Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [81]
‘Why don’t we get you well before we talk about sending you anywhere?’
She pulled him closer, tightening her grip. ‘You have to let me die.’
He choked, unable to respond. Her demand echoed in his mind.
Let me go. It’s the only way to solve this mess, and we do need to solve it quickly. She winked before her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went rigid.
‘Seizure!’ the nurse shouted, opening up her drip. She reached for a syringe.
Everett straightened. ‘Ten units D-Zpan, IV push,’ he said.
The nurse checked the stats again. ‘Pulse-ox down to sixty.’
‘No heart rate,’ his student said.
‘Are the cardio-pads still in place?’ Everett asked.
The nurse nodded, going for the crash cart.
‘Shock her at two hundred.’
‘Clear,’ the nurse called, and the Jane Doe’s body jolted.
They turned to watch the heart monitor. It was flat line.
‘Charge to three hundred.’
‘Clear!’
The sound of electrical current ripped through the room. Her body arched and fell again.
‘We’re losing her,’ the nurse said.
‘Not if I can help it,’ Everett said. ‘Charge to three fifty.’
EARTH—TIME: FORWARD
CHAPTER 19
‘Where in blazing demons are we?’ Shane asked.
Rosette stared at the wrought-iron gates, their tall points reaching high overhead. Thunder rumbled on the horizon and rips of lightning flashed through the sky. The rain fell, a steady downpour that saturated her clothes. It clung to her skin, making her itch. ‘Oh no,’ she whispered.
‘What’s that?’
‘We’re not where we belong.’ She turned to Shane. ‘Don’t swallow the water, or let it get in your eyes.’
He screwed up his face. ‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘It’s toxic.’ She pushed her hand into the depths of Drayco’s neck fur and looked down the fence line. It seemed to go on forever, disappearing into a foggy mist. Trees had lined it once. You could tell by the broken twisted trunks, the haunt of termites whose giant red mud towers stood nearby. Ravines cracked the ground and water rushed through, staining the red earth, a sulphur foam gathering in the eddies.
Stagnant pools formed near the gates, hosting thousands of toads. They croaked incessantly above the patter of rain, camouflaged in the mud, adding syncopation to the rolls of background thunder. Fynn wiggled out of her arms and trotted over to the nearest pond, his nose working hard to identify all the new scents. The sludge stained his white paws and left ochre splatters on his flanks as he leapt about.
‘Keep out of it!’ she called to him. ‘Those toads are toxic too.’
Shane stepped forward, his boots splashing in the ooze. His hand hadn’t left the hilt of his sword since dashing into the portal above Temple Dumarka. ‘Where are we?’
‘Earth…I think,’ Rosette said. ‘But we’ve come too soon.’
‘How do you mean, too soon?’
It smells like Earth, Maudi, when Kreshkali first brought us over. Before we made the sun shine again. The temple cat sneezed, shaking raindrops from his coat. Do we need to stay long?
‘I hope not. Can you sense Jarrod? There must be a reason the Entity brought us.’
I don’t think anyone’s around. Not anyone we know.
‘Me neither.’ She closed her mouth, careful not to let moisture in.
‘Me neither what?’ Shane asked, wiping his face with his sleeve. ‘What is this stuff? It stings.’ He looked at the water droplet on his hand.
‘It’s called acid rain.’
‘From volcanoes?’ He scanned the terrain. ‘There’s hardly a hill nearby, and those distant mountains don’t look active.’
‘Not volcanoes.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s from pollution. Come on.’ She tugged at him, turning back towards the portal. She whistled to Fynn. ‘We need to get under shelter. There’s nothing here at the gate, certainly not Jarrod.’
‘We aren’t staying, are we?’ He spat. ‘This place is worse than the swamps of Tensar.’ His boots were half submerged in the mud and he lifted one foot as evidence. Muck dripped from his sole, rain bleaching the leather tops in light-coloured splotches. Muck filled the imprint as he stood on one leg. ‘I don’t care if this is your Earth, or the bowels of Gaela, for that matter. I think we should