The Fall

  Although communication was done through the dikap that inhabited his body, Don still spoke aloud, as he had for all of his Earth life. This, like his humanity, would soon cease to be, but his wick still burned, even far away from his origin. He pinched himself. He couldn’t give in. He had to fight the silence. “Why us? Why save us?”

  Kezmir stood up straight and allowed the three rows of gills on each of his sides to open. Slits so thin, Don routinely forgot they existed. As he inhaled through his nose, the gills seemed to exhale, the dikap inside of him stirring, illuminating their familiar pink color, which quickly turned to a blinding white. Don tried to look away, but he couldn’t; he was too fascinated by Kezmir’s biology. Kezmir’s large oval eyes illuminated the same white and slowly dimmed, along with the dikap hiding in his gills, to that familiar pink and then a smoky gray.

  Kezmir kneeled, his head now the same level as Don’s. “Watch,” he whispered through his dikap, placing his large hand over Don’s head. Don closed his eyes and watched a story form before him. He saw fields of greenery and trees. Dinosaurs, he saw dinosaurs. Giant monstrous beasts roaming the fields. Super-sized insects he remembered from his paleontology studies in college.

  The story moved as if a drone were flying overhead, surveying the land, and then he saw it: the tower.

  The tower that had brought him to Lerner 4, in all of its bright and mysterious glory. A thin skyscraper that pulsed and towered over all the dinosaurs of the land, attracting the drone. As the drone flew toward it, he saw it was no drone, but rather a dikap that attached itself, its long tail entwining with the tails of others, solidifying the single tower. With its last addition, the tower shot a beam that erupted into the skies, sending a thin pinkish-purple hue as far as the eye could see.

  “I don’t understand,” Don whispered.

  Kezmir shifted the vision to rows of Akabkos that sat in the sand, resting on their shins, their stomachs tightly laid across their thin black thighs, their arms outstretched into the sand in front of them. Don tried to count, but there were too many. Thousands, maybe.

  “Volunteers spared their dikap,” Kezmir said silently. “We are the keepers of order. We tried to save your world many times. The storylines always showed failure, but we learned.”

  Don watched as the vision changed to a single large asteroid breaking through the dikap’s barrier and smashing into the Earth, causing chaos and destruction to the place he once called home. As he continued to watch, Kezmir showed him three more failings, these of human civilizations, the last one advanced as they were now. All of them different, but all of them deadly.

  There were others before us, Don thought. Life can be so easily destroyed. He thought of the towers, and their purpose did not make sense. He wanted to ask but felt awkward with all of his questions. His curiosity got the best of him. “Why do the dikap gather in towers?”

  “Pillars. You only understand the surface of dikap. They are not what you perceive. Dikap are special. They are not your dimension, nor ours. The pillars are not steady. The dikap move through time to stop the threats to your world. They gather so that your sun can still function. Through the cavern, Akabko can move through space and time with dikap.”

  Don shook his head and removed himself from the vision. “Then why don’t you just hop on the raft, go back in time to whoever it was that used Venus as a dumping ground, and have them trash their planet instead? Then Venus wouldn’t explode, and I wouldn’t be here.”

  Kezmir picked up a handful of sand and tossed it into the water. The ripples slowly moved toward the clay edge of the enclosure. “It is disruptive to all,” he said. “We are the watchers. The silent observers. We protect from outside but not from within.” His eyes turned gray again, and he brought Don to a vision of the Amity Stations in Greu 9. “Soon, you will learn, through the transformation,” he continued. “The universe is unkind to life. This time, life on Earth will prevail. We have seen it, and you can see it too. But this victory will come at a cost. A cost that we will not bear the weight of, but your people will.”

  Don tried to see the storylines, but there was only darkness. “I am not strong enough to see. What is the cost?”

  Kezmir stood, towering over Don. “That is your burden to bear, young Ambassador. Soon you will know, and soon you will need to choose a path. We protect from the outside but not from within. The Fall is soon, and the dikap we have given are yours. What is your plan?”

  Don stammered, unsure of what to say. “The guide…she will disperse the medicine to help the dikap fuse with their hosts. Then we will spread the dikap to the remaining children and adults who will welcome a new way of life. The vegetation issue from the dust…I’m still working on that one.”

  “And those who resist?” Kezmir asked.

  “We will…we will all decide together, through the hive.”

  “No,” Akrid said, but Kezmir raised a hand to stop him from speaking any further.

  “Show with dikap,” Kezmir requested.

  Don shook his head, not ready to engage. The cavern set him on a path to the transformation. He couldn’t let himself develop. He was not ready and was unsure of when he would be. His candle still burned.

  “It’s too painful, brother,” he sighed. “They need to stay inside.”

  – 31 –

  Acceptance

  Day 6

  Sherrie fell through colorful storylines. Her body clenched and then gave in to her fate as she continuously fell, her stomach faced upward, unable to right herself. And although her body was rapidly descending, the stories above her were clear. Each inch was a new tale, a different life, a different place and time. Some she knew, the curly-haired brunette from the school, young and then old, then young again. The boy from the hospital, made well by the immunosuppressants just in time to receive the calling. Jeremy watching over her, dabbing her forehead with a wet cloth. Children receiving the dikap by the thousands. Chris in jail, Chris beside her. Chris as a warrior and then no more. An unknown face, an unknown place. A shadow near the Ambassador that was distorted.

  She couldn’t breathe through the descent. Her mother, a rose-gold locket, and a pink glow around Earth. It was too much. She couldn’t breathe. She tried to make a sound, but nothing escaped. She was suffocating through the storylines.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay!” Jeremy yelled, holding Sherrie’s arms down. She had been wildly grasping at the air, sucking in dry breaths. “It’s okay, Sherrie. We’re here. It was a dream.”

  Sherrie shook her arms from his tight grasp and sat up, her chest heaving, thankful to be alive. “That wasn’t a dream,” she replied, inhaling loudly. “I saw something. I went somewhere. I was in his world.”

  Jeremy dabbed her forehead with a wet cloth. “No, you were here the entire time. You’ve been here. You lost consciousness in the ICU.”

  Sherrie looked around the room, trying to orient herself. She spotted Chris sitting on the brown couch in silence, observing. His face appeared tired, worn. He was too young to always be so worried, but that was becoming the norm. This was the new norm, living in the moment, the future a haze.

  Jeremy had a stricken look on his face. “Sherrie…the children…they’re all dead. All but the boy.”

  Sherrie’s heart constricted, but she had to move forward. “I know.” She looked to Chris. “Why were you in jail?” she asked softly. “Where I went, I saw you. Sitting on a top bunk, writing letters. What were you writing?”

  Chris’s eyes widened. “You…you saw me? How? How did you know?”

  Sherrie pointed at his arm. “The tattoo, the cross. You got it there.”

  Chris rubbed the cross tattoo on his forearm. “I did. I made a mistake once. Nothing serious, not what you would think. I wrote a letter to the woman who falsely accused me. Told her I forgave her.”

  Jeremy placed the damp rag on the edge of the bed. “You saw that while you were out? Maybe you heard it in passing.”

  Chris shook his head. “I haven
’t spoken about that in years. It’s the past. I buried it, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

  The room was silent as Sherrie realized she’d overstepped her boundaries. “I’m sorry for the intrusion. It was shown to me, among other things. I don’t understand them, but I do know that there will be a great fall. Thousands of asteroids are headed our way. They will be destroyed, but dust will fall from the sky and cover everything. There are eight children that protect pillars. I am to find them.”

  There was another awkward silence as the trio thought about what Sherrie had said. Although she had been given instructions, she didn’t quite understand them. It was a giant jigsaw puzzle, half of the pieces flipped; none fitting together yet. It was unclear if there would even be a finished product in her storyline. All she knew was to seek out the chosen eight and protect them after the Fall.

  “Elaborate,” Jeremy said as he pulled his chair near the cot in his office and sat down.

  Sherrie placed her hand on Jeremy’s thigh, and he grasped it, holding it tight. “I can’t explain what I don’t know. What I can tell you is that L8 is a gift, not a curse. The children who died did so because they were too strong,” she whispered. “It wasn’t intended to be that way, but it was. I have to leave now. The fall is soon, and one of the Chosen is nearby. It is Lois, Chris, if you remember from the school. I need to find her.”

  Eagerly, Chris stood up, ready to be of assistance. “I’ll go with you.”

  Jeremy followed suit, but Sherrie pushed him back into his seat. “No, Jeremy, you’re needed here. You have to spread the word about the immunosuppressants before the next wave of L8. I know it will work now.”

  Jeremy stared at Sherrie. “The next wave? Do you mean when it crosses borders? They seemed to work on the boy in the ICU, but it’s too early to tell.”

  Sherrie wrapped her arms around Jeremy and whispered, “You know it’s is not too early. I need your help, Jeremy. You have to find a way to create stores of the medicine and get it dispersed. No more children can die.”

  Jeremy slunk back down into his chair and nodded. “I’ll spread the news…falsify the documents with test cases if I have to.”

  Sherrie leaned over and lightly kissed Jeremy on his cheek. “I promise I’ll return.” Holding his hand to his cheek, he looked at her, a hundred thoughts splashed across his face. And with that, Sherrie and Chris were gone.

  – 32 –

  Reunion

  Sherrie held on to the car’s grab handle as Chris swerved around crowds standing in the middle of the street. The chaos from yesterday had died down, and the remainder of the people were holding silent vigils and welcoming parties. They seemed almost in a trance, unaware that they were even there with a large car barreling toward them.

  “Can you still feel her? Am I going in the right direction?” Chris asked as he steered by another crowd lighting candles. The old Honda Civic that he had hotwired let out a low-pitched roar from the muffler as he accelerated past the crowds.

  Sherrie closed her eyes and tried to visualize Lois. She could feel her presence as if it were a part of her, detached and waiting to be found. As she let her mind run free, she saw her, the image small and distant, as if she were peering into a telescope. She strained to clear the image, and then she saw it, clearly now. The girl was clutched by the arms of Mary, her short blonde hair brushing against Lois’s face. A field recently traveled. Tire tracks and destroyed grass.

  She opened her eyes. “Yes, it’s right. I know that field, keep going.” Past the empty field that led to the once-inhabited school, the crowds dispersed, leading them into a ghost town of decent homes and gated communities. “The one on the right.” Sherrie pointed as Chris swerved the car in front of the closed gate. “Can you open it?” she asked.

  Chris responded with a smile.

  “I can open anything.” He reached down and checked that Sherrie’s seatbelt was fastened, then pushed the car’s gear into reverse. Holding the brake down, he revved the car’s engine and then quickly released the brake, the car skidding for a moment and then furiously ramming into the gate, knocking it off its tracks.

  “Chris!” Sherrie shouted, shocked at his impulsiveness. Chris laughed at Sherrie’s response, and she, too, burst into laughter.

  “The Fall is near, isn’t it?” he joked. “Now’s the time for shortcuts.”

  “It is. That it is,” she replied, wiping tears from her eyes from laughing too hard. “The house is close, slow down a bit.” As Chris slowed the car, Sherrie closed her eyes again. Cacti and a dog. Dogs. “Right up there, I think. A porch with a bunch of planted cacti on it.”

  When Chris pulled into the driveway of 340 Hampton Bluff, Sherrie could see the illumination of a television through the nearly sheer curtains.

  “All good?” Chris asked.

  Sherrie nodded, unbuckling her seatbelt. “All is well. She’s here, I can feel it.”

  As Sherrie approached the door, she could hear several people laughing inside. Immediately, she recognized the high-pitched laugh of Mary. The other voices she did not know. Hesitantly, she knocked, and all laughter subsided. She could hear the shuffling of feet running about, hiding, preparing. Quiet footsteps approached, and she could tell someone was looking through the peephole. After a few seconds, the door swung open, nearly knocking Sherrie off balance.

  “Dr. Dressner! Chris!” Mary exclaimed, her lips stained purple from red wine, her gestures loose and inviting. “Come in, come in! How did you find us? Guys! These are my friends from school I told you about!” Mary pointed to a woman and a man hiding behind the staircase.

  Chris began to take his shoes off, but Mary laughed, halting him. “Oh no, there’s no need for that!” she said. “No need for that at all! It’s the end times, baby! Scuff up this floor. Come, come. I have so many questions, and I bet you do too!” Mary grabbed Sherrie’s hand and pulled her toward the kitchen, where the two strangers were now sitting at the bar. “Oh! This is Justin and Jessica. Long story short, they are celebrating the end of the world with us! Wine? Do you want wine?”

  Chris’s eyes lit up at the offer. “Yeah!” he said, but Sherrie caught his attention and frowned, slowly shaking her head. “No, I was just kidding. I’m good.”

  Justin waved shyly at the visitors while Mary continued to drunkenly parade around. “Come sit,” she urged. “Take a load off. Have a drink. I know you want one. Have an M&M. Have several M&Ms, in fact. There’s like a full case in the supply room.”

  Sherrie looked around the kitchen. It was in complete disarray. Several empty wine bottles sat on the bar, their corks and metal caps tossed on the floor, the counters littered with MRE and candy wrappers.

  “Pardon the mess,” Mary said. “We were having a blind tasting contest. I’m winning. Hey, Dr. Dressner, you look great. Like, amazing.” There was a stillness in the room while Mary continued to inspect Sherrie. “How did you—”

  “Guide,” Lois called from the entrance to the kitchen, Ariel beside her. Sherrie turned around to find the girls standing at attention, waiting for instructions. She walked over to the girls and knelt down, embracing them both.

  “Yes, I am here,” she whispered, the girls clutched tightly in her arms. Lois by her side made her feel a little more complete—a small part of her puzzle was coming together. She could feel the power within the girls, and then she saw it, transforming them into women. Long, flowing black capes hiding their now feminine forms. Waiting in the shadows.

  “Is that me?” Lois whispered, and Sherrie kissed her forehead.

  “One day.” Sherrie checked the tube that was still affixed in Ariel’s head. “You don’t need this anymore,” she whispered. She walked into the kitchen and opened the cabinet drawers until she found a pair of scissors and a rag. Delicately, she cut the suture on the girl’s head and pulled out the tube before quickly applying the rag. “Keep pressure,” she instructed. “The Fall is soon.”

  Ariel slowly nodded while holding the rag to her head
and returned to the living room with Lois.

  “Hey, so Ariel’s cured now?” Mary asked.

  Sherrie nodded. “Sort of.”

  “Um…are we just going to skip over them calling you a guide?” Justin asked. “What the hell is that about?”

  Sherrie picked up Justin’s wineglass by the stem and poured it into the sink. “Let’s focus on getting you all sober, and then I will explain.”

  Chris stood from the stool. “Wait, where’s Missy?”

  Sherrie let out a long sigh. “She’s in the safe zone. I saw it in the storylines. It’s unfortunate.” Justin and Jessica looked at Sherrie, confused. “The Fall is near,” she continued. “Let’s catch up.”

  The group nodded in silence as Sherrie briefly explained the cure, storylines, and the dikap. Their expressions were blank, save for Justin, whose eyebrows remained raised the entire time. She wondered if the others understood what she was saying but then thought they were most likely in shock. It wasn’t a light subject to discuss, and it was hard to explain when she still didn’t know much herself.

  “So we were always meant to stay?” Jessica asked. “L8 will spread to unite us, and we will go to Lerner 4d when our sun dies, whenever that is?”

  Sherrie nodded. “All of the children will come, and those with the dikap will help sort through the storylines to choose adults who should come as well. We need to save as many people as possible.”

  Justin interlocked his hands in his nervousness. “Can you see the Akabko storylines? Are there other species out there?”

  “Unraveled, no,” Sherrie replied. “I am not a part of their hive. Don is, but he would have to share their information with this hive to see it. And I doubt he can—when he called to us, he accidently shared something, and it wasn’t in any language I’ve heard. It’s already difficult to see what we can. Dikap can see all storylines, but to us, they’re all jumbled, and we have to unravel them. Like watching a hundred televisions at once and trying to find similarities. We could maybe find Akabko storylines, but I doubt it would make any sense. As far as other species, I have no clue.”