Etherworld (6 page)

I stretch out and run my legs and arms over the soft purple grass as if I'm making an angel in the snow. It feels so good to be back in Elusion.

It's only when I hear voices—the sound of my own tribe—that I'm motivated to pick up my head and look around. I'm feet away from a river, which is pulsating with a raucous stream of tangerine water. A row of single-seat kayaks is lined up alongside the bank.

“Awesome!” Claire says, running over to one of them. Her blond hair is flowing around her shoulders; the blueberry-colored sun is radiating above her head. Her healthy skin is illuminated with a tan, and her ratty Etherworld clothes have been replaced with a yellow life vest and bikini bottoms.

And her eyes? I finally get to see that they're a beautiful shade of green.

She waves me over. “Grab a kayak!”

I think I've been to this Escape before, with Patrick, before my dad's so-called accident. My memory is still fuzzy, but I remember him wanting do a heart-pounding, death-defying kayak ride down the rapids, while I was more into hiking.

But now all I can think about is getting into the rough water and seeing where the current takes me. A surge of adrenaline pumps through me, and I feel capable of anything. I check my wristband to see if it has to do with my ExSet level, but the keypad doesn't respond to my touch.

But I'm not bothered by the broken keypad. Maybe this burst of energy is exactly what I need.

“Regan!” my father shouts. He appears around the side of a hill, slowly walking toward me with Josh, Nora, and Wyatt by his side. He looks healthy again, his skin practically glowing. In fact, the entire team is like a human rainbow, all of us bronzed and wearing different-colored T-shirts and bathing suits. The sight triggers a recollection—that we're supposed to be a band of soldiers here, that there's a mission that needs to be accomplished and our lives might depend on it.

That the ball in my hand is our saving grace.

“Wait for us!”

It's Josh, bounding toward me, his handsome face lit up in a grin.

I'm possessed by an urge to kiss him, even though his sister and my dad are following close behind him. But for some reason, the lure of the river is much too great.

I need to get to it before anyone else does.

“Regan, hold on!” my dad calls out.

I ignore him, grabbing on to a kayak with my free hand and launching myself into the river. Claire is right behind me, cheering me on and following my lead. As I careen down the rapids, with the mysterious crystal sphere between my bare feet, I'm paddling as if I've been white-water rafting my whole life. I go faster and faster as foam sprays in my face, my heart beating in anticipation as Claire catches up to me.

She smiles as she points her paddle ahead of us. “Rapids!” she screams.

These are not the rapids I've seen on the Net. Here it looks like the river just stops, as if we're about to fall off the edge of the earth.

If Claire feels any fear or doubt, though, she doesn't show it, hooting and hollering as she dips her paddle into the water, steering directly toward the edge.

And suddenly she seems to lose control of her kayak, the boat changing direction by ninety degrees and teetering at the edge of the rapids. Claire's hair is whipping in the wind as she shoves the paddle under the hull and then grabs on to the sides of the kayak for support.

And then her kayak flips over, cascading down the rapids.

As much as I long to follow her, a faint voice of reason urges caution.

I twist around to look for the others, but no one else is there. Either the river has split or Claire and I have gone too far ahead of the rest of the group to see them. My kayak is getting closer to the edge of the abyss. The churning current crashes against the rocks, ricocheting into the kayak, making it heavy with water. I know I'm about to achieve something really spectacular or fail in a big way. And suddenly I'm there, hovering above the edge. The wind whips through my soaked clothes. This is not the pretty and foamy waterfall I've seen in books, but a giant, swirling vortex of white that heads straight down into oblivion. I can't even see the bottom, and I can't see Claire, either.

Did she make it?

I shove my paddle in between my legs and my kayak tips. It hovers over the side, and for a second I think that I have somehow willed it to safety. Just like that, I'm gone, holding on for dear life, screaming at the top of my lungs, my eyes wide open as the kayak plummets.

I crash into the freezing-cold water and plunge underneath. Totally submerged and still stuck inside the boat, I battle toward the surface, my arms stretching out in a breaststroke, my toes gripping the ball tucked under my feet. The kayak jerks and then soars above the water like a dolphin coming up for air. I blink the water out as I breathe in deeply, my lungs slowly reviving.

I made it.

I hear a hearty laugh and see Claire in front of me, her arms in the air.

“Finally!” she yells. I grin, relieved to see her.

We're in a valley surrounded by deep cliffs on either side shading the sun. No one else is here. I slowly paddle away from the falls, trailing Claire down the river toward calmer water.

“That was wicked!” Claire says as soon as we're far enough away from the roar of the falls to be able to hear each other speak.

“Definitely,” I say.

“When we get back home, I want you on my team,” she says. “Really. You should think about national league—”

She stops in midsentence, her eyes growing wide. “Look!” she says, motioning toward the valley wall. An unusual-looking red rock is sticking up out of the cliff on our right. And it comes back to me, the reason why I'm here.

The sphere between my feet is a bomb.

We have to find the triggers in order to detonate it.

We have to destroy Elusion.

“Is that the target?” Claire asks.

Is it? I don't know. My dad said it would be near the firewall, three miles north of the entrance. I glance up at the sun. I'm pretty sure we've been traveling north, but it doesn't seem like we've gone three miles. Then again, we have been moving fast.

Maybe it
is
the target.

Claire pulls out her adaptive bomb from underneath the hull of the kayak. She studies it a beat, and then throws it as hard as she can. The ball speeds through the sky, missing the rock and landing on a grassy knoll before blasting into a million pieces of brightly colored glass confetti.

I brace myself, as if expecting an explosion. But nothing happens, and our boats continue on the current. Claire looks at me, concern in her big green eyes. The girl who was not afraid to go inside Elusion knowing it could mean death, the girl who just dropped off a cliff in a kayak without an ounce of hesitation, is afraid. And then I remember.

We threw the bomb. Even though we missed, it made contact. And that means Orexis now knows we're here. They can send us back. And that might just be a death sentence.

We need to destroy this Escape and return to Etherworld as quickly as possible.

“Throw your bomb!” Claire shouts. “Do it, Regan!”

The orange water is splashing around my ears and up onto my face. I clear it away as Claire's kayak speeds past me, rocking back and forth against the current. But this time she's not enjoying the ride. She's no longer paddling; instead her hands are gripping the sides of the kayak, barely hanging on.

Twisting around in my seat, I hold on to the kayak with one hand and use the other to pull the glass ball out from between my feet. I've never had great aim, and the chance of me hitting my mark under the best of circumstances is slim. And now we're much farther away than when Claire attempted her throw—but I don't think I've ever felt so determined. I hurl the bomb as hard as I can, watching as it smashes against the jagged rock.

I did it.

I hit the target.

My kayak continues to speed down the river, bringing me closer to Claire, who is clapping for me. I give her a little bow, then turn around, looking for Josh and my dad, wanting to share this exciting moment. I smile as I spot three kayaks in the distance, getting closer. In a few minutes, we will all be celebrating.

But what if that wasn't the detonator? What if we just wasted two perfectly good bombs? What if all we've done is alert Orexis?

A wave rushes my kayak, nearly tipping it over, and I'm jerked to my knees as water blasts over the top of the boat. I right it again, but now there's water in the hull. Weird. The river was freezing cold just seconds earlier, but this water is warm. Really warm. I steady the kayak and dip my hand in the current. I'm not imagining things. The water has become almost hot. And it's not just a rambunctious current anymore—there are actual waves.

But unlike normal waves that crash toward the shore, these begin on opposite riverbanks and crest in the middle, where they rise and swell, crashing into each other as they split open. And it's not just the conditions on the water that are starting to deteriorate. Thunder erupts as black clouds fill the sky.

I've seen this before. The Escape is disintegrating.

“We need to get out of here!” I yell to Claire. She nods and turns toward the shore.

The water is suddenly bubbling and boiling, with steam rising off the surface. I look behind me and am relieved to see that Josh, my dad, and the others have already made their way down the waterfall and are battling across the current toward us.

I hear an alarming scream, and turn back to see Claire holding her arm by her elbow, looking terrified. “My hand! It feels like it's on fire!”

Her hand is glowing, not with flames but as if it were lit from within.

“Hold on!” I shout. Another wave crashes into me, coming at me from the side, as if trying to keep me from Claire.

She screams again, leaning forward as her body shudders with pain. Her entire arm has disappeared. Her body is a bright yellow, and I'm close enough to see the tears in her eyes. “Help me,” she calls out. “Help!”

With a huge bang, Claire's boat explodes, knocking me back against my kayak.

When I lift my head, Claire is gone, and so is her boat. Nothing remains.

“Everyone to the shoreline!” yells my dad.

I know I should paddle, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. My kayak is speeding down the river, away from the others. What just happened to Claire? Was she sent back to the real world? Is she still alive?

My kayak jolts to a stop. Josh has wedged his kayak in front of mine, redirecting me toward the sandy bank. “Take this!” Josh says, sticking out his paddle.

I grab it and begin to paddle, following the others. Wyatt reaches land first, his kayak slamming into the shore. He jumps out and heads back into the water, his arms bulging with effort as he grabs Nora's kayak, yanking it to safety.

My kayak comes to a stop behind Josh, breaching onto shore as the earth begins to tremble. I heave myself out and turn back toward the churning river. My dad's still in the water, battling the current. I try to go in after him, but the water is too hot, and it's burning my feet. Fiery liquid is beginning to fly off the river, spewing straight up, back into the atmosphere like drops of lava.

“Head to the cliff,” my dad says.

But no one leaves. I take a deep breath and charge into the scalding water, followed by Josh. We grab my dad's kayak and tug it to shore.

“Are you okay?” my dad asks us, as we hoist him out.

“Fine,” I say, the adrenaline softening the pain. “Where next?”

“To the forest!” my dad says, pointing toward the smoking woods. Josh takes my hand and we follow my dad and the rest of the group into the trees. We walk deeper and deeper into the forest, coughing as we inhale the acrid air. The smoke clears enough for us to spot a wall of rocks in front of us, soaring into the sky. Is this the firewall?

My dad looks just as uncertain as the rest of us. He follows the wall to the right, both hands trailing against the rocks, but stops and looks back toward where he came, his brow furrowed.

He can't find the portal.

No one speaks. My dad turns his head and stops. He steps away from the wall and heads toward a half-dead bush, more like an overgrown weed, peeking out from between the stones. We all hurry after him, peering around his shoulder as he bends down and pulls apart the branches.

Behind it is the eerie blue light of the portal.

I land hard and lean over, my forearms resting on my knees. It's cramped in here with all of us, but the close proximity of the team isn't the cause of the tightness in my chest. It feels like my lungs are on fire and my muscles are being ripped to shreds. I steady myself while Josh, Nora, Wyatt, and my dad huddle around me in similar states of physical distress. We're still too winded to talk. I drop to the floor, exhausted. My hands begin to tremble uncontrollably as my vision grows hazy.

My dad sits next to me and wraps his arms around me, but he doesn't speak. I'm not sure if it's because he doesn't have much strength left or because he doesn't know what to say. Either way, I'm just relieved that he's here.

I've never been more terrified than I am right now.

“David?”

Wyatt is standing over us, his face awash in confusion and fear.

“What happened out there?” Wyatt asks him, but from his tone it sounds like some kind of accusation.

A long silence follows, punctuated by Nora's labored breathing.

“I . . . I wish I knew for sure.”

My hands become steadier, and I push myself away from my dad as I start to feel normal again. “Is Claire okay?” I whisper.

“I don't know,” my dad says.

“Do you think her wristband reset?” Now Josh is questioning my dad, his voice raspy, like he swallowed a scrap of sandpaper. “Is that why her boat blew up like that?”

Josh's jaw is clenched tight. I know he's as frightened as I am, but he's trying not to show it.