A look of recognition swept across Nova’s face, but she did her best to hide it. Brady picked up on it, however, and realized she knew more than she was telling.
“So you were on a train that runs deep underground. How in the world did you get out?” Brady asked.
“Well, I was able to find my way out of my car and I waited for the train to slow down. When it finally did, I jumped and made my way through the train tunnels. It was pretty awful down there.”
“And then you found your way to the surface?”
Felix took a breath and looked down at the transponder. It pulsed so rapidly that it glowed. “I used this to help me find my way out. It glowed brighter when I was headed in the right direction, trying to guide me toward you guys. I walked for a long time through the tunnels until I made my way to an old aboveground train stop. After that I found the road and started to follow it. This thing”—he held up the transponder—“was starting to go crazy by then. I was pretty tired at that point, so I just sat down and waited. I was so relieved to see you guys finally show up.”
Brady was shaking his head.
“What is it?” Felix asked.
“Nothing, it’s just that… I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my life. And, that’s the craziest story I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe you got out of there in one piece!”
Felix looked down at AJ, who was quietly observing the three of them. “Who is this?” Felix asked, pointing his thumb at AJ.
Nova made the introductions. “This is Ajax, but Brady and I call him AJ. AJ—meet Felix. He helped us rescue you.”
“Incredible!” Felix held out a dirt-encrusted hand. “Nice to meet you, AJ. Thanks for helping us out.”
“What does this mean?” AJ held out his hand in the air and turned it back and forth.
“It’s a handshake. See?” Felix reached out with his other hand and pulled AJ’s hand into his. He shook it a few times before letting go. Surprised, AJ staggered back a few steps and looked down at his hand to make sure it was still attached.
Felix looked the bot over, unsure what to make of this creature in front of him.
“Where in the world did you find him?”
“It’s a long story, Felix. It’s so bizarre you wouldn’t believe me.”
“It’s definitely a story for another day,” Nova added. “Now that everyone’s met, it’s time to get you both home.”
“Home?” Felix asked. The concept seemed completely foreign to him after everything that had happened.
“Yes. Achilles would want you safe before I came after him. And I want you safe. We need to head back to the power station.”
Brady walked toward his bike, hesitated for a second, and then turned around. “We can’t go home yet, Nova. Achilles needs our help.”
For a second, Felix looked up at his brother with surprise, but then he nodded. “Brady’s right, Nova. There’s no time to take us back there. Every second we wait, Achilles will be in worse danger.”
“No way, guys. I’m not—”
Brady interrupted. “Felix and I are going. We’ve come this far. It’s our decision.”
He walked over and climbed on the bike. Felix followed him.
“Brady and Felix are right. I don’t think Achilles has much time left,” AJ said.
“What do you mean?” Nova asked in surprise.
“Felix said he was on a train in the tunnels. I know where they are taking your friend.”
“Where?” Nova asked.
“They are going to the Heap.”
Nova shook her head and took a step backward.
“The Heap? No. That can’t be right.”
AJ stared up at Nova, his gaze unwavering. “It’s the only place they would go.”
Brady interrupted. “Can someone please tell us what’s going on?”
Nova’s voice was strained. “The Heap is a place deep underground. It’s where…”
“Where what?” Brady asked.
“Where they create the Collectors,” AJ finished.
“The Collectors are created?” Felix asked. He sounded worried.
“Yes,” AJ answered. “Collectors are just shells until minds are put into them. That is what they are planning to do with Achilles.”
Felix shook his head. “That can’t be true. They wouldn’t do that to him. Right, Nova?” He was almost shouting.
Nova struggled to get the words out. “No, I think AJ is right.” She looked down at the child bot standing beside her. “AJ, you have helped us more than you’ll ever know today. You should leave us now and go home to your father. I can’t imagine how much trouble you’re going to be in. Please—I can’t ask you to go with us.”
The white lights flickered on AJ’s head as he considered her request. Finally he responded. “There is nothing for me there. I have been raised like a human since the day I was created. Now there are three real humans here! I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I’m going.” He paused for effect. “Just to make sure you humans don’t get hurt!”
Nova looked around at the three volunteers standing in front of her. “Okay then, I guess we’re all going. AJ—do you know how to get there?”
“I think I can find it once we’re in the tunnels. We just follow the tracks.”
“Okay, so all we need to do is figure out how to get back underground. Felix, can you take us back to where you exited?”
“Sure, it’s not too far away from here. An easy trip on the bikes.” He rubbed his sore foot.
“Okay then, it’s not going to be comfortable, but Felix, you ride with Brady. AJ and I will follow you to the train stop.”
The four of them climbed on their bikes.
“Nice ride,” Felix said, admiring the bike.
“It’s AJ’s,” Brady responded.
“You sure you know how to drive this thing?” Felix asked.
“I got this far, right?” Brady yelled back, and he kicked the bike into gear.
10101110
The four friends rode together down the crumbled road. There were areas where the asphalt had broken apart, making passage difficult, but they pushed on through. It was surreal seeing mature trees and shrubs growing from cracks in the broken pavement. The earth was returning to its natural state, a state that seemed entirely unnatural to the boys.
At last they arrived at the old train stop. A faded green sign with a white symbol of a train hung off a tall signpost situated at the end of a neglected parking lot. Grass and weeds had overtaken most of the area, leaving little of the pavement still intact. Wide concrete steps descended to a landing, where a frozen escalator belt led even further underground.
“We’re here,” Felix said. “Not too much to see.”
Brady stared down in disbelief. “Are you sure there’s no other way?” he asked.
“Like I’m an expert? None that I know of. Sorry.” Felix paused. “So, are you going for it?”
“I’m going for it,” Brady said. “Hold on!” He flipped on the headlights.
Felix grabbed the bottom of the seat as Brady leaned back and pulled the throttle gently. The bike bounced down the steps and Brady let out a wild yell. Nova and AJ followed closely behind with AJ clutching Nova’s waist for dear life. At the bottom of the steps was the underground terminal, and there they came to a stop.
The train tracks were waiting for them—the way back to Achilles.
And the Collectors.
Chapter 20: The Heap
THE AIR HAD GROWN thick and stale and stuck to their skin as their cycles motored along across the rusted iron struts. Brady, Felix, Nova, and AJ followed the tracks deeper underground in search of Achilles. Their path took them through tunnels that twisted through striations of minerals and clay, and each turn brought with it a renewed fear of something foreboding waiting for them in the darkness. But there was no turning back now.
They rode in silence for most of the trip. So much had happened to the boys that it didn’t seem right to discuss it now. Brady
didn’t know where to start anyway. When he looked back at Felix riding behind him, the stagnant air whipping through his hair, he felt content just to have his brother safe by his side again. And that was enough for now. They shared a brotherly bond that could never be broken. There would be time to talk later.
But despite Brady’s relief at having found his brother, the gloom of the tunnels was starting to seep into his soul, and he quickly found himself longing to return to the light of day. He did his best to stomach the fear, because he knew the hardest part of their adventure was still in front of them.
Just when Brady began to worry that they would never reach their destination, the scenery changed abruptly. Random heaps of scrap metal appeared along the sides of the rails, sparsely at first, but as they rode on, the piles of waste rose into jagged ridges. There was only a narrow channel between them, just wide enough for the train tracks to pass through.
They were getting closer.
“Look!” Felix pointed forward. The cycle’s headlights shone brightly on something in the distance: a large, hulking mass that waited for them on the tracks. They slowed their cycles, and as they drew nearer, the thing in front of them began to take shape.
There was no mistaking it.
The Collector’s massive freighter was stopped on the tracks, blocking the way forward. If they wanted to continue on, they would have to find a way around it.
Felix shivered at the sight. It was a stark reminder of everything that had happened to him. When he left it behind, he would have given anything never to see the dreadful train again, and yet here he was, back already. He remembered Achilles lying alone in the cell, magnetized to the ground and unable to move. He heard the ghostly voice from the box, the static that hurt his ears. For the first time in his life he wanted to turn and run.
He looked at Brady sitting in front of him and suddenly felt reassured. Felix was usually the brave one, but here was his brother driving them on through the abyss. If Brady was okay with this, then he figured he’d better be too. He knew they had come back here together to do the right thing: to help their friend. Even if it meant being terrified.
Nova and Brady slowed to a stop and powered down their cycles. The four riders climbed down and leaned the bikes against the scrap wall near the side of the train. With a click of a button, they switched their headlights off and settled into total darkness.
“I can’t see anything,” Brady said, glancing around blindly.
“We’ll need some kind of light,” Nova said. Thorn immediately lifted into the air and switched on a dim beam that provided at least some visibility.
They listened quietly for noises coming from within the train, but they heard nothing; no hint of who, or what, was aboard.
“Do you think Achilles is still in there?” Felix asked in a whisper.
“Probably not,” AJ said. “What they brought him here for is not on the train.”
“Come on,” Nova said, motioning toward the locomotive.
They crept alongside the boxcars, staying close together and as far away from the train as the scrap pile would allow. There wasn’t much room though, and at points, they found themselves coming within feet of the rotting metal sides. Many of the boxcar doors had been slid back, but it was too dark to see anything inside. It unsettled Brady, who fully expected to find a spindling tentacle curling around the side of the door at any second.
Occasionally Thorn would take the lead and zip in and out of an open car, looking for her fallen friend. There was nothing inside though: the passengers and cargo had moved on, leaving the train an empty metal carcass.
The train seemed to stretch to infinity, and as they passed car after car, Brady began to wonder if it would ever end. But at last they reached the engine, which wasn’t much different than the rest of the cars, only slightly larger, with an unforgiving plow.
In front of the train, the tracks themselves ended, and the tunnel opened directly into an expansive subterranean junkyard. The scrap metal furrows that had flanked the rails spilled into the cavern and joined like tributaries into other, larger waste piles. The ridges grew higher and higher until they crested in pointed peaks that threatened to collapse in an avalanche of debris.
Interspersed with the junk were black pools of oil that had leaked from the spare parts. Some of the slicks burned with flickering flames that washed the cavern in an orange-reddish tint.
“They have taken your friend there,” AJ said, pointing toward an ominous structure that grew from a mountain of scrap.
“Up there?” Brady asked, looking up at the bastion. It was the most horrific-looking place he had ever seen, with tall, broken spires that protruded from the jagged monstrosity. “What is it?” he asked.
“The Heap,” AJ replied. “Where the Collectors are made…”
His green eyes blazed in the firelight.
The four of them looked on with dread at the ruinous fortress. Near the front, the scrap had been roughly arranged into an archway that supported a ceiling and provided a way in. They couldn’t see beyond the entrance, though, and it was anyone’s guess what lay on the other side.
Or it would have been if not for the noise. Even from this distance, they could hear the foreboding sounds of the Collectors coming from within the walls of the Heap.
“I guess that’s where we need to go,” Nova said with a heavy sigh. “Everyone still sure about this? It’s not too late to turn around.”
Brady seriously considered the question and fought back the urge to chicken out. But he knew Achilles needed him, and he didn’t want to let Felix down—or Nova, for that matter.
“I’m in,” he said, doing his best impersonation of someone far braver than him.
“Me too,” said Felix, nodding, but not looking too sure of himself.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” AJ added.
“Okay then—let’s go find Achilles,” Nova said, and she led the charge up the hill toward the entrance.
Everyone was taking deep breaths by the time they reached the summit. When Felix looked around, he swore he saw movement coming from the walls. There were robotic fingers that curled as he passed, gears that turned and lights that glowed dimly. Brady tapped on his brother’s shoulder and pointed up. The hair on Felix’s neck stood up when he saw a detached Collector eye, shifting back and forth, scanning them from somewhere above.
The effect was chilling.
The Heap was alive.
“I’ll go first,” AJ said, and he stepped through the metal archway. The others followed timidly behind him, and the metal groaned under their feet as they crossed the threshold.
01001110
Behind the entranceway was a circular vestibule with openings around the perimeter. There was more scrap in every direction they looked, and the entire assemblage felt more like a pack rat nest than any kind of thought-out dwelling. Although they were alone in this room, they could hear the sounds of Collectors nearby.
Brady was the first to speak. “The Collectors must be everywhere in here. Who knows how many of those awful things are floating around, waiting for us. How in the world are we going to find Achilles without them seeing us?”
“We’ll just have to be more careful than last time,” Nova replied. Although she did her best to hide it, the worry was evident in her voice.
“Even if they do see us, they’re no match for us,” Felix chimed in, trying to lighten the mood.
Nova smiled. “The bigger question is: which door do we choose first?”
“Should we split up?” Felix asked. “We can cover more ground that way.”
“No way,” Brady argued. “That’s not going to happen. You’re stuck with me this time.”
“No, Felix is right. We should split up,” AJ said. “Brady, you and Felix go together, and Nova and I will go together.”
Brady scowled. “Split up? Are you crazy? What if something happens to one of us? Then what?” He looked down at his younger brother and calmed down a bit. “
Sorry, I just don’t think that’s the best idea.”
Felix looked reassuringly up at his brother. “Come on, Brady, it’s okay. If we split up, we’ll find Achilles faster. We’ll be okay.”
Nova considered everyone’s opinions before weighing in.
“No, Brady’s right—no one goes anywhere unless we all go. Why don’t we start with the door in the middle?”
Brady breathed a sigh of relief.
Together they made their way into the tunnel and walked for a minute before arriving at a steel grotto with even more exits. They could hear a slow drip coming from somewhere above. A trickle of oil leaked through the ceiling and followed a crimson trail of rust down the wall, then collected into a puddle that spilled over into a crack in the floor.
“Hmm…” Nova said, pausing to listen for any Collectors. She decided on the tunnel closest to them and continued on.
They soon found themselves at another intersection with still more passageways to explore. Nova again led the way. But just when they thought they were making progress, they found themselves back at the chamber near the main entrance.
“Great!” Brady grunted, looking around.
“This place is nothing but a huge maze,” Felix noted. Brady nodded in agreement. “It’s too large. We’ll never find them like this.”
Nova reluctantly agreed. “Anyone have an idea?”
“Not really, but being a robot does have some advantages,” AJ said.
“Like what?” Brady asked, doing his best to bury his annoyance.
“Like a photographic memory. It’s not really a plan, but at least I can help make sure we never cover the same ground twice. We can also retrace our steps so we don’t get lost.”
“Okay, well—no sense just waiting here. Let’s try the next one,” Nova said.
They took a different tunnel this time. It led them on a straightaway for a quarter mile or so. They walked briskly, but didn’t run. After a long stretch of nothing new, they at last came to a door at the side of the hall. Felix held his ear to the door, but didn’t hear anything.
“Thorn, can you see what’s in there?”
The Quantum Door Page 15