by J. R. Rain
The brief quiet that had settled over Eden was replaced by the sound of massive flapping wings. The cherubim swooped down on Karakov’s group, low and hard. Their angry, piercing screeches could be heard throughout the Garden. Their unhinged jaws gaped wide, their massive clawed hands stretched out before them, eager to strike at the evil Russian.
“Fire!” Karakov ordered once again, and once again, rockets hurled through the sky, leaving behind blazing smoke trails. Some of the rockets met their targets. A few cherubim exploded into hails of the molten silver.
Most of the Guardian Angels remained unscathed. They swooped down at an incredible speed, snatching some of Karakov’s men from the ground.
More rockets were reloaded and fired. More of the cherubim were destroyed. More of Karakov’s men tried to flee, only to be chased down and decapitated by the flying dark angels wielding their flaming swords.
It was a fierce battle; the strong and faithful Guardian Angels fought bravely against the steady barrage of rockets. In the end, however, an exhausted Boris Karakov and his men had more ammunition than Eden had protective cherubim. Finally, the last screeching cherub was blown from the air, its silver, supernatural body falling like burning rain all around.
In the meeting hall, the Guardians’ silver light ceased, and everyone was cast into darkness again.
Chapter Twenty-two
Thomas looked sadly at the villagers. “Eden is without hope,” he said finally.
Jack stood up. “Don’t give up just yet.”
Jack Rome slipped away through the darkness, and over to one of the guards, who was continuously sweeping the room with a high-powered flashlight. Jack flattened himself against a wall, and when the flashlight moved away from him, he dashed forward. He slammed the guard to the ground, kicking and punching. In a matter of moments, the guard was knocked out cold.
Jack took the guard’s weapon. He turned to see Zahir and Thomas taking care of the other guard in the same manner. Zahir took a mighty punch to the jaw that sent him reeling. Thomas finished off the second guard.
The three men stood by the open doorway looking out into the night. Lit by spotlights and torches, they watched as Karakov and his men continued to tap the Tree of Life.
“They’re killing it, the fools,” Thomas said bitterly. “And when the Tree of Life dies...”
But he didn’t need to finish his sentence. In that moment, the ground began to shake violently. Above Eden, dust sifted down from within the surrounding rock fortification. Almost completely drained of its life force, the Tree of Life shuddered, causing the earth to tremble. The Tree continued to sag and wither away.
“I may be no expert,” Zahir said, “but I think someone needs to put some plugs into those taps.”
Jack snapped his fingers. “I’ve got an idea.” And he turned back to the villagers.
* * *
Abdullah the slaver stood with Karakov the pharmaceutical tycoon, overseeing the tapping of the trees and filling of drums. Abdullah became increasingly nervous. The more oil they tapped, the harder the ground shook. He looked up and saw that large chunks of rock were breaking loose from above. The slaver looked back at the ground surrounding the Tree of Life. It was rapidly drying and cracking, and spreading like a cancer. What was once lush and plentiful was now withered, dying.
“We should stop now,” he told Karakov.
But the Russian shook his head. “I need more.”
Abdullah frowned but held his tongue. Karakov motioned toward the village. “Go see to the wounded,” he told Abdullah.
Abdullah nodded reluctantly and turned away.
* * *
Jack spotted Abdullah and a handful of armed men approaching. As they got closer, the American yelled, “Now!”
Eden’s people jumped out from everywhere in an ambush. Although the men were armed, they were outnumbered by far and were quickly overwhelmed.
Abdullah was stripped of his weapon, but the slaver fought off his attackers and escaped through the village’s simple structures.
As he rounded a corner, he was met by Tessla, whose eyes burned with fury. Abdullah pulled up short. He was bruised and bloodied from the ambush, but he grinned at her.
“Tessla, the slave girl. I remember you well.” He met her eyes with equal hatred. “The one who got away.”
Tess stood silently before him, both courage and fear radiating from her. Abdullah sensed only her fear; he grinned again. “Your boy will make a fine jockey, too,” he told her.
But his words had little affect on her. Instead, she executed a perfect punch—a strike that snapped Abdullah’s head back. He countered swiftly with a powerful backhand that sent her sprawling to the ground.
She rose, her fury unleashed now, and the two circled each other. Blood trickled from Tess’s lip from Abdullah’s backhand blow. As they circled, she attacked again, kicking him hard across the face. The slaver was slow to react, and she followed with another punch. Abdullah fell to one knee. She kept punching him furiously, unleashing the many years of hatred she’d harbored.
Suddenly, Abdullah’s hand lashed out, grabbed her wrist and yanked her to the ground. He had her by the throat, strangling her as blood poured from his own broken nose. Abdullah applied more pressure, grinning through the blood spilling onto her.
Tess gasped for air, her voice strangled. “Here’s a trick...” she struggled for air, “...I learned while riding...your damned camels...”
In an amazing move of dexterity, Tessla swung her feet up and around the evil slaver’s neck, and, using her knees and all the strength within her, she squeezed hard.
Tess heard a sickening crack as Abdullah’s neck broke. He pitched forward, dead.
* * *
Jack and Zahir had dashed through the ambush chaos to the Tree of Life. They crouched next to a Hummer being loaded with drums of the healing oil. He saw Karakov overseeing the process.
Jack Rome turned his attention from the Russian to something on the ground: the once Flaming Sword was now charred and blackened.
Jack scrambled for the Sword, making just enough noise to draw Karakov’s attention.
Karakov turned to Jack with a look of satisfaction. “Unfortunately, your sword seems to have run out of gas.”
At that moment and from out of the shadows, Zahir tossed Jack a blazing torch. Jack snatched it out of the air. Karakov frowned, and turned to his men. “Kill him.”
As the men brought up their weapons, Jack touched the torch to the tip of the Sword.
A blinding flash of light erupted from the Sword. Jack was holding the mother of all sparklers. It blazed and crackled in his hand so brightly that all of Eden was once again illuminated. Jack was temporarily blinded as the Sword burned brightly in his hand.
Zahir looked from Karakov to Jack. “Well, do something with it,” he suggested.
“I don’t know what to do,” Jack responded.
“Aim it at something.”
Jack turned to one of the Hummers and aimed. A magnificent and glorious fireball of energy erupted from the Sword’s end, obliterating the vehicle.
“Sweet mother of God,” Jack uttered.
“Jack, to your left!” Zahir cried.
Jack turned, saw nothing.
“I mean your right—my left!”
Jack wheeled around to see the last of Karakov’s men bearing down on him. Jack swung the Sword around and promptly disintegrated the men.
“Holy shit,” Jack said.
And that’s when he heard the click of a revolver’s hammer. He turned again, only to discover Boris Karakov pointing a gun at his face.
“Drop the...Flaming Sword.”
Just then, a vine appeared from the dying Tree of Life, moving quickly. It snaked around Karakov’s throat and he dropped his gun. He gasped, clawing desperately at the vine. In one swift movement, the Russian was yanked off his feet and into the upper reaches of the Tree of Life, disappearing from sight.
Moments later, the image of Bo
ris Karakov’s screaming face formed within the leaves above. The leaves rippled as if with a breeze, although the air was still. Boris Karakov was no more.
Chapter Twenty-three
The Fiery Sword quivered in Jack’s hand. He released it and it rose, circling slowly upward, reclaiming its place in the sky above, providing a perfect light once again for all of Eden.
* * *
The outside world immediately calmed. Skies cleared, hurricanes dissipated, tornadoes spun harmlessly away, and the stormy seas grew calm...
* * *
The entrance into the Garden, the stone bridge, had started to crumble when the stone cherubim broke loose. Now, from high above, some of the surrounding rock wall was breaking loose as well, crashing down near the entrance. With the Guardian Angels gone, the entrance to Eden was sealing itself off for good.
Jack sped to the last Hummer. Zahir was right behind him. Tess had reached the Hummer as well, and stood with her mother, her father and her son.
Jack turned the ignition and fired up the Hummer. He leaned out the driver’s side window. “Last call to freedom,” he called to them.
Tessla turned to her parents. “Please come with me,” she said.
Her father surveyed the carnage and destruction imposed on the Garden of Eden. He looked at his wife, and she shook her head, although tears ran down her face.
“Our home is here now,” he told Tess gently. “We need to rebuild.”
Tess hugged her parents tightly. They, in turn, hugged little Ricky. Then Tess took Ricky’s hand and climbed quickly into the Hummer.
Jack nodded to her parents, and then floored it. The Hummer tore away in a cloud of dust. Ricky, from the back seat, waved to his grandparents as their figures rapidly diminished in the rear window.
* * *
The Gateway into—and out of—Eden was crumbling at an alarming rate. Massive chunks of rock were breaking loose from the domed ceiling high above, and the ground continued to shake.
“This is going to be close,” Jack shouted to them. He expertly veered the Hummer left and right, doing all he could to avoid the boulders dropping from the sky like mortar shells.
The crumbling archway loomed directly before them. Beyond that was the stone bridge that spanned the river. And beyond that was the tunnel.
Jack aimed for the archway, swerving to avoid the rocks and boulders strewn in their path. The cherubim that once stood guard at the archway were gone, leaving only craters in the earth.
Passing through the archway, he gave the Hummer some gas. The heavy Hummer tore along the wide stone bridge—a bridge that narrowed considerably at its apex. The damn Hummer was nearly too wide for it—but Jack figured that if Boris and his goons got it over the bridge, he sure as hell could get it back again.
“C’mon, c’mon.”
The huge tires just barely found their way along the bridge’s rutted edges. Jack used all his concentration to keep the thing from hurtling off the sides.
“Easy does it, buddy.” Zahir gripped the side-door handle, his knuckles white. “Nice and easy.”
“Shut up, Zahir.”
“Cranky.”
Tess held her son close. She was frightened as well, but she knew if anyone could get them out, it was Jack Rome.
A boulder crashed down from above, obliterating the bridge behind them. Zahir’s eyes bugged out as the bridge started to collapse behind them, breaking away and plunging down into the racing waters far below.
Jack glanced briefly into the rearview mirror and floored the gas pedal. The Hummer leaped forward, swerving dangerously close to the edge. Just as they reached the far side of the bank, the bridge behind them collapsed completely into the river below.
Zahir breathed a huge sigh of relief—until he looked ahead. “Ah, hell...”
Before them, the tunnel exit itself was quickly disappearing in a hail of falling rock. It was all Jack could do to miss the falling projectiles.
Suddenly, an enormous boulder struck the ground in front of them. Jack hit the brakes and turned the wheel hard. They broadsided the huge rock, shattering one of the rear windows. He punched the gas again, whipped around the boulder, and plunged into the dark tunnel. He flipped on the headlights and glanced once again into the rearview mirror.
The tunnel itself was crashing down behind them. Jack picked up even more speed, just able to keep the vehicle one step ahead of the falling debris.
Jack swerved and weaved through the now dust-filled tunnel, struggling to see through the showering rocks. Now a rift appeared in the tunnel, spreading rapidly. Jack firmly set his jaw, and aimed straight for the chasm. He gunned the Hummer to the fullest now, gathering momentum.
“Allah, be with us,” Zahir yelled.
“You can say that again,” Jack retorted.
“Allah, be with us!”
The Hummer launched over the ever-widening chasm, airborne. As they flew, Zahir stuck his head out of the window, his face contorted with both fear and excitement as he looked straight down into the deep abyss.
The vehicle landed nose first on the other side, the vehicle bouncing as Jack regained control. Zahir slammed his head hard on the window frame. “Ouch! That hurt!” He rubbed his head.
“Look!” Tess cried. “There’s a light ahead!”
Indeed, the stone elevator up to the Garden Chamber was still open. There was a torch flickering within.
“Okay, boys and girls,” Jack shouted through the sounds of the crumbling tunnel, “hang on!”
The Hummer raced through the tunnel, careening off rocky walls, losing valuable parts, but still somehow managing to stay together. As the elevator shaft quickly approached, Zahir glanced frantically from Jack to the elevator.
“The brakes, Jack!”
But the tunnel was crumbling rapidly. At any second, they could be buried forever. “No time for brakes,” Jack answered.
“There’s always time for brakes!” Zahir squealed.
“Not this time.”
As the Hummer approached the elevator, and as the collapsing tunnel closed in on them from all sides, Jack turned the wheel hard.
The Hummer made a screeching 180-degree turn around. All four of them screamed.
And just like that, the Hummer came precisely to a stop in the stone elevator, facing in the opposite direction.
A churning dust plume mushroomed toward them. With his elbow, Jack smashed the driver’s side window glass, moved aside a cleverly placed piece of wood which had locked the elevator into place—no doubt Karakov’s doing—and pulled hard on the stone cherub’s sword arm. With agonizing sluggishness, the elevator began its slow ascent.
“Can’t this thing move any faster?” asked Zahir.
The dust cloud was quickly upon them, followed by a storm of churning rocks. The elevator continued to rise, but not quite fast enough.
The billowing dust cloud gushed into the elevator like a crashing ocean wave. Everyone ducked. The windshields shattered and the headlights burst. The elevator shook fiercely as the tunnel beyond completely and utterly collapsed.
Eden was forever sealed.
Chapter Twenty-four
Above them, bright sunshine appeared, first through a crack, and then rapidly spread as the stone elevator rose up and up, finally settling into place in the Garden Chamber.
“Did we make it?” Ricky spoke cautiously for the first time.
“I think we did.” Even Jack was surprised.
However, the Garden Chamber itself began to shake.
“Spoke too soon,” Zahir said tensely.
Jack threw the Hummer into gear, floored it, and weaved his way through the tunnels cleared by Karakov’s men.
The Hummer burst out of the mountain temple and launched through the air. Following in its wake was another great billowing cloud of dust as the temple completely imploded.
The vehicle landed hard, bouncing, but amazingly, continued on, tearing through the narrow mountain pass. Behind them, the entire mountains
ide collapsed into the canyon.
Zahir, covered in dust, looked back. “Okay, now we made...”
But he never got to finish his sentence. Tess reached around and clamped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t you dare say it,” she warned.
* * *
Deep below, down inside the Garden of Eden, Pagnian held Thomas tightly around the waist. They’d watched the tunnel collapse completely, sealing them and the rest of the villagers inside the Garden of Eden forever.
“Do you think they made it?” Thomas asked his wife.
“Heroes always make it,” she replied, smiling.
* * *
It was later in the afternoon and Jack was still driving the Hummer. Now, though, Tess sat next to him in the passenger seat, the two holding hands across the center console. In the back, Zahir and little Ricky played Rock, Paper, Scissors. To Zahir’s chagrin, Ricky kept winning. The broken windshield blew hot air through the vehicle, but none of them cared. They were happy to be alive.
As they drove down the highway, Tess noticed something wriggling in Jack’s shirt pocket. “What’s that?” she asked him.
Jack reached inside and removed what appeared to be three Mexican Jumping Beans. They were, in fact, seeds from the Garden of Eden. They wriggled about in the palm of his hand. “Found them in the jungle,” he told her with a grin.
Tess was momentarily shocked. “Why do you want them?” she asked.
“I think they will make great pets,” he replied. “You know, like a guard dog. Only greener.”
Zahir peered forward to look at the little seeds. “I can see it now: Beware of the Vine!”
“You make it sound like a Stephen King novel,” Jack remarked. Jack stuffed the seeds back in his pocket.
Tess leaned over and kissed him hard on the lips. “My hero,” she said, smiling.