Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks [73]
They walked to the front of the building and stood looking through the broken-out windows for a moment.
“So what’s the plan, Bird-Man?” Panther asked in a singsong voice.
Hawk ignored him, casting about the shadows and the mist, listening to the silence and trusting to his instincts. He peered down the streets where they tunneled between the buildings and through the misty haze. Rain dampened the pavement, leaving it slick and oily, and the air smelled of metal and old fish.
He glanced at Candle, who met his gaze and shook her head. No danger so far, she was saying.
He turned to the others. “Fixit, you wait just inside, out of sight, and keep watch. The rest of us will go get the tablets.”
They climbed through one of the window frames, avoiding the door, which was barred and chained. Inside, the building opened through layers of deep shadows and long, hazy streaks of gray light to a jumbled collection of shelves, tables, counters, boxes, and debris of all sorts. Leaving Fixit at the front wall, Hawk took the others toward a half wall that separated the front and back of the store. Inside the half wall, a trapdoor opened onto stairs leading down into the basement. Once again, Hawk hesitated. He didn’t like the feel of the entry, never had. Then, brushing aside his fears, he switched on his solarpowered torch and started down.
The stairs ended in the very center of the basement, which was ink-black and musty and spread away in all directions to walls only faintly visible in the dim light of Hawk’s torch. Packing crates were stacked against the back wall, concealing the supplies they had come for. The wall to their left was partially collapsed, leaving a black hole that opened into the basement of the cavernous adjoining warehouse. The hole was ragged and slick with moisture, and the room beyond so thick with shadows that it was impossible to see anything. A deep, pervasive silence hung over everything.
Right away Candle said, “Something’s down here.” She pointed to the hole in the wall and the impenetrable blackness beyond. “In there.”
Everyone swung about to face the collapsed wall, prods coming up defensively. They stood motionless for a moment, listening. Nothing happened. No movement, no sounds. The seconds ticked away, and the basement seemed to grow stuffy and warm.
Finally, knowing he had to do something, Hawk started forward to take a closer look.
Candle grasped his arm instantly, pulling him back. “Don’t go in there!”
Hawk looked at her in surprise. “What is it?”
She shook her head. Her face was pale and drawn, and her eyes wide with fear. She could barely make herself answer him. “We have to get out of here. We have to get out right away.”
The way she said it made it clear that she felt there was no room for argument. Hawk looked at the others. “Go back up the stairs, right now.”
“Wait a minute!” Panther was right in his face, his voice an angry hiss.
“We came all the way across town to turn tail and run? You want us to leave the tablets behind?”
“Go back up the stairs,” Hawk repeated.
“Go back up the stairs yourself!” Panther snapped, and wheeled away.
As the others watched in disbelief, he started toward the back of the room and the deep shadows, ignoring the looks directed after him, oblivious to Candle’s hiss of warning. Hawk started to follow, then stopped as he realized he could not turn Panther around without risking a confrontation that would likely