The Great Altruist
Page 33
Genesis did not react the way Val anticipated. Instead of lashing out with anger, Genesis merely tried to perceive James's presence, which his child would undoubtedly possess. To her chagrin, Val was blocking her ability.
“What, you don't believe me?” Val said. “It’s not your fault he needed companionship.”
“I’ll never believe you,” she answered.
“Oh, come on! We lived as husband and wife for two months. We both had needs.”
Genesis took a step toward Val, almost falling for her ruse. “There’s more to knowing a man than trying to seduce him.”
Val rolled her eyes. “That may be true, but I must admit, James was a lot easier than most.”
Genesis lashed out finally, forced a ball of energy to her hands, and hurled it at Val, who ducked as it sailed passed and struck the tree behind her. The tree, having been hit by a mass of energy constructed of compressed space/time, curled in on itself, and reappeared as a tiny sapling as though it had just grown younger.
Val was prepared for an attack, but she was unaware of what exactly Genesis just threw at her. When she realized that being hit by it would have reverted her into an infant, she looked up at Genesis and scowled. “You’re going to regret that!” she shouted. “But not yet.”
Val turned from her and immediately disappeared.
“Great!” Genesis muttered. She jumped into the time stream where she could sense Val looking for somewhere to exit. While never doubting her husband for an instant, once inside the stream, Genesis confirmed that Val lied about carrying a child.
Val sensed Genesis gathering speed behind her with tremendous velocity. Val slipped out of time and appeared in a new time period. She looked out from her new vantage point upon a battlefield of ancient Mongolian warriors. At seeing her standing among them stark naked, they dropped their weapons in shock as some of them ran towards her.
Genesis appeared a moment later and watched as Val stand paralyzed in fright.
“Oh, I forgot you’re not used to this yet!” she shouted. Genesis too stood naked on the hilltop looking down on Val as she began to run. Unlike her nemesis, Genesis didn’t have a care in the world. “You must be cold!” she scoffed.
Val looked up at Genesis as she ran when it dawned on her that she need not suffer the abuse. She spun around, faced the soldiers charging her, and lifted the boulders nearby with her mind and hurled them at the attackers. The boulders shattered long before they reached the soldiers, but their disappearance into powder forced the soldiers back. Val knew that the rocks were pulverized by her enemy, and with the warriors distracted, she turned to attack Genesis instead.
Genesis sensed the attack coming and slipped into the time stream with Val not far behind.
Val exited at the same point in the stream as Genesis, and the initial disorientation of time-traveling set in as her stomach churned. She was still recovering when she heard the roar of the massive Tyrannosaurus bearing down on her.
“Oh my God!” she screamed as she took off running as fast as she could. Genesis relished the fact that Val was still relying on her normal abilities as she safely watched the pursuit from the comfort of a tree limb. The lizard closed in on Val when she suddenly disappeared again.
“I really don’t like this woman,” Genesis mumbled. She jumped into the stream to follow Val again. Once in the stream, she tracked the point where Val tried to escape; she clearly had no direction. She wanted to lead Val to points in time she knew would prove dangerous for someone with her limited knowledge of their shared skills, but she couldn’t catch up to Val.
Val left the stream, spun around, and charged an attack in preparation for Genesis’s arrival. But her adversary appeared high above her and fired ice from her hands down at Val. She stretched her hands toward the falling ice and melted it just as she felt Genesis’s presence behind her. Another wave of ice rushed toward her. She pushed against the blast and melted it too but not before another wall of ice ascended from beneath her. Soon, she was overwhelmed by the barrage of attacks Genesis forged against her. She was buried against the ice, now falling from every direction. Encased in a foot of ice all around, she gathered her energy and tried to warm her entire body to melt the ice. But as each inch of ice melted, another inch was added on the outside. Soon, the melted ice collected and began to rise all around her. The hotter her skin got, the warmer the temperature of the water. Before long, she couldn’t decide if the cold ice or the near boiling water was going to be the end of her.
Outside the igloo surrounding Val, Genesis floated high in the sky and absorbed all the energy from the sun she could and channeled it through her body into a never-ending stream of ice, it descending upon the girl trapped inside. Then, the inevitable happened: Val realized the futility of fighting and simply jumped back into the stream.
“That was bound to happen,” Genesis said as she followed.
When she emerged again, Genesis was prepared for whatever Val threw at her. But then she recognized the point in the stream and realized she would need to defend herself - and James.
The room was dark when Genesis appeared. “Don’t move an inch,” Val whispered.
Genesis’s eyes adjusted to the low-light and knew instantly where she stood: James’s baby crib was just a few feet behind her. “Please, Val,” she said. The baby’s soft cry grew louder. “I beg you. Please leave him out of this.” She closed her eyes and tried to block from her mind what Val might be doing to harm her future husband as the cries of the baby grew ever louder. Then the room was aglow with azure light, and the baby cried no more.
She rushed to the side of his crib, but he was gone. Furious, Genesis dove into the stream and stormed after Val. She followed Val’s exit and gathered all her strength, but Val was too quick. Genesis fell to the ground as Val struck her on the head with a log. She tumbled down the slope and tried to regain her bearings but she slammed into the trunks of several trees before she finally righted herself and prepared a counterattack. She shook off the slight pain of the attack and, as usual, there was no blood.
She frantically looked around and finally saw her mark. Val descended from the top of the slope and hit Genesis in the abdomen before she could gather enough strength to defend. Then, she heard the cry of the baby. She tried to locate its source, but the distraction was enough for Val to attack again, this time grabbing Genesis by the hair and dragging her to the nearest tree. The baby’s cries echoed throughout the forest and Genesis struggled to fight off Val but couldn’t. This isn’t possible, she thought. How can she be stronger than me?
Val lifted Genesis by the hair with one hand and reached around her throat with the other. Genesis kicked away from the tree, crushing the tree behind her while also forcing her knees into Val’s stomach. Val dropped Genesis and fell to the ground, reeling in agony. With the upper hand, Genesis lifted Val and tossed her like a doll a thousand meters away, where she landed against a tree and toppled to the ground in a heap.
Genesis spun around and tried to find the source of the baby’s cries. High on the hill and in the boughs of a tree, baby James screamed for help. She rushed to his side and cradled him in her arms. Immediately, she disappeared into the stream and emerged in James’s room where she set her infant husband back in his crib. Val emerged a second later, but Genesis was prepared.
“Not this time,” she said as she took Val by the hand and dragged her back into the stream.
Genesis kept Val in the stream as long as she could but Val struggled to break free from her grasp. Genesis knew that if this battle were ever to end, she could not be the cause of her death. She only had one other option: lead Val into times or places where the odds were against her survival or fight Val emotionally, as Val had just done to her. Why not both? she thought.
Genesis finally let go of Val and exited the stream a few meters above the Pacific Ocean. Val appeared a short distance away and smiled as she realized that she hadn’t had a chance to combine her new abilities with water.
Is she dead? she thought. As minutes passed and the chances of Val’s survival lessened, Genesis turned to leave. Then Val rocketed as fast as she could at Genesis, who watched with delight as Val grew a deeper and deeper red as she approached. Although Genesis had never used this ability before to its full extent, she knew what Val was doing. Val had gathered energy from every source around her – the sun, water, and wind – and tried to reach a critical mass she hoped would overwhelm Genesis.
Genesis always assumed that her body, although strong, was not completely impervious. The forms of energy Val was accumulating all at once would overload her eventually. Finally! She's done it! Genesis thought. Right before the two women collided, Genesis held her breath, gathered what power she could, and disappeared into the stream.
Val followed and exited the stream an instant later and continued her flight toward Genesis. She saw Genesis hovering a great distance away and then noticed the great void around them. The brilliance of her own skin blocked her vision but behind Genesis she saw the faint glimmer of stars against a vast darkness. She gasped for air as she realized they were in deep space; she couldn’t control her trajectory anymore. Val hurtled through space and felt excruciating pain as though she was being burned alive. The energy within her could no longer be contained; her body collapsed long before she came close to harming Genesis. No longer could she suppress the terrible and violent rage that flowed in tandem with the energy in her veins. The energy pushed its way through the pores of her skin, but it could not be released fast enough. It finally discharged into the vacuum of space and vaporized the young girl amidst a brief, but terrible, explosion.
Genesis hovered over the area of Val’s destruction. She still held her breath and felt the surge of radiation from the explosion coursing through her body. Just as quickly as Val’s explosion dissipated, Genesis confirmed her enemy’s demise. Her conscience clean, she entered into the stream and looked forward to seeing her husband.
Genesis returned to the surface of the earth and fell to the ground to catch her breath. James was right where she left him, safe and secure.
“Are you all right?” he said as he rushed to her side.
She took several deep breaths and regained her balance. “I’m fine,” she answered. “She took a lot out of me.”
“Is she…dead?”
She nodded as she bent over with her hands on her knees, still recovering her energy. “It was all her doing.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said. He took her in his arms and embraced her tight.
She looked over his shoulder and noticed the total silence that surrounded them. Animals off in the distance frolicked and ran free across the city streets. Miles away, the remains of Apocalypse burned as smoke drifted into the sky; the last vestiges of Roger’s organization were gone forever. But so were all the people. “So, it's just us then,” she said.
He followed her gaze and watched the wreckage burn. “It looks that way.” The chill in the night air enveloped them as the loneliness set in – the awareness that no other human being lived in all the earth.
“Fortunately, it won’t be like this forever,” she said. “Val tried to convince me that she was pregnant with your child. When I was in the stream, I sensed your presence, but not from her. From me. I felt your son’s heartbeat.”
He pulled her as close to his chest as he could and kissed her deep. “You never actually believed her, right?” he said.
“No. I know who has your heart.”
They held each other tight and enjoyed the total silence surrounding them. All they heard was the soft wind blowing alongside each other's heartbeat.
“I can get used to this,” she said.
“There's only one problem. After the baby comes, it's still only us. Where will we find a wife for him?”
“I think I know just the girl for him,” she said.
“I just realized something else.”
“What?” she asked suddenly concerned.
“We don’t have to wear clothes ever again.” He smiled.
She laughed aloud and kissed her husband. “Face it, honey. We’re the new Adam and Eve.”
Jadzia was dragged from her bunk and thrown to the floor. The other women were forced to strip off their clothes and then gathered together by the door of the barracks. Jadzia followed the others, all of them on their knees and trying to cover their naked bodies. A guard forced a girl to put her hands behind her head but she resisted and cried out as she tried to cover her breasts. Another guard pushed the other aside and shot the girl in the head. None of the other women resisted; they all followed the guard’s orders.
Outside the barracks, gunfire echoed throughout the camp. Bombs fell all over the grounds of Ravensbrück. Jadzia heard the cries of prisoners in the adjacent barracks and wondered if there was a riot – or if the war was finally over and she would get to see her parents again and hopefully, receive their forgiveness.
The guards argued between themselves for several minutes. Finally, one of the guards lost the argument and his companion withdrew his sidearm and raised it to the head of the first girl in line. A single shot was fired and the girl slumped over dead. He stepped in front of the next girl and killed her as well. With each shot of his gun, Jadzia’s heart grew closer to leaping from her chest. Tears streamed down her face as she looked to the women at her left and right and felt tremendous guilt that she never knew any of their names.
As the guard approached Jadzia, the girl to her right prayed for peace. The woman at Jadzia’s left reached over and took Jadzia’s hand from behind her head. Jadzia looked at the strange woman with red hair kneeling beside her and saw that there was no fear in her eyes.
“My name is Genesis,” the woman said, “and you’re going to be all right.”
The guards never made it to Jadzia. The girl who prayed was spared a tragic end when the barracks were filled with a brilliant, blue light that blinded the guards. As they stumbled to recover sight, in a panic they both pulled their triggers, killing each other. The girl to Jadzia’s right remained on humble knees and prayed.
Jadzia was scared to open her eyes when she regained consciousness. Instead of gunfire or bombs falling, she only heard the tranquil sounds of ocean waves. Slowly at first, she reached around and felt nothing but sand. She felt the warm sun on her bare back as the cool seawater climbed the beach and touched her toes. Finally, she opened her eyes, assured that there was nothing she needed to fear any longer. She climbed to her feet and saw she was still naked. She quickly ducked back down to the sand and looked around – no one was there. Cautiously, she climbed the beach to the high dunes a few meters away.
On the other side of the sandy hill, she saw palm trees, a forest reaching toward the horizon as far as her eyes could see, the trees climbing the side of a mountain that reached high beyond the clouds. In front of the forest on the beach, she saw a humble tent, and outside the tent, gathered around a small campfire, were three people, laughing and smiling – and just as naked as she was.
The oldest of the three, a man in his fifties, looked in Jadzia’s direction and saw the top of her head es
cape the shoreline. The woman, who looked no older than thirty years-old, and the young man saw her too, and after conferring with each other momentarily, the woman approached. Jadzia slid down her side of the dune as her heart raced. She looked down the beach and thought about running, but she was too late. A shadow overwhelmed her and when she looked up, she saw a beautiful redheaded woman standing above her, looking down with a radiant smile.
“Good morning,” the woman said in perfect Polish.
Jadzia recognized her voice and then remembered the last thing she saw before she opened her eyes on the beach. “Are you Genesis?” she asked.
Genesis nodded. “How do you feel?” she asked as she sat beside her.
Jadzia looked around and took in a deep breath of the salt-rich air. “I’ve never felt better.”
“Good,” Genesis said. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions about where you are and who I am.”
She nodded.
“And I have all the answers. The war ended over one hundred years ago. And I can assure you, you will never see another war in your lifetime.”