by JC Ryan
What’s wrong with me?
There is nothing for me to fear out here!
He continued to move, stumbling as another, stronger, tremor rolled through the ground. A sudden impulse to run like a frightened animal filled him despite his earlier assurances to himself—he quickened his pace. The fear in him grew into terror; he broke into a run as if driven from the ridge by an invisible force.
Just as he reached the edge of the forest, a bright flash came from the sky turning everything red—the sky, the earth, rocks, and trees. He heard a rumbling sound in the distance that quickly grew in volume; the ground began to shake violently. The wind picked up, quickly growing to hurricane force as Petya staggered toward the shelter offered by the large trunk of a fallen tree.
Diving to the ground next to the trunk, he noticed a burning pillar of fire in the sky and felt the air grow warmer, becoming hot as it blew over his body. He heard several loud booms like huge cannons, followed by the deafening roar of thunder. The ground continued to shake forcefully, and the wind whipped around him. He saw trees blow over in the distance.
What is happening?
Petya scooted closer to the trunk and found a depression into which he quickly slipped his thin body, with the huge old tree as a shelter over him. Feeling a little safer, he closed his eyes against the searing light and covered his ears to shield them from the frightening noise.
After what seemed like an eternity, the shaking ground quieted, the wind slowly began to die down, and the roaring subsided.
Just as he was crawling out from under the trunk he heard several more loud bangs, looked up, and saw blazing objects raining down from the sky landing around him. A small piece hit his arm, and he yelled out in pain as it burned through his skin. He quickly scrambled back under the tree trunk hoping it would continue to protect him.
Fires were burning in the distance causing a glow in the sky.
Will this never end?
Is this the end of our world as the prophets predicted?
Chapter 3- Let’s get this done
Telestra blinked her eyes against the settling dust and tried to remember where she was. She was lying face down on a hard, white surface and it took her a moment to realize she was on the floor. She heard coughing somewhere to her left and someone groaning nearby.
Explosion. The gas ignited. I’m in the control room. Survivors! Deszik! My son! I have to get up!
She pushed against the floor and carefully came to a kneeling position. Her head spun as she gazed around the room which was lit by the soft glow of emergency lighting. Most of the equipment panels were dark; a few still flickered. She cringed as a piece of the ceiling gave way and crashed to the floor on the opposite side of the room.
Grabbing the countertop next to her tightly, she pulled herself to her feet and winced when she tried to put weight on her right ankle. I must have twisted it when I fell. It doesn’t feel broken, but it hurts.
She saw Dekka trying to rise from the floor and limped over to help him. He was coughing and holding his left arm against his chest. It was bent at an odd angle and the tip of a bone protruded through the skin near his wrist.
“My arm is broken,” he coughed.
“Yes, I see that. Here,” she offered her hand, “let me help you up.”
He accepted her hand, and after raising him from the floor, she righted a chair and helped him sat down.
“The others?” he asked, jerking his chin toward Viktor, Soltan, and the soldier.
Telestra went to examine them. As she bent over Viktor, his eyes flickered, and he groaned.
Where is his weapon? I need it before he is fully conscious!
She looked around him but couldn’t find it. Just as she was about to give up, she spotted the weapon and reached for it.
“Don’t bother.” A voice commanded.
She looked up and froze. Soltan was pointing his weapon at her.
“Back away.”
Viktor was stirring behind her.
“Help him up,” Soltan commanded.
Telestra grudgingly assisted a disoriented Viktor to a chair; blood was dripping from his head. “He needs medical attention—we all do.”
Indicating the unconscious soldier on the floor, half buried by a piece of equipment, Soltan ordered, “Check him.”
With difficulty, she maneuvered around the fallen equipment. One look at the soldier’s head told her all she needed to know. “The equipment must have hit him when it collapsed; he’s dead.”
“Did anyone else survive?” Dekka asked.
“I don’t know,” Telestra replied as she moved toward the access room monitors. All of them were dark, except one that was giving off a blinking red glow. “It looks like the fissures have filled with lava that has flowed into the access room. If there are any survivors, they won’t be in there.”
She moved toward the door.
“Where do you think, you’re going?” Soltan asked.
“To find my son.”
“No. You will stay here and attend to Viktor.”
“Try and stop me,” she said, continuing toward the door.
He pointed his weapon at Dekka. “How about I kill him?”
She stopped. “That won’t be necessary.”
“How about we all go to the medical station, get what we need, and then see to the survivors,” Dekka suggested in an attempt to defuse the tension.
Viktor, who had regained full awareness, mumbled. “Yes, that is what we will do.”
With Viktor leaning heavily on Soltan, and Dekka assisting Telestra while protecting his injured arm, they made their way out of the control room and into the hallway. Parts of the ceiling were hanging, and other parts had tumbled down completely; in some areas, the collapsed walls revealed the rocky structure behind them. Rocks and debris partially blocked the hallway.
The emergency lighting was dim, in some places nonexistent; they had to pick their way carefully through the mess. Dekka stepped around a boulder and nearly fell to his death—a chasm had opened in the floor. They placed some of the fallen ceiling beams across it before continuing further.
When they reached the central area, they found it damaged beyond recognition. It would be a long time, if ever before people would be able to use it again.
They finally reached the medical station where Dekka started treating their wounds. First, he wrapped the malleable material of a portable mendar —a healing stimulator—around his arm to let it fuse the broken bone back together. Then he put a similar unit on Telestra’s ankle, which would rapidly restore the injured muscle and tendons.
He used the V-scanner, a small handheld ultrasound imaging device, to check Viktor’s head wound but found no severe damage. A few passes of the Sealer over the wound stopped the bleeding and sealed it. He handed Viktor a small cloth and pointed toward a counter.
“I set some disinfectant cleanser on the counter over there; you can use it to clean yourself up while I tend to the rest of us.”
Viktor scowled at him and moved off toward the counter.
Except for a few minor scratches and some dust in his eyes, Soltan came through it unharmed.
“You can use the cleanser to treat your scratches. There’s some eye wash that will help remove the dust from your eyes. The liquid bonds with the dust particles lubricating your eyes, soothes the itching, and then takes the particles with it as it leaves your eye.”
Soltan nodded at Dekka and stepped over beside Viktor, who had turned around to keep watch on the two L’gundo scientists.
“Telestra, your ankle wasn’t broken. The mendar should have healed the muscle and tendons by now,” Dekka said as he removed the portable mendar from her leg.
Looking at Viktor, he said, “My arm will need a little while longer to heal completely, but I can take this with me, and we can leave if you’re ready to look for other survivors.”
“I want to find my son,” Telestra said solemnly.
Viktor fixed his eyes on Telestra as he
walked up to her. “We will look for your boy later. First, we will look for other survivors that might need medical attention.”
“I will look for my son now—alone if necessary—now, not later,” Telestra said with vehemence as she started for the door.
“You will do as I say!” Viktor roared, grabbing her by the arm.
“Get your hands off of me!”
“Telestra,” Dekka interjected, “Deszik is in a pod. If the pod survived the explosion, he is safe—if it did not, he is beyond your help—beyond anyone’s help.”
She slumped against the wall, crying, “I just want to see my son, to know for sure he is safe.”
Dekka squatted next to her and whispered, “The quicker we do as he says, the quicker we can go and look for your son.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes and sighed, “Let’s get this done.”
The four of them returned to the hallway, working their way toward the fissure access area.
Chapter 4- She didn’t resist
Petya crawled slowly and painfully from his shelter under the log. He blinked as he stood to look around him. The trees were leaning at severe angles, small bushes had been uprooted, and all the grass appeared withered and dry as if it had been in a drought.
What happened?
The skin on the exposed side of his body was bright red as if sunburned, and small blisters appeared in places. They were painful, but he was curious to see what had happened and set off walking in the direction from which he thought the bright flash had come.
He traveled quite a distance seeing the devastation to the forest increase almost with every step. By the time he reached an area where all the trees had been blown to the ground and charred, he was feeling nauseous and had a headache. He took a few steps into the area of the fallen trees—there were thousands of them, and the ground was rocky where the wind had swept it nearly clean of soil. It was getting late in the day, and the sky was dark even though a strange glow illuminated the Earth as far as he could see. He felt dizzy and weak and realized he needed water and a place to rest for the night. An odd-looking object in the distance caught his eye. It might provide shelter, he thought, as he moved toward it.
It took him fifteen minutes to reach the smooth, dome-like structure. It appeared to be made of metal and had an opening that Petya stepped into. The hollow under the dome was smooth and slightly warm to the touch, the ground inside was flat.
This will be a good shelter for the night.
Petya lay down on the ground, using his pack as a pillow and fell asleep.
***
Telestra was in her bed, quietly staring at the ceiling. The rescue efforts, medical treatments, and finding the corridor to the pod cavern blocked had exhausted her physically and emotionally. She was so tired she didn’t have the strength to cry.
Oh, Deszik, are you still alive, my son?
As they had explored the facility on their way to the fissure access area, they were dismayed at the enormity of damage to the place. Very little was left intact; hallways were blocked, cutting off entire areas of the installation. Floors had opened up in chasms, making passage challenging and treacherous, if not entirely impassable. Ceilings had caved in, equipment was damaged, and entire rooms had completely collapsed on themselves. Repairs would be difficult and time-consuming, if at all possible.
Halfway to the fissure access area, they found the first survivors. Two guards had been pinned under a collapsed wall. They were unconscious, but some liquid from the medical case Dekka carried, brought them around. Once the fallen wall had been removed, it was found that their injuries were minor scrapes and bruises, and they were able to help look for more survivors.
They found eleven more survivors; six soldiers and five scientists had made it out of the fissure access area before the heavy doors had sealed it off from the rest of the facility. Those nearest the door, two scientists and a soldier, were badly burned, and had many broken bones and internal injuries from falling rock. The other six suffered minor burns, a few broken bones, and many scrapes and bruises.
It took most of the day to stabilize and move the injured to a temporary infirmary that Viktor had ordered Telestra and Dekka to set up. Treatment of the severely burned had gone long into the night. When Dekka finally said it was safe to leave them to rest, Telestra had begged Viktor to allow her to look for her son. He had finally relented and accompanied her, along with two soldiers, but only to check to see if the pods survived the explosion—not to awaken her son.
It had been devastating to turn the corner in the corridor near the pod cavern entrance only to find that the entire ceiling had collapsed, filling the space, and blocking all access to the doors. She had sunk to the floor in dismay, and although Viktor had helped her to her feet and led her back to the temporary infirmary, there was no tenderness in his touch.
“Let me give you a sedative to help you relax.” It was Dekka. He had come to check on her.
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“Telestra, you will need your strength tomorrow and in the days to come. Going without sleep will not help you.”
“I’m fine.” She insisted.
“Please, let me help you.”
She began to sob. “I just want my son,” she said through her tears as she rolled onto her side.
“I know,” she heard Dekka murmur and felt the slight cool pressure of the injection as the medication entered her upper arm.
She didn’t resist.
Chapter 5- We will rule the world
“Soltan, take Santosh with you and see if you can reach the surface. We need to find out what is happening on the outside,” Viktor ordered.
Telestra awoke with a start as she heard Viktor’s voice.
“On my way,” Soltan replied.
Telestra sat up, looking around in confusion—it took several moments to get her bearings and remember where she was and what had happened. As soon as she remembered, she wanted to lie back down and forget about everything.
“How do you feel?” Dekka asked.
“Like I wish I were dead.”
Dekka patted her shoulder. “It will get better.”
“I wish I could believe that. I have a feeling it’s going to get worse—a lot worse.”
“I don’t know how it could get any worse than this,” he said. “Let’s hope you’re wrong.”
She looked at him ruefully. “Let’s hope.”
“I could use your help checking our patients.”
She stood up to join him. “Are they improving?”
“Come see.”
As they moved between the patients, Telestra saw that only the three burn victims would require additional time to heal. The remaining eight were already conscious and eating some of the green mush that Soltan had found—was it only yesterday?
“We need access to the large Regen unit in the infirmary to treat these burn victims,” Dekka said.
“We’ll need to restore main power to that area to run the unit.” Telestra paused and then continued in a whisper. “What is the situation with the B’ran?”
Dekka lowered his voice. “Viktor sent Soltan and one of the soldiers to try to find a way out and see if they can learn anything about what is happening on the surface. Some time ago he also sent two of the soldiers to examine the corridors to the infirmary and the pod cavern to see if it will be possible to gain entrance to either one.”
“Well, at least that would be useful.”
He nodded. “Access to the infirmary would definitely be helpful. I’m not too sure about the pod cavern. I’ve overheard him talking with Soltan, and it sounds as if they have more soldiers in those pods. We could find ourselves outnumbered again.”
“I guess that is a chance we’ll have to take,” she shrugged, “my son is there, and I am still holding out hope he is alive. Maybe there will be more L’gundo… and maybe we will be able to wake them and overpower him and his men.”
“That is a pleasant thought,” Dekka smiled. “Let�
��s not pin all our hopes on that though.”
Just then, they heard footsteps approaching their area—two soldiers entered the room.
“Viktor,” one of them reported, “we have examined both of the corridors as you requested. They can both be cleared with time; the easier one will be the access to the infirmary.
“Good. Take two more soldiers with you and start clearing it.”
“Will do.”
They chose two of their fellow soldiers that had just finished eating, waited while they dressed and then the four of them disappeared to clear the way to the infirmary.
“Well, Telestra, it seems your son will have to wait a while longer,” Viktor smirked.
“Main power will have to be restored to the infirmary if you want to make full use of it,” she said, turning her back on him to check on the two burned scientists, ignoring the burned soldier.
Viktor looked at the recovered scientists. “Which of you knows how to restore the power?”
The scientists looked to Telestra. She gave a slight nod.
“I can work on the power systems,” Rauel spoke up.
Viktor turned to one of his soldiers, “you; take him up to the control room and watch him. Kill him if he offers any resistance or appears to attempt subterfuge.”
Dekka looked at Viktor and shook his head.
Viktor grinned and sat down to await the return of his men. The lack of action frustrated him, but he refused to show it—he was careful to keep up an appearance of calm and control at all times.
***
It took quite a while, but the four soldiers cleared a path to the infirmary and then helped them move the three burn victims.
Telestra and Dekka carefully laid the last burn victim on a bed in the infirmary. Rauel had managed to re-establish partial main power, including to the infirmary. Dekka turned to check on the soldier in the Regen unit—Viktor insisted his soldier be treated first.
Just as they finished, Santosh returned and called Viktor aside. They were talking in quiet but excited voices; suddenly Viktor turned and left the room. “Keep your eyes on her,” he said pointing to Telestra as he passed through the door.