He looked around. Dad, Mom, and Aaron sat nearby, looking frightened and confused. They were okay too.
But there was no sign of Silver.
“Where’s Silver?” Ryan cried out, panicked.
Aaron looked around frantically. “Oh God, maybe he got crushed by the rocks…”
“Don’t say that!”
Ryan spun in a circle, looking all around. The cave was… entirely different. In fact he couldn’t even see the walls or ceiling. Undulating ropes of mist floated past, blocking his view in all directions. The air seemed cooler than before, and the musty smell of dead vegetation was nearly overwhelming. The fire must have been put out by the falling rocks, and yet there was ambient light here. What was going on?
“Silver’s a smart cat,” Mom offered. “I’m sure he’ll find us soon enough.”
Ryan took a few tentative steps away from his family, and his feet squished through dense mud. “Where are we? It feels like I’m walking on a wet sponge.”
“I don’t know. The water from the river seems to have drained. Let’s just be thankful we’re all alive and that nobody’s hurt.” Dad looked anxiously at each of them. “Nobody’s hurt, right?”
“Only Silver,” Aaron said.
“Shut up, Aaron,” said Ryan. “We don’t know that.”
“Jared…” said Mom. She’d taken a few steps away. “Where’s all our stuff? The backpacks are gone. The canoes are gone. And there’s a tree here. Why is there a tree in a cave?”
“Because we’re not in the cave anymore.”
“What do you mean, we’re not in the cave?”
“I mean, somehow we ended up outside the caves. The fire’s gone, but there’s ambient light coming through these mists. We’re outside. I don’t… I don’t understand it.” He shook his head, looking uneasy. “Let’s just focus on what we need to do now. Which is find our way back to the lodge.”
“How are we going to do that? We have no supplies, we don’t know where we are, and we can’t see a thing!”
Mom was not taking this well. And Ryan couldn’t blame her.
Dad squinted upward. “I can’t see the sun through these mists, so I’ll have to make a field compass.”
“You don’t need a compass,” Ryan said. “We can—”
Dad held up a hand. “I know you want to help, Ryan, but I know what I’m doing.”
Rather than pushing the issue, Ryan nodded.
“Aubrey, do you have a bobby pin?” Dad asked.
Mom slipped a pin from her hair and handed it over.
“I’ll also need to borrow something silky, dear,” Dad said. “Don’t worry. You’ll get it back.”
Mom untied her bandanna and handed it to him.
Dad held up the bobby pin for everyone to see. “By rubbing a metal object with something like silk, you can impart a magnetic charge. You need to rub it quite a bit for it to take effect, but once it does, you just place the metal on a leaf and float that leaf on water. Because it’s magnetically charged, the needle will spin the leaf to the point where it’s facing north to south.”
Dad rubbed the pin for nearly a minute before placing it on a leaf floating in a puddle. The leaf immediately turned—but instead of settling on one position, it just continued to spin.
Dad grumbled, snatched up the pin, and rubbed it against the bandanna again, for longer this time. He placed the pin back on the leaf and waited.
This time, nothing happened at all.
Ryan raised his hand.
Dad frowned. “Yes?”
“Like I was trying to say, doesn’t moss usually grow thicker on the north side of a tree? There’s plenty of moss on these trees. And it seems thicker on one side. Maybe we could use that instead of the compass?”
For a moment, Dad looked dumbstruck. Then he ruffled Ryan’s hair and laughed. “That’s brilliant. That’ll teach me to listen.” He clapped his hands. “Okay, let’s make our way south. We shouldn’t be more than a couple miles from the highway. Once we find that, it’ll be clear sailing back to the lodge.”
They hadn’t walked far before Ryan pulled his father aside and raised the concern that had been on his mind from the beginning. He spoke in a low voice so his mother couldn’t hear.
“Dad, this doesn’t feel anything like Arizona. Where’s the suffocating heat? An earthquake doesn’t change the weather. It doesn’t create mists. And the land here… this is a swamp. We weren’t anywhere near a swamp.”
“I know, son. Let’s just keep moving. I’m sure this will all make sense soon enough.”
As his father moved on ahead, Ryan stooped and picked up a fallen leaf. One side was white and the other dark green.
“Dad,” he called. “Look at this leaf. These trees are swamp white oaks. I learned about them in school. And I can tell you for a fact that they don’t grow in Arizona.”
He’d forgotten to speak quietly. He saw the worried expressions on Mom’s and Aaron’s faces.
“Jared?” Mom said. “What’s he talking about? Where are we?”
Dad stopped, blasting his breath through his teeth. “Look, it’s clear that something strange happened. We can all see it… and I can’t explain it. But regardless, our only choice is to keep moving until we find a road or some sign of civilization.”
After that, they continued on without speaking, each lost in their own thoughts and worries. The only sounds were the steady drips from tree limbs above and the squishes and splashes the family made as they stepped through thick mud, stagnant pools of water, and heaps of fallen leaves.
Ryan was startled almost out of his boots when a loud crack rang out from up ahead. A massive limb had broken right off of one of the swamp white oaks… and fell directly on Aaron.
Mom screamed, and they all raced to Aaron’s side. Aaron had been pinned beneath the limb, face down, and it took all three of them to shift the heavy limb off Aaron’s back.
“Aaron!” Mom cried. “Are you okay?”
Aaron stood up and wiped mud from his face. “I’m fine, Mom. I’m just… all gross now.”
She wrapped him in a tight embrace, getting mud all over herself too.
“How on earth are you fine?” Ryan said. “That limb must have weighed two hundred pounds.”
Aaron shrugged. “I guess all this swampy muck cushioned me.”
“You could have been killed,” Mom said, pulling back and looking up at her youngest son. Her face was pale.
“But I wasn’t. Really, Mom, I’m fine.” Aaron smiled and ran a hand through his hair.
“We need to get away from these trees, and out of this swamp,” Dad said. He was scanning the branches overhead, probably looking for more distressed limbs. “Let’s pick up the pace. I’d like to get to solid ground before the sun sets. Although when that is is anyone’s guess.”
They continued on, always keeping an eye on the tree moss to ensure they were going in a straight line. But the farther they traveled, the thicker the mist became. Ryan was beginning to worry that they might actually have to spend the night in this awful place.
A fierce yowl echoed through the forest, stopping everyone in their tracks.
“What was that?” Aubrey screamed.
“Hush!” Dad said. “Whatever it was, I don’t want to meet it. So let’s keep quiet and hope—”
The yowl rang out again, cutting Dad off. Everyone immediately went silent and still.
And then something slammed into Ryan’s back, knocking him to the ground.
He scrambled to his feet—only to find himself facing the largest cat he’d ever seen. Ryan yelped in fear and desperation, and at that moment a blinding flash of lightning struck the ground where he stood.
Aaron shook his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears. The shock wave from that blast had knocked him onto his butt.
He looked around. The enormous cat was gone. But Ryan…
Aaron’s brother was lying on the ground, his eyes closed, his body completely still.
&nb
sp; Mom shrieked. “Oh my God—Ryan!” She ran to his side and felt for a pulse, then put her head against his chest. “Oh thank God, thank God, he’s alive.” She lightly smacked his cheek. “Ryan, wake up!”
“I’ll carry him,” Dad said. “We need to get out of here before that cat comes back.”
Aaron noticed the uncertain tone in his father’s voice. He didn’t like it. He’d like to believe his father had everything under control—but obviously he didn’t. They were completely lost, and in the course of an hour both he and Ryan had nearly been killed. And now Ryan needed medical attention.
But Dad was right—what else could they do but keep moving? So Dad hefted Ryan over his shoulder, and Aaron walked at his mother’s side, and they continued south.
They walked for hours. The mist and the swamp seemed like they’d go on forever. But then at last, the mist began to dissipate and the ground wasn’t as soft.
“Looks like we’re almost clear of this godforsaken swamp,” Dad said.
They continued on, their boots continuing to squish even after they were on dry land. The mists cleared, and for the first time since the earthquake, Aaron could see more than a few yards away.
What he saw wasn’t encouraging.
They’d entered a valley with steep cliffs to the east and west. There’d once been an exit to the south, but it had been blocked by a rockslide. To the north, the way they’d come, were the swamps. There was no sign of a road.
Where to now?
And then he noticed something else. “Dad…” he said. “Look at the sun. It’s high in the sky—must still be early afternoon. How’s that possible?” It had been early afternoon when they set out on the canoes. That was hours ago.
Dad merely shrugged and set Ryan down. Mom immediately knelt beside him.
“He’s been mumbling,” Dad said. “Maybe he’s dreaming.”
Aaron watched as his father studied the cliffs. After a moment, he shook his head. “Aaron,” he said. “Come here.”
Aaron hopped quickly to his father’s side.
“Listen, Aaron, you’re right about the sun. I don’t understand it. But I don’t want to go back into those swamps, and I’m sure you agree. I say we continue south. Which means we have to get over those rocks.” He pointed to the rockslide. “Let’s see if we can climb over that. Wanna go check it out with me?”
“Sure, Dad.”
Leaving Mom with Ryan, the two of them trekked to the rockslide. The fallen rocks had resulted in a manageable slope, and it looked passable. But when Dad tried to climb it, he lost traction and slid back to the bottom, a torrent of pebbles following him down.
“This is too steep to safely climb over. Between all the rocks and dirt, this stuff looks pretty stable. I think we’ll need to see if we can create footholds to climb over this thing,” Dad said. “Let’s find some sticks to use as levers. It’ll be easier to move some of these bigger rocks that way.”
“Whatever it takes to get out of this place,” Aaron said. He climbed eagerly to about one-third the way up the rockslide and began grabbing the loose rocks by hand and tossing them as far down the hill as he could. To his surprise, even the largest rocks seemed unusually light.
“Hey,” he called back to his dad, “these rocks almost seem like stage props. They feel hollow. Look!” He lifted a rock that was bigger than his head. It should have weighed fifty pounds. But he managed to hold it up one-handed and tossed it away easily.
“Huh?” Dad carefully slid down to where Aaron had started to clear the rubble and grabbed a rock. He staggered under its weight. “Doesn’t seem hollow to me,” he said with a grunt.
All of a sudden, Aaron was overwhelmed with exhaustion. It washed over him so quickly his knees almost buckled. “Dad… I’m tired.”
“Oh, Aaron, I’m sorry. This is too much for you right now. Go back and rest next to your brother. I’ll keep working.”
“Okay, Dad. I’m sorry. I’m just… really tired.”
He returned to the others. Mom was now lying next to Ryan, and Aaron lay on his brother’s other side.
He was asleep instantly.
Ryan woke to find the mists were gone, and he lay on solid ground. He must have fallen asleep. But where was he?
As soon as he sat up, his Mom shouted and embraced him, and his family soon surrounded him.
“Are you okay, buddy?” Dad asked, kneeling in front of him. “Does anything hurt?”
Ryan tried to take a physical inventory, which was hard to do since his mom wouldn’t let go. “I think I’m okay,” he said. “When that cat knocked me down, I felt something inside me rip, but then…” He shook his head. That wasn’t right. The rip didn’t happen when he was knocked down; it happened just after. “There was a flash of light. I don’t really remember.”
“What ripped?” Mom said, pulling back.
Ryan shifted his body around. Nothing hurt. “Actually, I think I’m fine. I’m not sure why I said rip—maybe I heard something rip. I’m not in any pain though. Just… really tired.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Mom said, kissing him on the forehead.
“Same here,” Aaron said, looking a bit awkward at showing concern for his brother.
Ryan felt an itching at the tips of his fingers and began rubbing them on his jeans. When he heard a crackling sound, he looked down, and his eyes widened. Tiny sparks were kicking up from his fingertips, creating a nimbus of purplish-white light.
“Dad!” Aaron yelled.
The itch increased until it was almost unbearable. Ryan scraped his fingers against the ground, tension built up in his arms, and the sparks became radiating arcs of white energy. He could feel the heat from his fingers reflecting on his cheeks.
Then he saw his mom’s face. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her eyes wide and uncomprehending.
“It doesn’t hurt, Mom. It just itches. It’ll be all right,” Ryan said quickly. Though he had no idea if that was true. He didn’t know how it had started—how could he know if it would stop?
“That is so cool,” Aaron said, inching closer.
Finally the itching began to recede, and with it, the light show disappeared.
Mom looked to Dad. “Jared, you’re the engineer. Was that a side effect of being struck by lightning?”
“What?” Ryan said. “I was struck by lightning?”
Dad looked from Mom to Ryan. “Yes, Ryan, you were struck by lightning, right after the cat attack. And no, Aubrey, people don’t hold on to that kind of energy. Electricity doesn’t work that way.” He knelt in front of Ryan and gently ran his hands over every inch between his son’s fingertips to his elbows. “I also don’t see any burn marks.”
Ryan looked at the concerned faces of his parents. “What’s going on? What do I do?”
Dad gave him a weak smile. “You said you’re tired—how about you rest some more. In fact, why don’t you all get some more rest. I’ve still got plenty of rocks yet to move. Hopefully I’ll have a path cleared that we can get over before nightfall.”
Ryan stared at his fingertips. If his family hadn’t seen it as well, he’d have sworn it was all a hallucination. He leaned back and closed his eyes.
To his right, he heard his brother’s whisper. “Are we going to be okay, Mom?” His voice trembled.
Ryan was usually the worrier of the two, so it was interesting to see the roles reversed for once.
“Don’t worry,” Mom said. “We’ll be fine. We can’t be far from a road. Once we find it, we’ll head to the nearest town and check into a nice hotel. I can’t wait to take a nice long bath.”
After climbing through the path Dad had cleared, the Rivertons continued south. The sun was dipping below the horizon, giving everyone a sense of urgency. If they didn’t find a road very soon, they’d be sleeping out here without so much as a tent or a sleeping bag.
A sinking feeling came over Aaron as he surveyed the wide expanse of land.
We’re never going to see home again.
“What the heck was that?” Ryan said.
“It sounded like a hyena,” Dad said with a frown. “Which of course is insane… unless we’re near a zoo.”
From closer by came a loud pop, followed by the same shrill keening. Then a bark.
“It’s getting closer!” Aaron wailed.
I hate dogs. I hate hyenas. I hate this place.
“Nothing to worry about,” Ryan said. “That was just a hyena with a cough. And I guess someone must have been opening a can of soda.”
Then Aaron saw it. Atop a hill to the west, a four-legged figure was outlined against the darkening sky. But before he could say anything, the creature simply vanished.
Huh?
A particularly loud pop sounded very close by, and Aaron turned to see the creature now standing a mere twenty feet away. It was wolf-like, its fur matted, its face crusted with dirt. And as it studied them, Aaron felt there was an unnerving intelligence behind its yellow eyes.
Dad calmly motioned everyone behind him. “Don’t make any sudden moves.”
The creature sniffed at the air, growled, and then simply blinked out of existence with another sharp pop.
Aaron’s mouth dropped open. “It just… It just… disappeared.”
“What the heck was that, Jared?” Mom growled. “Tell me you can explain that.”
Dad strode forward and crouched where the wolf had been. He studied the ground for a time before releasing a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, but I can’t explain any of this. What we just saw shouldn’t be possible.”
None of this is possible, Aaron wanted to say.
“Maybe he camouflaged himself,” Ryan said. “You know, like a chameleon.”
Dad shook his head. “No, I see his pawprints here, but they don’t come from anywhere and don’t lead anywhere. It’s like he teleported away.”
“Teleporting wolves,” Mom muttered.
“Sparking fingers,” Ryan added.
“And hollow rocks,” Aaron chimed in.
Heirs of Prophecy Page 2
