Gradually their eyes adjusted to the bright light that emanated from the open doorway, and Jericho eased into the new hallway, Gabrielle right behind him. The walls were featureless and blaring white. The entire ceiling was the light source. She eased up beside him, and they continued down the hallway side by side. Twenty feet down they came to the first of a series of doorways set on either side of the hall. It opened automatically, and surprised Jericho to the point that he jumped back. He swung his arm up to protect Gabrielle from whatever it may contain. From his vantage point, it appeared to be a room similar to where he had found Gabrielle earlier. It was featureless except for the bed. However this bed did not have the metallic arms to loom over it. It did however have something similar, yet not as menacing, located at the foot of the bed. Gabrielle peeked inside, and then turned to continue down the hall. The next door on the opposite wall slid open as she approached. It was another room, exactly as the previous. Jericho glanced inside as he passed by, and approached the next doorway. Again the door opened into another room exactly the same. They continued ahead to the next doorway of the series and as it opened, they also heard the hallway door from where they had come slide open. Jericho lunged into the room, and pulled Gabrielle with him. They flattened themselves against the wall by the door, his control stick ready for action. A rectangular machine zipped past the open doorway, with a tank sitting atop its shiny surface.
“It’s one of those-” Gabrielle began, as she tried to describe the tanks where she had seen the tiny baby.
“Shh!” Jericho said quietly. They heard another door slide open, and he quickly peeked down the hallway, and watched as the rectangular machine turned into the next room, and the door slid closed behind it. “Come on.” He said to Gabrielle. They inched out into the hallway, and looked back down from where they had come and saw the door was closed again. Cautiously, they approached the next doorway, which suddenly slid open. The rectangular machine exited, pivoted, then ran up the hallway and disappeared around a corner. Jericho and Gabrielle looked at one another. It had not carried the tank. The door in front of them stayed open, and carefully they both looked inside.
The tank sat on the floor next to the end of the bed, and the metallic contraption at the foot of the bed busily draped cloth over something on the bed. There were two large raised areas near the foot, but from their vantage point it was hard to see. Jericho motioned for Gabrielle to stay in the hall, and as she nodded her acceptance, he eased into the room, and kept his back against the wall as he did so. As he eased further into the room, he could see that the bed was occupied. Apparently asleep, a woman lay there peacefully. It was a woman he knew. Sarah. He looked down at the tank on the floor, and Jericho realized what was happening. Sarah was being implanted with an embryo. The embryo of her second child.
The multi-armed metallic thing at the end of the bed had positioned her body, so that her legs were raised near the end of the bed. As it continued to work there, an additional arm deftly opened the top of the tank, and then retracted. Suddenly another arm, that ended in a large tube-like device shot into the tank, paused, and then slowly began to move back and forth. Then gently it raised out of the liquid, pivoted back under the sheet, and disappeared. Jericho eased back out of the room.
“What’s happening?” Gabrielle whispered. He realized she could not see Sarah from her position in the hallway.
“It’s Sarah.” He said quietly. Her eyes went wide.
“We have to get her out of-” She began as she started to enter the room. He restrained her, and pushed her away from the door, which slid shut behind them.
“No, Gabby.” He said softly, as she continued to fight him.
“But it’s Sarah! We have to save her!” she said louder now.
“Shh.” He said, and held her even tighter as she continued to fight. “She’s not being hurt.”
“But that thing-” She began, as she still struggled with him.
“Its implanting her.” He said. “With her second child.” Her struggle died down, as realization began to dawn. The tiny hand in the tank flashed back to her, her own hand on the tank. “Her new baby.” He said softly. All fight was gone from Gabrielle now, as she looked into his eyes.
“Her second child.” She said dejectedly. He nodded. She looked back down the hallway, towards the door that led to the hallway lined with tanks. Tears welled up, and then overflowed. Her lip trembled, but she did not utter a single sound. He held her. She sniffed, and wiped her eyes, as she drug her forearm across her face. “Let’s go.” She said, and turned and walked further down the hallway. Jericho, tears in his own eyes, nodded his head, and followed.
In a few steps they had arrived at the turn the rectangular machine had disappeared around, and cautiously peered ahead. The continuing hallway was clear, and they quickly proceeded further, and paused as they came to a large indentation on the right wall. Gabrielle hesitated and looked further down the hall, then at the indentation, and then at Jericho. He pointed to a control panel, and she nodded. She laid her hand across it, and seconds later keyed in a sequence of commands. Suddenly the indentation split in the middle, and each side slid into the wall. They stepped to the edge to look inside, and saw a fairly large square shaft with an open grate for flooring. As they looked down they could only see darkness beneath the grating. Jericho motioned for Gabrielle to wait, as he tested his weight on the grated floor. It held firm, and he motioned for her to join him. Even as she entered, she too stepped cautiously on the grating, and was unnerved that she could see right through it down into the dark abyss below. She quickly moved to the side, and wrapped her arm around a metal pipe that came up from the floor. As she did so, she followed the pipe up with her eyes, and realized that it interconnected with other pipes that came up from the floor as well. And at the interconnection, she could see that it connected to a cable of sorts.
Suddenly the bottom fell out beneath her. Her heart lunged into her throat. Her hair began to wildly stream upwards as she fell. As she still held tightly to the pipe, she screamed, and heard Jericho scream as well. She caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye, and saw that he held on for dear life as well. Suddenly, the fall stopped, and she was thrown to the floor. Her control stick was wrenched from her hand, and she watched in horror as it slipped through the grated floor. She lunged for it, as it slid completely through, and disappeared into the darkness. She looked over to Jericho, who still held tightly to the pipe. He let go, came to her, and helped her up just as the wall slid apart. They looked out into a monstrous cavern with disbelief. From their vantage point the place seemed immeasurable. The huge ceiling vaulted high overhead, higher than any ceiling they had ever seen. And it was not made of the smooth flat stone that buildings in the village were made of, but instead it was rough and multicolored. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before. In awe, they cautiously edged out of the grate floored room, and entered the cavern. Two steps out, and the door slid shut behind them. Jericho whirled back, and quickly began to look for a control panel. Gabrielle joined his efforts, but like the ceiling above, the walls here were rough and irregular. There was nothing flat except for the door itself. There was no control panel.
“Well.” Jericho said, as he gave up on finding a way to reopen the door. “Let’s see where we are now.” He walked cautiously ahead towards one of the large stacks of boxes, which seemed to be everywhere within the cavern. He used it as cover, and peeked around the corner. He saw that the stacks were actually in specific rows, with just enough space between them to walk between. He motioned to Gabrielle, as he began to weave his way deeper into the cavern. As they moved, he was able to see a large contraption that stood high above the stacks on the floor. He paused. Gabrielle helped him climb the closest stack to get a better look. His foot slipped, and he almost fell, but was able to catch himself, and finally climbed the last box to the top. He stayed crouched on top of the stack as he took in what
he saw. There appeared to be some type of series of rails suspended horizontally from the ceiling. And attached to that rail system was a large machine that would lower itself, pick up one of the stacks, and shift it to the center of the room. Then it would zoom back, and pick up the next stack, and shift it to the center of the room as well. He could not see exactly where the stacks were moved, but did notice that they were closer together there.
“What’s that?” Gabrielle asked, as she startled him when she pulled herself up beside him.
“I don’t know.” He said, and pointed as the machine set another stack in the middle of the room. “I think we should go over there.” He said.
“Up or down?” She asked.
“Up or down?” He said, his expression made it clear that he did not understand.
“Go there, from up here?” She said, jumping to the top of the next stack of boxes. “Or down there?” She said as she smiled, and pointed to the ground. Jericho smiled as well.
“Well. We’re already up here.” He said as he leapt to the stack that she was on. He landed and waved his arms a bit to steady himself. “Let’s go!” He said and leaped to the next stack. She followed. One stack at a time they made their way closer to the center. Shortly, Jericho came to a stop.
“Look.” He said, as he pointed to the long series of large flat steel platforms in the center of the room. The overhead machine deposited a last stack of boxes, which completely filled one of the platforms, and as it rose back up, the platform moved towards the far wall of the cavern. From their high position, they watched as the box laden platform picked up speed, then disappeared into the large hole bored into the cavern wall. “I think that’s where we want to go.”
“Where exactly, Jericho?” She asked.
“Over there.” He pointed.
“Not there.” She said. “I mean where, exactly.”
“Right over there!” He exclaimed.
“No. You’re not understanding me.” She grabbed him by his shoulders and made him look at just her. “Where exactly are we going? Not right now, not next, but where? Where are we heading? Where is there to go?” Realization dawned on him. She was right. Where was there to go? What were they looking for? Would they even know when they got there? What if the only place to go was back to the village? What if this was all there was. Had he rescued her, just to lead her back to that? They couldn’t go back. Even if they wanted to. Not after all that had happened. Not after all that they had seen.
“I don’t know.” He said as he looked down, and then he turned away from her. “I don’t know where we are going Gabby. I don’t know if there is any place to go.” He looked back into her eyes. “Any place at all.” He placed his hand softly against her cheek. “But I know we are not going back. Not to the village. Not after all we have seen. We can’t go back.”
“I don’t think they would let us go back.” She said softly.
“Exactly.” He agreed. “Which is why we must go on.”
“But Jericho? What about my Mom and Dad? And Timothy? I can’t just leave them.”
“Gabby. It’s not like we have any choice about this. We didn’t ask to be here. Not in this situation, anyway. You scanned positive for the plague. They took you.”
“But what about Rebecca? And your Dad?” She asked, the tears evident in her eyes, though she did not cry. “Can you just leave them?” He looked at her for a moment, and then shook his head.
“No. I can’t.”
“So what are we going to do?” She asked.
“Well we can’t go back. Not right now at least.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“We don’t have an option. We have to go on.”
“But where?” She asked.
“I don’t know, Gabby. But we go on. And on. And on. And on.”
“Until when?” She asked.
“Until we know.” He answered.
“Know what?” She asked again.
“That we are there.” He said.
“Where?” She asked, still completely puzzled by his answers.
“There.” He said.
“But where?” She asked, exasperated now.
“There!” He said forcefully. “There, where we can live. Where we can be linked. Where we can have children. Where there is no plague. Where there are no Guardians. Where we can bring our families and know they will be safe. Where we can control our own lives. Where we can do what we want, when we want.” He grabbed her and pulled her close. “Where we can love.” He said as he kissed her. She closed her eyes and kissed him back. As he pulled back, their embrace released. Her eyes suddenly showed fear.
“Jericho!” She yelled, as she pointed up to the large over head machine as it rapidly plunged down towards them.
Chapter 23
Immortal Page 22