Falling Ark

by Leigh Snelson

  “This is my technology, I am going to treat them exactly how they deserve to be treated, like common thieves.” Lara explained.

  “Don’t do this! You can be better than this, the world deserves better!” I said, the struggle audible in my voice.

  “Ha!” Lara snorted. “The world doesn’t know what it wants until I tell it what it wants. People cannot be trusted to make decisions on their own. One day you’ll understand!”

  She pressed the plunger on the needle and a burning liquid filled my arm and chest. It felt like my entire body was on fire. After a few seconds it hit my brain and the sensation dissipated.

  Lara walked away, her high heels making a distinctive sound as she moved.

  “I’ll be back in five minutes when the serum kicks in. Until then, keep him awake. I’m going to see what our new chef has to say.” Lara muttered to Frank.

  The whir of the door motors kicked back into life as she left the room.

  It was too silent. I couldn’t even here the tapping of keys for a long time and I wondered if Frank had gone away too.

  Tap, Tap, Tap.

  He was still there.

  “Frank.” I said in a hushed tone. “Why are you doing this?”

  Heavy footsteps plodded towards me.

  “I am going to be on the winning side, on the good side, the side that fights against you terrorists.” He snarled.

  “Can’t you see that Lara is the evil one. She is killing everyone who stands in her way, does that sound like the actions of a hero to you?” I tried to explain. “What do you think she will do to you when you’re no longer needed?”

  The footsteps pounded away and then more taps on a keyboard.

  A booming laugh echoed around the room again.

  What was so funny?

  The stuff Lara had injected me with was starting to work. I could tell. I was no longer feeling optimistic, confident that I was on the correct side.

  Maybe Lara was the hero and I was the terrorist out to destroy the world and perhaps this was the seat I was going to die in.

  I don’t know what she had injected me with but it was affecting my mood quite drastically. I just hoped that Tony was having a better time than I was. Although I doubted it.

  Chapter 15

  A few minutes passed. The room was silent except for some distant humming somewhere in the facility and the occasional chuckle from Frank sitting in the corner, tapping at his keyboard.

  It had been exceptionally quiet for a long time, too long.

  THUD

  It sounded like a bear had just collapsed on the floor. It must have been Frank. What was he doing?

  The hum from the door motors started up and my muscles tensed. High heels tapped their way across the concrete floor towards me.

  Thoughts ran through my head. I was not going to tell her anything. She was not going to get any information out of me. No way!

  I opened my mouth and prepared to give her a piece of my mind.

  “I’m ready to talk, I’ll tell you anything you want!” I said.

  What! Why did I say that? What kind of crazy chemicals had she pumped into me?

  “That’s very good to know!” The female voice replied.

  She snatched the blindfold off my face.

  The harsh lights filled my eyes with pain and it took a few moments to see the details of the silhouette standing in front of me.

  “Julie!” I yelled.

  “Be quiet.” Julie whispered, gesturing to the large man that was lying on the floor in the corner of the room. “He’s out but he could be woken easily.”

  “I am glad to see you!” I whispered back, excitement creeping into my voice. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to save you obviously.” She replied. “I heard what happened to you and Tony.”

  “Tony!” I suddenly remembered. “Is he safe? Where is he?”

  “Right here.” Came a voice from behind Julie.

  Tony and Julie had a history together. When Tony worked for VisionTech they shared offices, both working in the biological fields. Julie was now working on the team that was continuing Tony’s research after he was fired, and I always suspected that Julie knew more that she was letting on. Now that I know Tony had sabotaged his work before he left, I wondered if Julie was continuing to hold back his creation from Lara.

  After Tony left VisionTech, Julie was put in charge of the department, she had finished mentoring me by that time and she knew the inner working of the formulations. She lasted a few months before handing over the role to someone else. It was too much, the demands Lara placed on her were unrealistic. Perhaps Julie didn’t want to meet the deadlines, didn’t want to find the answers for Lara. It was all starting to make sense.

  People also claimed that there was more to Tony and Julie than just professional interest. That they were more than just good colleagues. I didn’t know for certain. I had spent a lot of time with Julie when I first started, and I never spotted anything going on. Then again, I was young and naïve.

  Julie finished uncoupling my arms and legs from the chair and I was finally able to stand up. It felt good to stretch my body as that was the most uncomfortable chair I had ever sat in.

  “Hey, my leg doesn’t hurt anymore!” I whispered.

  “I know! Lara came into my office and took some healing cream. I guess she used it on you!” Julie explained.

  “Where is Lara?” I asked.

  “Don’t panic. She’ll be out for a while. I slipped her a little something when she was in my office. She wanted her regular top up and I gave her a different pill instead.” Julie informed me.

  “Regular top up?” I asked.

  “Yeah, haven’t you noticed that Lara hasn’t aged in a couple of years. She takes pills that I make to stop the aging.” Julie said.

  “That’s what Tony was working on.” I replied.

  “Yeah, well, its only partially effective, every time she passes by she takes another tablet, just to make sure it isn’t wearing off. This time I gave her a mild sedative instead. Just something I had been keeping in reserve, in case of emergencies.” Julie gleamed, a huge smile on her face, proud of her actions.

  “That’s incredibly brave of you!” I congratulated. “But why now. How did you know we were here?”

  “I saw Frank dragging you down the corridor. He is not the subtlest of people. That, and the news that Tony’s restaurant had a ‘gas explosion’ and I made the connection.” Julie said.

  “Thank you. I think it was foolish of you, but I really am grateful!” I said, then grasped my hand over my mouth. “Why did I say that?”

  Julie stood there, a smirk growing on her face.

  “That’s not what I wanted to say!” I explained.

  “I know!” Julie giggled, laughing at my embarrassment. “Lara has hit you with a truth serum of sorts. Don’t worry it’ll wear off soon.”

  “Oh great, now your going to find out that I think you and Tony make a cute couple, or that I am worried that Lara is going to find my friends in the barn.” Again, I grasped my hands over my mouth.

  “It’s fine.” Julie said. “I have my own experience with that stuff.”

  Julie shot a knowing glance at Tony who was standing by the door keeping watch. “It only lasts about thirty minutes.”

  “That’s good to know. I don’t know if I can protect you now that you have defected to my resistance though.” I mumbled. This stuff just doesn’t know when to stop.

  “Don’t worry, we can look after ourselves.” Tony said, joining the conversation. “Now we really must get out of here.”

  “That’s a good idea. Why do I find myself escaping from this building a lot recently? Please tell me that you two love birds have a plan.” I couldn’t help it. “I think I need to just keep quiet.”

  “I have a plan.” Julie said, striding out of the room with purpose. I think I might have offended her this time. I looked at Tony and his face told me everything I needed, just foll
ow her and try to keep quiet!

  As we left the room I glanced back at Frank, crumpled in the corner underneath a computer desk. On the screen a strange image of flamingos flashed. The more I stared at it, the more it dragged me in and the sleepier I got.

  I felt Tony’s hand pull me away.

  “That’s not for your eyes.” He said, dragging me through the door and away.

  “Was that Frank?” I asked. “I have seen bad things happen to him recently, things he shouldn’t have walked away from. Have you been healing him Julie? Was that a mind control image on his screen? Also, are you and Tony a thing or not? Am I talking to fast or too slow, I can’t tell.” I rambled on like this for several minutes.

  I felt the questions come out of my mouth as soon as I thought about them. I had no filter and felt embarrassed about what I was saying but Tony and Julie just let me continue, wearing out the serum until we reached Julies office.

  “Everyone always said you made a good couple, despite the age difference.” I continued. “Was age ever an issue?”

  “That’s enough ramblings now.” Julie said, putting a full-face mask with breathing equipment over my head.

  “Is it going to get difficult to breath?” I asked.

  “No, it’s just that I want you to shut up until the injection wears off.”

  I looked at Tony, a large smirk on his face and he gestured for me to put it on.

  “That’s a really good idea, I better put it on before I point out that you and Tony are both single and that you should give it another try.”

  With that last comment I pulled the face mask over my head. The words kept coming out, but they were muffled, thankfully!

  Julie’s office was always a mystery. There were plants and exotic chemicals everywhere and I had learnt a long time ago not to touch, sit on or even get too close to anything.

  Julie started to water her plants. A little spray bottle containing a green liquid. She sprinkled water over one strange looking plant. It looked like a bonsai tree but with very tiny, silver leaves and the trunk seemed to have yellow veins running up and down it. The liquid turned red on contact with the tree and the branches now looked like they were bleeding. She wiped the excess liquid off the leaves with a paper towel and with perfect aim threw the soggy, blood-soaked towel at another plant in the corner of the room. Then she grabbed me and pulled me out of the door.

  All three of us stumbled out into the corridor again.

  I was about to complain about what was going on, then I looked back into the office and saw why Julie was so keen to get us out of there.

  The plant in the corner was growing, fast! It was already touching the ceiling and pushing the tiles up, into the ducting area. The trunk was doubling in girth every ten seconds. It was more like a tree than a plant now and it didn’t show any signs of stopping.

  Together we ran away from the room. The ground started to rumble under our feet and a huge explosion from behind us knocked Julie and myself over, landing on the cold concrete of the corridor. How many times had I found myself like this in the past two days?

  Tony helped Julie up as I got back to my feet. Looking back, I saw that the tree had broken through the ceiling and created a huge hole. Through the floor above us and into the glass atrium. It kept on growing as rubble rained down onto us.

  I noticed that the glass roof of the reception area, high above my head, where I had broken through in the wicker basket was now covered in wooden boards. I guess they couldn’t replace glass that big that quickly.

  It didn’t matter because the way this plant was going, it would push through the entire glass roof soon.

  All three of us stood there and stared into the night sky, from the lower basement. It was a strange feeling, looking up and seeing the stars and moon from down here, in the basement.

  The huge tree then smashed through the roof and glass fell the five storeys down to our feet. My instinct was to run further into the basement for protection, but Julie pushed me towards the tree.

  “Come on!” She yelled.

  The three of us jumped onto a branch that was sticking out of the door from Julies office, just as it started to rise. The tree continued to grow it lifted the branch, along with us, into the air.

  A few moments later and we were level with the ground floor. We leapt off and made a quick exit towards the doors.

  “Not so fast!” A voice said from behind us.

  It was Frank. Of course it was. Except this time he held a gun in the air, pointing straight at me.

  “Stay where you are!” Frank yelled as he climbed the tree and jumped onto the marble floor. He started to walk towards us. Glass and metal scattered all around the floor of the atrium.

  He covered a few metres, all the time pointing the gun at me before;

  Splat!

  The large wooden boards from the roof fell and crushed his huge body.

  They must have weighed half a ton. Each of them were thick, re-enforced and around five metres in length. They had dropped about twenty metres from the roof down into the lobby and directly on to Frank.

  This first one knocked him off his feet, the second landed on his ribs and took the wind out of him but he recovered quickly and started to get to up just in time to see the final piece of large timber take his head clean off his shoulders.

  We all grimaced and looked away; this was not going to be something to talk about in car ride home.

  “Time to go!” Tony shouted and Franks head rolled away from his body.

  We ran through the doors, across the carpark, got into Julies minivan and drove.

  Getting around the security at the gate wasn’t a problem because they were too busy running for their lives as they had just seen a tree the size of a skyscraper climb out of the basement and into the night sky.

  “It’s dark out?” Tony asked Julie.

  “Yes.” She replied, unsure why Tony was pointing out the obvious.

  “How long were we down there?”

  “Long enough! Now where are we going?” Julie asked.

  Tony and Julie were in the front leaving me alone on the back seat. Reaching between them to the dashboard I inputted the location of the barn into her car’s satellite navigation, still not daring to talk through this mask just in case I said something stupidly honest.

  When the map had loaded Julie accelerated hard, out onto the main road and away from the carnage.

  After ten minutes of driving, just after we had passed the bend in the road where Frank had created a huge hole with his rocket launcher, something caught my eye through the sunroof. There was no sound, and nothing obvious to draw my attention but I was looking up at the clear sky, staring at the stars when I noticed a shadow cast across them.

  Whatever it was flew in the same direction we were heading.

  We were only a about a mile away from the barn now, going over a hill and down the slope.

  The entire region was laid out before us, twinkling lights of distant towns and the headlights of cars on small country roads. We could see for miles up here.

  I looked towards where the barn should be. There were no lights, naturally. Sam went to great lengths to make sure that barn did not draw attention to itself.

  Sam was going to be ecstatic when I returned with two new crew members. People who could do some crazy science stuff. It would really open the possibilities for us. They could understand the information that Ava was decoding and perhaps we could use that to develop our own technologies.

  We were clear of the facility and from the looks of it, Lara’s research would be on hold for the moment while they removed a giant tree from their labs. It wasn’t what I had planned but it had worked out just fine.

  As I looked out into the dark abyss of empty fields where the barn stood the area suddenly lit up.

  A huge explosion caught me by surprise and momentarily blinded me. The fireball reaching high into the sky and turning night into day for a few moments.

  Julie rolled to
a stop on the road.

  “Let me guess.” Julie said, “That was the safe house?”

  I took of the gas mask to speak.

  “Yeah, that was it. That was our only chance.” I said, deflated. “I had a team there, Sam, Ava, Hank, Derek. They were waiting for me.”

  “How did Lara know where they were?” Tony asked.

  “It was my fault. I put the location in the Sat-Nav.” I sat staring at the screen in the front of the car, underneath it a little VisionTech logo shined back at me.

  I had only met them a yesterday, but they were already more like family than anyone else in my life right now. I felt my eyes tear up, the emotions of watching everything important in your life, destroyed in a single moment.

  The fireball slowly dissipated high in the sky and the world returned to normal. At least it would be normal for everyone else.

  As I stared up into the sky, at the stars twinkling back at me I thought about my invention. That little orb would have allowed me to visit all these stars, to develop a new era of space exploration, but right now they were just taunting me. Lara was going to beat me. I had just put the lives of people I cared about in danger, and they had paid the ultimate price.

  Once again, I saw a black shadow streak across the sky and head behind us. I watched it fly over the horizon to the sea. Where the docks lit up coastline in the distance.

  “You two should leave me here.” I whispered.

  “What! Why!” Julie moaned.

  “It’s too dangerous. Look at what you are getting yourselves into.” I pointed at the small fires that had broken out in the fields surrounding the barn.

  “There is no way that is happening!” Julie exclaimed. “I have been waiting for a chance to bring Lara down for years, after what she did to Tony!”

  “Look here Dom.” Tony whispered. “I missed my chance to get revenge on Lara. Don’t let her get away with it. Your friends believed in you, don’t let their sacrifice be in vein!”

  I felt the pain of losing my friends grow into anger.

  That was it, if Lara behaved like this, she could not be allowed to get away with it and I knew just what to do.

  “I know where to go.” I said, coldly.