“What then?"
"Hopefully nothing, but predatory creatures are more active at night so it's always a little riskier to be out and about which is why we prefer to be indoors."
I ignored his vagueness and looked out at the gloom.
The trees weren't thick around the track but created a barrier further out. We were surrounded by tall plants with husks on their tips and it changed the landscape drastically. It made it easier to see the sky and I watched as stars blinked into view.
“Is this corn?" I asked.
"Yes. It never used to grow as tall as this apparently but now it's over twenty five feet at full height. It produces at least four times as much corn per husk as the original plant too," Coal said.
"I suppose this is what they were aiming for originally," I mused.
“Shouldn't screw around with nature." Laurie waggled a finger authoritatively, awake at last.
The truck started to judder a bit then made a whining sound before giving up and coming to a halt.
"Damn it," Alicia cursed, slapping her hands down on the steering wheel. "We're out of power. We need to get to the farm house to charge it up again."
"Should we wait here for Hunter to realise that we got left behind?" Laurie asked.
The engine stopping meant that the heating had gone off and I was already feeling the cold creeping in. Alicia considered what to do.
“No. It's not far. We can walk it in less time than it would take for them to even realise we were missing." She opened her door and hopped out, the rest of us followed. It felt so good to stretch my legs after being cooped up for hours and I was glad of the opportunity to move about.
Alicia climbed up on top of the truck to look around.
“The road circles the field. I can see the other trucks still making their way around but the farm is just through there," she said, jumping down and pointing into the corn field.
“Through the middle of the field? In the dark?" I asked, trying to make it sound like the prospect wasn't terrifying.
“Well it's still the best part of a mile if we walk around the road but it's less than half that through the field. We can run it in like five minutes, ten tops," Alicia said.
I glanced at Laurie who shrugged and Coal who was looking up at the dark sky.
"Let's do it then, just all stick together no matter what," Coal said. He let out a whistle and Kaloo jumped out of the truck and bounded around us, obviously pleased to stretch her legs too.
Alicia locked the truck and we shouldered our packs.
"Let's go," Coal said and we pushed our way into the corn.
We soon realised that we could barely walk through the dense corn stalks let alone run. We kept in single file, forcing a path between them which was much harder than it should have been.
The stalks were surprisingly rigid. They resisted our passage and snapped back into position with enough force to actually hurt on the few times that they caught me by surprise. Kaloo didn't seem to have nearly as much trouble, she darted in and out of view, her rustling appearances making me jump every time.
Alicia had taken the lead followed by Laurie and me, then Coal.
I stumbled over something hidden by my feet and his arm was suddenly around my waist, keeping me upright. How nice it would be if I could just stop falling over my own feet.
“Thank you." I turned to face him with a blush lining my cheeks and he let me go.
The corn snapped back into place, instantly surrounding us as the others moved ahead and we were suddenly alone. I glanced down and saw my boot lace trailing into the mud.
"Tie it or you'll just fall over again," Coal said with a teasing grin.
I smiled apologetically and dropped down to one knee. Coal took his assault rifle from his back and turned to look at the corn surrounding us.
My numb fingers fumbled with the fine laces but I finally pulled them tight and stood. The cold pressed against me and I shivered. Coal turned and bumped into me and I had to catch hold of his arm so that I didn't fall over again.