“Left!” Sparks said a few seconds later, and Seb’s heart jumped at Owsk’s next sudden turn. He tried to stay calm as he looked around them, the rock rushing past on every side. The tunnels had been hollowed out by something. Maybe some kind of sea worm. Hopefully it had abandoned its creation a long time ago.
“Down!”
Owsk forced the sub down through a hole in the ground.
“Right!”
A little bit too late, Owsk caught the back of the Piscents on a rock. The vessel shook as if it would lose control. Seb winced to see the wall come close to them again, but Owsk rescued it at the last second.
While holding onto the seat’s armrests, Seb watched the granite troll. A worse pilot would have killed them all by now.
When they’d levelled out again, Seb looked up at the rocky ceiling. “Is this tunnel getting tighter, or is it just me?”
“Right!” Sparks yelled.
Again, Owsk threw the Piscents in the direction Sparks instructed him to.
Because Owsk turned a little too early, they drifted close to the right wall. Seb gasped and pulled away from it as if him moving his body would make any kind of difference.
“Up!”
This time the bottom of the sub scraped against the tunnel’s floor, the rock grinding against the metal body as if trying to chew through it.
“We’re going to die down here.”
“Shut up, Seb,” Owsk said.
“Left!”
A few more close scrapes as Sparks and Owsk seemed to find their rhythm. They were getting the hang of it, Sparks telling Owsk slightly earlier each time, and Owsk reacting without delay.
When they burst out of the other side—the slightly lighter darkness of deep water in front of them—Seb laughed. He turned back to look at the wall behind them. “Wow! Well done, you two.” He spun back around and stared into the void ahead. “Who thought I’d be pleased to be here?”
Then Seb peered over Sparks’ shoulder again at her screen. He saw it filled with blinking red lights. “Wait a minute; is that thing broken, or am I reading it wrong? From what I can see, the beings we’re looking for are close by.”
“It’s neither, Seb. They are clo—”
Before Sparks could say anything else, the sea lit up in front of them. What had been a wall of darkness turned into a dazzling wall of bright light.
While shielding his stinging eyes, Seb said, “They were waiting for us?”
“It looks that way,” Sparks said, her attention fixed ahead. “They clearly knew we were coming.”
CHAPTER 28
The rumble sounded distant enough that they’d have time to get to safety. A swirling roar too high above them to be an issue. As long as they got through the pass, they’d be fine. But on second glance, maybe Reyes had gotten it wrong. The white cloud swelled as it rushed towards them, eating up the distance quicker than she’d first realised. It looked like a monster had risen from the ground. Some kind of mythical elemental beast. It would stop for nothing.
Reyes looked at the pass between the two mountains ahead of them. A good fifty-metre run through deep snow. What was she thinking? They had no chance of making it. To their left stood the taller mountain, which the avalanche currently raced down. Other than the snowy peak, she saw a wall of black rock no taller than four metres. It would be useless as a shelter.
The narrow ledge they’d just crossed was their only option. Reyes pointed at where they’d just come from. “We need to go back that way.”
“Are you mad?” Bruke said. “We’ll get flung from that ledge in seconds.”
As Reyes opened her mouth to ask him if he had a better idea, Bruke charged at her.
SA stood between them. On his way past, Bruke picked her up, again making her look weightless like he’d done when he stopped her from falling from the narrow ledge.
The stampeding lizard charged at Reyes and she froze. The avalanche came down the mountain above them. When Bruke gathered her up like he’d done with SA, it damn near drove the wind from her body.
Under Bruke’s other arm, Reyes lay horizontally and looked at SA opposite her. Despite their current predicament, SA returned the same measured calm she always had in her bioluminescent gaze. Almost as if she’d given over to whatever would happen to them next. She trusted Bruke’s plan, even though she didn’t know what it was yet.
Locked in Bruke’s constrictor’s grip, Reyes hadn’t quite reached SA’s level of acceptance. She looked at the avalanche again. It hurt her throat to shout over the swelling sound around them. “We won’t make the pass, Bruke. It’ll hit us before we get there.”
But Bruke didn’t reply.
Then Reyes saw where they were heading. Bruke ran straight at the avalanche. Straight at the small wall of exposed mountainside between them and it. She twisted and shook, but he held her too tight for it to make a difference. “SA!” she shouted at the woman opposite her. “We need to do something. The fever has sent him crazy. That small wall won’t protect us.”
No response from Bruke, and no response from SA. SA, we need to get out of this. Bruke’s lost his mind.
Where will we go?
The question stumped Reyes. Snow hit her in the face. It fell in thick sheets from the black clouds rushing down the mountain from the avalanche and Bruke kicking it up from the ground.
Reyes craned her neck to view the avalanche again. What had looked like ethereal mist in the distance had now turned into a rushing tsunami of thick snow. It galloped towards them, the back of it fighting to overtake the front. Such weight and force, it would rip their limbs clean from their bodies when it hit—and it would hit—yet Bruke continued to charge straight at it.
When Reyes studied the wall they were heading for, she suddenly saw what Bruke must have seen. It lifted her spirit just a little. They had a chance. Another look at the avalanche, she shouted, “I see where you’re going now. Good work, Bruke. Keep it up.”
The closer Bruke got to the wall, the deeper the snow became. Every step sank him to his knee, and he swayed from side to side as he pulled one foot free and then the other. But he still pushed on, making progress as the rumble of their approaching executioner both shook the ground and swirled around the mountains as a thunderous roar.
A couple of metres to go. They still moved forward despite the terrain slowing them down. Reyes stared at what looked like a crack in the black wall. A fault line that could be exploited and a hollow beyond it. Bruke must have seen it as their only hope.
The powdery front of the avalanche reached them, kicking up in the strong wind and damn near blinding Reyes.
Bruke then spun around and ran backwards. It showed Reyes where they’d come from. It showed her where they’d go if they didn’t make it.
Suddenly a hard jolt crashed into Bruke, and Reyes felt the wash of snow. The ground shook as if an earthquake ran through it. They’d lost.
CHAPTER 29
Reyes had braced herself to get thrown forwards, and she yelled as they fell back instead. All three of them hit the hard ground at the same time, Bruke letting go of them as he went down.
Reyes stared back out where they’d come from. Rock littered the ground where Bruke had smashed through the weak wall. She didn’t focus on the debris for long though; instead, she watched more snow than she’d ever seen race across the cave’s new entrance. Thick and churning, it twisted and turned, alive with its momentum.
As Reyes sat up, she kept her palms pressed into the ground, the entire mountain shaking with the ferocity of nature’s force.
What had been daylight—albeit cloudy and snowy daylight—quickly closed down to nothing.
IN THE DARKNESS, Reyes lost track of time. It could have been ten minutes, it could have been half an hour. While she sat there, both listening and feeling the avalanche running down the mountain, she said nothing. The chaos eventually died down to silence.
Wow! SA finally said. Thank you, Bruke. We would have been torn to shreds were it not
for you.
Although Bruke had mustered strength beyond anything Reyes could comprehend, it seemed to have utterly drained him. Where he’d sounded bunged up before, he now sounded like he could barely get his words out. Hardly surprising considering the effort it must have just taken him. “It would have helped if I hadn’t caused it in the first place.”
Reyes fished the small computer from her pocket. Not as au fait with it as Sparks, she tapped the screen and pressed a few icons before she found the torch. It burst to life, dazzling her and flashing blind spots in her vision. After several blinks to clear her sight, she looked around the place. It showed their dark cave to be no more than a crevice. Small, cold, and barren.
“Well, we’re safe for now,” Reyes said. The red dots flashed on the screen when she pulled the map up again. “We’re close to what must be the beings who live here, but I’m not sure how we’re going to get to them.” Shining her torch on the hole Bruke had made to get them in there, she saw the tightly packed snow. A glistening and solid wall. They’d have to dig their way out.
But then Reyes saw something else blocking their way. She walked over to what she’d taken to be snow and let go of a hard sigh as she said, “Rocks!”
“Huh?” Bruke said.
“This snow’s filled with rocks.” After she’d dug away a patch of snow, she quickly came to another solid lump that couldn’t be whittled. “Lots of rocks.” She moved to another part of the new wall and found more of the same. Large rocks were shoved into the space with tons of snow on top of them. “I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be for us to get out of here.”
Silence.
“Also,” Reyes said, “if we’ve just found the Quartz, and potentially all of its crew died in the crash, how do we know if Buster’s still alive? This whole mission might have been a complete waste of time.”
After a few more seconds of silence, SA said, I think we need to focus on how we’re going to get out of here first.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Reyes said. A look at Bruke, she saw him pull into a ball as he continued to shiver. Making sure they all got out alive had to be their priority. “SA, can you contact the others?”
I’ll try.
CHAPTER 30
As Seb’s eyes adjusted, the wall of light transformed from one large blur into individual beams. Still dazzled by the sight, he looked from one to the next. It felt like they’d emerged into a video game. A bright red glow on the front of each ship, they’d lined up in five rows of three. Owsk must have been equally mesmerised because he simply floated and stared.
“At least there’s only fifteen of them,” Seb said. “I was worried for a minute; I mean, not having a cannon and all, the last thing we’d want is to be outnumbered.”
Neither Owsk nor Sparks replied, the tension palpable in the vessel. While letting go of a hard sigh, Seb sank back in his seat and shook his head. “Good chat.”
The nose of one of the ships in the middle of the pack glowed brighter than before. A second later, a beam of light exploded from it. The laser cut through the water with such speed, Seb saw it fired and then felt it crash into the front of the Piscents. It moved so fast he hadn’t been able to track its path. On contact, the laser beam shattered, the vessel rocking while thousands of light particles cascaded around it.
Blinded again from the glow, his pulse rapid and his palms sweating, Seb tried to control the panic that threatened to choke him out by keeping his thoughts entirely in that moment. No leaks meant they weren’t sinking yet.
As his sight returned, Seb sank deeper into his seat. “At least we’ll be blind when we sink to the bottom of this ocean. I’d rather not watch you two drown while I’m having to go through it myself.”
Although Owsk didn’t look at Seb as he spun the Piscents around, he growled at him through clenched teeth. “If we were in your crappy Shadow Order sub, we’d be soaked by now and sinking fast.”
As much as Seb wanted to snipe back, he felt like too much more excitement would make his heart explode. “Why don’t you make use of this wonderful sub by getting us the hell out of here, then?”
Before he’d finished, Owsk had already accelerated back towards the tunnels that led them there. He hurtled back into the small space at twice the speed they’d exited it from.
Seb flinched through fear of crashing. Sinking suddenly seemed like a much better option.
The tunnel felt tighter than before, the walls flashing past them. A strobe effect lit up the dark pathways from the ships behind shooting at them, their blasts crashing into the walls and shattering like the one that hit the Piscents had.
Seb looked behind them, dazzled by the blasts again. Although, even amongst the chaos, he still saw the first sub enter the tunnel.
It took a matter of seconds for the ship to halve the distance between them, the others flowing in behind it. The laser on the front of it glowed with its charge. Just as Seb opened his mouth to tell Owsk, Sparks cut him off. “Down!” she yelled.
A tight grip on the seat’s armrests, Seb’s entire body locked tight as Owsk dived. Were it not for the fact he’d get motion sick, he would have closed his eyes. Only a slightly better option to keep them open, but at least he wouldn’t die covered in his own vomit.
A red laser blast shattered where they’d been moments before. Then another bright light, orange this time like flames. Because Sparks watched the screen, and Owsk watched where they were going, it took for Seb to look behind. “The sub behind us just crashed.”
Sparks shouted again. “Left!”
Owsk grazed the right wall with a loud crunch, metal sparks kicking off the sub’s wing. A wobble as they straightened out, but at least they’d made it around.
Two more fireball explosions, Seb called out. “Three down.” At least he had a role now.
The tunnel seemed to straighten out and Owsk sped up. The walls around them turned into a porous blur. However, the lights on their tail made it easier to see where they were going.
“Up!”
A sharp yank sent them straight up. It allowed Seb to look through the glass roof at the pack behind. It gave him momentary sight of them before he had to turn around to look out of the back. The ships tried to follow through the abrupt incline. A couple of explosions showed some of them had failed as they went straight into the wall. “Two more down. Ten left.”
Sparks then turned one hundred and eighty degrees, holding her computer up in Seb’s face. “You need to slow down, Owsk!”
Both Seb and Owsk said, “Why?” at the same time.
“I’ve got some good news!” When she spun back around, she held up her screen. Amongst all the red flashing dots of their pursuers, she pointed at a green one. “Buster’s in the sub directly behind us!”
CHAPTER 31
How do you know it’s him?” Owsk said, dividing his attention between looking out of the windscreen and looking at Sparks’ computer.
Seb nudged him and pointed forwards. “Will you look where you’re going?”
After a slight pause, Sparks said, “I have his genetic fingerprint. I’ve programmed my computer to see him.”
“I can’t slow down; they’ll catch us.”
“You’re a better driver than them; you’ll avoid them. If you don’t slow down, Buster won’t get out of these tunnels. They’ll crash on our next turn.”
Owsk looked like he wanted to do anything but ease off; however, he slowed them down a little.
The walls around them turned from a blur back to a cratered dark mess. Seb looked behind again to see the other ships gaining on them.
“There’s a down we need to take in a minute,” Sparks said.
The blaster on the ship with Buster in it glowed red.
While holding up her long fingers as a visual for the countdown, Sparks began. “Three …”
Seb watched the beam swell, growing with the potential to be the one to take them down.
“Two …”
The sub behind t
hem had come close enough for Seb to see Buster in the passenger seat.
“Now.”
Owsk dived as the red beam from the sub behind lit up the cockpit of the Piscents. It sailed over the top of them, narrowly missing their ship as it flew along the tunnel they were in only seconds ago. A moment later, the sub with Buster in went the same way, completely missing the drop they’d taken.
Owsk sped up as the next vehicle dropped down the tunnel after them. But it misjudged it, crashed into the wall, and exploded on impact.
“Nine left,” Seb called out and bounced in his seat. “Well done, you two.”
Another explosion behind them.
“Eight.”
Sparks had the three-dimensional map of the tunnels in front of her again. The walls all around them turned into a blur as she said, “Left, right, left.”
Three sharp turns later, Seb’s guts had lurched with each one, but he managed to keep his attention behind them and his last meal in his stomach. Explosion after explosion, he counted them out, “Seven, six, five, four.”
“Up,” Sparks said.
Again, Seb watched the pursuing ships through the roof. Another underwater fireball. “Three.”
“Left.”
Another explosion, then another one. “One left! But I can’t see it.”
Sparks turned to Owsk again and said, “Slow down.”
The troll didn’t seem capable of sweating. Had he been able to, Seb felt sure it would have been gushing from him at that moment. He felt the damp press of perspiration against his own clothes and he hadn’t tried piloting the thing.
Owsk gripped the Piscents’ controls hard, his shoulders raised to his neck as he panted.
Sparks reached over and patted Owsk’s back. “Well done. You outdid every one of them. Well done.”
Enigma: A Space Opera: Book Six of The Shadow Order Page 11
