by Otto Schafer
“He’s not going to use it! He’s not going to use the focus!” Lenny answered.
“What? What do you mean?” she asked, but Lenny didn’t answer – he just stared. They all just stared.
Garrett listened to the voices distort as they reached him, and he wondered why their voices were not slowing down as much as Jack’s fist. Then he realized the speed of sound was obviously much faster than the speed of Jack. So, wouldn’t it make sense if time slowed differently depending on how fast the thing being slowed was moving? I should probably contemplate this later.
“What is happening?” Danny shouted to Jack. “What’s wrong with you?!” Having seen enough, Danny lunged forward toward Garrett.
Garrett felt a movement rush toward him from behind the beam of a flashlight but as Danny drew closer, he too began to slow, and when he was within three feet, he slowed to a near stop.
Garrett pressed his lips together in tight determination. He’d made his decision. Nodding reassuringly toward his friends, he let go of the focus.
Time for Jack and Danny returned to normal.
Garrett reached up and caught Jack’s fist in his left hand.
Jack’s eyes stretched open like a doe about to be struck by a car.
Garrett squeezed the boy’s fist hard, pressing his middle finger deep into a pressure point in the back of Jack’s hand, eliciting a surprised cry.
“Ahhh!”
Garrett kept the hand, pivoted his foot, and pulled the bully in close, placing Jack between himself and Danny. In the same motion, Garrett drew his head back then thrust it forward with a sudden jerk and headbutted Jack in the mouth, forcing Jack’s bottom teeth through his lower lip.
Jack reeled backward, stumbling into Danny with a stunned cry. Involuntarily, Jack turned his wounded face away from Garrett, exposing his right ear, which Garrett graciously accepted as his next target.
Stepping forward with a short, right-hand punch, Garrett connected with Jack’s exposed ear, generating another pained screech from Jack.
Jack seethed. “I’m going to hurt you! You hear me, Garrett? I’m going to make you pay!” Jack ran forward in a crouch, almost falling in the rising water. He swung another bar-room punch at Garrett’s face.
Seriously, the same punch? Garrett thought as he easily ducked the encroaching fist. Confidence surged in him. Suddenly he knew, really knew, he could do this. Still in a squatted position from slipping the punch, he couldn’t keep the grin off his face as he countered with a knuckle punch to Jack’s nut sack.
A sharp squeak barely audible over the rushing water escaped from Jack as he folded forward. Somehow, he managed to stay standing as he bent over, holding his testicles, face distorted in pain.
“Yes!” Lenny shouted, releasing a hearty belly laugh that reverberated down the tunnel. Garrett started to stand when Danny rushed forward, grabbing Garrett from behind by the back of the collar, and yanked.
Paul shouted a war cry and ran forward but before he could reach Garrett, Lenny shouted, “Wait, man, just watch this.”
“But—”
Garrett flew back, his feet coming out from under him with the force of Danny’s pull. He landed hard on his back in the water. Danny grabbed fistfuls of Garrett’s collar with both hands and tugged, intent on dragging him further into the tunnel where the two other thugs were waiting.
Rather than try and break free, Garrett allowed Danny to drag him as he reached back over his head with both hands and locked on to Danny’s wrist with a tight grasp. Using Danny’s wrist as leverage, he fired four hard kicks over his own head, and into Danny’s face.
By the third kick, Danny was screeching in agony as teeth broke and something fractured in the older boy’s face, probably his nose. It wasn’t until the fourth kick that Danny was finally able to break free of Garrett’s grasp.
Still lying on his back, Garrett spun himself around to face Danny. Water rushed over Garrett as he began to slide toward the mouth of the tunnel.
Danny threw both hands over his wrecked face and shouted in a tone that could only be produced by a unique combination of pain and rage, “Arrrgh!” Pulling his bloody hands away revealed a disfigured face that was distorted as much by pure anger as it was by the crooked nose and busted lips. Squinting through his watering eyes, Danny found the cause of all his anger and agony. Garrett was mere feet away, lying on his back as the rushing water swept him helplessly toward the opening. A determined expression fixed on Danny’s face.
Garrett could almost read his thoughts. Danny wasn’t going to let the river have him – not yet.
Danny seized the opportunity and rushed the defenseless boy. When he was within reach, he leapt, launching himself toward Garrett.
As Danny flew toward him, Garrett smiled. Danny had seen exactly what Garrett wanted him to see.
“Here we go!” Lenny shouted.
It was too late for Danny to change his mind when he noticed Garrett pulling his knee to his chest. Danny’s eyes went wide in helpless anticipation as he landed on top of Garrett’s cocked leg. With his foot centered perfectly on Danny’s gut, he grabbed him by the collar with both hands and rolled backward, his own face disappearing briefly underwater. But Garrett didn’t need to see as he kicked out his cocked leg with all his might.
Danny launched airborne backward over Garrett’s head in a classic hapkido throw.
“Oh ho! Atta a boy!” Lenny cried out. “What did I tell you!” he said, punching Paul in the shoulder.
Danny landed too close to the edge of the culvert’s opening to stop himself from falling over the side. As both members of his crew ran forward, stomping past Garrett in a desperate attempt try and grab him, it was gravity that won out. Danny let out a short cry that was stifled abruptly by a loud splash.
The two big brutes and now Jack, who had finally managed to stand upright, stood near the edge of the culvert, and it was Garrett who stood with his back to his friends. “I’m going to give you another chance Jack. You can turn around right now and follow your brother, or I can put you in a whole lot more pain and send you after him myself.”
Jack winced, one hand still holding his testicles. “You bastard! That’s my brother!” He waded forward again, but this time he slowed, realization dawning on his face as he apparently decided it wouldn’t be wise to throw his signature punch for the third time. He paused, motioning at the other two. “Let’s get him!”
Garrett noticed the one on his left was holding a bat while the guy on his right brandished a black bar of some kind. A crowbar maybe? It was hard to tell in the low light.
Jack smiled a bloody grin and pulled a knife.
The water was rushing midway up Garrett’s shins now and just standing in the culvert was becoming dangerous in itself. They were running out of time.
“I’m helping him – this is ridiculous,” Paul said, wading forward.
Lenny nodded. “Let’s go!”
The guy with the bat wasted no time and swung at Garrett’s face.
Garrett spun into the swing and grabbed the man’s wrist with his left hand, then with a hard, right-hand chop he broke the man’s forearm. The bat fell into the rushing water, vanishing over the edge of the culvert.
The man screamed in white-hot agony as Jack, ready to take advantage of an opportunity to get the drop on Garrett, rushed forward, thrusting his knife at the distracted boy’s side.
“Garrett!” Breanne shouted over the rushing water.
Garrett yanked on the man’s broken arm as he stepped back to avoid Jack’s attack.
The man’s scream pierced the night as he lurched awkwardly sideways, occupying the space between Garrett and Jack, perfectly positioned to receive the thrust from Jack’s knife. Jack’s blade sank deep into the screaming man’s shoulder.
Jack let go of the knife as his mouth fell slack with the awfulness of what he had done.
Garrett gave the screaming man a final shove toward the opening.
The man staggered backward, h
is arm dangling, and fell out into the night. There was no more screaming, only a splash.
The big guy with the crowbar cautiously approached, his weapon cocked back for a swing. But before he could reach Garrett, Paul placed a hand on Garrett’s shoulder, stepping around him.
The big guy paused in the glow of flashlights.
Paul smiled and advanced. “Come here, big fella.”
The big guy shuffled backward through the water toward the opening. He looked back at Paul, then back at the opening. The chances of surviving the raging Sangamon – in a storm, in the dark, and above the broken dam – would be slim, but the big guy must have liked his chances better than facing Paul. He dropped the bar, turned, and jumped out the opening, vanishing over the edge.
Paul’s face dropped in utter disappointment.
It was only Jack and Garrett now.
“Don’t touch him. This has to be me and Jack. No one else!” Garrett closed the distance in three steps.
Jack dove forward, driving his shoulder into Garrett’s stomach. Both boys fell back into the water. Jack managed to get both hands around Garrett’s throat. “I’m going to kill you, Garrett!” He shoved Garrett’s head underwater.
Garrett was blind under the freezing water. His head was pressed hard against the concrete of the culvert with all the weight of the boy on top of him, pinning him immovably below the rushing torrent, squeezing his throat with all he had. As Garrett lay there, a thought flashed through his mind. Lenny and Breanne were watching Jack kill him. In a moment, Lenny, or maybe Paul, would come to his rescue and save him. They would probably toss Jack out into the river and, just like that, the threat of Jack would be washed away. The shame of having to be rescued, however, would never be washed away. He would have to carry it with him forever, unable to look his friends in the eye. And worse, if they saved him now, he would never know if he could have won. No. He had to do something.
Before going under, Garrett had sucked in a ragged breath and tucked his chin tight to his chest. The maneuver was not keeping him from being choked completely but it was helping. Placing his hands over the back of Jack’s, he wrapped his fingers around the boy’s thumbs while pressing his own thumbs into the back of Jack’s pinky knuckles. Then he twisted. Then he kept twisting.
Jack’s wrist contorted unnaturally, and he let go of Garrett’s throat with a sharp cry.
Thankfully for Jack, the slippery water allowed him to yank his hands away from Garrett before they twisted to the point of breaking.
Garrett bucked Jack and twisted to the side, tossing Jack into the water beside him.
Jack beat Garrett to his feet and quickly stomped down in an effort to keep Garrett from standing.
Garrett spun with the rush of moving water, avoiding Jack’s foot, but he wasn’t able to avoid being swept dangerously close to the opening.
Breanne gasped.
Garrett managed to get to his feet, but even standing in place was difficult.
The two boys squared off again.
“Let’s finish this, Jack!”
“I’m going to finish you!” Jack seethed, charging forward.
This time, Garrett ducked low and flipped Jack over him, then pounced on top of him. He quickly tangled Jack’s arm up behind his back, wrenched it up unnaturally, and shoved him face-down under the water.
“Let’s see how you like it, Jack!” Garrett shouted from deep inside his guts, but what spilled forth was a crazed scream as all the calm slipped away, replaced by a suppressed rage no longer held in place by fear. Something inside him snapped, and he lost control.
Jack struggled below him, fighting for breath, but Garrett held him firmly under water.
“Garrett, stop!” Lenny shouted, running forward. “He isn’t worth it!”
But Garrett didn’t stop. “You will never hurt anyone else!” he shouted.
“Garrett! You’re going to kill him!” Lenny begged, pulling at his dobok.
Garrett didn’t hear his friend. There was nothing else; no one else. He would not stop until he felt the life leave Jack’s body. He hadn’t been sure he could kill another human being. Now he was sure he could, and he would. He would kill Jack here and now.
“Please! Garrett, stop!” Lenny begged.
The fight began to leave Jack as his body slowly succumbed.
Breanne rushed forward and bent down beside him. “Let him go, Garrett. You can’t kill him. If you kill him, he wins! He becomes the victim. You’re better than him.” She reached under the water and found Garrett’s hands and placed hers gently on top of his. “Look at me, Garrett.”
Garrett found her eyes, and the anger slipped away like a fish from the hand. He shuddered and let go.
Jack lurched upright from the water, choking and coughing. He pushed himself away from them, close to the edge of the culvert, and puked. Gasping, he leaned out over the side and looked out toward the dark water, then down river into the night. He looked back at them with hate. Hate unlike anything any of them had ever seen.
Garrett was the first to feel it. A sickening in his stomach, a turning. Bile crept up the back of his throat and he started to gag. It hit Lenny next, and Garrett watched, helpless, as he went down to his knees vomiting. Then Bre, then Paul, then the rest of them – all sick, all gagging like they’d just eaten something rotten.
“My skin, something is wrong with my skin,” Lenny managed.
Garrett frowned, feeling his tongue swell as his teeth began to ache. His head started to thump painfully with his pulse, and he became suddenly cold. The thumping in his head increased as his heart began to race. A dull twinge started to radiate down his left arm. His nostrils filled with the smell of death. It was bad, like the time he stumbled across a deer that had lain in the sun until it bloated and popped.
He heaved again, turning back to Jack, only able to squint through the pain. Jack was different. He was focused. Fixed in an expression of hate. His visage that of a madman. Suddenly Jack looked strong again, and there was no longer a hole below his lip where his teeth had come through. Garrett knew it then. Somehow… Jack was doing this.
In a final show of defiance, he looked at Garrett. “This isn’t over, Garrett. This will never be over.” His statement was that of a calm promise void of threat. He turned to the dark river and, without another word, tipped over the edge of the culvert. The only sound was that of a soft splash, barely audible over the ever-rising water.
Instantly, the pain in his head and arm disappeared and his stomach settled.
“What the hell was that?!” Lenny said, rubbing his hands across his arms.
“He must have gotten close to the God Stones somehow,” Paul said, swallowing dryly.
Garrett threw his arms around Breanne, pulled her close, and hugged her. His whole body shivered as emotion racked his core. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she reassured him.
“I would have killed him, Bre. If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have killed him,” he whispered.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” she said consolingly.
“Yeah,” he said, unable to meet her eyes. “I’m just freezing, that’s all. We better move.”
20
Lincoln’s Gauntlet
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
“It’s no good!” Lenny shouted over the rush of water. “The bricks I found are below the water! Dammit, it’s too high!”
Pete bent beside him. “Lenny, look again – are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” Lenny said. “The water is up to our freaking asses! When I was here the other day it was only up to my mid-shin, and the bricks were only like two rows above the water line. We’re so screwed.”
When the gang moved out of the first section of round culvert and into the arched tunnel, they had to step down another foot deeper into the water. When it was Breanne’s turn to step down, she gasped as she dipped even deeper into the cold water. This section
of tunnel was the lowest section and thus the deepest.
“Paul, remember when you lifted the crane? Can you do the same thing but this time just smash in the wall?” Breanne asked through chattering teeth.
“You’re joking, right?” Paul asked.
Anyone who could see her face would see she was in fact not joking. She knew they had to do something.
“Bre, that’s like me asking you to just have a vision of what’s going to happen next. I’m not in any more control of my strength than you are of your visions.”
“Well, we have to do something!” Breanne said.
“I don’t know, if I focus,” he said with a shrug. “I might be able to punch through it if I don’t break my fist. I mean I don’t know if the water is too deep to get a good kick. The question is where do I punch?” he said, sizing up the wall.
Pete held up his hands, waving off the idea. “Wait… No. I got a feeling that may not end well. Unless you have superman invincibility to go along with your super-strength, you’re definitely going to break your hand if you punch this wall. Besides, the whole place is rigged with traps. We got to do this right.”
Garrett reached under the water, trying to feel for the initialed bricks. “Well, think of something, Pete. This isn’t working. And my hands are freezing.”
Janis touched Breanne’s arm. “Hey, put your hands in the water.”
Breanne looked at Janis quizzically.
“Just try. Can you feel it? Can you feel the water flowing around us? It’s like a living thing – powerful and intelligent. I had this strange feeling earlier too when I realized I could see in the dark. It’s the same energy. I can feel it now, right here, coming from all around me – from the water, from the earth, from the air.”
“Um, okay, Janis,” Breanne said, not feeling anything except the difficulty of keeping her balance in the strong current.
“Garrett, point to where the bricks are,” Janis said.
Garrett looked down the wall toward the archway to orient himself again. “Right in this general area where I am standing,” he said, pointing down at the water.
