She reached for a glass of water from on top of a wood crate that had been tipped onto its side, now posing as a nightstand. “You don’t have to talk, Garrett. I know you have questions for me, but all in time.” She placed the glass to his lips, tipping it carefully. “Right now, I think you want to know what happened?”
He took a long pull from the glass and nodded.
Elaine sat the water down and turned to Lenny, who Garrett hadn’t even noticed was sitting in an overstuffed chair across the tiny room. “Lenny never left your side, Garrett. He should be the one to tell you what happened. Now, Lenny, I am going to leave you two alone while I get Garrett some food. You must be starved,” Elaine said, standing. “Oh, Garrett, we are so proud of you.” She smiled.
Garrett saw it then, the false smile. A smile created to conceal a truth, but it was thin as paper, as transparent as window glass. Behind the smile was stress. But more, there was a deep exhaustion like she hadn’t slept in days. “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“You okay?” he asked, realizing too late how stupid the question was.
“I am now,” she reassured him. Then nodding she said, “Talk to your friend. I’ll be back.”
Lenny stood and grabbed the small wooden chair Elaine had occupied, spun it around, and straddled it. “Bro, that was seriously awkward listening to you confuse your mom with a hot chick you clearly want to hook up with. I would give you crap, but considering we have a shit ton to cover I’m going to let it slide!” Lenny laughed and rubbed his hands together. “Alright, let’s start with rat boy. Apparently back when we were in the chamber, a rat cornered David. He woke up with the thing licking his face.” Lenny shivered involuntarily and pulled a face. “Anyway, David says he ‘freaked out,’” – Lenny gave the words air quotes – “and screamed, and I mean, who could blame him, right? Yeah, well, whatever. Little mustached creep probably liked it. David tries to push it off and as he does his hand slips into a bloody cut on the side of the rat. Nasty, right!? Well, without even trying he gets the Bruce Leroy glow and he heals the rat. David said with everything happening so fast he didn’t have time to think about it and just got the hell out of there. But later when he was drowning under the brush pile, he said the rat crashed into it, knocking him off. And, bro, here’s the best part! Paul was on the rat’s back! He’s alive, bro! He yells at David, ‘Grab on!’ So David grabs the thing’s tail! Can you believe that shit!? Rats are great swimmers and apparently giant rats are even better. The rat walked right up onto the bank and then laid down so Paul could climb off! Un-freaking believable!”
“No. Not unbelievable. The last thing I remember before I went under was seeing Paul, David, and the rat,” Garrett said huskily.
“Well, there you go! Here, take another drink – you sound like ass.”
Garrett took a drink. “Where is Pete?”
“Well, he hasn’t exactly been himself, but he is starting to come around, I think. Anyway, and this is kind of weird, Paul said the rat had the same golden eyes as Janis. He also said the rat seemed to know him. After it squeezed though the crevice it swam under Paul and lifted him to the top of the water. He rode the thing out!”
“Crazy,” Garrett said.
“Crazier than a shithouse rat! So, Petey has been down at the river every day trying to find it. I told him to just leave the thing alone before he ends up with rabies. I mean the dude already made out with a space alien elf chick – who knows what he will do if he finds that rat!” Lenny laughed.
“Len,” he began hoarsely, “how am I alive? I was going over the dam, I know I was… it was right there… but then I… I think I died.”
The door flew open and David burst in, clean-shaven except for his mustache, which seemed strangely longer, with twisted ends. “I heard you were awake!” he said, approaching the bed and slapping Garrett on the shoulder.
Garrett grimaced involuntarily. The friendly pat sent a shock wave through his body, lighting up all the soreness from worn muscles down through his aching chest and bruised ribs before settling into his strained legs.
“We were just talking about you, rat boy,” Lenny said.
“I told you not to call me that, Lenny.” David’s eyes narrowed.
“Take it easy. I Just finished telling the part about how you healed the rat that you and Paul rode out of the river.”
“Oh, did you tell the part about how you saved him yet? You didn’t, did you? Oh, let me! You told my part – come on, let me tell yours!”
Lenny held up his hands. “Go ahead, it would be weird for me to tell it anyway.”
David flopped down on the edge of the bed. “Right. So check this, Lenny got some superpower at the last minute and could see you out in the river, heading right for the dam. You were already… well, you weren’t moving. I mean you were moving down river, but you weren’t moving.”
“Jesus, David, he knows what you mean,” Lenny said.
Garrett pushed up onto his elbows, winced, and fell back into the pillow. “You got night vision? Wait, like Janis said she had?”
“Yep, and then—”
“Anyway!” One horn of David’s mustache rose higher than the other in a threatening sneer. “I’m telling it. So, suddenly Lenny figures what he has to do and takes off running right for the busted part of the dam. Then you know what this guy does?” He paused for dramatic effect. “He jumps in!”
Garrett looked at Lenny in disbelief. “Into the busted dam, Len?”
Lenny shrugged.
“I know, right?! He doesn’t land in the water per se, he sort of…” He paused again – this time not for effect but to find a way to tell it. “Okay, you ever see those martial arts movies where the kung fu guys run across the treetops?”
Garrett nodded. Silly question – he and Lenny had seen just about every kung fu movie ever made.
“Well, that’s what he did. He landed on the water – then he ran across it, feather light.” David waved his hand in a long arc while wiggling his fingers. “His feet barely made contact with the water. It was insane, just like in those kung fu movies. I was on the opposite side of the river, the side you found me on, Garrett. So I didn’t see him jump in, but I heard Lenny’s voice shout this, I dunno, war cry from across the dam. So I turn, like, what the hell? The next thing I see is the silhouette of Lenny running on top of the water! Then just as you start to go over, Lenny reaches down with his staff, hooks you by the collar, and takes – oh what, Lenny? about three more strides? – while dragging you through the water.” He doesn’t wait for Lenny to respond. “Laws of physics be dammed, next thing I know Lenny’s pulling you off the dam and laying you out on the shore. I stood there frozen for a minute. I couldn’t believe it. Once you were on the bank, we laid you out flat on your back.”
“You healed me?” Garrett asked.
David looked down and shook his head gravely. “Heck no, Garrett. There wasn’t nothing for me to heal. You were gone. Dead as a doornail.”
Garrett frowned and looked at Lenny.
“He’s telling the truth. You didn’t have a pulse, bro. I thought for sure I lost my best friend.” Lenny placed a hand on Garrett’s arm.
“Then how am I… how am I here?”
“Well, just because you were dead, wasn’t either one of us ready to give up,” David said, a smile stretching back across his face. “I tried to heal you with the glow a few times, but with you being dead it wouldn’t come.” He turned to Lenny, frowning now. “And no matter how many times this dickhole threatened to kill me if I didn’t save you, the glow still wouldn’t come. Like I tried to explain in the moment, there has to be life to heal and you didn’t have any. But Lenny wasn’t hearing it, so he starts giving you CPR and, for the record, I may have had to lip lock with you.” David waggled his eyebrows, which made his mustache twitch creepily.
“And for the record, I think he liked it. He had that ’stache all up in your mouth,” Lenny added.
“So anyway,” David said, frowni
ng, “we gave you CPR for what seemed like, I don’t know, forever.” He took a deep breath, casting his eyes down at the floor, and tears began to well.
Garrett scrunched his brows together. “What is it?”
“I told Lenny you were gone – that you were dead. I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back. I told him I was sorry but there was nothing more we could do. Don’t you see, Garrett? I gave up on you.” He raised his watery eyes. “Lenny shrugged me off. He screamed at you. He told you that you weren’t allowed to die – that you were just getting started. He said he needed you – that the world needed you. He got right in your face and screamed that Bre needed you, and then he started beating on your chest. I knew it was desperate and hopeless, and I just started crying. Then you know what? Your eyes sprang open, Garrett! And then you ralphed river water all over Lenny! It was the best thing I ever saw!”
Garrett looked over at Lenny, smiled, and nodded. “Thanks, bro.”
Lenny grabbed Garrett and wrapped his arms around him in a huge hug that was incredibly painful, but he didn’t care.
David was crying. “You never gave up on me. You crossed the river and came back for me, and what did I do? I gave up too soon.”
“David, you’re looking at this all wrong,” Garrett said. “You didn’t give up. You were just trying to help another friend accept an awful truth. I don’t blame you for that!”
David smiled and threw himself onto Garrett.
As the laughter quieted, David took on an all-too-serious expression. “Seriously, Garrett, you came back for me. I’ll never forget that, not as long as we live. Never.”
Garrett nodded and then shot David a smirk. “Well, if I’d known you were going to get curbside service from Paul riding a rat, I would’ve kept my ass grounded.” But somehow, he knew the river would have just found another way to pull him in. “Hey, where is Paul?”
“Normally he isn’t far from your bedside. Pacing back and forth, waiting for you wake up,” Lenny said.
“He’s feeling better then?”
“All healed up thanks to yours truly,” David said.
“And Coach?” Garrett asked.
“Once we got you guys back across, David healed him then passed out right after—”
Garrett cut him off. “What! You healed him, David! He’s alive?”
David’s eyes fell to the floor. “I been trying, Garrett, and he did regain consciousness yesterday, but I don’t think I had much to do with it. I don’t know why, but it feels different when I try to heal him, like he is resisting it somehow. I wasn’t even healing him when he woke up. I think it’s because he isn’t human.”
Garrett’s heart sank. He had known Coach was in bad shape, but he had hoped he would somehow be okay. He had so many questions that he was sure Coach could have answered. A heavy sadness hung in the air. “I want to see him.”
David nodded. “I will take you there when you’re ready.”
Garrett sighed and pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing. “So where is here anyway? I feel like I’m in a basement or something.”
His mother reappeared with a tray of food. The small room filled with the aromas of fresh-made bread coated in butter and jam, fresh pineapple, and cured meats. A tall glass of bright orange juice thick with pulp sat on the tray. She set the tray carefully onto Garrett’s lap. “Take it slow, Garrett – you haven’t eaten anything in days. You’ve been getting all your nutrition intravenously.”
Intravenously? Whatever that meant. Garrett grabbed the juice and gulped half of it down. Juice had never tasted better. “This is amazing. Thank you!” He sighed in satisfaction as he reached for a piece of bread.
“Slow, Garrett. Now, I need to see James and let him know you are awake. I will leave you boys to finish catching up but, Lenny, you make sure he takes his time with this food.” Elaine bent and kissed Garrett on the forehead.
As the door pulled closed Garrett said, “You were about to tell me where we are?”
Lenny nodded. “You’re under the dojo.”
“Under the dojo, but it burnt down?”
Lenny stood up. “Yeah, well under isn’t exactly right. One of the entrances to this place is under the dojo, but you’re probably a block to the east, under the old hotel on the other side of Route 6. There is a whole underground labyrinth down here.”
Garrett looked around the small room with renewed curiosity. Suddenly his mind shifted gears. Why am I in a basement? Why is it lit by lanterns when there is a perfectly fine light fixture with a pull chain mounted in the middle of the ceiling? “Guys… what’s going on?”
“Right, well after we got you guys out of the river, we were all borderline hypothermic.” Lenny shivered at the memory. “I hadn’t even had a chance to think about how we were going to all get back across the river when suddenly dozens of people showed up on the dam with lanterns. A few minutes later a john boat paddled up to shore with James at the helm. They wrapped us all in blankets, loaded us up, and brought us here.” Lenny sat back down. “I was too cold and tired to think about it at the time, but now I’m pretty sure the Keepers were watching us, waiting to let it all play out before they interfered. By the time we all got to the square, dozens more people were there waiting for us – waiting for you.”
“Dozens of Keepers?” Garrett asked.
Lenny reached toward Garrett’s tray. “Hundreds, Garrett! People we’ve known all our lives.”
David slapped Lenny’s hand. “Don’t even think about it.”
“What? Like who?” Garrett asked.
Lenny pulled his hand back and shot David a look. “Ms. Harris, Mr. Bloomer, Mr. Holly, Tony from the bait shop, Mr. Bowman from the drugstore and his wife and kid, George. Who else? Oh—”
“Wait, Mr. Holly, the principal, is a Keeper?” Garrett asked.
David laughed. “I know, right? I always hated that guy!”
“Man, I’m just getting started. You got Officer Cullen; the librarian, Ms. Cleary; Ben, the bartender – you remember that guy? Oh! And our high school secretary, Thomas; Mayor Bedfield… Well, you get the point. There are a lot of them.”
“All of them!” Garrett said, sitting up too fast, nearly spilling his juice. His head spun and he slumped back down.
Lenny waved his hands in concern. “Easy, bro. You’ve been sleeping for a while, best to go slow.”
“Right. How long have I been asleep?”
Lenny and David looked at each other, then back at Garrett.
“Ten days now,” David said.
“Ten days!” He bolted upright again.
Lenny was ready this time and snatched the juice glass from the tray before it toppled.
Again, Garrett’s head spun, but he stayed sitting up, waiting for it to pass. “We have to get started.”
Lenny and David looked at each other and smiled.
“We know, Garrett, and we will be ready when you are. But first your people are waiting to see you,” David said.
“My people? What are you talking about?” Garrett didn’t like this at all. He could clearly see the looks they were sharing like they had some big secret they weren’t spilling.
“Garrett, there is a book you need to read – well, not a book as much as a…” Lenny looked up, searching for the word as if he expected it to be stamped on the ceiling.
Garrett looked up too. “What?”
“Oh shit, man, just tell him already,” David said, unable to stand the suspense any longer. “Dude, you’re going to get so many chicks.”
Lenny shook his head. “You’re kind of a big deal now, man. Turns out this book of Turek’s told how all this would go. The whole prophecy thing, remember? But it is way more than just what happened in the temple. I don’t want to ruin the end for you, but it tells us what we’re supposed to do next. Says we’re going to set things right, and you’re going to lead us.”
46
The Giant King
Thursday, April 7 – God Stones Day 2
&n
bsp; Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
The sound of stone scraping across stone raked pain through Gabi’s skull. She forced open her eyes to a vision of blurred beige. Near her, she heard a great grunt and the ground beneath her shook. She blinked her eyes until the blur cleared to reveal she was surrounded by limestone. Where am I? Carefully she pushed herself up onto her palms and looked for the source of the sound.
Her heart caught when she saw the massive giant lifting a large chunk of stone, hugging it to his chest like a burlap bag of fresh-picked coffee. It seemed to pay her no attention as it walked toward an opening and out onto some kind of ledge. She understood now, she was no longer in camp. She was up the mountain, inside the opening the giant had come from. The entrance to the pyramid? She looked the other way, down the newly unclogged corridor. It was only partially cleared – that was what the giant was doing, she realized, clearing the stone that filled the corridor. María Purísima, her head hurt! Carefully she touched the lump on the back of her head and inspected her hand, expecting to see blood, but there was none. She looked at the ceiling. It was made of smoothly worked stone that spanned the width of the corridor, with flawless seams every meter or so. This meant the rubble the giant was removing wasn’t a collapse – it was placed here intentionally. To hide this place. Why else?
The giant tossed the boulder over the side then turned back to face her. He took three long strides toward her.
Gabi pushed herself back against the cool stone wall. Her heart was beating so fast now. It was going to kill her! She lifted her hands, palms out, as if she could push him away.
The giant, easily over three meters tall, bent toward her, its big, black eye coming close to her. “You fear me?”
Gabi froze. It’s speaking to… to me? But its lips didn’t move – did they?
The giant rose back to its full height. “You are in pain?” he asked, and the single orb in the middle of its face blinked. “Please, let me help.”
Suddenly a warmth, like warm water, filled her head, then her neck and back. It wasn’t the feeling of water being poured over her head, but a wet warmth in her head. It felt wonderful. Then, as the feeling of warm water faded, her pain went with it. She blinked and rubbed the back of her head. The lump was gone, and her back no longer stung.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 31