A Buried Spark

by P. J. Hoover

  He falls backward, into the river of lava. Slowly he sinks in, but no sooner is he under the lava, it begins to rise, stretching upward inch by inch until it forms a wall of lava instead of a river. It blocks everything.

  Taylor and I scramble backward. I trip on something and fall flat on my back. Taylor grabs my arm and drags me to my feet. I can’t pull my eyes away from the wall of lava. If we’d gotten on the floating platform, the fireball would have hit us. We’d have been trapped on it, burning alive. That would have been us. And now there’s no way to cross. But in case I thought the wall of lava would block our attacker from us, I would be wrong. Before I can process what is happening, another ball of fire punches through the lava and lands two feet away. We may not be able to see through the lava, but whoever is firing at us is able to.

  “Run!” I shout, and we take off. But the world behind us is dark and full of ruin. There is nowhere to hide.

  II

  Taylor and I run along the bank of the river of lava, trying to get away. Fireballs come at us, bursting through the living, glowing wall, landing at our feet. The lava that gets sprayed splatters on the ground, barely missing us. The entire zone is a wasteland of nothing with nowhere to hide. We keep running, but unless we find somewhere to go, we will die.

  I yank on Taylor’s arm, pulling her back from the river. Then, without thinking about what I’m doing, I grab the bits of computer code around us with my mind and pull them together, forming a solid barrier in front of us. I hardly have time to register that my power has worked flawlessly.

  It’s not a second too soon. A fireball smacks into the barrier. I almost lose the hold on it. Fire covers the entire thing, but it stays together . . . barely.

  “I saw this happen,” Taylor says. “I knew it.”

  “How?”

  Another fireball hits.

  She points to the Oculus. “I saw it with this thing. It showed me.”

  Her words twist into the truth in my mind even as another fireball smacks into our makeshift barrier. “You saw the future?”

  “Maybe.”

  If that’s true, then it makes more sense why Raven wanted the Oculus so badly. Seeing through the layers of virtual worlds is one thing. Seeing the future is totally different.

  “Who’s firing at us?” I ask.

  Taylor shakes her head. “No idea. I mean I see them. It’s one person. No one else around. But I can’t see who it is.”

  “What do you see?” There could be some sort of clue.

  She narrows her left eye just as another fireball slams into the barricade. It holds, but I’m not sure for how much longer.

  “Their face is covered,” she says. “I can’t see who it is.”

  Whoever it is most definitely is trying to kill us. I’d think it was Owen, but even with his dad helping him out, I don’t see how he would have the power for this. And if it were lightning I would assume it was Abigail. But this is straight-up fire.

  An enormous fireball hits the barrier, and this time a small crack appears. I try to repair it, diving into the code I formed, but it’s spreading too fast. I grab for it again, but now that I’m actually focusing on using my power, it doesn’t work. Then the entire thing comes down and shatters at our feet.

  Someone grabs my arm from behind.

  I whip around and raise my fists, ready to fight. Standing there is Zachary Gomez. His face is charred with smoke from the burning zone around us. His dark hair sticks out in five different directions. An entire sleeve is torn off his plaid shirt. Whatever he’s been through, it can’t have been any easier than it’s been for us.

  “Come with me,” he says.

  There is no time for questions. He takes off away from the lava waterfall, and Taylor and I follow. Fireballs continue to pummel us from behind, but they’re getting farther away. We run into the darkness and come to a metal barrier. The end of the line, I think. But Zachary taps some kind of pattern on the barrier. Small lights illuminate where his fingers touch, and the barrier splits apart, revealing a path. No sooner are we inside, the panel closes behind us. I jump as a fireball smacks into it, lighting the entire thing up bright orange. I think it will melt, but it holds. We don’t stick around to watch any longer.

  The path winds around in the darkness and has walls that seem to be made of pure darkness, like the silhouette on the floating platform.

  Zachary leads the way to the end of the path. We come to another wall, but he does the same thing, tapping some kind of keypad. He uses a different pattern this time. A panel slides open and he rushes inside. As soon as Taylor and I are in also, the panel slides closed.

  “What are you doing here?” I say, trying to grasp the fact that Zachary is really here, standing in front of me. I push him on the arm to see if he’s real. Well, at least as real as I am.

  “I’m—” Zachary starts.

  “Who is this?” Taylor says. She glares at Zachary, like she’ll rip his throat out if he sneezes wrong.

  That’s right. They’ve never met. Zachary met me and Cole back in at the end of the labyrinth, and he communicated with me through the heads-up display. But besides Cole, my friends have not met him.

  Zachary backs up and put his hands up in defense. “I’m a friend of Edie’s.”

  I let the words settle in my mind. A friend. Yeah, that’s true. In a weird sort of way. Zachary has helped save my butt any number of times. I guess I have to add this one to the list. But with him being a minor god, I wonder how much of this he’s responsible for in the first place.

  “This is Zachary Gomez,” I say. “He was the one who gave me the KLAM STEW cheat code back in the labyrinth.”

  “You’re one of the programmers?” Taylor says, and she narrows her eyes even more. I think if she had her bow and arrows right now, she would put an arrow through his heart and never give it another thought. In all fairness, the programmers of these simulations are sadistic, Zachary included.

  “Just of a couple zones,” Zachary says. “They weren’t bad, I swear.”

  Taylor only glares in response. But what defense can Zachary have? Adam, Taylor’s twin brother, had died back in the labyrinth, and Zachary had been one of the main programmers for that simulation.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask.

  Zachary’s face flushes and he points to my wrist. “I got your message.”

  The wristband. I tap it again, but it remains inactive. “I didn’t think it worked.”

  “It gave me your location,” he says. “I thought you might need help.”

  “Edie doesn’t need your help,” Taylor says before I can say a word. “Edie could kick your ass if she wanted to.”

  I kind of love how she’s sticking up for me. Like she’s totally on my side. Part of the team. So much of our past has been tenuous, and sure, having Cole run off with Pia completely sucks, but it’s also cemented Taylor’s loyalty.

  “Well, yeah, that’s true,” Zachary says. “But I can program things. I can do things to help.”

  “Edie can program,” Taylor says. “She doesn’t need you to program anything. Got it?”

  “What?” Zachary says. “You want me to put you back out there so you can get killed by a flaming projectile? Does that sound good?”

  Taylor crosses her arms. “Maybe.”

  I step between them, hoping to diffuse the tension. “It’s okay, Taylor. He helped me get through the other simulation.”

  “Simulations,” Zachary says, emphasizing the plural.

  “Simulations,” I say. “And we’re happy for any help you can give us now.”

  Zachary runs a hand through his messy dark hair. It looks like he’s never owned a hairbrush. “This zone . . . This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

  “What? We aren’t supposed to get killed before we’ve even started?” Taylor says. “Because that would
be a pretty shitty simulation.”

  But the fact that Zachary is confused at this zone worries me. “What do you mean?” I ask.

  He gestures back out toward where we came from. “I mean that the Nether Zone was just a dumping ground for us. For the programmers to stick pieces of code we didn’t need. Or didn’t want.”

  “Okay. And . . . ?” As far as I can tell, that’s what it looked like out there.

  “And there was never any lava river. Never any cloaked figure to take people across. None of that was there.”

  “So you think we’re just making it up?” Taylor says. She still has the piece of metal in her hand, her grip tight on it.

  Zachary looks to the metal weapon like he’s worried if he says the wrong thing, she’ll split him open. It is a valid concern.

  “You guys aren’t making it up,” Zachary says. “But the thing is that those elements shouldn’t exist. The river. The ferryman. The fireballs. The programmers never put them there.”

  “But they do exist,” I say. They exist and they’re able to kill us.

  Zachary leans against the dark circular wall around us. The room is a solid dome, all perfectly black. Low light glows from the ceiling, casting shadows everywhere. There’s no way to tell where the panel we came through is.

  “Now I see that,” Zachary says. “I’d heard rumors, but I wasn’t sure they were true.”

  “What rumors?” Taylor asks.

  He blows out a deep breath. “Here’s what I heard. Raven was supposed to have the key. She did have the key. And then . . . I don’t know. Someone took it. Or tricked her. Or maybe she gave it away. With Raven, you just don’t know. Her motives are always a little unclear. So is her loyalty, for that matter, but that could be said for any of the gods. Anyway, whoever it was got the key. They brought it here. And then they created that lava river and built up a simulation on the other side of it, outside the Nether Zone. A new simulation. Unsanctioned.”

  “Who?” Taylor says.

  He grits his teeth and lowers his voice. “One of the gods.”

  “Like you?” I say.

  Taylor scowls. “This guy’s no god.”

  It might be my imagination, but Zachary seems to stand a little taller. “Well, technically, I am.”

  Taylor rolls her eyes. “You don’t look like a god.”

  “And you know what the gods look like how?” Zachary says in what may be the most godly act I’ve ever seen of him. At least he’s willing to stand up to her. Maybe that’s what finally softens her toward him.

  She shrugs. “I just know that the gods don’t look like you. You’re a kid.”

  Zachary pats down his hair like he’s trying to straighten it. “Looks can be deceiving. You should remember that.”

  “You should remember—” Taylor starts, but I put up a hand to stop her. Now isn’t the time to argue about how gods are supposed to look. From what I’ve seen, gods can look however they want. Iva and Elise are proof of that.

  “Which god is it?” I say, cutting her off.

  He glances around, like someone might overhear, then whispers once again. “One of the old gods. Gods of the second age. This one . . . Chaos is the best way to think of him.”

  At the words, I’m back in the labyrinth simulation, in Zone Omega. I fight the old god in the golden throne. I watch the snakes cover him. Watch his body shrivel away to nothing. I kill him. But that’s not the god we’re talking about. That god is dead. The god Zachary is talking about, Chaos, is not.

  “I thought the old gods were dead,” I say. “Aren’t they?” I wish the answer was no. I know it’s not. It had taken every bit of my strength to kill the old god in the throne room. Even with as ancient and decrepit as he was, he’d gained control over me, Cole, and Zachary for that matter.

  “We’re pretty sure they’re all dead except for one,” Zachary says. “But—”

  Taylor puts up a hand. “Don’t say something like ‘He’s the worst of the bunch’ or anything like that.”

  “But he’s—” Zachary starts again.

  She points at him. “Don’t say it.”

  Zachary puts up his hands. “Okay. I won’t. But we’re pretty sure Chaos is the one who took the key from Raven. He knows he’s dying. But he doesn’t want to die. He wants to get his power back.”

  “Nobody wants to die,” Taylor says.

  “True,” Zachary says. “But the rumors say that Chaos has a plan. He created this new simulation. Simulation Omega. Hid the key here. He set it up like a game to see who could find it. Who could get to the end. But it’s got to be a trap. He needs to figure out who the strongest of you are—which ones of you are able to get the key—so he can steal your power.”

  The words swish around in my mind. “So we need to get this key, but it’s all a trap.”

  “Exactly,” Zachary says. “But the worst part is that we minor gods don’t know anything about this place beyond the lava river.”

  “You and Iva?” I say.

  He nods. “And Elise. Raven. A few others. We don’t know the rules. We don’t know the structure.”

  “What do you know?” Taylor asks.

  “Not much,” Zachary says. “But I do know that someone out there is trying to kill you. Someone who most likely works for Chaos.”

  That’s reassuring. In the off chance I thought it was only a coincidence that someone was shooting fireballs at us, now I know it’s definitely personal.

  “So what do we do?” I ask.

  Zachary looks around as if something finally dawns on him. “Where’s . . . Cole?”

  A hard ball forms in my stomach. “He’s gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  I open my mouth and try to figure out what to say, but Taylor gets up in Zachary’s face. “Just don’t mention it, okay?”

  Zachary slowly nods, barely meeting my eye. “Okay. Consider it not mentioned.”

  I wish so much in that moment that things were not how they are. That Cole hadn’t left me. I still can’t believe it. Just thinking about it . . . I force him out of my mind. He has no place there now. All that matters is finding the key.

  “How do we get across the river?” I ask.

  Zachary glances back from where we just came. “I don’t think you should try. Someone is trying to keep you out.”

  “I noticed. But why? If this old god wants the power, why would he want to keep me out?” I’m not trying to brag here, but Cole and I got the power from the labyrinth simulation. Chaos would want that power the same way the other god had.

  “Elise has a theory on that,” Zachary says.

  “Which is what?”

  “A prophecy,” he says. “She claims that prophecies travel on the wind, and that she can catch them. So she caught this prophecy. And she told it to Chaos as he was dying. She didn’t think it would matter.”

  So Elise is not perfect. She makes mistakes. Which means any of the gods, Chaos included, can make mistakes. I file this information away for future use.

  “What prophecy?” At the word, my heart rate speeds up. Memories of gods and prophecies swim around in my mind. Of things I’ve heard that gods will do to keep prophecies from coming true. “Was it about the river?”

  “What about the river?”

  “Elise told me that if I tried to cross the river, I would die,” I say. “Was that the prophecy you’re talking about?”

  He shakes his head. “A different one. One with Chaos. She told him as he was dying that his time as a god was over anyway. She claimed that even if he lived, the prophecy showed that he would came face to face with the one who had the power of the gods, and when that happened, he would be defeated.”

  A mixture of nervous chills run through me. The power of the gods. I have that power now. Cole and I both do.

  “That’s absurd,” I hear
myself say. And yet I want to believe it. I want to defeat this god and make the world right again.

  “Is it?” Zachary says.

  I swallow as I process the thought. I don’t know. The power in me is real. I can do things with it. And I’ve only just started. What if it could be more than I ever knew was possible?

  “Are Elise’s prophecies normally right?” I ask. I’d almost crossed the river, and I’d almost died. If the payment had worked and I had crossed, I would be dead.

  “Normally yes,” Zachary says, so matter-of-fact. “She’s chatty and annoying, but she’s normally right.”

  Chatty and annoying. That had been Elise. She hadn’t told me about Chaos or the prophecy, but she had gone out of her way to mention how Zachary was always talking about me. But no way does he like me more than as a friend.

  I push thoughts of Elise and the prophecy to the back of my mind. I can worry about that later. “So how do we get out of here? How do we get across the river? We need to get into this simulation.”

  “Can’t either of you two make a world gate?” Taylor says.

  “A world gate can’t get us there,” Zachary says. “This is one simulation. Chaos’s Simulation Omega is completely another.”

  Taylor waves her fingers like she’s a magician. “Fine. What about some other powerful godly thing? Can’t you do that?”

  Zachary blushes and looks quickly to me like he’s embarrassed. But his face is layered with a thin mask of confidence. “A powerful godly thing? Well, sure, I guess I can do that.” Then he pushes both hands forward, palms out.

  A holographic globe forms in the air, directly in front of him. It pulses slowly, but Zachary reaches out and spins it, causing the pulses to come closer together. Then he presses a hand to it, resting it on the hologram.

  I try to focus on it, to figure it out, but it spins faster and faster.

  “You two ready?” he says.

  It’s just a blur now, and it’s flashing like there’s some sort of countdown going on, similar to a world gate and yet a different type of model. “Where’s it taking us?” I ask.