The Second Rising

by Kevin Douglas

  “Beats me. There’s nothing on this wall over here.”

  Leo pondered about what trick his father may have used to gain access. The hum was louder, and he could feel the vibrations just standing close to the wall. Thoughts of Halaby flooded back to him. His gut told him the feeling he had here was linked.

  “Leo maybe it’s just backup power or something, maybe there’s nothing here after all.”

  “No, something’s here. It wants me to find it.” Leo squared himself to the wall and stood firm then confidently spoke, “Patrick Krueger.”

  Sarafina jumped and Leo flinched as a loud boom shook the floor, followed by loud clicks and clanks starting near the ceiling and cascading downward. It sounded like something was being unlocked but nothing had opened yet. When the noises reached the floor, a final click was followed by a low thud as a large section of the wall dropped down six inches and swung inward.

  The space was small and narrow; the first few steps of a wooden staircase were visible. Leo was filled with nervous anticipation. He wondered if he would learn about his father or have more unanswered questions. Leo looked over to see Sarafina’s face in a frozen state of surprise and amazement.

  She looked to Leo, “No way! Oh my God Leo, what do you think is in there?”

  “Let’s find out. He didn’t point me here for nothing.”

  As Leo’s feet crossed the threshold, he felt a pang of electricity. His hair stood on end, and he had a strange feeling of deep connection. Before he understood what this vibrant feeling was, he called out in excitement. “Dad! Where are you?”

  A man’s voice deep inside the home called out, echoing through the wooden staircase. “Leonard, welcome. I have waited for the day you would come. I have so much to tell you. Come up. Quickly now!”

  Before the man had finished speaking the rattle of Leo’s feet had mixed with the echoing voice as he sprinted up the steps.

  Shock filled Leo’s emotions. Excitedly, he called back. “Dad? Oh my God, you’re alive! I knew it.” Near the top of the stairs he called to Sara, “Sara come up! It’s my father!”

  Leo barreled on and burst through the door at the top of the steps, into a large room filled with instruments, devices, and computer screens, one of which had his father’s face on it. Leo searched the room frantically, seeking a hug from his long-lost dad. The space felt empty, unused, dormant. Leo yelled once more, “Dad! Where are You?” Leo emotions deflated as he finished his words.

  Leo stared at the large screen in front of him and heard his father’s voice once again, following the video on screen of his father’s face. The voice was a prerecorded message. It wasn’t his father.

  All his emotions collapsed, his head sinking, and tears formed at the corners of his eyes. He had felt a presence when entering the home, but this was all that was left of his father here, pixels of light on a screen, recorded messages from many years past.

  Sarafina’s shuffling feet were heard ascending the stairway, speaking to Leo as she passed through the doorway, “Leo I’m so happy for you…Wait, where is he?”

  As she finished her words, she turned and looked at Leo, knowing right away his father wasn’t here after all. Her last words hung in the air, she wasn’t sure of what to say next. Her words mirrored his feelings. Where is he? The words stung Leo’s mounting disappointment.

  “I’m sorry Leo.”

  “It’s not your fault Sara.” He wiped away his tears. “There’s plenty to learn here. My father being alive was always a hopeless dream. Let’s find out what he wanted to tell me so desperately.”

  Leo finally refocused on his father’s words coming through the speakers. “If you’re here Leo, you’ve been to Halaby, retrieved my memory card, and just like I knew you would, found my clue to come here. Even so I have to be sure, to know it’s really you. Please place your eyes in front of the scanner and your palms down flat on the touch pad.”

  The verification equipment reminded him of devices used at the Sullivan mansion. A solid black pad lay on the table and a set of cushioned cups above for his retinal scan. He obeyed and used them without hesitation. “Ouch!” Leo felt a small prick on his finger tip, and a drop of blood sat glistening on the pad. He watched the computer analyze his retinal scan live on the screen, and then he turned his attention to the pad as the crimson drop was sucked into the tiny opening in the device from where the needle had come. Pairs of DNA were matched on screen and a long ladder formed in a helix pattern. The computer finished, and the screen went black, followed by a loud ding.

  “Congratulations you’re, you. Welcome Leo,” came from the computer, and once again his father’s face filled the frame.

  “We don’t have a lot of time. The Sullivan’s will pick up activity at this location and will know I’m giving you the information I am about to tell you – information they don’t want you to know. No doubt there were many agents here after my disappearance, only interested in finding a key to unlock everything. I kept it well hidden here. I’m sure it frustrated them. They were never able to find it. It’s stupid they thought it would be so easy. They will come to destroy this place, and they will come for you. They’re not the only ones you need to worry about. My former employer is very invested in Mr. Sullivan’s research and development. Your knowledge, intelligence, and lineage are what they want and need. Your DNA is one important piece of a puzzle I have created for them. The key to restoring their book and unlocking the contraption responsible for the Sullivan’s presence here. Let me stop wasting precious time and give you the answers you need and want.”

  Leo took a seat in an office chair, leaned back, and focused. His DNA twirled on the screen and was replaced with an animation of his father. Leo wondered how much time he had before the Sullivan’s found them both. He brushed this worries aside.

  His father had set up all these clues and security to tell him something important. Hopefully, these answers would explain the Sullivan’s obsession with him and his father. Sarafina took a seat next to Leo and grabbed his hand, giving him a smile.

  His father voice was once again heard through the speakers, “For starters, I am most definitely not dead, however, I am not alive either, at least not in your present day. I pray there may be a day when I can figure out how to make it back you Leo.”

  What did that mean? My father’s alive? He looked to Sarafina with shock and confusion as she squeezed his hand, comforting him.

  “The Sullivan’s, as you know, aren’t from your present day. They are a scourge and have come from a time in the future when their cause was near an end. The Sullivan’s saw their empire dwindle and fade as piles of their metal imitations littered the city’s roadways. They were no longer able to instill fear. With Mr. Sullivan’s revolt no longer alive, he played both sides and made one last desperate push. It failed. Just when it looked as though humanity had won the fight, an unlikely ally revealed to Mr. Sullivan a device hidden in secrecy for decades, a large metal cylindrical contraption. It was an elevator that seemed ordinary but that had profound capabilities. The unlikely ally made Mr. Sullivan an offer, power in exchange for details and the GPS location to this game-changing device.”

  The screen flickered and the lights in the room dimmed out, leaving only the glow of the workstation in front of them. Had the Sullivan’s already found them? Fear and panic rose within Leo, mixed with his frustration that once again he would be denied answers.

  Leo turned to Sarafina, pleading, “Damnit I need to know more, this only raises more questions. My father said that this cylinder is a conduit for time travel. How is this even possible?” said Leo.

  “I…I don’t know. I’m as lost as you are. Your father’s not dead though Leo, that’s awesome. We have to find him.”

  Leo rose from his chair and was startled by the large screen flashing back to life and the lights popping on. Leo, unsure of what was going on, paused to see what would happen next. As if on cue his father reappeared on screen and the animation began to speak once again
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  “We are on auxiliary power now. The Sullivan’s are aware of my awakening. They only cut power for now, but they will send scouts. We don’t have much time Leo. Let me finish my explanation on what makes this all possible. If there is any possibility of my returning to you, it will have to be initiated by you, in your present day. You need to know how it works.”

  With his father’s waring of scouts Leo wasn’t sure if he wanted to sit, but Sarafina pulled his hand down, coaxing him to relax for now.

  “The elevator is only the conduit to changing one’s point in time. You may have been lucky enough to see it in the maze at Halaby, but much must be done far below the ground at Halaby before the elevator, or as the Sullivan’s call it, The Intervallum, is able to transport you. Just getting inside Halaby and setting this up without his knowing would take a miracle. But wait! It gets worse! The Intervallum is only operable at certain times of celestial activity. The Pentagon in the year 2175 had discovered dark matter here on earth. Fine-grained slivers deep within the core of the planet running like streams. These dense particles shoot through our planet during cosmic activity and form into ultra-dense hairs of dark matter by Earth’s gravitational pull. While these rivers remain deep within earth, they don’t hold the key alone to a time shift; it was intense solar activity, large solar bursts, that shot the dark matter through our planet. During which time one can use The Intervallum to shift time. The capsule is sent several thousand feet down into the earth and time spent while in the stream determines the size of the time shift. One-minute equals ten years. My target is one minute. Travel any further than 30 years, and this pod doesn’t exist yet, leaving you stranded. I have traveled back to erase the set of events 10 years ago that took me from you son. I need to try to set things straight. You only get one shot for retrieval, one shot to get me back to your year 2018. The coordinate’s time and telemetry should still be input within the pod, so that part you don’t have to worry about.”

  Leo was on the edge of his seat, glued to his father’s every word, absorbing every tidbit of information. He had forgot that Sarafina was still there until she loosened her grip on his hand for a moment to adjust her dress, when a loud thud was felt through the structure, followed by a second vibration, then silence. Leo’s attention turned to the unknown vibration and dust falling from the rafters down on the pristine workspace.

  He looked to Sarafina to see if she had felt the thud too, her face was filled with worry, but soon her gaze returned to the large video screen and Patrick’s instructions. Leo focused on his father’s message once again.

  “Leo I’m telling you all this because no one else will. I realize you may never get the opportunity to find me, and that’s okay. Keep this information close, don’t trust anyone, especially those who seek to know more about what I have told you here today. I confided in my superior but found out the hard way that power corrupts even your strongest friend. Lastly, you are nearing a window of solar activity, November 2nd, 2018. This will be your chance either to find me or make your own choice. The Sullivan’s are aware of this date and will be on edge, protecting The Intervallum from someone trying to change their plans. If my retrieval isn’t possible and I haven’t prevented the Sullivan’s second rising to power, the world’s only hope may be you going back to a time, to a time when The Intervallum didn’t exist, then making sure it’s never created.”

  The large screen began to flicker again, and loud scampering could be heard above them. Lighting in the room dimmed out, backup power began humming, restoring some lights and the computer system. Leo rose from his seat tipping over the chair and let go of Sarafiana’s hand. Something was in the house. The noises sounded like claws tearing into wood, frantically searching back and forth. Loud crashes were followed by booms above as furniture was turned over.

  “Leo, this is my last word to you, and this is important. When you return to Halaby you will need to follow these instructions precisely, or The Intervallum will be damaged ”

  Loud, rapid hollow footfalls echoed on the nearby basement stairs, sounding as if someone had fallen down them. The scratching still continued overhead, as Leo was glued to his father’s important message, unable completely to ignore the intruders hunting for him. Leo paced as he waited in a frantic state for his father’s message to return. If he wasn’t able to hear his instructions for Intervallum, it would be impossible to bring his father back, or if the time came, send himself back.

  “Leo we can’t stay much longer, whoever or whatever is in the house will find us. How are we going to escape? We came through that hidden entrance in the basement. There’s no way out.

  “I don’t know. Damn it! I need to finish listening to my father’s instructions. How did they get here so quickly?”

  Audio returned from his father’s message, and the screen remained black, “Before you enter in those lines of code, you will have to be sure all ”

  The audio stopped again and from the basement came loud noises, reverberating up the stairwell to his father’s lab. Items were being tossed and knocked over, then sounds of screeching metal, and a series of bangs that shook the walls.

  Leo began to lose hope that the message would finish playing. The intruder’s downstairs were closing in on their location too quickly. Not knowing the final instructions for Intervallum made Leo want to break down and cry. His father may be lost forever now.

  He didn’t have time to pout now, he needed to find an escape, but he didn’t know if there was one down here. A huge boom rattled the home and nearly knocked Leo and Sarafina down, followed by a piercing metallic scream.

  All the lights in the room plunged into darkness, and his father’s lab went dark. They regained their footing and took their hands off their ears. The intruder in the basement must have torn through the main electrical conduit killing the entire home’s power. The room was silent, as well as the rest of the home until Leo heard the thing hunting them upstairs bolt to the stairwell and descend the stairs. Leo snapped out of the shock from the blast and urgently spoke to Sarafina.

  “Search every wall! Look for a door or a way out! We need to leave now or that thing will take us back to the Sullivan’s, or worse, execute us right here. We know too much for them to just monitor us and let us be.”

  They went to opposite walls and frantically felt over every surface for a way out. The thing in the basement became even more aggressive, scratching and clawing on every surface, finally reaching the faux wall that led to the lab. Hollow tapping came from the bottom of the stairs. It now knew where they were.

  “Hurry, it’s going to tear its way in here any minute!” shouted Sarafina.

  They patted down the walls, walking at a quick pace, circling the room, finally bumping into each other on the other side. Terror shone on Sarafina’s face. Nervous, Leo stared into her eyes…no comforting words coming to mind.

  “Oh my God, there’s no way out!” said Sarafina. “What are we going to do?”

  Leo remained quiet, thinking, while the sound of tearing wood filled the space, the beast chipping away at the door. The beast was almost inside now.

  “Damnit. Dad, we need a way out,” he muttered.

  Leo felt paralyzed, and for the first time unsure of his fate. Thirty seconds from now they would meet what was tearing at the door and learn its intentions. Amongst the chaos Leo and Sarafina heard a click, like that of a latch or door being disengaged.

  They turned to each other, then to the surrounding area to find the source. Maybe you have something up your sleeve after all, Dad. Leo searched the computer area and stumbled as his foot caught the lip of a small hatch underneath the desk in the floor. He threw open the metal hatch, the rungs of a ladder barely visible in the dim light. He called to Sarafina and waved her over.

  “Let’s go! My dad showed me a way…I found a way out.”

  Hope now covered Sarafina’s face. She strode over, ducked down onto all fours under the desk, and sat, her legs dangling into the darkness of the hole.r />
  “Where does this go? How do we know it leads out?”

  “I don’t. Just go! What other option do we have?”

  Just as Leo finished speaking, a loud crash of splintering pounded the room, followed by a banshee-like screech. The thing had broken through. The animal regained its footing, then sprinted up the steps toward them.

  Sarafina was down the ladder in a flash, into the darkness below that consumed her. Leo followed closely behind. Before he ducked below, he stopped to view his father’s special lab one last time.

  It was a dream come true to find this place. He only wished he and his father could have shared this space together. There was so much he could have learned from his father in this place. Growing up, he never knew the space existed. His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a large beast-like creature eclipsing the steps.

  It stood, scanning the room and honed onto his location as Leo crawled into the dark opening and disappeared. His last view was of the beast sprinting toward him, its jaws open, claws out. Several explosions rattled the room as a self-destruct sequence for the lab initiated. Flames burst out all over the lab before Leo slammed the metal latch down with a boom, sealing the beast out, and them in. He descended the small ladder and stood in silence.

  Things felt different. It felt like the strange powerful connection with the home was fading, dying. It felt empty once again. His father now felt so far away. He set aside his feelings and felt around blindly in complete darkness, trying to identify his surroundings.

  “Sara, where are you?”

  Just as Sarafina began to speak, Leo’s finger tips grazed her shoulders. He followed them down to her hands.

  “Now what? Hopefully this leads somewhere,” said Sara.

  Faint rows of red safety lights blinked on down a long corridor, disappearing to the left.

  “If my dad put this escape tunnel down here it has to lead somewhere.”

  Pounding above vibrated the hatch through which they had descended, the beast clawing and jumping, frantically trying to get in. Deafening metallic screeches of frustration filled the tunnel, the beast above unable to pry the door open.