The Last Church

by Richard Lee

  He started to chant. Slowly and softly at first, to be sure he was hearing the words right. With his eyes closed he blocked all sounds except that of his voice. The chant grew louder, faster, and it soon took on a rhythm of its own.

  Peter was sweating and realized he had an erection. He was suddenly aware of his entire body. It tingled all over. The sensation itself was erotic. He threw his arms up into the air and screamed the end of the chant, at the same time he ejaculated.

  Exhausted, he fell to the floor and waited. He suddenly remembered he had forgotten the most important part. He had forgotten to cut his hand. The ceremony needed his blood. He jumped to his feet and picked up the knife off the table.

  It was already covered in blood.

  His hand was sliced deep, the meat folded sideways. Blood covered the altar, his jeans.

  He stood frozen, wondering if he had done something wrong. Apart from not remembering cutting his hand, although he could feel the throbbing pain now, he was certain he had done everything correctly.

  Then where was his dagger?

  From the corner of his eye, he saw blood running off the side of the altar. It seemed the hole wasn’t as straight as he had thought. Maybe that was why the ceremony had not worked. Maybe everything needed to be straight or facing a certain direction. Yet the book hadn’t said anything like that. The instructions were to build the table exactly as directed and perform the first ceremony to receive the dagger.

  A dagger created from his blood and sweat. It would collect and hold the power for his dreams. The dagger was everything.

  He did not have one. Something must have gone wrong, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was.

  The rolling blood on the altar caught his attention. He felt compelled to watch it dribble to the edge and drop onto the leg. It left a red line in its wake. His eyes followed it all the way to the ground. He was surprised at how much blood there was. It was thick and fast moving.

  As the blood touched the ground a great wind exploded from every direction. It wrapped around Peter, encasing him in a warm field of glowing heat.

  The ground beneath his feet shook as all the blood on the altar was sucked towards the ground. It rushed over the edge and down the leg, vanishing into the soil. The altar top was clean and looked dry, as if his life essence had never been there.

  The wind picked him up and spun him to the far corner of the room as the altar exploded. Chunks of wood shot towards him. The force and speed of the spinning air easily deflected all the pieces as if they were nothing more than toothpicks.

  Peter was at least two feet off the ground, yet he felt no fear. In fact, he felt the opposite. He was protected.

  A huge rock rose from the hole where his altar had stood only moments ago. It was the greyest thing he had ever seen. Smoke rose off and around it. Large piles of dirt piled up beside it.

  It shook.

  The whirlwind put Peter on the ground and stopped its movement. Slowly, he walked to the rock. It was practically jumping now. As he got closer, a strong sulphur smell invaded his senses and watered his eyes. Waves of it pulsated off the rock.

  Suddenly the rock’s violent movement ceased.

  A heavy silence fell around Peter as he approached it. The sulfuric smell was replaced by an odor he couldn’t identify. It was stronger and made his nose cringe. His eyes watered and vision blurred. Tears rolled down his cheeks and dropped onto his neck. He barely noticed.

  A crack appeared in the stone. It started at the top and spread out, creating a spider web of white lines covering the entire surface.

  Peter reached out and touched it with a trembling finger. The excitement ran through him now and he could barely control his actions. His heart raced. Something was inside the rock, something for him.

  Even with all its cracks, he was unable to break it open with just his hands. In frustration, he kicked it as hard as he could. A scream erupted from inside and Peter jumped back in shock. His feet tangled and he hit the ground hard.

  The cracks opened wider. Small chunks fell to the ground, exposing a shiny black object. Suddenly it started shaking and more cracks ripped through the rock, causing more chunks to fall. A loud cracking sound filled the basement and the rock split in two. Each piece falling to the floor to expose an altar of black marble.

  The glare from the overhead lights shot out in all directions as Peter slowly got to his feet. There was still one long angled piece of rock left on the altar. He reached for it and it flew into his hand.

  This was his dagger, covered in a stone casing that crumbled easily. The blade looked eight inches long. It had a black bone handle and a marking on the hilt. The marking was the same as the book cover; it was a circle with two inverted triangles inside.

  The cold steel was covered in old style script. Words and symbols he could not recognize were engraved just above the razor shape edge.

  It was the most beautiful thing Peter had ever seen.

  Chapter Nine

  Area City 2368

  “This is more than big, it’s huge.” Ami pushed a swing, watched it rise up and away from her. “I’ve only seen these in holo-photos.” She didn’t move back when the swing returned. The seat was twisting this way and that and the chain links had entangled themselves. The swing struck her thigh and she stumbled backwards, giving a shout of surprise more than pain.

  No one seemed to notice.

  “What is this place?” Josh asked.

  Everyone was standing close to each other, save Ami who knelt next to the swing, rubbing her bruised thigh. A ripple of fear of the unknown passed through each of them. And it was growing stronger, feeding on itself.

  “This isn’t Zone Three,” Michael stated when Ami had rejoined the group and all eyes were on Rachael.

  “No, it isn’t.” Her voice was flat. Each word carried an ounce of worry, although she was trying her best to cover it. She took the bag from Eric and opened it. Inside she found the sampler and switched on the solar power and waited for the blue base to light up. And waited and waited.

  “Must be broken,” Penny offered. “Those things are very fragile.”

  Rachael nodded in understanding. She switched it off and pulled out a dozen small circular plastic containers. She passed them around without a word and dug in the bag for the laser cutters. Finding all six, she handed one to each person.

  “Make small cuts,” she said. “Gather as much material as you can safely fit in the container. Use separators if you must.”

  The group nodded.

  “Eric, a word if I may?” Rachael asked but he didn’t respond. “Eric?” He kept walking with the others. Ami turned around, her lips forming a perfect O. She rushed back to the team leader.

  “Rachael, I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you.”

  “What?”

  “Eric says his hearing and speech units are not working. Just before we reached the clearing I double checked them myself and...”

  “And what?” Rachael asked, heading to the nearest shrub in the opposite direction of the others.

  “They work perfectly,” Ami was talking in a soft voice normally reserved for spreading gossip. “I thought he might be bluffing it for a joke or something. But look at this place.”

  Her friend smiled. “There’d be no way to shut him up.”

  She stopped walking when she noticed a perfect leaf, unblemished from the sun or chemicals. Rachael fingered the laser cutter. No beam came from it. She gently tapped it a few times on the side of her arm and tried again. Still nothing. “Let me try yours,” she said.

  Ami handed hers over. It also did not work.

  “Doesn’t anything want to work today?” Rachael sighed and broke the leaf off and gently placed it in the container. “First Eric’s cruiser, then his communication units, followed by the sampler, and now the laser cutters.”

  “More than a coincidence?” Ami asked.

  Rachael looked back. The others were also breaking of leafs and collectin
g by hand. Slowly she said, “If I tell you what I think, you’ll call me mad.”

  “As in bonkers or wacko or teetering on the edge?”

  Rachael nodded.

  “I’ve known you a long time, Rach, and I can tell you straight that you are a few cans short of a six pack.” Ami smiled, showing it was a joke. The timing was bad, and she could tell Rachael wasn’t amused. But Ami was scared as they all were and her way of dealing with fear or worry was by making a joke of it all. “Sorry,” she said. “Well, tell me what this place is?”

  “What this place is?” Rachael repeated. She seemed to give it some thought, then, “What this place is would be the wrong question. Try when this place is?”

  “Huh?”

  “Call everyone together. We can do an Internet meeting so Eric can read what I say.”

  Ami nodded and rushed off. Rachael watched her go. She didn’t want to give the others her opinion. Not because they might think she had gone over the edge but because they might agree with her. All the signs were there. One plus one equals two, she thought, and went to meet the group.

  They were all watching her. She walked slowly on purpose, trying to read their faces, but couldn’t work out what any on them were saying.

  “Nothing works,” said Michael, walking forward to meet her.

  “I know,” Rachael replied calmly. There was a fake smile on her face and she hoped the others wouldn’t notice.

  “Why is nothing working?” Penny asked when Rachael reached the group. “We can’t take precise tests if we have to collect by hand and take it to the lab.”

  Josh said, “Everything tested fine before we left.”

  Michael added, “It was the stupid driving of the genius here.” He pointed at Eric, who pointed at himself and shrugged. “If you hadn’t landed so hard or driven so hard in Zone Three, everything would be fine.

  Rachael held up her hand. The bickering stopped before it got out of control. In a way, Rachael was glad Eric couldn’t hear or speak at the moment. Eric and Michael had come to blows once. It had been over her leadership abilities. She pushed the memory away.

  “Does anyone have an idea why nothing is working?”

  Eric raised his hand.

  “Oh, sorry,” Rachael said. She tapped her visor. “We need to do net meeting with voice/type command.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, Michael, Eric’s communication units don’t work.”

  Penny turned to face Eric. “Is that true?”

  “He can’t hear you,” Michael spat.

  Rachael shook her head. Michael was going to be a problem.

  “I have a better idea,” she said.

  She activated her visor and typed a message to Eric: I’m going to show everyone what I think is happening. But I wonder if you are thinking the same as I am.

  Eric typed his reply: I’m as open minded as you, Rachael.

  Rachael typed: I’m going to take a walk along that path and I want everyone to come with me. Michael will be a problem, I think. Can you walk behind him, and I mean, close behind?

  Eric gave Rachael the thumbs up sign. She nodded with a smile and deactivated her visor.

  To the group, she said, “I think I know what’s happened. But it’s best for me to just show you. Let’s go.”

  “Where?” Michael protested.

  Rachael pointed at the dirt path.

  “More exploring?” Josh said. “I think I’ll just go back to the car.”

  “Aren’t you curious?”

  “No, Ami, I’m not. I don’t think we should be here. Those guards must have made a mistake letting us through. This is obviously some kind of government experiment.”

  “Yeah, and we’re the test subjects,” Michael added.

  Rachael ignored their comments. One thing she always believed in was that the leader must always take the lead. To charge ahead with his or her thoughts and not worry about the time wasting comments of two team members. She knew they’d follow her, they always had.

  These two guys liked to complain and bicker until their brains could accept. They couldn’t think outside the box, so Rachael had to show them. She had to show the outside of the box.

  She walked passed a light brown castle, a set of five swings and a purple elephant. For the first time, she noticed a lot of writing of various colors. She remembered reading somewhere about these types of markings. They had once been called ‘tagging’ but after the Reynox attack, new markings had appeared and they were called warnings. She wondered which type of marking this was. Reynox warning or tagging?

  Rachael stopped at the start of the dirt path. Butterflies flapped about in her stomach. She was nervous. And if right, she was about to see history, first hand.

  Chapter Ten

  It started with a house on the left side of the road followed shortly later by a few more of the same look and style. Something called a supermarket caught their interest, but they did not enter.

  Rachael checked her visor for the time but her site wouldn’t display, so she checked the local and oldest web site she knew of, but this also wouldn’t display. The visor was working perfectly, like she knew it would, but the sites she wanted were unavailable.

  Ahead of them was a sign. The road led off a short distance then disappeared around a corner.

  The sign read: Opera Sands 1 km.

  “I think the professor’s directions were wrong again,” Penny said, breaking the silence.

  “It doesn’t explain why nothing’s working,” Michael said flatly voice.

  Ami said, “Yes it does.”

  “Then explain, know-it-all.”

  “Michael,” Rachael warned.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Ami said. “This is the past. We’re walking in history.”

  “Then tell me please.” Michael spread his arms wide and turned in a small circle. Vehemently he said, “Tell me how we got into the past and why we’re here and why nothing works. Huh? Can you do that?”

  “We can’t bring the future into the past, only vice versa.” Ami walked in a small circle as she spoke. She brushed her hair back with her hands. “I don’t know how we got here. And I don’t think there is a why.”

  “One out of three?”

  “Do you have a better explanation, Michael?”

  Michael was silent. He shook his head.

  To Rachael, Josh asked, “How did you send mail to Eric before?”

  “The government started a net service similar to a fax service in the nineteen fifties. I don’t know how it came to be a public domain in the nineteen nineties but it did, so email net meetings are possible. I doubt if I could send an e-mail from my account but net meetings are live.”

  “And,” Penny added, “all you need is a connection to net meet.”

  Michael and Josh activated their net visors at the same time. They looked for site after site but all pages came up unavailable. They deactivated the visors.

  “What do we do now, Rachael?”

  “Explore,” she answered with a hint of excitement creeping in her voice.

  Eric tapped his visor. Everyone saw and accessed the net.

  Eric typed: I have two questions, Rachael.

  Yes?

  Number one is the most important: how do we get back?

  Good question, Rachael answered. I guess we think about that a little later. It could be as easy as getting in the cruiser and driving away.

  Josh typed: But the cruiser doesn’t work.

  It just stalled, Eric replied. And question number two is, where are all the people?

  This question caused everyone to look more closely at the surroundings. They were in what might be called ‘suburbs’, but everything was deathly silent. There were no birds singing, no dogs barking, and no people. The air itself seemed void of action. All was still.

  This isn’t really the past, is it? Rachael typed.

  Eric answered, Well maybe it is. I’d say we’re between seconds. We could look, touch and take. All we could
see would be inanimate objects or people.

  You mean dead people? Penny typed.

  Eric nodded but Penny didn’t see. She was concentrating on the screen. Rachael typed a yes answer in Eric’s place.

  “I want to go back to the car,” Penny said.

  “Why?” Josh asked.

  “I don’t want to see any dead people or animals.”

  “Your major is digging up bones and exploring dead times, yet you’re afraid of dead people?”

  Penny looked at the ground. “I hate to see rotting flesh peeling off bones. It gives me the creeps.”

  Josh laughed. “Dead people won’t talk to you and can’t hurt you, because they are dead.”

  Michael was quick to add, “Except ghosts hiding under your bed and in your closet.”

  Rachael shook her head. She put her arm around Penny and said, “I doubt we’ll find any dead bodies and ghosts don’t exist.”

  “They do exist if you believe.”

  “Ami,” Rachael said with a smile, “you’re not helping.”

  “Sorry.” Ami blushed at her error.

  Michael said, “Seriously, I don’t think we will see anything except buildings and nature. All of this we’ve seen in holo-books.”

  “I’d like to see the famed Opera Sands. It’s said that the Reynox made their first appearance there, but gravity pushed them away.”

  “Damn. I think we should head back this instant,” Michael said. His face had gone a shade greyer. “What if this place was made by them?”

  “Jesus, Rachael, what if he’s right?” Ami was suddenly tense. “They got my mother.” She looked at the ground and stepped away from the group. “I’m half of them.”

  Rachael tenderly placed a hand on each side of Ami’s face and lifted it until they were eye to eye. “Darling, you’re not one of them. You barely look like one of them and you don’t think like them, do you?”

  Ami shook her head.

  This was the first time Rachael had seen Ami visibly shaken by mention of the Cyclops. It worried her. Ami was meant to be the stronger of them, able to take everything and brush it off. Comments directed at her due to her difference were always met with a smile and a wave. But this was apparently too much for Ami to handle in one hit. She could kill Josh for speaking without thinking.