Garrett couldn’t die. What kind of f ’ed-up prophecy kills off the guy who’s supposed to defeat the bad guy and get the God Stones back? But they hadn’t got the God Stones back, and they hadn’t stopped the bad guy, had they? What the hell was going on? He didn’t know, but he knew his best friend in the whole world couldn’t freaking die!
Lenny maneuvered on the uneven surface with a speed that should not have been possible. Not on a moonless night, not on the bank of the Sangamon, especially on this specific stretch. Hell, not even on a sunny day, with his body well rested, should the ease with which he negotiated the terrain be possible. The thought niggled there, at the back of his mind, but Lenny was focused on one thing – Garrett.
Gracefully, almost artfully, he bounded over stuff small enough to jump, danced with short steps across stuff too big to jump, and made hairpin pivots around stuff too big to cross, and he did it with nothing more than a single headlamp beam to guide him through the seemingly impenetrable darkness. In less than two minutes, Lenny was at the broken dam.
As it turned out, they hadn’t been too far away. Lenny guessed maybe a quarter mile. This was not necessarily good though. How was Garrett going to get to David before being swept over?
Lenny ran out onto the dam. “Garrett!” he screamed, trying to get his voice above the roar of water.
The dam had been a derelict structure doomed from the start. Like at some point the city decided they would create a dam by taking the busted-up concrete or maybe even bricks from the old cobblestone streets they had replaced with blacktop and pile it across the river then, for good measure, pour a thick layer of concrete over the top. It was no wonder the dam had breached long ago, leaving a wide space in the middle where water raged through. You could venture out for a good twenty yards before reaching the spot that was broken. On the upstream side of the river, the concrete dam wasn’t much higher than the water level, but on the downside the water dropped a good six feet.
As Lenny reached the broken section, water gushed over the jutting rocks in a whitecapped furry, breaking violently in sporadic sprays as it churned through the gauntlet of jagged rocks, no doubt splintering any debris that might pass through before plunging powerfully down on the opposite side, dragging any remaining pieces deep below the surface in the undertow. Just standing next to the break was frightening, as to fall in here meant certain death.
Kids said the water had been digging its way down in that spot way before the dam was ever built. They said kids had been dying in there way before America was even a thought. They said it just kept getting deeper and deeper, over hundreds maybe even thousands of years. Lenny had even heard other kids say there was no bottom at all. Lenny didn’t think it was bottomless, but he believed the thousands of years part. Hell, he’d fished it, they all had, and it didn’t matter how much weight he put on a line or how much string he cast out, it would just sink and sink.
All this flashed through Lenny’s mind as he drew up to the edge of the break, and he couldn’t help but hate the Sangamon – the river Abraham Lincoln so loved. He hated it for the kids it killed, and for the friends he feared he couldn’t save.
Lenny bit down hard on his lip, knowing he was about to flirt with a danger of the incredibly stupid kind. He might as well be standing back in that temple with the dragon about to light his ass up. He squeezed his staff in both fists harder than he realized. If Garrett and David went over this dam, he would never see them alive again.
He looked upstream into the night and screamed Garrett’s name.
42
Breathe
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
As Gabi entered the shadow the ground disappeared beneath her feet and she fell, tumbling forward down what felt like stairs. A second later she hit water. Fully immersed, she scrambled to right herself as Sarah landed with a hard splash next to her.
Jade flames followed them, rolling down the stairs in a great ball of death, filling every bit of the void. Underwater, Gabi squinted as the world above was suddenly blindingly bright with fire. There was no time to allow herself to feel the pain of the fall, no time to scream out, no time to pull in a breath. This time it was Gabi who grabbed Sarah and pulled her underwater. The flames rolled over them.
They tumbled, clinging to each other as a strong current dragged them away from the dragon and the fire and into the unknown. They were being swept downward into an underground river or stream. Not a stream, streams are outside. We are in a cave. This was bad. Gabi’s heart slammed against her chest as the darkness swallowed them once again. She kicked her legs in a panic. What if she couldn’t surface!? What if the water went all the way to the ceiling!? Gabi kicked and kicked as she screamed out all the air she had, exhaling as she broke the surface. She gasped again and again. The ceiling above her was low, her head nearly scraping the surface. Sarah broke the surface next to her, flailing for breath.
Behind them the dragon roared something. This sound was different. It had meaning. This wasn’t the roar that preceded the flame; this was an angry scream. The dragon was saying something to them – yelling something at them. Then after came the roar of fire, a final burst of it – a last hope of incineration.
Behind them the cave glowed, but they were moving fast and were far out of reach.
Their heads were bumping against the ceiling now, and Gabi could barely keep her mouth above water.
“We need to get out,” Sarah said in a gargled rasp as they swam for the edge, but the walls were sheer to the ceiling. There was no place to get out. The ceiling pressed even lower now.
“This is bad!” Sarah said. “Hold your breath, Gabi.”
That’s all they could do – hold their breath. They would be pulled under and never seen again. After all this… they were going to drown. Mamá, Papá, I’m coming to you. Gabi drew in a deep breath as the ceiling met the water.
Blindly they drifted forward, the water cold and the darkness absolute. Underground rivers could run for miles and miles. Some never surfaced at all.
Gabi rolled onto her back, face up, dragging her hands along the ceiling, hoping against hope to find an air pocket. Even a small one, just something to allow her a breath. But there was nothing. Why couldn’t I have just died with my family? María Purísima! Please. I don’t want to drown! Then she saw something. A light. This was it. This was death. The other side. Heaven. Her parents would be there, waiting for her. She just needed to let go, breathe the water in and let go. Then she felt Sarah pulling on her. Pulling urgently. Sarah, Gabi frowned. She could still see. Not very well but a little. The absolute darkness was no longer absolute, there was a light. Now she realized it wasn’t the other side… it was coming from somewhere else. But where? This light wasn’t sunlight. The color was wrong, and it couldn’t be daylight out – not yet. Then what? She rolled around in the water looking for the source. The silhouette of Sarah was motioning frantically now, pushing her toward the light. She realized now there was a fork. The left side was light, the right side was complete darkness – death. If she didn’t make it to the left tunnel she was going to die. She swam with everything she had, harder than she had ever swum. Death pulled at her, trying to drag her down into the depths, and she was sure at any second a serpent would lunge forward from the darkness and pull her under.
When Gabi reached the small shaft of white light, she felt Sarah pushing her from behind and suddenly she wondered if Sarah was panicking, about to run out of breath. Oh please, Sarah! Please don’t! She couldn’t lose Sarah too. She couldn’t be alone.
It was a tight squeeze, but she managed to squirm inside. She had enough room to reach up and pull herself. She grabbed at anything she could, dragging herself along by her fingertips for what seemed like forever. Her heart raced as the light became brighter and the sensation to draw breath burned in her chest.
Finally, Gabi pulled herself free, emerging from beneath a partially submerged rock outcrop. Onc
e she wriggled clear of the overhang, she planted her feet and pushed herself up. Her face broke the surface of the water and she gasped greedily at the night air, two breaths, then three, then four. The water was shallow, coming only to her waist.
Sarah burst from the water next to her, choking.
“Sarah! Are you okay?”
Sarah held out her hand, waving her off as she bent and retched violently into the water. A moment later she spoke. “Gabi… I almost made it but then I couldn’t… I couldn’t hold it any longer,” she coughed again, still gasping for breath. “I must have swallowed a gallon of water!”
Gabi gasped sharply, her breath catching.
“What?” Sarah asked, following Gabi’s gaze skyward.
“María Purísima,” Gabi whispered. With the exception of the water moving gently across the palms of her hands, the tiny gorge was frozen in absolute stillness as if captured in a single frame outside of time. But it was the full moon, swollen and imposing, that drew her attention. Its mellow radiance spilled over everything, bathing the small gorge in magic silver light.
Without words both women gazed at the glowing orb as if for the first time in their lives. They didn’t need to speak to know each other’s thoughts. For only rare moments, and only when the moon was full, would it be positioned in such a way to shine underneath the rock outcropping and the long shaft they had escaped through. For them to pass by when they did, when the light from the moon was just so – the odds had to be astronomical. Had they passed by minutes from now or minutes earlier, the position would be different, and the way out would be invisible.
Gabi knew without a doubt this was a gift from her parents. She thought the strange light she had seen in the water was the other side – heaven – but her parents were not bringing her to be with them. They were taking her away – away to live.
Sarah turned and grabbed her, pulling her into her arms, wrapping her in them and squeezing. Gabi hugged her back with all she had. They stood there in the water for a long time, holding each other and sobbing.
43
Serpent
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Garrett struggled to push his battered body across the current toward the sound of David’s voice. He was breathing hard as he pushed against the volume of water moving beneath him. It felt like a massive living creature, immensely powerful and completely unstoppable. In the dark, he couldn’t be sure how fast he was moving, but his instincts told him he was moving fast.
In the distance he heard a low rumble that could only be water rushing through the busted dam. A strange hopelessness surrounded him. It felt as though any moment he would be swallowed. He wished he had a light. God, what he would give to be able to just see. Then he heard David’s voice again, but only barely – a gargled cry in the storm. He kicked even harder, a sharp pain forming in the back of his leg, deep in his hamstring.
His greatest fear was that he would be washed over the dam before he made it to David, and that his friend would never know he had at least tried to save him. He tried to shout at David to just hold on, but his own shout was gargled as he sucked in the nasty river water. He gagged and coughed, then suddenly his hands struck mud below him. He had made it across.
Unlike the opposite side of the river, this side tapered up gradually, disappearing into a small forest separating the river flood zone from viable farmland. Garrett scrambled to his feet, which were quickly drawn down into the mud. The river was making one last effort to keep him prisoner. He fought to break the clasp of invisible hands, each foot reluctantly pulling loose from the soul-sucking grasp of the mud. He finally made his way up onto more solid ground and bent forward to stretch as he shouted, “David! Where are you?”
“I’m here!” David managed from somewhere upstream.
Garrett stumbled forward toward David’s voice, finally finding the kid stuck several feet offshore, his whole body caught under a tangle of branches protruding from the water.
“I’m here, David! I’m here. It’s going to be okay.”
“Ah! Not okay!” David screamed, losing his grip on the branch.
Garrett heard twigs snapping as David flailed to find purchase. Then nothing. Then a gasp. “Oh, please, Garrett! I can’t hold on!” He choked and gasped and began crying. “Please!” he moaned.
Garrett stepped forward into the mud and began climbing out onto the brush pile, grabbing blindly for protruding branches as he worked his way slowly forward, David’s gargled sobs and the occasional flash of lightning guiding him. He was right over David when a flash illuminated his mustached face and little fingers as they grasped tight to a twig that shouldn’t have held. David’s face was a visage of terror, poking up just above the waterline.
“Hold on, David! Jesus, just hold on. I’m coming for you, bro.” Garrett scrambled forward on waterlogged limbs. Smaller twigs cracked and snapped, breaking beneath him as he reached for David’s hands. “I got you!”
“I thought I was a goner!” David wept. Then without warning, something crashed into the brush pile.
Garrett was knocked off balance, lost his footing, and plunged through the pile.
David slipped from his grip as both boys were cast back into the river.
Garrett flailed his arms, fighting with all his strength to swim against the current, but it was like trying to win a tug-of-war contest with a locomotive. He had nothing left. He had already dug down deep all the way to the bottom, and the cramp in his left leg came back with vengeance, completely locking it up.
A thought occurred to him then, and for whatever reason it struck him as funny. It wasn’t going to be giants, dragons, or elf wizards that killed him. It wasn’t going to be giant rats, the God Stones, or Lincoln’s booby traps. It wasn’t going to be any of the things his parents didn’t warn him about. No, it was going to be the one thing his parents had always warned him about. His whole life, it was the one thing they said to stay away from – the goddamn Sangamon River. Now that was irony. Garrett laughed. Actually laughed. He swallowed about a half-gallon of rancid river water as he did, but what did that matter? He laughed so damn hard he must have lost his mind.
On the dam Lenny heard the shouting, but he strained to see upriver. His headlamp couldn’t penetrate farther than directly in front of him, so he ripped it off and squinted into the night, hoping to see something – anything. Then a strange thing happened. The night changed and it wasn’t night anymore. It wasn’t daytime either, but it was suddenly somehow different. The night had turned into a bizarre twilight. The moonlight was radiant, with an electric shimmer, but even brighter – a supercharged moonlight. But there was no moon nor stars on this night, only silver rain, lightning, and storm clouds thick as dirt.
Was this what Janis saw when she looked into the dark? As Lenny’s eyes adjusted, he began to see movement fighting against the current just upriver.
In his most optimistic of hopes he had prayed that Garrett would cross close enough to his side that he could reach his staff out at just the right moment and Garrett would grab on before being washed over, but now his heart sank. He was still above the water, but he was floating facedown and about to be pulled over the dam on the far side of the break, a good thirty yards away and nowhere near Lenny.
“I’m going!” Lenny said to no one. Then as loud as he could yell, “I’m coming, Garrett!”
As water crashed over rocks that refused to breach the surface, the Sangamon roared a never-ending warning, loud enough to rival that of a dragon about to breathe fire.
Stay away or die!
To do what Lenny was about to do was suicide.
Lenny took three steps back, then positioned his right leg behind him as he fixed his eyes upstream. Bouncing on his toes twice, he flexed his fingers around his staff.
Goddammit, Lennard Wade, what are you doing?! “Going to get my friend!” he screamed as he took off running straight for the breach.
Lenny jumped
.
He soared several feet out over the broken dam, over the fast current and jagged rocks. Then he dropped like a stone before reaching a dozen feet. As he leapt into the gauntlet of jagged rocks, the laws of gravity would only allow for one outcome. When his feet made contact with the water, they were sure to be ripped out from under him by millions of gallons of angry river. The stone teeth of the broken dam would chew him up like a hungry shark, and finally, he would be swallowed by the undertow and consumed into the bowels of the Sangamon.
Garrett drew in too much water; it choked him, sucking what little strength he had left out of his limbs. He was drowning. His face was under water, and he couldn’t even fight it. In a final effort to breathe, he pushed his face above the water line one last time. Lightning flashed and in the corner of his vision he saw something so ridiculous it couldn’t be real. A glimpse of a scene so absurd it had to be a hallucination brought on by lack of oxygen to his brain. But there it was – several yards in the distance David clung to a giant rat’s tail as it pulled him through the water. But stranger still, the rat was being ridden by Paul.
The burst of lightning switched off, leaving Garrett surrounded by darkness once again. All around him the great serpent tugged, unwilling to let go.
Garrett slipped quietly under the black water and died.
44
Pressing On
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Once Sarah and Gabi had rested for a few minutes, they waded across what turned out to be a small, shallow stream and pulled themselves from the water.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 29
