After a long and unbearable cramped night in the barricaded tunnel, Marina took out a copy of The Book and with her SUN lamp read aloud. "If you have trust you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will obey you. If you have trust as small as a mustard seed you can tell the mighty oak tree to uproot itself and it will fall into the sea."  She looked up towards Leon. He laid in a crumpled ball pretending to be asleep. Marina spoke loudly so as to rouse him, "Well I certainly must have a mustard-seed sized trust. How about you Leon? Hmmm?  Do you have any idea how small a mustard seed is?"

Without opening his eyes, Leon turned toward the caved in dirt wall and mumbled, "Nope..."

"It's tiny--no bigger than a speck. You gotta speck of trust in you?" Marina asked hopefully.

"Nope... sleeping... " He grumbled.

Leon's optimism ran out years ago. For most of his life he'd been hiding underground like a mole rat. He was Vitamin D deficient—and everything deficient. Now, what was meant to be his salvation had seemingly become his grave. When he became deeply depressed, or laden down with self-pity, Marina had her ways of snapping him out of it. Unfortunately the lack of oxygen, their mutual body odor, plus his impending doom had put him in a dreadfully dark, sour mood. The air was as thin as his patience.

Marina continued reading, mouthing along with the words. Leon found this especially annoying. "Have I ever told you, you are no fun to be in a crisis with?"

"Yup..." Leon tried to fall back asleep but it was no use. He was hungry, his legs were cramping and he had to urinate intensely. He felt like he was gonna pop but he wouldn't dare pee in front of his grandmother. He'd be humiliated. Besides it would only add to the mildewy dampness and the putrefying stench of his own B.O. It smelled like a sweaty feet, armpit and bad breath, sandwich. Disgustingly that reminded him he was hungry—very hungry.

Marina continued scouring the book as she followed the words with her index finger. Her nail polish matched her flaming red hair which had become wildly frizzy in the dampness. Her bright blue reading glasses were fogged up. They sat perched on the end of her nose and hung from a pink, sparkly chain. "Leon what do you think would be harder to move, a mountain or this dirt above our heads?" Marina sounded almost giddy at the possibility.

"The dirt above our heads." Now Leon was just being mean.

"No silly, a mountain is much heavier than the ground. Let's hold hands and trust the author of the book to get us out of this mucky situation." She grabbed her grandson's reluctant hands. Her head lamp blinded his eyes.

Leon pulled away from Marina and blocked the light with the back of his hand. "But it's impossible," Leon protested and turned away from his grandmother. When he did he bonked his head on sizable rock protruding from the dirt wall. He felt his scalp expecting blood.

Marina flipped up the SUN light and pulled Leon's face toward hers. "Nothing is impossible with the King... Look..." She pointed to the passage.  "See it says so right here." She tilted the light towards the page.  "Go on read it."

In the most blasé voice he could muster, Leon repeated, "Nothing is impossible with the King."

With enough faith for the both of them Marina continued, "Great... now hold my hands." Four muddy hands molded together. "Dear King, nothing is impossible with you...  As you are plainly aware we are in a bit of an impossible situation here. So if you see fit, could you kindly free us from our dirt prison?" Marina thought it would be best to do as The Book mentioned. She ordered the dirt to move from here to there. Earth began to crumble above their heads. Overwhelming clouds of dust caused the two of them to choke then wheeze. Taking cover under their locked arms, the filthy pair huddle together. As the earth quaked it became insufferable. Marina and Leon coughed uncontrollably as they gasped for air. Then they had to hold their breath for what seemed like ages but suddenly something remarkable happened. Directly above their heads the ground roared and rumbled, causing the earth to crack wide open. It revealed, an usually clear, brilliant blue sky.

Even the brown smog had parted like The Red Sea.

Marina and Leon clawed their way up the rocky stairway as two freshly hatched spiders from an enormous dirt egg. Once on the outside they gleefully hopped up and down praising the maker of miracles. Never had the air been so crisp—so clean. They held their arms wide open looks up at the azure blue expanse and took in big deep breaths.  Once renewed they hugged one another. After their harrowing escape, Leon vowed never again to doubt the King.

Vows are a dangerous thing to make Leon.

---

Lonely the big brown bear swooped up the sleeping, white haired man into his giant paws and gently placed him on his burly back. Working for the King was his great pleasure. With enormous care, he carried his exhausted passenger the last seven miles to his final destination. Under the Old Bridge was as far as Lonely could safely travel.  Tenderly he placed Alfred Quest underneath the west side of the bridge.  He gave Alfred a friendly nudge to waken him. Oh how long he wished they had time to chat. He had heard so much about Alfred. Lying on the cold ground the old man shivered and stirred. He awoke just in time to see the back of the large brown beast meandering up the dried up riverbed.

As he watched Lonely wander off, Alfred wondered,
"Did I just get a lift from a bear?" With amazement, Alfred recognized his familiar surroundings. He was home!  He thought, "How did that bear know the coordinates?" Alfred had so many questions about the Uber-bear but had no time to ponder them. He needed to see his granddaughters. He needed to know if Izzy had gotten to Bell in time.

—-

Tommy realized he was being ridiculous. "Worse..." he thought to himself. "I'm being a coward."  He lifted his head from the toilet and immediately regretted puking in it. Water had not run in his particular apartment building for months. Devin knocked on the door. Not wanting to be made fun of, Tommy asked, "What do you want creep?"

"You want some water?" Devin asked, holding out a bottle.

"Go away," Tommy barked, as he wiped a bit of vomit on his sleeve.

Dejected, Devin walked away thumping the water bottle on the wall as he left. As much as he harassed his older brother, he admired him.  Craving the love of an absentee father had its toll on a young boy—even a devilish one like Devin.

Guiltily Tommy opened the creaky bathroom door and peered out into the hallway. No sign of the little stinker. He rummaged under the sink for some mouthwash. As he gargled he thought, "Life gives you choices; you can either do the right thing or the safe thing." He knew the safest thing was to leave Devin home. "No sense in both of us getting eaten alive."  In four seconds flat, he was out the door and back on the city streets. This time he didn't sneak around corners or hide in the shadows. He was determined to be brave and oddly enough, he didn't feel alone. He looked back, only once, making certain Devin wasn't following him. Then he lifted his chin and, as a man, strutted back to the 7th Avenue tunnel entrance.

---

"Give me the bag Nana!" Leon grabbed the olive green satchel. "We have to hurry!"

"May I ask where are we hurrying to?" Marina studied her grandson's face. Even with all the caked on dirt she could see it. He had changed somehow. It was as if the earth had given birth to a new creature. At once, she understood what had happened. After all these years, her grandson finally believed. "You are going after the girl aren't you?"

"It's not what you think," Leon protested.

Marina tilted her head slightly. "I know you're on a mission to save her. A quest to save Izzy Quest."

"That's not it Nana... Besides after meeting her one time I'm certsin Izzy Quest can take care of herself. But it's like you said before, this book can save mankind from itself."

"Indeed it can," Marina agreed putting her arm around her grandson. "We make a good team but we sure do stink!"

"Come on old woman, let's get the lead out!" He began to speed walk away from her.

"Don't you dare call me old, Leon Woods. I can still beat you in a race."

"I'd like to see you try!" He began to jog away from her."

Marina hesitated. "Leon hold up." She closed her eyes and became very still."

Leon walked back to his grandmother. "Nana, what is it?"

"Im supposed to stay here." With her eyes still closed, as if in a trance she added,"Don't put all your eggs into one basket."

Leon was confused. "Eggs? What eggs?"

Marina opened her eyes. "Leon it's too dangerous for us to keep all the copies in one place. We need to split up."

After making certain the underground bunker was stable Leon and Marina split the manuscripts between them. As they hugged goodbye Leon prayed silently asking the Author to protect his grandmother. For the first time in his life, Leon felt grownup and knew what it meant to be determined. He headed to Brooklyn knowing he'd never hide again.

—-

SOD was livid. He had banked on Marina and Leon's air running out long before their complete and utterly disgusting trust kicked in. He held a special and unique, hatred for Marina. On many occasions he had tried to crush her completely. Certainly, when her husband Joel began dying an agonizing death, due to colon cancer, she'd cave—nope.  How about when she had to change his colostomy bag and catheter? Nah... Maybe cleaning up daily vomit and shaving Joel's head due to the chemo treatments? Still nothing. Aha! He even caused the government to stop paying for Joel's medical care. Still Marina did not waver. Due to her unwavering-trust her husband remained alive six more healthy years! When the radical new regime gunned down her only son and precious daughter in-law SOD thought he finally had her on the run. But somehow all these tragedies had only managed to strengthened her. Marina knew who the real enemy was and she always remained one step ahead of him.

Like a black cauldron, SOD's inner thoughts were always churning:
What will it take to take down Marina?  Give me the grandson... that should do it. He's still young and springy. Springy enough to bounce in my direction. He's got desires, impulses, a mind of his own. A mind is a terrible thing to waste and I plan on wasting yours Leon. Wait-and-see. I'm coming for you. Leon, you love your nana, right? But everyone knows how important it is to recycle. Well it's time to take out your recyclables Leon. Only next time there won't be anyone to take her place. One day you and the annoyingly steady Marina Woods will be mine—or dead. I'll see to that.

I'm going to take the boy and play him like a fiddle,
Like a pancake I'm going to slap him on a griddle.
Hisssssssssssssss...

—-

An eerie silence surrounded the opening of the stairwell. No emaciated little children, no wailing... hardly even a spec of trash.  Scrubbed away were the poor and the dying.  It smelled like ammonia, insecticide and oddly enough pine. Operation Clean Sweep had begun. It was the New Regime's way of ridding its working citizens of suffering's decay.

Tommy, no longer thinking of himself, raced down the steps. He called out, "Panney! Panney! Where are you?" His own voice echoed back. An antique newspaper page crunched under Tommy's feet; it was the only thing untouched by the military. Its headline read, "New Regime Ushers in New Peace!" Tommy reached down and with a shaking fist crumpled the page into dust.  They taught him in school, "Those who do not work do not eat." In theory, it made sense but what about those who can't work? Tommy's mind couldn't comprehend the maddening horror of killing deformed, hungry children or the mothers too sick to care for them. In the eyes of the law, they were a drain on society, a waste of fuel and space--an inconvenience.  As Tommy frantically searched, he was unaware he was seeking the invisible author's pride and joy.

-End of Chapter 27-

Author's note: I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Please vote, comment, follow and add The Wasting  to your library. If you've got a book you'd like me to check out—I'd be delighted.