Lost (11 page)

Sarah squinted at the module. “Yeah. I think so.” She frowned. “But how could they be the same as the ones on the trunk Fox brought to the island?”

Marco thought about it for a moment. “Maybe we assumed that he'd brought it here. But what if he didn't? What if he found it here when he was marooned, left with the plan of coming back for it, but then Captain Norm came and found it?”

“But he came from Africa. It sounded like he got it there.” She frowned. “But how can it be the same?” asked Sarah. “The same people who did all this”—she spread out her arms—“made the trunk too?”

“I don't know.” Marco shook his head as he stood back up. He wasn't sure they were even talking about people anymore. None of it seemed natural. None of it seemed like it belonged on this planet. It all seemed way more like it was
not of this Earth.

He shivered as he stepped to the next module. There, he held his palms on the frost glass as long as he could, then blew on them to warm up before setting them there again. A small, misshapen circle cleared and he looked through it. A white goat stood there, motionless like the first. “Another goat.” He took a longer look. There was no beard or horns. “This one's female, I think.”

“Let me see.” Sarah bent to see in, and then straightened back up. “But they're normal, right? Like no extra horns or wings or weird feet or anything?”

Marco looked into the first module again. “No, they seem like normal goats.” He took a step back and shook his head. Why was there an island full of weird animals, and then a cave with normal ones? He couldn't make any sense of it.

Sarah strode down the row of modules, like she was looking for something. Finally, she stopped at one that was taller than their house back in California. The glass front stretched up about ten feet, but she set a hand on the frost at eye level. Marco caught up with her and set a hand on it too. A few moments later, they had a patch about the size of an envelope. Sarah leaned forward.

“What do you see?” asked Marco.

“Weird.” She didn't say anything for a moment, and then she stepped back. Sarah scrunched up her nose and shrugged. “They're like … gray tree trunks or something. I can't tell.”

Marco stepped close to the glass, so near that his breath fogged it up. Inside the module he saw two thick, gray trees. At least, that's what they looked like. He was taller than Sarah, and stood up on his tiptoes and looked down. Four semicircles of a slightly different color were embedded on the front of the bottom of the gray things.

Marco sucked in. Not just semicircles. They were … toenails. “Whoa.” He stepped back. “Not trees.”

“What?” asked Sarah.

Marco said, “I'm pretty sure those aren't trees.” He reached up as high as he could and placed his hands there until he couldn't stand the cold, then did it again until he had a clear spot. He knelt down. “Here, get up on my shoulders.”

“Why?” Sarah made a face.

He pointed up. “To get a better look.”

She set the bag down. “Fine.” Sarah pushed on his shoulders. “Lower.”

Marco sunk down more, even though it hurt his injured knee.

Sarah swung a leg over each shoulder. “I'm gonna fall!” She put her hands on the module to steady herself.

“Going up.” Marco stood. “Can you see?”

“To the left a little!”

Marco tried to move, but lost his balance and tipped to the left.

Sarah squealed. “Watch it!”

Marco righted himself, then leaned forward so he could put his hands on the cold module to keep his balance.

“Okay, that's good.” Sarah leaned closer to the glass. “Oh, whoa.”

“What?” asked Marco. The strain on his legs wasn't bad because his stepsister wasn't very heavy, but his hands burned from the cold glass.

“It's an elephant. With tusks. Frozen, like the goats.” She rapped her knuckles on the top of his head. “Let me down.”

“Gladly.” Marco squatted and held up his hands.

She grasped them. “On three. One, two, three!”

He pushed up and she vaulted over his head to the floor. He straightened up and flexed his knee a couple times. “Seriously? An elephant?”

She nodded, then added, “A normal one. No extra parts.”

“Wow,” said Marco. He tilted his head at the next module, which was identical in size and shape. “You think that one's a female?”

Sarah nodded. “Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes. “Is this some kind of Noah's Ark?” She looked down the rows. “You think there's two of everything frozen in here?”

“Maybe.” Marco shivered. His shirt was still damp with sweat, and he was getting chilled more and more as they stayed there. “And we're going to be the next two frozen if we don't find a way out of here.”

“Okay,” said Sarah. She scooped up the bag. “But can we look in one more?”

Marco nodded. “Pick a shorter one though.” He started doing jumping jacks, trying to warm up as Sarah ran across the cavern to the other row of modules. She picked one that was only a few feet taller than she was and stuck her hand on the frost. Marco joined her as she pulled off her hand and looked in. “Oh.”

“Lemme see.” Marco waited until Sarah moved, then looked in. A black-and-white cow, small rivulets of steam coming out of its large, shiny pink nostrils. “A Holstein.” He glanced at the module next to it and raised his eyebrows. “My guess is there's a bull in that one.”

“I'll see,” said Sarah. She blew on her hands, then placed them on the frost, clearing a spot. She leaned in. “Yeah, I'd say so. Huge horns.”

Marco said, “So some are domestic animals and some are wild.”

“This is so weird.” Sarah hugged herself, her arms covered with goose bumps. “I want to find my dad.”

Marco nodded. He wanted to find his brother, if he was there, and then get out. He shivered again, then pointed. “Let's follow the rows. They have to end at some point, right?”

“Yeah.” Sarah reached out and touched the frost-covered keypad with symbols. Then she leaned over and looked at the one on the module next to it. “They're different.”

“Different how?” asked Marco.

Sarah compared them again. “I think they're the names of the animals. But in whatever weird language it is.” She met his gaze. “It's like … the module was made for the animal. With the animal's name on it.
Before the animal was ever in it
.”

Marco frowned. “As if the modules are for—”

They both uttered the word at the same time:

“Collecting.”

A collection.

Marco turned and looked around the cavern at all the modules.

They were standing in the midst of someone's
collection.
And they needed to get out
before they became part of it.

 

17

Sarah started shaking. She didn't know whether it was from the cold or from fear, but she couldn't stand still. “Let's go.” She grabbed Marco's arm and started jogging toward the end of the row. They had gone about a hundred yards when Marco came to a halt in front of a module.

“Look,” he said. The module's glass was clear. “It's empty.”

Sarah ran her fingertips over the keypad. “I wonder what is meant to be in here.”

“I don't want to know,” said Marco. “Let's keep going.”

They walked fast, past more empty modules, until they were nearly at the end. Sarah asked, “It's a wall! What do we do when we—” She stopped when she saw Marco.

He was in front of a module that came up to his chest. The glass in front of it was just beginning to frost over, and only a few white stars had formed on it. His mouth hung open as he stepped closer.

“Marco?” When he didn't answer her, Sarah said, “You're scaring me! Say something.”

Marco simply placed his palm on the glass, riveted by whatever lay inside.

“Marco?” Sarah joined him and gazed inside the module.

The black fur was the first thing she saw, but then her eyes were drawn right to the silver anchor-shaped tag.

AHABB
.

She slapped her hand over her mouth before she could scream. “Oh no. No. No. No.” She dropped her hand and turned to Marco, his eyes wide. She turned back to the module. There was the slightest tinge of frost on the end of Ahab's nose, where a trickle of steam came out. His brown eyes stared straight ahead, looking at nothing. “Oh no.” Sarah's eyes filled with tears. She set her hand on the glass. “I'll get you out of there. I promise.”

Marco said, “Your dad has to be here. We have to find him.”

Sarah sniffled and wiped her nose. “Here?” And then she realized what he meant. Her heart pounded as a rush of heat ran up her neck and face; a tremor started in her hands that had nothing to do with the cold. “Frozen?”

Marco started to say, “No, I didn't mean…” But he stopped, and bit his lower lip. “I don't know.”

“No!” She backed away from him. “He can't be.” She backed into a nearby module, which was about the height of her shoulders, and whirled around. It was empty. She went to the next one, which was slightly shorter. Also empty. The next module was about six and a half feet tall. The frost was just beginning to gather on the glass and she stopped and looked inside.

Her eyes traveled up the tan legs and the khaki shorts and the polo shirt, stopping when they reached the glasses, fogged so that she couldn't see her father's eyes. She screamed and pounded on the glass. “Nooooooooo!”

“Sarah!” Marco tried to grab her arm, but she flailed out and shoved him away. She went back to the module, catching the keypad in her gaze. She started pushing on the symbols, then began smacking them with the flat of her hand. “I'll get you out! I'll get you out!” Tears rolled down her cheeks as sobs caught in her throat. “I'll get you out!”

“Sarah!”

She ignored him, and kept pounding on the keypad until her hands felt bruised. She fell to her knees and lay her forehead against the glass, staring at her father. “I'll get you out.”

Marco uttered something in Spanish.

Sarah moved just enough so she could look sideways at him. He stood motionless in front of the neighboring module, his fists squeezing and then releasing. He repeated whatever he had said, then hit the glass with the side of his fist.

Sarah got to her feet and went to stand next to him.

Nacho was in that module, standing in his khaki shorts and purple Eco-Scout shirt and black flip-flops. A small cloud of vapor came out of his nostrils, and his dark eyes fixed on something beyond them as his hair stuck up a little on top.

Sarah put a hand on Marco's arm. He set a hand on it. “We'll get them out.” His voice was low and deep, almost a growl. “We'll find whoever did this.”

WHOOOOOSSSSHHHH!

At the sound overhead, Sarah snapped her head back, just in time to see a net falling on top of her.

 

18

Marco also saw the net, and shoved Sarah away from it. Instead of falling right on top of her, it just caught one of her legs, but stuck tight as she tried to kick it off. “Don't touch it!” yelled Marco. “It'll stick to anything.”

“There's a knife in the bag,” said Sarah.

Marco dug through and found it, then started trying to cut through the net. But as soon as the knife touched the net, it stuck to it. “Oh no.” He looked at Sarah. “I don't know what—”

Suddenly, her eyes bulged and she pointed behind him. “The Curator!”

Marco whirled around.

A bald man in a blue jumpsuit, slightly shorter than Marco, held up a white tube and pointed it at him. With a
WHOOOSSSHHH,
a white net shot out.

Marco managed to dodge it, then ran toward the man. Just as another net was propelled out of the tube, Marco flew up with a kick and knocked the thing out of the man's hands, the net floating harmlessly to the ground. He then kicked again, straight into the man's chest, knocking him flat on the ground.

“Be careful!” Sarah yelled.

Marco leapt onto the man, straddling him as he put his hands around his throat. “Let them go! You've got to let them go!”

Marco's hand's tightened, and the man's green eyes widened as he reached up with his wrinkled, age-spotted hands and grasped Marco's forearms. There wasn't a lot of strength there, and Marco had no problem holding him down. “Tell me how to get the net off! Tell me how to open those things!”

The bald man squeezed his eyes shut and rocked his head from side to side.

Then, suddenly, red stubble appeared all over the man's head. Marco watched in amazement as auburn hair sprouted from the man's head, flowing soft and shiny, not stopping until it reached Marco's arms. “What the—” His gaze went back to the man's face.

But the bald man was gone.

Instead, a beautiful woman with green eyes, a graceful nose, and full red lips lay where he had been, struggling to get away from Marco. He was caught off guard and loosened his grip, but managed to tighten it again before she got away. “I don't know what you're doing but it's not going to work! Tell me how to let them go!”

The woman pressed her lips together as she tried to pull his hands off her throat. Then, she squeezed her eyes shut and rocked her head from side to side. The tips of the auburn hair slowly darkened to a deep chestnut, the color seeping up toward the roots, and then the long brown hair began to recede, sinking back into her scalp until it was about the same length as Marco's.

Marco gasped and struggled to keep his grip on the brown-haired man that lay there, clutching Marco's arms.

“Stop it!” yelled Marco. “Stop it!” He tightened his grip.

The man's face turned red.

Marco shook his head. “I swear, if you don't tell me how to—”