He was still wrestling with the tarp when he heard the door to the restaurant creak open then slam shut. Voices belonging to men drew near.
“Get under the tarp!” Orb demanded.
Peter yanked even harder on the edge, trying to pull the tarp over his head while he used his feet to try to push the tire farther down. His efforts were not rewarded, instead he was now soaked in the dirty water that had been trapped under the tarp.
“Great,” Peter mumbled as he took off his backpack and tried to shove it under the tarp to a place that was not quite so wet. He had no such luck.
“Thanks again for the loan,” a voice called out as a car door slammed shut.
“No problem,” a man replied. The truck shuddered slightly as one of its doors was opened. “The back seat is full of cable I need to run for the main cave tour, so just chuck it in the bed. It’s not like it’s going to fly out.”
Peter pulled as hard as he could and finally managed to squeeze most of himself under the tarp as something very large and heavy was dropped onto the tarp just a few inches from his face.
“Don’t move,” instructed Orb. The dank smell of the wet tarp, which must have been used to cover dirt at some point, combined with the water seeping through the back of his shirt, very much made Peter want to move. He forced himself to stay still and listen.
“You think the new cable will do the trick?”
Peter felt Orb grow warmer in his pocket as the men talking stood immediately above him on either side of the truck’s bed.
“Just lie still,” Orb commanded. “I will handle this.”
“Shoot,” the man on the driver’s side replied to his friend’s question. “I thought we had it all taken care of until the fireworks this morning. I doubt new cable will do anything, but the power company says there’s nothing wrong with their set-up, so it has to be something on our end.”
“That stinks, but at least you won’t be working on an empty stomach.”
The driver slapped the side of the truck, jolting Peter, who fought to stay still.
“Nope, this is the last buffet I’m going to need for a while.”
Both men laughed, and after promising to talk soon they moved away. The truck shuddered from the impact of the heavy door being shut. Seconds later the bed quivered underneath Peter as the driver started the large engine.
Peter chanced a quick glance from under the tarp and saw that he had been very lucky. The loud noise that he had heard had come from a giant bottle-jack, the kind used to lift large trucks off the ground, hitting the bed beside him. They were right—that was not going to fly out.
Peter squinted at the afternoon sun beaming down, then had to brace himself as the truck swung out of the parking lot and lumbered onto the quiet streets of Hewlettsville.
***
The ride to the caverns was long, bouncy, and uncomfortable. Whenever he could, Peter pushed the smelly tarp away from his face and tried to breathe in air that did not smell like wet dirt. Primarily, his fear of being spotted by someone driving one of the eighteen-wheelers passing by kept him huddled under the tarp breathing through his mouth.
At long last they stopped. Peter listened to the driver grumble as he and some others pulled the rolls of thick electrical cable out of the back seat and then, magically, all was quiet.
All, that is, except for Orb, who yelled, “Get up and run toward the woods at the edge of the parking lot! Now!”
Peter sat up, squeezed out from under the tarp, grabbed his soggy backpack and, crouching down, hopped over the tailgate onto a gravel parking lot. He looked around for a moment, trying to gather himself and figure out where he was, when Orb again yelled, “Go!”
Running for a small patch of woods that sat in front of a large, rocky hill, Peter noticed there were only a few other cars and trucks in the lot, which seemed to be on the backside of a small lodge. He passed a sign that read, “Employee Parking Only” and wondered to himself how many employees a cave attraction would need.
He had only just entered the woods when Orb cried out, “Stop!”
Peter stopped. He felt miserable in his wet, dirty clothes after being jostled around in the bed of a truck for half an hour—especially considering the fact that he had been up since 4:00 a.m. Orb’s yelling at him and ordering him around did not help. Not for the first time he wondered what exactly he had gotten into and whether it was worth it.
As if Orb had read Peter’s mind, his voice dropped to just above a whisper. “I am sorry, Peter. We are now so close, and I have used so much of my power to get us here. I do appreciate what you have done for me, and I promise that I will soon fix all your family’s problems. My word is my bond.”
Peter looked through the woods at the truck still sitting in the parking lot, as he slowly rubbed his elbow, which was sore from the jostling it had received on the ride. He wished there were some way he could know for sure that Orb’s word was indeed his bond. It sure seemed at times like Orb was still listening in on his thoughts.
There was not much he could do about it now. He and Orb were now a team—a team that had lied to his family and others to get more than halfway across the state to reunite an alien organism trapped inside an orb with the rest of its body. Is body the right word?Was body the right word? he wondered.
“Thanks, Orb,” Peter replied. “Right now please, I just need to know where to go and what comes next. You never told me what would happen once we got to the caves.”
“No, my thanks to you, Peter. Please know that we are almost to our destination.”
“Great, I guess, but I can’t exactly walk into their office and tell them that I need to drop an alien into a part of the cave that humans can’t reach.”
“You are right, of course, but you can go to a hidden entrance that humans aren’t aware of. From that entrance, I can guide you to the spot where you can place me.”
Peter grimaced and looked around his hiding spot in the woods. The ground beneath him held a layer of pine needles several inches thick. He kicked a small branch that held a couple of dense, prickly, green pine cones out of the way and then sat down heavily. He pulled his backpack off and began rummaging through it, wondering how all the sitting he had been doing could make him so tired.
He pulled a skinny, plastic container out of his backpack. He popped the lid off and grabbed the jelly sandwich he had made the night before. His mouth full of the gooey bread and jelly combination, he whispered, “Orb, how long do we have to wait here?”
“Until the last tour is finished. Approximately three more hours.”
Peter managed to shove another bite of sandwich into his already full mouth and groaned. Three more hours…
***
“Peter, it is time. You must wake up.”
Peter, who had been in a deep, dreamless sleep, pushed his head up from his backpack where it had rested. He stared at complete darkness all around him, trying to figure out exactly where he was and who was talking to him.
Peter shook his head to clear it and then painfully got to his feet. He had no idea how long he had been asleep. The only source of light was a muted red glow coming from inside his backpack. He reached down, opened the zipper for the main pouch, removed the scrap of denim and held a gleaming, even larger Orb in his hands.
“Thank you, Peter. Let us go.”
With both palms cradling Orb, Peter stared into the red light. It was no longer possible to put Orb in his pocket, and if he continued to expand at the same rate, soon he would not even fit in Peter’s backpack.
“Hold me in front of you as you walk, Peter. I will show you the way.”
Peter, still groggy, picked up his backpack with his right hand and slung it over his shoulder. His left hand held Orb, who was much lighter than appeared based on his size. Orb’s glow lit up an opening in the trees to their left, which Peter entered, his shoes crunching noisily on pine needles and cones beneath.
The sky was cloudy. The only light came from Orb as they slowly
walked farther into the woods. Several times Orb’s glow illuminated a sign that warned “Private Property,” but each time they continued. After another half an hour of stumbling through the woods, they arrived at a barbed wire fence.
Six rows of wire, barbs glistening red in the glow of Orb, barred their way. The fence post to the right had a “No Trespassing” sign. The post to the left had a sign that read, “Private Property.”
“How are we supposed to get past this?” Peter whispered to Orb.
“Hold me close to the wires, Peter.”
Peter walked closer and held Orb close to the top wire. The barbs were so close that they nearly touched his hand before they just…disappeared. Peter squinted as the two sides of the top wire fell harmlessly down to either side.
“Lower me down across the other wires, Peter.”
Peter nodded to himself and, with Orb held aloft in his two open palms, slowly moved his arms down toward the ground. As Orb passed each wire, a section about a foot wide simply disappeared, and either end of the now cut wire fell limply to the side.
Stunned, Peter stood up straight as the last wire fell away. He stared at Orb. Peter had seen glimpses of Orb’s power, and he supposed that he at least mostly believed that he was walking around with an alien. But imagining was different from watching metal actually disappear in front of his eyes.
The silence was broken by Orb’s urging. “Please continue forward, Peter. I must prepare you for your interaction with the guardian.”
Peter instead stood still and raised Orb to his face, as if it were possible to see eye-to-eye with a glowing ball. “What do you mean—my interaction with the guardian? What guardian?”
The light within Orb moved and pulsed, swimming in alternating patterns of red. “I apologize. I was previously not aware of the fact that this guardian yet lived. My others confirmed its presence this afternoon while you slept.”
Peter felt very alone, and very exposed as he held Orb next to the melted fence in the otherwise dark woods. “What exactly is a guardian?”
“Recall I mentioned that I had been split and imprisoned by Cube, who overthrew me.”
“Yes,” Peter said, little with the hope that it would make Orb tell more.
“Cube placed a guardian over each of my seven receptacles to prevent our rescue. Over time each of these guardians has been overcome—except for the guardian that watches over the seventh receptacle. And, of course, this one, which apparently regenerated.”
“Regenerated? How?”
“I do not know. My others sent one of our emissaries earlier today to ensure that our path would be clear. Our emissary encountered the regenerated guardian.”
“And what happened to your emissary?”
There was an awkward silence. “It is no more.”
Peter blinked. “You mean dead?”
“Yes. No longer of this world.”
“Wait. Your others already used a guardian to bring at least one of your receptacles here. Why did your guardian leave? Why would you have to send a new emissary?”
“Our guardian successfully delivered the receptacle but passed on from its form in the process.”
There was a long pause before Orb added, “Involuntarily passed on.”
Peter sat down heavily on the ground, putting Orb on the ground in front of him. His mind whirled as he tried to understand what he had been told. Guardians for Cube were killing the guardians of Orb? Guardians are both scouts and protectors? And a guardian could kill me tonight?
“I don’t want to die, Orb.”
“You will not die. I will protect you.”
Peter thought about that statement for a moment. Orb had protected him from the man on the highway who wanted to kidnap him. He had in fact protected Peter. But all of this was according to Orb, and Orb was awfully stingy with information.
“Why didn’t you ever mention that we would have to fight a guardian?”
“I knew of only one guardian who watches over the last receptacle, and that is a completely separate journey. I saw no need to worry you unnecessarily.”
Peter passed his right hand along the ground, stirring up pine needles, and thinking. “Am I your guardian, Orb?”
“No. You are a human being. Guardians are generally beasts of strength and power. Emissaries are lower life forms, such as the squirrel that attempted to take me from your room.”
“And the emissary killed today?”
“A porcupine.”
Peter thought about that for a minute. What, besides a gun, could kill a porcupine?
“And the guardian for Cube that we have to face? What is it??”
“Your people have a number of names for it: puma, and cougar, for example. I believe you are most familiar with it by the name mountain lion.”
Peter sat up straight, picked up Orb with both hands and put him in his lap. “You expect me to kill a mountain lion?”
There was an odd, electronic babble that for some reason Peter understood as Orb’s laughter. “No, Peter. I will end the guardian, just as I opened the fence. All you need to do is get me close.”
“All I need to do is sneak up on a mountain lion that is actually a guardian for Cube—who defeated you. A guardian that you thought was dead that somehow repaired itself. A guardian that probably knows we’re coming.” Peter looked quickly to either side, again aware of just how exposed he was, holding Orb in the middle of the dark woods.
“Yes,” was all Orb said.
Peter rose to his feet, still holding Orb. He wanted to be able to run if he had to, though he would never, not even on his best day, outrun a mountain lion. “Orb, where is the guardian now?”
“I do not know,” Orb replied, “As the guardian was fashioned by my enemy, I am unable to track or control it.”
“But you can kill it?”
“Yes. If I am close to it.”
Peter looked at the woods that lay beyond the broken fence. There could be a mountain lion hidden anywhere among the trees—perhaps even perched on a branch above him. He spooked himself into looking up but saw nothing except the dark outlines of branches in return.
“If you are looking for the guardian, it is not here. It is responsible for guarding my receptacle and will not leave the caverns.”
“So, we are going to walk into a cave guarded by a mountain lion?”
“Yes, it is just ahead. Please walk forward and do not deviate from the path.”
Peter did not move, frozen by the idea of entering a cave guarded by a lion. Orb said he wouldn’t let it hurt me, but he also said that we had to get close. How close? Will I even be able to see in the cave?
“Do not worry, Peter. I will protect you. We must enter the cave.”
“Orb, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“My word is my bond.”
“I know you keep saying that, but I really can’t be eaten by a mountain lion in a cave halfway across the state from my house. My family already lost my mother. I can’t do this to them.”
“No harm will come to you. My word is my bond.”
It dawned on Peter that he really had no choice. He had lied to his family and traveled across the state lying to more people, like El. It was not like he could walk home. He could not risk hitchhiking back by himself. He needed Orb. Which is probably exactly why Orb picked me, not Eli. Eli doesn’t seem to need anyone and he would never let himself get into this situation.
“Ok,” Peter said, reaching down to grab his backpack, “Which way?”
***
A few minutes later, Peter and Orb stood outside a rocky wall. Trees and shrubs grew in spots within the wall where soil had slowly accumulated over time. Their roots pierced and slowly opened small cracks within the rocks in their search for water and nutrients. It was beautiful, but Peter saw no sign of an entrance.
“Where now, Orb?”
“To the left there is an opening just behind that large bush.”
Peter saw the bush, but even as he got clo
ser, he saw nothing like an opening.
“You must walk through the bush, Peter.”
Peter clutched Orb to his chest with his right arm, using his left to try to push aside branches, all while keeping an eye out for a mountain lion. He made very little progress unless getting slapped repeatedly in the face multiple times by a branch is progress.
“Keep going, Peter. Almost there.”
There was a series of snaps as branches broke, then a long tearing sound as the side of Peter’s shirt was ripped into several pieces by an old, dead stump of a branch. Peter reached across Orb with his free hand to check whether he had been cut, then awkwardly fell into a large, surprisingly well-lit cavern.
Peter immediately pushed himself to his feet, then used both arms to extend Orb in front of him—trying to ward off any danger. He turned left, then right, but all he saw was a series of brightly colored cracks that extended out across the large cave. Despite his fear, Peter let his arms, and Orb, dip slightly as he took in the view. It was like being inside the Milky Way, only even more colorful. He had never seen anything like it, which was why he failed to notice a very large, very old mountain lion sitting just a few feet away, positioned painfully on a flat piece of rock.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Orb, it is. It’s amazing!”
“I’m not Orb.”
A chill started at Peter’s waist and slowly worked itself upwards, creating goose bumps as it went. Peter’s eyes widened as he noticed that the cave was lined with the bones of animals. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of fragmented skeletons and bones. Most appeared to be from small animals, but there were others that looked too large to have ever been part of a squirrel or a porcupine. One particularly nasty clump—fresh with fur, dried blood and flies—could have been a coyote. Peter wondered if this was Orb’s guardian that was slain by the mountain lion.
The Promise of the Orb Page 5
