Chapter Nine
As Juno Boreas led Lars, Charles and the Baudelaires through the jungle, the earthquake seemingly started by Fiona's pushing a button on her gun - which was hard enough to wrap one's head around - the glass plates of the dome above the Boreas Botanics began to crack, and a very dangerous rain of sharp glass was about to start. The metal bars holding the glass together were vibrating and making disturbing noises.
'Look!' Charles shouted, looking up as he ran alongside Juno, Lars and the Baudelaires. A large square of sharp glass was falling in the group's direction; Lars jumped and knocked the Baudelaires to the ground while Charles pulled Juno away a split second before the large glass hit the ground, breaking into thousands of sharp glass shards. More glass was falling from the dome, and the noise of breaking glass echoed all over the dome.
'Juno! Where is this secret exit you were talking about?' Lars asked, when the group reassembled, heading through the trees to the eastern part of the Verdant Forest Dome. 'There's a hidden door in a part of the dome that is not surrounded by rock, it's locked with a vernacular fastening device for security, and our only bet!'
There's not an expression in the world that can fully describe the terrifying fear they had; being sliced into two or more parts by large, falling glass. There can't also be an expression to apropriately describe what they saw when they dared to look up in their run ;
hundreds of enormous glass squares that cut through whatever they hit.
'Look, there it is!' Juno shouted, poiting at a distant part of the dome; there was no rock behind it, merely trees, and on the door, a vernacular fastening device. As the group ran towards the door, the Verdant Forest Dome was being destroyed. The Boreas Botanics, along with the Boreas sisters' house. Quickly, Juno inserted the passwords into the vernacular fastening device, opening it; the Baudelaires went in first followed by Charles and Lars, as Juno closed the door behind them. From the outside, all they could see inside was the deadly rain of glass falling and cutting through everything. The glass was very thick and heavy, so it was no surprise; the Baudelaires shivered at the thought of what could happen if one of them was under one of those.
The group layed on the ground outside the Verdant Forest Dome. Juno was immobile. Violet, and Klaus were gasping for air, feeling as if their lungs were burning and breaking into cold sweats, Lars was pressing on his stomach, as the run had popped one of his stitches. Noticing it, Charles took it upon himself to remake the stitches on Lars' stomach. Beatrice and Sunny wiped the tears off each other's face. But they all had one thing in common; they felt
defeated.
'I can't believe what just happened...I can't.' Klaus said to Violet, her hands resting on his shoulders. 'Fiona has really become evil.'
'What was that gun of hers? Is it me or the earthquake started after she pressed a button on it? What
kind of gun can cause an earthquake?' Charles asked while he looked after Juno, who was still immobile on the ground.
'I don't know. I'm an inventor, but I can for sure say there is no kind of gun that can cause an earthquake. It was just a coincidence. I think.' Violet said.
'There are no coincidences, Violet.' Lars said, laying on the ground, his members extended in all directions. 'Did you fail to see the insignia on those two's jackets? A question mark. With an eye beneath it.'
'An eye? But that's the V.F.D. insignia!' Violet said. 'I think I've mentioned before. There are other organizations in this world. They're all in some way or another, connected. There is not much for a volunteer to do other than hide nowadays.'
'If the question mark means what I think it does...Then the Great Unknown is some sort of organization?' Klaus asked. 'No. The Great Unknown itself...what it is, I don't know but I do know that if Felix went into it as a good person and came back out the way he is now...Anyone that might come back from it...Will have been corrupted.'
'No! That's an absurd! If Quigley gets out, and he and Duncan and Isadora will, there's no way our friends will have been turned evil! You don't know them, Lars!' Violet shouted.
'I may not know them. But I knew Felix. And he did
this to me, didn't he?' Lars said.
'All my work...' Juno's voice was heard. '...Destroyed.'
'Juno...'
'Jessica...' Juno then sat on the ground. She was crying and her face was dirty with earth and dead leaves. She was pale and the only color was that of her green eyes. 'My little sister...They took her...'
'We'll get her back, Juno!' Klaus shouted. He never realized how much he liked Jessica until he saw her being taken by Fernald and Fiona. Despite being a tad too clingy, Jessica was a truly good girl and a real friend. 'They must have gone somewhere, haven't they?'
'There's a ground-level outpost in the jungle, east of here. We never use it, so it's abandoned. My workers probably went southeast, to meet with Jane and her workers. It's the standard procedure whenever there is trouble.' Juno said, slowly coming out of the shocked state she was just in.
'We have to get going then.' Lars said, standing up. He offered his hand to Juno, so that she could stand up. Juno looked up at Lars, and grabbed his hand, and stood up. Lars used his hand to wipe the dirt and leaves off of Juno's face, making her look more like herself again. 'Thank you.'
The group then started walking, but Charles stood still behind them. 'Charles? Aren't you coming?' Juno said, walking back towards him. Charles had an expression of terror on his face. Raising his arm, he pointed towards the horizon. 'Look.' He said.
And they looked. Mt. Gulug was erupting, now. A heavy lava flow poured from the volcano's crater, and an enormous, dark cloud of
tephra a word which here means 'a cloud composite of ash and rock that often results from eruptions and into destruction.'
'Jane!' Juno said, horrified at the sight. Mt. Gulug had begun it's deadly eruption, and there was nothing left to do. 'The Volcanic Furnace Department...It's...
gone!'
'Everything...Our work, our house! It's all gone!' Juno cried. Charles had his hands on her back supporting her. 'That earthquake we felt...Could have it been caused by the eruption?' Lars asked. 'Because if so, then that gun had nothing to do with it.'
'Quick, guys, we have to get to that outpost. If Fernald and Fiona are going anywhere, it's there.' Klaus said. 'We have to retrieve the sugarbowl, and Jessica.'
'Let's go.' Juno said, walking past every one of them. They followed her lead, and began to walk towards their hope of saving Jessica, recovering he sugarbowl, and leaving the doomed island.