Suddenly all sound faded away. She might have screamed. The singular gut-wrenching scream of someone who has just lost everything. Nothing else mattered to her now. She no longer wanted to fight for her life. She couldn’t hear her own screams. She couldn’t hear anything. Gabi was numb.
Gabi had no idea she was even moving. But she was moving, being pulled by something… no… someone. Sarah was pulling her. Sound began to return to her ears.
“Run, Gabi! We have to run!” Sarah cried.
Somehow Gabi’s legs were moving under her. The ground below her feet was dry. She looked up, her headlamp pointing forward. She blinked. Beneath her the ground shook.
“Look!” Sarah said.
But Gabi didn’t look. She just blinked and ran.
“There. See it!? It’s a giant slab of stone. C’mon, Gabi! Twenty-five meters! You can do it! Run!”
The stone slab must have been nearly two meters thick and a dozen long.
Sarah threw herself behind the slab, dragging Gabi down with her.
Heavy footsteps shook the floor as the dragon ran toward them. The roar came so loud Gabi felt it through her chest, and she knew she was about to die, just like her father and her mother. With her back pressed to the slab, she covered her ears. Oh, dear María Purísima, she knew what came next. Behind her the monster’s roar became impossibly loud. In front of her the chamber wall suddenly glowed with emerald firelight. Then came the fire. The dragon fire struck the slab as they pressed their bodies against it, scrunching themselves into tight balls. Green flame whooshed over the top of the stone, changing to a blue-orange as it passed. Gabi screamed a silent scream drowned out by the dragon’s roar. Heat, horrible and rank, pressed down on them.
Sarah screamed too, but she was actually screaming words and motioning. “We can’t stay here! We have to move!” Sarah pulled on her arm.
The ground beneath began shaking again. The dragon was moving closer. Near the far wall, several small fires were now burning.
She watched numbly as Sarah scanned the wall for something.
“There! That shadow. Come on, Gabi!” Sarah pointed. “Let’s move!”
Sarah grabbed her hand and pulled, but she was frozen with fear.
“Gabi. Please, we move now, or we die! I won’t go without you, so if we stay, we die together!”
Gabi blinked again. No. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want Sarah to die. She managed to get to her feet.
“That’s it, Gabi! Now run!”
She did, and together they ran for the wall.
“Oh god! Oh god! Please let this be more than a shadow!” Sarah said as they approached the wall.
Behind them the dragon leapt onto the now burning stone slab and roared. There was nothing between the dragon and them. The wall lit up from behind them with a radiant greenish glow. Gabi felt the back of her shirt get hot, too hot, as she and Sarah ran full speed into the shadow. She put her hands up in front of her, unsure if she was running into a void or straight into the wall.
Gabi’s back began to burn.
40
I Won’t Let You Down
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
As cold lake water overwhelmed everything inside the darkened tomb, one creature still stirred. An oversized rat with a long scar across her left shoulder swam for her life. She swam out of the stone cell, across the chamber, slipping into the corridor. She needed air. She had to find the air.
She paddled through the darkness like she was born of water, like a natural, her oversized paws kicking rhythmically. Had she been a normal-sized rat she could have held her breath for three minutes tops, but with her size came the ability to hold her breath even longer. She swam down the corridor and into the cave.
Once in the cave she couldn’t find a way out, but she could feel it. The water was pulling past her. She followed it down into a crevice where the water moved fast. Yes, she thought, this must be the way. But then there was no way! A large fleshy creature blocked the way!
But something else was happening. Her mind was clearer than it had ever been. She was thinking and she knew things too. She knew something made her grow big. A strange creature, named Janis. Yes, and she knew other words too, like ‘human.’ She knew the one who made her big had died. She died at the same time a human boy… David? Yes, David. Janis died while David was putting the sunshine inside her.
That’s when the thinking started, that’s when her mind became different, when she was trying to eat his face. She didn’t want to eat his face now though. David fixed her. He took the pain back… and something else? He put something inside her. The sunshine. Yes, that, but something else too. When others yelled the name Janis and the room lit with fire, David thought of Janis, the girl died, and the healing went in. Now she was aware and thinking, and she knew things, but most of all she knew she didn’t want to die.
Her instincts told her she had to get past the fleshy thing to get out, but first she needed air. She swam up and found there was a small pocket of space between the ceiling and the water. Just enough space to stick her snout. Filling her lungs, she dove back down and went to work. She would gnaw and chew through the big fleshy thing, but she had hurry.
Feverishly, yet easily, she chewed through the flesh, tendons, and cartilage of the dead thing. She let her instinct guide her. Her powerful jaws compressed sharp incisors, effortlessly separating limbs at the joints. After several minutes of holding her breath she swam up to the small pocket of space at the ceiling of the cave, sucked in a breath, then dove back down to resume chewing on the only thing standing between her and freedom.
“Guys, I found the edge of the pit,” Lenny said, probing with his staff. “The drop-off is right here. We will have to swim across.”
Garrett moved to ease himself in when something large bumped into his back. As he reached out to push it away, he realized it was the giant’s arm. “What the…” Paul must have torn the giant’s arm off trying to keep it in the crevice? Then a second limb hit him, along with a sudden rise in the water. He was pretty sure it was part of the giant’s leg. He shone the light on where the leg had been severed. It looked like it had been chewed on. No, not chewed on… chewed through? Suddenly, comprehension clicked in his mind. The giant rats? They weren’t all dead after all, and they must be trying to get out! “Guys! Oh god! Guys, we need to hurry!”
“What now?” David shouted. Then he yelped, “What is that?! Is that a piece of the giant’s leg?”
Foregoing caution, Garrett dove in and swam the gap across the pit. Once across, he shouted, “Guys, go! Hurry!”
They rounded the bend back to Lincoln’s brick wall. But it was different from how they had left it. Before, the hole they had climbed through had been high up, but now a huge section of the wall had collapsed. Water rolled over the lower half of the remaining wall, down into the drainage tunnel below.
The drainage tunnel. Garrett didn’t need to see into it to know they were in trouble. The violent roar of gushing water told him his worst fears were realized. It must still be pouring outside.
They approached the drainage tunnel cautiously. The water rushing past them was moving like whitewater.
“Guys, we have to go for it,” Garrett said.
“What do you mean, go for it?” Lenny asked. “Because I know you can’t mean jump into… that!” He pointed toward the rapids below.
“We have to jump in. Let the water take us.”
“Have you lost your shit!?” David asked. “You want the water to take us where, Garrett? To the bottom of a brush pile? Over the dam, which you know is a damn death sentence in itself? And what about Coach? You think we can swim and still hold onto him – in the river? If we go in that river, we’re all as good as dead!” David yelled frantically over the roar of water blasting through the drainage tunnel.
Lenny stepped up next to David. “There has to be another way. David’s right – it’s pitch black out there. We
won’t even be able to see once we’re in the water.”
Garrett looked at his friends. Lenny hugged himself, shaking uncontrollably from the cold water. David’s mustache bounced as his jaw shivered, his fist full of Coach’s collar, the only thing preventing Coach from being pulled over the small wall. And Pete was present physically, but clearly his thoughts were still back in the temple – with Janis. The idea of asking his friends to willingly throw themselves into the freezing cold Sangamon River, a mere quarter mile from the busted dam, was insanity. Add darkness, a storm, and an unconscious man, and the already bad plan escalated to one of pure stupidity.
Another chunk of giant floated past them, quickly disappearing into the drainage tunnel. Garrett couldn’t tell if it was a leg or an arm. The tunnel was filling, and time was running out. Shit, we have to go, he thought. He turned to David. “You remember back in the dojo when you said you believe in me, but that I need to believe in myself?”
David’s eyebrows stitched together.
This was it. There would be no second chances. “You remember when you guys said you would follow me, even into fire? Well, this isn’t fire, but I’m asking you to trust me, to believe in me now.” Garrett turned back to David, his eyes shimmering in the low light of the headlamp. “I know you’re scared, David. We’re all scared, but believe in me now. We have to try! There’s no other way! Something is tearing that giant apart, and we’re about to get flushed.” He put his hand on David’s shoulder and pressed his lips into a flat line. “Follow me, David! I won’t let you down.”
David pressed his palms against the sides of his head. “Alright. Ah!” He nodded. “This is nuts, man! This is the craziest shit ever, but alright.” He sucked in a breath and clenched his fist, trying to control the fear. “What’s the plan?”
Garrett looked at Lenny and Pete.
Lenny forced a weak smile. “Balls.”
Pete shrugged.
Garrett let out a single relieved exhale. He didn’t know why he was relieved. He had just convinced his friends to follow him into a plunge to their deaths.
They positioned Coach on the edge next to the rushing water of the drainage tunnel, careful not to let him get washed away. “Okay, everyone grab ahold of Coach, and no matter what, don’t let go of him. He will be the link that keeps us all together. When you hit the river, swim like crazy for the bank and whatever you do, don’t let go of Coach.”
Everyone nodded, reluctantly working their way into position.
“Wait,” Lenny said, holding up a hand for quiet. “Did you hear that?”
Everyone froze, trying to listen for whatever Lenny had heard over the roar from the drainage tunnel. Then they all heard it. The shrieking of a rat being tossed about by a wave of crashing water heading right toward them.
“Guys, there’s nothing blocking that crevice anymore!” David shouted.
But then they heard something else – a voice. “Steady now! Stay… steady!”
“That’s Paul!”
“Now! Go!” Garrett yelled, grabbing ahold of Coach’s arm as he jumped into the drainage tunnel. Simultaneously everyone else did the same. David hugged one of Coach’s legs, Pete grabbed the other, and Lenny latched onto the arm opposite Garrett’s with one hand and his staff with the other.
Instantly they were swept away with a rush.
41
Into the River
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Underwater, Garrett’s ears filled with the roar of churning water mixed with high-pitched screeches as he and the others tangled and tumbled with the giant rat.
To and fro, Garrett was tossed before suddenly he was slammed against the bottom of the drainage pipe, a great furry weight crushing him then scrambling over him. For a brief instant, he thought all the air would be forced from his lungs, and in that moment, Garrett was sure he would die. Bre flashed through his mind. The thought of not keeping his word to Paul hurt more than the heavy rat squishing him. He wanted to live. To see them all, to keep his promise to Paul – to save Bre. He fought the urge to breathe, visualizing Bre’s eyes, her smile – her beauty. He was so close to giving in to the urge when he realized something. He had never heard Bre laugh. Oh, it must be a beautiful laugh. Probably the most beautiful sound god had ever created. He wanted so bad to know that laugh.
Garrett squeezed Coach’s arm for dear life, nearly losing it, but holding on. Then he was weightless, falling, ejected from the drainage pipe like so much refuse, and sent hurling through the wet night air. Time around him seemed to slow, but he wasn’t doing it. The moment was just so surreal. He sucked in a short gasp of air, aware of the rat, water, his friends, and even Paul – all falling weightless with him. Sightless in the night, he could only feel their consciousnesses around him. He gasped in again, shallowly, as he smashed into the river below, landing hard on his back amongst a tangle of knees and elbows, the river stealing the air from his lungs.
When Garrett’s body struck the water, he was ripped away from Coach. He moved with the current, frantically gasping for breath that wouldn’t come as he searched around for Coach and the others. But he was alone. He wanted to yell, and now that his head was above water, he should have been able to breathe, but his body wouldn’t let him. His diaphragm had tensed in spasms from the impact. He had had the wind knocked out of him before, but this felt so much worse than he had remembered. He heard a voice. Lenny! Garrett spun in a circle and found Lenny’s headlamp glowing in the distance.
“Garrett! Garrett!” Lenny shouted.
“Leeennnnnnyyy!” Garrett rasped, barely above a whisper. He sucked in short pulls of air as he fought the current. Something below him tugged. In his mind he told himself it was the current – only the current. Finally, through the short wheezing breaths, air was getting in. He kept his eye on Lenny’s headlamp as he tried to swim toward him, his legs heavy as if his ankles were wrapped in chains.
As Garrett approached the headlamp, his heart filled with relief when he saw Lenny and Pete still clutching Coach. Then as fast as hope rose it sank again. “Where’s David?!”
“What happened… to not letting go of Coach?” Lenny said through shivers.
“Lenny, David? Did you see what happened.”
“I don’t… know, I haven’t seen… him since the tunnel. We need to get out of this water, Garrett… I can’t feel my feet or hands,” Lenny said.
“He let go in the tunnel. I tried to grab him, but he kicked me in the face,” Pete said.
“Swim, guys, we got to get to the bank,” Garrett said through clenched teeth.
Together they pushed and kicked, somehow avoiding any brush piles. A few moments later they dragged Coach’s body onto the muddy bank of the Sangamon and collapsed.
Garrett pushed himself onto his hands and knees, the cold mud pushing between his fingers. They had somehow made it out of this nightmare, but where was David?
Lenny placed his head on Coach’s chest. “I think he’s dead, man.”
“Help! God, please… I… I can’t hold on!”
“That’s David!” Lenny announced.
“David! Where are you?” Garrett shouted back at the dark river.
David returned the shout, his voice difficult to hear over the rumble of the dam. “I’m slipping, man! I’m in a brush pile and I can’t hang on! It’s pulling me under! I don’t want to die! God, please! I don’t want to die! Not like this… not like this!”
Pete squinted in the direction of the shouts. “He’s pinned under a brush pile on the other side of the river!”
“I’m going in!” Garrett said, turning to Lenny, both on their feet now.
“You’ll never be able to cross it before you’re washed over!” Lenny argued.
“I have no choice! David trusted me!” Garrett shouted. He was so pissed at himself. He had given that damn speech about trust and believing in him, and now David was alone fighting for his life. If you ever believed in me, bel
ieve in me now… what a joke. “I asked him to follow me out of that stupid-ass pipe, Lenny!” Garrett stepped into the edge of the water. “I’m going,” he said with finality. Turning in the direction of David’s voice, he shouted into the night, “I’m coming, David!”
“Wait, Garrett, I’ll—” But it was too late. Garrett was gone as soon as he hit the water.
“Hey,” croaked a voice from behind him.
“What the!” Lenny spun, falling back onto the muddy bank. “Coach?”
“Where’s Garrett?” Coach asked, barely able to speak.
“I… I don’t know. He went back into the river to get David.” Lenny stood and shouted, “Garrett!”
“Damn that brick!” Coach growled. “I tried to save him from the worst part. I tried, dammit!”
Lenny frowned. “What are you talking about?” He turned back to the river uneasily, worry gripping his face like a mask as he searched the darkness. “Garrett!” he shouted in desperation. Where is he?
“The prophecy, Lenny. ‘The serpent shall swallow my son, delivering him to his death,’” Coach said, pointing his long elvish finger at the river. “I was stupid to interfere. Stupid to think I could keep him from dying.”
“What? You’re saying he’s going to die!?” Pete turned back to the dark water.
Lenny’s eyes sprung wide. “What! Die?!”
The elf nodded, but he was nodding to empty air – because Lenny was gone.
Lenny was on the same side of the river as the tunnel they had been spit out of. He was running to beat hell – no, to beat death. The shoreline between the tunnel and the dam was practically nonexistent, rising up dozens of feet at an unclimbable, near-vertical grade. What riverbank there was between Lenny all the way to the dam was littered with busted-up trees and broken slabs of concrete, some chunks as big as living room furniture – a preventive measure to reduce erosion on the town side of the river.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 28