The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (6 page)

Justin gave a small sigh
and nodded. “I know, Aaron. I'd be willing to try it on one,
but somehow I think that the others would be attracted to the sound
or whatever and then...”

“
Exactly,”
Aaron replied with relief. “Even one though; remember how long
it took you to kill that servitor? I doubt you could hold your breath
long enough to destroy even one of them.”

“
Good
point.” Justin hadn't thought about the fight actually being
underwater. Leave it to Aaron to see all the angles.

Dominic and the others
had been listening and he spoke up.

“
I
have to agree with Aaron, Justin,” he said. They looked at him
incredulously and he flushed. “I told you, I don't want anyone
getting hurt. I still think of Maria as our leader because of the
months we were locked up together. But I'm no fool. Justin is the one
with that magic mark or whatever it is on his hand, and as of right
now, he's the only weapon we've got.”

Dominic turned and glared
at the ominous ripples still circling Maria's refuge. “We can't
risk him on something that's bound to fail.” He turned back to
look at Justin, who saw the hint of desperation in his eyes. “But
we have to do something! Eventually, we'll be too weak from hunger to
have the energy for any escape plan.”

Justin agreed. “Thanks
Dominic,” he said quietly. The other boy looked startled but
nodded and turned back to watch Maria.

Several of the group sat
down again, staring disconsolately at the threatening ripples.
Finally everyone had found a spot to sit and rest and think about
their situation. Justin noticed that Maria was sitting in the center
of her little mound of dry land; her legs pulled up and her chin
resting on her knees. She looked very forlorn out there alone.

Aaron was digging into
the dry earth under the grass, pulling up small clods that seemed to
be as hard as pebbles, and tossing them into the water. Justin sat
and watched the wake of the eel that was circling Maria. Around and
around it went, seemingly willing to maintain it's post forever.

Justin sat, chin resting
on his hand, and watched the ripples that followed the eel. Its
course was smooth and didn't alter. Or did it? He squinted through
the glare on the water; the artificial light was as bright as
sunlight. The eel would swim along its course and then, for a brief
second, it would quiver, as though about to change course, and then
carry on along the same path. Why was it doing that?

He stared more intently.
And watched it happen again. And then once more. The hesitations
seemed to be random interruptions in the eel's circular patrol. As it
happened again, Justin turned in irritation at the plopping sound
that Aaron's clods of earth made as they landed in the lake.

Justin was about to ask
Aaron to knock it off when he stopped, open-mouthed, and turned to
look at the course of the eel again. He watched, holding his breath
and listening to Aaron's splashes at the same time. Plop, and the
ripples hesitated. Plop and it happened again. And again. That was
it!

“
Aaron,
stop that for a second, would you?” he asked.

With a start, Aaron
looked over at Justin. “Oh, sorry Just. I was doing it without
thinking. I guess it gets irritating after a while.”

Justin smiled. “Nope,
it's not that. But I think the sound or vibrations from the dirt
hitting the water is getting our ugly friend's attention.”

Aaron scrambled to his
feet and joined Justin at the water's edge. The others gathered
around as well.

“
Toss
a clump of earth near the same place you were earlier, but lob it
high so you can watch what happens when it lands in the water.”

“
Okay,”
Aaron said excitedly. He grabbed a clump of dirt, gently tossed it
underhanded to the same spot he had thrown others earlier, then
eagerly looked around at the path of the eel.

As they all watched, the
clod of dirt hit the water with a loud plop and the ripples hesitated
for an instance and then moved back on course.

“
Wow,
that's cool,” Aaron said with a grin.

“
Yeah,
that's lots of fun, Justin. But what good is it?” Dominic's
tone wasn't critical as much as curious.

“
Well
Dominic, we're going to need a distraction soon. And if a little
splash can get that thing's attention, then maybe a bunch of them,
like if all of you were throwing clumps of dirt into the water, will
actually pull it over to that side of the island. At least for a few
minutes.”

Dominic nodded but looked
puzzled. “Makes sense, but why do we need a distraction?”

Taking a deep breath, and
making sure not to watch Aaron's reaction, Justin said “Because
I'm going to need one when I dive down and open that hatch to drain
the lake again.”

If Justin thought Aaron's
reaction might be bad, he was more than surprised when everyone,
including Dominic, started to protest at the same time.

Through the babble of all
six of them talking at once, and rather loudly too, Justin heard the
phrase “Are you nuts” at least a dozen times. He just
stood there, folded his arms and waited for them to talk themselves
out.

Finally, when everyone
had had their say, some several times, Justin spoke up.

“
Look
guys, I don't see any alternative. Dominic's right. We can't stay
here. We'll become too weak to act if we don't find food soon, and I
don't think chewing this grass is going to do it. And the last time
the lake was emptied, these things took off somewhere and were
nowhere to be seen until it filled up again.” He looked around
at the others. Aaron looked like he was trying to think of a
particularly stinging comment but wasn't quite sure what to say.

“
Aaron,
guys, please.” Justin rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling very
tired. “If any of you have a better idea, well, now's the time.
I'll seriously jump at any reasonable alternative.”

The group stood and
stared at each other awkwardly. Aaron dug his toe into the dry earth
but didn't offer any suggestions. No one did.

“
That's
it then,” Justin said with a decisive nod. “That's the
plan.” He grinned a bit sheepishly. “Now, if any of you
remember exactly where the hatch is, I'd be grateful.”

Seemingly eager to be of
some use, all of them began discussing the hatch's location. Justin
thought he remembered where it was, sort of. But once all of them had
agreed on its general location, he felt reassured. His guess had
placed it more or less where everyone else had.

“
So
how do you want to do this, Just?” Aaron asked anxiously. “I
think we need to time this right, because I'm guessing that we'll
only get one shot at it.”

“
You're
right, Aaron,” Dominic said. Aaron looked surprised but Dominic
just continued. “We need to pull that thing over here, and keep
making noise while Justin slips into the water on the opposite side,
toward the hatch's location.” He turned to look at Justin.
“Does that sound about right?'

Justin nodded. “That's
what I was thinking too. But let's tell Maria what we have planned
first. She needs to get ready in case...well, just in case.”

Everyone agreed and they
called over to Maria and explained the plan. She had been sitting on
her island watching them, obviously puzzled by their fairly loud
discussions a few minutes earlier. After they filled her in she
wished Justin luck, although she didn't sound particularly
enthusiastic about the idea. He just waved and turned to the others.

“
Okay,
everyone get a bunch of those dried earth clods, as many as you can.
Take them over to the side furthest away from the edge facing the
hatch and get ready to start throwing.” As they began to gather
their ammunition, Justin added “Don't throw them all at once;
they have to last long enough to keep its attention off of me until I
can find the hatch and get it open.”

A lot of worried faces
turned away from him to continue their gathering. Aaron walked over
to Justin. “You sure about this?” he asked nervously.

“
Between
you and me, bud? Not really, no. But it has to be done and soon, so
I've got to try.”

“
Yeah,
I know. But Justin, remember your rune. If the eel ends up going for
you, don't hesitate to use it, pain or no pain.”

“
I
won't hesitate, Aaron.” Justin's tone became grim. “But I
just realized, considering that it's got a mouthful of razor-sharp
titanium teeth, shoving my hand at it might not be the best idea.”

Aaron's mouth dropped
open as he obviously hadn't thought his idea through. But then he
sighed, nodded at Justin with a sad smile and walked off to gather
his own pile of dried dirt.

Once everyone had
gathered enough ammo and moved to the side of the island furthest
away from Justin, they all turned and looked at him, waiting for a
signal. Aaron gave him a discreet thumbs-up for which Justin was
grateful. He took off his shoes, socks and shirt. Then he took a deep
breath, turned and located the circling ripple that marked the eel's
location. Justin swallowed nervously and shouted “Now!”

He watched the eel's wake
sudden disappear as the sound of splashes signaled the start of the
distraction. Then with a large eruption of water, the ripples
violently whipped around and headed straight for the area where the
teens were throwing their clumps of earth.

“
It's
working, Justin!” Dominic shouted. “It's racing around in
circles right where we're hitting the water.”

“
Okay,
I'm heading in!” Justin called and entered the water as quickly
and silently as he could. The water was cold and he shivered as he
slipped into it. He caught a fleeting glimpse of Maria, her hands
clamped over her mouth, watching him as he began to swim.

Every stroke sounded ten
times as loud as it probably was. Justin tried to keep his head above
water and listen for any shouted warnings that the metal monster was
headed his way, but all he heard were his arms hitting the water and
his heart pounding in his ears. When he had reached what he thought
was the location of the hatch, he took a huge gulp of air and dove
down toward the bottom of the lake.

The green-tinged water
was clear but Justin had forgotten just how much algae was layered on
the lake bed. Those stupid eels aren't very good at their cleaning
job, he thought. He looked for a break in the algae, any indication
of where the hatch had opened earlier.

Nothing. Nothing but
green muck as far as he could see. When his lungs began to burn and
his vision started to dim, he headed for the surface. He did his best
not to gasp loudly as he came up for air. He tread water for a minute
and looked around. Maria was a vague blur at the edge of his vision
but he couldn't make out if she was trying to signal him or just
standing there. He couldn't hear any yelling and hoped that was a
good sign.

After taking a few
seconds to catch his breath, Justin sucked in another lungful of air
and dove again.

Where are you, damn it.
Where is that hatch? Then, some yards away, he thought he saw a break
in the green covering. Maybe stone? He swam down as fast as he could,
his lungs burning already. Yes! The hatch. It had to be.

Justin swam closer and
looked at the round hole in the algae. Where's the rune? There has to
be a rune on this side, like there was below. He felt around, his
nose almost brushing up against the stone and spotted an indentation.
That's it! He reached for the small hole, a rush of relief coursing
through him and as he bent lower, the eel missed taking his head off
by inches!

In shock, Justin turned
in time to see a six foot long monstrosity, gleaming bronze in the
murky water, whip around and shoot at him with a gaping maw filled
with serrated inch-long teeth. He raised his right hand, hopelessly,
because he knew that the titanium teeth would have no problem cutting
through his Titan flesh. With his left hand, he pushed down against
the bottom, trying to brace himself. His middle finger slipped into a
hole and there was a resounding clunk as, without trying to, he
activated the rune on the top of the hatch.