Sonora, and the Scroll of Alexandria

by Travis Hall

  “So first we’re going to learn how to create a bubble underneath our feet,” Yeti said. “I want you to close your eyes, pull in the hadrons, and push them into the bottoms of your feet. You’ll need to focus the energy in a straight line, or else it will dissipate out from the sides.” As Yeti spoke, she lifted up from the ground, standing on an invisible bubble of energy. Then she dropped down slowly. “All right, your turn.”

  They all closed their eyes and tried to mimic the lesson. Allora started to get one of her feet to lift but stumbled as the other wouldn’t move. She tried over and over but couldn’t quite get it to work. After an hour, Tanner was finally able to create a full bubble and contain it for a minute. He helped the others until they were all able to create full bubbles.

  “All right, now comes the hard part,” Yeti said, stepping out onto the edge of the cliff. “You’ll need to create a bubble that will slow your descent and cushion the fall into the snow.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Katie said, peering over the side.

  “Come on. It’s easy. Just feel the hadrons flow in a circular pattern, pushing up on the bottoms of your feet. And don’t worry. I’ll be down at the bottom in case you are not able to do it.”

  Yeti stepped to the edge, looked back, smiled, and then fell. They all leaned over, watching as she reached ten feet off the ground, slowed, and stopped inches from the small crater that was created from the pressure of the energy beneath her feet.

  “Who’s first?” Dax asked.

  “Not it,” Katie said.

  “I’ll go, you chickens,” Tanner said, his toes on the cliff’s edge.

  Without warning he stepped off the cliff and dropped quickly. Miraculously, he was able to create a perfect bubble, slow his descent, and drop down into the powdery snow almost exactly as Yeti had done.

  “Show-off!” Dax yelled, cupping his mouth.

  Allora decided to go next. She looked out onto the white landscape, took a deep breath, and stepped off. She waved her arms like a windmill, trying to make sure her balance kept her feet going downward. Focusing the hadrons in her body, she pushed them into her feet as she watched the ground coming at her. Her right side was able to push down a bubble, slowing her descent, but her left side didn’t work, making the bubble lopsided. Panicked, Allora accidently pushed down further, which created a larger bubble on one side. The energy contained underneath her acted as a spring, flipping her sideways, spinning her erratically, and then crashing her into the snow with her feet in the air. Allora gasped at the cold cocoon and kicked her feet. Yeti stomped in the snow and pulled Allora’s feet into the air, laughing at Allora’s white face as she spit out snow.

  “I don’t think I did that right,” Allora said as Yeti let her down.

  They looked up at the twins, who kept moving back and forth from the cliff’s edge. After five minutes of waiting, they saw both with their fingers dropping, counting down. Then both leapt off at the same time. Yeti could tell that they weren’t slowing, and she pushed both hands forward right before the twins hit the ground. They both bounced off the bubble and flew overhead, diving headfirst into the snow.

  “Not exactly the most successful outing, but not too many get it the first time around,” Yeti said, pulling the twins out by their legs. “The launch will be easier.”

  “Yeah, right,” Katie said, wiping the cold flakes from her face.

  From the snow, Yeti instructed them to create a bubble of energy underneath themselves as they had done before. Once they were all able to lift off from the snow, Yeti faced out toward the long valley of white.

  “Now you’ll need to push down on the bubble as if you’re bouncing on a spring, and then concentrate additional hadrons through your legs. As you come up, push everything you have downward. This will launch you into the air.”

  Yeti demonstrated, rocketing over a hundred feet into the sky and dropping down over two hundred feet away. She returned the same way, landing cleanly in front of them.

  “All right, I got this,” Dax said confidently, stepping forward.

  He created the bubble underneath himself, bounced, and pushed down. When he launched, his feet came out backward, flipping him straight up. He screamed as his body kept flipping in cartwheels and then dropped back into the snow a few feet in front of the group. They sloshed through the powder, stopping at the perfect silhouette of Dax’s figure lying prone.

  “That was graceful,” Tanner said, extending Dax his hand to help him up.

  Allora chose to go next, hoping to redeem herself after her last attempt. After getting a few more pointers from Yeti, she created a bubble, bounced, pushed all of her energy down, leaned forward with bent knees, and launched herself into the air. The wind rushed at her as she flew upward. When Allora started her descent, she rotated her feet forward and focused her body’s hadrons downward. As she got closer to the ground, the flowing energy made her lopsided again, but this time she corrected it. The landing wasn’t perfect as she wobbled toward the snow, but she was able to drop down without incident. Once on the ground, she raised both arms into the sky like a gymnast after her event. Muffled cheers echoed from the others. Tanner followed. He successful completed a bubble jump on his first try and landed it perfectly. Allora jokingly sneered at his cocky smile.

  Yeti helped Katie as she struggled to complete the jump. It took her twenty more cracks at it before she was able to get into the air.

  They all spent the rest of the day jumping in the snowy valley, getting better with each new attempt. When the sun dipped into the western mountain range, they all jumped back toward the cliff. The precision jump to the ledge was much more difficult, but they all managed to do it after a few awkward shots.

  When they stepped back through the liquid cavern wall, Milly and Mr. Swan were quietly talking at the stone table, while Abe was brewing tea. Snowball lay curled up with his fur on top of his right shoulder. His beady black eyes peeked out at the new arrivals.

  “How’d it go?” Milly asked.

  “Well, they need a little more practice, but not bad for their first time out,” Yeti responded, grabbing the tea tray and placing it onto the table. Everyone pulled off their gloves and grabbed the warm mugs, cupping them with both hands to warm their frozen fingers.

  “How did the interrogation go?” Allora asked.

  “Not so well,” Milly said.

  “Pipmar is dead,” Mr. Swan said. “Someone got to him before we could get there.”

  “How did that happen?” Allora asked.

  “We’re not sure,” Mr. Swan said, leaning his elbows on the stone. “Whoever got to him poisoned the food that was brought into his cell. Theus is reviewing the logs and surveillance.”

  “Now what?” Tanner said.

  “Against my better judgment, we’ve decided that you four should continue to search for the lost city of Alexandria,” Milly said, causing Allora to cough and spit her tea. “If this scroll is as important as Mr. Swan claims, it may be just what we need to figure out what Salazar has planned for Earth. I’d have preferred that he do this on his own.” Milly said slowly. She glared at Swan and then looked toward Allora. “But since you’ve got some of Ben’s memories, it may be easier for you to find it.”

  Allora was so excited that she knocked over the brass teapot as she hugged her mother.

  “There is a condition to this. You must have one of us with you whenever and wherever you go outside of Sandy. It’s getting far too dangerous. Promise me?”

  “I promise.”

  Milly leaned over, eyeing the rest of them.

  “We promise,” they said in unison.

  After saying good-bye to Abe and Yeti, they went to the back of the cavern and down a long tunnel toward the stationary portal room. Allora walked with Milly in the back of the group.

  “Why the change of heart?” Allora asked.

  “My brother always tried to convince me that you were supposed to play a part in his plans to find these artifacts. We
fought for years about it. I made him a promise that if the time should come when you found his path yourself, I’d support you, even if I didn’t agree with it, which I still don’t.” Allora smiled with guilty satisfaction upon hearing her mother’s words. The tunnel opened up into a wide staircase that led into a chamber. “That doesn’t mean that you get to run off on your little adventures whenever you like.” Milly stopped before they met the others at the stationary portal room, grabbing Allora by the shoulder with two hands. “I’m serious. There are people who will stop at nothing to find us and kill us. Until we can figure out a way to find another safe place to live, you must be as cautious as possible.”

  “Mom,” Allora said, stopping in her tracks, “if I were gone…if I wasn’t there, would Salazar be as interested in our town as he is?”

  “Don’t you dare even think that. We are a team, a family, and we stand by each other no matter what. And everyone in Sandy is a part of that family. I will not have you thinking that way. Got it?”

  Allora nodded, and then Milly went through the stationary portal back to Sas’s cave. Everyone else followed, leaving Tanner and Allora to be the last ones through. He stopped her before she could enter the blackened doorframe.

  “Hey, what are you doing for Morp?” Tanner asked.

  “I totally forgot about the winter dance,” Allora said. “Ah, I didn’t really have any plans.”

  “I was wondering if you wanted to go together,” Tanner said, watching as Allora gave him an inquisitive look. “I mean…I figured if you didn’t have anyone to take you, we could just drive there in the same car or something.”

  “Um, yeah, that would be fun,” Allora responded, trying to restrain her excitement.

  “Cool,” Tanner said, giving her an odd head bob. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”

  He quickly stepped through the portal, while Allora remained for a minute, jumping and twirling around excitedly.

  chapter

  FOURTEEN

  Morp

  The crumpled piece of notebook paper stared back at Allora. Her chicken scratch had been written ten times over in blue ink. The gravity of her words began to sink in as she thought long about what they meant. Outside her window, snow was falling in the cold January air. She read through her words, trying to make sense of what she was considering.

  The black silk dress hugged her stomach tightly as Allora pulled it down and let it drop onto the bathroom tiles. It was an elegant and sophisticated dress. She brushed and styled her hair and then did her makeup. She could fire an arrow through an apple at one hundred yards, but the simple task of applying eyeliner took a much more concentrated effort. After slipping into a pair of her mother’s black stilettos, she was ready. Tanner knocked at her bedroom door. He was wearing a classy three-piece black tuxedo with a dark-blue silk tie and a blue handkerchief tucked into his front overcoat. His dress shoes were polished to perfection, and his hair was slightly gelled.

  “You look amazing,” he said.

  Allora blushed. “Wait right here. Forgot my lip gloss.”

  Allora went to the bathroom while Tanner waited there in her room. He walked around to her desk, where he saw the crumpled paper lying underneath the history textbook and slowly pulled it out, reading a few lines. He quickly placed it back underneath the book as Allora walked in from the bathroom.

  “Let’s go,” Allora said, noticing Tanner’s change in demeanor. His excited expression had turned toward a look of indifference and frustration. “You all right?”

  “Yeah, just fine,” Tanner said, forcing a smile.

  Allora ignored him and went toward the living room, where her mother waited with a camera in hand. Milly took a few pictures, and then Allora and Tanner left. On their ride to the dance, Allora pulled out the jade cube from her purse, still trying to discover its secret.

  “You brought it with you?” Tanner asked, looking for a parking spot in the high school lot.

  “It hasn’t left my side. I need to find out where this jade orb is located.”

  Tanner parked the car at the high school and rushed around it to open the door for Allora as she placed the jade cube back in her purse. It was a cold January night, and the wind was strong, blowing sporadic gusts. The entrance to the gym was decorated in white snowflakes, with white lights wrapped around an arching wooden entryway. Inside, strings of lights of varying lengths hung from the ceiling like bright-white stalactites. Each corner of the gym had an assortment of winter items, such as papier-mâché snowmen, sleds, and fake snow. There was a DJ on the stage and refreshments on a table near the wall.

  Allora found Katie dancing with Marcus on the dance floor. The night felt magical and was a nice break from the turmoil that had engulfed her life in the past few months. It had been a long time since she’d had any fun. Tanner took her hand, and they spent the next hour dancing together.

  “I’m going to go get something to drink,” Tanner said, brushing the beads of sweat from his brow. “You want anything?”

  “Sure, some water would be great, thanks,” Allora replied.

  Just as Tanner left, the DJ put on a slow song. Someone grabbed her hand and spun her around.

  “Mind if I snag a dance?” Marcus said, pulling Allora in tight.

  “Where did Katie go?” Allora asked, glancing around, feeling guilty for slow dancing with her best friend’s crush.

  “I think you should like me,” he said with a cocky grin, brushing off Allora’s question.

  Allora was completely caught off guard. She stumbled with her thoughts, not sure of what to say. Her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.

  “I…ah…,” she said, fumbling around for a coherent thought.

  Marcus glanced over her shoulder and saw Tanner moving through the crowd. Marcus grabbed Allora by the shoulders, pulled her in, and gave her a kiss. He released her just as Katie came through on the other side. Allora saw the look of shock and anger on her best friend’s face. Allora pushed Marcus away as Katie stomped off. Tanner dropped the two glasses of water, walked across the dance floor, and punched Marcus in the face. He flew across the hardwood floor, knocking over a few onlookers, and slammed into the bottom of the stage. Allora watched the curious eyes of the crowd searching for answers.

  “Tanner,” Allora said, trying to grab him before he could leave the dance floor. He pulled his arm away from her grasp and parted the crowd of onlookers. All eyes were now on Allora. The snickers and whispers grew louder. Hands were cupped to mouths, and fingers were pointed. Spinning around, Allora had nowhere to go and no one to help her get away from this nightmare. It reminded her of the incident at cheerleading tryouts. She was feeling claustrophobic as the circle of people pushed closer. From behind, a hand grabbed her bicep and pulled her away from everyone. Allora spun around to see a blond girl in a red dress dragging her out of the gym. Once they were in the hallway, the girl stopped.

  “I see you are still really good at making a scene,” Jenny said.

  “What are you doing here?” Allora asked, surprised and also relieved.

  “Brandon asked me if I’d go with him. I figured it would be fun to come back and see everyone.”

  “Thanks for getting me out of there.” They walked down the empty hallway, looking to avoid the judgmental eyes of the student body. They made it to the parking lot, pushing out the double doors into the cold winter air. Allora’s exposed arms quickly began to shiver.

  “What are you two doing out here?” a voice asked as a man appeared from the side of the school. “The dance is in the gym.”

  “Hello, Dr. Smith,” Allora said. “We were just heading home.”

  “So early? The dance isn’t even halfway over.”

  “Yeah, not feeling so well,” Allora said, grabbing her stomach.

  “Well, you should be careful out there,” he said, walking back toward the gym. “It can be kind of dangerous on those roads in these conditions.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up,” Allora said, w
alking into the parking lot.

  “Who’s that?” Jenny asked, peering back at the teacher as he strolled around the exterior of the school.

  “My new math teacher.”

  “Kind of an odd guy, isn’t he?”

  “A little,” Allora admitted, getting into Jenny’s yellow Volkswagen. “Hey, what about Brandon?”

  “Oh, he’ll be fine,” Jenny said, driving out of the school lot. “I told him to stay. Besides, I was also getting anxiety from the dance. I couldn’t help but think about what happened to us during prom last year.” A slight fog had rolled in, minimizing visibility. “My parents make me go to a therapist now. He thinks that the traumatic experience caused me to create delusional images of the event.” Jenny glanced at Allora. Her fearful eyes perpetuated Allora’s guilt, knotting her stomach further. “Which is also why I wanted to talk to you. I’m not crazy, Allora. I know what I saw that night. The memories are hazy, but I keep having these strange, realistic dreams. I know that you’re holding something back. With everything that happened last year with your hands catching on fire, that beast that attacked us in the woods, and what happened at the Nelsons’ house, you know I’m right.” Allora tried to talk, but the words wouldn’t escape from her mouth. Jenny leaned over and put her hand on Allora’s. “Please. You can trust me.”

  “Jenny….” Allora looked through the windshield, and her eyes enlarged. “Look out!”

  Two red, piercing eyes appeared in the darkness, shining through the dense fog. The car headlights illuminated a monstrous four-legged beast that stood in the middle of the road. Jenny yanked the steering wheel to the right. The car fishtailed on the icy road, struck the rear of the beast, and flipped over, tumbling into the forest. A large tree trunk stopped the car, causing Jenny to jerk and hit her head on the window, shattering glass throughout the interior. They were upside down and barely conscious. The engine caught fire, spewing smoke into the front seat. Allora coughed and pulled on the seatbelt, trying to get free. Jenny was concussed, moaning incoherently. The fire quickly became larger, engulfing the hood. It crawled along the sides, covering the exits. The seatbelt hook finally released, dropping Allora into a crumpled ball on the roof of the upturned car. She got on all fours, yanked Jenny’s seatbelt loose, and laboriously pulled on her half-conscious body through the headrests and into the back seat. The car was now consumed with smoke and fire. Allora focused hadrons and shot out the back window. She pulled Jenny’s dress straps, dragging her from the wreck. Realizing she forgot her purse, Allora went back through the blown-out window and grabbed it from the passenger seat. Hearing a sudden hissing sound, she scrambled backward out of the burning car. Instinct took over as she lifted Jenny up. Allora pushed out her hands and formed a hadron shield in front of them as the fire entered the gas tank, which promptly exploded. Allora and Jenny were forced into the air and landed hard in the icy brush.