by T. S. Hall
Sixteen
WELL
“Should we put one more log on the fire?” Dax said, grabbing a block of wood from a pile next to the brass fire pit in his backyard.
“Yeah, why not?” Tanner responded, putting his palms out toward the dying flames.
Allora pulled her feet up and curled them underneath her cushion, trying to escape the chill of the cold late-February air. She hugged her blanket that she had cocooned herself in while Dax threw on a log and stoked the embers with a metal prod. The fire caught and illuminated the others, and they stared into the orange flames as they all sat in a circle in Katie and Dax’s backyard.
“You know, we haven’t had a sleepover in quite a while,” Katie said, cocooned in a blanket. “I’m surprised that your mother even approved it.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised too,” Allora admitted, warming her hands near the fire. “These last few weeks have been brutal. Mom has only let me go to school and the outer realm.”
“Are you guys sure that you want to sneak out?” Tanner asked.
“Scared of my mom, are you?”
“Everyone is scared of your mom,” Dax said.
“Time to come inside,” Maureen yelled from the back porch.
Dax and Tanner put out the fire as the girls went to Katie’s room to prepare for bed.
They placed flashlights, climbing rope, water bottles, food, extra clothing, and other essentials into a backpack. Katie then tossed it out of her window.
After a few hours of sleep, the alarm woke Allora at three in the morning. After changing quickly, the girls snuck out of the window, grabbed their supplies, and scurried across the front lawn. Katie’s eye caught a strange light in the grass, and she slammed Allora’s chest with her forearm, stopping her suddenly.
“What?” Allora whispered.
“I almost forgot about the motion sensors,” Katie said, kneeling down to the ground. With her head against the grass, she could see a faint, grid-like pattern. Memorizing the placement of each sensor beam, she got to her feet and instructed Allora to step in the exact same place. After navigating the lawn, they ran through the woods and jumped into Tanner’s car.
“Took ya long enough,” Dax said as they drove toward the school.
Tanner veered left and parked the car at the edge of the trees so as not to be noticed. Then they walked to the old well next to the parking lot. The crescent moon rested on the tree canopy like a sentry upon the battlements. They all circled around the well and stared down into the black abyss below.
“So who’s first?” Tanner asked.
“I vote Katie,” Dax said.
“What? No way. I went first down the big, black, freaky hole last time, remember?”
“You really didn’t have a choice on that trip,” Dax said.
“Whatever, you sissies,” Allora said, grabbing the climbing rope from Tanner’s backpack and tying it around her waist. “I’ll go first.”
Allora strapped the headlamp around her head, flicked it on, and sat down on the edge of the well while Tanner secured the other line to a tree trunk. Once they double-checked its strength to make sure it was secure, Tanner eased Allora into the well. The interior was covered in moss and smelled of mold. As Allora descended, she noticed that the rock was a different type twenty feet down. It was as if the existing well had been built on top of an older one. She ran her finger down the rock. It was slimy but solid. It took about five minutes, but she finally reached the bottom. It was much deeper down than she had predicted.
“OK, hold it there,” Allora yelled, stopping her descent.
She spun in place, illuminating the bottom with her headlamp.
“See anything?” Katie yelled down.
Allora kept spinning, not noticing anything of interest. The stench of mildew was overwhelming her senses, and she had to plug her nose. After a few spins, she noticed a patch of moss covering an odd-looking stone. She pulled away the moist, green vegetation and scooped out the dirt that had accumulated in a small, carved-out portion of the rock. It was in the shape of a perfect square. She pulled out the blue cube and gently placed the object into the stone.
Nothing happened. She pulled it out and tried different ways of placing the cube into the slot, but nothing worked. Then she decided to give it a little spark. Suddenly the cube glowed blue, projecting light from the carved lines on the exterior. The top folded outward and then spun around. The swirling motion started to spread, and soon there was a large circle of spinning material like on the wall in Sas’s cave.
“I think that we’re in business,” Allora said, placing her hand confidently into the liquid cement–like substance.
She then placed her feet on the other side and pushed off, swinging into the liquid wall. After untying the rope from her waist, she waited for the others to come down. Tanner was the last to reach the bottom. Once in, they all slowly walked into the tunnel. The interior material was rock layered with a type of cement that seemed to hold it together. There were a few cracks, but nothing structurally unstable, which was odd since the place had supposedly been there for thousands of years.
“Everyone stay alert,” Tanner said. “I don’t suspect that the individuals who made this place will have made it very easy to find what we’re looking for.”
“What are we looking for?” Dax asked.
“Not sure, but make sure not to touch anything like last time,” Katie added.
“You guys are never going to let that one go, are you?”
From the black void ahead, a muffled echo reverberated down the narrow passageway. The sound was strange, like a teapot boiling in the distance.
“What the hell was that?” Allora whispered.
“A gopher?” Dax said. The others pointed their headlamps at him. “A really big gopher?”
They had no choice but to continue forward into the dark tunnel. Each step was heavy, like they had weights strapped to their feet. The tunnel began to expand, opening into larger chambers filled with carved-out beds in the walls. Within were skeletons draped in ragged, torn garb and covered in dust and dirt. The garments and headdresses suggested that they had been a primitive civilization that had lived thousands of years before.
“This must be an ancient tomb,” Allora said, fascinated by the discovery.
“Ew,” Katie remarked. “I hate dead things.”
“At least these skeletons aren’t walking around trying to kill us,” Dax said.
“Don’t speak so soon,” Tanner remarked, walking further into the tomb.
It was pitch black, illuminated only by the four fluorescent headlights that bobbed as the four of them stepped slowly through the cavern. The air smelled of rotten vegetation, dirt, and death. Roots zigzagged down the walls between the tombs, and a slight trickle of water reverberated within the cavern. Dax moved ahead of the group. He stopped suddenly and swung his arms, halting everyone’s progress.
“What?” Katie asked.
“There are no more tombs,” he replied.
“So what?” Katie said, moving underneath her twin brother’s outstretched arm. “Bro, I think that those Baykok made you paranoid.”
Dax shined his headlamp on the wall and noticed an assortment of holes. He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his sister’s waist, pulling her to the ground. Allora shined her light to the left as a spear shot from the wall. The silver-tipped projectile sliced across the cavern, mere inches from Dax and Katie’s falling bodies. Allora’s light caught the edges of another hold at the base of the wall. She sprung forward, creating a hadron burst that shot out and exploded the spear right before it pierced Katie’s back. Dazed from the incident, Katie frantically crawled backward.
“I’m not going that way.”
“Guess you’ll listen to me next time,” Dax said, inching backward.
“Those may be hadron-infused blades,” Tanner said, examining the first spear that had embedded itself in the hard clay wall. He projected his headlamp down the cave and saw numerous
holes on the walls. “We can’t just put up our shields and walk through.”
“Well, I don’t want to be skewered,” Katie said, getting up from the ground.
“Tell me about it,” Allora said, remembering the spear that had shot through her back.
“Anyone for shish kebabs later?” Dax joked.
Katie proceeded to slug her brother on the shoulder for the comment.
“Tanner, could you get enough water in the soil to freeze the walls?” Allora asked.
“Worth a shot.”
Tanner moved in front, closed his eyes, and angled his hands forward. For a few minutes, nothing happened as he tried in vain to concentrate. Allora stepped forward, unsure of what she was doing. She placed her hand on the small of his back, closed her eyes, and focused her own hadrons, pushing them into his body. Acting like a super-charged battery, Tanner’s hands began to glow blue, and water started to flow from the ground, walls, and ceiling. The veins in the boy’s forehead protruded, his muscles were tight, and he shook slightly as the water ran up the walls. The air grew cold, and they began to see their own breath.
Tanner’s body shook as the water grew. In the light of the lamps, they watched the frost cover the layer of water, spreading out like a ripple from a stone dropped in a calm lake. Tanner collapsed as the layer of liquid solidified into ice.
Allora placed her hand in the path of a hole to test out the ice wall. The spear shot out, crashing into the ice. It stopped but left a large crack.
“We need to move quickly,” Allora said, helping Tanner to his feet. “On three, everyone run as fast as you can.” They lined up and got into a track stance. “One, two, three, go!”
They shot forward, sprinting through the dark cavern. The headlamp lights danced in the dark, reflecting off the thin, bluish wall. Spears crashed into the ice, causing the cracks to spread quickly. It was an orchestra of cracking sounds reverberating throughout the cavern. The ice had thinned out as they moved farther down the cavern pathway. Some of the spears broke through and flew right behind the sprinting teens. Up ahead the holes stopped, but there was no ice along the end of the walls.
“Oh God, we’re going to die,” Katie screamed. The ice wall broke off and crashed down, sending a wind of cold. They couldn’t stop their momentum, and moving forward would kill them. There was no escape. A green glow illuminated the last ten yards. On the sides of the ground, walls of rock sprung up like earthly elevators and crashed into the ceiling. The spears smashed into the rock. An assortment of silver stuck out from the rock as the air filled with dust. The new walls squeezed the sprinting teens together, and they tripped over each other, sending them sliding awkwardly along the slippery, mossy ground. They collided with a wall at the end of the cave, entangled in a pile of arms and legs.
Before they could even contemplate what had happened, the floor gave way, plummeting the four into a dark descent. Their screams echoed in the tunnel as they slid along a ramp that opened up into a large chamber. Eventually they stopped falling and untangled themselves.
“How in the world did we get out of that one?” Allora asked.
“Dude, did you do that?” Tanner asked, grabbing Dax’s shoulders excitedly.
“I think so,” he said with a shrug.
“You mean he’s a Fermion as well?” Katie said.
“That is so awesome!” Tanner said.
“Honestly, I feel exhausted, like I’ve been running suicide sprints for two hours straight.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty normal,” Tanner said, smacking Dax on the shoulder. “That’ll change after a while.”
They smacked their clothes, ridding themselves of some of the dust and dirt that covered them, and moved out into the large, dark chamber. Small, glowing orbs lifted from four pedestals in the corners of the room. The ceiling was covered in ancient Egyptian artwork, beautifully painted and intricately detailed. Sphinxes fought with pharaohs and large men with birds’ heads. Depictions of bloodied bodies littered the storyboard, and large, fire-breathing ships sailed across the dome in what looked like an epic battle. From the bottom of the half circle, a wall of blue seemed to encompass everything. At the top was a pyramid with three orange-and-yellow points and an eye in the middle.
On the ground at the center of the dome chamber was a circular pedestal with a blue orb held by four small golden hands. The rest of the chamber was filled with sand and dirt.
“Anyone think that this looks familiar?” Dax said.
“I don’t see any golden men with spears, so I think you’re good,” Katie replied.
“You really know how to beat a dead horse,” Dax said.
“Guys, focus,” Tanner said, scanning the entire chamber. “What is our exit point should things go wrong?”
Allora leaned to her right and walked sideways. The chamber was enclosed, without any hint of an exit.
“I don’t see anything.”
Katie screamed and began high-stepping toward the pedestal. A rat scurried underneath her dancing feet and into the sand.
“Seriously?” Dax said.
“I hate rats,” Katie replied, scrunching her face like she was about to throw up.
Allora watched the rat dart through the sand, and then suddenly it disappeared. “Where did it go?”
“Now what do we do?” Katie asked. “There is no way I’m going out into the sandpit of death. Probably filled with hundreds of dead rats.”
Something fell from the ceiling and landed on Katie’s shoulder. She turned and saw another huge, gray rat with buck teeth staring back at her. She screamed and swatted the thing, sending it into the sandpit, where it was consumed by the ground as it struggled to move. Dax was bent over laughing as Katie kept wiping her shoulder aggressively, as if the rat was still there.
“Any ideas on how to get over there?” Allora asked.
“How about jumping there?” Katie asked.
“It’s like thirty feet away,” Tanner replied.
“Bubble jump?” Katie said feebly.
“Too low of a ceiling,” Allora said.
Dax stopped laughing. “I think I’ve got one,” he said, recalling something he had learned in science class. “Allora, do you think that you could create a sheet of fire to go across the sand?”
“I think so. Why?”
“If you can get the sand hot enough, it will turn into glass that we can walk on.”
“I’d have to get the sand really, really hot.”
“You have any better ideas?” Dax replied.
Allora thought for a moment and then turned toward the sandpit.
“Here goes nothing,” Allora said, focusing her thoughts and grabbing the hadrons within the chamber.
Thin trails of dim light flowed from the dome, crawling along the sand like ants of light, and accumulated within Allora’s body. Knowing that this would require a lot of fire, Allora remained focused, absorbing as many hadrons as she could. With her palms open, a purple flame formed in her fingers, flowing into two circulating balls of purple fire. They grew larger as she pulled in more and more hadrons. After a few minutes of focusing, the balls of fire grew to the size of basketballs. The other three took a step back as Allora’s body shook.
Finally, she couldn’t hold onto the power any longer. Allora combined the two balls of fire, took a step forward, and launched the flaming sheet across the sandpit. The purplish-orange fire covered the area, sending a gust of hot air throughout the chamber. The ground burned with an assortment of yellows, greens, blues, and reds, as the heat burned the sand to a scorching temperature. The other three had to move back even farther as the wave of hot air burnt their skin. Allora’s shirt caught on fire, and Tanner quickly patted the flames, leaving a scorched edge and black smudge marks.
The ground was glowing orange as the flames began to subside. For thirty minutes, they waited for the molten sand to cool and solidify, but it was evident that it would take longer.
“I’m tired of waiting,” Tanner said, moving to the
edge of the orange pit.
“You think that’s a good idea?” Allora said.
“Morning is probably already here,” Tanner replied. “Do you want to wait around for another hour?”
Tanner focused the water from the cavern above, pulled in the molecules, swirled the water within his palms, and sent a sheet of cool water across the ground, which caused the molten sand to hiss. The room filled with steam, choking the air. Once visibility was restored, Allora moved up to the edge of the pit and placed her palm on the clear surface. It was warm but solid. She stepped forward to test the stability. The ground cracked and bent but remained solid.
“I think that it’s good enough to stand on,” Allora said, moving out onto the glass.
As she put down weight onto her right foot, the whole ground shuddered, causing a deep cracking sound as if she had stepped onto an unstable icy lake. She paused and stared into the clear, bubbly surface below her feet. Underneath something moved in the sand like a shark circling its prey.
“What was that thing?” Katie said, noticing the movement as well.
“Allora, I think you should come back,” Tanner said.
“I’ll bet it was a chupacabra,” Dax said.
“A what?” Tanner asked.
“It’s like a big rat-like dog.”
“ Ew,” Katie responded, remembering her rat encounter.
“Guys, you’re really not helping,” Allora said, frozen in midstep.
The other three held their breaths, watching Allora’s labored movement across the glassy surface. Every step made an eerie sound. Allora let out a sigh when she got to the sandstone step in the middle. She studied the strange blue orb for a minute, noticing that it was made of sapphire and seemed perfectly round, except for two square slots on either side.
“Now what?” Allora said.
“Good question,” Katie said.
With one eye closed, Allora carefully removed the sapphire orb from the golden holder. It made a slight clicking sound and then was silent. Allora froze with the orb only inches above the holder, waiting for something to happen. She turned around, shrugged her shoulders, and quickly scampered across the glass, feeling confident that it wouldn’t break.
