Prologue Three: The Thunder

Lightning crackled across the sky.

The dirt caked our dry feet in grey dust. The closer we came to the peaks, the more our perception changed. They weren't mountain's as we'd imagined. Instead, they were grey mounds of dirt under a fierce storm.

A tunnel snaked in between the mounds. It stretched all the way to the other end like the body of a snake.

Every now and then lightning would flash. Each bolt struck a mound and the snake-like pathway filled with light.

“Steer clear of the walls,” Tom said, “if the clumps conduct electricity, you’ll get zapped.”

The thing about being dead is although you couldn't die again, you still lived with sensation. Where in the real world you would either be wounded or dead, those wounds would eventually heal. In the world of the dead, injuries and the pains that came with wounds remained forever.

We walked into the tunnel. The clumps on either side formed what looked like grey cliffs. As the wind blew down the tunnel mouth, little bits of dust swirled around us.

I paused as I noticed something in a clump. The rest of the group stopped as well, watching me scoop away a handful of grey dust.

A hand poked out of the dirt, one just like ours, with tattered skin and broken fingernails. A black line arced across the skin, as if it had been struck.

“Lightning?” I asked.

Tom cursed. "Energy, just like water, needs a place to flow in and flow out."

It gave a new perspective to the tunnel. If the mounds were the collectors, we were the pipeline that the current flowed out from.

“Run,” I said, pushing off from the wall and glancing up at the sky. “Quickly!”

The group took off with me, keeping pace. A rumble of thunder sounded overhead. I stumbled.

“Three . . . Two . . . One,” Tom said.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the dark sky. The bolt struck a clump to our left. The tunnel burst alight as lightning arced from wall to wall. I dove to the ground. Poppy mistimed her dive. Lightning struck the back of her elbow.

She screamed and rolled on the ground.

I backtracked, lifting her. “Go! Go!”

Anthony stopped to help me. Tom took off, ahead of us. The sound of thunder rumbled overhead again.

Tom focused on the sky. “Two . . . One. Get down!”

I flung Poppy at the ground, then dove. The sky flashed. Lightning struck a clump to the right. The tunnel became alive with electricity. Then died down.

“It hurts, it hurts so bad,” she said.

"We're nearly out." I pushed her forward.

We were three-quarters of the way through. Only a small stretch remained between us and the end of the tunnel.

“You can do this,” I said.

“I can't,” Poppy said.

Anthony pulled on her arm. "You're nearly there!"

Thunder rumbled overhead. Tom and Anthony burst from the tunnel mouth. I counted three, two, one in my head. The sky flashed. I shoved Poppy for the end of the tunnel. I dove.

The world flashed.