by Brandt Legg
“I don’t have years to learn all this.”
“You can learn everything in an instant.”
“Because I’m one of the seven? Great, how do I teach Dustin and my friends and the whole world? They’ll never give up food and devote years in solitude to learn.”
“The more who awaken, the easier it is. This is true you are one of the seven, but we are all one of the one, therefore we are all one of the seven.” His face showed he was pleased. “How long does it take to learn that which we already know? Have you forgotten something and then found it back in your mind, suddenly remembered? Yes, this is the same.”
“I don’t understand. You’re just like Spencer and all the mystics. It’s all riddles and mysteries.”
“This is not a course in mathematics we’re speaking of. You are not trying to memorize dates of historic battles. This is the core of all existence.”
“Then how can I teach?”
“Every day, without Nate, people are awakening to their souls in every different way. As the days follow, it is therefore easier. You will show them so that even more, so many more, more than you can believe, will see. And it is your Outviews where your understanding is, where it must come from. I cannot tell you, Spencer cannot, voices of your dead and lost cannot. It must be understood through your own experience to be authentic. This is why the experience occurred, so that you could feel it, could be it, could know it. So you could share it.”
Suddenly we switched places, and I was in Wandus’s wiry and wrinkled body and he was looking back from my young frame with a huge grin. “You try it in Wandus and see.” Effortlessly, I glided just above the water until I began to roll in the air, rising and falling with the waves. It was a roller coaster ride without the safety bar—or even the car! I laughed and flipped, but beyond the thrills was a profound feeling of oneness with the air and water molecules. I experienced the crashing waves as if I was them. No greater thrill could exist, and with that realization I was back in my own body. I looked out at Wandus, the body I’d just occupied, and his eyes were brighter than the sun’s sparkle on the water. Without thought or struggle, I was wave-o-tating next to him and in that exhilaration knew, with certainty, that all things were possible.
15
Just before sunset on another beautiful island day, Spencer found Dustin and me on the beach.
“When did you get back?” I asked.
“Just now. The arrangements for your friends have been made. They’ll be here in a few days.”
“I was hoping you came to tell us we could leave,” Dustin said.
“Actually, you’re going to be late.” Spencer looked at me.
“Where are we going?”
“The future.”
“What are we going to do there?” Dustin asked.
“Just Nate is going.”
“What?” We asked at the same time.
“Two of you would multiply the risks.”
“I’m not going without Dustin.”
“This is the best chance to save Amber and Linh.”
“But not the only chance,” Dustin said.
“No. But as I said, it’s the best chance.”
Dustin and I exchanged glances.
“Our window is closing,” Spencer said.
“What do I have to do?” I asked.
Dustin walked away. I wanted to go after him.
“There’s no time. Not everything can be fixed, not everyone saved,” Spencer said.
“What’s that mean?”
He just looked at me. After a few seconds, I understood. Dustin needed to work this angst out himself. His attitude and feelings certainly weren’t as important as saving the girls and the others.
“The mall attack is still happening?” I asked.
“In about three weeks.”
“So we haven’t done anything to stop them? We’ve been wasting our time on this damn island and nothing has changed!”
“Everything has changed. But time is not that simple when life, death, and destiny are mixed in.”
“Tell me where I’m going.”
“You’re going one year into the future to see Amber and Linh.”
“They’re still alive?”
“Hopefully. The idea is that if you can get to them in one year by leaving before Lightyear kills them, it will strengthen the time continuum to the dimension where they remain living and therefore increase the probability that they will survive.”
“How will I find them?”
“Because when they come here in a few days, you’re going to tell them where to be in a year so that you’ll be able to find them today.”
“This is incredibly confusing.”
“You have no idea. I’ve spent years working on this problem and still don’t understand a fraction of it.”
“So it may not work?”
“It may not be permanent, but it will give us more time. And if you don’t go, I think we’ll lose them for sure.”
Spencer drove us to a small prop plane. Once airborne, Spencer filled me in. We would fly to a spot over the ocean out of view of land where one of the Pacific’s vortex portals was located. This one would allow me to travel forward in time to a specific spot and date of my choosing.
“There are significant risks that you need to be aware of,” Spencer began. “If you’re there for more than an hour, you will not be able to return to the present time, at least not without major consequences.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem if I’m just going to make contact with them.”
“You also must note exactly where you come out of the portal so you can return. And if you stray out of sight of the portal, it will seal. Remember, it’s not a permanent opening, just a flexible exit point.”
“Anything else?”
“You won’t be able to use Kellaring. Lightyear will be able to see you.”
“Jesus! Even if they don’t get me in time, I’ll be leading them straight to the girls.”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen past that point in the future? Do you know what happens?”
“We’re going that far out for a reason. Shorter periods of time usually leave you, them, or all of you, dead. And longer doesn’t seem to hold the connection to this present.”
“What are my chances of making it?”
“Nate, I don’t want you to go.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because you won’t realize in time that the Movement is more important than the girls’ lives. You won’t know that they would gladly have given their lives for the advancement of the Movement until it’s too late. You’re too important to the future, and the only way you’ll be any good is if they live. So we have to risk your life or there’ll be no point to your life.”
He was right that I couldn’t see anything worth letting Amber and Linh die for, but his words made an impact because, if nothing else, I learned that Spencer valued me above everything. And if he was willing to risk my life to keep me happy, then the Movement must be more than I could imagine.
“Just remember that because you can’t use Kellaring, you’ll have all your known powers at your disposal to defend against any Lightyear attack.”
“Will there be one?”
“I think you should assume there will be.”
“This is it,” the pilot announced, a few moments later.
I looked out the window and at first saw only open sea, but after a few seconds the familiar shimmer of a portal entrance was visible. “I guess I’m jumping out of the plane?”
“We’ll get you as low as we can but if we get too close it’ll take the plane in.”
“Seriously?”
“Ever hear of the Bermuda Triangle?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s riddled with portals.”
The plane banked. “You’ll have to go on the next pass. Ready?”
I shook my head.
“Remember who you are.” He patted my back as I leapt out o
f the open door five hundred feet above the water.
16
The portal was a painful burning blur that lasted no more than half a minute before I rolled out onto soft-forested ground in the redwoods. One of the giant trees made up a side of the portal’s opening. I memorized it. Amber, now eighteen, and Linh, seventeen, ran toward me. In spite of the strain on their faces, they had both grown more beautiful.
“Are you okay?” Linh asked.
“I just came from the past.”
“We know,” Amber said. “You told us to meet here when we were on Cervantes a year ago.”
“Nate, we’ve been on the run for months,” Linh said. “I drove up from San Francisco where I’ve been with family friends.”
“We stay apart for safety. I’ve been all over,” Amber added. “Kellaring, you taught us on Cervantes, worked for a long time, but someone at Lightyear must have figured a way around it and started to know where we were.”
“How?”
“I don’t know but it’s only sporadic, like they might only have one person able to break through the Kellaring, and they’re looking for so many of us, but mostly you.”
“That explains why we aren’t meeting at a place surrounded by water. This is a pretty good spot. It would take a while for them to get a large force in here, and helicopters are useless in these trees.”
“Not to mention the trees are so massive their thermal imaging would be all screwed up.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“You’ve taught us a lot in the past year.”
“When I left Cervantes, you hadn’t come there yet.”
“But when we got to Cervantes you already knew about this. You’d come and gone many times into the future trying to find the right time and place that didn’t get us all killed,” Amber said.
A sick feeling overtook me. “You mean they’ve found us. Why would Spencer—?”
“It’s an impossible mission, trying to change the future,” Linh said quietly. “He never wanted you to come. You even died on a few attempts.”
“You’re only here to save us,” Amber said. “This doesn’t stop any of the other bad stuff.”
“There are only so many chances to get in and make changes, and there are infinite variables. It’s quite remarkable we’re not all dead already,” Linh said.
“I’m not afraid of death,” Amber said.
“But Amber, it’s more than living or dying. It’s what Lightyear does to everyone who’s left,” Linh said. “We all need to live in order to stop them.”
“No one knows for sure,” Amber said. “Spencer may be brilliant, but even he can’t calculate the entire multiverse.”
“You know about the multiverse?” I asked.
“You told us about it when we were all at Outin.”
“When were we all at Outin together?” I asked. Before they could answer, the heat hit me so hard, I gasped for air. “Run!” I was shocked to see Linh Skyclimb up a tree across from the one I was going up. I wondered when she learned that.
Two small black drones negotiated their way around the ancient pillars with stunning speed. In the confusion, I lost sight of Amber, but I was pretty sure she was still on the ground. The Special Forces filled the area like ants overtaking a garden.
At least four drones were now buzzing around the trees, firing at Linh and me. It was as if I knew where the bullets would be just before they came, although I didn’t consciously remember how. Something told me I’d been in this fight before, and hiding in the tree wasn’t my best choice for survival.
I flew down with such soaring force that two soldiers were knocked unconscious as they broke my landing. I came off the ground making tennis ball-sized Lusans as fast as I could throw them into the faces of my attackers. A drone came at me shooting laser-machine gunfire far more advanced than a mere year in the future warranted. I uprooted a thirty-foot spruce with Gogen and sent it into the drone’s path—instant fiery crash. Fifty-feet away, I spotted Amber in the custody of four soldiers who shouted for me to surrender. Two of them had weapons trained on me, and the others were pointed at Amber.
I sprang through the air, somersaulting toward them. At the same time, Amber brought large branches smashing into two of the men. I collided into the others. Laser bullets were coming from all directions as we dove behind the nearest tree, more like a fortress, with two redwoods growing unusually close together.
“We might win this.” Amber smiled. Her expression quickly changed. “I think they hit me.” She rolled over. Her pants were oozing blood where the laser bullet had burned through. I pushed a Lusan into her hands and started her in the motion of moving it back and forth across the wound. I tore her pant leg off and saw a deep gash just below her waist to her knee. She wasn’t going to be able to walk for a while. I quickly moved some branches and brush around her and left a pile of Lusans. “Anything moves, throw one of these at them.”
“Where are you going?”
“If we wait here, we’re dead.”
She grabbed my shirt and pulled me close. Our lips were almost touching. “If I die, don’t forget I’ll still be with you... always.”
“You’re not going to die.” I kissed her quickly. “I’ve got to go.” I Skyclimbed back into the trees.
“Nate,” Amber managed to scream. “You can make fire and rain with your mind.”
“How?” I shouted above the growing noise.
“I don’t know. Same as everything else.”
From up in the redwood I could see the wreckage of the copter I’d brought down with the spruce tree. I used Gogen to fling it into a second one coming down on me— another fantastic crash. A dozen soldiers were just twenty paces away from discovering Amber. I concentrated on fire, and almost instantly everything flammable around them ignited. Their screams of terror were horrendous as the flames engulfed them. The fire expanded, creating a new problem—smoke, heat, and the possibility of destroying a huge swath of the last surviving redwoods, not to mention the girls and me. I communicated with Linh over the astral and she told me there were only six soldiers remaining. The last two helicopters were covering a lot of ground trying to find us in the dense woods, and now the growing fire and smoke was adding to their difficulties. I asked Linh to get to Amber and help move her away from the fire while I dealt with the surviving enemies.
Linh had given me a general idea where the six soldiers were, in two groups about 150 yards apart. The fire was spreading alarmingly fast. If I couldn’t make it rain, we’d all be trapped in an inferno. It was harder than I expected, mainly because I needed to be calm and that’s not easy while choking on smoke and trying to endure blinding heat. I forced myself to put the soldiers, Amber’s injury, and the flames out of my mind. Finally rain came, fast and heavy. The forest embraced the moisture, and the smoke changed to mist as the rain extinguished the fire with the power of a tropical storm. I nearly fell out of the tree, as the wood, moss, and leaves were instantly slippery. There was no way a drone could fly in the deluge, but seconds later, its light pierced through the fog straight toward me. I was about to leap from my perch but used Gogen to push the drone into the nearest tree. Done. Where was the last one? I needed to stop the rain as the ground was running with small streams. I tried everything, but it continued to pour. I Skyclimbed above the soldiers. My plan was risky. I came down fifty feet in front of them, got their attention, and as they turned to fire, I simultaneously levitated using the wave-o-tating method and pushed the middle soldier’s weapons with Gogen. His shots killed the other two, and then I quickly turned the survivor’s gun on him.
Gunshots and screams. I grabbed a gun from a dead soldier and ran toward the trouble, I was too late. Amber and Linh were both down. Linh wasn’t moving. Amber was still screaming. I shot two soldiers almost in half with the advanced weapon, but the third took cover behind a tree. I was able to use Gogen to hold him paralyzed against the massive trunk.
I reached Amber first. She hadn’t been
shot again but must have fallen out of a tree as both her arms were broken. But her shrieks hadn’t been from the pain. She screamed because Linh was badly injured. When I got to her, she was barely conscious, blood everywhere. Psychically I was able to tell she’d been hit just below her heart and to the side of her stomach. She didn’t have much time. I cradled her in my arms and made a Lusan right on her chest.
The alarm Spencer had given me went off in my pocket. The digital rings told me there were three minutes to get back in the portal. I looked up and saw the shimmering seam thirty feet away through the rain. It would take hours to save Linh, if it was even possible.
Amber limped over. “Oh God, Nate. Is she going to die?”
“Not if I can help it.” Pushing the Lusan against the wound, trying to staunch the blood, I silently begged my guides for help.
“We’re not safe here.”
“I know.”
The heavy branches provided some shelter from the unrelenting rain, but we were still wide open to more troops. Amber gritted her teeth through blinding pain, pulled the gun from my hand and shot the soldier I’d left pinned to the tree.
“What’s that ringing?” Amber yelled.
“I have to be back in the portal.”
“Or what?”
“The world ends. I don’t know! It doesn’t matter, I’m not leaving her.”
“Nate, look!”
I turned ready to fling the Lusan at more soldiers. Instead saw the unmistakable figure of Dustin moving through the downpour.
“Nate, you have to get in the portal,” he yelled.
I looked down at Linh and back to him.
“We’ll take care of her,” he shouted. “You have to go... Now!”
“What happened to him?” I asked Amber. The tanned and fit guy I’d left on Cervantes an hour before now looked far worse than he did at the institution.
“Long story. No one’s even seen him for months.”
“Dustin, I can’t leave her.” The rain grew heavier.