Surprisingly, I overtook Aahz. Either he was holding back so I could catch up, or I was more scared than I thought, which is impossible.
“Now what?” I panted.
“Shut up and keep running, kid,” Aahz barked, ducking around a knot of people.
“They’re gaining on us,” I pointed out.
Actually, the group we had just passed had joined the pursuit, but it had the same effect as if the crowd was gaining.
“Will you knock it off and help me look?” Aahz growled.
“Sure. What are we looking for?”
“A couple dressed roughly like us,” he replied.
“What do we do if we see them?”
“Simple,” Aahz replied. “We plow into them full tilt, you swap our features for theirs, and we let the mob tear them apart.”
“That doesn’t sound right somehow,” I said doubtfully.
“Kid, remember what I told you about situational ethics?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, this is one of those situations.”
I was convinced, though not so much by Aahz’s logic as by the rock that narrowly missed my head. I don’t know how the crowd managed to keep its speed and still pick up things to throw, but it did.
I began watching for a couple dressed like us. It’s harder than it sounds when you’re at a dead run with a mob at your heels.
Unfortunately, there was no one in sight who came close to fitting the bill. Whomever it was we were impersonating seemed to be fairly unique in their dress.
“I wish I had a weapon with me,” Aahz complained.
“We’ve already gone through that,” I called back. “And besides, what would you do if you had one? The only thing we’ve got that might stop them is the fire ring.”