Gibbs running in dirt

Gibbs was slowing the gardeners down.
He knew it. He was pretty sure they knew it, too. Cutting across the soft earth of the gardens was just too much work with the mechanical foot. And slogging through thirty feet of soil clogged up the joints. The gears in his ankle and toes were stiff, his limp was even worse, and it was slowing him down.
It wasn’t by much in the big scheme of things. But it was enough that the huge ex with the trap and the others with it kept up with movie-monster efficiency. They lurched and staggered and managed to stay about twenty feet behind his group.

Excerpt From Ex-Isle, pg 605
Peter Clines
https://books.apple.com/us/book/ex-isle/id989619017