Push (Beat series Book 2)

by Jared Garrett

  “What?”

  I directed my chest light at a different pillar. “Look near the top. Totally smooth, right?”

  “Right.”

  I moved the light back over to the pillar by the wall. “Now look. There’s a shadow like a meter down from the top of the pillar.”

  “Where?” Melisa stepped closer. “I don’t see anything. Are you sure?”

  “Maybe it’s just one of the tubes, but I don’t see anything like that on the others,” I said. “Something’s different there.”

  “Okay.” Melisa stood next to the pillar.

  “I’ll stay here and tell you where to look.”

  Melisa had to lift her feet high to clear the water as she sloshed over to the pillar. It was halfway up to my knees. She turned and put a hand up to shield her eyes from the bright beam coming from my chest. “Where?” She put her hand on the pillar.

  I squinted. “Higher. Like, ten centimeters. And to the right.”

  She stretched.

  “Higher than that. You’re right under it,” I said.

  “This is as high as I go,” Melisa said.

  “You’re maybe four centimeters away, come on.”

  “It’s not like I can grow taller on demand!”

  “Try jumping,” I said.

  “Fine.” She looked back at me. “Am I right under it?”

  “Yes. Go straight up.”

  She jumped. Her hand jerked to the left, then back out. “I didn’t feel anything. And I still don’t see whatever you’re seeing.”

  “It’s there. Jump better.”

  “Jump better? Seriously?

  The water was rippling out from where she stood. It was getting even closer to my knees. “Just, I don’t know. Try to keep your hand on the pillar when you jump. And go straight up.”

  “There’s really something up there? This isn’t a joke?” She sounded frustrated.

  “Of course not,” I said. “Keep your hand right there and slide it up.”

  Melisa jumped. She came down and stumbled, catching herself before she could fall in the water. “Spam! Nik you had better not be joking around.”

  “I’m not. You didn’t feel anything?”

  She looked up again. “I see it. There’s something like a lip up there. It goes from the corner in about five centimeters.”

  “What is it?”

  Melisa groaned. “I told you I don’t know. It’s flat and square, definitely not something falling off the pillar.”

  “See? I told you something was there!”

  “Okay, you were right,” Melisa said. “Now come over here so I can stand on you.”

  “What?”

  “Just get over here! The water’s practically at our knees.”

  I high-stepped through the water, keeping my chest light trained on the thing on the pillar. “How do you want to do this?”

  “You have to give me some support.” Melisa looked me up and down. “Yeah. Kneel next to the pillar with one leg up, like a step.”

  “You want me to kneel in the water?”

  “You’re already wet, just do it!” Melisa pushed down on one of my shoulders, as if she was going to force me to my knees.

  “All right.” I turned my left side to the pillar and knelt. We’d been splashing around enough that the cold water was bad, but not terrible.

  “Lean back so your light’s pointing up,” Melisa said. “And give me your hand.”

  My chest light illuminated the bright white pillar, and Melisa leaned on my hand and stepped onto my bent leg. It hurt, but I’d felt worse. Her hand wavered in mine for a few seconds as she found her balance, then she leaned into the pillar.

  Melisa was my height. I was probably stronger than her, but it wasn’t like I let people stand on my bent leg all the time. She was getting heavier by the second.

  “You want to hurry, maybe,” I said.

  “I know.” She went silent for a few seconds. “Yeah. There’s a lip here. We couldn’t see it without the light making a shadow because it looks exactly like the pillar. I think it was meant to be hidden.”

  “Is it just a piece of concrete?” Wow. Gravity was pulling Melisa right through my leg. I felt like it was going to snap.

  “No, I don’t think so—” She sucked in a breath. “It moves. Or at least it’s supposed to. I pushed on it and it moved a hair.”

  “Well do something fast, because my leg’s gonna break!”

  “Don’t be a baby.” She grunted. “I’m pushing as hard as I can, but it’s not moving.”

  “Hit it with something hard!” Bugging spam. My leg started to wobble. I needed to straighten it out. If I didn’t get the pressure off soon, I was going to just die.

  “Give me your head, then, that should be hard enough!” She must have punched the thing, because I heard her grunt.

  “Use your keeper, and hurry up,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Good idea.” She shifted, driving dull throbs of pain deeper into my leg. Why did that hurt so much?

  “And move your feet closer to my knee or s—”

  Melisa writhed, then the crack of her keeper hitting the pillar rang out. She fell. Some kind of scraping shook the floor, followed by the loud sound of rushing water.

  I reached for Melisa as she fell, keeping her from sitting hard in the water. In the wash of my light, she looked surprised and relieved. Her eyes glittered.

  “Nice catch.”

  “Something happened,” I said.

  “It sounds like the water got louder. Where’s that coming from?” Melisa asked.

  We both turned to the back wall of the chamber, about six meters away. A dark hole had opened and water rushed down stairs that we could just barely make out.

  It was a door.

  Chapter 25

  “Bug me.” Melisa stared at me. “It’s—”

  “It’s a secret room!” I grabbed her in a hug. “We found it!”

  Melisa squeezed back, but pushed away pretty fast. I wasn’t really sure where to put my eyes. What am I doing?

  “Let’s get down there” she said. “Whatever’s down there’s getting flooded fast.”

  We took off, splashing through the remaining water. I made it to the stairs first and nearly had my feet pulled out from under me by the current.

  “Careful,” I called back.

  With the beam of my chest light bobbing, I went down as fast as I dared, holding hard to the rail on the right. I heard Melisa behind me. The sour smell grew fainter as we descended. That had to mean water hadn’t gotten down here until now. The stairs were narrow and steep and long.

  I got to the bottom and had to stop to process what I was seeing. The room was an uneven hexagon, with some of the big, rounded brick walls longer than others. I counted five arched doorways leading out of the room. The doors were obviously heavy and had thick glass windows. The floor was made of the same brick as the walls.

  “This doesn’t look like an office,” Melisa said. “Or a lab, either.”

  “I know. It looks like—” I got deeper into the room. “I don’t know what it looks like.”

  Water was rising up our legs fast.

  “Those doors must be sealed, and this room’s smaller than the one upstairs,” Melisa said. “The water’s going to fill up the whole thing in minutes!”

  “Grab anything you can find!” I ran left and she went right. The water was already past our knees and rising by the second.

  In the middle of the room was a long, high table, like in the Enjineering Dome back in New Frisko. It was completely empty. There were tall sets of drawers lining one entire wall and things stuck to a big, wood-framed square on one of the other walls. They looked like papers. “We have to keep the papers dry,” I said. The water was at my waist.

  “We could try opening one of these other doors to let the water out,” Melisa said.

  I searched for a handle; there wasn’t one. Through the glass I saw a nearly empty room with another tall table and a
metal chair. “How? There’s no handle or knob.”

  “They must have been automatic,” Melisa said. She was already yanking drawers open. Some of them fell out as she pulled. “Forget it, just grab those papers.”

  “Yeah.” It was much harder to move now. The water had slowed a little, but it was still rising. I slogged across and scrubbed my hands as dry as I could on my shirt. I touched a big sheet of paper carefully, worried it might disintegrate. It didn’t. My chest light was too close and too bright for me to make out what was on the big sheet. It was about a meter by a meter and it looked like it had different colored lines on it. It was stuck to the brown wall with pointy things. I yanked them out and carefully folded the paper above my head, then held it in my teeth as I went for the next one.

  “I found some more papers in the drawers,” Melisa said. “A skinny thing that looks like a Z-Stik too.”

  I grunted at her and folded the last piece of paper.

  The water was almost to my chest.

  “Nik, we have to go! We can’t swim, remember?”

  Holding the papers above my head, I turned. “Got them. Did you check all the drawers?”

  “Not yet.” She threw an exasperated look at me and yanked a drawer open with a loud clang. It pulled all the way out of the stack and splashed into the water.

  I double checked the table. It was shiny metal and completely bare. I had to bounce to move, taking floating leaps. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, which was now at the water level. Panic was fluttering deep in my stomach.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Found another paper!” Melisa called out. She bounced my way and we both moved for the stairs.

  We made zero headway. The current from the big room was so strong it pushed back just as hard as we tried to move forward. The water was at my neck now.

  “Nik!” Melisa was behind me. She sounded terrified.

  I looked back. Her eyes were wide. Her hands still clutched papers above her head. Every time she bounced, her mouth went under a little.

  “Push harder! Push!” I tried to plant my feet and force my way through the current. I made a little progress. “Use both feet!” I looked back again. Melisa had barely moved.

  If I could get a little closer to the stairs, I might be able to grab the rail. But I had the papers! And if I held them in my mouth, they would get wet. I pushed and made another centimeter of progress.

  “Nik! Help!”

  Something hard smacked the back of my head. I turned. It was one of the drawers Melisa had yanked out. It was floating. A plan hit me. I grabbed the drawer with one hand and dropped the papers I held into it.

  Melisa was bouncing desperately, trying to keep her mouth and nose above the water. Her hands were under the water now, whatever papers she’d had were long gone. We should have left when she said. With every bounce, I saw panic in her eyes.

  “Help!”

  “Grab the drawer!” I yelled. I pushed with my feet and reached toward her with my free hand. “Come on! Grab it!”

  Melisa lunged. She got two fingers on the top lip and nearly flipped it. She slipped under the water. I lost precious centimeters of forward movement trying to keep the drawer upright.

  “Melisa!”

  She bobbed back up, gasping and coughing. “Go! Just go!”

  No way. “Push. You have to push against the floor.” I couldn’t help her if I wasn’t holding something. I needed to get to the rail. The water was high enough that if I weren’t bouncing, my nose would be under.

  “It’s okay!” Melisa went under, then bobbed up again. Her shout echoed over the rushing water. “Get the stuff out!”

  I pushed, reached, moved a few centimeters. My fingertips brushed the wall. The rail had to be right there!

  “No. Not without you,” I yelled. “Grab the drawer!” I jackknifed my body and stretched. I hooked the rail with one finger, then another. My other hand was bending uncomfortably behind me, trying to stretch the drawer closer to Melisa.

  Melisa burst up from the water. “Go! Get up the stairs!” She dropped again.

  “Get the drawer.” My throat hurt from yelling. I needed my arms to be longer. She had to try harder. Why couldn’t she try harder? “Melisa, come on!” I finally got my hand wrapped around the rail. My legs were pulled out from under me. I almost lost hold of the drawer.

  Her head bobbed up again. “Nik, go!” She sounded calm. That was bad. She shouldn’t be calm.

  “Melisa, no!” I had a wild thought. “Grab my foot!” Now I did need my arm to be longer. I was able to hold the rail, but the water was so high that it nearly covered my face. I needed to go up the stairs or let go. If I stayed here for more than a few seconds, the water would be above my head.

  She didn’t come up. I didn’t feel a hand grab for my foot. No. “Come on!” I pulled hard, yanking myself up the rail a little. “Melisa!”

  Still only the sound of rushing water. And I was about to be completely submerged. I called for her again. Nothing. Desperation made me shaky. I couldn’t hold on much longer.

  “Melisa, come on!” I didn’t see her. I needed to let go and get her. Where was she?

  Then I was under water. Ocean filled my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It was salty and awful. I clamped my mouth closed. One hand connected me to the rail. The other still held the drawer, which tilted at a dangerous angle. Melisa. I couldn’t help her like this. But if I let go of the rail, we were both gone. And if I let go of the drawer, we had no hope of finding my parents. If those papers were even going to help.

  I lunged upward, sucked a lungful of air, and went back under. I pulled on the rail, slid my hand up, and pulled again. I reached down with my feet. Nothing. I pulled harder, making a few more centimeters’ progress. My lungs were throbbing with pressure already. I pulled. Reached with my feet. Didn’t feel the stairs. I pulled. Darkness seemed to squeeze my head. I pulled. I pulled again. She could be sinking now, her last breath gone. She couldn’t go like this. She couldn’t go at all.

  I felt a cool breeze on the top of my head. I turned my face and breath exploded from my chest in a painful burst. I sucked fresh air down. Hurry up! I pulled myself up the rail and reached down with my feet. The drawer swung around and cracked me in the back of the head. I ignored the lance of pain that cut to my neck. The stone stairs were under my feet. I forced the drawer around and pushed myself up the stairs as fast as I could go.

  At the top, my chest heaving with exertion, I found the water level much lower than I expected. I shoved the drawer into a corner, set my pack and keeper next to it, and sprinted back to the stairs. Don’t float away, drawer.

  I glanced down the stairs and saw only water. “Melisa!” I listened. Nothing. I scrambled down the steps until water was at my knees. I listened. Still nothing.

  I sucked in a breath and jumped. I sank far enough that my feet hit the bottom of the stairs. I reached out for the rail and found it. I opened my eyes under the water, and everything looked murky and fuzzy with sand and other bits the ocean water had brought with it. My chest light cut through the water, but I felt almost blind. Where was she?

  I pulled myself back up the stairs with the rail, although the current was much weaker now. Probably because the secret room was full. Flailing free of the water, I took another breath. “Melisa!” Why hadn’t she come back up? “Melisa!” I got ready to jump in again.

  “Nik.” I flinched. Her voice was right next to me. No, it was above me.

  I spun. Melisa stood near the top of the stairs. Her long hair was plastered to her shoulders. Her backpack was gone, but she held the piece of metal tubing she’d found. “Nice jump.”

  Chapter 26

  I jumped to my feet and they slipped out from under me. I caught myself on the railing and a step and straightened myself up. “Melisa! How did you—What?”

  She grabbed me by an arm and pulled me up the stairs. “Come on, let’s get out of here first.”

  “But you went under.” I scr
ubbed water from my face, shoving wet hair out of my eyes. “You went under and I didn’t see you.”

  We got to the top of the stairs. The current had nearly disappeared. Which made sense, since the water had leveled out across the huge room. The entire room downstairs had filled up. Which meant that this room would start filling back up again if the tide was still coming in.

  “Where are the papers? Did you lose them?” Melisa asked. Her keeper and backpack were both gone.

  “No,” I led her to the drawer. It was floating a few meters away from the corner I’d dropped it in. My keeper had landed on my pack, so they were still in place, but nearly covered by the tide water. “This drawer was a perfect boat for them.”

  Melisa bent and lifted the papers out of the drawer. Water dripped off them. “They got a little wet.”

  Flutters of panic hit me again. All that, and they were ruined? “Is it bad?”

  “No, they might be all right,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  I shoved my soaked arms through my backpack straps. It felt a lot heavier. Must be because of the water. Slinging my keeper over my shoulders, I followed Melisa across the room. The water level was slowly rising again and was almost to our knees.

  Where did all this water go? The seaweed tendrils we’d seen on the floor were evidence that this wasn’t the first time water had gotten down here.

  Melisa was wondering the same thing. “Where does it all go? I mean, it’s not like it climbs back up there and goes back to the ocean.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know,” I said. “It must drain somewhere eventually. Just not fast enough to keep up with the tide coming in at first.”

  “I guess,” she said.

  We crossed the room where Adam Holland must had worked a hundred years ago. The sound of falling water and our splashes echoed off the solid walls. How did Holland do that? How is he still alive? It must have to do with those clone things we saw that last day in New Frisko. We had probably been the first people in the secret room down there in a century. That was weird.

  At the bottom of the stairs, my flickering chest light illuminated a cascade of water. I looked at Melisa, wondering where her chest light was. It was still there, but it had gone dark.