The Lost Tribes, page 24
Sleep? No way. Not with wild creatures roaming in the dark. Adrenaline coursed through Ben’s veins as he watched sand swirl and form eddies in the breeze. The sand. The wind.
The game?
If the game was a clue, there would be a trap door. But not near a pond. There was no pond in the game.
Ben scrambled to his feet, careful not to wake April. “I’m going to search for a hidden door. Want to help?”
“No, but I’ll do it anyway.” Grace yawned loudly. “It’s cold even with this blanket thing. Let’s wake everyone up. We’ll find it faster if everyone is helping.”
“Let’s do it ourselves. Everyone’s tired and we’re not sure how much farther we have to go.”
“Anything on the compass thing?”
“No. It acts like we’re right over it.”
“So we’re close.”
“I guess. If we don’t find it at least we won’t die of thirst.”
“No.” Grace pulled a flashlight out of her backpack. “We’ll just die of hypothermia.”
April’s head was resting on Ben’s pack so he opened hers instead.
“Oh great,” he spat as he flicked the switch.
ROAR!
Grace jumped. “What was that?”
“Tiger light. It used to help her chase nighttime monsters away when she was little.” Ben scowled. The curved tail served as a handle. “It’s the best I can do right now.”
Ben kicked at the sand and dragged his feet looking for clues.
“Anything, Grace?”
“No, nothing.”
Ben shoved the useless device back in April’s pack and walked a circular path around the oasis. Aris began scratching and pawing at the sand.
“Find anything?” asked Grace.
“No. Just one endless litter box.” He made a mental note to avoid that spot.
Thunder roared in the distance followed by a faint pounding that had the same frequency as the one in the cave. Ben froze but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Aris looked up as well, then resumed his frantic excavation of a toilet.
Ben returned to the beginning of his circle and started again, this time forming a spiral pattern as he walked. The air grew warm. He was grateful for the change and felt the feeling return to his fingers.
Aris whined and issued a furtive cry that sounded almost human in his frustration. Ben rushed to see what had caught the cat’s attention. Aris scratched at his neck, hissed angrily at Ben, then rolled in the sand and struggled to remove the collar.
Ben’s foot hit something solid. He looked back at the oasis. He was dead center between two palm trees. But there weren’t any palm trees in the game.
“Grace!”
“Found something?”
“Not sure.”
The distant thunder grew louder. Grace seemed not to notice. She ran toward Ben, her steps labored as the sand crunched and rolled under her feet.
Ben scooped sand out of the way, checking first to make sure it didn’t contain bathroom presents from Aris. Sand poured back into the hole as fast as Ben could remove it. Grace knelt beside him and scooped quickly.
“Score!”
Ben grabbed the copper handle they uncovered. It didn’t budge. He and Grace tugged, feet slipping in the sand.
No luck.
“Now what?” asked Ben.
Grace scooped away more sand. “There aren’t any hieroglyphics on the stones this time, just a bunch of odd marks. Maybe the sand is weighing it down. We’ve got to uncover the whole door.”
She ran to her pack, removed the top from her lunch and used it as a tool. They both continued digging until they uncovered twelve quartz crystals. Ben pushed the nodes but no sound emerged.
“It doesn’t work!” Anger rose in the pit of his stomach. He felt abandoned by his parents. His whole life had been a lie. Now he was in the middle of nowhere fighting to get — where? A harbor? What kind of boat were they going to find in an ocean of sand, let alone underneath it?
Grace sat cross-legged and traced the symbols with her fingertips. The dialer remained dormant.
“It should work,” Grace said. “It’s the same symbols. So what’s the key? In the game it was us. Our names opened the passage.”
“Okay, but how does that help us now? There’s no keyboard and no space for a name,” Ben said. “This is ridiculous. We’re going to die out here in this foreign wasteland. Our parents are going to sail away to some warm exotic paradise and we’re going to have to eat the cat for food.”
Aris growled and kicked sand at Ben then resumed trying to remove his collar. Ben leaned over to swat at him, resting his hand in the center of the medallion for stability. The crystals glowed. Startled, Ben snatched his hand away. The glow faded. He repeated the action several times with the same result. “What does this mean? Can anyone do this or just me?”
Grace placed her hand on the same spot. The glow returned as the metal compressed under her touch. Jaws dropping, they stared at each other, grinned and pushed the glowing stones in the arpeggio sequence — three, five, seven, ten, seven, five, three.
No beam appeared.
“It’s not working,” Ben said. “I think we need a different code.”
Groaning, Grace scrambled on all fours to April’s backpack. She found the compass and tossed it to Ben. “Work some magic, Webster!”
He typed “Is this a gateway?”
“Askar!”
“Answers in English please!”
“Confirmed.”
Ben froze. “This thing talks back?
“Verify current location. Identify code to open present gateway.”
“Confirmed. Verify desired method. Autodial or manual input?”
Mouths gaped open, Ben and Grace stared at the device.
“Autodial!” they yelled in unison.
“Confirmed. Connecting to Central Command. Entry code activated.”
The crystals blinked so fast, Ben had no time to memorize the sequence.
The ground shook beneath him. Still kneeling, Grace and the cat slid farther away. No bright light this time. This doorway was manual, and mechanical. The stones separated to reveal a dark, but familiar passageway.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Followed
“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
Aldus Huxley
“Way to go Grace! I always said we make a good team.”
Grace looked up and searched the barren landscape. “Did you hear that?”
Pounding. Louder this time. The ground trembled. Suspecting someone had followed them from Rome, Ben fixed his gaze on the sand dune where his friends slept. Nothing materialized.
Grace gasped. “Look!”
Ben spun one hundred and eighty degrees and allowed his eyes to adjust in the low light. Something was headed toward them, kicking up large amounts of sand in the process. In the glow of the moonlight it looked like a giant black condor, wings flapping close to the ground.
A mirage? Mirages didn’t make noise. Mirages didn’t happen at night. He turned off April’s flashlight and motioned for Grace to do the same.
A cloud formed in the sky, partially blotting out the moon’s glow. A cloud similar to the one Ben had seen in Llactapata and in Sunnyslope. A cloud that had spooked his father.
The giant bird multiplied as the mirage loomed larger. Now there were three — no four — heading toward them. Grace froze, her eyes wide with fear.
To escape danger, Ben’s parents had sent them underground — into the unknown — to safety. “Quick! Let’s get down the stairs!”
Grace sprang into action and roused Carlos. “Get up!” She was more gentle with April. “Come on, Scooter. Time to go.”
Ben shook Serise roughly.
“Quit it, you jerk!” She smacked him and went back to sleep.
His cheek stinging from the impact, Ben shook her again, held her wrists away from him and nodded toward the disturbance.
Serise’s eyes became saucers and she scrambled to her feet. “Sorry I hit you.”
Ben scooped items into the closest backpack. The cloud continued to drift past the moon. The intermittent glow caused the approaching birds to appear distorted — as if they had legs. If this was Uncle Henry’s monster surprise, Ben didn’t want to see it up close. His heart hammered as he crouched low to the ground and ran toward the passageway, slipping in the sand as he went.
The gang flew down the steps in a panic. April paused to take a look. Ben yanked on her arm and pulled her inside. Aris remained topside. Ben grabbed him by the collar and yanked him through the opening as well. Aris struggled, hissed and dug his claws into Ben’s hand. Ben tossed the cat forward.
“Listen, stupid cat. I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. But Mom will kill me if I don’t keep you alive.”
A hot breeze blew into the passageway. An odd shadow floated along the wall. Ben blinked. The shadow swirled down into the darkness and was gone.
Optical illusion caused by dehydration and exhaustion?
Ben shook off his paranoia and ducked inside.
“Everyone! Start looking for a way to get this door closed!” Ben reached for his father’s device, heard a strange voice and jerked his head upward. There was no one behind him. A woman’s voice echoed through the chamber.
“Kortis or.”
“Kortis ada.”
“Kortis bo.”
Ben’s hands flew up in exasperation. “What now? Might as well speak Swahili!”
The words and accent changed.
“Hatari.”
“Saba.”
“Sita.”
Grace and Carlos gasped while Ben scrolled through the compass in search of a translation.
“The computer voice,” Grace said. “It switched to Swahili. I can translate this.”
“And?” asked Ben.
Grace closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in intense concentration. “It’s a warning.”
Ben’s stomach tightened. “What kind of warning?”
“Not sure. We missed the first part of the message. Either we set an auto-destruct and we’re about to blow up, or it’s warning us that the doors are closing.”
“Tano.”
“Five!” Grace said.
Outside, the thundering sound grew more ominous. Ben willed the door to close before anything could get through.
“Nne.”
“Four!” counted Carlos, his voice dropping to a whisper.
The pounding grew closer. Sand poured through the opening.
“Tatu.”
“Three,” everyone whispered in a tense but hushed chorus.
The corridor echoed with the chuffing of horses. Horses? A light flashed above the entrance. Silence followed.
“Mbili.”
Two! No one dared speak, but Ben knew his friends were counting along with the disembodied voice. All eyes remained fixed on the opening.
Come on! Come on!
Above him, sand crunched under multiple feet.
“Moja.”
One!
The door closed, sealing the entrance to the desert. Ben exhaled and unclenched his aching fists. Only a solid rock ceiling remained. Grains of sand could be heard filling the cavity above the door. The portal would soon be concealed beneath the oasis.
Safe. But for how long?
“We better get going.” Ben tried to sound calm. “Got to find another dialer or the safe house. Ship coming bright and early, right? I hope it’s a cruise ship with room service.”
“Seems like we’re stuck in the real-life version of your uncle’s game,” Carlos said. “Want to lead the way?”
“No problem.” Ben was just as scared as the rest of his friends but they were out of options and he had a promise to keep.
“I’ll be your partner.” April squeezed his hand where Aris had scratched him. Ben winced and shifted to a more comfortable position. The scratches, once deep and stinging, faded.
The staircase was wide enough for them to walk two abreast. Grace and Serise stayed in the middle. Carlos took the rear. Ben aimed his flashlight straight ahead. The walls were lined with the same odd hieroglyphics in the game, birds on top, humans in the middle, fish at the bottom. As they traveled, the flashlights cast eerie shadows which made the carvings seem alive.
“You think we lost them?” asked Carlos.
“Yeah.” Ben could feel his heart beating as far down as his toes and wasn’t in the mood for conversation.
They arrived at a wide corridor lined with tall, thick columns and burning torches. Ben extinguished his flashlight. Crystals imbedded in the floor glowed white as they passed.
“Everyone stay together,” Ben said. “Looks like someone’s already been here.”
“I don’t think so,” Carlos said. “There’s no footprints on the floor.”
Carlos was right. A thin layer of dust formed a film on the stone floors. They had left a trail of kid footprints and paw prints behind them as they walked but no other sign of human life was present. So why were the torches lit?
An enormous shadow loomed on a nearby column. It expanded and contracted as it moved. Ben flinched and aimed his flashlight to investigate. He retrieved the broken collar and put it in his pocket. “Okay, Aris. You win.”
The cat ignored him and resumed his search of the complex.
Ben felt as though he was being watched. The columns were topped with black stone heads that resembled Aris. He fixed his gaze on a column two rows ahead. The head faced toward him. It still faced in his direction when he passed by. Ben didn’t think it was possible but he was more spooked than before.
Aris skulked in and out of the shadows, his tail twitching as he looked up at the stone doppelgängers. After a while, he stopped exploring and — tail stiffened — stuck close to Ben’s side.
Ben took several detours. To the left and to the right, a stone balcony cut off access to the cavernous space below. Shadows seemed to float in his peripheral vision. Goosebumps erupted all over his body. There was no place to go but forward.
A wooden door punctuated the end of their journey. It contained no odd shapes, no cryptic hieroglyphics, and no puzzles to solve. Aris scratched at the door and looked up at Ben expectantly.
“I wonder what the trick is to opening this thing?” He pulled. The door creaked, but didn’t budge. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Ben put his ear to the door.
“What do you hear?” asked April.
“Sounds like voices.” Something brushed against his hand. He flinched and withdrew it from the handle.
“I don’t hear anything,” Serise said.
“With our luck, it’s probably the entrance to the river Styx,” Carlos said. “It carries the souls of the dead away to their fate.”
“You’ve got kind of a dark side,” Grace said. “Could you knock it off for a while?”
“Shhh! Did you hear that?” asked Ben.
“Kumi … Tisa … Nane … Saba …”
Footsteps rushed along the corridor behind them.
“Sita … Tano … Nne …”
Instantly, Ben recognized what had happened. The gateway was in a countdown to closure. They had been followed. Whatever was chasing them in the desert had gained access to the corridor. The computer continued to use the last language requested of it.
“Tatu … Mbili …”
“Hide!”
Ben grabbed April’s hand and ducked behind the last column. It vibrated as the giant cat head moved. Soon all the stone heads pointed in the direction of the intruders.
“Moja.”
Carlos crouched behind a column to the left of Ben. Grace and Serise hid on the other side of the corridor. Ben reached out and snatched Aris away from the wooden door. The cat offered little resistance. His hair bristled, his tail twitched but he remained silent and alert. Not even a low growl to give their position away.
The footsteps stopped, replaced by rasping and wheezing — like someone out of breath.
A breeze brushed across Ben’s cheek, bringing with it a foul smell.
Windswept debris swirled across the floor.
The temperature rose rapidly, causing Ben to sweat. April clutched him and shivered as if she were freezing.
The footsteps resumed, slow and deliberate.
They needed an escape route but the balcony lead to a two-story drop.
No safe place to run.
No safe harbor.
The glow of tiny lights caught his attention. Panicked, he pulled April’s collar around her sparkling hair beads then draped his arm to mute them.
A sound rang out.
And then another.
Swishing.
Grunting.
The clang of metal upon stone.
Something hit the front of the column that concealed him. Ben glanced at Carlos and mouthed, “Can you see anything?”
Carlos shook his head. “No!”
The light dimmed as if night were descending into the corridor. Aris cocked his head, then bolted away before Ben could stop him. He regretted not having the collar as a restraint although he doubted anything could have stopped the fiercely determined cat.
A shadow loomed on Carlos’s column; a hand gripping a tall pole topped with a clear sphere, fingers of electricity arcing inside. Carlos had seen it as well. His mouth gaped open.
A blood curdling scream echoed through the chamber.
Another scream! Worse than the first!
Silence.
Did it come from Grace? Serise? Aris?
Not Aris. The cat hissed and spit to indicate he was still in the game. His feline shadow crouched into an offensive stance against the unknown assailants and grew to five times its normal size. The shadow sprang into the air and out of sight as an angry growl, like the roar of a lion, rumbled through the corridor. The sound could not have come from Aris.
Then what was out there?
Another scream!
Something was being torn to shreds!
An odor — that awful odor — of something dead and decaying.
A chorus of deep voices rapidly speaking in a foreign tongue.
A one-word command.
“Askut!”
More silence.
Full of adrenaline, Ben was sure his heart’s accelerated beating would echo through the chamber and give their position away. He ached from remaining in his crouched position but dared not move.
