“They’re here,” Banks mumbled.
“Who’s here?” John yelled.
“We knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t think they had the means to get here so fast,” Banks continued.
Leaning over the front seat, John could see through the front windshield that the military’s air transporters were raining down heavily into the surrounding forests.
“I hope your friends have that airship ready to take us home,” he sneered.
“Central got the data that you sent from the two targets you bagged in the apartment. Our mission isn’t over,” the Captain said.
“Two? What are you talking about?” John inquired suspiciously.
“Arlington and Corona. They were two of the three targets that we were sent for. Look, John, we don’t have time to talk right now. The entire city’s going to be crawling with...”
“Wrong answer, Captain. I want to know how Central knew that I eliminated both of them?”
Banks ignored the question, saying, “The new LZ’s located off a rural path that leads deep into the forest, just outside of the city. We…”
“You’re playing games with me. There’s something going on that you’re not telling us.”
Banks wanted to continue to steer clear of the topic, but getting the Sweeper upset at such a desperate time was not a good idea, and he knew it. They were so close to making their escape, but the Security was just minutes away. After carefully considering his words, he confided to John for the sake of the mission.
“They believe you’ve supplied them with the data they needed: they’ve located the Top Man.”
“The Top Man?” John said throwing his hands in the air and sitting back against the seat. “I thought the three targets were the top men.”
“They never were. They’re just pawns taking orders from the guy above them. Our new orders are to…”
“Our new orders?” John interrupted. “Who are the real pawns in this game?”
Banks had no time to explain. He could see that they were heading towards the flashing lights of the initial stages of a military blockade at the end of their road, perhaps four to five hundred meters ahead. With only moments to react before there were no more options for escape from the city streets, he attempted to swerve into the last visible alleyway, but unwittingly embedded the front end of their vehicle into the transporter beside them. The driver of the transporter, cursing and waiving his fist, immediately laid his hands on his horn, bringing the attention of the military agents upon them.
Banks seemed oblivious to the damage he had caused. Metal twisted and stretched apart as he backed the transporter away from the collision, driving away from the scene and into the early stages of a construction zone situated within a warehouse district. The victim of his reckless actions was screaming for help, and the military agents were quick to answer the call. Weaving through the traffic, they were heading towards their direction.
Ignoring the demands shouting through the bullhorns, small arms fire could be heard as Banks continued the retreat into the construction arena. John immediately returned fire, blowing holes through the back window, littering empty, hot shells upon Sofia. As they continued to make their way between the two large, concrete frames ahead of them, Banks stopped the transporter and cut the engine.
“What are you doing?” John roared out.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s all part of the plan.”
“I’m getting tired of your plans, Banks,” John said, pointing the pistol into Banks’ face. “If you’re not getting us out of here, I will.”
He reached across Sofia, grasping the handle to the rear door.
“John,” Banks called out. “Just wait. It’ll be clear in a moment.”
“You’re a fool,” John said, pinching the microphone on his throat as he kicked open the door and climbed out. “Team Two this is Team Three, how copy?”
“John,” the Captain interrupted.
“Shut up, Banks,” John yelled at him, pointing his finger in the Captain’s face. “Team Two this is Team Three. Do you copy? The LZ is compromised. Repeat: the LZ is compromised. Over.”
The rumbling of the military vehicles was growing steadily more aggressive on the street outside. Removing his sights from Banks, John took cover beside their transporter, readying his pistol for the first agent to turn the corner.
“Team Two, do you copy?” he attempted once more.
“They can’t hear you,” Banks confessed. “Their microphones are off. You need to get inside where it’s safer.”
“Why are their microphones off?” Sofia spoke up.
John opened the front passenger door and climbed inside while keeping an eye on the street behind them.
“What’s going on, old man?” he asked, shoving the barrel of the pistol into Banks’ throat. “Why aren’t they communicating with us?”
“Didn’t Stephen tell you? Don’t you remember, kids? The airships are one-way tickets, at least for most of us. Stephen and Maryanne understood that.”
“You mean, Maryanne’s in danger somewhere in the city?” Sofia cried out. “John, we need to help them!”
“You can’t, young lady,” the Captain interjected.
“You know where they are, Banks. Take us to them, now,” John demanded.
“I can’t do that.”
John fired the pistol beside Banks’ head, shattering the driver’s side window, causing the old man to duck his head.
“I can make it so that you’ll take us to them, Captain,” he whispered, as his commanding officer stared at him under a profusely sweating brow.
“Go ahead, John. Kill me and compromise the entire last leg of the mission. My death won’t solve anything. It’ll just make things harder everywhere else because we’ll have failed to complete the final objective.”
“We’re going to complete it, but we’re doing it with them”
“No we won’t… not with Stephen and Maryanne. They volunteered for this. They have a better understanding of sacrifice than you do. Central anticipated almost everything… only we were supposed to be at the airship by now. We all knew that the military would take the city once we made the hits, but things moved a little faster than we had anticipated… and now some of us need to live to finish the job.”
To Banks’ relief, John removed the pistol’s aim and sat back in the seat.
“We have to help them. We need to get to Mary. Please, John,” Sofia pleaded.
John leaned his head back. There were so many paths to take.
“They’re giving their lives for us, for you. They do not want your help in this matter. Don’t let them die in vain, John.”
Banks took note of the time, shaking his head.
“I know your pain, young lady,” he said to Sofia. “Stephen was my good friend.”
“But can’t we do something to help them?” she sobbed.
Banks continued to shake his head, his eyes welling up with moisture.
John stepped out of the transporter, taking a steady aim down the alley as the voices of the military agents echoed through their bullhorns, demanding an unconditional surrender.
“There’s going to be an explosion that’ll dwarf mine in comparison,” Banks whispered to Sofia. “But we’ll be safe here.”
Weeping for her friend, Sofia could not understand why Maryanne would give her life in such a manner.
“Maryanne, why didn’t you stay with me?” she cried, burying her face in the palms of her hands.
“John, don’t worry about them. In thirty seconds the military will be no threat to us. Come, get inside.”
An agent peered around the wall shining the flashlight from his weapon towards their position. John rapidly fired off several rounds, sending him back behind his cover.
“Twenty seconds, John.”
A metal canister sailed over the buildings, landing halfway between their transporter and the city street.
“Poison,” John yelled, ducking down.
/> John’s words fell upon Sofia’s ears like the autumn leaves, dead and insignificant. The pain in her heart was too much for her. The world of darkness that forever seemed to exist on Golden was stifling and suffocating. To think that Maryanne was somewhere out there waiting to die on such a terrible planet was a thought that brought more tears to her eyes.
“Please, Savior, don’t let her suffer,” Sofia began to pray.
“Ten Seconds,” the Captain counted down.
As John lay on the cold, wet asphalt, the wall of burning began to rise in his mind. If he was going to die here, he was not going to give the military the satisfaction of eliminating him with one of their bullets. He would rather the poison do its dirty work for them.
Damp and chilly, he returned to his seat inside the vehicle. He knew he should have chosen a place near Sofia, but he did not want to witness the effects of the gas upon her: the bloody cough, the bloody tears. He certainly did not want her to see any of that falling upon him either. He closed the door as the popping of the canister commenced, bringing with it the thickly rising plume of death.
Within Banks’ eyes the continual clicking movement of the hands of his watch were like the beating of a dying heart, the last remaining moments of Golden’s glory.
“Four seconds.”
“I only wish I could have said to you…” Sofia sobbed.
“Three”
“… how much I cherished our friendship.”
“Two”
John closed his eyes, mentally prepared to inhale the deadly fumes that were closing in on them.
“One”
“Good-bye, Mary.”
As if the cries of the sufferings of the Savior of the worlds were coming to an end, the rain suddenly ceased. The last drop splashed upon the windshield. An eerie soundlessness fell upon the city as the winds died off. The heavens above were silently anticipating Golden’s end.
A blinding cloak of white fell upon the metropolis, preceding the thunderous blast that arose from the fireball that lifted from the heart of Golden, tearing through her streets, burning off the flesh of her inhabitants and scorching the materials of her world.
The poisonous smoke withdrew from of the alley, leaving the transporter nestled alone between the protective walls of concrete. Swirling into the streets, the gaseous cloud met with the burning storm of flames and torment that ripped apart the advancing agents.
There was a change that was taking place in the order of the universe. The iron grip of the old military might was dying. Those that had been suffering under their treacherous conditions were confronting the cold-hearted selfishness of the men of means.
As the burning light of flames died down, flakes of ash fell from the sky. The dimly lit streets were becoming a whitened path of beauty, as if they were covered over with snow. It was an image of grand irony, John thought, as he believed the road outside the alleyway was leading him to the final conclusion of his sordid life. And yet, although he was now a key player in Central’s venture, he was still uncertain as to exactly how he fit in to the universal scheme of the ages.
Boarding the airship, John held tightly to Sofia. As the bay door began to close, he was too consumed with his own internal demons to notice the tears falling from her eyes.
The smoldering ruins at the center of the city were visible through the narrowing threshold. It was the pyre of dedication for those that sacrificed everything, even their very lives.
Grateful for the time that she did have with such a spiritually strong woman as Maryanne, Sofia lifted her hand, bidding one final farewell to a wonderful friend.
Chapter Forty
The icy atmosphere was burrowing itself to the bones as the last three survivors neared the planet known to Central as Black Island. The Top Man was there somewhere, hidden within its frozen wasteland. Their goal was to flush him out and destroy him. Through the rearward cameras of the airship, the Savior now appeared as just another distant star, one of a million pinholes of light speckled upon the blackness of space.
Central Command was keeping a close eye out for the Captain and his crew, and once again they anticipated their needs with precision. The air transporter had been pre-loaded with all the necessary equipment, even providing the three-man team with the layers of insulated outerwear necessary to their survival and comfort while traversing the frigid lands of the Island.
Floating within the center of the room while pulling the warmth-inducing, hooded shirt over her head, Sofia unfolded it down to her hips, grimacing under the pain of her infected wound. Tugging at the tether cable linked to the floor that held her in place, her body glided back to the table from where she was able to grab her hovering pants.
She had such a strong adoration for the flowing dress that she had received during the mission on Golden. It was a sweet slice of the delicacy of life of which she was not afforded since leaving the crash-site home of Labor so many years past. A nostalgic moment was projecting from the memory reels within her feverish mind as she pulled the cold weather bottoms on, latching them about her waist before throwing the skirt back over her legs. Pants under my skirt, she thought with a pale smile. Although she was now a full-grown woman, her tomboy ways that should have been far behind her were apparently still with her in heart.
John and the Captain had, for some time, been discussing the course of action that they would be taking once the ship landed. Through the opening above her, Sofia listened to them arguing, wiping her hand across her runny, cold nose and sniffling with an occasional sneeze. Unable to discern the actual words that they were using, their tones seemed to her to have descended into frustration. And, more than once, John had floated out of the room, red in the face and with hatred in his eyes. She knew better than to bother him at such a moment.
Pushing off the wall, Sofia left the upper decks of the airship. Still uncontrollably shivering despite the heavy layers of clothes, and cursed with a headache that would not let up, she sought shelter from the raging men above. Sliding through the thresholds of each level of the aircraft, she worked her way to the lowest deck, moving as far away from them as she could.
The nether storage container of the transporter housed a unique set of vehicles used for traversing icy, snow-covered terrain. Secured to the floor with nylon rigging, their two-seated, white painted bodies were covered over with smudges of grayish cloudy shapes, making their actual silhouettes indistinguishable against the gray-white walls of the ship. Unlike the vehicles from the other planets, these lacked the wheels and tires of their otherworldly counterparts. Instead, they were given their motion by way of a tracked mechanism.
Gliding down beside the nearest machine, Sofia opened the passenger door and climbed inside. Consumed by her growing illness and the exhaustion of the past few days’ events, compounded with the loss of Maryanne, she was completely emotionally unstable, finding it nearly impossible to hold back her tears during any given moment. Curled up in the seat, she could not escape the constant ringing in her ears. Closing her eyes brought her immediately into the unconscious state of sleep, where the nightmares had been awaiting her arrival.
“When will we return home?” she mumbled.
The fluorescent lights on the panels of the ship’s walls passed through the lids of her eyes, unnatural and without the soothing effect of the Savior’s warmth. For all the evils that the distant, empty space of the solar system held, the heat of Raw was a little more inviting than the bitter chill of a completely Saviorless world.
The lights of the open bay doors of the airship revealed little to John of the coal blackened atmosphere engulfing the snow-drifted world of the Island outside. According to Central, the base of operation, or as they were calling it, Top Hat’s Quarters, was situated somewhere approximately four thousand meters away. With only point A and point B noted on the handheld’s map, the mystery of what they would find at the end of the line was anybody’s guess.
Sofia did not need to leave the confines of the snow-transporter. Sh
e awoke to John’s presence beside her as he reached inside and turned on the ignition. Closing the door and walking back to the Captain, he appeared to be finishing his business with the man.
Through the blurriness of the plastic window, the two soldiers were on much friendlier terms relative to the last time she heard them together. Talking amongst themselves, they smiled and shook hands. The Captain was clearly emotional, wiping his eyes frequently and rubbing them on the sides of his shirt. With one last touch of John’s shoulder, Banks, to Sofia’s amazement, leaned forward, taking John in his arms in the same manner as a loving father would hug his child, patting him on the back. Releasing him from his hold, the Captain turned away without another word, walking around to the driver’s side of his vehicle. In a single motion, the aged officer stepped inside, fired up the engine, peered across the open space between him and her and, after a momentary contact with Sofia’s eyes, he drove down the ramp, fading away into nothingness. The lights of his vehicle were consumed by the darkness.
As John took his seat at the wheel, his solemn expression revealed the obvious nature of the conversation: Banks’ ride to the Island was his one-way ticket.
At the pace they were traveling, the traversal of the harsh lands would take hours for them to reach their destination. The lights of the vehicle allowed for only a shallow view of the wind blown landscape, as flakes of white drifted across the windshield in endless streams. Although hypnotically similar to the wiping of the rain by the blades of the transporter on Golden, this time Sofia was not in the least desirous for sleep.
Sofia was so frail and weak sitting by his side. Over the past few days John had been witness to the rapidly glossing over of her eyes with a haze of fatigue. Perhaps it was the nearness to the end of their journey that was wearing on her, or maybe it was the fact that they were fighting alone. Whatever it was that was influencing her declining health he could not comprehend, but he could see that she was overwhelmed with fear even though they were together, adventuring like the good, old days. John could never have considered that his own hands were the cause of Sofia’s body wasting away. What was happening to her was purely a mystery to him. Sofia was dying. But that was her personal, little secret.
The Lover's Parable Through A Seven World Journey Page 37