Shattered

Flight

Zoe was scanning the horizon for any approaching threats when she spied the two sparti.

This time, the skeletons wore matching gray camouflage outfits that resembled American desert camouflage. The two were wandering through the crowd of tourists, obviously seeking out the quest.

Zoe turned around, looking to warn her friends, when she realized she did not know where the dam(n) snack bar was.

Taking one look back at the two skeletons, who had spotted her, she made a split second decision.

Spying a tourist group crowding into a lift, Zoe speedily shoved her way into the space.

Admittedly... she wasn't too fond of small spaces. But it would do.

"We'll be going down seven hundred feet," the tour guide announced to the group, as the elevator began its decent.

"Does this go to the snack bar?" Zoe asked, not realizing who she was talking to.

A few people behind her chuckled. The tour guide scowled at her.

"To the turbines, young lady," the woman said. "Weren't you listening to my fascinating presentation upstairs?"

"Oh, uh, sure. Is there another way out of the dam?"

"It's a dead end," a tourist beside her said. "For heaven's sake. The only way out is the other elevator."

The doors opened.

"Go right ahead, folks," the woman told the rest of the group. "Another ranger is waiting for you at the end of the corridor."

"And young lady," the tour guide called. Zoe looked back. She'd taken off her glasses, revealing a familiar pair of startlingly silver eyes, "Do not fret, the one you have lost can still be found."

The doors closed with the guide still inside leaving Zoe alone and confused.

Before she could have time to realize who had spoken to her, a ding came from around the corner. The second elevator was opening, and she head the unmistakable sound of clattering skeleton teeth. Zoe ran after the tour group, in hopes of leading the predators away from the main part of the quest.

Finally, she came out on a U-shape balcony that overlooked this huge warehouse area. About 15 meters below, enormous turbines were running. It was a big room, but Zoe quickly noted there wasn't another exit.

Unless that is, she wanted to jump in towards the turbines. Which she did not.

Another tour guide was talking over a microphone, lecturing about water supplies on Nevada. Zoe prayed that the quest was okay. They might've been already captured, or eating at the snack bar, completely unaware the sparti had caught up with them. And idiotic of her, Zoe had trapped herself in a hole dozens of meters below the surface.

She worked her way around the crowd, trying to not be too obvious about it. There was a hallway on the other side of the balcony – possibly some place to escape and make her way back to the surface. Zoe gripped her hunting knives, in anticipation for a brutal fight.

By the time she had gotten to the opposite hallway, Zoe's instincts were working overtime.

Then, right behind her was a sharp Chhh! Like the voice of a skeleton.

With haste, Zoe pulled out her hunting knives and spun, slashing at the would-be monster.

The maiden she'd just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.

"Oh my god!" she shouted. "Do you always try to kill people when they blow their nose?"

The first thing that went through Zoe's head was that he knives hadn't hurt her. It had passed cleanly through the young maiden's body harmlessly. "You're mortal!"