Another hour had passed—the sun was directly overhead, the heat of it like a crown of fire on my hair—when the sound changed. The grinding steps that I barely heard anymore turned to echoes ahead of me. Jeb’s feet still crunched against the sand like mine, but someone in front of us had reached a new terrain.

“Careful, now,” Jeb warned me. “Watch your head.”

I hesitated, not sure what I was watching for, or how to watch with no eyes. His hand left my back and pressed down on my head, telling me to duck. I bent forward. My neck was stiff.

He guided me forward again, and I heard our footsteps make the same echoing sound. The ground didn’t give like sand, didn’t feel loose like rock. It was flat and solid beneath my feet.

The sun was gone—I could no longer feel it burn my skin or scorch my hair.

I took another step, and a new air touched my face. It was not a breeze. This was stagnant—I moved into it. The dry desert wind was gone. This air was still and cooler. There was the faintest hint of moisture to it, a mustiness that I could both smell and taste.

There were so many questions in my mind, and in Melanie’s. She wanted to ask hers, but I kept silent. There was nothing either of us could say that would help us now.

“Okay, you can straighten up,” Jeb told me.

I raised my head slowly.

Even with the blindfold, I could tell that there was no light. It was utterly black around the edges of the bandanna. I could hear the others behind me, shuffling their feet impatiently, waiting for us to move forward.

“This way,” Jeb said, and he was guiding me again. Our footsteps echoed back from close by—the space we were in must have been quite small. I found myself ducking my head instinctively.

We went a few steps farther, and then we rounded a sharp curve that seemed to turn us back the way we’d come. The ground started to slant downward. The angle got steeper with every step, and Jeb gave me his rough hand to keep me from falling. I don’t know how long I slipped and skidded my way through the darkness. The hike probably felt longer than it was with each minute slowed by my terror.

We took another turn, and then the floor started to climb upward. My legs were so numb and wooden that as the path got steeper, Jeb had to half drag me up the incline. The air got mustier and moister the farther we went, but the blackness didn’t change. The only sounds were our footsteps and their nearby echoes.

The pathway flattened out and began to turn and twist like a serpent.