by Eric Black
He lived in his own world and was content that way.
At first, when his abilities began to develop, he traveled west. For the first few years he encountered people (unlike in the east) and his abilities were put to the test. He learned how strong and how sturdy he actually was.
He made his way to the extreme northwest and found his way across the waters to foreign lands. At first there were people there as well. But soon, just like the others, they all died. He journeyed for ten years before returning home. The world was dead.
He could have stayed where he was but something was calling him back to his homeland. Finally, he made his way back and was content to live out his days in silence.
One day, as he was walking among the Barren Lands, he discovered something. It contrasted immediately against the barren landscape that had been unchanged for centuries. At first, what he saw did not register. It was too alien from everything else in his desolate world. Then, from deep in his memories, what he was seeing was recalled and connected with him.
He looked up to the sky and thanked his Creator.
He was terrified as he knew what he sighted would mean. But at the same time, joy consumed him. “This will change everything.”
CHAPTER FIVE
There was a place in Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans – a top secret facility in full awareness of the government (the same facility that was used to test the effects of Agent Orange on military criminals during the Vietnam War). At this facility, they had drawn together some of the most influential and respected minds in the controversial field of Parapsychology.
Among the collected talent of world experts was Dr. Julius Babel, an expert on pyrokinetics. As a young man, he became interested in the subject when he discovered a journal from his great-great grandfather. His grandfather, who was given the unusual nickname of Intensity, lived for many years among the Taos Pueblo around the time of the Civil War. Intensity described how human healing among those people was attained through a connection to nature and animals. It was not noticed until many years later that many of these occurrences of healing and other abilities of those people might be psychic.
In the journal, Intensity described a Taos Pueblo named Jose who would waive his hands over dry stacked wood and that wood would combust without flame, thus creating the campfire for the evening. At first, Julius didn’t believe it. Then, he started to look more into the Taos Pueblos. And then to other groups of people who had similar experiences, especially Buddhists.
Julius became fascinated through discussions with Buddhists who sought enlightenment and their mention of iddhi, or physic powers. Through proper meditation, they believed that iddhi-powers could be achieved such as invisibility, flying, preservation of youth, passing through solid objects, and walking on water. Julius didn’t quite understand all of this as his world was rooted in science. But he did know that the human mind was mostly untapped and very powerful. If abilities were produced by the mind through unleashing specific parts of the brain that were generally unused, he knew that it was theoretically possible.
Further discussions and research led him to begin conducting experiments. These experiments involved some Buddhist techniques to release the mind and the results were astounding. He learned that the human mind contained specific chemicals that were released upon experiencing a psychic phenomenon. He was able harvest these chemicals.
Through the study of people who could start fires with their mind, he was able to extract the chemical in the brain excreted while demonstrating this skill. He dubbed the pyrokinetic chemical in the brain pyrokite and published an article on the subject.
That was when he was first contacted by the government.
With sudden unlimited funds, he was able to take the research to higher levels. He knew deep down that the government was not interested in the benefits to humanity with this type of research; they were only interested in using the research to the advantage of the military. In the end, he had to make a decision. He could use the funding and unlimited resources of the government (he was not sure that the United States was acting alone on this) to maximize his research, using the research to better humanity afterwards on his own, or he could go back to a world where he was limited in what he would be able to achieve. He chose the government.
Part of the trade off in working for the government was controversial human experimentation. Some the experiments went against everything he believed in but he justified them by reminding himself that it was for the benefit of the entire world once he completed his research.
He became the leading authority on pyrokinetics and his research took him further than he ever could have imagined. Using the pyrokinetic chemical pyrokite as well as the other collected chemicals, he was able to develop a device that would track other humans that possessed the ability.
It was this device that also led to the discovery of the portals.
Unknown during that time was that the portals were already there. The scientists simply had to discover them and then later learn to control their power.
The portals were developed by scientists and financed by governments as a way to move their military across continents to engage more efficient wars. What these scientists didn’t realize at first was that these portals were more than just a way to move from place to place, they were actually a way to move from time to time. They also learned quickly that only certain types of brainwaves would open and sustain the portals – and not everyone possessed those specific brain waves.
The portals all seemed to revolve around water. To the scientists surprise (and only known to a very select few in the government), some of these portals had silent guardians. One of the portals was a children’s fountain guarded by a great stone lion.
The portals at the Taj Mahal and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. were discovered by a satellite that orbited the Earth, posed as a NASA satellite. They discovered that while the waters at the National Mall had a guardian, the waters of the Taj Mahal did not. Further, the portal at the Taj Mahal was more unique than the other portals – this portal could only be accessed by pyrokinetics who made up an extremely minute percentage of the world’s population.
Julius was shocked to learn that his nine year old son was one of those that the device discovered to possess pyrokite, thus making him one of the few who could open the Taj Mahal portal.
CHAPTER SIX
Julius was in his office in the laboratory when the earth first shook. He had just worked sixteen hours straight and he was exhausted.
When Julius was at home, he could think of little else but his work. In fact, he went home so little that the psychologists were growing concerned (they analyzed him monthly because of the stress in which he worked). His wife understood his obsession with his work but his son was a different story. Liam missed his father fiercely. It was in those first moments of shaking that the initial regret about time spent away from his family crept into his mind.
An earthquake in southern Louisiana was very rare. He turned on the television and found that the news channels were already covering the story. But then, fifteen minutes into the broadcast, they were knocked off the air. Just before the screen went black, Julius heard something about North Korea. After that there was nothing. He tried the radio and found only static. The internet was down as well.
Julius tried to call his wife but his cell phone wouldn’t connect. The landline in his office wouldn’t connect. He began to panic. “I’m going home.” he told his assistant, who in the shock of what had happened only nodded absent-mindedly.
What Julius saw outside of the facility was worse than he could have imagined. There was little left. The buildings surrounding the facility had collapsed. He was able to make it a mile from his facility when the roads were blocked by debris and abandoned cars. He would have to make the ten mile trip to his house on foot.
The people were hysterical. No one knew what was going on. The looting and crime that often went with such events had already be
gun. Twice he had been on the receiving side of attempted violence but he had the foresight to remove his handgun from his glove box before abandoning his vehicle. When pulled free and aimed at the face of the attackers, Julius was left unmolested.
An hour and a half later (the longest hour and a half of his life), Julius made his way to his front door. The door was ajar. Fear instantly gripped him.
Gun drawn, he entered the entered the house. His wife was dead on the floor. Her face was covered in blood which also pooled from her abdomen on the floor. Julius cried out and went to her side but then another horrifying realization entered. “Where is Liam?”
“Liam! Liam!” he screamed his son’s name.
There was no answer. He ran upstairs and after going through each room frantically, he found his son hiding in a closet. “Liam!” he cried out in relief and clutched his son to him. “Are you hurt?”
Liam looked up at his father. He was visibly shaken and he burst into tears once he saw his dad. “Are you hurt?” Julius repeated. Liam shook his head.
After several minutes of holding his son, Julius felt Liam begin to gain control of himself. “What happened?” he asked his son.
It took a few moments for Liam to answer. When he did answer, he spoke softly. The pain of what he had witnessed strained his voice. “There were some men. Mom answered the door. They pushed their way in and hurt her. She fought them but she couldn’t stop them. It tried to help her but I wasn’t strong enough. I heard police sirens and so did the men. They started to leave but then Mom ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. She attacked them but they grabbed the knife. They killed her. The sirens got closer and the men got scared and left. I tried to help her but I couldn’t. There was so much blood. I came up here because I didn’t know what else to do.”
Julius looked down at his son. The wretched monotone of his son’s voice after telling the story of his mother’s death ripped his heart out. He fought back the tears. “Liam, did they hurt you?” Liam shook his head. “You were very brave. There was nothing you could do. You did your best and tried to help your mother. I’m very proud of you for doing that. I’m sorry you had to be there and see that. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
They stayed in the house for three days. Julius kept expecting help to come but it never did. He wrapped his wife’s body in a blanket until they could get her to a mortuary.
The earth shook for all three of those days. On the fourth day, the world was still. Too still. There was no power and no water. Communications were gone. Julius realized for the first time that they may be on their own.
After a week, he buried his wife in the back yard. He didn’t know what else to do. The July Louisiana heat had begun to decompose her body. The smell of decaying flesh and sound of buzzing flies became unbearable and Julius was ashamed that his wife’s body had become a burden.
Three days after burying his wife, Liam and he left their home and walked to the facility. He didn’t know where else to go.
Five miles into the trip, they were attacked by three men. That was the first time that Julius witnessed Liam’s abilities to start fires with his mind.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What do you mean your father is missing?” Babel’s mother asked him.
“You haven’t heard from him have you?”
“Babel, I haven’t spoken to your father in over a year.”
Babel didn’t respond to that. He knew his mother and father hadn’t spoken in quite some time but he had no idea that it had been that long. “I just thought maybe he might have contacted you, if nothing else to pass on a message to me. He and I were supposed to have dinner at his house tonight.”
“Honey, I’m sure your father is just fine. Maybe he went out for a walk and ran into someone he knew. You know how your father is. He didn’t speak much to me during our marriage but he sure can talk someone’s head off when wants to. I’m sure your father is fine and will be along soon.”
“I’m sure you’re right. I’ll let you go. I just didn’t know if you’d heard from him. I’ll wait here and hopefully he’ll turn up.” He told his mother he loved her and ended the call.
He waited for another thirty minutes. His father still did not show. He went back through his father’s house to see if maybe his father had left a note for him that he didn’t see the first time. He checked the kitchen counters, the front of the fridge, and then moved to his father’s desk in the living room. There was nothing.
Then, he noticed something. On the desk was a picture of the Taj Mahal in India. What drew Babel’s attention to the picture is that it was in a frame.
His father had a box that contained all of the photos of places that he had been. Babel seemed to remember having seen the photo of the Taj Majal before but it was in the box, not on his father’s desk. His father was very private about his military life and did not leave pictures lying around. And he definitely did not put them in frames.
He picked the photo off the desk. At first he saw nothing unusual about the photo other than it was framed. He turned the frame around to the back looking for something there. There was nothing.
Out of curiosity, Babel slid the photo out of the frame. On the back of the photo was written the word Home.
“Home?” Babel asked himself. “What does that mean?”
He put the photo back in the frame and started to search the house again for a note. After thirty minutes of searching he came up with nothing.
Frustrated and concerned, he walked back into the living room. He grabbed the photo of the Taj Majal from his father’s desk and sat down on the couch. There were people in the photo but the photo was old and slightly fuzzy. He couldn’t make out who the people were.
He looked at the photo for a few more moments, looking for something he was missing. He didn’t see anything.
He took the photo out again and looked at the word Home. It was his father’s handwriting. He thought for a while on what that could mean but came up with nothing.
He set the photo down next to him and then slouched down on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. As he did, he recalled how much his mother disliked feet on her coffee table. His father thought that if he couldn’t use a piece of furniture in a manner of his choosing, that piece of furniture wasn’t worth buying in the first place. He felt this way especially strong when it came to coffee tables and his feet. Perhaps that was why his mother disliked feet on her table so much.
Babel decided that he would wait for his father at his father’s house, rather than going back home. He would stay the night if need be. Hopefully his father would be returning soon.
Babel laid his head back on the cushions of the couch. One moment he was looking up at the ceiling thinking that his father needed to paint and the next moment he was waking up to sunlight pouring into the living room.
Babel blinked his eyes several times and sat up. The lamp that he had turned on next to the couch was still on. He rose from the couch and walked around the house looking for his father. His father was not there.
His watch showed that it was a little past seven thirty in the morning. He knew his mother would be awake. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called her.
“Good morning, dear.” Her voice was clear which meant she had been up for a while.
“Good morning, Mom.”
“Your dad never showed up last night, did he?”
“No, he never did. I’m worried. It’s not like Dad to just vanish and not let anyone know.”
“That doesn’t sound like him.” his mother agreed. “Did you check for a note?”
“I checked but I didn’t see one. I did find something strange. On his desk was a framed photo of the Taj Mahal. When I opened the frame, the word Home was written on the back of the photo in Dad’s handwriting. I…Mom are you still there?” His mother didn’t answer. “Mom…” he repeated.
“I’m here, honey. Do you have the picture?”
“Yes, I have the picture. I�
�”
“Don’t lose it.” his mother cut him off. “I’m coming to see you.”
“What are you talking about? You live in New York.”
“I’m leaving now. Meet me at the airport in three hours.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Babel. I am your mother and I’m coming to see you. Now, if you don’t want to leave your mother stranded in an airport, meet me in three hours. Okay?”
“Mom, I…”
“Love you, son. See you soon.” She hung up.
He looked at his watch again. He would need to be at the airport around 10:30am. He had no idea why his mother was coming.
He left his father’s house and headed home for a shower and some breakfast. A few hours later he was back in his truck heading to the airport.
CHAPTER EIGHT
On his way to the airport, the photo of the Taj Majal kept going through his mind. The photo caused something inside of him to move. He wasn’t sure what it was. It was only a feeling somewhere within.
He felt that the Taj Mahal held some significance for him but he had never been there and was not sure why he felt as he did. In fact, the Taj Majal bored him. The architecture was amazing for its time but to him it was just another building built many years ago that really had no impact on his day-to-day life.
He drove for several minutes with the image of the Taj Mahal flashing in-and-out of his mind. It was so distracting that he almost missed the exit for the airport. He had to slam on his brakes and jerk his wheel into the right lane to get off. In doing so he cut off a Jeep. The owner of the Jeep extended his arm towards Babel and at the end of that arm, a finger stood up in a not-so-friendly salute.