Puddlejumpers (30 page)
As the vehicle vibrated into motion and began its descent, a tiny hand on the outside slowly pushed the porthole closed.
E
RNIE CLUNG TO THE
outer skin of the oval chamber, a saucer-shaped zeppelin descending through the darkness on rusty cables. It looked like a black blowfish with spikes protruding from its heavy metal skin. Far below, he could see a river of red-hot lava that slithered like a snake through a matrix of pipe and cable, plumes of fire, smokestacks, and a maze of roads, all surrounding a massive furnace embedded in the scorched earth. There were things moving to and fro. It looked as busy as an anthill.
The zeppelin lurched and Ernie lost his grip. He slid down the curved steel plating, desperately grabbing the air until he caught hold of another spike. Dangling precariously, he watched his Cubs cap sail away into the dark. He struggled back up and straddled the spike, hoping he could hold on until the zeppelin touched down.
The Cubs cap landed at the feet of Harvey Holsapple. At the sight of the tiny cap, the old man's eyes began to boil. Black slime seeped from every pore, coarse hair sprouted, his nose grew into a revolting snout, claws shredded his fingertips, and a muscular tail erupted from the bottom of his spine as he mutated into an eight-foot Trogg. Even his ebony cane became a long staff spiked with thorns. Holsapple shredded the cap with his dagger-sharp teeth, then spit it out. Foaming at the mouth, he hammered the ground with his staff, and his screech blew like a hurricane from end to end of the vast cavern.
Covering his ears from the terrible sound, Ernie studied the approaching terrain. Now he could see hundreds of enslaved Puddlejumpers in iron shackles all around the Trogg cavern.
So this is what happened to the others.
His heart sank at the terrible sight. What could he possibly do? Then the words of MotherEarth ran through his mind:
“Plant your Crystal Acorn where the fire burns hot and forever.”
It could only mean one thing.
The furnace.
He would have to sneak past the Troggs and throw his Acorn down the fiery pit.
But how?
The zeppelin was approaching the noxious smokestacks of an oil refinery, but Ernie couldn't take his eyes off the furnace. There was something strange about it. As he peered closer, his blood ran cold. In the cinders just above the furnace mouth, two encrusted lids cracked open to reveal burned yellow eyes.
It was alive!
Now he could recognize a skeletal female body camouflaged in the rolls and ruts of the charred landscape. The body sloped upward to the head, where the furnace mouth voraciously gulped each load of coal. Soot covered the hilly contour of her knees, hips, and shoulders. The ridges extending from the torso were arms and legs. Two rock monoliths jutting high in the air were feet, with sharp claws protruding at the top. But she wasn't living just on coal. Rusted pipes attached to both arms channeled oil from the refinery directly into the monster's veins.
Ernie stared in horror, his fingers trembling on the Crystal Acorn around his neck, as the zeppelin locked down in the middle of the refinery. Trying to calm himself, he took a deep breath, but the intense heat only made his lungs ache.
The zeppelin portal opened. Holsapple rushed up, bellowing angrily, demanding to know how the Puddlejumper boy had made it into the Most Dark. Cobb and the twins ranted and raved, blaming each other. Shoving them aside, Holsapple began a mad search of the zeppelin while the chastised Troggs shook Cully and Buck out of their cage, then ripped Root, Runnel, and Chop from their stomach pouches.
On the backside of the zeppelin, Ernie swung from spike to spike until he could jump to a ladder attached to a smoking vat. From his tall perch, he could see the soot-covered Puddlejumpers toiling in coal mines around the perimeter of the polluted cavern, digging and tunneling to get the coal to feed the Trogg monster.
Ernie could also see the other creatures that Runnel had warned him aboutâRed Grunts, cruel three-foot-tall taskmasters with bulbous eyes, needle teeth, and scaly red skin. Shouting and cracking sinewy vines like whips, they forced the Jumpers to push boxcars full of coal along cinder paths that converged onto a main road. The rugged artery followed the river until it veered off between the monster's feet. The route twisted up the buried torso, ending at an iron platform suspended over her mouth, where Puddlejumpers dumped their loads of coal. After each gulp, the insatiable furnace spewed a geyser of flame, which sounded like a wheeze of relief.
When Holsapple didn't find the boy in the zeppelin, the Troggs began to search the refinery. In another minute, they'd reach him. His pulse racing, Ernie scooted down the ladder to the ground. He ran past rows of smelly vats and corroded machinery. Stopping to catch his breath, he noticed a sewer pipe that ran all the way to the lava river, where it emptied its sludge under a trestle bridge. It looked like a good place to hide. He scuttled along the pipe to the river's edge and dropped out of sight beneath the bridge.
Suddenly an earsplitting siren pierced the Most Dark.
Ernie retreated deeper into the shadows under the bridge. He could hear shouting, angry cursing, the clinking of leg irons, and the shuffling of hundreds of little feet. Finally the exhausted miners came into view. Above him, the Grunts marched them across the bridge to a prison on the opposite side. Primitive cells were chiseled out of the sheer rock wall along a narrow ledge high above the river. The workers dropped their tiny pickaxes, shovels, and sledgehammers in a pile. Grunts removed their irons, then locked them inside their cells. Other Grunts shackled the rested Jumpers, equipped them with tools, and herded them back across the bridge.
As the fresh crews crossed above, Ernie spotted the twin Troggs harshly prodding Root and Runnel, Buck, Cully, and Chop to the prison on the far side. They delivered his friends to the chief jailer, a Red Grunt with one good eye and one seared shut.
Just like the one-eyed field worker!
Hissing, One Eye crammed his new prisoners into an open cell, then slammed the door and locked it with a key from the ring on his belt.
The Grunt marched along the ledge past the cells to a ten-foot water tank at the far end. He climbed a ladder to a platform atop the steel cistern. By cranking a handle mounted on the platform, the jailer could propel a bucket along a wire that ran the length of the ledge to each cell. One Eye filled the bucket, but instead of delivering water to his prisoners, he dumped it on the ground. The thirsty Puddlejumpers moaned as the water trickled down the cliff to the hot lava, where it sizzled away. The sadistic Grunt cackled and jangled his keys, but Ernie felt a glint of hope. The jailer had given him just the idea he needed.
His gaze jumped to the refinery, where the Troggs were still searching for him, then back to the bridge.
Now!
He scrambled onto the support column and started climbing, clambering from rivet to rivet. It was taller than Russ' barn.
Keep going, keep going.
If a Trogg or Grunt looked in his direction, their search would be over.
It felt like forever before he reached the underneath of the bridge. Breathing hard, he slipped one hand through the gap in the boards and got a good grip. Hanging by his fingertips, he reached for the next plank. Board by board, he grappled his way over the river of burning lava. On the far side, he jumped to the cliff, where he caught hold of a notch in the sheer rock.
Ernie poked his head above the ledge. One Eye was stomping past the captives, taunting them. He could see Runnel in the cell closest to the water tank. He took a pebble from a pouch and tossed it into her cell. She looked over and met his gaze. The Jumpers whispered excitedly, but no one looked his way as word of Wawaywo's arrival spread from cell to cell.
Unseen below the ledge, Ernie used niches in the rock to work his way across the face of the cliff to a position just below the cistern. When the jailer went inside a storage cave where the Grunts kept the pickaxes, sledgehammers, and shovels, Ernie hoisted himself onto the ledge, scooted up the cistern ladder, and slipped into the tank. The cool water was a tonic to his overheated body. He resurfaced and peeked over the side.
Runnel and the others were awaiting his command. Ernie put his hands to his throat and stuck out his tongue to show thirst, then pretended to drink. They understood and began calling for water,
“Kadudee! Kadudee!”
Ignoring their plea, One Eye brought the next pickax to his grindstone and pressed the blade against the spinning wheel, throwing hot sparks. But when all the Puddlejumpers began clamoring for a drink, he stormed out of the cave, snarling and hissing and threatening with his ax. Instead of silencing them, his threats only made them cry louder. The Jumpers became so unruly that the Troggs stopped their search of the refinery. Holsapple's enraged voice boomed across the cavern from the far side of the river, ordering the jailer to silence the prisoners or surrender his keys.
Deathly afraid, One Eye hurried to the cistern and climbed onto the platform. Ernie took a deep breath and dove underwater. From the bottom of the tank, he could see the Grunt's silhouette cranking the pulley handle. Holding his breath, he waited. When the bucket plunged into the water, Ernie kicked off the side and propelled himself into the bucket, where he curled into a tight ball. He could feel himself being lifted out of the tank and transported along the wire.
The bucket stopped at the first cell, where Ernie surfaced, gasping for breath. Runnel and Root, Buck, Cully, and Chop made a show of drinking water while Ernie urgently whispered his strategy. He'd barely finished when the jailer cranked the handle, sending the bucket to the next cell.
At each water stop, Ernie shared his plan with the prisoners as they drank from the bucket. These Puddlejumpers had lost hope of ever escaping the Most Dark, and now, here inside their own decrepit water bucket, was the Rainmaker. Energized, they pledged their allegiance.
When the bucket was empty, the Puddlejumpers clamored for more. One Eye cranked the handle in the opposite direction and Ernie sailed back along the wire to the cistern. As the bucket dropped into the tank, he dove back into the dark reservoir. One Eye cranked the handle forward again and the refilled bucket shuttled back down the line.
Ernie bobbed to the surface of the cistern. The Grunt was turned away, watching the bucket. Ernie spit a sprinkle of water onto his shoulder. One Eye brushed it away like a bothersome fly and continued to crank. Ernie refilled his cheeks and powered a gusher that splattered the Grunt's scaly neck, then dove underwater.
Snorting angrily, One Eye peered into the tank. When air bubbles floated to the surface, he growled suspiciously.
Ernie, blowing bubbles from the bottom
of
the tank, watched as the shadow leaned in to investigate.
Closerâ¦closer.
He waited until the grotesque face hovered just above the surface before pushing off the bottom. Shooting out of the water, he grabbed the jailer by the tender flesh between his hairy nostrils, then, leveraging himself against the tank, yanked with all his might. The ambushed Grunt tilted forward and splashed into the cistern. Like all Troggs and Red Grunts, One Eye couldn't swim and thrashed about in a panic. Darting in circles around the Grunt, Ernie poked his one good eye, then snatched the keys from his belt and vaulted out of the tank.
He dashed to the first cell and unlocked the door, but the Jumpers remained inside as if nothing had happened. He raced to unlock the next cell, glancing back as One Eye clambered from the tank, spitting and sputtering and rubbing his eye. Hissing, the Grunt bared his needle teeth and charged along the ledge. But before he could reach Ernie, Cully and Buck shoved open their cell door with perfect timing to whack the Grunt. One Eye tumbled backward off the ledge and somersaulted down the cliff into the boiling river. As the jailer disappeared into his fiery grave, a plume of black smoke sizzled into the air.
Ernie dropped to the ground and peered over the edge. Cobb was policing along the main road, spreading the word to be on high alert. The twins were gathering a knot of Grunts to search the mines. Ernie spotted Holsapple outside the refinery. The Trogg was staring suspiciously at the plume of smoke drifting downstream. He glanced up at the prison and Ernie ducked out of sight. When Ernie peeked again, Holsapple was dispatching two Grunts to inspect the smoke, before tromping off in the direction of the furnace.
Ernie crawled along the ledge and unlocked the remaining cells, but the Puddlejumpers stayed inside, pretending to be locked up. Ernie's heart was beating hard because at any moment a Trogg or Grunt might notice that the jailer wasn't in his usual position patrolling the ledge.
Root and Runnel, Buck, Cully, and Chop slipped from their cell and joined Ernie outside the storage cave. Try as they might, they couldn't budge the heavy iron gate. Working fast, Ernie and Buck burrowed under the gate. The two Jumpers shuttled pickaxes, shovels, and sledgehammers back through the trench, where the others passed them to prisoners in the closest cells. Those Puddlejumpers passed the tools on to the next cell, where eager hands swooped them inside. Before long, the imprisoned Puddlejumpers were armed and ready.
