But not anymore.
“It quivered this crazily solely when we escaped the Eatonii.” I explain.
They all gather around and take a look at it. I can see the concern on their faces raising up. What the heck with this compass? What is it trying to show us?
“There must be a tremendous magnetic field around here that interferes with the compass’s magnet.” Carter explains.
I pore over the area and try to get a hint as to what’s fueling this weird circumstances. But restlessly nothing seems to attach to my perspective and recollection. There are only trees around, muddle, grass, leaves, rocks and all the sorts of things you’d expect to find in a forest.
“Guys, look.” Brianne is crocked thoroughly at a rock that seems to have grabbed her attention in a way that a rock shouldn’t.
Is she going nuts now?
Again?
“What’s wrong Brianne?” I ask her, not buying that crap. I mean, what could she find in a rock that would be of any interest to any of us? An ants’ colony? Fungus? See?! Not the kind of things that we’re after at the moment.
“The tree.” She explains.
Oh God! She’s losing it again.
Brianne flips her red velvet hair and looks at me as though I’m not buying the hint.
“What’s wrong with the tree?” I ask and smirk. Sorry! I cannot help it. She’s looking at it as if it is a cult or something.
“It’s the same one that was here when we got off the tower.” She keeps up with her crazy resolution.
“What do you mean it was here?” Zoey asks her.
“It’s the same one I’ve seen when we got out. I know. I’m sure of it.”
“How could you be sure of it?” Carter asks. “All we’ve been encountering up to now instead of people has been trees. We’ve seen hundreds of them.”
“I could remember this.” She seems too stubborn to it. “How many twice-pinnate leaves, red flowers trees have you seen until now?”
Well, coming to think of it, it is such an outstanding tree. An exceptional one for that matter. But, anyway that wouldn’t prove anything.
We’re all looking suspiciously at her, expect Colin who seems drenched into contemplation.
“I remember it too.” Colin dispatches from his inattention. “It was one of the first things we saw after the Eatonii and it seems to be implemented into my head.”
Brianne seems happy by his support, which truth be told, was just him talking his mind.
“I can’t see how you’re being so enchanted by a tree.” Avery barges in. “It’s a freaking tree, guys. Why need to make such a fuss at it?”
“Look at the rock.” Brianne proceeds. “There’s this grooved logo that can’t get out of my head. I’m sure this is the tree.” She keeps persisting.
I approach and take a good look at the rock. In dug-in letters I read.
THE RESURRECTION EATONII
Just when I thought we had escaped the tower once and for all it seemed to have tracked us down like a ghost, showing up like a nightmare to make us understand that even though we thought we were free—that’s what it all was after all… Just a thought!
No, I refused to believe this.
“We’ve been waddling for weeks now.” I decide to explain my inner thoughtfulness. “What are the chances we’d meet something regarding the Eatonni after the hundreds of miles we’ve crossed?”
“Can’t you understand?” Brianne tells me, as though I’m the stubborn one here. (Maybe I am, after all.) “We’re at the same exact place!” She looks at me like an unhinged person would, voice more than a demand.
I look at Andrew for a moment, who seems to have dispatched from our rally and is acting crazily all by his own. He’s doing something across the bushes a couple of yards over.
God! Everybody is going crazy around here! How am I supposed to remain calm when everyone is losing it?
I keep tabs on him and wait until the craziness is done for, which might take me a whole lot of time, but I’m willing to wait.
“Andrew?” Finally, I decide to barge in. Seriously, I cannot take any more of the craziness that is surrounding me. “Everything alright over there?”
He looks like he jumped out of his own skin when I called him out. He’s looking straight forward now and is acting all strange, like he’s trying to tell me something but seems to have lost his voice.
“Can you talk loudly?” I yell so he could hear. “Or talk at all?” I mumble to myself.
He looks through the bushes once again, getting the shrubs away with both hands and once he seems to have gotten enough from it, he approaches me.
“What’s with the acting weird and not talking thing?” I ask him.
“It’s there.” he seems like he’s lost his voice.
“What are you talking about?”
“The tower.” He whispered terrified. “It’s right over there. Just a couple of yards away from us.” He’s having a hard time breathing so I let him gather his strength again.
I frown at his come-up so I decide to look for myself. I waddle towards the bushes and push asquint some of the branches so I could take a better look at.
Brianne’s suspicion seems to have been justified after all.
The tower is standing over there, gargantuan and terrifying as always.
The others have joined me and are trying to make out of what is going on in the other part of the forest.
“But… How come?!” Zoey eyes roll like she’s being hypnotized. “We’ve been running for miles and as far as I know our intention has been all along to escape the Eatonni and not reach it again.” She seems befuddled at what is taking place is front of us. No one seems to have a clue as to what that tower is doing over there.
It’s either there was an identical spot hundreds of miles away from the Eatonni, everything included, trees, buildings and all, or we’ve been running for hours just to get at the point where we started it all from.
“What are we gonna do now?” I ask, so lowly, as though to myself, being pretty sure that each one of them is asking themselves the same exact question.
“I’d say run,” Zoey proceeds, “but where would that get us anyway?”
“I’ve got an answer to that.” Brianne interferes. “But I don’t think any of you likes to hear of it.
Great Brianne!
Like, we’re all so keen on you taking glory on your discovery and crave your sense of mockery!
I cannot believe that we’re at an irresolvable puzzle here, and all she cares about is slamming on our faces how she’s been right all along and no one cared about.
18
“Where are you getting with it?” I ask Carter who’s been all encumbered these past few days decoding the encrypted tablet.
We’ve decided to camp out nearby the area, being that we’ve been running all over the place and found ourselves at the same exact spot where it all began. Cody, on the other hand, has been all tangled up with the tablet we found on our way, but still hasn’t figured a way to get through it. Good thing the piece of crap is a high-tech device and uses renewable energy, since otherwise it’d have been totally useless out here in the open. Not that it’s of much use now that we have it. Though we like to keep our hopes us at this point. After all, it’s not like we have any other choice.
“I’ve built up an algorithm that would run up all the combined passwords possible. It will be running very soon. Am on my last touches here.” He talks and not for a minute dispatches his attention to look at me.
“I hope it works.” I say to him.
“Me too. It’s the last option I can come up with. I tried everything and yet cannot access their system even though it’s just a password away. It’s right here,” he clutches the tablet, “on this very device and still seems so far away.”
I wait quietly for the software to run and try to decide whether there’s any hope for us on spot. It seems hard to believe at this difficult of circumstances, but I’ve kept holding tig
ht to my faith. After all, there was nothing left behind for us.
I’ve been praying every night before going to sleep for the last couple of days. It’s not like I’ve seen the greatest of changes taking place, but what is actually does is, is it brings an aureole of comfortability and serenity in me that I cannot find anywhere else.
“And… it’s running.” He pokes on the confirmation box and lets the software do its thing.
“How much time will it get?” I ask.
“It depends. It may take seconds, or a couple of hours. Hopefully it’ll bring us on the other part of the system before the night falls.”
I drench into contemplation for a while, thinking how things would be like if Carter’s software works.
We’ll get in our hands the Eatonii purpose, we’ll find what their plan is and how to get away from this place, since escaping didn’t do in the first place.
I’m dispatched from a scream. It gets both of us on our own feet and trying to chase the track of the voice.
It came from behind the trees. I run to it.
I spot Zoey looking shocked at something afar. I follow the track of her sight. She’s holding herself with both arms wrapped up around, and looks as though she’s seen a giant.
I realize the purpose of her scream as soon as I’m looking at what has provided this turn of events.
Déjà vu.
Andrew is standing across the river looking at it, enchanted.
What is going on in his head now?
“I wanna crawl in to the hot tub.” He says.
I look at Zoey confused.
“I think he’s losing it again.” She explains.
“Andrew, what are you doing?” I ask him, but realize it’s too late to wait for a response since he’s already jumping in all ferociously.
“Greyson, I think it might happen again.” she’s almost whining. I’ve never seen her like that before.
“Why do you say that?”
“The first time when it happened, all of us were subsumed but you. I don’t think this is going to be different. We have to figure a way how you can prevent this.”
“Me? Why me?” I ask defensively.
“Because,” she proceeds. “You’re going to be the only one on his right own mind when it’s going to happen. We can hurt ourselves like Andrew would, because we’re not conscious of what is happening for real.”
Andrew!
We cannot let him alone in the waters. He might hurt himself while unconscious.
I run towards the river and try to keep tabs on him though it’s hard to spot him in the first place. My heart is racing crazily.
“Andrew, what did you do?” I mumble to myself.
I almost want to jump in horror, when through the rumbustious water, I detect him being pushed by the moving ridge. It’s like he doesn’t bother to swim. Maybe that’s because he keeps thinking it’s a hot tub.
Without giving it a second thought I jump to the river and keep moving towards him.
It’s freezing.
I stop feeling my hands and legs when the coldness has embraced my whole body. I don’t think that with these circumstances I can reach him.
But I keep swimming and compel my hands and legs to digest.
It’s so cold.
I don’t think I can make it.
Ughhhhh…
If only I could keep up a little more! That’s the mantra I keep reciting so that I could approach him. It’s so cold to feel anything but I’m sure I can feel my heart thumping when I detect a massive rock across to where Andrew is moving.
“Andrew, watch out!” I howl out. Even my voice seems scraggy and pale.
It’s like he doesn’t bother to listen to me. He’s drenched into pleasure thinking that he’s having a slumberous time on a hot tube. God! What’s wrong with him? I try to keep swimming and ignore the cold that is making all of my body immovable. It’s so hard but I have to. I know I do. If only I could swim just a little more! I’m becoming more tense when he’s so close to the rock. I want to close my eyes and not witness what is going to happen in front of me. I want to close my eyes and wish I’m under totally different circumstances. But it seems like even my eyelids refuse to respond.
I see the red painting the rock and spuming out with the waves. He’s unconscious and isn’t moving anymore.
That’s making simpler for me to reach him.
The next few seconds all I know is I’m clutching Andrew from the rock he’s lying to and get him off the river, feel his pulse and realize that actually he’s alive, just unconscious.
But as if all this wasn’t enough, I pore over to find everybody getting out of their minds. They’re nestling on the ground, hugging trees talking to their companions who don’t not lodge in the same dimension.
It all seems familiar to me.
All stressed out and jittered, I try to recall the previous similar situation and realize how I can get them off that compulsion. I remember Zoey telling me to help them when this happened.
Thing is I’m all idealess and confused.
They all had turned back to their true selves when the lightning struck the field.
Was it the light? The thundering sound?
Eureka!
That must’ve been it. I just needed to find a way to smash whatever this bizarre situation was and bring things back to normal. For the next seconds my mind was ruminating over the options I’ve got to produce a high-frequency sound. At this point, seemed like I had got no means to create such a shivering sound that would make them dispatch from that alternate universe of craziness.
But then, out of nowhere it comes to me. We had managed to sneak out a gun when we escaped the Eatonii. It had been Zoey’s idea at the time since she was the only person that could be near a person who held a gun—in this case, her ex-boyfriend or whatever.
I ran inside the tent and gabbed the tool to go back outside. I hadn’t shot with a gun before, even if I had it’s not like I was able to remember anyway. I pointed the gun upward and fired. Birds chirped out of the trees. My ears hurt and I tried to adjust them to the atmosphere. God, I’d never wanna do this thing again.
They seem to apprehend the reality, confused at the current juxtaposition. Zoey, after making herself adjust to the new reality, jumps to me and holds my arm.
“Did it happen again?” she asks.
I’m so befuddled by the fire sound the only thing I manage to do is nod.
Meanwhile, I’m totally forgetting about Andrew who is lying quietly on the ground on the other part of the field. His head was still bleeding when I left him, so I think he might need to get that stitched. We need to get the first aid kit and help him.
While I summon Zoey to keep up with that task, I spot Carter coming towards me with a huge smile sparkling on his face.
“Greyson, it worked. We’re on the other part of the system. We’re in now.” He howls excitedly.
I need a moment to comprehend of the reality. It sounds unbelievable and I need to pinch myself, but don’t. That would hurt anyway. And I don’t need to hurt myself anymore for the day.
I look at the tablet, though it’s a whole bunch of codes and files that I don’t think I might be able to recognize, so I leave Carter deal with it.
He’d probably need a couple of minutes alone to run through their files and discover anything relevant that would be of any use to us.
After that, I can comprehend some sounds (even though my ears are still fuzzled) that don’t belong to the posse. When I shot, the crew at the Eatonii should’ve made out.
If that’s true, we’re in real trouble.
19
I don’t know anymore what is happening around here, but we were panic-stricken thinking that the crew were after us, and chances are we were right since we thought we heard weird shattering sounds afar, but we were quite scared to reveal where these sounds came from.
What we’ve done for the last few hours basically is running crazily around the forest and tr
ying to detect some hideaway that would keep us protected and hidden. Needless to say, all this forest provided was endless series of trees and muddle all around. Totally useless.
This was not the earth we all remembered (excluding me; I didn’t remember that much at all) that is unless we were in the middle of a jungle, in which case we’d still have to find some primitive track of existence.
But nope.
All we’ve been able to come across to so far was trees—no-people.
To our luck, Andrew, whose head was starting to heal any passing moment, had been very attentive and brought to our attention the existence of a cave on the other part of the way across the trees nearby a mountainside.
It was dark in there but that was when our stolen belonging came in handy. Using the flashlight, we managed to illuminate our way through the cave.
First off, we were so happy to have been lucky enough and find a place where we could get some proper rest (don’t get me wrong; it’s as proper as it could get in a mountainside) but then we found out that this cave revealed so much more than we could think of.
There were tons of guns in there, as many as you can start a war with, there was a couch, a phone, which was useless and fossilized.
It all pointed that someone had been there prior to us. But then again, it just looked like the apocalypse had taken part a million years ago.
So, see? I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
We were fuzzled. Panicked. Horrified and scared.
The only good thing is we were all safe and sound. That is if my friends didn’t decide to go all nutty any moment leaving me with no choice but save them.
I mean, I was tired. It was hard enough as it is. They didn’t have to bring more trouble on the plate.
Carter had been nestling on the couch for the last couple of hours scrambling through the Eatonii system and trying to puzzle out.
We’ve been waiting quietly while Zoey was trying to convince us we needed to learn how to use the guns in case something unpleasant happened.
Faking Apocalypse (The Apocalyptic Games Book 1) Page 13