Tethered Twins Saga: Complete Trilogy (Twins, Souls and Hearts)

by Mike Essex

  “Won’t they be suspicious when you get back?” I asked.

  “I’m hopeful that I can talk my way out of it,” he said.

  “Just hopeful!?” I said.

  I wasn’t very confident with March’s plan, but it was the only plan we had and it was better than nothing.

  The drive to the base took about an hour, mostly through the deserted streets of smaller towns and along dual carriageways that had been closed in preparation for being rebuilt as motorways connecting the new States. We passed a broken sign that said A34, amongst some graffiti which said “REPENT. THE RAPTURE HAS ARRIVED!”

  The Rapture. That’s what they’d called the day Tobias nearly killed everyone, with my help. Despite the pain most of the population were put through there were still those who saw it as a divine test and a sign of a higher power.

  One of the stranger trips during my time in the machine was into the body of Pastor Nathaniel Phipps who lived in Massachusetts. He had gathered a large group of followers and had become something of a local celebrity in the State. People were travelling far and wide to see his congregations and Eli wanted to know why.

  So one day, when the pastor was about to speak to an eager crowd Eli had me jump into Nathaniel’s body purely to observe. Whilst most pastors believed in the Christian faith and in a single God, Nathaniel had his own theories and these were what made him such a legend. He saw the rapture not as a sign of a singular God, but as proof that two Gods had returned.

  Rather than reading from the Bible, he read his flock stories of Greek mythology and one in particular was key to his sermon; The story of Freyr, a man, and Freyja, a woman. He believed they were the first Tethered twins to walk the Earth and that they later became fertility Gods that imbued upon us the gift of twins in every childbirth.

  He preached that Freyr and Freyja wanted mortals to feel the same emotional connection to their sibling as the two of them shared. Together they created the Tethers that bind twins and in doing so they allowed siblings to share emotional and spiritual feelings for the first time. Best of all, no one had to die when their twin died.

  I could see why the pastor was so popular. Who wouldn’t want that to be true?

  For many years, the pastor explained, humans and the first twins lived in peace and it was a glorious era of higher spiritual awakening for the human race. He talked about people treating each other with kindness and wanting to get back to those old ways. His congregation agreed.

  However, following the gift from the first twins, there were those who were not happy with the new arrangement. Some wanted to live in secrecy and did not wish to feel so close to their twins. They wanted to get revenge and these individuals called themselves the Vanir.

  After a long, bloody, campaign of violence they eventually succeeded when Freyr was killed in battle. Freyja was so devastated from the death of her brother that she took her own life and cursed the human race to die when their twin died.

  All the Vanir had really achieved was a horrible curse for the entire human race. They disbanded, but many of them were hunted down and tortured for their lack of faith. The remaining Vanir hid in society although there were those who believed that one day they would finally be killed and Freyr and Freya would return to lift the curse. The pastor felt this day had finally come.

  As far as religious hokum went it was a nice idea and I could see how it would bring peace to some people, especially in the harsher times, but I refused to believe that our lives were controlled by some pissed off Gods.

  Neither did Eli and he certainly didn’t like the idea that someone was bringing a potential religious army together. A foolish person would have killed the pastor at one of his rallies or tried to make him disappear but that would have only encouraged further people to follow his cause. Eli was most certainly not foolish.

  Instead he decided to destroy the pastor in the simplest way possible, by destroying any shred of credibility he had. First of all he arranged a debate between Scientists and the pastor that was broadcast on local TV.

  The Scientists put forward a well thought out argument that Tethers were the result of an evolutionary desire to protect siblings. They argued that the inbuilt need not only for self-perseveration and also preserving the wider family had caused our type of human to win out. This was backed up with psychological and scientific studies; even including some of Tobias’ research.

  The pastor on the other hand gave a flawed argument that was deliberately full of holes. Rather than his usual confident self, he argued that Freyr and Freyja had been alive twenty years ago and that they invented smart phones and could have cured cancer. Every statement he made was laughable, contradictory and baffling, all of which were carefully worded by Eli.

  There were still some who believed in the pastor, no matter what he said so Eli decided to ramp things up. The TV show had after all simply been a ruse to raise the pastor’s profile before his eventually downfall. Eli knew he couldn’t kill the pastor but he had one more ace up his sleeve. One week later the FBI raided the pastor’s home and arrested him for possession of child pornography.

  Within 24 hours, eight young adults came forward and Eli made them claim that the pastor had molested them when they were children. After that it didn’t take long for the media to eat the story up. A high profile pastor caught on sex offence charges. They had an absolute field day and the pastor was given a life sentence. Talk of Freyr, Freyja and the Vanir died down quickly afterwards. Those who tried to speak of them again were publicly ridiculed.

  I always wondered if Eli gave any thought to the lives of those eight teenagers. Ruining the pastor had always been his goal and whilst it was true the pastor had never harmed the teenagers they none-the-less believed it was the case. Eli had put them in the witness box day after day, reliving a nightmare that had never happened.

  Even without me in their mind I was sure they’d still believe the sexual assaults had occurred no matter how much time passed. For them and their families the damage was all too real.

  It was Eli’s darkest hour, the worst thing I’d even seen him do. He’d destroyed the lives of eight people, who had their whole lives ahead of them, to bring down one man. It was one of the reasons he had to be made to suffer.

  I took a deep breath as March stopped the car and told us to get out.

  Grace placed her hand on the gun, unsure what he was planning.

  “Woah. No need for that, the base is just over there,” said March pointing to a dot in the distance. “I’ll go on ahead and drop off the supplies. Then you can meet me there and I’ll let you inside.”

  “How do we know you won’t double cross us?” I asked.

  “If I wanted to do that I’d just drive you to the entrance and hand you over,” he replied.

  March ran us through his plan and the different checkpoints we’d need to pass through within the base in order to get in and out safely. His timings were very specific and it was clear he’d been planning this for a while. He ran us through guard movements and drew us a map of the base from memory.

  “I just hope Emmie can forgive me after this,” he said. “I never wanted to hurt her.”

  “It’s a start,” I replied and then realising who I was added “People were able to forgive me.”

  “I really did love her,” said March, looking like a defeated man. “At least Rex will treat her right.”

  Although I couldn’t see a way to ever truly forgive March I was starting to understand why he’d done the things he’d done. He wasn’t the loyal servant of Eli that I’d envisioned. I still had the memories in my mind of all the good times we’d shared, they couldn’t have all been an act. Could they?

  “Yes, he will,” said Grace, seeming less keen to forgive him.

  We ran thought the plan one more time and set our watches to synchronise with March’s. It was agreed that Tom would stay in the car with March. The blackout windows would keep him hidden and he’d be nearby if March needed to treat him. None of us w
anted to leave Tom in the middle of nowhere so it felt like the best option we had.

  March drove off into the distance with Tom, leaving me alone with Grace. As soon as they were out of earshot Grace told me; “You can’t believe everything he said about me, you know?”

  “It’s ok,” I told her. “Whatever you did or didn’t know is irrelevant. You’re putting it right now.”

  “Everything’s just gotten so fucked up,” she replied.

  “I know,” I told her. “We can still fix it.”

  When I weighed up the things Grace had to done to hurt me and the times she had saved me the positives far outweighed the negatives. She was still there for me when no-one else had been. That was all I needed to know.

  We checked our weapons and then started the long walk towards the base.

  EIGHTEEN

  A storm brewed overhead as we made our way along the road towards the base. Splatters of rain hit the road, whilst blasts of lighting surged across the sky. To avoid detection we stayed low to the ground, cutting through the undergrowth. The rain pushed its way through the grass, turning the dirt into mud beneath us.

  I checked my watch to make sure we were in line with March’s timings.

  It was 19:52, which gave us less than ten minutes to reach the front door of the base. As we reached the edge of the grass I could see a soldier stood in front of the base.

  “It’s Gabe,” whispered Grace.

  I knew how much she wanted to confront him, to learn whose side he was really on, but somehow she managed to stay hidden and watch the timer with me.

  As my watch hit 19:58 I watched Gabe head inside the underground base. It was the perfect opportunity but the time wasn’t right yet. I reminded myself that March had synchronised our watches. I had to trust him, even though 24 hours ago such a thought would have seemed impossible.

  My watch reached 20:00 and I knew it was time to go. If March had been right then the security cameras would be disabled and the front door would be open. The only way to know for sure was to step out of the grass and in the light of day. On the count of three Grace and I charged towards the door of the base, right through the storm.

  My eyes caught the camera as it looked directly at me. I waited for the sound of an alarm to blaze out but nothing happened, at least not that I could hear, any sounds inside the base could have been another story. We reached the door and I looked up at the camera again. It hadn’t moved, hopefully that was a sign it was really disabled.

  I released the safety from my gun and placed one hand on the door. We quietly counted down to three and I turned the handle. Grace went inside first, aiming left and then aiming right, sweeping the room with her sights. She motioned for me to come inside and I closed the door behind me. As soon as the door was shut I heard the sound of a lock clicking into place.

  If this was a trap then there was nothing we could do to stop it now.

  I looked around the room where Gabe and Vlad had once captured me and vowed not to have my journey end here. We walked towards the downward slope that led into the base just in time to see one of the security doors slowly rise up. Grace dropped to the floor to look under the door and confirmed there was no-one behind it. It was as if someone unseen was urging us deeper inside the base.

  We walked through two more security gates, triggered at 20:02 and 20:04. By 20:05 we had reached the next gate and rather than waiting for it to open, we followed the plan and entered a nearby room marked “Medical Bay C”.

  Under March’s instructions we were to wait in here for twenty minutes. In the background I could hear one of the security gates being triggered. If March’s timings were correct this would be another guard heading out to the front of the base to take over from Gabe, whilst he had his brief dinner break. By the time the twenty minutes had passed, Gabe would have also headed back up to the surface.

  We walked to the back of the room and positioned ourselves behind a metal shelf of medical supplies, pushing a few boxes to one side so we could get a direct line of sight at the door.

  Outside the door I could hear a man and woman talking. The man was unmistakably Gabe and the woman’s voice I recognised from The Deck’s base but I had never directly spoken to her. For whatever reason March’s timings had been wrong and both guards were now stood directly outside our room.

  “Gabe is mine,” whispered Grace as she aimed at the door. I kept myself crouched behind the medical supplies. The door opened and in walked the female guard that I couldn’t place, Karen possibly, either way her name wouldn’t be important for much longer.

  “He can’t keep doing this to them,” said Karen looking back through the door’s opening.

  “Eli said those medical supplies on the table will help,” said Gabe. “He’s put his children through this much, why stop now?”

  “Hmm,” said Karen, as she looked back inside the room.

  We both aimed our guns at her and hoped she wouldn’t see us. I didn’t want to fire and blow our cover but it didn’t seem like we had much choice.

  “Looks like it needs to be mixed,” said Karen as she examined a couple of medical vials from the table.

  “I’m gonna go up ahead,” said Gabe. “Can’t leave the front unguarded for too long.”

  I could hear Gabe’s footsteps getting quieter in the distance until the security door came down and silenced them completely.

  “Now,” whispered Grace and in unison we moved around either side of the shelves, approaching Karen from both sides. She looked directly at me, startled and then quickly reached for her gun.

  “Don’t move,” I started to say and before Karen could even hear me Grace had hit her over the head with the butt of her gun. Karen fell back and Grace caught her, before slowly laying her body onto the floor.

  We found a large thick black plastic box in the room that contained medical supplies and tossed Karen inside of it. Grace jabbed her in the side to see if she’d wake up but she didn’t move. She was still breathing at least but it seemed like she’d be out cold for a while. Just in case, we closed the lid of the box and stacked the heaviest supplies we could find on top of it.

  We waited with Karen for ten minutes, eager for the security door to open. She didn’t make a sound the entire time. Whilst we waited Grace ran her finger along the medical supplies. She picked up a couple of needles and vials and pocketed them.

  At 20:25 we heard the security door open. I waited to check for the sound of another soldier and when I was sure there weren’t any footsteps we stepped out and into the outer corridor. As we made our way into the fourth section of the base and I could hear the third door we’d passed rise up behind us.

  “It’s got to be Gabe,” I told Grace.

  “Oh, I hope it is,” she replied.

  NINETEEN

  I looked up at the doorway between us and our mystery man in the hope that the security door would come down but it didn’t. We were too far from the medical bay to get back inside and the new section we were in didn’t have any rooms to hide in. We were exposed. Grace started to walk back towards the other security door.

  “I’ll hold him off,” she said. “He’s got some explaining to do.”

  “I won’t let you do it on your own,” I followed closely behind her.

  As the security door rose up to his face his eyes widened.

  “How did you?” he asked as Grace tackled him down to the floor.

  “The radio,” she said to me, whilst she pinned his arms down.

  I grabbed the radio and gun from his belt and threw them both into the fourth section behind us. Gabe kneed Grace off his body and jumped up onto his feet.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” he said. “Especially with that freak.”

  “What happened to you?” demanded Grace. “Seven years and no phone call!”

  “This is more important than us,” he explained, his fists formed at his sides.

  Grace jumped up onto her feet, echoing Gabe’s earlier move. “There is no u
s, there hasn’t been for a long time,” she said, swinging her fist towards him.

  He caught it instantly. “I taught you every move you know. Just surrender and maybe I can have Eli reinstate you on the team.”

  “You killed my step-brother and you think I’ll just join up with you again? Forget it!” she tried to kick him and he stepped away. It all looked effortless for him.

  “I don’t want to hurt you but I will if I have to,” said Gabe.

  Whilst his back was turned I punched him hard on the side. He flinched slightly and then swung his elbow out backwards, digging it into my ribs. I felt dizzy and tumbled backwards a few steps.

  “Kenan’s death was a terrible thing, but it meant we could keep this place safe. He was a martyr for the cause and helped save countless other lives. He was a hero,” said Gabe.

  “You don’t get to speak about him that way. You don’t get to talk about him at all,” Grace pulled out her gun and aimed it at Gabe.

  “Woah,” said Gabe. “If you shoot me we’ll never get that trip to Paris we always spoke about. International flights are running again now thanks to Eli. We could still go. Let’s just walk out the door, catch a flight and get out of here.”

  “I wouldn’t go anywhere with you,” said Grace.

  The security gate behind us started to close. Our only way of getting deeper into the base, slowly sealing up.

  “You have to go now,” shouted Grace to me.

  I looked at the gate and looked back at her. There wasn’t time to make any other decision. I ran towards the door as it made its descent down. It was closing too fast and I knew I’d never make it on foot so I dove forwards, sliding underneath the last bit of space before it closed. Three gunshots echoed behind me before the door closed completely blocking out all sound.

  It took just five seconds after that for an alarm to ring out around the base and for the security door to lock itself shut. Panicking I looked at the corridor in front of me that snaked around in three different directions.