Sonora, and the Scroll of Alexandria

by Travis Hall

Tanner’s body began to shake more as the water grew. In the light of the lamps, they watched the frost cover the layer of water, spreading out like a ripple from a stone dropped in a calm lake. Tanner collapsed as the layer of liquid solidified into ice.

  Allora placed her hand in the path of a spear hole to test out the ice wall. The spear shot out, crashing into the ice. It stopped but left a large crack.

  “We need to move quickly,” Allora said, helping Tanner to his feet. “On three, everyone run as fast as you can.” They lined up and got into a track stance. “One, two, three, go!”

  They shot forward, sprinting through the dark cavern. The headlamp lights danced in the dark, reflecting off the thin, bluish wall. Spears crashed into the ice, causing the cracks to spread quickly. It was an orchestra of cracking sounds reverberating throughout the cavern. The ice had thinned out as they moved farther down the cavern pathway. Some of the spears broke through and flew right behind the sprinting teens. Up ahead the holes stopped, but there was no ice along the end of the walls.

  “Oh God, we’re going to die,” Katie screamed. The ice wall broke off and crashed down, sending a wind of cold. They couldn’t stop their momentum, and moving forward would kill them. There was no escape. A green glow illuminated the last ten yards. On the sides of the ground, walls of rock sprung up like earthly elevators and crashed into the ceiling. The spears smashed into the rock. An assortment of silver stuck out from the rock as the air filled with dust. The new walls squeezed the sprinting teens together, and they tripped over each other, sending them sliding awkwardly along the slippery, mossy ground. They collided with a wall at the end of the cave, entangled in a pile of arms and legs.

  Before they could even contemplate what had happened, the floor gave way, plummeting the four into a dark descent. Their screams echoed in the tunnel as they slid along a ramp that opened up into a large chamber. Eventually they stopped falling and untangled themselves.

  “How in the world did we get out of that one?” Allora asked.

  “Dude, did you do that?” Tanner asked, grabbing Dax’s shoulders excitedly.

  “I think so,” he said with a shrug.

  “You mean he’s a Fermion as well?” Katie said.

  “That is so awesome!” Tanner said.

  “Honestly, I feel exhausted, like I’ve been running suicide sprints for two hours straight.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty normal,” Tanner said, smacking Dax on the shoulder. “That’ll change after a while.”

  They smacked their clothes, ridding themselves of some of the dust and dirt that covered them, and moved out into the large, dark chamber. Small, glowing orbs lifted from four pedestals in the corners of the chamber. The ceiling was covered in ancient Egyptian artwork, beautifully painted and intricately detailed. Sphinxes fought with pharaohs and large men with birds’ heads. Depictions of bloodied bodies littered the storyboard, and large, fire-breathing ships sailed across the dome in what looked like an epic battle. From the bottom of the half circle, a wall of blue seemed to encompass everything. At the top was a pyramid with three orange-and-yellow points and an eye in the middle.

  On the ground at the center of the dome chamber was a circular pedestal with a green orb held by four small golden hands. The rest of the chamber was filled with sand and dirt.

  “Anyone think that this looks familiar?” Dax said.

  “I don’t see any golden men with spears, so I think you’re good,” Katie replied.

  “You really know how to beat a dead horse,” Dax said.

  “Guys, focus,” Tanner said, scanning the entire chamber. “What is our exit point should things go wrong?”

  Allora leaned to her right and walked sideways. The chamber was enclosed, without any hint of an exit.

  “I don’t see anything,” Allora said.

  Katie screamed and began high-stepping toward the pedestal. A rat scurried underneath her dancing feet and into the sand.

  “Seriously?” Dax said.

  “I hate rats,” Katie replied, scrunching her face like she was about to throw up.

  Allora watched the rat dart through the sand, and then suddenly it disappeared.

  “Where did it go?” Allora said.

  “Now what do we do?” Katie asked. “There is no way I’m going out into the sandpit of death. Probably filled with hundreds of dead rats.”

  Something fell from the ceiling and landed on Katie’s shoulder. She turned and saw another huge, gray rat with buckteeth staring back at her. She screamed and swatted the thing, sending it into the sandpit, where it was consumed by the ground as it struggled to move. Dax was bent over laughing as Katie kept wiping her shoulder aggressively, as if the rat was still there.

  “Any ideas on how to get over there?” Allora asked.

  “How about jumping there?” Katie asked.

  “It’s like thirty feet away,” Tanner replied.

  “Bubble jump?” Katie said feebly.

  “Too low of a ceiling,” Allora said.

  Dax stopped laughing. “I think I’ve got one,” he said, recalling something he had learned in science class. “Allora, do you think that you could create a sheet of fire to go across the sand?”

  “I think so. Why?”

  “If you can get the sand hot enough, it will turn into glass that we can walk on.”

  “I’d have to get the sand really, really hot.”

  “You have any better ideas?” Dax replied.

  Allora thought for a moment and then turned toward the sandpit.

  “All right, here goes nothing,” Allora said, focusing her thoughts and grabbing the hadrons within the chamber.

  Thin trails of dim light flowed from the dome, crawling along the sand like ants of light, and accumulated within Allora’s body. Knowing that this would require a lot of fire, Allora remained focused, absorbing as many hadrons as she could. With her palms open, a purple flame formed in her fingers, flowing into two circulating balls of purple fire. They grew larger as she pulled in more and more hadrons. After a few minutes of focusing, the balls of fire grew to the size of basketballs. The other three took a step back as Allora’s body shook.

  Finally, she couldn’t hold onto the power any longer. Allora combined the two balls of fire, took a step forward, and launched the flaming sheet across the sandpit. The purplish-orange fire covered the area, sending a gust of hot air throughout the chamber. The ground burned with an assortment of yellows, greens, blues, and reds, as the heat burned the sand to a scorching temperature. The other three had to move back even farther as the wave of hot air burnt their skin. Allora’s shirt caught on fire, and Tanner quickly patted the flames, leaving a scorched edge and black smudge marks.

  The ground was glowing orange as the flames began to subside. For thirty minutes, they waited for the molten sand to cool and solidify, but it was evident that it would take longer.

  “I’m tired of waiting,” Tanner said, moving to the edge of the orange pit.

  “You think that’s a good idea?” Allora said.

  “Morning is probably already here,” Tanner replied. “Do you want to wait around for another hour?”

  Tanner focused the water from the cavern above, pulled in the molecules, swirled the water within his palms, and sent a sheet of cool water across the ground, which caused the molten sand to hiss. The room filled with steam, choking the air. Once visibility was restored, Allora moved up to the edge of the pit and placed her palm on the clear surface. It was warm but solid. She stepped forward to test the stability. The ground cracked and bent but remained solid.

  “I think that it’s good enough to stand on, “Allora said, moving out onto the glass.

  As she put down weight onto her right foot, the whole ground shuddered, causing a deep cracking sound as if she had stepped onto an unstable icy lake. She paused and stared into the clear, bubbly surface below her feet. Underneath something moved in the sand like a shark circling its prey.

  “What was that thing?” Katie said,
noticing the movement as well.

  “Allora, I think you should come back,” Tanner said.

  “I’ll bet it was a chupacabra,” Dax said.

  “A what?” Tanner asked.

  “It’s like a big rat-like dog.”

  “Ew,” Katie responded, remembering her rat encounter.

  “Guys, you’re really not helping,” Allora said, frozen in midstep.

  The other three held their breaths, watching Allora’s labored movement across the glassy surface. Every step made an eerie sound. Allora let out a sigh when she got to the sandstone step in the middle. She studied the strange green orb for a minute, noticing that it was made of jade and seemed perfectly round, except for two square slots on either side.

  “Now what?” Allora said.

  “Good question,” Katie said.

  With one eye closed, Allora carefully removed the jade orb from the golden holder. It made a slight clicking sound and then was silent. Allora froze with the orb only inches above the holder, waiting for something to happen. She turned around, shrugged her shoulders, and quickly scampered across the glass, feeling confident that it wouldn’t break.

  “Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it’d be,” Dax said as they walked back up the ramp toward the opening to the cavern above. Then they heard the sound of squeals coming from the tunnel. It was like a chorus of tiny sounds moving toward them.

  “Do you remember what I said about speaking too soon,” Tanner said as they all took a few slow steps back from the opening.

  As the sound got closer, a few small, dark figures dropped from the opening. The beady eyes of the creatures moved quickly down the ramp toward the four.

  “More rats!” Katie screamed. “Oh, come on!”

  The little creatures ran past and scampered across the glass to the other side of the dome. Then a dark blob fell from the opening, moving like a blackish-gray wave of fur. The plethora of rats moved in between their legs, causing Katie to jump onto her brother’s back.

  “I have just crossed over into my own personal hell!” Katie said, grabbing tightly to her brother’s neck.

  “You’re seriously scared of a bunch of rats?” Dax said, accidently stepping on one.

  “Um, guys,” Tanner said, training his left ear forward. Another sound started to echo down into the chamber. “I’d be a little more scared of what these rats are running from.”

  “What the hell is that sound?” Allora said, noticing the distant roar. The chamber began to shudder, and then a small stream of water cascaded down through the opening. A wave of water, dirt, and rats washed down the ramp like a dam had just burst open.

  “Run!” Tanner said.

  “Run where?” Dax asked, still trying to balance his sister on his back.

  Allora turned around and saw that the rats were escaping through a small hole at the base of the dome. She ran across the glass, pulled in a hadron burst, and exploded the dome wall. Behind it was a passageway.

  The concussion from the hadron burst sent a quake that cracked the glass beneath their feet. The glass expanded and then shattered. Dax spun his sister around, sending her along the edge and into the newly formed opening on the other side of the dome. He dropped into the quicksand as Tanner and Allora reached for him. They slipped on the watery glass surface. From the other side, water rushed in, filling the chamber.

  Dax screamed as something grabbed a hold of his leg. Tanner leapt through the rat-filled water, grabbing Dax’s outstretched hand right before it was submerged. He pulled hard but couldn’t get Dax out of the water. He looked into the terrified eyes of his best friend. From the sand and water, a large snake popped up, towering over them. The creature had sharp teeth, tentacle-like arms, and scaly, dark-brown skin. The head of the snake bore down, its teeth primed to split Tanner in two. Allora couldn’t get her balance in time and screamed as the creature was inches from Tanner’s head. From Allora’s left side, a ball of white light shot across the air, tagging the creature on the head. The snake-like creature screeched and wiggled violently in the water. The creature let go of Dax, and Tanner was able to pull him out of the quicksand. Dax crawled forward, coughing violently from sucking in too much water.

  They got to their feet and waded through the passageway. The water was getting higher as they labored through the rat-filled cavern. Katie kept smacking the little creatures as if they would somehow go away, but nothing helped. After a few minutes, the water was waist deep, which slowed their progress. The tunnel became darker. Pretty soon they had to swim through the chest-high water. The snake was smashing itself into the tunnel opening, trying to get through, but the passageway was too small.

  Eventually they had their faces pressed upward against the tunnel ceiling, trying to grasp the last bit of air as the rats swam over them, clawing frantically to escape. The water filled the tunnel completely, and they ducked down, swimming underneath the dark passageway, searching for an exit. Tanner was the first to see a light up ahead, and he swam aggressively toward it. He popped up in a cylindrical chamber. Dax and Katie followed, popping up out of the water and sucking in air. Tanner searched the waters for Allora, but she never resurfaced.

  “Where is she?”

  Dax and Katie shook their heads as they coughed up more water. Tanner dove down, pulling himself into the tunnel. A few feet away, the light caught a glimpse of a limp hand floating in the tunnel. He could see the lifeless expression on Allora’s beautiful face as her body floated to the top of the tunnel. Tanner’s fingers clenched, feeling the power come from within. All around him the water flowed, like the beating of a heart. Allora’s body began to move toward him as the current became stronger. Then, like the pressure of an exploding faucet, the water in the cylindrical chamber shot upward. Tanner held onto Allora with the small amount of energy that he had left. The ceiling of the chamber was quickly approaching. Dax saw no other choice and shot a green hadron burst at the small drain in the middle of the ceiling. Slabs of concrete rained down. Dax, Katie, and Tanner screamed and shot out of the opening like a fountain.

  They all slammed down onto the concrete floor. The impact pushed the water from Allora’s lungs, and she began coughing up the dirty water. Tanner had landed next to her and gently grabbed her hand. They got to a sitting position. Tanner gently pushed back the hair that was covering Allora’s face. He smiled slightly and pulled her in for a forceful hug. When Tanner let go, Allora pulled out the jade orb that she had remembered to zip into her coat pocket.

  The four of them looked around at their environment. The room was filled with shelves of school supplies and cleaning equipment.

  Just then the metal double doors swung open. Mrs. Winters, Mr. Swan, Mrs. Ferris, and Nurse Campbell rushed in. Their mouths dropped when they saw the soaked teens and the hundreds of rats that had spilled into the school basement.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Mrs. Winters exclaimed.

  chapter

  SEVENTEEN

  Abu Simbel

  Principal Winters was heated, throwing her arms in the air as she paced around her office, listing all of the school regulations that the four had broken. They tried to explain the reason for being down underneath the school, but Winters wasn’t having any of it. As she articulated the immense cost of repairing the large hole in the storage room, a rat wiggled out of the air duct, landing on Winters’s shoulder as she was walking past the wall. She screamed and stomped around the room wildly. The rat managed to crawl around the back of the bookcase near the opposite wall and escape. Principal Winters spun around, breathing heavily, a string of hair having released from her tight bun at the back of her head. She continued her tirade with the details of having to shut down school before spring break because of the need to eradicate every last rat that was now scurrying through the school.

  Allora wasn’t paying attention. Her mind was flashing back to the feeling of helplessness as she struggled through the dark water trying to find air. She took a much-needed breath through
her nose and mouth, filling her lungs with air. Remembering the moment vividly, and the boy who saved her, she gripped Tanner’s hand tightly. After a few more choice words, everyone’s com band lit up. They all sparked the metal, sliding the displays across their forearm. Milly’s head popped up.

  “Emergency meeting. I need everyone here immediately.”

  Milly signed off quickly.

  “This conversation is not over. During spring break, you four are going to help with the cleanup, and you all have three weeks of detention. Now go. Because of you, I need to call the entire school district in order to cancel classes.”

  They didn’t say a word as they departed and headed for the car. The morning sun was now above the horizon, and a few early commuters were arriving. Allora pulled out the jade orb, along with the departure cube. They got into the car and all crowded in to look at the objects as Allora slowly placed the cube into one of the sides of the apple-sized green orb. A few seconds went by without any reaction. Allora tried the other side, but nothing happened. Then she tried sparking it, but again, nothing happened.

  “Well, that was anticlimactic,” Dax said.

  After a few more tries, Tanner started up the car, and they headed for Allora’s house as she continued to try to make it work. Once they were inside, Allora placed the objects in her pocket, and they walked into the living room, where there were already ten other people from town.

  Milly had her hands on her hips and looked aggravated.

  “I got an interesting call from Principal Winters,” she said. Jarrod and Maureen didn’t look too pleased with the group’s late-night departure from the house. “I thought we had an agreement.”

  “Yeah, you said that we were required to tell you about any trips outside of the perimeter,” she responded, smiling guiltily. “Mom, it was important.”

  “Well, I hope so because you are grounded for at least a month. Now take a seat.”

  Milly sparked her com bracelet, which activated everyone else’s. Baymar appeared with his hands behind his back.

  “We have been tracking a large number of unauthorized passages through the gateways over the last year,” he said. “What we have learned is that they are shipping equipment, raw materials, engineers, and fabricated parts. After intercepting one of these shipments, we were able to interrogate a few personnel, who disclosed that they were manufacturing cruisers and carriers for reasons unknown to them. We also learned of one of these assembly areas. We have decided to bypass certain guardian information channels on suggestions from Milly and instead put together an assault team from outside sources.”