It was a good thing we landed back in the zoo.
Not because I loved zoos and getting chased by polar bears, but because it was the only proof that we were actually in New York City. Once we left the ruins, there was nothing that even looked close to the New York that either Patrick or I knew. The city was destroyed. As we walked north toward the Bronx, we passed block after block of forlorn shells that used to be buildings. It reminded me of pictures I’d seen of Europe after the bombings during World War II. Compared to this new New York of Third Earth, Rubic City on Ibara was a vacation spot.
We walked like a couple of zombies, numbed by the sight of the carnage that surrounded us. There were no people. None. Not even creepy ratlike Flighters living in squalor. The city was dead. Of course that raised the question of what the polar bear had been eating to stay alive. I didn’t want to think about that.
“It’s like a bomb fell,” I finally whispered. “Or a thousand.”
“Maybe that’s what happened,” Patrick replied. “This is far worse than the New York I left.”
“I wonder what year this is. I mean, did Third Earth change again, or did this happen after your time?”
Neither of us had the answer, and it wasn’t like we could grab a newspaper to find the date. All we could do was keep moving north. As we trudged through the rubble, the air began to clear. I kind of wished it hadn’t, because it gave us a better view of the destruction. At one point I glanced at Patrick and saw tears in his eyes. He noticed that I was looking at him and quickly wiped them away.
“Sorry,” he said, embarrassed. “It’s kind of a lot to handle, you know?”
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the destruction of his city, or about all the truths that had been revealed to us. Probably both.
“I guess it’s finally my turn,” he said with an ironic chuckle.
“For what?” I asked.
“Third Earth. My territory. Last but not least.”
“Yeah, home sweet home,” I said, trying to make light.
Patrick smiled, but his heart wasn’t in it. Another tear fell. He wiped it away quickly. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he finally uttered.
“Yeah, you can,” I said with confidence. “You’ve already proved that.”
“I’m a teacher, Pendragon. I’m not a warrior like Loor or Alder…or you.”
“You’re a Traveler,” I said quickly. “Don’t think of yourself as ‘Patrick Mac the teacher.’ Think of yourself as someone who has the power of Solara at your command.”
He looked at me sideways. “That’s just odd.”
I had to laugh. “Yeah, tell me about it. It sounded good though, didn’t it?”
Patrick shrugged and laughed. Neither of us had gotten over the shock of all that we had learned in Solara. I was still Bobby Pendragon from Second Earth, and he was still Patrick Mac from Third Earth.
“You know something,” I said. “I think this is the way we’re supposed to feel. I mean, we’re handling this like normal people from Halla, right? That was the whole point. The only thing that can stop Saint Dane is the spirit of mankind. Real, physical mankind. Flaws and all. If the spirits, or whatever they are, from Solara could have stopped him, they would have. But they didn’t. That’s why we’re here. They made us into real people. I think we’re supposed to be scared. And unsure. And angry. And indignant. And freaked out and all the things that real people feel. It’s like we represent mankind. And if mankind can’t save itself, then maybe it can’t be saved.”
Patrick nodded thoughtfully. “Nice speech,” he finally said. “But it doesn’t make me feel any better.”
I laughed. “Really. This is freaking scary.”
For the first time Patrick seemed to brighten. “But hearing you say that does make me feel better. If you’re scared, at least it means I’m not the only one who feels out of his league.”
I was scared all right. About a lot of things. But there was one fear I didn’t want to share with Patrick. It went beyond the battle that lay ahead. I was afraid of what would happen to us once the war was finally over. No matter which way it came out. In some ways, losing to Saint Dane would be easier. Seriously. If that happened, I had no doubt that we would cease to exist. I don’t know if that could be considered “dying” or not, but if the final positive spirit of mankind was snuffed out, I felt certain that the Travelers would be snuffed right along with it. As frightening as that was, I understood it. What I didn’t understand was what would happen to us if we won. What would life become? Would we turn into spirits and float around someplace called Solara to guide mankind? What the heck would that be like? It didn’t stop me from wanting to beat Saint Dane, but still. Yikes.
Patrick stopped. He stared ahead with wide eyes. I looked too, but didn’t see anything unusual.
“What?” was my obvious question.
“What is that?” he asked.
I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The swirling dust and fog in the air had gotten thick again. As it moved, I caught glimpses of something solid. At first it looked like a group of vertical pillars floating in the air. Barren trees? Light poles? I couldn’t tell. It took a weak gust of wind to blow away some of the dust to give us a better view. In seconds the structure had substance. It was a bridge. Or at least what was left of a bridge. It was one other touchstone that I remembered about New York. We had reached the water that surrounded the island of Manhattan. I figured the structure ahead was the railroad bridge that spanned the distance between Manhattan and the Bronx. We were getting closer to the conclave.
“We’ll have to walk over that wreck,” I said.
Patrick shook his head nervously. He didn’t want to go.
“I think it’s the only way,” I added.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he croaked without taking his eyes away.
I wasn’t sure why the bridge didn’t bother him. It worried me plenty. At one time the metal span had to withstand the pounding from hundreds of trains that rumbled over it every day. Now it didn’t look strong enough to withstand the pounding of our feet. The steel structure swayed and squealed in the wind. It was more wreck than bridge. It looked as if one good sneeze would send it crashing into the river.
“No problem,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself. “We’ll make it across.”
Patrick swallowed and said, “What are we going to do about that when we get there?”
He continued to stare ahead. I was definitely missing something. I looked again, trying to see anything that would scare him like that. All I saw was a white wall of fog on the other side of the bridge….
That wasn’t fog.
“Yeow” was all I could say.
On the far side of the river, set back a few hundred yards from the bank, was a wall. A huge wall. No, an immense wall. It was so gigantic that I thought it was a bank of fog. I had never seen anything so vast. It must have been twenty stories high. It spread out before us for what seemed like miles to either side, like a gargantuan dam. It was a monster.
“I’m guessing that wasn’t on Third Earth when you were here,” I muttered weakly.
Patrick shook his head without taking his eyes off the structure.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Two helicopters flew by above us. They were coming from the south, headed for the wall. They were traveling fairly low, which meant they had to quickly gain altitude or they would smash into the flat, smooth surface. The dark vehicles lifted higher and cleared the top of the structure with expert ease. Once over, they dropped down out of sight. It looked as if they were headed in for a landing on the other side.
“Any guesses?” I asked, numb. I was officially as stunned as Patrick.
“It looks like a fortress,” he said. “No telling how big it is, but I’m thinking it covers the spot where the Conclave of Ravinia is. Or was.”
I took a deep breath and said, “We could stand here forever wondering. There’s only one way to find out what that big boy’s all about.”
Patrick finally broke his gaze from the wall and looked at me. “How are we supposed to get over that bridge? It’s a wreck.”
Turned out he was nervous about the bridge after all.
I started walking toward the structure. “I don’t know. But we won’t figure it out standing here staring at it.”
I led Patrick toward the decrepit bridge. We soon found that we were walking on the remains of railroad tracks that hadn’t seen a train in a very long time. Most of the ties were missing, and every few yards there were rusted gaps in the rails. When we reached the twisted structure of bridge itself, my heart sank. Up close it looked even flimsier than from a distance. And believe me, it looked pretty bad from back there.
“If this crashes, it’s over,” Patrick pointed out.
“Yeah,” I said. “Good thing we can’t die.”
“Our bodies can die, Pendragon. Trust me. I’ve been there. It isn’t pleasant.”
“Sorry,” I said quickly. I’d forgotten that he had been killed on the old Third Earth. Could life get any stranger?
He added, “Maybe we should try to turn into birds and fly across.”
“Last resort,” I said quickly. “Uncle Press told us to use our abilities sparingly.”
“But if we can’t get across—”
“We’ll get across,” I said, and started walking.
The second I looked down through the rails to the river below, I changed my mind. I was no longer sure that we would make it. The ties were rotted, but didn’t necessarily look it. Some seemed porous, but were actually strong. Others looked solid, but crumbled under my weight. The only way to tell was to step on a tie and hope that it didn’t crack. Much of the bridge bed below the tracks had fallen away, leaving gaping holes. We had to move like a couple of tightrope walkers on the rails that spanned these gaps. It was terrifying.
Each step brought with it a new, ugly sound. Metal groaned. Pipes snapped. Chunks of cement fell away and crashed into the churning water far below. I wasn’t just worried about where we stepped, but about the bridge as a whole. How stable was it? If things started to sway, it would go down for sure, and we’d be crushed in tons of twisted steel. That would hurt. It came down to a test of our own inner strength, and balance. It must have taken an hour to cross the hundred yards of bridge. It felt like a hundred miles. But we made it. The gaps below the rails became smaller with each step. My confidence grew. I hopped the last few yards until my feet were once again on solid ground. I turned quickly to see Patrick not far behind. He was looking down, concentrating, with his arms out wide for balance.
“You got it,” I said.
He too hopped the last few yards, joining me on the far side of the river.
“Let’s not go back that way,” he declared, panting.
We turned together to look ahead.
“Whoa” was all Patrick could get out.
Yeah. Whoa.
The massive wall was a few hundred yards from where we stood. Still, it towered over us. It really did look like a dam. The surface was light gray and smooth, with an etched pattern of rectangles that revealed it was constructed with a series of blocks. It must have taken years to build. Like the great pyramids. Looking left and right, I couldn’t see where it ended. Was it a straight wall? Or did it turn on an angle to enclose whatever was on the other side? That would have been even more incredible. If this wall continued around, it would have to be the largest structure ever built by man.
“Eighth Wonder of the World,” I said. “I have no idea what the other seven are, so don’t ask.”
Rising up from the base of the structure every fifty yards or so were huge, red vertical rectangles that could have been massive doors. Or decorations. I couldn’t tell. They each looked about twenty yards high and half as wide.
“We aren’t alone,” Patrick pointed out.
I’m not sure why I didn’t see them at first. It must have been because I was too busy gaping up at the monstrous wall. But at the base of this structure, were people. Even from as far away as we were, I could see that they were Ravinian soldiers. They had on the same red jumpsuits and golden helmets that those guys wore who beat up the man in the zoo. They walked in a line, maybe thirty yards apart, along the base of the wall. Other than the helicopters, it was the first sign of life we’d seen since the zoo.
“They look like guards,” Patrick pointed out.
“Yeah, but are they trying to keep people out or in?”
“It could be a Horizon Compound,” Patrick offered. “Naymeer built walled cities to keep the lower classes separate. I heard they were horrible places.”
“I guess,” I said, thinking. “But would the Ravinians really need to build something that extreme just to separate people? I mean, that thing would hold back King Kong.”
Patrick and I exchanged nervous looks, both thinking the same thing. Could that wall have been built to hold back something monstrous?
“No way,” I finally said. “That’s just…fantasy.”
“You mean like everything else we’ve been hearing isn’t?”
I was about to argue why I didn’t think we had to worry about a giant ape when the ground began to rumble. I have to admit, for a brief second I thought that it might have been from the thundering footsteps of a monster monkey.
We were near the river. The area between us and the wall was a wide stretch of concrete. It reminded me of an empty parking lot at a stadium. That’s how big it was. Weeds grew up through the spiderweb of cracks that spread out everywhere.
“Earthquake?” Patrick asked through chattering teeth.
As if in answer, we heard a grinding, machine sound. To our left the cement surface began to shift. One of the cracks wasn’t a crack. It was a seam. It split apart, creating a gap that stretched from the bank of the river in front of the destroyed bridge, all the way to the wall. The two sides lowered and retracted beneath the ground to either side, creating a gap that was maybe five yards wide. At the bottom of this gap, running the length of the newly formed channel, was a single metal track.
“Get down!” I yelled, and pulled Patrick toward the river’s edge. Not knowing what we were dealing with, I figured it would be better if we weren’t seen. We jumped down beneath a cement ledge and peered back at the wall to see what the Ravinians might be up to. We were looking the wrong way. The sound of rushing water pulled our attention back to the river. It looked to me like a whirlpool was forming, creating the sucking sound. A moment later something rose up out of the water in front of the bridge.
“Did King Kong swim?” Patrick asked, transfixed.
A wide tube pushed up from out of the center of the whirlpool. Its steady movement showed that it wasn’t alive. It was mechanical. I heard a faint whirring sound beneath the sounds of swirling water. The tube rose up from beneath the surface at a steep angle, until it reached the edge of the long trough that held the rail.
Another mechanical sound followed. Gears were turning. It was coming from the direction of the wall. One of the huge red rectangles began lifting up like a garage door. The rail led right up to it.
“This is our chance,” I announced. “We gotta get in there.”
“What?” Patrick shouted in horror. “What if it’s a prison? What if it’s one of the Horizon Compounds?”
“We have to know,” I answered while looking between the tube that had come up from the water and the rising door.
“But we can’t just run over there and walk through!” Patrick whined. “There’s no protection. Nowhere to hide. How are we supposed to get there without being seen?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Hey!” he announced. “We have the power. Why don’t we turn into birds and fly in?”
I gave him a sharp look. “For one, I don’t know how that works, and I don’t want to try. And two, we’re not supposed to be using that power, remember?”
“Then come up with a better idea!”
A shrill whistle sounded. It was coming from the water tube. I felt another slight rumble. The whistle sounded again. It was coming closer.
“It’s a train,” I declared. “That track must run along the same route as the old ones. The bridge is history, so they went underwater.”
A moment later a sleek, golden train glided up out of the tube. It looked to me like a cross between a fancy, old-fashioned steam engine and a monorail from Disneyland. It had to be electric, because it moved silently on the single track. The nose came to a point, with a cockpit just above. The body of the train was covered with fancy golden sculptures that looked like vines. They didn’t seem to have any other purpose than to be decorative. The engine was short, and pulled two more longer cars, where I guessed the passengers rode. This was not a freight train. It was a mode of transportation for people who traveled in style. It moved slowly and smoothly. I glanced ahead. The massive red door was open. The train was almost all the way out of the tube. I felt sure that once it was out, it would pick up speed.
“Now or never,” I declared.
“Now or never what?” Patrick replied with surprise.
I scrambled to my feet and climbed up over the lip of the cement embankment. Patrick didn’t.
“Pendragon!” he wailed. “You’ll get us killed.”
I turned back to him but kept moving. “So what?” I said. “We’ll just end up in Solara and come right back here. That’s what you did, right?”
“Yes, but…it hurt!”
“So then, let’s not get killed.”
I ran for the train. A quick look back told me Patrick was doing the same. The train was picking up speed. If we were going to jump on, it would have to be right away. The only place that seemed logical to do it was the space between the two passenger cars. I sprinted to the spot where I guessed it would be when I reached the train, and miscalculated by a few feet. The train was accelerating faster than I thought. Instead of grabbing on to the platform between the two cars, I grabbed on to a chunk of the decorative sculpture that was affixed to the side of the train. I trusted it was strong enough to hold me. I jumped, using my arms to climb the sculpture like a jungle gym. I found myself dangling off the side of the train car as it gathered speed. My idea suddenly didn’t seem so bright. I looked back to see Patrick sprinting to catch up. I didn’t think there was any way he would climb up the way I did, so I made my way forward, scrambling carefully along the sculpture until I reached the front of the car. From there I swung my legs over the safety rail, onto the small platform in between. I was on!
“Let’s go!” I yelled to Patrick.
The train was speeding up. Patrick wasn’t.
“Can we please just turn into birds?” he gasped.
“No! Pick it up!” I yelled.
Patrick dug in and sprinted forward. He reached out to me. I grabbed his hand and strained to hoist him up and onto the platform. We were on. That was the easy part. We still had to get past the wall, and the guards. We both crouched down, so as not to be seen from inside either car.
“I hope this wasn’t a mistake,” he wheezed.
Mistake or not, we were on our way. The monorail train continued on toward the mysterious wall.
“What do we do if we get in?” Patrick whispered.
“Let’s worry about that once we’re in,” I answered.
Truth was, I had no idea what we would do. Or what we would find. Though I felt certain we were in the right place. Whatever this monster wall was, whether it was keeping somebody in or out, it had to have something to do with Saint Dane. That much I was sure about.
A moment later we arrived at the massive wall. I held my breath, as if that would do any good. We both pushed ourselves flat against the platform to try and look as inconspicuous as possible. Neither of us moved. Patrick looked one way, I looked the other. When we reached the entrance, I saw two Ravinians standing next to the track, looking the other way. I winced, expecting an alarm to go off. Or a guard to shout that there were stowaways sneaking in.
There were no alarms. We weren’t seen. Seconds later we glided through the door and into another world.