“Jesca?”
There is no attempt to answer or move toward me. She remains cemented to the ground. The slightest quiver in her lips and her eyes widening with fear are the same symptoms I saw by the bus. It is a trap! Just as I step toward her, Jesca’s body is wrenched backward and snapped up off the ground and into the trees.
Before her body disappears into the trees, Ezra dashes past me and yells, “No! Jesca!”
Shiva is barking hysterically, running into the bush in the direction Jesca’s body was yanked.
Tessa is crying and yelling so hard for Shiva, she can barely catch her breath.
“It was a trap!” I yell.
Ezra kicks at the earth with an angry grunt and paces back and forth, his hands covering his face!
I feel a hand rest on my arm and look back to see Ms. Olivia open her hands to take Tessa from me. I quickly give her over and stride back to the widening huddle around Sebastian and Elisabeth. I don’t expect what I come upon; Sebastian holding a very still and colorless Elisabeth cradled in his arms. Sebastian is stroking her silvery hair away from her face, rocking her. His words are simple, “Her heart has stopped. It took the weakest of us to get to her.”
It had used Elisabeth, killed her to distract us from Jesca.
I think about the times this hybrid Dweller has attacked, who it has attacked. It had targeted Nate, then me, Elisabeth, and Jesca. Wait, where is Nate? I spin around, scanning for him, then I remember Nick calling out for him before Jes was taken. Did he know that it was a trap before the rest of us? Why would he run into the woods? Unless, he was involved in the trap. Did the hybrid Dweller kill Elisabeth then leap into Nate? The thoughts sink in and I know in my gut that I’m right. It has Nate again.
Hurriedly, I search for Nick. He is on the edge of the path with Elisha by his side. I stalk over to him and take hold of his shirt, pulling him to me. “You saw him last! Which way did Nate go?”
Taken aback by my agitation, Nick leans back from me and says, “We were walking, then all of a sudden he ran off.” Nick nods toward the woods to the right. “Right there. He went in there.”
Realizing I am still clinging to Nick’s shirt, I let go and step back from him. Ezra comes to my side as I try to make sense of the direction of Nate’s and Jesca’s disappearance. It doesn’t make sense. Where he went is in the opposite direction of where Jesca was pulled.
Ezra’s urgency is visible as he grabs hold of my arm. “We need to go after her, Xander! It is using Nate!”
Daniel tries to bring reason to the situation, “What if this is another trap?”
Ezra lets go of my arm and argues flippantly with Daniel, “This hybrid Dweller used Elisabeth to distract us. Nate could be a part of this or not. Either way, the trap has already been set and it has the one person that can end all of this.”
Shiva comes charging back from the woods, drawing all of our attention. She is crouched down, looking through the cluster of us at something beyond us. The animalistic gnarling rumbles snap me to attention. What I see gives me an adrenaline spike so strong, I feel pin-pricks running along my arms and scalp from the rush of fear. Three beasts the size of bears are stalking toward us, stealthily. Lightning flashes above us, spotlighting the blackened eyes and unnatural fibrous muscle mass these mutated creatures possess.
Nick hisses a chain of curses behind Ezra and me as we both pull our guns. Drawn to our weapons now, the beasts raise their bulbous heads and display their enlarged razor sharp teeth. The one in the middle releases a carnal roar initiating their charge.
Ezra’s command to fire on them is swallowed by our emptying our ammunition on them. As the bullets strike, it only seems to agitate them as the bearlike Dwellers rear up, then charge us full force.
Seth and Cale are the first to rush them, daggers drawn. Ira cuts around through the woods to attack from behind. Seth releases a rebel yell just as he plows into one of the beasts, sending it airborne then landing on flat on its back. He doesn’t give it a chance to rise, taking his dagger and slitting the creature’s throat from ear to ear. As the inky Dweller begins to withdraw through the vessel’s widened mouth, Seth takes hold of it instantly and rips it apart with his hands, turning the evil being to ash. Ira has killed another and I catch sight of him just as he rips another Dweller to shreds.
Ezra and I pull back, guns held steady as we huddle close to the other guardians; back to back. I’m searching the woods anxiously for more of these freakish creatures awaiting their attack, when Tessa screams from behind me. Another one of these mutated bearlike creatures is coming up from behind us on the other side of the path.
Daniel bellows in fear, “Another to the left!”
Low and behold, another beast reveals itself, parting the thicket with its enormous body, ready to pound on us.
Siobhan hisses, “They will just keep coming. We need to get out of here!”
Jake adds, “We need to use our abilities to get to the mounds Sebastian.”
I growl, “What about Jesca and Nate?”
Ezra demands, “We will go after them!”
Shiva is snarling at the slow stalking Dweller mutation.
Obviously angry with himself, Daniel snaps, “Damn, we are going to have to separate!”
Ms. Olivia argues, “We can’t! That is what it wants!”
Ezra bellows back at her, “It wants us dead! We have to! It will be harder for it to get us all at once!”
Ezra fires his gun at the creature in the thicket. It looks like it is recoiling, but then surprises me and leaps at us. Lathan’s roar precedes him, as he throws his body into the beast sending it into the one behind us. Both beasts roll, but recover instantly and are ready to draw blood as they charge us again. We fire at the two remaining beasts as a blaze of fire shoots from Jake’s open hands, covering the beasts in flames. The screeching and gnarling shrills coming from the fire-laden bodies are so loud, I have to cover my ears.
I look around frantically, trying to see if there are any other beasts stalking toward us. The remains of the beasts are all I see until Lathan announces, “Another one!”
I turn to see it coming from the woods on the right. Another flash of lightning brightens a cluster of tree trunks with the large frame of this beast approaching low to the ground.
Daniel speaks quickly, “He’s right! Sebastian, Luke, Siobhan, and Jake, take Olivia and Tessa! Nick, Elisha, Corinna, and Sam, you come with me! Use your ability to astral project!”
Ezra’s anger boils over. “You can’t! It is too dangerous!”
Daniel yells back, “We have to if we have any shot of making it to the mounds!”
He was right, two miles between here and there, they needed to get there quick.
Daniel continues, “It will draw the Dwellers in different directions! They can’t attack all of us at once! It is our only shot! Cale and Seth will guard us along the way!”
Daniel looks at Cale and Seth. They both nod and ready themselves to run. Suddenly, half of our cluster disappears into the atmosphere leaving Ezra, Ira, and Lathan to the approaching beast now tearing through the brush to get to us.
Lathan commands Ezra and me, “Run!”
Without thinking, I run in the direction I saw Jesca disappear. Ezra is next to me in a flash keeping stride. I hear Shiva ahead of us. She stayed behind.
I tell Ezra, “She is tracking her.”
I see Ira’s blurred frame, steady and keeping pace with his enormous strides to my right. The feeling of Lathan’s presence follows to my left.
In a flash, I catch sight of Shiva’s silver coat shining under the electric discharge from above, just as Jesca’s voice carries through the wood.
She says his name, “Nate.”
My panic spikes and I pick up my pace, racing to get to her before anything bad happens.
“Jesca!”
Nate’s second call to me is urgent, but coming from behind me. I turn to change directions and I trod back through the stream, feeling a litt
le steadier on my injured leg when my feet are pulled out from under me. My chest and chin hit the ground hard and the gripping force that has yanked me off my feet drags me along the musty loam and into the frigid shallow water of the stream.
The compressive grip around my ankles softens and releases. I take my chances in rolling over and drawing my gun on the thing that has attacked me.
When I see his bloodied face against his dark skin, and the dull grey tone of his once brown eyes, it takes me mere seconds to register who my attacker is. “Briggs.”
The hybrid Dweller has him. The scenario of our truck colliding with the torn up asphalt, causing us to crash, and Briggs being drawn from the wreckage by this hybrid Dweller before we emerged, or Ira and the other Rephaim could find him, zips through my mind as I scoot myself out of the stream with one hand, and aiming my gun at him with the other.
The hissing voice comes again from inside of my head, “Noooo, not Briggs.”
This hybrid Dweller uses Briggs to start moving on me. I fire two shots at his chest before the click, click, click of an empty clip replaces the sound of gunfire. I drop the gun, turn, and try to scramble through the muddy soil. My speed isn’t enough.
Briggs’ hands grip my shoulders and flips me on my back. Crouched over me, Briggs’ brings his face to mine, narrowing his clouded eyes and opening his mouth.
I place my hands on his shoulders, attempting to push him away. I use all of my strength, but it is not enough against Briggs’ and the hybrid Dweller within him.
That is when I see Nate charging full speed at us out of the corner of my eye. Not slowing the closer he gets, he bears down and charges Briggs’ throwing him off of me and into the water. Nate leaves me and rushes Briggs.
Ignoring the pain, I rise to my feet and yell at him to stop, “Don’t Nate!”
Before Nate gets to him, Briggs leaps high above him into the trees, dodging his attack. The rustling above moves around us from tree to tree in a circle as Nate comes back to my side.
Surprised, I hear Xander yell my name just as he, Ira, Ezra, and Lathan spring from the heavy woods with Shiva keeping pace behind them. Xander’s eyes are charged with anger as he glares at Nate.
I yell to them, “No, it is Briggs! It has Briggs!”
No sooner I say his name, Briggs drops like a sack of potatoes from the treetop onto Ira’s back, then rolls to the ground. Ira is on his body instantly, with one hand holding him down and other wielding his dagger up high. Ezra, Nate, and Xander, and Lathan huddle around me guardedly looking on as Ira delays his strike.
Lathan growls, “Kill him Ira!”
Ira peers at us nervously as he says evenly, “It doesn’t have him!”
I feel the woods around me closing in, knowing that the hybrid is loose again among us.
Ira lowers his dagger and releases Briggs’ body back to the ground. Lathan backs into us, guardedly looking among the trees above.
Ira rises and just as he stalks toward us, a shooting pain and current of nausea has me bent in half. Ezra, Nate, and Xander take hold of my hands and arm to keep me from toppling over.
As I catch my breath and stand as upright as I can without the paining coming again, Nate and Xander release my hands, but Ezra’s tight hold on my hand remains. I feel the slightest tremor radiating from his palm and I fear the worst. I look at him and see that his warm brown eyes have gone cold and milky.
It has him! The hybrid Dweller has Ezra!
I try to make him fight. “No, Dad. Fight it! I know you are in there!”
Nate and Xander try to pry Ezra’s hand from mine.
Xander yelling, “Ezra! Let her go! Ira, help!”
No, not Ira! He will kill him! My vision blurs from the tears welling up in my eyes as I hold my free hand out to Ira and cry, “No! He can fight it! He is strong!”
Suddenly, I hear the screeching sound of the birdlike Dweller creatures again. I look up to see them circling low, ready to strike.
Ira places his hand on top of Ezra’s and mine to tries and separate us.
I wail, “Please don’t leave me! Fight it, Ezra!”
My saddened wail shifts to a yawp of blustering anger as I narrow my eyes on my father. “Damn it, Ezra! Fight back!”
The guttural growls and snarls of the Dweller creatures are distinct and frightening. I angle my eyes in the direction of the sound and see three of them approaching us. Behind them, a mass of human occupied Dwellers spotlighted by the flashes of lightning are writhing and tearing through the woods straight toward us.
Having seen them, Lathan bellows over the roll of thunder. “Ira, they are coming!”
I take hold of Ezra’s other hand and continue my howling assault. Ira, Lathan, Nate, and Xander are trying to pry us apart. I grind my teeth as I try to stay tethered to him. “I won’t let you go! It can’t have you too!”
My eyes dart to the creatures crouching low to the ground making their approach. Then dart to the sky, the Dweller hawks stalking us, getting closer to attack. I look at the human Dwellers charging the woods; men, women, and children. Fear, pain, sorrow, agony, hate, love; very emotion within me is rolling, stirring, building.
I look back at Ezra and pull him into my arms, clapping my arms around him. Nate, Xander, Ira, and Lathan take hold of me and try to pry me from my father, but I lock onto him with no intention of letting go.
I whisper into his ear, “I won’t let it have you, dad. I love you.”
I let go of my built up energy and send it straight into Ezra, hoping that it finds the hybrid Dweller within and forces it from Ezra. With Nate, Xander, Ira, and Lathan still trying to pull me from my father, I open my eyes in time to see the approaching creatures and the human Dwellers begin to blur and fragment. The weightlessness comes quickly and we are gone.
“We are almost there Jes.”
The back of Roan’s figure as he walks ahead of me comes into view.
Delilah’s voice is at my back. “Slow down Ro, the mounds aren’t going anywhere.”
I don’t turn, I have been in this remembrance before, my first trip to the mounds. The climb is hard and I’m tired, Even though it is a memory, I’m tired.
“Almost to the top.” It is not Roan’s voice now; it is Ezra’s. Why am I hearing Ezra’s voice in my vision?
Ana’s voice replaces Delilah’s and says, “You can make it, Jes.”
Why am I hearing Ezra and Ana’s voices? Without thinking it through, I attempt to reach for the figure ahead of me to turn him to me. Just as before in my visions, my hands aren’t my own to command suddenly. I want to physically turn around and look at the face of the woman behind me. To see if it is Ana, but again I can’t budge, my body doesn’t listen as I continue to climb mindlessly behind the figure ahead of me.
Suddenly, Roan’s form clears the stairs and the sun shines directly onto my face, brighter more intense than I have seen before in this vision. Roan’s figure continues to walk away, leaving me standing at the top of the mound alone. I can’t hear or see the woman behind me either. I should feel panicked, but I don’t. The hypnotizing sun’s comforting glow has me at peace suddenly, until the hypnotic brightness of the light flickers then flaps, turning into both darkness and light reflecting in my eyes. I blink repeatedly to try and bring focus to the blurred scene before me. As the transformed source of light sharpens, I see the familiar flapping flames of a fiery pit before me. The shaman’s tanned, wrinkled face and striking amber eyes come into view just beyond the licks of fire rising between us. I’m in the vision again. The feeling of the fire on my face mirrors the warm of the sun, until the warmth intensifies becoming blistering. All of a sudden, my body reacts not on my own accord, and slides back away from the flames.
The shaman begins chanting and the sound of drumming begins reverberating off of the walls of the kiva. The shaman raises his arms and unclasps the chain hanging around his neck. As he brings it over his head, the shine of a copper disc the size of a quarter gleams in the firelight. Conti
nuing his incantation, the shaman holds the medallion away from himself, just as the woman from the thatched roof hut comes into view. It’s Onawah’s mother. The high priest places the medal in her hands and she turns to walk toward me. When she approaches, Onawah lifts her hands to accept the copper medallion; they are trembling. Looking upon the copper disc I see the primitive inscriptions circling the outer rim of this ornament and just beyond it, the reflection of the wide awake one; Onawah. Other than her deeper colored skin, her face would mold perfectly to mine. Unexpectedly and without control, Onawah’s eyes close, leaving me in darkness. The chanting continues and the drumbeat becomes more thunderous, but not so much to not hear Ezra’s calming voice on the surface of it.
“Fulfill the legacy and don’t look back, Jesca.”
Why does he sound like he is saying goodbye?
Ezra’s voice comes again, fading ever so slightly, “I finally understand what Ana meant that night in the cabin.” I feel my heart begin to race as he continues, “It is a different way of existence, Jesca. Transcending our world doesn’t mean we are no longer part of it. It just means that our cycle has come to pass and it’s time for us to let go of this world.”
A painful emptiness that radiates throughout my chest takes my breath as I hear those words. He is letting go. The thought of him letting go stirs my mind and body into action and I awaken expecting to still be holding Ezra’s hands willing him to fight for his life, but I’m not.
I’m try to sit upright, hands pushing off of the earth, and eyes wide trying to adjust to the low lit cave, when Ira’s hands take hold of my shoulders and hold me down.
Panicked, I look into Ira’s amber eyes and ask urgently, “Where’s Ezra!”
Ira speaks quickly, urgently, “We jumped. You sending your energy to Ezra somehow projected us to the mounds.”
Transcending the Legacy Page 26