God Stones: Books 1 - 3

by Otto Schafer

  “I love you, father,” James said.

  Phillip nodded then looked to the door, once more adjusting his grip on the hilt of his sword.

  James’s eyes pooled as he grabbed Garrett by the arm and pulled. “Let’s go! What the hell are you waiting for?”

  Garrett’s trance broke with James’s tug, and he rushed into the void just as the door to the room ripped outward from its hinges as if sucked into a tornado.

  Once inside the void they made it about a dozen steps when James stopped and turned back.

  “What is it? You heard Dad. You can’t go back, James,” Garrett said uneasily.

  “I’m not going back,” James said as he reached up and pulled a lever. The small tunnel they had entered was narrow, and they had to stay in a half squat to avoid hitting their heads. Once inside it opened much wider, but the ceiling stayed low. The wide area lasted only a short distance before they crossed back into a narrow tunnel.

  What Garrett hadn’t known – couldn’t have known – was that they had crossed under his concrete porch and were now standing just on the other side, under Fourth Street.

  The lever released whatever cleverly created system was in place to hold up that thick slab of concrete porch. In a thundering instant, the whole porch and probably the roof above came crashing down into the tunnel. The ground beneath Garrett’s feet shook as the tunnel was sealed by the falling concrete slab.

  “Jesus Christ, James, how is Dad going to get out?” Garrett asked.

  “He isn’t getting out, Garrett,” James said.

  “What? but he’ll… Apep—”

  “What he’ll do is give us time – time we desperately need. Now move,” he said, flicking his Zippo to life.

  Up ahead, Lenny and Elaine waited where the narrow tunnel turned.

  Apep stepped easily through the doorway to a waiting Phillip. Rather than acknowledging him and the sword he held out with ill intent, his attention fell beyond the man, to the hole in the wall. The hole now sealed with concrete.

  “Hello, Phillip. I see you’re trying to be clever,” Apep said.

  Phillip stood fixed, looking at Apep with a combination of disgust and hate.

  “You know you’re only delaying the inevitable, don’t you? And because you force me to play this petty game – I will make you suffer. Just like I made your friend, Master Brockridge, suffer.”

  Phillip’s mouth twitched.

  It was a small thing, but Apep noticed and beneath his hood, he smiled. “Oh yes, he suffered horribly,” Apep said, unclasping his duster. “This Master Brockridge of yours was a kwan jang nim, was he not? A supposed grand master, and yet, what I find amusing is that he died so easily. Just like you will. Please,” Apep said in a mock plea as he pressed his gloved palms together in the gesture of a beggar. “Please understand, Phillip, I don’t say this as a threat. It is but a simple truth.” His hands separated, palms out, showing he had nothing to hide. He laughed softly and reached into the duster, drawing from it the blood-stained sword he had plunged through Mr. Brockridge.

  Now Phillip’s jaw clenched, his flexing cheek muscles the only sign of the rage he fought to contain. He began to slowly move, circling Apep with the tip of his sword pointing at the man’s throat.

  “You were Turek’s best swordsman? Better even than your Mr. B. You were his number one,” Apep said, pointing a bony finger. “I wonder though, were you a better swordsman than Turek himself? I only ask because I killed him so easily.” Apep raised his own sword above his head.

  Phillip leaned back, centering his weight perfectly in his abdomen, choosing the stance specifically to hide whether he intended to defend or attack. Then, summoning strength and flexibility that hadn’t been his for years, Phillip launched his attack.

  Humans were so predictable. Even ancient ones.

  8

  Meet the Neighbors

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  They reached the end of the tunnel and faced another brick-and-mortar wall. “James, where are we? We can’t have gone very far,” Garrett asked, his heart still pounding violently, threatening to break out of his chest.

  “We haven’t, we’re at Glen’s.”

  “What? Glen’s basement?”

  “Yep.”

  Garrett and Lenny shared a confused look.

  “Wait a minute, you’re telling me even our neighbor is a Keeper of the Light?” Garrett asked in disbelief.

  James frowned. “Glen? Not hardly. We wouldn’t take a wife beater into the Keepers. He doesn’t even know he’s about to be invaded.” He handed Garrett his Zippo. “Now, all of you stay behind me and let me go in first.”

  James stepped back. Then, stepping forward, he gave the brick wall a powerful kick. The mortar cracked, but the bricks held.

  “Um, guys, have you ever been in Glen’s basement? Because if not there’s… um… something you should know before we go in there,” Lenny said, stone-faced serious.

  Garrett had not been in Glen’s basement, but he already knew Lenny’s big secret and nodded in agreement.

  “It happened last summer,” Lenny began. “Glen’s son, Tyler, had been begging me to play catch with him. I kinda felt sorry for the little guy and figured what the heck, I’ve got a few minutes, so I’ll play with the kid for a bit and get him off my back. The problem with Tyler is he’s the kind of kid that never stops talking – to the point it’s annoying. Anyway, we’re playing catch and he’s babbling on and on. I’m only half listening when suddenly he mentions his dad grows flowers in the basement.” Lenny paused, looking nervously back down the dark tunnel.

  James narrowed his eyes at the wall, repositioning his stance for another kick. He stepped forward and kicked again. The cracks in the mortar extended further, but still the wall held.

  “I thought, flowers in the basement? That makes no sense. So, I start asking him more questions. He really wanted me to stay and play catch, so he had no problem telling me all about his dad’s flowers. He says the flowers were growing in large metal tubs under some special lights. Tyler said they were all green and didn’t have any flowers on top yet, but he was sure they would soon.”

  Elaine frowned.

  “I know, right? I asked if I could see the flowers, but Tyler said he would get in big trouble if he got caught showing anyone. But once I agreed to play catch for a while longer Tyler agreed to sneak me into the basement. The basement was big and empty except for these big metal horse troughs. They were lined up in rows under fluorescent lighting. But I knew before reaching the bottom of the stairs, the flowers were definitely pot plants,” Lenny said.

  “Because people don’t usually grow flowers in the basement?” James asked, rearing back to give the wall another kick before launching his foot with a loud thwack. This time a large section of the wall flexed outward.

  “No, because they stunk so bad,” Lenny said, twisting up his face. “The plants were huge and bushy, with large buds. I didn’t stay but a second before I freaked out and ran back up the stairs – and straight into Glen. Literally – I ran right into him, practically knocking him off his feet. He started yelling, ‘What the hell were you doing? Did you go down there!’ I bolted out the back door and never looked back. It scared the crap out of me. For weeks I thought the guy was going to come kill me in my sleep!”

  “Lenny, why didn’t you tell someone?” Elaine asked.

  “No way, I was too sca—”

  Thwack! James’s next kick cut Lenny off. A shaft of light from the other side of the wall funneled through as the first brick fell away, thudding across the floor. Garrett flipped James’s Zippo shut and handed it back to his brother.

  James reared back and gave the wall another kick and then another. Artificial lighting poured through the small opening, along with a faint smell of marijuana. Making no effort at stealth, James began rapidly kicking free brick after brick around the newly created hole. On the other side, bricks clattered noisi
ly to the basement floor. A few moments later he was able to step through the hole into the bright basement light. “Wait here,” he said, holding up a hand.

  Garrett peered through the jagged hole to find the basement was just as Lenny described, but in place of large pot plants there were small ones, only a few inches tall. That would explain why the overpowering smell of weed he expected to encounter was only a faint odor now.

  Being very still, James waited just inside, holding up a hand. From above came a hurried shuffle of footsteps, followed by a rummaging sound. A moment later the basement door burst open.

  A voice shouted down the stairs. “Whoever’s in my goddamned basement better believe I’m armed, and I will shoot you on sight!” The angry man’s threat was followed by the sound of a pump-action shotgun racking a shell.

  Garrett recognized the voice. It was Glen.

  James reached toward his waistline, feeling for something that wasn’t there. When he couldn’t find it, he just paused, felt around for a second longer, then continued forward. By the time Glen made it to the last step, James was there blocking his path.

  The lights flickered off, then back on.

  “James?” Glen said in surprise. “What are you doing in my basement?” Glen craned to see around James. “Who’s with you back there? What the…” he started then gasped. His forehead creased into deep lines, and his eyes widened at the sight of the hole in his basement wall. “You… you were trying to steal my crop! My god, you tunneled here from… from where? Your house? To steal my crop! You tunneled here from your house!”

  “Just stay calm, Glen. We aren’t here to steal anything. We are just passing through.”

  “You aren’t passing through shit until you tell me what all this is about!” Glen shouted, leveling the shotgun at James’s face.

  “Please, Glen. You need to let us pass.”

  “I don’t know what this is, but I know this – I never liked you Tureks. Seems to me that mother of yours can’t mind her own business. If she ain’t busy putting ideas in my Jennifer’s head about leaving, she’s calling the cops and trying to get my Jennifer to press charges. The last time they showed up I thought sure they were going to come with a warrant, and the last thing I need is cops snooping around here.” He pushed the gun forward toward James’s face. “And I ask you this, what man ain’t got the god-given right to discipline his own wife when she gets out of line?”

  “Well, Glen, when your Jennifer shows up on our porch with a bloody lip and a black eye, the cops are going to get called. Now please, do the smart thing here and let us pass. We won’t tell anyone about your little grow operation.” James tried; his hands were still held out, palms open.

  Garrett watched wide-eyed from the cover of the tunnel. “Holy shit, he has a shotgun pointed right at James’s face! What do we do?” he asked, looking to his mother for help.

  “You shut up and wait, like your brother said!” she said in a lowered tone as she moved carefully forward to the mouth of the tunnel.

  Garrett blinked in stunned disbelief. She had never told him to shut up. Who were these people? He glanced to Lenny, hoping to catch his eye, but Lenny’s attention was on James and Glen, who was becoming more agitated. The barrel of the gun was practically pressed to James’s nose. It was close – too close.

  James held up his hands. “Last chance, Glen, I want you to calm—” He stopped short when Glen’s eyes flicked to Elaine as she slowly eased through the hole in the wall behind James. James used the distraction to grab the barrel of the shotgun with his left hand, then Glen’s trigger finger with his right.

  Garrett gasped.

  The power went out and the lights flicked off again.

  When they came back on, James yanked back on Glen’s trigger finger until it snapped.

  Glen wailed in pain, instantly letting go of the gun.

  James flipped the gun around and struck Glen on the bridge of the nose, eliciting an immediate spray of blood from the neighbor’s nostrils.

  Glen let out a high-pitched shriek as he dropped to his knees. His eyelids fluttered, but somehow he stayed conscious.

  Upstairs they heard more shuffling, rummaging through drawers, then a woman’s voice. “Glen! My god! What’s going on, Glen!” she screamed.

  The lights continued to flicker in and out, the power unsure whether to stay on or off. Garrett felt disoriented, like he was inside the Wacky Shack fun house at the Menard County Fair – only the smell of barf was replaced with the smell of weed and coppery blood.

  The power issue didn’t slow Glen’s wife, Jennifer, as she came down the stairs with utter disregard for her own safety. Jennifer was a slight woman, but she was wiry and brandishing a butcher knife. When she stepped off the last step, her eyes darted to Glen.

  Glen was on the floor on his hands and knees, bleeding profusely from his nose. Despite his condition, he was making a good effort to get to his feet.

  Jennifer’s eyes flicked from Glen to James, and her face screwed up in a fleeting moment of confusion that quickly turned to rage. “What have you done!” Jennifer screamed, lunging at James with the knife.

  He sidestepped, dodging the thrust. The woman didn’t slow and began flailing wildly, slashing at James again and again.

  Glen was back on his feet and pissed. “You broke my nose! You son of a bitch! You broke my nose!” He turned, staggering away from James back toward the wall near the stairs.

  Jennifer continued frantically brandishing the knife back and forth through the air.

  James backpedaled, dodging the wild swings of the blade, occasionally using the shotgun to block a strike he couldn’t avoid. “Jennifer, please? Don’t!”

  From the shadows behind the artificial lighting, Elaine emerged. “Jennifer!”

  Jennifer turned, her face twisted in a combination of surprise and fury, the butcher knife held high. “Elaine!”

  “Jennifer, it’s okay,” Elaine said calmly.

  “They’re trying to rob us!” Glen shouted over his shoulder.

  Jennifer’s head shook side to side in sheer panic. Her eyes darted from Elaine to the hole in her basement wall.

  “No, hon, we’re not.”

  “Don’t you dare listen to her! He broke my nose!” Glen said, lifting a long-handled garden shovel from its hanger.

  Fear clouded Jennifer’s face, but it wasn’t fear of Elaine… it was of Glen. She swung the knife at Elaine’s face.

  Elaine moved with sudden speed, grabbing the wrist of Jennifer’s knife hand, twisting until the knife fell free.

  Jennifer screamed.

  The knife clanked to the floor as Elaine pulled the woman in close and whispered something in her ear, but Garrett couldn’t hear what it was. Next, Elaine yanked Jennifer’s wrist across her body, forcing the smaller woman into a spin until Elaine was suddenly behind her. Elaine wrapped her arm around the woman’s neck from behind then braced it with the other hand, leaned back, and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, Jennifer, but we have to move,” Elaine said, as the woman’s eyes rolled up in her head.

  Jennifer struggled briefly, her bare feet dangling uselessly inches above the floor before she went limp as a noodle.

  Garrett and Lenny’s eyes went wide in disbelief as Elaine eased the woman gently to the concrete floor and rolled her onto her side.

  “Bro, did your mom just put your neighbor in a rear naked choke!?” Lenny said.

  But Garrett’s attention was back on his brother. “Look!” he said, pointing.

  Glen squared up on James, his garden shovel drawn back over his right shoulder like a batter ready at the plate. “You made a big mistake, you son of a bitch!” Glen said, bloody spittle spraying from his mouth.

  James stared unflinching, the shotgun in his right hand, but the way he held the gun told Garrett his brother had no intention of shooting the man. Then, slowly, he switched the shotgun to his left hand and waited.

  The basement lights continued to dance strangely. Garrett knew it was so
mehow the work of the God Stones. He could feel them.

  Glen sucked in a breath, tensed, and cocked the shovel back a few more inches.

  It was the tell James was waiting for. Rather than react to the coming swing with a block or try to dodge it, he did what Glen didn’t expect. James stepped forward, closing the gap completely as he drove a wicked right elbow into the man’s face before the shovel even left his shoulder. Glen dropped to all fours as the shovel slid harmlessly across the basement floor. James wasted no time and stepped forward again, this time booting Glen in the gut.

  Glen rolled onto his back, choking and coughing.

  James struck him in the head again, this time with the butt of the shotgun. Glen didn’t move, but that didn’t stop James from striking him a third time just to be sure.

  Elaine nodded at James approvingly, then swiveled her face back toward Garrett and Lenny. “Let’s move!”

  9

  Giants

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones, Day 1

  Rural Chiapas State, Mexico

  “Sarah, Are you okay?” Gabi asked.

  Sarah held out a hand as she tried to pull in several slow breaths.

  “I think you are hyperventilating. Maybe you should sit down?”

  “No!” she managed, waving Gabi off. “I just… need to… to breathe. God, Gabi! This is life-changing… history-changing!”

  Without warning, she grabbed the young girl with the raven hair and pulled her close, squeezing her in a tight embrace. Too tight. “Sa… rah,” Gabi groaned, laughing. “I can’t… breathe.”

  Sarah loosened her grip and laughed too.

  Footsteps echoed off the stone steps as Gabi’s mother and father, with the rest of the team, made their way down the spiraling staircase.