Eden Chronicles Box Set Books 1-3

by James Erith

  Isabella tried to smile although her jaw was impossibly cold. Even though she was under the cover of the boulder and out of the rain, she had been still for some time and the cold had begun to creep into her, just as roots burrow into soil.

  She needed to move. Using her hands as a guide along the face of the stone, she felt for jagged bits or protruding rock so that she might get a decent foothold. She found one, lifted herself up and then felt for another further up. She’d done enough climbing to know that planning a route up and making sure one’s feet were stable was the key. The problem was that she couldn’t see and there was so much water and she was so numb that she couldn’t feel if her grip was true or not. She slipped back and landed with a wet thud on the ground. Isabella shook her hands vigorously in front of her and slowly the blood began to return. She jogged on the spot, her wet trousers sticking to her legs, and rolled her head on her shoulders. She needed to search further along.

  Once again she followed the face of the rock, guided by her hands, her legs now knee-deep in the water. A little further on – to her right this time – she found the perfect spot: an outcrop of stone concealed by bushes.

  Moving them aside, she found not one but two easy steps. She pulled herself up, placing her foot carefully on the first and making sure it was solid. Then, hugging the rock, she tested her weight slowly on the next. It felt solid, like a step, and she wondered if it had been purposely carved out of the rocks.

  Her arms searched around in the rain trying to find another. She found it and levered herself up. She did the same again, noting that the steps curved around the rock face. She found another, and then another, and as she reached out for another, she realised she was on a flat ledge.

  With the rain driving at her, she had lost her sense of direction. She sat on the ledge trying to fathom the angle of the steps in relation to the rock face. She crawled on her hands and knees in the direction of the cliff face, scanning for any sudden gaps or boulders. Aside from pebbles, it felt smooth. She crawled on further before she realised the rain was subsiding a little. Then it stopped altogether. She was under the cliff face itself! She wiped the water from her face, and leaned into a big, round rock behind her. Isabella felt strangely elated, as if she’d completed a task.

  In the dim light she could make out that what she was leaning on was a huge round rock. She examined it and figured that it sat directly under the cliff face. The question was, how would she get out from here? The logical answer was to head out to the right – above which their cottage sat. But she wasn’t sure if it was such a clever idea. The light was failing fast and the rain wasn’t letting up. Maybe she’d have to stay put until the morning. At least she’d be dry and safe from the water. It couldn’t rise this far, could it?

  And anyway, what had Archie said right at the start? That the storm would go at them until sunset, or something like that. She dismissed it, stood up and stretched her back.

  And then they came out of the sky.

  She hardly had a chance to react – just to duck down.

  Two lightning bolts smashed into the rocks near to where she’d just been.

  Oh my God. What if there’s one for each of us! Were those for Archie and Daisy? In a heartbeat she knew exactly what she had to do and she threw herself off the ledge. As she went, a huge bolt spat out of the sky and smashed into the exact spot she’d been standing on.

  Isabella tumbled into the water, her heart beating like crazy. She sank down as low as she could go, amazed at how much the water had risen. But Isabella knew that this section of water was secured by the boulders of the landslide.

  It was now a deep pool, where the current wouldn’t whisk her away.

  She stayed underneath as long as her lungs could hold her, hugging the cliff face as splinters of rock and stone punched the pool like deadly shrapnel.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THE BOAT HEADS OUT

  ‘Oh, ARK!’ Sue exclaimed. ‘As in, Joan of Arc.’

  Gus nodded. ‘Blimey. At long last. Remind me never to partner you in a pub quiz. Ever.’

  ‘You mean,’ Sue said, ‘you’ve actually been to a pub quiz?’

  ‘Of course; every Friday night with my dad.’

  ‘Really? My parents never do that kind of thing. What’s it like?’

  Gus wondered if he should make it sound really exciting. ‘Well, it’s OK. Actually it’s quite nerdy – you’d probably do pretty well.’

  Sue’s eyes sparkled. Gus was full of surprises. Just goes to show, she thought, you really can’t tell a book by its cover. ‘So what subjects are you good at?’

  Gus pulled his brainiest face, which made him look pretty stupid. ‘Particle physics, geography, English history from 1066, current world affairs and, er, yeah, modern American history.’

  ‘You’re joking me!’

  ‘Try me. Go on,’ Gus said, looking like a dog after a bone.

  Sue didn’t know what to think. She screwed up her face as though deep in thought and asked: ‘Which President of the United States of America wrote the American Declaration of Independence?’

  Gus scratched his chin and made lots of quite odd-looking faces. ‘Abraham Lincoln—’

  ‘Ha, wrong—’

  ‘Won the Civil War,’ Gus continued, ignoring her. ‘Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the Declaration of Independence.’ He tried very hard not to smile. But he did raise his eyebrows. And they were very big eyebrows.

  Sue couldn’t believe it. ‘Correct,’ she said, trying to think of another question. ‘Name the English monarch who came after William Rufus?’

  ‘You can do better than that, sexy Sue.’ He pulled a serious face. ‘William Rufus, heir of William the Conqueror. Shot by an arrow by a noble who thought he was a total nob-end. Succeeded by Henry, as in Henry One, also a son of the Conqueror, who sat on the throne for a middle-age marathon of thirty-five years.’

  Sue shrieked. She couldn’t believe it. ‘Gus, you’re brilliant at this. Why are you such an idiot in class?’

  Gus shrugged. ‘Low tolerance to teachers—’

  A loud clunk stopped them in their tracks. Gus raced up to the bow step. ‘The Joan Of has hit the roof,’ he yelled. ‘Here we go.’ Gus ducked his head inside the canopy. ‘I hope you’re ready for this. Pass me that long bit of wood and sit at the end. And Sue...’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Whatever you do, please don’t scream – it really won’t help.’

  Gus had never really expected the water to rise quite so high, nor so fast. In fact he was pretty sure they’d stay in the boathouse quite safe from anything outside. Now, it was very different. He grappled with the piece of wood, eventually holding its base, and thrust it up towards the corrugated sheeting directly above. Come on, you little beauty, you’ve got to move. Nothing happened. He changed his tack, trying to lever the roofing off. Move, you little sod, he murmured, as he pushed the wood with all his might.

  But, as he pushed, he noticed that the entire building had begun to move of its own accord. Gus stopped hammering on the roof and watched as the shed began to lift up and drift off into the flooding all on its own. He couldn’t believe it. He wondered if, incredibly, the buoyancy of their boat had given buoyancy to the whole building – and now it had gone adrift with them inside it. That, or he was suddenly immensely strong.

  The only thing he knew for sure was that the whole unit was moving very quickly into the swollen floodwaters. As far as he could tell, they were safe. In fact, he rather suspected they were safer than any place they could otherwise have expected to end up in – so long as The Joan Of wasn’t rotten. He ducked down under the canopy. Sue was crying hysterically.

  ‘Everything ship-shape and dandy, Capitan,’ he said, saluting.

  Sue looked confused. ‘What’s happening, Gus, I’m scared.’

  Gus shrugged. ‘I pushed the roof and the entire shed came away. Funny thing is, I always suspected I had superpowers.’

  ‘Is it … safe?’

/>   Gus looked at her blankly. ‘Truthfully? I’ve no idea, but so far, so good. Now, how about another brainteaser.’ He sat down and put his legs up again. ‘Can’t wait all day.’

  Sue peered up at him. She simply couldn’t believe his brazen attitude to the disaster unfolding around them. The boat lurched and her eyes widened. But Gus rubbed his eyes and yawned.

  ‘You are ridiculous, Gus Williams. I don’t know how you do it.’ She took a couple of very deep breaths as if to control herself. ‘We’re on the verge of plunging into Armageddon and you want another teaser, Gus?’

  Gus nodded. ‘Yeah. Absolutely.’

  ‘Good Lord.’ She took a deep breath. ‘OK. Physics question – you said you were good at physics, right?’ He nodded. A question popped into her head. ‘Where does bad light end up?’

  Gus put his feet up on the seat in front, confidently, grinning like mad, which Sue later discovered was a sign that his brain was working. ‘OK,’ he began cagily, ‘either it’s in an ohm?’ Sue giggled but shook her head. ‘OR,’ and there was quite a long pause. He clicked his fingers, ‘In a prism?’

  Sue clapped her hands. ‘Brilliant! You big strapping genius.’

  Gus was bursting with pride. Big, strapping and genius – in the same sentence – from delicious, sexy Sue; he hardly dare tell her he’d read the answers in a magazine at the dentist. ‘One for you,’ he said. ‘What did the male magnet say to the female magnet?’

  Sue burst out laughing. ‘I’m seriously attracted to you?’ She turned purple on the spot.

  Gus caught her eye. ‘Not bad. Want another try?’

  Sue shook her head. ‘Tell me.’

  Gus looked quite serious. ‘From your backside,’ he began. ‘I thought you were repulsive. However, from the front I find you rather attractive.’

  Sue clapped her hands and laughed as Gus punched the air.

  Suddenly, a terrible noise, like the body of a car scraping along a road, stopped both of them in their tracks.

  Gus slipped out at the front. Then he dived back in and dashed toward Sue at the rear. ‘Move up front,’ he ordered.

  Sue shuffled up as Gus headed out of the canopy at the bow.

  Seconds later, he reappeared and, without hesitating, sat in the middle of the boat and grabbed the oars. He started to row, pushing the oars in to go backwards, as fast as he could.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Sue cried.

  ‘Our time has come. The Joan Of has landed.’

  With a terrible crunching noise, the back end of the shed began to lever high into the air as if the nose had plunged in to the water. Gus took a deep breath. ‘We’re on our own. Let’s pray that The Joan Of holds together.’

  With a massive effort, Gus continued to row the little boat backwards, creeping under the raised end and out into the river. For the first time, the rain whammed into the canopy and the boat rocked in the water. The sound was deafening. Sue screamed.

  After a couple of minutes, Sue bravely put her head out as far as she dared and tried to survey the scene. But the only things she could see were faint outlines of cars, wood and sections of plastic, bobbing along beside them.

  She ducked under the canopy, her face ashen.

  ‘Everything alright?’ Gus yelled, noting the distress in her face.

  She shook her head. ‘Isabella, Daisy and Archie are in this – with no protection,’ she yelled back. ‘They haven’t got a hope.’

  ‘They’ll be fine,’ he yelled back. He looked down. ‘Sue,’ he screamed, his voice only just heard above the sound of the rain smacking down on the canopy. ‘Get a bucket and start bailing!’

  THIRTY-SIX

  A LEAP OF FAITH

  When Isabella surfaced she noticed a big difference. The water level was near to the ledge and it was almost dark. She pulled herself out and sat down, her feet dangling in the pool. She shivered and stretched her hands out in front of her.

  There was something else and she couldn’t think what it was. Then it struck her. The rain had almost stopped! It was like a miracle and she smiled through chattering teeth.

  The remains of her clothes stuck to her like cold, soggy slime and she still had to make it through the night. How was she going to do that? The temperature would drop – it always did at about this time of year – and there was no hope of a warming fire.

  In the next breath, her thoughts turned to Daisy and Archie. There had been three huge thunderbolts, one designed for each of them. Why, she had no idea, but it seemed right, even if it was absurdly illogical and absolutely terrifying.

  She shuffled along in the darkness and called out their names.

  ‘Archie. Daisy – are you there?’

  She listened, but heard only the swishing sounds of the running water beyond.

  Again and again she called out and listened.

  But no reply was forthcoming.

  ARCHIE HAD no idea what he might land on: rock, mud, a piece of wood, an old section of metal? But a broken leg was preferable to being fried to death by a lightning bolt.

  To his shock – and relief – Archie, with Daisy over his shoulder, had landed in a pool and sank down to the very bottom at the exact moment two lightning bolts smashed into their previous position. The brutal force of the energy splintered the rock, sending shards and pebbles and larger stones flying towards them, shaking everything to the core. Archie stayed down, holding Daisy, cradling her head for as long as he dared until her eyes opened wide as if she was on her last reserve of oxygen.

  Archie winced as the first stone hit him on the shoulder. Then he felt himself being peppered as if from a machinegun at close range. He had to get to the surface to breathe, to get Daisy out. As he rose to the surface, a large rock whacked him on the head. He fell back into the pool and saw stars.

  The pool and the torrential rain were blurring. Now he saw Daisy. He imagined the branch spinning in his head, like a ride at the fairground. The feeling accelerating.

  With a last effort, he pulled himself over towards the rocks and, feeling his feet touch firm ground, he pushed Daisy up as far as he could. Her body slumped and fell on what he desperately hoped was a safe place.

  Now his head spun so fast that in no time he felt himself go, his body slipping away to a place of softness and light. A feeling of great calm washed over him, a warmth – a comfort – like a cuddle brimming with love in the arms of someone who truly adores you.

  With his last breath of consciousness, Archie had the wherewithal to reach up and grasp a rock. And then his mind slid into the darkness of a black and deep abyss.

  ISABELLA WOULDN’T GIVE UP. Deep within her, she sensed they were near, but it was so hard. She was so tired, so cold, so hungry. She knew she had to pull herself together. Come on, she told herself, no time to be lazy; look for them. A thought kept returning: what if they were a few feet away and died in the night because she couldn’t be bothered? She crawled along the ledge as far as she dared, all the while making sure she kept a firm grip of the surface, and calling out for them in turn, ‘Daisy’ and ‘Archie’. Then she listened, but every time, there was nothing, just the lapping of water splashing up against the rocks.

  Had Daisy and Archie been blasted to smithereens by the bolt? Had they been swept away? What if they had never been close but found their way home? She knew that was impossible. She ran her hand through the water and then through her hair, removing the strands that were stuck to her face. With defeat threatening to overwhelm her, she dragged her aching body to the rock face, out of the drizzling rain.

  The problem now was survival. She had all night to wait out until the dawn of a new day.

  She shivered, her lips quivering involuntarily as she stared out into the darkness. Occasionally she heard a sound like a groan but it was hard to tell if it was the crunching of metal on metal, like cars or sheds being washed down the river and colliding with each other, or whether it was from people or animals. Tears built up and an overwhelming sense of sadness began to leach into
her, her feeling of helplessness almost complete.

  As if in response to her cries, a tiny sliver of light appeared on the lip of the horizon and threw a grey light over the water. Isabella peered at it and, for a short while, thought that she must be dreaming. It looked so beautiful, like the gentle sparkle of light catching the rim of a silver bracelet. She blinked and shook her head. The moon? It was moonlight!

  Now, instead of the pitch darkness, she could distinguish the outlines of the boulders and the ledge and. looking up, she could make out the sheer sides of the rock face curving above her. She scoured the valley and was struck by a curious sight; a dull, watery reflection, gently flickering, which extended on and on in front of her.

  As the moon rose, its brightness lifted her spirits further; now she could walk where before only crawling was possible. A renewed sense of hope swept through her – maybe she’d be able to find a way out. She scoured the ledge. The round boulder she had leant on before the lightning struck was reduced to rubble, save for several large chunks that had been hewn into rough, awkward shapes. But the area behind it seemed unnaturally dark.

  She approached, wondering if it was a result of the strike – perhaps it was the exact spot where the lightning had smashed into it? With every footstep, she grew more curious, her feet crunching through the debris. Was there something behind it, something hollow and open, or was her mind playing tricks on her again?

  She sidled closer, gently pushing on the split sections that might be unstable, until she found herself peering up at a perfectly symmetrical entrance. It was a cave.

  Without hesitating, she placed one foot ahead of the other and, holding on to the side, she made her way in.

  ISABELLA TRIED to see what was inside. A breeze was blowing out of it, and for a moment she caught it on her face – warmth? Hot air?

  Cautiously, she took another step, hoping that her eyes would adjust to the moonlight. Oh, how lovely and warm it was, like being in front of a hairdryer. But how come? This bit of rock wasn’t thermal, like a volcano – or was it?