The Rivers of Zadaa

by D. J. MacHale

  A dead Ghee warrior.

  “Ahhh!” I screamed in surprise, and pushed away.

  “What is it?” Alder asked.

  I had swum quickly back to the boat in a panic. I clung to the side, trying to catch my breath and calm down. It didn’t take long for me to realize what I had seen.

  “It’s a dygo,” I said. “There’s a Ghee inside. I—I think he’s dead.”

  “It must be one of the dygos that drilled through the ceiling of the cavern,” Alder said. “The rising water must have pushed it in here.”

  Nobody said anything for a moment. I think we were all trying to process the information. It was Loor who first put our thoughts into words.

  “It is our last hope,” she said.

  “Can you open it from the outside?” I asked. “Without flooding it?”

  “We will have to try,” Loor said. “I will need help to get there.”

  I instantly swept my arm around Loor and pushed off of the boat, headed for the crippled dygo. Saangi and Alder swam right behind. In seconds the four of us were hanging onto the silver sphere.

  “The hatch is on the other side,” Loor said.

  We all carefully moved hand over hand around the floating orb until Loor said, “Stop. The hatch is underwater.”

  “We have to spin it,” I said.

  It wasn’t easy. Though the dygo was floating, it was big and clumsy. It wasn’t until Alder went to the far side and pulled down while we pushed up, that the section of the sphere that held the door broke out of the water. Loor ran her hands across the surface, which was no easy thing since the only light we had was the dim glow that came from the window. A few agonizing seconds later I heard the welcome sound of a latch being released and the hatch being raised. She had done it!

  “Careful!” I said. “We don’t want to flood it.”

  We maneuvered the dygo so the open hatch was directly on top. Alder came up from the back side and pulled the hatch fully open. It instantly hit the rocky ceiling. We only had a few feet to maneuver.

  “Saangi first,” Loor said.

  Saangi didn’t hesitate. She pulled herself up and slipped inside the dygo, head first. Loor slid in next. I was about to enter when Loor said, “Wait!”

  “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  I was holding on to the edge of the open doorway. My answer came in the form of a cold hand that was laid across mine. It was the hand of the dead Ghee warrior. Loor and Saangi were pushing him up and out of the dygo.

  “There isn’t enough room,” Loor said.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. I wanted to be respectful.

  “He was a Ghee,” Loor said. “He died in battle. This is how it must be.”

  I pulled the body of the fallen warrior up and out of the craft, while Loor and Saangi pushed. It wasn’t easy, for all sorts of reasons. He was heavy, and he was dead. I tried not to be too grossed out by the whole thing. I think I was too far gone for that. We finally got the body clear of the hatch. I pushed him away and the fallen warrior floated off into the darkness, never knowing that his sacrifice may have saved our lives.

  “Hurry, Pendragon,” Alder said. “We are nearly out of room.”

  Alder was holding the hatch, but he couldn’t open it all the way, because we were getting closer to the ceiling as the water rose relentlessly. There was only about a foot-wide opening now. In a few seconds the hatch would be forced practically closed and the opening wouldn’t be wide enough for us to get through. I dove for it and went in headfirst, falling into Saangi’s lap.

  “C’mon!” I shouted back to Alder.

  Alder snaked around the hatch, dropped his feet and legs inside, then fell the rest of the way in. No sooner did he fall inside than the hatch was forced closed by the ceiling overhead. Saangi reached up and sealed it tight.

  “Done!” she shouted.

  Loor reached for the console and flipped a switch that lit up the interior. We could see! We were a jumble of arms and legs and bodies on top of one another, trying to figure out where to go. I was happy to see that this dygo was larger than the one Loor and I had driven before. It wasn’t exactly spacious, but there were four seats, two in front and two behind. At that moment, however, it was on its side.

  Loor took charge. “Saangi, next to me,” she ordered. “Pendragon, Alder, to the rear.” She was already moving herself around to get into the driver’s seat, which is not easy to do sideways. After an awkward minute of maneuvering, we were all in our seats but still lying on our sides. Loor worked busily to power up the dygo.

  “Does this work like a submarine?” I asked.

  “No,” Loor said. “We must sink to the bottom.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that, but Loor seemed to know what she was doing. She toggled a few switches, and I heard what sounded like a burst of air bubbles being released. I could feel that we were sinking. Loor must have been taking on water so that we would drop down. Gulp. As we sank, the sphere gradually righted itself. We were heads up!

  “I’m turning off the inside lights,” Loor said.

  A moment later we were back in black. It didn’t last long. Loor hit the switch that turned on the outside lights. I felt like I was back in the hauler submarine on Cloral, with Spader. There wasn’t much to see through the windshield, though. The water was too murky. No sooner had I gotten used to the sensation of floating in this big sphere than we gently landed on the bottom.

  “We’re treads down, right?” I asked.

  Loor gave me a quick look, as if to say, “Give me a break.”

  She hit the throttle and the dygo crawled forward. It didn’t feel much different from when we were on dry land. We had an unobstructed view through the windshield in front, which meant that the drill was behind us.

  “I do not know which way to go,” Loor said.

  “We’ve got to find the stairs,” I replied. “Keep going until we hit a wall, then we’ll follow it like we were trying to do on the surface.”

  Loor pushed the sphere forward. We crawled along slowly. It wouldn’t be smart to crash into a wall. A minute later the headlights reflected off a rocky surface directly in front. We had found the wall.

  “Excellent,” I said. “Let’s go right. Keep the wall in sight. Eventually we have to hit the stairs.”

  Loor carefully moved the dygo along. She turned the whole sphere so that the window faced the wall, but the treads were ninety degrees the other way. We were actually moving sideways. For the first time I began to think we actually had a chance of getting out of this. We had been moving along slowly for a few minutes when suddenly the wall disappeared, and we were faced with nothing but water.

  “This is it!” Saangi exclaimed.

  Loor spun the dygo so the window faced the direction of the treads. She was about to turn the whole vehicle so we could move forward into the opening, when I realized something.

  “Stop!” I shouted.

  “What is the matter?” Loor asked.

  “Can we look down from here?” I asked.

  Loor spun the sphere back so the window faced the open water. She then tilted the whole sphere so the window gave us a view down. What we saw made each of our hearts beat a little faster.

  “That was almost a very big mistake,” Alder said.

  What we saw was…nothing. The stone floor did not continue. It ended. We were not in front of the stairs. We were on the exact opposite side. It was the edge of the platform where we had launched the boat for Kidik Island. If we had gone forward, we would have toppled off the edge and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We all let out nervous, relieved breaths.

  “At least we know where we are,” I said. “We need to go in the opposite direction.”

  Loor spun the dygo sphere a hundred and eighty degrees, lined up the treads, and followed the compass thing on the instrument panel to send us in the opposite direction. We still had to move slowly because visibility wasn’t great

  “What kind of air supply does this thing h
ave?” I asked.

  “There is no air supply,” Loor said. “The vents are closed to keep out the water. When we use up the air, we suffocate.”

  “Oh. Just checking.” I suddenly felt more urgency to find the stairs.

  While Loor drove, Saangi worked the headlights. She could direct them to scan in several directions. After driving for a few more moments, Saangi announced, “There!”

  Up ahead and above us, we saw what looked like the top edge of an opening. We were passing out of the launch area, hopefully into the cavern at the base of the grand stairway. Loor pressed on. Alder and I leaned forward, desperate to see something that would tell us where we were.

  “Look to the left,” I said to Saangi. “That’s the direction the stairs would be if—there!”

  Through the floating particles, we could make out the bottom of the giant staircase. We had made it! We didn’t celebrate. We were still far from safe. Loor turned the dygo. Saangi scanned the stairs with the light until she found one of the ramps that cut through the steps. Loor directed the vehicle toward the ramp and in no time we were climbing up. The treads were on a steep angle, but Loor kept the sphere upright so it felt kind of like rising in an escalator.

  I want to say that I was relieved, and I was. But all we had done was get to the next hurdle. There was plenty more to worry about, not the least of which was the time bomb that was ticking beneath us. Had the floodgates collapsed? Were we going to find that Kidik was flooded? I didn’t know how much air we had left in the dygo, but I didn’t think it would be enough to get us to the surface. I was already feeling the effects of the air running out. It was harder to get a breath. All we could do was keep moving, and hope.

  We climbed the stairs, higher and higher. I was trying to calculate how deep we had been underwater, which would be a good indication of when we should break the surface. That is, if there was a surface to break.

  A minute into our climb, the windshield of the dygo cleared. We were out of the water. Kidik was still dry. It meant the floodgates hadn’t been destroyed yet. Loor instantly opened the vents, and Saangi cracked open the hatch to let air rush in. Man, it tasted sweet. I didn’t mind that it was tunnel air. I took in a huge lungful. I exchanged a smile with Alder. We had come so close to disaster, but were still going. As Loor said, if we were alive, we were not done.

  When we reached the top of the stairs, we were met with more good news. The lights of Kidik were still burning. Only the lights at the bottom of the stairs had gone dark, probably because they were underwater. Up here, we could still see. At least for now. Loor drove the dygo away from the top of the stairs and stopped the vehicle on the edge of the main street. Nobody said it, but we all needed to get out, if only for a few seconds. We needed to get our bearings back. Saangi pushed open the hatch, and we all crawled out of the vehicle that had saved our lives. It felt good to be on solid ground again, even if it was in a deserted city miles underground. I stretched my legs, enjoying the feeling of standing on two feet.

  “They were here,” Loor said.

  “Who was?” I asked.

  She was looking at the ground. Sure enough, the fine sandy ground was covered with footprints that hadn’t been there when we came in. There looked to be thousands of them.

  “The Batu invasion made it to Kidik,” Loor declared.

  “Where do you think they are now?” Alder asked.

  “Fleeing for the surface, I hope,” Loor said. “If they saw the rising water, they may have realized the danger.”

  “So they might survive this after all?” Saangi asked.

  My first thought was that Saangi was right. The thousands of Batu who came down into the underground might have dodged a very big, wet bullet. It all depended on where they were, and how much longer the floodgates would hold. If they survived, Saint Dane would lose.

  That was my first thought.

  My second thought was that we were still in the depths and a time bomb was ticking. I was about to point that out when the ground rumbled. It felt like a short, sharp earthquake. We looked at one another. Our sense of victory was short lived.

  “Could that be?” Alder asked.

  Another short earthquake rumbled the ground. This one was so strong, it nearly knocked me off my feet.

  “Back in the dygo!” Loor shouted.

  We all ran for the vehicle. As we were about to climb in, a building that was thirty yards in front of us exploded. It was as if an atomic water bomb had blown up beneath it. A huge blast of water shot up into the air, much like what had happened when the main building on Kidik Island had exploded.

  “They’re starting to go!” I exclaimed.

  On cue two more buildings exploded, sending rock and sand and water everywhere. We were pelted with debris. This was the beginning of the end for the underground. The southern gates were giving way. There must have been so much force surging through those first collapsing gates that the tunnels couldn’t contain it. There was more water than space for it to go, so it found its own way.

  Kidik was about to be obliterated.

  JOURNAL #23

  (CONTINUED)

  ZADAA

  The world was exploding around us.

  We piled into the dygo. Loor powered up while Saangi sealed the hatch. “Go!” she exclaimed.

  Loor hit the throttle, and the dygo sped forward. She told me these buggies were fast. She was right. We bounced along the main street of Kidik as the buildings to either side began to crumble. It truly was like an earthquake. The ground was being torn apart by the force of the water as it sought space. There was no stopping it, because an entire ocean was behind it, pushing it forward. More buildings blew out, while those on levels above toppled. It reminded me of a giant, elaborate sand castle that was being torn apart by the incoming tide.

  The street directly in front of us erupted, sending a blast of water high into the air. Loor was able to steer around it. All I could think of was if one of those geysers shot up directly beneath us, we’d be blown over like a toy. I wondered what would happen if we were knocked off our treads. That would be ugly.

  To our left a building looked as if it were lifted up into the air a few feet. The whole building shifted in one piece and slid into the street in front of us. It was too late for Loor to avoid it.

  “Brace yourself,” she shouted. We hit the building. It was a hard jolt and we knocked around, but the dygo remained intact.

  “We can’t outrun this,” I said. “Eventually we’re gonna get nailed.”

  “There is only one thing we can do,” Loor said.

  I was happy to hear that there actually was an option, because I was fresh out of ideas.

  “Whatever it is, do it,” I shouted.

  “Do we dig?” Saangi asked.

  “We dig,” Loor said.

  Loor stopped the dygo. She toggled a switch on the instrument panel. I heard a whine and saw the drill drop from overhead and settle down into its front position.

  “Dig what?” I asked.

  “Dig out,” Loor answered.

  She toggled another switch, and the drill began to spin. She turned the dygo so we were facing one side of the street. In front of us was a stone house that was still intact. It wouldn’t be for long.

  “You sure about this?” I asked nervously.

  “Brace yourself,” Loor commanded.

  She hit the throttle and drove the dygo right into the building. The drill dug through the wall as if it were made of paper. A second later we were in somebody’s living room. Good thing nobody was home. We blasted through, moving past stone furniture, dishes, and even clothing hanging on racks. It was a twisted experience. We ate through wall after wall, room after room. The ceilings collapsed on us as we tore through, but the dygo kept moving. I realized that the many levels of stone buildings that could be seen from the street were nothing more than the front layer of this city. Like all of the underground, Kidik was like a massive beehive. We charged through open areas that looked like m
arket squares. We passed a huge amphitheater with rings of stone seats that would never see another performance. Loor didn’t stop to sightsee. We crashed through more deserted homes. I was feeling kind of guilty, but knew it would only be a matter of time before the surging water did a lot more damage than we were doing.

  “Is there a plan here?” I asked.

  “We need to get to the surface as quickly as possible,” Loor said. “Following the route we took from Xhaxhu would be suicide. We could never outrace the flood.”

  “So what are we looking for here?” I asked.

  “We are looking for nothing,” Loor said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing,” Loor repeated. “We need to get to the rock that Kidik was built on. From there we can drill our own tunnel.”

  Loor’s plan was incredible, and incredibly simple. It didn’t matter where we got to the surface, so long as we got there. She had decided to create her own route. From what I’d seen of the dygo, it was possible. The only thing stopping us would be time. We had to outrun the water.

  I looked ahead to see we were no longer moving through open space. We had reached the bedrock of Kidik and were drilling our way through. There wasn’t much to see. Looking through the hollow drill bit, all that was visible was the rock we were drilling through. If we were lucky, the next thing we would see through that hole was sky.

  I felt myself being pushed back into the seat. A quick glance at the compass thing on the instrument panel showed me that we were headed up. It was like flying through a cloud. There was no way to know when we would come out of it, until we were out. A few times we hit an open air-pocket. I couldn’t tell if they were tunnels, or natural gaps in the rock. It didn’t matter. The treads of the dygo took over, moving us forward until we reached the far side, at which point the drill would go back to work. I didn’t know how fast we were going; there was no point of reference. But I figured it couldn’t be all that fast. The spinning drill cut through the rock like it was Jell-O, but even going through Jell-O took time.