It had taken quite a while to calm Gabrielle down after her exclamation that Jonah and Vanessa were murderers. Once fairly calm, Jonah was able to get them to tell of their lives in the village. The living conditions, the plague, and how births were authorized and that embryos were implanted. As they told of the trip through Quarantine, the warehouse, the embryo tanks, and of Sarah, it all began to come together for Jonah. Even Vanessa had listened wide eyed, and couldn’t help but cry when Gabrielle spoke of the tiny hand of the baby against the wall of the tank. Jonah had surmised that the village was where the embryos were raised, for eventual selection and ultimately, death and disassembly, so that their organs could be used to rejuvenate the citizens of New Sebastian. His mind tried to fight the thought, that their whole society had become one of monsters, like the vampires of lore from centuries ago. But hardest for Jonah was the realization that this had to be stopped. Some way, some how, this had to come to an end, and it had to end now. His heart had hurt as he had listened to them tell of their lives. The confines that they were forced to live in, and the realization that even the simplest of pleasures like to have an option of what food they would eat, had been denied them. With his hand in Vanessa’s, he spoke to them all.
“This has to stop now.” He said. Jericho and Gabrielle looked at one another as she slipped her hand into his. They looked back to him and nodded. Jonah looked at Vanessa.
“Jonah.” She said. “But how? It’s just us.” She got up and began to pace the floor. “Even you said that Roger and Charles are in on this.” She said, as her eyes pleaded with him.
“I don’t know.” He said, as he shook his head. “But some how, it has to stop now. Those are people over there. Just like us. They have every right to live and love, just as we do.” He stood up. “It is up to God, or Jesus, or Allah, or natural selection…” He pounded his fist against the other. “Take your pick! But it is not up to man to decide who lives and who dies.” He turned back to Jericho and Gabrielle, and quietly said, “Just look at these kids. So young. So innocent.” A tear came to his eye. “They didn’t ask for any of this. They didn’t ask to be alive. But they are. And, here they are. And they have hopes and dreams, and they know there is more to life than what’s been given them. More to life than the lie they have been made to live. Vanessa, they deserve the same chance every man has. Every human has. They deserve the chance at life and love.” He said, and then turned away, as emotion overcame him. Vanessa stepped over to him, and placed her hands on his shoulders from behind, and leaned her head against his back.
“They deserve our help.” She said quietly. “But, Jonah…” she began. He turned, held her tightly for a moment, and then released his embrace. He looked into her eyes, and saw the confusion and concern. He kissed her softly on her cheek. He could feel her pull back slightly at first, and then relax.
“There is no option here, Nessa.” He said quietly, so low that the others could not hear.
“But Jonah? What would we do?” She asked, her eyes were wide with fear. She turned and left the room, with tears in her eyes.
“Excuse me.” He said, as he passed Gabrielle and Jericho and followed her into the bedroom. “Nessa.” He entered the room behind her, and the door slid shut behind him. She turned.
“How dare you.” She said with restrained fury in her voice. “This is our life, Jonah. Our lives. How can you jeopardize what we have. How can you just throw away the last hundred years, like it doesn’t matter at all?” She sniffed between her tears, and turned away from him again. He slowly approached her from behind, and whispered over her shoulder.
“Nessa. My love. I don’t want to throw away our lives. I want to be with you forever. You are my love. My hope. My reason for living.” He said softly, and placed his hand gently at her side. She lifted her face, sniffed, then wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Jonah, dearest. But that is exactly what you are suggesting we do.” She said, the anger in her voice less intent, but still evident. “I feel bad for them.” She said as she swept her hand towards the living area. “I do. And maybe we can help them somehow. But Jonah.” She said. She turned towards him. “We cannot put ourselves in danger for them. We cannot put our lives in jeopardy for them.”
“Nessa-” He began.
“I will not let you do that.” She said, and suddenly the anger boiled up again. “We have a nice life, Jonah. We have everything we need right here. We have each other.” She said as she grabbed his arms. “And you will not throw that away!” Her voice cracked slightly as it rose in pitch.
“Shh.” He said, and turned his head towards the closed bedroom door. “Nessa, those kids need our help.”
“Great! Feed them. Give them something to drink! Let them take a shower. Whatever. But you are not going to interfere with this. You’ve done too much already. Why, what if Roger or Charles found out that you had helped them this much. If they knew they were here? What would they do to us now?”
“Nessa, I don’t know what they would do, but it doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” The fire in her eyes flared. “Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said? Aren’t you listening to me?”
“I’ve heard every word.” He backed away from her. “And I can’t believe that any of them came from you.” He turned away from her and stared at the door. “Nessa?” She turned and looked at him. “I’m not sure I even know who you are anymore. I would never have believed-”
“Who I am?” She asked with disbelief. “I!” She began. “Am your wife!” She quickly closed the gap between them. “And you pledged to love me. To honor me. To protect me!”
“And I do love you.” He said as he slowly turned back and saw the enraged expression on her face. “But I am going to help them. With or without you, I am going to help.” She slapped him across the face, and turned away angrily. His expression had not changed. “And Nessa?” He said.
“What!” She said between her tears.
“I’m going to stop this madness. I’m going to expose this whole horrible nightmare.”
“What do you mean?” She asked, as her anger turned into sudden worry.
“There will be no more harvesting. Not as long as I live. And the others?” He stepped to the door, and it slid open. “The people in the village? I will make sure they are released. They will be free.” He turned and left the room. She looked after him in disbelief, not able to comprehend that her beloved Jonah had just confirmed that he would end their entire civilization as they now knew it.
Jonah crossed the room silently, and stepped to the glass wall which opened onto the vast covered patio. He pulled out his pipe, and stepped to the balcony rail. He looked down into the street below. Even as he took a drag from his pipe, what he saw made his blood go cold. A group of six of the mechanical men marched up the street in perfect unison. He ducked back out of view.
“Jericho.” He yelled, and motioned for him to come to the railing. Jericho ran outside and up to the rail. As he looked where Jonah pointed, he saw the last of the Guardians as it turned the corner and headed away. “That’s what I saw in sector two.” Jonah told him excitedly.
“They are Guardians.” Jericho said simply.
“Guardians of what?”
“Of us, it seems.” Jericho said with a blank expression. Jonah, thought for second, and then nodded.
“They were all carrying rods, like the one you have.” He pointed at the control stick in Jericho’s hand.
“They all have them. I took this away from one of them. You have to watch the ends of these things.” He said, and explained how the control stick worked. Gabrielle and Vanessa joined them outside, as Jericho finished the explanation of how the control stick could be used to disable a Guardian.
“Do they have any other weapons?” Jonah asked, as he noticed that Vanessa had rejoined them. He glanced at her, but did not betray any emotion. She would not look at him,
but instead spoke to Gabrielle.
“Do they need anything else?” Asked Vanessa. “You saw the size of those things.” She shuddered at the thought of facing one.
“She’s right.” Gabrielle said. “The control stick is the only thing we’ve ever seen them carry. Besides a whip, that is.”
“A whip?” Asked Jonah.
“That,” began Jericho, “is another story.” He said quietly. “Their center of balance seems to be here.” He pointed to his stomach. “They can be toppled with enough force, applied up here.” He said, as he indicated a place high on his own chest. “But that’s the hard way to do it.” He said seriously, and then grinned sheepishly.
“Alright.” Said Jonah. “First we have to figure out our plan. We have to get the two of you out of here.” For the first time since the outburst in the bedroom, Vanessa looked at him, with a slight sliver of hope in her face. He knew that she believed the solution was for them to be gone.
“You’re going to send them back?” Vanessa tried not to relay her hope in her tone.
“No. Not back there.” Jonah replied.
“If not there, then where? They can’t stay here.” She said emphatically. “And if they won’t go there…they’ve got to go somewhere.” She said, exasperated. “Where?”
“I’ve got an idea.” He said, and turned and walked back inside. “Follow me.” He led them inside, past the silent video wall with as its images streamed by, and back into the kitchen. The two trays still sat on the center island, with bits and pieces of meat and sweet buns haphazardly arranged. Jonah picked up the largest of the buns and laid it on the counter. “Okay, this is New Sebastian.” He looked to Jericho, then Gabrielle. “Where we are now.” They both nodded. He picked up a piece of meat and set it adjacent to the sweet bun. “And this is sector two.” Their expressions were blank. “Where we met earlier. The room with the boxes.” They nodded. He took a piece of sweet bun, tore a few pieces from it, and made a line that led away from sector two. “And this is the tunnel.”
“What tunnel?” Vanessa asked.
“It leads back to other side.” Gabrielle answered. “Into a huge room, full of those stacks of boxes. Just like sector two.” Jonah nodded, and placed a piece of meat at the end of the line he had made.
“And this,” he said, as he pointed, “is that room.”
“You’ve been there?” Jericho asked, with sudden disbelief. Jonah nodded.
“A long time ago, when I was a kid.” He pointed to one side of the meat that represented the cavern. “Did you see a large door? Here?” Jericho looked at Gabrielle, who shook her head. Jericho thought for another second, and then shook his head as well.
“No. Not that we noticed.” He said.
“Let’s not go into the how or why, but lets just say that I have a very good reason to trust my memories from long ago. I know the door is right there.”
“We came through a large door to get there, but it was over here.” Said Gabrielle, as she pointed to the opposite side.
“Yeah.” Said Jericho. “It was some kind of up and down room. Like the one we used to come up here.” He said as he pointed towards the entrance of the apartment.
“An elevator.” Said Jonah. “I remember that as well, though I was never in it.”
“And you don’t want to be, either.” Gabrielle said. “It’s like it has no floor!” She shook her head, and remembered her fear while she had stood on the open grated floor.
“That’s not a problem, because that’s not where we are going.” He said as Vanessa turned and glared at him when he had said the word, we. “The door we want is right here, where I said.”
“I just don’t remember seeing it.” Jericho said.
“Me neither. Not even when we were on top of the stack.” Said Gabrielle, as she shook her head. Vanessa was nervous and tried to remain calm, as she reached into the cabinet and removed more bottles of assorted colored liquids for everyone. She sat the first down in front of Jericho, and picked up his empty bottle. She casually tossed it towards the cabinet, which opened, accepted it, and closed in a flash of a second. She blinked in shock, as in that same instance, Jericho had sensed the movement and wrapped his arm around her, pulled her to the side, and swung out with his control stick. Jonah’s mouth hung open. He silently stepped around the extended control stick, and backed his way towards the counter where the bottle had disappeared. He pressed a hidden activation switch. The cabinet opened and revealed its most recent contents. Jonah clearly saw now what he thought he had seen happen only seconds before. Jericho had, in mid flight, struck the bottle. The control stick had melted a small hole in its side. Vanessa still stood in shock, as she desperately clutched the remaining three bottles as if her life depended on it.
“That’s some pretty quick reflexes you’ve got there.” Jonah said calmly to Jericho. Jericho relaxed his stance, as he realized that no danger was currently at bay, and dropped the control stick to his side. He looked at Jonah, and shrugged. “You always been that fast?” Jonah asked. Jericho shrugged again.
“He’s not really that fast.” Said Gabrielle.
“Looked pretty fast to me.” Said Vanessa, as she sat her three bottles down rather shakily.
“I’m not sure that fast even describes it.” Said Jonah. “More like blazing.”
“Seriously.” Said Gabrielle. “He’s not that fast. He just feels what’s about to happen. And when he senses something, it’s like, before he even knows it, he’s moving.” Jonah continued to stare at Jericho in wonder, as Jericho nodded.
“Like a premonition.” Said Jonah.
“Premonition?” Asked Jericho. “What’s a premonition?”
“It’s when you know something is going to happen before it actually happens.” Jericho considered this for a moment.
“I guess. Like a premonition. But it’s not so much as I know what’s going to happen, as I just feel things.” He looked away for a second, and then turned his gaze back to Jonah. “It’s like I feel where I need to be, or need to go or even how to move sometimes.”
“It probably has something to do with his assignment at the factory.” Gabrielle said.
“Factory?” Asked Jonah? “What Factory.”
“Didn’t we mention that?” Replied Gabrielle. “That’s where we went every day. We all went there. You know, for our shifts. Some had night shifts, but we had day shifts.” She said, as she snapped the cap off of her new bottle and took a drink. Jonah’s eyes lit up.
“Could you see the ocean? From the factory, I mean?” Jonah asked excitedly.
“Ocean?” Asked Jericho. “You mean like the water. The beach?” he asked.
“Yes. The rolling waters at the edge.” Said Jonah. Jericho shook his head.
“Not from the factory.” He said, and Jonah’s excitement began to wither.
“But we once went there, from the road.” Gabrielle said, and Jericho nodded.
“We got there from the road to the factory. Through the fence.” He said. Jonah’s expression shifted to one of relief.
“Perfect.” He said. Absolutely perfect.” He pointed back to the map he had created out of food. “This is where the door is. And don’t worry, I am certain that it is there. And more importantly, I know where it goes.” Jericho and Gabrielle exchanged glances.
“Where?” Asked Vanessa. Jonah, looked at her, a twinkle in his eyes.
“Outside.”
Chapter 31
Immortal Page 30