The Cold Core

Part 5

21

I thought walking on the outskirts of the planet's core would prove to be very difficult due to the gravity pulling everything towards it. Turns out, it wasn't that hard. Once my head popped outside the trapdoor, I was hit by a massive gust of wind against me, pushing me back inside. I pushed on, and made it to the top. My magnetically charged boots were definitely helping me, but hauling a massive shotgun up here really wasn't. I looked back to see Matt helping Izzy up. Reluctantly, I bent down and helped Ruby up too. As I pulled her up, I heard her thanking Matt, so I assumed she thought it wasn't me who helped her. I decided not to correct her until we were back in Agartha.

Once we were all standing firmly on the outskirts of the core we all looked up. The massive fiery ball was still throbbing with energy, pulsing now and then, giving the impression that it was alive.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Ruby yelled.

"Yeah!" I replied and looked ahead.

"Kids, can you hear me?" I heard in my left ear.

"Yeah, loud and clear, director!" Matt replied.

"Good. Now, keep walking straight. It will take a while, but you should see the machine in about half an hour."

"Roger that, sir," Izzy said, and we started walking.

Now, if you've ever walked in a blizzard, you know you have to bend your back to the front to make yourself streamlined and put one foot in front of the other slowly, to make sure you don't slip and fall. Here, you didn't have to worry about slipping, but the wind and the weight of the gun, as well as the weight of the magnetism on our boots definitely made it harder than walking in a blizzard. After a few steps, I glanced up at the core and realised just how similar this whole situation was to my dream after the Barnet earthquake. I decided that now was as good a time as any to tell my friends and Ruby about it.

"Hey guys, I need to tell you something."

"Now?" Ruby asked. She seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping up with us, so we paused to wait for her.

"Yeah. It's important." I sighed. "The night after the earthquake in London, I kind of had a weird dream."

"What dream?" Ruby asked.

"Well, this. What we're doing right now. Except we were much older," I replied, gesturing at our suits and the core. "We were all a lot higher than this, I think, and were arguing about something. And then the core exploded."

Ruby stopped in her tracks and turned to Matt. "You saw that too?"

Matt turned his visor off, revealing his confused face. "I haven't had a dream in five years!"

"Oh, sorry," Ruby muttered, and she turned to me. "Are you sure you saw that dream that day?"

"Uh, yeah I'm very sure," I replied. "I even banged my head against my table because of how much it freaked me out that night!"

Matt and Izzy giggled at that, but Ruby opened her visor and stared at me with a serious look on her face.

"Kids, keep going!" I heard Othul call through our comms.

As we kept walking, Ruby turned to me and said, "I had the same dream."

"Say what now?" I asked.

"Practically the exact same dream. I had it."

"That's not possible!" Matt said.

"I'm telling you, I did!" Ruby replied. "James had a small beard, Matt had a bigger beard, but I remember it had bread crumbs in it, Izzy had dyed her hair red and I was tanned with –"