Meridias

  She turns her hulking body towards the offender and opens wide to tear through that which hurt her. Instead a satchel full of grenades is thrown into her gaping maw and Joel jumps to the side to avoid getting eaten. The Queen rears her head back and squints at Joel. “I hope you enjoy explosives!” he says as the grenades went off. The Queen’s chest bulges as the grenades in her stomach detonate and tear her apart from the inside. There is a loud squelching sound as her chest burst, and for a moment she hovers upright before toppling into the sand.

  “Revais!” Joel hears Kali call out. He looks over to see lights on Revais in the distance. Blood gushes from several deep wounds on the man’s body. With concern Joel pushes himself to his feet and runs over to where Kali is attempting to stop Revais’ bleeding. Draxus spits in the direction of the Queen and goes to Kali as well. Despite the horrific scene Joel is impressed that Kali is able to keep her hands from shaking as she bandages what wounds she can. His own hands shake and a feeling of dread hold him. The sound of footfalls in the distance and a loud booming noise catch his attention and he turns to Draxus, “There’s more coming!” Draxus looks at Joel with a serious expression then to Revais and Kali. “Kali take point, I’ll carry Revais! Joel if you have any more tricks up your sleeve now’s the time!” Joel holds up a switch. “Well I lined the tunnels I travelled with explosives,” he says.

  “Tch, we could bury ourselves but…” Draxus looks towards the sounds of the Antlions approaching. “Do it now! Hopefully we’ll bury the lot of them!” Joel nods and flips the switch while Draxus hoists Revais over his shoulders. A loud boom rings in the distance as the explosives go off and Joel dashes to the Queen’s body, finds his sword, and then pulls it out with a loud squelch. He rushes back to his comrades who are already making their way to the nearest tunnel. The rumbling in the distance is getting louder. The tunnels are collapsing! Joel follows behind Draxus, and Kali guides them through the tunnels. They don’t know where they are heading except that they need to go up to the surface and fast. They go left and right and sometimes straight ahead as Kali led them. Joel spares a glance behind them as the rumbling sound grows ever closer. Will they be buried alive? Some hundred feet later they spot a faint light in the distance and race like madman towards it.

  A few moments later the group dashes into the sunlight and are temporarily blinded by the light. Joel squints so that he won’t run blind as his eyes adjust. A loud roar from his right catches his attention and he turns to see a group of Antlions staring at them. Then the creatures start chasing after them. “We have company!” Joel manages to shout despite his ragged breath. Kali steers them in the direction of the nearest edge of the nest. A loud rumble rises over the sands and causes Joel to look back in time to see a huge part of the nest collapsing… and that it is spreading towards them. The renewed sense of fear sends him running faster than before and he passes by Draxus and Kali as he flees to the edge of the nest.

  Several long moments later he charges up the side of the nest and goes careening off the edge. He rolls several times but manages to stop himself from going too far. After several moments of gasping for air he gets up and looks to see Kali and Draxus coming down the hill. A couple of Antlions are staring down at them but they seem hesitant and eventually turn and leave. “Huh, I guess they’re lost without their Queen?” Joel asked to no one in particular. Kali threw down a sleeping bag on the sand and Draxus dropped Revais on it. Revais looked like he was barely conscious and Kali said, “Stay with us!” as she went to work bandaging the rest of the man’s wounds. Joel wasn’t sure what to do and was somewhat relieved when Draxus told him to go to the top of the nest and watch for Antlions.

  When Joel got to the top he peered across the sand and saw the devastation he’d wrought. Almost a quarter of the nest had collapsed and now that side was exposed to the desert. He saw Antlions milling about aimlessly. There were a few that were clawing at the sand but it was uncoordinated and seemed like they were digging out of habit. “Well at least they’re ignoring us,” Joel said to himself and sighed. As he was wondering if Revais would make it Draxus called Joel back down the hill. He got up and went to the group. He saw Draxus was carrying a heavily bandaged Revais and Kali had a worried expression on her face. Without a word Draxus started walking down the hill and Joel looked to Kali for and explanation. “Draxus feels responsible since he was the one in command,” she said and took off after Draxus. Joel could only think to himself that he wasn’t envious of the lieutenant and followed after them. At least the sun was just reaching its peak. It would be awhile before night came once more.

  ***

  Elunduil sat and waited in an ice cream parlor with Tanis and Tim. Tanis had suggested it yesterday saying that it would be good to take a break, but his real motive was to try and get Elunduil to talk to Alicia. Alicia had said that she’d bring Stephanie with her and they could all hang out. “Soo… any luck yet?” Tim asked casually. Elunduil knew that his friend was referring to Alicia and shook his head. “Eh, well hang in there. We’ll help you make it happen if need be.” Elunduil was somewhat grateful for his friend’s words, but at the same time he wasn’t sure he could face that moment yet. A few moments later Alicia and Stephanie walked into the parlor.

  After exchanging greetings the group lined up to order their ice cream. While they were standing in line Stephanie said, “Hey, Elunduil you should get the waffle cone!” Elunduil looked to were the large cone was. “Why?” he asked.

  “Well it’s big enough to share… and…” she trailed off. Elunduil shrugged.

  “There’s no reason for me to share…” he mumbled. He knew what Stephanie was trying to do even if it looked like he was acting indifferent. He was a bit embarrassed by the thought of sharing an ice cream with Alicia but… they weren’t that close. He ordered a chocolate ice cream and went to the table were Tanis was already eating his snack.

  Once they had all ordered they began to talk about small things that happened in their day to day lives. Elunduil mostly sat back and listened to the others talk. Tanis and Tim were the loudmouths while Alicia and Stephanie conversed normally albeit they got a bit caught up with Tanis and Tim’s outspoken natures. After a while though the conversation went to Meridias. Stephanie jokingly complained that she felt out of the loop since she didn’t play the game with them. Tanis the remembered something important that he’d been researching the other day. “Hey, Elunduil do you remember how I had another idea about your visions?” he asked. Elunduil was intrigued. “Yeah what about it?” he said. Tanis sat up.

  “Well besides being a premonition there’s also the remote possibility of it being a scene from another worldline, so like a parallel world.” Tanis looked to Elunduil who was thinking about what he’d said. Parallel worlds… he felt a chill go down his spine. She had actually died. In some alternate world’s timeline she had died. “What did you see?” Alicia asked. Elunduil hesitated. “Uh, well it all happened pretty quickly but I saw that the plan we were using would’ve failed.” Elunduil didn’t mention that he’d seen the Cerebus kill Maria. Tanis looked thoughtful but didn’t bring up what Elunduil had told him and Tim. “I didn’t think that this VR technology would be so advanced. Mr. Elden and Scott must be geniuses!” he exclaimed. Elunduil agreed while managing to hide the doubt that was in the back of his mind. Meridias, the elves, Ragnarok. It seemed to real for him to see what he’d seen. How could he find out though? He doubted that Mr. Elden or Scott would tell him. There had to be something else that he could do, and after he found a way to confirm it he would tell his friends.

  Stephanie started to talk about how Alicia was once one of the top speed eaters for cookies in her youth much to Alicia’s dismay and embarrassment. “T-that was a long time ago!” she stammered and glanced over to Elunduil. While Stephanie talked Elunduil mused about the visions. He noticed the others seemed to look over at him, but he was still tuned in to the conversation. Apparently when Alicia was around 11 she was beaten by a kid with dirty blo
nde hair who had all but made the cookies vanish in an instant. After her defeat she’d stopped with participating in these eating contests and became a normal person.

  Tim finally decided to say something about Elunduil’s pensive state. “Are you even paying attention?” he asked with a bit of disbelief in his voice. Elunduil nodded.

  “Alicia was once the top cookie eating contest champion until she was beat by someone else,” he replied. Tanis then said,

  “Jeez, you’ve always got a weird way of being able to pay attention to things around you even when it seems like you aren’t.” He spoke in a sarcastic manner giving Elunduil a hard time. Elunduil grunted and continued thinking. The others looked to each other questioningly for a moment then Stephanie continued where she left off. Alicia decide to get revenge on her friend and started talking about an embarrassing story about how she and Stephanie once saw a movie whose premise was that if you watched a certain video you would receive a creepy call and die seven days later. Alicia had pulled a prank on Stephanie and she’d believed that she was actually going to die in seven days.

  By the end of it Alicia was shaking with laughter and Elunduil finally realized something. “That vision seemed like something I’ve seen before…” Tim raised a brow. “Still on that vision huh? … Well I guess the visions could be something like that, but how in the heck would they be visions of something that’s you’ve seen before?” Tanis said. Elunduil shook his head. He wasn’t sure what was going on but he had no way of knowing what the right answer was.

  After Elunduil’s remark the discussion turned to Meridias again and the group thought about going there after all but realized that there wasn’t enough time today to go so they parted ways and went home. Elunduil spent time thinking about how to test his theory. He ruled out using magic since it wasn’t something that seemed possible. After all Mr. Elden said that he’d used a hologram and the portal’s themselves were machines powered by electricity. He sighed and decide to focus on what he wanted to learn next from the elves. So far he hadn’t really been taught any magic by Cooper and had instead been learning about anatomy. It was kind of boring but he was sure that at some point the old elf would have him use magic. He passed by his jacket on the way to bed. There was something in there that he didn’t realize he’d forgotten about. An object that would later confirm his suspicions.

  ***

  Joel and his comrades wearily trudged through the desert. The sun was quickly coming down. A couple of hours ago they had been alternating between a brisk jog and walking. They were trying to race against time to get Revais back to the camp so that they could save him. Draxus would occasionally say something to Revais to make sure that he was awake and Joel and Kali watched for hostiles. The sun was close to touching the horizon when Revias said something foreboding. “Draxus… thank you for carrying me. You’ve always… put up a cold front, but you watched over everyone.” Draxus clenched his teeth.

  “Don’t get all sentimental on me now! If we push through the night we can make it back to camp and get you fixed up!” His voice was flustered and loud. Joel gulped. He felt a chill in his spine. He’d never experienced someone dying before his eyes but his instinct was telling him it was about to happen. Revais chuckled weakly. “Stubborn to end… promise that… you’ll keep the others safe,” he said. Draxus nodded.

  “Of course,” he said. Revais sighed in relief. “I won’t let anyone else get hurt, so keep fighting!” Unfortunately Draxus’ words could no longer reach Revais. He had breathed his last. Draxus and the others sensed something amiss. “Revais? Revais!” Draxus turned to look and saw that the man’s eyes were shut. He stopped dead in his tracks. “Joel, Kali! Help me!” he shouted. The two rushed over and helped Draxus lower Revais’ body to ground. Once there Draxus attempted to resuscitate Revais while Joel and Kali looked on somberly. After several minutes Draxus pounded the ground with his fist “Damn it!” he cursed. He panted heavily for several moments until Kali said, “We should send him off.” Joel looked at her blankly for a few moments. Did she mean that they were going to leave the body here?!

  Draxus stood up. “I don’t like leaving him here, but… if we’re attacked we’ll be in a bad position. We should bury him at least,” he said. Kali nodded in agreement but Joel was flabbergasted. “Wait? What about his family? Shouldn’t it be our duty to bring the body back to them?” he asked. Draxus ground his teeth.

  “No. Since you don’t seem to know I’ll tell you. Thanks to The General if we die while in this world then we’re considered MIA. As long as he’s in charge of this operation we’re expendable. Even if we brought the body back to Earth it wouldn’t be returned to the family. We just vanish without a trace, and for the most part we end up getting picked because there’s no one out there to miss us.”

  Joel was livid. General Titus Leviticus was a tyrant. He’d never liked the man to begin with but now he was starting to hate him. “What kind of bull is that?! How can he even get away with it?” Joel said angrily. Kali looked to Draxus then walked away and started shoveling sand with a small hand shovel she had been carrying in her bag. “He’s smart. Very smart. This whole experiment of sending us to this world isn’t even something that the higher ups are aware of. He does all of this under the name of R&D for new types of weapons and equipment to wage war while secretly he has this project in the background. Most of the funding went into this other world project while he sends back just enough data and examples of improved war equipment to keep the funding coming. I don’t know what his goal is but I’m sure it lies beyond just ending the war.” The barrage of information caused Joel to simmer down a bit as he processed it. He hadn’t thought of it before but he now realized that with The General around he may not be able to get to see his family again.

  He took his newfound anger and went to work shoveling out a grave for Revais with such zeal that they were done digging out a decently deep hole within minutes. Draxus and Kali lowered the body into the grave and then they all stood looking down at the body for several moments. Kali had crossed Revais’ arms to make him look at rest. Joel saw the blood-soaked bandages and winced. If only he’d been there sooner. “We should say something…” Kali said. Draxus nodded.

  “A damn fine soldier,” he said.

  “He made the best crepes.” Joel added. Draxus looked at him for a moment then nodded. “Yes. He was a good man and a fine chef. A great loss for our forces but we will not have let his life be in vain! Let’s return to camp.” Draxus said and went to work burying Revais’ body. Joel and Kali joined him and they were done in a matter of minutes. Without a word they turned and left and continued their trek back to camp with a heavy weight in their hearts.

  Chapter 12

  World Eater

  The next day Elunduil was waiting with his brother Felras for the others to arrive at the VR center. Tim was the first person to show up and a minute later Alicia and Tanis arrived as well. They exchanged greetings and then with a wave to Scott they went over to the portal machine. Once the blue glow of the portal illuminated the room they stepped through and went to the other side. As they made to leave the portal room two knights approached them. “Hail brave adventurers! If we could borrow a moment of your time it would be much appreciated,” he said. Elunduil and the others were uncertain as to what was going on. Perhaps it was some kind of event? “Uh… sure,” Elunduil replied.

  The knights looked to each other for a moment before the one that had called them out spoke. “Excellent. We have discovered a strange facility near the edge of the forest here. It appears that it’s sealed so we thought that you or Tim might be able to open it with your magic.” Elunduil looked to Tim who had a thoughtful gaze in his eyes.

  “Well I can certainly take a look at it. I’ve never tried to open something with magic before so who knows how it will go,” Tim replied. The knight nodded.

  “That is fine. Follow us, we will secure a transport and depart right away!” The group followed the knights out of the
building. One of them broke off and a few moments later one of the beetle-shaped transports appeared though Elunduil noticed that it was a bit larger than the others they had used before. They were told it was similar to their old vehicles and meant to transport a large group of people at a time.

  Elunduil and his friends boarded the vessel and found it was nearly the same on the inside as the smaller version just with a few extra seats. Once everyone was strapped in the knights steered the transport out of the city and aimed for the eastern side of Ellicia. Within moments the elves town disappeared behind the trees and they were left staring at the forest on one side and plains on the other. After a few minutes passed the transport turned towards the forest and stopped at the edge. “Alright here we are!” The knight from earlier said and the group unbuckled themselves then stepped down from the rear ramp after it opened and into the fresh air.

  It looked like any other part of the forest with large trees further into the forest that rose hundreds of feet into the air. “This way!” one of the knights called. He lead the group towards the forest while the other remained with the transport, and as they walked Tim asked, “You know I’ve never thought to ask but do you have one of those nicknames as well?” The knight chuckled.

  “Yeah, Trailblazer. I wasn’t too keen on these codenames at first but… well it’s like having a new identity,” he explained. He then became solemn “A way for us to distance the past and start anew. Though not everyone can let go so easily of their old lives… or their sins.” Those last words put a damper on the groups mood as they trudged around the trees as the knight led them to the building.