So deep that when he heard Molly's cry sometime later, he awoke ready to fight. Oliver was on watch now and had looked over at them, but he didn't seem alarmed.
"Molly?" Javi asked.
She was still trying to catch her breath and sweat ran in a bead down the side of her face, which was especially unusual on a cold night like this one.
"It was only a dream," she said. "Nothing to worry about."
"You look worried." Truth was, she looked worse than worried. She looked like she'd just walked through one of those late-night horror movies. It took a lot to rattle Molly's nerves.
"I've got enough real-world problems," Molly said, slicking back her hair to get it out of her face. "I'm not going to stress about some stupid dream."
She could say practical things all night if she wanted, but Javi knew her better than that. Something in the dream was bothering her. And even as she laid down again, he was sure she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Of course, neither would he. Not now.
"It's probably time to switch out to a new watch," he told Oliver. "My turn."
Oliver yawned. "That's great, Javi. Thanks for volunteering!"
Volunteering, Javi thought. Why did that have to be the last word he heard before starting his hour of being alone in an unfamiliar darkness, now with only a green moon for light?
Morning came sooner than anyone wanted, except for Molly, who had laid awake on the ground without closing her eyes again.
It had only been a dream, so it was ridiculous to let it bother her this much. Especially considering she couldn't remember the details. Those had trickled away from her like water cupped in her hands. Now the dream was gone entirely. And somehow that made it worse. Because the feeling of weight in her chest still remained, a sense of dread about going forward.
She had taken last watch, and as soon as the sun began to warm the ground, she hollered for everyone to wake up. Her teammates could groan all they wanted, but it would only get hotter. They had to start moving.
The water that Anna had located and boiled had cooled down overnight. Now they distributed it evenly into everyone's water bottles. It came out with a lot of sand--
"Maybe there's good vitamins in there," Molly offered.
--and had a sort of reddish earth tint to it.
"We can pretend it's a cherry drink," she suggested.
"Made with rotten cherries," Oliver said, after taking a sip of his. "Yuck!"
"Get used to it until we find more," Anna said. "And don't waste any because who knows when we'll find more."
Molly still had some sealed water containers in her backpack, but she didn't want to use those yet. They had to save them in case they needed clean water, maybe to wash out a wound. She wished she didn't have to think like that.
"Day two of the desert," Javi said optimistically. "The day of the blood sand! How could that not be fun?"
Team Killbot growled back at him, and Yoshi even tossed his socks at Javi before demanding them back so he could put them on.
"I'd say no," Javi laughed, "but, dude, something is seriously wrong with your foot odor!"
"Foot odor," Akiko repeated. "Yoshi."
Molly waited to see what Yoshi would do, but he only sniffed his socks and, with a smile, said, "At least I'm not wearing a shirt with pink ponies on it."
Javi tossed a bungee cord at Yoshi, but it was all in good fun, and Molly decided they needed a little more of that. Wasn't that part of being a good leader--keeping everyone's spirits up?
After they broke camp, Yoshi led the way around the hill that he and Anna and Kira had climbed last night. By the time they got in position to see the valley they were about to enter, the sun was already turning the place into an oven. The blood sand would likely be worse. It stretched out before them now, like a vast red sea.
Red was supposed to be good inside the rift. But Molly knew this wasn't.
Luckily, they had the devices and everyone was already attaching themselves to the bungee cords. It might take them all day and half the night to cross this sand, but she didn't care. They weren't coming down until they were all the way across.
"Devices on," Molly ordered.
She and Anna powered on their devices, and Molly felt the now-familiar hum inside her gut.
"Guys ..." Javi said.
"Everyone have all their stuff?" Molly asked, digging through her own backpack. "Double-check before we jump."
"Tatsumaki!" Kira cried, tugging on Yoshi's arm.
He groaned, then turned sharply toward Molly. "Hey, you ever jumped through a tornado?"
Molly rolled her eyes as she turned to look at what the rest of her team was already staring at. Then her breath caught in her throat.
Massive columns of sand were rising from the desert floor, swirling in rising circles that pushed the columns higher and higher.
"Are we causing that?" Anna asked. "The low gravity?"
Nobody answered her, including Molly, who couldn't stop staring ahead. The nearest column was only fifty feet away, alarmingly close. It was at least ten feet wide and by now had extended over four stories high. These weren't true tornados, though. They originated from the ground, not the sky, and were wider near their base. The more the sand swirled, the higher it stretched.
"Everyone move back," Molly said, and even Yoshi obeyed this order instantly. With the low gravity, they had an extra bounce in their steps.
"Eighteen, nineteen," Oliver said. "I think I count nineteen columns. Wait! Another one just started."
"I told you those disks are dangerous," Yoshi said. "Turn them off or you'll produce some massive super tornado."
"Agreed," said Molly. "Anna?"
They turned their devices off and saw the columns slow in their rotations. Then Anna said, "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh?" Yoshi asked. "What do you mean, uh-oh?"
Molly saw the problem. With both devices off, the sand fell back to the earth like it had been poured from the skies. There was so much, and it had been moving so rapidly, the collapse created tidal waves of sand that rushed at them.
"Run!" Javi shouted.
Still attached by the bungee cords, Molly was reminded of the three-legged races she used to play as a child. Oliver was the slowest runner on her cord, but they still outpaced the worst of the sand.
By the time they stopped, they were almost back as far as last night's camp. The hill Yoshi had taken them around looked only half the size it had been before.
Anna sighed. "There goes our water source."
"And we can't use the low gravity," Yoshi said.
No, they couldn't. If their jumps weren't perfectly precise--and they never were--they could too easily get caught up in one of those swirling columns of sand.
While Yoshi translated for Kira and Akiko, Oliver said, "So, we're walking?" He sighed. "By the time we reach the end, I'll be a walking corpse."
"Maybe it's like a mirage," Molly offered. "Where the desert looks bigger than it really is."
"That's not how mirages work," Anna said.
Molly knew that. She was just hoping Oliver didn't.
Oliver squinted ahead. "How do we know the sand is safe to walk on? I mean, after what we just saw?"
"I have an idea!" Javi knelt on the ground and powered Hercules on. He had a remote device to control it, as long as it stayed within range.
"So it'll be our advance team?" Yoshi asked. "Our scout?"
"I don't want our bot to get wrecked," Javi said. "But if anything dangerous happens out there, it'll happen to Hercules first. Hopefully that'll give us time to get away."
"It's going to trip over its own whiskers," Yoshi said.
"That's my next planned upgrade," Javi said. "It won't trip."
Privately, Molly thought there was a chance Yoshi could be right--it might trip. But Javi had worked hard to get the machine moving. She wouldn't discourage him now.
He crouched to the ground and gave Hercules a dog pat on the top of its frame. "You were meant to get us a
trophy," he mumbled. "Now I hope you'll get us home. See you soon, my friend."
"If you want to kiss it good-bye, better hurry," Yoshi said.
Javi only smiled. "I would, but Hercules isn't really my type."
He rechecked Hercules's battery, then set it moving out across the blood sand. Molly held her breath.
"Twenty feet in and all is well, that's good enough for me," Javi said after a minute, stretching out a foot.
Anna grabbed him, yanking him back toward her. "Twenty feet is nothing! Did you know a shark can detect a single drop of blood from three miles away? Just one drop!"
"Uh-huh. So you figure there's a big problem here with desert sharks?" Yoshi asked her. "Spotted any dorsal fins in the sand yet?"
"My point is, we need to give Hercules a little more time, that's all."
At forty feet, Yoshi lost patience. He took two steps in, paused, and then turned around and smiled. "It's fine. We're wasting time."
The sisters followed him, then Anna, Javi, and Oliver, and Molly went last of all. As soon as her feet touched down on the familiar-feeling sand, she felt foolish. It was like the dream last night--they had enough real problems without her imagination inventing nonexistent threats. They had named the sand, so the fact that it sounded so scary was their own fault. Oliver was right. They should have named it cherry lollipop sand.
With Hercules leading them on a straight course forward, Team Killbot began making good progress. It wasn't as fast as flying, but it was better than being sucked into a twister. And nothing could sneak up on them. There was nowhere for anything to hide out here, though that also meant there was nowhere for them to hide, either. The only feature to the landscape was an occasional rock, which she supposed could obscure launch scorpions, so she warned the team to stay clear, just in case. But they could do this. No problem.
If only it weren't so hot. The sand soaked up the sun like a hot plate, and within a couple more hours, they would start to fry. Molly reached for her water bottle, tempted to take a drink, but then put it back. She was warm, but not sweating yet. She'd replenish her water after she started to sweat.
Just ahead of her, Anna did reach for her bottle and took a long drink. However, she immediately spat it out. "Blech, too much sand!"
Right beneath her, the sand softened, swallowing her left leg up to the knee.
"What the--?" Anna scowled. "Is this quicksand?"
"Can you get out?" Oliver asked.
Anna put her weight on her right leg and tried to stand up with it. "It's completely solid now. I'm stuck. I need someone to pull me out."
"Did the sand look any different where you stepped?" Molly asked, still keeping her distance. "Are there any other soft patches around you?"
Anna punched on the ground around her, but the sand only reacted as sand should, leaving a little bowl where her fist went down, with individual grains sliding into the center.
"It's safe," Javi said, starting forward.
Anna's eyes widened. "Guys, something just brushed against my leg!"
Javi froze. "What?"
"There's something down there. Something under the sand!"
In tough situations, Anna wasn't the type of person to panic. She was the one who reasoned through the problem, who calculated the odds of success. She was practical and sensible.
And at the moment, she was scared out of her wits. Her heart was pounding as if she'd just run a marathon and her mouth had turned to paste.
"Don't move!" Molly cried.
Anna rolled her eyes. In the first place, her leg was stuck! Not being able to move was the problem, not the solution. And in the second place, if Molly had felt the length of the thing that brushed against her, the last advice she'd have given was to stay where she was.
"Get me out!" Anna shouted.
"Shh," Yoshi said. "Maybe it can hear you!"
"Maybe it can eat me!" Anna cried. "Help me!"
"Everyone tie themselves together with the bungee cords," Molly said. "Anna, we'll toss you one end and then anchor you to pull yourself out, just like if it was quicksand."
"Quicksand with the Loch Ness freaking monster in it! Hurry!"
Yoshi had been so involved with the rescue that he hadn't yet translated for the sisters. So Akiko might not have known the plan when she began walking over to Anna. She was light enough that the sand barely shifted beneath her feet, and when the team shouted at her to step back, she only waved them away, then used the same hand to offer Anna a way out.
Relieved and grateful, Anna took her hand. With that, and her right foot braced against the top of the sand, Anna was able to pry herself out.
"Thank you," Anna said.
"Omoshiroi," Akiko replied. Interesting.
Which, as far as Anna was concerned, was Akiko's way of saying, "You're welcome."
Molly snatched her into a hug as soon as she was clear of the area where she had sunk, and Oliver joined in from behind. Anna stood straight, her stiff arms hanging uncomfortably at her sides until it was over. Was she supposed to have hugged them back? If so, how? Molly had pinned her arms down when she grabbed her.
Akiko got the next round of hugs, although she returned them looking far more natural than Anna had felt. Anna decided to imitate that next time, if there was a next time.
"But why did that happen?" Molly asked, checking the area around them again. "We shouldn't go forward without knowing what to watch out for."
"Maybe there's nothing to watch for," Yoshi said. "Maybe we're in some sort of messed-up TV show and they're just playing with us."
"There's a scientific reason for it," Anna said. "There's a scientific reason for everything. Every question has an answer."
"Then here's my answer on the blood sand," Yoshi said. "The sooner we get across it, the better."
Everyone agreed with that and set off at an even quicker pace straight ahead. Hercules had stopped rolling as soon as it was out of range of Javi's remote. Once they caught up with it, the machine continued bobbing along again as if nothing had happened.
That was the problem with robots. It didn't care that Anna had sunk in the sand up to one knee, or that the entire team had to stop to help her. It only knew that it was told to ride forward, and as long as it was in range, it would keep going forward until its battery ran out, until it hit a barricade, or until its programmer changed its orders.
Anna decided that Yoshi was opposite in every way. He never seemed to run out of energy. If he hit a barricade, he'd just knock it down with his sword, and he followed nobody's orders but his own.
Anna caught up to him. "Can you tell me how to say thank you in Japanese? I want to thank Akiko in her own language."
"It'd be better if Akiko learned English," Yoshi said.
"Please!" Anna said.
Yoshi smiled. "All right. Tell her, 'Watashi wa mushi o tabemasu.'"
Anna repeated it back for him, just to be sure, and when he nodded, she ran up to Akiko and said, "Watashi wa mushi o tabemasu."
Akiko looked over at Kira as if confused, then back at Anna, and when her eyes connected with Yoshi's, the three of them burst out in laughter.
"What did I say?" Anna protested. "I said it just the way you told me to!"
Yoshi was laughing so hard he was bent over with his hands braced against his thighs. Kira and Akiko had arms around each other, laughing just as hard.
"That was mean, I'm sorry," Yoshi said. "The phrase I told you means, 'I eat worms.'"
With that, the rest of Team Killbot began laughing, too, which only made Kira and Akiko laugh even harder. Kira released her sister to offer a hand of friendship to Anna, and as she did, Akiko wiped tears of laughter from her eyes.
And immediately sank to her knees.
"It's water!" Molly yelled. "That's what softens the sand. Anything moist--sweat, tears ... blood!"
"Stop!" Yoshi said to Akiko. He'd forgotten to say it in Japanese, but she understood. His tone was certainly unmistakable.
She nodded,
but her eyes were full of fear and she was calling to her sister in Japanese. Yoshi was speaking to her, too, but Anna wasn't sure she was listening. Akiko's voice just kept raising in pitch as her panic grew. She put both hands down on the sand to try to free herself.
Both of her hands, wet with tears.
"No, don't!" Anna cried. "That'll only make it--"
Exactly where Akiko's hands went down, the sand softened again. From this angle, it was easy to see the ripples that moved outward from her hands, like a pond where a rock had been thrown.
Akiko must've felt what was happening even before Anna saw it, because she uttered a panicked cry.
And then she sank, disappearing completely beneath the sand.
Akiko was gone.
The instant that Akiko disappeared, Molly's mind flew into action. "Everyone drop your water and follow me!" she yelled. "We've got to dig her out!"
"There's no time for that!" Javi said. "Besides, we'll sweat so much in digging, we'll all go under, too!"
"The first exposure to water only sinks you to your knees," Anna said. "If we calculate--"
"Engineers!" Yoshi shouted. "Do you want to stand there and debate, or rescue Akiko?" He began tying himself to one end of the bungee cord. "Nobody pulls me out unless I tug on this three times, got it?" He threw the end of the cord to Anna. "Now someone give me their water bottle."
Javi tossed his bottle to Yoshi, who took a deep breath, then yanked off the cap. He dumped its contents onto the sand at his feet. Before the bottle was even halfway empty, Yoshi had vanished, too, swallowed up entirely.
The remaining team all took hold of the other end of the cord, each of them waiting for the promised three tugs.
"That was one!" Oliver shouted.
"Maybe he needs more length to find Akiko," Javi said. "Let's give him some slack."
"If the creature that brushed past my leg is still down there, maybe one tug is just the creature grabbing Yoshi," Anna said.
"Stop talking like that!" Molly yelled.
"Sorry," Anna said, then her face brightened. "That was another tug!"
"Does that count as a second tug?" Oliver asked. "Or do we start counting over if the tugs don't come together?"
Just ahead of Molly, Kira had started crying. Molly let one hand go from the cord long enough to give her shoulder a squeeze, a comfort and a warning. Kira couldn't let those tears touch the sand. If she did, she'd sink, and might sink them all with her. Kira seemed to understand and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.