Elusion(63)

We have to hurry.

I glance up the side of the mountain and tilt my head. Over to the right, about half a mile above us, is a plateau. “If we get to that ledge up there, we’ll have a view of the mountainside,” I say. “Maybe we can spot him.”

Before Josh can protest, I grab the backpack I left outside the ice cave and clutch his hand, yanking him along, our feet tramping through the mud and toward a narrow path. The wind begins to pick up again, barreling over the mountaintop and carrying a rank odor.

We stop directly under the plateau. The side of the mountain is craggy rock. I take off my glove and lightly run my hand over the dark stone. It’s wet and slick and covered in some sort of algae-ridden slime. I look at Josh with concern as I replace my glove. “You don’t have to do this. I can go alone.”

He takes my backpack and opens it, then tosses me a harness. Next he drops the ice tools by our mud-covered feet. “Shut up and climb.”

Before I finish closing the last snap of my harness, Josh has already dug his pickax into the side of the mountain. I swing, and when my pickax makes contact, brown grime splatters through the air. I dig my boot in, my arms above me, my hands tightly gripping the pickax.

Tier after tier, we scale what seems like miles. After a few minutes, I hear a grunt and crane my neck and see that Josh has made it to the plateau and is reaching down to help me up over the edge.

Our hands connect and he yanks me toward him, pulling me up and onto the soggy landing. I push to my feet, hands on my knees as I take a moment to catch my breath.

“You okay?” Josh asks.

“Yeah.” I nod, standing up straight as I look around. The plateau is about a hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, surrounded by a grouping of dead spruce trees with rotting branches. I spot one patch of cranberry-colored needles at the bottom of a nearby trunk. I walk over to it and crouch down to pick it up, but before I can, it fades to black and then disappears.

A sickening feeling rises from my stomach into my throat. I stand and yell through my cupped hands, “Dad!” My voice ricochets off the neighboring mountains and echoes into the cavern below us. “Dad, where are you?”

When there’s no response, I head toward another group of decaying spruces, and just as I’m about to touch a decrepit limb, the entire tree turns to white and dissolves into nothingness. Then something shatters inside me, and I feel like my lungs are being clawed to shreds.

“Josh?” I whisper, my breath barely coming out of my mouth. I can’t leave this Escape before I find my dad. I won’t. “Things are disappearing!”

“I know,” he replies, pointing toward the mountain range in the distance.

The dark horizon is rapidly vanishing before our eyes. It’s as if someone is erasing our entire world, starting at the corners and working their way inward.

“I think our destination is being reset,” Josh says, stunned. “It’s like when you clear any computer program. Unless it’s been saved, everything is destroyed.”

“Impossible.” I’m gasping for air, my heart sputtering and stalling. I turn around and watch with horror as dying trees disintegrate one after another. With each disappearance, it feels like a hole is being carved into my bones. Even the sky is getting eaten away by this vacuum, which engulfs everything in its path, creating a blank canvas all around us.

I have no idea what all of this means. It seems like every particle in my body is being severed by this bottomless feeling of dread. But are Josh and I in any real physical danger? Is this exactly what happened to Anthony before he slipped into a coma?

“Dad, please! Come back!” I scream so hard I’m surprised my voice box doesn’t rupture. Josh grabs my hand and squeezes.

My father isn’t here. Not anymore.

Nothing is. Nothing but a pure white emptiness that’s headed in our direction, threatening to wipe us out.

“Regan, we have to go,” he says.

I squeeze his hand back, and he knows I understand. So we let go of each other and press the emergency buttons on our wristbands, surrendering to the all-too-familiar brightness that will carry us back home.


TabTalk Message

From: Heywood, Joshua

To: Welch, Regan

11:14 p.m.

R u okay?


TabTalk Message

From: Welch, Regan

To: Heywood, Joshua

11:20 p.m.

I’m fine. On my way 2 c Patrick.


TabTalk Message

From: Heywood, Joshua

To: Welch, Regan

11:22 p.m.

He won’t listen. Not even 2 u.


TabTalk Message

From: Welch, Regan

To: Heywood, Joshua

11:25 p.m.

Yes he will. I won’t give him any choice.


TabTalk Message

From: Heywood, Joshua

To: Welch, Regan

11:26 p.m.

Want me 2 come?


TabTalk Message

From: Welch, Regan

To: Heywood, Josh

11:27 p.m.

No. You’ve done enough damage already.


TabTalk Message

From: Heywood, Joshua

To: Welch, Regan

11:27 p.m.

Guess I deserve that.


TabTalk Message

From: Heywood, Joshua

To: Welch, Regan

11:28 p.m.

Don’t u think u should hear me out b4 u cut me loose?