Children of the Spear (Novella): Origin

by Gervais, Rhett

  Withering away under the reverend’s intense stare, he closed his eyes, afraid of what the man really knew. Elizabeth had seen to it that Father Gary never spoke about his secret, that no one else would know, but it wouldn’t be the first time his old tormentor from Trinity Church broke his word. It was because of Gary that he ended up here in the first place. “I thought this was a military thing,” said Bobby, trying to change the conversation. “Why would the church have anything to do with any of this?”

  The reverend eyed him up and down, cocking his head like he was listening for something before letting out a loud snort and returning to his pacing. Just then the wild-haired assistant bumbled back into the room with a beaming look on his face. Without a word he handed a tablet to the reverend, bouncing on his heels with excitement like a small child who’d had too many sweets.

  Scanning the tablet the reverend's eyebrows shot up, a wry smile creasing his face. “You know, there was a time in this country when people had faith. They did what was right and because they rightly feared God,” began the reverend, tapping the tablet against his palm and waving away the excited assistant. He continued, pacing back and forth in front of him. “But today the faithless fear no retribution for their actions. They believe because of the freedoms this country offers, that they can spit in the face of the Lord, that they can defy the word of God. I am here to tell you that those days are over. Soon, very soon, all of those who are defiant, every sinner will be laid low, and you, Robert, can help me do it,” he finished, waving the tablet at him.

  “I go by Bobby. Robert was my father’s name.”

  “Honor thy father and thy mother, one of God’s most sacred commandments,” he said, raising a finger. “Bobby is a child’s name. If you want to be a man, at some point you must abandon childish things.”

  “From what my mother told me, he was a selfish idiot who abandoned his family,” he muttered under his breath.

  The dark-skinned man stopped in front of him once again, pointing at him with the tablet. “Now, Robert, you have a choice. There is a new day on the horizon, where today's life of sin and excess will be purged from proper society. The faithful and the just will rise, taking their rightful place at the moral center of America, building a Christian nation that will endure for all time. You can be cast out with the sinners, or you can join our cause.”

  Bobby eyed the tablet in the reverend’s hand, curious about what it said. “How can I help you? I can’t even keep a roof over my head, and I don’t really see myself building anything,” he said, standing up and walking over to the cylinders against the far wall, resting a hand on its cool surface. “And why would I want to help you? I don’t owe you, and you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do. Like you said, it's a free country.”

  A slow smile crept onto the reverend's face, his eyes bright. “Power! in every sense of the word, literal and figurative, that's what I can give you,” he said, moving closer, tapping a finger against his hips. “You know, people like you spend your lives without power, in servitude to others, close enough to touch it but never having any of your own. Traveling along in the wake of better men.”

  “Why me?” he asked, looking directly into the reverend’s eyes, searching for lies in what the man said.

  “Lieutenant Young told you, you’re special, chosen by God,” said the reverend. “It wasn’t just something he said; it was truth. Most of the people we brought here today have a small chance at being like you, but they're long shots, at best. But you, you have the divine spark.”

  Looking around the shabby room, Bobby couldn’t imagine anything further from the truth. He had spent enough time on the streets to know bullshit when he heard it, because no one ever gave you something for nothing. There was always a price to pay, and sooner or later, usually when you least expected it, someone always came to collect. “People like you; people with power don’t do nothing for nothing. What will I have to do?” asked Bobby, crossing his arms across his thin chest. “You always extract a price from people like me, so what is it?”

  “Your life; your youth. Power demands we sacrifice everything for it, but if you have the drive the rewards are endless,” said the reverend, returning to his pacing.

  Eyeing the man’s back Bobby wondered what would happen if he said no, and did he even really have a choice. They stole him from his life, as shitty as it was, but his choices were his own. The only choice he had now was to go willingly, embrace whatever he was being offered, and see how far it would take him. The other option was to be broken down until he ended up serving them anyway; he could see it clearly.

  “What do I have to do?” he asked, suddenly feeling light, like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. The black-clad reverend was silent for a moment, looking up at the ceiling muttering words of prayer. “It's simple, really. The process is called Ascension. It will remake you. You will get in one of the pods and go to sleep for a time. When you wake, you will have power, more power than you could possibly imagine, enough to shake the foundations of this nation.”

  Chapter 12: Valley of the Gods

  2063

  The area had once been a majestic sandstone valley, hauntingly beautiful with towering stone formations, mesas and flat-topped buttes that touched the sky. The bizarre landscape was so alien it looked like it belonged on another world. The Valley of the Gods had been transformed into hell on earth. The once pristine desert had become a war zone littered with hundreds of fallen aircraft, the bodies of dead soldiers twisted and bloated under the hot sun, stretched out as far as he could see. The once red sandstone was charred black and torn asunder, the weapons of man leaving deep gouges in the earth. Whatever had happened here had been beyond any destruction he could imagine. The towers of stone and rock had been toppled over like some clumsy giant brushed them aside, crushing the ancient formations beneath its heel. As far as he could see it was all like this, the spectacular landscape turned into a desolate wasteland devoid of life. He and Carter walked through the nightmare in silence, until they had finally found themselves on the edge of a crater staring into a bottomless abyss, in awe of the power needed to carve such a deep hole in the earth. Bobby couldn’t imagine what insanity drove Elizabeth and Andrew to defile such a beautiful place. He only knew he had to stop her before she did it again.

  “It's like Boston,” said Carter beside him, breaking the silence, echoing his thoughts as he leaned over the edge. “Only worse.”

  He eyed the pilot from the corner of his eye, still not believing what he had done to the man. His face was aglow, his eyes bright, a smile wider than the crater in front of them pasted onto his face. “Are you sure you feel okay; nothing weird going on?”

  “For the hundredth time, I’m fine!” said Carter, looking exasperated. “I’ve never felt better. Hell, by the look on your face I should be worrying about you.”

  Scrubbing his hands across his face, Bobby rubbed grit from his eye. He knew the other man was right. Since the transfer Carter was full of life, expressing powers and abilities that should have been impossible for anyone who had not gone through Ascension, while he himself felt weak, tired, struggling through moments of dizziness. “I still can’t believe you can fly,” he muttered under his breath. “Why does everyone get to fly but me.”

  “It makes sense to me,” said Carter with a grin. “I’m a pilot. I fly all the time.”

  Bobby snorted, rolling his eyes. “You know you're a miracle, right? Ascension just doesn’t work that way. The process takes days to start, and then weeks and months more before powers surface. You just don’t get a shot of energy and start flying and dodging bullets.”

  “You can dodge bullets?” said Carter beaming. “When do I get to do that?”

  “I may just shoot you, myself,” he said at the smiling pilot. Before he could figure out what to do next his phone chimed for his attention. Pulling the small square from his back pocket he cringed when he saw Michael’s stern face appear on screen. He had been avoiding his
calls since the Odin went down, wanting to have some good news to report when he spoke to his former friend and boss. Looking around at the devastation his shoulders slumped, bracing for the bishop’s anger.

  “Carter, I have to take this. I need you to keep quiet about what's happened to you. If the man on the other end of the line got wind of things, both you and I would have very bad times ahead of us,” he said, looking the pilot in the eye.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. I get you, super-secret experiments and whatnot. I’ve seen the holomovie where shit like this happens.”

  Nodding to him Bobby opened the line. “O’Connell here.”

  “We just picked you up on the satellite Robert. When we saw the transport go down, we assumed the worst,” said Michael, his deep voice full of threats. “Now that you’re there, make yourself useful. What's the situation on the ground? Is there any sign of them?”

  Bobby cocked his head, his lips pressing into a thin line. He wanted nothing more than to reach through the phone and strangle the man, break every bone in his body. “It's a mess down here, sir. The aircraft you sent to defend the area were wiped out, but I’m sure you know that from the transponders and what you can see from satellite. It's like what they did in Boston, sir. There's another crater, bigger than the last one. No sign of Elizabeth or Andrew.”

  “This wouldn’t have happened if you would have executed them like you were supposed to!” said Michael with a growl.

  “It wasn’t his fault, sir,” said Carter suddenly. Bobby’s eyes went wide as he waved the pilot away, tossing a dirty look his way and shushing him.

  “Who the hell was that?” asked Michael.

  “The transport pilot, sir: Lt. James Carter,” said Bobby hesitating, not sure if he should even try to explain what occurred. “He’s helping me piece together what happened.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line, the bishop talking to someone in the background, coming back a moment later. “We’re not getting vitals on him; we thought he died in the crash.” Carter gave him a shrug, checking his own pulse before giving him a thumbs-up.

  “No sir, he’s fine. Maybe the monitor is broken.”

  “Given how hard the Odin went down I’m impressed he survived,” said the bishop in a bored tone. “In any case, do you have eyes on the anomaly they created?”

  Looking around at the wasteland Bobby’s brows drew together. “If you mean the crater? Yes sir, I do.”

  “Good, I need you to go down there, and find out what’s going on at these sites.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. Maybe the signal wasn’t clear,” he said, looking over at Carter and shaking his head. “You want us to go down there? Why not just send a drone?”

  “We tried that in Boston, and in every attempt the drones fail somewhere between a hundred fifty to two hundred feet in. We sent a team of marines as well. Communications became sporadic at those depths, and not long after they reported failure of most of their electrical equipment. We lost contact soon after, and they have not reported back.” Bobby knew the bishop well, given their past, and he could hear a frustration in the man’s voice. He was not someone who accepted failure, regardless of the circumstances…and God help you if you told him no.

  “Exactly how are we supposed to get down there, sir?”

  “You’re superhuman, Robert. Figure it out. You have one hour before a transport arrives. I expect a full report once you are on your way to your next destination.”

  “Next destination? You know where they’re going. Just like the last time.”

  “Yes!” said the bishop. “And like then, you will keep your questions to yourself and do what you're told. Understood?”

  Taking a deep breath Bobby bit his tongue, thinking it better not to speak. He gave the bishop a brief nod before ended the call and returned the phone to his pocket.

  “Wow, that guy’s an ass,” said Carter beside him, raising his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you didn't reach through the phone and strangle him.”

  “Trust me, I wanted to. What makes it worse is he was one of the good guys not so long ago, then—well I’m still not sure what happened, but he’s not the man he used to be.” Bobby cast aside thoughts of Michael, knowing the man was beyond redemption, and the guy he knew was long gone. Leaning over the crater he stared into the darkness, curious as the bishop to learn what was going on down there. “Do you think you can fly us down there?”

  Carter’s face beamed with a broad smile. “Thought you’d never ask! Bring it on,” said the pilot, spreading his arms wide, Bobby’s face going bright red as the pilot suddenly pulled him toward him.

  He blew out his cheeks, doing his best not to flinch, as he was never comfortable with anyone in his comfort zone, much less a near stranger. From this close he could see the salt and pepper in his hair, feel the other man’s warmth, his strange odor of smoke and soap filling his nostrils. “Let's just get this over quickly, because the clock is ticking, and Michael isn’t much for giving second chances,” said Bobby.

  A flutter ran through his stomach as they lifted off, the primal fear of being off the ground and out of control taking hold of him. He had never flown before. Andrew turned into pure energy and couldn’t carry anything, and Elizabeth refused to take passengers, saying it made her clumsy while flying. Plunging into the pit, Bobby held his breath as they descended into darkness, the light of day fading the deeper they went. After a few minutes he had lost all perception of space and distance, the air rushing past him the only sense they were moving at all. “How will you know to slow down when we get to the bottom?” he whispered in the dark, the thought of them falling to their deaths from terminal velocity sending a chill down his spin.

  “I don’t know,” said Carter. “But I get these weird reflections of where we are. It's like I’ve got some sort of built-in radar. I know exactly how far we are from the side of the crater even if I can’t see it. Same thing goes for the bottom, I can tell we’re not far now.”

  As if on cue, a soft glow appeared in the distance, so faint he thought his imagination was playing tricks on him. Bobby felt them slow, the rush of air moving past them going from a torrent to a light breeze. The light grew more intense the closer they came, subtly shifting from a cool white, then on to an icy-blue cobalt before finally touching on a pale green. They landed moments later in a field of broken crystal that appeared to have been whole not long ago, now shattered into a thousand pieces spreading out as far as he could see. Without thinking he pulled his phone from his pocket to record what he was seeing, only to find it dead.

  “What the hell is this place?” said Carter beside him, the loudness of his voice making him flinch.

  “No clue,” he whispered, his own voice loud in his ears. “All I know is this shouldn’t be here, wherever here is.” Bobby knelt down picking up a fist-sized shard of glass, holding it up to get a better look at it. Elizabeth and Andrew had destroyed whatever was here for a reason, and for the love of everything holy he couldn’t understand why.

  “There’s more,” said Carter, staring into the darkness. “A lot more.”

  “You mean more like these crystals? I don’t see anything else glowing, so how can you see anything?”

  Carter shook his head, his eyes going wide. “It's like I told you on the way down; I just get a sense of things, like the wall.” Without a word he raced off, vanishing in the dark.

  “Carter! James! What in the name of God are you doing, man?” he shouted after him, hesitating only a moment before breaking into a sprint, following the hollow echo of his boots reverberating off the cavern walls. He charged headlong through the darkness desperate to keep up with the pilot’s mad dash when he suddenly felt a strong arm grasp him just before he nearly tumbled over into an abyss. He found himself unexpectedly airborne, floating motionless in the inky blackness.

  “Stop!” Carter shouted, wrapping both arms around Bobby. “Look.” His voice came out as a trembling whisper, his breathing fast.

  Con
fused, Bobby tried to look everywhere at once, only understanding moments later when he cast his gaze downward to a sight that terrified him, a pang of fear turning his belly into knots, his mind reeling as he saw the impossible. The cavern went deeper, much deeper, and it held the most terrifying thing he had ever seen in his life.

  Chapter 13: Stronger, Better, Faster, More

  2061

  He drifted in a deep dreamless sleep detached from all sense of self, yet somehow still aware of the world, occasionally sensing motion outside the tank despite being in utter darkness. Bobby had lost track of how long he had been floating in nothingness. He only knew that things beyond imagination had been done to him, and the only reason he had not been driven to insanity was because the cool blue liquid he drifted in dulled the pain, disconnecting his mind from body.

  They had rebuilt him cell by cell, atom by atom; he knew that much. Nothing had been left to chance, and he was a better man—more than human. Already he could feel his skin was denser, his strength greater. He felt better than he ever had, energized by a light burning within him. For the thousandth time since his isolation began, his thoughts drifted to Elizabeth, wondering if she had made the same choice, or had she gone home and abandoned him. Was she even still alive? Andrew, the guy he had met not long after arriving on the base had told him the kids here were people who wouldn’t be missed, easily discarded. He prayed that wasn’t true, that they could have a life after this was all over.

  Bobby was pulled from his musings when a thin crack of blinding white light appeared in front of him, the pod doors slowly widening to reveal the world outside. His eyes adjusted to the blinding glare to discover the yellow-toothed assistant who had taken his blood on the first day hovering in front of him, his pale face creased with worry. Without a word the man plunged a needle longer than Bobby’s arm directly into his chest, injecting a red liquid that burned like fire, sending waves of gut-wrenching pain throughout his body. Gritting his teeth, he balled his hands into fists while he began to shiver and shake, every muscle tensing, straining. Moments later the pain subsided, with only small tingles dancing up and down his extremities, tiny pinpricks of ice cold running along his pale skin.