by Glover, Nhys
Just when he was starting to worry, he felt the train begin to slow. It was an agonising process. Luke must have found the break, because there was screeching sound, and the car slowed even more.
Finally, when the carriage was moving at walking speed, Jac leaned back in to his hole and said, ‘Stay calm, and do as you are instructed. We have plenty of time. Stay calm and orderly.’ He repeated his message again in the other languages, and he heard the message again being passed on. He could feel the captives’ anticipation building.
He jumped down off the train, and ran around to the right hand side on the carriage, preparing to unbolt the doors. So far there was no sign of the lighted Portal, and he had a moment’s worry that they might have gotten the Extraction Point wrong. Then, as the car finally ground to a standstill, and Luke joined him from the front of the car, the forest was lit by a brilliant light.
‘Yes!’ he cried in English, and grinned like a lunatic at the mottled grey face beside him, whose white teeth were the only definable feature he could see clearly in the pouring rain.
As he shot the bolt on the doors, he and Luke took a door each, and slid it back. The smell that assaulted his nostrils was worse than anything he could have expected. Worse than anything he had ever encountered on any other mission. Tears formed as the chlorine fumes stung his eyes.
The row of small bodies, held back by older arms, formed as silent witnesses to the first of their team who walked out of the Portal. He heard a hushed ‘ohhh’, as the team moved down to meet the train.
He registered the moment they turned on the transmitters as a dip in his pulse rate. Suddenly, the adrenalin wasn’t running, and he felt more relaxed and content. Not happy. No one could feel happy, staring at the stinking, ragged skeletons of these children. But the pressure was off.
Luke, Chen, Julio and Max, started to help him pick up children, one at a time, and lower them to the ground. Then the women moved in to take little hands, and lead them further away from the train.
‘Form a line, everyone. Hold hands, form up in twos and threes, and follow the lady into the tunnel. You are safe, nothing bad will happen to you now.’ He said in German, and then in Czech, and then in Polish. He even threw in a bit of Yiddish, just in case he’d missed a language.
Other voices joined his, giving gentle instructions. Slowly the group of children moved forward toward the light.
Faith had never understood the term having your ‘heart in your mouth’ before. But as she stepped through into the pouring darkness, and saw the carriage standing open, the gaunt, hopeful little faces staring across at her, she felt what it was like to have her heart in her mouth. It was so powerful a sensation she gasped.
Jane, who had just returned from her part of the mission, and had quickly joined them on theirs, gripped her hand tightly. She felt it too.
So many children. They had expected it to be a mix of adults and children. But, for every woman she saw clambering down from the train, there were ten or more children. And the women carried infants, and many were pregnant. What kind of Hell had these women experienced, trying to mother all these little ones?
With Millie and Jane at her side, Faith joined Cara as she began to make order out of the tentative chaos in the pouring rain. None of the victims wanted to take a step the wrong way. They all looked around them, as if they expected to hear the rat-tat-tat of machine fire, at any moment.
Tears joined the raindrops cascading down her face. Such tiny, skeletal faces with enormous, staring eyes; they were so afraid, and yet so hopeful.
‘Do not be afraid. You are safe. There are no guns here. Follow me, form into nice, straight lines and follow me,’ she added her voice to the others, choosing a language that no one nearby was speaking.
Slowly, the little clumps of terrified children began to morph into a ragtag line, as Cara began to lead the way up the hill, to where the sparkling Portal awaited.
As she saw the first children disappear in through the buzzing curtain, Faith smiled. Not one baulked at going into the strange light.
‘Is that Heaven?’ She heard one small voice ask.
‘No, darling,’ she answered in the same language. ‘It is just a noisy tunnel that will lead you to safety. Away from this terrible place.’
Cara reappeared, and began to direct the next children through from this side. No one seemed afraid of the light. The ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ of awe and wonder were heart-wrenching.
But she felt euphoria building inside her too. Euphoria, which had nothing to do with artificially stimulated emotions from sonic sedation, and everything to do with what was happening around her.
They’d done it. All these tiny souls were saved!
Like a slow moving snake, the line of children and women moved on through the rain, until at last, Faith could see the end of the line. She looked back at the carriage.
Jac and Luke had climbed up into the carriage to check for stragglers. They each reappeared carrying an unconscious child.
Faith ran down to the carriage, her euphoria of the moment before snuffed out in an instant. Luke was handing a child gently down into Chen’s outstretched arms, and the look of horror he sent her way, spoke volumes for what he had found inside. A small sentinel stood at his side, his eyes watchful and determined.
Max had taken Jac’s child, and both men in the car returned to the interior once more. They carried out two more children each, before climbing unsteadily down. And Luke finally lifted the little sentinel out of the carriage
‘No more?’ she asked, although she knew the answer. They would not have climbed down if there were.
‘No. I ain’t sure if the ones we got are… alive. But there ain’t no bodies left lying in that poisonous shit!’ Luke’s anger pulsed through the wet air; his Phillie accent heavier than she’d ever heard it.
He exchanged a knowing look with Jac. Whatever they had seen in there had shocked them both more than they were able to share.
‘Let’s get the fuck outta here!’ he snapped, sweeping Faith up under his arm. They followed the team members carrying the last of the children up to the sparkling shower.
Faith clung to Luke, as if her feet were about to go out from under her. She wasn’t sure they wouldn’t. All she knew for certain was that her man was desperately clinging to her, holding onto her, as if his life depended on it. He was clearly so overwhelmed by all that had happened in the last few minutes that he pulsed with an intense emotion she couldn’t comprehend.
Jac didn’t even pause as he walked ahead of them into the light. With Luke pressed close to her side, she followed their shattered leader into the future.
Luke was trembling. He couldn’t remember the last time he trembled uncontrollably like this. As a child, when he father beat him? Maybe. All he knew was that he was clinging on to sanity with everything he had left in him. And sanity was Faith, his gentle, loving Faith.
The Hell had started when he and Jac had looked into the depths of the car, after the bulk of the occupants had left. The stench and the sting of chlorine made them gasp.
Then, when their eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside the stock car, they’d seen the tiny souls trying to drag dead weights with them towards the door. Jac had called to the children to come out. He told them he would fetch their companions. Even then, when most of the youngsters had obeyed, one tiny soldier stayed behind, unwilling to trust that those who had fallen would not be abandoned.
Up until the moment he walked into that carriage, he was still undecided what he would do. Then he had seen them; those poor, pathetic mites, sprawled like broken dolls in the acidic brew that stung his eyes and burned his skin. Those half-naked, little bodies lay, unmoving. Dead, alive, he still didn’t know. But the horror of those moments still reverberated through his system.
Intellectually, it was what they had expected. They’d done their research, after all. But the reality of it was an emotional sucker-punch that left him gasping. It stole his strength, it stole his san
ity, and it sought to steal his soul. And when he’d looked at Jac, he’d known that he wasn’t alone. They had shared that Hell, and become closer because of it. In those short minutes, they’d become as close as two men could be, who had glimpsed the same unfathomable evil, and escaped to tell of it.
All he could do now was cling to Faith as a drowning man clung to a life preserver. He could no more have left her, in those moments, than he could have killed one of those children. His duty, his mission, all faded into the background, as he fought for his life. Fought to hold on to all that was good, and kind, and gentle, in a world of incomprehensible evil.
And Jac had known it. Jac had felt it too. Even if he had made a break for it, Jac would have let him. Because there was nothing left in the Nordic giant to stop him. They were both hollowed out by it, fighting to stay upright. Fighting to stay sane.
As the buzz of the Portal suddenly faded away, and the darkened cavern fell into silence around him, he felt the tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t stop them.
He buried his face in Faith’s wet hair, trying to drive the stench from his nostril with the sweet lavender of her scent.
‘Never leave me, Angel,’ he whispered unevenly, his voice breaking as the tears flowed harder.
‘I will never leave you, Lukas, my beloved. I will never leave you.’ She was crying now too, as she clung to him.
Cara came running back to the dais, having seen Jac standing there like a lost and ancient man. She scrambled to reach him, and he fell into her arms, as an awful cry burst free, and was quickly muffled against her shoulder. Luke recognised that wounded animal cry. He felt it too.
They called them the weaker sex, he thought absently, as he allowed Faith to take more of his weight. But these women were the strong ones. Without them, they were nothing.
As Faith led him down the stone stairs of the dais, and forward toward the lifts, he kept kissing her hair, over and over again, only vaguely aware of the soft voices around him. The god-awful stench still perforated the air of the cavern, even after the children were gone. He wondered how long it would take to dissipate … A lifetime?
Longer.
Chapter Nineteen
At the surface, there were people everywhere. Newcomers and Old Timers, Jumpers and their teams, as well as regular citizens, all caring for the bedraggled, tiny scarecrows who stood staring up at the warm, blue sky above them.
For a few moments, Faith stood watching them, her heart so full it was overflowing.
‘The ice has broken, the healing starts here,’ Cara said shakily, as she held Jac in her arms, and looked at what they’d started.
‘For the children?’ Luke asked.
‘For us,’ Faith and Jac said at the same time. They saw the tears that had gone unshed for hundreds of years pouring down the faces of the Old Timers feeding and comforting the children.
‘We should help…’ Jac managed to growl out.
‘No,’ Cara said. ‘We’ve done enough. Leave this to our people. It’s their turn.’
Together the four of them moved off toward the walkways and home.
For a long time, Luke clung to Faith beneath the warm, gentle flow of the shower. They had soaped each other down several times, and still they felt unclean. But the worst of the trauma was passing, and now they just held each other, safe in the aftermath.
‘I thought you might leave me,’ Faith said into his warm chest. ‘I thought duty would have taken you from me.’
‘I wish I could say that was never going to happen, but that’d be a lie. Right up until the last, I thought I’d have to put duty before my own needs. But then, that carriage… it gave me what was real.’
Faith looked up, her eyes red from shed tears, and he kissed each grey rain cloud in turn. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I don’t think I do either. Not really. It was like I walked into Hell for a moment, and I was lost, and then I knew you were my lifeline. Only your love could give me something to hold onto. Something real to hold on to. I was close. God, I never want to come that close to insanity again. That people like me could do that… horrendous thing. It brought back the worst memories of my childhood and more.’ He shuddered and drew her in closer still. ‘It was like I was surrounded by pitch blackness, drowning in it. And I saw a light. I knew my only chance was to get to that light or I’d be lost forever. You are that light Faith. From the first moment I met you, you have been my light. My life is only liveable with you in it. All that is good in me is tied to you. I’m no good to myself or anyone else, even the US government, without you.
‘There was no choice to make… Maybe there never really was.’ He kissed her forehead reverently, as the shower cascaded over their entwined bodies.
In the days that followed, the citizens of New Atlantis went about the task of healing those that had been rescued; and in turn, were healed. Of the six who Jac and Luke had found, broken like dolls on the livestock car’s floor, four had survived. They were recovering in the medical centre, surrounded by caring adults.
The rest were living in the comfortable and spacious quarters set up for them in the dormitory precinct, being fed healthy food, having their injuries tended, and their souls restored. It would not be an easy battle to bring some of them back from the brink, as they had lost so much. But there was a sense of purpose in the city that had not been there for hundreds of years. No one would be terminated, even if they crashed and burned. There was an unspoken agreement that they would not be a kinder version of the Death Camp, no matter what pressures such a decision put on their system. Life was Life.
Cara and Jac, Jane and Julio, and Faith and Luke sat together in the quadrangle at the centre of the new rehabilitation centre, watching as a handful of the healthier children scampered around the playground equipment that had been installed especially for them. Adults played with them, and the laughter was a balm to their hearts.
‘You were going to run.’ Jac’s comment came from out of the blue, as he looked Luke’s way. For a moment, Luke was confused. It felt like a lifetime ago, not just a week since they’d rescued these children from that train. In that week, he’d patiently put all the pieces of his life back together, and the finished product looked nothing like the picture he’d seen before that pivotal night.
‘Probably. Duty required it. But you knew at the end that I wouldn’t do it.’ He met the ice blue eyes steadily as he felt Faith nestle in at his side.
‘I knew. You were not fit for anything. Like me. Any regrets?’
Luke looked down at Faith, and saw the question reflected in her eyes. He knew she had wanted to ask it herself many times in the last week, but had been afraid to hear the answer. Now Jac was providing him with the opportunity to lay their concerns to rest.
‘No. I’ll never be sorry. That car brought me to a crossroads. In that moment, I had to choose the higher duty – a duty to myself and those I love. And I no longer see it as a selfish choice. A wounded man can’t fight on indefinitely. And I was more wounded than I was willing to admit.’ He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on the silky hair of Faith’s head. The pleasure of that touch made it easier to go on.
‘I admitted that wound as I stood in that hellish doorway searching for my angel amongst the team. And now I know I’ll live to fight another day. Not the same battle; or the same war. You people have given me an opportunity to save lives, probably more effectively than I ever did as a ‘warrior’. My duty is to Faith, to you, and to this brave new world, now. And I know it’s the right choice for me.’
Cara laughed. ‘I knew there had to be something worthwhile in you, if Faith fell for you. I’m glad you finally saw it, too.’
Jac grimaced as he gave his woman a little shake. ‘That was a backhanded compliment, if ever I heard one.’
‘But true all the same,’ Luke answered back. ‘Faith by name, and faith by action. Even at my worst, she kept loving me. I wasn’t wrong when I thought she was an angel come to save me. She was, and she did.’
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‘Our women have saved us all from the worst parts of ourselves, I think,’ Julio added, looking down at Jane with intense, brown eyes that were shadowed by pain.
Luke looked down into Faith’s upturned face, and saw tears trickling down her pale cheeks. The smile told him what kind of tears they were, and he dipped his head to kiss her soft lips.
And he knew he’d found his Angel, and his Heaven in this woman’s arms. He would spend his life making sure he was worthy of her love.
If you’ve enjoyed the story so far, why not read an extract from
Book 4 of the New Atlantis series – Shared Soul
CHAPTER ONE
Summer 2333, New Atlantis GAIAN CONFEDERACY
Maggie Tasmania stared out at the dramatic scene below her. Huge, storm driven waves crashed like angry warriors against the base of the craggy cliff. It reminded her of a 1940s film noir movie – a scene cast in variations of grey, light and shade: a colourless vista of danger and suspense. And she was the heroine, her face no more than lines and shapes reflecting back at her from the mirrored surface of the floor to ceiling glass window, as the entertainment system played plaintive Blues in the background.
The discordant sound of the doorbell drew her attention away from her fantasy, and she laughed at herself. When had she got so melodramatic? Film Noir indeed!
With light steps, she went to the door to greet her visitors. Jac and Cara had messaged her not long ago with a request for a visit, even though the approaching summer storm meant they were in danger of being drenched. It was intriguing. What could be so serious as to bring them out on an evening like this? A holocall would suffice for most communications.
As she opened the door, the sky also opened, and the threatening downpour became a reality. Safe beneath the porch’s roof they were able to look out and laugh at their close call.