The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (10 page)

“
That
was the bravest, craziest thing I've ever seen anyone do, Justin,”
Maria exclaimed and then gave him a huge hug. She stepped back,
looking a bit embarrassed but also seemed proud of him. Even Dominic
slapped him on the back.

“
But
how did you stop it, Just?” Aaron wanted to know.

“
I
have no idea, bud. But it wasn't the mark on my hand. It didn't even
seem to notice that. I think it just liked how I smelled.”

“
Smelled?
What do you mean, how you smelled?”

“
Don't
ask me. But it stood there and sniffed me a few times and then gave
me this.” Justin held out the mango for them all to see.

“
Wow,
that's weird,” Dominic said. He glanced at the monkey that was
still gathering fruit. “But who cares why it stopped. This
could be our chance to get out of here.”

Justin looked at Maria.
“I agree,” he said. “Before it has a chance to
change its mind, I think we should take the stairs while we can.”

Maria nodded.
“Absolutely. I saw it look at us when we came out and it didn't
react. So come on everyone, let's move!”

The entire group headed
for the stairs. By unspoken agreement, no one ran, just in case it
attracted the machine's attention. Instead, Justin took the lead and
they walked slowly but steadily to the stairs, gave the monkey-bot
one last cautious look and then began to climb.

The steps weren't very
wide but they were quite high, making each step a stretch. Justin's
legs began to ache after only a few minutes. He was sure that the
others felt the same, since only Maria was taller then the others and
she was only about five-seven.

Sure enough, as they
climbed around and around, he began to hear groans and grunts from
the teens struggling behind him.

The staircase had a solid
railing along the outside about four feet high and when Justin judged
that they were about halfway to the top, which took a surprisingly
long time to reach, he stopped and suggested they take a quick break
to rest and catch their breath. No one argued.

Aaron sat down on a step
beside Justin. He grunted as he stretched out his legs and began to
rub his thighs. “This is definitely an endurance test,”
he said with a tired sigh.

Justin agreed as he
stretched and then took off his shoes to rub his feet. His sneakers
were a bit faded and frayed from all the running, jumping and
swimming he'd been doing in them lately, but they were holding up
okay. He shook them to get rid of a few small stones and then sat
back for a minute and relaxed.

After a very short break,
Maria stood up and suggested they move on. “We don't know how
long it will be before that machine comes back up the stairs, and
frankly I don't know if there's enough room for it to get by us.”

Startled at the thought,
Justin quickly put his shoes on and he and Aaron began to climb
again, feeling at least a little rested.

Finally, one last turn in
the staircase showed them the ceiling up ahead with a large hole cut
into it and the staircase leading up and through to the next level.

Justin hesitated a moment
before entering the darkness ahead, then took a deep breath, glanced
at Aaron who nodded grimly and proceeded up the darkened stairs.

The ceiling was very
thick and the staircase wound around one more time before the group
reached the top of the steps. As Justin's head popped up through what
was now the floor of this new level, hr noticed that the ground was
covered by a fine sand.

Sand? he thought and
experienced a momentary rush of excitement. It reminded him of the
Hall of Remembrance that he had once been taken to by Mr. Fitzgerald.
But as he continued to climb out of the stairwell, Justin realized
that this was a different area entirely.

The others followed him
out of the darkness until they all stood in a group, looking around
and taking in this new area.

They were standing in a
room of sorts, perhaps forty feet square with nothing but deep sand
covering the ground. There were no other features to be seen, but the
walls of the room only extended up about twenty feet. Beyond that,
the far off ceiling was just as distant as the one from below, but
the light here was just light, white and devoid of any warmth or
color.

Near the stairwell, an
area bare of sand and covered with bits and pieces of banana peels,
small leaves and a few rotted mangoes was evidently the spot that the
monkey-bot dropped its loads of fruit. But where was it taken from
there, Justin wondered. And who took it?

A path of disturbed sand
led away and out of an archway, the only exit, straight ahead of
them. The sand did not hold the shape of any footprints, so they
couldn't tell just who, or what, had made the path. The air was acrid
and dry, pinching their nostrils. Aaron coughed lightly.

“
So
what do you guys make of this?” Maria asked the group.

There was a general
exchange of glances but no one seemed to have an opinion. Justin felt
the same way. The place felt dead. Maybe it was the harsh, bright
light or the gritty sand, but he couldn't imagine anyone actually
living on this level.

They were all startled by
a sudden clanking sound ringing up from the stairwell. As a group,
they moved back, close to the archway and watched as the monkey
machine trundled up and into the room.

It totally ignored the
teens as it limped to the clear space in the sand, emptied its net of
fruit into a pile and then backed up against the wall and became
immobile.

Hesitantly, Justin walked
close enough to see that the red glow of the machine's eyes had faded
and it stood like a statue.

“
I
think it's shut itself off,” he told the others. There was a
sigh of relief from the group, none of whom had seemed to really
trust the machine's good intentions.

“
Well,
what now, guys?” Justin asked as he rejoined the group.

“
Personally,
I think we should load up on some fruit,” Aaron said with a nod
at the pile near the stairs, “and then get out of here before
monkey boy wakes up again.”

“
Good
idea, Aaron,” Maria said with a nod and she began stuffing
pieces of fruit in her pockets. The others followed suit and, when
everyone's pockets were full, Maria led them through the archway into
a long featureless hallway.

“
Hey,
guys?” It was Dominic, who was still standing inside the room.

“
What
is it, Dom?” Maria asked, sounding concerned. “Is it
waking up again?”

“
No,
no. Nothing like that.” Dominic glanced over his shoulder as if
making sure. “But I was thinking; maybe we should wait and see
who comes to get the fruit?”

“
Or
what comes,” Aaron said ominously.

“
Good
point, Aaron,” Justin spoke up. He walked back and looked into
the room again. “I think we should be sure that whoever or
whatever takes the fruit isn't dangerous. Which means we should hide
and keep watch, right?” He looked at Dominic.

“
Yeah,
of course,” Dominic replied impatiently.

“
Fine.
So where exactly should we hide?” Justin asked him.

“
Well,
we hide behind...” Dominic looked around at the empty room and
his voice died. They watched him blush and then he turned to look at
Justin. “You have all the answers, don't you?” he snapped
at him.

“
Nope.
I have a lot of questions, Dominic.” Justin looked around at
the group. “We've been so lucky this far. But that's all it's
been, luck. And luck runs out eventually.” He looked at the
angry face of Dominic. “I don't know why you're mad, Dominic,”
he said in a reasonable tone of voice. “I think you're right.”
The other boy looked surprised. “But,” Justin continued,
“we have to think of the safety of the group, first and
foremost. And waiting here for the pick-up guy, or whatever, is a
very unsafe idea.”

Dominic seemed to be
thinking it over for a moment and then he nodded reluctantly. “Yeah,”
he said heavily, “you're right, Justin. I...just thought, you
know, it was a good idea.”

Justin grinned at him.
“It was, Dominic. Definitely. And if we had some cover, we
would absolutely use it. But since we don't, well, we should probably
get moving. Agreed?”

With a small smile and a
shrug, Dominic agreed.

Once out in the hallway
again, the next problem was, which way to go? The sand covering the
ground was disturbed in both directions and the plain walls gave no
clues on choosing the best way to proceed. Maria looked perplexed and
asked for a quick vote. By a five to three margin, they decided to
turn right and head in that direction. Maria gave a mock bow to
Justin and invited him to lead.

Everyone laughed, Justin
bowed back with a grin and they set off, their amusement quickly
changing to nervousness again.

The first junction
offered them four directions to choose from. This time, the group
decided to turn left and off they went again. But only a few steps
away, another junction appeared. This time, they could see that the
walls of the hall were only a few feet thick and they could turn and
double back in the direction they had just come, along a parallel
corridor. And they had five more choices of paths to choose from.
Baffled, they elected to continue in the same hallway. But twenty
steps or so ahead, they came to a t-junction and could turn either
left or right or retrace their path. Left was the choice and off they
went.

And so it continued.
Random twists and turns, dead-ends, loops. There was no rhyme or
reason to the place as far as they could tell, unless it was to get
them as lost as possible.

Justin had tried to
remember which way they had turned at each stop. He was fairly sure
that it was left, straight, left, straight, right, right, back and
left. Or was it back then right. He asked Aaron and got an irritated
grunt for a reply.

“
I
don't know, Just. This stupid sand is so soft that I feel like I'm
wading in mud. And have you noticed how hot it is in here? Man, I
hope we find some water soon.”

Privately, Justin agreed.
The day had been one escape after another. Maria signaled for a rest
stop and everyone sat down with a thud, leaning against the walls
with their legs out in front of them.

Justin went back through
their escapades of the day, from the initial flood and climb from the
bottom level, to the attack, then escape from the eels, to their trek
across the dry lake to the island and then their encounter with the
monkey-bot and the climb up the stairs. He figured that they had been
on the move, more or less, for at least eight or ten hours and, as he
looked around at the other teens and saw their heads nodding, he
realized that they should take a chance and get some sleep.

He moved over and sat
down next to Maria. He asked her how she felt about an extended rest
stop and from her expression, it was obvious that she had been
thinking the same thing.

“
Excellent
idea, Justin.” Maria looked around. “Listen up, guys.”
Several of the others, including Aaron, jerked their heads up and
stared at her blearily, clearly half asleep already.

“
Justin
thinks that we should take a break, get some sleep. I think so too.
Any objections?”

From the relief on some
faces, Justin knew that many of them were done in. Maria suggested
they have some fruit, mangoes, since they had more moisture in them
and they needed the water, and then get some rest. She also proposed
that one person remain awake and watch while the others slept, just
in case.