We jogged through the tunnel; time was our enemy. We needed to get there and return in less than six hours. When we reached the V, we went to the right. The tunnel got narrower as we went. I wasn’t claustrophobic, but my heart still picked up a few beats. After another fifteen minutes, I noticed my shoes sloshing in water, and I wondered if we were under the ocean. The thought made my heart race a bit faster.
Another fifty feet and the water rose to our ankles. Another fifty and it was to our knees.
“I don’t like this, Mel.” A tremor ran through Jasmine’s voice.
“We’ll be okay. We got Ren with us. He can make the water go away.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Right?”
His eyes were wide, and he didn’t look confident when he said, “Right.”
Finally, the tunnel widened, and as we came out into a cave, the water receded. Now according to Dionysus, we had to climb some rocks to get to a door. To the right was a steep incline. I pointed to it.
“There. We have to climb.”
I started up the slope thinking it was going to be easy, but it wasn’t. There were a lot of loose rocks, and I slipped a few times. Jasmine almost slid all the way back down, but Ren grabbed her arm and hauled her back up. I scrambled the rest of the way up, relieved to see a small wooden door in the rock wall.
I turned the knob and opened the door. We all had to crouch down to go through it. Then we were inside a fairly narrow wooden structure. Tilting my head up, I saw there wasn’t a ceiling, just a column of wood that went up one hundred feet. I reached out and touched the sides; they were rough against my fingers.
“We’re in a tree.”
“Are you sure?” Jasmine looked around.
Then the surface in front of us moved. A diminutive form emerged from the wood, its skin as rough and dark as tree bark, eyes the color of leaves. Tiny branches protruded from its head, almost like a set of deer antlers. It was a Dryad.
It blinked angrily at us and then spoke, its voice as crackly as dried leaves. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“I’m Melany, this is Jasmine and Ren. We’re from the academy. We need to get to New Athens and Pecunia.”
“No.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, no? We’ve come a long way to get here.”
“No. Go back. I won’t let you pass. It’s too dangerous.”
Frustrated, I smacked my hands down on my jacket. Something hard jabbed into my palm. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small glass vial. I held it up toward the Dryad.
“This is from Dionysus.”
It plucked the bottle from my fingers, its eyes wide and hungry. “Ah, bless Dionysus. You may pass. But be careful, malevolent forces are at work.” It stepped to one side to reveal another door.
I pushed it open and crawled out of the tree on my hands and knees into what was once a park. When I stood, I could see, even in the dark, the destruction the earthquake had caused. The grand oak was the only tree left standing whole and untouched. The rest had either been completely pushed out of the ground, roots splayed in every direction, or broken in half, branches lying haphazardly all over the place.
“Oh, my Gods.” Jasmine swung around, taking in all the damage.
“Do either of you know where we are? I don’t recognize it.” I gazed toward the street running along the park to see if there was a street sign anywhere.
“I’m pretty sure it’s Pan Park.” Ren pointed to the left. “If we go that way, we’ll run into Hegemone Lane, which will take us into the center of New Athens.”
“Yes, I see it now.” Jasmine moved that way, and Ren and I followed.
As we made our way through town, destruction surrounded us. It looked like a war zone. Buildings and houses were in shambles. Power lines hung from poles. Nothing sparked though, as the whole town had been shut down. There was no electricity. And as we moved quickly through the empty streets, we realized we were alone.
When we reached a gated neighborhood, the placard still stood, called Vista Heights, and Ren took off at a run. Jasmine and I ran after him. He stopped in front of a two-story house, or what should’ve been a two-story’ there was only one level left. It was really dark and hard to see anything.
Jasmine found a discarded flashlight, but the batteries were dead. She held it tight, and I could tell she was doing something to it. A few minutes later, the light flashed on. She went up to Ren’s side and held it up for him. He aimed the beam at the front door. Painted in red on the wooden door was a giant X. In the right quadrant, EVAC 5 was painted.
Ren let out a long breath of air. “They got out.”
Jasmine put her around him, and they leaned into each other.
I was happy for Ren, but we needed to keep going. We only have maybe five hours, and Pecunia was at least an hour away. “Jasmine, how far to your house?”
She shook her head. “Not sure. By car Vista Heights would’ve been maybe fifteen minutes from me. Walking? It will take over an hour.”
“Okay, let’s get going then.”
As we headed out of the neighborhood, we came across a car that still looked in shape. It had a few dings, but all the tires were good. I checked inside and saw the key was still in the ignition. We piled in and I wrapped my hands around the steering wheel holding my breath that it started. It whirred a few times, my knuckles turning white from the tight grip I had, but then it kicked over. My sigh of relief was instant. I checked the gas gauge; it was near empty, but at least it would get us closer to Jasmine’s.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled the car to a stop in front of a condominium complex that was partially intact. Jasmine sprang out of the car and ran around to the back of the building. The damage in the back was worse. Half of some of the condos were completely in rubble.
Jasmine dropped to her knees, her face in her hands. I could hear her sobs. I crouched beside her and wrapped my arms around her, my heart aching for her. “Don’t give up, Jas. I bet your family got out. I saw red X’s on a couple of the doors at the front.”
“Jasmine?”
We looked up to see an elderly black woman with grey curls picking her way over the debris on the ground. Jasmine jumped to her feet and approached her.
“Lolly?” Jasmine hugged the woman. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing. I thought you were at some fancy school.”
“I was. I am. But when I heard about the earthquake, I—”
Lolly rubbed Jasmine’s back. “Your momma and daddy got out. Don’t you worry about that.”
Jasmine sagged in the older woman’s arms, and my heart ached for her.
“What are you still doing here?”
“I’m on my way out. There’s a van just up the street taking the last of us. I wasn’t leaving without my Denzel.”
I could see now the small dog squirming in her arms.
“What happened?” I asked her.
She looked over at me. Her face was haunted. “Still not too sure. I was in bed, when the whole building just shook. I got out, turned on the TV, and saw in some areas that the ground just cracked open. It almost looked like something big pushed out of the earth itself. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen.” She shook her head. “Then the building shook again. I guess it was aftershocks, at least that’s what they said on the news. Then we were told to evacuate the building. I got out of my apartment just in time before it all come crashing down.”
Jasmine hugged her again, little Denzel yapping from between them. “I’m glad you’re safe.”
“The van’s just up the street. They’ll take us all out of here.”
Jasmine shook her head. “We can’t come with you. We have to go to Pecunia then back to the academy. No one can know we were here, Lolly.”
She patted Jasmine’s face. “All right. I won’t say I saw you, but I may just whisper in your momma’s ear that you’re okay.”
We wished Lolly well, and then we got back in the car and drove out of the neighborhood and on to Pecunia. It was almost an hour drive between towns, and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it ten miles with an empty gas tank. My gut clenched with worry.
I was right; soon, the car puttered then rolled to a stop on the side of the dark, empty highway. I slammed my fist against the steering wheel. “Shit.”