The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Chapter 14 - The Awful Smell

“Oh no.” Zoe’s voice quavered as she ran to the hole in the wall.

Binny and Zach scrambled over to Cassie who was trying to sit up.

“My leg hurts.” Cassie was upright now and rolling up her leggings to inspect the damage.

“Ooh. It’s just a scrape. You’re gonna be okay.” Binny made an effort to sound cheerful.

“Uuuuuuuccccchhhhh.” Zoe put her hands up to her face as she backed away from the hole reeling. “It smells awful.”

The smell hit the other kids soon thereafter. Penny looked like she was going to retch.

“He’s in there. What if he’s…” Zoe left the question unfinished, suspended. As the realization of what had happened sank in, she shuddered and started sobbing. “What am I going to do?”

Zach felt his heart hurt when he heard Zoe’s wail over her brother. He looked at Binny, eyes pleading.

Binny left Zach to nurse Cassie’s leg and strode over to where Zoe was alternating between sobbing and gasping at the terrible smell coming from the hole in the wall. 

Zoe and the other children’s eyes were glued to Binny as she slowly put her right fist in her left palm and closed her eyes.

Binny stood there for a moment, concentrating intensely, and then suddenly opened her eyes and turned to Zoe, “He’s alive.”

Relief and surprise washed over Zoe’s face. “What? How do you know? What do you mean?” Zoe looked like she was praying that this wasn’t some sort of a trick Binny was playing.

“Zach didn’t tell you?”

“Didn’t tell me what?” Zoe asked, her voice tense.

“I can read people’s minds.”

“You what?” Zoe didn’t know whether Binny was joking or not.

Binny repeated herself more slowly stopping just shy of condescension. “If he were dead, I wouldn’t be able to read his mind. I think he’s asleep, but he’s not dreaming.”

Seeing the look of doubt on Zoe’s face, Zach added “It’s true. Trust me.”

“I can tell when someone’s dreaming because the picture of their thoughts looks all foggy. Right now with Gabe all I see is fog.”

“Dreamless sleep.” Penny added quietly.

“But something’s not quite right.” Binny seemed to be analyzing something she was seeing.

“What do you mean?” Zoe asked.

“He’s fine.” Binny looked back at Zoe reassuring her. “He’s just not where he should be. He looks farther away somehow.”

Seeing Zoe’s confusion Zach added, “She can get kind of a map of where everyone is located in a space by seeing all their feelings. She calls it ‘zooming out’.”

“Yeah, it’s like he’s somehow below us.”

Zoe felt her heart start to beat faster again. “We need to get him out of there. I’m worried he won’t be able to breathe.”

“I’ll do it!” Cassie was now standing upright quickly forgetting about her injury in a way only young children can.

Zoe smiled at Cassie.

“We’ll do it together.” Zach said.

§

“Careful with her Zach, she’s going to get scraped.” Binny lectured her brother. Zoe couldn’t quite get through the hole herself, so Zach, Binny, and Penny helped lift her over what remained of the wall and through the space that Gabe had made with his body.