12
Scout followed Emilie back down the ladder and through a maze of shafts. She lost her sense of direction after the third or fourth turn and gave up trying to keep a mental map. She just focused on the soles of Emilie’s shoes in front of her. They were white rubber with red hearts at the balls of her feet. The canvas tops were white and black stripes and extended past her ankles. They even had little zippered pockets on the side. Scout found that sort of feature very useful. She liked having lots of pockets.
The air was cold and thick with the dust stirred up by Emilie’s hands and knees, and Scout sneezed several times in rapid succession, so hard she had to stop crawling until she was done.
Emilie was looking back over her shoulder at her. “Get that out of your system now,” she said.
