Free The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) by J.J. Thompson Page B

guys?” Justin asked as he rejoined the group.
    “ Personally,
I think we should load up on some fruit,” Aaron said with a nod
at the pile near the stairs, “and then get out of here before
monkey boy wakes up again.”
    “ Good
idea, Aaron,” Maria said with a nod and she began stuffing
pieces of fruit in her pockets. The others followed suit and, when
everyone's pockets were full, Maria led them through the archway into
a long featureless hallway.
    “ Hey,
guys?” It was Dominic, who was still standing inside the room.
    “ What
is it, Dom?” Maria asked, sounding concerned. “Is it
waking up again?”
    “ No,
no. Nothing like that.” Dominic glanced over his shoulder as if
making sure. “But I was thinking; maybe we should wait and see
who comes to get the fruit?”
    “ Or
what comes,” Aaron said ominously.
    “ Good
point, Aaron,” Justin spoke up. He walked back and looked into
the room again. “I think we should be sure that whoever or
whatever takes the fruit isn't dangerous. Which means we should hide
and keep watch, right?” He looked at Dominic.
    “ Yeah,
of course,” Dominic replied impatiently.
    “ Fine.
So where exactly should we hide?” Justin asked him.
    “ Well,
we hide behind...” Dominic looked around at the empty room and
his voice died. They watched him blush and then he turned to look at
Justin. “You have all the answers, don't you?” he snapped
at him.
    “ Nope.
I have a lot of questions, Dominic.” Justin looked around at
the group. “We've been so lucky this far. But that's all it's
been, luck. And luck runs out eventually.” He looked at the
angry face of Dominic. “I don't know why you're mad, Dominic,”
he said in a reasonable tone of voice. “I think you're right.”
The other boy looked surprised. “But,” Justin continued,
“we have to think of the safety of the group, first and
foremost. And waiting here for the pick-up guy, or whatever, is a
very unsafe idea.”
    Dominic seemed to be
thinking it over for a moment and then he nodded reluctantly. “Yeah,”
he said heavily, “you're right, Justin. I...just thought, you
know, it was a good idea.”
    Justin grinned at him.
“It was, Dominic. Definitely. And if we had some cover, we
would absolutely use it. But since we don't, well, we should probably
get moving. Agreed?”
    With a small smile and a
shrug, Dominic agreed.
    Once out in the hallway
again, the next problem was, which way to go? The sand covering the
ground was disturbed in both directions and the plain walls gave no
clues on choosing the best way to proceed. Maria looked perplexed and
asked for a quick vote. By a five to three margin, they decided to
turn right and head in that direction. Maria gave a mock bow to
Justin and invited him to lead.
    Everyone laughed, Justin
bowed back with a grin and they set off, their amusement quickly
changing to nervousness again.
    The first junction
offered them four directions to choose from. This time, the group
decided to turn left and off they went again. But only a few steps
away, another junction appeared. This time, they could see that the
walls of the hall were only a few feet thick and they could turn and
double back in the direction they had just come, along a parallel
corridor. And they had five more choices of paths to choose from.
Baffled, they elected to continue in the same hallway. But twenty
steps or so ahead, they came to a t-junction and could turn either
left or right or retrace their path. Left was the choice and off they
went.
    And so it continued.
Random twists and turns, dead-ends, loops. There was no rhyme or
reason to the place as far as they could tell, unless it was to get
them as lost as possible.
    Justin had tried to
remember which way they had turned at each stop. He was fairly sure
that it was left, straight, left, straight, right, right, back and
left. Or was it back then right. He asked Aaron and got an irritated
grunt for a reply.
    “ I
don't know, Just. This stupid sand is