“Um, hello, anybody? What the hell do you guys see?” Paul asked again.
“What did the journal say, Pete?” Garrett asked.
“It said the giant was guarded by the Thunderbird and that if the giant was disturbed, the Thunderbird would wake,” Pete said shakily.
“That sounds like a pretty important detail, Pete!” Lenny said. “So, I’m guessing that thing is the Thunderbird!?” Not waiting for the obvious answer, he turned to Paul and David and shouted in a raspy whisper, “We got a Thunderbird over here.”
“A what bird?” Paul asked.
“I don’t want to sound stupid, Pete,” Garrett said, “but that thing looks kinda like a pterodactyl, or wait a minute… is that a—”
“It’s a dragon,” Breanne interrupted.
“Balls! We got a dragon over here!” Lenny called down.
David began stepping backward toward the door again. “Did they say ‘dragon’? They didn’t…”
“I don’t think anyone could say anything that sounds stupid given the situation. Guys, honestly, I thought the Native American kid telling Lincoln the story was speaking metaphorically,” Pete said, heavy on the r words as all attempts at the persona of Mr. Cool slipped through the nervous cracks in his voice. “Like the Thunderbird god watches over the giant… not a freaking real-life dragon watching over a freaking real-life giant!”
They stood there for an awkward moment, gazing at the scaly beast as much in frozen terror as in awe. The dragon was huge, bigger than any animal Garrett had ever seen. Even in its current position, lying on the floor like a balled-up cat trying to keep warm, it still looked huge.
Light from the flames shimmered across its dinner plate–sized scales like sun on a mirrored glass building. Its wings ran from the base of its neck all the way down its back, but they were folded up in some strange way that made their true size impossible to judge. Knobby bones speared out from its wings and all along the dragon’s back on both sides. Its head was thin and long, resting on the end of an even longer neck. Its face resembled that of an iguana but with a more pronounced cartilage ridge that ran all the way down to the tip of its nose. In the flickering light, they couldn’t be sure of its true color, but Garrett guessed it was a metallic black. Its feet seemed more those of a bird than a lizard – like an eagle’s but much, much larger and ending in gleaming black talons.
“Do you see that?!” Pete pointed at the dragon.
Lenny stepped up close beside him, trying to see what he was seeing. “See what?”
“Its head.”
“Yeah, no shit. It’s right there – if its eyes were open it would be looking directly at us,” he said, pointing at the dragon’s head, which sat facing them on the floor of the chamber.
“Not that head. The other one,” Pete said, pointing again.
“Holy shit, it has more than one head!” Garrett had been too busy imagining the damage those massive talons could inflict to notice that it did, in fact, have two heads.
“I’m coming up – I got to get a look at this thing,” Paul said.
But before he could start up, David grabbed his sleeve. “Wait, did you guys hear that?” he asked, looking back toward the corridor beyond the entrance.
No one dared breathe.
In the absolute silence of the chamber Garrett heard it, a soft sound growing louder, as the distant sound of boots slapping stone grew closer.
David gazed up at them, fresh panic in his eyes. “Guys… someone’s coming.”
27
The Real Apep
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Paul pointed to the opening. “Incoming!”
Breanne, Pete, Janis, Lenny, and Garrett all stood on top of the slab, crowded around the giant’s head.
Breanne tensed. This is it, isn’t it?
Garrett reached back over his shoulder and drew his sword and again it slid free of the scabbard, the sound cutting the silence with a whoosh.
A dark silhouette appeared in the opening of the chamber.
“If you’re going to do it, bro, you better do it now,” Lenny said in an urgent whisper.
The silhouette stepped forward and spoke. “Garrett, I wouldn’t do that.”
Garret gasped. “Oh, please, god, don’t let it be him!”
“Garrett how – how can he be here?” Lenny asked, his face twitching as he tried to puzzle it out. “Unless – unless he’s Apep?”
“Listen to me,” the familiar voice said. “If you do it, if you cut off its head, that dragon will wake up, and if it does… it’s going to kill us all.”
Garrett’s face contorted as though he had been gut-punched. “I trusted you! You were my friend!”
“I’m still your friend, and I’m telling you, put down that sword before you get us all killed.”
Breanne could see the pain of betrayal in Garrett’s eyes. She leaned in close to Lenny and whispered, “Who is he, Lenny?”
Lenny gulped hard, trying to find his voice. “Eugene.”
Garrett looked like he was going to be sick. “My whole goddamn life’s a lie? Nothing is real?!” he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls.
Pete flinched, then looked at the giant, the dragon, and finally back at the giant, before letting out a relieved sigh. “Well, at least we know loud noise won’t wake them up.”
“So, how long have you known we’ve had the book, Eugene?” Garrett asked. “My god, you’re the one who tried to trick Lincoln. You pretended to be his friend. He wrote the journal for you, didn’t he? Then something happened – he was going to give it to you, but he found you out, and hid it in… in your basement.”
To Breanne, Garrett seemed to be just as surprised by his own accusations as everyone else. She watched the wheels of his mind spin behind his glistening eyes, the pain on his face as evident as the giant sprawled out before them.
“So, you bought the house to look for the book, or have you always owned it? My god – all that work, you weren’t remodeling, were you, Eugene? You were searching for Lincoln’s book!”
Breanne stared at Eugene. Could this be Apep? He didn’t look like much with his thin arms and narrow shoulders. He was bald except for two patches of dark hair resting above his ears. Could this really be the guy who killed Jerry? Who tried to kill her family in the pit? The crazed maniac responsible for her father’s coma?
Eugene began to walk forward.
“Stop right there!” Garrett shouted. He drew his sword back like a lumberjack cocking an axe. “I’ll hack this thing’s head off if you take one more step!”
Eugene stopped and put up his hands in surrender. “Garrett, you have to listen to me. I’m your friend, here to help keep you from making a horrible mistake. I’m not Apep.”
“Really? Then who is?”
As if on cue, the sound of hurried footfalls in a dead run came echoing down the corridor.
“Well now, I think we are about to find out,” Eugene said.
Breanne spun to face the opening in time to see a combat-booted man burst into the chamber, holding an assault rifle to his right shoulder. The soldier swung the rifle back and forth, frantically searching. With only a quick glance she recognized the weapon as an M4 carbine. She had shot that weapon plenty with her brothers. She didn’t particularly like guns, but her brothers had insisted she know how to use them.
The man with the M4 slid to a stop. He was wearing military-issue camo BDU pants and a regulation khaki undershirt. But it was his eyes that drew her attention. His eyes looked wild in the light from the flames, like there was an untethering in them, an insanity. Breanne felt a sudden and frightening fear coalesce inside her gut as the man continued forward, searching the room.
“Coach Dagrun?” Lenny breathed.
Eugene pressed his lips together tightly and pointed a contemptuous finger. “He’s your Apep.”
Finding Eugene, Dagrun raised the weapon, aimed, and pulled the trigger all in one flu
id motion.
Click!
Everyone flinched – even Eugene. But the gun failed to fire.
Coach Dagrun sneered at Eugene before turning to Garrett. “Goddammit, brick, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Sever that sum-bitch’s head, and I mean now!”
Breanne blinked. “Lenny?”
“That’s our cross-country coach,” Lenny said, his eyebrows all bunched up in confusion.
Garrett tensed at the direct order, but he hesitated. He looked at Lenny then Breanne. “Something feels wrong. I… I don’t know.”
She looked at Eugene. He was a scrawny, ordinary-looking old guy. No cloak or trench coat like she had seen Apep wearing earlier. But he could have simply removed it. She followed Garrett’s eyes to the balding guy’s feet. Were those the boots Apep wore? Why couldn’t she remember the goddamned boots? Eugene’s khakis were wet up to his knees, mud-caked and filthy above that. But what about what Garrett said about the house, and the journal?
Then she looked at the coach guy. No cloak on him either, and he too wore boots, black combat boots. Apep’s boots? Could Apep be Garrett’s coach? He talked like he was military, and he had the M4. He certainly looked much more capable of picking Jerry up with one hand.
She looked at Garrett and shrugged when suddenly he gasped.
“What?” she whispered.
“Look at him. Really look. Coach Dagrun’s clothes – they’re… filthy and torn.”
Pete narrowed his eyes, focusing his perfect vision on the coach. “Not filthy, Garrett – they look like they… like… like they’ve been on fire!”
“Do it, Garrett – do it now!” Dagrun yelled.
Garrett kept the sword cocked but relaxed his grip slightly. “Why are your clothes burnt, Coach?”
“What?” Dagrun’s expression changed from stern command to discombobulation.
“Your clothes! Why are they burnt?” Garrett repeated with an even more accusing tone.
“I… I came to the dojo… after” – he pointed an accusing finger at Eugene – “after Apep left, but I was too late… I tried to save him – I swear, Garrett. I tried, but he was… beyond saving…”
Eugene, still holding his hands palms out, shook his head back and forth. “No. No way, Garrett. He’s burnt because he’s Apep. Don’t listen to him! It’s all a trick to get you to wake the dragon. That’s what Apep wants – to burn the world. He can’t wake the dragon, Garrett. Not by himself. Don’t you see? It’s a trick! It’s all been a trick to get you to do it! It has to be you!” Eugene’s pleading voice pressed, begging him to believe.
Careful to keep his sword high and at the ready, Garrett turned to Bre and Paul. “Did either of you get a good look at him when he took the stones?”
Paul narrowed his eyes at the two men. “No. It could be either one of them.”
Garrett shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know what to do. Who do I trust? Bre? Can you tell which one is Apep?”
“I’m sorry, Garrett, I can’t tell which one is Ap—” But before she could finish her sentence, her eyes clouded over, turning a smoky white. Then she spoke a single name. “Janis.”
As the name left her lips, Garrett let out a loud oomph! He slammed forward, falling into her, the force causing both of them to lose their balance and tumble off the slab. She felt herself falling but couldn’t see anything. The chamber’s stone floor came fast. She felt a sharp pain as her elbow raked across the stone, her skin pulling away. She felt a knee or maybe an elbow dig into her side. To her right she heard a clanging of metal as Garrett’s sword slid away from them into the shadows.
“Bre! You okay?” Garrett asked, untangling himself from her.
“I’m… I’m okay,” she managed, blinking away the cloudiness as she pushed herself up onto her elbows just in time to catch movement from above as Pete rushed forward.
“Janis! What in god’s name are you doing?” Pete shouted.
Janis quickly turned to face him.
He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Why? Why would you do that, Ja—”
Pete stopped mid-sentence, like he was frozen perfectly still.
Janis had her back to Breanne but was standing in front of Pete, blocking her view. She could only see his face, which now held a confused frown that matched Breanne’s own.
Janis glanced back over her shoulder, looked right into Breanne’s eyes, and winked.
“Pete!” shouted Lenny, who was still on the slab. He stepped up behind him and put a tentative hand on Pete’s shoulder. “Pete, what’s wrong with you? Janis, what’s wrong with him?!”
Garrett stood now, pulling Breanne to her feet.
“Garrett, what’s happening?!” David shouted.
Paul was in motion now, moving forward toward his sister.
Pete looked into Janis’s eyes and searched for understanding but found nothing. Her eyes were as empty as an abyss, like looking into space on a starless night. He looked down then, and saw Janis holding the handle of a knife – its blade buried to the hilt in his stomach.
Pete tried to say something, but for some strange reason, words wouldn’t come. He blinked and smiled, tears spilling down his cheeks, then the darkness pressed in upon him as he tipped backward off the slab.
28
The Underneath
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
A hundred feet below, the walls around Sarah began to sink slowly, slipping downward. The sense of vertigo overtook her, and she threw her hands up as she stumbled forward, falling into the wall. Reflexively, Sarah widened her stance as if she were on a surfboard.
“Sarah! What is happening?!” Fredy yelled through the radio.
Sarah fumbled for the radio button on her vest and depressed it. “I… I don’t know!” she shouted back.
“Stay calm, Sarah – we’re getting you out!” Fredy’s voice came back in a false calm.
The sound of grinding stone echoed all around her. Sarah realized it then. The walls were moving by even faster, but it wasn’t the walls that were moving – it was her. She was rising up –fast.
“Christ – hurry, Fredy!”
Sarah was moving upward way too fast and gaining speed as she rose. She squatted down butt-to-heels, her fingertips touching the floor for balance. She didn’t know if the rising floor was going to stop or continue upward, smashing her into the statue that stood straddling the hole. The irony was not lost on her. I’m about to die by getting shoved up a giant statue’s ass. Her only hope was to try and time her arrival perfectly and jump clear before she was smashed into the statue.
Gabi ran on unsteady legs toward her father and Fredy as the ground beneath her trembled.
“Back! Back!” Andrés shouted, turning to Gabi and holding out his arm. “Stay back!”
Gabi stopped short and moved behind the leg of the giant, wrapping her arms around it for stability, as she heard Fredy tell Sarah they were getting her out.
Fredy released the button on the radio and with it all the false calm. “Andrés! Pull! Get Sarah out!” he shouted, grabbing hold of the rope still tied to the giant statue’s ankle.
“Sarah!” Gabi screamed, but the rumbling had grown so loud she couldn’t even hear her own shouts.
The floor shook violently, threatening to knock them all off their feet. Bones rattled on their wooden rods, and some of the skull racks collapsed into heaps, unable to withstand the jostling.
“Itzel! Get Gabi to the stairs!” Andrés shouted.
Gabi’s mom grabbed her by the wrist. She followed numbly, her mind not on the stairs. Her mind was on the hole – on Sarah. As she followed her mother toward the promise of safety, she never took her eyes from the hole.
“¡Ay, Dios mío!” Fredy shouted, realizing that as fast as they were pulling Sarah’s rope, they were only collecting slack. Fredy dropped the rope and crawled toward the edge, peering over the side as he clung to the floor, trying not to fall.
Andrés stopped pulling. “What’s happening!?”
“Sarah is coming up – and fast.”
Gabi sucked a sharp terrified breath that seemed to inflate her eyes rather than her lungs. As soon as Sarah broke the surface she leapt forward from the hole, launching upward and outward, narrowly missing the stone giant’s crotch.
Fredy sprang forward faster than Gabi had ever seen the older man move, his arms extending like a football goalie going for the ball. As Sarah fell into Fredy’s arms, the momentum sent both tumbling across the floor.
The lid stopped even with the top of the floor in an abrupt clunk of finality.
Everything went quiet.
Gabi, Itzel, and María were at the stairs. Each stopped, frozen in place. No one breathed as they listened. The quiet filled the chamber with the silence of a sanctuary.
Finally, Fredy sighed in relief. “Are you alright, Sarah?”
Sarah nodded. “I’m… I’m okay, Fredy,” she said, pushing herself up onto her palms. “Is everyone else alright?”
Itzel let go of Gabi’s hand and ran to Andrés, pulling him to his feet.
“Wait, Mamá,” Gabi started to say, and she wanted to say more too. She wanted to say, Come on, let’s go. We have to go! But as she opened her mouth to speak, the lid beneath the giant statue began to rotate.
“¡¿Qué diablos?!” Andrés shouted.
The lid clicked into place, and with a violent jolt the entire room dropped a full meter, knocking them all off their feet. The sound of grinding stone returned as the room began to sink.
In the center of the room the statue stood motionless, unmoving, not sinking. The lid and lip around it now formed a column.
Gabi looked up toward the scene on the wall. It was now pulling away from her as the floor sank. She knew it now, that wasn’t a lid at all. She thought about the room. A perfectly circular room, with a perfectly circular shaft dead center. She shook her head, frantically trying to comprehend – to understand what was happening. They were standing on a circular platform that was dropping. Like an elevator, she thought. The hollow column in the middle must somehow work as part of the mechanism.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 19
