Infinity's Reach by Glen Robinson Read Free Book Online Page B

bellies to the edge of the plateau where we’d camped. We looked out at the grassy slope toward the river and the forest on the other side. I tried to control my breathing so that I wouldn’t make any more noise than necessary and watched the area below.
    For a long few minutes we saw nothing. Even the howling had stopped. Then Infinity pulled at my sleeve and pointed to our left at the edge of trees two hundred yards away. I saw dark shapes coming out of the trees, some looking like people standing up, while others moved on four limbs, like animals. One capered around as if it were a monkey. I watched as they left the trees and counted, ten, then fifteen, and finally nineteen figures.
    “Friend or foe?” I whispered.
    In response, one of them threw back his head and howled again, and two others responded in kind. One of the figures standing up made a gesture and others unhooked those on all fours from a line of some sort. Immediately, six of the shapes on all four came galloping across the grass in our direction. They covered the open ground with amazing speed. The others trotted behind.
    “I don’t think they’re friends,” Infinity muttered, and slid back to the camp, away from the edge. I followed.
    “What do we do?” I asked.
    “We run.”
    I started to stuff my sleeping bag into my backpack, but Infinity stopped me.
    “Leave it. Run ,” she hissed.
    I watched as she ran off the hilltop in the opposite direction from the howling figures. I hesitated, then ran after her.
    The hill had been surrounded by low green grass in the direction we had arrived from. But the backside of the hilltop was covered by scrub brush with sharp spines that came up to our waist. It was one thing to wade through the brush during the daytime, but to do it in almost total darkness while being chased was unnerving. More than once I found myself at a dead end, surrounded by heavy brush and small trees that I couldn’t get through, and had to back up and try again. After ten minutes of wading through the brush, I realized that I’d lost Infinity.
    “Finn!” I hissed. “Finn!”
    “Over here,” she said. I followed her voice to the left and discovered that she was standing on a levee with a raised trail that must have been used for irrigation at one time. I climbed to the top and saw only darkness on the other side.
    “Thank goodness we’re out of those bushes,” I said quietly.
    I was rewarded with the sound of howling again, back in the direction we’d come from, and much closer this time. Infinity shoved me and we began running again.
    It was a lot easier going on the top of the levee, but a full day of hiking in our condition had worn me out. I ran as fast and as far as I could, but soon I knew I was exhausted. I looked ahead of me and saw Finn’s feet scuffling along as well. We would have to come up with another plan before they caught us.
    Infinity slowed to a stop, and I stopped too. I looked ahead of us. The irrigation canal that we’d been following disappeared, the dike we were standing on dropping below our feet. Beyond, about 20 feet away, we saw that it continued. But we’d have to climb down the embankment, mixed with dirt, boulders and broken concrete, and then back up the other side.
    “Finn,” I gasped. “I can’t do it. Just let them take me back to the camp.”
    “I don’t think those are soldiers,” Infinity said through heavy breathing. “I think those are the crazies Flo talked about. I’m not sure what they would do with us.”
    “Crazies?” I echoed. “I don’t want to know. Come on, let’s go.”
    I climbed down the broken embankment with Infinity at my heels. When I got to the bottom, I saw that a small road was off to our right. Beyond that was a small sign that read: “Despond, Tenn. Pop. 322.”
    “This way,” I said over my shoulder, and stumbled down the road toward the small town.
    It wasn’t much of a town. Harmony had been a wide place in the road; this one didn’t even