Page 78 of Reset

So.

Many.

Bones.

She didn’t move, and she didn’t know what to say. All she could do was stare at the skulls peeking out from various places throughout the tunnel. Their hollow eyes staring at her in judgement.

“Are they old or new?” Ryan asked, but his words barely registered with her.

One skull was smaller than the rest...

No, she couldn’t even think what that might mean.

Several were broken. Did that mean they were brittle? Would they crumble if she touched them?

She couldn’t.

She wouldn’t.

Just no.

Ryan’s hand wrapped around her ankle. “Sarah, are the bones old?”

She blinked several times. “How do you tell?”

“I don’t know. Do they look dusty, or broken, or do they look fresh?”

She shuddered. Fresh was not a word she wanted to use in their current situation. All it did was bring back memories of the bodies they’d found. And the horrible way she’d mistreated them by sending the rats in their direction.

No, she couldn’t think of that. Not now.

“Sarah,” Ryan pressed. “Are they dusty and old looking?”

“Does it matter? They were people. I can’t crawl over them.” She wanted out. She couldn’t go forward, which meant she had to go back, but Ryan was blocking the way. “Let me out. I need to get out of here.”

“No.” His hand tightened on her leg. “We’re in catacombs, remember? The Paris catacombs are full of old skeletons. Come on, Stats, surely you know the numbers.”

There’d never been any reason to research the catacombs. She only knew about them from a passage in a novel she’d read once years earlier. That story hadn’t mentioned the bones.

“Six million,” Ryan said when she didn’t answer him. “In the seventeen hundreds, they dug them up from overflowing graveyards and moved them down into the abandoned mines under the city. These are really old bones, Stats. They’ve been dead a very long time, and they’ve already been moved from their graves.”

She wasn’t sure how knowing that was supposed to help. “I can’t. I just can’t.”

Crawl over bones? Hands touching them? Hearing them crunch and crumble beneath her? What if a sharp piece pierced her skin? Cut by a human bone. No. No, she wasn’t doing this.

“I can’t,” she repeated. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” She started to back up, but Ryan wouldn’t budge.

“Wait.” Ryan stopped her. “Hold on a second.” He raised his voice and called to the people waiting for them. “Is there another way out of the mushroom farm?”

“Non, Monsieur,” came the reply.

“Baby, listen to me, okay?” Ryan soothed. “I can’t carry you through this tunnel. There isn’t the space. I can’t do anything to take your mind off what we have to do. I’m helpless here, and I really wish I wasn’t. I’d do anything to take this from you so you wouldn’t have to do it, but I can’t. This is the only way out. You have to keep going. Please, baby, you can do it. I know you can.”

“I can go back and wait. You’ll find another way to rescue me.” She had complete faith that he would. Unlike her, Ryan could do anything.

“There isn’t another way. This is it. It’s just a few moments, and then it’ll be over. You can do it.”

It wouldn’t be a few moments. It would be forever. She’d close her eyes and see this tunnel forever. She felt tears slide down her face and splash to the stone beneath her.