Etherworld

by Claudia Gabel

  We threw the bomb. Even though we missed, it made contact. And that means Orexis now knows we’re here. They can send us back. And that might just be a death sentence.

  We need to destroy this Escape and return to Etherworld as quickly as possible.

  “Throw your bomb!” Claire shouts. “Do it, Regan!”

  The orange water is splashing around my ears and up onto my face. I clear it away as Claire’s kayak speeds past me, rocking back and forth against the current. But this time she’s not enjoying the ride. She’s no longer paddling; instead her hands are gripping the sides of the kayak, barely hanging on.

  Twisting around in my seat, I hold on to the kayak with one hand and use the other to pull the glass ball out from between my feet. I’ve never had great aim, and the chance of me hitting my mark under the best of circumstances is slim. And now we’re much farther away than when Claire attempted her throw—but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so determined. I hurl the bomb as hard as I can, watching as it smashes against the jagged rock.

  I did it.

  I hit the target.

  My kayak continues to speed down the river, bringing me closer to Claire, who is clapping for me. I give her a little bow, then turn around, looking for Josh and my dad, wanting to share this exciting moment. I smile as I spot three kayaks in the distance, getting closer. In a few minutes, we will all be celebrating.

  But what if that wasn’t the detonator? What if we just wasted two perfectly good bombs? What if all we’ve done is alert Orexis?

  A wave rushes my kayak, nearly tipping it over, and I’m jerked to my knees as water blasts over the top of the boat. I right it again, but now there’s water in the hull. Weird. The river was freezing cold just seconds earlier, but this water is warm. Really warm. I steady the kayak and dip my hand in the current. I’m not imagining things. The water has become almost hot. And it’s not just a rambunctious current anymore—there are actual waves.

  But unlike normal waves that crash toward the shore, these begin on opposite riverbanks and crest in the middle, where they rise and swell, crashing into one another as they split open. And it’s not just the conditions on the water that are starting to deteriorate. Thunder erupts as black clouds fill the sky.

  I’ve seen this before. The Escape is disintegrating.

  “We need to get out of here!” I yell to Claire. She nods and turns toward the shore.

  The water is suddenly bubbling and boiling, with steam rising off the surface. I look behind me and am relieved to see that Josh, my dad, and the others have already made their way down the waterfall and are battling across the current toward us.

  I hear an alarming scream, and turn back to see Claire clutching her arm by her elbow, looking terrified. “My hand! It feels like it’s on fire!”

  Her hand is glowing, not with flames but as if it were lit from within.

  “Hold on!” I shout. Another wave crashes into me, coming at me from the side, as if trying to keep me from Claire.

  She screams again, leaning forward as her body shudders with pain. Her entire arm has disappeared. Her body is a bright yellow, and I’m close enough to see the tears in her eyes. “Help me,” she calls out. “Help!”

  With a huge bang, Claire’s boat explodes, knocking me back against my kayak.

  When I lift my head, Claire is gone, and so is her boat. Nothing remains.

  “Everyone to the shoreline!” yells my dad.

  I know I should use my paddle, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. My kayak is speeding down the river, away from the others. What just happened to Claire? Was she sent back to the real world? Is she still alive?

  I can see the firewall now, looming in the distance. Its gray wall disappears into the sky, casting the world beneath it in a dark shadow. I’m heading directly toward it, gripping tightly onto the sides of the kayak.

  I jolt to a stop as Josh wedges his kayak in front of mine, redirecting me toward the sandy bank. “Take this!” Josh says, sticking out his oar.

  I grab it and begin to paddle. Beyond the rocky shoreline is a thick patch of woods. Clouds of smoke steam out of the trees, as if the disaster that has hit the water has also affected its surroundings. Wyatt reaches land first, his kayak slamming into the shore. He jumps out and heads back into the water, his arms bulging with effort as he grabs Nora’s kayak, yanking it to safety.

  My kayak comes to a stop behind Josh, breaching onto shore as the earth begins to tremble. I heave myself out and turn back toward the churning river. My dad’s still in the water, battling the current. I head in after him, the water so hot it’s burning my feet. Fiery liquid is beginning to fly off the river, spewing straight up and back into the atmosphere like drops of lava. A funnel begins to form behind my dad. It’s just like the one that snatched him away from me in the Thai Beach Escape.

  “Run, Regan!” my dad yells. “Get to the firewall—”

  Before he can finish, the funnel hits my dad’s kayak and I lose sight of him as it explodes in a whirlwind of debris.

  I scream his name, but he’s already gone, pieces of his boat floating like confetti in the choppy waves.

  “Hurry,” Josh says, grabbing my arm and leading me toward the woods. Pockets of fire are encroaching the shoreline, narrowing our path. I give Josh a nod and turn back toward the wall. I have to do what my dad said, and even though I’m stunned by his violent departure, I have to believe he’s okay, that the autotimer sent him to safety.

  The smoke grows thick as we head into the trees, coughing as we inhale the acrid air. It clears enough for us to spot the firewall, soaring into the sky. The fire slows us down, the blazes around us jumping and flickering, fire meeting fire, ravaging the forest around us. We’re constantly rerouting, trying to avoid the flames.

  By the time we arrive at the wall, the forest behind us has turned into a roaring inferno. There’s no time to waste. We’ve all broken through this force field before, and we know we have to find the letters etched inside the brick. The portal will only appear once we’ve found ones that spell Thoreau and Walden. We fan out, each one of us staring at the aged-looking bricks. We brush away the moss as we desperately make our way down the wall, crackling embers lapping at our heels.

  “T,” Wyatt calls out, tracing the letter with his finger until it glows a bright yellow.

  “N,” I yell, the letter glowing underneath my fingers.

  “Regan!” Josh yells in warning. I instinctively crouch down, barely avoiding a ball of flame as it shoots toward the wall in front of me.

  I jump up and brush myself off as I give him an appreciative look, turning my attention back to the wall. The heat is unbearable, the bricks sizzling as if they were in an oven.

  “We’re not going to make it!” Nora yells.

  I want to give her some words of encouragement, but I’m worried that she’s right. Even with all of us searching for letters, this is taking too long. The fire is all around us, pinning us against the wall. I scan the bricks, looking for more letters, but the smoky fog has made it nearly impossible to see.

  However, I notice something etched in the brick in front of me and push away the moss. It’s another letter.

  But I don’t have time to touch it.

  The wall seems to groan and then shudder as loose pieces of concrete fall from above. The bricks shimmer and shift, sliding around and changing position, forming a small opening, just as they did the first time Josh and I discovered the passcode. The letters fade away and we can see the eerie blue light peering out from the cracks of the portal.

  It’s opening, but how? We didn’t even come close to spelling Thoreau and Walden. The blue light is becoming brighter, until the passageway is exposed.

  And then I hear something too good to be true.

  “Everyone, hurry!” I hear from inside the portal.

  My dad’s not only okay. He came back for us.

  I land hard and lean over, my forearms resting on my knees. It’s cramped in here with all of us, b
ut the close proximity of the team isn’t the cause of the tightness in my chest. It feels like my lungs are on fire and my muscles are being ripped to shreds. I steady myself while Josh, Nora, Wyatt, and my dad huddle around me in similar states of physical distress. We’re still too winded to talk. I drop to the floor, exhausted. My hands begin to tremble uncontrollably as my vision grows hazy.

  My dad sits next to me and wraps his arms around me.

  “You okay?”

  I nod. “I wasn’t sure you were, though.”

  “I know. It was kind of a rough toss over the wall,” my dad says. “I think because I fought it so much. I did not want to leave you guys out there alone.”

  “We were almost consumed by fire,” Nora says, hysteria in her voice. “If you hadn’t opened the portal—”

  “But he did,” Josh gently interrupts.

  “What happened out there?” Wyatt asks my dad, his tone accusatory.

  A long silence follows, punctuated by Nora’s labored breathing.

  “I . . . I wish I knew for sure.”

  My hands become steadier, and I push myself away from my dad as I start to feel normal again. “Is Claire okay?” I whisper.

  “I don’t know,” my dad says.

  “Do you think her wristband reset?” Now Josh is questioning my dad, his voice raspy, like he swallowed a scrap of sandpaper. “Is that why her boat blew up like that?”

  Josh’s jaw is clenched tight. I know he’s as frightened as I am, but he’s trying not to show it.

  “Possibly,” my dad replies. “If Claire’s brain exhibited any kind of heightened activity, whether it was fear or exhilaration, there’s a chance the safety settings rebooted on her wristband and her time in Elusion expired.”

  I swallow as the blue lights in the ping tunnel flicker in a frantic pattern that hurts my eyes. It must signal something important to my dad, because he lifts me to my feet without asking me if I’m all right.

  The fear that he’s keeping something from me is stronger than before. Maybe I’m still paranoid because of everything that’s happened and all the lies I’ve been told. But I can’t help it—there is so much that he seems unable, or unwilling, to explain: too many variables for someone who is supposed to know everything about Elusion.

  “Safety? No one is safe out there,” Nora says, her hand latched on to Josh’s arm.

  Avery said almost the same thing when she stood up at Patrick’s press conference and claimed that Elusion was addictive. And even though we all know Avery was right, I still feel like I should defend my dad.

  “He said he couldn’t guarantee anyone would be safe, remember?” I reply.

  “But nobody said anything about suffering.” Nora wipes at her eyes and pulls away from Josh. “Claire was in agony.”

  I’m about to respond when my dad steps in between us. “I know what Claire went through was terrible, but what happened to her in the real world might not be nearly as bad,” he says, as if he’s trying to convince himself.

  Wyatt crosses his arms in front of his chest and sneers. “Tell that to Anthony Caldwell.”

  “Or Maureen Baker,” Nora chimes in.

  Josh walks over to Wyatt, squaring off against him. “I told you before, we don’t really know why Anthony died.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Nora counters suspiciously, as she gestures at my dad. “We don’t know how Anthony died, but I think we can all agree we have a pretty good idea why.”

  My dad stands very still, waiting for something—another flash of lights in the tunnel, perhaps? I can tell from the creases in his brow that he’s desperately trying to undo the horrors that haunt this place.

  Wyatt starts to pace, his nerves obviously getting to him. “All I want to know is if there’s really a chance for us. Are we going to have lives when we get home?”

  “I hope so,” my dad mumbles, his eyes still scanning the panels in the tunnel, searching.

  “That’s all we have left? Hope?” Nora says, her tone sharper now.

  “Cut it out, Nor. You’re just making things worse,” Josh says curtly. “We’re all freaked, okay? But getting upset isn’t going to change anything.”

  “Josh is right,” I say. “If we don’t stick together, destroying Elusion will be impossible.”

  I look to my dad to support me here, but he’s quiet and lost in thought. Nora is staring at him, her face full of doubt. I’m worried about what’s going to happen when we return to base camp. Will anyone listen to or trust him after this? If not, how can we possibly destroy Elusion?

  “Wyatt, are you still with us?” I ask.

  He sighs and says, “Yeah.”

  I turn to Josh. “What about you? Do you still want to go on?”

  He doesn’t even hesitate. “Definitely.”

  Nora says nothing and turns her back to us, like she’d rather think this through without all of us watching and waiting for her. I step forward, wanting to push her for an answer, but Josh puts his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. Maybe he just wants to talk to her himself.

  But before he can explain, another patch of flickering lights floods the tunnel; it’s followed by a blast outside the entrance. The ground beneath us rumbles, knocking us off our feet.

  “What the hell was that?” Wyatt yells.

  “We need to get out of here!” my dad shouts.

  I take Josh’s hand and sprint down the tunnel.

  As we turn a corner, I glance back over my shoulder and see my dad struggling to keep up. Josh and I slow down, but my dad motions for us to continue.

  There’s no way I’m leaving him behind. I turn back toward him as another monstrous blast ricochets through the tunnel. I let go of Josh’s hand, grabbing onto the wall as I fight to regain my balance. The ground splits open, dividing the group. Nora, Josh, and I are on one side of the crevice; my dad and Wyatt are on the other. The gulf is too wide to jump over.

  “Dad!” I shout, moving as close as I can to the ledge and reaching out to him.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he says. “I know another way out!”

  “Come on; we have to keep moving,” Josh says.

  “No! Not without my dad,” I say.

  “We’ll meet you back at the base!” my dad yells. “Go!”

  Josh pulls me away from the ledge against my will and forces me to run with Nora in the other direction.

  FIVE

  “HAVE YOU SEEN MY DAD?”

  I’m standing in the Great Space beside Josh and Nora. We’ve just interrupted Zared and Ayesha, who are engulfed in some kind of emotional conversation. Given the strained looks on their faces and the fact that they’re holding hands, I can tell that they’re more than just friends. But after what just happened in the tunnel, I could care less about their private moment.

  “Not yet,” Ayesha replies. “You guys are the first ones here.”

  “Are you sure?” Josh cases the area with his eyes, but it’s deserted except for us.

  “We’ve been keeping watch since you left. There’s no way we could have missed them,” Zared says.

  Behind her, Piper dashes out of the cavern, heading toward us.

  “Why?” Ayesha asks. “What happened? Is everyone all right?”

  “We destroyed the Escape,” Josh says, giving my hand a supportive squeeze. “But we got separated.”

  “Where’s Claire?” Piper asks.

  Nora steps out from behind Josh and me, her eyes fierce. “Claire’s gone,” she says, her voice completely hollow.

  I wish she hadn’t just blurted that out. I don’t want the news about Claire’s disappearance to send panic through the ranks—not when we need the whole group to carry out my dad’s plan.

  “What do you mean, ‘gone’?” Piper asks, wringing her hands. “Did she get lost or something?”

  “During the mission, she just . . . vanished,” I say.

  “David said Orexis may have locked on to her,” Josh adds.

  “Because of the excessive brain-wave
activity, right?” Zared says.

  “Probably,” I say.

  Nora turns toward me with an unwavering glare. “Why aren’t you telling them the truth?”

  It’s so strange hearing her say this to me, mostly because this has been my line for the last week. But I’m not going to let Nora characterize me as a liar. Not when there’s so much at stake.

  “I am,” I reply.

  “Oh yeah?” she says. “Then why leave out the grisly details? They deserve to know exactly what happened to Claire.”

  “What happened to her?” Piper asks, on the verge of tears.

  “If we’re putting ourselves at risk, we need to know what to expect out there,” Ayesha says.

  I give Ayesha a reassuring look. “Of course, but—”

  “Claire didn’t vanish; she disintegrated,” Nora interrupts. “One minute we’re rafting through these rapids, and the next her boat explodes. There was nothing we could do but sit there and watch her die.”

  Piper’s hands fly up to her mouth, and Zared swallows hard before casting his eyes to the ground. I wince too, remembering how Claire called out to us for help, the terror in her screams. My thoughts drift to Wyatt and my dad, how maybe their late return is a sign that they suffered the exact same fate she did, and I feel sick.

  “It’s my fault,” Piper says, her shoulders slumping forward. “I should’ve gone with her. I should’ve been there—”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Nora says gently, like she realizes she may have overstepped. “Trust me, I know it’s hard not to,” she says. “But to be honest, we’re all victims here.”

  None of her words are a comfort to Piper, whose eyes are filling with tears. She turns back toward the cavern with her head bowed.

  “Nora!” Josh takes her by the arm and leads her a few steps away. “We’re all upset about Claire. But there’s a lot we don’t know yet, so assuming she died doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”