The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (23 page)

As the last pieces of the stairs settled and stopped
moving, the tornado disappeared, the winds let up and only silence
remained. The entire group stood there in disbelief and slowly
realized that, barring a miracle, they were trapped in this desert.
There was no way to climb any further up into Sanctuary.

Justin and Aaron exchanged looks of disbelief.

“
What
now?” Aaron wondered.

Justin simply shrugged and looked at what was left of
the stairs; heaps of stone, jutting chunks of metal and mounds of
dust.

“
I'm
not sure, bud. Find another way out, I guess,” Justin said
gravely. “Maybe there's, I don't know, another way up. Along
the wall, maybe.”

“
Are
you kidding me?” Dominic turned and looked at them angrily.
“Why would there be another way out of this hole? It's a
frigging desert! I don't even know why it's in Sanctuary. Why the
hell put masses of sand, heat and wind in here? What's the point?”
He turned again and pointed down at the remnants of the staircase.
“But that was the only way out. And now it's gone. So we might
as well head back down to Prometheus and set up shop, because we
aren't going any further.”

Then he walked off a few paces, sat down abruptly on the
road and stared forlornly across the sand.

Aaron scowled and was about to make an angry retort but
Justin shook his head. “Leave him be, bud,” he whispered.
“He's just angry. We all are.”

With a snort, Aaron glared at Dominic's back and then
nodded reluctantly. He opened his pack, took out a banana and started
eating it, looking thoughtful.

Maria had spent a few minutes consoling Julia and
Yolanda. Now she approached Justin and, with a nod, indicated that
they should move away from the others a bit.

“
So,
what do you think?” she asked him directly.

Justin glanced down at the wreckage and back at Maria.
“Think?” he said quietly. “Honestly, I think we're
screwed. But I'm certainly not going to say that in front of the
others.” She gave him an understanding smile. “I think
that we should give everyone some time to absorb this. And you and I
need to think as well. We need answers to some very serious
questions. Like, how did the renegades find out we were here? Who
told them? How? And after that, I'd like to know how they just did
what they did. That was some serious power, Maria. And we aren't in a
position right now to counter it.”

“
All
valid points, Justin. But irrelevant right now.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Why are they
irrelevant?”

“
Because,”
she answered with a touch of exasperation, “there's nothing we
can do about them right now. Whether they truly know we're here, or
how, is something to think about but not dwell on. We have to act,
not react.”

Justin was taken aback by Maria's vehemence. He stared
at her determined expression for a long moment.

“
Hey,
Justin? Snap out of it. Like it or not, we're the leaders of this
group.” She ignored his spluttered denials. “We are. I
don't like it and obviously you don't either, but name someone else
who can and should do the job.”

He glanced over at the group and thought about it.
Julia, Yolanda, Jason and Richard were a little too young and
immature to be leaders, although he had a feeling that Richard could
do a pretty good job if he had to. Aaron? Aaron was Aaron; he
followed Justin's lead. And Dominic was just too angry and impatient
to keep cool in stressful situations. He sighed and looked back at
Maria, who smiled grimly.

“
See
what I mean? I'm afraid it's you and me, Justin. So let's make a plan
for right now and deal with the rebels later, right?”

He finally agreed and they put their heads together to
decide what to do in the immediate future.

While Justin and Maria made plans, the rest of the group
sat together and disconsolately looked at the wreckage of the stairs.
Several of them ate a bit. But every time he looked over at them,
Justin noticed that Aaron was staring at the remains of the structure
with an unusually intense look on his face.

Once Justin and Maria had made their decision, they
walked back to the others. Aaron was still concentrating on the
rubble, standing off from the others. Justin walked over curiously.
He could almost hear the wheels turning in Aaron's brain. He tapped
his friend on the shoulder and Aaron yelped. He spun around and
stared at Justin as if he'd forgotten who he was.

“
You
okay, bud?” Justin asked, feeling a bit concerned.

“
Oh,
hey Just. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. You just startled me, that's all.”

“
You
were looking pretty intense there. Have you had an idea or are you
just thinking nasty thoughts about the rebels, like the rest of us?”

Aaron laughed. “Definitely that. But yeah, I
thought of something. It's so crazy though, I'm not sure that I
should even mention it.”

Justin looked over at Maria. She was explaining their
next step to the others, so he looked back at Aaron and gestured
toward the group.

“
You
can tell me if you want to, Aaron. No one else is paying any
attention to us.”

Aaron glanced at the others, then nodded. “Okay.
Well, here goes. You made this road, right?” He pointed at the
shining path.

“
Yeah,
of course. You know that.” Justin was puzzled.

“
Yeah,
I know. But you have the power to control earth. I know you're still
learning, like the rest of us, but could you,” he pointed at
the rubble in the distance, “break that down into smaller
pieces, like pebbles, small rocks, that sort of thing?”

Surprised, Justin looked over at the tons of broken rock
and metal. Could he reduce the rubble to even smaller rubble. He
thought about it for a minute.

“
Yeah,
I suppose I could, Aaron. But what would be the point? Make it
prettier? More environmentally friendly? What?”

With a chuckle, Aaron shook his head. Then he became
serious again. “Okay. Let's say you can. Then could you mix in
a lot of sand from around the rock and metal, sort of make one big
mixture?”

Justin was more confused than ever. “Yeah, maybe.
But Aaron, what's your point? Why would I want to?”

“
Because,
I think we can make a new way to reach the exit.” Justin stared
at him in complete bewilderment. Aaron rushed on. “Not all at
once and not a staircase. More like the ramp we came up on to get to
this level.”

Justin shook his head. “Not possible, Aaron. The
rocks and sand and bits of metal would never hold together. This path
is one thing. The sand is sort of stuck to itself. But if we put a
lot of weight on it, it would crumble. Same with a ramp, except it
would crumble even faster.”

Aaron was nodding before Justin had finished speaking.
“Yeah, I know. And I knew you were going to say that. But what
if we added heat? Build up a small section, melt the materials
together, let it cool and build another on top of it and so on? That
might just work.”

Justin smiled. “And where would we get the heat,
bud? It's hot in here but it isn't that hot.”

“
I
could do it,” Aaron said simply.

“
You
could do what?”

“
I
could make the heat. That's my talent, right? Controlling fire? Well,
that's just another way of saying I can control heat.” He
looked a bit desperately at Justin. “It's worth a try, isn't
it? I mean, what else have we got to do except wander lost around
this level looking for another exit that you and I both know doesn't
exist?”

Justin felt a faint stirring of hope inside him but it
still sounded more than far-fetched.

“
You
realize that if it doesn't work, the others will be even more
depressed than they are already, right? Morale isn't exactly at an
all time high right now.”

“
Yeah,
that's true.” Aaron glanced at the dejected-looking teens. “But
honestly, I don't think they could feel any worse than they do right
now.”

With a deep breath, Justin finally agreed to try. He
tried to look stern at Aaron's jubilant expression and said “But
you have to explain it to the group. It's your idea, after all.”

Aaron hesitated and looked a bit intimidated by the idea
but Justin was adamant.

“
You
tell them, Aaron. It's about time you took credit for something.
These guys don't realize just how smart you are. So now's your chance
to show them.”

Aaron blushed at the compliment and then nodded.

The two friends walked back to the group.

“
Sorry
to interrupt, Maria,” Justin said, cutting into the group's
discussion. They'd been talking about the plan to head back to the
wall and search for another exit. The conversation was getting a bit
heated.

Maria stepped back, sighing in exasperation. “No
problem, Justin. I wasn't making much progress anyway.”

Several of the others spoke up but Justin raised his
hands.

“
One
second, guys. Please. We can talk about this in a minute. First,
Aaron has an idea on how to deal with our current situation and I'd
like you to listen to him for a minute.”

They all looked at each other. Aaron rarely spoke up or
gave an opinion. He was better at joking and teasing the girls. But
they settled down to listen anyway.

“
Okay,
Aaron. It's all yours,” Justin said and stepped back to let
Aaron stand in front of the group.

After some hesitation and with a bit of prompting from
Justin, Aaron finally explained his plan to the teens

“
I
know it's probably a long shot; Justin may not be able to smash the
rubble into smaller chunks or mix it all properly. I might not be
able to get it all hot enough to melt the sand, stone and metal into
a solid mass, but what do we lose by trying?”

There was a lot of skepticism but also some small
enthusiasm. Some of the group, Julia and Yolanda especially, agreed
with Aaron. What did they have to lose?

So, with the group behind them, Justin and Aaron grabbed
their packs and they all headed slowly down the slippery path toward
the remnants of the stairs.

It took about fifteen minutes to safely get down to the
bottom of the dune and approach the mass of wreckage. As they got
closer, the teens began to appreciate how truly massive the stairs
had been.

The structure had been hundreds of feet high and
immensely old, which meant that it had been built to last, Justin
thought. He looked at the huge metal beams and gigantic pieces of
stone. The carved steps could still be seen scattered here and there
in the debris.

They stood a few dozen yards away from the main pile of
the stair's remains and looked up. The mound was piled so high that
it loomed many feet above them. Justin looked up from the debris to
the ceiling so far away. How high, three hundred feet or more? And
Aaron thought they could build a ramp to reach that? Not possible, he
thought. How would it stay up? What if a strong gust of wind toppled
it when they were two hundred feet up? Titans or not, that fall
combined with the structure falling on top of them would kill them.
It was a crazy idea.

Justin looked at Aaron and saw that his friend was
watching him closely.

“
You
think it's impossible, don't you?” Aaron asked quietly. It's as
if he had read Justin's mind.

Justin stared mutely at his friend and then looked up at
the remains of the stairs again.

“
Not
impossible, Aaron,” he replied. “Insane maybe, but not
impossible.” Then he laughed and looked back at Aaron, who for
a split second had looked crushed at Justin's remark. Now he returned
his grin.

“
Okay,
let's move back to the road. It's going to get messy here in a minute
and very dangerous when this pile of stuff starts to shift.”

The whole group headed back to the road. Justin stopped
at the edge and turned back to stared at the debris. “Aaron,”
he said, “I'm going to try to build some sort of a wide base,
for support. When I think it's ready, you're going to have to melt it
all together. I'll hold it as long as I can but this is still new to
me, so if you find that you can't do it, tell me quickly, okay?”