She looked up at Achilles. “These lambs will stay here with me, and I know I can count on you for your help. They need a home and guidance.”
Achilles nodded. “I concur.”
Raza continued. “Forgive me for being so blunt, old friend, but I need you to set up camp here on the farm.”
Achilles chuckled. “Raza, you were a legend at Perihelion for your tenacity. I sincerely believe you were the only human who could get the taciturn and stubborn Oslo to do anything he normally wouldn’t want to do. You two were quite the couple.”
“Yes, we were,” she smiled briefly, then turned away to face Ray and Breeze. “I know that all of you have been through a lot, and I only added to your burdens by the way I treated you. I promise you that my home, this land and the mountains that surround us, are a safe haven. We will one day re-unite you with your families, though I ask that you stay here for the time being until we are ready to make a decision as to what our future may bring.”
“What about Oslo?” Ray asked.
She closed her eyes. “He will come,” she replied, then opened them and turned to Breeze, “I know what you are thinking. You wish to take the ship and leave to find your way back home. I will travel with you if I must to help you, but for now young man, stay here. Please,” she said and reached for his hand to squeeze it.
Breeze nodded.
“Very good, it’s settled.” She patted Sally on her back. “Young lady, wipe away the tears, for today we begin the process of putting our lives back together.” She smiled at Achilles. “It is so nice to have a house full of people again. Thank you, old friend, you have brought me the greatest gift of all.”
“Though your praise humbles this worn out machine, please sing your praises to Breeze. This young man had the will to seek me out, and I see him as the catalyst for all that has transpired to date,” Achilles said.
Raza nodded at Breeze. “Yes, he does seem to be the spark of a new beginning.”
She then stood up and clapped her hands. “Very well, there are room assignments to be given, and dinner needs to be cooked, for it will not make itself. You all need to wash up first, so follow me please.” She pointed a finger at Achilles, “and you, get into that rusty old truck of yours and get whatever equipment you may need from your place as you are more than welcome to set up shop in my barn.”
Achilles raised a hand to its head in a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am. This unit will comply.”
Raza laughed as she marched up the steps with the teens in tow, and as Achilles looked on, the second voice spoke
It seems like old times, the voice said.
Achilles shook its head and headed for the door.
Later that evening, after everyone settled in for the night, Breeze found himself wide awake. He rolled out of bed to look out the window and saw how the crescent moon dimly lit the valley and the mountains around it. He peered deeper into the night as he almost expected the winged creature to land in the front of the farmhouse with its red eyes penetrating him like a knife.
He quickly got dressed and stepped out into the hallway. Sally’s room was at the very end, while Ray was next door to him. He raised a hand to knock on her door, and then hesitated when he saw a glow creeping from underneath it. He twisted the handle and barged in to find Sally sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands in her lap. Her eyes were glowing a bright white.
Breeze froze in place. Though he had seen her in a projection trance before, the glow from her eyes was always unnerving.
He felt a gentle tug on his sleeve and jumped back with a yelp. Sally’s astral projection was standing next to him.
“Spying on me?” she teased.
“Sally, I really need to talk to you.”
She nodded and glided back to her body and merged with it. The glow immediately faded from her eyes. “Breeze, I’m glad you’re here, there is something I need to tell you,” she said and reached for him.
He took her hand and sat next to her while she took a deep breath, and then spoke. “You are right, we shouldn’t be here. This is crazy. Raza threw us out not long after we first arrived here, and then sent that winged creature that obeyed here like a dog, after us. What are we doing here Breeze?”
He shook his head. “I just can’t get over the age difference. First time we meet her she looks ancient, like she’s about to keel over and die, then we see her again a few days later and she looks younger. Makes no sense.”
Sally nodded. “I projected earlier to snoop around on the property, but couldn’t really find anything out of place until I followed her as she went to the side of the house, flung open a cellar door and stepped down. She closed the door behind her and sealed it, but I swear to you the light coming out of the cellar was green. It was pretty strange.”
Breeze stood up. “Come on, let’s go.”
“What do you have in mind?” she said.
“Sally, we got to know Perihelion better by snooping around. It’s no different here and I want to see that cellar.”
“Should we get Ray?”
“Nah, let him sleep. He’s no fun anyway.”
Sally giggled as Breeze led her down the stairs. The house was painfully quiet and the hallway that led to the front door was lit. They cautiously stepped out, then walked to the side of the house and came to a stop at the cellar doors.
Sally was hesitant. “Aren’t you afraid of Raza catching us?”
“Sally, after all we’ve been through, do we even really care anymore?”
She smiled.
“Exactly. Follow me,” he said, then flung open the cellar doors and stepped down.
The stairs were slippery and smelled like seaweed while the air was humid and warm and clashed with the cold, dry air outside. The deeper they descended the more pronounced a shimmering green light became.
The stairs sloped downward while gradually curving to the right, then came to an end at the edge of a pool with blue green water.
Sally sniffed the air. “Breeze, why does it smell like —”
“The ocean, I know. This place is weird and has the same feel as Perihelion,” he replied.
“Are you kidding me? This whole town is weird,” she shot back.
Breeze chuckled as he knelt down at the edge of the pool when his skin began to tingle. He abruptly pulled up a sleeve and dipped his hand into the water. It felt warm as he swished it around and created waves that reverberated across the surface.
“Breeze,” he heard a voice say to him.
He looked up at Sally. “Yeah?”
“I didn’t say anything,” she said.
“But I just heard someone call my name,” he said and looked down at the pool again. The water glowed even brighter, and in a flash, he was sucked in and sent plummeting to the bottom.
He thrashed around as he struggled to get his bearings. He looked up at the surface and could see Sally leaning over and looking down at him, yet she made no effort to jump in and help. The sound of static began to build as unfamiliar images of people and places whirled about him like a tornado when a hand clamped onto his shoulder. He turned to look with a feeling of dread.
It was Sally, kneeling down beside him. “What’s the matter with you? You stuck your hand in the pool then you went zombie on me.”
Breeze looked down at his arm. It was slightly discolored and pale, and he could feel a tingling sensation course through it.
“I got dragged into the pool. Didn’t you see?”
“No, you kneeled the whole time swishing your arm in the water and mumbling.”
“Sally, I fell in and sank to the bottom. I looked up and you just sat there, it was like you didn’t want to help.”
“Breeze, I would always reach out to help you,” she said and held his hands.
He leaned in and kiss
ed her. She was taken by surprise, but didn’t resist.
He pushed her away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…I’m sorry.”
She frowned at him. “It’s okay. Really.”
“Let’s get out of here. I really want to see what’s going on in that barn,” he said. He stood up and held out a hand to her.
Sally tried to hide her disappointment as he helped her up. Together they went up the steps and out of the cellar where they immediately began to shiver upon contact with the cold air. Breeze led Sally to a corner of the house and pointed at the barn. She nodded and followed him as they trudged across the dew-covered grass to get to it.
When they arrived, they saw that the doors were wide open and voices could be coming from deep inside.
“Who’s in there?” Sally whispered as they leaned against the door and peeked in.
“I can definitely hear Achilles, and I think Raza is in there too,” Breeze said as he cautiously stepped inside.
“Breeze!” Sally hissed.
He beckoned to her. “Come on, it’s okay. I want to hear what they’re saying.”
They crept deeper into the barn. The stray bits of hay strewn across the dirt floor muffled their footsteps, and they stuck to the shadows cast by the overhead lights that were strung along the length of the barn. Ahead, the voices became clearer.
“…I wandered the land along the length of the eastern seaboard and documented the range of destruction that I found. Entire cities had been emptied, yet the rural areas were overrun with refugees. The level of despair and hopelessness that seemed to emanate from these people was overwhelming. It did not help that I was a robot, for upon my arrival at any village, I would be attacked immediately. And I have personally witnessed paranormals being savaged by mobs, sometimes even put to the flame.”
“That is horrible, Achilles,” they heard Raza reply somberly.
A whir of servos was followed by the sound of a heavy tool dropping onto a workbench. Then Achilles responded. “Paranormals went from being the champions of the people to pariahs to be feared, hated and destroyed. This unit, in all of its years of service at Perihelion and standing side by side with the Helios, never could compute such a scenario coming to fruition.”
“So how did you come to Mount Pleasant?” Raza asked.
“I remembered how you spoke of it in the past very lovingly, and in great detail, but to ascertain its location was quite difficult. Like Perihelion, it seems to be cloaked. It took several attempts to eventually locate the path that would allow me to slip past the fog. Upon arrival, it lived up to its reputation as a refuge for… how can this humble robot word this diplomatically… interesting people.”
Raza laughed and clapped her hands.
“It is good to hear laughter again. It is a human trait I have always admired,” Achilles said.
Breeze whispered to Sally. “Let’s get closer. There is a stall across from us with its door open, we can hide in there.”
“We can hear them just fine from here,” Sally whispered back.
Breeze shook his head, grabbed her hand and towed her behind him where they snuck into the empty stall and peered out. They could see Achilles making adjustments to a comm unit as Raza sat in a chair.
“Confession, mistress,” Achilles stopped and turned to her, “please do not descend into anger at the words that I will speak, but I had concluded long ago that you must have perished. So much time had passed since my dismissal from Perihelion to the day of my arrival here. I did not expect that you would be among the living, and was elated to discover that you had not perished.”
“I don’t know how much human emotion you comprehend Achilles, but I will tell you that my desire to see my daughter again is what has kept me alive for so long.”
“Nina. Yes. You did mention her. Please tell more.”
She took a sip of tea from her cup, and then carefully placed it on a saucer. The skin of her hands and arms glistened from the glow of the overhead lights as she ran her fingers through her long hair, and then piled it into a bun.
Sally pulled Breeze closer to her and whispered. “She keeps looking younger and younger all the time.”
Raza continued. “The pregnancy was difficult, and the birth was almost perilous. Not only for my daughter, but myself as well, but we made it through.”
“Those must have been joyous times for both you and Oslo. Forgive me mistress for the inquiry, but Oslo is the father, yes?”
Raza smiled and nodded. “You can ask me anything, and yes, he is. You are right, it was a joyous time for us all. Amidst the chaos that was consuming the world, we had our little slice of heaven. If only for a brief time,” she sniffled.
“But, Nina was a sickly child who required constant medical treatment. Then, Perihelion was given the order from up high to decommission. Essential personnel were leaving to be with their families as nobody wanted to stick around and toil under the boot of the new Elephim regime. Oslo, the good man that he is, tried his best to rally everyone to stay and fight back against the regime, but only a dedicated few answered the call. We did our best to track down and save other paranormal children from across the world, but it was too late. The days of the Helios as champions of Earth and her colonies were over. It was time to accept the new era that descended upon us like a dark cloud.”
She burst into tears, and then quickly composed herself. “I argued with Oslo for the longest time that we also needed to leave. He wanted us to go to Scandinavia, but I convinced him it would be safer in Appalachia. We arrived here and for a brief time, we were happy. But then Nina took a turn for the worse.” Raza leaned back in her chair and took in a deep breath. Her voice trembled when she spoke again. “She…began to age, and rapidly. One day she was fine, then in a blink of an eye the child would age several years. There were frightening times when she would become old and shriveled, and then miraculously she would revert to her normal age, but then continue reverting to an infant. It was-,” her voice cracked as she stopped to suppress a sob, ”—horrible.”
Achilles gently placed a hand on her shoulder and she patted it. “We were in despair as there were no medical facilities here that could treat her. We had long grown accustomed to the state-of-the-art equipment at Perihelion, and realized only too late we should have brought with us at least a few machines. By then we had to confront the knowledge that we were helpless.”
Achilles sat down on a metal stool. Its eyes glowed as it put its hands together and listened intently.
She continued. “Oslo theorized that because Nina was conceived and born on Perihelion, her inner clock was tuned to the island, and because the island was slightly out of step with the rest of the planet, so was she. Removing her from the island was catastrophic, and we needed to go back, he said. I disagreed and we fought bitterly. It almost broke us apart. Then she had another one of her attacks. She aged rapidly before our eyes and just about withered and died. I gave in and we decided to take our shuttlecraft back to Perihelion. That’s when it happened.”
Raza shook her head and was silent as tears streamed down her cheeks. When she spoke, it was in a hushed tone. “We packed for our trip back to the island while Nina was bedridden and screaming in pain, then we gathered our belongings and loaded the shuttle, not unlike the one the younglings arrived on. For all I know, it could be the same one, as you are aware of Oslo’s penchant for holding on to old pieces of junk,” she smiled weakly through her tears.
Achilles chuckled and tapped its chest. “Do I.”
“We barely made it to the coastline when we were attacked. The ship’s sirens were wailing and we were losing power. We barely landed and we huddled inside, not sure what to do. We didn’t even know what hit us. Then, that’s when I saw it.”
Achilles’ eyes glowed brighter as Raza shifted in her seat.
“I peered out into the darkne
ss from the cockpit while Oslo was busy punching in commands into the console, trying to get the ship up and running again, when I saw a figure step out from the tree line and stride across the open field toward us. I wasn’t sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me as in the midst of the hysteria and madness of everything happening around us I could have been hallucinating, but to this day I could never get over how…confident it appeared. It was as if it did not care nor possess a hint of fear in the world. It was covered head to toe in black and then there was that sound, a crackling…,”
“A hissing noise perhaps, mistress, similar to what is emitted from electronic equipment?” Achilles offered.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“I have dealt with these nefarious ones, the Elephim, many times in the past,” Achilles replied.
She shook her head. “It was relentless. Was it human? It may have looked like one, but it seemed so mechanical in its behavior. I screamed at Oslo and pointed it out to him. He cursed mightily and activated the ship’s weapons, but nothing seemed to have any impact on it. It either absorbed our energy weapons, or merely sidestepped them while never once breaking its stride. It walked up to the ship and forced open the cargo door where I rushed over to meet it head on. I was so fearful for our lives, Nina’s life especially, that is seemed to give me the energy I needed to defend us. That is when I came face to face with it.”
She stood up abruptly and walked toward the stall where Breeze and Sally were hiding.
Breeze pulled Sally close and made a hushing gesture by placing a finger to his lips.
Raza stood by the stall, and then turned to Achilles. “The noise that emanated from it was disconcerting to say the least, and I could barely concentrate. Its body and face were jet black and it just stared at me, even cocked its head like a little dog, as if I was something that amused it. I flew into a telekinetic rage, and threw everything that wasn’t bolted down in the ship at it and sent it flying out the door, then charged after this monster that had attacked my family.”
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 44
