At that moment I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was as dead as any of the bodies in the room with us. I just wasn’t smart enough yet to lie down and stop breathing like they had all done.
With one more look at my mentor, then at Glenda, I shrugged and tried to put on my best death-mask face.
“Why not? Let’s get moving before someone comes in and stops our fun treasure hunt before it really gets started.”
With one more look at the map, I folded it and put it back in my pouch.
Then I headed through the tables of bodies to the back wall. As I went I wanted to talk to the bodies, tell them I’d be right back, tell them to wait, to reserve a table for me. But I kept my morbid thoughts to myself.
There was a large cabinet of medical supplies filling the back wall and no hidden panel that I could see. From what the map had shown, the panel was right behind the cabinet.
I took hold of the back edge of the cabinet and pulled outward. I expected it to be too heavy for me to move, but it swung easily and silently, opening up into a passageway behind the panel.
I glanced back at Tanda and Aahz and Glenda, who were silently watching me.
“Give me the torch and follow me,” I said. “We’ll check the map again when we get a ways inside. And pull this closed behind you.”
Aahz nodded.
It felt good to be leading, even if I wasn’t going in a direction I wanted to go. At least I’d get to the wrong place first, and more than likely be killed first.
Tanda handed me the torch and I slipped behind the cabinet.