stranger?
He added, “Maybe we should try to turn into birds and fly across.”
“Last resort,” I said quickly. “Uncle Press told us to use our abilities sparingly.”
“But if we can’t get across-”
“We’ll get across,” I said, and started walking.
The second I looked down through the rails to the river below, I changed my mind. I was no longer sure that we would make it. The ties were rotted, but didn’t necessarily look it. Some seemed porous, but were actually strong. Others looked solid, but crumbled under my weight. The only way to tell was to step on a tie and hope that it didn’t crack. Much of the bridge bed below the tracks had fallen away, leaving gaping holes. We had to move like a couple of tightrope walkers on the rails that spanned these gaps. It was terrifying.
Each step brought with it a new, ugly sound. Metal groaned. Pipes snapped. Chunks of cement fell away and crashed into the churning water far below. I wasn’t just worried about where we stepped, but about the bridge as a whole. How stable was it? If things started to sway, it would go down for sure, and we’d be crushed in tons of twisted steel. That would hurt. It came down to a test of our own inner strength, and balance. It must have taken an hour to cross the hundred yards of bridge. It felt like a hundred miles. But we made it. The gaps below the rails became smaller with each step. My confidence grew. I hopped the last few yards until my feet were once again on solid ground. I turned quickly to see Patrick not far behind. He was looking down, concentrating, with his arms out wide for balance.
“You got it,” I said.
He too hopped the last few yards, joining me on the far side of the river.
“Let’s not go back that way,” he declared, panting. We turned together to look ahead. “Whoa” was all Patrick could get out. Yeah. Whoa.
The massive wall was a few hundred yards from where we stood. Still, it towered over us. It really did look like a dam. The surface was light gray and smooth, with an etched pattern of rectangles that revealed it was constructed with a series of blocks. It must have taken years to build. Like the great pyramids. Looking left and right, I couldn’t see where it ended. Was it a straight wall? Or did it turn on an angle to enclose whatever was on the other side? That would have been even more incredible. If this wall continued around, it would have to be the largest structure ever built by man.
“Eighth Wonder of the World,” I said. “I have no idea what the other seven are, so don’t ask.”
Rising up from the base of the structure every fifty yards or so were huge, red vertical rectangles that could have been massive doors. Or decorations. I couldn’t tell. They each looked about twenty yards high and half as wide.
“We aren’t alone,” Patrick pointed out.
I’m not sure why I didn’t see them at first. It must have been because I was too busy gaping up at the monstrous wall. But at the base of this structure, were people. Even from as far away as we were, I could see that they were Ravinian soldiers. They had on the same red jumpsuits and golden helmets that those guys wore who beat up the man in the zoo. They walked in a line, maybe thirty yards apart, along the base of the wall. Other than the helicopters, it was the first sign of life we’d seen since the zoo.
“They look like guards,” Patrick pointed out.
“Yeah, but are they trying to keep people out or in?”
“It could be a Horizon Compound,” Patrick offered. “Naymeer built walled cities to keep the lower classes separate. I heard they were horrible places.”
“I guess,” I said, thinking. “But would the Ravinians really need to build something that extreme just to separate people? I mean, that thing would hold back King Kong.”
Patrick and I exchanged nervous looks, both thinking the same thing. Could that wall have been built to hold back something monstrous?
“No way,” I finally said. “That’s just… fantasy.”
“You mean like everything else we’ve been hearing isn’t?”
I was about to argue why I didn’t think we had to worry about a giant ape when the ground began to rumble. I have to admit, for a brief second I thought that it might have been from the thundering footsteps of a monster monkey.
We were near the river. The area between us and the wall was a wide stretch of concrete. It reminded me of an empty parking lot at a stadium. That’s how big it was. Weeds grew up through the spider web of cracks that spread out everywhere.
“Earthquake?” Patrick asked through chattering teeth.
As if in answer, we heard a grinding, machine sound. To our left the cement surface began to shift. One of the cracks wasn’t a crack. It was a seam. It split apart, creating a gap that stretched from the bank of the river in front of the destroyed bridge, all the way to the wall. The two sides lowered and retracted beneath the ground to either side, creating a gap that was maybe five yards wide. At the bottom of this gap, running the length of the newly formed channel, was a single metal track.
“Get down!” I yelled, and pulled Patrick toward the river’s edge. Not knowing what we were dealing with, I figured it would be better if we weren’t seen. We jumped down beneath a cement ledge and peered back at the wall to see what the Ravinians might be up to. We were looking the wrong way. The sound of rushing water pulled our attention back to the river. It looked to me like a whirlpool was forming, creating the sucking sound. A moment later something rose up out of the water in front of the bridge.
“Did King Kong swim?” Patrick asked, transfixed.
A wide tube pushed up from out of the center of the whirlpool. Its steady movement showed that it wasn’t alive. It was mechanical. I heard a faint whirring sound beneath the sounds of swirling water. The tube rose up from beneath the surface at a steep angle, until it reached the edge of the long trough that held the rail.
Another mechanical sound followed. Gears were turning. It was coming from the direction of the wall. One of the huge red rectangles began lifting up like a garage door. The rail led right up to it.
“This is our chance,” I announced. “We gotta get in there.”
“What?” Patrick shouted in horror. “What if it’s a prison? What if it’s one of the Horizon Compounds?”
“We have to know,” I answered while looking between the tube that had come up from the water and the rising door.
“But we can’t just run over there and walk through!” Patrick whined. “There’s no protection. Nowhere to hide. How are we supposed to get there without being seen?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Hey!” he announced. “We have the power. Why don’t we turn into birds and fly in?”
I gave him a sharp look. “For one, I don’t know how that works, and I don’t want to try. And two, we’re not supposed to be using that power, remember?”
“Then come up with a better idea!”
A shrill whistle sounded. It was coming from the water tube. I felt another slight rumble. The whistle sounded again. It was coming closer.
“It’s a train,” I declared. “That track must run along the same route as the old ones. The bridge is history, so they went underwater.”
A moment later a sleek, golden train glided up out of the tube. It looked to me like a cross between a fancy, old-fashioned steam engine and a monorail from Disneyland. It had to be electric, because it moved silently on the single track. The nose came to a point, with a cockpit just above. The body of the train was covered with fancy golden sculptures that looked like vines. They didn’t seem to have any other purpose than to be decorative. The engine was short, and pulled two more longer cars, where I guessed the passengers rode. This was not a freight train. It was a mode of transportation for people who traveled in style. It moved slowly and smoothly. I glanced ahead. The massive red door was open. The train was almost all the way out of the tube. I felt sure that once it was out, it would pick up speed.
“Now or never,” I declared.
“Now or never what?” Patrick replied with surprise.
I scrambled to my feet and climbed up over the lip of the cement embankment. Patrick didn’t.
“Pendragon!” he wailed. “You’ll get us killed.”
I turned back to him but kept moving. “So what?” I said. “We’ll just end up in Solara and come right back
