Ern woke from timeless unconsciousness to darkness as a rocking motion pressed him against the left side of the crate.
Your plan will take too long, Molly had said, We have to get Hoyle.
The background noise changed from an almost imperceptibly high whine to a down-ramping thrum.
If you go back home, they’ll find you, won’t they? Ern had asked.
His bladder ached. He was beginning to regret refusing a catheter—but even thinking about it made him wince. Better to wet himself, if it came to that.
I have some people that might help, she’d said.
The sound outside was changing, too. As if he had moved out of the narrow tunnel and into a wider space. His stomach felt as if it were floating.
Help get Hoyle out of the hospital?
The thrum lowered to nearly subsonic. They were almost stopped now. His stomach quieted.
I don’t think so. But they might help get someone into the city, and smuggle them out again.
All sense of motion stopped. Clanging and whirring noises started up. Electric motors, carts, loaders.
You got him into this, Molly had held his face in her hands. Do you have the stones to get him out again?
That one had thrown him. She had to explain what she meant by “stones.” Somehow, that made it more intimidating, not less.
There was a clang and a thump. Then the crate rocked and jolted. He was being lifted.
Ern groaned. He was about to burst.
He gritted his teeth and pushed his mind away to somewhere beautiful. Somewhere he could control anything, or at least anything that mattered. The lava fields. Out there in the tumble and crumble, for brief moments, he’d owned his life. He’d tasted what it meant to be free.
Ern kept himself in the lava fields, re-imagining all the jostling and bumping as if he were bouncing against rocks, jumping off ledges. Anything but needing to find a convenient corner and let flow. Anything but water.
A pair of loud clicks brought him back to reality and its attendant agonies.
The lid opened, and a dim greenish light smacked Ern in the face. Molly had told him it would be fifteen hours or more that he’d be in there, most of it sedated so it would be more bearable. However long it was, his eyes had obviously given up and gone on strike.
“Well, look at that. Didn’t think I’d see a sight like that again no matter how long I walked these plonkin’ rocks.”
Ern blinked. Shielded his eyes with a hand. A large, dark shape with an unmistakable silhouette loomed above him.
“Phil? I thought you were dead.”
“Thinkin’ at the wrong time’ll get you in hock now, won’t it? Come on, up and out.”