Crystal Line

Chapter 12

Mount Rainier, 1892

Johannes pushes the Time Crystal deep into the pocket of his dark brown trousers. He stands, wobbling a little, in a dark room that seems to be moving. The room shifts suddenly to the left and Johannes thrusts out his hand to steady himself on the wall. Thin shafts of light bleed into the dark space through gaps in the wooden planks that make up the walls. He walks unsteadily over to one of the walls and grips his hands around a thick iron handle. He leans away from it, pulling hard. The whole wall moves and slides to the side! It's a door for a train carriage which is now bathed in daylight. Johannes stands by the opening, looking out onto the landscape in front of him, and looking heroic as hell at the same time!

The view is breathtaking, but Johannes has little time for sightseeing. Ahead of him is a lake, still, placid, reflecting the lush green pine forest in the middle distance. Also reflected in the mirror like surface is the smoking mountain of Mount Rainier with a snow capped peak. For the last few weeks the heat had been building at the top, melting some of the snow and signalling a possible eruption of the volcano underneath. The steam and smoke rise from the peak, a sure fire indicator that folks should be getting the hell out of Dodge about now. Rivers were already engorged by the melting glacial ice, carrying boulders and trees for many miles downstream.

Johannes jumps down from the train carriage, his knees bending from the impact on the stoney surface. The train is almost at a crawl, the small station up ahead slowing its progress. It's called a station, but is nothing more than a small wooden shack by the side of the train tracks. At the shack a bustling crowd of people surge toward the train and the waiting carriages, the train crew, helpless to stop the onslaught of onboarding passengers. Most of the passengers look nervously over their shoulders at the smoking volcanic mountain in the distance.

Johannes pulls a hand drawn map out of his pocket, aligns himself with the geography that surrounds him, and makes a note of the direction he has to head in. 'Train tracks behind, volcano and threatening rivers of death ahead. Check.' he thinks to himself with a wry smile. He replaces the map in his pocket and stomps off toward the volcano.

The rumbling of the mountain increases in volume as Johannes jogs through the pine forest, searching for his destination. He refers to his map from time to time, certain his future self gave him the right information, but unable to find the house he knows he has to find. The rumbling stops for a few seconds only to be replaced by a deafening boom. The air around the mountain all moves at the same time, a chorus of birds erupt into the skies from the treetops. The eruption is felt as much as heard. Johannes was running out of time, where is that house!?

"How are you getting on?" comes his older voice over the Time Crystal suspended around his neck. The rumbling from the mountain continues, the smoke rising from the peak reaches high up into the sky.

Johannes responds, "Not great, it's erupted already but I can't find the house!"

"Keep looking, you've got to save the brothers."

"Sure, I get it, but where is the house?"

"Have you found the river?"

Johannes stands next to a river, it's slow, lazy flow meanders away down the hill he has just climbed, "Yeah, right next to it."

"Just keep following it upstream, you'll find the house."

Johannes looks up and downstream, then up to the ever present Mount Rainier high above him. Suddenly another eruption echoes around the mountain, Johannes could see flames and dark, black smoke spurt out of the peak. "How long do I have after the eruption?"

"Best guess is about ten minutes."

"BEST GUESS?

"This is not an exact--"