by Tracy Korn
Where's Jax? Why are you all wet? I think in reply, but he just shakes his head and squares himself in front of me, planting his hands on the wall at my shoulders as he cranes his neck toward the fissure opening about 20 feet to our side.
"Jazz!?" Dez calls through the comms again, her voice stretched and far away against the hum still reverberating in my ears.
"Yeah, Dez! He's OK!" I say too abruptly in my impatience, then catch myself. "Sorry, he's fine. I just need to cut out for a second," I respond, and Liddick's eyes shoot back to mine in a blaze of frustration as he knifes his finger against his lips again. I squint and shake my head at him.
What, I'm supposed to ignore her? How can you even hear me without your helmet? And where is Jax!? I think as I retract my helmet so I'm not tempted to respond to anything else, then gasp at the sudden brightness of the glow worms haloed in light. "Whoa…" I absently react out loud, and am cut off when Liddick presses into me, covering my mouth with his hand.
Crite! Stow it! We're not alone down here, he thinks, and my blood freezes as he looks at the fissure again. I follow his eyes, but don't see anyone or anything.
What are you talking about!? I ask, feeling like my chest is going to explode. Let me go!
They took your brother when he tried talking over the comms! he says, sticking the last several words in place.
Who took him? Where is he? I demand, shaking my head to dislodge his hand from my mouth.
Stop moving! Three of them pulled him through there, he adds, nodding at the fissure.
Was he in the water with you? Are the people from Gaia?
No, and I don't know if they're from Gaia. It happened after my kit retracted and wrapped around my legs—I bumped my helmet control trying to get free, but I saw that he'd made it to the ledge before I got pulled under.
Then get off me! We need to follow them! I think, struggling again, but he just pins me more firmly to the wall.
Not yet, stop! We don't know how many more there are, he thinks, pressing more of his weight onto me.
I don't care! Let me go! I say, trying to free my fists enough to hit his chest and shoulders.
Liddick's eyes flash as he seizes one of my wrists and blocks my other hand with his forearm, pinning it to my chest as he covers my mouth again, then flips wet hair from his eyes.
Rip, stop! he thinks, and when I don't stop struggling, he closes his eyes in a long blink and presses his chest hard into mine, which stops my breath for a second. He releases my wrist and interlaces our fingers. Just read the scene. I know you want to fight, but just read, he thinks.
The limestone scrapes the back of my knuckles as he grips my hand in his. He rests his forehead against mine, and after a few breaths, I can feel the itch in the back of my throat of something left undone—the need to check and make sure I locked the door behind me because somewhere in my mind, I know I didn't. It feels like someone is standing over my shoulder…just an awareness on another level, and I know they are watching us. Liddick's other hand finally drops from my mouth as he pulls back and meets my eyes again.
There…now you feel it, he says in my mind, and I nod slowly, finally registering the depth of his panic and fear.
I'm sorry, I think after a second more, and relief flushes his cheeks as he looks straight into me, the adrenaline igniting his blue eyes just like it did after I helped him recover from his botched port-carnate transfer. I want to turn away because it's too intense when he looks at me like this, but I can't seem to pull back this time.
I feel his heart pounding against my forearm now that I've stopped fighting him, and he loosens his grip on my hand, which he's still holding to the wall. His other hand slips into my hair as water drips onto his lips, and he leans in. Action is always easy, he thinks, the muscles in his jaw flexing as he angles his head, then takes a breath. It's having to wait that's hard, he adds, brushing my cheek.
It would be so easy to get lost in him right now with the roaring water, this buzzing I know he can hear too, and the uncertainty forcing us into each other where we can both disappear…where we can forget for now that no one is safe any more, that Gaia must know we're gone, and that everything is falling apart.
Then I hear the word like an echo—falling—and the fantasy I slipped behind shatters, letting the rest of the world in again.
We have to warn them. They're going to come down here, and Arco doesn't have a kit, I think abruptly. Liddick exhales as he drops his hand from my face and straightens.
Tell them we're following the sweep map—but to wait for our all-clear before they try to catch up, he finally thinks, then lets go of my other hand and takes a step backward to look into the fissure. Are you ready?
I nod, then deploy my helmet again and turn the comms button in my collar back on as we move along the wall.
"Arco?" I say.
"Jazz! Crite! What happened!?" he asks under a rush of breath.
"They took him—they took Jax."
"Who? Are you all right? Where are you?" Arco asks again.
"Just outside the fissure—we're about to go through it. Liddick said there were three of them. They must be from Gaia—they must know we took the Leviathan," I answer as Liddick deploys his helmet, then starts inching toward the fissure opening.
"We're going to have to shut down comms for a while. What's your plan for catching up?" he asks.
"Why would you need to shut down comms?" Arco asks, the edge in his voice sharpening.
"They grabbed Ripley just after he tapped in, and it took all of them to do it. That's all I saw before my kit tried to drown me," Liddick says, then curses. "We need to move, and we need to stay invisible."
"Wait there. We're coming with you," Arco answers.
"We have to go before they get too far ahead, and you can't jump because your impact kit is blown," I say. There's a long pause before I hear him again, but when I do, it's more of a growl than anything intelligible. "Arco, listen, we have to follow them. Just catch up after you find a way down, all right?" I say.
"We'll have to rappel. Avis, check for an anchor rock," Arco adds after another beat, and I hear the rasp of air as he blows out a breath. "We're coming, all right? We're coming, so Jazz, please…" he pauses abruptly, then starts again. "Just keep your distance. Promise me you'll wait for us, and…just check back in when you can."
For a second it feels like there's more he wants to say, or there's something he wants me to say. I can hear the hollow of it lingering in the seconds after his voice stops, but it's overwritten when Liddick speaks up again.
"We'll be all right, Hart. Just get everyone down here in one piece."
Arco immediately bristles. "You—" he says, then stops himself. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Fine line between—" Liddick starts, but Arco cuts him off.
"Out."
Liddick stops inching toward the fissure and looks back at me, smirking under a quirked eyebrow.
"Liddick, are you hurt?" Dez's voice is more stable now, but still fragile. A cold wave washes over me as Liddick takes in a deep breath before he answers, and a dull ache presses into my chest.
"I'm all right, Dezzie…are you OK?" he asks as we move toward the fissure.
A small sob precedes her reply, and the ache pushes into my throat, closing it off. "Why did you jump like that?" Dez asks. Liddick stops for a second, then closes his eyes against the tension we can both feel. He's searching for the right words, but can't find them with everything spinning around us right now. "Liddick?" she asks.
"I'm here," he finally answers, gripping the stone behind us.
"You just…jumped," she says again like she's trying to convince herself it actually happened.
"I know," he says after a beat, and the weight of his expected explanation, which he can't seem to give, is suffocating.
"Why?" Dez asks so quietly I wonder if it was actually an echo of my own unasked question.
"I just…" Liddick starts, and for the first time in our lives, h
e really can't find the right answer. He doesn't have the charming comeback that will transform this awkward silence into levity, or the poignant turn of phrase that will offset the pain in her voice. He's just as surprised as I am as he slowly shakes his head, then suddenly stops searching himself. "I just had to," he says, looking up at me. Dez doesn't reply, which leaves Liddick's words hanging in the distance between the others, high on the cliff, and us, here at the edge of everything else. They're suspended over the roaring waters that neither of us can hear from inside our helmets, but know are strong, deep, and dangerous all the same.
CHAPTER 10
Through the Wall
We retract our helmets, and the rumbling of the falls fades in the distance as the buzzing gets more intense the closer we get to the opening in the wall. Liddick stops just before the fissure and peers down the dimly lit tunnel where they took Jax, then turns to me and nods.
It's clear, and it only goes one way. They're down there somewhere, he thinks.
I nod, and we walk about 10 steps when the buzz in my ears starts to crackle and the glow worms begin wavering into the letter A again.
Do you see that? I think toward Liddick. Are the walls shifting for you too?
Yeah, it's Azeris. It means we're going the right way.
Wait, I think, slowing down and finally having to stop when the buzzing in my head turns up another notch. It's so loud that my vision blotches until everything starts fading to white. I press the heels of my hands into my eyes, but it doesn't keep the stabbing feeling at bay. Liddick! Something is happening!
What's wrong? Liddick thinks. I feel his hands on my shoulders, but I can't see him any more.
I can't see! Everything is just white, and it's getting louder!
Is it the same buzz from Azeris's channel feedback? Or if it's that loud, is it Vox? Rip!
Liddick's voice in my head fades away as colors start burning holes into the white landscape before my eyes until I see a fire shooting up from a dark, hollowed out boulder in the middle of a new cave. The walls are dark like the striated rock in the cave from last night. Liddick! I call to him in my thoughts, then again out loud, but he doesn't answer. Where is this? How did I get in here? I wonder, feeling the heat from the fire on my face as I walk past it toward another fissure in the wall, but when I hear Fraya screaming from somewhere just beyond it, I start running after the sound.
"Get back!" I hear her call, her voice high and urgent.
"Fraya!" I yell out loud, but only hear my own voice echoing back at me in a ripple. "Where are you?" I run toward the opening in the dark wall, but the fire from the middle of the cave reaches for me just before I'm completely past it, making me instinctively jump away. I inadvertently hit the stone at my side, crashing into it with my shoulder before the fire forces my back flat against it, singeing my throat. I raise my chin, turning my face to the side as far as I can until the flames recede. I start running again, then dive through the fissure opening as the fire licks out, faster this time, and scorches the back of my shoulder. It's like it can see where I am…like it's alive.
"Look out!" Fraya's voice is stronger now, so I must be getting closer to her.
"Fraya!" I call out, but she doesn't reply. I move along the wall slowly until I feel a tug at my hair, then reach back into something wet. When I yank my hand back in a panic and look down, the shiny, chunky gel is glowing blue, and I have no idea what it could be until I see the pieces gravitating back together, then trying to crawl up my sleeve. The worms! I think immediately, then shake them off before wringing my hair through my hands to make sure there are no more. I jump away from the wall, nearly swallowing my tongue as I suddenly hear Vox laughing, and the walls pulse blue like a heartbeat. "Vox! Where are you? Where are Jax and Fraya?" I yell into the air, then rush past the glow worms as I make my way down the tunnel, the orange light of the fire behind me somehow getting brighter even though I'm moving farther away.
"Get off me!" Jax says, but his voice is coming from inside the walls just like my father's in the dream I had.
"Jax!" I shout, then hear Fraya screaming again with the sound of cheering echoing down the tunnel. I scramble forward, nearly tripping in my hurry, but am frozen by the sudden flood of bright light when I come around the bend.
My eyes adjust after a few seconds, and I finally see Fraya—she's stumbling backward, then falling inside a roped off circle before she moves out of sight behind the rock wall threshold. Another girl draped in shadows advances in her direction, and after a second, I see why Fraya is so terrified. Flames reach around the girl's shoulders from the front. She's…on fire?
"Leave us alone!" Fraya shouts.
"Fraya!" I yell, no longer able to see her as the flaming girl suddenly turns to face me, and I recognize those yellow-green eyes, those burgundy eyebrows knitting together, and it feels like all the blood in my veins funnels straight into the ground…Vox!
***
"Rip! What's happening?" Liddick says from somewhere far away, and I feel too heavy to move—too heavy even to talk, but then his voice snaps like a rubber band in my head. Jazz!
I open my eyes and see him kneeling in front of me. He's blurry until his hands move up my neck and angle my head so I'm looking into his eyes, which start scanning my face. "Vox was…" I whisper, trying to find my voice again now that the paralyzing buzzing is gone.
"She was what? What happened? You just checked out," he says, brushing hair from my face. I blink to clear the fog lingering in my head, then grip his biceps as it all reconfigures in my mind.
"Vox brought me to some arena where Fraya was trying to get away from her. Vox was…on fire," I finally say, still unable to believe it myself. Liddick just stares at me for a second, then swallows hard and nods. "I don't understand it," I say, my voice cracking as the tears start to thicken in my throat, and I try to swallow them back before they choke me. Liddick pulls me in close, one of his arms slipping around my waist, and the other wrapping around my shoulders.
"It's all right. It's just a cine—just a virtuo-cine, Rip, just like before. It's all in our heads," he says, pulling me in so tightly I can feel the pulse in his neck hammering against my cheek, and I know he's trying to convince us both.
"But what if it's true? I saw Vox kill the manta ray because it was suffering in my dream, and then we found it with the same wound. What if they caught her like your brothers and my dad? What if these are her experiences right now, Liddick?"
"Stop…there has to be more to it. We just need to keep moving," he says in a quiet voice, brushing his hand over the back of my hair.
"But what if they have Vox and Fraya, and now Jax…I can't…" I start, but the tears come as promised and strangle the rest of my words. Liddick's fear and mine balloon in my stomach as he leans his head against mine, then takes a deep breath.
"We'll get them all back," he says, his arms tightening around me. I close my eyes and rest my cheek on his shoulder as the weight of the last few hours settles over us.
"What are we doing down here? How is this even happening…" I whisper. He moves back to study my face.
"Listen to me…we're going to get through this. We're going to find everyone. Just one step at a time, all right?" he says. "I've always got your back, Rip…" he adds, and I nod as he brushes hair behind my ear.
His blue eyes stand out in this strange yellow light, especially against the outline of his black lashes. His heavy, dark brows contrast with his wild blond hair, which is buzzed close and growing in dark on the sides. For just a second, it occurs to me that everything about him is a contradiction, and his lips quirk. In the next breath, the way he looks at me is arresting again, his eyes locking on mine so I can't look away as his thumb traces my jaw. He leans down, making sure I see, making sure I know what's coming, and for a second I don't move. For a second I think I'll let him kiss me because I want to feel something strong and solid again in the chaos all around me. But I can't, and I don't.
Promise me you'll wait
for us…I hear Arco's words echo in the back of my mind, and I lower my chin.
"Liddick," I start just as he lets out a long, slow breath, then kisses my forehead as I try to find the right words. "I just…I'm sorry," is all I manage to say, feeling both a sense of relief and disappointment crest and fall like a wave before I look back up at him. He nods after a second, then strokes my cheek and smiles just enough that it touches his eyes.
"You don't ever have to be sorry with me, Riptide." A warmth spreads in my chest when he pulls me into a hug, and at least in this minute, it does feel like everything is going to be all right. "Ready to keep going?" he asks after another minute, then stands and extends his hand to me, backlit by the light at the end of the tunnel that seems brighter now than it did before. I take his hand, but a second later it's wrenched from mine as a shadow falls over us and he's jerked backward.
"Liddick!" I yell after him, then feel hands gripping my shoulders and pulling me forward in the same direction, the light darting in and out as we both struggle to get free. I can't see the faces of the people on either side of me, but they're tall and strong and smell like fire smoke. Liddick pulls free several feet ahead of me and swings at a man about his size before he's restrained, and another man raises something that looks like a club. "No! Liddick!" I scream again, and a female voice rips through the air over us all.
"Nicht! Fa na hols!" it says, and the man lowers the club. I blow out the breath I didn't know I was holding as we move through the tunnel more quickly, almost too quickly for me to keep from tripping over my own feet.
"Where are we going?" I shout to the two marshaling me forward, but there's no answer. The men with Liddick turn around long enough in the growing light for me to see that they're actually our age, not teachers or security from Gaia. Two more younger men accompany them, their faces scarred in the same diamond and arrow pattern as Vox's, the same as the barbarians on the beach the other day in Tark's class. Badlanders? I think, but that makes no sense…they were just virtuo-cine creations—they don't exist, I think again, realizing their skin isn't as pale as the barbarians' from the cine, in fact, it's tan, and instead of dark hair, theirs is so blond it's nearly white.
