by Chad Brecher
Alex attempted to shield her with his body as the firing intensified. He reached over and tried to pull Ox’s torso behind them as a barrier. “It’s either that or get shot.” He looked back and could see Phillip several yards away, crouching behind Solomon as the ping of the bullets bounced off the ground at his feet.
“Do you hear something?” Alex asked.
Ellie fought to try and push the sounds of gunfire to the back of her mind. She could hear a strange whirling noise.
“I hear it.” She placed her ear against the ground. “It’s coming from somewhere close. I think it’s under the ground.” As she rested her ear against the cool stone, her eyes opened wide at the sight of the cable quickly retracting into the ground.
“Alex…it’s the cable!” she exclaimed. Alex lunged for the golden ring but was too late as it and the cable disappeared into the dark recess of the hole. He quickly plunged his fingers into the opening, explored the emptiness, and pulled them out with disappointment. He shook his head.
“I can’t reach the cable. It’s…” Alex paused mid-thought. He could feel the ground beneath him begin to shake. There was a deafening screech as the marble door began to slide slowly across.
“The door’s closing!” Ellie screamed.
Alex crawled forward, pressed the palms of his hands against the marble, and tried to stop the door from sliding. Unable to stop the door from moving, he slumped down beside Ellie.
“We need to go through,” Alex urged.
Jonas peered back nervously. At that moment a series of gunshots echoed throughout the tunnel. Jonas could feel a bolt of heat shoot through the middle of his abdomen. He staggered back and managed to fire off several shots blindly into the darkness ahead. He reached out wildly and found the stone wall while attempting to steady himself. His legs felt unbearably heavy and numb. Although he did everything in his power to will them to keep retreating backwards, his legs buckled uncontrollably under him, leaving him to gracelessly slide down the wall and onto the ground.
“Jonas!” Clay screamed. He weaved and bobbed across from the far side of the tunnel through a hail of bullets. Clay nearly slid across the ground and ended up by Jonas’s side. He found the man propped up against the wall clutching his abdomen as he tried unsuccessfully to staunch a brisk bleed from the entrance site. His legs were flopped and folded awkwardly in front of him.
“Jonas! You’re OK.” He looked around the room for help but found only chaos. Clay reached across Jonas’s shoulder and attempted to move him back towards the Cherubim. “We need to get you out of here.”
Jonas pushed Clay’s arm away and looked back at the closing door behind him with urgency. “Boss, I’m not going anywhere. I can’t move my legs. You need to go before that door closes forever.” Jonas grimaced through the pain, reached out, and grabbed Clay’s wrist. “If you don’t go now, all this won’t be worth anything. You hear me? All this searching will be for nothing. You’re so close. I would have loved to see it, but it’s not meant to be.”
Clay hesitated but Jonas looked away and pushed him back. Jonas leveled his pistol and pulled the trigger. A Mongolian fighter lurking in the shadows crumpled to the ground.
“Go, for God’s-sake!”
Clay looked at him sadly, nodded, and retreated towards Alex and Ellie. As he maneuvered back to the far end of the tunnel he could hear Jonas mutter, “The truth is I didn’t believe you. I thought you were a crazy man. What do I know? Who’s the crazy one now?” Jonas emitted a pained laugh.
Clay crouched beside Alex and Ellie, his eyes wet and red.
“Jonas?” Ellie asked.
Clay looked straight into the dancing flames and answered without looking at either of them. The door was nearly half closed. “He’s not coming.”
“Not coming?”
“It’s time for us to go,” Clay responded and pulled himself to a standing position. Ellie and Alex winced, expecting the unseen blades to shoot out of the walls and cut the erect figure in half. None came. Clay took his first step forward. His body appeared strangely black against the reddish flames. He paused for a moment in front of the fiery wall and extended his hand quickly into it. He smiled, took a final step forward, and disappeared.
Phillip watched as Clay passed through the portal. He pounded on Solomon’s shoulder. “We need to make for the door,” Phillip screamed over the blasts and gunfire. Solomon backed up and unleashed another furious round of machine gunfire ahead. He looked back at the door, now nearly three-quarters closed.
Alex reached out, cupped Ellie’s head between his hands, and kissed her. She looked at him and smiled.
“Just in case that’s my last chance for doing that,” Alex mumbled under his breath.
Ellie and Alex pushed forward on their hands and knees towards the opening. Suddenly two hands reached out from the fire, grabbed each of their hands, and pulled them through the portal. They closed their eyes and braced themselves for the heat, which never came.
“Solomon, it’s closing!” Phillip wailed.
“We’ll make it,” Solomon responded, grabbed the old man’s shirt, and pulled him forcefully back towards the door. Solomon kept his attention on the advancing Darkhad, letting loose a stream of bullets as the two figures made for the door. As they neared the two Cherubim, a series of gunshots echoed through the tunnel. The first bullet struck Solomon in the left chest, loosening his grip on Phillip, and sending him staggering into one of the stone statues. He clung to the beast’s hoof and gritted his teeth as the heat of the bullet seared his muscles, tore through his lung, and broke apart bone. The second bullet struck Phillip in his calf, ripping apart his Achilles tendon and leaving him splayed out on the ground, moaning.
Solomon gritted his teeth and wheezed, looked down at the hobbled man writhing in agony, and then at the nearly closed door behind him. Phillip lifted his torso off the ground and caught Solomon’s eyes.
“Solomon, don’t leave me,” he pleaded.
Solomon looked away and stumbled towards the portal.
Phillip’s eyes were filled with rage and despair.
“Don’t leave me! I hired you! I hired you….” Phillip pulled his body across the ground. “…to help me!”
Solomon stopped for a moment, glanced back at Phillip, and muttered without expression. “You didn’t hire me to be an angel.”
Phillip pounded the ground with his fist as Solomon slipped through, just as the door slid shut with a final bang.
Phillip continued to pull his body forward as the gunshots began to die down and the tunnel became quiet. With grunts of pain, he reached the base of the closed door. His fingers explored the hole in the ground but he could not find the cable Alex had pulled. He forced himself up to his knees as the blood pooled around him on the stone floor. He planted his palms upon the marble and pulled himself to a standing position in front of the door. Standing with his weight precariously perched on his one good foot, Phillip began to pound on the door as Jonas chuckled behind him.
“Give it up,” Jonas mumbled as he searched through his pockets for a cigarette.
“I need to see it! I need to see Eden! I need to see it!” Phillip cried. He continued to strike the door until his hands were raw. He wailed so loud that he did not even hear the tightening of the rope, the snap of its release, and the pair of blades hurtling through the air and striking him down.
Solomon stumbled forward and collapsed in a heap. He tried to catch his breath and pushed the pleuritic pain to the back of his mind. His fingers explored his pants pocket and retrieved the small rectangular transmitter. With the flip of a switch, the device glowed green. He held his finger for a moment over the button.
Jonas held the unlit cigarette in his hand. He looked longingly at the lit torches held by the Cherubim. What I would give for a lighter at this moment. He could see that the tunnel ahead was alive with movement as Mongolian men advanced cautiously, holding aloft their AK-47s. They stopped with fear upon discovering the intricate arra
y of explosives wired across the tunnel. The men began to talk rapidly. Doesn’t matter what language you speak; fear is universal, Jonas thought. He could hear panic as the men quickly attempted to retreat back down the tunnel.
Jonas looked at the explosives and then down at his useless legs.
“Oh, hell.”
The explosion ripped through the tunnel, cracking through the Kimberlite, and releasing pent up natural gas. The walls and ceiling fractured and fell in. A luminous fireball shot through the tunnel, incinerating all who were left inside and sending a plume of smoke and fire erupting out of the side of the mountain and across the Eternal Sky.
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It was the sound of rushing water that immediately struck Ellie as she emerged from the chaos of the tunnel. The roaring and churning overwhelmed her senses, penetrating deep into her head until she was left feeling intoxicated and unbalanced. She kept her eyes closed and breathed deeply the moist air, finding it imbued with an organic fragrance that conjured up a swamp bog.
Ellie slowly opened her eyes and apprehensively looked down at her forearms, expecting them to be charred and blackened. She was relieved to find them unscathed, despite her trip through the wall of fire. She blinked several times and tried to shake off the reddish tint that seemed burned onto her retina. As the scarlet veil slowly lifted, she was greeted by a scene of awesome serenity that made the hairs on her arms stand on end and her skin tingle.
“My God, Ellie. Is this it? Is this Eden?” whispered Alex. His hand blindly explored the air until he was able to locate her hand, seize it, and caress it softly.
“It’s beautiful,” Ellie replied with amazement.
They found themselves standing upon an earthen walkway that ran along the perimeter of a perfectly circular chamber carved deep into the mountainside. The cavity stretched nearly fifty stories into the air and was capped by a luminous dome of rock that sparkled blue.
“How is this possible?” Ellie wondered. “It’s so… so light… all this way underground.”
Alex looked along the edge of the walkway and discovered a long thin trough dug into the ground. As he peered into the trough, Alex could see an oily, iridescent liquid filling the trench from which red flames leapt a short distance into the air. The light of the fire was magnified a thousand-fold by a seemingly infinite number of small ruby-colored gems encrusted into the stone wall. Alex released Ellie’s hand, walked a short distance to the wall, and extended his hand. He hesitated for a moment before placing the palm of his hand upon the surface of the gems. They felt cool to the touch.
“It was all an illusion,” Alex announced.
Ellie gave him an inquisitive look.
“The fire,” Alex said and motioned in the direction from which they had passed through the door. The reflected and refracted light produced the appearance of a wall of fire when, in reality, the true flames lapped less than an inch off the ground. Alex surveyed the periphery of the chamber and could see that this subterfuge of lighting created the appearance of a menacing ring of fire encircling the room.
“What else isn’t as it seems, I wonder,” Ellie asked skeptically. She looked up along the walls of the chamber and could see that above the layer of ruby-colored gems was an endless assortment of jagged, silvery jewels that were mirror-like and coated the walls. The light reflected by these gems was astronomical, serving to fill the vast interior with a white glow.
“We found it. I told you it was true!” Clay exclaimed.
The old man had advanced halfway across an earthen bridge. He peered up with his right hand perched atop his forehead like a visor.
There were four identical bridges that arched their way across a large body of water and connected the outer circular walkway to an island in the center of the chamber. The bridges were evenly spaced within the room, like hands and legs of a cross, or the directions of a compass. Arising from the middle of the island was a massive green tree that reached high up towards the top of the chamber.
Alex and Ellie stepped onto one of the bridges as if in a daze and walked slowly towards the central island. The ground was soft and velvety beneath their boots, and they looked down to see green moss covering the earthen bridge. They stopped and peered over the edge of the bridge and could see the water churn violently beneath them as if agitated by some unseen force. The water had a vaguely neon green hue.
As they neared the island, they could see that the green of the tree was actually from an extensive network of green vines that emerged from the water and wound its way up along the exposed roots of the tree, covering the trunk like a rich beard and creeping up the seemingly endless number of branches stretching into the air. The ivy ultimately hung from the branches like a rich, emerald canopy.
Alex inspected the tree even more closely and found that beneath the covering of vines, chalk white bark peaked out. Had it not been for the lush green vines draping its frame, the tree would have appeared ghostly.
Clay moved across the island and stopped beside the base of the tree.
The trunk of the tree was elevated off the ground and appeared to levitate as if it was supported by a series of massive, twisted, and gnarled roots that spread out across the island like tentacles. Before diving into the ground and disappearing beneath the surface, the roots crisscrossed, producing a cave-like void beneath the base of the tree. A green glow pulsated within the space.
“What’s this?” Clay asked as he carefully maneuvered between the roots.
Beneath the tree and enclosed by the cage created by the roots was a human form perched atop a wooden platform. The body appeared to be that of an aged man of Mongolian ancestry with a tightly trimmed gray beard. He was dressed in armor constructed of hardened leather and iron. A purple silk vest peaked out from under the armor. He clutched a large bow across his chest. The body seemed to glow green.
“Polo was right. The legends are true,” Alex nearly whispered from behind Clay. “It’s the body of Genghis Khan.”
Ellie ducked under a horizontal root and pushed her way into the space enclosed by the canopy of roots. “It’s not possible.” She approached the figure, carefully walking alongside the funeral platform. “There’s no embalming here, but he looks completely preserved. It’s as if he died yesterday. Genghis Khan died in the thirteenth century. I’ve dug up my fair share of dead people, even a couple of mummies, and I can tell you that it isn’t pretty. Does this look like a person who died over seven hundred years ago? Is this some kind of hoax?”
Clay twirled around. “It’s the tree!” He extended his arms in opposite directions. “It’s this place!” He smiled. “There’s life here. Don’t you feel it? There is a force. I feel it in my body.”
“Now you’re sounding crazy again,” Ellie responded. “I didn’t peg you as a new-ager, Redmund. The tree didn’t seem to raise him from the dead.”
“This isn’t a place of miracles, Ellie. You should know this better than anyone. This is the place where the tales of miracles began. What if the myths passed down through the eons, including the story of Genesis from the Bible, were mankind’s attempt to explain what seemed unexplainable — a tree that appears to give life. I am a man of science first and foremost and I believe that there is an explanation for what is occurring here. I believe that this needs to be studied, starting with this tree.”
“You mean a tree that seems to be able to grow underground…without sunlight?” Alex asked.
“Yes. Extraordinary isn’t it?” Clay responded with wide eyes.
Alex watched as Clay looked up at the base of the tree’s trunk. Alex bent down and looked under the wooden funeral platform and could see the pulsating green light.
“Alex, where are you going?” Ellie asked as she watched Alex crouch down and wiggle his way into a tight space beneath the platform. In the center of the island beneath the platform was a circular hole like an oculus from which a green glow would periodically emanate like the beats of a heart. As he crept on his hands and knees towards the op
ening in the ground, Alex could hear a continuous roar like the sound of a monstrous waterfall. He maneuvered towards the edge of the opening and peered down. He could see a whirlpool of water violently swirling beneath him. White caps speckled the surface of the water. Beneath the dark blue of the water, he could see a green light pulsate like a giant strobe light.
Alex could feel Ellie’s body move beside his. She held his arm as she looked down into the tumultuous water.
“What is it?” she asked.
Alex turned to Ellie. Her face was green in the glow of the water.
“What if this is the ‘single source?’”
“What are you saying, Alex?”
“I’m saying what if this is the fountain that gives rise to the four rivers of Eden? Think of it. From the center of this chamber there are four sections demarcated by the bridges. What if these are four underground waterways? This could be where the legend of the four rivers of Eden originated.”
“What’s that green light and what’s producing that whirlpool?” Ellie asked.
“The four rivers…yes…yes…the four rivers. It makes perfect sense,” Clay muttered as he peered under the platform. “It’s all very interesting, but there seems to be a problem with the tree. A very serious problem, I’m afraid.”
“What problem?” Alex asked.
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“The vines: they are killing this tree,” Clay announced as the three looked up at the rich layer of ivy coating the trunk. “They are like parasites twisting their way across the trunk, winding their way up the branches, strangling them as they go. It may be a beautiful sight but I’m afraid what is left is little more than a carcass wrapped in a suit of vines. It’s really quite tragic.”
“I would have expected you to be more upset,” Alex noted as he examined where a large root next to him plunged down below the water’s edge and disappeared into the darkness.
“In the face of adversity, there is always hope. Do you remember the drawing on the tunnel wall?”