God Stones: Books 1 - 3

by Otto Schafer

  Breanne could understand every word spoken in perfect English, except the man’s mouth didn’t match the words and she knew Gabi must be changing the way the language reached her mind.

  Gabi’s eyes went wide at the word dragon, but it wasn’t fear Breanne saw on the girl’s face – she was angry. “Which way is the dragon?”

  Gabi, we can’t hunt the dragon! Breanne thought to her.

  The man’s head shook as he waved them back. “They killed everything! Everyone! The end of the world has come to Chiapas! Nothing can stop them! Nothing!” he shouted, swaying on his feet.

  Breanne lunged forward, steadying the man. His clothes were damp with sweat. His knees buckled, and he collapsed down onto the foot-beaten trail.

  “Are you hurt?” Breanne asked. The man clearly didn’t understand her. Ask him if he’s hurt, Gabi.

  “Sir, are you hurt?”

  In Breanne’s mind, the words came in the same English in which she’d asked the question. For a brief moment she was confused, as she expected Gabi to ask him in Spanish, but her confusion cleared when the man responded, and she quickly realized both he and Gabi were speaking Spanish, and Gabi was translating the conversation to English in Breanne’s mind so she could follow along. Similar to what she did with Yaya back at the cenote, but now Breanne was only listening and not speaking. It didn’t make it any less incredible. In fact, Gabi was the one speaking Spanish with the man and yet translating at the same time in Breanne’s mind – effortlessly.

  The man answered, “I… I think so. I have been running for hours.” He began to cry. “My family is gone.”

  Breanne offered the man some water. “Please… um, por favor?”

  The man accepted the canteen with a shaky hand and drank greedily. He wiped his mouth across his sleeve. “There are many dragons. They are burning, killing, and… and eating.” Fresh tears spilled wet tracks down his dirty cheeks. “Please, you have to go back the way you came. Only death waits for you if you go that way! Only death!”

  Did you hear that! There are many of them, Bre!

  They helped the man to his feet, and Breanne dug around in her pack for some bean tortillas, knowing the man must be starved. She also knew Gabi wanted to go south toward the dragons. But that was insanity, and Gabi had to know that. They couldn’t fight a dragon, and they sure as hell couldn’t fight a bunch of them. They had to stay focused on finding Sarah’s medicine, and besides, the village was to the north, not south. We are going north anyway, Gabi. We will be okay as long as we get back before the dragons come this far north.

  “Were they coming this way?” Gabi asked.

  “I… I don’t know. I ran and never looked back.”

  There was a long silence. I know you want to argue with me, Gabi, but you know I’m right. We aren’t ready to fight dragons. Not yet, but Garrett, my brothers, and the others will come, and I promise, we will figure out how to stop Apep and the dragons, together. You trust me, right?

  Gabi stared down the southward trail for a long moment with narrowed eyes.

  Gabi? You trust me?

  Gabi blinked and forced a smile, nodding. Of course I trust you.

  They sent the man on his way, ensuring him they would be fine, and they promised not to go south. Breanne felt a pressing need to hurry and get the medicine they needed and get back. They turned left onto the trail, taking them north, and pressed forward with a renewed sense of urgency.

  For the first time since she’d learned how, Breanne closed the door to her mind. She needed a moment to panic, and she didn’t want Gabi to see it. There wasn’t one dragon, there were many, and they were invading southern Mexico – and eating people! What if they couldn’t get back to the cenote before the dragons came north? What if the dragons found the cenote? And what was happening in the rest of the world? What about Garrett and her brothers? And what about her father? Dear god, what if they couldn’t get here?

  11

  Meatloaf Special

  Tuesday, April 19 – God Stones Day 13

  East of Hardin, Illinois

  Garrett woke to a hand on his shoulder, shaking him softly. “Bre?” he asked into the darkness.

  “Not hardly. Time to get moving,” Paul said.

  Garrett yawned and stretched. He had been having crazy dreams. Coach’s journal still lay in his lap. What was the last thing he’d read? Something about dragon wars. No, that wasn’t it. Something about Coach’s kid being in Petersburg. He drew in a deep breath. God, he’d give anything to yank open the journal right now.

  “Hey, stinky ’stache! You have got to do something about your feet! Can’t you heal the stench or something?” Lenny called to David as he moved through the bus toward the door. “I got to get out of here before I yack.”

  David moaned and rolled onto his side. “I don’t know what you expect – I haven’t washed them in over five days!” David shouted after him.

  Lenny stopped just short of reaching the door. “What? Why?! We left like two days ago!”

  David rolled back over and sat up. “Look, there wasn’t any heated water in Undertown! And I don’t like cold baths, bro!”

  “David, the next time we pass a pool of water, you will get in it and you will wash your feet and ass, or you will sleep far away from me from this point on!” Lenny announced.

  “Whatever!” David shouted.

  Garrett tucked the journal into his pack and turned to go, but then froze as he remembered something else. He was dreaming about her, about Bre. It wasn’t clear, just a fuzzy image of her and a younger girl walking through the jungle. Must be Gabi, he thought, though he had never actually seen her before. He tried to remember more, but it wouldn’t come. A heavy worry he couldn’t put his finger on settled over him.

  Deciding to take Route 16, Garrett and the others pedaled their bikes as fast as the pre-dawn darkness would allow while still avoiding abandoned vehicles. Just as a soft glow warmed the horizon, they neared the long bridge that would lead them over the Illinois River and into Hardin. Once in Hardin, they’d head south down Illinois River Road until they reached the Mississippi. Ed continued to distance himself as everyone else rode close enough to carry on conversation. David talked about how bad his ass hurt, and Lenny continued to give him crap for how bad it smelled. They talked about the tree that nearly got David and about the shrub woman. The question on everyone’s mind was no longer how treants existed or even why. It was: What the hell did they want with Garrett?

  As they made their way out onto the long bridge, Garrett looked uneasily toward the trees lining both sides of the river. They were only silhouettes given shape by starlight. But they appeared unmoving, rooted into place. Or were they simply waiting? Maybe they were only pretending they couldn’t move.

  The group had stayed to farmland pretty well, but Garrett knew that wouldn’t last. They couldn’t continue to avoid trees. In fact, once they crossed the bridge and passed through Hardin, they would be in a forest – no more open fields to hide in.

  “You guys,” Garrett said. “You think all the trees can move?”

  “What?” Pete asked.

  “All the trees. Do you think they can all move?”

  “I don’t know,” Pete said, glancing uneasily at the forest. “Either way, they shouldn’t be able to get us up here.”

  “No. They can’t all move,” David said as if certain.

  “How do you know? I thought we decided all your video game stuff wasn’t to be trusted as gospel, but more of a guide,” Lenny said.

  “No, Lenny, I’m not talking video games, I’m just smart.”

  “Well, you don’t smell smart—”

  “Just shut up and listen, Lenny, dammit!” David said. “If all the trees could move, they would be doing it and we would be screwed. They could have ambushed us by now. They could push this bridge over or block the whole thing off.”

  Lenny turned to scowl at him. “Maybe, or maybe they don’t know we’re here, smart guy.”

  �
��I don’t know, Len. I think David might be on to something,” Garrett said. “Look, if you were a tree and suddenly you could move, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you walk around a bit and stretch your roots?” he asked.

  “God, I know I would,” Pete agreed.

  Up ahead, Paul slowed, allowing Garrett and the others to surround him. “Ed said trees were taking up position around the cities. Almost like they were surrounding them. Got to be a reason. Just like there’s got to be a reason that shrub thing saved us from that group of rednecks.”

  “I don’t know if it was saving us or just killing them first,” Pete said.

  “Well, we know who it wanted, but the why is anyone’s guess,” Paul said, glancing uneasily at Garrett.

  A sick feeling took hold of Garrett as the voice from the tree echoed in his mind. Garrett Turek! Stop! Garrett glanced back over toward the trees lining the river. The forest had always given him such a feeling of comfort, of freedom, but now the sight of trees scared the shit out of him.

  “So, if they can’t all move, why not?” Pete asked.

  No one answered.

  “If they can’t all move, there must be a qualifier,” Pete said, answering his own question.

  “A qualifier.” Paul nodded. “Like type of tree, maybe?”

  “Maybe, or maybe size?” David offered.

  “No. Shrub woman was small,” Lenny said.

  Pete nodded. “True. Hey! Maybe age?”

  “Oh, age, that’s good, Pete,” David said.

  “Well, unfortunately, without knowing for sure, it isn’t really helpful,” Paul said, “and we still don’t why she could change shape like that.”

  They made their way into Hardin, but they might as well have been making their way into a ghost town. There wasn’t a soul around. It reminded Garrett of his early morning paper route back in Petersburg. Up before the roosters, tossing papers onto porches only just starting to take shape as darkness shrank away, replaced by dawn’s grey shadow. But it too was fleeting, destined to follow darkness in its hasty retreat.

  Trash was piled up at the curbs in front of homes with boarded windows. Animals had rummaged through what they could, tipping cans already overflowing to scatter trash into the street. The buzz of flies and bicycle tires were the only sounds on the otherwise quiet street.

  “Looks like they boarded the whole place up,” Lenny said, pointing toward the small shops of downtown Hardin.

  “We got to get more water,” Ed said, guiding them down a side street.

  “There’s nothing here, Ed,” Garrett said. “Let’s just push on to the Mississippi and we can use our water straws to filter for our hydration packs.”

  “I don’t like the idea of using them this soon into the trip.”

  “Yeah, and I was hoping we could get some snacks from a gas station,” David said sourly.

  “Look, do you see that?” Garrett said, pointing at a brick ranch-style home whose front lawn was now churned-up earth.

  The others’ eyes followed the tracks toward the back of the house where the garage had been before the tree had destroyed it, apparently finding that the easiest way to the exit the backyard.

  “Wonder where it went?” Lenny asked.

  “Do you really, Len?” Garrett asked. “Because I don’t. I just want to keep the hell moving.”

  They kept moving.

  Fifteen miles later, they passed through Brussels heading south, and a dozen more miles passed before they finally reached the Mississippi at a place called Golden Eagle. There wasn’t much there but a boarded-up restaurant and a ferry. They had already seen signs for the ferry but knew with the power outage it wouldn’t be running.

  “What now?” Pete asked.

  “Now we have to get across,” Ed said.

  Once more the trees were all around them, lining both sides of the road. Garrett pedaled faster. They were watching him. He could feel it.

  “You going to fly us across one by one?” David asked with a sharp nod toward the river. He cocked his head from one side to the other, popping his neck as if mentally preparing himself for the trip across, but it was plain to see the thought of hovering above the river scared the shit out of him.

  “What? No, I’m not going to fly you over the river! I’m not even sure that’s possible,” Ed said.

  “But didn’t your dad say you guys had to use the Sangamon to sneak past the dragons and get into Petersburg? And didn’t he say if it weren’t for your ability he would have drowned?” David asked.

  Ed nodded. “Yeah, that was sketchy, but I didn’t fly my dad over the river. We held on to a log as a floatation device. We stayed low and hugged the log tight, using it to camouflage us from the dragons while I used my ability to maneuver us through the water.”

  “So, what’s the plan then?” David asked.

  “The plan is we find a boat and float across,” Ed said, as if the question were the stupidest thing ever asked.

  “Oh, right,” David responded.

  Lenny rode up close to David and slapped him in the back of the head. “Douche!”

  “Hey, the ferry should be just up ahead. Maybe there will be other boats too,” Garrett said.

  They rode along the river past the boarded-up restaurant where a large pole held a sign announcing, Wednesday Meatloaf Special $7 One Slice of Pie Included in large red plastic lettering.

  “Is it Wednesday?” David asked.

  “Like it matters,” Pete said.

  Garrett watched David’s face drop into an expression of utter sadness, and he felt his own stomach turn. The trip was going to be long, and what little rations they had weren’t going to cut it. If they were going to survive, they’d need to find more food.

  “It’ll be okay, David. We’ll find something once we get past the river,” Garrett said reassuringly.

  “I wonder what kind of pie they had,” David said gloomily.

  They turned into the parking lot of the Golden Eagle Ferry.

  “Well, damn. Not one boat between here and that restaurant we passed,” Paul said.

  The ferry looked like a small piece of road that somehow floated. It was way bigger than Garrett had imagined too, and he figured it could hold maybe twenty cars. Attached somehow to the side of the floating platform was a tall tugboat.

  Garrett turned to the others. “Well, there’s the ferry. But no boats to be seen. What do you want to do, turn back and try the other way, or keep going? There has to be a boat docked along the river somewhere close by.”

  “Check it out.” Lenny nodded toward the ferry.

  On the deck of the boat sat an older bearded man in a flannel cap and brown jacket with his feet propped up on the rail, eyes fixed on the tip of a fishing pole.

  Ed dismounted his bike and turned toward the man.

  “Where you going?” Paul asked.

  “He looks harmless enough. Maybe he knows where we can get a boat. I’ll see what he says,” Ed answered.

  “You want me to come?” Paul asked.

  “Nah, just keep an eye on these kids.”

  Garrett felt himself bristle but held it in.

  The sun was high above them now, but the breeze off the Mississippi was cool.

  “Garrett, you want to spar a little?” Lenny asked, laying his bike down. He pulled off his pack and unlashed his staff.

  No. He really didn’t. What he wanted was this strange feeling of uneasiness to go away – this feeling they were being watched. What he really wanted was to get across the damn river. His skin tingled oddly, causing him to look instinctively to the sky. It was blue, bright, and perfect, with a few fat clouds drifting lazily northeastwards toward Petersburg. Toward home.

  Still staring at the sky, he stretched. Maybe he would spar with Lenny, get his mind off—

  Umph! Suddenly something was around his neck, and then his arm yanked hard. Too hard as it straightened awkwardly. Then he saw the sky again, but now it was blurring out of control. Then came the ground. Garrett let out all
his air with a second umph!

  He was suddenly on his back, staring up at the sky again and panting. He heard it then – laughing. Lots of it. Pete, David, and Lenny all busting guts at his expense.

  David’s mustached face came into view above him. “Damn! You didn’t see that coming at all!”

  Then Pete poked his head over him from the opposite side and belly laughed. “That looked like it really, really hurt,” Pete said, drawing out the mispronounced r’s.

  Garrett laughed too because seeing Pete laugh hard and true made him feel somehow less homesick, less like his whole world was broken.

  Lenny’s smiling face showed up completely upside down between David’s and Pete’s. “You got to always be on lookout, bro!”

  Garrett smiled and rolled back onto his palms, then launched himself to his feet. “Let’s see you pull that off when I’m looking, Lenny!” he said, brushing himself off.

  Pete shook his head and looked at Paul. “This promises to be fun!”

  Paul didn’t answer as he looked on, his face furrowed in concentration.

  Lenny laughed. “Oh, you want some more?” He spun the ancient staff Mr. B had given him above his head like a helicopter.

  Garrett looked around; then he turned and walked to the edge of the parking lot to a small brush pile that someone had probably gathered to burn. He reached in and found a long, sword-length piece of oak and pulled it out. As he walked back, he shook the branch, testing the weight of it. Alright, pal, he thought, raising the branch into a ready position, his fingers wrapped around the branch in two stacked fists, as if he were holding a sword. He had never seen Lenny pull that move off in practice, but it must have taken ridiculous focus. Lenny was on his game.

  Garrett stayed in the grass next to the brush pile, knowing someone was going to end up on the ground, and he sure as shit didn’t want it to be him, especially not on the pavement – again. Stepping back into a fighting stance, Garrett went through a complex sword form Mr. B had taught him that included a front flip, a back flip, and even a no-handed cartwheel.