The Chest of the Lost

Chapter 17: The Avalanche

The room shook as the crowd of guards moved closer, quickly decreases the amount of space between us. We still didn't have any idea what we were up against, and I feared Griffin might actually give himself up so I could escape. It would be a wasted act, though, since I wouldn't leave without him anyway.

We braced ourselves and I noticed Griffin's hands, which were extended out in front of him, were shaking. He was nervous too.

Suddenly the first guard ran into the room, followed by a wide river of more than thirty others.

"Stop where you are and get on the groun-" He was cut off when Griffin slammed him back into the wall behind him, taking more than ten others with him. I picked up as many guards as I could in a force bubble with a diameter of almost ten feet and pushed them back as well. The guards hit the wall with a loud thump, then slid to the ground, most of them not moving. 

Bullets and darts spun our way, but I quickly encaged us in a force field which sent the darts and bullets ricocheting off the invisible barrier. One of the darts struck a guard, knocking him to the ground unconscious, which sent more guards tumbling over him. I took advantage of the one moment when guards were distracted and I moved the force field out from around us and tossed it toward them, pushing a large group back against the wall.

But as soon as those fell, more guards flooded into the room. I gave Griffin a panicked look and though he tried to conceal it, I could see the same look in his eyes. Why did we ever think this was going to work? 

Suddenly Griffin dropped his arms from in front of him and put them up in the air as if he were surrendering. I looked over at him in complete disbelief as he slowly lowered himself to the ground and put his hands behind his head, urging me with his eyes to do the same. I followed. I couldn't believe that after all we had gone through to get home, we were already giving ourselves up.

"We surrender," Griffin said. 

One of the guards pushed forward until he was standing over us. He ordered one of the other guards to come over and together they pushed each of our hands behind our backs and pulled us up from the ground. 

My arms stung as the guard hardened his grasp around them and pushed me to start walking. Immediately all the guards encircled us and led us back the way we came- toward the cells. With all the guards surrounding us, I had no idea how we were going to escape.

Then Griffin did the strangest thing. With the slightest turn of this head, he motioned for me to move forward. I gave a small nod and picked up my pace until I was leading the crowd. Trying to look as discrete as possible, I turned my head back slightly, and right as I did, Griffin slammed against the two guards restraining him, knocking them to the side. Then he brought his foot up and stomped down as hard as he could. A sharp ripple of force shot out from his foot and being at the front of the group, I was given enough time to rip away from the shocked guards and encase myself inside a force field. 

The guards around us dropped like flies with such force that I would've been surprised had any of them stayed conscious; to our delight and utter relief, only three of them did, but Griffin took them out easily.

 That was it. The battle was over.

In exhaustion, we collapsed the ground and laid there for what had to be almost a minute. After awhile, Griffin said, "We should probably go now."

I inhaled, then let out a long, tired breath. "Yeah," I replied.

We reluctantly got up and scanned the pile guards for anything that might resemble a key. I rolled a thin man with long hair onto his back and checked his belt. It was the same guard who had yelled at us to get on the ground.

"Hey, would this work?" I asked, taking a small key chain lanyard from his belt. Griffin walked over and took it from me, looking at the ID that hung from it.

"Yeah, I think this is just what we need," he said. "Let's go."

We walked quickly away from the mountain of unconscious guards, in the opposite direction from which we had come. I assumed most of the guards were either in the cell with Hawthorne or the ones we just took out, but we still had to be careful. We wandered through the halls, searching for a door, when we finally found the front entrance. Griffin pulled the ID out of his pocket and ran it front of the scanner, which beeped and turned green. The door let out a long sigh as it swung open, revealing a mile of saltwater and sea creatures. We knew that as soon as the door opened, any guards still conscious would be notified, and would come immediately, so we hurried through the door and around the building to where I remembered the pipe being.

The pipe was more than three feet in diameter and ran into the ocean, crawling along the bottom. Neither of us knew for sure that it went to the other side, but Griffin said he remembered seeing the end of a pipe leading off somewhere in the forest. At that point, I was so anxious to get home, that I began shaking with anticipation.

Griffin grabbed my hand to stop it from shaking and I looked up at him. He gave me an encouraging smile, then gripped the pipe, and began hoisting himself up it. We had to climb the pipe since the opening was at the top on the roof, and this time I held the pipe tightly. I remembered all too well the events of the last night I was out here and I wasn't too eager to relive them. It was crazy to think that less than 24 hours earlier I was on the verge of death, but now I was going home!

Griffin hoisted himself over the edge to the roof, then extended his hand to pull me up, which he did without breaking a sweat. He stood on the roof like a triumphant hero, looking out over the sea he was about to conquer.

"Ready?" he asked me.

"I'm so ready," I replied and he smiled, crawling into the pipe with me on his heels.

The pipe was slimy and gross, but I was too excited to finally be going home, that I barely noticed.

About halfway through the pipe my neck began to cramp up and we took a break, sitting on the moss and puddles of water that seeped through the small cracks.

I leaned back against the wall of the pipe and sighed. "How long does this pipe go for? We've been crawling forever," I complained and Griffin looked at me, amused. I laughed and splashed him with water from a puddle that sat in between us.

"Hey! What was that for?" He splashed me back.

"Look, I hate to tell you, but not everybody has the strength to crawl a mile through a narrow pipe and not get tired."

"I didn't say I wasn't tired, I just didn't complain like you." He smiled and I playfully punched his arm. "Ok, but I'm actually getting sick of this smell. Can we get out of here?"

I laughed and eagerly agreed, preferring tired muscles over the gagging smell of a sewer pipe, or whatever it was.

We began going again and we crawled faster toward the opening. I assumed the pipe was used for sewers, but I was also half-convinced it was how the guards traveled to land unseen by the coast guard. As far as anyone knew, the building was just an old abandoned building and no one had been there in decades.

The pipe finally emerged from the ocean and dropped off somewhere in the middle of the forest. I brushed my pants off a little, then decided it wasn't worth it; they were ruined anyway.

"Hey, I recognize where we are," I said, glancing around at the surrounding trees and brush.

"You must be getting the hang out of living out here."

"Right as I'm about to go home," I said. "What a shame."

Griffin laughed and I wondered how long it took him to get used to living here. As pretty and peaceful as it was, I didn't think I would ever be able to live in the forest. We began walking quickly, since we were both too excited about getting home to notice our fatigue.

"Should we stop at the Crystal shop on our way home to find out what happened with our Crystals? I mean the old lady may know," Griffin suggested.

"That's a good idea," I said, then playfully added, "Just to make sure we aren't dying."

He smiled. "Yep."