by Auri Blest
“Where is Jade?” Ryan asked. “We thought she would be with you.”
“Jade has been here?” asked Seth.
“Yes, but she went out earlier. She insisted that she had to get some items—”
“Dawn is looking for her.”
Another one of the men offered them water. “Here you go.”
“This way,” led Ryan.
“No, I’d rather we wait here,” said Seth.
Raymond shook his head. “Trust me, don’t try to argue with him. Let him stay here and wait.”
“Oh, he’s part of the Ascendancy unit. We don’t have them in this building. There are only Stabilizers here. No worries. I will leave a team down here with you.”
Raymond looked at Seth and laughed, “And you thought you were over the Stabilizers. Welcome to your new unit.”
Seth walked away pouting. “I am not in leadership. I am not an Ascendant.”
“Yeah keep telling yourself that,” Raymond yelled after him.
Jade lugged two trash bags out of a building that had once been a drug store.
“Why are you here?”
“Dawn,” Jade yelled as she dropped the bags.
She wrapped her arms around her, but Dawn, characteristically, did not hug her back. Jade knew that Dawn was not a touchy-feely kind of person.
Jade looked in her eyes. Is she angry? “What? What’s wrong? We had an agreement that if Alpha House fell, I was to go to Titanpointe and begin evac procedures.”
“Right, but you are not at Titanpointe.”
“What’s happened?”
The street goes black. Jade can’t even see Dawn in front of her. “What’s going on?”
“The IMO has shut everything down.”
Dawn looked back behind her. Jade couldn’t see or hear them. “What’s in the bags?”
“They had been without—”
Dawn placed a small object in Jade’s hand. “That’s a flashlight.”
She put her hands on Jade’s shoulders and turned her in the direction she needed to go.
“I will take the bags. Run two blocks directly ahead, turn left and run five blocks. That will get you back to Titanpointe. In the darkness, most buildings will look alike. There will be an IMO truck in the street in front of the building. If anyone tries to stop you, don’t waste time with them. No matter what, keep running.”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Go. Now!”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You can, and you will.” Dawn paused, “This is the sacrifice of my calling. Go!” She pushed her forward, and Jade ran.
Dawn watched her friend shine the flashlight onto the ground as she went. From what she could tell, Jade was running full speed. She stumbled on a curb, but quickly got up and kept running.
Dawn’s mind flashed back to a time when she had seen Jade run like this before. It was after the day of awakening and Dawn had been standing on the roof of a building watching a panicked Jade run full-speed down the streets of Brooklyn. Now, just like then, Dawn’s goal was the same; get her to safety.
Dawn grabbed the two trash bags and backed up into the entrance of the building that Jade had come out of. The CVS drugstore had been ransacked long ago. Racks of shelving were barren or overturned. Overhead, communal webs formed a dense dream home for the spiders that now occupied the space.
Dawn tied a knot at the top of each trash bag. Jade had gone through the storerooms of several drugstores. She was an excellent Stabilizer but she would also make a great addition to the Freegans. She had a keen eye for finding valuable items that scavengers may have overlooked or didn’t know would be of use. The bags contained an assortment of products such as bug spray, aluminum foil, cotton balls, gauze, dental floss, baking soda, sanitary napkins, shower curtain liners and reading glasses. These items weren’t found out in the open. What was left was always found under boxes or furniture or dropped by someone that had been trying to carry out too much at one time.
Within a couple of minutes, they were upon her. A rush of warm air flowed in through the entrance announcing their presence.
Someone was leading the way in front. He wasn’t wild like the rest, and he had an aura of authority. They have a leader, she thought. Why is he revealing himself tonight? Why now? For some reason, they looked almost happy, happy to be free to run to and fro wreaking havoc throughout the city.
Dawn watched as they went in and out of buildings searching for something. They were innumerable. She couldn’t stay where she was. She could already hear them above her in the building. She needed to get to Titanpointe. Blending in with them was the only option. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she began to rise into the air. They were levitating down the street, and she joined them with a bag in each hand. It worked—at first. She was spinning and turning, doing everything the others were doing. Then, for some reason, the leader turned back and watched her. It was as if he had felt another presence among them.
Dawn kept her head down. He stared at her hard enough to have bored a hole right through her. To him, she stuck out like a sore thumb. Everything she did was unmatched. They levitated, but she levitated higher and with more ease. When Dawn looked up, he had stepped in front of her. They were both floating mid-air. He studied her and grabbed her by the throat.
Jade ran as fast as she could to Titanpointe. She always went against the grain, but this time she had to follow orders. It had taken everything in her not to turn around and go back to Dawn.
At the front of the building, she jumped several stairs and ran to the door pushing the buzzer for the intercom.
“State your business.”
“It’s Jade!” She yelled while gasping for air. “Open the friggin door!”
She listened and turned back towards the street. She could faintly hear them. Something was different about their sound. If she had to use a word to describe it, she would say they sounded confused. She looked up at the full moon and rubbed the chill bumps on her arms.
The door opened, and Jade spun around. “Seth?” They sealed the door behind her.
“I’ve been searching the city for you, woman. Wait, where’s Dawn?”
“She sent me ahead. They were coming, and I mean like right down the street. She wouldn’t let me stay with her.”
Seth grabbed her shoulder. “How did she find you?”
Jade gave him a knowing glance, “What does she always say?”
Seth, Darryl, and several others all chimed in with Jade: “The eagle sees things from a different perspective.” Seth patted her on the back.
“What the eagle? What?” The young soldier whispered to Darryl.
Darryl began to explain, “If you are, let’s say a chicken-”
“A chicken?”
“Hold on. Just follow me for a moment. If you’re a chicken, you see what’s down at your level or below you on the ground. However, if you are an eagle, you soar high above the clouds, and you can see everything from above.”
“I get it. The eagle can see what’s about to attack the chicken.” He paused to think about that. “You know what? I’m hungry. Chicken sounds so good right now.”
Darryl laughed. “Dude, you are one of a kind.”
19
His pale hand burned like fire. His fingernails were long and sharp as they dug into her neck and squeezed.
Dawn dropped the trash bags.
The others surrounded them watching. “It’s her,” they chanted in a whisper, one after the other, as they remained in motion circling her. They emitted so much heat that the air became denser, making it difficult to breathe.
The leader tightened his grasp of Dawn’s throat. He knew she wasn’t one of them. She looked directly into his eyes as he pulled her towards him. He had shoulder length, wavy, jet-black hair. He was very pale, almost white. He reminded her of a freakish rock star.
He opened his mouth and revealed the forked tongue of a snake. His voice resounded like two dif
ferent voices speaking at the same time. His head lowered and turned at a slight angle. His eyebrows rose. “By what authority do you do these things?” he screeched.
A peacefulness swept over her. She heard the answer in her head first, and then softly, not understanding its power, answered, “Love.”
The Leader’s eyes widened as if he had just received an electric jolt. He screamed out and dropped her. Dawn picked up the bags and sprinted to Titanpointe. They were fast, but they were no match for her speed.
At Titanpointe she barreled through the front door.
“Dawn!” Seth yelled. She had almost knocked him over.
“They’re coming,” she said.
They gathered roundabout the massive structure. Their leader stood out front looking up at the windowless twenty-nine floors of the building. He was silent. The others were in constant movement around him. He stared forward in a trance-like state as a blue smoke emitted from him.
One after the other, they began a whispered chant, “Find her.”
The blue smoke wafted to the front doors and swirled around. It rose outside of the building and traveled up to the tenth-floor ventilation opening and entered the building there.
The young soldier followed Darryl past rack after rack of electronics that filled the room.
“Hey did you see that?”
“What?” Darryl Asked.
He looked around. “Nothing.”
Jade walked by. The young soldier watched her. “Jade. Uh, we were never formally introduced.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m-”
“I don’t have time for your foolery.”
“Foolery? Is that even a word?”
“You’re not one of us. You don’t even know who we are or what we stand for. Why are you here?”
“I know who you are. You are the people of the…of the…” He snapped his fingers. “Of the prophecy!”
Darryl laughed. “Let it go, man. She shut you down.”
Jade spun around and pointed a pistol in his face. “I don’t trust you. You don’t belong here. You are IMO. I will be keeping my sight on you.”
The young soldier smiled and watched her walk away. “You do that.”
Darryl shook his head, “She means the sight on her gun.”
“Whatever. As long as she’s watching,” he laughed.
Unbelievable, thought Darryl. You must really have a way with the ladies on base.
The young soldier shook his head. Again, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye—a blue light. He grabbed his rifle and went to check it out.
“What’s up?” asked Darryl.
“I don’t know. I keep seeing something. I’ll be right back.”
The young soldier raised his rifle and backed down the hall towards the elevators. He looked up eyeing the blue smoke that swirled above his head. What the heck is that? It lowered to just in front of his face. The soldier froze. Suddenly, it pushed forward and entered the soldier through his nose and mouth. He gagged and dropped the rifle. He couldn’t call out or scream. He fell to his knees.
When he stood, his pupils were huge, and the whites of his eyes glowed bright blue. He took the elevator down to the lobby level, cracked open the front door and backed up. He watched as they swarmed through the entrance.
“What have you found out?” one of them asked. The others repeated everything in a whisper. “Where is she? We allowed you to live so that you could lead us to her. Is she here?”
“I haven’t seen the child,” he answered. The blue had now dissipated from his eyes.
“We will find her,” they chanted in succession.
“These are good people.”
“Oh, you’ve made friends.” they mocked. “Do they know that you’re a coward and that you watched your troops die and made a deal with us so that you could live? We overtook your company, and you screamed out and begged for mercy.” He exaggeratedly imitated him, “‘No; please don’t. I’ll do anything you ask.’ You made a deal with us, like the coward that you are, that when the windows blew out of the building, you would run through and find her. You are weak. You are a traitor.”
“You don’t know me.”
“We know you just like we knew your father and your father’s father. You are finished.”
The young soldier’s arms flailed as he rose in the air. He began to yell out and gasped at the sound of gunfire coming from behind him. Jade came from around the corner with a machine gun.
“I told you I would keep my sight on you.”
She dropped to one knee and began shooting those around him. The soldier fell to the floor, scrambled over and hit the trigger for the door that had been booby-trapped. He ran towards Jade and threw himself on top of her, shielding her from the imminent explosion. The detonation killed many of them. The soldier jumped to his feet before the smoke could clear and help Jade up. They bounded into the elevator.
The young soldier looked at Jade. “Thanks for saving me.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet.” She tapped her foot anxiously awaiting the opening of the elevator door. An alarm now resonated throughout the building.
The elevator opened and Jade ran out yelling, “They’re inside!”
“Darryl, take the soldier and start getting everyone to the back stairwell. We have no way of knowing how they will get up here. Keep your eyes and ears open. They are out in full force, and their leader is with them,” said Dawn.
“They have a leader?” asked Darryl.
“Yes, they are not creatures wandering aimlessly as the world thinks—well kind of. They are human but they are in a great deal of torment. Any control that they once had over their actions or bodies is gone.”
“What’s controlling them?” asked Seth.
Dawn didn’t answer. This was the most explanation of anything that she had ever given, so they pressed the issue.
“Dawn, what’s controlling them?” asked Jade.
“Evil. An evil that has been assigned to their ancestors for centuries has manifested.”
They looked back and forth at each other, only half understanding.
“You will learn more later. Right now, you must stand with me. The key to defeating them, in this hour, is to rid yourselves of all hate, fear, and anxiety. Love gives you power. They are unmatched to it.”
“Did you just say, love?” Jade asked unconvinced.
“Yes, I know how it sounds, sappy and crazy, but it is what is required in this hour.”
As Dawn finished her sentence, a large section of concrete exploded from the wall, and they poured into the opposite end of the room. Dawn closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
They moved in closer whispering, “It’s her.”
The fire sprinkler system started shooting water from the ceiling. Dawn opened her eyes and exhaled a rush of air that was so cold that the creatures began to slow down. Blood flow was restricted to their extremities and their vital organs failed as they were frozen, solid.
Dawn knew what her team was thinking and answered their question out loud. “They have limitations. The one we serve has no limitations.”
“Why aren’t we using guns?” asked Raymond.
“I don’t question His instruction. When He says to lift the sword, then and only then do we lift the sword.”
She turned back and looked at Seth. “We must stand together.” He came forward and stood next to her and took her hand. Jade took her hand on the opposite side, and Ryan joined hands with Seth. Raymond ran over and grabbed Jade’s free hand. They all backed up. The room took up a whole floor of the building. They continued to pile into the room, over and around those that had been frozen.
“But how can we— “
“Not you, Him. He does miraculous things when his people are in one accord.”
There was some link of strength that transmitted through their held hands. “Think on love,” Dawn continued. She hadn’t moved her mouth, but they all heard her.
They had full knowledge
of what was terrifying or grotesque to the human eye and attempted to transform themselves into those images as they approached.
“It’s all an illusion, so don’t focus on what you see. Close your eyes if you must. They want what you see to ignite fear in you. They feed off fear. Focus on love.”
The room was full of them now. Dawn closed her eyes and took a deep breath while squeezing the hand of those that held her hand. She opened her eyes and exhaled. All at once Seth, Jade, Raymond, and Ryan, exhaled and froze the entire room in ice.
They looked at each other.
“Oh my God.”
“Yes, God indeed,” Dawn replied.
20
Dawn turned to face her team.
“Listen, there is a lesson in every experience. You didn’t try to win in your strength. You trusted and were obedient, and He fought the battle for you. You could not have done it. A rifle could not have saved you. Remember that.”
They all nodded in agreement but were still in awe of what had just happened. They exited the back door and ran to the back stairwell to where the others were waiting.
“Everyone, get to the roof. If you don’t have everything that you need, it’s too late. Leave it. Take those two bags,” instructed Dawn.
She heard a sound coming from the roof. “Ryan, there’s a surprise for you up there. Take the soldier and Darryl with you.”
“Really? Okay.” Ryan sounded skeptical.
He opened the door to the roof. There stood a Ch-47 Chinook helicopter still running. There was sheer joy on Ryan’s face. He then noticed the two pilots who waved them over.
“Can you fly?” yelled the one on the left.
“Yes,” Ryan replied an nodded in case he wasn’t heard over the noise of the helicopter blades.
The rest of the Titanpointe team made it up the stairs and boarded the helicopter, about thirty-five in all. Ryan and Darryl became the pilot crew.
Lastly, Seth, Jade, and Raymond ran for the helicopter and jumped in. Dawn was not long behind them. She looked back at the pilots that were still standing on the roof. “Let’s go.”