Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) (6 page)

alien to Edgar.

"Just promise me you'll turn back once you get there. What

you're trying to do is enter the docking station from the way
out

of Atherton. Dr. Harding left us a map and a few words, so he

must have imagined it
could
be entered this way, but no one

has ever done it before."

Then Vincent said what he was truly thinking, the only thing that

seemed to make sense as he stood before a boy who could

climb like a spider. "Something tells me Dr. Harding imagined it

would be you who would follow this path someday. There's

certainly no one else who could do it."

Edgar could hardly wait to start down the side of Atherton. "I can

do it, Vincent. I know I can."

Vincent touched Edgar on the shoulder and turned more

serious. "Remember--turn back the moment you feel the

slightest concern. The heat can tire you out and make your

hands dangerously slippery from the sweat. Don't make the

mistake of thinking you can do more than you're capable of."

The two began walking once more. Very soon they were on

their bellies, crawling up close to the place where Edgar would

start. In this particular spot, the flat surface of Atherton had

cracked wide open. The crevice started at the edge of Atherton

and jutted in for a hundred yards, where it created a gap of fifty

or more feet across. Edgar felt a growing exhilaration as he

turned and kicked his feet over and into the long chasm.

"Remember," said Vincent. "To the docking station and back

and no more, and only if you can manage it. I can't come down

after you. No one can. But I'll wait for you."

"You shouldn't expect my return until after nightfall," said Edgar.

He secretly knew that he could get to the bottom in only a

couple of hours if he wanted to. But he didn't want to be in the

least bit rushed in case his plans changed. "Six or seven hours,

I would guess."

Vincent nodded, astounded by what Edgar was capable of.

Seven hours of climbing up and down the side of a wall of

stone? He wondered what Dr. Harding had done to Edgar that

made him so strong.

"Be careful," said Vincent.

And with that, Edgar was gone. Faster than Vincent believed

possible, Edgar was so far down the crevice he could only

barely be seen.

Edgar will be gone a long while,
Vincent pondered.
I must talk

to Dr. Kincaid alone.

With that, Vincent set off at a quick pace in search of more

answers about Edgar, the Dark Planet, and the docking station.

Very soon Edgar was out of the crevice that had been cut into

Atherton and climbing on the outer surface. There were many

paths he could have taken that led down the side, but he knew

which one was the longest and started down at its wide

beginning. For a long time there were no holes at all as he'd

remembered, but then the way down started to narrow and the

first of many holes came into view. It was three feet around and

there was plenty of room to avoid the glowing orange edge of

the path.

Edgar heard the strange sound as he passed by--a swishing,

like something moving back and forth inside, and a hissing.
I

can't understand why any of this is here,
thought Edgar, the face

of Dr. Harding clear in his mind.
What were you thinking?

Edgar had to travel slowly in order to remain perfectly quiet as

he went farther down. As he moved, the holes became more

numerous and difficult to avoid. He was dripping with sweat

from head to toe and it was beginning to make his hands

slippery as Vincent had feared. But Edgar had filled his pockets

with gritty dirt that he could use to dry his hands when needed.

The bottom of Atherton was truly made for climbing, and this

was his great salvation. There was an endless supply of easy

handholds to choose from.

"Now comes the hard part," Edgar whispered. He had come to

the end of his knowledge of the bottom of Atherton. Removing a

small rabbit skin tied to his belt and filled with water, Edgar

drank what had once been cool water from the lake. It had

turned warm, but the water revived him nevertheless.

The farther down the shard one went the narrower it became;

and all the while the holes grew larger. It was hard not to

imagine that whatever lurked inside was getting bigger as well.

It seemed like the most inopportune time to be climbing closer,

and yet he had no choice. Either he would have to cross very

near the largest of the holes or turn back. There was no other

way down.

Seven holes,
he thought, seeing what lay beneath him.
If I can

just get past them it looks clear on the other side.
The path was

now only twenty feet across, with a great sea of glowing orange

on either side.

Edgar could feel his pounding heart race faster and faster as he

passed between the first three of the seven holes without

hearing or seeing anything. Then he moved between the cluster

of remaining four holes and stopped stone-cold.

He looked back at the first three holes where a familiar clicking

sound had begun, now more loudly than before. It grew even

worse as the sound echoed from holes he had yet to pass by.

His hands slippery and sweat dripping into his eyes, Edgar

realized with terror that he was trapped in the middle of a field of

holes from which unknown creatures were about to emerge.

Edgar glanced up and saw two beams of white light coming

from inside one of the holes he'd passed. He was totally frozen

with fear as the head of a creature emerged, encrusted with

sharp chunks of glowing red and orange stones. The beams of

light came from its hollow eye sockets.

The outrageous creature opened its huge mouth and lunged out

of the hole, down toward the climbing boy, and slammed its

jaws of stone inches above Edgar's head. Orange slime slid

from its mouth as it recoiled in a flash of light, as if its tail were

attached to a great spring that pulled it violently back into the

hole. It crashed back and forth against the surface of Atherton,

howling horribly.

The moment the lights were gone the two other holes Edgar

had passed lit up with dancing white beams of their own. Two

monsters shot out of their holes above Edgar and their horrible

teeth went
SLAM! SLAM!
against the rock. If a person could

climb and run at the same time, Edgar was doing just that as he

charged recklessly down the side of Atherton.

"Dr. Harding! What's wrong with you!" cried Edgar as the

monsters flipped wildly back into their holes.

Whatever was dripping from the mouths of these stoneencrusted monsters was melting the very surface of Atherton. It

fizzled and crackled and let off a rancid black smoke.

From below, Edgar heard the clicking and hissing and

snapping of jaws. Another monster, its rock-covered head

glowing sickeningly, was out of its hole, and it appeared to be

sniffing the air. It turned its awful sockets of light on Edgar and

disappeared with a grinding sound.

That thing is coiling up down there,
thought Edgar.
It's going to

spring!

Edgar practically dove to one side in the wildest, fastest

climbing maneuver he'd ever imagined. He was almost rol ing

out of the way as the beast sprang, swinging its head and

snapping uncontrollably in the open air. Orange slime flew

everywhere as the monster reached the end of its hidden spring

and snapped back.

Edgar watched in horror as he saw his leather water bag melt

and steam, covered in deadly sludge. The orange goo fizzed all

around him, but there was yet a path to the bottom. Edgar

became so focused on escaping through the field of seven

holes that he didn't realize how far he'd gone.

Soon, without a clue of how he'd done so, Edgar found himself

not only through the field of holes but well clear of them.

Looking back, he saw four more beams of light emerging, but

Edgar was far enough out of their reach. They only screamed in

anger when they trained their hollow eyes on the distant

intruder.

Edgar breathed a long sigh of relief, but his eyes were filled

with concern. By coming this far he had trapped himself behind

a wall of monsters waiting for his return.

What am I going to do now?
he asked himself, looking up at the

perilous way he'd passed through.
I can't go through that again.

I'd never make it twice, especially trying to climb up instead of

down. They'd have me for sure.

Another twenty feet beneath him, Edgar spotted the largest hole

of them all. From what Edgar could tell given the angle, it might

be as big as ten feet around.

Edgar glanced to his right and left. Everything he saw was

orange and glassy. It looked as though the inside of Atherton

was filled with a lake of fire and covered with a thick, foggy

glass.

"I have to get out of here," Edgar told himself. He quickly chose

his route and imagined how fast he could climb past the

remaining hole, and then he was off and moving like a startled

spider. He glanced inside the great hole as he passed by,

expecting to see two beams of light.

But there was no light, no sound.

What's this new trick you're trying to play on me?
thought Edgar.

He had come to see Atherton as a living, breathing creature full

of every kind of surprise. Just because he didn't see any light

didn't mean something wasn't about to try to eat him.

Edgar's hands were growing so hot from the surface he could

hold on with only one hand at a time, letting each hand cool off

every few seconds.

At last Edgar came to the very end of the longest path down the

side of Atherton. The great hole sat much closer to the bottom

than Edgar had realized at first. There were only a few feet on

the other side, and he hung there, hot and scared half to death.

His hands started to slip as he tried to figure out what to do.

"There's no place left for me to go," said Edgar, pulling himself

up and peeking into the hole. There was nothing, just a dull

silence and a dark passageway. He lifted himself and sat down

at the very edge of the hole.

He felt heavy. At first he thought this was because he was tired,

but he soon realized that gravity was now pulling down on his

feet more than it had on the surface of Atherton. He found that

even the simple task of walking was difficult, as if he had giant

rocks tied to his feet. Even his face felt as if it were being pulled

downward.

"What is this place?" Edgar said, though it came out slurry and

weak.

Along the walls of the hole Edgar could see that something had

been here before. The walls were--what was it?--
scraped.

Something big had passed through here more than once.

Something
really
big. It was wide enough to span the space

and touch the walls as it passed through. Edgar took two steps

forward and then, to his great surprise, he heard a new sound

from deep inside.

Whatever it was did not sound happy to see him.

CHAPTER 5ACROSS THE

BURNINGBRIDGE OF STONE

Teagan awoke with a start in the Silo. The whole world of the

Dark Planet seemed to have turned ominously quiet apart from

a single sound in the night. The sound of a bender being put to

work on a child.

"They took her while we were sleeping!" shouted Teagan. She

glanced over, still hoping she might see her closest friend in the

shadowy light drifting in from the hallway. But Aggie was gone.

Only her covers remained in a bunch at the foot of her rusted

old cot.

"Quiet, Teagan," said a small voice from another bed. "Or they'll

come for you, too."

They were all awake now, so everyone had heard when the

bender snapped against Aggie's skin out in the hal way. They

had heard her cry, and its haunting echo. Red Eye and Socket

kept the door to the barracks open for a reason.

"Leave her alone!" said Teagan, sitting up in bed without a clue

of how to stop them. And then she thought of the one person

who might be able to help them and called out her name.

"Hope!"

"Teagan, no!" said the same small voice. "Lie down and act like

you're asleep, you fool!"

But it was too late. Red Eye's horrible shadow appeared in the

doorway. His head was a misshapen silhouette of goggles and

tousled hair. The bender swished back and forth in front of him

as he entered barracks number three.

There was another
snap!
from the bender in the hall, and the

sound of Aggie's wince. Teagan began to cry. She hated the

Silo so much it was almost more than she could take. She was

very near doing something stupid like jumping out of bed and

running to find Aggie in the hall. She dreamed of having the

bender herself and using it on Red Eye and Socket, beating

them until they ran outside and were eaten by the monsters that