A couple of metres to go. They still moved forward despite the terrain slowing them down. Reyes stared at what looked like a crack in the black wall. A fault line that could be exploited and a hollow beyond it. Bruke must have seen it as their only hope.
The powdery front of the avalanche reached them, kicking up in the strong wind and damn near blinding Reyes.
Bruke then spun around and ran backwards. It showed Reyes where they’d come from. It showed her where they’d go if they didn’t make it.
Suddenly a hard jolt crashed into Bruke, and Reyes felt the wash of snow. The ground shook as if an earthquake ran through it. They’d lost.
Chapter 29
Reyes had braced herself to get thrown forwards, and she yelled as they fell back instead. All three of them hit the hard ground at the same time, Bruke letting go of them as he went down.
Reyes stared back out where they’d come from. Rock littered the ground where Bruke had smashed through the weak wall. She didn’t focus on the debris for long though; instead, she watched more snow than she’d ever seen race across the cave’s new entrance. Thick and churning, it twisted and turned, alive with its momentum.
As Reyes sat up, she kept her palms pressed into the ground, the entire mountain shaking with the ferocity of nature’s force.
What had been daylight—albeit cloudy and snowy daylight—quickly closed down to nothing.
In the darkness, Reyes lost track of time. It could have been ten minutes, it could have been half an hour. While she sat there, both listening and feeling the avalanche running down the mountain, she said nothing. The chaos eventually died down to silence.
Wow! SA finally said. Thank you, Bruke. We would have been torn to shreds were it not for you.
Although Bruke had mustered strength beyond anything Reyes could comprehend, it seemed to have utterly drained him. Where he’d sounded bunged up before, he now sounded like he could barely get his words out. Hardly surprising considering the effort it must have just taken him. “It would have helped if I hadn’t caused it in the first place.”
Reyes fished the small computer from her pocket. Not as au fait with it as Sparks, she tapped the screen and pressed a few icons before she found the torch. It burst to life, dazzling her and flashing blind spots in her vision. After several blinks to clear her sight, she looked around the place. It showed their dark cave to be no more than a crevice. Small, cold, and barren.
“Well, we’re safe for now,” Reyes said. The red dots flashed on the screen when she pulled the map up again. “We’re close to what must be the beings who live here, but I’m not sure how we’re going to get to them.” Shining her torch on the hole Bruke had made to get them in there, she saw the tightly packed snow. A glistening and solid wall. They’d have to dig their way out.
But then Reyes saw something else blocking their way. She walked over to what she’d taken to be snow and let go of a hard sigh as she said, “Rocks!”
“Huh?” Bruke said.
“This snow’s filled with rocks.” After she’d dug away a patch of snow, she quickly came to another solid lump that couldn’t be whittled. “Lots of rocks.” She moved to another part of the new wall and found more of the same. Large rocks were shoved into the space with tons of snow on top of them. “I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be for us to get out of here.”
Silence.
“Also,” Reyes said, “if we’ve just found the Quartz, and potentially all of its crew died in the crash, how do we know if Buster’s still alive? This whole mission might have been a complete waste of time.”
After a few more seconds of silence, SA said, I think we need to focus on how we’re going to get out of here first.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Reyes said. A look at Bruke, she saw him pull into a ball as he continued to shiver. Making sure they all got out alive had to be their priority. “SA, can you contact the others?”
I’ll try.
Chapter 30
As Seb’s eyes adjusted, the wall of light transformed from one large blur into individual beams. Still dazzled by the sight, he looked from one to the next. It felt like they’d emerged into a video game. A bright red glow on the front of each ship, they’d lined up in five rows of three. Owsk must have been equally mesmerised because he simply floated and stared.
“At least there’s only fifteen of them,” Seb said. “I was worried for a minute; I mean, not having a cannon and all, the last thing we’d want is to be outnumbered.”
Neither Owsk nor Sparks replied, the tension palpable in the vessel. While letting go of a hard sigh, Seb sank back in his seat and shook his head. “Good chat.”
The nose of one of the ships in the middle of the pack glowed brighter than before. A second later, a beam of light exploded from it. The laser cut through the water with such speed, Seb saw it fired and then felt it crash into the front of the Piscents. It moved so fast he hadn’t been able to track its path. On contact, the laser beam shattered, the vessel rocking while thousands of light particles cascaded around it.
Blinded again from the glow, his pulse rapid and his palms sweating, Seb tried to control the panic that threatened to choke him out by keeping his thoughts entirely in that moment. No leaks meant they weren’t sinking yet.
As his sight returned, Seb sank deeper into his seat. “At least we’ll be blind when we sink to the bottom of this ocean. I’d rather not watch you two drown while I’m having to go through it myself.”
Although Owsk didn’t look at Seb as he spun the Piscents around, he growled at him through clenched teeth. “If we were in your crappy Shadow Order sub, we’d be soaked by now and sinking fast.”
As much as Seb wanted to snipe back, he felt like too much more excitement would make his heart explode. “Why don’t you make use of this wonderful sub by getting us the hell out of here, then?”
Before he’d finished, Owsk had already accelerated back towards the tunnels that led them there. He hurtled back into the small space at twice the speed they’d exited it from.
Seb flinched through fear of crashing. Sinking suddenly seemed like a much better option.
The tunnel felt tighter than before, the walls flashing past them. A strobe effect lit up the dark pathways from the ships behind shooting at them, their blasts crashing into the walls and shattering like the one that hit the Piscents had.
Seb looked behind them, dazzled by the blasts again. Although, even amongst the chaos, he still saw the first sub enter the tunnel.
It took a matter of seconds for the ship to halve the distance between them, the others flowing in behind it. The laser on the front of it glowed with its charge. Just as Seb opened his mouth to tell Owsk, Sparks cut him off. “Down!” she yelled.
A tight grip on the seat’s armrests, Seb’s entire body locked tight as Owsk dived. Were it not for the fact he’d get motion sick, he would have closed his eyes. Only a slightly better option to keep them open, but at least he wouldn’t die covered in his own vomit.
A red laser blast shattered where they’d been moments before. Then another bright light, orange this time like flames. Because Sparks watched the screen, and Owsk watched where they were going, it took for Seb to look behind. “The sub behind us just crashed.”
Sparks shouted again. “Left!”
Owsk grazed the right wall with a loud crunch, metal sparks kicking off the sub’s wing. A wobble as they straightened out, but at least they’d made it around.
Two more fireball explosions, Seb called out. “Three down.” At least he had a role now.
The tunnel seemed to straighten out and Owsk sped up. The walls around them turned into a porous blur. However, the lights on their tail made it easier to see where they were going.
“Up!”
A sharp yank sent them straight up. It allowed Seb to look through the glass roof at the pack behind. It gave him momentary sight of them before he had to turn around to look out of the back. The ships tried to follow through the abrupt incline. A
couple of explosions showed some of them had failed as they went straight into the wall. “Two more down. Ten left.”
Sparks then turned one hundred and eighty degrees, holding her computer up in Seb’s face. “You need to slow down, Owsk!”
Both Seb and Owsk said, “Why?” at the same time.
“I’ve got some good news!” When she spun back around, she held up her screen. Amongst all the red flashing dots of their pursuers, she pointed at a green one. “Buster’s in the sub directly behind us!”
Chapter 31
“How do you know it’s him?” Owsk said, dividing his attention between looking out of the windscreen and looking at Sparks’ computer.
Seb nudged him and pointed forwards. “Will you look where you’re going?”
After a slight pause, Sparks said, “I have his genetic fingerprint. I’ve programmed my computer to see him.”
“I can’t slow down; they’ll catch us.”
“You’re a better driver than them; you’ll avoid them. If you don’t slow down, Buster won’t get out of these tunnels. They’ll crash on our next turn.”
Owsk looked like he wanted to do anything but ease off; however, he slowed them down a little.
The walls around them turned from a blur back to a cratered dark mess. Seb looked behind again to see the other ships gaining on them.
“There’s a down we need to take in a minute,” Sparks said.
The blaster on the ship with Buster in it glowed red.
While holding up her long fingers as a visual for the countdown, Sparks began. “Three …”
Seb watched the beam swell, growing with the potential to be the one to take them down.
“Two …”
The sub behind them had come close enough for Seb to see Buster in the passenger seat.
“Now.”
Owsk dived as the red beam from the sub behind lit up the cockpit of the Piscents. It sailed over the top of them, narrowly missing their ship as it flew along the tunnel they were in only seconds ago. A moment later, the sub with Buster in went the same way, completely missing the drop they’d taken.
Owsk sped up as the next vehicle dropped down the tunnel after them. But it misjudged it, crashed into the wall, and exploded on impact.
“Nine left,” Seb called out and bounced in his seat. “Well done, you two.”
Another explosion behind them.
“Eight.”
Sparks had the three-dimensional map of the tunnels in front of her again. The walls all around them turned into a blur as she said, “Left, right, left.”
Three sharp turns later, Seb’s guts had lurched with each one, but he managed to keep his attention behind them and his last meal in his stomach. Explosion after explosion, he counted them out, “Seven, six, five, four.”
“Up,” Sparks said.
Again, Seb watched the pursuing ships through the roof. Another underwater fireball. “Three.”
“Left.”
Another explosion, then another one. “One left! But I can’t see it.”
Sparks turned to Owsk again and said, “Slow down.”
The troll didn’t seem capable of sweating. Had he been able to, Seb felt sure it would have been gushing from him at that moment. He felt the damp press of perspiration against his own clothes and he hadn’t tried piloting the thing.
Owsk gripped the Piscents’ controls hard, his shoulders raised to his neck as he panted.
Sparks reached over and patted Owsk’s back. “Well done. You outdid every one of them. Well done.”
“There’s still one left.”
“Left,” Sparks said.
“I know. One left.”
“No, left!”
Owsk turned left and they shot from the tunnels out into the open sea.
To see the expanse of water relaxed Seb a little and he said, “Man, am I glad to be here.” His palms sweating, his stomach tense, his jaw aching from where he’d bitten down on it for the entire ride, he let out a relieved sigh. “Well done, Owsk and Sparks. And thank you.”
Although Sparks nodded, Owsk didn’t seem to hear him. Instead, he stared at a small screen in the dashboard. It showed a view out of the back of the Piscents.
When Seb spun around to see the final sub burst from the tunnel, its front aglow with its charged laser, he said, “Shit!” as the line of red hurtled towards them.
The beam moved too fast for them to avoid and exploded against the back of their sub. They rocked in the water as a shattering of light illuminated the sea around them again.
Then Seb felt something tapping the top of his head. When he touched his crown, he felt the damp patch. Any composure he’d mustered left him at that moment, and his voice shook when he said, “Guys, we’ve sprung a leak!”
Chapter 32
The snow gushed out of the hole Reyes had just pulled at, and her heart lifted for the briefest of seconds. The white powder ran through the beam given off by her computer’s torch, forming a small pile on the ground. When she investigated further, shining the light into where she’d just excavated, her frame sank. “Rock.” She let out a deep sigh, her breath turning visible in front of her. “There are rocks everywhere.”
Even with her gloves on, the grey stone blocking their exit felt cold when she pushed her hand into the hole and shoved it. Grunting at the effort, Reyes finally stopped and shook her head. “It won’t budge. There must be tons of snow behind it.”
Although she knew they had no other way out of the small cave, Reyes shone her torch around it anyway. Every dark corner she lit up showed the same impenetrable grey rock. It took a great effort to force the words out, but they had to find the positive in their situation. “At least we’re safe for now. We’re in a better position than we were.”
Reyes had been purposefully avoiding Bruke, but as the echo of her statement died in the small space, she finally focused her torch on him. He still lay on the ground, shivering and curled up in the foetal position. Any hope she’d tried to instil in them and herself sank with her plummeting dread. The second they’d stepped off the ship, he’d been dragged under by a fever. It had only gotten worse. But they were in a better situation than a few minutes ago. She hadn’t lied about that.
SA sat as a permanent watcher. Maybe she saw the futility in their escape attempts. Maybe she understood what Reyes had feared; their liberation would only come if they were rescued.
Reyes looked at her again and said, “Any luck connecting with the others?”
A slow shake of her head, SA then sighed, producing a white cloud of mist. Too long in the frigid space and they’d all be in the same state as Bruke.
“Why do you think you can’t get through to them?”
The calm focus of SA’s attention shifted to the now blocked exit that Reyes stood next to. Maybe the snow. We might be wedged in too deep for my thoughts to get out of here.
But Reyes saw something in her eyes. At first she took it for sadness, but then she saw it as something completely different. Something she’d not seen in SA before. Fear. “It’s not that, is it?”
For a moment, SA looked at Reyes as if deciding which truth to tell her. She dropped her head and shook it. No, it’s not that at all. When I try to get through to them, I can only sense panic. I think they’re in a worse situation than we are.
Reyes’s pulse returned to where it had been only seconds ago. She took several breaths to keep the panic at bay. “So we’re stuck in here?”
For the time being, yes. Moses is too far away for me to connect with, and I can’t think of anyone else.
“What about the beings close by? Is there anyone there that might be sympathetic to our cause?”
The glaze of SA pulling into her mind spread across her eyes. A second later, they snapped wide and regarded Reyes with crystal clear focus. A few shakes of her head, she finally said, There’s no one we want to connect with down there.
What did you just pick up on? Reyes said.
Bruke then sneezed, t
he loud noise forcing Reyes to jump backwards. After she’d looked at the thick-set lizard, she returned her focus to SA. The worry she felt gnawing away at her sat in SA’s bioluminescent gaze. He’s not getting any better, Reyes said. He might have been delirious, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t comprehend what they said about him. Best to speak in secret.
As if on cue, Bruke whimpered, twisting and writhing as if he could squirm free of his suffering.
Reyes slipped her coat off. The chill emanating from the dark rock around them bit into her, lighting up gooseflesh all over her body and snapping her muscles tight. She laid it over her scaled friend. He needed it more.
SA did the same and Reyes smiled through her tense jaw to watch it. They could both be cold for a while. Bruke, on the other hand, looked close to slipping past the point of no return.
While bouncing on the spot and hugging herself for warmth, Reyes said, What do we do now?
We wait.
You think we’ll get through to them in time?
I hope so, I really do. I suppose we just have to have faith.
Faith?
What else do we have? Hopefully, Seb and the others will get out of their predicament in time to hear me before it’s too late.
Chapter 33
Until that moment, Seb thought he’d felt panic beneath the water, but now, with the wet reminder of his vulnerability tapping against his head, he felt like he would go into cardiac arrest. It didn’t help when he looked at the usually stoic Owsk and saw genuine concern on the rock troll’s face.
As if sensing Seb’s spiralling anxiety, Owsk said, “Don’t worry.” He pulled back on the flight stick so the sub travelled almost vertically up. “We should get close to the surface at least.”
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 108