D. MacHale - The Soldiers of Halla

“We’ll have to walk over that wreck,” I said.

Patrick shook his head nervously. He didn’t want to go.

“I think it’s the only way,” I added.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he croaked without taking his eyes away.

I wasn’t sure why the bridge didn’t bother him. It worried me plenty. At one time the metal span had to withstand the pounding from hundreds of trains that rumbled over it every day. Now it didn’t look strong enough to withstand the pounding of our feet. The steel structure swayed and squealed in the wind. It was more wreck than bridge. It looked as if one good sneeze would send it crashing into the river.

“No problem,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself. “We’ll make it across.”

Patrick swallowed and said, “What are we going to do about that when we get there?”

He continued to stare ahead. I was definitely missing something. I looked again, trying to see anything that would scare him like that. All I saw was a white wall of fog on the other side of the bridge… That wasn’t fog. “Yeow” was all I could say-On the far side of the river, set back a few hundred yards from the bank, was a wall. A huge wall. No, an immense wall. It was so gigantic that I thought it was a bank of fog. I had never seen anything so vast. It must have been twenty stories high. It spread out before us for what seemed like miles to either side, like a gargantuan dam. It was a monster.

“I’m guessing that wasn’t on Third Earth when you were here,” I muttered weakly.

Patrick shook his head without taking his eyes off the structure.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

Two helicopters flew by above us. They were coming from the south, headed for the wall. They were traveling fairly low, which meant they had to quickly gain altitude or they would smash into the flat, smooth surface. The dark vehicles lifted higher and cleared the top of the structure with expert ease. Once over, they dropped down out of sight. It looked as if they were headed in for a landing on the other side.

“Any guesses?” I asked, numb. I was officially as stunned as Patrick.

“It looks like a fortress,” he said. “No telling how big it is, but I’m thinking it covers the spot where the Conclave of Ravinia is. Or was.”

I took a deep breath and said, “We could stand here forever wondering. There’s only one way to find out what that big boy’s all about.”

Patrick finally broke his gaze from the wall and looked at me. “How are we supposed to get over that bridge? It’s a wreck.”

Turned out he was nervous about the bridge after all.

I started walking toward the structure. “I don’t know. But we won’t figure it out standing here staring at it.”

I led Patrick toward the decrepit bridge. We soon found that we were walking on the remains of railroad tracks that hadn’t seen a train in a very long time. Most of the ties were missing, and every few yards there were rusted gaps in the rails. When we reached the twisted structure of bridge itself, my heart sank. Up close it looked even flimsier than from a distance. And believe me, it looked pretty bad from back there.

“If this crashes, it’s over,” Patrick pointed out.

“Yeah,” I said. “Good thing we can’t die.”

“Our bodies can die, Pendragon. Trust me. I’ve been there. It isn’t pleasant.”

“Sorry,” I said quickly. I’d forgotten that he had been killed on the old Third Earth. Could life get any stranger?

He added, “Maybe we should try to turn into birds and fly across.”

“Last resort,” I said quickly. “Uncle Press told us to use our abilities sparingly.”

“But if we can’t get across-”

“We’ll get across,” I said, and started walking.

The second I looked down through the rails to the river below, I changed my mind. I was no longer sure that we would make it. The ties were rotted, but didn’t necessarily look it. Some seemed porous, but were actually strong. Others looked solid, but crumbled under my weight. The only way to tell was to step on a tie and hope that it didn’t crack. Much of the bridge bed below the tracks had fallen away, leaving gaping holes. We had to move like a couple of tightrope walkers on the rails that spanned these gaps. It was terrifying.

Each step brought with it a new, ugly sound. Metal groaned. Pipes snapped. Chunks of cement fell away and crashed into the churning water far below. I wasn’t just worried about where we stepped, but about the bridge as a whole. How stable was it? If things started to sway, it would go down for sure, and we’d be crushed in tons of twisted steel. That would hurt. It came down to a test of our own inner strength, and balance. It must have taken an hour to cross the hundred yards of bridge. It felt like a hundred miles. But we made it. The gaps below the rails became smaller with each step. My confidence grew. I hopped the last few yards until my feet were once again on solid ground. I turned quickly to see Patrick not far behind. He was looking down, concentrating, with his arms out wide for balance.

“You got it,” I said.

He too hopped the last few yards, joining me on the far side of the river.

“Let’s not go back that way,” he declared, panting. We turned together to look ahead. “Whoa” was all Patrick could get out. Yeah. Whoa.

The massive wall was a few hundred yards from where we stood. Still, it towered over us. It really did look like a dam. The surface was light gray and smooth, with an etched pattern of rectangles that revealed it was constructed with a series of blocks. It must have taken years to build. Like the great pyramids. Looking left and right, I couldn’t see where it ended. Was it a straight wall? Or did it turn on an angle to enclose whatever was on the other side? That would have been even more incredible. If this wall continued around, it would have to be the largest structure ever built by man.

“Eighth Wonder of the World,” I said. “I have no idea what the other seven are, so don’t ask.”

Rising up from the base of the structure every fifty yards or so were huge, red vertical rectangles that could have been massive doors. Or decorations. I couldn’t tell. They each looked about twenty yards high and half as wide.

“We aren’t alone,” Patrick pointed out.

I’m not sure why I didn’t see them at first. It must have been because I was too busy gaping up at the monstrous wall. But at the base of this structure, were people. Even from as far away as we were, I could see that they were Ravinian soldiers. They had on the same red jumpsuits and golden helmets that those guys wore who beat up the man in the zoo. They walked in a line, maybe thirty yards apart, along the base of the wall. Other than the helicopters, it was the first sign of life we’d seen since the zoo.

“They look like guards,” Patrick pointed out.

“Yeah, but are they trying to keep people out or in?”

“It could be a Horizon Compound,” Patrick offered. “Naymeer built walled cities to keep the lower classes separate. I heard they were horrible places.”

“I guess,” I said, thinking. “But would the Ravinians really need to build something that extreme just to separate people? I mean, that thing would hold back King Kong.”

Patrick and I exchanged nervous looks, both thinking the same thing. Could that wall have been built to hold back something monstrous?

“No way,” I finally said. “That’s just… fantasy.”

“You mean like everything else we’ve been hearing isn’t?”

I was about to argue why I didn’t think we had to worry about a giant ape when the ground began to rumble. I have to admit, for a brief second I thought that it might have been from the thundering footsteps of a monster monkey.