Doorways to Everywhere (Tourist Trap Book 2)

Chapter 12

Zeke and Sadie walked through a long winding corridor that was nearly pitch black. They could hear the sound of some sort of dripping liquid but they couldn't see where it was coming from. They navigated their way along slowly by running their hands across the walls, which were slimy to the touch.

Eventually they spotted a light off in the distance and made their way towards it. The corridor finally opened up on a long metal ramp that sloped downwards. A shaft of bright orange sunlight illuminated the exit and they emerged upon one of the strangest landscapes Zeke had ever seen. The ground was uniformly blue and somewhat rocky in texture. It was covered in jagged blue pyramid structures that stood about six feet high and stretched off in every direction as far as the eye could see. At first Zeke thought these might be some sort of buildings, but it soon became apparent that they were simply a natural feature of the landscape. They were spaced barely more than a foot or two apart from each other so there wasn't much in the way of level ground to walk on.

"Well, shall we venture onward?" Sadie asked.

Zeke took a deep breath. "Yeah, all right. Whatever's out there can't be much worse than being stuck on the ship."

Their heads had been spinning a bit still from the alcohol, but the strangeness of being on a new planet made them feel more sober. The air was thankfully breathable, if a bit musty and Zeke was surprised to find that the ground felt soft and almost sponge-like beneath his feet.

They emerged from beneath the shadow of the ship after climbing awkwardly over several of the pyramid shaped structures and they turned around to have a look at the spaceship from the outside for the first time. It was one of the most enormous objects Zeke had ever seen and must have stretched over the course of several miles. It was tubular in shape with four columns holding the base up from the ground and a protrusion at one end that was likely the bridge. Truthfully it kind of resembled a giant wiener dog.

"Are you just going to keep staring at it?" Sadie asked somewhat impatiently. "Let's get the hell away from it before they spot us."

"All right, but where should we go?"

"Anywhere. I don't care. Let's just keep moving away from the ship."

The going was slow as the ground was mostly uneven. The pyramidal protrusions were just tall enough that they blocked any clear vision of what lay ahead. Zeke shimmied his way to the top of a couple pyramids to try to get a better look, but the landscape looked exactly the same in every direction, save for the giant spaceship that loomed menacingly in the background.

Zeke hopped down from one pyramid only to discover that he couldn't find Sadie. He looked around stupidly for a minute and scratched his head. "Hello?" No answer. He walked around the base of a pyramid calling out to her.

As he rounded the last corner she leaped out and tackled him yelling "Boo!"

Zeke let out a high pitched scream as he fell flat on his back. Sadie landed with a thump on top of him and started giggling. "Gotcha!"

"Don't ever do that again!" Zeke shouted. "You scared the bejeezus out of me!"

"That was the point, you wuss," she laughed as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Here, you need a hand?" She extended an open palm toward him.

"Thanks," he sniffed and accepted her hand.

She pulled him to his feet but then suddenly whirled around and flipped him over her shoulder sending him sprawling on his back again.