Tempest Rising: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 8 of 9

by Gary Sapp

clientele to reenter this place at their own risk. Considering the building’s height, the earthquake and now the prevailing hurricane force winds had made the hotel into a risky site to continue to patronize. In the interest of public safety—

  And then he truly saw her condition…her face and all of his remaining thoughts and words lost their meaning.

  Despite the terrible pain Serena was experiencing she was able to concentrate just enough to take the stairs and return to her headquarters several levels up. She did so without further communication or interference from hotel personnel.

  She took several short pained gasp of breath when she reached her room at last. Once again her athletic background in cross country and marathons had served her well. Her parents would have been proud of her. Her father in particular had loved to watch her perform at the highest level at the meets. Always finish what you start, Serena, he had always instructed her, just finish what you start and everything else will be fine.

  And I have done just that, Father, she would have smiled at self-consciously hearing her father’s voice in her ear if only she possessed the lips to manage one.

  She stood at one window for the longest time. Serena peered in every direction that the view allowed and then back again as she scanned the horizon. Hundreds of pipe bombs were still detonating in strategic locations throughout the city. The heavy gust of wind were an added bonus that her Whirlwind had not anticipated or needed to succeed. But I will take it nonetheless. She watched an area far west of her location…the wind caught the flames just right and merged the bonfire with another and then another wall of flames as it danced along the ground. The dry conditions that had existed for months in this region had been the final component in aiding a firestorm in intensity and size that was more impressive than anything than she could have imagined.

  Atlanta was indeed burning.

  No, she reminded herself quickly, it is being purged. It is being cleansed from the inside out.

  Serena had seen all of this in the Dragon’s flames.

  She suddenly felt weak…her stomach…and her knees went wobbly.

  Serena went down to a single knee and struggled to get back to her feet, exhaustion—or maybe something far more serious—nearly toppling her. Not now, She threw up then, not after all of this plotting and planning…not after all of the work that so many others have put in…all of the people who have sacrificed so that the Dragon could feast…

  …and so that a new stronger Atlanta would rise from the ashes of the old.

  When Serena at last pushed herself back to her feet she was amazed how much the same scenery she’d watched before…had changed. The firestorm looked to be burning out of control. This was no longer a controlled burn in her eyes. Closer to the hotels position she watched a family trying…and dying in a futile attempt to save their home from the flames. Two blocks over a convoy of firetrucks and the men responsible for operating them were blocked by fallen debris from the storm in one direction and by her Dragon’s flames on the other. They are doomed. Serena watched another man catch fire just below her. Fall to the ground you fool, she screamed at dying man eternally. Fall to the ground and roll. It is your only chance of survival—

  “I said fall to the ground.”

  “’He can’t hear you, Serena.”

  Serena spun away from the window with all of the will and energy that she could muster and saw him standing there in the hotel room’s doorway alone.

  Thomas Pepper was alive.

  Serena wanted to approach him. Oracle wanted to run away. Serena wanted to touch his face and see that he was indeed real. Oracle hid her face which had been torn from its skull—and settled on turning back to the window. Only the pleasant side of her face, the one that had existed before was exposed to the intruder.

  “You’re alive, Thomas. You are alive and got my messages.” Serena stood at her height and clasp her hands behind her back. She would exhibit poise and exercise control no matter how much it pained her. And yet, Serena could see raindrops of fresh blood puddling on the floor by her feet. “Somehow, I knew that you were alive.”

  Thomas took a cautious step forward into the hotel room and closed the door behind him. Serena took a guarded glance in his direction. Once again Thomas appeared to have come alone…and unarmed. That doesn’t guarantee your safety though. Thomas or any of the hotel staff who have seen you could have contacted the authorities by now.

  “My God, Serena,” He said to her, daring to touch her uninvited…and twisted her around just enough to get a full view of her injuries. When she saw him dart his eyes away she instantly knew that they were far worse than even she had imagined them to be. Most of my enemies and far too many of my allies have called me a monster—how timely that I look like one as well. “What happened to you? What caused…this?”

  “An accident,” She managed a grin that held no humor but caused her a new round of eye popping pain. Danielle Rohm, her dear dead Danielle Rohm had taught her to smile but the pain… “In truth, it really no longer matters now does it, Thomas? It’s over now. It’s almost over now.”

  “How can it not be over, Serena,” Thomas pulled her close until the two of them were nearly nose to nose. Until her near rape at the hands of the guard in her holding cell before Rapture she had never been this close to a man before. “It is already at an end, Serena. What else could there possibly be left for you to do here?”

  She did not answer right away. She stood there wrapped in his arms wishing that he would let her free…and hoping he would not.

  He finally did release her. She turned back to the window to witness a Whirlwind in all of its preordained glory.

  And she turned away so Thomas Pepper would not see her tears burning in her eyes.

  Look at what you’ve done.

  She saw more firestorm and destruction in a Whirlwind’s wake.

  She saw death and rebirth.

  She saw prophecy and metaphor.

  And she saw men and women and even little children reaching their end. And when that it was as terrible as they had all had imagined it would be. She watched as numbers of them were given to the flames.

  Serena Tennyson thought she was looking out of her window in Hell itself.

  And then she saw the devil who ruled there, but not the Dragon who had been promised to her …it was her own reflection that had glared back at her.

  Oh my God, she thought but she had never believed in their God. How could she call his name?

  She yanked out the firearm that she’d taken off of the dead officer who had been cuffed to her. Thomas backed away from her—and then ducked for cover as she fired several rounds into the glass until it shattered into several thousands of pieces. She heaved back and tossed the weapon out of the opened window. She screamed then as the smoky air burned her exposed nostrils and windpipe. My lungs are on fire.

  “I had hoped that this would all end peacefully,” Serena managed to say after a time. Thomas had finally risen up from behind his cover. She could hear sirens below…and hear her name specifically and the many curses that followed as the men exited those vehicles. “No matter what else that I’ve done here in this city, I want you to believe me when I tell you this.”

  “Stop it,” Thomas screamed at her. He slowly rose to his feet again. And then he was standing over her again and she found herself sliding away from him. He pointed a thick finger at the space that the window once occupied. “Don’t you dare try and justify this carnage to me, Serena.”

  “I petitioned for peace, Thomas. I fought with every fiber of my being. But there were too many adversaries in my path. Xavier Prince and a House in Chains wouldn’t hear of it. The FBI was just competent enough to delay me. And Thomas-- Thomas there are forces within Pandora not under my command who are attempting to piece together a future far dimmer than the ideals and the vision that Isaac Prince passed down to me. They are going to commit a gen—“

  “Then you should have fought harder, Serena.” Each word the man
said stung at her heart with more bile than the word before it. And then, as if his time of rage had passed, his tone lost much of his gruffness and it was if Thomas’ entire body went limp. “You should have pushed your people and theirs for more concessions. You should have done something,” Thomas looked over the window sill out into a Whirlwind. “You damned well should have done something to avoid this.”

  Thomas joined her as they both turned away from the window. She could feel his closeness and did not move away from it. Serena wished that he would hold her. She never felt more alone than she did right now: She didn’t feel this kind of loneliness when her parents died…she didn’t feel this type of loneliness when either Raymond Rice or Danielle Rohm were killed…

  Serena Tennyson had betrayed the Dragon’s love.

  She was indeed alone.

  And she wished more than ever that Thomas Pepper would hold her…before her own end.

  Serena heard his breathing ease. His anger was soothing. And then he must have felt her hands quivering. It’s suddenly as if the world has gone cold. To his credit…Thomas squeezed her hand that was still hole and true. She squeezed his thick fingers and did not let go.

  She did not let go.

  “Before they come for me I need to tell you about a vision that I recently had. I want to tell you about a vision that you were an integral part of.”

  And so she did. And when the tale had