The White Book

by George Shadow

  “Slavutych,” she said, pulling him and Kateryna towards the door.

  “Mama, why are we going to Slavutych?” Rachel, now Kateryna, asked her new mother.

  “Something about pollution from a plant,” the tall woman replied as she opened the door. “I hope you have your school bags?”

  “In the car,” Aiden, who now knew himself to be Aleksandr, said.

  “We must hurry, Paul,” his ‘mother’ told the baldheaded middle-aged man now opening the car doors as they came out of the house. “The buses should be leaving by now.”

  “Not yet, they have not,” Paul said. “They came late.”

  “But still, we must hurry.”

  “I know, let them get into the car,” the man said.

  “Why are we living, Mama?” Rachel, or Kateryna, asked her new mother.

  “I told you, it’s because of a minor accident at a factory downtown.”

  “We have to go to Slavutych and live there until things are cleaned up,” her new father said, staring at the book she still clasped underneath her arm. “Is that your school book?”

  “Yes, Father.”

  “You should have left it in your school bag.”

  “Let her be, Paul,” the man’s wife said. “She loves this book, remember?”

  “Okay,” Paul Yuvchenko agreed, entering the car. “We can talk about your books later, but right now, get into the car. We have a journey to make.”

  Kateryna entered the car behind her brother and looked at the book her mother said she loved. She could not recall having such an old school book. She wanted to say something before her brother’s left hand accidentally touched hers and she stared at him the next time she looked at him.

  Aiden had also realized his dual identity as soon as he had touched Rachel’s right hand. Fortunately for him, he still retained Aleksandr’s knowledge and knew everything about their present situation in addition to being a fluent speaker of the local language. “What’s wrong with the plant, Father?” he asked the man in the car’s driver’s seat.

  “I really don’t know, boy,” his ‘father’ said, starting the vehicle and turning on the radio. “We must go away for some time.”

  Understandably, Aiden knew the man could be hiding something, but he wondered whether this incident at the said plant would have anything to do with their peculiar situation and the Bookmaker Rachel needed to meet this time around. He tried to recall any historical pollution involving a plant or factory from History class and the only one he kept remembering was the nuclear disaster in a Ukrainian town called…

  “Chernobyl…,” the news presenter said on the radio.

  “Is it the nuclear energy plant, mother?” Aiden asked his ‘mother’ and she glared at him.

  “Mind what you say, young man,” she said as her husband turned off the radio. Putting it on was a bad decision, for sure. “Nobody is sure of what happened and where, so we…we just have to move to another city. Could be a drill.”

  Or a nuclear disaster, Aiden thought. Chernobyl really struck a chord in his memory. The salon car had left their ‘front yard,’ heading towards the main road linking the streets of the neighborhood. “Who are we meeting here?” he whispered to Rachel or Kateryna.

  “Another woman,” Rachel whispered back.

  “Quiet back there,” their new father ordered them.

  Aiden looked out the window. A clear sky crowned the day, with rays of morning sunlight beginning to radiate down to the surrounding streets. School buses lined these streets amidst people carrying luggage, baby trollies and other personal items out of their houses. Many were trooping into these vehicles with their handbags tucked underneath their arms. A gay atmosphere persisted despite the confusing news surrounding the evacuation.

  Suddenly, people started running far behind the car as pandemonium broke out in the human lines snaking into the buses on both sides of the road.

  “What’s happening?” Paul demanded, looking at his side mirror. His wife and kids turned to look through the car’s rear window.

  “Why are they running?” Rachel, or Kateryna, asked in Ukrainian.

  “Something is not right,” Aiden, or Aleksandr, said in Ukrainian.

  Mr.Yuvchenko accelerated the car. People were running away from the road and some were jumping down from the buses through windows.

  “Why are they running, Paul?” Mrs. Yuvchenko asked her husband, looking back now and then. “Is it about the pollution?”

  “Doesn’t seem to be,”Aiden said, staring at the rear windshield with Rachel.

  Something in the buses started grabbing the people running near these vehicles one after the other.

  “Did you see that, Rachel?” Aiden exclaimed, pointing at the spot a little boy previously occupied.

  “What did you just call your sister, Aleksandr?” his ‘mother’ demanded.

  “Um, did you see that, Kateryna?” Aiden rephrased.

  “Yes, I did,” a nervous Rachel, or Kateryna, replied, her eyes darting about. “They’re here.”

  “Who are they?” her ‘father’ asked her as the car approached the main road linking the streets. “What do you think is happening there, Kateryna? People are just running out of fear. Someone must have said something to cause the commotion.”

  “Then why are we speeding?” Aiden wondered aloud.

  “Now, look here, young man,” Mr. Yuvchenko began, turning now and then to glare at his ‘son.’ “You shouldn’t question my explanations, are we clear on that?”

  Aiden understood why his ‘father’ had tried to explain the situation away, but that was not necessary, since he and Rachel had come a long way and were not the innocent children the Ukrainian man thought them to be.

  “Are we clear on that, boy?” Mr. Yuvchenko repeated, momentarily taking his attention away from the road. “Stick to your books or I will…”

  “Look out, Paul!” his wife warned him and he turned back to the steering wheel, in time to see a lone figure standing in the middle of the road.

  The vehicle swerved off the street into the last yard before the main road and hit a post office box. Mr. Yuvchenko’s head slammed into the car’s steering wheel and he sat up with a bloodied nose. His wife’s seat was empty. “Leyla,” he cried, looking around in fright. “Aleksandr, where is your mother?” he asked Aiden, who still sat in the back seat with Rachel.

  “They’ve taken her,” Rachel said.

  “What?” her ‘father’ asked confusedly.

  “And here they come,” Aiden said, his knuckles turning white as he tightly held Rachel’s hand.

  Mr. Paul Yuvchenko slumped on his steering wheel.

  “He’s dead,” Rachel realized in panic. “Aiden, the book is not protecting us!”

  “I know,” Aiden cried, looking out the closest window. People running helter-skelter were dropping dead around the car, as well as on the street. “I cannot see them,” he whispered in fright.

  Thumping came from the car’s roof. The children looked up, breathing hard. The noise stopped. They could hear their heartbeats in the silence that ensued in the small cabin.

  The car’s roof tore open and Rachel started screaming. The book’s protection appeared in time to block Carl Bain’s right hand from reaching for Aiden in the car. The Portwood thug ripped off the car’s roof and flung it away before repeatedly landing his fists on the magical dome. It held.

  Carl Bain rose up into the air and closed his eyes, drawing intense energy from his infernal masters now fluttering about. Energy strong and hot enough to ignite the gasoline in the car’s fuel tank.

  The explosion blew up the car, its parts landing as far out as the main road. Still, the cold dome surrounding the two kids remained as solid as the supernatural ice it came from, its filaments from the book growing in size and strength to form very hard extensions. Aiden and Rachel waited in it, shivering and holding their breaths as they stared through its transparent structure at the vile human servant of their incessant torm
entors.

  “Give me the book, Rachel,” Carl Bain said, softly landing on the ground beside the book’s icy defense. “And Aiden, I need my package.”

  “I don’t have it,” Aiden said. “You must have left it back in Germany.”

  “It’s in your pocket, boy,” the minion said dryly. “You can’t lie to me, remember that when I snuff out your life.”

  “You can’t get in here,” Aiden said with uncertainty. “You won’t succeed this time.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Carl Bain whispered, standing back for his demonic employers to race in and stack themselves on the dome, blocking daylight from those inside it. Fortunately, the bluish light from the icy layer returned and flooded the hemisphere’s interior as the long hands piercing the crystalized structure started groping for the children.

  Rachel tried to break off a piece of the icy projection emanating from the book, but stopped when her hands could no longer bear the cold coming from the magic extension.

  “What now?” Aiden cried when a thin grayish hand caught his left arm. The pain was unbearable. “They’re so many,” he shouted, pulling his arm away. “We’re doomed!”

  “No, w–we’re not,” Rachel stammered, her hands trembling. More horrendous hands grabbed hold of her legs, burning their shapes into her skin. Others went for the book, and she resumed the task she had set for herself, ignoring the thought of failure sounding off in her head, as well as the unbearable pain coming from the ugly hands pulling her in different directions.

  The white book’s projections were now strong enough to hold the ancient artifact, as well as prevent any external aggressor from retrieving it from its present position, at least for some time. Remarkably, the demonic hands going for the codex were turning into ashes and fading away.

  And satisfied with this occurrence, Rachel concentrated on breaking off the filament-turned-extension, despite feeling a bit drowsy.

  “What are you doing?” Aiden asked her, struggling to remain where he stood while keeping his eyes open, even as the grotesque hands from one side of the dome started pulling him towards the hemisphere’s magical wall.

  Rachel pushed and pulled one last time after a quick reprieve for her freezing hands and the extension broke off.

  Immediately, the little girl felt a warm, fussy feeling inside, which adequately buffered her from the cold surrounding her. Swinging the weapon around like Aunt Shira, she cut through the long arms and hands holding her captive, surprisingly passing through the other extensions supporting the magical dome without causing them any damage. As the Gray Ones turned into ash and vanished, the Ice of Masada replenished its shape by filling up the holes created on its surface by the ghostly arms of these unearthly entities.

  Rachel freed Aiden from the long ugly hands trying to pull him out of the dome using the same tactic she’d used to free herself. “Cool,” he cried, feeling his blistered arms and legs. “How did you know about that?”

  “Aunt Shira.”

  The demons started peeling away from the infernal dome guarding the book when the fluttering ashes of their defeated colleagues reached them outside the book’s hemispherical defense. Daylight flooded into this structure once again and the bluish light within it vanished.

  Rachel surveyed the surrounding street through the ice dome. People lay dead everywhere she looked.

  “Felt sleepy back there,”Aiden told himself, blinking.

  “The Gray Ones,” Rachel said. “They want us to lose focus.” She glanced at the book in the middle of the dome to assure herself of its safety. Its projections were like strong struts holding up the hemispherical structure protecting them from their attackers.

  Carl Bain saw his masters retreat. He cracked his knuckles and walked over to the dome, wondering why his hands could not penetrate the infernal structure like his demonic lords. These apparitions now surrounded him and the mysterious dome, their number flooding the street and its many neighborhoods. Carl Bain understood what this meant. “This is the final battle, kids,” he assured the two obstinate individuals inside the icy prison. “And don’t worry, you’ll soon be freed.”

  “Aiden, we mustn’t let him break in,” Rachel cried, fearing the worst and thinking of Kimberley, who she might never see again. “He’s going to kill us if he does.”

  “We must be strong,” Aiden said, taking the book’s weaponized projection from his younger companion.

  “You come to me with a stick?” Carl Bain mocked. “That’s all you can think of?” He noticed an encouraging sign on the icy phenomenon before him. Cracks had appeared on its surface. His masters had done well.

  The American slammed his right fist into the dome. He followed this with his left fist. He repeated the sequence, and resumed a continuous barrage with both fists in repeat fashion. He noticed Rachel looking at the book. “Pity you can’t produce your petty symbol this time,” he told her.

  “You will not win this time,” Aiden stressed, both hands holding the book’s icy extension like a baseball bat. He flinched every time the dome shook.

  “We’ll see about that, boy,” Carl Bain said, landing blow after blow on the dome before him. Obviously, the white book’s hellish defense had been weakened owing to the barrage from his demonic masters. This opportunity to seize it he knew he must not frustrate with his own hands, else death awaited him.

  Another crack announced itself with a splinting sound.

  “The ice is no longer freezing up as quickly as it used to!” Rachel cried, feeling the projections holding up the book. “What’s happening?”

  Aiden turned to her, frowning. “How can I help?”

  “Maybe we can control the book together like we did in Sierra Leone,” Rachel said.

  Aiden placed his right hand atop Rachel’s hands on the white codex just as Carl Bain slammed another fist into the cold structure protecting them. Another blow shook the dome, but it started freezing up again, and the cracks on its surface slowly began to disappear.

  Angrily, the Gray Ones’ human minion increased his tempo, landing blows on the dome in quick succession. His knuckles had become bloodied, but he did not feel the pain. He could not feel the pain.

  A loud crack crowned his effort.

  “Any moment now,” Aiden realized. The mysterious hemisphere could not sustain itself anymore. He felt the watery surface of the icy extension he still held in his left hand. The ‘rod’ had served Rachel well against the Gray Ones. Whether they would serve him well against another stronger human being remained to be…

  The dome shattered into smithereens, and the whitebook’s extensions broke off, while Rachel fell on her knees in shock. She snatched the mysterious artifact before it reached the floor of Mr. Yuvchenko’s burnt car.

  Carl Bain grabbed Aiden’s neck with his left hand. He lifted the boy high up in the air and tightened his grip. “Now you die, fool!” he snapped.

  Aiden stabbed the man’s side with the icy pickle and crashed to the burnt car’s back seat in the confusion that ensued. The fellow staggered backward, shaking his head and Aiden spun round to help Rachel, who struggled with two Booklords for the white book.

  Carl Bain pulled out the white book’s icy projection from his side, staring at its bloody end and wondering why the jab had made him so weak. Seeing his attacker reaching out to the little girl in her attempt to stop his dark masters from taking the book, the American hustler boiled. “Die, you fools!” he shouted, stretching out his hand to send a volley of flames in the children’s direction.

  Aiden touched the book as soon as the deadly flames left the towering figure raging behind him and Rachel.

  What happened next had never happened before.

  Chapter 18: Amnesia, Dead Bodies and Radiation Levels

  IVANNA heard the boom and felt strong wind on her left as she turned to look in this direction. The loud noise had come from beyond a line of trees bordering a recreational park she could spot from her vantage point up on the hill. This park sat near a re
sidential area, which sprawled out beside a business district very close to where she had stopped her bike. The young woman knew about the park, because she had earlier cycled through it on her way to nowhere.

  Spinning the bicycle around, Ivanna pedaled down the road thinking of the shortest possible route to this public leisure ground. The absence of any human being in the vicinity worried her, but she tried to focus on the new objective she just identified for herself. An old woman she had earlier met sitting on a bench at the park had told her that the government wanted people to leave the area without giving them any reason for the evacuation order. Could an impending natural or human-engineered disaster be the reason for the government’s drastic decision? If this was correct, then investigating the boom she earlier heard, which could be part of the unknown catastrophic event, might give her a clearer picture of the situation she’d suddenly found herself in.

  As she cycled down the road, meandering her way through some vehicles she thought had been left in a hurry, Ivanna realized that the wind coming from her intended direction had subsided. Her current route went through the business district; hence most of the buildings she passed along the way housed offices. That notwithstanding, the absence of any individual in the area was quite telling. The doors left ajar gave the bold young woman no clue as to where everybody had disappeared to, but the entrances and exits left wide open told her a different story. Many must have fled through these apertures a few minutes ago.

  Of course, a land evacuation could never be that thorough within such a short period of time following the said government announcement. For all she knew, the people could be hiding somewhere, perhaps in underground bunkers or strong housing structures sited in strategic parts of the city. Sadly, even if that explained their absence, one or two individuals, who must have missed the evacuation announcement and directions to the bunker like she did, would have been a welcome sight in that eerie environment of empty concrete blocks.