Standing, Sully looks among the faces present and says, “We are out of fuel. The camper won’t start.” A collective gasp echoes from the children, as well as Sarah and Tom.
“What does that mean?” Riley’s small voice trembles then cracks with emotion.
“We’re going to die,” Sarah says flatly, and I wish she hadn’t, because tears immediately follow.
Will shoots her a stern look as he pulls his sobbing sister into his arms. “We’re not going to die. She didn’t mean it.” He speaks to Riley in a soothing tone. Only I can hear the hint of uncertainty there.
I stand and envelop June in my arms. “We’re going to be fine,” I say into her hair. I try to sound convinced, but in truth, I’m not. Without food and with limited water, even without Urthmen, our survival will still be compromised. Looking over her head to Sully, I ask, “How far away are we?”
He scratches his chin and looks out into the vast desert. “I’m not exactly sure. It could be only ten miles. It could be a lot more. It all looks the same. But I’ll know when I see the Joshua tree that sits in front of the huge boulder.”
“Joshua tree? I’ve never heard of a Joshua tree. Is that a real thing?” I ask. My father knew the names of all the trees in the forest in which we lived. He never once mentioned a Joshua tree.
“It looks like a regular tree, but the branches are really thick. And instead of flat leaves, it has evergreen-like leaves.”
“You mean needles?” I ask.
“Yup,” he nods.
I feel my brows knit. It’s hard to imagine anything growing out here other than the small clumpy spines that intermittently emerge from the dry earth.
“Trust me, it’s there,” he assure me as if intuiting my doubt. “A big, orangey-red boulder kind of frames it.” He traces a large, oblong shape with his index fingers. “Once we get to it, we’ll be fine.”
“This is crazy!” Sarah throws her arms in the air as she speaks stridently. “My brother is too weak to walk!”
“Sarah, we’re out of options. If your brother wants to live, he’ll walk,” Sully says with calm that astounds me.
“I’m okay, I can make it,” Tom chimes in.
“Good, glad that’s settled.” Sully claps his hands together. “Grab your weapons boys and girls. We’re hiking to New Washington.”
Everyone scatters and retrieves his or her weapons. I slip the straps of my scabbard over my shoulders and sheathe my sword. The weight at my back is familiar, comforting almost. Once each of us has what we need, we file out of the camper.
Bright, unfiltered light greets me. I blink several times, and then attempt to squint. But the glare from the pale sand at my feet and the intense white light beating down from overhead prevents me from doing even that. I clamp my eyes shut, the brilliant red behind my lids a welcome reprieve, before I try again. My eyes adjust slowly. They tear profusely at first before gradually acclimating to the blindingly bright world around me.
My eyes are not the only part of me slow to grow accustomed to the desert environment. The sun sears not only my retinas but my skin as well. Feeling so overheated my skin feels two sizes too tight for my insides, my body feels as if it will spontaneously burst into flames at any given minute.
“It’s so hot,” June shields her eyes with one hand and looks to the sun overhead. “The forest was never like this.”
Without a canopy of trees to block it, direct sunlight burns from above. “There aren’t any trees to shield us from the sun,” I tell her. Her cheeks are pink already. I fear for her pale skin, for my pale skin. “I know,” I agree. “The sun is strong. You have to keep your skin covered in order to protect it. Roll down your sleeves and take the shirt you have tied around your waste and drape it over your head.”
June tilts her head to one side skeptically.
“I’m serious. Just do it. I’m going to also.” I run back into the camper and grab the first shirt I see. I place it on my head and step outside once again. “See, I’m doing it too.” I show my sister that I’m following my own advice and she smiles.
“All right, let’s get moving. We don’t want to waste any time. The underground city is close. Let’s get there.” Sully rallies us then turns and begins walking in the sand and heading parallel to the roadway.
We walk for what feels like forever. Heat unlike any I’ve ever experienced singes every part of me. My lungs ache and my throat burns. My entire body throbs in time with my galloping heart. Dry heat feels as if it’s cooking me. My clothes, damp earlier, are dry now. Rumbling loudly, my stomach somersaults, hunger making known its demand for food. But there isn’t any food. And there’s very little water. The sight of a shimmering silver lake crawling across the landscape would make me weep with joy. So would the sight of a plump rabbit, or a squirrel. Heck, I’d take a rat at this point! But I know none of what I wish for is possible. The climate is inhospitable. Animals can’t survive, not without a source of food or water, which doesn’t bode well for us.
A quick glance at June concerns me. Her cheeks are a red so unhealthy they border on magenta. She pants, her breathing short and shallow. She catches me watching her and offers up a thin but determined smile. I smile back at her then, speeding my pace so that I am beside Sully, I ask, “Are we almost there?”
Sully continues a few steps then stops. His eyes go wide. He points. “There,” he gasps. “The landmark. It’s just past it.”
In the distance and to the west where the sun inches its way toward the horizon, a giant rock the color of rust rises from the ground. Before it, a tree trunk with thick limbs and spiny barbs at their tips nearly reaches the summit of the rock. It resembles a multi-tentacled beast. “The tree,” I sigh. “We’re here.”
“Not quite. Now we have to walk deeper into the desert, away from the road. And even once we get to the tree it’s a bit of a hike from it.”
Hearing us, Will joins in our conversation. “How far is it?”
“Not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say another five miles to the tree.”
“Five miles!” The words rocket from me in a shout.
Will looks at me sympathetically while Sully’s gaze is apologetic. None of this is anyone’s fault. We’re all in this together.
Behind me, a loud thud precedes a shrill cry. “Oh no! Tom!” Sarah’s voice pierces the eerie stillness of the desert. We all turn in the direction of her voice and find that Tom is face down in the sand. Sarah scrambles to her knees and Sully and Will rush to help him up. “Are you all right?” Sarah drapes her arm over his shoulder and walks alongside him.
“I’m okay. I’ll make it,” Tom barely manages.
After Tom takes a long drink from the canteen, we each share the last of the water.
“It’ll be dark soon.” Sully points to the sinking sun. “As soon as the sun sets, it gets dark fast. Maybe we should rest a bit before we go any further.”
As much as I want to protest stopping to sleep when we’re so close, I can’t physically form the words. I’m simply too exhausted.
The children don’t need to be told a second time. They drop to the ground immediately. Oliver curls into a ball on his side. His olive skin looks sickly and ashy. June and Riley do the same, using their backpacks as pillows.
“I guess this is as good a place as any,” Sully smiles at the children sadly. He kneels and sets his bag down then leans against it. Will helps Sarah with Tom, and then lowers himself to a sitting position. I sit down beside June. Everyone shifts and fidgets. The skyline swallows the sun and the air cools significantly. The temperature transitions from unbearably hot to pleasant. I would be comfortable were it not for the relentless hunger and thirst plaguing me. And exhaustion.
Leaning back until my head touches sand, I allow my eyes to close, to rest for just a moment. Quickly, however, velvety darkness beckons me, tempting me with a relief, a reprieve from the never-ending sea of blanched and barren land. I succumb to it, waking only when the violent tremors besetting my body forc
e my eyes open.
The sky above is an inky canvas speckled with more stars than I’ve ever seen in my life. The moon, round and fat, seems closer than usual. It casts stony light all around us. Cold has settled over the terrain. My mind struggles to comprehend how the daylight hours were so warm yet as soon as the sun plummeted, so too did the temperature. My eyes roam the group. June’s knees are tucked to her chest and her eyes are open. Her gaze locks on me. “I’m f-freezing,” she says.
“Me, too,” I answer.
“I’m awake and freezing also.” Sully’s head pops up. Then, one by one, everyone rouses. “We need to move to keep warm,” Sully says. He stands and dusts the sand from his clothes.
The notion of walking makes me want to cry, but trying to sleep when I’m thirsty, hungry and shivering doesn’t sound much better. Reluctantly, everyone stands and begins walking.
We move slowly, creeping at the pace of those who’ve been battered so badly their legs creak with every step. In many ways, we are. We walk until the moon disappears, awakening the sun.
Ginger streaks alternate with rich mauve bands, deepening in color as they fuse with lilac and pastel blue. We pass the Joshua tree and the boulder, continuing until my legs feel as though they’ll give way beneath me. Sully is a dark silhouette against the rising sun. He stops moving abruptly.
“Why are you stopping?” I ask
“We’re here,” Sully says.
I look left then right. I see nothing but flat, open space. The sand is smooth and uninterrupted by bumps that would indicate a hatch below. “Uh, I don’t think so.”
“What? Where?” Will asks.
“Right below us,” Sully answers.
Reflexively, I look to my feet, and for the first time since meeting Sully, I don’t believe him. Where we stand looks identical to the rest of the desert. “Okay, where?”
“Just wait, Avery, okay?”
“Wait? Wait! Are you kidding me? And you never answered my question from earlier. If this underground city is beneath us, as you claim it is, and if President Sullivan is such a tough leader like you say he is then what makes you so sure he’ll let us in? How do we know we didn’t just come all the way out here for nothing?” Hunger, thirst, and exhaustion jumble my thoughts and spawn my temper. I am shaking internally and externally.
“This trip wasn’t a waste of time, if that’s what you’re thinking.” His gaze is unwavering and sincere as it is leveled my way. “And I’m sure he’ll let us in because I’m John Sullivan Jr. Sully’s my nickname. President Sullivan is my father.”
Sully turns from me, from all of us, and walks to an unremarkable rock nearby. Leaning over it, he gazes into it and raises his arms over his head.
“What the heck is he doing?” Will nudges me and asks.
“I don’t know—” I start but the words freeze in my throat. The ground beneath my feet rumbles several times.
“Avery, I’m scared!” June shrieks and races to my side. I push her behind me protectively as the earth shakes again. A low, rolling growl echoes and I look all around, half-expecting to see a rock avalanche under way. To the contrary, the rocks do not fall, they rise, still attached to pale silt, as the ground opens up and a large cube surfaces.
Sully turns from the box to us. “Welcome to New Washington.” A lopsided smirk tilts one side of his mouth. I plant my feet, June clinging to my back, and hope I don’t faint. The entrance to the underground city arose from nowhere. I should be thrilled. But a part of me worries that taking my sister here will be the worst mistake I have ever made.
Chapter 11
Pitching backward, I stagger before finding my footing and unsheathing my sword. The large, metal box before me is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life, and for reasons I can’t explain, I don’t trust its presence. Tan and shiny, it looks as if it’s been polished to a high shine. It doesn’t look as if it’s tunneled through dirt and rock until reaching the surface. Warning shrieks through my core, echoing through the hollows of my being. I want to run, to order the others to run, but my legs feel as if they’ve taken root in the barren soil underfoot, and my words are lodged behind the lump of dread clogging my throat. So I stay as I am, silently clutching my weapon so hard my nails bite into my palm, with June trembling behind me.
“Oh my gosh,” Will comments. His mouth is partly open and his eyes are wide, locked on the box. “This can’t be real. It’s impossible.”
I want to reply, want to agree with him wholeheartedly and add to it that we need to flee, but I’m speechless. My lips are parted on a silent gasp and I’m vaguely aware of the fact that I haven’t blinked in some time. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and cold have fallen by the wayside. All I can focus on is the container that’s erupted impossibly from the ground.
Without warning, an invisible seam at the center of the wall facing us parts. Doors open and reveal ten beings I assume are human. I cannot see them clearly as they are clad from head to toe in some kind of gear. Glossy and thick, it squeaks faintly when they advance.
“Avery, what’s going on?” June cries. “I’m scared!”
I am, too. I take an instinctive step backward, one arm behind me and wrapped around June. “I don’t know. Just stay close.” My voice is raspy as I speak, and my eyes never leave the cluster of oddly dressed beings.
The closer they draw the better able I am to discern that they are, in fact, human. A clear, rectangular swath of material on their heads reveals facial features that resemble ours. Noses, eyes and mouths reside where they ought to and do not bear a resemblance to Urthmen. Despite their human appearance, they don’t look pleased to see us, not in the least.
Brows lowered, eyes narrowed and mouths pressed to hard lines are all I see. And weapons, deadly weapons I recognize as crossbows, are in their hands.
“Why are they armed? Sully, why are they armed?” I shout above the shuffle of booted feet rushing toward us.
In a blur of pale color that melds with the desert landscape, the beings that arose from the earth swarm, descending on us as if we’re the enemy. Chaos explodes all around us. “Drop your weapons!” one shouts. “Get down!” another screams. Orders are shouted from every direction and each positions himself close to one of us.
“What? What’s going on? We’re human,” Will exclaims as he lowers his weapon.
“On your knees!” one shouts, his crossbow aimed at Will’s face.
Will complies and is promptly detained with his arms behind his back. Metal cuffs keep them in place.
Visions of being captured by the Urthmen, and the arena, flash in my mind’s eye. Panic sets in. June. All I can think of is June. She’s still behind me, for now. But I know that in seconds she, too, will be handled roughly as Will has been. I’m not sure I’ll be able to witness that without swinging my sword, and doing that will undoubtedly lead to casualties in our group. Cringing at the thought of losing anyone, I continue to hold tight to my blade and try to breathe deeply. I must control the rage rising with in me. I need to stay calm, but it’s hard; especially since I don’t know who I’m angrier with, them or me. What have I led my sister to? What have I led all of us to?
Two of the strangely clothed men make their way to Sully. “Weapons on the ground now,” they order him. Wordlessly, he drops his guns and knives then looks to Jericho. After a small nod from Sully, Jericho surrenders his mallet.
“It’s okay,” Sully looks at Riley and Oliver. “Just do what they say, okay?” The children drop their blades. Even June drops hers. I am the last to relinquish my sword.
“Drop it,” the man before me in the oversized rubber suit says.
I do not do as he says. I remain as I am, my eyes fixed on his.
“Just do it, Avery. Drop you weapon. Everything’s going to be all right. Trust me.” Though Sully’s voice is calm, there’s an edge to it, one I cannot place. Perhaps it’s mere alarm, and the intensity of the moment is toying with my mind, making me think he’s afraid, or at the very least not a
s confident as he wants to sound. Regardless, I’ve never heard him sound as he does. “Come on, Avery. We’ve got to get inside. We need to get out of the sun. We need food and water,” Sully says, only this time he sounds as he always does.
Reluctantly, I lower my sword. “My sword will be returned to me,” I say as soon as the metal touches silt. My gaze is trained on the man before me, the threat of violence quivering through the air like the strike of a finely honed blade. Only unbeknownst to him, it is he who should be in fear of his life, not the other way around, as he clearly hopes I am.
“Put your hands behind your back,” one of the men shouts. All of us who haven’t been cuffed yet will be. A man steps toward June. “Hands behind your back. Let’s go.” I spin to face him, my move drawing the attention of several of their team. More than one crossbow is trained on me.
“Avery, what’s going on here?” June’s voice quivers. Her eyes are pleading and filled with unshed tears.
Metal restraints are clapped on her wrists. Her hands are bound behind her back and the man shoves her forward with his forearm. She winces. The man has been too rough with her.
Something inside me stretches thin then snaps. “Hey!” I scream, my voice springing forth from a place inside me, deep and primitive. “Get your hands off her!” I lunge at him but am immediately tackled to the ground. Voices ring out. I’m vaguely aware of my name being shouted, of Sully and Will yelling, but they are drowned by the incessant buzz my ear produces as soon as my head meets with the hard ground below. Pain explodes at my temple and pinpricks of white light fill my field of vision. I am flipped onto my stomach. A knee is pressed to my back, and my hands are shackled behind me.
“Everybody’s secured?” one of the men calls out.
“That’s affirmative,” another answers.
“Good, let’s load them on the elevator and get back down. We’ve been up here too long.”
The Underground City (Book 3): Planet Urth, no. 3 Page 11