Chapter 23
Crossing Over
Jared reached out where Danielle had been when she disappeared. “Nooo!” He glared at Jenna. “YOU KILLED HER!”
Danielle’s mother just looked back at Jared with a blank expression. That made him even angrier. She didn’t seem to care that she had killed her daughter.
Jared lifted his arm and pointed his laris at Jenna. You have to pay for what you did. Danielle didn’t deserve to die. But, you do.
Before Jared could say anything though, Paul omporulaed into his line of fire, “Aaah!” and, holding an estio in front of himself, bowled into Jenna, knocking her over.
Then, he tried to get her with a tahsil, but she blocked the blow with an estio. However, Paul didn’t give up; he kept hammering away furiously.
Dreggan, who Jared thought would try to stop Paul, just watched and even seemed a little amused with the scene.
Jared glared at Dreggan. And you. Even though it was Jenna who killed Danielle, you’re the one who’s ultimately responsible. She works for you. He was overcome with rage and wanted Dreggan dead. First, my parents; and now, Danielle.
Jared was about to run up to Dreggan and get him with a tahsil, but he paused when Dreggan looked in his direction and grinned with evil delight, as if he knew Jared wanted to kill him and was daring him to try.
For a moment, Jared saw Dreggan’s eyes drift to something down by Jared’s feet. Jared glanced down to his left and slightly behind him. The decoder was lying on the floor by the door.
Jared squatted down while watching Dreggan. He felt around until he located the decoder and then picked it up. He stood up slowly, holding the decoder out in front of himself.
His first instinct was to throw the decoder on the ground and smash it or hit it with a tahsil just to spite Dreggan, but Teruvisa needed it. As much as he wanted to annoy Dreggan, he wanted to get the decoder back to Teruvisa even more.
Jared smiled as he realized, Dreggan didn’t try to kill me while I was holding the decoder because the decoder could’ve been destroyed, too. He brought the decoder back toward his body and then put it inside his robe. I think I’ll just hold onto this as a bit of insurance.
At that point, Paul stopped pounding on the estio Jenna was holding up, but he was breathing hard and kept his eyes focused on her.
Jared spoke loudly to get Paul’s attention. “Paul!”
Paul looked over at Jared. His eyes were full of anger and pain—the pain that Danielle was dead and he wasn’t able to avenge her.
Jared knew how Paul felt, and tears started to well up in his eyes. He took a deep breath. “Come on, Paul. We’re getting out of here.”
“Oh, really,” came Dreggan’s smug reply.
Jared narrowed his eyes at Dreggan. “That’s right. We’re getting out of here and taking the decoder back to Teruvisa.” He was scared out of his mind but determined not to let Dreggan get the decoder back. “Paul. The door, please.”
Dreggan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest but made no attempt to move as Paul walked toward the door.
“Faatubada!” Paul blasted the door with the same blasting command Rohlwig had used during ketauro. Jared was impressed that Paul was able to perform that blasting command without any practice.
Paul walked up next to Jared.
As Jared turned to leave, he grabbed Paul by the robe. “Fast.”
Dreggan yelled, “GET THEM!”
Jared and Paul stepped out of the control room and omporulaed down the hall. Jared stopped at an intersection, looked both ways, and asked Paul, “Which way?”
Jared heard a guard behind him call out, “Over there!”
Jared was about to suggest that they take the left corridor, but Paul pulled Jared by the arm into the right corridor just as a large fireball shot down the main corridor they were in.
Jared patted Paul’s shoulder. “Thanks. That was a close one.”
“No problem. Now what? I assume you have a plan.” Paul looked ready for action.
“Yeah. Keep moving.” Jared turned and pointed down the hall. “Look. An elevator.”
Jared and Paul omporulaed down the corridor to an open elevator.
Jared took out his treyo. “Cover me while I find a way out of here.”
Before Jared even had the map program open on his treyo, Paul made an estio. “Get down.”
Paul crouched down, and Jared dropped to one knee behind him.
Paul grunted as blasts pummeled the shield. “I can’t... hold it.”
Jared jumped into the elevator. “Get in!”
Paul leapt in next to Jared.
Jared looked at the buttons next to the door but knew they wouldn’t do any good because the power was out.
Paul, with a hint of panic in his eyes, faced Jared. “What now?”
Jared got an idea and pushed down on Paul’s shoulders. “Get down.”
After Paul crouched down, Jared jumped up and spun around in a circle. “Tahsil!”
The bottom part of the elevator compartment was severed from the top, and he and Paul began freefalling down the elevator shaft.
A moment later, Jared and Paul’s descent began slowing when their robes’ parachuting feature kicked in, but the floor of the elevator compartment continued accelerating.
Paul and Jared smiled at each other as they landed gently on the lower half of the elevator compartment that lay mangled at the bottom of the shaft.
Jared was beginning to feel hopeful that they would be able to escape and resumed his search for a way out using the map program on his treyo as he followed Paul off the wreckage in the shaft and into a control booth in the sublevel of Obalin.
Using an archived map of Teruvisa from before the Division, Jared was able to locate, on his treyo, where he and Paul were and the nearest gateway to Teruvisa. “Got it.” He read the gateway identifier to the device. “I hope this works.”
The pointer on the screen of the treyo pointed up. Jared had been hoping that it would point anywhere but up. “Hmm.”
Paul said, “Great. It wants us to go back toward the people that are trying to kill us.”
Jared was disappointed, but Dreggan would have a hard time finding them in the sublevel. “Yeah, but I think we can find a way up somewhere else. Let’s hurry. Put on the gear and get out there.” He pointed out into the sublevel arena. “It’ll be harder for them to track us if we keep moving.”
Once they left the control booth, Jared looked up at a tunnel above them. “Well, let’s go.”
They positioned themselves directly under it and turned the dials on their belts to 1. They floated up, out of the sublevel arena, and into the large pipe in the ceiling. It took them straight up a short distance and then branched.
“Let’s go left.” Jared had no idea which way to go, but he figured any way was better than just floating there, trying to decide.
All that mattered to Jared was getting out of Obalin and away from the man that murdered his parents and his friend. And, the best chance he had of escaping was to keep moving and follow his treyo.
As he flew through the sublevel, Jared was torn apart by the haunting flashes of Danielle’s death that repeated in his memory. He was being swallowed up by the misery and emptiness he felt.
It took great effort for him to pull his mind out of the numbing abyss of depression and loss, but he was able to tap into his determination to escape with the decoder and use that determination as a catalyst to focus on his present situation.
In honor of Danielle’s memory, Jared made a promise. We’ll get out of here and save Teruvisa, so you didn’t die for no reason. Teary-eyed, he silently thanked her for saving his life and imagined her saying, “Just returning the favor.”
He smiled, but, as he wiped the tears away, he noticed that the tunnel started curving down. “Ah, man. We’re going down now.”
Paul asked, “Should we go back?”
Jared tried to think positively. “No, we’ll get out of
this tunnel as soon as we can. Maybe we’ll have better luck in a different one.” We have to. For Danielle.
However, the next tunnel they tried stayed level, and none of the tunnels they tried after that seemed to go up either.
Jared was beginning to get discouraged but had an idea. Why didn’t I think of it before? He smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm and then stopped.
Paul landed next to him. “What’s up?”
Jared continued working with the map program on his treyo. “I should have done this sooner. I can overlay a map of the sublevel on the current map.”
Using the detailed map of the Obalinian sublevel, Jared figured out which tunnels to take to get out of the sublevel. “Ah—ha. Got it. Let’s go.”
After Jared had successfully led Paul to a sublevel arena, he pointed up at the control booth ahead of them. “The elevator in that control booth will take us up to a shuttle bay. And from there, we can fly out of Obalin.”
“But, the elevators won’t work because there’s no power. Remember?”
Jared tried to be optimistic that the power would be back on. “Well, when we escaped from the security control center, they said they were working on getting Obalin’s systems back online. Hopefully, the power has been turned on. After all, I’m sure they want the power back on as fast as possible, not just to get Obalin back up and running but to make it easier to catch us.”
“Good point.”
Once they were in the control booth and had removed their gear, Jared checked the elevator. He had guessed correctly. Obalin’s power had been restored, so they were able to take the elevator up.
As they ascended in the elevator, Paul asked, “What’ll we do if there are people in the shuttle hangar?”
“Good question. They’ll definitely be watching the elevators.” Jared thought for a moment. We need a distraction. He got an idea. “When the door opens, throw an olamshi into the shuttle bay. Then, we’ll run to the nearest shuttle.”
Paul nodded, taking an olamshi out of his robe. “Sounds good.”
Immediately after the elevator stopped and the door opened, Jared held his breath, and Paul tossed his olamshi out of the elevator.
Jared caught a glimpse of two people walking by just as he put his arm up over his eyes to protect them from the orb’s blinding light, and then the olamshi began squealing.
He heard people yelling. The first part of the plan was working.
Jared uncovered his eyes. “Come on!”
He and Paul ran through the shuttle bay, shooting bubbles and tranquilizers in every direction. Jared wasn’t bothering to aim—he just wanted to create a big enough diversion to get to a shuttle.
Jared boarded the closest vehicle he saw—the door was already open—and Paul was right behind him. He randomly chose a destination on the map on the console. It didn’t matter what destination he chose; they just needed to go. Once they got out of the bay, then he’d worry about finding a way out of Obalin.
Paul sat down in the copilot’s chair and started searching for something on the control console. “How do you close the door?”
“I don’t know.” Jared looked back at the door as the shuttle lifted off the ground. It shut by itself. Good.
As their escape craft started floating forward, it was rocked by a few small explosions on its hull, but, when the shuttle reached the bay door, it took off in a flash into the circuit.
“Now, let’s get this thing moving in the right direction.” Jared, using the map on his treyo as a guide, found where they needed to go to get out of Obalin and then set the destination on the shuttle’s map screen.
When he touched the spot on the map, the shuttle changed directions and continued winding its way through the maze of circuits.
Jared monitored their progress on the shuttle’s map and looked out the windshield and side windows for any other shuttles trying to pull up alongside of them.
Less than a minute later, their vehicle exited the circuit and flew into the dark mist of the Obalinian sky. But even with the headlights, Jared couldn’t see very far in front of the shuttle—just shapes and shadows.
Jared checked his treyo again and saw that it was pointing in the opposite direction the shuttle was going. They were headed away from the gateway to Teruvisa.
Jared’s hand flew to the shuttle’s map. “Whoops. We’re going the wrong way. Hold on.”
It took Jared a few moments to select a destination on the map, and then the shuttle flipped around on the spot. If Jared wouldn’t have been so anxious to escape from Obalin, he probably would’ve enjoyed the ride, but instead, he was tense.
A few seconds later, the vehicle jerked sideways as a missile or something exploded on the hull, and the ship began shimmying, vibrating, and losing altitude.
“No.” Jared slammed his fist on the console. He turned to Paul and took a deep breath to collect himself. “Well, it looks like it’s time to bail out.”
Paul had a scared look on his face but nodded.
Getting to the door was difficult, but they managed it. Jared located an emergency release lever and pulled the handle, and the door shot off and tumbled into the trees below.
Paul grabbed Jared’s arm. “What about the shuttles?”
“Hopefully, they won’t see us. But just in case, when you land, run as fast as you can.”
“You don’t think we should votunlae or omporulae?”
“No. It’s too risky with the low visibility.”
“Okay.”
Well, here it goes. “Now.” Jared dove out and shot toward the ground, holding his robe around himself.
When he got closer to the top of the jungle canopy, he allowed his robe to start slowing him down and then looked up. Through Obalin’s haze, he saw an explosion. Their shuttle had been destroyed.
Jared kept his eyes peeled for any shuttles that might be coming after them as he and Paul glided down into the trees, but he didn’t see any.
When he reached the top of the canopy of trees, he used an estio to keep the tree branches from hitting him in the face. His legs did, however, bang into a few as he descended.
When he finally reached one of the lower limbs, he perched himself on it and signaled for Paul to join him. Jared had originally told Paul to hit the ground running but then remembered that could be a problem.
Paul landed next to him. “Why’d you stop here?”
Jared remembered all too well the jobalich he and Danielle had encountered and didn’t want to take a chance. He pointed down at the jungle floor. “Jobalich.”
He didn’t see one or even know if Obalin had jobaliches, but he wanted to make sure it was safe.
“Where?”
“I don’t actually see one, but we need to be sure there isn’t one down there.” Jared used a tahsil to cut off a branch next to him.
It fell to the ground with a crash, and he waited to see what would happen.
Nothing.
Jared continued looking around, studying the ground, but he didn’t see any sign of a jobalich in search of a meal. “Do you see anything?”
“Nope. Looks safe.”
“Good.” Jared held up his treyo. They weren’t very far from the gateway. Yet, at that moment, the distance seemed like a great hurdle to overcome. He wished he was already in Teruvisa. “Let’s go. We’re not far from the portal—it’s right on the edge of the Divide.”
The limb they were standing on was about 10 feet above the ground, so Jared and Paul crouched down on the branch, held on as they swung down, hung on for a moment, and then dropped the remaining distance to the ground.
As planned, they hit the ground running. They sprinted through the dark mist, not daring to omporulae because they weren’t able to see very far ahead.
The fog felt like an annoying film on Jared’s eyes that kept him from seeing clearly. He rubbed his eyes with his fists and blinked hard several times anyway, hoping to reduce its effects. Of course, it didn’t help, but that only made him m
ore determined to get out of Obalin.
“Do you think they figured out that we weren’t in the shuttle when it blew up?” Paul asked as they ran.
Jared narrowly avoided running into a large plant with broad, round leaves and ducked under a low-hanging vine. “I don’t know.” But, I hope not.
Finally, they reached the edge of the Divide, but, as they looked east, they still couldn’t see Teruvisa. In fact, they could barely see past the canyon rim. It was like they were standing in front of a wall of fog that was even denser than what covered Obalin.
Frustrated by still not being able to see well, Jared wanted to get out of the Obalinian jungle more than ever. Looking toward Teruvisa and longing for its light, he pointed his treyo straight ahead. After he pressed the appropriate button on it, a disk of light appeared.
We made it. Jared put his treyo back in his robe. “Okay. Go.” He nudged Paul’s shoulder with his hand.
Jared followed Paul through the portal. They came out at the bottom of the Divide on the Teruvisan shoreline.
Paul turned around, grabbed Jared’s shoulders, and started jumping up and down. “We made it! We made it!”
Jared spun around, shooting a fist in the air. “Alright!”
He was relieved that they had escaped from Obalin, although, he was sad that Danielle hadn’t.
Exhausted physically and emotionally, he sat down on the ground and leaned back against the canyon wall. He inhaled deeply, breathed out a long sigh, and then looked up.
Several Obalinian shuttles flew out of the mist of the Obalinian side of the Divide and hovered above the canyon.
Jared jumped to his feet. No. We need to get out of here.
Paul pointed up at the shuttles. “They’re coming for us.”
However, the shuttles didn’t fly down into the canyon; they turned around and went back to Obalin.
Paul half-questioned, half-stated, “They’re leaving.”
Strange. Jared furrowed his brow. They had to have seen us.
Seeing the shuttles turn around reminded Jared of something that he never really understood or bothered to ask about the Divide: how the raguam could prevent anyone from crossing over to Teruvisa. To him, it seemed like it would be easy to fly across the Divide. The shuttles hadn’t even been close to the raguam.
“Paul. Find us a way out of here, will you.” Jared continued to watch the sky.
Paul took out his treyo, “No problem,” and, a few moments later, said, “I got it. An entry point to Teruvisa. It’s probably an elevator-cave. Might even be the same one we used the very first time we came to Teruvisa.”
“That’ll work.”
Paul spoke an alphanumeric identifier to his treyo, which caused the arrow on the screen to point to the right. “Okay. Follow me.”
As Jared and Paul walked along the shoreline, Jared frequently looked up to see if any other shuttles would appear, but none did.
They walked around a bend and approached a small pier that looked like the same one they arrived on the first time they came to Teruvisa.
Once they got in the elevator-cave at the foot of the dock, earth covered the entrance, and, like reverse quicksand, they were transported up to a clearing at the top of the Divide.
Not very far away, near the middle of the clearing, something caught Jared’s attention. There was something on the ground, or rather, someone.
Jared couldn’t believe his eyes. Could it be?
Danielle was lying motionless on her back.
Jared glanced over at Paul, who had a stunned looked on his face that expressed the same disbelief that Jared felt. Jared’s first few steps were cautious, but then he rushed up to her.
Jared knelt down next to her. “Danielle.”
Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t appear to be breathing.
How did she get here? Jared looked up at Paul, who was standing next to him.
Paul looked just as baffled as he was.
Jared held his breath in anticipation and checked for a pulse on her neck.
Nothing.
Paul asked, “Well?”
She’s dead. Jared exhaled, closed his eyes, and shook his head.
Paul dropped to his knees beside Jared. “How did she get here?”
Jared didn’t have an answer and didn’t try to figure it out. He was too overcome with grief.
The hope he started to feel when he first saw her lying on the ground washed away as tears started streaming down his face. It was almost like losing her twice.
“It’s a shame, isn’t it?”
Startled, Jared jumped up and turned around when he heard the familiar voice—the voice of the last person he wanted to see.