury
Always fall, my father would say, always pretend to trip and sprain your ankle Then you can sit out
"Hey," I say to no one in par tic u lar, to everyone in par tic u lar, "there’s no e can get inside the Doht?"
"Nope," answers ht?"
"Nope They’re all sleeping this ti now, but closer up?"
"What?"
"Wel , just ht?"
"Yup"
"Boring," I say daringly
But the group buys it, at least enough to dampen their excitement The pace slows
Fifteenthe Dome Its scale as we approach takes me by surprise: it towers above us and cups over ht
Cri as she walks in front ofwith excite his nose into the air, sniffi ng
"I snarled voice exploding into the night’s quiet Other heads snap up with a crack, noses pointed upward and around, sniffi ng
About fi fty yards out, they crash through the tipping point and break into a sta as fast as I can
They are blurs, a haphazard ing and purace or order about their s, leaps
By the tilass, too fi xated by the Dome to notice my late arrival
Inside the Dome are about ten mud huts They’re dotted evenly around the compound, about half of them clustered near a pond And the pond is re in the middle of the desert; but also for the perfectly symmetrical circle it ical wizardry of the pond and Dome, the mud huts look like prehistoric relics The wal s are cratered and rough, punctured by s rows of rectangular stones, coarsely fi tted together
"Can’t see a thing inside," Beefy says
"Probably all just sleeping, anyway," an escort says
"But take a whiff, I can s next to me
"Just a bit," another escort says, at the other end of the group