“Hurry!” Sarah yelled.
So many sounds filled the room, so much movement. In mere seconds the whole horde of monsters would be on top of them. They reached the altar and clasped hands, dropped to their knees. Michael felt the softness of a pad that had been set there, felt it give a little beneath his weight.
But nothing happened.
He should’ve known—just kneeling wasn’t enough.
They had to look at the code to get out.
5
A winged creature swooped in and knocked Michael backward, sending Sarah to the ground as well. The hideous monster flapped its wings, hovering right above their chests, and Michael saw that it was the goose demon, two words he’d never imagined could be used together. Its bloody beak parted and a horrific, shrill cry tore through the chapel, shattering the glass that still clung to the window frames.
Michael arched his back and kicked out, connecting with the demon’s body, slamming it into a pew, where it fell to the floor, still.
A claw closed on Michael’s shoulder and lifted him to his feet, spun him around to face a nightmare come to life. Huge jaws opened, filled with daggerlike teeth. Sarah was next to him, punching to get free from her own demon attacker.
The creature holding Michael pulled him in close until their noses almost touched. The smell was awful, a mix of rotting food and garbage dumps and decaying bodies. Michael gagged as the foul stench wafted across his face.
It was the bear. Tall enough, strong enough. It had to be the bear.
Michael stared into the monster’s eyes and terror froze him stiff—all but his heart, which beat so rapidly he thought it might crack through his rib cage.
He had no idea what to do.
Something tackled them from the right. Michael and the demon crashed to the ground and its grip on him was torn free. Michael twisted around, saw that it was Sarah—she was punching at the bear demon with all her might. A quick glance to where she’d been showed that somehow she’d killed the creature that had attacked her.
Michael turned, faced the bear, and knew they couldn’t beat it. Not without help. He closed his eyes and focused on the code, ignoring the storm of complexity swirling around him. He strained to put it aside, concentrated on his own self, his Aura, his history in the Sleep. He grabbed for the first thing that revealed itself, Fire Disks from
The Realms of Rasputin
, snatched the programming, pulled it into the chapel. He would never have been able to do it if he’d thought too much—acting on instinct, he suddenly had glowing, fiery saucers hovering about him. With a thought he unleashed them, threw them all at the bear’s body.
The beast roared as its flesh bubbled up and burned. Sarah scrambled away and got to her feet next to Michael. Bellowing, the injured bear rolled onto all fours, lumbered to the wall, and stood up. Michael spun in a circle—the demons were closing in from all directions.
He knew that somehow the altar had a weak spot in the code and was just a few feet away. A glance over his shoulder showed that a small demon stood on top of it—the squirrel, or maybe the ferret-rat-weasel that had perched on Gunner Skale’s shoulder. It hissed at them, baring its tiny fangs.
Michael and Sarah stood shoulder to shoulder, hands clasped, slowly backing their way toward the kneeling pad. The noose of demons was tightening.
“You work on the code,” Michael whispered. “Find the sweet spot. I’ll fight them off with more Fire Disks.” He said it even though he had no idea how long he could last.
“Okay,” Sarah replied. “Guide me.” She closed her eyes and squeezed his hand even tighter. Michael moved back another step. Then he conjured up another array of the disks and threw them randomly in all directions.
Demons roared in pain, and Michael threw away all caution. Yanking on Sarah, he turned and dove toward the base of the altar. They hit the floor and slid two feet, coming up just short of the pad. Sarah had somehow kept her eyes closed, staying focused on her task, searching the code that surrounded them. Michael held tightly to her hand, guiding her forward. Then the little demon on the altar shrieked and dove at Sarah—its feet tangling in her hair as it clawed at her face and tried to bite her ear. She didn’t respond. Michael reached for the creature, grabbed it, and threw the thing as hard as he could.
“I’ve got it!” Sarah yelled, her eyes flying open. “I know what to do!”
But the demons were everywhere. One grabbed Michael’s arm, another his leg. One had Sarah by the hair—he could hear her scream as the creature yanked her head back. Michael fought to get loose, losing his tenuous grasp on the Fire Disk coding. The creatures were all around. Grabbing and clawing and biting. There was a terrifying moment where he almost gave up, almost decided to let them kill him and end it all. Go back to the Wake and accept the consequences.
But something inside him exploded. A roar tore through his throat and adrenaline detonated inside his muscles. Screaming in fury, Michael beat away the creatures. For the briefest moment he saw fear in all those yellow eyes surrounding him, and it gave him even more courage.
He knocked a huge beast off of Sarah. She was bruised, and blood smeared her face. He lifted her up and carried her past the kneeling pad and the altar to the dais with the statues of ancestors.
No words were needed. Michael closed his eyes and linked with the code, sensed Sarah’s presence already there. She’d set it all up, laid it out before him. In a swarming sea of numbers and letters and symbols, he saw it—the tiniest sliver of an escape. Both of them went for it at the same time.
The demons came at them, their digital forms as terrifying as their visual manifestations. A claw scratched Michael down his back. A monster on four legs—the dog or the fox—jumped onto the altar, snarling. Michael felt himself being yanked from his position, but he flexed all his digital muscles and forced his body to stay put. For one more second, just one more. He input a final piece of code and there was a popping sound.
Then it all disappeared.
CHAPTER 19
HEAT
1
The world vanished around them, and when it came back again, Michael and Sarah were inside a dimly lit cave. The walls were made of black stone.
“Oh man,” Michael said with a groan. He sat up and crawled to the closest wall of the cave, leaning back against it. “I’ll be one happy dude if I never see another animal in my life. Especially the ones that turn into demons.”
“Amen to that.” Sarah was sitting on the opposite side of the rocky space, and it was hard for him to look at her—she was pale and bloody. “Or a forest. Or a hallway. Or a stone disk.”
“I’d love to see a cheeseburger right about now, though.” His stomach rumbled with hunger.
“Don’t torture me.”
He looked deeper into the cave, down a long corridor. There was an orange glow coming from within that felt warm and cozy. Michael pictured little dwarves living back there, sipping tea and eating some hearty stew.
“How in the world did we survive that?” Sarah asked.
“Because of you” was Michael’s answer. “Because you didn’t panic, and you found a way out.”
Sarah was quiet a moment, as if she was thinking. “It wasn’t that hard, you know. It’s almost like in some spots they left us a way to hack free, in others they didn’t.”
“Don’t be so humble. You’re just really good.”
She didn’t respond, seemingly lost in thought again.
Michael gave her an expression of exaggerated wonder. “Seriously, when did you become a superhero? You’re like Batman meets the Hulk.”
“You have a gift for making a compliment sound like an insult.”
“I do my best.”
Sarah smiled. “Come on. Let’s start exploring—we know we’re going to hit a bunch of crap, and I want to get it over with.”
Michael sighed. Even though they’d gotten a meal and a few hours of sleep before the demon attack, he was exhausted. And the hunger pangs made even the rocks scattered across the ground look slightly appetizing.
“No thinking, though,” Sarah warned. “Let’s just keep moving.”
“Okay.” Michael knew she was right. Getting busy was definitely the answer.
But he didn’t move right away. Something she’d said—about the Path leaving almost obvious weak spots here and there—had triggered some thoughts. It seemed related to the creepy voice he’d heard so many times—the voice saying his name and telling him he was doing well. What could be the purpose of that? What did it mean? It seemed to fly in the face of everything they were doing. The whole point of the VNS sending them into the Sleep to find the Path and the Hallowed Ravine was so they could lead the VNS to Kaine. The VNS wouldn’t know if he was doing well until he found Kaine—who was supposed to be hiding.
Didn’t that make the Path a firewall, put in place by Kaine to keep people
out
?
Yet…
“Cat got your tongue?” Sarah finally said.
Michael wiped at his tired eyes. “What’s that?”
“Cat got your tongue?”
“What does
that
mean?”
“Huh? You’ve never heard that before?”
Michael stretched his arms, trying to psyche himself to get up. “Yes, I’ve heard it. But I’m pretty sure it’s something old people say.”
“Whatever. Why so quiet?”
“Just thinking about things. About the Path. Kaine. Everything.”
“Didn’t I just say no thinking?” Sarah said. “Not that I really meant it.”
Michael smiled and nodded, but he was even more unsettled now. The Path didn’t add up. Again, if it was supposed to keep them out, then why did it have places in the coding that seemed meant to guide them? Even the concept of a trail in the first place. Michael had been so busy trying to stay alive, he hadn’t thought about it like that before.
And the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. “The Path” was an odd name for programming that was meant to keep you
out
. Maybe it wasn’t a firewall after all. Maybe it was something else entirely.
2
With another groan from the aches and pains, Michael forced himself to stand up. Then he pointed toward a long corridor at the rear of the cave, seemingly the only way out. “What do you think is back there?”
“Lava.”
She said it so quickly Michael was surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah. I think this is a volcano—the black rock is cooled magma.”
“So a big river of molten fire could come bursting through this tunnel at any second?”
“That sounds about right.”
It just kept getting better and better, Michael thought. “Ha. Well, we’ll show them. We won’t wait—we’ll walk right into it like a couple of bumbling idiots.”
Sarah gave him a weary grin.
“You look terrible, by the way,” Michael added.
She glared at him, though it didn’t last long before turning into a smile. “I can’t possibly look any worse than you do.”
“Don’t worry. You still look pretty, just in a terrible sort of way.” It sounded dumb, but he really meant it.
“Thanks, Michael.”
After all they’d been through, there was a bond between them that he couldn’t imagine feeling with anyone else. “When this is all over,” he finally said, “I really want to meet out in the Wake. I promise I’m even better-looking in person.”
“And I’m probably worse.” She laughed, a sound they both needed to hear.
“I wouldn’t care. I swear I wouldn’t. That’s what’s so great about the Sleep. I know who you are inside, and that’s all that matters.” He’d never said something so cheesy in his entire life.
“That’s actually really sweet, Michael.”
He blushed. “Plus, I bet you
are
hot.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes but kept her gaze trained on Michael. “It’s a deal—as soon as we finish saving the VirtNet—a day out in real sunshine.”
“Deal.”
She shifted, then pushed herself up to her feet, groaning. Michael understood all too well—parts of his body that he hadn’t known existed the day before were screaming in pain.
“Shall we go cave exploring?” he asked in a ridiculous British accent.
“Let’s,” she replied. Her smile reached her eyes and made him feel better.
As they started walking into the mountain, limping like two old people with arthritis, Sarah reached out and took his hand.
“Let’s,” she repeated.
3
Michael thought the walls of the tunnel looked man-made. They were black and shiny and appeared as if they’d been chiseled. The soft light coming from deeper within the cave reflected in a way that made everything look as if it might melt at any second.
Michael and Sarah had barely rounded the first bend of the corridor when he saw a bright orange glow. As if triggered by the sight, a gust of warm air blew past them, stirring Michael’s hair and clothes. It felt good—almost made him want to lie back down and try sleeping.
Neither of them spoke as they continued on. Michael stared at the warm light as they approached it. It was inviting, like a campfire on a cool night. What scared him was thinking about its source. If they really were inside a volcano, it was sure to be unpleasant.
Abruptly the tunnel widened and the space opened up. The ceiling stretched until it was at least thirty feet high. Farther ahead, Michael could tell that the space got even bigger—a cavern was waiting for them, and the fiery orange light grew stronger. The temperature had risen, and the air was heavy with humidity.
Soon they came to a tiny pool of bubbling molten rock. Michael was mesmerized by its glowing beauty until he recalled what he’d learned in geology class—it meant they were standing on a layer of cooled lava that had to be on top of a vast amount of uncooled lava. Michael suddenly had visions of the floor cracking open, spouts of liquid fire shooting up to incinerate them, and he shivered.
“Wanna go for a swim?” he asked awkwardly.