“Last man standing,” Colonel Cain announced. “Go!”
Malcolm wasted no time. He barreled toward Chris like he’d been waiting for this chance his whole life.
Chris took up his defensive stance. He could use Malcolm’s passion against him. The kid was rage-filled, not thinking. All Chris had to do was let him wear himself out before taking a well-aimed blow.
Malcolm threw a punch. Chris pulled his arms up, blocking it easily. It had been a sloppy first attempt.
Malcolm tried again, attempting a quick left hook. But Chris had already anticipated it. He blocked again. This time, he retaliated with a blow to Malcolm’s exposed side.
“Oof!” Malcolm gasped as he staggered.
The mud was slippery and he stumbled. Chris quickly realized he had an opportunity here. He’d been training in the slippery mud for hours and was more steady on his feet, but Malcolm had not and he was barely able to keep himself up.
Chris knew he had to take this moment while Malcolm’s defense was down.
He took two large steps forward and focused on Malcolm’s exposed shoulder, than put the full bulk of his bodyweight into plowing his right fist toward it.
But Malcolm suddenly righted himself, and at the last second he ducked. Instead of thumping his shoulder, Chris’s hand soared past it, bringing his entire body with it.
He staggered. He’d made a huge mistake. A miscalculation.
A sudden sharp blow struck him across the back of his right ear. Pain exploded across his jaw, neck, and cheek. His ears began to ring.
Disoriented, Chris swirled around, trying to get an eye on Malcolm. But Malcolm must’ve darted around behind him because all Chris could see was the muddy field and pounding rain.
Drops got into his eyes, making it even harder to see. Then he felt another horrible blow slam into the back of his head. This one was so hard his teeth rattled. Black stars danced in his eyes.
He started lashing out, desperately trying to find Malcolm, to get any single one of his blows to connect. But he failed. He was just flailing. Shame overcame him.
A third blow came. This one got him in the throat. The pain was so awful that Chris felt his eyes fill with tears.
Gasping, he fell to his knees onto the soggy earth. Then he flopped sideways, no longer able to hold his body up, his body overcome with wracking coughs. His face slammed into the ground. As he panted for breath, he tasted mud.
Malcolm’s feet appeared beside him. As he looked up at his figure framed by raindrops, the boy smiled devilishly.
Then Colonel Cain stepped up and peered down at Christopher.
“Yes,” Colonel Cain said, nodding his head. “I think you two will make quite the team.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Oliver felt the strange tugging sensation on his body of the portal pulling him through. No matter how many portals he went through, he’d never get used to the feeling. It felt like having his atoms ripped apart and rescrambled.
The flashing purple lights of the portal whizzed past him, blindingly bright and adding to his general discomfort. He felt nausea swirl in his stomach.
Oliver couldn’t help but feel for his friends. Neither Walter nor Hazel had ever traveled through a portal before, and this one was particularly brutal, especially considering there was no guarantee they’d even make it out the other end. He could only pray that he’d be able to safely lead them to their desired destination. But if his intentions had not been pure enough, they’d all be ejected into space. The thought was just too terrible to consider.
After what felt like hours, Oliver heard a strange sucking noise, like water draining through a plug hole. Then with a pop like a bursting balloon, all the flashing lights and tugging sensations disappeared.
Oliver felt himself fly through the air as if catapulted. He landed hard on the ground and groaned from the pain.
Three distinct thudding noises came from behind him and Oliver knew that was the sound of each one of his companions landing.
He looked back. They all looked stunned and disheveled. David’s ponytail had come undone during the journey, and Hazel’s bun looked messy and askew. Once again, Walter was the most unfazed. He leapt up and punched the air.
“That was awesome!”
Oliver quickly scrambled to his feet. “Shh!” he said, running toward Walter. “We don’t know where we are. Don’t draw so much attention to us!”
He reached Walter at the same time as Hazel and David.
“Which begs the question,” Hazel said. “Where are we?”
Everyone began to glance around. They were surrounded by a series of buildings that appeared to be in various states of disrepair. They’d clearly once been extremely ornate and extravagant churches, with stone steps, tall white columns, and domed roofs, but something had ravished them. Time? War? It looked possible even that the building materials had been scavenged. Overall, they all looked close to collapse.
The streets were also filthy. Wild livestock roamed around, dropping dung behind them, and several foxes darted in and out of the churches.
Oliver shuddered. “Somewhere in Europe. But where and when precisely, I’ve not idea. Let’s look for clues.”
They began to pace the streets. There were no cars, but plenty of horse manure, which helped them narrow down the era to prior the invention of the automobile. There were very few people scattered around the place, mainly beggars, which made the place feel a bit like a ghost town.
“I feel like the population must have shrunk recently,” Hazel said. “There seem to be far too few people for all these buildings.”
“So we’re perhaps in some kind of old city that’s lost its people for some reason,” Oliver suggested. “That would explain why the buildings look so dilapidated.”
“Look there!” Hazel said, pointing at a rectangular area surrounded by large, important-looking buildings. “That looks like a Roman forum. Only it’s filled with cattle and markets.” Her eyes widened with excitement. “I think we might be in Rome. Right at the cusp of the Renaissance.”
“The what?” Walter asked.
“The moment in Europe that marks the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity,” she replied with enthusiasm. “Where art and architecture and philosophy and trade flourished. You know, the age of discovery?”
Walter let out a mocking laugh. “You’re such a nerd.”
But Hazel was on a roll. She completely ignored Walter, looking increasingly excited. “That’s why all the buildings are falling down. The economy collapsed in the fourteenth century because of war and plague, as well as famine from a small ice age. The population shrank by somewhere between twenty-five and fifty percent.”
“So it must be early fifteen hundreds,” Oliver replied.
“I think so,” Hazel said with a nod.
Just then, a pair of women walked past them chatting. Oliver didn’t understand the language. But David was listening intently, as though perhaps he did.
Oliver raised his eyebrows at David expectantly. “Well? Did you understand them?”
David nodded slowly. “Yes. I can speak several languages. Perhaps that’s another reason Professor Amethyst sent me.”
“And?” Oliver asked. “Are we right? Are we in Italy?”
David nodded. “We’re in Italy.”
Oliver couldn’t help but exclaim, “Italy!”
Hazel, too, seemed completely enthralled by where they’d ended up. “Rome! During