Voyagers!: Frozen in Time
Chapter 8: The end of Pompeii
Jeffrey and Sura's escape was unsuccessful when they'd discovered angry fellow slaves and friends of Caninus tailed them. They were ambushed, but as they were being dragged back to face Bucco, Mount Vesuvius intervened. The explosion stunned everyone in the city. People ran from their homes and fell to the ground praying. For them, a day of reckoning had come.
The slave holding Jeffrey let him go and dropped to his knees. Sura elbowed the other slave in the chest and he toppled over. Both men fearfully ran away. Jeffrey and Sura held each other and stared at the volcano. The steaming ash billowed through the sky, growing larger deadlier. Bright orange lava poured out of the fissure and oozed a slow and destructive path toward the cities beneath Vesuvius.
"Jeffrey, I am truly sorry for doubting you! It has happened! What should we do?"
"We have to find Pliny by the water! He said they'd be there! I hope he was able to rescue Bogg!" Jeffrey shuddered. "Please, Sura, take me where they keep the boats!"
"Yes! I know the way to the Marina!"
They ran fast through the forums. Many inhabitants tried in vain to protect their wares and homes, but oddly, a majority still went about their business. Sura stopped at a bakery, where the baker had just finished placing over eighty loaves of bread into his ovens.
"Modestus! There's a calamity! Come on! You and your family have to escape!" She warned him.
"Calm Sura, this happened before. I cannot leave my foodstuffs! It will be fine. The lava will probably flow into the ocean. Sneeze sweetly, my dear."
Sura looked at him pained. "And you as well, Modestus!"
Jeffrey shook his head sadly, seeing many still eating, drinking and carrying on. Families with children were unfazed, and enjoyed their noon meal. Jeffrey's gaze traveled toward the clouds again. The patch of black soot and fumes grew bigger and closer. He choked as the lapilli snowed down. To his surprise, some people raced through the streets, waving it around. They found it funny and exciting.
"Sura! Please! We have to go! The gas in the air will poison us! Trust me!"
Jeffrey couldn't wait while she tried to warn everyone she met in the streets. It was a noble gesture, but it wouldn't help much. He tugged on her dress and dragged her away. All of a sudden, the earth rumbled again.
"There's a landslide and lava coming down!"
"Oh no! Jeffrey, the outskirts of the city are not much farther."
After a few minutes of running, Jeffrey's breathing felt labored with each step. He was tiring out and Sura stopped running altogether. She leaned against a marble pillar and doubled over from a stitch in her side.
"Jeffrey, I need a moment! I've never run so much before. My feet are scraped and my chest feels constricted." She wheezed.
"It's not just that, Sura. There's a heavy gas fume in the air and its going to blow straight for us. That's what kills a lot of the people! Oh no, I don't even know if we have a green light!"
"A green light?"
"On the omni, the time-travel device. If the light is green, that means we fixed something important in this part of history." He explained breathlessly. It was becoming harder to speak and Jeffrey cupped his hand over his nose and mouth to try and preserve fresh air. Sura was dizzy and slid down the pillar.
"Jeffrey, go! Leave me here. I can't make it."
Jeffrey stomped his foot and grabbed her arm. "No! I can't leave you here! You'll make it! You have to, Susan! You're a Voyager!"
"If your gods want me, they will surely take me!"
Jeffrey stubbornly pulled her again, but she sank back exhausted. "Please, Jeffrey, run! Find Phineas!"
Crowds of people raced past and Jeffrey was compelled to join them, but Sura couldn't move. The pillar shifted from an unexpected earthquake. Houses shook and crumbled in the entire forum. Jeffrey wished he could cover his ears to block the wails of people struck down in their own homes and those caught under falling buildings. He looked up frightened. They weren't safe either. He pulled her to her feet just as the marble cracked and split down the center. The whole structure was ready to collapse.
"Come on! Run!"
"I'll only hold you up, Jeffrey!"
Jeffrey pushed her forward and they made it out of that danger zone, then he realized Sura's hand slipped out of his. When he looked back, she'd fainted.
"No! Sura! Wake up! Wake up, Susan!" He screamed.
There was no way to carry her, but he tried mightily to lift her and dragged her body away from the stampeding crowds and falling rocks and stones. The lapilli and ash almost blinded him and the sun blackened as the cloud descended upon the trapped inhabitants. Jeffrey struggled for air.
"No! Wake up! You can't die!"
The building they'd rested under crashed down in heaps of white dust and rubble. Jeffrey shielded Sura from flying stones and was pelted on his arms and back. He fell over her.
"Help! Help us!" He cried out. He was forced to put his shirt over his nose and mouth and keep his head covered.
It was crazy to think anyone would hear him over the scorching landslide. Everyone who wasn't trapped and crushed had fallen and curled up into what would become their final poses. Jeffrey wasn't sure if he imagined it, but he saw a bright flash of white light envelop him and Sura, and then abruptly, he was all alone. The Voyagers had finally taken her.
Jeffrey weakly raised his hand out, but he couldn't even keep his face up. The streams of ash and volcanic cinders were filling the town like snowdrifts in a mighty blizzard. Pretty soon, he'd be covered over and indistinguishable from the rubble.
"Please, please help me! Bogg! Bogg!" Jeffrey cried for his best friend. "I need you!"
~~Oo~~
His grip was tight and reassuring. Strong, wiry fingers clasped his arm and he felt himself pulled close to someone who smelled of seawater and ash. Jeffrey gazed up and saw Phineas, soaked and stripped down to the skin, but unharmed. He held Jeffrey tight and looked at the omni.
"It's green! We did it! Pliny's safe!" Phineas shouted hoarsely. His leg and arm muscles burned from the vigorous swim and race through the city, his entire body shook, but he disregarded his pain. He'd found his boy.
"I had to come back! I couldn't leave you, Jeff!"
Jeffrey wrapped his arms around Phineas and hid his face from the onslaught of hot ashes. "Do it Bogg! Get us out of here! Please! NOW!"
Phineas pushed the tiny button on the top of the device. The devastation faded away. For brief seconds that could've been hours, they soared through outer space and vivid colored cosmos. They passed through the fabric of time itself, and then their flying slowed. Phineas glanced down. The ground came up fast, but gravity kicked in and the extraordinary drop was relegated to a ten-foot tumble into a decrepit marble pavilion with intricate mosaic flooring.
Phineas sprawled on the cool floor with his limbs askew. His heart beat uncontrollably, but it comforted him to know he was alive. He sat up with a distinct sensation. The confusion and headaches he'd experienced all along were gone.
"I'm in my right mind! I'm Phineas Bogg! I'm a Voyager!" He shouted.
His deep voice reverberated through the eerie marble hallways. He heard a loud groan a few feet away.
"Oh no! Jeffrey!"
Phineas crawled to his young partner and scooped him in his arms. Jeffrey's head lolled from side to side with his eyes closed. Phineas hugged him to his chest.
"Oh God, please be okay. I'm sorry! I tried to come in time! I tried!" Tears streamed down his face. Jeffrey almost looked dead. Blood from cuts and scrapes stained through his clothes. While covered from head to toe with gray ash, he barely looked human. Phineas gently wiped it away and shook it out of his hair.
Phineas cradled Jeffrey and felt his body stir. His voice was barely above a whisper. "Bogg, Sura…Susan disappeared. She's a Voyager now. Did we get out? Are we trapped? Where are we?"
"Shh, don't talk too much yet, Jeff. Let me check the omni."
Jeffrey's eyes widened and he pulled back so he could look him in the face. "Bogg? You…you can read the omni? You know how?"
"September, 19th 1752. Southern Italy again, red light."
Jeffrey grinned widely despite his pain. "Bogg, are you back? Do you remember everything?"
"More than everything, Jeff. This voyage offset whatever happened to me in that last cosmic trip. My mind feels so free! I'm whole again!"
"Bogg, that's great! I thought it would never happen!" Jeffrey burst into tears. "You really remember me and all our adventures?"
Phineas' heart went out to him. "Absolutely, Jeff! I can't believe that ever forgot a great kid like you in the first place. I'm sorry."
But he had forgotten. For a fleeting moment when the volcano erupted, Phineas had considered leaving the strange boy all to himself and not looking back. The thought of doing that now sickened him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and shifted Jeffrey in his arms. He steadied himself on one knee and rose up. Shafts of daylight streamed into the area from a couple of rooms down. Phineas glanced at the flooring. He'd seen this all before–white, black and multicolored tiles patterned in all sorts of shapes; even the swastika design embellished many of the center squares.
"This…this is Albinus' villa! I remember his floor. I had to stare at it enough while he made me pose right…"
Phineas gaze traveled toward the center of the chamber and saw the remnants of the marble bust and weaponry he held for the sketches. Since it was buried for centuries, the quality of the artifacts had not deteriorated much over time.
"Right there. I was sitting on there." He murmured. "Amazing. There's the wine goblet and food."
Jeffrey roused again. "I'm think I'm better now, Bogg."
Phineas lowered him and glanced around. They were definitely back in Pompeii, only this time, buried more than twenty feet under rocks and hardened lava.
"Did you say this was 1752?"
"Yeah, but I don't think we're trapped, see that light? It looks like people have been down here already, it's like a mineshaft of excavated tunnels."
Jeffrey peered at the artifacts. "You're right. This is the eighteenth century and this is the time when they discovered buried cities and started collecting all the best artifacts for King Charles."
Phineas took hold of Jeffrey's arm when he felt him wobble.
"We need to get out of here, I'm feeling very stifled and I'm sure you are too. We need fresh air."
Jeffrey drew nearer to Phineas. Everything about Pompeii was now foreboding and oppressive. "Yeah I still feel tight in my chest. Bogg, how did you get back? I thought you went with Pliny? Did you use the omni?"
"No, I didn't know I could do that. I managed to escape the dungeon and then, I…I swam, Jeff. We were halfway across the sea, but I beat the gas cloud and ashes. These old muscles never felt so good."
Jeffrey smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Bogg. I knew you could get out! But I wanted you to leave, you could have been killed."
Phineas looked at him gently. "Did you really think I'd do that? Even though I wasn't in my right mind, I wasn't about to leave a young boy to die. Something inside me clicked. We're Voyagers, we make sacrifices for people in every time zone. And as partners, we have to do the same for each other. Remember our first voyage, when I was about to take off after the Red Baron?"
"Yeah! You didn't want me to come with you."
"Right, but you said something so simple, and it always stuck with me."
"What did I say?"
"You go, down, I go down. I think at that moment I knew we were gonna work well together, and that somehow, you had to be a Voyager. It just wasn't confirmed until the trial."
Phineas patted his back as they made their way through the ruins. "Now if only we could figure…"
A loud crash of metal and rocks shook the villa and men shouted from outside an open shaft. Phineas ran ahead. He saw a group of excavators surrounding a giant iron winch that led down into a tunnel.
"The wheel is breaking! He will be crushed! He will fall to his death! Pull him up!" The group shouted. "Hurry!"
"Wait here, kid!" Phineas ran and slid along the dirt. He grabbed hold of the taut wire that suspended a man halfway down.
"Where did you come from?" One asked in shock.
"Never mind that now! Keep your weight on the wheel, don't let it split!" Phineas commanded.
Two others knelt down and helped him lift, and the trapped excavator was brought up to safety. The moment the men released the wheel, it snapped in two places. They winch toppled into the the tunnel.
The shaken man stood up and dusted off his pants and shirt. He grabbed Phineas' hand and shook it vigorously. "I certainly would've been crushed! Who are you? You're not one of my engineers? Where did you get the Roman dress?"
Phineas glanced down, he was still in the white subligar, sandals, and Roman belt from the prison armor. Jeffrey ran over.
"Bogg, is he okay?"
"It's fine, Jeff. But um, we…"
"We were curious about the work going on here and we kind of snuck into the excavation area. We didn't mean any harm, we just wanted to know what was happening." Jeffrey explained hastily.
Phineas nodded sheepishly. "Yeah! We heard you discovered the ancient city of Pompeii. The boy's a real history buff, he had to come see for himself. Ya know how kids are."
"What happened to him? He's injured and covered in soot!" The excavator said, alarmed.
Jeffrey coughed and dusted himself off. "Uhh, it was my fault. I took a fall in one of the tunnels." He pointed around. "Bogg got me out."
"You should have never come here. It's extremely dangerous. I've had workers fall in trenches and slip into pits of loose lapilli. That must've happened to you. Not to mention breathing in the mofeta!"
"What's mofeta?" Phineas asked.
"Pockets of gas from the volcanic debris, it contains huge amounts of a poisonous form of the element they are calling…carbon dioxide, I believe. It's a mixture of elements they say, sulfide and hydrogen. My men have hit those pockets before, and they must scramble for their lives! Once we had to shut down the excavation site for three months until the gas cleared."
Jeffrey snapped his finger. "That's what I smelled in Pompeii! I mean, I thought I smelled rotten eggs back…there. Where I tripped."
"Yes! If I were you, I'd take that boy and get medical attention quickly. Breathing in the gas could be extremely deadly. Oh! This cannot happen! I can't afford another three month reprieve!" He paced nervously.
Phineas' fears were confirmed. "Thank you. I certainly will get him checked. But I didn't smell any gas. I think your excavation is safe now."
The man eyed him up and down and stroked his blonde beard. "Don't wait too long. You know, from the looks of things, I'd say you are very enticed by history. That costume is authentic."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's one of the statues come to life to rescue you, Weber!" One of the men called out and they all laughed.
"You resemble that statue of Mars. Bernini the sculptor re-designed it in 1622. He had acquired some ancient sketches in Naples, where Pliny the Younger resided. The original was of fine artistry but very damaged. The sketches were very thorough and preserved. The sketches helped Bernini to reshape all the details on the form. He did an excellent job."
Phineas held back a laugh. If Pliny had the sketches, that meant Albinus had managed to escape the devastation of Pompeii as well.
"Well, whaddya know about that?" Phineas smiled.
Jeffrey tapped his arm. And Phineas waved at the men. "Uh, excuse us, gentlemen. You can go back to your work. We'll be leaving!"
He turned and checked the omni, and was relieved it was a green light. Weber stopped him.
"Wait! I can get you some real clothes. We can treat the boy for his injuries. If you're so fascinated by this, I could always use a man with your strength on this team. If it weren't for your added strength that winch would've broken. One of my excavators came down with a bad cold. The more hands the better if you stay, and the faster we'll unearth these villas."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Weber. We just wanted to see all the great work here. I have my own job that needs tending to."
"Bogg's a sailor." Jeffrey said.
"Okay then, but thank you very much for saving my life. *I feel reborn and re-invigorated to carry on now!"* Weber turned aside and his focus went back to his maps and tunnels.
Phineas and Jeffrey walked a distance from the ruins. "What do you know about him, Jeff?"
"They called him Weber. I learned about a Swiss engineer named Karl Weber; he helped turn this dig into something more than grave robbing. He was like a forerunner for modern archeology."
"Oh, then we helped history along again. It's time to get a move on, and we have to get you treated. I think I'll go a little further into the future for that." Phineas stifled a yawn.
Jeffrey stared at him sympathetically. "Wait, Bogg. You're exhausted aren't you?"
"What? Me?" Phineas shook out his arms and rolled his head from side to side. "I never get tired!"
"Give it up, Bogg. I know when you're tired. I see it in your eyes. I'm wiped out too. Can't we just find a tree to nap under or something?" Jeffrey pleaded.
"I think we should see the doctor first. Oh, and I also need to find some clothes real quick, or I'll probably just go back to 76AD and grab the stuff I left behind the bush."
Jeffrey clutched his hand, alarmed. "No, Bogg! We're never going back there again! Forget those old duds, they were ripping and they didn't smell so hot anyway. You'll find something else."
Phineas chuckled and rubbed Jeffrey's curls. "This really affected you didn't it? I'm sorry. It's only a bunch of ratty pirate clothes. I'll miss 'em, but life goes on. Let's go find a place to relax and…"
Before Phineas could finish his sentence, a bright light swathed over them and they disappeared without touching the omni.
