Sebastian yells at me, “Go help Xander! I will hold him!”
“No, Sebastian! This is my fight!”
Michael’s strength surges and I feel mine depleting quickly. I look over my shoulder and check on Xander’s progress with the others. I can’t hold Michael off much longer. Xander is crossing the room with Ezra in his arms and Anna by his side. He helps Nate stand with Jesca in his arms, and then they move toward the wormhole. “Go Sebastian! You need to help seal the wormhole!”
Sebastian’s voice thunders, “You have to go with us, Sam! You can’t stay here! Once we seal the veil..!”
Somehow, Michael untangles our hold on him and he grabs Sebastian by the throat, lifting him from the ground. I try and pry Michael’s arm from him, but he brings his other elbow around making contact with the side of my face. I’m thrown off balance, letting go of the hold I had on him. Finding his escape Michael throws Sebastian across the room, punches me as I lunge to trap him again, knocking me to the ground. He runs straight for the portal.
Chapter 27
Jesca
My first conscious intake of breath is harsh. The air feels like fire rolling down my throat, through my ribcage, and into my lungs. I cough and the slight jolt magnifies the pulsing pain surging through my skull. It is the same feeling I got when I woke beyond the veil. I blink, then squint shielding my eyes against the bright, fluorescent lights above. I look down quickly and let my sight span wildly along the white tile looking for everyone that was with me beyond the veil. Nate is the first I see lying face down on the white tile. A flash of him holding me in his arms telling me that he wasn’t going to let me die plays in my mind.
He saved me.
Looking around more closely. We are back in the facility. We made it back! I try to rise up on all fours to get to him, but my body is not responding like it should. I’m physically weak, immoveable. I breathe in. Wait how long ago did I take a breath? I can’t think straight. The thoughts in my head are spinning out of control. What is going on? I try to rise, but it feels like I am fighting against what my body wants to do; give up. With my body low to the ground and only control of moving my head for now, I scan the floor quickly looking for everyone. I see Ezra lying on his back with Sebastian next to him.
I speak, but my voice is gone, just a rasped whisper, “Ezra.” My thought gets to him though. He coughs then scrunches his face up in pain. The panic creeps in as I witness what is happening. What we are experiencing. Wheezing...we are wheezing.
The memory of Sebastian’s words are in my head. “Titanium and Helium are increasing. At high levels, both can cause changes in the lungs and breathing problems. At high levels, Helium will silently suffocate us...”
What if the changes spiked while we were gone? How long were we gone? Was it just a matter of days? Weeks? I try and slow my breathing, but the hissing sound of my esophagus contracting just makes me more nervous and the panting is out of control. Hold my breath, I have to hold my breath until I can get to them. I close my eyes and remember Nate just before we came back. The feeling of him holding me, his heart pulsing in time with mine like it always has. Him feeding me his life force, ignoring his own life to save mine. I open my eyes and try to focus on Nate’s form beyond the ripened tears, ready to fall.
“Nate.”
My voice sounds so hoarse I barely recognize it, but he hears me and stirs. The identical hissing sound rising from my throat comes from him now.
Without realizing, I take a deep breath and it hitches and spasms. Fire engulfs my esophagus and I want to cry out, but instead I hold it in. Hold it all in. He slowly turns his head toward me and lays it back on the ground; he is so weak. If only he didn’t use so much of his life force on me. Damn it, I won’t let him die like this. Any of them. They don’t deserve this death. I keep my eyes trained on Nate as I force my mind to connect with my body again. My right hand raises stiff and shaking as I stretch it in his direction. Same with my leg, but my leg is more of a spasmed jerking motion as I bend it to gain traction. It takes so much energy to move and I want to breathe deeply, but I would only be breathing in a quicker death. I tell myself slow and shallow, hoping that when I reach him and the others, together, our combined energy will help us hold on long enough for...for the others...if any of them are still here. One convulsing limb at a time, I slither closer and closer to Nate.
A low, raspy groan just beyond Nate brings me to a halt. “Jes.”
I raise my head a little higher and look just beyond Nate. It’s Xander. He raises his head and winces, having just taken in a deep breath. He realizes what is happening and his eyes widen and look at me. When he breathes again, his fight for breathe matches mine and Nate’s. I think, “Xander, slow and shallow.”
The next reach of my contracting hand, lands on Nate’s hand; it is so cold. I pinch my eyes closed and think of what we must look like to a fly on the wall; cold, dying fish flopping about, trying to breathe out of water. The morbid thought pisses me off and I grab onto his hand tightly. When I look at Nate, his eyes are closed. Without hesitation, I call out in a scratchy voice. “Xander!”
Without me saying anything more, Xander takes hold of Nate by the back of his shirt and pulls himself closer to him. I feel a hand, Xander’s, grip my free one tightly. My eyes meet his and the safety in them melts the fear a little bit. I hear him think, “We need to hold on until they find us.”
My head shakes and jerks as I turn to look back at Ezra and Sebastian. Ezra is so still and Sebastian is the only one moving. When Sebastian raises his head he looks at me and claps my father’s motionless hand. I know that he is aware of how we must fight to hold on, hold out long enough to be saved. My head jerks back slowly to Xander and Nate. Nate’s eyes are open now, Xander’s energy must be working. Together, our energy is healing. I look down at our joined hands and forcibly drown out the wheezing breaths among us.
I feel a vibration, a heavy patterned, pounding of feet getting heavier and heavier...they are approaching. My eyes move from Xander to Nate in panic. What if it isn’t our salvation, but the end?
My eyes not leaving Nate’s and Xander’s hands, the muffled sound of Monica’s familiar voice pierces the silence. “Jesus, they are back! Quick, get the others. We need to put them under or they won’t make it!”
I blink my eyes and try and control my jerking head to look at her. I feel arms around my waist lifting me, pulling me up; away from Nate and Xander. With work, I finally mouth the word, “No.”
The room spins and I catch a glimpse of the person who is hauling me off the floor; Nick? Why is he here? They were supposed to leave. Everyone was supposed to leave!
Warm hands grab hold of my face and pull my attention away from him and to her determined blue eyes. Elisha!
Her voice is shaking and urgent as she whispers, “We got you. We got you.”
They stayed behind. Why? Did something happen? Could they not make it out? I want to ask her so many questions, but I can’t.
I feel a small sting, then sharp pain course through my arm. I look from Elisha to Nick confused and scared. Elisha whispers, “We have to save you.”
Everything blurs and I feel like I am melting into the ground below me.
Monica’s yell echoes, like it is in a far away tunnel, “Get them all sedated. We need to re-implant now!”
No, I have too many questions. I try and stay alert mentally, grasping for anything concrete I can hang onto.
The arms that lift me up before I hit the ground are solid and secure. Those arms give my body permission to surrender to the anesthetic coursing through me and pulling me under.
Chapter 28
Jesca
I’m standing in the dark woods on the river’s edge, the river I saw beyond the veil.
Georgia.
Anna’s voice whispers, “Follow where it leads.”
Did she make it out? Did she find her way out of the veil and back to her realm, Heaven?
The wind whips my hair and I f
eel her presence all around me. I turn to find her, but all I see is rustling, leaves glossed by the bright moon light.
My call out is muffled and slurred, “Anna. Mom.”
I turn and look up, eyes drawn to the light radiating from the sky.
In the glow of the moons, the profile of three visible mounds are vivid and statuesque.
The Etowah Mounds.
Impossible to miss, three distinct stars above the mounds draw my attention. Without an attempt, a thought comes to me, “Orion’s belt bears salvation.”
Suddenly, someone strong grabs hold of me from behind and pulls me back, coming flush against a hard chest. The familiar voice of Michael hisses in my ear, “You will not be saved.”
I grab hold of the arm he had pressed against my throat and try and push against him with no success, I throw my head back making contact with his face and his hands release me. I turn quickly ready to continue my attack, but he is gone.
I hear whispers around me, slipping through the trees, being carried on the wind. Slow and quiet at first. As they get louder, I focus on their possessors. The vision around me fades into darkness, leaving me with the voices; Monica’s is the most prominent.
The moment I open my eyes, they are drawn to the small lamp next to where I lay. The color of the lamp is the deepest scarlet I have ever seen. As I focus closer, I see the sateen fabric is seeded with an intensely contrasting black thread. Some of the thread is bubbling, while other parts are smooth and straight lined. The slightest sound on the floor board tickles my earlobe and I turn toward the owner in a flash; Sebastian. Neither of us say anything. I can see that he is watching my reaction to what I am experiencing; the first events after my implantation; the adaptations necessary to survive in our changed world.
On one side of him stands Monica. On the other, Jake and Siobhan. I figure my first words would sound soft and my voice would crack, but it couldn’t be clearer than a bell. “How long have we been…”
Before I finish, Jake interrupts, “A year.”
A year. I stare beyond him, thinking of what implications an evolution could have on a world in that amount of time. The chaos, the causalities, the wars, the adaptations. It is too much to wrap my mind around and my mind automatically blocks the possibilities from the sheer overload; survival instinct I suppose. I hear a tap, tap, tapping that pulls my eyes back toward the side table. A tiny blue rectangular world with a series of tunnels.
Tap, tap, tap.
I hone in on the one explorer, the small ant tapping its appendage on the wall of its small world; the veil between our world and theirs. This one explorer could be either the savior or the foe in their little world. Savior or Foe; Michael Sanderson.
Beyond the veil, he was alive. Now he knows what I know and he is here! I have never felt a surge of energy stir within me so quickly. My body responds to it with full force, shooting into an upright sitting position in no time flat. I look from one pair of raised eyebrows to another as I ask. “Michael Sanderson, did he come through with us?”
Monica clears her throat and crosses her arms. “Michael, tore through the unit. That is what alerted us to you returning.”
I shake my head, knowing that with him on the loose, time is not a commodity. As I push the sheets off my body, Siobhan and Monica close in on me, like a brigade. I pause and eye them with an “I wouldn't mess with me right now if I were you” look.
Monica, “We know we have no time. There are some things we need to discuss first.”
Jake comes around to stand next to Siobhan and Sebastian comes closer flanking me. Here comes that feeling again; lightning striking. I feel my heart sink, knowing that is has to do with someone close to me. I close my eyes and ask flatly, “Where is Ezra?”
No one speaks.
I open my eyes and look at each of them with no visible answer on their faces. I try and read them.
Nothing.
Damn it, they blocked me. I move to climb down from the table, but the four of them move with me and Sebastian rests his hand on my shoulder. “Jesca, just sit down and let us explain.”
His somber, antagonizing voice makes me want to scream. I pull my arm from him and back away from them to gain some space. “No! Where is he? Where are Nate and Xander?”
I look at Sebastian. “Where is Sam?”
Nick and Elisha come into the room. Elisha rushes across the room and hugs me. She whispers, “I’m sorry about the sedative Jes, but we had to move quick.”
She pulls back and holds my head in her hands. “How do you feel?”
I shake my head slowly, they should have been gone. They were supposed to go to Georgia with the others. “Why are you still here?”
Elisha scoffs and looks back at Nick, hovering over her. Nick shoves his hands in his pockets and Elisha turns back studying my face. “Nick wouldn’t leave and I wouldn’t either.”
Nick chimes in, “We are a team. I wasn’t about to leave you, Nate, Ezra, and Xander.”
For the first time ever, Nick’s features aren’t jovial and carefree. They are harder, anguished. “Jes, it’s Angela...she is gone.”
“Yeah, she went with the others, right?” That has to be what he meant, right?
Nick’s voice is barely audible and spent from distress. “No. There was an attack on the facility; Sondians. She died two months ago.”
I can’t wrap my head around it. I look down at Elisha, needing to know from my best friend that this is not true. Elisha bites her lower lip and nods quickly and whispers, “It’s true, Jes.”
Monica movement out of the corner of my eye catches my attention. She is reaching into her pocket. I may not be able to listen in on her mind, but I know for damn sure it is a syringe. I grit my teeth and warn her, “Don’t even think about sticking me again.” As I look at her hard, her eyes are vulnerable, sad, and filled with worry. Her reaction to me makes my once ominous voice, teeter and crack, “I’m not losing it, Monica.” I look from one guardian to the other and all I see is each of them breaking before my eyes. I hold back my tears, look at Sebastian, and ask as flatly as I can. “Ezra, Nate, and Xander, where are they?”
Sebastian looks at Jake who is moving in closer to me now. I have to try and connect with Nate, Xander, or Ezra. I look down and focus on the ground and open my mind to them. “Nate! Xander! Ezra!”
As soon as I release my thought, it evaporates, vanishes.
No connection.
No receiver.
No link.
I look up at Monica and make a move toward her. “What did you do?”
Elisha backs away with Nick as Jake moves in, blocking my advances. “Jesca, that is enough!”
Sebastian’s stern voice pipes in, “She did what any of us would have done. We were dying! She implanted us with the modified Copula to save us, Jesca! The chance of survival, adaptation, she couldn’t control all the variables of the implantation.”
Oh no. No, no, no. Did they die? Is that why they aren’t telling me what is going on? I bend over, ready to throw up. I gag, but nothing comes up. My gag quickly turns into an audible quivering inhale and sob.
Monica comes closer to me, her hand back in her pocket. No! It is not possible. They are strong. If I can adapt and survive, they can too! Ezra is the strongest man I know! Nate and Xander too! I see their faces in my mind and shake my head knowing that they aren’t gone! They can’t be! Recklessly, I rush Jake, knocking him off balance, then shove Monica out of the way catching her off guard.
Sebastian yells after me as I breakaway from the room, but I don’t hear his words. I can only think of getting to them; Ezra, Nate, Xander. I dash from one corridor to another along the hall. None of them give as I jiggle the handles.
The clamoring of feet on tile makes me move faster and I yell out as I move faster from door to door, not wanting to risk them stopping me. “I’m not running away! I just need to find them!” I turn and move more quickly. “Ezra, Nate, Xander!”
I round the corner with Moni
ca, Jake, Siobhan, and Sebastian flanking me. Jake reaches out and grabs hold of my arm. Expecting it, I pull away from his grasp and stumble backward. I gain control of my footing, but run right into a notable mass, stopping me in my tracks; Xander. I grab hold of his dark, grey Henley, wringing it between my fists not wanting the others to pull me from him. Breathlessly, I whisper, “You are alive.”
Xander looks up at the others behind me, then back down at me with concern written all over his face. He pulls me into his chest. Even though the questionability of his reaction is stirring in my mind, I just want to feel that he is really here, with me and that they aren’t going to take me away from him, so I surrender to his warm embrace.
I whisper, “Where is Ezra and Nate? Please tell me.”
No one speaks.
I pull my head up and look at him, waiting for my answer. For the first time since we met, Xander’s vibrant hazel eyes, have become pale, dim. He looks down the hall, working his jaw, then back at me, the rims of his eyes giving away his emotions. My strength deceives me when my voice gives around my words, “Are they dead?”
Xander shifts his body, making me aware of the door he is blocking. The door he just exited from. Ezra or Nate, one or both of them have to be in there.
I try and pull away from him, but his grip holds me in place. He looks over me toward Monica and shakes his head. “You didn’t tell her yet?”
His words, solidifying that I needed into that room, trigger me into action. I take my anger, my sorrow and focus on the door just beyond Xander. Everything in the observable space around me, the walls, the hallway, the doors, Xander begin to blur and fragment into a heavy, thick dust. In a split second, the dust is clearing, defragmenting, and I am standing in the room facing the door. The door knob turns, but I am on it quicker, locking it and keeping them out. If they really want in, they could jump and astral project too. I wait to see if any of them do, but they don’t. They must realize that it is too late to try and stop me now. I look at the door for a minute, wondering what I will see when I turn and look at the room. Will it be Nate or my father?
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