by GM Gambrell
Thirty Six
The tunnel leading from the Pit to the lair of the Source wasn’t nearly as hot as it had been before. The walls were cool to the touch and Duncan was relieved that he wasn’t going to have to attempt to use magic again. They jogged single-file, Jim in the lead, followed by Jessica and Duncan and then the rest of the crew. They were all nervous, and though Duncan had seen the Source once before, he had no idea what to expect since the destruction of the city above. They could hear the Source screaming ahead of them and the battle behind them. Duncan wanted to hunker down and cover his ears but kept on running.
Even the Source’s lair was cooler. The walls no longer glowed bright red, and only a few of the pipes put out any sort of energy. The Source itself had shrunk considerably, filling up the space of several football fields instead of the entire cavern. Jim leaned over the edge and looked at it.
“That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I never thought I’d actually see it,” he said, sighting down the mass with his rifle. “Where do we even shoot?”
“I have no idea.”
None of them did, but it didn’t matter. Here before them was the Eater of Worlds, the reason their planet was on the brink of destruction. It was the reason their ancestors had spent the better part of a thousand years hiding in the ground, surviving like rats and cockroaches. Like before, it seemed to ignore them, and Duncan wondered about that. It knew danger was lurking here, ready to destroy it, and it did nothing. Was it so wrapped up in the battle with Simon and the Warbots that it didn’t notice them?
“Aim somewhere,” Jim ordered, and the clicking of weapons being readied filled the cavern, “and fire.”
A dozen guns opened up at once, flame leaping from the barrels. Duncan tried to hold his own gun still, tried to ignore the fact that he was, once again, attempting to take another’s life. He had to justify it somehow in his mind, in his soul, but there would be time for that later, after the deed was done. The Source writhed in agony, filling the massive cavern from top to bottom, and as the bullets slammed home, the thing’s eyes burst. But for every one they shot, three more appeared. The screaming drowned out the gunfire, and the entire mass quivered in agony.
“Are we doing any damage at all?”
“No, of course you can’t hurt me, stupid humans.”
Duncan turned to see the Source’s avatar, the phony and transformed Jeremiah Fredrick, ducking out of the tunnel. The massive creature was covered in cuts and abrasions that bled green. It was livid, and steam rolled out of its ears. The group turned their weapons on the beast, and the bullets and rockets bounced harmlessly off. It howled in delight.
“The Source is me, I am the Source. Your kind hasn’t been able to defeat me in tens of thousands of years, and you will not be able to do it now.”
Duncan lowered his rifle and shouted back at the beast, “We might not be able to destroy you, but we’ve run you off our world before.”
The creature’s eyes burned into him and he gasped as he reached for his heart. Duncan choked as the blood stopped flowing, dropped his gun, and grasped at his chest. Jim came alive, rushing the creature, who was distracted by its glee at Duncan’s suffering, and knocked it to the ground. The beast released its grip on Duncan’s heart and he dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.
“You think you know us so well, beast,” Jim said, pinning the Source’s avatar to the ground at least temporarily. “You think you know what we’ll do, what it takes to move us. You don’t know anything.”
Jim slid out of his backpack and opened the flap. The bag was packed with explosives connected to a small box. “You see this, beast? This might not be enough to destroy you, but it will do serious damage. And we’ll keep coming back, again and again. We know you, now, and we won’t forget you.”
The avatar stood, slinging Jim off his chest in one fluid motion. Jim landed over the edge of the Source’s lair, one hand holding the bomb and the other hanging onto the ledge. Duncan rushed to his side and grasped his hand.
“Dad…” It was the first time he’d called Jim that and the man smiled at the word.
“I’ve always wanted to hear that, Duncan. Thanks.”
The battle with the beast raged on as NAME, one arm missing and his armor even more broken than before, rushed into the cavern, followed by the three remaining Warbots. Explosions shook the chamber’s ceiling, dislodging already crumbling piping. The crew of the Betty reloaded their weapons and joined the fight. Jessica crouched at Duncan’s rear, holding onto him as he held onto his father.
“Hold on, I can pull you up.”
“No, I don’t think you can. Listen. Take Jessica and get out of here. This bomb is going to destroy this entire cavern.” Duncan looked down and saw the seconds ticking away on the timer. “Get to the south. The USS Barrack Obama is there and they’ll protect you. Get out of here.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“You don’t have a choice, son. I love you. I always loved you. I’m sorry about the way things turned out.”
With that, Diamond Jim, Duncan’s long lost father, wriggled out of his grip and plummeted down into the pit of the Source. Duncan couldn’t watch and rolled away from the edge of the ravine. He pulled Jessica to her feet and tried to muster courage that he didn’t feel.
“Forget the avatar,” he screamed through the gunfire and smoke. “We have to get out of here.”
He heard the first explosion, muffled as if it were underwater, and the Source roared up again, in flames. Its agony was evident in its screams. The avatar sank to its elongated knees, hands on its ears, screaming in pain along with its master. The remaining survivors of the Betty, along with NAME, two remaining Warbots, and Jessica and Duncan, sprinted for the exit. As the source rippled with more internal explosions, the entire cavern shook again, and, already weakened by the Betty’s previous bombings, started to come apart. They dodged falling rock and piping as they ducked into the tunnel.
Just inside, a massive explosion swept through the tunnel, and the last thing they saw was the avatar, swathed in flame, being swept over the chasm and down into the pit with the Source. The combined sounds of explosions and the Source screaming nearly burst their eardrums and even the tunnel walls threatened to collapse. In the Pit, Duncan paused where Simon lay slumped against the wall, bruised and bloodied but still just barely breathing.
“Can you carry him?” he asked NAME and the computer directed one of the other Warbots to scoop the man up.
The city of New Atlantis was crumbling around them. Already weakened by the bombing runs of the Ghost Planes and the Betty, it fell in pieces around them. The remaining Magistrates still tried to herd the panicked citizens to their demise, but the two opposing groups now found themselves completely without magic and were reduced to fighting by hand. The city convulsed like a living, breathing being, and everyone stopped and watched as the center of the city exploded outward, the flaming Source streaming into the sky like a meteorite in reverse. As the city began to cave in on the now-exposed chasm, Duncan and his group sprinted for the city’s exit.
The road crumbled inward behind them as they ran, just nipping at their heels. Jessica tripped as one of the crewmen of the Betty was sucked into the ground, and Duncan helped her to her feet, dragging her along. They made it out of the city and to the edge of the enchanted forest. The trees, like the Centaurs, had been created with magic, but continued to live without it. They were what they were. Duncan suspected that there would be many magical creatures left, dragons, Orks, even the dogs and cats in the Magician cities. He panicked a bit when he thought of the cities. If they hadn’t already, they would soon plummet to the earth as the Source left the atmosphere and took the magic with it. For the first time in a thousand years, the earth was, once more, without magic.
They sat and watched the Source streak through the sky. They hadn’t been able to destroy it, and it would be back. It might be ten thousand years, but it would ret
urn to earth to start the cycle once again. Duncan vowed to, somehow, make sure they never forgot it.
“We might as well get moving,” he told the few beleaguered survivors of the assault on the Source. “Jim said the USS Barrack Obama would be waiting to the south.”
The crew nodded grimly and followed him into the forest.
Thirty Seven
The party had already started on the ancient aircraft carrier, the USS Barrack Obama. Duncan could hear the music and see the dancing as they made their way from the coast in the old rowboat. NAME had contacted the ship, and the crew of the Obama was eagerly awaiting their arrival. They were treated as heroes as they stepped onto the deck, and Duncan was aghast at all the ancient aircraft, minus the Betty, that sat on the old steel deck. Everywhere there wasn’t a plane, there was someone cheering.
An old man in a neat gray uniform saluted them as they stepped on the landing deck. “I’m Admiral Bryon George and I’d like to welcome you to the USS Barack Obama. Are the computer’s reports correct? Was Diamond Jim lost in the attack?”
Duncan nodded his head sadly.
“I’m sorry to hear it, son. Your father will be remembered as a hero for eons to come.”
“I know he will.
“Come with us, son. There’s a party going on and you’re the guest of honor.”
Duncan looked back at the burning crater of New Atlantis and wondered what would become of the continent’s remaining magical creatures. They would continue to exist, continue to breed and propagate, though they would no longer have magic available to them. What would happen to the survivors of the fallen Magician cities, to the Golems awakening to a new world?
“No, Captain, we don’t have time for a party. Our job is just beginning. We have too much to do, too many people to help. We have to rescue the survivors of the cities.”
The Captain interrupted angrily. “You want to save these people who have enslaved us for a thousand years?”
“They’re just humans, Captain. Our fellow humans. We have to save them and teach them what happened. We have to make everyone understand what happened or this will just happen again. It might not happen tomorrow, or the next day, or even in the next ten thousand years, but one day when we’ve spread out across the planet and forgotten about the Source, it will return.”
“It’s going to Mars, Captain,” Jessica told him. “Our people made it to the stars and the Source knows that. It’s on the way there now, to consume their world. We have to find a way of warning them.”
“Yes, Duncan Cade, you’re just like your father. He never quit, never took a break. Everything was a life-threatening emergency. But I’m telling you…no, I’m ordering you to take a break. The world is brand new again, but it will be brand new again in the morning, as well. Tomorrow we make for old New Orleans. The colony councils are meeting to try and determine what to do about the very issues you’re talking about. We won’t be lazy about it, and we won’t forget, Duncan. The memory of Jim demands it.”
Duncan nodded and gripped Jessica’s hand as the two watched the remains of the City of New Atlantis burn. There would be much to do, but the Captain was right. They couldn’t do it all in a day.
“I won’t forget you, Jim, and I’ll make sure that no one else ever does. Thank you.”
The End
Other Books by GM Gambrell
The Endless Night: Cloud Fall
Creepy, Texas
GM Gambrell is the father of five wonderful kids. He hopes that he’s never too old to enjoy those children or the amazing fiction that they love to read.
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