“Turn around,” Nash ordered.
When she stood her ground, Nash fired a shot barely missing her foot.
“I said turn around.”
She scowled at him then complied begrudgingly. She felt his presence draw close. Laval spun around, intent on disarming Nash, but a crushing blow struck her left temple. The pain was intense and caused her vision to fail. Laval collapsed to the ground. She saw Nash vacillating back and forth in a sea of colors. He lowered the gun after striking her. Then she heard the laughter from above. Rassle was wavering atop the capstone.
Laval felt uncontrollable rage. She staggered to her feet, clutching her head. She was cut and bleeding. She searched above for Rassle, but he was gone. She felt dizzy.
“Now, if you’ll kindly step aside,” Nash said, leaning over to pick up his duffle bag.
“Hell if I will,” Laval tried to focus on Nash, but her world blurred. She took an awkward step toward him, teetered, and fell to the side. She felt nauseated. Her temple throbbed. She pushed up again with all her strength only to see Nash scaling the ladder, carrying his duffle bag over his shoulder, with Tina leading the way. With every ounce of energy she could muster, Laval dragged herself toward the bottom of the ladder. If she could reach it in time, she might be able to topple the ladder and bring that bastard down. With gutsy determination, she clawed her way across the ground, but before she could get there, the pain disabled her. From the ground, she blearily gazed up.
Nash and Tina were standing on the capstone looking down at her.
****
When Rassle reached the top, he knew time was of the essence. Standing on the capstone, the center of the large square block at his feet was no longer solid but a quagmire of molten lava, with bubbles boiling to a pop and steam rising. He could feel the searing heat. This was the spot where the combined creature had created the gateway to Eden, yet he hesitated. How could he go through this? He would be burned alive.
In his head, he could hear Nash secretly giving him instructions before they left:
“Once the creature passes through, no matter what you see, you must follow its trail. I have no doubt God will make the journey appear precarious. Don’t trust your eyes. We will only have a short time to follow in the creature’s wake. You have to get through and deal with the beast or we will all perish. I’m counting on you, Rassle. I will pass with the little girl soon after you’re through.”
Rassle took a deep breath, tucked the pistol into his belt. The heat from the lava was nearly unbearable. He gripped the duffle bag on his shoulder and made sure the backpack was secure.
“It’s not real… It’s not real… It’s not…” Without another thought, Rassle stepped into the sweltering inferno. Painlessly, he fell into utter darkness. The next thing he knew, he slipped into light and tumbled onto a bed of sand. Behind him was the same small pool of molten lava, this time boiling in a circle within the rock wall.
As Carr Nash had predicted, the time here did not correlate to when he left on Earth. Instead of early morning, it was full daylight. This had not been part of the text, and Rassle wondered how Nash knew.
Nevertheless, Rassle quickly rose to his feet, knowing the urgency full well. He tossed the duffle bag to the ground, knelt, unzipped it, and removed a blanket. A dozen feet away, the large creature shifted lethargically, crawling along the ground, seemingly unaware of his presence. As Nash had predicted, creating the portal had drained the creature of energy, but the beast wouldn’t take long to recover. Rassle had to act fast. He recalled the Scroll of Edict text:
The beastly triad is destined to enter.
Its task is to accompany the seeds.
It can be disabled upon passing through,
By the weakness of the Serpent.
Rassle raced toward the creature and dove for the tail. The sluggish creature tried to react but was too slow. Rassle was upon it in an instant and firmly gripped the tail while still clinging to the blanket. The huge creature shriveled and transformed back into the three Tools, which fell to the ground. Rassle dropped the Staff and pounced on the Sword of Michael just as the light began to change it into the Bird. He covered it thoroughly with the blanket. The form underneath went still, and Rassle made sure the blanket completely sealed any chance of light striking the Sword. The Staff and skeletal Fish lay to the side. All three Tools were now dormant.
Rassle rolled over, allowing his arms to rest at his sides. He lay there for a few seconds to catch his breath. He realized he could no longer feel the pistol in his belt. With his hand, he confirmed it was gone. He sat up, searching the ground around him. The pistol was nowhere in sight.
Nash had warned him that a modern weapon might not make the transfer into Eden. The curious question again, though, was how Nash knew all this.
****
Curt cut hard onto Guidestones Road Northwest, squealing tires as he smashed the accelerator. Dawn had broken. The tractor-trailer accident had put them behind schedule, and Curt feared they might be too late.
“There!” Fawn pointed as they made the turn.
The Guidestones towered over the landscape not far away. The Mustang leapt forward, racing up the rural road.
God, please don’t let us be too late.
“Go here,” Fawn directed him. Curt cut the wheel hard to the right, and the Mustang shot into a shallow parking area. Ahead was a Toyota Land Cruiser. “There, at the top!” Fawn pointed excitedly.
Curt saw Tina standing on the upper capstone beside Carr Nash. Nash was holding Tina’s hand and had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. In his other hand, he held something black, which was too small for Curt to make out. They were looking at the ground where a woman lay injured, trying to push up on her hands and knees.
Curt stopped the vehicle and they jumped out, rushing toward the scene.
The woman on the ground turned toward them with a grimace.
“Why, you are indeed James Bond,” Nash said smugly, spotting Curt. “Welcome to the Big Bang.” He winked.
****
Laval remembered the charges at the base of the columns. She had seen the detonator in Nash’s hand as he leaned over from above. She only had a few seconds to react. Laval fought through the pain and wobbled to her feet. She staggered through the middle of the structure, beyond the center column.
****
Nash eyed the mass of boiling lava spitting fumes into the air. Just as he thought: something that was too horrific, too heinous to pass through, yet he knew better. It was a mirage. Without hesitation, he stepped forward, pulling Tina along. As he did, he pushed the detonator button.
****
Before Curt’s eyes, Nash and Tina fell into the capstone, but instead of exiting the bottom, they disappeared. An instant later, the Georgia Guidestones became a bright orange ball of fire. The concussion slammed into him, snapping him backward amid a fury of debris. He was vaguely aware of Fawn beside him as the two somersaulted backward, first through the air, and then onto the ground. The explosion was deafening. When Curt came to a stop, he was cut and bleeding, his body aching as if he had just been violently punched in the chest. Smoke obscured his view. A mushroom cloud gathered overhead. Something large landed with a thud on his right: a four-foot section of granite block. Then another thumped the ground nearby. Curt saw Fawn’s body beside him. She was groggily pushing herself up. He stood, grabbed her by the arm and yanked, urging her to move away. She was sluggish but responded. The two scrambled back toward the car, stumbling as they went. Sound became muffled, and his chest screamed with pain. Sizeable chunks of granite from the disintegrated structure continued to rain down on them. Through the smoke and confusion, Curt led Fawn to the back of the Mustang where they fell into a heap on the ground and huddled against the rear bumper. A tremendous thud rocked the car. More granite, smaller fragments now, spilled from the sky, pelted the vehicle, and narrowly missed them. An eternity passed before the debris settled.
When everything had finally quieted, C
urt raised his head. “You okay?”
Breathing heavily, Fawn slowly shook her head, wiping hair out of her eyes. “I’ll live.”
He rose and helped Fawn to her feet.
All around, spread out in a radius of at least twenty-five yards, were pieces of granite in varying sizes. The Georgia Guidestones had been reduced to rubble.
Tina had been taken into Eden by Nash. The entrance was now closed for one thousand years, and even if there was another way to open this portal, Nash had ensured it could never be used again.
Their only chance of saving Tina, Scott, and the others—and every living person on Earth—had just gone up in the blast.
CHAPTER 29
Nash felt like he was slipping down a slide through absolute darkness. He clung to Tina’s hand with a vise-like grip. A light appeared and the next thing he knew, he had spilled out onto gleaming white sand with Tina landing beside him.
Jed Rassle was standing nearby. A dark blanket on the ground at his feet was stretched over an oblong object. The Fish and Staff were off to the side.
“Good work, Mr. Rassle,” Nash said.
Rassle grinned, helping Nash to his feet. “And the bitch?”
“Oh, she had a little run-in with exploding boulders and falling debris.” Nash examined his new surroundings. A wall was directly behind him. Beyond the white sandy area, Nash saw a desolate range of red-rock hills. The terrain reminded him of the Badlands in South Dakota. Yet he knew they were no longer on Earth; at least not current-day Earth. Still, he smiled at the familiarity of this place. It resonated with his very being. Nash could feel the ancient texture of the land, smell the fragrances from so long ago. He reveled in memories; some good, but mostly painful.
Oddly, these were memories that Nash had never had, and part of him realized the transformation was almost complete. Instead of fighting the feeling, he gave in. There was a tantalizing rush to lose himself to the soul of another. Entry here had made it obvious that he could no longer suppress his other half—the half he had acquired five years ago.
Nash was still savoring the moment, a brief respite to acknowledge what they had accomplished, and didn’t hear when Rassle called to him.
“Mr. Nash!” Rassle shouted again.
Nash was barely able to wipe the smile off his face.
“Where to now?”
“Wherever she leads,” Nash said.
Tina solemnly pointed into the distance.
“Indeed, Mr. Rassle, there’s our destination: the beginning of our immortality and the end of man.” They began walking. “Oh, Rassle,” Nash said, “do you still have your appendix?”
Rassle considered the question with a baffled expression. “Um…yes.”
CHAPTER 30
Curt and Fawn fled before authorities arrived at the debris-littered field formerly known as the Georgia Guidestones. His Mustang suffered a large gash to the hood from a falling piece of granite but fortunately had sustained no damage to the engine.
Driving down the road, Curt felt crushing despair. His failure to save Tina and stop the COTE members had sealed the fate of the world. He had lost any chance of rescuing Scott and Cody. Checkmate—game over—and only he and Fawn knew the awful truth.
“There’s got to be something else we can do,” Fawn said.
Curt slapped his hand on the steering wheel: once, twice, three times. Each time harder until it caused pain to his flesh. He should have engaged Agent Bar and Special Agent Johnsten. He had been a fool not to utilize their resources. Why had he been so stupid? At a minimum, they could have set up a blockade to prevent Nash and the others from reaching the Guidestones. Sure, there was a risk that the COTE would have killed Tina, but given what had happened, it would have been a responsible plan of action. But no, he had to do it his way. He had severely underestimated the COTE, and his miscalculation was single-handedly responsible for the soon-to-be demise of everyone on Earth.
Curt pulled the Mustang to the side of the county road, locking the brakes in a sliding stop. He had to get out. He felt overwhelming claustrophobia, and his stomach curdled. Curt flung the door open, staggered out, feeling the bile rise in his throat. He leaned over and vomited harshly, and then vomited again and again until he wretched only air and his stomach cramped. Curt took several steps to the side and felt a wave of dizziness which caused his face to flush. His world went blank. The next thing he knew, his head was on the ground.
He heard words: muffled, soft words. Only when his head cleared could he make them out.
“Curt, are you okay?” Fawn knelt at his side with her hand on his shoulder.
“No…no, I’m not.” His tone was acidic. He was angry with himself. He struggled to a sitting position and buried his head in his hands. Curt felt defeat weigh on him like an anvil. “It can’t be over. It just can’t. I refuse to accept that I lost Tina…Scott and Cody…the others.”
“Curt, let me drive for a while. You’ve barely slept in days. We’ll get back to the hospital and talk to those agents. Surely there’s something we can do.” Her tone was hopeful, but Curt knew it for what it was: wishful thinking.
He desperately wanted to believe her, but the translated script had been clear. Father N had confirmed what they already knew. Once the second seed passed through, no man or woman could reach Eden. He lifted his head and slowly stood. Exhaustion had seeped into every pore of his body.
They trudged back to the car, and Curt went to the passenger side without argument while Fawn climbed behind the wheel, started the car, and took off.
Maybe they had missed something; something crucial to their cause. He needed time to think. He couldn’t dwell on the disappointment; on the failure. He needed to go back over everything that had transpired.
Curt said aloud, “We only saw Nash and Tina pass through the portal. The woman, Laval, was on the ground when the explosion occurred. Those charges were obviously rigged by Nash. Had others already passed through?”
“There was only one other vehicle there. If they did, there weren’t many,” Fawn said.
“So Laval was with Nash, yet he didn’t bring her along.”
“Maybe he double-crossed her.”
“Did you notice her body in the debris?”
Fawn shook her head. “No.”
“Neither did I.”
“Surely she’s dead. God knows she had it coming, but I feel cheated. She deserved a much worse fate.”
Curt exhaled, “So Nash goes through with Tina. Maybe several others. One definitely had to be that big goon, Rassle; but the rest, including Laval, are locked out. So when Nash destroys the Tree of Life, they’ll be subjected to the same fate as the rest of us.”
“Seems like Nash may not have been the cult leader he pretended to be, or maybe he got greedy. How long before they destroy the Tree of Life?”
“I have no idea. I suspect Scott will try and stop them.”
“He may buy us some time,” Fawn said.
“Yeah, with his life.” Curt laid his head back on the headrest. His thoughts clouded.
He awoke with a start. The car engine was off, and they were in a parking garage.
“We’re back at the hospital,” Fawn said removing the Mustang’s keys from the ignition. She handed them to Curt. He still felt groggy but mildly refreshed after the nap—until he remembered their predicament.
They exited the car and made their way through the parking lot. It was another hot, muggy summer day, and Curt was clammy in the early-afternoon sunshine by the time they reached the main entrance. Even the welcomed chill of the air-conditioned foyer didn’t help his maudlin mood.
Out of nowhere, he was snatched by the arm and pulled to the side of the hallway into a small alcove.
“You were there…they were there!” Bar said in a harsh whisper. She was fuming. “I saw your car on a satellite feed at the Georgia Guidestones. What happened? Why didn’t you tell us you’d figured out the text? Who blew it up?”
“You’re not going
to like any of my answers,” Curt said glumly. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more private.”
In a huff, Bar led the threesome to a small chapel door near one of the waiting rooms on the first floor. When she saw the chapel was vacant, she led them inside and locked the door behind them. She had a laptop case slung on her shoulder that she shrugged off as she sat on one of the short pews.
For a petite girl, she was pretty fired up.
“I want answers…now,” Bar scowled. “The demolition of the Georgia Guidestones is all over the news.”
“I didn’t want to risk involvement by the authorities. I was concerned about Tina’s safety.”
“So what the hell happened?”
Curt was silent. Declaring his failure aloud would sting even more.
Fawn spoke before he could answer, “We were too late. Nash passed through the portal with Tina.”
“There really was a portal?”
Curt and Fawn nodded.
“Wow. I know what the text said, but it’s still hard to imagine.”
Curt picked up the explanation, “As Nash passed through, he detonated charges that had been placed at the base of the monument. Josette Laval was caught in the blast. She’s dead.”
“According to the translated text, Eden is now locked down for a millennium,” Bar said.
Curt nodded dejectedly. “And now the COTE has free rein in Eden. Once they destroy the Tree of Life like the text says, humanity will be obliterated.”
“Normally, I’d say that statement is melodramatic, but from what Tolen believes, I’d say we’re quickly running out of time.”
“Still, something doesn’t add up with Nash,” Fawn commented. “We think he took a limited number of COTE members into Eden with him. I assume they all expected to enter.”
“You may be right about Nash,” Bar said. “I’ve been looking into his background and working up a profile. Do you know that he was once a respected archaeologist? And a professor at Georgia Southern University?”
End in the Beginning (The God Tools Book 3) Page 14