“The Doom Statues” — Chapter 44

For Emily, the terror wrapped around this frantic dash from The Ruiner has nothing to do with the distance traveled. Rather, it’s the lack thereof. That and how it’s even possible to get this catastrophically turned around in such a short period of time.

While it’s true that, though she is running fast as she can — a progress only slightly impeded by these wet leaves on the ground — and that The Ruiner never breaks from his leisurely, almost roundabout gait, nonetheless the separation between them never shrinks, but instead seems to decrease slightly, with every glance she risks back at him. Even so, she only makes her way up and down a series of three or four small peak-valley combinations, covering a distance of what feels like the same number of football fields, maybe, tops. Or golf holes or driving range surfaces or baseball fields — a handful of any of those.

At the top of one such rise, she reaches a clearing, conveniently well-lit by the moon and even its reflecting nearby clouds, not to mention the mostly naked stars. She can’t see to the end looking either left or right, which are the longer sides of this tamped down, recently harvested field. But straight ahead lies another thick looking forest, and it’s this she sprints toward, for a number of reasons. For one, she thinks she can make better time across this open field than The Ruiner, and two, might…