by Alexa Dare
Puffs rushed in and out of Junior’s nose in quick heaves. He braced his hand harder over his lower face until his teeth cut the inside of his lips. The current quakes weren’t his doing. But it didn’t matter. No doubt, he’d get the blame.
This bad guy would punish him no matter the cause.
“I’m a tunnel rat, son,” Roderick said. “I know these pathways like the lines across my palms.”
Junior sent a tremor toward the man’s voice.
A few yards out, rocks from overhead fell.
“Now, now, boy. You’re not gonna get rid of me. You’re just ticking me off.”
The wobble he sent out bounced back along the tunnel’s length. Junior covered his head. Rocks bashed his fingers, struck his back.
Then the sound of metal chinked rocks and packed earth. Not too far away, the stranger shoveled. “Don’t you worry none. I’ll get to you real soon.”
No more. Please. Enough.
Junior rolled his head side to side.
A tremor jolted the ground under his temple. The shakes, those not of his making, swept up the curved tunnel walls. More debris from overhead fell. A jagged edged rock hit his brow.
He saw bright dots, then blood ran into his eyes. Soil lumped over him. The jar to his knee— Argh. Pain tore through his lower leg. A scream tore from his throat as if ripped from the bowels of the earth.
“It’s okay, little fella. I’ll get there soon!” Roderick dug. “Drop me a line, and I’ll reel you in, baby.” His off-key singing failed to echo in the cave-in. “You got me on the hook. I’m a great catch, baby mine.”
The floor under Junior lifted. Rocks crashed. The ceiling roared down. More of the tunnel folded in on itself.
“Easy, kid,” Roderick called out.
“It’s not me,” Junior called back. “The giant is awake.”
“Giant, huh? Reckon the earth being a giant never struck me. Maybe I’ll sing him a bedtime tune.” A light beamed from the open end of the pit. The man’s voice, from low to high pitch, rang out in another off-key tune. “Sleep, little one, sleep. Lay your head upon your earthen pillow. Settle into your graven mound. Lay down. Lay down. Sleep in the cold hard ground.”
“Stop the songs about graves and being buried. Ain’t this already bad enough?” A cloud of sifting dust brushed along the back of Junior’s neck. “Leg’s broken. You could carry me out, but I won’t let you. I won’t be used. Not ever again.”
If only Junior didn’t see the hole closing on him because the nearby earth surrounded and seemingly choked him. As he had hour after hour when his aunt locked him away, he bore the panic and dread. Unlike back then, this time he drew energy, taking in a greater surge than ever before.
Even though he feared never getting out when she locked him in the cellar, this time, the ground closed in on him like the plot of a grave. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he yelled to the shoveling man. You best get out of here.”
“No can do.”
“I won’t be used.” Junior shoved out more power.
“That’s what’s done to the weak, little buddy.”
“Not your buddy, and I’ll be danged if I’m weak.” Yet he was. The throb of his joints ached as if pried apart by a crowbar. Fingers and toes curled, his head dipped as if he needed to curl up like a baby and sleep.
No rest for him. Work. On and on. Like with Aunt Pearl. Like he’d done all his life.
Junior lifted his head. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The shovel clinks halted, then the digging sped loud and fast. “Got me a line. You got a hook. We’ll tie the knot, baby, and catch us some fish to cook.”
Before, Nora made them hurt folks. This go around, was all on his own, Junior sent his seeking far, far down. The rock below moved. With his mind, he touched the wrinkle deep inside the earth and traced the line. The route speared east and to the south. A second arrowed north and west, right below Briar Patch Mountain, beneath the peak where they’d been held.
Best way to make things right.
Junior put his head down. The ground his pillow, the falling earth his quilt, he let the earth’s force flow through him.
Pure. Solid. Power.
“Sorry,” he said to everyone and no one all at the same time. His lips grazed the soil so that he tasted its sweet richness. The scent of wet earth, then black soil, along with red clay, filled his nostrils. A tear seeped from his eye and trailed the bridge of his nose to drop off onto the ground.
Too much for a ten-year-old kid to bear.
Strife fouled his first ten years, and misery might chase him to an early grave. He never learned to read, and he had no real family. But he did. The others were out there. They cared about him more than his Aunt Pearl ever did. Family wasn’t perfect, but they didn’t hurt one another for their own gain.
“My one and only. You got my heart, hook, line and sinker.” Roderick’s shovel dug in rapid slicing jabs.
A sense of dread for the others filled Junior’s head. His connection with the ground told him that they moved so fast that they must be riding in the all-terrain car. But he got the notion danger wasn’t far behind of them.
From here, the only one way he could help them out and stop the spread of the shocks.
“Cast your love on me, honey,” Roderick crooned. “I’ll take the bait, and you can reel me in.”
Junior never meant anyone harm. Not ever.
Until now.
With a mental pull, he brought the ceiling down on both sides of where he lay. Piles of rubble crashed and heaped. From the layer above, he drew slabs of rock. The chunks rested atop the mounds to box and den him in. More from above fell. A stray rock hit the hard mud cast.
Junior’s scream joined the groan of the earth’s shifts.
In the deafening hush that followed, no more digging or singing rang out. The bad guy, with nothing much more to sing about, might be on the other side of the cave-in. But, more than likely, the roof collapse spread beyond what Junior planned.
“I tried to tell you, mister.”
Closed in from on all sides, he hauled more loose rocks down and packed rock slabs atop of the piles. He holed himself in and shored the space the best he could.
The ground still bucked, and he gulped down a clod of fear. The bad man found him. That meant the others would too. Right?
Until then...
To crush the earth’s fold beneath the mountains, he dug his power in. Out past where he had gone before. Pain took over his joints. Even his teeth hurt.
Too far, out of reach.
He sagged. Hurt. Too much. Pebbles fell to pelt him, and he closed his eyes against the falling debris. There had to be another way. The layout of the weak spots deep in the ground and through the area told him there was.
What it meant though… He would cut himself off from the others. Maybe forever.
Or at least forever for Junior.
Still, just as he’d made the garden grow and just as he’d gone back to help Darcy Lynn, chin to the ground, he tipped to face Briar Patch Mountain so that he could give his family a chance to get away.
With fading strength, he set out to bring the peak down.
***
At Briar Patch, the giant not only woke but shook off years and years of deep, deep sleep. Like a bed rocked upon its owner’s rising, the caves and shafts shook. The tiptop of the peak bent as if swaying in the wind. The lower levels gave way. Each fell. Rock caved in, and the slope’s outer crust spilt.
In no time, the tall mound broke apart, and the peak fell.
The mass shook apart. The weight of the collapse broke and smashed tunnels below, and the upper crest sank. Earth, rocks, and broken trees buried the place where Junior and the others had been locked away.
The mountain collapsed on top of the fault line.
***
A jagged-edged pebble cut into Junior’s cheek. He lay upon and under piling dirt. As close to a normal boy as he’d ever been with not a bit left to spare,
unable to take in the earth’s energy, he rested. As if glued down, grit stuck to his sweaty, tear-streaked face. He breathed and tasted earth.
Ten years. Too short of a life to matter. But he did. He took down a mountain to stop the quakes and help the others escape. Nope, family might not be perfect, but they helped one another along the way.
The dire rumbling settled.
Unable to move, Junior smiled. He mattered, and so did his family, who, for now, were safe.
Epilogue
During the hours that the elements took over, fever shot hot through Abe Jenkins until the sweat-soaked, light brown pants and drab green t-shirt they made him wear back at Briar Patch Mountain clung to him. The warmth of his high temperature reminded him of the bonfires up on the ridge, built and manned with his sister Hannah, to guide their missing parents home.
All those years, week after week, of sending out signals to people who didn’t exist.
The twins should have stopped building the fires long before they turned thirteen.
What a waste of time.
His overly warm forehead rested on the molded steering wheel of a vehicle he was too young to drive. But, for now, he clamped his eyelids over eyes that served as lighter and fuse to the eruptions of flame he willed. Before he opened his eyes, he wanted to make sure he had control of his fiery abilities, otherwise the all-terrain cab would heat and who-knew-what might burst into flame.
Thick, like smoke, air stung his lungs with each tug of breath. He hadn’t already started a fire, had he? He sniffed. His swallow tended toward sweet like melted toffee and laid thick on the back of his tongue.
No, no real burning smells were around, so why did it hurt to breathe?
<><><>
Get your copy of Raging Inferno (Children of the Elements, Book 3) by clicking here!
Thank you for reading Dire Rumblings. Did you enjoy this Secret City Post-Apacalyptic/Dystopian Adventure? If you enjoyed Dire Rumblings, please consider writing and sharing a short review. Reviews are like author hugs and are very much appreciated!
Also before you go...
Don’t forget to sign up for Alexa’s spam-free newsletter. Subscribers will receive exclusive offers, news about new book releases and access to special giveaways.
Click here to sign up.
Connect with Me
Facebook
BookBub
Twitter
Instagram
alexadare.com
DEDICATION
This series is dedicated to Ben, Breanna, Mattie, and Jada, the closest to Children of the Elements I have ever been honored to know. My gratitude for your inspiration!
About the Author
Multi-genre Author Alexa Dare stepped out of the realm of Top-Secret documents (shh, don’t tell…) to write sci-fi and paranormal fiction.
Alexa survived and escaped both the entertainment field and the government-contracting environment, craves the Walking Dead, and entertains what-if tidbits about “supposed” technological and biological advances.
No stranger to the goings on in the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Alexa Dare blends a down-home flavor with a former in-the-know—hypothetically, of course—technical background to craft the twists and intrigue of Secret City Adventures.
Alexa welcomes contact from readers and invites you to visit her website. You may contact her, read her blog, and sign up to receive notice of new releases at:
www.alexadare.com
Table of Contents
Contents
Dire Rumblings
Copyright
Books by Alexa Dare
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
About the Author