by Gene Curtis
Sharon clapped her hands once and said, “Okay, nap time is over. Everyone, grab your sketchpads and draw a dinosaur creature. Work alone and don’t let anyone see what you’re doing. You have fifteen minutes.”
The artists jumped up and trotted to their stations, grabbed their pads and began sketching.
Fifteen minutes later, she said, “Time’s up. Let’s see what you have.”
The artists trotted back to her with their sketches, all held so she couldn’t see their work.
When they were all lined up and waiting, she said, “Show me.”
As a unit, they turned their pads over. To a person, each had drawn a good likeness of Truth and Justice Warrior. A few had even sketched the hands and feet separately with notes about how they moved.
Sharon grinned, “Impressive guys. Have a look yourselves.”
They began showing their work to each other. The one with the green spike Mohawk said, “Vision Whispering works. Amazing!”
Sharon grinned, “We start shooting in a week. Work with your usual teammates and let’s get some creatures camera ready. Mom, pop, three kids are up first.”
The artists walked away and went into a back room.
Mark said, “Salina will be my liaison. She’ll likely check with you on a regular basis, but you’re welcome to pop in anytime you like. You know where to find me.”
Mark led his team back outside. He started to remanifest back to the citadel when the major said, “Hold! The citadel has been destroyed. Ray, you stay with Mark. Samantha, Rudy we’ll reconnoiter.”
Mark said, “No, stay here. Everyone, use Spirit Sight.”
The major answered, “Right, guess I still revert to the old ways under stress.”
Mark sat and they all sat.
Nothing but a smoldering heap of rubble remained where the citadel once stood. The classrooms all lay in heaps as did the old buildings. The mountain was untouched, the other sections were untouched and Magi City was untouched. This had been a specific attack against the citadel.
Mark said, “Remanifest to the mountain. I’ll start looking for survivors. Get as much help here as quickly as you can.”
Ricky, looking around, asked, “Why aren’t they already there?”
The major answered, “Standard tactic, draw the defenders away.”
Mark said, “LeOmi, check with the emergency team on the Bookstore balcony. They should know what happened.” He went off toward the citadel.
He passed through the rubble of what had once been the lobby and found three bodies, all dead. There were six bodies in various offices, two in the officer’s mess kitchen. Eleven dead bodies total, none still living. He supposed it could have been worse.
He moved through the rubble of the classrooms and found them to be clear of bodies. Same for the old buildings. He thought it fortunate that he’d ordered everyone to start looking for the locations of the new cities.
He went back to his body and remanifested to the front door of the mountain. On arrival, he sat down on the front steps, head in his hands.
LeOmi appeared and asked, “Are you okay?”
He didn’t look up. “Not really. There aren’t any survivors and the entire place has been completely destroyed. I need time to think.”
LeOmi sat beside him. Salina sat on the other side. Samantha knelt in front of him.
Salina said, “All eventualities converge on destiny’s path.” She used her bimbo voice, “Just look at me. You do make a difference.”
LeOmi said, “I second that. Looking at what I was, and what I am, you were the main one that brought me along. I don’t think anyone else could have done it.”
Samantha said, “You can stew in your own juices or you can do something about it. Lesson one: in war, people die. Lesson two: generals can’t make it not happen.”
He stood and turned toward the door when he realized his eyes were wet. “Excuse me; I need to be alone for awhile.”
He went straight to his room and dropped to his knees over his bed, sobbing. “God, I will follow where you lead, but the burden is heavy and I see no clear path. Please show me the way.”
He remained on his knees and fell asleep. He dreamed of how this had all started, at least for him anyway: the note in the Bible that only he could read, the trip out west and finding Mystery Mountain, how the altar stone slid open revealing the cave beneath, finding the top part of the staff and the courier bag. This gave him the desire to go back to that cave and explore it a little more.
He dreamed another dream, one he’d dreamed before. It was the one where the white stones flew up and revealed a mineshaft on his property in Virginia. He felt a desire to check that out as well.
Raphael appeared and they were standing on a butte overlooking a maze of hills and crevices. He said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That doesn’t just mean the shadow of your own death.”
“Eleven more died today and it hurts to know that.
“Almost everyone that is close to me has been captured, is most likely being tortured and I can’t find them.
“I’m afraid of that ifrit... I know I shouldn’t be, but there is just something about it that I can’t articulate. That feeling has shaken me.
“I can’t shake the idea that there is a chance, even if microscopically small, that Benrah might win. Why else is he fighting?
“LeOmi loves me and I love her. Chenoa loves me and I love her. I can’t choose either. That hurts.
“The citadel was just destroyed, there is no place for training now and I have no clear idea on how to fix that, or even if I’m supposed to.”
He walked over and sat down on a large rock. “I’m emotionally drained and I don’t know what to do, which way to go.”
Raphael walked over and offered him a stick of gum. “It’s LeOmi’s. I think the flavor is dirty socks.”
Mark chuckled a little through his melancholy. “Something to go with my mood, uh?” He didn’t take it.
“Yeah, maybe you could do with a little R&R. I know this great burger joint outside of Albuquerque: Wimpy’s. They’re not open on Tuesdays for some reason, but they have some great burgers, almost as good as Jamal’s. I recommend the Rusty Vulture, all the way.”
“Got it. I’ll take LeOmi with me.”
“Sounds like a date. Listen, I generally can’t give advice about getting married. You have to make your own choice. I will tell you this, in light of recent events, you might want to rethink why you came to the decision you came to. Most likely you’ll make the same choice, but it is your choice, not God’s.”
When he awoke, he rolled over and sat on the floor.
He entered Spirit Sight and went to his home in Virginia. He hovered in the air over his house, remembering the viewpoint from his dream, and looked for the spot from which the rocks flew up. He spotted it about two hundred yards behind the house in the field his father had plowed up. He moved to it and went underground. The mineshaft was caved in, but following the old bracing timbers led him straight to where mining had stopped. He searched around this spot and found deposits as big as cows in some places and many others of smaller size.
He left there and went to Mystery Mountain in Los Lunas. He tried to move underground and couldn’t. He touched the staff to the altar, nothing happened. He moved down the side of the mountain, placed his hand on the handprint on the stone and went back to the altar. It was still right where it had been. Something was protecting this place. Now, I understand why I have to come here in person. He understood that dreaming the two dreams together was no coincidence. He now had a clear path to follow. He felt better, but not much.
* * *
He walked into The Oasis; there weren’t many people there. He looked around and found LeOmi sitting alone in a booth picking at her food.
“May I join you?”
She motioned with her fork for him to sit on the other side.
“That looks good, what is it?”
“Pretty much, it was a shock. It just took me by surprise. Are the guards at The Fourth Mountain?”
“They’re still checking out the debris, seeing what can be salvaged. Word is they used some pretty big bombs in a coordinated attack. No one stood a chance at the citadel.” She laid her fork down and stared at him. “What are you going to do about it?”
“We’re moving.”
“What?”
“Everyone knows where we are, we’re obviously easy to attack and that puts everyone in jeopardy.”
She picked up her fork and looked at her food. “Where to?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I know where I need to scout. Care to go with me?”
She shrugged, “Sure, not much to do here.”
A waiter walked up and asked, pad in hand, “What would you like, sir.”
“I’ll have what she has.”
“Arroz con polo, what would you like to drink?”
“Iced tea and strawberry shortcake for dessert.”
“Bring me one of those too, please,” LeOmi said.
When the waiter left, she asked, “Let me guess, you’re thinking about the cave of fear.”
“That is a possibility, but Raphael recommended a hamburger joint near where the top part of my staff was hidden. I went back there using Spirit Sight and couldn’t get in. I have to go there in person. We’ll check out some good lights from supply after dinner and go tonight.”
* * *
It was raining hard and the air smelled of ozone from a recent lightning strike. Mark pointed at the altar and shouted, “I’ll move that stone out of the way. Tie the rope around it and get down into the cave when it opens.”
He remanifested to the side of the mountain, placed his palm over the handprint on the stone and remanifested back to the top of the mountain. The altar had moved from over the opening and Ray was the first one going down.
When they were down and away from the water pouring in through the opening, they stripped off their rain gear, tossed it on the floor and set up the lights in the huge cavern. It was bigger than he remembered.
LeOmi walked over to the column where the staff had once hung and rubbed the side of it with her hand. “This is where it all began. I don’t know why, but I feel safe here.”
Mark said, “Okay, let’s spread out and see what we can find.”
After about half an hour Samantha called, “I think I’ve found something.”
They all trotted over to where she was.
“Look at how the wall is bowed in here.” She waved her arm in a circle at the wall. “I’m pretty sure this cave was formed as a gas pocket in a lava tube. This would be the spot where the molten rock entered and later cooled. Where there is one gas pocket, there might be more.”
Mark sat and entered Spirit Sight. He passed into the wall and after ten yards or so, came to another cave much larger than the one in which he had been. He moved along the wall until he found another deformation in the wall. He passed through and found another cave. He did this several times and then went back to his body.
He opened his eyes and said, “At least half a dozen, some larger than this one. I think we’re going to need a tunneling machine. I’ll see Mr. Müeller in the morning.”
Ray said, “Ten yards, we could do that with a drill and a little C-4.”
“That might be a good option, but I want an expert to look at it.”
Ray nodded, “That might be best.”
* * *
The next afternoon, Mark and team returned to the Mystery Mountain cave with Richard Hall, an expert mining engineer.
At the depression on the back wall, Mark said, “Grab on to me, enter Spirit Sight, and I’ll take you through the wall into the next room.”
“I’ve heard your spirit can manipulate the physical world. Is there any way we can take some air samples?”
“Sure, how would you do it in the physical world?”
“Test tubes, just remove the stopper, fill it with the air and put the stopper back on. I’ll take them back to the lab for analysis.”
“You think the air might be dangerous?”
“When lava reacts with water, the products are usually sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, and sometimes fluorides, none of which plays well with most things. If these are closed rooms, the gasses are trapped.” He rubbed the wall with his hand. “If you noticed, the walls are covered with obsidian, a type of glass. Glass is very good at holding things in and keeping things out. I’m certain most, if not all, of these compounds will be present. The concentrations are the issue. That will determine the type of protective equipment needed.”
“I’ll have to carry your test tubes.”
Richard handed him a plastic case and he put it into Aaron’s Grasp. They went through and found two dozen rooms, most quite large, and took samples until they ran out of test tubes.
When they came back out, Mark handed him the test tube case.
Richard said, “I didn’t expect there would be so many. I’ll have the analysis tomorrow and we can start planning the exploration of these pockets.”
Rudy asked, “I take it that these caves are abnormal. How’d they form?”
“Have you ever cooked pancakes and seen the blisters form? It’s the same kind of thing.”
“So this thing could be really huge?”
“No doubt about it. I’m excited to study it.” He turned to Mark with a big grin. “From what I’ve seen, this was a large flow sometime in the very distant past. We’re likely standing inside the volcano that produced it and this may be only the top level. And as big as this is, this could have been a super-volcano eruption.”
Mark understood that this place might be the place God intended him to hide refugees from Benrah’s wrath.
* * *
An ownership search of the area revealed it as part of the New Mexico Land Trust. Rosetta Martinez, a Magi employed by the Environmental Protection Agency, and David Martin, a Magi employed by the U.S. Geological Survey, went to the land office and arranged for a ninety-nine year lease, in the name of Young and Associates Geologic, to study, maintain and inhabit the unique underground geologic formations. The commissioner balked at the term ‘inhabit’. It was explained as a necessary part of study and maintenance. The lease came to two million dollars. Mark paid with cash, which raised a few eyebrows.
It took a week for Richard, the geologic expert, to get set up. He had been right about the toxicity of the gasses in the pockets and that meant the workers would have to wear full protective gear. He selected a two and a half meter boring machine, fully enclosed, to dig the openings between the rooms. The machine was too big to fit through the opening on the top of the mountain. It had to be disassembled, taken in piece by piece and then reassembled. It took six days to do that.
Tunneling commenced immediately. Six rooms were penetrated the first day.
At the end of the day, Richard said to Mark, “I know it’s fascinating to watch, but, as you can see, there isn’t much you can do here except stand around with your hands in your pockets. It gets boring pretty quick. If you like, I can give you progress reports every day, or every week or whenever you like.”
“How long do you think it’s going to take?”
“Months, years, decades, who knows? It might not ever be finished. We’ll bring in more machines if it looks like we need them. It all depends on how big this thing is.”
“I see. How long do you think before we can start moving in?”
“Ask me that question in a month; I’ll have a better idea then.”
“Give your reports to me or LeOmi once a week with that question in mind. The sooner we can get away from The Seventh Mountain, the safer everyone will be. I’ll make a point to be on the stage in The Oasis every Satu
rday morning. If you’re late, you’ll be able to find me in the stables.”
LeOmi said, “After breakfast on Saturdays, if I’m not with Mark, I teach sneaky techniques in Ms. Vanmie’s classroom.”
Richard nodded and smiled, “I’ll make a point to not be late.”
* * *
When they arrived back at the front entrance of The Seventh Mountain, Mark turned and looked toward the wall. Dust from the cleanup in progress hung in the air of what was the former location of the citadel. It was gone now, and he realized how much a part of his life it had become over the short time it had existed. It was like losing a dear friend. His world felt much smaller now. He thought back over how much had been lost and how much more was to come. It all felt so overwhelming and he wondered how well he’d hold up to it all.
He shook his head slowly and walked to the door.
Samantha said, “I could use something to eat. What say we go to Jamal’s Kitchen?”
“A New York strip sounds like it might hit the spot,” Rudy said.
Mark said, “I’ll walk with you, but I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to do since I first saw it. A little creek runs through the recreation area. I’m going to get a canoe and paddle the full length.”
LeOmi asked, “Mind if I join you?”
He planned to use this time to let his thoughts settle and possibly meditate, something he hadn’t been able to do for a couple of weeks. He gave her a quick glance. “No talking and you’ll have to paddle your own canoe.”
“Agreed, I need some quiet time too.”
The creek was an approximately four feet deep channel hewn in the bedrock in the center of the mountain. This area served as the recreation center for the entire Seventh Mountain facility, complete with: Olympic size swimming pools, baseball, soccer and football fields, tennis courts, theater stages, a wooded area and just about any type of leisure pastime you could imagine. The creek, roughly two miles long, wound its way through it all.
The canoe rental shed, a squat stone building, also housed the pumps that kept the current in the creek flowing. If a canoe was abandoned, or not paddled, it would drift along until it returned to the shed.