-undoubtedly dead-


"What direction are we going?" Yvon asked.

"I think we're going north," Samus answered. She peered at Justin; he seemed distracted, so she looked away.

Paff turned, Chicoga was far behind now. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure," Samus answered. "The sun is starting to go down west now," she pointed. "That way."

"Ah," Paff said, nodding.

"How far have we gone so far?" Yvon asked.

"Six or seven miles," Samus answered. "Pretty amazing, actually. I didn't think we'd get so far running. I don't know how we did it."

"We did because we had to," Justin said, quietly.

The other three looked at him; he didn't look up. He still seemed quite gloomy.

"How do we even know we're heading anywhere?" Yvon asked.

"We don't," Paff answered.

"Well then?" Yvon said. "Shouldn't we find a way to know where we're going?"

"We are," Samus said.

"This area," Justin said, causing everyone to look at him. "was populated once; probably with farmers and ranchers. But now... the area is baren. It's as though the people were scared away by something."

"By what?" Paff asked. "'Cause you're right... It's like something shepherded the people south. Clearing it's territory, so to speak."

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "There is no life here, even though the land is great for living. You'd expect that Chicoga would start building here... but it doesn't look like they want to."

"Why not?" Yvon asked.

"We don't know," Justin said. "And, if this area is restricted for some reason, that would explain why we haven't been followed yet."

"True," Samus said. She looked at Justin again, who grinned back at her.

"So it's mostly bittersweet for us," Yvon commented. "It's good 'cause the MUM won't follow us, but, it's bad 'cause there's something here that Chicoga is afraid of."

"Yup," Paff nodded.

As they walked, they started to come across a groved path in the field. At first they ignored it, but then the fields began turning sandy, and infertile. The plants started to give way to some unknown force.

Eventually, the groved path became a dirt trail, then a gravel pathway, and then, finally, to a road.

The teenagers were stunned to see the road, mostly because of how uninhabited the area had been for the past ten miles.

The road was definately usable, and had been used before. It didn't look recent, but not exactly old. The road came from the west, and turned north just where the teenagers were standing.

Then, another amazing sight was seen. A huge canyon, at least six miles across, and two miles deep stretched from the east horizon, to the west horizon. The road curved downwards, steeply, into about a quarter mile of the canyon's depths. There, clearly visible in the canyon, was a huge facility about two hundred feet below the canyon edge.

Cars were visible, parked beside the oil-plant-look-a-like, and another, not as big building was beside it.

"I guess there's more than meets the eye," Samus commented.