Surviving the Improbable Quest (15 page)

“I’m okay, really,” Allan says through sobs.

Rubic can hardly believe he’s sitting next to Allan, listening to his nephew. “You can speak!”

Allan wipes his nose on his t-shirt. “I’m fine, better now. I’m so tired and I’m shaky, but I feel okay.”

The orangutan makes a ‘hea hea’ sound and starts picking at its teeth. The black monkey paces on the ledge looking down at the destruction and contaminated lake water rushing by.

Rubic hugs Allan again. “Aw man, I was so worried. How in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks did you get here? Did some lady bring you up here? What did she do to you?”

Allan remembers Asantia, Lan Darr and the city of Dantia. He remembers Mizzi and his mechanical legs. He smiles when he thinks of Lithic Fury Baroon and he remembers Jibbawk.

“I went somewhere else for a while. Somewhere strange and far away.”

“I’ll bet,” Rubic states, realizing how much more exposure to the poison Allan must have had.

“We need to get you to the hospital ASAP.” Rubic watches the water slowly lower as the lake spills down the mountainside. “But we’re gonna be stuck here for a while.”

Suddenly, a black helicopter whips up the night breeze. As it lowers, the chopping blades become audible. A man in an orange jacket rappels from the helicopter wearing night vision goggles. He lands on the ledge.

“Rubic?” he shouts over the whirring helicopter blades.

“Yeah. And this is Allan.”

“We’re gonna get you out of here. One at a time.”

“Allan first.”

The helicopter lowers a rescue bucket and they strap Allan in. Allan rises to the helicopter unable to take his eyes off Rubic who can’t keep his eyes off Allan.

#

Allan wakes up. He moans and looks around. His body is sore and his head throbs, but he still smiles. Rubic wakes also. “Hey kid,” he says. “I’m here.” Rubic has an IV in his arm and other wires connected to him monitoring his vitals. He gets off the bed and pulls his tall metal pole decorated with fluid bags along with him to Allan’s bedside. “You feeling better?”

“I feel tired,” Allan says then thinks. “But I’m good.”

“So fishing really worked to get you talking, huh?” Rubic laughs.

“Yeah, it was definitely the fishing,” Allan says sarcastically.

The nurse brings in two food trays filled with fish sticks, mashed potatoes, corn and Jell-O. They race to see who can slurp down the Jell-O first. Allan wins.

“So why did the dam blow up?” Allan asks.

“Don’t you know what was in there?” Rubic waits for an answer, but Allan’s face is blank and waiting. “You don’t, do you?”

Allan shrugs. “I was never in there.”

Rubic takes a deep breath. “It was an illegal laboratory. Some crazy lady named Alice ran it. She got away, unfortunately, but not before she triggered the explosives that she rigged all around the dam. She almost killed me, you and all those animals.”

“What was the lab for?”

“She was testing on those animals. But most of the lab was destroyed so no one knows exactly what was going on. She’s a loon, for sure, a real wacko. The whole canyon and river is a crime scene now. She’d poured some crazy waste into the lake. Must have done it for years. We’re being treated for exposure and heavy metal poisoning.” Rubic ruffles Allan’s hair. “I’m so proud of you for escaping. The police will want to interview you. You’re gonna have to try and remember something, anything that will help them.”

Allan shakes his head. “I really wasn’t in there.”

“But you came from the pipe, right? You escaped right before I got there?”

Allan’s eyes narrow as he accesses his memory. “Yeah, I did come through the pipe, but I was never inside the dam.” In his mind he was never in the dam. He’d gone to a faraway place and came back through a wormhole created by the pollen.

Tears come to Allan’s eyes. “I . . . saw Jibbawk. I fought it. It looked just like you said.”

“That was a scary story, kiddo. I’d heard something about Jibbawk years ago. It wasn’t real.”

“Yes, it was,” Allan mumbles.

Rubic looks away then shrugs. He isn’t going to argue with Allan. Who knows what he went through or how much poison he was exposed to. Rubic rummages through his personal belongings on the bedside table and picks              out the 50’s pin-up girl. He hands it to Allan. “I think you dropped this.”

Allan’s face scrunches. It should have been in his pocket. “Thanks, I think.”

“Don’t worry about any of it. We’re safe now.”

Later that morning Allan finds himself at the hospital window looking at the people below. He watches a jogger cut through the parking lot. Rubic gets off his bed and joins Allan at the window. He puts his arm across Allan’s shoulder.

“So, you lookin’ at that jogger?” Rubic asks knowing the answer to his question.

“Yeah.”

“Does it still bother you? Are you hoping his legs break and he falls on his face?”

Allan shakes his head. “Nah, I was just thinking that I never liked running anyway. Not with my own legs.” He did like Mizzi’s mechanical legs. “And even though I can’t race, I can still swim.”

Rubic hugs Allan’s head. “You really are gonna be okay, aren’t you.”

“Yeah, I think I am.”

Rubic goes back to his bed and the doctor comes in. They talk quietly, probably about Allan, but he doesn’t care. He is just happy to be safe and eating real food and in his wheelchair again.

In time, Allan gazes wearily into the cloudless blue sky and wonders about Lan Darr. Was any of it real? Did he actually swim in Dantia’s canals? Or ride the shoulder of Lithic Fury Bink? Did he banish Jibbawk to some world ten thousand light years away? Or was it all in his mind? Was it the effect of a million poisons coursing through his body?

Asantia made a promise. When Allan turns eighteen, will he hear a knock on his window some night, open it up to the chilly air only to see Asantia sitting on the ledge holding handles connected to a cable tethered to a new, shiny airship? Will she take him off to one of a hundred crazy worlds where he’ll explore the outer reaches of the galaxy? Where he’ll be able to explore and see things others only dream of? Maybe, she’ll take him to visit his friend Mizzi and the Lithic Fury Bink and Lyllia of Meduna.

Allan thinks he can survive being stuck with a wheelchair, algebra, science projects, cranky teachers, two-faced people and any problem thrown at him long enough to find out. No, he
knows
he can.

No the story is not over! The story continues in Book 2 : Return to Lan Darr

About the Author

Anderson Atlas is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer who lives in southern Arizona with his son, daughter and wife. He loves to read, sail, hike and watch movies. When it comes to his own books, he writes and illustrates them himself, and he especially likes writing character driven stories with fun and unique twists. He has written
The Lost Spells, Missing Sun,
and
6th Horseman
and
is currently working on
Killing Salvation
(the sequel to
6th Horseman
) and
Return to Lan Darr, Heroes of Distant Planets Book 2
.

Copyright 2015 Anderson Atlas

andersonatlas.com

Published by Synesthesia Books

synesthesiabooks.com