The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (22 page)

Aaron nodded, obviously thinking through the explanation.

“
Well,
however you did it, Justin, we now have a path.” Maria settled
her back comfortably over her shoulders. “So why don't we use
it before the sands blow over it and we lose sight of it?”

“
Good
idea, Maria,” Justin agreed. “I have no idea if this is
permanent or not, and to be honest, it was exhausting to make it. So
let's get going in case it dissolves or whatever because I honestly
don't want to have to do that again any time soon.”

“
Right,
follow me, guys,” she said and they set off across the firm
road, everyone looking more hopeful and energetic than they had for
quite a while.

Time was meaningless in the middle of the artificial desert. They had
walked for perhaps half an hour or more and began to notice that the
road was sloping gently upward. It seemed that they were climbing
gradually up the side of an immense sand dune. The road was now
lightly covered by wind-blown powder and had become a little slick
and slippery. Richard and Jason seemed to find this great fun and
took turns trying to bump each other off of the road; the unsure
footing making their game more and more hazardous.

“
You
two realize that one wrong move could mean falling hard and maybe
breaking something, right?” Maria asked, sounding less than
amused.

“
Oh,
come on, Maria,” Jason said with a grin. “We're Titans!
I'd have to fall a lot further than that to even notice it, let alone
feel it.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes expressively. Julia and Yolanda
watched the two boys with amusement, which only seemed to spur them
on. Jason noticed that the sand-covered road had reached a point
where it was almost as slippery as ice and started skating along it,
his sneakers leaving long skid marks as he went. Richard couldn't
match his friend's graceful strides and so tried to do a spin,
showing off for the two girls. He spun right off the road, landed on
his back in the sand and somersaulted twice before stopping.

Everyone, included a begrudging Maria, had to laugh. Jason was
howling and Richard was struggling to stand up and giggling at the
same time. He stopped laughing suddenly and looked down at his feet
with a puzzled expression. Then everyone saw him suddenly sink up to
his knees.

“
Hey!
The sand has no bottom here,” he exclaimed. He sank to
mid-thigh. “Guys? Um, help!”

“
Hang
on, Rich,” Jason yelled and raced to help his friend. As
everyone else rushed toward Richard, Maria held out her hands.

“
Everyone,
stay on the road or we'll all sink together.” She looked
around. “Jason, stop right there. Take Dominic's hand and walk
out slowly toward Richard. Aaron, grab Dom's other hand and stay on
the road. That way, you can act as an anchor.” She looked at
Justin. “Could you stand beside Aaron, in case he starts to get
pulled off of the road?”

“
Absolutely,”
Justin replied and hurried over to Aaron, ready to grab him if he
started slipping.

Jason carefully stepped on to the sand. He sank in ankle deep
immediately, but he was lighter than Richard and was able to keep
walking. Dominic held on to Jason's hand and moved off the road
slowly as Jason got close enough to Richard to grab him. He held
tightly to Aaron with his other hand.

Richard was now chest-deep in the powdery sand and his eyes held a
look of terror. But he reached out and grasped Jason's wrist when he
got near enough.

“
Richard,
kick your legs slowly if you can,” Maria called out. “As
if you were treading water. It might help.”

He didn't answer but he nodded once and by the motion of his
shoulders, they could tell that he was trying to follow Maria's
suggestion.

Jason, now with Richard grasping his wrist tightly, stepped back
slowly and pulled steadily. Dominic backed up as well, with Aaron
doing the same.

By inches, as if in slow motion, Richard was finally pulled out of
the sand to the safety of the road. He lay on the hard surface,
panting, sweating and pale of skin. But he managed to smile up at all
of them.

“
Thanks,
guys. Next time I'm tempted to act like an idiot, I'll remind myself
of this moment.”

Jason, who was almost as pale as his best friend, squatted down
beside him. “Don't worry, Rich,” he said jokingly. “If
you don't, I will.”

They all laughed with a mixture of amusement and relief.

Everyone sat down and took a well-deserved break. Justin sipped on
some fruit juice and offered some to Maria as she came over and sat
beside him.

“
No
thanks, Justin,” she said. She looked over at Richard and Jason
as they joked a bit about their close call. “We had a real
scare there,” she said seriously. Justin nodded and waited for
her to continue. “Maybe in a way it was for the best. With your
road suddenly appearing, I think we all developed a false sense of
security.” Maria looked out over the blowing sands. “This
isn't some school trip, Justin,” she said quietly. “And
we aren't going to skip to Oz like Dorothy on the yellow brick road.”
Then she slapped the hard surface beside her and smiled. “Although
your invention here is pretty close.”

Justin laughed a little. “Hardly. I see your point, Maria. And
I'm sure the others do as well. Our rest stop with Prometheus may
have dulled our sense of danger somewhat, but Richard's mishap has
woken us all up. I think we're more alert now.” He lowered his
voice to a whisper. “Good job getting Dominic and Aaron to work
together there. I think it will help with their personality conflicts
a bit.”

Maria just winked, got up and walked back to sit with Julia and
Yolanda.

She's very clever, Justin thought in admiration as he watched Maria
joking with the other girls. A born leader. He realized how lucky
they were to have her with them.

As soon as everyone had had a decent rest, and Richard said he was
ready, they set off again. They all stayed in the center of the road
and gave the treacherous sands a wide berth. The road continued to
rise and they slowed their pace as the slippery surface, combined
with the increasingly steep slope, made walking more and more
problematic.

Finally, they saw the crest of the sand dune approaching. Looking
around, Justin realized that the giant dune had to be several hundred
feet high. He was glad that the slope had been gentle enough for them
to get to the top and he was amazed that the ceiling was still a few
hundred feet above their heads. Just how big is Sanctuary anyway, he
wondered for what seemed like the hundredth time.

They reached the peak of the dune. As the rest of the desert came
into view and stretched out ahead of them, the group stopped and
stared as one.

“
Oh
my,” Julia said in shock.

“
Awesome,”
Aaron exclaimed and grinned at Justin.

While the others expressed their amazement, Justin simply felt a
sense of relief. We finally caught a break, he thought.

The sand-covered road sloped gently down from the top of
the immense sand dune and off into the distance. And there, at the
bottom of the dune, was a staircase, spiraling up from just off the
road several hundred feet until it entered the ceiling high over
their heads. It was an exact copy of the stairs that had led up from
the level with the islands.

After several moments of silence, Dominic spoke up.
“Well, I doubt if there's a monkey-bot traveling up and down
carrying sand for someone to eat.” The group laughed.

“
Good
point, Dom,” Maria agreed. “It actually looks like we
might luck out for a change. And it's about time, in my opinion.”

“
True
enough, Maria,” Justin said. “But before we race down the
hill, let's remember how slippery this road is. We don't want someone
shooting off of it and sinking again.”

His comment sobered everyone up and there was a general
murmur of agreement.

“
Well,
lead on, Maria,” Richard said with a comical bow. “We've
already seen how sure-footed I am.”

She chuckled, turned away and started down the hill,
moving at a cautious pace. The rest of them followed, being just as
careful.

They took perhaps a dozen steps and then Maria halted
abruptly.

“
What
is it, Maria?” Justin called from the back of the line.

She turned and looked at him. “I don't know.
Listen. I thought I heard someone.”

“
What?”
Dominic stared at her. “Heard someone? Maria, we're in the
middle of a desert, underground, on top of a sand dune. How could you
possibly hear...” He stopped talking, then looked around. “Who
is that?” he asked the group.

Justin heard nothing and looked at Aaron in confusion.
His friend shrugged and mouthed “I don't hear anything.”

Listening intently, Justin thought, just for a second,
that maybe the others were simply hearing the sighing of the wind
across the sand. But then, he heard it too.

“
...know
you're down there, somewhere. We've been alerted to your presence.”

It was a man's voice and it was coming from, it seemed,
everywhere. It was echoing all around them, as though speakers had
been set up all around the edge of the level and aimed at the center,
where they were standing.

“
How
you entered Sanctuary is not important. Just know that you cannot
leave. We would search for you ourselves, but the Gates are sealed
and we are quite confident that you will not make it back to the top
level alive.”

“
It
has to be the renegade Titans!” Aaron exclaimed nervously.

“
But
since you wish to pit yourselves against us, why then should we make
it easy for you? Let us see if you can climb to the top of the
mountain without a path, shall we? Best of luck, little Titans. I do
believe that this is good bye. I will give your regards to Hyperion.”

The voice faded and was gone.

“
Wow.
What the heck was that all about?” Richard wondered. His voice
was shaking.

Dominic was scowling. “Just bluster and hot air,
Rich,” he said. “They can't reach us without Gates; he
said so himself. So what can they do, really?”

“
Yeah,
but what about that stuff about climbing without a path?”

Maria looked worried. “I don't think it was just
hot air, Dom. I mean, why would he even need to say anything?

A slap of wind suddenly whipped by Justin, tossing his
hair into his eyes and almost upending him on the slippery road.
Another gust actually slammed into the group and Julia and Yolanda
went down in a heap, shrieking.

“
Hey!
What's going on?” yelled Dominic over the suddenly howling
wind.

“
Everyone,
down on the ground!” Justin yelled as he dropped to his knees.
He saw the other do the same and then he covered his eyes against the
deadly grit being flung through the air.

The wind began screaming, blasts of air smashed into
them from all directions and soon everyone was lying face-down,
trying to keep their eyes, noses and mouths free of the whipping
sand. And then, as quickly as it had appeared, the air became silent
and the wind died down to nothing.

“
What
the hell?” Dominic said, coughing as he stood up and shook the
sand from his hair and face. Everyone else was doing the same.
“Someone care to try and explain that?”

Maria's face was white as she pointed down the slope.
“There's your explanation, Dominic,” she said in a small
voice. They all looked toward where she was pointing.

The wind that had passed them had continued down the
slope, wiping the sand off the road and shining it to almost mirror
brightness. But that wasn't what Maria was pointing at.

Around the base of the staircase, the wind had coalesced
into a funnel and had engulfed the structure.

“
My
God, it's a tornado,” Aaron said, stunned.

The tornado whirled and spun around the staircase, tons
of sand battering the stone. They could actually hear the stairs
creaking and snapping even as far away as they were.

“
No!
They'll destroy the staircase!” Julia screamed. Her eyes were
wide with shock.

“
I
think that's the point, Julia,” Yolanda muttered and covered
her face with her hands.

Finally, as they watched, the inevitable happened. The
lower portion of the stairs buckled, twisting in on itself and
slipping sideways. And then they watched with awe as the hundreds of
feet of staircase snapped off from the ceiling above and tumbled down
into a vast pile of stone and metal, the tons of debris making the
ground shake as it smashed to the earth.