Transcending the Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

His delirium has Xander anxious as much as it has me. Xander calls to him, “Nate!”

  Xander takes hold of Nate and moves him to a muted corner of the barracks. I stay close to both of them, looking around us to make sure no one has seen Nate’s reaction. I notice Sam has stopped packing his duffle and is watching us.

  Xander lowers his voice just barely above a whisper, “Nate, man, what is going on?”

  Nate’s blinks and mumbles, “I um…I don’t…”

  He continues to stammer, looking between both Xander and I. His eyes! They are back to normal, no longer murky. What the hell is going on?

  Nate clears his throat, “I guess I spaced out there for a minute.”

  I look at Xander sideways and see the reflection of worry in his eyes.

  Keeping my voice low, I start to tell Nate what I saw. “Your eyes, they looked…”

  Briggs interrupts me, “Lady and gentlemen, talk later. Boots are over here! Grab one pair of socks! This isn’t a fashion show!”

  Nate glances at Xander then me, seeing the concern on our faces. He rakes his hand through his hair and rests it at the base of his neck before he utters, “I’m alright. Just…tired. Didn’t sleep well on the plane.”

  That is an understatement. I’m reminded of him struggling in his sleep on the plane. Nate looks down at Xander’s hand still grasping his arm, then up at him.

  “Cousin, I’m fine,” Nate whispers sincerely.

  Reluctantly, Xander releases his arm letting him move past us toward the supply line.

  Xander watches him slip back into line behind Nick. The way he is studying him, I know he saw Nate’s eyes.

  I feel a flame of fear spark in me, the steady burn festering as I wonder what is happening to Nate.

  “The faster we pack, the sooner we can talk.”

  I keep telling myself that as I open my duffle and start packing haphazardly. Pants, a top, socks, boots, food, and a few bottles of water. I wasn’t hallucinating, Nate’s eyes did change. I know this because of Xander’s reaction. I zip up the bag and take it to Briggs. Holding it out to him, I ask, “Where do I put this?”

  Briggs drags his eyes from me to the masses and bellows commandingly, “When you are packed follow me. We need to load them. Then we can have our little pow-wow.”

  We zig-zagged down what could easily be about fifty yards of trail, much like the trails in the Nevada facility. I walk behind Nate, my eyes peeled for anything off. Xander is walking right behind me, doing the same I’m sure. I watch Nate’s stride, see if it is different, sluggish, something, anything.

  Suddenly, his pace slows. My own footing stutters, not expecting him to slow down. I try to ignore it and walk almost along side of him. Unexpectedly, Nate takes a hold of my hand and intertwining our fingers like it is completely natural to hold my hand as we walk. I’m unsure how to play off the feelings his touch is rekindling in me and what it might cause if Xander sees it. I look behind Nate and me, out of the corner of my eye, and see Xander’s eyes focused on our joined hands. With shock in his eyes, he looks up at me for just a moment then aims his gaze straight ahead over looking us. He is pretending to look through us, ignore what he has seen, but I know Xander and that isn’t possible. He won’t ignore it.

  Nate runs his thumb over my index finger softly and looks over at me with those brilliant, warm, blue eyes. “Remember when we first met, walking down that hall in the facility before our debriefing?” he asks.

  His words, the sentiment, they are so authentic, that I forget about our laced hands and everything else happening around us. I only think about Nate; the newbie guardian I met in our facility, seeking out his purpose, his new reality. Flashes of our time in the facility rolodex through my mind. I feel my lips stretch a little as I reflect on that time. It seems so long ago. “I remember. It feels like forever ago,” I say softly.

  Nate’s chuckle is low as he says, “Yeah, it does.”

  He squeezes my hand once again, then releases it. Feeling like I have been pulled out of a dream by the lack of his warm hand, I look at him curious as to what made him let go. Nate tucks his hands in the pockets of his jeans and continues walking by my side, smiling. I look back at Xander to see if he caught Nate release my hand. He is still staring straight ahead as we walk.

  I look back at Nate and ask curiously, hoping he might divulge his thoughts about what happened to him back in the barracks. “What are you thinking?”

  Nate glances at me coyly just like he used to. “What, you can’t get in my head?” he asks teasingly.

  Feeling a little like my old self again, I mutter, “Ha, ha, funny.”

  Nate grins with that classic gorgeous Nate-grin, instantly making me feel warm inside. His comforting grin doesn’t last though. It fades sharply into a grimace that makes my throat constrict with fear.

  “No matter what we will always have those memories. Even if it was for only a short time, right?”

  He is asking me this and all I am thinking about is the burning in my heart and the tears stinging my eyes and threatening to fall. Why does it feel like he is saying goodbye. I can’t look at him, so I look down at my feet and nod quickly. I breathe in deeply trying to clear my head and pinch the tears back long enough to look at him. “Yeah, forever, Nate,” I say breathily.

  His grimace has softened into a solemn form and his eyes reveal the emotional moment we just shared. “Thank you,” he whispers shakily and quickly walks ahead of me. I think about catching up to ask him why he was thanking me until I realize that he was thanking me for us, our time together.

  * * *

  The rest of the trek is quick with Nate ahead of me and Xander behind. The flat black, extended cargo trucks are at the lowest level of the compound. This must be what is going to take us out of here.

  “How do we get out of the compound?” asks Sebastian.

  Briggs answers, “From a cut out in the back side of this mountain. We have trailed down to a level in the mountain where it plateaus onto flat land.”

  I’m fascinated with how much Briggs knows about this mountain and how it sets on the land in regards to the flat lands behind it.

  “You really know this compound inside and out,” Ezra acknowledges.

  With his arms crossed, Briggs answers, “When you and your team have a year with nothing else to do except stay alive and dig, you learn more than you want to know about your circumstances and surroundings.”

  After loading the trucks, Briggs leads us into a small cavity off to the right. The cavernous room is lined with crated cargo, more than likely supplies. I glance between Sebastian and Ezra then straight at Daniel and say, “We need to know everything you know about this legacy. I know you kept it from us for our own safety, but now it is our only salvation and I need to know how to fulfill it. Each of us here is directly involved. The legacy has spread further than the Onoch bloodline.”

  I look at Xander. “You did it to save us in the forest.”

  My eyes move to Nate, then back to Ezra. “You sacrificed yourselves to save me.”

  I look at Sam and Corinna standing off to the side. “Sam helped bring us back from beyond the veil.”

  Then, my eyes land on Siobhan leaning on a cargo trunk off to the side with Jake. “Angela did it to save us all. Why? Because we each have a connection with each other.”

  My eyes move to Xander, then to Nate. “Some connections are unbreakable no matter what. Even when a link is broken.”

  Realizing I just said that out loud, and looked at both of the men I love when I said it, I quickly turn to face Sebastian, Ezra, and Daniel. “Forget about the manufactured links of the old Copulas for a second. We don’t have them any more with the new Copulas, but what if a cosmic link happened long before any manufactured link? What if it started with our families, our ancestors? I have been seeing things from the past in my sleep. Roan and Delilah taking me to the mounds as a child, then the vision shifts. I am lying on the dirt of a domed cave. There is a fire pit and an old man with
tattoos on his face. He is chanting.”

  I look at Monica off in the corner. “Monica has seen things also.”

  Monica tightens her lips, but doesn’t deny her experience.

  Siobhan pushes off of the trunk. “I haven’t seen anything, just heard things in my sleep on the plane. Chanting.”

  “I heard the same thing in my mind when we got off the plane,” adds Elisha.

  Sam acknowledges, “Before I woke in the facility, after we made it back to our world, I was lying in a small dark place, the only light coming from a flaming fire pit.” Sam somberly looks at Corinna as she takes his hand in hers and squeezes.

  Luke adds, “I saw the same image while on the plane.”

  Xander clears his throat and puts his hands in his pockets before he speaks. “When Jes, Nate, and I...when we were…when we came back, I remember holding onto Nate’s and her hand as we waited for someone to save us. When I closed my eyes, I guess I went unconscious. I saw a cave entrance, then a tunnel. I was walking down into it. I was not in control and in my mind, I went through the tunnel into a small room, and came eye to eye with a young woman. She was dressed like a princess. Her eyes were...they were green like Jes’.” Xander looks at me, then away quickly. “Even though my mind was telling me to go back through the tunnel, go back to Jes and Nate, I couldn’t. I felt stuck, immoveable in her presence.” Xander looks back at me boldly. “I didn’t want to leave her presence, ever.”

  Realizing he had slipped too far back into the moment, Xander clears his throat and turns away from us, arms folded, closed off. I turn back to Sebastian. “This is what we know, what we are experiencing. Yes, you told us how the mounds fascinated you as a child, how you wanted to learn more, and discovered too much about the Sanderson family and how they were involved with our ancient Indian ancestors. You told us your theory of how our ancestors had trusted beings beyond our world to bring salvation when we needed it. Something you haven’t told us is how to use this legacy to save ourselves.”

  “We don’t know how to use it,” Sebastian says agitatedly.

  I can’t Believe that we know nothing. “Maybe our dreams, our visions, will give us clues. So far we have a princess, an old Indian chanting, a cave with a fire pit.”

  Daniel chimes in, “A kiva.”

  “What?” I say not realizing I have snapped at him.

  “The cave with the fire pit is called a Kiva,” adds Daniel.

  “Maybe these are clues, puzzle pieces. Not all of us have had these visions, but those that have need to tell us what they have seen.”

  I look at Sebastian. “You said that you were fascinated with the Etowah Mounds. How did that start?”

  He knows more than he has told us, just like Ezra said on the plane. I can feel it deep in my own bones now along with the small forewarning tremors inside of me. “Have you had visions? Is that what started the fascination?” I am face to face with him now, wedged between my father and him. “What have you seen, Sebastian?”

  Jesca surveys my face, looking for an explanation, a shift in my expression, anything that could give her a clue as to how to save us from our end of days. Her question, “What have you seen Sebastian?” is absolute and demands the truth that I have been withholding.

  “When I was a child, it did not mean the same as it does now. The meaning evolved as I matured.”

  I look at each of the guardians watching me, waiting for any bit of hope from what I have seen. I close my eyes and tell them.

  * * *

  “I watch two strong, tan hands striking a rawhide drum in turn. Native American Indians dressed in deerskin move quickly among their huts. The looks in their eyes is that of fear. They are expecting something, a change.

  With bows, arrows, tomahawks, and battling clubs in hand, the tribal warriors gather in the village center.

  I feel my body and mind carried away to a hilltop suddenly. I still hear the sound of the even drum beat, but it is further away now. I notice a young boy, about five or six years old. He is perched on a rock palisade surrounding the tribe’s village. He has paint, markings on his face, just like his warrior forefathers. The boy looks out into the distance covering the vast amount of land with his keen eyes.

  Watching his eye movement, they dart to one spot in the distance all of a sudden. His brows knit together, concentrating on what he is seeing. I begin to track his gaze just as I hear a splash in the nearby river. Horses and men dressed in uniform, weapons held high as they approach the village. The boy turns toward his village crying out a warning to his people.”

  I take a sip of water to quench my dry throat before I continue.

  “They were being attacked by men from a foreign land. The emotions of this boy, these people, I feel them all just as if I was there at that ancient time among them experiencing their anxiety.”

  A few of the guardians nod. I assume they are recalling the emotions that coursed through them at the time of their visions.

  I continue, “The warriors, they are forming a blockade with their bodies to try and stop the invasion. Each of them share similar markings on their faces and arms; Creek Indian symbols.”

  Remembering the soldiers that had chosen to fight by the natives’ side, I continue my recollection for the guardians. “There were white men among them, like those that were invading. They wore the marks and symbols like the Creeks and stood with them against their own people.

  There is one man, a white man, marked with the symbols of the Creek exiting a thatched hut with a native woman and young girl. The girl, she resembles the woman, her mother maybe. The painted white man runs along side of the woman and young girl behind the barricade of warriors, toward the largest of the ancient mounds. Once they are there, the man tells the woman and girl to hurry into the depth of the mound through a tunnel.”

  My eyes meet Xander’s, remembering that he was the one that experienced the girl.

  I speak to him, “As I watch the mother and daughter walk along the tunnel, I see them climb down a laddered shaft and into a kiva. As a child, I did not know this. It took me time to learn about the meaning of the kiva, how it is a sacred place of rituals. The mother and daughter enter the sacred room. This is what you saw, Xander.”

  Peering at me with extreme intensity, Xander nods his head as he remembers the event of seeing the girl in his own vision.

  Siobhan interrupts, “What about the man? Why did he not go with them?”

  “More research. Those that are not native to the tribe may not enter a kiva. It is tribal law.”

  Luke adds, “It is also tribal law of the mound builders to only allow men in the kivas for ceremonies unless the women must witness a specific ceremony. The kivas are used for calling forth spirits in the evocation of a prayer. Kivas are symbolic of our world, the present world, connecting with the other worlds through the hatchway above the fire in this case.”

  I bow my head to Luke, silently thanking him for his explanation. “Yes, and to have these two women specifically in the kiva has significance.”

  I continue describing the vision. “A shaman, aged, with unruly and thinning white hair framing his face, sits before the well kindled fire beneath the opening in the kiva. You have to know that I am watching all of this as an observer. I’m standing behind the mother and daughter and the shaman beckons them to come closer. The fire blazes higher and higher as the young girl takes her seat on the ground across from the high priest. The mother stands quietly at girl’s side. Startlingly, the shaman releases an ancient cry. I do not know what he says; it isn’t English.

  Swiftly, I am pulled from scene in the kiva and back to the scene among the warriors’ blockade. The armed soldier invaders are ascending the rocky plateau and climbing over the stone palisade.”

  I close my eyes to see the setting in my mind as I describe it. “One soldier stands out among them. The way he commands and moves with determination, I can tell that he is their leader, the one commanding this invasion. He drives the soldier’s cade
nce past the huts to the village center where they meet the warriors’ blockage with force. Before I can see the fight, I am pulled from the scene to the one in the kiva.

  As the shaman continues chanting, he draws up a primitive copper disc from around his neck with his hand.”

  I glance at Jesca and notice her hand cover the Copula medallion I had given to her, the first device.

  I continue, “The mother walks around the fire to the high priest and takes the small, amber disc from his hand. The mother takes it in her hands and walks back to her daughter. Shakily, the daughter opens her hands to accept the amber medallion.”

  Elisha chimes in, “They are performing a ritual.”

  I nod and continue to explain, “Again, I am pulled back to the warriors as they hold off the invaders.”

  Jesca mumbles under her breath, “So the ritual can be performed.”

  I keep on, “The warriors, they do not relent. Blood is shed, but they continue to fight. At the kiva, the mother places the disc in her daughter’s open palm then forces it closed. The shaman yelps and wails within the confines of the kiva as his chants intensify. The girl’s body sways softly in response to the incantation. Again, I’m pulled from the scene and taken back to the entrance of the tunnel. The white man, the soldier that brought the girl and mother here, he is guarding the passage. Weapon in hand, he is ready to fight anyone that tries to get passed him. Suddenly, the commander of the invasion charges him, but the soldier returns the force not letting him past for the life of him.

  The soldier pleads with him to take him. He tells him he will sacrifice his freedom for theirs. The relentless commander tells the soldier that he does not want him. He wants what is beyond the passage.”

  Jake interjects, “They wanted something within the kiva.”

  Ezra’s voice shakes as he says, “They want the girl.”

  I carry on, “Like an angel, the girl spreads her arms wide, closes her eyes, and releases a fiery blaze from her body. It rises toward the filtered light falling from the kiva’s shaft.”