A minute into our climb, the windshield of the dygo cleared. We were out of the water. Kidik was still dry. It meant the floodgates hadn’t been destroyed yet. Loor instantly opened the vents, and Saangi cracked open the hatch to let air rush in. Man, it tasted sweet. I didn’t mind that it was tunnel air. I took in a huge lungful. I exchanged a smile with Alder. We had come so close to disaster, but were still going. As Loor said, if we were alive, we were not done.
When we reached the top of the stairs, we were met with more good news. The lights of Kidik were still burning. Only the lights at the bottom of the stairs had gone dark, probably because they were underwater. Up here, we could still see. At least for now. Loor drove the dygo away from the top of the stairs and stopped the vehicle on the edge of the main street. Nobody said it, but we all needed to get out, if only for a few seconds. We needed to get our bearings back. Saangi pushed open the hatch, and we all crawled out of the vehicle that had saved our lives. It felt good to be on solid ground again, even if it was in a deserted city miles underground. I stretched my legs, enjoying the feeling of standing on two feet.
“They were here,” Loor said.
“Who was?” I asked.
She was looking at the ground. Sure enough, the fine sandy ground was covered with footprints that hadn’t been there when we came in. There looked to be thousands of them.
“The Batu invasion made it to Kidik,” Loor declared.
“Where do you think they are now?” Alder asked.
“Fleeing for the surface, I hope,” Loor said. “If they saw the rising water, they may have realized the danger.”
“So they might survive this after all?” Saangi asked.
My first thought was that Saangi was right. The thousands of Batu who came down into the underground might have dodged a very big, wet bullet. It all depended on where they were, and how much longer the floodgates would hold. If they survived, Saint Dane would lose.
That was my first thought.
My second thought was that we were still in the depths and a time bomb was ticking. I was about to point that out when the ground rumbled. It felt like a short, sharp earthquake. We looked at one another. Our sense of victory was short lived.
“Could that be?” Alder asked.
Another short earthquake rumbled the ground. This one was so strong, it nearly knocked me off my feet. “Back in the dygo!” Loor shouted.
We all ran for the vehicle. As we were about to climb in, a building that was thirty yards in front of us exploded. It was as if an atomic water bomb had blown up beneath it. A huge blast of water shot up into the air, much like what had happened when the main building on Kidik Island had exploded.
“They’re starting to go!” I exclaimed.
On cue two more buildings exploded, sending rock and sand and water everywhere. We were pelted with debris. This was the beginning of the end for the underground. The southern gates were giving way. There must have been so much force surging through those first collapsing gates that the tunnels couldn’t contain it. There was more water than space for it to go, so it found its own way.
Kidik was about to be obliterated.
JOURNAL #23
(CONTINUED)
ZADAA
Theworld was exploding around us.
We piled intothedygo. Loor powered up while Saangi sealed the hatch. “Go!” she exclaimed.
Loor hit the throttle, and the dygo sped forward. She told me these buggies were fast. She was right. We bounced along the main street of Kidik as the buildings to either side began to crumble. It truly was like an earthquake. The ground was being torn apart by the force of the water as it sought space. There was no stopping it, because an entire ocean was behind it, pushing it forward. More buildings blew out, while those on levels above toppled. It reminded me of a giant, elaborate sand castle that was being torn apart by the incoming tide.
The street directly in front of us erupted, sending a blast of water high into the air. Loor was able to steer around it. All I could think of was if one of those geysers shot up directly beneath us, we’d be blown over like a toy. I wondered what would happen if we were knocked off our treads. That would be ugly.
To our left a building looked as if it were lifted up into the air a few feet. The whole building shifted in one piece and slid into the street in front of us. It was too late for Loor to avoid it.
“Brace yourself,”she shouted. We hit the building. It was a hard jolt and we knocked around, but the dygo remained intact.
“We can’t outrun this,” I said. “Eventually we’re gonna get nailed.”
“There is only one thing we can do,” Loor said. I was happy to hear that there actually was an option, because I was fresh out of ideas.
“Whatever it is, do it,” I shouted. “Do we dig?” Saangi asked. “We dig,” Loor said.
Loor stopped the dygo. She toggled a switch on the instrument panel. I heard a whine and saw the drill drop from overhead and settle down into its front position.
“Dig what?” I asked.
“Dig out,” Loor answered.
She toggled another switch, and the drill began to spin. She turned the dygo so we were facing one side of the street. In front of us was a stone house that was still intact. It wouldn’t be for long.
“You sure about this?” I asked nervously.
“Brace yourself,” Loor commanded.
She hit the throttle and drove the dygo right into the building. The drill dug through the wall as if it were made of paper. A second later we were in somebody’s living room. Good thing nobody was home. We blasted through, moving past stone furniture, dishes, and even clothing hanging on racks. It was a twisted experience. We ate through wall after wall, room after room. The ceilings collapsed on us as we tore through, but the dygo kept moving. I realized that the many levels of stone buildings that could be seen from the street were nothing more than the front layer of this city. Like all of the underground, Kidik was like a massive beehive. We charged through open areas that looked like market squares. We passed a huge amphitheater with rings of stone seats that would never see another performance. Loor didn’t stop to sightsee. We crashed through more deserted homes. I was feeling kind of guilty, but knew it would only be a matter of time before the surging water did a lot more damage than we were doing.
“Is there a plan here?” I asked.
“We need to get to the surface as quickly as possible,” Loor said. “Following the route we took from Xhaxhu would be suicide. We could never outrace the flood.”
“So what are we looking for here?” I asked.
“We are looking for nothing,” Loor said.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing,” Loor repeated. “We need to get to the rock that Kidik was built on. From there we can drill our own tunnel.”
Loor’s plan was incredible, and incredibly simple. It didn’t matter where we got to the surface, so long as we got there. She had decided to create her own route. From what I’d seen of the dygo, it was possible. The only thing stopping us would be time. We had to outrun the water.
I looked ahead to see we were no longer moving through open space. We had reached the bedrock of Kidik and were drilling our way through. There wasn’t much to see. Looking through the hollow drill bit, all that was visible was the rock we were drilling through. If we were lucky, the next thing we would see through that hole was
