by Jim Miesner
How could he say that? After everything. It was this very tube that delivered the Source right to their bodies. The perfect blend of nutrients, vitamins, amino acids, proteins, H2O, and pharmaceuticals. Calculated exactly for what each needed for the day. Because of it, they had overcome the very weaknesses that had once almost destroyed mankind.
She lifted her shirt and attached the tube to the blue port that had long ago been her navel. A few minutes later she felt her racing heart begin to slow as all the anxiety and worry from the day floated away and she drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
Sam walked through the jungle in the light of the moon. Fog shrouded everything below her knees. Animals croaked, howled and twittered in the shadows. She couldn’t remember how she had ended up here. Was she at the zoo again? Yes. No. Maybe. She felt like she was forgetting something. The bushes shook, something grunted and rushed towards her, and she found herself on her back. Looking up through the fog, past the canopy, she saw the moon as it peeked from behind the leaves.
A small viper slid across the branch of a tree with a cricket in its mouth. She heard it crunch down on the thing as the cricket's legs twitched. This isn’t right, the animals here have had the Sacrament. This isn’t supposed to happen. Something is wrong. The cricket’s legs disappeared down its throat as the snake stared at her.
“They’re coming,” said the viper.
It had a girl’s voice. A familiar girl's voice where did she know it?
“Jenny?” Sam asked. “What’s happening?”
“It’s all your fault. You should have let me go. Now they are coming to kill me.”
“I’m sorry. We will talk to them. We’ll figure something out.”
A large shadow covered the snake, and it tried to slither away before a ball of fur dropped down, grabbed the snake and beat it against the tree. Its head smashed into the branch over and over until its body flopped like a rag doll as blood dripped from its mouth.
“No!” screamed Sam.
The furry creature swiveled its head toward her. It was a yellow-eyed squirrel like creature, a tarsier. Its pupils expanded to fill almost the entire yellow eye. The snake hung limply in its hands.
“Leave her alone!”
The creature took one last look at her, dropped the snake and flung itself into the canopy where it disappeared. The only sign of it was the rustle of the leaves and branches as it climbed.
Sam got on her hands and knees and felt in the mud for the little viper. The fog made it too thick to see. She couldn’t feel her anywhere, until her hand touched something large, like a log. Next to it was another log with a shoe on the end. Sam realized it wasn’t a log but legs. The fog retreated and Jenny lay on the ground. She was a little girl again. Her skin was as pale as the fog and blood dripped from her mouth. Sam bent down and cradled her body. She was cold.
“Jenny,” she said. “Jenny, wake up.”
She shook her. The girl wasn’t moving.
“I’m sorry, Jenny. I’m so sorry.”
She cried as she cradled her in her arms and then Jenny disappeared along with the forest, the twitters, and the croaks. Everything around her gone except for the fog that hovered along the ground. Then something slithered toward her in the darkness. Its black tail slipped in between the breaks in the fog, moving all around her.
“Jenny?” she asked.
She stepped forward, and the fog cleared away to reveal hundreds of snakes, they writhed together in one large mass. Sam looked down at her feet for an escape route but there was none. They were all around her.
“Join us,” said a voice, but the voice wasn’t Jenny’s anymore, it was many.
Sam shook the snakes off her feet.
“Leave me alone,” she screamed.
She couldn’t hold them at bay though as more wrapped around her ankles and slid up her legs.
“Get off me!”
“Join us,” they said again.
From behind her something large wrapped itself around her chest and neck. She struggled to pull it off, but it was as thick as a tree trunk. The head of a huge yellow viper hovered next to her face. Venom dripped from its fangs as it hissed at her and then, it opened its enormous yellow eyes.
“You’ll never beep, beep, beep.”
Sam’s eye slid open at a glacial pace, the world was a slit and her hand moved through the air like it was fighting quicksand. She reached out for an alarm clock that didn’t seem to exist and with the other hand, she pulled her tube away with a magnetic click. Then she turned to hear something large thud against the floor before she realized it was her own body. She worked on just one eye now and with that, her vision widened a hair as more blurry objects came into view. She tried to hone in on the direction of the sound. It seemed to be coming from all around her as her hands searched the floor in vain.
A thick fog still shrouded her and she could see her room but as she blinked, the blackness encroached back in on her. For a half second, she saw the vipers crawling toward her under the bed and jerked back as her head slammed into the corner of her nightstand.
“Fecal,” she screamed out and her eyes cracked open wider.
She put her hand on the back of her head and felt a wetness on her fingertips. She used the pain to get to her feet and move across the room to the shower where she turned on the water. Taking no time to test it or take off her clothes, as she flopped into the box and goosebumps erupted across her skin. What was wrong with her? She leaned against the tile as little tiny rivers streamed down her body. Even as she shivered in the cold water, it was a struggle to keep her heavy eyelids open.
She stepped back out of the shower sopping wet. Her body leaned against the wall and every step was a fight as she tried to blink herself awake. After several blinks, her eyelids didn’t make it back up. Her head tilted down, her legs buckled and the skin on her face stretched as it slid down the wall. She smacked her cheek and her eyes shot back open to three hair widths. She wobbled again and staggered sideways as she slammed into the wall.
“Ahhhhhh,” she screamed.
It was hard to focus on anything more than a couple feet away, when she did her eyelids shut, so she kept her focus on what was right in front of her. She reached out with her hands as she stumbled into her workroom. Almost forgetting what she was here for, it was as if her body knew better than she did. Then she realized what it was. Her uniform was strewn over a chair, inside a pocket was what she needed.
“Lights on,” her deep shallow voice said out of habit and then her eyes slammed shut in response.
She tried to open them but it was like they had vice grips attached.
“Lights off. Off,” she said, and they turned off again.
Her memory flickered in and out of existence as her eyes adjusted and she saw the suit again. Stepping forward she almost tripped over her own feet as she grabbed it and searched through the pockets for the kit. Her hand found one pocket empty, then the other. She rubbed her hands over the suit several times in disbelief. How was it not there? Then she heard a crunch under her foot and bent down closer to see the little vial shattered on the floor.
“No, no, no.”
Picking up a shard, a clear liquid dripped through her fingers. The fog still enveloped her mind, but she almost didn’t care. It was good. It was warm and good. She could just lean into it.
No! Her eyes burst back open. She looked at the white vial in her fingers. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right? What wasn’t right? It was supposed to be yellow. She needed yellow. Her eyes scanned over the floor again, but there was nothing there, then her eyes rested on the chair. Teetering on the edge of it was the yellow tube. She reached out for it but misjudged the distance as her hand hit it and it rolled away into the darkness in slow motion. As it neared the edge her other hand slammed down on it, and pinned it to the side of the chair. Careful not to drop it, her fingers curled around it, and brought it to her neck, before she pushed it into her carotid artery as every cell in he
r body exploded. Her head jerked forward, and she swallowed the most enormous breath she had ever taken. The muscles in her arms legs and face twitched for several seconds and her heart pounded in her chest.
The last few moments bubbled up to the surface. The viper, the fog, the last thing she had spoken to Dr. Tesla about, and Jenny. She looked at the time on a monitor. It had only been an hour since she had gone to sleep. The beeping sound that had awoken her was still going off somewhere.
Sam brushed her wet hair out of her face. Got to her feet and walked back to her bedroom. She could feel her heartbeat in her whole body now, every sense on full alert, the hair raised on the back of her neck. She flipped off the shower and then realized the beeping wasn’t coming from her room. It was coming from the hallway. Stepping out into the hallway, she was greeted by a flashing red light. Sam covered her ears and almost didn’t see the men in bio-suits running toward her.
“Get back in your quarters,” one of them yelled as they pushed her aside and disappeared around the corner.
Sam stood there as she looked back at her cabin. What was going on? If anyone would know, he would. She hit the button on her cabin to close the door and walked faster and faster down the hall. When she got there, she told herself he would explain everything. All of this was just some elaborate practical joke, but deep down she knew it wasn’t the case as she raced down the hallway, her wet clothes clinging to her body.
CHAPTER TEN
Sam looked out of the glass elevator at the buildings that surrounded her, each one a different color. The largest of them all was the green tower in the center, it easily dwarfed the others. It had to be at least twice as tall as its neighbors. The surrounding city was an endless rainbow. She remembered as a little girl staring at it for hours, the way she had heard people used to look at the stars. Over the top of it all was the translucent white Shell. She never understood the science behind how it worked but she knew it was the only barrier that separated them from the outside.
She turned back toward the door to see the numbers zoom past the two hundredth floor before the elevator slowed. The doors didn't open though, instead letters flicked by as the elevator moved sideways and a force pulled her toward the wall. Her heart still pounded, and she wiped the sweat from her forehead. When the letters hit P, the doors slid open and her fast walking pace soon turned into a jog, and then a sprint.
Apartments flew past that looked like mini row houses on a very narrow street, no two were the same. The door of each one a different color, with the wall around each door a different color and texture. Some were made to look like brick, others vinyl siding and others painted wood. Many had small porches or patios just big enough for a small chair. Arborvitaes, shrubs and potted flowers book-ended some residences. There were even a couple with antique mailboxes with their red flags permanently up. Every five houses a tiny lamppost hung from a wall. The hallway ceiling rounded out the little mirage. An LED screen the entire length of the hall showed the milky way in incredible detail.
She came to a halt when she reached forty-seven. There were no mailboxes, no arborvitaes, no fake brick, no welcome mats, not even a doorbell. Just a simple white door surrounded by a white wall. Sam raised her hand to knock when she found the door ajar.
“Dr. Tesla,” she called out. “Dr. Tesla?”
She waited for some rustling, footsteps or creaking of the floor to signal someone had heard her and was coming toward the door.
“Dr. Tesla?”
She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for a second more and then pushed the door open.
“Dr. Tesla,” she said again, announcing her presence. “It’s me, Samantha.”
The inside was just as plain as the outside. No art or decorations covered the walls. Just a couch, a chair and a coffee table with two books on top. The only thing out of place was one leg of the coffee table that had the words Sam was here, carved into it. As she moved from the living room into the workroom, the floor creaked under her feet. The workroom was much smaller and the box of plaques and books he had carried earlier was on the desk next to a computer.
“Dr. Tesla,” she called out as she made her way through the workroom and to the hallway that led to the bedrooms.
She crept down the hall as she passed the guest bedroom. It was open a crack and she could see the city lights through the window.
“Dr. Tesla?”
Sam turned the bedroom door knob. It clicked open and creaked as she entered. Blue light from a nearby building shone through the window and gave her enough light to see. He was lying on the bed with his arms folded over his chest when she found him. He was so still it was like it wasn’t him there but some kind of mannequin lying in a neatly-made bed.
“Dr. Tesla. Dr. Tesla, wake up,” she said.
She shook his body. His hands were ice cold.
“Dr. Tesla, wake up. This isn’t funny.”
It's a joke. Some kind of joke. He wouldn’t… She rubbed her fingers over his cheek.
“Wake up.”
She shook him again.
“Wake up!”
He wasn’t waking up, and she looked away in disbelief when she saw his tablet on his nightstand. On it, it read:
It was an honor to serve the New Covenant, but my work here is complete.
Humbly Yours,
Paul Tesla
Next to the tablet were his key card and an empty black tube. She knew exactly what it was. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t… he wouldn’t.
Then the curtains moved and Sam whipped her head around. No one was there, it was only the wind, but it didn’t stop her heart from racing. A little over an hour ago he had been with her and on his way to discuss Jenny with the council. It had only been a little over an hour and now he was dead.
She held her breath while every cell in her body screamed for her to run. Then she looked back at Dr. Tesla motionless in his bed, before she grabbed the tablet and the key card and rushed out of the room. The door slammed against the wall. Sam froze. Staring at the guest room she waited for someone to jump out at her. She clutched the tablet in her hands, ready to swing it at the first sign of movement.
Finally, she took a huge breath and sprinted down the hall, past the guest room. In ten huge leaps, she was at the front door, her sweaty hands fought to turn the doorknob as she held the tablet. Her palm unable to grab hold. This was it. This was how she died. She dropped the tablet to the ground and grabbed the doorknob with both hands as the door came open with a satisfying click and she found herself out in the hall. The fake row houses flew by even faster now. She had never run so fast in her life. She was on the verge of falling, one leg thrust out after the other, barely keeping her body from hitting the ground. The momentum carried her past the elevator and she braced herself against an old mailbox as it bent on its pole.
Turning and looking back down the hall again, she half expected to see some shadowy figure following her, but the hallway was as empty as it had ever been. She tapped the button for the elevator over and over, even though it lit up on the first tap. Was it coming? A lump formed in her throat as it climbed the numbers. What if there was someone in it, coming for her? She pushed open the stairwell door and bounded down them three at a time. It was five or six floors before she slowed and sense crept back in. She pushed her way back into another hallway and hit the elevator button again. This time the doors dinged and came open almost in an instant. She clutched her chest but there was no assassin or black ninja on it waiting for her. She stepped on and tapped the lobby button until the doors closed. The letters dropped and then the numbers. They flew by faster and faster. When they moved past the hundreds, she felt she could take a breath.
She looked out on the city lights again and tried to rationalize some explanation. The more she thought about it the more she realized it was all wrong, especially the note. He never used the name, Paul. He hated it. She never knew him to write a one-sentence letter his whole life, not even in a quick response to an
invitation. He also never referred to it as HIS work, it was always THE work. Dedicated but detached. It was almost like whoever had written the note wanted people to know it wasn’t written by him. If she hadn’t woken up from the emergency alarm, would she be just like him right now?
The Covenant had always been a place of safety. It was the world out there that was supposed to be dangerous and confusing. That horrible, disgusting world out there. Now she wasn’t so sure. It didn’t matter though. There was no place to run. They would find her and even if she escaped, she couldn’t survive out there, she wasn’t like Jenny.
The thought stuck in her mind as she looked down at the white key card still in her hand. Could she? With all the dangers that abound, all the horrible awfulness of that life. Defecation, rape, war, famine, disease, just to name a few. How could she in good conscience take her back there? Yet how in good conscience could she not?
As she turned the card in her hand, there was only one thing she was sure of. In here Jenny had no one, out there she had a family. The ding of the elevator startled her as she reached the lobby and the doors opened. She looked out into the empty streets of the city she grew up in and squeezed the key card in her hand. The answer was obvious.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The alarm was still going off as Sam slid the doctor’s card through the reader. It didn’t respond, and she cursed herself for being so stupid. Of course, they would revoke his access. It was ridiculous to think they wouldn’t. She was ready to turn around but something told her to try it again. As she slid it through the reader this time it turned green, and the doors opened on the locker room. She walked with quick steps until she came to a group of lockers and slid the card through another reader. This one turned green on the first try, and a locker slid open with a row of bio-suits. Sam flipped through them until she found the one she wanted, and pulled it off the hanger.