The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (8 page)

It took the group at
least an hour to travel the circumference of the island. They had
finally spotted a few of the ripples that marked the eels doing their
cleaning duties, but none came close to the island and finally
everyone just began to ignore them. Once they had reached their
starting point, Maria was reassured and said she was ready to enter
the interior of the island.

“
Everyone
set to go?” she asked. A chorus of 'yeahs!' was the
overwhelming answer and Maria laughed and rolled her eyes. There was
a general sigh of relief among them all, as they were finally going
to get away from the water's edge. Justin was more than tired of
staring at the lake after all they'd been through.

“
Okay
then,” Maria said briskly. “Here we go.” And she
turned directly into the trees, found a fairly open path that led
inland and started off.

The marching order was
pretty much the same as the one they had used when crossing the lake
bed, but everyone kept close to the person in front of them, as the
tree growth was very thick and it was hard to keep each other in
sight.

Ten minutes in, Maria
stopped abruptly and Dominic and Jason bumped into her as they all
came to an uneven halt.

“
Could
you give us some warning, Maria?” Dominic said with irritation.

Maria didn't answer; she
just pointed over their heads to the tops of the trees. “I'm no
expert, but those look like bananas!”

“
What?”
Everyone looked up eagerly. “Yeah, they're definitely bananas,
Maria!” Dominic agreed enthusiastically.

“
But
what are banana trees doing in the middle of an underground lake?”
Yolanda muttered curiously.

Aaron spoke up. “Above
us in Sanctuary, the Arboretum is loaded with fruit trees; apples,
pears, blueberries, they're all there. So maybe when this level was
being used they grew bananas down here and they've just continued to
grow.”

“
Who
cares why they're here.” Dominic sounded impatient. “The
point is, they're food and we're starving. Now, who's a good
climber?”

After a brief discussion,
Richard claimed to be the best at climbing, saying that he'd helped
his father gather mangoes in his native India when he was younger.

“
And
the mango trees are way bigger than these banana trees,”
Richard said confidently.

“
Well,
that's great, Richard,” Maria said with an encouraging smile.
“But it's a long way down and, Titan or not, I still wouldn't
want to see you fall from up there, so please be careful.”

Richard just grinned
widely. Then he winked at his friend Jason, who looked a bit nervous,
and got ready for the climb.

He handed his shirt to
Jason, took off his shoes and socks, 'for a good grip', and started
climbing a likely-looking tree that seemed to have several bunches of
bananas just waiting to be picked.

The group of teens
watched nervously as Richard carefully climbed the long serrated stem
of the tree. He was at the top very quickly and looked down and
waved.

“
I
don't have anything sharp to cut this whole bunch off,” he
called down. “So I'll just pluck some off and toss them down,
okay?”

“
Sounds
good, Richard,” Maria answered. Richard waved again and soon
there was a veritable rain of bananas falling from the tree.

Justin couldn't believe
how many bananas were in that one bunch. Once Richard had dropped
three dozen or so, Maria let him know that it was enough, at least
for now. He climbed down quickly, a banana in each pocket and safely
dropped to the ground.

They all patted him on
the back and Jason ruffled his hair in appreciation. Richard just
shrugged, saying it was nothing and they all began to eat for the
first time in two days.

“
Slowly
guys,” Maria cautioned as she saw some of them wolfing down the
fruit. “There's lots and you haven't eaten in days.” Her
voice became stern. “It would be a shame if Richard had climbed
up there for the bananas just you could thank him by throwing up his
hard work.”

Justin heard Dominic
mutter “Yes mother,” but he was relieved to see the
others slowing down a bit. The bananas weren't all totally ripe but
they tasted like heaven to Justin. He chewed them slowly because he
was enjoying simply tasting food for the first time in ages.
Surprisingly, after his fourth helping, he felt full. Some of the
others seemed to have had their fill as well.

“
Weird,”
Julia said as she rubbed her stomach. “I'm already feeling
stuffed. What are these, magic bananas or something?”

They laughed and Maria
suggested that their stomachs had probably shrunk a bit from not
eating for a while. Julia nodded. “Makes sense,” she
said.

Soon, even Dominic
stopped stuffing himself and groaned. “I'm in pain, but that
was excellent!” he said.

Everyone relaxed, lying
back, feeling full and comfortable and a bit sleepy.

“
Let's
take a break for now,” Maria suggested. “It's been a busy
few hours and I think we've earned a rest.” A chorus of sleepy
cheers greeted her statement and soon the group was breathing deeply
and most had started napping.

Justin couldn't sleep.
Probably because of my rest earlier, he thought. But for whatever
reason, he was restless and wandered around their little camp while
the others slept.

He looked up at the tree
tops, and tried to peer through the foliage at the interior of the
island, but the undergrowth was too thick.

Couldn't hurt to explore
a bit. Just as long as I don't get too far away from the others.

With that thought, Justin
glanced back once more and then slowly made his way toward the center
of the island.

For a few minutes, he
enjoyed the colors and smells of the many plants around him. It was
nice, the solitude, and the chance to just clear his mind for a
little while. But he only allowed himself a couple of moments of
revery and then he proceeded with the business at hand.

Justin's zigzag path
around the many plants and brush that grew at the base of the trees
covering the island slowed his progress considerably. Several times
he had to double back as he found himself blocked by undergrowth that
was just too thick to push through. After ten minutes of hard
slogging, he was sweaty, irritated and wondering if his idea to
explore had been a waste of time.

He had just stopped and
was considering turning back to rejoin the others when a sound from
up ahead made him duck behind the nearest bush.

He listened intently. The
sound reminded him of the chime of metal hitting stone. But the weird
thing was that the sound seemed to emanate not just from a point
ahead of him but also above him.

He had no clear vision of
anything more than five yards in any direction and so, mystified and
nervous, he slowly crept toward the source of the strange sounds.

Justin soon found himself
at the edge of a clearing that he guessed was near the center of the
island. The trees stopped abruptly and the space ahead was covered
instead with thick grass that almost seemed to have been trimmed.
This was startling enough but what rose out of the middle of the
clearing made Justin gape in surprise.

It was a staircase, a
spiral staircase made of what appeared to be marble. It was steep and
wound tightly around itself and shot straight up out of the ground
until it disappeared into the blue light of the far off ceiling.

Justin couldn't believe
it. This had to be their way out, up to the next level of Sanctuary!
He couldn't wait to tell the others.

But he had been so
shocked by the bizarre staircase that he had momentarily stopped
paying attention to the strange noises he had heard earlier. Now
though, the sounds were getting louder and he focused on them.

The sounds were
definitely coming from high up on the staircase and whatever was
causing them was getting closer. Justin crouched down in the
undergrowth and waited nervously.

The metallic clanking
grew louder and Justin's eyes followed the sound as it wound its way
down the stairs. Finally, when the sounds were about thirty feet
above the ground and descending, he caught a glimpse of what was
making the strange noises and recoiled in shock.

The Sentinels had been
frightening but amazing and the servitors were human enough, but this
thing...this thing was altogether new.

It looked like a monkey,
with long arms and a sinuous tail, but it was the size of a gorilla,
at least. And it was definitely another machine.

Justin followed its
progress down the stairs and as it got closer to the ground, he
noticed more details.

It's old, he thought.
Really old. Spots of mold, cracks in its skin, some so big that
Justin could see gears turning inside it. And it was loud. Not its
walk, which rang off of the marble steps, but the machine itself.
Justin could hear the whine of internal parts rubbing as it moved and
the screech of metal on metal that was just begging to be oiled. And
it had a limp, as if it had been damaged in a fall.

Justin watched in
fascination as the metal monkey finally reached the island. It
detached what looked like a large net from a hook on its waist,
dropped it on the ground and purposefully made its way toward the
nearest banana tree,

Luckily for Justin, the
tree was across the clearing and he was safe for the moment. He saw
the monkey slowly climb the trunk, rip a large bunch of bananas from
near the top and climb down again. Strangely, it plucked only a few
of what seemed to be the ripest bananas off of the large bunch and
dropped them into the net.

The monkey moved on to
another type of tree, climbing it slowly and methodically like it did
the banana tree. This time it plucked several fruits and, when it
climbed down, Justin saw what looked like mangoes in its hand. These
too were dropped into the net.

The slow, yet nimble,
machine repeated its fruit picking twice more. Then it gathered up
the net, hooked it back on to its waist and limped off back up the
stairs.

Justin listened to its
slow ascent for a minute, then carefully withdrew from the clearing's
edge and made his way back to the others as quickly as he could.

He was about halfway back
to where the others were resting when Justin walked around a
particularly thick tree trunk and almost ran headfirst into Aaron.

“
There
you are!” Aaron exclaimed. “Where did you go? I got up
to, um, you know and I saw that you had taken off.”

Justin saw the rest of
the group trailing along behind Aaron, with Dominic looking quite
annoyed, but before any of them could start chewing him out, he spoke
up.

“
I'm
glad you came after me!” he said quickly. “You won't
believe what I found.”

He explained the
situation and the others quickly forgot their irritation as Justin
described the clearing, the staircase and especially the mechanical
monkey.

“
Wow,
a monkey-bot? Really? That's so cool!” Everyone stared at
Jason. “What? It is!”

“
Jason,
this 'monkey-bot' could probably tear us apart,” Maria said
dryly.

Jason thought about that
for a minute. “Oh, right. Sorry,” he said quietly.

“
So
what do you think we should do?” Maria asked Justin.

He shrugged. “I
have no idea,” he answered honestly. He held up his right hand,
palm out and displayed the silver rune on it. “This thing won't
do me much good if that monkey decides to trample me. And it's big
enough to do it.”