Chasing a Familiar Shadow

by Aman Gupta

  Eric came from behind.

  “What’s happening?” asked Eric.

  “Emma wants to go to Sierra,” said Joey.

  “I am going too,” said Kate.

  “What? Not you too,” said Joey.

  Eric sighed. “Okay.”

  “Okay, what?” asked Joey. “It’s a suicide mission.”

  “I’m not afraid to die,” said Emma.

  “What, you think I am? I’m the only one here who is trying to make sure that unnecessary lives are not lost. Weren’t you the one who despised Vik when his war brought Morrow to its knees against Anton? You blamed him for involving everyone else in his fight. Now when he isn’t, you’re begging to be a part of it,” said Joey. “Just answer me this - What can you do that he can’t? I can’t believe we’re having this conversation again.”

  “He needs us. I can feel it,” said Emma.

  “Great! I can feel something too. I feel that I’ll be standing on top of your graves hating myself that I let you all go alone,” said Joey. “Damn it!”

  Joey was agitated.

  “He’s right,” said Eric. “It’s a stupid thing to do. But it’s also the right thing to do.”

  Emma smiled.

  “Fine, let’s go,” said Joey. “But if I die out there, my ghost will haunt you the rest of your lives.”

  “Then you better not die,” said Kate.

  They all shared a group hug. Joey was the last one to join.

  “Let’s go to the precinct and get the supplies,” said Eric.

  Eric told Adam and Tyson to take over, as they all left in their cars towards the precinct.

  Eric talked with Bill. Bill agreed to temporarily take over the duties of the county sheriff until Eric returned. Mily had also relocated to Morrow and joined Morrow PD fulltime after tending her resignation from US Marshal Service, like many others over the past few years. Eric agreed to make her a detective on Bill’s insistence.

  Around 5 PM, after stocking up weapons and grenades from the truck, and food supplies for the trip, Joey and Emma left in Joey’s car, followed by Kate and Eric in Eric’s car. They had found a dozen GPS devices in the trucks, which suggested a route to take. Each device was actively linked to the new GPS satellites. They attached the GPS panels on their cars’ dashboards.

  “Where are we going first?” said Joey.

  “Past TS – 17,” said Emma. “Don’t need the GPS for that. I know the route.”

  “Right,” said Joey, shaking his head.

  Emma smiled as she munched on the snacks while Joey drove.

  “We’ll switch seats when you’re tired,” said Emma.

  Joey nodded in agreement.

  Stopping a couple of time in between for short breaks, both cars drove past TS – 17 around 8 AM. Emma had a feeling of déjà vu as she crossed those roads again. Hundreds of memories rushed through in her mind as she drove by the area.

  A minute later, she noticed in her rearview mirror that Eric’s car was flashing lights.

  “Joey, wake up,” said Emma. Joey was asleep in the passenger’s seat. He woke up when Emma shook him.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Joey.

  Emma slowed down her car and parked it on the side of the road. The other car stopped a few yards behind them.

  Emma and Joey got out of the car and approached Eric’s car.

  “What happened?” asked Joey.

  Eric rolled down the windows.

  “Kate is having migraines again,” said Eric. “You got her medicine in your car, right?”

  “Yeah,” said Joey.

  Joey rushed to his car and opened the glove compartment. He came back with a box of Kate’s pills. Emma wasn’t aware of Kate’s migraine problems.

  “When did this start?” asked Emma.

  “Ever since you guys rescued me at the bridge,” said Kate, holding her head with her hands.

  Joey gave her a pill, which Kate swallowed.

  “Give me one as well,” said Eric.

  “What, you too?” asked Emma.

  “Yeah, I’ve been feeling under the weather for a week,” said Eric.

  “Did you know about him, too?” asked Emma.

  Joey shook his head.

  “Maybe we should switch places,” said Joey. “I’ll drive Kate. Emma will drive you.”

  “Okay,” said Eric.

  Eric got out of the driver’s side, while Joey sat in his seat. Emma went back to the car, and Eric sat next to her.

  “How far ahead?” asked Eric.

  “It says we should be there in 10 hours,” said Emma. “I’ll get us there in 8.”

  “Take your time,” said Eric, as he reclined his seat and laid down with his eyes closed. “Just so you know, I’m not asleep.”

  Emma chuckled. “Good to know.”

  She drove ahead while Joey followed in Eric’s car. Kate’s health improved an hour later, while Eric seemed more normal to Emma.

  Emma kept talking to Eric, as it helped his headaches. They could see old vehicles abandoned on the side of the road every other mile. Trees and forest cover on one side, and the sea of emerald grass on the other side, they drove down a narrow road. They could see broken light poles every few meters, with hundreds of pamphlets stuck on them. Emma could spot a few prominent brands based on their colors. It made her feel nostalgic, then depressed, realizing how different the world had become. After a while, Emma spotted humans and animals, cars and wheelbarrows, houses and shacks, and wires and garbage, as they crossed an unnamed county. Hundreds of people saw these two cars driving past their small village.

  Around 2 PM, Emma parked the car near a remote dusty spot overlooking a small canyon. Joey also stopped his car. All four of them stood together and admired the beauty of this 200 feet deep canyon. It was grimy and odd shaped, but yet it looked exquisite. They could see another one a mile away on their left, and two more on their right.

  “I guess they lied about it,” said Kate.

  “Yeah, everyone knew that,” said Emma. “They just didn’t care.”

  “The people who lived here, never stood a chance, did they?” said Joey.

  “What used to be here, anyway?” asked Eric.

  “TS – 34 and TS – 35,” said Emma. “As per the GPS.”

  “Something tells me this isn’t the first one we will see on our way to Sierra,” said Kate.

  “It’s not. I didn’t stop when I spotted the first 2,” said Emma as she walked back to her car.

  They ate out of food packets for the next few minutes. All of them were in a hurry to get out of there. The wind gave them goosebumps. Like it was giving them a kiss of death every time it touched their skin.

  They continued driving on the road recommended by the GPS console. The roads were broken and poor for the next fifty miles. Almost as if they had been ruined due to movements of overloaded trucks and carriers. Cement bags, broken furniture, and appliances, worn-out rubber tires and bricks were some of the things they could see lying on the side of the roads. They could spot a huge fence line a mile away.

  “It must be one of those TS areas,” said Joey.

  “Yeah,” said Kate. “Maybe 47-48. Based on the GPS.”

  “Only a hundred twenty more miles to go,” said Joey.

  “Yeah,” said Kate. “By the way, thank you for coming.”

  “It’s not like I didn’t want to come,” said Joey. “I wanted to assume that he had a happy ending. Now, I’m obliged to make sure he does.”

  Emma could spot cedar trees and hills far west. When Eric played with the GPS device, he could see that they were heading for those hills. They could see tire tracks on the road, although faint and old.

  “So, what’s the plan? How are we getting inside?” asked Emma.

  “No idea,” said Eric. “It’s supposed to be invisible.”

  “Yeah, I forgot about that part,” said Emma. “Do you think we made a mistake? Coming here?”

  “Not at all,” said Eric.

&n
bsp; “Me too,” said Emma.

  The roads look them slightly uphill every few miles. Around 5 PM, they drove past a compound on their right. Eric read the signboard from far away.

  “Millway Airfield,” said Eric. “We just drove past Millway-X Airfield.”

  “We’re close,” said Emma. “Only a few miles ahead now.”

  The road had suddenly turned into four lanes. Joey drove next to Emma’s car as the two cars drove ahead together in perfect synchronization. Their silent engines were creating a perfect symphony.

  Around twenty minutes later, the road led them steep uphill as they drove past the broken mountains on their left. As they started going downhill, Emma immediately applied the brakes as did Joey. They cruised for a few seconds before stopping. Their cars stopped a hundred meters ahead of the foot of the slope. All four of them got out of the car.

  A hundred yards ahead lied one of the biggest canyons they had ever seen in recent times. Spread miles on both sides and a hundred meters in length, Emma gasped when she saw it. They walked to the edge of the canyon and looked into it. It felt like staring into the Devil’s mouth. It was dark, deep, and dangerous. They could spot skeletons when they looked around.

  “What the hell?” said Joey. “Are you sure we didn’t take a wrong turn?”

  “No, it should be here. A mile ahead,” said Emma.

  “And you don’t remember seeing a canyon when you saw a city using one of the drones?” asked Kate.

  “I’m not sure. It was dark,” said Emma.

  “Looks like we have hit a dead end,” said Eric.

  “We have to go back,” said Kate.

  “Or find a way around it,” said Joey.

  “How?” asked Emma.

  “No idea,” said Joey. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. I see nothing but trees and mountains on either side. There must be a way to cross this canyon.”

  “We better figure it out soon. We’ll lose light in less than an hour,” said Eric.

  “Let’s drive to the edge of the canyon. Maybe there’s a bridge,” said Emma.

  “Okay,” said Kate.

  They got back in their cars and drove to the west side of the canyon, along the canyon’s edge. The path was uneven, riddled with potholes and bushes. The canyon’s edge was irregular shaped. They were cruising at a speed of around ten miles per hour, sometimes slower.

  Twenty minutes later, they reached the edge of the canyon. But it wasn’t good news for them. They spotted an electrified fence. Emma remembered seeing something similar in TS – 17. There was a huge sign posted on the fence.

  ‘TS – 51. Stay away!’

  On the other side of the fence were tall trees and short hills, similar to the ones that Emma had seen near the compound. The fence line wasn’t straight. It followed the trees in the form of an irregular curve, before terminating on the other side of the canyon.

  “Let’s check the east side,” said Eric.

  They turned their cars around and started driving back. It was beginning to get a little dark. The dusk was upon this mysterious spot.

  Emma felt she saw the canyon disappear for a millisecond, but she kept it to herself. She felt she was hallucinating. It took them another forty minutes to reach the other side of the canyon, which led to the foot of a hill. It was covered with bushes and vegetation, with no visible path.

  Emma kicked the tires as she got off the car. Joey walked up to her and tried to calm her down. But he failed. She was disconcerted, cursing in the air.

  “Let’s just get out of here,” said Emma. “Clearly, we suck.”

  Emma sat in her car in anger. Eric, Kate, and Joey looked at each other before going back to their cars. Emma raced ahead with Eric by her side, while Joey and Kate followed them. Emma was driving rashly and hitting quite a few potholes. Eric tried to talk to her, but she was too emotional. There were tears in her eyes. Her mind flickered, and she heard her sister’s voice in her head.

  ‘You’ll conquer the world, Emma!’

  Her vision blurred with tears in her eyes, she steered left when she saw the road where they had come from but failed to spot a heavy rock half-buried in the ground. She drove the left front wheel of her car over it, causing her to lose the balance of the car. She compensated by turning to the right. The car flipped over a couple of times before stopping in the middle of the road.

  Kate and Joey had a different experience of this accident. They saw Emma’s car flip a couple of times before disappearing into the canyon. Joey stopped the car immediately. They got off the car and looked into the canyon, but couldn’t see Emma’s car.

  “Do you see it?” asked Kate.

  “No,” said Joey. “Where’s the car?”

  “It just disappeared,” said Kate. “Did you see it go into the canyon?”

  “I saw the same thing as you did,” said Joey. “It’s like the car got swallowed in mid-air.”

  Kate and Joey looked around for a minute, before Kate stood still, focusing her attention on something she couldn’t see. Joey called out Emma’s name but couldn’t hear anything apart from his own voice echoing in the middle of nowhere.

  “Do you hear that?” asked Kate.

  Joey stood silent as they tried to hear a noise.

  “Sounds like an explosion,” said Joey. “But it’s coming from..”

  “The canyon,” said Kate.

  “That’s impossible. I can’t see anything,” said Joey.

  She put her arm out, stepping close to the edge of the canyon.

  “What are you doing?” asked Joey.

  “Taking a leap of faith,” said Kate.

  They looked at each other. They could hear distinct noises of small blasts, but they couldn’t see anything. There was nothing in front of them but a vacant hollow space in the middle of nowhere.

  “Wait,” said Joey.

  He looked around and picked up a small rock.

  “Let’s do a test run first,” said Joey.

  Kate nodded.

  He threw the rock into the canyon. The rock disappeared in mid-air.

  “It’s a projection,” said Kate. “It’s not real.”

  “Like a hologram?” said Joey.

  Kate took a step back and jumped into the canyon, disappearing in front of Joey’s eyes. He looked in shock. He didn’t move. A couple of seconds later, he was pulled into the canyon.

  He and Kate stood close to each other. They were levitating above the canyon.

  “Oh my god!” said Joey.

  Kate smiled. “I know!”

  Kate walked forward and disappeared before Joey’s eyes.

  “Kate, I can’t see you. Where are you?” said Joey.

  Kate could hear him but couldn’t see him either. She traced her steps, but Joey had moved to look for Kate. They could hear each other calling out their names but couldn’t see each other. One time they stood six inches apart yet couldn’t see one another, as they were standing close to their own spheres’ perimeter. A few seconds later, they were almost 20 feet away.

  “Stay still,” said Kate.

  Joey stood still but kept calling out Kate’s name. Kate followed the sound of his voice. Her acrophobia wasn’t helping either. Her legs were shaking when she started noticing the canyon under her feet. It took her another sixty seconds, but she found Joey.

  They hugged each other and shared a kiss. They interlocked their fingers and walked together the rest of the way. They called out for Emma and Eric, but couldn’t hear them. As they got closer to the spot where Emma and Eric had crashed, they faced a similar threat that Emma and Eric were facing. Two drones above them were firing high-intensity laser shots by anticipating the location of their targets after a gap of five seconds. One of the shots grazed past Kate’s left shoulder as she looked up. She felt like someone had poked her with a blow torch. She couldn’t see anything. She and Joey ran together in random directions. They could hear the shots more clearly now.

  Emma and Eric had gotten out of their car just
in time before the car got blown up by a drone. They couldn’t see each other, but Eric told Emma to run.

  Soon, all four of them were running in random directions, only to crash into each other a minute later, while following each other’s voices as a guide to breaking the maze.

  “What the hell is happening?!” yelled Emma.

  “I don’t know,” said Kate.

  “We should split up,” said Eric. “We are a bigger target if we’re together.”

  “But how will we find each other? We could be lost forever,” said Kate.

  “She’s right. I’m not splitting up,” said Joey.

  “Fine,” said Eric.

  A small electric charge dropped on top of them. All four of them went down on the ground as hundreds of volts of electricity was flowing through their body. They couldn’t see each other completely. They tried crawling but couldn’t. They were ready to die together, as they could hear an explosion nearby. It must be a drone, they thought.

  A couple of seconds later, the canyon disappeared. They saw they were sitting on a concrete surface few hundred yards away from the road. They all looked at the sky, but couldn’t see the drones.

  A minute later, they saw a couple of vehicles on the road, leaving the area.

  “Where are they coming from?” asked Emma.

  “Your invisible city,” said Eric.

  “Why?” asked Emma as she saw ten more cars leave the area in a short period.

  “Good question,” said Kate as they all looked ahead. “I’ll get the car.”

  Chapter 39: Vanquish

  Before leaving for the compound after getting a message from Clay last night, Victor told Sylvia to monitor things while he was away. Sylvia was in contact with various departments as they were trying to get their systems back online, and the operations return to normal. Sierra – B had been reopened, and over five hundred soldiers were sent to Level 5A for ‘cleaning up’ through various elevator entrances. Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 had been restored to their former selves.

  She was sitting with Maia at Yolk along with other captains, monitoring the entire cleaning operation in one of the war rooms located in that building. Sylvia had never been inside Yolk before. The building looked stunning from the outside, almost shaped like an egg yolk, though massive in size. The soldiers were wearing wireless cameras, even though Maia was against it. Sylvia had insisted on it, as she wanted to be sure before telling Victor that the area was safe.