docks, but that was it. It was like being inside a big, wet, empty airplane hangar.
I had been hiding beneath one of the narrow docks that ringed the place. I took a few strokes back to the dock and hoisted myself up on top. Man, it felt good to have something solid under my butt. It felt even better to breathe. I made two fists. My hands had been stung pretty bad and were swollen. I didn’t care. It was a small price to pay. I wished I could have sat around and enjoyed the simple pleasure of filling my lungs with something other than water, but I had business to do. My relief over having survived the quig attack didn’t last long. It was time to find the mine that the Flighters had been digging.
It was time to find Saint Dane.
My single goal was to figure out a way to destroy that mine and bury the flume forever. How? I had no idea. If I wanted to save Ibara and return to my life on the island, I would have to find a way. I hoped I wasn’t too late. Could the flume already have been found? How long had the Flighters been digging? How deep was the flume buried beneath the rubble of Rubic City? It seemed like an impossible task to unearth something so huge, without tools or digging equipment…other than the bleeding hands and tired backs of the poor Flighters. Logic told me that digging out the flume was impossible. Yet Loque said he had been inside the mine. They had made progress. Ihad to hope that the attack of the quig-bees didn’t mean that the flume was already open.
The one weapon I’d brought with me, the bow and arrows, was gone. I had it beneath the deck of the skimmer, which was now headed off to parts unknown. I needed something to protect myself, so I scanned around for a length of pipe or wood. I saw what I needed a few feet from where I came out of the water. It was a wooden rod with a hook on the end that was probably used to control the skimmers from the docks. I picked it up, felt that it was solid, and spun it once. Bad move. I was out of practice. My swollen sore hands didn’t help either. I lost control of the rod and beaned myself in the head. Dope. Not only did I nearly knock myself out, I proved to myself that I was rusty. I hadn’t fought in months, and it wasn’t as if I were an expert in fighting-like Loor-in the first place. I had to have faith that if I needed them, my skills would return. Was fighting like riding a bike? I was afraid I would have to find that out at some point. I hoped I wouldn’t knock myself out before then.
I climbed a metal ladder up and out of the pier and got my first close view of the decaying metropolis of Rubic City. Nothing had changed since I was last there. There were a few hundred yards of bare ground that were covered with mounds of debris-I was guessing this was at one time a park. Beyond that, the tall buildings began. The afternoon was so clear I could make out the giant outline of the Lifelight pyramid that was nestled deep within the canyons of skyscrapers. That was where I had to begin my search for the tunnel that would lead to the mine.
I didn’t want to run into any Flighters along the way. Or more quig-bees, for that matter. I figured the best thing I could do was keep moving, so I sprinted off the huge dock and headed for the city. Being in the open like that made me feel pretty vulnerable. There could have been eyes on me that were peering out from any number of the thousands of windows that overlooked the harbor area. I darted from mound to mound, trying to shield myself from curious eyes. It was probably a waste of energy.
I hit the first street and decided to hug the buildings. There was always the danger of a Flighter lying in wait and jumping out at me through a nearby window before I had time to react, but it was better than running down the street for all to see. The afternoon shadows were long. I felt fairly safe creeping through the darkened corners. I’d been through this city before, but it still gave me the creeps. The idea that a bustling, modern metropolis could crumble like this was pretty sobering. Nothing had been taken care of in more than three hundred years. I wondered if someday it would all be buried, waiting for archaeological expeditions of future generations to uncover the stores and streets of this dead civilization.
It was also living proof that Saint Dane’s quest was nothing short of monstrous. He helped destroy the civilization on Veelox. Why did he think he could convince me that something like this happened for the ultimate good? He was either crazy or delusional. Maybe both.
My plan was to start at the Lifelight pyramid and make my way toward the area of the city where I knew the flume was. When Gunny and I first arrived here so long ago, the gate to the flume was hidden next to a derelict subway track, like on Second Earth. When Siry and I tried to find the flume on my last visit, we discovered that an entire building had crumbled over it and buried everything. Question was, where would it be smart to start an excavation project? Loque said he passed through a red arch when he was taken to dig. It wasn’t a lot to go on. Somewhere between the Lifelight pyramid and the flume was a red arch. Piece of cake. Yeah, right.
It was getting late. It would be dark soon. There were no lights in Rubic City. When it got dark, it was deadly dark. If I didn’t find that red arch quickly, I’d have to wait until morning. The idea of spending a night alone in one of those buildings wasn’t a happy one. Luckily, I didn’t see a single soul on my way to the pyramid, which I guess was no big surprise. The Flighters hid within those old buildings like rats. They could have been all around me, and I wouldn’t have known. I hated this place.
I finally made it to the last building before the clearing that led up to the pyramid. I figured that was close enough to start the search. I was already on the side of the pyramid that was closest to the flume. Which street should I take to begin my search? I would have to go out in the open, closer to the pyramid, to get a perspective on my choices. That didn’t thrill me. I was the only thing moving. An easy target. But what else could I do?
I jogged toward the pyramid for about twenty yards and turned back. I saw that most of the streets that ended at the pyramid were cluttered with debris. Most looked impassable. All but one. It was the obvious choice to start my search. I ran toward that street and moved quickly along the cluttered sidewalk. It didn’t look different from any of the other desolate streets of Rubic City. The pavement was cracked, and littered with bits of cement and glass. Skeletons of derelict cars lined the way. Any signage from the stores was worn off long ago. I crossed one block, then another, and a third. I would guess that the distance between the pyramid and the flume was about a half mile. I must have covered at least half of that without seeing anything that looked like a red arch.
I kept glancing back, to make sure I wasn’t being followed, which kept me from being totally focused on the search. After traveling several blocks, I feared I may have missed it. Or that I was on the wrong street. The idea of spending a night alone in Rubic City suddenly seemed like the least of my problems. Finding this elusive red arch could take forever. I was about to turn around and retrace my steps to the pyramid so I could start over again, when I saw it. It was built into one of the buildings, looking like an oversized door. It was a big, red frame. The idea of a red frame built into a building made no sense to me until I got closer. There was a single word on top of the arch. It was a mosaic created out of colored glass, which is why it survived so many years without wearing away. The word was “Subway.” This was the Veelox version of a subway entrance. Like on the Earth territories, the flume in Rubic City was next to subway tracks. I had found it!
I stepped through the arch into complete darkness. My heart sank. They had no lights. How was I supposed to find my way? I thought back to Loque’s description of digging with his hands. He didn’t mention that it was done in the pitch dark. I wondered if it hadn’t mattered to him because he was nearly blind. It only added to the horror of what Saint Dane put those Flighters through. Did he actually make them dig through the rubble of the city in the dark? How horrific would that be?
My eyes adjusted enough to see gray shadows. That was good. It meant there was at least a little ambient light. I walked farther and sensed that I was in a wide corridor. I was about to take another step when something made me stop. Call it instinct, but before putting my foot down, I looked at the floor to see…nothing. The floor ended. I was about to step off a jagged edge into a dark abyss. Talk about a shot of adrenaline! I took a step back and dropped to one knee. That was way too close to disaster.
Once I calmed down, I peered over the edge to find there was a twisted ladder leaning against the edge. This had to be the entrance to the “mine” that Loque described. I gingerly climbed down the rickety ladder, descending even farther into darkness. It wasn’t easy since I also had to juggle the wooden pole I’d found. I wasn’t about to give that thing up. No way. I climbed down forty, fifty feet. It was hard to tell. Oddly, the farther down I got, the brighter it became. I wondered if there might actually be another tunnel opening down there that was letting in the last bit of daylight. Whatever it was, it was okay by me.
I finally hit bottom to see there was no other tunnel opening, but there was light. Artificial light. Kind of like the lights from Ibara. I saw a crudely strung set of what looked like white Christmas lights stretched along a narrow, low tunnel. They had lights down here after all! I thought back to when Siry and I stepped into the core of the Lifelight pyramid and it powered back to life. Somehow there was still power in Rubic City. It looked as if the Flighters had figured out a way to use that power to light their way into the tunnel. It wasn’t bright by any means. I’d say one small light hung every ten feet or so. That was okay. It was enough to keep me from walking into walls.
