The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (7 page)

The eel stopped dead,
thrashing backwards to stop its forward momentum. For a few seconds,
as Justin's lungs burned and he awaited death, it seemed to be
deciding what to do. Then the hatch dropped open and with a roar, the
water began to drain through. The eel turned tail and shot off into
the green murky depths of the lake.

Justin never really
remembered how he avoided being sucked down through the hatch with
the tons of water rushing by him. But somehow he managed to reach the
surface and he just floated for a few moments as he relished the
taste of the air, and the thought that they were safe for now.

A nearby splashing made
him jerk his head up and he looked around with alarm. But it was just
Aaron, Dominic and, surprisingly, Maria swimming towards him. He
almost shuddered with relief. The trio swam up to him and Aaron tried
to smile, although his face was pale and his eyes look twice as big
as usual.

“
You
did it, Just!” he shouted and then grinned.

“
Yes,
you were amazing, Justin,” Maria added. He saw Dominic nod
vigorously. “But let's get you back on to dry land,” she
continued. “You must be exhausted.”

Justin couldn't find the
breath to answer. He just smiled gratefully and allowed the three of
them to steer him back toward their little island.

With a bit of support,
they made it back to the islet in a few minutes. Justin found just
enough strength to stagger up and on to the grass before sinking to
his knees and flopping on to his back. Aaron had taken off his light
jacket when they had swum out to get him, and now he rolled it up and
slipped it under Justin's head. He knelt down beside his friend and
watched him intently, the water still dripping from Aaron's long hair
and his shirt soaked and plastered to his skin.

“
So
what happened out there, Just?” he asked. The others had
gathered around but were watching quietly. Justin told them of the
encounter with the eel, and his luck in pressing the rune just in
time. Everyone gasped as he told his story and actually cheered when
he mentioned how the eel had swum off as fast as it could once the
hatch had opened.

When he was done, Maria
crouched down and patted his shoulder. She had gotten dressed again
and she smiled broadly at him. “I don't know if I'd call that
luck, Justin. But if it was, we could use a lot more of it. Well
done, my friend, well done!”

Justin knew he was
blushing at her praise and the comments of the others but all he
wanted to do was rest for a while and Maria seemed to sense that. She
stood up and looked at the others.

“
Let's
let Justin relax for a bit. If I remember right, it took about an
hour, hour and a half for the lake to drain last time, so we have a
breather before we set out.” She looked intently at each of
them. “We have to decide what direction to head to once we can
start walking, so everyone look around, see if we can figure out how
to get off of this bloody lake.”

As they scattered to look
around the area, Justin grinned at a still worried-looking Aaron.
“I'm glad she can take charge, bud. I'd forgotten how long we'd
have to wait until the water drained.” He closed his eyes and
heard Aaron quietly agree.

Justin must have dozed
for a time because the next thing he knew, Aaron was calling his name
and shaking him gently. He looked up at his friend, who hadn't seemed
to have moved since he lay down.

“
Justin?
C'mon bud. The water's getting low and we'll have to take off soon.”

Justin sat up a bit
creakily and stretched. He accepted his shirt from Aaron and stood
up. After putting on his shirt, socks and shoes, the two friends
walked over to where Maria was talking to the group.

“
Any
ideas on where we should be heading, Maria?” Justin asked as
they approached the others.

“
Hey,
Justin. I'm glad you had a chance to rest.” She pointed toward
the mound that had been her island before the water had drained away.
Justin noticed that maybe a foot of green, algae-choked water
remained in the lake but that it was disappearing fast.

“
Obviously
we can't see the edges of the lake from here, but if you follow a
line from the islet I was on, you can see that more and more of the
mounds seem to spring up as you look past it.” She looked at
Justin. “We figure that may be a possible sign of land in the
distance, but at the very least, we'll have some places to choose
from if we have to find refuge when the water starts to refill the
lake.” She looked at him expectantly.

Justin glanced at Aaron,
who shrugged and nodded and then he looked around at the others. “You
guys agree with Maria?”

They all nodded and
Dominic spoke up. “Definitely,” he said, sounding a bit
more aggressive now that Maria was among them again. Justin simply
smiled.

“
Okay,
sounds good to me. Let's wait till the water's done draining and head
out, all right?”

They all concurred and
stood or sat around and watched the water level drop.

A few minutes later, when
all that was left of the lake water were a few puddles and a lot of
wet algae, the eight teens slipped down the slope of their islet and
started walking. They passed by Maria's temporary home on their left
and set a course that would take them along the line of mounds that
seemed to crowd together in the distance.

After several minutes,
the company spread out a bit. Maria and Dominic were walking side by
side in front followed by Julia and Yolanda, who were talking
quietly, then Richard and Jason. Jason seemed to be a bit of a joker
because Richard kept chuckling at his muttered comments.

Aaron and Justin brought
up the rear. Justin was feeling a lot more energetic since his brief
nap and was concentrating on watching the others for a moment and
then looking past them into the distance. Aaron seemed more concerned
with keeping his footing. The wet slimy algae was slippery and all of
them had to walk much slower than they would have liked to keep from
losing their feet. The group seemed well aware that they did not have
a lot of time to get to their destination.

Justin was wondering just
where this journey was taking them. He knew that they had maybe a
half hour or so before the lake refilled and, remembering how
violently that had happened last time, he was anxious to get to an
area of relative safety. Unfortunately, all of them fell down
occasionally, no matter how carefully they stepped and it was a
sweaty, irritable group of teens that stopped after about twenty
minutes of steady trudging to assess their situation.

They were now standing in
a spot where mounds rose up around them on all sides. Justin reckoned
that even if the lake began to refill soon, they could probably jump
from mound to mound with minimal risk of attack from the eels. It
wasn't a good situation but it was an improvement on their last
location.

Maria nodded shortly when
he mentioned this but kept looking off into the distance.

“
Justin,
can you tell what that mass is straight ahead?”

Everyone followed her
gaze and Justin turned to look as well. Just barely in view, blocked
by the high mounds and bright light around them, he could see a dark
blot on the horizon. Maria was right; it was just a mass of darkness.
Smoke? Fog? A rock wall? There was no way to tell.

“
No
idea,” Justin said. “But I think we should get closer and
take a look. If the group agrees,” he added quickly.

“
Definitely,”
Yolanda piped up and then blushed when they all looked at her. She
rarely spoke to anyone except Julia. Maria laughed and patted Yolanda
on the back.

“
I
agree,” she said. “It may be nothing, but we won't know
until we get a better look at it.”

They set off again, their
pace a little quicker as the algae had begun to dry out and was
offering a more sure footing than it had been earlier.

Aaron coughed a few
times. At Justin's inquiring look, he rolled his eyes and pointed at
the algae. “The stink from this crap is starting to bother my
allergies, I think.”

The algae did have a
disgusting smell and Justin tried to breathe through his mouth,
hoping to avoid it. All that did though was leave a foul taste on his
tongue. He swallowed and gagged a bit and kept on doggedly walking.

A few minutes passed and
Justin was looking ahead as Maria and Dominic circled around a small
mound in front of the group. Suddenly they all heard a shout from
Dominic. Justin immediately took off at a run, followed by the
others.

He ran around the mound
and skidded to a stop just before he plowed into Maria, who was
standing and staring in amazement. Dominic seemed equally mesmerized
and Justin and the rest of the group looked to see what had them so
spellbound.

Maybe
a hundred yards away, there was an island. A real island this time.
Several hundred yards across, they could see dense masses of trees
crowding its surface. After the morning they had had, it looked like
a virtual paradise.

“
Awesome!”
Jason said loudly. “Maybe there's something to eat in there.”

While several others
agreed, Maria spoke up. “And maybe something in there would
like to eat us,” she cautioned. They looked at her in surprise
and then glanced fearfully at the island.

“
Look,
I'm not trying to scare anyone,” Maria continued. “But
after those eels, I'm not trusting anything that I see until I'm sure
it's safe.”

“
So,
you don't think we should go there, Maria?” Julia said,
sounding disappointed.

“
I
don't think we have much of a choice, guys,” Dominic piped up.
He pointed back in the direction they had just come from. They all
turned and saw a mass of water streaking toward them. “Run!”

No one hesitated. They
ran flat out; Justin and Maria lagging behind a bit to make sure no
one stumbled or fell. As it had happened earlier, the sound of the
water getting closer pushed them along at top speed and all of them
were up and on to dry land only a few seconds ahead of the flood.

They watched the water
swiftly fill the lake and waited to catch their breath.

“
Okay,
can we please stop doing that?” Maria said with a wry grin, a
few minutes later. They each smiled in turn but it was obvious that
everyone agreed with her sentiments.

Justin quietly took a
deep breath. After the stench of the algae in the formerly dry lake
bed, the smell of growing things on the island was almost
intoxicating. The others were taking deep breaths as well and
grinning broadly.

“
I
don't know if there's food here,” Aaron said. “But I
could almost eat the smell of this place.” He looked confused
for a minute and then looked at Justin. “If that even makes
sense,” he finished lamely. Justin laughed.

“
I
know exactly what you mean, Aaron.”

Maria was looking up at
the trees looming thirty feet or more over their heads. “This
place is amazing,” she said happily and then seemed to catch
herself. “But let's be careful, guys. I think we should walk
the perimeter of the island first before heading in. Just in case.”

There was a collective
groan from the teens but they all agreed that it was better to be
safe than sorry, so Maria led the way along the edge of the
vegetation.

Progress was slow. The
trees grew almost to the water and no one wanted to risk falling in.
Justin scanned the surface of the lake, but so far hadn't seen any
sign of the eel cleaning machines. The island was eerily quiet,
except for the sound of water slopping along the narrow shoreline and
the occasional squeak of a rubber sole as one of the group slipped
and had to catch themselves. But that was it. No insects, no wind, no
sounds of life of any kind. He found it a bit oppressive.