by William Hawk
“What’s happening?”
“Sonny saw a pair of police cars coming up the long road to the reservation,” said Cy. “They’re about half an hour away.”
“You can see that far?” said Sonny.
“I told you, he’s a seer.”
Sonny fixed an eye upon me. “I thought maybe you might want to know.”
I looked at Julia, who was scared. “I think my dad thinks I’m in trouble,” she said.
“No, he wants to find me,” I said. I told her about the security guard outside the high school yesterday.
“This could be a short trip,” I said. “Let’s get to the cave, quickly, before he arrives.”
Cy cleared his throat. “So you’re going to leave me here to deal with this problem?”
I rubbed my face and shook my head. “No, Cy, I’m not. We have to face him when he arrives.”
Next to us, Sonny had grown very still. His weathered hand flexed as it gripped the wooden railing.
“What’s wrong?” said Cy.
His mouth opened and closed, and his eyes were fixed at some distant point on the horizon. I thought they looked a little cloudier too.
“He’s coming,” he said.
“I know, and we’re making preparations for the sheriff.”
Sonny’s head turned, and his eyes slid toward mine. “No, not the police chief. Him.”
“Who?”
He looked at me. “Little Horn. Roivas.
After that it didn’t take long for us to get moving. Arthur and Julia had bought some food at a supermarket on the way up the mountains, and now we hauled it out of the back of the truck and packed it as quickly as possible into duffle bags.
We weren’t racing to outrun the police. We were racing to outrun Little Horn (as Sonny called him) or Roivas (as others called him) or Roland (as Grace called him). I decided not to call him anything. I didn’t want him to exist, period.
Cy was putting together his own pack in the kitchen. I went up to him. He wasn’t very expressive, but I could see the worry in the creases in his face.
“Cy, have you ever seen Little Horn?” I asked.
“No.”
“What do you know about him?”
His nose twitched. “I’ve only heard the stories my people pass down. I don’t like to discuss them.”
“Do we have any way of fighting him?”
His lip stiffened. “Not in this realm.”
Now I felt the panic ripping through me. “So we just run?”
“He’s still going to find us, because he’s looking for you and Grace. But the Hall of Knowledge might provide some sanctuary. He might find his powers weakened there.”
Ten minutes after that, the cabin was locked up, and the five of us were marching down the trail through the high-altitude pine forest toward the cliffs. I had a heavy pack on my back, as did Cy, while Arthur, Julia and Grace were carrying duffle bags.
“How do you think your dad found us?” I asked Julia.
“He’s the sheriff,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He has spies everywhere. I’m sure he’s had security guards watching me at school for years.”
Next to me, Grace moved silently over the bed of pine needles. She was tall, almost as tall as me, and she moved lightly like a deer. We fell behind the others, far enough so that we could talk privately. “Do you remember anything about your past iterations?” I asked.
“For the first couple of months after my sixteenth birthday,” she said, “I only got a flash of a memory, here and there. Now there’s more.”
“Who were you?”
“I think one of them was in the court of Marie Antoinette,” she said. “I remember seeing the wigs, and the way she acted like a child. And just recently I remembered watching her lose her head, and feeling bad, because nobody deserves to die like that.”
I thought about my parents, and grew sad. Grace grew quiet. “What about you?”
“Nothing, not yet,” I said.
“It’ll come.” She looked at me curiously. “We knew each other. And the others, too.”
“Who?”
“You were at odds with Hunter. There are two others as well.”
I didn’t know what to do. “So we travel through time…”
“No time travel,” she said. “We went through iterations together. It’s different.”
“Sorry—we went through iterations together.”
“Yep.”
“Which are past lives.”
“And we snapped together, too. Don’t forget that.”
I tried to remember. “So that’s when you inhabit someone else’s body for a while.”
“Yes—it’s like sharing someone’s personality. It teaches us empathy in a way that nobody else can experience, except maybe through books.”
I thought about that. It seemed that more people should be doing these snaps, however strange it sounded to say.
It grew colder. Overhead, gray clouds had slid across the sky like the lid over a sarcophagus, sealing out the sunlight. I felt a chill beneath my clothing and wished Sonny had stayed with us, but he’d returned to his cabin.
Cy held up a hand and stopped walking, and we all stopped behind him. “He’s near.”
“Little Horn?” said Julia.
He nodded. “Everybody, quick now, to the rope.”
We broke into awkward little runs. It was nearly impossible for me, given the heavy pack on my back. Arthur was heaving after less than a minute, owing to his weight. Cy did more of a straight-legged speed walk. Julia and Grace moved better than us, though.
At last we made it to the small plateau. The rope was still there, hanging over the edge of the cliff.
“First, give me your packs,” said Cy.
We set them down. Cy picked the first one up and calmly threw it over the edge. We heard it hit the rock cliff below. Then he did the same until every bag had gone down.
Then Cy turned to Arthur, Grace and Julia and explained to them what they had to do. Arthur’s face turned ashen as he looked down with horror. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“It’s not as bad as it seems,” I said. “It’s mostly arm strength. Just tense your upper body as much as you can, keep it tensed, and go down in big bounces. If you go quickly, you can make it in less than ten seconds.”
“You go first, William,” said Cy.
I grabbed the rope and let myself down the cliff, making big exaggerated bounces against the rock face so they could see how to do it. I’d grown quite good at it over the many trips I’d made here. Lickety-split and I was down on the rock.
“Who’s next?” I shouted up.
A few seconds later, I saw Julia come down. She was agile, and even with her slender arms she managed to descend as though it wasn’t her first time. Her feet hit the rock next to me, and we were both standing at the mouth of the cave. “Nice job!” I said.
“Thank you,” she said. “This place is cool!”
Grace came next, a little more hesitantly, her arms trembling. She even slipped down the rope a few feet near the end, but I caught her in my arms. Her eyes were shocked.
“Surprised that you made it?” I said.
“No, I just remembered … something else.”
“Something from the parallax?”
Grace nodded, so I said, “Tell me later.”
Arthur went third, and he was the most difficult. I realized that his arm strength needed to be double all of ours—he weighed nearly twice as much as Julia. His descent down the rope was nearly vertical.
“Slower!” I shouted. “Push off with your feet!”
He managed to slow down his descent. I could see the effort on his reddened face. But then he lost it—his hands released the rope, and he dropped the last seven or eight feet to the rock. He landed on his side.
The three of us ran over to him. Arthur’s face was grimacing in pain, his mouth open like a baby who was too hurt to cry.
Julia crouched next to him and tried to to
uch him. Arthur shouted no, and she jerked her hand away.
“Cy,” I shouted up, “you’d better get down here.”
Cy descended the rope, and soon the four of us had circled around my hurt friend. Cy rummaged through his bag and produced a small pack of ointment.
“It’s an old traditional recipe,” he explained, squeezing the green stuff in a small circle on his palm, “made of twelve different plants.”
“If he broke his arm, I don’t know if it’s going to help,” said Julia.
“It has special properties,” Cy mumbled.
We all stepped aside as Cy approached our fallen friend, rubbing his hands together. I could smell the herbal oils in the ointment as they broke into the air.
“Lift up his shirt,” said Cy.
“Arthur, we’re going to lift up your shirt,” I said. “Does it hurt too much?”
Arthur shook his head, grimacing.
“Then just cut it away,” Cy said. “I need to reach the trunk of his body.”
I opened a small pocketknife and slipped it between Arthur’s skin and shirt. “Don’t move,” I said. Then I slit the fabric upward, from the bottom hem almost to his chin. The shirt fell open in two flaps.
Cy got down and rubbed the ointment onto Arthur’s fleshy folds. I saw his face relax, as the skin returned to a normal color.
“Oh my gosh, that hurt,” he finally said.
“Can you stand?” I said.
“I don’t know. My chest is killing me on the side.”
“I think he broke a rib or something,” said Julia. “I don’t think we should make him move.”
Cy looked up at me. “He can’t squeeze through the tunnel anyway, and I can’t either. You three go on without us.” He studied me. “You remember the symbols from a month ago?”
I reached into a bag and produced a sheaf of papers. “These are my original drawings.”
“See if they’ve changed,” he said. “If so, copy them down. But first let’s drag him inside a little bit.”
The four of us formed a human chair, hoisted Arthur, and carried him just inside the mouth of the cave. The first patters of rain hit the rock just as we set him down.
“We’ll be back soon,” I said to Arthur.
“Stay safe,” said Cy.
I escorted Julia and Grace to the back of the cave, where the heavy rock had been rolled in front of the tunnel. The three of us pushed it out of the way.
A gust of damp air blew out of the tunnel. It carried the scent of fresh moss and almost smelled green.
“Oh my gosh,” said Julia.
“That’s pretty cool,” added Grace. “It’s like entering another world.”
Julia bent down and looked into the darkness. “We have to crawl through that?”
“Yeah,” I said, inspecting a cracked fingernail. “I’ve done it fifty times.”
“How far does it go?”
“I don’t know, maybe sixty or seventy yards. Here, look, this is our trolley. Let’s put everything you want to bring inside.”
I showed them the pan, and we spent the next few minutes filling it with lights, drawing supplies, water and other items. Then we finished, and I handed the two girls the extra headlamps that I had taken from my dad’s garage. Julia and Grace strapped them on, then stood there, looking at me. I realized that they were trusting in my leadership.
“I’ll go first, and you follow. One at a time. And listen to my instructions.”
I switched on my headlamp; they did the same. I dropped to my knees and began crawling. I had to remember to slow down, and to announce everything that was coming up. After a minute, I called back to ask how they were doing.
“I do not like this,” Julia answered.
“I’m okay,” said Grace. “It’s kind of like being born again.”
Another minute passed, and we arrived at the tight spot. “Girls, this is the worst part. Here’s what I want us to do—we’re going to do a horizontal conga.”
“That sounds sexual,” said Julia.
“It’s not,” I said, wishing it were.
I instructed them to hold onto the feet of the person in front of them, and that we were going to worm our way through a tunnel only slightly bigger than ourselves. I felt Julia grab onto my ankles.
“Go,” I said.
We began to move in awkward ripples. I put a little too much effort, because I hit my head on the low ceiling. I groaned.
I heard Julia’s voice. “What’s wrong? I’m freaking out, we’re going to get stuck, it’s so small, I can’t even…”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I answered, trying to keep her from panicking. “Faster now, let’s get through this before we get claustrophobia.”
We moved in rippling waves, making our way as a single chain through the tightest spot of the entire tunnel. “Keep it up,” I said, breathing hard. “We’re almost out of this.”
I heard Julia crying, and Grace didn’t say anything at all. I steeled myself and willed us to keep moving forward.
At last, we broke out of the tight spot, and I turned and did my best to help the girls out. We all stood in awkward low crouches, trying to recover our breath.
“That was the worst thing I’ve ever done,” said Julia.
“It gets easier to take,” I said.
I swung my headlamp toward Grace. She was looking down the tunnel. I followed her gaze. The greenish glow was back.
“That reminds me of something,” she said.
“It was here when I rescued Cy, and it went away. Let’s see if we can sneak up on it.”
I monkey-walked down the rest of the low tunnel, as was my custom, the two girls aping behind me. At last we arrived in the cave, and while the girls spun around marveling at the space with their headlamps, I turned around and hauled the trolley through the tunnel. When it arrived, I set up the small dome light and turned it on.
Instantly, the green haze disappeared. The walls were illuminated, and the symbols stood out in stark relief. Julia and Grace sucked in their breath.
“Whoa—that’s beautiful!” said Julia. “Who made this?”
Grace looked around calmly. She was reflective. “The L.E.s. They’re trying to help us.”
I explained to Julia that these symbols were from ten brothers who represented ten civilizations, and that seven of the ten had reached final ignition.
“What is that?”
“When a population reached ten billion, and when it becomes charitable enough, it reaches final ignition.”
“And the L.E.,” added Grace, “was the first civilization.”
She pointed to the first column on the walls. Then I noticed something odd.
“Wait a minute,” I said, rummaging through the bag for the sheaf of drawings. I pulled it out and held the first one up against the first panel of the walls.
“Look,” I said. “This is the drawing I did of this portion of the wall a month ago. Do you notice anything different?”
We all crowded around and studied the drawing.
“The symbols have changed,” said Grace.
She was right—the symbols had changed in some areas, but they stayed the same in others. I already knew that they could do that—after all, Grace had communicated with me via the wall, back when she was in her coma. But I hadn’t seen any changes this drastic.
“It seems as if the L.E. are trying to communicate with us,” she said.
“What are they trying to say?” asked Julia.
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know enough about this.”
“Cy might figure it out,” I said. “Let’s show them to him and see what he thinks. I nominate you, Julia, as the official sketch artist.”
She nodded and bounced on her heels. It was good that Julia had so much talent for this sort of thing, and for the next few minutes, I helped set up her materials. Grace adjusted the dome light as needed.
Then Julia got to work. I’d never seen her draw before, but she was good—her fingers gripped th
e pen just right, and she minimized her head movements so that her eyes just flicked back and forth.
Grace and I stood nearby, waiting. “Do you remember speaking to me through the wall?” I said.
“Of course.”
“You said ‘Find me.’” I pointed to the section where it appeared. “Look, now it’s gone. This Hall of Knowledge is like a hall of mercurial graffiti.”
She didn’t laugh. “Actually, it’s more like a website, where the messages you see depends upon the messages you’ve responded to in the past.”
I walked over to the section of the wall where it had appeared. I looked for any trace of the words Find me. They were gone. Instead, in its place was a row of three images—a human skull, a circle of stones, and a small rectangle. I tilted my head and stared at them again.
That was a message, and it felt like it was intended for me.
Grace and I waited, now and then changing the light as Julia requested. I was surprised at how fast Julia could work.
Then I heard a distant voice, coming from the tunnel. I went over and crouched down. It was Cy.
“What is it?” I said.
“We’ve got company!”
I had a pretty good idea what that meant.
“The sheriff?” I called to Cy.
“Looks like it. And some of his guys!”
We’ve got company.
I knew this might happen, of course. We had used Cy’s truck. But what to do now? My mind reeled.
I could just stay down there. But I doubted the sheriff would leave without me. And we could not stay in the cave for very long without provisions. Should I send up Julia? Would that satisfy him? No. It wouldn’t. I didn’t see any choice but to sacrifice myself, let the others work, and hopefully, find some way out of jail. Jail! The prospect of it made me shake.
I turned to Julia. “It’s your old man.”
“Dammit!”
“I’ve got to get up there. Get him away from here.”
“Won’t work. He won’t go away without me. I need to turn myself in.”
“You can’t!”
“You guys can finish this without me.”