or more feet across. Edgar felt a growing exhilaration as he
turned and kicked his feet over and into the long chasm.
"Remember," said Vincent. "To the docking station and back
and no more, and only if you can manage it. I can't come down
after you. No one can. But I'll wait for you."
"You shouldn't expect my return until after nightfall," said Edgar.
He secretly knew that he could get to the bottom in only a
couple of hours if he wanted to. But he didn't want to be in the
least bit rushed in case his plans changed. "Six or seven hours,
I would guess."
Vincent nodded, astounded by what Edgar was capable of.
Seven hours of climbing up and down the side of a wall of
stone? He wondered what Dr. Harding had done to Edgar that
made him so strong.
"Be careful," said Vincent.
And with that, Edgar was gone. Faster than Vincent believed
possible, Edgar was so far down the crevice he could only
barely be seen.
Edgar will be gone a long while, Vincent pondered. I must talk
to Dr. Kincaid alone.
With that, Vincent set off at a quick pace in search of more
answers about Edgar, the Dark Planet, and the docking station.
Very soon Edgar was out of the crevice that had been cut into
Atherton and climbing on the outer surface. There were many
paths he could have taken that led down the side, but he knew
which one was the longest and started down at its wide
beginning. For a long time there were no holes at all as he'd
remembered, but then the way down started to narrow and the
first of many holes came into view. It was three feet around and
there was plenty of room to avoid the glowing orange edge of
the path.
Edgar heard the strange sound as he passed by--a swishing,
like something moving back and forth inside, and a hissing. I
can't understand why any of this is here, thought Edgar, the face
of Dr. Harding clear in his mind. What were you thinking?
Edgar had to travel slowly in order to remain perfectly quiet as
he went farther down. As he moved, the holes became more
numerous and difficult to avoid. He was dripping with sweat
from head to toe and it was beginning to make his hands
slippery as Vincent had feared. But Edgar had filled his pockets
with gritty dirt that he could use to dry his hands when needed.
The bottom of Atherton was truly made for climbing, and this
was his great salvation. There was an endless supply of easy
handholds to choose from.
"Now comes the hard part," Edgar whispered. He had come to
the end of his knowledge of the bottom of Atherton. Removing a
small rabbit skin tied to his belt and filled with water, Edgar
drank what had once been cool water from the lake. It had
turned warm, but the water revived him nevertheless.
The farther down the shard one went the narrower it became;
and all the while the holes grew larger. It was hard not to
imagine that whatever lurked inside was getting bigger as well.
It seemed like the most inopportune time to be climbing closer,
and yet he had no choice. Either he would have to cross very
near the largest of the holes or turn back. There was no other
way down.
Seven holes, he thought, seeing what lay beneath him. If I can
just get past them it looks clear on the other side. The path was
now only twenty feet across, with a great sea of glowing orange
on either side.
Edgar could feel his pounding heart race faster and faster as he
passed between the first three of the seven holes without
hearing or seeing anything. Then he moved between the cluster
of remaining four holes and stopped stone-cold.
He looked back at the first three holes where a familiar clicking
sound had begun, now more loudly than before. It grew even
worse as the sound echoed from holes he had yet to pass by.
His hands slippery and sweat dripping into his eyes, Edgar
realized with terror that he was trapped in the middle of a field of
holes from which unknown creatures were about to emerge.
Edgar glanced up and saw two beams of white light coming
from inside one of the holes he'd passed. He was totally frozen
with fear as the head of a creature emerged, encrusted with
light came from its hollow eye sockets.
The outrageous creature opened its huge mouth and lunged out
of the hole, down toward the climbing boy, and slammed its
jaws of stone inches above Edgar's head. Orange slime slid
from its mouth as it recoiled in a flash of light, as if its tail were
attached to a great spring that pulled it violently back into the
hole. It crashed back and forth against the surface of Atherton,
howling horribly.
The moment the lights were gone the two other holes Edgar
had passed lit up with dancing white beams of their own. Two
monsters shot out of their holes above Edgar and their horrible
teeth went SLAM! SLAM! against the rock. If a person could
climb and run at the same time, Edgar was doing just that as he
charged recklessly down the side of Atherton.
"Dr. Harding! What's wrong with you!" cried Edgar as the
monsters flipped wildly back into their holes.
Whatever was dripping from the mouths of these stoneencrusted monsters was melting the very surface of Atherton. It
fizzled and crackled and let off a rancid black smoke.
From below, Edgar heard the clicking and hissing and
snapping of jaws. Another monster, its rock-covered head
glowing sickeningly, was out of its hole, and it appeared to be
sniffing the air. It turned its awful sockets of light on Edgar and
disappeared with a grinding sound.
That thing is coiling up down there, thought Edgar. It's going to
spring!
Edgar practically dove to one side in the wildest, fastest
climbing maneuver he'd ever imagined. He was almost rol ing
out of the way as the beast sprang, swinging its head and
snapping uncontrollably in the open air. Orange slime flew
everywhere as the monster reached the end of its hidden spring
and snapped back.
Edgar watched in horror as he saw his leather water bag melt
and steam, covered in deadly sludge. The orange goo fizzed all
around him, but there was yet a path to the bottom. Edgar
became so focused on escaping through the field of seven
holes that he didn't realize how far he'd gone.
Soon, without a clue of how he'd done so, Edgar found himself
not only through the field of holes but well clear of them.
Looking back, he saw four more beams of light emerging, but
Edgar was far enough out of their reach. They only screamed in
anger when they trained their hollow eyes on the distant
intruder.
Edgar breathed a long sigh of relief, but his eyes were filled
with concern. By coming this far he had trapped himself behind
a wall of monsters waiting for his return.
What am I going to do now? he asked himself, looking up at the
perilous way he'd pass
ed through. I can't go through that again.
I'd never make it twice, especially trying to climb up instead of
down. They'd have me for sure.
Another twenty feet beneath him, Edgar spotted the largest hole
of them all. From what Edgar could tell given the angle, it might
be as big as ten feet around.
Edgar glanced to his right and left. Everything he saw was
orange and glassy. It looked as though the inside of Atherton
was filled with a lake of fire and covered with a thick, foggy
glass.
"I have to get out of here," Edgar told himself. He quickly chose
his route and imagined how fast he could climb past the
remaining hole, and then he was off and moving like a startled
spider. He glanced inside the great hole as he passed by,
expecting to see two beams of light.
But there was no light, no sound.
What's this new trick you're trying to play on me? thought Edgar.
He had come to see Atherton as a living, breathing creature full
of every kind of surprise. Just because he didn't see any light
didn't mean something wasn't about to try to eat him.
Edgar's hands were growing so hot from the surface he could
hold on with only one hand at a time, letting each hand cool off
every few seconds.
At last Edgar came to the very end of the longest path down the
side of Atherton. The great hole sat much closer to the bottom
than Edgar had realized at first. There were only a few feet on
the other side, and he hung there, hot and scared half to death.
His hands started to slip as he tried to figure out what to do.
"There's no place left for me to go," said Edgar, pulling himself
up and peeking into the hole. There was nothing, just a dull
silence and a dark passageway. He lifted himself and sat down
at the very edge of the hole.
He felt heavy. At first he thought this was because he was tired,
but he soon realized that gravity was now pulling down on his
feet more than it had on the surface of Atherton. He found that
even the simple task of walking was difficult, as if he had giant
rocks tied to his feet. Even his face felt as if it were being pulled
downward.
"What is this place?" Edgar said, though it came out slurry and
weak.
Along the walls of the hole Edgar could see that something had
been here before. The walls were--what was it?-- scraped.
Something big had passed through here more than once.
Something really big. It was wide enough to span the space
and touch the walls as it passed through. Edgar took two steps
forward and then, to his great surprise, he heard a new sound
from deep inside.
Whatever it was did not sound happy to see him.
CHAPTER 5ACROSS THE
BURNINGBRIDGE OF STONE
Teagan awoke with a start in the Silo. The whole world of the
Dark Planet seemed to have turned ominously quiet apart from
a single sound in the night. The sound of a bender being put to
work on a child.
"They took her while we were sleeping!" shouted Teagan. She
glanced over, still hoping she might see her closest friend in the
shadowy light drifting in from the hallway. But Aggie was gone.
Only her covers remained in a bunch at the foot of her rusted
old cot.
"Quiet, Teagan," said a small voice from another bed. "Or they'll
come for you, too."
They were all awake now, so everyone had heard when the
bender snapped against Aggie's skin out in the hal way. They
had heard her cry, and its haunting echo. Red Eye and Socket
kept the door to the barracks open for a reason.
"Leave her alone!" said Teagan, sitting up in bed without a clue
of how to stop them. And then she thought of the one person
who might be able to help them and called out her name.
"Hope!"
"Teagan, no!" said the same small voice. "Lie down and act like
you're asleep, you fool!"
But it was too late. Red Eye's horrible shadow appeared in the
doorway. His head was a misshapen silhouette of goggles and
tousled hair. The bender swished back and forth in front of him
as he entered barracks number three.
There was another snap! from the bender in the hall, and the
sound of Aggie's wince. Teagan began to cry. She hated the
Silo so much it was almost more than she could take. She was
very near doing something stupid like jumping out of bed and
running to find Aggie in the hall. She dreamed of having the
bender herself and using it on Red Eye and Socket, beating
them until they ran outside and were eaten by the monsters that
lurked there.
"Hope's not going to help you. She knows better than to
interfere in our business," said Red Eye. "The only person we
answer to is Commander Judix, and she gave us free reign of
this place a long time ago."
The mere sound of the name Judix caused a wave of quiet
gasps from many of the beds. Judix hadn't visited the Silo in a
long time, but the Commander's power and cruelty were
legendary.
Red Eye stood over Teagan's bed, glaring down at her and
running the hard edge of the metal whip against the rusting iron
frame of her bed. He wiped his filthy nose on his even filthier
sleeve. The light had made his eyes and nose run
uncontrollably so that his face was damp and sickly in the soft
glow of the room.
"It's okay, Teagan."
Teagan turned to the doorway and saw Aggie staggering in.
Her voice was shaky, as if she were in shock, but Teagan also
heard the ever-present resolve in her best friend's voice.
"They're done," said Aggie, trying to gather herself together.
"Just shut your eyes. Go back to sleep."
Teagan closed her eyes, overcome by a feeling of
helplessness. "That's what we like, a good little worker who
gets her sleep at night," said Red Eye. He swung around and
looked over the cots. "We're going to work all of you even
harder than usual tomorrow because of this madness with
Aggie. Get to sleep! All of you! If I hear one more peep out of
this barracks before morning, every one of you's gonna be
sorry."
Socket laughed from out in the hallway, but it was not the big
laugh he usually used. He was still hurting as much as his
brother from the light they'd been exposed to. There was no
hiding the fact that the two men were in pain.
When the door was shut and the room was dark again, Aggie
whispered as quietly as she could.
"It wasn't that bad. Socket hardly knows how to use that thing."
Teagan knew Aggie was only trying to put on a brave face, but
she didn't say anything. She just reached over and held her
friend's hand. A few minutes later, when Aggie thought Teagan
was asleep, she began to cry quietly.
"Move over," said Teagan. She crept into Aggie's bed and held
her friend as close as she could. Aggie cried and cried, her
whole body trembling. But after a while she calmed down and
started breathing heavily. Teagan hugged her close and stayed
there a little longer. It wouldn't do to be found in the wrong bunk
in the morning, so she crept back into her own bed and tried to
fall asleep.
Aggie was a strong girl, but she'd just received the most
dreadful beating in the long history of the Silo.
The strange sound of an unseen monster weighed heavy on
Edgar's mind as he crept forward ever so quietly. A warm, faint
wind blew into Edgar's face. He assumed it was coming from
the keeper of this place, a creature blowing gusts of hot air past
sharp teeth, waiting for Edgar to arrive.
He thought of Dr. Kincaid's words, the burning bridge of stone,
and he began to wonder--could this be the very place? He was,
generally speaking, at the end of the longest shard. And the
monsters he'd encountered outside were the last thing he'd
come to. Beware the keepers of the gate.
"If it's true I've passed the keepers of the gate," Edgar said to
himself, astonished at his own good luck, "then this must be the
way to the docking station."
He rose to his feet with some effort and peered down the long
tunnel in which he stood. It led straight into the heart of
Atherton, and it was dimly illuminated in a way he'd never seen
before--with a kind of blue light.
Where is that coming from? thought Edgar. He looked back at
the opening of the tunnel and saw tiny blue dots dancing toward
him. They were coming out of small holes in the ceiling and the
floor. First there were ten, then a hundred, and then a thousand
little blue bugs in the air.
Edgar wanted to reach out and touch them, and he very nearly
did. Isabel and Samuel had seen firebugs. They had known the
allure of touching them, of wanting to join with them in their
charming little dance.
"I can see why Isabel wanted to touch them," said Edgar. "They
are appealing little killers."
The thousand firebugs became two thousand, and soon there
was a thick fog of glowing cobalt between Edgar and the
outside world.
"Only one way to go now," said Edgar. He was afraid of what
lay ahead, but he also knew that if even a few firebugs touched
him he would never make it back to the surface of Atherton
alive.
Fortunately, the firebugs remained just a few feet beyond the
opening. They appeared to be trying to come nearer to Edgar;
the warm wind must have been too much of a struggle for their
delicate wings. They hung in the air, fighting to stay aloft in the