Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2) (23 page)

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been erased by the changing world, and yet the way across -- the way into the Flatlands--was still there.

"The Nubian are circling," said Vincent. The group looked up and saw familiar, eerie shadows moving high on the red rocks above.

"There's time for just a little instruction," said Dr. Kincaid. "For one thing, we don't have to be quiet. Nothing inside there can hear us so it won't matter if you want to talk as we go. There will be a lot of fire bugs--more than you can imagine--but if you go slowly and blow on them, you'll be able to avoid them. Don't let them touch your skin. Your hair should be all right."

He looked at everyone, and seeing that all but Vincent had a healthy head of thick hair, he nodded.

"Cover up as much as you can, but remain watchful. There is another creature inside that eats the fire bugs."

"What sort of creature? How big is it?" asked Samuel. He had already wanted to turn back at the thought of being electrocuted by thousands of tiny glowing bugs. What could possibly want to eat them?

The shadows of the Nubian came lower on the wall and their screeching filled the air.

"Follow Vincent," said Dr. Kincaid. "He'll try to clear the way. We have to go!"

The Nubian were diving together, one after the other, as Vincent crept into the Inferno. Dr. Kincaid followed, then came the children, and finally Sir William. The moment the five of

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them were inside the dark opening, the Nubian turned back, shrieking with anger.

"We come now to the last of our difficult passage," Dr. Kincaid mumbled. And then, wanting to make sure everyone understood the seriousness of the situation, he said one more thing. "I'm sorry to say we saved the most dangerous part for the end."

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*** CHAPTER 28 FLIGHT FROM THE GROVE

While Edgar sat with Maude and Horace on the steps of Mr. Ratikan's house, the ground rumbled oddly at their feet, accompanied by the eerie sound of water rising in a storm over the Highlands--a new threat they didn't have the first idea how to manage.

Horace, Maude, and Isabel's father, Charles, had welcomed Edgar, but there was precious little time and so the questions had begun almost immediately. As he sat on the steps he had once approached every day for food, Edgar hurriedly explained about Dr. Harding and Dr. Kincaid, about Vincent and Sir William, and of course, Samuel and Isabel.

"They've gone underground, into a secret place that's safe from the rising water," said Edgar. He couldn't imagine how they'd ever escape Dr. Harding's laboratory, but he also wanted

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to provide a little hope. "The two from the Flatlands--Dr. Kincaid and Vincent--they knew where they were going. There must be a passage out."

"At least they're safe from the Cleaners down there," said Maude. Charles nodded earnestly, but in truth, though no one was willing to say it, survival inside the violent heart of Atherton seemed impossible.

As Charles hurried off toward the village to tell Isabel's mother what he'd learned, Horace began questioning Edgar again. "How high will the water come?"

"Dr. Harding said it would rise all the way to the top."

"Will it reach higher than the edge of the Highlands?" asked Maude, grave concern in her voice.

Edgar hesitated. It was a point that Dr. Harding had come to as Edgar lay half asleep, a fact he was embarrassed to reveal.

"He said everyone must leave for the Flatlands," said Edgar, rubbing the pain out of his shoulder. "He wouldn't tell me why. But you should know he was a little crazy. He'd been bitten by this terrible animal, and his mind wasn't quite right to begin with. I'm not sure he could be trusted in the end."

Edgar hated saying these things, but the truth was he really couldn't be sure Dr. Harding had been altogether sane. Edgar remembered that they should go to the Flatlands, but why? There was nothing out there but Cleaners. No food, no water, just barren, open land where an exodus of humanity would make for easy prey.

"I have thought of the Flatlands as well," said Horace. "I

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can't say exactly why, but it has felt to me as if Atherton itself were calling us to go to there."

Horace had a new resolve, his plans bolstered by the news 5 from Edgar. Maude wasn't so sure.

"It's open space out there," she said. "And there's nothing. No water, no food. It's desolate. At least here, in the grove, we have trees to protect us and we can set our backs against the cliffs leading down to the Highlands. The Cleaners can't come up from behind us there. What possible reason could there be to venture out into the wide open nothingness of the Flatlands?"

She had made a great many indisputable points. And yet, Horace was unmoved. "If there is an ounce of truth in what this man has told Edgar, then we have no choice but to go. This man, Dr. Harding,
made
Atherton."

"And then he lost his mind," said Maude, anger rising in her voice. "Don't forget we knew him as Lord Phineus, who would love nothing more than to send us to our death and laugh all the way to his grave."

"We can't stay here," said Horace. "It was never the plan, you know that."

Maude looked away toward the grove, aware that the situation was hopeless.

"Why can't we stay?" asked Edgar. "Maybe she's right. Maybe we could manage it."

Horace didn't feel he had the time or the patience to explain, but he felt he somehow owed it to Edgar. "The Cleaners

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are coming," he began. "We have scouts on horses, and I tell you it's only a matter of time. They went first to the two villages, but when they've finished destroying those places, it's here they will come. From both sides they'll attack the grove until nothing remains. The grove will draw them in, but we must be gone when they get here."

"Why did you do this?" asked Edgar. "I don't understand your plan and where it leads."

"He had a hunch," said Maude in a critical tone.

"A hunch that Wallace agreed with," said Horace, hesitating before continuing. He wished that Maude would be more agreeable.

But then he heard the sound of hooves tearing through the grove. Gill rode up hard and fast through the trees. The horse nearly collapsed from lack of water and food as Gill dismounted and bolted for the steps to Mr. Ratikan's house.

"They're on the move," said Gill. "All of them, from both sides. All of the Cleaners are coming!"

"How many?" asked Maude, standing as though she were ready to fight.

Gill looked at Edgar and wondered if he should answer with a young boy within earshot.

"I've eaten Cleaners for breakfast," said Edgar, sensing the man's concern. "There's nothing you can say that will surprise me."

Gill looked out into the grove and pointed in the direction of the Village of Rabbits. "Five hundred from there." Then he pointed toward the Village of Sheep. "Five hundred more."

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A thousand Cleaners heading for the grove--one for every man, woman, and child of Atherton. It was an insurmountable number.

Horace looked in a different direction through the clearing, toward the barren path that led to the Flatlands. "Something awaits us there," he said.
"I feel
it. And Wallace felt it, too."

***

The mood in the grove was one of grumbling and dissent as Horace, Maude, and Edgar approached. There had been precious little food and water to give out and provisions were running lower by the hour. Soon there would be nothing, only the approaching Cleaners and an army too tired and hungry to fight. Many from the village had witnessed the water rising in the Highlands and had returned with something well past fear in their eyes. Everyone who stood before Horace looked dazed, as though finally the world had crushed their spirits entirely.

The time had come for Horace to set what remained of his plan into motion, and he stood before hundreds of people speaking in the loudest and most authoritative voice he could muster.

"We must leave this place," he shouted. "Together, as one people, we have overcome a maddening world that threatens to destroy us."

No one made an attempt to disagree. Horace found the eyes of his wife and child, huddling close together in the middle of the crowd, and his heart nearly broke. He wished this duty

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could fall to another, that he could go and comfort them. And yet his wife smiled up at him, nodded encouragement and understanding, and he was able to accept his circumstances for what they were. He alone could lead them.

"I have tried to show you the way at a time when no clear path revealed itself," continued Horace, his words a solemn reminder of a lost friend. "The water comes to flood us from behind. The Cleaners come from the sides to devour us. There is but one path that remains, though it may seem the least agreeable of them all."

Horace looked away from the group and toward the Flat-lands, which no one could see. "We must leave for the Flatlands. No other hope remains."

There was a ripple of shocked exclamations from the group as they realized they would have to leave the safety of the grove. The trees had felt so protective, shielding them from having to look outside at the failing world around them. It had almost seemed peaceful, as if it had all been a bad dream.

The voices of dissent began, but they were stopped by the sound of one boy, a boy who had spent most of his life in the grove.

"He's right," Edgar spoke up with confidence. The boy who'd climbed to every part of Atherton had taken on a sort of mythical status among the living. Everyone quieted.

"I've spoken to the one who made this place," said Edgar, his voice booming louder than he thought possible. Everyone gasped at once, trying to grasp what this meant. "And he told me we would find peace in the Flatlands."

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A wave of mumbling came over the crowd and the children began to shout that Edgar was right. Soon the children's voices were louder than the swell of skepticism behind them. They
wanted
to go, to follow the person who they deemed
their
commander.

The grove would have to be abandoned, along with everything else, and they would have to face whatever awaited them in the unknown world of the Flatlands.

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*** CHAPTER 29 THE INFERNO

Sir William had been feeling a growing unease as he and the others made their way through the inside of Atherton. There was a part of him that wanted to take Samuel and Isabel and leave these two men he'd never met before. It seemed to him with each passing step that he and the two children were being led deeper into disaster.

He stood in the dark opening to the Inferno and looked back where the Nubian had been, listening as they trailed off. "Wait a minute," he said, peering into the darkness where he could barely discern the outline of the two men. He held Samuel and Isabel on either side, one under each arm. "I'm
responsible
for these two, even if you aren't."

"There's no place for you out there," Vincent called, gesturing with his chin. "Only death awaits if you take them out of

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the Inferno. Even if you get past the Nubian on your own, then where will you go? This place was not meant for humans, and
that
way"--he pointed forcefully to the outside--"leads only to the laboratory. In case you've forgotten, the laboratory is in the Highlands, which is under water."

Sir William took his hand off Isabel's shoulder, scratching the beard that had grown fallow beneath his chin.

"It's the only way," said Samuel, looking up at his father. "I know you feel bad for leaving me--for leaving Mother--but there was nothing you could do. No one blames you, least of all me, and Vincent knows the way. We have to learn to trust him."

At that moment Sir William realized just how deep his guilt for being trapped in Mead's Hollow had weighed on him. Until then he hadn't really seen the connection between his protec-tiveness of the children and his guilt for having left his own son fatherless for so long.

"You're right, Samuel. I do feel terrible I haven't been there to protect you. But you're also right that there was nothing I could do about it." He looked up at Vincent and Dr. Kincaid who stood impatiently waiting. "But I still don't know how to trust either of you. This way you're taking us better not be some sort of trap."

Dr. Kincaid spoke before Vincent had the chance to. "Vincent has one duty, to protect the four of us at all cost. If anyone comes to great harm it will be him, of that you can be assured."

Sir William remained unsure, but he resigned himself to the path he would have to take.

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"Let's not assume my demise already," said Vincent. "I've made it through here with an old man in tow several times before. I believe we'll be fine, if you'll only listen and pay attention."

There were tentative nods from everyone as Vincent turned and disappeared into the darkness. "It's a small space, so use the walls to guide you and follow my voice," he called out loudly and with great authority. "There's only one way to go for a while. The first thing you're going to see are more fire bugs. You'll want to touch them because the way they drift and sway makes them look so drunk with happiness, so harmless. Don't give in--
don't touch
---but also, don't turn away. If you take your eyes off them you're likely to feel a shock you won't like."

Isabel breathed in shallow fits and starts because she knew what it would feel like if one of the fire bugs touched her. Though she wasn't crying, by the sounds she was making in the dark it seemed to Samuel that she was nearly hysterical.

"Stay right next to me," he said, holding her hand. She gripped his fingers so tightly it began to hurt, but he didn't say anything. The two followed Vincent's voice through the dark.

"Here's one now," he said, and sure enough, out of the dark came a tiny glowing blue light, swaying softly in the air. It seemed not to be aware of them as it came very near Vincent's face. The small creature created enough light that everyone could see Vincent's eyes and nose and lips. "You can be touched three times by a fire bug in an hour. Any more contact than that and your body will start to shut down."

"How do you know that?" asked Isabel, realizing that this