Sierra Santiago and the Invisible City

Chapter 18 - The Vault

Sierra heard the clanging of blades and yelling back and forth from the tunnel below them. The yelling got louder and then a teeth-shattering whir rumbled out, shaking the cavern around them. The sound grew louder and then faded away, leaving Sierra and Juan with only the sound of their own frantic panting.

"What do we do?" whispered Juan.

"We go on with the plan," Sierra said. "We have no choice."

"But that's ridiculous!" Juan said.

"Quiet down, man. Let's head towards that light. I don't think this is the Vault yet—probably some kinda antechamber. C'mon."

She walked up along a steady incline, letting her feet land softly on the ground, making as little noise as possible. Juan would just have to follow, she figured; what else was he gonna do? Pretty soon she heard his trying-to-be-quiet footsteps creeping along behind her. The light at the top of the ramp turned out to be coming from a steel door with a small window on it. Sierra peered in, but all she could see was a dim, twinkling torch shimmer. "This must be the Vault," she said, feeling an unnatural calm spreading over her body. She reached down and pried her sneakers off her feet, motioning to her brother to do the same. "Quiet as possible," she said. Juan nodded weakly. Sierra took hold of the doorknob and ever-so-quietly turned it. The door swung open toward her. She quelled the mounting panic by simplifying the situation: there was no way back. They had a mission: get to the roof and open the hatch to release the clackens. Twork would follow. Lucera would deal with it from there. Any thought too far from that led to utter terror.

Sierra took a step into the Vault. The air on her face was cold and perfectly still. Juan tiptoed in behind her and silently shut the door. So far as she could tell, they hadn't made a sound yet. Maybe this would be okay after all. They were standing in a dimly lit circular area about the size of Sierra's homeroom. Several metal stairwells spiraled up around them into the misty darkness. Just pick one, Sierra thought. Juan will follow.

She edged towards the nearest staircase and placed her left foot as carefully as she could on the first step. Immediately, a dull clanging echoed up into the chamber. Sierra cringed. Juan tightened his hand around her shoulder. She shrugged him off. Okay, she thought, even quieter this time. Raising her right foot, she tried to imagine letting each molecule down as gently as possible along the second step. Be like a ghost, she told her self, like a ghost. Her foot landed with a barely audible touch, which Sierra decided would have to do. She raised her left foot again, and again imagined each molecule, placing her foot gently on the third step. She felt Juan moving behind her, and prayed he would figure out for himself how to stay quiet. His first step was painfully loud and it seemed like the echo would never die out. When it finally did, something rustled in the darkness above them, and Sierra held her breath. But the thing must've gone back to sleep, or it was just her imagination, because the deathly stillness soon returned. Sierra took another extra-slow, extra careful step up as Juan did the same. At this rate, she thought grimly, they might make it to the second floor by daybreak tomorrow. If they made it at all.

Once they settled into a steady, slow-as-molasses rhythm, Sierra allowed her brain to slip into a kind of trance and tune out her aching muscles and racing heart. Each step still sent out a dull fluttering echo or two, but it couldn't have gone more than a few feet, by Sierra's calculation. She hoped the Vaultkeep were a little further off the path than that.

Sierra and Juan were past the second landing and halfway towards the third when they heard footsteps. They were quiet at first, just an occasional, muffled tap, each followed by a few shuddering echoes and some shuffling. Sierra stopped dead in her extra-extra slow tracks. She carefully carefully and oh-so-quietly turned her head to catch Juan's eye. He nodded that he heard them too and they both held perfectly still. For a few silent seconds, Sierra prayed that they had just imagined the whole thing, but then there it was again, this time louder and, without a doubt, closer. Another sound reached their ears now—high pitched and mournful—from the tangle of circling stairs above. The footsteps were coming faster now, and Sierra wasn't sure whether to remain frozen or make a break for it. A break for what? She thought desperately. The road back only led to a dead end, and whatever it was that was moaning and creeping towards them was coming from somewhere just over their heads.