Seeing their behavior and sensing what they seemed to be giving off emotionally, Will recognized with a shock: These things understand—collectively—what was communicated between us.
As if they’d heard that thought, the flowers turned toward Will. The colors of their petals subtly changed—similar to the way he’d seen the “brain” phase change between colors—to softer shades and from that and the gentle way the petals undulated he felt something else unspoken pass between them that made him realize something even more startling.
They learned as much about me as I did about them.
Will was reminded that he hadn’t yet shared or found the right moment to tell his friends about the final bombshell Franklin had dropped on him: that the source of their own genetic mutations hadn’t been culled from any known form of earthly life. The foreign DNA they were carrying around had come from them. The Others, the Makers, or whatever they called themselves.
That’s why I was able to connect with the plants. They have the Others in them, too.
As he gathered up his rope, even Nick seemed to pick up on the change in his charges. Instead of fleeing from him the moment they were free, the flowers stood right where they were, together, in a group, almost as if they were waiting for him to give his permission.
“You dudes take care of yourselves now, okay?” said Nick.
One of them—Will thought it was the same one that he’d zeroed in on, but he couldn’t be sure—tentatively reached out one of its armlike branches toward Nick. Nick, initially puzzled, then realized what it was doing. He reached out and bumped the branch with his fist.
“No hard feelings,” said Nick.
The flowers appeared to slightly nod their heads; then they turned as one and with a pace that suggested a surprising dignity not seen before, moved out of the clearing and back into the forest.
Nick turned back to his friends, gathered up his pack, and joined them as they trotted off in the opposite direction. Elise glanced over at Nick a few times.
“You okay, cowboy?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he said. “Yeah, I guess.”
“What changed?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I know it sounds screwy, but I sort of liked them,” said Nick, glancing back toward the clearing as they moved into the woods.
“I know what you mean,” said Will.
“And I feel kinda bad now that I had to Benihana so many of ’em back there.”
“They were threatening to devour you,” said Ajay.
“You know more now than you did then,” said Elise, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Nick. “It’s not like I’ve gone vegetarian all of a sudden or anything.”
“I’m sorry, were you trying to eat them?” asked Ajay, confused.
“The other way around.”
“Then I don’t understand the reference—”
“What I mean is, it’s not like I just turned into some sandals-and-socks-wearing tree hugger or anything. I mean, I’d kill for a good burger right about now.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Elise.
“You do realize of course that, biologically speaking, flowers are much more closely related to vegetables than mammals,” said Ajay.
“Yeah, well, tell their teeth about that,” said Nick.
“I have given that some thought, actually,” said Ajay. “Perhaps they were crossbred with some sort of savage omnivorous baboon—”
“You’re an omnivorous baboon—”
“Guys, right now we need to focus on where we’re going,” said Will firmly, pointing ahead. “Instead of where we’ve been.”
“How do you know where we’re going?” asked Nick.
“Intuition,” said Will.
Ahead of them, where a clear, well-trodden path presented itself through the woods, the landscape was transitioning yet again. Small patches of wispy fog hugged the ground, which grew increasingly damp and yielding. Above and around them Will noticed more and more vines, clusters of strangely glowing moss, and rooted plants sprouting heavy fragrant flowers. The same pale light from above grew dimmer as it filtered through the increasingly overgrown canopy. For the first time they heard strange yowls and cries echoing in the distance.
“Animal life,” said Ajay.
“Birds maybe,” said Elise.
“Let’s hope it’s birds,” said Nick.
“As opposed to what?” asked Ajay.
“Exactly,” said Nick.
“Just curious: Why would you imagine that the birds here would be any less unpleasant and terrifying than the rest of what we’ve run into?”
“Birds are nice,” said Nick.
“We’re heading into a swamp,” said Will, surveying the horizon. “There could be any number of…different kinds of…things in here.”
The air felt thicker with menace the farther they ventured in, and the path grew more narrow, spongy, and soggy, moisture sucking at their shoes with every step.
“And so your best instinct is to, what, keep proceeding into said swamp?” asked Ajay, wringing his hands.
“The plants said this is where we’d find Jericho,” said Will.
“Ah, you neglected to share that small nugget with us,” said Ajay. “By all means, if the plants—that not so recently tried to eat us—told you that this is where we’d find him, what could possibly go wrong?”
“Give it a rest, Ajay,” said Elise.
Ajay gazed around uneasily at the deepening gloom of the swamp. “You know I’ve always felt that, attacks from animals—or plants, for that matter—notwithstanding, of all the untold terrors waiting to befall one in this, or any other world, quicksand is criminally underrated.”
“Get a load of this,” said Nick, looking at something a few feet off to the left of the path. “I think it’s a wall.”
He was pointing at the edge of a straight line of rocks that paralleled their path and gradually rose up out of the murky water. About two inches wide, the line of stones, aged and covered with slime, appeared to be artfully carved and mortared together. The wall continued to slowly rise out of the water and run alongside the path for as far as they could see until it disappeared in the gathering mist.
“There’s one over here, too,” said Elise.
Will turned and looked where she was pointing, to an identical wall running in the same direction on the right side of the path.
“So apparently this wasn’t always a swamp,” said Ajay, peering ahead into the mist. “Or someone’s gone to an awful lot of trouble to make it appear that way.”
“What do you see?” asked Elise.
“Nick,” said Ajay, snapping his fingers. “Flare gun.”
Within moments, Nick had the gun pulled and loaded. He knelt, aimed, and fired up a flare on a low arcing trajectory along the path, trying to stay below the crowded canopy overhead. A bright globe of white light blossomed about a hundred yards on, burning through the spotty fog, directly over a startling reveal.
A magnificent ruin rose out of the swamp. The walls on either side of their path jointed into a complex spread of higher stone walls laid out in a dense, geometrically precise pattern that they all could now see.
The building appeared to cover about the size of a football field. The outer walls marched up together, in symmetrical rows of increasing height, then culminated in a solid square tower rising from its center. Brutish vines snaked up and around the rocks almost everywhere, and in many places appeared to have grown right into the walls. In a few places, tall trees had erupted, slow-motion explosions bursting out of the ancient masonry.
“That’s where Coach Jericho is,” said Will.
“Now you tell us,” said Elise.
“Inside?” asked Nick.
“That’s right,” said Will.
“By any chance, did our vegetative acquaintances download a set of GPS coordinates for you?” asked Ajay. “Pinpointing Coach Je
richo’s exact location?”
“In the middle,” said Will, pointing at the tower. “Down below, in some kind of basement.”
A chorus of the same howls and barks they’d heard earlier erupted again. Much closer this time, from straight ahead of them. Inside the structure.
“Sounds like he’s not alone,” said Elise.
“Yo, I’ve seen Coach get his full grizzly on, okay,” said Nick. “It’s the animals, or whatever else is in there, I’d be worried about.”
“That’s not the problem,” said Will. “From what the plants showed me, Coach was trapped in some kind of pit. With thick bars across the top.”
“What?!” said Nick.
“And it was slowly filling with water.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” asked Elise.
“I told you we should hurry,” said Will.
“If my earlier observations were accurate,” said Ajay, “a prolonged watery immersion should not present any great difficulty for Coach Jericho.”
“How so?”
“Based on what I witnessed this morning, I believe he may be able to shape-shift into some sort of aquatic form as well.”
“That’s no reason not to hurry now,” said Elise, and she started running up the path toward the building.
Will sped up and quickly caught up with her before she reached the outer walls, stopping her in midstride. She tried to shake him off, but he held firm.
“Let Ajay and Nick go first,” he said. “Ajay can spot any booby traps and Nick can avoid them. If Jericho’s in trouble, we can’t help if we get into any ourselves.”
She reluctantly waited for the others to reach them. Will repeated his instructions, Ajay switched on his flashlight, and the two boys started ahead of them at a brisk pace, examining the ground carefully as they moved.
The path had gradually risen along with the walls on either side. The earthen path had given way to worn dark gray stone pavers, large slabs a couple of feet square. They stopped just outside the first big row of outer walls. An elaborate carved arch spanned an entrance about six feet across. Ajay shone the flashlight along a series of deeply eroded carvings adorning the arch that might once have been faces. Not human faces, at least not entirely. They were some kind of hybrids, but they were too worn out to identify exactly.
“Remind you of anything?” asked Will.
“The stonework and building style are reminiscent of Cahokia,” said Ajay. “Obviously nowhere near the same level of decay.”
“They haven’t been here as long, right?” said Elise.
“Let’s check it out,” said Nick.
He passed through the entrance first and the others followed. The walls were higher here, maybe eight feet, and the passage between them more narrow, no more than six feet, leading off in either direction about thirty yards until they reached another wall and a ninety-degree turn. The air was still, humid, stifling, with a sour undertaste of rot.
“Which way?” Ajay asked Will.
“Up,” said Will, then looked at Nick.
“Up it is,” said Nick.
He trotted back outside the entrance, turned, and sprinted straight at the inside wall. He ran up two steps, then turned, leaped, grabbed the edge of the outer wall, and pulled himself up on top of the arch. He stood, turned, then jumped directly over their heads onto the top of the inner wall, looking all around.
“Whoa,” said Nick.
“What do you see?” asked Elise.
“It’s a maze,” said Will.
“It’s like one of those…what do you call it,” said Nick.
“A maze?” asked Ajay.
“That’s it! A maze. It’s amazing. Hey, that must be where they got the word from: A-mazing!”
Ajay shook his head at Will. “You had to let him go off on his own.”
“Nick, can you see where it leads?” asked Will.
“No way, man, it’s a maze.”
“Let me rephrase the question: Can you see where it reaches the central tower?”
“Sure thing.”
“How far do you think it is from here?”
“I’m gonna say…wow, at least a quarter of a mile? This is a helluva of a hella maze. Reminds me of this one they put up in Needham every Halloween, made out of corn, that I got way lost in once when I was about nine—”
“Here’s what I need you to do, Nick. Stay on top of the walls, go find that entrance, then work your way back to us and talk us through which way we need to navigate to get there.”
“Piece o’ cake,” said Nick.
“No yelling, just come back and tell us.”
Nick gave a thumbs-up, leaped off the wall to the next one over, closer to the center. They heard him moving away, then nothing.
“What else did the plants tell you?” asked Elise, her brow furrowed, staring at Will.
“That was it—basement, pit, bars, water,” said Will. “And they didn’t tell me; they showed me. That’s how they think, if you can call it that. In pictures. Images.”
Elise still looked pissed at him.
I’m not holding out on you, he finally felt obliged to send to her.
How’d you know about the maze, then?
I don’t know.
I think it’s weird.
What?
You just knowing all this stuff somehow, Elise said. I just think it’s weird.
You and me both, he answered.
Ajay looked back and forth at the two of them, their eyes locked, staring at each other.
“Is this a private argument, or can anyone join in?” asked Ajay.
“I don’t know what you mean—” said Will.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about—” said Elise.
At that moment, Nick leaped back into view on top of the inner wall, only slightly out of breath.
“We’re good to go,” he said. “Follow me.”
He walked along the top of the wall to the left and they hurried to keep up. When they turned right, and then right again, Nick jumped over them onto the next wall closest to the building. Ajay took a small can of fluorescent pink spray paint out of his pack and sprayed an arrow at every corner that they turned, pointing toward the structure. When Nick questioned what he was doing, all Ajay replied was, “You’ll thank me later.”
They proceeded that way for fourteen more turns, each time following Nick’s directions as he crossed above them to the next wall over.
Will examined the walls as they moved along, most of them choked and almost overrun by a latticework of thick ropey vines. He reached out to touch one of the vines, wondering if any of these had been part of the network that had earlier communicated Coach Jericho’s location. He did feel a mild buzz—like a weak electrical field—issue from the vine, but before he had time to investigate further, he heard a voice from above.
“Almost there now,” said Nick. “Two more turns and we’re at the entrance.”
Looking up, Will could see the edge of the complex’s central tower rising over the nearest walls now.
“Good work, Nick,” he said.
“Stupid maze makers thought they could put one over on us—”
“Stop right there,” said Ajay, holding up his hand.
They stopped. Ajay’s eyes were fixed on the floor a few steps ahead of them, where it took a left-handed ninety-degree turn. He pointed at one of the pavers.
“There’s something wrong with that floor stone,” he said. “The one at the right inside corner. There’s a suspect notch in it, and a slight gap in the mortaring. I don’t recommend that we set foot on it…”
Nick picked up a loose stone from the top of the wall and dropped it onto the paver Ajay had described. The rock smashed into the broad stone paver; at almost four feet square it covered the whole width of the passage. The paver hinged open ninety degrees and the rock tumbled down out of sight. They heard the stone banging and smashing off walls for a few seconds and then, from far below, a distant splash.
/> Will leaned forward over the edge to look down through the opening. “It’s not a straight drop; it’s carved and sloped, like a slide.”
“So it’s designed to capture any intruder,” said Ajay, “but not necessarily kill it.”
“Awesome,” said Nick, kneeling on the wall for a closer look. “Want me to check it out?”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Elise.
“Too late,” said Ajay.
“Maybe this is how they got Coach,” said Will. “Maybe he’s down there right now.”
“Hey, Coach!” shouted Nick into the opening.
With a loud crack, the paver stone snapped back into place.
“Really?” said Ajay.
“These clowns are a real pack o’ jokers,” said Nick.
“What do you think we should do?” asked Elise, looking at Will.
“If Coach is down there, it won’t do him any good if we end up in the same fix,” said Will. “Can we get around it? Do you see anything else up ahead?”
Ajay turned his attention to the visible pavers on the far side of the trap before the passage turned the corner. “I don’t see anything else untoward as far as the floor is concerned. Shall we jump across it? I’m not entirely sure that I can negotiate it myself—”
Before he could say another word, the end of Nick’s whip dropped into sight near them.
“Grab on, peewee,” Nick said from atop the wall. “I’ll swing you across.”
“Wait, I’ll go first,” said Elise.
She moved back a few yards, ran forward, jumped, and easily cleared the hinged stone. Ajay fidgeted in place and swallowed hard.
“You next, Ajay,” said Will.
“It’s too far for me,” he said. “The long jump is not in my skill set.”
“No sweat, bro,” said Nick. “I’ll get you there.”
Nick leaned down and dropped the edge of his whip as low as it would go, about to Ajay’s knees. He grabbed on to it with both hands, then lifted his feet off the ground, wrapped himself around the whip as best he could, and closed his eyes. Nick swung him back and forth a few times, building momentum, then swung him all the way across the trapdoor. His eyes shut tight, Ajay clung to the whip and swung all the way back to the others.