Samuel. "I imagine that's a lot of work."
The two followed Gossamer until they reached the opening and
realized this was the end of their journey. Where there had
been orange and red light before, there was a new, more
brilliant white creeping out from behind many of the rocks.
"What do you think we'll find?" asked Samuel.
Isabel shrugged. "Whatever it is has captured Gossamer's
attention. He should be back by now."
Samuel and Isabel walked through the opening, where they
found the dried fig sitting on the ground. Samuel bent down and
picked it up, handing it to Isabel.
"That's odd," he said as he watched her examine it and put it
back in her pouch. "He didn't seem to have any trouble finding
the last one."
"Let's keep going," she said. "He's fast, but he can't be that
much farther ahead of us."
As they curved downward their way drifted from side to side in a
long zigzag. It brightened as they went, and all of the new,
whiter light came from the ceiling, which had taken on a sharp,
glassy appearance far above. When they finally came to the
end of the passageway they found Gossamer standing at the
opening, looking out.
Samuel and Isabel walked up next to Gossamer, who also
seemed to be mesmerized by the unexpected view. They now
realized that they must have reached the bottom of Atherton. A
gaping hole opened to reveal the Dark Planet way off in the
distance.
"Do you think Edgar is stil there?" asked Samuel.
"I do," said Isabel, feeling something inside that told her he
wasn't home yet.
"Gossamer seems... I don't know, different," said Samuel. The
dragon regarded this new surrounding with a sense of
understanding, as if a distant memory had filled his mind.
"Maybe he knows something," said Isabel.
"What's this?" asked Samuel. He was the first to see a massive
wall rising to their right. There were thousands of moving
shadows shining through it, like large fish dancing in an
underground sea.
"Those look like..." started Samuel, and Isabel finished his
sentence: "Cleaners."
"I think that's the bottom of the lake in the middle of Atherton,"
said Samuel. "Or some hidden chamber of water we can't see
from up top. There are thousands of Cleaners behind there."
The shadows moved fluidly and seemed to touch the
translucent wall and move away again, over and over, as the
Cleaners danced and swayed.
The wall was covered with thousands upon thousands of
gigantic egg-shaped impressions. Within each wide impression
were millions of sharp spears of light.
"They're filled with crystals," said Samuel. "I've read about them
before. It's like glass, only it isn't. It grows."
They moved closer still and both seemed to realize at once that
this wall was more dangerous than it had appeared at first. At
closer look, the crystals were like spikes, hard and deadly and
filling the wall.
Isabel's eyes followed the wall up and over her head. The
ceiling was covered with white spikes, too. If she hadn't known
what she was looking for she might have mistaken it for a
ceiling that was merely glistening. But seeing the wal up close,
she knew better.
"I'm not sure we should stay here," she said. It would only take
one to fall from the ceiling to pierce her right through.
"I think you're right," said Samuel, looking back and wondering
how quickly they could escape.
"Gossamer," said Isabel, looking back and seeing he was still
gazing out at the Dark Planet. He turned to her and looked sad.
"Something's wrong with him."
"You're right, he does look different," Samuel agreed. "Let's get
him out of here. That might improve his mood."
"Come on, Gossamer. Time to go," Isabel coaxed.
He followed at first, though it was with some reluctance--but
when they came to the way out, he made a strange noise.
"What is it?" said Isabel.
Gossamer edged forward and brushed her aside.
"He wants to go first," said Samuel. "Better let him."
As Isabel stepped aside she noticed a kind of sadness in
Gossamer's expression, but also anticipation for something the
children could not understand. "What is it, Gossamer? What's
wrong?"
But he didn't answer. Instead, he drew in a breath and blew fire
all along the ceiling. Then he lay down before the opening as if
guarding it from their entry.
A few seconds later the ceiling began to rain down all through
the passageway in pure white shards that shattered like glass
when they hit the ground. The fragments were about a foot long,
four or five inches across at the base, and sharp as needles at
the tips.
"He's trapped us," said Samuel in disbelief.
Isabel couldn't believe Gossamer had betrayed them. She
wouldn't believe it.
"Let us through, Gossamer," she said, sure the beast would
stand, unfurl its wings, and cover them as they went. But
Gossamer only drew a breath and set his enormous head on
the ground to rest.
"Maybe we misjudged him," said Samuel. "Who knows what
he's really thinking?"
But Isabel was unmoved. "He blocked the way for a reason.
He's waiting for something to happen."
Gossamer lifted his head, craned his neck away from them, and
blew fire on the ceiling of the passageway again. The shower of
white needles looked as if it might go on forever.
"So what do we do?" asked Samuel.
"We do the only thing we can do." Isabel went to Gossamer as
he laid his head back down. She touched his nose gently and
wondered what he was thinking behind those dark eyes, so
much like her own.
"We wait with him."
CHAPTER 24THE YARDS
No one on the green team could be a hundred percent certain
who would come into Dr. Harding's unlocked laboratory next.
Maybe Commander Judix had sent Red Eye or Socket to
search the station and it would be one of them who stumbled in.
The green team was hiding by the door to the yards when the
door to the lab slipped quietly open.
Everyone waited, barely breathing.
"Anybody home?" said a soft voice they all knew.
"Hope!"
Everyone said her name at once and ran through the laboratory
as Hope entered and pushed the door gently shut with her
shoulder.
"You came!" said Aggie. "I knew you'd help us!"
Teagan, Landon, Aggie, Vasher, and Edgar all gathered around
the tall slender caretaker of the Silo and beamed. She wanted
to hold each one of them, but her hands were already occupied
with the item they'd asked for.
"This thing is really heavy," said Hope. "I hope you're not going
far."
"We're not sure how far we're going," said Vasher.
"But we think we're getting close," said Aggie. She didn't want
Hope to try and stop them or worry too much.
Hope set the powder block down with a thud on one of
the
many tables strewn with junk. If a person hadn't known it was
from the Silo they'd probably think it belonged here. It fit right in
with all the other puzzling objects.
"I can't stay here for long. Commander Judix will be looking for
me. It's going to look awfully suspicious if I'm not there."
"You don't have to go back to the Silo, you can come with us,"
said Landon, expectation rising in his voice. He liked the idea of
having Hope along to keep him safe. "We're going to find
Gossamer."
"I can't go with you, Landon."
"Why, sure you can!"
Hope turned her gaze on Edgar and spoke volumes without
saying a single word.
Who are you? Please tell me you're not deceiving these kids.
Edgar was blunt, not because he wanted to be, but because he
had to be. Time was running out.
"Dr. Harding created me a long time ago. Probably right here in
this laboratory where no one could see. I was his biggest
secret. He's gone, Hope--I mean he's dead. But he sent me
back here, I think to finish what he started."
The words stunned Hope, but looking at the boy, it all added up.
It was why he was so different, and it was just the sort of thing
Dr. Harding would do.
"He never said anything about you. He must not have trusted
me as much as I thought."
"Actually, that's not true," said Edgar. He held out the piece of
paper they'd been using all along and pointed to a set of words.
The old woman whispered them aloud.
"'Hope you can trust.'"
Her eyes filled with tears and she began to wonder about
something Edgar had said. Could it really be true?
"You said Dr. Harding sent you back. Back from where?"
"From Atherton, of course!" said Landon. "He came in this thing
called the Raven. The Raven needs a powder block for some
reason, at least that's what we think --"
"Landon, please," said Vasher. Sometimes the rapid-fire sound
of Landon's voice made Vasher tremble.
"We really need to go," he said. "Every second we stay here
makes it more likely we'll get caught."
Hope knelt down and put one hand on Aggie's shoulder and
another on Landon's. All of the green team was pulled in close.
"I've been asked to leave the Silo before. I couldn't go then for
the same reason I can't go now."
"All those kids," said Landon, suddenly realizing why Hope had
to stay. "You can't leave them alone with Red Eye and Socket.
You're all they've got."
Hope smiled at the youngest boy and worried for his safety. But
she knew the truth of the matter. The Silo wasn't safe, and
eventually Captain Grammel's ship wouldn't be safe, either. In
fact, nothing about the Dark Planet was safe. She was only a
stopgap for these kids on the way to something far worse.
Wasn't it worth it to let them at least try?
"You seem to have a plan," she said, trying to put on a good
face and encourage them. "If you get sent back to the Silo I'll be
there to make certain they don't punish you too badly. But if by
some miracle you get off the Dark Planet, don't come back here
unless you're sure it's safe."
"We really have to go," said Edgar. The whole group was
feeling a huge weight of anxiety as the minutes slipped passed.
Hope looked at each member of the green team as she went for
the door.
"I'll be waiting at the Silo if you get in trouble."
When the door shut behind her there was a frenzy of activity.
Edgar grabbed the powder block and cradled it in both hands.
Aggie and Teagan had the map out again, scanning it to be
sure where they were going. Vasher and Landon were already
racing across the lab, past the statue of the ravens and the
model of Gossamer until they arrived at the door to the yards.
Vasher turned all seven of the locks on the old door. Each snap
calmed him, as if he'd been overfilled with energy and the
twisting motion had let out a bit of steam.
The door was thick and wooden, but it was tightly sealed on
every side. When it opened they were all immediately aware
that they were now exposed to something from the outside. It
smelled of smog and filth that stung their nostrils. Beyond the
door lay a staircase that went down a few steps and turned hard
under the laboratory to places they could not see. A row of ten
or twelve masks and goggles hung along the inside wall.
"Should we put these on?" asked Edgar. The air outside
seemed thicker and more poisonous here at the water than it
had in the forsaken wood.
"I think that would be a really good idea," said Aggie, pulling on
a filter mask and goggles and helping Edgar with his. Edgar let
everyone go down the stairs before him and was just about to
close the door behind them when he pulled his goggles up on
his forehead and took one last look out the window.
Captain Grammel had made it down the jetty and fired the great
boilers on his ship. Clouds of black smoke billowed from wide
pipes as the boat moved off without leaving a load of fuel for
Station Seven.
"Stay low along the rail," said Vasher. His voice sounded
muffled from inside the mask.
Edgar's lungs still burned even with the mask on, and the haze
seemed to envelop them in a deadly fog.
The map led them outside into the smog, along the wall where
there was a hard right turn. The line of companions sped up, but
as they neared the turn they piled up in a jumble and froze in
their footsteps. A noise, big and monstrous, erupted from
somewhere they couldn't see. The haze grew thinner as it rose,
but down where they were standing they could only guess at
what the sound was.
"That's real y close," said Teagan, her voice shaking behind the
mask. They all knew about Cleaners and Spikers, the most
terrifying things on the Dark Planet--they'd heard them at night
through the walls of the Silo. "They must have moved right up to
the edge of the forsaken wood."
Edgar could tell there was a fight on and he remembered the
screaming monsters he'd seen not so long before.
"Cleaners," he whispered, barely audible outside his mask. The
powder block was getting really heavy and he was afraid he
might drop it. He wished they could just keep moving.
"And Spikers, too," said Landon. "They're fighting close to
Station Seven."
"Do you know what that means?" asked Vasher, glancing
around nervously in his goggles. "It means we're losing power. I
heard Red Eye and Socket talking when we were low on fuel
once before. There are two lines of electrical defense, like lines
they can't cross over. Back then--this was five or six hundred
days ago--the outer line went down for a few hours."
"Because Grammel was late with the fuel," said Aggie, stunned
at the idea of monsters so close. "I remember that."
"I saw the ship leave, right before we came outside," said
Edgar, wondering if it had been the man they spoke of.
Thi
s seemed to calm everyone a little, and Vasher said: "Then
they've got the fuel and they're just setting up is all."
The air around them filled with a crackling and snapping sound
mixed with the cries of creatures at war with one another.
"One's hit the inner line!" said Vasher, wishing for all the world
to be inside where it was safer.
"Let's keep going," said Aggie breathlessly. "We can't do
anything about the lines, and these masks aren't filtering out
every thing." Her arm itched as if the smog was eating through
her skin, then she took the lead and went around the corner.
They walked a few more steps and bumped into a gate, which
squeaked open. They'd arrived at the entrance to the yards.
It was smaller than they'd thought it would be, surrounded by
ten-foot walls of concrete block on all sides. No one spoke, but
they all would have agreed the yards was a sad and haunted
little place. There were broken benches and boxes of dirt, a
chipped stone pathway and blocks that had fallen from the
walls scattered about. A low fog of filthy air hung over a slide
that had been tipped on its side and lay next to a rusted merrygo-round.
Landon edged over to the merry-go-round and pushed on one
of the metal bars made for children to hold on to. It turned,
squeaking as it went, and stopped the moment he let go.
"This is the place where he played," said Landon, his voice soft
and full of awe. "When he was just a boy, like me. This is where
he had all his best ideas, don't you think?"
He looked back at the others hopefully but no one answered
him. All they heard was the sound of beasts getting closer as
they frantically searched the map for what to do next.
"I can't carry this thing much longer," said Edgar, struggling to
hold the powder block. Vasher held out his shaking hands.
"Don't drop it. I think it needs to stay in one piece."
Edgar placed the heavy powder block into Vasher's trembling
hands.
"There should be a statue in here somewhere," said Edgar,
shaking out his tired arms. "It might be newer than some of this
old stuff, because he would have put it here himself long after
the yards had stopped being used. He must have come back
here. I've seen this trick of his before."
Aggie looked at him, but Edgar wouldn't go into any detail. He
was thinking of Mead's Head in the Highlands and how it was
used to unlock the way into Mead's Hollow.
"I found it!" said Teagan. She had moved off to one of the