The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) Read Free Page B

lay there on his side, gasping and grunting in a frantic effort
to breathe.
    He was aware of the
others gathered around him, Aaron frantically talking, but he was
concentrating on breathing and couldn't reply. When Justin finally
began to catch his breath, his first thought was one of relief. Thank
God I didn't hit the titanium, he thought. Then he realized that he
was lying in a puddle of water that seemed to be growing.
    Justin started to sit up
and Aaron quickly put his arm around his shoulders and helped to
steady him. He glanced around and noticed that his less than perfect
landing had thrown him some thirty feet away from the fountain. He
looked at the structure, and his jaw dropped in shock.
    Water was still pouring
out of the hole in the ceiling, cascading down the fountain and
flowing outward across the room. He wasn't lying in a puddle. He was
sitting in what would soon be a pool.
    “ Hey
Just, you okay?” Aaron asked anxiously.
    Justin shook his head and
water flew everywhere. Several of the others stepped back; Dominic
cursed under his breath.
    “ Yeah,
I think so. Um, I think we might have a problem here.”
    “ Oh
great. He thinks we might have a problem.” Dominic shook his head in disgust. “What
the hell were you thinking, man? Look at that thing! We're all going
to drown down here thanks to you. You probably opened a hatch into
the frigging ocean. You guys told us that Sanctuary was under the
ocean, right? We're going to drown in sea water. Geez, where was your
brain?”
    “ Stop
it, Dom,” Maria said forcefully. “Justin was trying to
get us out. We all agreed that he should open that hatch, including
you! So knock it off.” She looked at Justin. “There's no
way you could have known about the water, Justin. I certainly don't
blame you for this. But we have to think fast. Dominic's right about
one thing; if there are no drains on this level, and there may not
be, we are going to drown.”
    Justin smiled weakly and
nodded his thanks. But with a stab of guilt, he remembered the
discolored fungus, and the feeling of dampness around the rune. He
should have known there was something wrong. He should have! And now
here they were, facing a slow death by drowning. He stared at all of
them, struggling for something to say, trying to think of something
to do. Then he suddenly turned and looked at Dominic.
    “ What
did you just say?” he asked. He hadn't really been listening to
Dominic's rant. “About being under water?”
    “ What?”
Dominic looked confused, then he scowled again. “I said we're
going to drown!”
    Justin shook his head.
“No, no. I think you said 'we're going to drown in sea water'.”
    “ Yeah,
exactly. We're going to...”
    Justin jumped to his feet
and then touched his lips, wiping the water away. “But that's
just it. This isn't salt water. It's fresh.” He looked at the
blank expressions around him. “Don't you see? It's not the
ocean at all.” He glanced at Aaron and watched his friend's
expression change.
    “ Awesome,
Just!” He turned to the others, talking excitedly. “Justin
and I saw a bunch of artificial lakes and ponds when we were in
Sanctuary; I mean the populated part of Sanctuary. The escape hatch
he opened must be under something like that. So once it drains,”
he looked up at the torrent still rushing down the levels of the
fountain and shrugged, “whenever that is, we'll be able to
climb up and get out of here!”
    Dominic stopped talking.
He still looked skeptical but turned and stared up at the ceiling.
    Maria smiled and took a
deep breath. “That's a relief, guys. I wonder how long it will
take to drain?”
    Justin looked down at his
feet. The water was sloshing around the bottom of his sneakers, but
it wasn't too deep yet. “I don't know, Maria. One of the lakes
we saw, in the Arboretum, was pretty big.” There were some
piles of stone and debris scattered around the room. “Maybe we
should move to one of those piles of rocks, try to stay dry