Rachel freaked out. “Okay, where are we?”
“We use this place for transporting mobile units to the surface above whenever we need to do something out there,” Jeremy explained. “This is the exit that can accommodate all of us at once.”
“Attention, everyone!” Rewder yelled from a central spot. “Our soul director will now speak.”
“Soul director?” Kimberley gaped in utter bewilderment. “This dude must be smoking something.”
Benjamin Haddad came to stand near his chief Kannibal with Mariah and two flamboyantly dressed men. “Now, listen up,” he began. “This is your last chance to live before you become meat for our tables.” The professor pointed at the decompressor’s next set of doors. “The moment those doors open, we’ll give you a minute to run and hide before we start hunting you.” Murmuring broke out amongst the prisoners. More people in fancy hazard suits touting lazer guns came to stand near the professor.
Kimberley turned to Jeremy. “And who are those?”
“The hunters, I guess,” the black man said. “Obviously these are the rich folks from Resilience and beyond who think that cannibalism should be a sport.”
“And have paid heavily to be participants today,” Tilia added.
“From what I see here, not all rich folks approve of this,” Kimberley said, looking at the Resilience City chairman, whose spotless white suit had turned dirty brown.
Jeremy followed her eyes and scoffed. “Mr. Kevin Smith? Guy’s got principles, but he’s no hero for the poor and downtrodden.”
“He’s so corrupt,” Ginia added.
“And inept,” Tilia said.
“Okay, I get it.” Kimberley robbed her eyes.
“So, what’s our plan?” Ginia asked her.
“Those doors will open after I count five and you must find your way to the surface and hide,” Grubb continued. “Good luck.”
“What the hell?” Kimberley wondered. “What has luck got to do with this?”
“He’s just laughing at us,” Jeremy said. “It’s all an irony to him.”
“Still, we must all stay together,” Rachel reminded the adults.
“Until we find a good shelter,” Kimberley agreed.
“Five!” Grubb shouted, and the huge doors disappeared. The prisoners scampered up a long wide inclination leading up to these heavy mechanized barricades. As she pushed forward, Kimberley noticed Chairman Smith climbing over his fallen citizens in his bid to quickly get as far away as his human legs could carry him.
She did not blame him. The goal was to stay alive.
The first set of prisoners got to the open doors at the top of the wide passageway and scampered out into the red dust now covering the Earth’s surface.
Chapter 37: A New Reckoning
THEY all started down the slope leading to the valley below. Many misstepped and tumbled in the course of trying to regain balance amidst the momentum pushing them downwards. Many yelled out after serious injury to their person.
Kimberley sped down the slope with her friends on either side of her position. To her right, Tilia and Ginia huffed and puffed as they exerted the energy needed to outrun those bearing down on their backs while maintaining their balance going down the slope. On her left, Jeremy held on to Rachel as he ran, making sure she did not misstep.
“Hang on!” he shouted. “We’re almost there.”
The valley below loomed. Many jumped into it several inches from its dry base. Many broke bones doing so. The fortunate ones veered right and hurried off to the ‘death’ shelters.
Kimberley got to the valley’s base.
Lazer fire!
“They’ve started shooting!” Jeremy yelled.
“What do we do now?” Tilia asked as she landed on the valley’s base and turned right, Jeremy and Rachel right behind her.
Kimberley turned right and looked up the slope she’d come from as she ran. “We need to find a good shelter, where we can use the paper undisturbed!” she shouted, looking at the lonesome structures spread out before her in a haze of red dust. “There!” she pointed out, making a beeline for the chosen structure. Jeremy and the others followed her.
“Murderers!” Jeremy croaked, looking up the slope now on their right. “Those they’ve killed are tumbling down!”
“Jeremy, focus!” Kimberley told him as she ran. “We have to get to safety first and get out of here!”
As the other prisoners scurried past, Kimberley got to the worn-out shelter and worked the door. She couldn’t dwell on how she knew the door sequence at the moment.
The bomb-proof doors slid open to reveal a long brightly lit room covered in red dust. Presumably, the dust had settled on furniture and equipment in the room owing to a lack of circulating air to keep it suspended in colloidal motion. Kimberley entered the long narrow cubicle and the others slipped in behind her, as well as three odd prisoners who saw the entrance open.
“You just made a mistake,” Jeremy told the two men and one woman. “You’ll be trapped…”
“They can come with us,” Rachel said.
Jeremy frowned. “What do you mean? We’re not…”
“They can come with us, Jeremy,” Kimberley said, closing the doors. She couldn’t initiate the lock sequence for both doors.
“What if we fail?” Jeremy asked her. “What if we fail to disappear? What if we’re not…”
“Going anywhere?” Ginia put in. “Then why did we run into this trap?”
“It’s not a trap,” Rachel said. “We’ll leave this place in no time.”
“I still need to see what this magic paper can do,” Jeremy said.
“You still doubt what we told you,” Kimberley noted. “Prepare to be mesmerized.” She punched the buttons on the door panel again. “I can’t lock us in.”
“The Kannibals hacked into the area’s computer system and reprogrammed it a long time ago so that nobody can lock these shelters from within,” one of the two men said.
“There’s electricity here. Everything’s working here, except the air filtration and those door locks,” the woman said.
Sustained lazer fire and death yells from outside broke the silence.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kimberley said, reaching into her pocket. “Gather away from the door.” She handed the piece of paper, as well as a red-dust-covered pen she picked up from the only desk in the room, to Rachel. “Let’s hope it writes.”
“It doesn’t need to,” Rachel said. “How do we hold hands?”
“Undo your hazard gloves,” Kimberley ordered everyone, reaching out to initiate that procedure for her gloves.
“What?” one of the two men began. “You don’t mean that, do you?”
“You don’t mean that,” Tilia repeated.
“And why should we do that?” Ginia began.
“Do as she says, girls,” Jeremy said, beginning the process of doing so for his suit.
They all hesitated except Rachel.
Kimberley glared at everyone. “Unless you want to remain here?”
The protective gloves started coming off.
“What of the radiation?” the female prisoner with the men asked.
“It has no effect on us where we’re going,” Kimberley allayed.
Rachel picked up her paper and pen from where she’d dropped them when she removed her gloves and looked up. “We’re going back in time.”
“What for?” Jeremy wanted to know.
The lazer fire outside sounded nearer and nearer as if descending down the slope.
“We need to retrace our steps and know where we made a mistake,” Kimberley explained. “Hold hands.” She stared at her hands. Her exposed skin had turned reddish in color.
“The red dust will eventually tear off your skin if you don’t leave the area soonest,” Jeremy explained. “Let’s hope you’re right about the piece of paper.”
The Portwood sergeant ignored him. “Hold hands,” she repeated.
Moments later, the bomb-
proof doors slid open and Akron stared at the gloves lying on the floor at the farthest end of the long room. “Odd,” he said. “Thought I heard voices in here.”
* * *
Kimberley looked around and blinked twice. The scene had changed. Original old-fashioned cars occupied the roads once again, and the buildings were classic skyscrapers. The Portwood cop wore ordinary clothes, just like Rachel sitting in the Lamborghini Urus beside her. She felt rich.
Jeremy and his two sisters came out from a street shop and walked towards Kimberley. The Portwood sergeant could not find the three individuals who’d joined them in the journey back at the shelter, though she found it comforting that she could remember that future incident.
“There they are,” Rachel said, pointing out three individuals entering a Jeep on the opposite sidewalk. Two men and a woman.
“Guess they have a different life now,” Kimberley said. She couldn’t blame them. Leaving the crazy future they’d experienced behind as they embraced a new life for themselves was the best they could hope for and she would never disrupt that serenity by walking across the road and touching one of them. At least, she remembered that future. “Sometimes, I wish we…”
Rachel turned sharply. “Never met?”
Kimberley looked away. “That came out wrong,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too, Kim,” the little girl said. “For putting you through all this.”
Kimberley smiled and ruffled Rachel’s hair. “Helping you was hard at first, then it slowly became worth it.”
Rachel nodded. “We could just leave things as they are, Kim,” she said. “But remember Grubb would be with the white book and…and who knows what else he would do with it?”
“And he has Aiden,” Kimberley muttered. “Our job is not yet done.”
A younger Jeremy stopped before her with his two sisters, grinning as he stood up straight. “Glad you could make it, Miss Sweeney,” he chuckled. “The art pieces are in the car. Philia will go get them for you.”
“No need for that, Jeremy,” Kimberley said, taking the African-American’s right hand. “We’re just visitors here and we don’t have time.”
Jeremy’s face turned expressionless and his pupils disappeared. His two sisters noticed this.
“What have you done to him?” Ginia, a.k.a. Philia, demanded as she reached out to disengage the locked hands. Miss Sweeney touched her hand, and even reached out to grab her sister’s hand.
“Where are we?” Jeremy began, breathing hard. He stared at his motionless sisters. “Have we?”
“About time,” Kimberley said. “And yes, it worked.”
“Unbelievable,” Jeremy muttered. “Where are we now? Place is ancient.”
“San Francisco in 2016 A.D. It says so on that billboard,” Rachel pointed out.
Jeremy held his sisters who’d just come out of their stupor.
“Are we alive?” Ginia began.
“Did it work?” Tilia asked.
“We’re safe now,” Jeremy told them.
“For now,” Kimberley stressed, turning to Rachel.
“And what’s our plan?” Jeremy asked.
“We find a quiet alley and wait for the Booklords…and Carl Bain,” Rachel said.
Kimberley scoffed. “And how does that work, my dear?” she wondered. “Those creatures and their servant are no more, remember?”
“We went back in time, Kim,” Rachel said. “Hopefully this action will reestablish their existence at this time.”
“Yeah, right.” Kimberley rolled her eyes. “Meaning they could decide to haunt us from the past forever?”
“Not really,” Jeremy began. “I think your little friend is saying that this means we cause those demons to be whenever we go back with any piece of paper from the book to a time in the past when they existed on Earth, right, Rachel?”
“Right,” Rachel agreed. “Maybe,” she added.
“You’re not sure of this?” Kimberley noted.
“You kinda lost me there, little one,” Jeremy said. “I want to see how this works.”
“And should we be afraid of these…these demons?” Tilia sounded petrified. “Because a hooded horror is staring at us from the shop across the street.”
Kimberley started, mouth agape. “They’re back already?”
“Yes,” Rachel said. “They’re here already, and I hope they realize they’ve been beaten once before.”
“They’re many,” Jeremy said, looking around the parked Urus. The ominous figures had appeared all over the place, just standing and watching. From barbing salons, grocery stores and restaurants.
“No one’s noticing this?” Ginia wondered out loud. “They’re all just going about like nothing’s wrong.”
“Maybe they don’t…see what we’re seeing?” Jeremy suggested. “Maybe these demons are invisible to them?”
“Everyone, get in the car,” Kimberley ordered, opening the driver’s door. She zoomed off once they were all seated.
“What’s the plan, Kim?” Rachel asked her.
“They’ll have to play by our own rules this time,” she replied. “Time to find that alley.”
“There’s one right there,” Tilia pointed out and Kimberley took the right turn.
“Thanks,” she said. “Almost missed it.”
The heavy Urus stopped halfway into the dark alley between two buildings. Her occupants disembarked and stood around the Lamborghini.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Ginia confessed. “I hope those things don’t attack us.”
“They won’t,” Rachel assured, picking up a piece of wire she spotted on the ground. “I’m hoping they know we know how to destroy them now.”
The Gray Ones had materialized at the ends of the alley and on the roofs of the two buildings forming the dimly lit passage.
Jeremy’s sisters jumped back into the Urus. “What next?” he wondered.
“We summon our old friend,” Kimberley said, reaching into her pants’ right pocket.
“Ok, that makes sense,” a familiar voice said behind her and she smiled.
“Carl Bain,” she introduced, turning to face her old friend, who wore a cowboy-styled ensemble of brownish hues and grays complimented by dark leather straps and Durango Rebel boots. His mean facial expression remained partially hidden underneath a cowboy hat slightly angled over his head. “You couldn’t wait for your summons, cowboy.”
“I didn’t choose to come back,” Mr. Bain snapped. “For some crazy reason we’re yet to find out, you guys decided to do something that eventually revived the essence of my masters. They decided on their part to bring me back to life.”
Silently, the Gray Ones surrounded the Urus and their human minion. Kimberley looked around the crowded alley and finally fixed her gaze on the American hustler. She felt a slight shiver go up her spine. “Who would have thought that we will eventually meet in such a bizarre situation after trying so hard to kill each other, huh?”
The American criminal smiled. “You must be in dire need of our help to have undone the one event you wanted so badly,” he said.
Rachel glared at Carl Bain. “Yes, we need your help, Mr. Bain,” she said, “but don’t think that we’ll ever forget what you did on behalf of your demonic masters.”
The largest amongst the Gray Ones shimmered in the little girl’s face and she did not even flinch.
Kimberley found herself facing an unremarkable Carl Bain before she could appreciate this remarkable moment. “Hold it steady now,” she warned him. “Remember we can now snuff out your life just like that,” and she snapped her fingers to drive home the message.
“Oh, please,” her adversary said. “You don’t even have the book.”
“We have a piece of it,” Rachel began.
“Very well, then.” Carl Bain cleared his throat. “My masters would like to know what you want.” Three of these infernal abominations drifted out to take positions beside him. “Speak now or…or…”
> Kimberley frowned. “Or what?”
“Or we destroy this city.”
“Not after I’ve shown you the ankh I just constructed, Mr. Bain,” Rachel warned, hiding the object behind her back. “Remember we can destroy your masters along with you by just snapping our fingers.”
Carl Bain looked around furtively. “That’s not true,” he said without conviction. “If only I can remember…”
“From what I’ve heard so far, you have no memories, dude,” Jeremy reminded him. “Like you were just brought back from nothing.”
“Your masters interacted with the Sikama in the past,” Kimberley began, staring at the largest unearthly horror floating near the American hustler. “What can they tell us about Benjamin Haddad?”
“He wanted to lead the Sikama back at the Mine and lost out to Jehoash, Rachel’s father,” Carl Bain revealed.
“And how did you know that?” Kimberley demanded.
“My masters just told me.”
“I already knew that,” Rachel said. “Tell us what we don’t know.”
“He had a lover at the Mine. One of his fellow Sikamas.”
“Mariah?” Kimberley wanted to confirm her suspicion.
“Yes,” Carl Bain said. “Her name was Mariah.”
“Okay, that’s new,” Rachel admitted.
“I guess I’ve known for some time,” Kimberley said.
“The two lovers had plans for the two volumes and the ritual,” the human minion continued. “Plans that ran contrary to what the Sikama stood for, so they couldn’t help Jehoash carry out the Sikama’s original plans, and the cult entered a tumultuous period from then on.”
“A period they never recovered from,” Kimberley said.
Carl Bain nodded. “Of course, Ben Haddad sabotaged the cult when he assisted the Romans in discovering the Mine after he thought that Jehoash wanted to keep the books for selfish reasons.”
The White Book Page 47