Chapter 4
The town of Flat Valley was much farther north than Scout had ever been. As the rover rolled on, the hills around her grew ever taller. She could even see the dark smudge of mountains on the horizon. The rover crested the top of a sprawling ridge that extended out from the hills to the east, slowly fading down to the level of the prairie to the west. Far to the north was another similar ridge, the two like the arms of a prostrate worshiper spread as far as they could reach into the prairie, fingers splayed wide into its red-gold grasses. Between the arms was bare mud and rock dotted with sparse scrub, the typical ground covering in the hill country. She could almost smell it, the sharp sage-like aroma the scrub gave off when stepped on.
And in the center of that scrubby plain w
