Though it would be no more significant than any other fishing hole on the lake, the Fountain of Youth was about to be revealed to the outside world.
None of Fontaneda's traps remained to slow their flight, but when they reached the corridor where the boulder-sized stone block traps had earlier daunted Leeds’ group, they discovered that the fragile cement holding the remaining block in place had crumbled, triggering the last of the Spaniard's defense mechanisms. They had to crawl over both of the stone blocks to escape. This time, Annie felt not even a twinge of claustrophobia; they were heading for the surface and that was good. If she hesitated, she would die, crushed by stone and water, so the only option was to keep moving.
Suddenly, a massive detonation from deep within the cavern split the length of the tunnel wide open. Annie was knocked flat by the violence of the tremor, which was an order of magnitude more powerful than the satchel charge Hauser had left behind to kill Kismet.
Nick?
She tried to thrust that thought from her mind. She couldn’t do anything about it now; she had to get out of this place. But before she could raise her head, water began pouring from the walls, and a freezing wave engulfed her.
The climactic blast lifted Kismet off the floor and flung him against the cavern wall, fifteen feet from where he had been standing. He felt as though his body had become a single massive bruise, though as he struggled to rise, the pain receded quickly, replaced by a tingling in his nerves.
He recalled Hauser’s parting shot, and wondered how long the potency of the Fountain's water would remain active within him? What if he survived everything — the crushing collapse of the cave, the rising flood of water — and wound up trapped forever, unable to find even the release of death.
Screw that.
A gleaming piece of metal lay nearby; it was his flask. The container was nearly full of water from the Fountain and the metal tingled beneath his fingertips. He stashed it in his pocket, then turned to survey the damage caused by the explosion.
Where the Fountain of Youth had once existed, ablaze with seemingly supernatural energy and a promise of rejuvenation, there was now only a void. A smoking crater, deeper than Kismet's eyes could penetrate, marked the place where it had flourished.
The mass of flesh and organic matter — otherwise known as Dr. John Leeds — had been completely immolated in the eruption. The walkway around the crater was almost completely gone, shattered beyond recognition, impassible, and littered with enormous chunks of rock falling out of the walls and down from the ceiling overhead. The pieces were falling all around Kismet; the next one might, without even a hint of warning, smash him to a bloody pulp.
He had to get out of here.
As he searched for an exit, he realized that, despite the fact that the plasma storm was no more, he could still see. Daylight was streaming in through a rent in the fabric of the cavern's dome. The explosive force of that final discharge had blown a hole in the roof directly over where the Fountain had been. It was ten feet across and getting wider as the edges continued to crumble away. As he watched, a huge block of stone, larger than the original hole, pulled away with a splitting noise. It seemed to hang indecisively for a moment before succumbing to gravity, plunging into the depths of the crater below. The floor trembled with its impact.
A surge of water abruptly exploded into the cavern. Kismet had time only to look up before the wave caught him. The rushing waters lifted him effortlessly, pitching his battered carcass against the fractured wall. It took a moment for him to regain the wherewithal to begin treading the turbulent water, and he bobbed up to the roiling surface as the water rose beneath him.
The suddenness of the collapse made him fear for Annie’s safety. How long had it taken Leeds’ group to reach the Fountain? An hour? Maybe the return trip wouldn’t take as long, but he feared the worst. Nevertheless, one way or another, Annie's fate had already been decided. It was his own fate that remained uncertain.
He tried to swim for the center of the cavern where there was the least chance of being crushed, but the swirling eddies caused by the inflow kept him all but pinned against the back wall, above where the last fragments of cuneiform remained as the only proof that anything he had witnessed here. He fought the currents with all his strength, but was already feeling a profound fatigue. His body had used up the last of its reserves; he had nothing left to give.
Someone pulled Annie out of the water and started dragging her along. She struggled to get her feet under her. Everything was happening too fast. The water was rising rapidly, swirling around her knees, but she found the strength to keep running.
The rushing waters threatened to knock her down again, but the flow of the current was pushing the fleeing group toward their goal. Although the passage was now entirely filled with water, they all knew it was the final hurdle in the path of their escape, and plunged blindly into it.
Annie felt her paralyzing claustrophobia rise again, but that was not the only source of despair. Kismet was gone; he’d been returned to the land of the living only to perish again. There could have been no escape from the collapse of the cavern where they had found the Fountain of Youth. In her heart, she was certain that she would be joining him soon, entombed forever in the constant night of the underworld. Nevertheless, she did not resist as someone took hold of her and pulled her into the water.
Unprepared for the dive, she immediately sucked in a mouthful of brackish water. The liquid ran up her nose and down into her windpipe, causing an uncontrollable spasm. Someone was holding her tight however, and she succeeded in pressing her hands to her face to avoid inhaling any more. She existed for what seemed an eternity in the dark chute, aware that he was pulling her downward, deeper, away from the surface and salvation. Then, just as abruptly, she was rising through the twilight shadows in the depths of the lake. Daylight loomed above her, closer with each passing second, yet impossibly far away.
She broke through the surface, hungrily sucking in breaths. There were dark shapes moving around her in the water. She felt a rush of panic as she recalled the alligators that had attacked Kismet earlier — but no, these were humans — the last remnants of Hauser’s assault force. The one-eyed man was there, as was Elisabeth. Then she got a look at the man who had refused to leave her behind.
It was her father. Alex Higgins had rescued her from the horror of the cave, and snatched her from the lake.
The pontoon boat Leeds had used to mount his ill-fated expedition into the depths bobbed nearby, and the survivors were clambering aboard. Higgins propelled her up onto its deck, and then hauled himself up as well.
“Get us out of here.” Hauser’s breathless command warned her that the danger was not yet past.
An outboard engine roared to life and the boat began steering away from the shore, heading out toward open water. Annie glanced back and saw the lake’s perimeter transformed in an instant.
The shoreline crumbled away, vanishing into the water, sending out waves that rocked the retreating boat. Cypress trees groaned and toppled into the newly created voids. The serpent mound, which had once pointed the way to the Fountain, seemed to come alive, crawling and undulating into the depths.