Aetherial Annihilation (5 page)

"That's it," the big man said. "I'm gonna punch that moron in the face."

I held up a restraining arm. "Let's just leave him be for now."

The man growled deep in his chest, but nodded. "All right."

Dim emergency lighting gave us just enough light to see by. I didn't know how much longer the backup batteries would last and figured it didn't matter. We ran into another problem not more than two minutes later.

"The doors are locked," the doctor said.

"What's your name?" I asked. "I'm getting tired of thinking of you as the doctor all the time."

"Elizabeth." She looked at the door. "Can you get it open now?"

Elyssa rammed it open with her shoulder. She and I repeated the procedure down the hallway until everyone had a room.

As Harley entered his room he smiled and said, "I don't suppose you can get the cable working again, can you?"

I chuckled. "I think you've had enough entertainment for the day."

"Yeah, a disaster story, a fantasy adventure, and a drama." He opened the curtains to let in the light from the glowing ocean. "What more could a person ask for?"

I told him goodnight and then went to the room Elyssa had procured for us. She opened the balcony door to let the breeze into the stuffy room and then flopped on the bed. She got up a minute later. "I wonder if the water works."

My throat was already feeling parched.

I heard movement in the hallway and two silhouettes appeared a moment later. The big man was pushing a service cart loaded with candy bars, potato chips, and a variety of beverages. "We raided the vending machines." He motioned to the snacks. "Junk food. The supper of champions."

I was too hungry to be picky and grabbed a handful. "Great thinking."

"Yeah, we thought about going to the kitchen, but the bottom floors are flooded." He shuddered. "There are bodies down there too."

The woman with him gripped his arm. "How many do you think died, Justin?"

I shook my head sadly. "More than I want to count." I looked at the snacks. "Thanks for the food. I'll see you in the morning." I closed the door and latched the top latch since the bottom one was broken.

"The water doesn't work," Elyssa announced as she exited the bathroom. "It worked for a few seconds, but then it turned muddy and clogged."

I dropped our small feast on the bed. "Let's just eat and count our blessings."

Tomorrow was going to be a long, hard day.

Chapter 4

My stomach felt like it was full of rocks when I peeled open my eyes the next morning. My body apparently didn't appreciate all the junk food I'd consumed. Elyssa was already up, standing on the balcony and gazing at the ocean.

I pushed myself up and immediately regretted it as my ribs and joints reminded me of the brutal thrashing I'd taken the day before.

Elyssa sat by my side and checked my bare ribs. "You still have some nasty bruising."

"I don't understand why it's taking so long." I gingerly poked a rib and winced. "Must be the lack of aether."

"Probably." She motioned her head to the window. "I want you to see something."

I followed her outside and immediately saw what she meant. The ocean roiled and swirled where the meteor had landed. "That can't be good."

"Understatement of the year." She sighed. "I hope Shelton and the others find out more by the time we get home."

"Speaking of which…" I scanned the water for boats. Mostly, I just saw wreckage. The flood had receded, leaving behind tons of debris speckled with human bodies, dead fish, and vegetation. I idly wondered where my missing flip-flop had ended up and decided that mystery would never be solved.

"We should go to the roof for a better look." Elyssa grabbed a bottle of water and headed for the door.

My stomach grumbled hungrily then revolted when I looked at the junk food on the dresser. I grabbed bottled water and followed Elyssa. A few people already gathered on the roof. I nodded at them, but didn't much feel like chatting or smiling, for that matter. I needed real food.

The view from the roof offered little hope. The only boat in one piece teetered on the roof of a building down the street. Elyssa and I might possibly dislodge it, but carrying it through the tons of debris blocking the road and beach was out of the question.

"Out there." Elyssa pointed to a boat that would be better described as a yacht. Two stories high and a boatload bigger than a boat, it drifted in the middle of a mound of unidentifiable debris.

"How far of a swim is that?" I asked.

She pursed her lips. "At least a mile."

I didn't like the idea of such a long swim, but we didn't have a choice. "Let's find some food, then we can make the trip."

"I don't think we have the time to spare." Her finger drifted from the ship to the maelstrom forming between our island and the smaller one in the distance. "The yacht is drifting toward that."

It only took a moment for me to confirm her observation. The yacht and its accompanying flotsam, jetsam, or whatever kind of –sam a sailor might call the debris, were definitely headed for the whirlpool. I took a quick glance around and failed to locate any other suitable seaworthy vessels.

"Let's go now." My stomach threw a tantrum of borborygmus when it got the message that there wouldn't be any breakfast this morning. I wholeheartedly agreed with its dire assessment, but if we didn't snag that ship, we'd be stuck in this miserable place a lot longer.

We ran into Harley on the way down. He held up a brown bag. "Hey, someone left a take-home bag of rice cakes in my room's fridge. I was going to have some for breakfast up on the roof if you want to join me."

I told him the situation. "We've got to get that yacht before it gets sucked down the drain." My belly made an awful sucking noise and explained its plight as well.

Harley took out a couple of rice cakes. These weren't the dry crunchy kind found in grocery stores, but the homemade moist ones. The rice didn't smell bad, so I took them and gave one to Elyssa.

"Thanks, Harley." I took a big bite of one. "Wish us luck."

"Can I tag along?" he asked.

"Sure, but you'll have to stay on the beach."

He chuckled. "I like to swim, but not that much."

I saw the big man coming out of his room and told him the plan. "Let everyone know we'll be back unless we die horribly, okay?"

He grimaced. "Man, don't talk like that." He gripped my hand and shook it. "Be safe."

"I will." I bit my lip and thought about what else needed doing. "In the meantime, could you get the others to help look for food, water, and other survivors? I have a feeling we're going to need supplies before taking off."

He nodded. "You got it."

I looked down at my bare feet. "Before we go, daddy needs some new shoes."

Elyssa snorted. "Let's find you something fancy."

We went a couple floors down and raided the rooms. I found a dead man in the hallway on the fourth floor with feet about my size.

"He doesn't have any use for them," Harley said when he noticed how hesitant I was to take them.

Elyssa tugged off the tennis shoes and handed them to me. "No time to be picky, Justin."

The shoes were cold and wet. I tried not to think of the dead flesh that had touched them. "Not to sound trite, but these things have death cooties all over them."

"Better than slicing your feet open on broken glass." Elyssa headed for the stairwell.

The thought of walking with cut and bleeding feet helped me overcome my aversion. I gave the dead man one last look. "Rest in peace, bro."

Harley, Elyssa, and I navigated the treacherous streets, wending our way through a maze of wrecked cars, demolished buildings, broken trees, and the awful sight of the dead. The crash of the waves on the beach and the cacophony of birds squawking and fighting over beached fish were the only sounds. Most of the other buildings in the area had been too low to avoid the flood.

"Hey, over here," Harley called. He pointed to a jumble of wood beneath a pile of bricks. "I found some of the surfboards from my shop."

"If only we had time to surf," I said dryly.

He pulled on one. "You'll be a lot safer if you take one of these instead of straight-up swimming for it."

I hadn't thought of using a flotation device, but his advice made sense. "Good idea."

Elyssa lifted the topmost surfboard and I was able to free two more beneath it. The fins were broken, but the boards looked seaworthy.

The closer we got to the beach, the more waterlogged the ground became. Mud sucked at our feet, and half-dead fish flopped in puddles of water. We reached the edge of the water moments later. Even then, floating debris obstructed our view of the yacht.

"I guess this is where we leave you," I told Harley. "Thanks for the rice cakes."

"Good luck and godspeed." He chuckled. "Sorry about the God part if it offends you."

I snorted. "Like I said, the supernatural world isn't like the Bible." I squeezed Elyssa's hand. "Ready?"

She nodded. "Let's go."

We waded into the filthy water. Jumbled bricks, broken wood, and other debris made footing treacherous. It took us several minutes to get to a place where we could climb atop the surfboards and start paddling. By the time we reached the open water, the yacht was more than halfway to the maelstrom. Though I couldn't see the whirlpool itself, churning water highlighted the boundary.

Elyssa and I kicked and paddled like crazy. My shoes made kicking cumbersome so I took them off and put them on the surfboard. She soon followed suit. By the time we reached the yacht, only a hundred yards remained between it and the mother of all drain holes. The swift current of the turbulent water gripped us and pulled us toward our target.

We swam to the back of the ship where a low dock allowed us to easily slip onboard with our handy surfboards. Broken alcohol bottles and glasses littered the deck so we quickly slipped back into our shoes. A woman in a bikini lay in a tangled mess next to a large tub that had once contained pool water. A rope tied around her waist kept her from going overboard, but it had also broken her back when the tidal wave threw her hard against the end of the tether.

A pair of doors leading to the interior cabins hung open. I saw crimson stains in the hallway and other unidentifiable fluids spattered on the walls and elected not to go inside.

We made our way upstairs to the second deck. Judging from the number of alcohol bottles, there had been quite a party in progress when the meteor hit.

I looked back and saw the whirlpool growing ever closer. "Where's the bridge on this thing?"

Elyssa jogged forward. We entered the cabin area, stepping over bodies and making our way toward the bow—or was it the prow? I really needed to read up on my nautical terms. She found a door leading into a sleek control room that looked as though it belonged in a space ship.

"This ain't no ordinary sea-going vessel," I muttered. "Now, where's the ignition?"

"I don't have the faintest idea, but we don't have much longer." Elyssa didn't have to explain. The roar of the maelstrom sounded like a distant waterfall, and the vibrations running through the ship's hull knotted my guts with anxiety.

I saw a figure in a navy blue uniform on the floor and ran over to it. The man had a cut on his forehead and bruises on his face, but he was breathing ever so slightly.

I slapped him lightly on the face. "Wake up, Captain. We need to start this boat." I was afraid to shake him, but the thundering whirlpool quickly changed my mind. Elyssa found a bottle of water and dumped it on the man's face. He moaned slightly, but didn't wake up.

"Screw this." I left the man where he was and ran up and down the control screens. I finally found a big red button next to a silver handle jutting from the console. I offered up a quick prayer and pressed the button. The LCD screens in front of me lit up, displaying more information than I could easily take in.

Elyssa jabbed a finger at two green bars rising from zero. "I think these are the engines."

Over the roar and vibration of the vortex, I couldn't tell if the engines were on. Elyssa looked through the rear window and her eyes grew huge. "Justin, go."

I didn't even need to look back before jamming the silver lever all the way forward. Then I looked back. The back of the yacht sat on the brink of the void. "Holy crap!" The ship groaned as the turbulent water tore at it. I looked at the countless readouts and didn't know what else to do.
When all else fails, panic.
"Go! Go! Go!" I banged my fists on the large steering wheel. "Do something, you stupid boat!"

I looked back again.
Do we have slightly more room between us and the edge?
I couldn't be sure if my terrified imagination was playing tricks on me. "Get ready to abandon ship," I told Elyssa.

"That sounds like something you've always wanted to say," she said far too calmly for someone in our situation.

"Yeah, I mean, for a spaceship maybe, but not a stupid boat." The steering wheel jerked hard right. I tried to counter it, but the ship began to drift to the side.

"We're caught in the side current." Elyssa pressed her lips together. "I have an idea."

I eagerly let her take the steering wheel. "You're a better driver than me."

Muscles straining on her arms, she twisted the wheel. The ship groaned and lurched. The maelstrom slowly shifted from being behind us to being on our right side. We picked up speed and suddenly hurtled along the outer rim of the death hole.

The ship shook violently. Metal shrieked. A window shattered and a hot gust of wind rushed inside. The entire ship tilted to the side and I saw the crystal meteor glowing brilliantly far below.

"What are you doing?" My butt clenched as tight as a clam.

Elyssa gritted her teeth and fought with the steering wheel. "Saving us."

Round and round we went, gathering speed. Something giant rushed past us. I gawked as a massive spotted whale swam past, engaged in its own furious fight against the tide. A smaller ship appeared on the opposite side of the whirlpool and began its own circuit of the edge. A figure on the deck of the smaller vessel jumped up and down, waving his arms.