“Hey,” Clover said, trying to calm things down. “I don’t even know what rhetoric means, but I don’t think you need to be saying that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Geth debated. “He knows nothing of what he once believed.”
“I know that fate dumped me here,” Zale growled. “I’ve rotted for years without so much as a visit from fate.”
“We’re here now,” Geth said.
“In a hole about to drown,” Zale pointed out. “Fate should have sent an army. You and your rat will accomplish nothing but our deaths.”
“Rat?” Clover asked, offended.
Zale didn’t respond as all of them swam quietly down the waterway. Clover jumped off of Edgar and onto Geth’s head. He leaned down and whispered in Geth’s right ear.
“You should have held him under longer.”
Geth nodded and continued to swim.
Chapter Seven
Wet Behind the Ears
I have mixed feelings about mobs. On one hand, they’re extremely good at holding torches, and they keep pitchfork salesmen in business. On the other hand, they seem a bit fanatical and touchy. Most mob scenes end with a street full of broken windows and people covered in pepper spray. I know from firsthand experience that angry mobs can make even the most confident of individuals feel bad about themselves. I remember how I felt while practicing my bassoon when large, angry mobs kept showing up at my doorstep and demanding that I stop. It’s in moments like that when you begin to seriously doubt yourself.
People gathering can bring about mixed results.
Clover was a member of a two-man, one-sycophant, one-Tangle mob. He was also seconds from crying when Geth’s left foot finally knocked up against something solid. A couple of strokes later and the water they had been stuck in for so long was finally shallow enough for them to stand up in.
All of them crawled through the water until they reached a dry stretch of stone. Geth and Zale collapsed on the rock while Edgar shook the fur on his body and howled in relief. Clover set the glow stone down and tried to act like he was exhausted too.
“I’m going to be sore,” Clover sighed.
“You are an impertinent creature,” Zale said, coughing.
“Thanks,” Clover replied, having no idea what impertinent meant.
After a few minutes of resting, Geth took the glow stone and stood up.
“I have no idea where we are,” Geth admitted. “But unless we want to go back in the water, our only direction is forward.”
“I’m done swimming,” Zale growled.
“Forward it is,” Geth said.
Geth began walking down the tunnel with Zale right behind him and Edgar and Clover taking up the rear. The tunnel got thinner and thinner as the ceiling and walls closed in. Edgar eventually had to walk hunched over to move through the passage. The ground they were walking on began to get sandy.
“The ground’s changing,” Geth observed.
“That’s great,” Zale said sarcastically. “Everyone rest easy, the ground’s changing.”
Geth spun around and hit his brother directly in the right ear. It wasn’t the hardest hit, but it was enough to let Zale know that Geth was in no mood to be messed with. Geth was as surprised by what he had done as Zale was.
“Owww,” Zale moaned, stopping to properly complain.
Edgar pulled up behind Zale, and Clover peered down from the top of Edgar’s head.
“Wow,” Clover said happily. “That is so un-Gethlike.”
“I know,” Geth agreed. “I’m not sure what’s up with me. My insides are on fire.”
“Actually, that could just be those Mips I gave you,” Clover apologized. “The wrapper says they’ll ‘fill your gut and warm your cockles,’ but I think they actually stuff your stomach and heat all your innards. I gave some to Leven last week and he threw up warm soup that he had never even eaten.”
“It’s not the Mips,” Geth told Clover. “Although thanks for the warning after the fact. I just wanted to hit Zale.”
“This whole endeavor is futile,” Zale complained. “You can hit me as much as you’d like, but there’s no escaping Payt in this realm. He will find us. He will track us down, and the effects you feel from his voice at that moment will be nothing compared to what it will do to you in time. My mind is not my own. I know that, and I have come to terms with it. You, my little brother, are simply exhausting yourself before having to give up.”
Geth hit Zale in the other ear.
“What was that for?” Zale complained.
“You said I could hit you as much as I’d like.”
Geth turned from Zale and held the glow stone back out in front of him. He began to walk again. After two minutes Clover spoke.
“Are we there yet?”
“No,” Geth replied. “But I think I can see light up ahead.”
Geth began to run. Zale didn’t pick up his speed, so Edgar pushed him forward in an effort to keep up with Geth. The light at the end of the tunnel grew exponentially. In a few moments it looked as if they were heading directly into the sun.
“Is that daylight?” Clover yelled.
“I don’t think so,” Geth yelled back.
The tunnel got even wider and the bright light lit up the high walls and ceilings. The source of the light was a large, round sphere sitting in a stone basin in the middle of a spacious cavern. The ball of light looked like a small star that had fallen from the sky and been swallowed by the earth. All around the light were other people. Some looked like cowboys and athletes; others were dressed as doctors and animal wranglers. All of them had black swaths of cloth tied over their eyes like blindfolds. A cowboy was walking around with a small wagon filled with glow stones while two men in business suits were stacking rocks near the bright star. The scene was remarkably quiet and as bright as any summer day.
Geth held his arm up over his eyes, unable to look directly at the light.
“A scorch stone,” Zale said in awe.
“Who are the people?” Clover asked.
“Stone Holders,” Geth whispered back. “I think they’re making glow stones.”
“So they’re on our side,” Clover said with relief.
“They’re on their side,” Zale said in a hushed voice. “They keep to themselves, hoping nothing will happen. It’s a strategy I suggest everyone adopt. It has been rumored that they had the scorch stone, but it’s never been seen by anyone I know of.”
“Stay here,” Geth instructed them.
Geth walked directly toward the scorch stone. He held his arm up over his eyes and looked down. The light was bright, but there seemed to be no heat coming off it. Geth looked to the side and saw three figures standing still and staring at the orb. He shuffled up to them and called out.
“Hello,” Geth spoke loudly, his arm still in front of his eyes.
The three figures turned. It was hard to tell if they were looking right at Geth, due to the fact that their eyes were covered with black pieces of cloth. None of them responded.
“Are you Stone Holders?” Geth asked them.
“Yes,” one of them replied.
“I’m—” Geth started to say.
“I know who you are,” the same voice interrupted. “I was up in the caverns the other day when you were talking with Galbraith.”
“Right,” Geth said happily, acting as if they had just mentioned his best friend.
Galbraith wasn’t Geth’s best friend. Who he was was a Stone Holder that Clover and Geth had met a couple of days ago. He was a cowboy, and he had taken them to a big underground cave where he and a number of other Stone Holders had let Geth know that they had no desire to fight for what was right. It had been during that gathering that Clover had slipped off and stolen some food and the glow stones they had been using.
“Take this,” one of the
Stone Holders said, stepping up to Geth.
Geth could feel someone touch him on the right shoulder. He reached out. That same someone handed him a piece of cloth.
“Tie it around your eyes,” the voice instructed.
Geth wrapped the piece of material around his eyes and tied it in the back. The material was thick and dark, but the light of the orb was so strong that Geth could see outlines and details of all those around him in a most remarkable way. It was as if his eyes were experiencing a completely new form of vision.
“Wow,” Geth said. “I like this.”
Geth could see the 3-D detail of the people near him. He saw that one of them was dressed as a boat captain and had a wooden leg. Another was a racecar driver, and a third looked like an astronaut. Apparently three children in Reality who had dreamed of the sea, the open road, and space now had their dreams stuck here in Zendor.
“How did you get here?” the astronaut asked.
“I fell in and swam,” Geth replied. “Do you think you could lead us out of here?”
“I could,” the boat captain said. “I may not have stars to guide me, but I can sail these caverns with ease.”
“I’m just as capable,” the astronaut spoke up, desperate to have a mission to perform.
“I’ll drive him,” the racecar driver insisted.
“You don’t have a car,” the boat captain reminded him.
“And you have no boat,” the astronaut pointed out.
All three of them hung their heads in despair.
“I’m fine just walking,” Geth insisted. “But we do need to get out of here.”
“We?” the captain asked.
Geth pointed back behind him. Across the cavern, hidden at the entrance to the tunnel, Zale and Edgar were standing, both covering their eyes.
The astronaut swore.
“What is that thing?” the driver said.
“No need to worry,” Geth assured them. “He’s friendly.”
“I don’t understand,” the astronaut said. “You appear out of nowhere with a creature we’ve never seen. Did it come from down here?”
“No,” Geth said. “Listen, will you take us out, or should we just try ourselves?”
The boat captain motioned for Geth to follow him and then turned and walked to the left. Geth retrieved his friends, and they followed the captain. The other Stone Holders in the cavern stopped what they were doing and turned their blindfolded eyes toward Edgar. Some mumbled and muttered, but most just stood still as the caravan of misfits walked through the space and into a tunnel at the opposite end of the cavern. The tunnel sloped upward and then became a set of wide stairs carved into the stone. The boat captain occasionally would mutter something sadly.
“Man the ballast.”
The steps seemed to go on forever, and the sea captain’s peg leg made an uncomfortable click against each stair. Clover was the first to complain, despite the fact that he was being carried by Edgar.
“Seriously,” Clover said. “That clicking’s the worst. And these stairs are so boring.”
“Tell me again why people like sycophants?” Zale asked Geth, disgusted with Clover.
“I’ll tell you,” Clover volunteered.
Zale put his hands over his ears as Clover rambled.
“ . . . We rarely use the word ‘like’ in a conversation. Also, most sycophants keep a good supply of tissue on hand. You never know when someone around you might need a little help beneath the nose. And we always . . .”
The stairs stopped at another cave where three other tunnels could be seen. The boat captain licked his finger, held it up, and then chose the right tunnel. Clover kept talking the entire time.
“Please,” Zale begged, “I can’t take it. Shut him up.”
Clover looked around as if he didn’t realize Zale was talking about him.
“Oh,” Clover said, sulking. “I see how it is.”
Clover whispered something into Edgar’s right ear and disappeared.
After a few moments Edgar reached out and shoved Zale in the back of his right shoulder. Zale stumbled forward but kept walking. He gave Edgar a long, dirty look.
“Tell me again why people like sycophants?” Zale repeated.
“You should be happy,” Geth said. “Clover’s one of the best.”
Zale shivered and kept walking.
Chapter Eight
Blink Twice if You’re Scared
Sometimes I get confused. I know it’s sort of demoralizing to hear that, but it’s the truth. Not confused like, “Who am I,” but confused like, “Where did I put that escape hatch, and why is there water filling up my underwater den?” Once I saw a woman buying an endangered whale with coins made from soap. The transaction wasn’t all that confusing; I mean, who doesn’t want a whale? What was confusing was the fact that I had never thought of using soap in such a way. My life would be crammed with gold-plated items if I had spent less time washing up and more time carving soap.
Well, Geth wasn’t confused. The endless stairs they were climbing eventually betrayed themselves and ended—in a big cave that looked almost identical to the cavern they had first been taken to days ago. There were long polished logs around the fire and furry rugs on the dirt floor.
“This is a main juncture,” the boat captain said. “That tunnel there will lead you out.” The captain pointed to a tunnel to their right. “It goes directly up above.”
“Where’s Galbraith?” Geth asked.
“Sleeping,” the captain said. “That tunnel there leads to the sleeping quarters.”
The captain took a moment to really look at Edgar. He shivered and continued. “If he were white, I’d go for my harpoon. Are you sure he’s on our side?”
“No,” Geth replied honestly. “But if I remember correctly, you guys really weren’t on any side.”
“That’s true,” the captain said. “It’s safer that way.”
“So sad,” Geth replied, shaking his head.
“Probably,” the captain agreed.
“Are there any here that would fight Payt?” Geth asked.
“Nope,” the captain said, tapping his wooden leg against the ground. “We had an actual human snatched in from Reality a few months back. He was willing to fight.”
“What happened?” Clover asked curiously.
“The boors caught him,” the captain said. “The man built a wooden tower and moved it out onto the road. He put himself on the top and fired down at the boors with arrows. He thought he’d be safe, but the boors swooped in like a nor’easter, swarming in such large numbers that they picked up the entire tower and carried it, and the man, to Pencilbottom Castle. Payt seduced him with his voice, and now that same man fights as a boor against us.”
“No,” Clover said, bothered. “Not what happened to him—what happened to your leg?”
The captain looked down at his peg leg. “I know nothing of my life before Zendor,” he told Clover. “Some of us make up backstories for our lives, but not me.”
“Seriously,” Clover whispered to Geth, “what kid in Reality is dreaming of being a captain with a peg leg?”
The sound of a commotion could be heard down the stairs they had just climbed. At first the noise was faint, but, like a scream building strength, it intensified until it burst from behind them like a frightening hiss.
“Something wicked this way blows!” the captain bellowed.
Cowboys and athletes and Stone Holders of all shapes and occupations burst out from the tunnels below.
“Run!” someone screamed. “Run!”
Geth didn’t move, but Zale took off for the exit with Edgar and Clover following.
“What’s happening?” Geth asked, wanting to charge back down the stairs and beat something up.
“Gas!” a businessman yelled, waving his briefca
se as he ran. “Smoke!”
Geth saw the racecar driver he had talked to earlier. He grabbed him and held him back.
“What’s going on?”
“There’s some sort of fog,” he panicked. “It’s thick around turn three and coming from the direction you appeared. People breathing it were falling to the ground. I think they’re dead. Now let me go, it’s still coming!”
Galbraith the cowboy emerged from the tunnel that led to the sleeping quarters. Geth let go of the driver and called after Galbraith. The cave was too loud for him to hear, and Galbraith was running too fast to be caught.
More Stone Holders ran past Geth and out toward the exit tunnel. A scientist fell to the ground and was being trampled by his fellow Stone Holders. Geth pushed people away from him and helped him up. The man adjusted his glasses.
“My hypothesis is flawed,” he yelled before running away.
Since Geth had no way of actually beating up gas, he decided to sprint with the crowd toward the exit. For a bunch of grown men, everyone around him sounded a lot like a crowd of screaming little girls.
The tunnel leading out was short, and at the end there was a large section of ivy and moss that hid the entrance. As Geth emerged, he could see hundreds of Stone Holders, who were unaccustomed to being in the light, standing there with their hands over their eyes, blinking under the sun and trying to breathe in clean air.
Clover appeared on Geth’s shoulder.
“Where’s Zale?” Geth yelled.
“With Edgar at the edge of the field,” Clover replied. “What’s happening?”
“There’s some sort of gas coming up from the bottom of the caves,” Geth said. “My guess is that Payt threw something down the hole we fell into. He’s smoking us out.”
Stone Holders continued to flow out of the opening and into the daylight. All of them were crippled by the strong sun they rarely saw. Their eyes fluttered and blinked as they tried to see anything besides a glowing dot. Geth looked around in concern.
“This isn’t right,” he said. “Look how vulnerable they are.”