"The creature you felt," Molly said to Anna, "what was it like?"
"It was slick, like an eel, but something that felt like a tentacle tried to grab me. It was huge. I'm calling it a sand grabber."
"Yoshi should be out by now." Javi pulled on the cord, but nothing came in response. "How long can the guy hold his breath?"
"It's been even longer for Akiko," Oliver said.
"We're not giving up on them," Molly said. "Is anyone else sweating?"
"Yes," Anna said.
"Like a fish," Javi said.
"Well, don't sweat on me," Oliver said. "I'm dry."
"Akiko," Kira mumbled, barely getting the name out before beginning to cry again.
"We'll give him ten more seconds," Molly said. "Then I want everyone else to drop the cord and get to one of those rocks off to our left."
"What about you?" Javi asked.
Molly turned back to look at him. His forehead was glistening, and he was sporting a mustache of sweat. "Count to ten, Javi, then you run. And don't you dare let a drop of sweat fall until then."
"That was another tug!" Oliver shouted. "One!"
"Two!" Anna said.
"San!" Kira said.
"Pull!" Molly felt strength surge into her injured shoulder. It only took a couple of hauls before Akiko's body pushed upward through the sand. She began heaving in great gasps of air, but rolled onto her side on the sand, her whole body rising and falling with each breath.
Yoshi came up beneath her, but his body was curled into a ball and he was making no effort to take in any air.
"Is he--" Oliver started.
"He tugged on the rope!" Molly said. "He's got to be all right!"
She hoped that was true. Yoshi still wasn't moving.
With one more heave, Yoshi was pulled entirely free of the sand and lay on his side near Akiko, facing away from them.
"Yoshi!" Anna dropped the rope and ran toward him, then stopped when she got closer. "Oh, gross."
"What? What happened?" Molly rushed over to him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kira and Javi attending to Akiko, who was sitting up now.
Yoshi was still on his side, panting hard, trying to catch his breath. And from Anna's reaction, Molly was expecting something terrible had happened to Yoshi's face, or maybe he was covered in sand grabber spit or ... other fluids.
But other than being covered in sand, Yoshi looked the same as always. Anna had reacted to the thing Yoshi was holding in his arms. It was the same grayish green as the trees of this desert, but with an oily sheen on its smooth skin. It had an eel-like face, but no eyes. Of course it wouldn't need eyes. It moved through the blood sand blindly, reacting to the sound or scent of liquid.
"So that's what a sand grabber looks like," Anna said.
"Only the sand grabber's head," Yoshi said, finally getting enough breath to speak. "I killed it."
After Akiko was back on her feet and Yoshi had recovered enough to wrap the ... severed head into a long-sleeve shirt from his backpack, Molly ordered everyone onto the closest rocks. It spread the group out wider than Javi wanted them to be, but at least everyone was standing on something solid, a big plus considering the alternative was being snatched up by the sand grabbers.
"Do you think that was the only one?" Javi called out to Yoshi.
"How should I know?" Yoshi replied. "I didn't hang out down there long enough to meet its friends."
"What was it like?" Anna asked.
"Ever go to the beach and let your family bury you in the sand?" Yoshi said. "Well, it was like that, except your face gets buried, too, and instead of a couple of inches, it's several feet deep, and instead of little sand crabs scuttling around beneath you, there's a monster the length of a bus and with tentacles like oily tanglevine."
"So can we agree not to hold our post-escape party on the beach?" Javi offered. Everyone laughed, but he'd been serious. Until about ten seconds ago, the beach had been one of his favorite places in the world. It had moved down a few notches on the favorites list now, below the dentist, the principal's office, and the inside of a medieval dungeon.
"We have to stick to the rocks as much as possible," Molly said. "Look for the nearest one, make sure you're totally dry, and then run for it. Don't sweat, don't cry, don't stop for a drink of water. Don't--"
"We get the theme," Yoshi said blandly.
"And if you sink to your knees, one of us will come to pull you out. Don't make it worse by touching the sand with a wet hand." Molly waited until Yoshi had translated for the sisters, and then said, "Everyone get ready, and run!"
With a sudden thrust of energy, Team Killbot burst forward, crossing the sand toward the nearest cluster of rocks. Which worked fine, until Javi realized he and Kira were headed for the same one. She reached it first, and when he hesitated on the sand, unsure of where to run next, she held out her hand, motioning for him to join her.
Javi had to put his arm around her waist to keep them both balanced on the rock. Kira smiled and said something to him in Japanese. He wished he knew the translation, but he certainly wasn't going to ask Yoshi to do it. Yoshi was still teasing him about the pink ponies shirt. He didn't need to give the guy bonus material.
So he only smiled back at Kira, and when Molly called out for them to run again, he made sure he had his eye on a rock in a different direction from where Kira was looking.
Javi was last to arrive, again. This time he and Oliver had been headed for the same rock, and although Oliver offered to let him share, Javi only shook his head and kept going. This time, he would run even farther ahead, and be the first to choose a spot.
Except he must have shaken his head too hard. His hair flicked off a bead of sweat, probably nothing more, and Javi felt one leg fall through the sand, up nearly to his thigh.
He tried not to panic, but he couldn't help wondering if there was something under the sand, reaching out for him with a slimy tendril ...
He yelped.
"Javi, don't move. I'm coming for you." Molly was almost at his side already. She reached down and pulled him out, then said, "C'mon, let's go."
Javi ran, but almost immediately, Molly cried out. He turned. Now her leg had fallen in.
"Your hands are sweating!" she said. "Don't come back for me; you won't help. Just get to a rock."
Kira and Oliver both ran for Molly, then stopped and stared at each other to silently determine who was the driest between them. Javi saw Oliver wipe his brow with his shirt. Kira took that as her sign to move forward and help Molly.
"This is ridiculous!" Yoshi cried from his position of one leg down in the sand. "It wasn't me! My canteen tipped over. The lid must not have been screwed on tight enough!"
"Okay, everyone who can get to a rock, go stand on one now," Molly yelled. "Javi, Oliver--rock!"
Akiko was already on a rock and not moving for anyone's rescue. She was still completely covered in red sand. Javi figured she had earned the right to stay there for as long as she wanted.
Once Molly was free, she cautiously moved toward Yoshi, checking herself the entire way for any beads of sweat. So far, so good. Kira stayed a few steps behind her. A minute later, everyone was safely back onto the rocks.
"We can't keep doing this," Yoshi said. "It's like playing leapfrog for our lives."
"That's exactly what's at stake," Molly said. "Which is why we're going to keep doing it. Everyone got your eye on a rock? Then run!"
The sun was blazing overhead by now. The running wasn't helping. The fact that no one dared take out their water bottle for a single refreshing sip only made it worse. And as they moved deeper into the desert, the rocks were spaced increasingly farther apart.
Javi felt something move beneath him, and his first instinct was to jump off his rock, but then he remembered that jumping onto blood sand was hardly a solution to his problems.
"What are you standing on?" Anna asked. "Oh!"
"I'll name it!" Javi quickly called, though he wasn't yet sure what "it" wa
s. He leaned over to look at his rock. "Hey, it's a shell!"
"It's a tortoise!" Oliver said. "A rock tortoise."
"Rock tortoise!" Anna repeated. "I like it."
Javi only folded his arms, pouting as the rock tortoise slowly carried him forward. He'd discovered it, but Oliver was getting credit for the name, such as it was. It wasn't even that creative.
"As slow as that thing moves, it'll take you weeks longer than the rest of us to cross this blood sand," Yoshi said as he ran past Javi.
"Yes, but I will definitely get across it," Javi said with a smile back. He lifted his face to the sun and enjoyed the ride.
The group had been leapfrogging for almost a mile, Molly figured. They needed a break to cool down, catch their breath, and hopefully, to dry off. Between Kira, who was farthest ahead, and Javi, who was a long way behind them still traveling on his rock tortoise, the group was too spread out. She needed to pull them all together again, safely.
They could bungee-cord tie themselves together, so that if one went down, the others could more easily pull that person up again, but if a sand grabber got one of them, it might pull everyone else on the cord down with them. A good team either swims or sinks together, she thought, but that was only a good thing if the sinking was not literal.
In a couple of hours, the sun would be lower in the sky and things would start to cool off. Sweat wouldn't be a problem, then. That was good news. Aside from the problem with sinking, they were probably losing too much water by running constantly. She knew how thirsty she was, how the sand was a constant grit inside her mouth, swelling her tongue and scratching her throat. Her shoulder stung a little, too. She wanted to pull back her shirt and look at it, but the rest of the group would notice. They would worry.
It wasn't their job to worry. Molly was the leader. She would do the worrying for all of them.
That was always how things were for her.
Before Molly's father had died, he was the designated family worrier. He worried about getting everyone to school or work on time, about paying each month's bills, about Molly getting top scores on her homework.
After his death, someone had to take on that job. Molly's mother didn't worry, or cry, or even get angry. Since his death, Molly's mother had stopped feeling anything at all. Her days were spent wandering in a fog of silence, just doing the routines, looking at nothing, seeing nothing around her.
So Molly took over. She got herself to school and made sure her mother went to work with some kind of breakfast in her hand. She paid the bills and told her mother how much money they had left for groceries each week. And Molly wasn't necessarily worried about getting top scores on her homework--she knew how smart she was, knew she had the potential to become anything she wanted to be. She only worried that it wouldn't be good enough to pull her mother out of her emptiness.
Here, in the rift, Molly was the leader again. Which meant there was no time to think about her mom or her shoulder or anything else but getting her team across the blood sand.
"We're going to rest for a while," she called out. "You should be fine to take a drink of water, as long as both feet are on a rock. Cool down, any way you can."
It took some time before Javi's rock tortoise finally caught up with them. He no longer had a drop of sweat on him. "I'll just go on ahead and look for Hercules," he casually said as he passed Molly. "I figure in another half hour, I'll be so far ahead that it'll take you guys at least two minutes to catch me."
At least he looked cooled off, Molly thought with a wry smile.
Javi's family seemed nearly perfect to her. It was a big family, always with room for one more. Whenever things got too quiet at her house, she'd go over to Javi's. He had probably meant it when he said Yoshi could come and live with him. And no matter how grumpy Yoshi was before setting foot in Javi's home, by the time he left, he'd have eaten enough good food to keep him full until the new year, and would have a smile on his face to last twice that long.
Yoshi was on the rock closest to her. He'd unwrapped the sand grabber head and was looking at it. That really was disgusting.
"Why did you wrap it?" Molly asked him.
Yoshi shrugged at her without looking back. "It's got oily skin. I think that's how it moves through the sand so easily. So if I drag it along behind me, I figure I'm just asking to sink."
"And you haven't had any problems with it all wrapped up?" Molly asked.
"Obviously not."
An idea had sparked in Molly's head. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out the two emergency blankets from the pilots' box. She unfolded the first, about as wide as a lap quilt. It was like a thin sheet of foil, but strong enough to resist being torn. She laid it wide on the sand, then stepped onto it. The foil reflected the sunlight, casting a glare onto her eyes, but she looked away, and then unfolded the second, tossing it a little ahead of her. Once she was on the second, she pulled up the first and put that one ahead.
This was a new game of leapfrog. The emergency blankets would catch any moisture that happened to fall. And there was enough room on each blanket for everyone to stand. It would be slower than running, but cost them less energy.
She offered a hand to Yoshi to help him onto the blanket, but he only blinked back at her with a blank expression. "I'd rather run for it."
"Well, it's not your choice, Yoshi, because I can't risk losing you."
"Lead the team if you want, but I think I've already made it clear that you're not my boss."
"I know. But I can ask for your help, right?" Molly watched the change in his expression when she said that, and added, "We wouldn't have gotten out of that jungle without you, Akiko wouldn't have gotten away from the sand grabber without you, and I'm convinced we'll need your help all the way to that structure ahead. I don't know what the problem is with your family back home, but here in the rift, we are your family and we need you alive. Please help me."
Yoshi stared back at her, and for a moment, she wasn't sure if he would cooperate. But he gave a half smile and jumped onto the blanket, holding out his hand for the second one, which he tossed ahead of them. They leapfrogged to pick up Anna and Akiko next, then Oliver, and Kira last.
This definitely was slower than the runs had been, but since it was so hot, nobody was complaining. And when they did need to rest, it was easy to settle down on the blankets, or even lie on them, not too different from a beach blanket.
Finally, they made enough progress to see Javi in the distance. He wasn't on his rock tortoise anymore. He was on the sand, standing perfectly still.
"Are you okay?" Oliver called.
Javi motioned for them to come forward. The blankets were tossed one in front of the other more quickly now, until they had settled in about twenty feet behind Javi.
"Do you see that? he asked.
Molly squinted across the sand. "I don't see anything."
Javi turned around to smile at them. "Exactly," he said. Then he took a step forward and vanished from view.
Javi was gone.
Vanished.
Kiemashita.
"Javi!" Molly sprang forward before Yoshi pulled her back.
"Don't," he said. "Not until we figure out where he went."
The rest of the Killbots were agitated, too. "He might've sank into the sand, like Akiko," Anna offered.
"She said my name," Akiko told Yoshi. "What did she say?"
"Not now," Yoshi growled in Japanese.
"It could be a portal," Oliver said. "Transporting him from one place to another, maybe even out of the rift."
"None of us knows where he is," Anna said. "It does no good to make guesses. We have to look at the evidence and then come up with logical conclusions."
"Javi!" Kira cried.
"Yes, we know," Yoshi told her, rolling his eyes. "Javi's gone."
"No," she said, pointing. "He's not."
Yoshi followed her gaze. Javi was standing right where he'd been a moment ago, smiling a ridiculous smile.
"Did th
at work?" Javi asked. "I'm guessing it worked."
"What did you ... What was that?" asked Oliver.
"Check it out," Javi said. He took a step backward, disappearing again. Then he rematerialized as he stepped forward. "Is it cool?" he asked.
Yoshi didn't admit it out loud, but it was pretty cool.
Molly's jaw had dropped. "Did you find a ... What is even the word for that?"
"A cloaking field," Yoshi offered, and Molly and Oliver gave him a surprised look. "What?" he said. "I read manga."
"I would have gone right past it, but I saw Hercules disappear and then come out the other end," Javi explained. "And there's something in there--something you can only see from inside the field. Like a big metal cylinder."
"Theories?" Molly prodded.
"Is it the source of the field?" Anna asked. "A new device?"
"Or it's what the field was created to hide," Oliver said.
"Maybe," Javi said. "But it looks like it opens. I'm going to take a peek inside."
"Wait," Molly said. "That might not be a great idea."
"Unless it turns out to be precisely that: a great idea," Javi said. "It's like a big metal cabinet with rounded ends. It could have food in it, or medicine. Maybe it's some super satellite phone with a direct line to the people who are looking for us."
"Or it could contain something that will try to kill you," Anna said with a shrug. "It could be anything."
"What are they saying to each other?" Kira asked for maybe the hundredth time that day.
"I thought you were going to learn English," Yoshi answered.
"Maybe they can learn a little Japanese, too," Kira retorted.
Yoshi sighed and caught her and Akiko up on the conversation, then added, "Molly had a bad dream last night, and I think it's got her spooked. She thinks Javi and Oliver are the only ones who know about it."
"Oliver reminds me of our brother," Akiko said. Yoshi hadn't realized they had a brother. He wondered about him, for some reason. He would've liked to have a brother, too, someone to whack him on the arm when he was acting stupid.
"What are they saying about me?" Oliver asked. He was looking over at them, having recognized his name.
"They think you're cute," Yoshi said, enjoying the sight of Oliver blushing and knowing the sisters wouldn't understand why. "One of them has a crush on you."
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