“We’re in the very same shelter we escaped from,” Rachel said with a wry smile. “Wearing the very same hazard suits.”
“How strange,” Carl Bain said. “Unlike you guys, I can do without those weird suits.”
“Stop bragging and tell us what is happening inside Resilience,” Kimberley snapped at him.
“Kimberley! Is that you?” a familiar voice shouted outside.
“My sisters are here,” Jeremy said, peeping out through the narrowly open doors.
Kimberley and the others joined him to watch the two small figures grow bigger. “They did what we told them.”
“They sure did,” Kimberley agreed. “Yes, Ginia, come right over and we’ll open up for you!” she called out.
“My masters just snuffed out two Kannibals waiting near these doors,” Carl Bain announced. “Grubb’s men are everywhere.”
“Can you take them all out?” Kimberley proposed.
The American thug smiled. “Done.”
“Thanks,” Jeremy said, operating the doors to open up wide. “Ginia! Tilia!” he cried, walking over to embrace his sisters.
“We made it, Jeremy,” Tilia said with joy.
“We’re not yet out of the woods, sis,” Jeremy pointed out.
“Place is a death zone,” Kimberley exclaimed, stepping out of the dilapidated shelter into a gory war-like scenario of undeniable massacre. Bodies in black hazard suits littered the landscape amidst human entrails intentionally left behind. “They must have hunted down all these people and disemboweled them for food.”
“Welcome to the future, Mr. Bain,” Jeremy said. “This is the environment created by the offspring of your tiny box.”
“The red bomb has destroyed the Earth, Mr. Bain,” Rachel said. “Now you know what that little thing can do.”
“And you think I care?” the human minion grumbled. “After all, this is not my alternate reality.”
“Alternate what?” Kimberley had heard the phrase before.
“Alternate reality,” Carl Bain repeated. “Remember my masters can bring back your dead if you want them to come back, just as the book brought them back into existence when you went back in time.”
“Why can’t the book bring back our dead as well?” Jeremy wondered.
“Under Shurabi, one could come back in the future as someone else if one died of natural or physical causes,” Rachel replied. “So, in theory, yes, I would expect a reversal of this mythical process when we go back in time with the white book, or move forward in time with the black book, up to the specific date of birth of the said individual.”
“But this is not the case when the Gray Ones do the killing,” Kimberley said dryly.
“Exactly,” Rachel agreed.
“I know where you’re going with this,” Kimberley told Jeremy.
“C-Can the effects of the red bomb be reversed?” Jeremy tottered.
“Reversing such a massive physical catastrophe would most likely drain the strength of the Bookbearer performing such a task, killing him or her in the process,” Rachel explained.
“How did you know that?” Kimberley began.
“Experience, Kim,” Rachel said.
“So, my masters tell me that Shurabi prevents this sought of reversal from happening,” Carl Bain concluded for her.
“And Grubb was delusional in saying he could use the book to mass-populate the Earth again for his cannibalistic activities?” Kimberley wondered.
“I think so,” the little girl said.
“Unless a very powerful Bookmaker wields the book?” Carl Bain added.
Kimberley found herself thinking of Aiden. “I know we can still do some good right here, right now,” she urged everyone, heading towards the valley as the others followed her. “Can your masters take out all the Kannibals in the cities?” she asked Carl Bain.
“Already on it, but it will take some time.”
Rachel turned to the human minion. “Did you take him out, Mr. Bain?”
“No. My masters failed to do so,” Carl Bain said. “Grubb is with his lover and the boy in a secure room.”
“And the book?” Rachel asked. “As you can see, we don’t have it.”
The American hustler nodded. “The book is in that vicinity.”
They started up the slope, trying not to stare at the human remains oozing blood all over the place, as well as the dead bodies lying everywhere. Soon, the giant doors of the vehicle hatch through which Grubb sanctioned his hunting expedition loomed.
“How do we get in?” Ginia asked, rubbing her hands over the closed doors.
Carl Bain stared at her. “Why? Through those doors, of course.”
“But, they’re shut tight.”
Eerie forms materialized all around the time-travelers. The Gray Ones ferried the humans through the massive metal doors and vanished into thin air once the job was done.
They did not remove their hazard suits.
“Grubb should be in his laboratory down at Bravery,” Jeremy calculated.
“He’s in Resilience City’s Administrative Building, inside the chairman’s office to be precise,” Carl Bain said. “He knows we’re coming, but he doesn’t know what to do.”
Kimberley nodded. “What of his victims?”
“Still in their prisons, but grateful for the turn of events.”
“Of course,” Kimberley agreed. “Dead Kannibals everywhere. Who wouldn’t be grateful?”
“This fight just got a whole lot easier, thanks to our new allies,” Jeremy said, turning to Carl Bain.
Outside the huge atmospheric filtration unit, more dead bodies in black suits greeted the small group. Mobile units carrying dead occupiers as well as frightened prisoners dotted empty streets. Jeremy led the others in unchaining the civilians and helping them out of the idol vehicles.
“They were going to slaughter us!” one old man cried as he stepped down from an X9 unit. “And, can you believe it? They claimed they had to, because there was no food left.”
“It’s over now,” Jeremy said, turning to help another person.
“This is slowing us down,” Carl Bain complained. “We need to move quickly.”
“We don’t even know what we’re going to confront,” Kimberley pointed out.
“My sisters can help these people while we continue,” Jeremy said to everyone’s approval.
The Resilience City’s Administrative Building sat in a compound close to the main road leading out of the city into Bravery. Dead Kannibal troopers lay on both sides of the road amidst abandoned mobile units facing different directions. Kimberley picked up three lazer guns and gave one to Rachel and Jeremy. “Just in case,” she said.
Up the road they went, squatting as they paused at the gate to look around before sneaking in like real soldiers. The place was deserted; save for some ignoble fluffy group of rabbit-like animals that scampered away once the humans approached their position near the main building’s entrance.
“No one in sight,” Kimberley ascertained and lowered her weapon while looking around. “Guess we can just walk right in and confront Grubb.”
“Notice the falling temperature, Kim?” Jeremy asked her. “It’s never been this cold in Resilience.”
“Or around your administrative building?” Rachel specified, staring at the structure’s entrance. “It’s the book, Kim. Look.”
A lone figure stood at the top of the stairway in the building’s main lobby. A boy to be precise. He had his hands behind his back.
“Aiden!” Kimberley called out, working the door computers to open the heavy transparent lazerproof doors. The cold blast from within shook as well as surprised her, literally pushing her back half an inch with her companions.
“That was why my masters couldn’t get to your Grubb,” Carl Bain told her. “The boy is protecting your enemies with the Breath of Lucifer.”
Jeremy didn’t hear well. “The Breath of who?”
Rachel appeared lost.
“The Bre
ath of Lucifer, your so-called Ice and Fire of Masada,” the human minion continued, staring at the boy standing on the stairs. “Satan’s breath blows cold for the white book and erupts as fire for the black book. I no longer have my powers, because my masters have left this vicinity. They fear Satan’s breath.”
“Khabawsokar said that in Egypt, but I didn’t understand what he meant at the time,” Kimberley said.
“Who’s Khabawsokar?” Jeremy asked her.
“Whatever,” she said. “We have to save Aiden first.”
“Don’t come any closer!” Aiden warned her from atop the staircase. “Don’t do so if you want to live.”
“What did he do to you, Aiden?” Rachel shouted into the chilly wind emanating from within the building.
“Nothing,” Aiden said. “He just showed me who I am.”
“What’s really going on?” Jeremy wondered.
“You’re not a killer, Aiden,” Kimberley began, noticing Mr. Bain taking some backward steps. “You are better than him.”
Aiden boiled. “I didn’t kill anyone!” The cold blast exploded from him, blasting his audience out of the doorway and sending them crashing to the ground a few feet away. “You could have protected me from those bullies when Mum passed away, Kim, but you didn’t! Now, I can protect myself!”
“W-What are you talking about?” Kimberley stammered, wincing as she sat up from the ground.
“I’m talking about him,” Aiden snapped, pointing out Carl Bain, who was crawling backward on his haunches away from the others. “Now is my time to deal with him.”
“Aiden, he’s with us now,” Rachel said.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You cannot do this, Aiden,” Kimberley said. “This is not who you are.”
“He cannot do what?” Jeremy began.
“Wrong, Kim,” Aiden said. “You made me believe I killed my mother all these years, because…because I ran away from home when she needed me most on her sickbed. Now, I’m going to face my fears. I am not going to run away anymore.”
Carl Bain froze. He could no longer move. “What have you done to me, boy?”
“Aiden, stop whatever you’re doing right now,” Kimberley cried.
“It’s too late, Kim,” Aiden said, stepping down the stairs. He revealed the ancient manuscript he held in his right hand and a bluish glow emanated from the book. This incandescent light immersed his right hand and changed to a lighter hue.
“Aiden, what has he done to you?” Kimberley wondered as she drew back on the ground with Jeremy and the others, apart from Carl Bain, who remained incapable of motion.
“Nothing,” the boy repeated. “He just showed me who I am.”
Jeremy stopped before Carl Bain as the boy got to the foot of the steps. “And who do you think you are right now?” he asked Aiden.
“Move out of the way or I’ll hurt you as well,” Aiden snapped at him.
“Do your worst,” the Resilience citizen said.
“Jeremy, move out of the way,” Kimberley warned.
“Aiden, don’t do this,” Rachel warned.
“Aiden, leave them for now,” a new voice said behind the boy. Grubb stood at the top of the stairs with Mariah, Rewder, Akron and two other Kannibal troopers.
“You murderer!” Jeremy shouted, standing up and raising his weapon. Akron shot it out of his hand and he calmed down.
“What have you done to Aiden, Uncle Ben?” Rachel demanded.
“Surprised to see me still alive?” the professor asked. “You went back in time to stop me, but failed woefully.”
“We’re still on it, smart guy,” Kimberley said, picking herself up.
“With who?” Grubb lit up. “With a revived fool, who can’t even move, or his overrated demonic masters, who now owe you their existence? Nah, you have failed, and woefully, too.”
Rachel couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. “What did you do to Aiden?”
“Nothing, my dear,” Grubb said, raising both hands as he came down the staircase, his lover closely following him. “I just showed him how powerful he could become if he chose to and he listened to me. Amazing, right?”
“Hi, Kim,” Mariah quipped. “Enjoying yourself?”
Kimberley ignored the last speaker. “A-Are you saying Aiden is really Avigdor?” she asked the professor, turning to Rachel.
“Of course, he is,” Grubb said. “And Avigdor has the power to find the black book.”
“With that other volume, we can then perform the ritual,” Mariah said.
“So, you see, Aiden,” Grubb continued, “you can ignore these humans and their powerless demons for now, because we have bigger achievements ahead of us.” He stretched out his right hand towards the boy. “Just give me the book.”
“Not yet, Master,” Aiden said. “Let me kill him first.”
“Let him be, boy,” Grubb urged. “He’s not worth it, and we have better things to do.”
“Yes, Master,” Aiden surprised everyone with. The blue glow surrounding the book disappeared and Carl Bain scampered away from the group as soon as he could move.
Kimberley smiled when she noticed Mariah staring at her.
“What are you smiling at?” Mariah demanded.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jeremy asked, standing up in front of Carl Bain. “You guys don’t control the boy.”
“And you’ve been trying to convince him to hand over the book for some time now,” Kimberley added. “This means you could have manipulated him, hoping to get something from him afterwards...”
“And that is not working out, even though he calls you ‘master,’” Rachel said, stepping towards Aiden. “I don’t even think that you have ransacked any other city apart from Bravery and Resilience, Uncle Ben.”
“That’s not true,” Mariah said. “Aiden is protecting us from the Gray Ones as I speak. If not for your insolent intrusion, we would have commenced our master plan already. How about that?”
“With which army?” Kimberley asked. “Last time I checked, the Gray Ones have been smothering your cannibalistic force while you were hiding.”
Grubb hid his surprise well enough, but his protégé did not. She swiped up the ThelepathyG7 screen on her wrist.
“The ankh image will stop that nonsense if I send it to the troops, Master,” she said as she worked. “Right, Kim?”
“Too late for that,” Jeremy quipped. “I hope.”
“Goodness, only ten soldiers are still alive?” Mariah gaped at her virtual screen.
“Good to hear,” Jeremy said, smiling.
Grubb glared at his protégé and said nothing. He turned to Kimberley. “You’re right about Aiden, but then you cannot convince him to give you the book, either. I have nothing to lose if he kills your man here, but I am not allowing that, am I?”
“So?” Jeremy demanded.
“What do you want?” Kimberley asked the professor.
“A truce. You go your way and I go mine.”
“That will never happen,” Jeremy said. “After all you did? After all you killed?”
Kimberley nodded in agreement. “You know that won’t happen, right?” she asked Grubb.
“Well, then,” Grubb said, “I guess that ends negotiations.”
“And you just lost Aiden,” Rachel quipped, holding up the book.
“Where am I?” Aiden wondered.
“You stupid girl!” Grubb exploded and reached out his right hand to grab the book, but the little girl dodged him.
Kimberley took out Rewder and Akron before both men could raise their guns, and Grubb, a.k.a. Benjamin Haddad, scampered up the stairs with Mariah.
“What just happened?” Jeremy demanded.
“Take Grubb out, Carl!” Kimberley barked into her TelepathyG7 communicator.
“Still can’t do that,” the panting fellow said on the other end. “He has an ankh with him.”
“Are you still running?” Kimberley wondered, scaling the lobby steps after Grubb.
A puzzled Aiden turned to Rachel. “What’s going on?” he asked her.
“We still have work to do,” Rachel said, grabbing his hand and going after Kimberley.
Jeremy hesitated before following the younger duo.
The Booklords were waiting for Kimberley at Chairman Smith’s sealed office door. She blasted the computerized lock and the doors slid open.
Grubb fired several shots at her from the other end of a banquet hall, but she used the long table in the middle of the large room, as well as the ceramic dishes containing food on this table, to protect herself. Grubb’s erratic shots broke some of the ceramic on the table, spilling their contents for all to see. Kimberley felt like vomiting after figuring out what she saw in these broken dishes. The others crouched beside her and Jeremy took aim with his weapon. “Hey, don’t shoot!” she ordered him. “You might hit Mariah.”
“Really?!” Jeremy snapped. “You’ll protect her now?”
“I heard that, Kim,” Mariah called out. “You still care for me, don’t you, Kim?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t,” Grubb said, dramatically pointing the lazer gun at his lover’s head and blasting a hole through it.
Mariah fell as her blood and brain matter spewed out in the process, crashing to the ground with a thump.
“No!” Kimberley screamed and set off her blaster on the male Sikama, who escaped by entering a lazeproof cubicle close by. “Die, you murderer!”
Jeremy fired some shots, but knew he was too late. “We had him!” he cried, and cursed away inaudibly.
“You know it’s over, Ben,” Kimberley said. “You don’t have any route out of this.”
“But I do,” Grubb said, putting his right hand into his overcoat’s right pocket. He stopped and looked out at the long table in the middle of the room. A piece of paper lay on that table.
“You cannot come out and pick it, Ben,” Kimberley said, looking at Mariah’s blood encircling the dead woman’s head at the foot of the cubicle Grubb ran into. Perhaps Shurabi would give this now lifeless Sikama another shot at life? That is, if all that was true. “I’ll kill you before you even step out of that box!”
“She betrayed you for a long time, my dear,” Grubb said. “Why do you now feel bad for her?”
“Because you made her who she became,” Rachel answered for Kimberley.
The White Book Page 49