Page 79 of Reset

“One hand at a time,” Ryan coaxed. “You don’t have to hurry.”

She sobbed. She couldn’t stop herself.

“Please,” she begged.

“Wait,” Ryan said. “I have an idea. Stay here. Don’t move an inch.”

She heard him shuffle behind her, doing something, she didn’t know what. For a second, she thought he’d backed up and left her alone in the tunnel.

“Ryan?” she called.

“I’m here,” he said. “I went to get these.”

He had left the tunnel and she’d missed her chance to return to the mushroom farm. That’s why he hadn’t told her what he was doing. Somehow, it felt like a betrayal.

“Reach back, Stats. I have something that will help.” He pushed something up the tunnel toward her. “I picked up a couple of hessian sacks. You can put one down, crawl on it, then put the next one down to crawl on that. I’ll hand them to you when you move off them. This way, you won’t have to touch the bones.”

She took the rough sack from him. “I’ll still hear them crumble. Feel them give way under the sack.”

“You aren’t going to hear them because I’m going to be making noise. And you won’t know what you’re feeling through the sacks. It could be stones or rubble. You won’t know for certain that it’s bones.”

She stared at the tunnel and saw only bones. But maybe, just maybe, she could convince herself that there were rocks and stones in there too.

“Okay.” She sniffed as she spread the sack in front of her. “We’ll try.”

“You are amazing,” he told her. Then the fool kissed her backside. “That was for encouragement.”

She hiccupped a brittle half laugh. “Only you would think so.”

To her surprise, having the sack cover the floor from wall to wall actually helped. Now, she just had to hope none of the sharper pieces would stab her through the hessian.

“I’m ready,” she lied. “But if this doesn’t work, you have to back up and let me out of this tunnel. Promise me.”

“It’ll work.”

“Ryan,” she pressed.

“I promise,” he conceded. “I’m going to start making some noise now. Once you’re on the sack, just pause and I’ll hand the next one to you. You ready?”

“That depends. What kind of noise are we talking about here?” she asked worriedly.

At that, he started singing Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall. And singing was not his gift.

Laughing through tears, Sarah gingerly crawled onto the first sack. She felt the packed surface beneath it move with her weight, but all she could hear was Ryan’s awful singing.

Okay. Okay, she could do this.

“One done,” she yelled to be heard over his caterwauling.

“Good girl,” he purred as he handed her the other sack.

Sarah decided they’d deal with him calling her that later. Right now, it took all her concentration to focus on placing the sack in front of her while blocking out Ryan’s tuneless wail.

Slowly, she made her way onto the second sack, and keeping her eyes from what lay ahead, she waited for Ryan to pass her the other sack.

“You’re doing great,” he said. “If it’ll make you feel better, you can sing with me.”

With a hysterical laugh, Sarah crawled onward.