by Sophia Sharp
“I’m not leaving my father!” he said.
“You have to! You’ve got no choice!” The pounding above us continued. It wouldn’t take long for them to break through, now. The thin wood was not meant to hold out intruders.
“I’m not going to leave him,” Arthur said defiantly. “He died because of me!”
“And we’ll die without you!” I pressed. “Come on!” I looked over my shoulder, and saw I was the only one still at the door. Everyone else had started running down the tunnel. Rob stopped in mid-stride. He looked back at me. “Arthur, come on!” I urged frantically.
“No!”
I had no choice. I took one glance at Rob, and slipped back into the basement. “Tracy, no!” he screamed.
Arthur was standing with his back to me, facing the stairs. He was focusing on something in his hand. “My father killed himself because of these men,” he said solemnly. “I will not have his death go to waste.”
Just then I realized what he had in his hand. It was hard to see in the dark, but the metal shape reflected a ray of the moon. He was holding a gun!
“Arthur, there are men out there with real weapons,” I pleaded. “We need you with us!”
“They caused this. They will pay.”
I ran and grabbed his arm. “Come on!”
“No!” he shoved me away. I fell back and hit the ground hard. “Don’t interfere, Tracy!”
A shadow moved in the corner of my vision and crashed into Arthur. It was Rob! He had the older man pinned to the ground. The gun flew from his hand and clattered against the stone floor.
“Idiot!” Rob yelled. “You’re more use to us alive than dead!”
“I’m already dead!”
“You’re not going to avenge your father’s death by getting killed!” I screamed at him.
To my surprise, that struck a nerve. Arthur blinked, and stopped struggling against Rob. “You’re right,” he said. “You’re right.” A crash sounded from above. The men had broken in!
“Come on!” I screamed, scrambling for the opening. “Come on!”
Arthur ran and threw himself in. Rob came next.
“We have to close the door!” Rob exclaimed. He heaved his body against the heavy rock. It didn’t move. “Help me!”
I could hear footsteps pounding down the stairs. I looked at the tunnel we were in for the first time. It was all uneven, hard rock. Rob was struggling to move the door back. But I had the crystal.
“Get back,” I told him. “NOW!” Rob looked at me unsurely. I met his eye and inclined my head an inch. “Trust me.”
Rob nodded, and grabbed Arthur by the shoulders. Together they barreled into the tunnel. I went with them. We ran, racing away from the door, moving down the path as fast as our legs would carry us. I glanced over my shoulder, stumbling in the dark, watching the opening like a hawk. The second I saw a shadow there…
The opening darkened in the shape of a body. I linked to my crystal.
Power surged through me. Every corner of the maze imprinted itself in my mind. Blue light streamed everywhere, but I didn’t need it to see. I could make out the soldier in the doorway perfectly. He was draped in black. I felt the girls behind me, knew exactly how far away they were. The connections leapt through my mind, and flowed through the surroundings. I knew, instinctively, that the people who had come had a force of seven. All were men, and all were swathed identically in black. The path behind me ran indefinitely into the earth, but that wasn’t my focus. I had to focus on the rocks here. The rocks right at the entrance.
The balance in the formation was precarious. It always was. There was always a weak spot. I had taken advantage of that fact on Traven Island against Chris. It existed here, too. I searched through the connections for it, and found it. I targeted it. It existed just above the door. But… the fault ran all the way to where Rob and I and Arthur were. Nearly there. I had to take the chance. I pushed against the weak spot with my mind, transferring unbound energy to it, tipping the balance just enough. I let go of the crystal.
“Jump!” I screamed. A great roar built up behind us. I leapt back, and Rob and Arthur did the same. The roar ripped through the dark, overcoming everything. It was the sound of an avalanche, a rock collapse. I landed on the ground with a grunt. The tunnel started to crumble behind us. I had miscalculated. I hadn’t jumped far enough. The roof of the cavern came crashing down.
I screamed in agony as my foot was crushed beneath falling rock. More rained down, more and more, sealing us completely from the men. More on my foot. The sheerest kind of agony ripped through me. “AHH!” I screamed. “AHH!”
Everything went still. Dimly, on the other side, I thought I could hear the men. It could have been my imagination. The pain in my body was overwhelming. I was ready to pass out.
Rob ran to me, and picked me up in his arms. “You saved us,” he said. Then he noticed my leg. “Your foot!” he exclaimed, and scrambled to start picking the rock off.
“Wait!” John commanded. Rob stopped in his track. “Wait. It has to be done delicately.” Rob got up and ran to help John. “Delicately. We don’t want to inflict more damage.”
Pain enveloped my whole body. I couldn’t even feel my leg beyond the knee. But nerves in the foot kept shooting the worst kind of pain. My foot. It was completely crushed. I would never walk again! I was certain of it. All I knew was pain. Pain. Pain. Pain!
It was too much. I passed out.
***
I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness. Sometimes, I awoke to flashes of blue. From one of the other girls, most likely. They were finding our way.
Things went dark. It was hard to breathe. My body was hot. So hot. I couldn’t feel my foot. I was being carried. Somebody grunted above me. I remembered being rescued from the fire. My mind continued to drift. In and out. In and out…
…
Suddenly I was nauseous. My eyes popped open. I was fully alert. I twisted in Rob’s arms to hurl all over the floor.
I faded out...
…
I heard voices. Arguing. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Not a lot of time had passed. I could still taste the vomit on my tongue. I did not want to wake up. Not to that. I faded out again…
…
I was being carried. I opened my eyes, and found only darkness. Had our lantern given out? Lantern? What lantern? It was a fleeting thought. I felt sick to my stomach. My body was weak. I felt hot. My head hurt. My muscles were jelly…
…
“It’s the after sickness.” I recognized Liz’s voice. It faded in and out. Not quite comprehensible. Like listening underwater. “It must be the…”
…
Black again. I was coming back to. The air was stale. Thick. Hot! Another flash of blue. The others were finding their way. Somebody else was carrying me now. The arms felt different. I opened my eyes a bit. Ar…Arthur? I did not think his wiry frame had the strength.
…
Black. All I knew was black. It swirled everywhere, swelling and contracting, pulsing, menacingly. In and out. In and out. I was so drowsy. Something was wrong with my body. I could feel it. I was so hot. The stifling air was unbearable. My foot hurt…
…
I was being put down. We were not moving anymore. I felt a trickle of water against my lips. It ran down my parched throat. Parched? My throat was dry. I was thirsty. I did not realize it. How long had I been here? Here? Where is here?
My mind was unfocused. Uncertain. I tried to move my leg, and pain came. Pain, overwhelming pain. Horrible pain. Agonizing pain. I passed out again.
…
I was being carried again. There were voices around me. I was just on the edge of hearing. I knew the sounds. I just couldn’t focus on them. It was frustrating. The voices… they carried emotion. I could hear that. Excitement? Something like it. There was an energy to it. An energy to the noise. Excitement. Elation. Joy?
…
Fresh air! Cold, fresh air! I
felt the chill against my face. I opened my eyes weakly. The brightness burned my vision. Sunlight shone down on me. The bitter taste in my mouth was gone. Replaced by… cleanness. But there was a hole in my stomach. Hunger. Abruptly, I leaned over, and heaved everything out again.
Darkness came…
***
I felt myself coming to. The darkness that had been hanging over me retreated. The darkness—
“You’re up!” Rob exclaimed. I opened my eyes weakly. I was in… some sort of cabin. There was a numb feeling in my mouth. I looked to my left. Madison was there. She smiled at me. She was holding my hand, but I could barely feel her touch.
I brought my head to the other side. Rob was there, also holding my hand. His brow was creased with worry.
I lifted my head slightly to look up. Liz and Eve and Ashley were all there, watching me intently. They looked exhausted. Each of them had dark circles under her eyes. Their hair was all a mess.
Out of nowhere, John’s head popped out over me. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Horrible,” I mumbled. “I can’t feel… anything.” I tried to move my arm. It responded, but it had no feeling. “I’m so numb,” I said, and realized I was slurring my words. Even my tongue was numb.
“Heh, willow bark will do that to you,” John smiled. “The good news is, you’re back from the dead to the living.”
“The dead? Wha…?” I looked around, and saw again that I was in a cabin. A cabin? Thoughts were… slippery to grasp. My brain felt numb too. Night and darkness was the last thing I remembered. “Where… where are we?”
“Onboard a small seaplane,” Madison said. “Arthur is flying us to the hidden village. John was right. The numbers on the note really were coordinates.”
“A seaplane…? How…?”
“It took us a good day and a half to get out of the caves,” John explained. “Lucky for us, the exit was very near a lake. And this plane was sitting there, waiting for us on the water. It’s obvious the late Arthur Eliot made contingency plans to prepare for something like this.”
I tried to sit, but my muscles were jelly. They wouldn’t respond. Why was I so numb? What was it that John said? “Why… willow bark?” I asked. I looked at Madison. She avoided my gaze. I looked down. The girls at my feet took a sudden interest in the plane’s interior.
“Rob?” I asked. I looked to my right. He was gripping my hand. But… I couldn’t feel him holding it. All I had was a numb awareness of the pressure. It made me want to cry. Rob did not look away from me, but his eyes were wet. Wet? Was he crying too? What could cause him to cry?
“Your foot was crushed when the tunnel collapsed,” he said.
Alarm gripped me. I tried to sit up, to look, but somebody held my shoulders down. My feet were beyond my line of vision.
“If we had the proper supplies, maybe… maybe it could have been better,” John sighed. “If we had the supplies, we could have put in metal rods, rebuilt the structure of your foot, maybe. But… we do not.”
I gulped. A horrible apprehension built up within me. “What does that mean?”
“There is no hospital where we are going. And without the proper attention… well, fluid will start to build in your foot. Blood, plasma. The muscle will start to break down. It becomes toxic for you. You could die from it. The only option for us… for you… will be to amputate your leg. At the calf.”
“What?” My chest constricted. I knew alarm. “No!”
“We didn’t do it yet,” John said. “Don’t worry. But we might not have a choice soon…”
“No!” I exclaimed. “No, there must be another way! It can heal!”
“Your foot is completely shattered,” John said sadly. “Crushed. I can’t do anything else about it. The only option—”
“No!”
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. No need to decide anything yet. Miracles have happened before.” He sat back, retreating from my field of view.
Miracles have happened before? That was just an underhand way of saying it was impossible.
A horrible sinking feeling formed in my stomach, and the numbness did not make it any less.
Chapter Nineteen – Two Men and a Plane
I remained conscious for the remainder of the flight. There was a solemn mood in the cabin. Nobody said much. We were all absorbed in our own thoughts. Another death. Another chase in the dark. What would we find when we landed? I didn’t know. Unsavory thoughts flowed through my mind. Amputation? I did not want to be a cripple. Losing a foot meant much less than losing a life, however. No. Things wouldn’t come to that. My foot would heal.
The hum of the engines provided background noise. It was an older plane. The interior cabin was brown, and the walls let in a lot of sound. The seats were a crusty leather. But that’s all I could tell. The strangest thing was the lack of sensation in my body. I could barely even say I was lying down. I imagined the injury must be bad for the need for such a strong analgesic.
Abruptly, the plane angled down. I sat up at the sudden altitude change. Or rather, I tried to. I ended up feeling numbly for support, and when I found it, I lacked the initial coordination to push myself up. Rob, who was asleep beside me, clearly didn’t notice, and Madison, who had occupied the seat on the other side, was now in the cockpit with Arthur. With a more concentrated effort, I managed to push myself up enough to peer out the window.
Complete wilderness greeted me below. We were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Trees and mountains extended as far as the eye could see. There were no signs of civilization anywhere.
Except directly below us. There, a tiny village was carved into the woods beside a dark, oval lake. We were flying low over the trees. I was surprised that I couldn’t see any people outside.
The plane touched down on the water with a landing only slightly better than the one Arthur had made before. The engines kept running as Arthur propelled us to shore. We did a 180 degree turn, and I saw an enormous mountain towering over that side of the lake.
Surprisingly, there was a wharf protruding onto the lake. Even more surprising was the presence of another plane docked right beside ours.
“I thought nobody knew about this place,” I commented as we were getting off. I was being carried by Arthur and Rob. By now, a tiny bit of the willow leaf’s effect was starting to wear off, and I was beginning to feel the edge of a sharp ache running up and down my leg.
“I thought so, too,” Arthur muttered beside me. As we passed, he examined the other plane. “Strange,” he said to himself. “This plane has no identifiable markings.” He pointed to a spot near the cockpit. “It’s all been painted over.”
“Apparently, somebody else does know about this place,” John said from behind us. “We have to step carefully, now. We’re in unfamiliar territory.”
The earth made a bowl around the lake. We could not see much past the incline. We topped the crest, and an empty road greeted us. There were cleared pastures and farmhouses on either side. The road, made of packed dirt and edged with tiny thickets, ran straight through the range all the way to the start of the village, up ahead. There, rows of petite, thatch-roofed houses lined the street. From that far away, I could say no more. Oddly, even though it was the middle of the day, there were no people working the farms. I commented on that.
“It’s near winter. The land isn’t arable right now,” John said. “I’m sure there are people we’ll meet closer to the village.”
“I hope so,” I said. “It feels a little creepy. I mean, it’s not every day these people have a plane touch down on their lake, is it?”
“Perhaps things have changed since Arthur’s father last visited,” John noted. “And ours wasn’t the only plane on the water. One might be enough to bring them running, two makes it seem ordinary.”
“Maybe,” I said, but I still wasn’t convinced. Something about this place felt… off.
We continued on, walking down the main road toward the village. As we got closer, and mo
re of the village came into view, my suspicion about the place grew. I expected to see children playing, neighbors talking, and people working. But, instead… instead, there was nothing. The only thing I could hear were the sounds of our own party.
“Something’s wrong,” I said, as we neared the entrance.
“I feel it too,” Ashley confirmed. She looked back at me nervously from her place at the front of the group. Liz, who was trotting beside John, was looking around, wide-eyed. Arthur and Rob, on either side of me, wore stony expressions. Eve was the only one who looked unperturbed, but then again, there wasn’t much that fazed that girl.
We came to the edge of the village. A thick, stone fence no higher than my hip curled around the outside, and parted only for the entrance. It was old, but well-maintained, and stood sturdy. It didn’t seem to be there to keep anything out as much as simply marking the perimeter of the settlement.
The town was in good repair. The buildings that looked small from a distance turned out to be generously sized close up. None were over two stories, but they had a stony bulk that spoke of master craftsmanship. The light brown thatch that made up their roofs reminded me of fresh hay. Everything was neat and well-maintained. Wooden porches jutted out from the fronts of the buildings, and stools and benches stood on the verandas. There were no power lines or cables, no sewer ducts or street lamps. Everything felt pure, untouched by the progress of time, locked away into a simple age that existed long ago. It felt a little like stepping back into the middle ages.
But then there was the flipside. Even though the hard-packed dirt streets showed the imprints of recent footsteps, there were no people anywhere. It looked like the village had been hastily abandoned. In fact, it was as quiet here as it had been on the walk from the lake. As I looked around, I saw some doors and windows open. I could even smell some baking aromas wafting from one of the buildings. There had been people here recently, it was clear. But not anymore. Things were eerily quiet.
“Where… is everybody?” I asked. A gust of wind momentarily rustled the grass behind us.
