“They’re wrong,” Ariel said. “Everybody’s wrong. The visitors didn’t do this.”
Ariel repeated the mantra several more times before settling into a restless sleep breathing. Doug and Annie tiptoed back to the control room.
“God, she worries me so,” Annie said. “What do you think she meant by that? What didn’t the visitors do? Who are the visitors?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Doug said. “She knows things. She feels things. She hears things nobody else does.”
Annie began to weep. Doug took her in his arms and held her close, feeling her grief like a weight. “Why us, Doug? Why Ariel? She’s just a baby.”
Doug did not reply. He’d asked himself the same questions a thousand times since all this began. Answers were as far away and elusive as stars in the night sky.
CHAPTER 8
Above Parker Pond, Northern Maine wilderness.
July 5th. Two days after the arrival.
Two days after the world they knew ended, four lost souls circled above Parker Pond in a Cessna 182 pontoon plane. Rick Jennings sat at the controls staring down at the smoldering ruins of what had once been his father’s wilderness sanctuary. His friend and fellow Portland Police Detective Laura Higgins sat in the seat beside him, open mouthed and speechless. Danny Wolf, Laura’s husband of four years sat in the back seat beside a small physically deformed man named Eli Richey. Eli was Danny Wolf’s blood brother and best friend. In childhood they’d survived unspeakable horrors together and were bonded like few brothers ever were.
When the shit hit the fan at midnight July 4th the four of them had holed up in Jennings’ downtown 2nd floor apartment and watched the carnage out in the streets with a mixture of horror and disbelief. They had witnessed a multitude of insanities; fighting and murder in the streets, riots and looting, buildings set afire. When a group of crazies had rampaged Jennings’ building and tried to break into his apartment, they had all braced themselves for the worst, weapons at ready. But soon the commotion subsided and when they’d finally ventured a look out into the hallway they found it full of dead people without heads. From what they could tell some sort of illness was infecting people and causing them to go crazy. Not everyone became infected, however, but the ones that did acted bizarrely, killing all those who weren’t infected, rampaging like zombies with a herd mentality. The good news was it didn’t seem to last long. The infected had a fairly short window of time before their heads exploded, sending out millions of spore-like things that in turn, infected others. It seemed a giant miracle that neither Jennings nor his three companions had become infected. Not yet anyway. They agreed that if one should, the other three would kill the infected one as quickly as possible, lessening the chances that the others would either be killed or infected. So far that hadn’t happened. It was a scenario that none of them was eager to face.
Initially there had been reports of carnage and mass panic coming in from all over the world. There were no sane explanations for what was happening. Then commercial television and radio broadcast coverage had ended abruptly to be replaced by stock messages from the federal government warning people to stay inside with the doors locked, stating that more info would be forthcoming. Then the televisions had gone to snow and the phones and radios to static. There had been no further word from the government.
When soldiers wearing hazmat suits had shown up in the streets it had been somewhat of a relief to Jennings. At least some aspects of the government seemed to be working, even if they weren’t communicating with the public. This was the chilling part. Why were they being silent? Yes, communication systems were down, but why weren’t they using bullhorns?
It was then that the quartet had decided to get out of town. By then most of the carnage had ended and however many survivors there might be were no longer on the streets.
They snuck out the back door armed, ever watchful, and made their way to Jennings’ car. Getting out of town had not been easy. There were dead people and fires, crashed vehicles and checkpoints everywhere. Authorities weren’t talking but ordinary citizens were. Rumor was that those caught outside would be shot on sight. Jennings creatively avoided the checkpoints and stayed to back roads. Eventually they made it to his lake house on Long Lake where he kept his float plane moored. There they locked the doors and barred the windows to keep the crazies out. But by that time the crazies were gone. They weren’t sure how many actual humans were left. They weren’t sure if the contagion had been contained or if it had run its natural course. They had seen all sorts of living animals on the way out here and very few dead ones, which went a long way toward suggesting that the contagion only infected humans.
“It looks like the beasts will once again inherit the earth,” Laura joked, which brought on a small spate of nervous laughter.
“The beasts had their chance,” Jennings remarked ironically. “We failed.” No one laughed at that.
They found no upgrade in communications once they reached Jennings’ lake house. Unable to contact anyone through phone or email (the servers were all down) Jennings resorted to the short wave radio he kept in the basement of his lake house. Short wave had been a hobby of his as a teenager but he hadn’t touched it in years. He knew that if anyone was out there he’d be able to contact them this way. It was a wide open system of communication that didn’t depend on servers and checkpoints, a system that the government had never had much control over.
After dusting off the ancient communication device he fired up his generator, turned the radio on and began scanning frequencies. And was surprised to pick up quite a few broadcasts from survivors around the world. He spoke to several people in places as diverse as Australia and Russia, reinforcing his suspicions that the contagion was worldwide.
The situation was pretty much the same everywhere. The only good news was a general consensus that the initial phase of the contagion was over. From what Jennings could glean, about half the world’s population had died. Financial markets had ceased trading, government officials were either dead or in hiding. Infrastructure had been affected everywhere. Most power plants were off line. And there was danger. Looting was rampant. Gangs and vigilantes ran the streets and militia groups were being hastily assembled in the heartlands. Without refrigeration or mass transit stores were quickly running out of supplies, and a herd mentality was quickly claiming a large portion of the surviving population.
After almost twenty-four hours of isolation with no word from government and no improvement in communications, Jennings made a bold move. Convinced as he could be that all four were safe from the dismal prospect of infection, Jennings loaded the crew into his Cessna and took off for the skies.
“Where are we going?” Laura asked. Up until then Jennings had been strangely cryptic about their destination. On the way he finally told them the story of Doug, Annie and Ariel. He skimmed over the story, telling them about Annie’s father and her mysterious family dynasty; he told them about the crash of the airliner that the government had secretly blamed on Doug; Doug’s near death experience at the hands of an assassin, his disappearance and subsequent recovery inside the secret organization known as the Brother of the Order. He told them about Doug and Annie’s reunion, their flight into the wilderness with his help, and the birth of their daughter Ariel. And Jennings finally came clean that Doug was in a very real way connected, as they all were, with the mysterious Blue Light. He purposely left out parts of the story, the parts he himself found so fantastic that he still couldn’t come to grips with them; the Collector, as well as the ancient object purported to be a fragment of the spear that had pierced Christ’s side at the crucifixion.
They all listened with rapt attention as the story unfolded, so fantastic it was like something from a novel.
Laura and Danny were aware of Doug and Annie because of Jennings’ relationship with them. They had even met them once long ago at a barbeque, but had not seen them in years. Neither had Jennings mentioned them in a very long time. No
w as the tale unfolded they began to understand why. Furthermore they were amazed that it was all somehow connected to the events on Apocalypse Island more than four years ago, thus bonding them all in a strange, almost cosmic way.
“Damn, Rick, this is all connected,” Laura said. “I mean, us and them, Apocalypse Island, the Blue Light thingies and the stuff that’s happening now.”
“It just might be,” Jennings replied.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“You didn’t need to know. Simple as that. Not that I don’t trust you guys. I do. But Doug and Annie are still being hunted, and I made the determination that their situation would stay between them and me. It was the safest way to go under the circumstances. You’re a cop, Laura. You can understand that.”
“Of course,” Laura said. “But there’s a lot I still don’t understand. Let me get this straight. They’ve been hiding out in a cabin in the wilderness for four years in order to keep their daughter safe?”
“Exactly.”
“Safe from what?” Wolf asked.
“From greedy people who could benefit from using her.”
“Using her for what?” Laura asked.
“She’s a special little girl with much to offer.”
“What do you mean, special?” Eli said, his interest piqued. “How special?” He had leaned slightly forward in his seat. Jennings was able to see him in the rear view mirror. The pink intelligent eyes in the flat, waxy face had widened into an expression of complex curiosity.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Jennings said. “Truth is I don’t have all the answers. You’ll know what I mean when you meet her. She’s some sort of miracle. It’s even possible that she was born for this moment.”
Eli continued to lean forward, his expression holding fast.
Laura stared at Jennings for a long moment. “Wait a minute. You mean she has something to do with the contagion?”
“I don’t think directly, but maybe in some way,” Jennings said. “In some way that none of us understands. In a way that probably no one except Ariel understands.”
“Come on, Rick, you’re being way too cryptic.”
“Not purposely,” Jennings said. “Truth is, I don’t really have a decent grasp of what’s going on. It’s beyond my intelligence level. In the past five years or so I’ve seen things that defy logic. I’ve come to realize that life is not just black and white.”
“Wow, Rick, that’s quite a step for you.”
“No kidding.”
“What are we talking about with this kid, Rick? I mean, what’s her real story?”
Jennings gave his head a rueful shake. “Let’s just say that she might not be one hundred percent human.”
“Now this is really getting interesting,” Eli said.
“Wait! What?” Laura said.
“It’s complicated. I probably shouldn’t have told you as much as I did, but someone else needs to know these things. Especially now, after everything that’s happened. Maybe Doug and Annie will explain further. Maybe they won’t. In any event it’s not my place to do it.”
“You can’t make a statement like that and just drop it.”
Jennings’ face reddened. “Yes I can.”
“It’s not fair. What do you mean, not human. If she’s not human then what the hell is she?”
“Something wonderful,” Jennings said, his eyes alight. “Something rare and precious. She’s only four years old and she’s already asking questions most graduate students haven’t thought of. She reads books at the rate of half a dozen or more a week. I know, I’ve been flying them in for her. Six months ago I gave her one of those Kindle devices and now she can read all she wants. She’s downloaded thousands. She’s already read most of the great poets and philosophers. She quotes Plato and Keats. She loves classic literature. She says Shakespeare was a hack. And she doesn’t read just for entertainment. She’s interested in science, especially cosmology, mathematics and engineering. She’s studied Einstein’s theory of relativity and says that he got at least part of it wrong. Jesus, she’s just a little kid and she’s a Stephen Hawking groupie. Says he’s the only person alive who is capable of uniting man’s consciousness with the cosmos. Last I knew she wanted to talk to him. I hope he survives this so someday she can. And on top of all that she has this huge heart. She has an amazing capacity for love. She wants to protect all living things, animals, trees, bugs, even people, as surprising as that is considering how screwed up the human species is. She says life is precious and rare and that it needs to be protected. She says she can hear the trees crying out in anguish when they’re being cut down. It makes her cry. I know, I’ve seen it, and it makes me cry. And that’s just the beginning. She claims to be ‘in tune with the music of the spheres’, whatever the hell that means, and that she communicates with . . .” Jennings hesitated as if searching for the right word.
“God?” Laura said.
Jennings emitted a nervous little chuckle. “Not exactly. It’s more like this Zen thing where everything is connected to everything else. Like we are all one with the universe. I don’t know. It’s like she has the ability to zero in on what’s . . . real. And she says that none of us are alone. We feel alone but we aren’t.”
“That sounds like God to me,” Laura remarked.
Jennings was silent for a long moment. “You know, maybe it is. Maybe it’s her version of God.”
“Amazing,” Laura said. “How old did you say she was?”
“She’s four now, but yes, she’s a wonderful little person. She has this aura that defies description. Like some sort of prophet or saint or something. But she’s not perfect. Like any other kid she’s filled with curiosity and mischief. You’ll see what I mean when you meet her.”
“I can’t wait,” Eli said.
Laura said. “God, I can’t believe you kept this from us.”
“I had to. Despite all I’ve told you, that child is mortal, flesh and blood, and she needs to be protected at all costs.”
“I can see why.”
“Earlier you said that she was somehow connected to the Blue Light,” Eli said. “How do you think that is? Connected the way Danny and I are connected?”
“I don’t know, Eli. But if I were to make an educated guess I’d say that she knows something about it that no one else does. Maybe she doesn’t now, but I think she will very soon. If she survives I think she and the Blue Light will have a lot to do with mankind’s future.”
After that, there was a very long silence in the aircraft cabin. It was as if they were all contemplating their mortality, perhaps wondering if mankind actually had a future. The events of the past two days had brought that question home to them like nothing else ever had.
On the flight north Jennings kept the Cessna at about five thousand feet. High enough to be out of range of nut jobs with high powered rifles, but not so high that they couldn’t get a general idea of what was happening on the ground. Commercial airliners were gone from the skies. This was incontestable. Nowhere on the horizon did they spot even one vapor trail.
Jennings was wary of military aircraft, however. He had no idea how they would react to civilian aircraft in the skies after such a catastrophic event. He was pretty sure that martial law had been declared. He kept his radio on constantly scanning all frequencies but got only static. He guessed that the only bands working were those reserved for military. And they weren’t yet sharing any details. Which seemed odd to him. Had the government totally collapsed? If not then why weren’t they communicating with the general public? Perhaps they were preparing something, Jennings reasoned. It was only two days into the happening. Maybe the plague was over, maybe it wasn’t. Either way he guessed things here on Earth would be very different for a very long time.
For the most part the landscape below them appeared surprisingly normal. They saw smoke here and there from the smoldering remains of house fires and from car crashes on the highways. And to their great relief the world wa
sn’t entirely devoid of humans. There were a few cars on the roads, obviously those who were not obeying the curfew. It was of great comfort to Jennings to see this. He knew that living, breathing human beings were driving those cars. Crazies couldn’t drive cars. Crazies couldn’t even think. But they certainly could motivate, and kill. Unless something had changed in the past forty-eight hours since the pandemic began. The only good thing about the crazies was they didn’t last long once infected. It seemed they had a window of no more than a few hours where they could wreak some serious havoc before their heads went poof, and those they didn’t murder stood a good chance of becoming infected by the crap in their heads. Then the cycle would begin again. It was a miracle that no one in this plane had caught the virus. Yet. They’d all lost friends and family in the past two days, and the only thing they could do about it was survive. Live to fight another day.
It was the human thing to do.
Now as they circled Parker Pond staring incredulously down at the ruins of the cabin where Doug, Annie and Ariel had made their home, Laura said, “What are we going to do?”
“The clock is ticking,” Jennings said. “We have to set this plane down now.”
“Clock? What clock?”
Jennings knew it was time to tell all. Two days ago he wasn’t sure any of them would be here, so he’d saved a final tidbit for this very moment.
“Haven’t you guys wondered why I contacted the three of you and got you to my apartment before the shit hit the fan?”
“The thought did cross our minds,” Wolf said from the backseat.
“You remember our old buddy Zach Spencer?”
“Oh, God, don’t tell me he’s involved in this.” Wolf said. “If I ever see that asshole again I’ll put a bullet in his head.”
Song of Ariel: A Blue Light Thriller (Book 2) (Blue Light Series) Page 11