A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

"Not a chance," Olive replied, "We don't know what's behind this wall. Ethan, try to break this wall."

Everyone backed away as Ethan slammed into the wall. Some pieces of rock and dust fell off, but that's about it.

"Alright, stop." Olive said, "We're blowing it up."

Olive pulled out an Armageddon chicken egg from her bag and stuck it into the bird-sized hole.

"You mind lending me some fire?" Olive said as she tore off a piece of her pants and handed it to Emma.

"Just ignite it." Sophie said.

Emma light the cloth on fire with a touch of her finger.

"Everyone stay back, and don't let the debris hit anywhere that isn't covered by peculiar wool." Olive said. Then she placed the cloth by the egg and pulled her coat to cover her head. "Any second now."

The explosion was smaller than they expected, but the egg did blow a hole in the wall. It wasn't big enough for even a single person to fit through, so they repeated the process with another Armageddon egg. After three tries, they finally made an opening wide enough to walk through.

"That's a tough wall." Emma commented.

"Probably placed here by a peculiar." Sophie said, picking up a piece of rock, "This is the same kind of rock that makes the tunnel around us. It wouldn't naturally form a perfect wall like that."

"Someone must tried really hard to stop people from getting in." Olive said.

After a while, the tunnel opened to a wider hallway.

Sunlight came through the windows and shone on the marble white walls, revealing images painted in gold, of battling armies riding thunders and clouds led by giants the size of mountains.

"Ancient peculiar wars." Miss Bittern said.

Emma brushed her hand through one painting of a peculiar commanding the ocean fighting another that was summoning storms, their conflict reshaping the very earth they stood on. "No one should ever have this much power in this world."

"Power like that cannot be contained." Miss Bittern said, "We can hide it, lock it up, feed people lies that it doesn't exist, but eventually, someone like Caul will find it again, and there wouldn't be much we can do to stop them."

At the end of the hallway was another doorway sealed by rocks that seemed to grow straight out of the ground, so Olive and Emma went to blow it open again. After that, they were greeted with fresh air and fragrance of flowers. In front of them was a small lake surrounded by walls, beyond it, another doorway, another building. Inside the lake were a few trees that reached just higher than the top of those walls, their vines drooping down, almost touching the water surface. At the center of the lake was a garden island with flowers of different colors planted in it. Two wooden bridge connected the garden with both side of the building.

They crossed the bridge. Olive was the first to reach the garden, Miss Bittern the second. While the rest of them were still on the bridge, John saw a disturbance in the supposedly peaceful water.

Then he saw it again, a dark green shape heading towards the bridge.

"There's something in the water!" John pointed at the shape.

"What?"

The dark shape swam under the bridge and disappeared as everyone watched. Emma scanned the lake, dark shapes that resembled something she had seen when she first arrived in Florida were everywhere.

"Crocodiles." Emma murmured, then she shouted, "Everyone go, fast!"

They ran. In the panic Sophie stepped on a loose board, and it broke. She fell into the water, making a loud splash.