The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Forty-Seven: Doom Town, Part One

Sam trailed behind Summer, Veronica, and Raveena as they searched for the others among the melting ice walls. There were a few minutes—at least, he thought that's how much time had passed—where he was barely aware of what was happening.

And then Adam was running toward them, frantically asking where Eric was. Willow was the only other person in view, sitting on the ground twenty feet away, grimacing in pain.

Sam blinked as he came back to his senses. What had he missed?

"I don't see the Director, either," he realized.

"Let's get to the other side," Veronica said. She glanced at Summer. "Are you okay to keep walking?"

Summer's grip tightened on the metal rod in her hands. "Yeah! I feel fine!"

"I think you're in shock," Raveena told her, concern plain on her face. "I'm doing my best, but you're still bleeding—"

"Let's focus on getting out of here, then," Summer said. "Come on!"

Sam, Summer, Veronica, Raveena, and Adam circled to the other side of the stone tower, leaving Willow where she sat. They found Eric just as he was picking himself up off the ground. The Director stood ten feet in front of him, watching silently.

"Eric!" Adam rushed to his brother's side. "Are you okay?"

Eric straightened up. "Yeah, I..." He frowned. "I feel a little better now, actually."

"We have the rod," Summer told the Director. She waved it as she spoke, earning anxious glances from Veronica and Raveena. "You're not getting that fragment."

"The energy field is a ticking time bomb." The Director held up his tablet. "And even if it somehow avoids collapsing for a little while longer, there's no telling who could come after the fragment next. SCI and Scorpion aren't the only ones who know about it. Right now, with your town evacuated? Best time to remove it."

Willow staggered into view behind the Director. "That's what I've been saying. We have to do this now," she said. "And come on. How many years does Tyche Point have left, anyway? We all knew it was doomed already."

A chasm opened in Sam's chest. Sure, she had a point, but there was a big difference between shops dying off over the course of years and—this.

But this was inevitable.

Sam swept his gaze across his friends' faces. Summer, despite her insistence that she was fine just a minute earlier, seemed to be out of it again. Veronica's focus was on Summer, her eyes brimming with worry, and Raveena's eyes were on the blood staining Summer's shirt. Eric stared at the fragment, looking as exhausted and horrified as Sam felt.

And Adam...

Adam was thinking. His gaze darted between Willow, the Director, and the fragment.

Willow picked up her own tablet from the floor, where it had been laying with other pieces of equipment. "SCI's backup is almost here. We have to get out," she said, studying the screen. "They'll grab the fragment and take us all prisoner. I'd say we have five minutes, max."

"She's right," the Director warned. "I wouldn't trust all of Scorpion's altered to beat SCI's backup forces. Let alone you." He held out a hand. "Give us the rod, or—"

Willow's tablet began beeping wildly. The Director's head snapped toward her. "What's happening?" he asked.

"Energy readings have gone up dramatically. Since the altered began fighting, actually." Willow frowned. Her gaze moved up to the fragment. "It's responding to our abilities. If alterium could disrupt the field, maybe—"

"I thought they tried using their powers," the Director said.

"They tried manipulating the fragment directly. They didn't touch the field itself."

"We can't be sure the energetic properties of your powers will do the same thing alterium would. Unless—"

"No time to do math." Willow lifted her hands. A rod of ice broke away from the floor and shot toward the fragment.

Eric jumped into action, unleashing a burst of flame that swallowed the ice and left nothing behind but steam.

Willow glared at him and lifted another piece of ice into the air. "We don't have time for this!"

Eric's hands lifted to launch another attack. Adam's arm flew out to stop him. "We have to collapse the field," Adam said.

Veronica took the rod from Summer's hands and pulled it close to her chest. "No! Are you crazy?"

Willow moved the ice closer to the field. Eric ignored Adam's protests and torched that piece, too.

Adam's eyes narrowed.

Sam's heart sank. Before Adam even moved, he already knew what was going to happen. And he didn't have the strength to stop it. Deep down, as much he hated to admit it, he couldn't help but think Willow and the Director were right.

If Tyche Point was evacuated, the collapse had to happen now.

Fire erupted from Adam's palm. An unseen force stopped the blast about a foot short of the fragment. Then the air shimmered, and the energy field became visible for a heartbeat before it caved under the force of Adam's flames.

And then came the explosion.