The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (40 page)

They each took off their packs and carried it above their
heads as they slowly entered the freezing water.  Elijah cringed with each step
as the water crept up his body.  Even the warm training gear wasn’t enough to
shield them from the frigid temperature of the water.

Soon they were all chest deep, trying with all their might
to keep their footing on the rocks below.  Hannah, the shortest of them all,
was almost up to her neck.  Elijah first noticed his toes going numb from the
water.  It was an unnerving feeling because he knew the rest of his body was
going to follow inch by inch.  They needed to get out of the water as soon as
possible or they were going to drown from not being able to move their bodies
to get out.  He hoped the narrows would open up soon.

The river current quickly strengthened.  They had trudged
ahead long enough that even if they wanted to turn around, they wouldn’t be
able to go back.  They were committed to either making it down the river alive
or drowning.

Hannah was the first to speak up.  “Guys, I can’t feel my
feet, she said, shivering.”  She had a panicked look like someone who knew
something awful was going to happen that they couldn’t stop.

“I can’t either,” Isaac said.  “What do we do?”

“Just keep going,” Elijah instructed.  “There’s nothing we
can do at this point.”

“But there’s nothing ahead but the narrows,” Isaac said.  “No
bank or anything!”

“We have to keep going,” Elijah encouraged.  “You can do
this, guys.  We can make it!”

Suddenly, Hannah slipped and the current whisked her away
like a ragdoll.  Elijah felt sick to his stomach as he watched her head bobbing
up and down, her arms helplessly grasping at the air for help.  Before anyone
could do anything, Adam slipped too, and then so did Becca, followed by Isaac,
each of them looking as helpless as Hannah.  Paul looked at Elijah as if to say
“we have no choice, might as well get it over with”, and Elijah was sure he
purposefully let the swift current take him down the river.

Elijah considered letting the river take him like Paul, but
he figured if all of his friends were injured and alive at the end of the
narrows, he should try to be as healthy as possible so he could help them.  He
continued to try to keep his balance, but it was no use.  The current was too
strong and his legs were numb.  At last, he couldn’t hold on and the current
pulled him under.

He wasn’t sure when his head broke the surface and when it
was under water.  It was like being in a washing machine.  He sucked in from
time to time, hoping he was above water when he did so, but he couldn’t be
sure.  His body was pounded against the bottom of the river and then brutally tossed
around.  Suddenly, his head slammed against the mountainside, and he fought
unconsciousness.  His eyes felt like they exploded with color and then turned
dark.  He flailed his arms and tried to grab onto the mountain, but he only
grabbed onto water.  He didn’t know at what point he actually let go of his
pack, but that didn’t matter.  Getting out of the water was his only thought. 
The current continued to strengthen, and it pulled him under as if it prepared
for a grand finale.  It became stronger and stronger until finally, Elijah felt
himself flying through the air as the water spit him out over a twenty foot
waterfall and into a deep pool.

The current was gone.  The narrows were gone.  Elijah was
alive but barely conscious.  He choked and gasped for air and swam aimlessly in
an unknown direction.  He didn’t care where he ended up as long as it was
land.  Thankfully, his feet soon touched sand.  He didn’t trust his legs to
hold him up for long, so he treaded water as long as he could until he was on
his hands and knees.  He collapsed half out of the water feeling woozy.  Out of
the corner of his eye he saw the form of other bodies also lying on the bank. 
He remembered thinking to himself that he needed to be healthy to help his
friends.  But who was going to help him?

Elijah forced himself to sit up.  He threw up twice and then
looked at the bank.  He counted three of his friends.  Adam, Hannah, and Paul
were all here.  Paul looked okay.  He was tending to Hannah, who was sitting up
but looked ill.  Adam was going back and forth from the river collecting what
looked to be the remains of their supplies.  Elijah thought he heard a voice
call his name, but he couldn’t be sure.  He was confused.  He heard a muffled
hum in his head.  What was more, his hand was covered in blood.

Paul came over to him and hoisted him up.  Elijah watched
the ground as he was being carried, and saw a trail of blood following him. 
What was going on?  He blinked hard, but it didn’t help, so he did it again. 
The world was spinning in and out of focus.  He looked over at Hannah who
looked very concerned.  Why did Hannah look so concerned?  The last thing
Elijah could remember was that his head felt very itchy.

When Elijah woke up, it was dark.  He was sitting up against
a tree and there was a roaring fire just feet from him.  It felt wonderful. His
head still itched, but the world wasn’t spinning anymore, and he didn’t feel
like he needed to throw up, which was good.  He was still a little confused. 
He remembered the river and trying to stay above water, but everything else was
a blur.  He was still so tired.  Elijah closed his eyes again.

It was daylight the next time Elijah opened his eyes.  The
smell of food cooking woke him up.  He felt much better.  He sat up more so he
could look around.  Hannah was cooking something over the fire.  Adam was
cleaning a knife by the river.  Elijah looked around but he didn’t see the rest
of his friends.

Hannah, seeing Elijah awake, lit up.  “Oh, Elijah!” she cried. 
She ran over to him and flung her arms around him.  “Are you feeling better?” 
When she let go she looked up at his head.  Seeing this, Elijah reached up and
touched his head.

“What is this?” he asked.

“A bandage,” Hannah answered.  “You hit your head pretty bad
somewhere on the river.  Adam found the infirmary kit we packed and Paul
wrapped your head up.”  Hannah smiled but she looked awful.  Her eyes were
puffy and her face was scratched and dirty.

“Hey, Elijah!” Adam said, hearing Hannah’s commotion.  “You
look a lot better.”

“Is everyone else okay?  Where are they?” Elijah asked.

Hannah suddenly looked as though she wanted to cry.

“We can’t find Isaac,” Adam said plainly.

“Becca and Paul have been out looking for him all night,”
Hannah said through tears.  “Paul’s been frantic.”

“Did you at least see him float by?” Elijah asked, feeling a
bit frantic himself.

“I didn’t,” Hannah said.  “Everything happened so fast.  I
actually ended up a ways from here before I could grab onto something to pull
myself out of the water.  I saw Paul come up out of the falls and swim to the
bank, right where we found you.  But I didn’t see Isaac.”

Just then, Paul and Becca appeared around the river bend and
returned to camp looking forlorn.

“No sign,” Becca said.  She walked with a slight hitch on
her right side.

Paul didn’t say anything.  He only went to his gear and quickly
packed up.  He threw a few rocks aggressively into the trees, which made a loud
echo around them.

After they had all eaten and packed, the remaining five sat stone
still, staring into the wilderness.

Becca broke the silence first.  “I hate to say this, but we
probably should be moving on.”

“So we’re just going to leave him?!?” Paul shouted.

Becca sighed.  “We searched up and down the river.  I went
with you, Paul.  He’s gone.”

“He’s not gone!” Paul said with tears in his eyes.  “We just
haven’t found him!”

Becca looked at Elijah.  “I’ll do what you do.”

Hannah was crying.  Adam looked at Elijah with concerned
eyes.

“Part of me wants to stay here and search for Isaac,” Elijah
said.  “But I swore to find the sphere and destroy it.  And I think looking for
Isaac at this point will only put the rest of us in danger.  I don’t feel good
about it, but I think we should move on.”

Paul threw more rocks.  “You really think that’s the right
thing to do?”

“No!” Elijah shouted, suddenly feeling very emotional.  “I
have no clue what the right thing to do is!  I want to go back in time and stop
us from going down the river so I can have my friend back!!!  But I can’t!  So
now I have to make another choice, and I don’t want to look back on this
decision a week from now when we’re all starving and dying because we didn’t
move on!  If you want to stay and search, I think that’s your call.  But if you
couldn’t find him after a full day, he’s not here.”  He kicked the sand on the
beach before he started walking away from camp.

Elijah picked up his gear and left, not even checking to see
who was following him.  He knew Becca was there only because she said she
would, but he wouldn’t blame the others one bit for turning around and
deserting him right there.  It wasn’t until they had traveled for almost an
hour that Elijah finally turned around to look, and he saw all of his friends—Paul
included—behind him.  Elijah wasn’t sure if that made him feel good or bad.

He didn’t say anything, but Elijah spent the better part of
the day, taking small detours just in case he found some clue to where Isaac
was.  He was sure Paul and Becca combed the area, but Elijah couldn’t bring
himself to just accept that Isaac was gone.  Elijah thought his friends would
comment on his indirect path around the forest, but no one said anything.  They
hung their heads and followed.

Elijah and Becca finally found the river runoff they needed
to follow, and led the others west.  The runoff they currently followed was
much smaller than the other one, but they continued to have to cross it frequently
to follow it.  The current was much weaker and it was much less deep, but it
was still a nuisance to travel with cold, wet feet as they continued to step
into the river to cross.  Then, it opened up suddenly and cut through a field
of tall grass that looked like it went on for more than five hundred feet. 
Elijah welcomed the new terrain if only for a small bit.  When they had gotten
to the very middle of the field, Becca stopped and examined the map.

“We should be really close to Orphea,” she said.  “According
to this, we’ve got to be right on it.  Or near it.”

Everyone but Paul gathered around to look.  Paul removed
himself so he could pick at the grass.

“Do you think we should split up and look?” Hannah asked. 
“We’re talking about a Magi city right?  So it would be hidden.  It wouldn’t be
right here in the middle of the field.”

“That makes sense,” Elijah agreed.  “I say we go in
partners.  Paul, are you coming?”

“I’ll do whatever,” Paul muttered.

“Okay,” Elijah responded.  “You and Hannah continue going
west.  Becca and Adam, you guys go north.  And I’ll go south.  Let’s meet back
here in an hour.”

They split up and headed in their respective directions, but
it wasn’t five minutes before Elijah heard a piercing scream behind him.  He
turned around and ran toward Becca who was waving him over, looking panicked.

“Hurry!” Becca shouted.  “Who has the infirmary kit?”

“Adam had it last,” Elijah said.

Hannah and Paul also turned around at the scream and
followed Becca who ran as fast as she could and then stopped suddenly.  “In
there!” she said.

“Holy heck!!!” Paul said.

They all peered into a pit where Adam had fallen.  The pit
was only about five feet deep, but the depth wasn’t what made Elijah’s stomach
turn.  Sticking up out of the pit were several iron spikes, and stuck to one of
the spikes was Adam.  A single spike had impaled his leg, and had he fallen six
inches to the left, it would have gone through his gut.  How he missed the
other spikes was a mystery to Elijah.  Adam was lucky to be alive.

“Get me out!” Adam yelled in a gruesome tone.

Elijah eased himself into the pit, careful not to stick
himself on the spikes.  The site almost made him throw up again.  The foot-long
iron spike had gone completely through Adam’s thigh, which was oozing dark red
on the edges of the wound.  Elijah helped steady Adam.

“I’m going to need help,” Elijah said.  “Paul, can you hold
onto Adam while I pull his leg out?”

Adam’s dark skin turned gray and he grunted and screamed as
the boys prepared to pull his leg off of the spike.

“Hold on,” Paul said.  He returned with a stick.  He hung
over the side of the pit and placed the stick into Adam’s mouth.  “Bite onto
this.”  Paul grabbed Adam’s hands and held him up.  “Make it quick, Elijah.”

Adam continued to make frightened gasps and bit down hard on
the stick.

“Do you want me to count to three?” Elijah asked.

Adam couldn’t even answer.  He was practically crying in
anticipation.

“Paul, I’m going to count.  As soon as I lift his leg off
the spike, pull him out so he doesn’t fall back onto it.”

“Go,” said Paul.

Adam let out a horrific scream.  Becca and Hannah prepared
the medicine and infirmary supplies.

“One…two…three…”

Elijah pushed up as hard as he could.  Adam let out a final
shriek and then was completely silent.  When Elijah pulled himself out of the
pit, he saw everyone covered in Adam’s blood.  Hannah put pressure on Adam’s
wound while Becca applied ointments.  Adam was passed out cold.  The girls went
to work on Adam’s leg, seizing the opportunity to stitch him up while he was
unconscious.

Hannah took out two needles and thread.  Paul, Elijah, and
Becca held Adam on his side while Hannah sewed up the entrance and exit wounds
from Adam’s leg.  After Hannah had gotten his wounds closed, Becca wrapped a
bandage tightly around it.

Elijah looked at the pit.  “Was it just like this?” he asked
Becca.  “Or was there something covering it that he stepped on?”