Syn stood and walked to Blip. She glanced back down at Kerwen. The body was still motionless, and Syn shivered. Her actions had led to Kerwen’s death. I’m one of them. After a pause, she gave sound to the thought. “I’m like them.”
Blip didn’t respond. She was hoping he’d give a trite answer like “No, you’re not.” Instead, he said, “You didn’t want to. You could’ve, but you didn’t. That’s why you’re different.”
The world around them went stark white.
An enormous rumble came from behind them, and they turned to see a massive fireball several kilometers away—an explosion that rivaled the one that destroyed Zondon Almighty. The eruption from the location of the former city.
The second bomb.
40
THE GREAT FLOOD
“A great inundation, together with an earthquake, swept the land so rapidly that only a few people escaped in their skin canoes to the tops of the highest mountains.”
Zondon Almighty was nearly six kilometers away now. That put the city—and the blinding explosion of the cobalt device—almost half-way up the arc. The entire detonation was completely visible and the light itself was near-blinding.
“Run! Blip yelled.
The light and explosion were followed by a deep rumbling. The entire ground shook. Then it stopped. Suddenly, from the center of the blast, a fountain of water erupted, streaming in a massive column.
“The shield!” Syn said.
Blip swung around and pushed her. “Get to the Jacob.”
Syn looked out at the racing shadows. She could see the bots clearly now. There were seven of them, and they were moving as fast as they could, but they were still a good half kilometer away. And none of them were as fast as Blip. “They won’t make it.”
“We won’t make it.” He had pushed her against the door of the Jacob. “Get in! We have to get up before the water hits.”
“We have to wait for them.”
“No, we don’t! I have to keep you safe.”
“I made a promise!”
“What did you promise?”
“I promised to save them.”
“From what?”
“From this Disc! They told me it was dying. I told them about our Disc. I told them when I found you I’d come back for them.”
Blip flew back and then zoomed at Syn, smashing into her, pushing her off-balance. She landed on her butt with a thud, but to Blip’s delight, she fell into the Jacob.
“Let’s go.” He flew over and started working with the control panel. The doors chimed.
“No!” Syn yelled and leaned forward to put her hand in the door. “We can wait.”
“We’re not waiting.”
“This is stupid. The water’s not here.” She couldn’t tell where the water was. The column of water was streaking high into the clouds and there were splatters of rain falling down several meters out. The water had to be rising around the city, and she was certain some great wave was on its way to them, but she couldn’t see it from the dunes.
And then she could. The ground around the city halfway up the Disc was flattened. The water. It was flowing out and rising. She couldn’t see it over her own horizon, but she saw how far it was spreading on the other side of the former Zondon Almighty. If it was flowing equally everywhere, it was only a kilometer or two away now. And moving fast.
Syn pushed up on her knees, winced as a jab of pain shot through her leg, and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout, “Come on! Hurry!”
“Syn, they’re not going to make it. We have to go now. If that water hits us first, we’re dead.”
“Well survive, Blip! Come on—just give me another second. You can close the doors when you see water.”
“I see water! Right there! It’s shooting up from the shield layer! Think about it—over 400 billion liters of water is going to be flooding this Disc!”
The roaring of the rushing water grew to a deafening pitch. A mountain of water was rushing in.
The bots were moving fast. But now there were six of them. One had dropped back. Syn wanted to race out to them, but she had to hold the door. Blip wouldn’t leave her, would he? No! That wouldn’t happen. But he would come out after her, and she could kill them both. From the Jacob door, she yelled again, “Hurry!”
They were just a few meters out, at the base of the plaza. Two small Disc cleaning bots. A bouncing bot that resembled Arquella, but it was far less shiny and bounced and rolled—it didn’t hover. There were also two small block bots. Six. And maybe a floating ball bot—an eye-bot—circling around. Okay, now there were more than six.
“We’re—” shouted the robot. The word after “we’re” sounded like “coming,” but the sound of the water overwhelmed it, and Syn wasn’t sure what was said.
“Blip, you hold this. Just give me a couple more seconds.”
“That’s all we have!”
The eye-bots whizzed into the Jacob, followed by a cleaning bot. There were still five more out there.
Behind the racing bots a wall of water rose up. There it was! And it was rushing at a tremendous speed. Again, she heard a boom. What was propelling it? She had seen the waterfalls tumble, but she’d never seen anything move with such power. It grew and grew until it filled the horizon.
The closest eye-bot was almost there, and it chirped as it saw Syn.
“Huck!” Syn cried. It was Huck! He had survived. The bot raced and slammed into Syn. She squealed with delight. “You’re alive! You’re alive! I thought you had died.”
Huck replied with a series of whistles as Blip looked on, confused.
Another cleaning bot crossed the threshold. Its hide was beat and bruised, and it looked to be painted with mud. Another one of the bouncing bots managed to make it. It rolled in and smashed into the others piling up in the corner.
“Hurry!” Syn yelled, but she knew her words were unheard. “Wait, Taji!” She remembered the unconscious body still laying in the sand and glanced in that direction. There was a silhouetted figure moving their way. “Blip, Taji!”
“It’s too late!” Blip shouted back.
Syn cried out, “No!” but she knew Blip was right.
The wall of water reached the figure, and it disappeared in the wave. Moments later, the rushing water slammed into the two straggling bots and washed them away.
Syn pulled back her hand, and the Jacob doors shut swiftly with a slight whoosh. First the inner doors and then the outer doors shut, followed by the slam of the wall of water. The entire Jacob tower shook under the impact. Blip was already at the control panel, and they began to ascend. The entire Jacob rocked again. Inside, its lights flickered in and out.
The outer glass windows of the Jacob tower spider-webbed as the water slammed against it. The tower rocked, and the Jacob bounced around inside even as they lifted off.
The water rose around them, nearly as fast as they were moving. They lifted up and soon crested above the wall of water. Waves crashed as a new ocean lay out below them, blanketing as far as they could see through the darkened landscape. Under the heavy gray clouds, there was water—rolling, dark, and powerful. The water washed away all of the insanity of what was this Disc. Every dark thought, every dark action, every trace of what Neci had twisted was under those waves. The bodies of the Madness-succumbed dead lay somewhere far below the dark, churning waves. Memories of lives that would never be spoken of again were buried around the weight of the new water. Somewhere in that floated the bodies of Kerwen and Taji.
Syn breathed out, “I’m sorry.”
From one of the small bots inside the Jacob, a tiny voice cried, “Mommy, I’m scared.”
A family. Syn had rescued a family.