Chapter 10

The rain had started to fall by the time we reached the hills, coming down in big, fat drops. Lightning flashed overhead now, and thunder was a near-continuous booming, sometimes distant, sometimes close enough to make me jump. A thread of what seemed to be a path wound between the hills, and we both fell onto its smoother surface. Even if it was just a deer track, it might lead somewhere.

It seemed we were in luck, for the path climbed a short distance up the side of one hill and ended at a black, square mouth. It took me a moment to determine what I was looking at, but I soon realized that it was an old sod house, cut partly into the hillside. The door was missing, and the front wall showed some signs of decay, but overall the structure looked sound.