Evan

The rattles and shaking intensified as the speed of the house increased. Zarg howled as intense fear radiated from him while he sat on the couch in Evan’s game room. The only light in the main room was the filtered light of Nina’s glowing orange fist buried under debris from when she had fallen. Zarg’s terror started to mix with Evan’s as his heart pounded in his chest. What the hell was happening?

A large bump threw everything and everyone into the air. Kae screamed. Her arm spun freely like a wet noodle. She landed on her good arm but continued to cry in pain.

Evan fell forward. He threw his arms out before landing with a face full of books and broken glass.

Nina popped up above the debris on the floor like a gymnast gracefully thrown into the air. Her whole body glowed bright orange, filling the room with much needed light. She landed inches from Kae. “Evan!” she yelled. “Find a brace for her arm.” She grabbed Kae’s loose arm and pinned it against her body. Kae let out a loud shriek and went limp.

How much pain was she in that she passed out? Evan stared at the terrible sight of Nina pinning Kae’s broken arm to her side. Her limp body flopped about as the house continued to bounce. He couldn’t look away.

“Evan!” Nina screamed over the horrendous scraping and rattle of the debris. “Now! Move!”

Shit. He struggled to his feet. He scanned the room repeatedly but only saw the mass of tops and the reflection of glass from broken picture frames. He clumsily worked through the chaos trying not to fall. A flicker of light below the books caught his eye, his cellphone. He scooped it up and used it to continue his search, but there was nothing the right shape to serve as a splint. Then it hit him. Adelfried kept a broom in his office for cleaning up his messes.

He tripped and stumbled to the heavy door that separated Adelfried’s lab from the main room. Luckily it was open. He turned his light into the dark lab when another crash sent Evan to the ground, slamming his knee onto the hard concrete floor. A loud crack rang out. The floor in Adelfried’s office split open. The couch slid towards a massive crack in the floor when the entire back portion of the room fell away into pitch black. The basement was disintegrating. The broom was wedged between Adelfried’s workbench and wall. Evan grabbed it as the house again lurched forward at a faster pace sending Evan back down to a knee. “Ow!”

There was a loud thump. The concrete ball that housed the root fell back into the darkness just as the couch had.

“No!”

Evan almost jumped after it, but what could he do? No, Kae needed him.

He struggled back through the main room and handed Nina the broom. “This is all I could find and—”

“That’ll work give me your belt!”

Evan pulled the belt off his pants and as he did Nina snipped the broom handle off in her hand with a pulse of ESH from her fingers. She placed the broom handle against Kae’s arm and wrapped the belt tightly around it, at least now her arm was stable.

The house lurched to a stop. What did that mean?

“The back of the lab split—”

“Shhh.” Nina held a finger to her lips. She gently laid Kae down and extinguished her orange glow, throwing the room into darkness. Only Evan’s phone lit the room.

Zarg started to growl. He heard voices. At least two or three from the back of Adelfried’s office, but they were distant. Zarg crept out of Evan’s game room positioning himself between Evan and the voices. Anger and fear roiled through him.

Nina put a hand on Evan’s shoulder and whispered, “Get Zarg and hide. I’ll get Kae. You gotta keep him quiet. They will kill all of us if they know we’re here.”

“The Root fell out of Adelfried’s lab. They’ll find it,” Evan whispered.

“That can’t be helped right now, just do as I say and keep Zarg quiet.”

Evan nodded. “I’ll try.” He hurdled over the mess, fumbling through books and debris. He grabbed Zarg by the collar, but he didn’t budge. His head stayed trained towards Adelfried’s lab. “Come on, Zarg,” Evan whispered. “It’s okay.”

Zarg let out another grumble but finally acquiesced. Evan towed him back into the game room by his collar. Evan situated himself and Zarg in a gap behind the couch and the back wall. He rubbed Zarg between the ears trying to soothe him. Another rumble started to grow in Zarg’s chest. Shit. He was about to bark.

Evan grabbed Zarg’s head and turned him towards him and away from the doorway. “Hey. You have to listen to me. Now isn’t the time.”

Evan felt the muscles in Zarg’s neck ease. Could Zarg sense his emotions too? He gave Evan a small lick on the cheek and flopped over into Evan’s lap, wedging between Evan and the couch like the giant awkward lap dog that he was.

“Good boy.” Evan stroked his neck. “That’s a good boy.”

Light flickered from the doorway as if someone were shining a flashlight into the house from the opening in Adelfried’s lab. The sound of muffled voices and footsteps on rock came from the opening. Who were these people?

“What are you doing?” a raspy voiced man said.

Another man’s nasal voice replied. “What do you mean what am I doing? Do you know how much all the stuff in that house is worth?”

“We got what we came for, let’s go.”

“Aren’t we supposed to check for survivors? And I bet you anything there’s buenazo electronics in there,” the nasal voiced man said, now closer and louder as if standing at the opening to Adelfried’s lab. Their lights streamed into the house scanning every angle from the lab.

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“Do you really think anything could survive that? Besides if a Wreckie is in there, they’re gonna be pissed. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not fighting a pissed off Wreckie with dirt magic, even hurt. That’d be suicide.”

Zarg rose up. The voices and light were angering him.

“Stupid pendejo, I have a pulser; and remember, we aren’t allowed to leave anyone alive.”

The raspy voice said, “I’m telling the boss there were no signs of life. If you’re going foraging, you better hurry up, because Gusano is leaving with or without you and the closest cable isn’t for several klicks.”

“Chamo! Just one minute, eh? Just let me look around and I am out. There’s nothing moving around in there. Count to thirty and yell and I’ll turn around.”

There were more footsteps as the light beamed in from Adelfried’s lab. Raspy said, “Primo, I don’t know about this.”

A loud thump came from Adelfried’s lab, like a sack of potatoes had been dropped. The death barrier!

“Primo...Primo!” The raspy voice was frantic. “No!”

The light disappeared and only the sound of the footsteps could be heard trailing off. Relief and anguish flooded through Evan. How many people had died searching for the Root? Oh no, they had it now. Surely that is why they dropped the house.

A loud hiss was followed by rhythmic mechanical clanks, like there was a steam powered locomotive just outside the house. “Come on, Zargy.” Zarg got up and moved to the entrance of the room. His hackles were raised, and he was alert, but not fearful. That was better.

The chug of metal crushing rock and a massive engine started up and within seconds the sound started to fade away. Whatever the Gusano was, it was leaving, and at a quick pace.

Evan found Nina coming in from Adelfried’s lab. She flipped on her cell phone light and went into Kae’s room.

“Who the hell was that?” Evan said, trying to stay calm when he absolutely wasn’t. He followed her in and found her unburying Kae from a pile of clothes in the corner. Kae’s upper arm was blue and purple and swelling like a grapefruit.

“This isn’t good.” Nina said examining her arm. “She’s got massive internal bleeding and a complete fracture. If we don’t get her medical attention, like, really soon, she could die.”

Evan’s eyes started to water. His chest tightened. No. This couldn’t be happening. He wiped his eyes clear of tears, blinking several times. “Okay...what can we do? Can you call for help or something?”

Nina got to her feet. “Evan, we’re under tons of rock and earth, no cellphone signal down here. Our best bet is getting to that wire and hopefully find some help on the other side.”

“Wire? What is it like a telephone line or something? And where the hell are we? Who are these people? Why did—”

Nina grabbed Evan by the arm. “I’ll explain on the way, right now, we need to figure out a way to get Kae mobile. We need to rig a stretcher or some way to move her.”

Zarg wandered into the room and sniffed Kae’s arm. Concern washed over him as he let out a whimper and curled up next to her. Even without being able to sense Zarg’s emotions Evan knew the concern in those eyes. Evan gave him a scratch on his head. “I know buddy, I know.”

Nina started to shine her light around the darkness. “Gather supplies like we’re going on a hike...a long one.”

“Don’t you have an extra field bandage? Will that work?”

Nina shook her head. “They’re really for the open wounds, they won’t heal bone. Now come on, we need to hurry. We have a long walk and... I’m just going to level with you. When we get to that wire, I’m going to have to take her through...without you. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to make it through.”

Evan’s throat tightened. “What? What do you mean?”

She squeezed his shoulder. “Food, water, light, and a stretcher. Now hurry.”

Okay. Okay. He could do this. Just focus. Why did he ever quit scouts? He could use some of that survival training now. “Zargy, stay here with Kae. I’m going to go look for supplies.”

Hopefully the main house had survived. How had the basement survived for that matter? Of course, Adelfried’s magically reinforced concrete. But then why did it break at all? When Evan fell onto the floor had he weakened it? How did any of that work anyway? It didn’t matter. Focus, Evan!

He slipped out of the missing section of Adelfried’s lab. Nina stood a few paces away; her fist glowed casting an intense light across the crushed frame of what used to be his house. The second floor and attic now sat compressed into the first floor. Surrounding the house was a perfectly round tunnel of rock and compressed soil that was just wide enough to fit the basement. When the house had been pulled through the tunnel it crushed the rest of the house to fit the tunnel. Good thing they had gone to the basement as instructed. Oh no. There were people up there. Maybe they made it out? If they didn’t, they would be dead for sure.

Evan moved closer to where the kitchen would have been. There were small gaps in the broken wood he could fit through, but it would be tight. “Could you, you know, open it up so I can get some food out of the kitchen? Also, I just remembered, my dad kept a dolly in the stair way closet. We could wheel Kae out of here on that potentially.”

“If I move that it’s just going to collapse further, and I can’t keep it open with you in there. You’d just break the ESH field. Just poke around in there, grab what you can, and get out. I’ll go and see if I can free that dolly from the wreckage”

Evan rubbed the back of his neck as he examined the twisted and shattered wreckage of where the kitchen used to be. The biggest gap was where the kitchen window used to be, but broken glass protruded from the frame. He kicked it several times trying to clear it of jagged edges, but too much remained. It wasn’t worth the risk of slicing himself up on that. Instead, he found a small gap where the siding had split away from the brick. He would fit. Plus, just on the other side of that wall—if he had oriented himself correctly—was the pantry. With his phone light forward he crawled through the opening. After half a body length he hit pay dirt, two bottles of water and...an old box of lasagna noodles. He twisted around on his belly trying to see if he could find anything else when the glint of something shiny caught his eye. He reached in as far as he could and pulled back his dad’s secret bag of chips. A tear of emotion formed in his eye. Here he was again, head in the pantry, fighting off tears. He closed his eyes. “I wish you were here, Dad.”

No time for emotional breakdowns.

He scanned the mess of broken wood and bricks one more time before giving up and wiggling back out. Once he made his way back to entrance to the basement, he found Nina had laid Kae on a door with the somewhat warped dolly rigged underneath it. She had taken a bunch of belts from Kae’s overflow closet and lashed Kae to the door. Clever.

Nina handed Evan one of Kae’s old purses. It was made of rectangular pink pleather with a thin strap. “Here.”

Evan held it up. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“To carry everything you found.” She looked away trying to hide her concern. “Well hopefully that will be enough.”

Evan shoved everything in the purse and threw the strap over his shoulder. “I guess we’re as ready as we’re going to be.”

“Yeah.” Nina sighed. Her orange glow went out leaving only Evan’s phone light. She pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and turned it on. “This flashlight and our three phones are all the light we have, so we have to conserve as much as possible. I can make light with ESH, but it’ll wear me down if I have to do it for a long time and I need to save my energy in case we run into any...problems. So, lights out.”

Evan complied and turned his phone light off leaving only the illumination of the one flashlight to light their way. “Okay...let’s do this.”

Nina put the flashlight in Evan’s hand “You hold the light, I’m pulling Kae.”

“Uh...no offense, but don’t you think I should do that?

She hefted the door-dolly contraption up on one end. “Normally yeah, but you and Zarg have a lot longer to walk than Kae and I.”

“What does that mean?” Evan pointed the light back to get one last look at his home when the light found the foot of a body to the side of the break in the lab. It had to be the nasal voiced man’s body. Evan swung the light to the right to get a better look at the man. He moved.