“Are you okay? Can I help you?” Addie asked.
Silence.
“You don’t listen very well, do you?” Lucifer said, still keeping his eyes shut.
Addie smiled. “I’m sorry.”
Lucifer finally opened his eyes and pulled himself up on his four legs, towering over Addie. “I suppose I’m not going to get any rest here with you badgering me.” He playfully nudged Addie, which knocked him back two steps. “Let’s go check on Noila. I want to be there to help if I can.”
They raced toward the cavern. When they arrived on the lift in the large circular room, a crowd of humans and Antarcticans were huddled around the window of cavern five. Addie walked over to the crowd and looked for Joshua and Gavin. They stood at the front, their hands pressed against the glass. Addie looked in. Noila was suspended in the air, with a collection of Ptahs holding her in complete stillness. Three tubes with an orangish-yellow liquid ran from a replicator at the side of the room to her mouth and the sides of her head. Ptahs the size of inchworms covered her extremities and were crawling in and out of her ears. Her left hand twitched every couple of seconds. Addie placed one paw on Gavin’s shoulder and the other on Joshua’s. They turned to look at him and nodded.
“Do you know what they’re doing to her?” Gavin asked, worry creasing his face.
“I’m not sure, but my guess is that they’re trying to repair any cellular damage she suffered. She was in the cold and without oxygen for a long time. I’m so sorry.” Addie squeezed their shoulders then turned around and headed to his quarters in cavern four. He sat down on his bed and looked at an image of Noila looking back at him. He touched it, rubbing her face, which he knew was so soft and scented like lilies. “Get better,” he said softly. The room shook violently, and the panel her face was peering out from cracked. An alarm sounded. He reported to the circular lobby for instructions.
Henri stood in front of the main column, waiting for everyone to arrive. The lights in cavern five were dark. He looked out over the assembled crowd. “I’m sorry to report that we weren’t able to save Noila. The damage to her body was far too extensive. I apologize if this sounds abrupt, but we’re under real threat in the cavern. The falling ice shelf has destabilized the ground that this facility is built in. We need to evacuate the caverns as soon as possible.” He clasped his hands in front of him over his white coat and looked down for a minute, searching for words, then looked up. “Take what you can with you, but not at the cost of slowing you down. An aircraft will arrive in fifteen hours to take us off the continent. We should plan to leave then. A small group headed by myself will stay behind for an additional day to shut down the facility and make sure our technology won’t harm the environment. The plane will return here to retrieve us after you’re safely on the Dragon. I don’t know what’s next. Thank you, everyone, for the work you’ve done here. I dreamed we would save the Antarctican race, but I’m afraid we’ve failed.” He turned away and returned to his lab.
Addie went up to Gavin and Joshua, who were staring blankly at the center column where Henri had announced the death of Noila. Their eyes were red and filled with tears. As the crowd dispersed back to their workstations and quarters, Gavin and Joshua still stood there, unable to move against the shock of the news. When the crowd was gone, Lucifer appeared from the column in his human form. He was using a cane topped with a dragon head, and his gait was slow and cautious as he made his way toward Joshua and Gavin. He wore thick white fur cape that trailed behind him on the floor.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” He stood in front of them. “Please let us know your ritual customs. We’ll be happy to do what we can.”
“I don’t know what I believe anymore,” Gavin managed to say through a haze of tears.
“It isn’t finished. Joshua still has a great purpose here in Antarctica, a purpose his mother made possible.”
“What?” Joshua looked up at him, confused.
“You’ve always been the one I was seeking.” He nodded toward Gavin. “Your father was a man of great faith. In fact, his faith took him on a journey that led him to me, one he believed was evil and corrupt, but it was all part of our plan. My inner circle made it possible that he might search for and find what he believed existed. You see, our myths are a reflection of our past, our experience, and what we hope is to come. Not a static story forever chronicled in a text. Your myth, though—your story—is that you’re destined to save a race, and we’re not done with that journey. There’s still a chance.” He reached into his cape and pulled out four vials of the serum. “Your mother discovered a way to make the laws of the universe work in our favor, something we were searching for. Now I need you to go back into your cavern and summon the Ptahs. I believe there’s something left for you to do. These are the last results of your mother’s work. They were just delivered to me by our loyal Ptahs, who worked closely with her.” He handed Joshua the vials and patted him in the direction of the cavern. “Her work is going to change our world.”
…
After much urging from Henri and Lucifer, Gavin reluctantly left his son with Lucifer and the Antarcticans. Only the humans were headed back to the Dragon. In several groups, the inhabitants of the caverns took the disk to the surface then made the grim march through Chimeruth. They kept their heads looking at only the feet moving in front of them, feeling guilty that their people would survive while a species was dying in front of them. Stacks of Antarctican funerary bones lay everywhere, and fires in the distance had been lit, filling the clear-blue sky with white smoke, making it look as if a cloud tsunami was racing to overcome the continent. Some of the Antarcticans who hadn’t yet succumbed were making the final preparations for their relatives in the area Gavin was walking through. He watched the somber beasts trudge through the slush, ignoring the crumbling world around them and honoring their dead in their last rites. He wanted to break away from the group and build a monument to Noila, to the woman who had saved him and given him his son. The woman he had betrayed in a moment of weakness. She deserved her mark to show what she had done on this earth.
The humans exited the village, passed through the mountain range, and boarded the Boeing 737. Gavin, still in complete shock, watched the continent fall away as they took off. He wondered whether he would ever see his son again, or if his life would fall off a cliff and he would descend forever deeper into this nightmare of death and destruction that surrounded him. He rested his head against the window and fell asleep, exhausted by sorrow.
Omega
The walls of the shaft leading down into the cavern turned metallic, with thousands of Ptahs swarming like termites into the space. The metallic multicolored bodies flooded into the main area, forcing the remaining Antarcticans to uneasily gather on one side, next to the door to cavern one. The Ptahs slithered through the broken glass of cavern two. Addie had his back pressed against the wall just inside that cavern. He usually trusted the Ptahs, but now the whole continent was in a state of desperation. He’d never seen so many of them in the same place. He saw Joshua looking at Zhu, whose body was limp and lifeless. The boy’s remaining heat was melting the small pile of snow it laid upon, which made his body sink into the white powder, disintegrate, and disappear. The Ptahs surrounded the pile of snow, obscuring Addie’s view of it. When they broke apart and continued through the room, the snow was gone. They kept coming, hundreds then thousands of Ptahs, all sizes and colors, a painters’ pallet gone wild against the blank canvas of the room. Joshua held a straight face; Zhu’s death was sudden, but the number of new events happening around him overwhelmed his normal capacity for sadness. He stood in the center of the room and gently lifted his outstretched arms, his palms up to the ceiling. The Ptahs stopped moving and reared their heads deferentially toward Joshua.
He spoke out to them. “Are you willing to serve me?” he asked.
Their polished silver heads spun, creating the sound of a jet engine revving before takeoff.
Joshua closed his eyes an
d slowly brought his outstretched arms together in front of him, pressing his palms tightly against each other. The Ptahs swarmed together, the smaller bodies getting lost in the mix. They twisted and spun in unison.
He moved his hands to the side of his face in deep concentration. The massive ball of Ptahs began to take shape, forming a small female foot, then an arm, then finally the shape of a woman. She was slim, her body covered in small pink roses. Then her eyes appeared—two clear-green orbs. Her hair was an undulating gold, piled high and reminiscent of the Greek monster Medusa. Addie didn’t recognize the woman. She was standing on a round platform made up of the remaining Ptahs.
Joshua opened his eyes and took in the woman standing before him. “Margie?” he whispered.
She looked at him, did a small curtsy, and waved. “It’s me, sugah.”
“How?”
“I’m always here, just waitin’ for ya. Don’t ever think I’ll leave ya.”
Joshua stepped closer to her then gave her a tight hug, which she returned. He pulled back and looked at her. “Your eyes are so real, so beautiful,” he said.
“It’s me,” she said with a giggle.
“I thought I lost you in the cave, when that boulder fell on you. I thought I’d never see you again. And then when all the voices stopped talking, it was so quiet. I just never…are you sure you’re here?”
“As much as I can be, and I’m doin’ real well too. I ain’t gettin’ chased around no more.” She put her hand on her belly, and it started to grow, pushing out until it was the size of a soccer ball. “I’ve brought you somethin’, something that’s gonna change everythin’.” She smiled as she rubbed her protruding, pregnant belly. “You know what’s in here?” She looked at him expectantly.
“I’m guessing a baby.” Joshua put his hands on her belly.
“It’s gonna be a new world, all this, ya know. I’m not all that sure I can be parta it.”
“Margie, what are you talking about? What new world?” The Ptahs rippled under his hands.
She threw her head back and moaned in pain. “It’s time, Joshy. It’s time.” As she leaned back, the platform she was standing on transformed and cradled her back, gently easing her into a birthing position. “Lucifer should have given ya something. Give it to me, give it to me now,” she told him.
Joshua pulled the vials from his pockets and stood over her before uncorking the tops and gently pouring the clear liquid into her mouth. She drank them down, one by one, until all four were gone.
Margie held her belly, which grew so immense that her arms were fully stretched as she held her fingertips over the top of the anxious child within. As the bulge began to shrink in size, she screamed in pain, and then with one last labored huff, a ball rolled from her onto the floor, which was littered with broken lab equipment. It came to rest next to the back of a replicator. The inside of the ball became visible, and a bright light glowed within the newly created object. Joshua thought about his first training with Zhu, when he had expanded the orb he was chasing, transforming it into his world. He imagined the light of the world inside this new orb in front of him. The tightly wound, colorful bodies of the Ptahs squirmed and slithered, then broke apart, light bursting from their insides, shining on every surface of the cavern.
A small, white, furry creature lay at the bottom, whimpering and pushing himself along, trying to move.
Lucifer stepped from the wall where he was watching and put his arm around Joshua. “My son.” He nodded at the small creature and beamed with pride. He scooped him out of the orb and licked between his ears. He nuzzled his face against his, holding him close before he set him in Joshua’s arms, “The Dragon is waiting for him.” As Lucifer turned and made his way to the door, his rear leg was dragging, his breath punctuated and raspy. The center column opened, and Lucifer headed inside.
Joshua looked back at Margie, who lay limp on the platform, her arms dangling toward the floor. Her emerald shoes separated from her legs into pieces and dropped to the floor, turning back into individual Ptahs. They swarmed together and disappeared into the walls. Her legs and torso and then her arms dripped into the floor. Her head was left, cradled by a pillow beneath it. Her lips parted, and she smiled, her eyes locking with Joshua’s, and then her head disintegrated.
Joshua stared at the space where she had been. The small Srechritoris purred and licked his hand. He looked down at the creature; his ivory fur was surrounded by a blue halo. “Is this really…?” He looked at Addie, who had moved toward him.
“We can only take Lucifer at his word. He’s been trying to save us since we came into existence, so I have no reason to doubt him.”
A loud crack shattered the ceiling above them, and the sound of the Ptahs making their way back to the surface and toward the far colonies of Antarcticans boomed.
“We don’t have much time.” Addie pushed Joshua toward the door. The cavern was awash in red warning lights. They both ascended out of the cavern and ran across the collapsing snow and ice.
“Don’t get too close. Everything’s unstable now,” Addie said. He got on his stomach and pulled himself toward the edge of the ice shelf. Below, the Dragon was bouncing around in the water like a bath toy. “I don’t know how we’re going to do this. We can’t take the lifts. The tunnels are no longer operational,” he yelled through the fierce wind.
The baby Srechritoris Joshua was holding felt bigger as it pressed against his arms. Joshua looked down at him and watched the blue light that hovered over his downy fur inch farther away from the creature’s body. A flash of light momentarily blinded Joshua, and he dropped the cub as he fell on his back and shielded his eyes. He pushed himself up quickly and started digging in the snow around him frantically, searching for the Srechritoris. The blue halo had expanded to the size of an elephant, its light from inside pulsing; the Srechritoris had to be inside it.
“Go,” Addie said, pointing to the orb.
“What? Go where?” Joshua asked.
“He’s created a portal.”
“Where does it go?”
“Does it matter? Look around,” Addie yelled over the wind, which was whipping through them and over the edge of the ice shelf.
Joshua looked into the blue mist rising up from the portal, trying to determine where it was coming from. A depression in the snow beside him gave way, and a deep hole opened next to him. He jumped to the side, closer to the cliff. He glanced at Addie, who was urging him on. He closed his eyes tightly and leapt into the blue sphere.
The first thing Joshua heard was a gasping cough. Then he opened his eyes to see Lucifer, halfway between forms, clutching the sides of a chair with his massive paws and blue nails. The mist surrounding them was thick. Addie suddenly appeared next to Joshua. Lucifer nodded at them and pointed in the direction they needed to go. As they waded through the mist, the small Srechritoris ran ahead of them and expanded his halo again, creating a second opening. The cub jumped through ahead of them.
“How does he know how to do that?” Joshua asked Addie.
“Instinct,” Addie said.
Joshua immediately noticed an absence of chill in the air. The mist cleared, and he and Addie were looking out over the drowned remains of Miami as they stood on a concrete balcony hundreds of feet in the air. Their eyes darted about, taking in the flooded spaces between the buildings, where palm trees looked like lotus plants floating on the water. Joshua grasped the railing and looked out; he saw the Dragon in the distance, in what once had been the Intercoastal. He turned his back toward the portal, which had closed, and saw a sliding glass door leading into an apartment. He went through it and found his grandmother, Cathy, behind a bar. A portrait of Lucifer in both of his forms hung above it. She was leaning over the counter, swirling some ice around in her brandy. Joshua ran to her and gave her a hug.
“Everything is going to be just fine, little J.” she kissed his head.
A toddler, with white hair and caramel skin, peeked out from behind Joshua.
Joshua looked down at the little boy and recognized his Antarctic blue eyes immediately, “He goes by many names.”
She took a sip of her brandy and patted the little boy’s head.
Acknowledgments
Books are not written by authors, but by the people in their lives who allow them the time to channel the stories that flow through them. First and foremost, I’d like to thank my husband, who has showered endless amounts of encouragement and support for my writing. My editor, Angela Brown, for the way she transforms my grand ideas into polished prose and brings experience and creativity to my work. And my mother, who knowingly or not, implanted the belief in my head that I’m capable of anything if I work hard and perservere, without which none of the success in my life would have manifested.
About the Author
James Suriano lives in Washington, DC, with his family.
He is also the author of Inbiotic (2015).
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