Raising the Past

by Jeremy Robinson

  Eve’s head poked over the top. “Can you climb up?”

  “In gym class, I was one of the kids who never reached the top… I certainly can’t do it now.” Norwood thumped against the wall, hitting the same bruised thigh he had just crushed. He cried out in pain and felt his grip loosen. “Just leave me be,” Norwood said. “I’m done.”

  “Shut up, Brian,” Eve said over the edge in a similar voice that she had used to chew him out earlier.

  Norwood closed his mouth and began to breathe through his nose and out through his mouth. A moment later he surged up, stopped, and then surged up again. He sighed with relief when he saw the rope sliding over the ice above. The others were pulling him up.

  Steve’s hand reached over the top, grabbed onto Norwood’s fur-lined hood and yanked him up onto the ice. This time all four lay on the ice, panting, sucking in air like it was the last oxygen on the planet.

  “I think we all deserve Christmas bonuses for that little trick,” Steve said.

  Norwood smiled. “At least time and a half.”

  “Cheapskate.”

  Norwood laughed, but then held his leg in pain, clenching his eyes shut. When he opened them again, his laughter stopped. It was a dramatic enough change to gain everyone’s attention.

  “What?” Eve said without moving.

  “Above the gorge,” Norwood said.

  Eve raised her head and looked up. Floating above the open crack in the ice, three feet up and four feet out was a solid black sphere with a single, red blinking light. She gasped.

  “Oh, hell no,” Steve said.

  All four got to their feet. Eve took in the area. In front of them were the gorge and an alien black sphere that could manipulate weather. To the left and right was nothing but flat ice and behind them was a small rise, which they hoped would lead to the end of their journey—and Eddy. But even finding Eddy on the other side of the rise would not solve the current predicament; if anything it meant that he would die with them. But they had no choice. They had to run. They had to—

  Before Eve could say a word, Steve began speaking. “All right you mechanical piece of crap. It’s go time and you’re going down.”

  Eve looked back at Steve. He had gathered the length of the rope, which was still looped around their side of the ice, and had tied the other end around his waist. “What are you doing?” Eve asked.

  “Time for a little payback,” Steve said. “For Paul and Nicole. I’m not gonna let this thing hurt anyone.” Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out a large flathead screwdriver. Before anyone could say another word, Steve ran toward the edge and launched himself out over the gorge and tackled the black sphere like Superman stopping a locomotive. The black orb fell down below the edge of the gorge, but recovered, hovering a few feet below the edge.

  Eve peered over the edge and saw Steve clinging to the sphere with both legs and one hand, while his free hand was pounding the shell of the orb with the tip of the screw driver. Eve turned to Kevin and Norwood. “Hold the rope! If that thing falls, we’re going to need to pull him back up!”

  Kevin, Eve and Norwood grabbed the rope and pulled up the slack, holding some of Steve’s weight so he wouldn’t have to. From inside the crevice they could hear Steve spewing a slew of curses that would make some people faint.

  Inside the gorge, Steve clung to the orb like a tree frog to a leaf. He wasn’t letting go and he wasn’t going down without a fight.

  The sphere began to spin, slowly at first, but with each turn it began to gain speed. Steve continued his assault but had only managed to dull the screwdriver and scratch the surface of the sphere. Then he noticed an anomaly on the sphere’s surface: the red light.

  He swung at the light, realizing it was the only apparent weakness on the surface of the sphere. He swung once and missed. He swung again and the screwdriver glanced off the side. He raised his hand back and brought the screwdriver down with a ferocious roar. The tip of the screwdriver shattered the red light, plunged deep into the sphere’s innards and stuck there.

  The sphere spun madly and whipped Steve out, away from the wall, causing him to lose his grip on the screwdriver. As he was flung through the air, Steve brought himself around and put his feet out before swinging back to slam into the ice wall. His knees protested at the impact, but held strong and absorbed most of the shock. Below, the orb continued to spin, but it was falling. The sphere crackled and sparks flew from inside as its spinning slowed to a stop and it fell into the crevasse.

  Steve reached the top in just under two minutes, but lay on the ice for five before lifting his head. Kevin and Norwood were lying with him, catching their breath, but Eve was gone. Steve looked from side to side and didn’t see her anywhere. Then he heard a voice from above. He couldn’t make out the words, but he recognized her voice.

  “Where are you, Eve?” he shouted.

  “Up here!” he heard her respond.

  Steve looked up and saw Eve standing on top of the snowy rise. He held his hand over his eyes, blocking out the bright sun as it began its descent toward the horizon. “What are you doing?” he said.

  “Get up here!” Eve said, but her voice conveyed more urgency than the words. Steve, Norwood and Kevin all sat up and looked at Eve.

  “What’s up?” Steve asked, as he climbed to his feet.

  “I see Eddy,” Eve shouted back. “He’s not alone.”

  CITADEL

  25

  THE OBELISK

  Hobbling as best he could on weary legs, Eddy narrowed the distance between himself and a ruby obelisk, ten feet tall and two feet wide. He could see its surface gleaming like a polished gemstone in the sun—a treasure hunter’s dream. He couldn’t understand how it had never been seen before, or how it had managed to stay above the ice and snow for all these years; it was a question for another day at another time, which in the grand scheme of things was really only an insignificant distraction. Life and death hung in the balance now. Eddy refocused.

  The four Ferox had appeared from the ice behind him and were now giving chase and closing the gap. Eddy had no recourse other than running. He kept his course straight, making a beeline for the obelisk, but what he’d do when he got there he had no idea. It seemed his gamble would not pay off. The others were nowhere in sight.

  Maybe they had fallen victim to the elements. Or perhaps there were more than four Ferox after all. Or those black spheres, like the one that caused the storm back at the mammoth dig…maybe one of those—

  Eddy pushed the images from his mind. They wouldn’t help now. He was twenty feet from the obelisk when his exhausted body gave up. He fell to his knees and balanced on his hands, catching ragged breaths of air as best he could. The snow crunched behind him as the four Ferox, who still maintained their Inuit form, approached from behind.

  “You’ve won,” Eddy said.

  Marutas stopped five feet from Eddy. He stood with confidence, while Reginn, Hoder and Andari stood behind him, sporting maniacal grins.

  “Was there ever really any doubt?” Marutas said. “But do not push my patience further. Give me your backpack now.”

  Eddy turned to Marutas and stood to his feet. He slid the backpack off his shoulders and held it in his hands. “All this…for one insignificant object.”

  “You have no idea the power of that insignificant object in your hands.”

  Eddy squinted. “It’s just a key.”

  “While the object itself does little more than give one access to the Aeros transmitter placed on this planet thousands of years ago, as has been done to hundreds of planets across the cosmos, if that signal were to be sent…oh, the power. I would like to see your face when your Aeros ‘saviors’ returned to cleanse this planet of our presence. I wonder how long it would take you to realize how awful a mistake it was, calling for the Aeros to return.”

  Eddy smiled. “I understand the way you think. Your manipulations won’t work on me.”

  “Indeed,” Marutas said. “Your will is
too strong. Truly, you are an adversary to be respected.”

  The other Ferox chuckled, finding amusement in Marutas’s words.

  Eddy realized he was little more than the butt of a Ferox joke. He held the backpack over his head. “You want it?”

  Eddy turned and threw the backpack with all his strength. It soared through the air and disappeared into a deep crevice. “Go get it.”

  Marutas smiled wider. “The actions of a desperate man, attempting to cling to the last pitiful moments of his life.” Marutas turned to Reginn. “Go get it.”

  Reginn strode toward the crevice and peered down. “It’s deep,” he said with a rough, monotone voice.

  “Change for our friend, then,” Marutas said.

  Reginn nodded.

  What Eddy saw next would alter the way he saw the world and universe forever. Reginn fell to his knees, but they were no longer knees; they transformed into massive two-toed feet equipped with raptor-like claws. His hands changed as well. His middle finger and ring fingers merged into one, while the index and pinky grew out, each wielding a razor sharp claw. His skin turned thick and gray and his clothing of furs pulled back, lining the top of his growing body. Reginn’s torso became like that of a predatory cat, but twice the size of even a Siberian tiger. The furs retracted even further, becoming a flowing tuft of hair growing along the creature’s spine. As the hair pulled away, it revealed powerful limbs, twitching with muscle, which were still humanoid in form, in that the musculature and fingered hands were similar…but it was not human, not in the least.

  Reginn turned toward Eddy with a snarl, revealing row after row of gleaming white, razor-like teeth. On the sides of his face were lines of bony protrusions, piercing his skin from the inside and tearing out as they grew longer, like horns. But what were most striking were the three sets of red eyes, starting with a larger primary set and tapering up the long forehead. That each set moved independently of the others only added to the freakishness of Reginn’s new form. Wriggling behind the beast was a long tail, upon which a bundle of hair grew out like the tip of a painter’s brush. The tail snapped back and forth like an agitated cat’s. In a blur, Reginn dove down into the crevice, using his sharp claws to scale the wall like some kind of awful spider.

  Eddy’s mouth was wide. “You are demons.”

  That got a laugh from Marutas. “You’d like to hope so, wouldn’t you? Then dispatching us would be as easy as calling upon God to extricate us from your planet. But there is no global priest here to save you, and since we are beings of the physical world, even God himself cannot stop us.”

  Marutas held out a finger, which grew barbed and gray. He stepped toward Eddy, who made no effort to back away. “Now tilt your head back like a good boy and let me slit your throat. I’m thirsty.”

  “Stop!” a voice from behind Eddy called out.

  Eddy spun around so quickly that it hurt his neck. He recognized the voice, though he couldn’t believe it—Eve. His eyes widened as he saw Eve, Kevin, Norwood and Steve standing next to the obelisk. Nicole was missing and they all looked badly beaten, but they were alive, and Eddy felt regret for the fact that he was about to die.

  “Ah,” Marutas said, as though he were welcoming more friends to a party. “You survived the spheres. Impressive. Futile, of course, but impressive.”

  “Get away from him,” Eve said, as she took a step forward.

  Hoder and Andari moved out in either direction in an apparent effort to surround the newcomers.

  “I’m afraid that your journey has come to an end,” Marutas said.

  A surge of motion caught everyone’s attention as Reginn leapt out of the crevice in full Ferox form. He soared ten feet over the ice and landed on all fours next to Marutas, clutching Eddy’s backpack in his dagger-teeth.

  Eve stopped with a gasp and stepped back.

  Norwood held his hand over his lips.

  Steve’s eyes went wide.

  While it was apparent that their situation was far worse than any of them had feared, Reginn’s sudden appearance made Hoder and Andari pause in their advance. Reginn spat out the pack and transformed back into his Inuit form. The group was silent.

  Marutas picked the backpack up off the ground and opened the top. He looked at Eddy. “You provided us with some much needed sport and for that, I thank you. But all good things must come to and end. And this is yours.” Marutas shook the contents of the pack out and they spilled out onto the ice: a wrench, a lantern, a canteen and some spare clothes. Marutas stared at the items on the ice, searching the pile over with his eyes. He snarled and turned his head toward Eddy. “Where did you hide it, human?”

  “I never had it,” Eddy said, the beginning of a smirk on his face. “You’ve been outsmarted, Marutas.”

  “Where is the key? Tell me now or watch your friends die by my hand.”

  “Okay! Okay… I’ll tell you where it is…”

  Eve’s forehead crinkled with concern. “Eddy, don’t. It’s our only leverage.”

  “…But you’re not going to like what I tell you.”

  Marutas looked confused.

  Eddy turned to Kevin. “Kevin. Show him.”

  Kevin held the key up above his head, smiling wide. “Oldest trick in the book,” he said. “Re-written by Eddy.”

  Marutas hissed, but Kevin was already placing the key in a depression that was identical in size and shape to the key. He slammed the key home and a loud hum filled the air. Then…nothing.

  Marutas laughed. “You have done nothing more than power the citadel and open a door that has long since been buried. No signal will be sent and you will die just the same.”

  Eddy feared that this time Marutas was right. Nothing was happening. Nothing at all! Eddy rolled away from Marutas, fearing that his attack would come quick. When he turned around to face Marutas, he found himself facing four fully changed Ferox, bearing their fangs and extending their claws. This was going to be a bloodbath.

  Steve and Kevin yanked Eddy to his feet as they backed away from the savage aliens whose purpose was clear. They were stopped by the cold surface of the obelisk against their backs. The Ferox advance was slowed as the ice began to shake—worse than any earthquake the coast of California had ever experienced. The ice began to split all around them. Hoder was the first to fall in, then Reginn. Andari scurried away, then jumped through the air like a wild gazelle. The ice he was meaning to land on fell away and Andari disappeared into the newly-formed gorge.

  Marutas pushed forward. The unyielding resolve could be seen in all six of his ruby eyes, glowing like the embers of Hell. As he pushed down on the ice with his hind legs and lunged into the air, the ice beneath Eddy and the others lurched up into the sky. Marutas collided with a solid red wall, which was curved. As he fell down with the crumbling ice, he saw his prey being carried away atop a round platform, which was at the top of a tall tower. Marutas growled as he fell.

  The Citadel was rising.

  Eddy held onto the obelisk with every ounce of strength he had left. He couldn’t see what was happening, but he felt his stomach twist as the tower defied gravity, rising high into the sky. The air became more biting as they shot higher and the wind pulled at his clothes. His bare arm was covered with goose bumps and his teeth began to chatter. Then the rumbling stopped and all he could hear was the whistle of cold air passing by his ears.

  Eddy opened his eyes and loosed his grip on the obelisk. He did a quick check of his immediate surroundings, taking in every member of the team. Steve and Kevin were on either side. Norwood was off to his left and beginning to dust snow from his chest. And Eve… Where was Eve? Eddy stood and almost fell right back over. He had been in tall buildings before and was always amazed at how dizzy looking down made him feel, but now he was standing on top of something very tall, perhaps twenty stories, with no windows separating him from the air.

  With wobbling hands, Eddy reached out and grasped the obelisk again, holding it tight. He took in the platform they were
standing on. It was very small, perhaps six feet in diameter of flat space around the obelisk, which was a square foot at the bottom and tapered toward the top, coming to a point like a classic Egyptian obelisk. Steve and Kevin clambered closer to the obelisk, afraid of what would happen should they lose their grip. Eddy looked at Norwood, who was closer to the one side of the obelisk that was hidden from Eddy’s view. “Brian, is Eve with you?”

  Norwood looked to his right. “No.”

  Eddy felt a lump grow in his throat. Eve was gone.

  “Eve?” Eddy said, and followed it with a loud shout. “Eve!”

  “I’m right here, Eddy,” Eve’s voice said from below. “No need to shout.”

  Eddy turned and saw Eve standing a few feet below the small platform. She stood on a wire mesh walkway that rounded the entire tower. If Eve weren’t standing on it, he would never have seen it. “Eve, thank God. I thought you were dead.”

  Eddy lowered himself onto the wire mesh, which he found to be surprisingly firm beneath his feet. He looked into Eve’s eyes and smiled. “I’m… I—” Eddy put his hand on her face and caressed her cheek. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

  Eve smiled. “Me, too.”

  What Eddy saw next took all his attention away from Eve. His mouth dropped open and he turned his face away from Eve’s. Spread out before them was a massive structure, a ruby red city. There were several buildings within the citadel, all connected by a series of halls. Everything was red, except for the windows reflecting the sky, the snow and the other buildings within the city. It looked as though it should be bustling with activity but it was barren of life. The red material was unlike anything Eddy had seen before. It was hard like metal but not as cold, and its contours seemed stone-like, different than anything else on Earth. Several of the walls had grooved, wave-like designs along the bottom. Eddy recognized the patterned walls. He had scaled one not too long ago beneath the ice.