by E. E. Giorgi
Lukas shrugs and returns his attention to his small screen. “I will,” he says.
Sometimes I wish I had half of his confidence.
Chapter Fifteen
Athel
Day Number: 1,533.
Event: We left the Tower in search for our fathers.
Number of Mayakes left: 431.
Goal for today: Reach the Gaijins’ factory.
I look up at the boulder blocking our way. It’s big and solid and looms over my head just like Tahari loomed over me from the stage in the auditorium yesterday. He stood there and looked down on me. Throughout his speech I kept thinking, “I’m not afraid of you. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m not afraid of you.”
Ok, maybe not exactly nothing wrong, but my actions were dictated by necessity. Yet the Kiva Members wouldn’t listen to me. They listened to Yuri and his brother, even though those two liars had been spying on us.
I’m not afraid of you, Tahari.
And I’m not afraid of you, big stupid boulder blocking our way.
I climb from the left this time, where a few shrubs have grown on the slanted terrain. I study where to set my foot and crawl up, grasping the low branches until I get to the base of the boulder. It juts outward, forming a ledge across the gorge. I stretch my arms and grope for a nook or a protuberance to grasp. The rock feels rough and brittle under my fingers.
If we had infinite time we could chisel the damn thing down.
If we had infinite time we wouldn’t even be here.
I close my fists around a bump in the rock and pull myself up, my legs kicking the air. My grip slips and I fall back into the brush, sending dirt and pebbles all the way down to the water.
“You okay?” Akaela calls.
“Given the color and consistency, I’m pretty sure this is sandstone,” Lukas says.
“Wow, Lukas,” I reply, brushing the dirt off my hands. “That helps.”
He holds his data feeder in his hands like a kid who doesn’t know how to swim holds a lifesaver. “Of course it helps. It means that with a few tools we can carve our way out of this mess.”
Wes points to his shiny metal legs and beams. “I can use my feet as shovels!”
I reach up to the boulder and trail my fingers along the nooks and crannies of the rock. “Why don’t you get started and see how far you can get.”
I find a solid handhold, and with a jump this time, I manage to swing one foot all the way up to the top. I haul myself up, scraping my arms and hands, and finally manage to crawl over the boulder. The edges bend down toward the walls of the gorge. I squat and creep up toward the highest point. From up here, I can see the other side of the gorge. In the deep shadows of an overcast sky a yellow glow appears in the distance, a blade of light slicing through the tall walls of the gorge.
The Gaijins’ factory. It’s got to be the glow from the factory.
I hear a swoosh of wings and soon Kael joins me on top of the boulder. I raise my arm and he lands on the leather pad of my shirt, bobbing his head in the direction of the glow.
“How much longer, buddy?” I ask. But my buddy has no words for me, only a bob of the head as the wind ruffles the feathers at the back of his neck.
A flash of light whips through the thick blanket of clouds. Kael ducks his head, as though he knows what’s coming next. Thunder blasts through the walls of the gorge, and even though I know it’s not near, it makes the hairs on my back stand up.
The horses whinny.
“Athel!”
I turn around and carefully walk to the edge leaning out on the opposite side. Maha looks distressed. She pulls away from Akaela and shakes her head, snorting and stomping.
“Calm her down,” I shout. “Lightning scares the hell out of her.”
“I can tell,” Akaela snaps.
If I had any doubt that we have to move forward, this wipes it out immediately. We can’t leave the horses out here and we can’t go back.
We need to find a way to get us all on the other side.
Oblivious to Maha’s distress, Wes and Lukas sit together at the base of the wall of rock and stare intently at the data feeder screen.
“You two!” I shout. “Can’t you help? If we’re going to carve a way out, I suggest you start digging.”
Wes looks up at me, his eyes strangely dazed. Lukas shakes his head in his usual enigmatic way. “I’m afraid there isn’t enough time.”
I puzzle at that. “We have all night, don’t we?”
The rumble behind my back is furious this time. Kael squeals and flaps away. I turn, confused. I’m not seeing any lightning this time, yet the thunder keeps getting louder and louder, as though it wasn’t just one strike, rather…
“Athel!! Get off that thing, NOW!”
The glow at the other end of the gorge is gone, swallowed by a roaring blackness that keeps rushing forward, slamming against the walls of the gorge like a ravenous beast. It takes me a few seconds to realize what it is. And when I do, panic grips me.
“ATHEL!”
Akaela’s screams shake me out of my initial shock. I slide down the curved side of the boulder, careless of the rugged rocks scraping my skin.
“Flood!” I shout. “Down! Everybody get down!”
Both horses are whinnying now, their instincts alerting them of the imminent danger. I glimpse Wes and Lukas scrambling under the ledge offered by the boulder, while Akaela struggles to pull the horses to shelter. They want to run, but the surge of water is fast approaching, its black shadow looming high across the gorge.
I swallow, throw myself down the boulder, and run to help Akaela. I snatch Maha’s reins and push her away. “Under the boulder! Now!”
She looked puzzled, as though not understanding. Her only worry is the horses.
“Maybe if we climb—”
“No! I’ve seen it. It’s tall, way taller than the gorge. Run!”
Taeh, who’s always been meek in nature, glimpses Akaela ducking under the boulder and follows her. Cooing and crooning in her ear, my sister manages to convince her horse to follow her into the niche under the overlooking boulder, hoping it’ll offer enough protection against the incoming tide.
Maha wants nothing to do with it. I pull her reins, but she jerks her head away and snaps them off. She runs away from me, her hooves sinking in the mud.
“Maha!” I dart after her, the rumble of the incoming water now so loud it’s deafening. “Maha, come back, you stubborn idiot!”
Yes, she is stupid. She’s going to die and she doesn’t know it.
I climb closer to the wall, where the terrain is drier and allows for a faster pace as I try to catch up with her. She stumbles on a rock hidden by the mud and gets stuck. I grasp her torn reins, but that’s when the tide comes swirling down on us.
The black wall of water crashes against the boulder and splits in two, the surge looming so high it laps at the edge of the gorge. Hoping that my sister and friends are holding tight down there, I snatch Maha’s reins and pull her to the side of the gorge, seeking refuge against the stump of a tree. I don’t know what possesses me. In a matter of seconds I manage to duck behind the tree and use Maha’s reins to tie myself around it.
The roar fills my ears. I catch one last breath of air before the freezing water swallows me.
And then the world turns black.
Chapter Sixteen
Akaela
Horses don’t like enclosed spaces, yet Taeh senses the imminent danger and meekly follows Wes, Lukas, and me under the boulder as the distant rumble of the water gets closer and closer. As we all huddle together at the very back, I hug my horse and croon in her ears that everything will be fine. I don’t know fear for myself but I can feel it through every fiber in her body as she tenses under my touch, her large eyes bulging with dread. Wes wraps his arms around his titanium legs and shivers. Next to him, Lukas holds perfectly still, his hands tightly crossed over his satchel, eyes and lips tightly shut. Waiting.
I stroke Taeh’s nose
and whisper in her ear that Athel and Maha are coming back. They will be fine. They’ll make it back in time to be safe with us.
The impact of the water as it slams against the boulder is furious. Wes screams, but it’s short-lived, as all sounds are almost instantly engulfed by the tide enveloping us. I watch it explode above us, a dark surge suddenly replacing the view of the gorge. The ceiling trembles, pebbles rain down on us. Freezing water laps at our feet and then surges up to our faces, submerging us. Taeh slides away underwater and drags me with her, as I hold her tight, refusing to let go. The water is murky. I open my eyes but see nothing, only the brutal force of the tide pulling me down, away from the boulder. I squeeze Taeh’s neck and fight against the current.
It lasts seconds, maybe minutes, before the water finally recedes. I gasp for air, my legs and feet buried in mud. Taeh struggles to pull out of the slosh, her dark mane plastered against her neck.
Water pelts down from the edge of the boulder so fiercely I fear another tide is coming. I try to reach for Taeh before she runs away, my legs uselessly pulling against the tide.
“Lukas!” I yell, before realizing that neither Lukas nor Wes are where I last saw them, cuddled at the base of the boulder. “Wes!”
Lukas emerges from the mud, a zombie caked in slosh. He blinks at me and flashes a half smile as he fishes his satchel from under his belly, the strap above it sealed in plastic.
“Waterproof,” he mumbles, all proud of himself.
He must’ve wrapped it while I was helping Athel with Maha.
The thought sends a shiver down my spine.
“Where’s Wes? And…”
Athel.
What the hell happened to Athel and Maha?
I stop fighting the current and let myself slide through the water streaming from the ledge of the boulder and out in the flooded gorge.
The view is apocalyptic. The green walls of the gorge, overgrown with crawling plants and brush, have been stripped clean by the surging tide. Overturned tree roots and splintered branches clutter the trail. A constant flow of muddy water still runs across it. I wade knee-deep into the mud and call out for my brother, Maha, Wes. No reply, only a distant echo and the peal of water washing down the rocks.
Taeh staggers up and stands against the rock, bobbing her head and looking lost. Lukas also emerges from underneath the boulder, a black ghost all covered in mud.
I plod through snapped shrubs and twisted branches calling both Wes and my brother. A squeal from the sky makes me hopeful again. I raise my eyes and spot Kael gliding above us.
“Find them, Kael! Please go find them!”
The sky is gray and ominous. I press the inside of my wrist and learn that it’s almost 6 p.m. Soon night will fall. No chance to find them in the dark, no chance to survive the freezing cold drenched as we are.
“ATHEL!” I bellow, my voice cracked with desperation.
“Here!”
His voice makes my heart skip a beat. “Athel!”
I trek through the fallen vegetation and the thick mud, pleading with him to keep talking so my ears can find him. Lukas follows me from a distance, his skinny body struggling through the slosh. He keeps his satchel over one shoulder and wobbles precariously as he tries to avoid rocks hidden deep in the mud.
I find Athel stranded by a broken tree stump, Maha’s reins torn around his waist and snapped at one end. Though covered in dirt from head to toe. And yet he seems frantic, fresh tears lining his mud-caked cheeks. He’s on his knees, pulling vines and weeds from the ground, muttering words under his breath.
I have to climb around a rock to reach him, and when I do, I realize the mound of dirt he’s trying to uncover isn’t made of dirt. Wes lies on the ground covered in mud, eyes wide open to the sky and a trickle of blood coming down the corner of his mouth.
I hop over the rock and kneel next to Wes, taking in the gravity of his injuries: his right thigh is twisted backwards at the hip, the titanium implant torn away from his knee, leaving a bleeding hump. A sliver of femur shows through his torn pants.
“Freaking Kawa, what happened?”
The sight makes me cringe. His implants are grown directly into the bone, they don’t just break off like toothpicks. For a titanium blade to snap like this, poor Wes must’ve been swooped away by the brutal force of the tide and whacked against the rock. I feel tears in my eyes at the thought.
Wes looks up at the sky, his lips blue and cyanotic, his hands shaking.
I place a hand on his forehead and whisper, “We’ll fix you Wes. I promise we will. Just hang in there, you hear me?”
He barely nods. His lower lip starts trembling. He sputters mud mixed with blood out of his mouth and stutters, “Hurts. Like—hell.”
Athel untangles the weeds from Wes’s leg and then unknots the reins from his waist. Lukas finally makes it around the rock and his jaw drops at the sight of poor Wes.
I look up to him as he leans over the rock and plead, “Think of something, Lukas. Please.”
Lukas quickly scans Wes’s torn body and nods. I read terror in his eyes, yet he manages to keep himself together and sprint into action. He props his satchel on top of the rock and unwraps it from its plastic shield. Athel slides the rein underneath Wes’s injured thigh and then knots it above the stump to try to stop the bleeding. Wes yelps in pain. His cries bring new tears to my face.
I take his hand and squeeze it while helplessly staring at my brother.
“Put him out,” Lukas orders, fishing his data feeder out of his satchel.
“What?” Athel replies.
“Yes,” Wes stutters. “Please. The pain—it hurts.”
“Put him out,” Lukas instructs him again. “It’ll spare him the pain and slow down his metabolism to a vegetative state. The bleeding will slow down, too.”
Athel blinks. “What about the nanobots in his body? All the nanoelectric sensors embedded in his flesh and immune cells are working to fight infection. They’re probably already releasing serotonin and morphine into his blood stream. If we put him out—”
“Please!” Wes shouts, his face twisted with pain. “Ain’t working, can’t you tell?”
Athel bites his lip, slides a hand behind Wes’s neck and presses the deactivation switch. Wes’s eyes instantly close and his body droops to a slouch. The hand I’m holding goes limp, yet I don’t let go of it. My heart thumps against my chest. My head is reeling.
“Now what?” I ask, even though I know there’s no answer. None I want to hear, anyway.
Lukas leans against the big rock and spreads the plastic sheet he’d used to keep his satchel dry. He steps into a pool of clear running water, rolls up the sodden sleeves of his shirt, and thoroughly rinses his hands. When he returns to the rock, he dons latex gloves, pulls a couple of transparent bags with random pieces of electronics inside out of the satchel and opens his pouch of tools.
“I can build a temporary and rudimentary chip for his wound,” Lukas explains, fiddling with his tools while thumbing through the screens of his data feeder. “I pulled the instructions on the screen. Basically, it’s a chip that boosts and redirects the nanobots from the immune system to the wound site. If I can line up its signal with the nanoelectric wiring inside his femur, I can get it to start regenerating tissue.”
“You sure it’ll work?” Athel asks, watching his careful hands as they put together chips and transistors. Not the cleanest place to assemble an implant, but at least the device should be able to boost Wes’s immune system, too. Or so I hope.
“I’ve never made one before,” Lukas replies, “so I can’t be one hundred percent sure.”
Damn Lukas, I wish he could lie sometimes.
“It may not work to its full potential, but it will buy us time.” He freezes for a moment and locks eyes with Athel. “Until we get help.”
Athel swallows, the consequences dawning on him.
Our journey has come to an end. The only way to save Wes’s life is to go back to the Tower.
“We’ll talk to Uli,” Athel says. “We’ll tell him Wes isn’t to blame.” He stares at me. “Or Lukas.”
I nod in agreement. He and I will take the blame, so long as they save Wes. I drop my chin and push through the wet fabric of my pants to touch Dad’s metal scrap in my pocket. Too many conflicting thoughts tug at me. I want to go forward. I long to see Dad again and knowing he’s in danger and in need of our help makes me cringe with despair. Yet Wes’s pain is right here, right now, laid in front of my eyes.
No. We can’t leave Wes now. We may have failed to save Dad and the other men, but we can’t fail Wes.
“Let’s hope we make it on time,” Lukas says.
I gaze at Wes’s wound, Maha’s reins tight over his torn pants. The bleeding has slowed down to a trickle now, but it’s still drenching his already sodden clothes.
How much time do we have?
“Where’s Maha?” I ask, thinking—hoping—the horses can help us get back quickly.
Athel looks down and shakes his head. “Lost her. Stupid animal wouldn’t stay put. I tied her and myself to the tree stump, but when she saw the tide she snapped and tore the reins apart. Haven’t seen her since.”
My heart sinks. Now that my eyes are off Wes’s horrid wound, I notice Athel’s torn shirt, the mark of a horse bite on his right shoulder. Maha panicked and became aggressive. If the tide was so brutal to tear apart Wes’s implant, it sure had the power to sweep away a thousand pound horse. I look over to Taeh, quietly standing by the wall. My older and mellower Taeh. She’s still scared, still unwilling to move, but at least she was wise enough to stay with me.
I watch Lukas twist the copper ends of a piece of wire together and consider the odds. Wes is unconscious, fighting for his life. The three of us are tired, our clothes drenched. Soon night will fall and we’ll all be fighting the biting cold. All we’ve got left is a horse and a falcon who’s watching over us perched high on a rock.
