CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

To their right a ten-foot slope led to a drop-off. Mike figured this was way better than the usual narrow ledge they often had to traverse, since it gave them some leeway before the edge. On their left the mountain rose high into the clouds. The way ahead was a flattish, winding slope up.

In about a hundred feet the path turned a sharp corner and became a narrow track. Hok put out his hand to steady himself against the side of the mountain.

Mike saw a trickle of rocks begin to fall from where Hok’s hand had touched the mountain. Then it was a fountain of rock and then the mountain was moving. Mike’s aura flashed. Sheets of earth surrounded him. In seconds he was twirling in his cocoon of safety. He wondered if he was going to fall off the mountain. Moments later the earth stopped moving.

Mike was buried in a small bubble of safety. He sat on a floor of mud which oozed around his aura. His mind whirled. Where was Joe? He tried pulling on the rope which had linked him to the others. It had snapped. They were no longer connected.

Using his communicator, Mike caused his power to surge outward towards what he thought was up. Moments later he saw gray sky and rain poured in on him. Thunder and lightning crashed and flashed nearby. The others had been in front of him. He caused his power to blaze forward.

The earth moved as if he was plowing a new path. He lessened the power somewhat. He didn’t want to hurt them as he unburied them or accidentally hurl them off the mountain or cause the mountain to slide some more. In minutes he’d found Joe and Hok. They were unhurt.

“Where’s Kench?” Hok asked.

Joe and Hok were still tied together, but like the rope to Mike, the one to Kench had been severed in the landslide. Mike set his communicator and located a signal from Kench. They fell to digging frantically. Lightning flashed ever nearer. They needed to get to shelter, Mike thought. Falling off the mountain after being fried or incinerated by lightning was the kind of two-fer that Mike wasn’t interested in. Although he figured his aura must be some protection. He hoped.

Mike pointed. “There. I think he’s ten feet down. We’ve got to get to him before he suffocates.”

Joe and Hok began to dig again. Mike said, “Wait.”

“What!” Hok screamed.

Mike sent out a narrow beam of power aimed one foot to the left of where his communicator said Kench was. In a moment there was a foot-wide shaft down to him.

“Kench!” Hok yelled.

They heard sputtering.

At least Kench was alive.

“Are you okay?” Mike called.

“I think so. Yeah. Half of me is still buried.”

Continuing to use his power like a plow, Mike began to expand the shaft down to Kench. Hok and Joe shoved dirt off the side of the mountain. Mike watched the surrounding mountainside for signs of another slide. It looked solid enough to his untrained eye. Mike hoped that if another slide started, his aura would protect all of them. Then again, they could all just be pitched over the side of the mountain.

A bolt of lightning hit about fifty feet in front of them. It split a rock. A buzz of the bolt connected to Mike and his communicator. The beam he’d been sending to move tons of rock, expanded. In a second or two all the earth in front of them and to the right slid down the mountain. Where they were, stayed put.

Mike doubled over. Again, all the breath left him and his stomach felt like an elephant was sitting on it. When he looked up, Kench was standing free. Joe was bending over Mike and had his arm around him.

“You okay?” Joe asked.

Mike took several deep breaths. “What happened?” was the first thing he gasped out.

They heard the earth itself rumble.

Hok yelled, “Move, move, the earth is going to go again! This way!”

Joe grabbed Mike and helped him to his feet. The four of them rushed ahead, Hok and Kench in the lead. In moments the earth began to slide. They ran faster. With a last lunge, Mike and Joe leaped past the rock that the lightning had split. They were on solid ground.

In the pouring rain they looked back. With a rushing roar, it looked like half the mountain was flowing into the alley below.

Joe had his arm around Mike’s waist. When the mountain stopped they all stood up.

Hok said, “We’re going to have to find a way back that goes around that.”

Mike said, “We’re alive.”

Kench said, “Barely.”

Their suits were covered in dirt, but the rain was washing it away in muddy rivulets.

Mike asked, “What’d I do?”

“You can make mountains move.”

“I didn’t cause the mudslide,” Mike said.

Joe said, “I know that. You saved Kench when the lightning hooked up with your power, like I did on Earth to defeat Vov, only this was smaller maybe because the lightning wasn’t a direct hit.”

“It hurt like hell. I felt like my whole body got hit with one massive punch.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Hok said, “I saw that. You moved a ton of dirt.”

Mike said, “I did a little digging that saved one of us.”

Using his mini-digger, Hok carved out a shallow cave out of an outcropping a hundred feet from the landslide.

They crawled into it to be out of the rain and to rest for a while. Their suits did keep them dry, but being out of the constant pounding downpour was a relief.

When they were seated, Mike asked, “Why doesn’t my power surge when rain hits me or my suit?”

Joe shrugged. He said, “Vov was a genius. He programmed it to recognize threats and or maybe to recognize something as a threat when the neurons in your brain register that something as a threat. The neurons go faster than your conscious thought. Vov must have tapped into that. Implants do that although Vov’s implant seems to be far more advanced and sophisticated. At any rate, rain isn’t perceived as a threat.”

“He was never out in this,” Mike said.

Joe said, “We still gotta save the guy ahead of us.”

Hok double-roped them all together and said, “I should have done this sooner. Sorry.”

After ascertaining that they were essentially unhurt, they moved from their shelter out into the elements, and began to lurch forward.