by Otto Schafer
Garrett rubbed his face. “He saved us back in that temple. We would all be dead if it wasn’t for him.”
“I’m sorry, Garrett, but I don’t believe that either. His interference did nothing to change the prophecy.”
“Yeah, well, you weren’t there, were you? Oh, that’s right, you were busy sending me off to die!” The comment was intended to cut, but James didn’t blink.
“No, I wasn’t, and he shouldn’t have been either. If he wasn’t a Keeper and he wasn’t in alliance with his brother, then how did he know so damn much?”
“You didn’t tell him, Lenny? You didn’t tell him he knew Turek? That after the giants were defeated, he helped capture the elder dragons and imprison them? We’re talking thousands of years back, before Apep was locked away.”
“I told him,” Lenny said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, and all we have is Apep’s brother’s story to go on!”
“Well, that’s good enough for me, James!”
“Well, it isn’t for me!”
The two locked eyes as the tension thickened like cold honey, but there was no sweetness to it.
“Just take me to him, James. Take me or stand aside!” Garrett ordered, holding James’s stare, no longer the little brother who screamed uncle. Not blinking, Garrett could feel as much as see in his peripheral vision that David and Lenny exchanged looks of concern. For a breath, Garrett thought James might actually lunge at him. But instead he tipped his head to the side and spoke.
“Alright, Garrett.” James nodded, the angry red color draining from his face. The tight, serious line of his lips faltered as the corners turned ever so slowly upward – perhaps a twinge of old big brother still stirred inside him. “I will take you to him, and I will be in the room with you. This is nonnegotiable. Follow me.” He bowed at the waist.
Garrett let out a breath as they fell in behind James, walking in silence. They made their way through a maze of corridors; it was like leaving the good part of town and entering the slums. The silence was broken only by the sounds of dripping water and their feet scuffing across the rough surface as the corridor became tighter, damper, and dimmer. They hit a section of tunnel that was holding a couple inches of water, which they were forced to pass through, soaking their feet. It was becoming even more obvious to Garrett that the entire underground— underground what? Bunker? Compound? He wasn’t sure what to call it, but it was massive.
After a few minutes of walking, Lenny cleared his throat. “James, why don’t you explain to Garrett what this place is.”
James nodded sagely. “This underground complex was built long before you were born as a place for the Keepers of the Light and the Light itself” – he motioned back at Garrett with a hooked thumb – “to take refuge when end days came and to prepare for what comes next. We already know from the prophecy the world will go crazy in the coming weeks. Now you only need to flip a light switch to see the evidence. There’s no electricity since the God Stones were united, and it is likely there won’t be. Imagine a massive electromagnetic pulse going off, but instead of taking out electricity in an area it knocks out the entire world – and, worse, it continues to go off. My men…” He paused. “Rather your men, Garrett. Anyway, they report compasses don’t work either – they just spin. As long as the God Stones are loose in the world, the magnetic fields are going to be all jacked up.”
My men, Garrett thought uncomfortably.
James ducked under a low pipe. “Watch your heads,” he said, pointing up. “Over the past ten days our scouts have ventured as far southwest as Springfield and as far north as Havana. In the next day or two I expect scouts to be returning from Peoria and Lincoln, but I expect more of the same.”
“What are they saying?” Garrett asked.
“Disturbing news. Folks in Springfield are under house arrest. The National Guard has been deployed, but without electricity all communication has failed. There is no transportation, hence no commerce. The only food in the city is what they had when the power went out. So it’s no wonder riots have begun. We can assume St. Louis and Chicago are in a dire state, as is the rest of the country and probably the world. It’s only a matter of days before people start killing one another, if they haven’t already. But as bad as this sounds, it’s only the beginning. It’s going to get really nasty when the world begins to burn. Once that starts, people fighting one another will be the least of our concerns.”
Garrett stopped at the mention of the world burning. Although James had not actually said it, Garrett knew what would be coming – what would be burning the world.
“What is it?” James asked, glancing back over his shoulder.
“You’re talking about dragons? I’ve seen the fire in my dreams. I’ve heard their roars. I’ve heard people screaming as they burn, James. I’ve heard it.”
James turned to him and nodded. “Yeah, the dragons will rise again. That was written too.”
“But aren’t there only seven?” David asked. “How can seven dragons burn the world?”
“Six now, after the one Garrett killed,” Lenny reminded them.
“We don’t know, David, but honestly, who knows what they are capable of? I mean, how many dragons have you seen?” James said.
“One more than you, and I can tell you they scare the hell out of me,” David retorted.
“Bro, everything scares the hell out of you,” Lenny said. “But this one time, I’m with you. They scare the hell out of me too.”
“There is something else happening,” James said hesitantly. He stopped and turned to face Garrett. “It’s the trees.”
“The trees?” Garrett asked.
James nodded. “We think they’re moving.”
48
A Friend and Ally
Saturday, April 9 –
God Stones Day 4, six days before Garrett awakes
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Gabi woke to the sound of King Ogliosh speaking in her mind. She blinked her eyes, stretched, and opened the door to the Jeep. She climbed out onto the ledge and stretched again. Sleeping in the Jeep was horribly uncomfortable, but it was better than the stone floor and warmer too. She had told Ogliosh she was hungry, and he’d asked where he could get her food, to which she replied there were rations and water in the Jeep. When Ogliosh disappeared down the mountain she hadn’t expected him to bring the whole Jeep back, but a few moments later he reappeared, dragging the Jeep behind him like a child dragging its favorite doll by the arm.
Gabi looked out across the jungle, but the view was just the same. Two days had passed, and no one had come for her. Her parents were dead. Manuel, María, and Fredy were dead. Where was Sarah? Was Sarah lost in the jungle? What if she got lost running for help?
“I have removed the last of the stones,” King Ogliosh said now. “The inner door is open. Come, I will show you.”
Gabi hastily pulled on her boots and followed King Ogliosh down the corridor. The mountain, she now knew for sure, was no mountain at all but a hidden pyramid – larger than any known pyramid on earth. King Ogliosh had not only told her what it was, he had told her what it was for. He’d said he had come to earth on a mission with six of his people some twelve thousand years ago to teach humans about agriculture, society, and language. The king told amazing stories explaining the pyramids and how they were assembled. He spoke of five cities, the first cities of the world, and explained it was he and his six who saved humanity from a great flood. It was mind-blowing. Even at her age she understood what this meant to humankind. Now humanity would know their true history.
But the king didn’t stop there – he told her of his own world and how his race of people ruled through peace and sharing, how all species worked together to ensure a peaceful society. He explained it was only dragons who caused problems. King Ogliosh told of how the dragons followed him to earth and tried to kill him, using magic against him and finally casting him into a deep sleep to be guarded for all eternity by an evil dragon called Aza
zel. This was her dragon – the dragon who killed her parents.
He promised her before he left this world he would help her kill Azazel. He wouldn’t leave the dragons to wreak hell on earth. After all, he wanted revenge for having been put to sleep and imprisoned for thousands of years. The other giants would be here soon – how many he didn’t say, only that he could feel them coming. Soon the giants would take their vengeance on the dragons, open the gate, and go back home.
Gabi could tell King Ogliosh was sad and in pain. He had been away from his home planet, and many of his friends and family had been killed by the dragons. Her pain was new and fresh, but it was so deep and real and wrong. She felt a bond in their pain. He would help her realize justice for her parents. In return she answered all his questions without hesitation, telling him anything he wanted to know. After all, her parents’ homeschooling had been thorough, and she was able to answer his questions, which were mostly about geography and the location of pyramids. He seemed to know about the pyramids in Mesoamerica and Egypt, but she’d explained that there were supposedly pyramids in Bosnia, China, and even Antarctica, retrieving a map from the Jeep’s glove compartment and showing him the locations. He was also interested in technology and weaponry; she told him about everything from the invention of gunpowder to nuclear weapons, as well as electricity, engines, and space flight.
King Ogliosh explained his race was heavily centered around the movement of celestial bodies. They didn’t have weapons like hers, they didn’t use electricity, or power anything with nuclear power. But despite his world not having the modern advances Gabi’s had, it soon became clear Ogliosh understood mathematics on a level well beyond her own. Ogliosh tried to explain his world was a world of magic and that the laws of the universe work differently where magic is present.
Could there really be magic? As quick as she asked herself the question, she answered it. Yes, of course there could be magic. If there could be dragons, giants, and telepathy why not magic? The best she could understand was that magic took math to a whole different level. Honestly, she didn’t get it… not even a little. Maybe magic was its own type of science or math or whatever.
Finally Ogliosh said, “Our worlds are both governed by mathematical law. That’s why math is one of the first things I taught your people long ago – math is universal. But magic distorts mathematical law, bends it, and in some cases even circumvents it altogether.”
After that she knew she couldn’t understand his math and she decided she didn’t care to. As long as the end result was justice for her parents, she never needed to understand.
Now, finally, Gabi was going into the pyramid to see how it worked – how he would use it to open the gate to his world. And although he hadn’t said it and she hadn’t asked, something told her she could choose to go with him and leave this horrible place behind. This place that had nothing left for her. The more time she spent with Ogliosh, her giant, her friend, the more she didn’t want him to go without her. She walked quickly down the long corridor, dodging smaller rocks as she took five or six steps to the king’s one lumbering stride.
Before reaching the end of the corridor, Ogliosh stopped abruptly.
“What’s wrong?” Gabi asked.
“We have a guest, Gabi.”
“The other giants?” she asked.
“No, something else.”
49
Cooperate or Die!
Saturday, April 9 – God Stones Day 4
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Breanne’s palms pressed into the dry earth as she retched. Her head spun wildly, as if she had been turned in circles repeatedly, and she wasn’t sure if she was on the ground or falling off it. Her stomach twisted and she retched again, but nothing came up. The horrible spinning had happened eight times, she thought. Eight times? Nine times? She wasn’t sure, but each time Apep spoke the strange words, unconsciousness had followed, for how long she couldn’t say. She was sure days had gone by, and she hadn’t eaten anything. She blinked at the dry ground cast in the shadow of her tormentor, the cloaked man looming over her. No, not a man – a murderer.
“You make this hard, Breanne. You make this hard, and my patience is growing thin. We can keep doing this until you die, or you can simply point toward the location of your father’s dig site. Given time, I will find it anyway.”
She swiveled her head up to look upon Apep’s face, but she didn’t meet his eyes. He looked so different in the sun. His sharp ears were almost translucent, an opaque blue-grey, like discolored rice paper. His facial features were sharp too; his skin there was a darker, unblemished blue-grey. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and it was here she focused. There was something mortal about the fact he was sweating. If he could sweat, he could die. And she wanted nothing more in this world than to kill him.
Apep shook a bottle of water at her. “Drink, Breanne.”
She took the bottle with a shaky hand and tipped it back, gulping the water down. When the bottle was empty, she tossed it to the ground and wiped her mouth across her sleeve. “You’re an evil bastard! I’m not helping you!”
“That’s what you think? I am evil. Is that it? You have no idea what has been taken from me. You have no idea what your kind has done to me. No idea what my own people – my own family – have done. No, but you aren’t capable of comprehending time in any meaningful way, so how could you understand my suffering? I am righteous in my convictions.”
“You killed my brother! I will never help you!” she choked.
“Then you no longer have value!” Apep shouted as he kicked her in the ribs.
Breanne fell over onto her side, away from him, and groaned.
Apep took a step closer. “What about your father and your other brother – the bigger one, Ed? I can assume, like you, they made it out of the pit?”
She didn’t answer. She pressed her face into the hot, sandy dirt, choking out sobs between gasps.
“Ask yourself this, Breanne. Would the brother you still have alive want you to die? Would the father who still lives want you to die? Or would they want you to cooperate and live?”
She didn’t want to die. She thought of her dad and knew what her death would do to him. Besides, if she died now, she couldn’t kill Apep. And if Breanne Moore was nothing else, she was determined to watch him die.
“I know your father’s site was somewhere in Chiapas. I am growing tired of randomly teleporting. We are just outside Palenque, Breanne, and I know we can’t be that far from the site. I can only teleport to places I have seen before or can see now. I am going to lift you up high above this place. Point me in the direction of the site. If you refuse, or mislead me, we will randomly teleport over and over until it kills you! Do you understand?!” Apep shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and yanking her onto her feet.
Breanne shouted in pain again, but reluctantly she nodded.
“Good,” Apep said.
Then, as the elf began shouting a command in some strange words, the earth fell away from her feet with a whoosh as hot wind blew across her face, forcing her eyes closed. Suddenly she was hovering high above Palenque.
“Now point, Breanne, and remember – the closer you get, the fewer times we will need to do this.”
The sun was high and bright. Far to the east were the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. Breanne looked to the southwest, found the general area she was searching for, and pointed.
“Ah, good!” Apep said.
Her world spun again and this time she woke on top of a mountain, a foot striking her back. Again, her stomach was wrecked, and she tried to vomit but couldn’t. Then she heard his voice.
“I have been waiting for you to wake,” Apep said, as if this was her fault. “You humans are pathetically fragile. We are where you pointed. Now get up and show me where the pyramid is,” he demanded.
She tried to stand but fell backward, her equilibrium completely out of sorts. She felt like she was trying to stand atop a merry-go-round. Her head was pounding har
der than ever, and she wasn’t sure she could or should open her eyes.
Apep grabbed her by the wrist once again and yanked her to her feet. She blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes to focus, but before she could look around, she was off the ground again soaring upward.
“Point!”
She squinted. She knew it had to be right there, right there in the cluster of mountains a little further south. “There.” She pointed, hating what came next.
She woke up some time later. This time Apep didn’t wait for her to get her bearings. As soon as she started to dry heave, he yanked her up into the air again.
“Point me to the…” Apep began to say but trailed off. “What’s this?”
Breanne squinted, trying to focus as she followed Apep’s gaze. A few miles to the south, maybe less, she saw what he saw. There was a mountain with a large cavern opening several meters from the top. The opening appeared to spill out onto a ledge. Did she see a vehicle on the ledge? Below the opening, far down the mountain, were more vehicles. One was on its side and the others had rocks piled against them. Below the vehicles was a deep gorge. The only way she could be sure it was a gorge at all was because the jungle had been drawn back, shredded by falling boulders that she could only guess were pulled from the opening in the mountain. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was sure this was her mountain.
Then Apep said the words. Her gut twisted and, before she could even scream, everything went black.
50
Guests
Wednesday, April 9 – God Stones Day 4
