The Prodigal Sun: A Novel

by S. E. Meyer

  “I guess you’re still kicking after all.”

  “That was weird,” said John, rubbing his ribs on is left side. The scene in front of him flashed and changed in an instant. They were once again in the garage, still smoking their cigarettes. “How are you here Jake? I just don’t understand, I mean, you died.”

  “No, it was more of a transformation, or a journey, from one place to another.”

  “But you’re here.” John cocked an eyebrow and gave Jake a quizzical look, but he was smiling.

  “Look at it like this, it’s kind of like I never really left, it’s just that no-one that is still alive can see me or interact with me. It’s like being on the wrong channel.”

  “What do you mean the wrong channel?” John tilted his head to one side waiting for an explanation.

  “Yes, you know, like TV, or the radio. When you change the channel, your favorite radio station is replaced with static. The radio station signal is still there. You’re just tuned to the wrong frequency. Except…. except for you John, which is puzzling. Somehow you’ve managed to get on the right frequency. I have to show you something. Come with me.” Jake floated to the ceiling of the garage and John effortlessly followed. They were soon rocketing upwards, through the air, the atmosphere, and on into space itself. Jake grabbed a hold of John’s hand and they continued on further into space. John could see the blue sphere of the Earth getting smaller until the entire solar system was visible. From where they were floating in space, John could see all of the planets circling the sun below them. “Everything is not as it seems John. The world is not what we’ve been led to believe. It’s so much more. You see we are all…. connected. Not just the human race, but every living thing on Earth. Everything you have ever been told, or think you know, is wrong. From Sunday school stories, to confirmation, to most of the textbooks in school.” The Earth suddenly came hurtling back into focus and in an instant they were standing in a large forest. “Can you feel it brotha? Feel the life… all around us.” Jake spread out his arms and turned his palms upwards.

  John understood what Jake was talking about. He could feel energy emanating from the trees. It was as though the trees were talking to him, or communicating with him on some level. He could feel their strength, their wisdom of age, their spirit, connecting with him through invisible threads of electricity. Was that the right word? John asked himself. Maybe not their spirit, but more like their presence? He didn’t know, but he could feel that they were alive in some way and they all shared a collective conscience. He felt a tingling running through his nervous system and closed his eyes. When he opened them they were once again sitting in John’s garage. Jake pointed at the pack of cigarettes on the small table.

  “Can I have another one of those for the road?”

  “What, the road? You’re leaving already?”

  “Yes, it’s hard to explain, but I can’t stay in one place for very long. There are things at work here that you can’t possibly understand John. I have to go. I came to tell you what I could in the time that I had. Listen, there’s something else. There’s something coming John, something big, something that is going to change the world forever.” Everything suddenly went black.

  John abruptly heard the fan pounding in his ears again. He opened his eyes and could see the ceiling above him in the dim light. The fog slowly lifted from his mind as he tried to comprehend what had just happened to him. He felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead. John noticed he was back in bed and looked around frantically for Jenny. She was sleeping soundly next to him. He looked at the clock; it was 3:18am. I must have fallen asleep. John threw back the covers, he was drenched in sweat and the sheets were damp underneath, making him shiver slightly as the cold air from the fan rushed over his moist skin. He got out of bed and looked back at where he was lying to make sure he was really out of bed this time. He only saw Jenny in the bed now, all by herself. Okay, I guess I’m awake now. John thought. I feel like I’m going crazy. John went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. The cold water felt good and refreshing, like it was washing away the craziness he felt in his head. He grabbed a towel and dried his face off. As he lowered the towel from his eyes he looked in the mirror. Sheer terror ripped through him as he looked into the blue wispy face of Frank staring back at him through the mirror. John gasped and backed away dropping the towel on the floor. This time the face was grimacing as though in agonizing pain. Oh my God, Frank! John thought. The face spoke.

  “John, I need you to come get me, before they come back, before it’s too late. Get going, now!”

  John raced into the bedroom and woke up Jenny. “Jen! Jen we have to go now!” John shook her awake and got dressed as fast as he could.

  “What, what time is it?”

  “It’s 3:00AM, that doesn’t matter, we have to go now!” Panic took over and John was frantically grabbing Jenny a pair of Jeans and a shirt. Jenny was about to try and convince John to go to sleep when she saw the panic in his face.

  “Are you okay John?” She could feel the adrenaline kicking her heart-rate into high gear as she got out of bed. “Oh my God, you look like a ghost, or at least saw one.”

  John thought for a second how to answer that question. “No, I’m not okay; we have to go find Frank. He’s in some kind of trouble. I can’t explain how I know, I just know. We have to go now!”

  Jenny tried to get dressed as quickly as she could. Her head was still groggy from being woken up out of a deep sleep as she followed John downstairs and pulled on her shirt. John grabbed the files and maps off the kitchen table as they frantically found two flashlights and headed out to the car. John picked his pack of cigarettes up off the garage table as he went by and counted them. Jenny noticed the look on his face. His expression was one of shock and disbelief.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I had a very vivid and strange dream, only it wasn’t a dream.”

  “What John. Tell me. What is going on?” Jenny rubbed her eyes, still trying to wake up even though her heart was pounding in her chest.

  John squawked the tires as he slammed on the gas and pulled out of the garage. His face was pale and his eyes were wide. He could feel a wave of nausea come over him. “I saw Jake last night in a …it wasn’t a dream, I actually saw him.” John raced down their street, flying right through the stop sign at the first intersection.

  “Slow down John, you’re going to get us killed.”

  “I can’t slow down!” John had a wild look in his eye. “Don’t you understand?” He began to raise his voice and stopped himself, starting over as calmly as he could. “I saw Frank again too, and he said this can’t wait. We have to get to him as fast as we can.”

  “Don’t yell at me, and it won’t do any good if we don’t get there at all.” The fear in Jenny’s voice helped John to calm slightly. He was in a panic, but he didn’t want to scare her. He slowed the car down slightly. As they sped across town he explained his experience of the last several hours to Jenny.

  “I’m here for you John, okay? You know that, but I think this is all a bit crazy. Running off in the middle of the night because of a dream?“

  “It wasn’t a dream!” John looked over at Jenny with an exasperated expression.

  “Okay, sorry, whatever it was. It still seems crazy, but I’ll help you however I can, alright?”

  “I know how this looks, you must think I’m insane, but thanks for being here.” John reached out and grabbed Jenny’s hand, squeezing it gently. “It means a lot that you‘re at least going along with this.”

  Jenny didn’t know what to think. She could feel fear starting to get the better of her and swallowed hard. She thought back to her education and training in psychology. John seemed to be delusional, but for now she thought it would be less dangerous to just keep him calm and go along with it. She squeezed his clammy hand in response. “I’m here John, just take it easy.”

  John turned the car on to Old Mill Rd, which was more like Old Mill Trail. Th
e spindly forest was a re-plant project and was growing well, but nothing like nature had planned it the first time around. The trees were close to the road and still large enough to scrape the sides of the car as they raced down the trail. It was hard to see through the boughs that whipped across the windshield and the light from the headlights went off in all directions as they bounced through the ruts of the mossy path in front of them. They moved along the trail in silence for a while as John occasionally looked at the map with his flashlight, then he finally broke the silence. “Okay, according to this there should be a fork coming up and we want to go right to get down to the old home foundations of Old Mill City.” He handed the map to Jennifer and within a few minutes they were taking a right fork in the trail. A few more miles in Jennifer spotted the first of several home foundations. They were mostly crumbling concrete mixed with field-stone and covered with moss. A few fragments of wood littered the area, rotten to the point of mush. John drove deeper into what was once a lively and wealthy small lumber community. He looked around at what little was left of the small town. “You can hardly tell there was ever anything here,” he said.

  “Yes, it’s amazing how fast Mother Nature reclaims what's hers,” Jenny replied as she gazed out of the window to get a glimpse of the crumbling town, but could only think of how John was doing.

  John noticed her quiet concern. “I’m okay Jen. I’m better anyway. Sorry I freaked you out a bit back there.” John’s breathing slowed and he felt himself begin to calm down. They both got out of the car and started walking around some of the closest foundations with their flashlights. Most had naturally filled in with dirt and sediment after the wood frames had rotted away. There were a few that still had a partial roof that fell onto the footings when the walls collapsed, giving the illusion that the house was buried underground. John looked at the map again. He wasn’t exactly sure where it was trying to lead them. There was a bend in the trail marked on the map with a small mark in red pen marked next to it, but John couldn’t tell how far away it was. He could see there had been a few recent tire marks in the mud along part of the trail. They walked along the path a little further until they came to a long gate blocking their way with a sign posted on it.

  ‘Private Property Keep Out’

  It looked like a recent addition to the surroundings, constructed within the last few years. Its main posts were set into the ground on either side with concrete. On the posts were two more signs that read:

  ‘No Trespassing‘

  “I think we should keep going. I think we need to get where the mark is on this map,” John said wrinkling his brow.

  “But it’s clearly marked, posted and barricaded.”

  “Exactly why I want to go down it, if there is nothing of importance down this trail then why barricade it?”

  “I see your point John, but for the record I don’t think it‘s a good idea.” Jenny shook her head slightly. She didn’t like the fact that they were now going to break the law by trespassing and could feel anxiety creep into her chest. They both crawled around the gate and continued up the path. Slowly, along their right hand side, a bank began to climb above the level trail. It eventually became a rock face that protruded from the ground alongside them and stretched at least fifteen feet up. As they came to a bend they saw an opening to a cave, and just past it, parked on the trail, was Frank’s BMW.

  “That’s Franks car!” John’s voice squeaked in excitement. “I noticed it was missing from his garage.” They both jogged over to the car and walked around it looking in the windows.

  “What do you think it’s doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Jenny said with her forehead resting on the passenger side window as she peered inside.

  “No idea, I guess it goes along with everything that’s happened since yesterday morning. Just damn strange.” The opening to the cave was only six feet high by ten feet wide. They both walked in and stopped a few feet inside the entrance. Jenny aimed her flashlight down the small tunnel and only saw more rock wall running down both sides as they crept further inside. It began to get narrower as they moved deeper inside the wet, musty hole in the hillside. The small corridor in the rock continued on and it seemed to angle downward slightly. The corridor finally stopped at a flat spot with a hole in the middle of the floor. There was a ladder just barely protruding up from it and John pointed his flashlight down into the darkness. He could see the opening stopped about six feet down and appeared to drop into a room. He got onto the ladder and descended into the hole while Jennifer aimed her flashlight towards the bottom. Once John reached the floor below he aimed his flashlight around in the darkness. It was a large room, approximately thirty feet square. Jenny reached the bottom of the ladder and they both finished inspecting the room together. The rock ceiling was about six feet high but the ground fell away from them towards the outer walls so the ceilings were twice that high along the edges of the room.

  “I think this was the town’s old ice house,” whispered John. He continued to study the walls while shuffling his feet along the dusty floor.

  “That would make sense, yeah, I remember reading an article about how the early settlers used to cut blocks of ice from the lake and then store them underground where it was cool. We’re close to the lake, this would have been perfect for that.”

  “But why is it marked on the map?”

  “Maybe it has something to do with this door over here.” Jenny started to answer in a whisper, but her voice was much louder by the time she said the word ‘door’. She felt her heart skip as she waved John over.

  “What door?” John slowly walked across the room to where Jenny was standing. Jenny aimed her flashlight towards the corner where two of the walls met. Just to one side was a shiny metallic door.

  “That door.” Jenny smiled. “I just noticed it. There was a strange reflection coming from over here every time I pointed my flashlight in this direction, so I looked a little closer.” They both walked towards the door, not knowing what to expect or why the door would even be there in the first place. It was definitely new and out of place for this rock cavern. As they drew nearer John noticed an electronic keypad anchored to the rock wall, just to the right of the door. There were no handles or knobs, just a smooth metal finish from the top to the bottom.

  “Now what?” asked Jenny.

  John shrugged and touched the metal surface. “Knock maybe?” John joked.

  “Yeah, right,” Jenny responded sarcastically.

  John suddenly remembered that Frank gave him a number to remember. “Damn,” he blurted.

  “What is it?”

  “I knew I wasn’t the guy for this job.” John shook his head back and forth. “Frank gave me a number, some kind of access code. He told me not to forget it.”

  Jenny had a worried look on her face, but John tried to concentrate. He replayed the conversation over and over in his head, running his hand through his hair. “I think I have it, I’m pretty sure.”

  “Really?” Jenny didn’t sound convinced, a look of surprise on her face.

  “7-1-9-4-2-7-6.” John pushed each button on the keypad as he said the numbers out loud. There was a hiss and then what sounded like a lock sliding out of the way. Jenny looked at John in amazement just as the door swung open into a well lit room. They both walked in and the door quickly shut behind them.

  “I’m impressed. How did you remember what keys to push?”

  “I don’t know, I can’t explain it, but somehow the numbers started to repeat over and over in my head. I think its Frank.”

  “Maybe it’s that injection.” Jenny shrugged; she was trying to keep John rational.

  The room they had just entered was small, but clean, and you could no longer see the rock of the cavern. It looked like the room had been framed and covered with some type of metal sheeting. There was another door at the end of the small room next to a small closet that held white overcoats hanging in rows. They slowly walked to the next door, their eyes still adjusting
to the bright light. It appeared to be similar to the first door with the addition of a handle. John rested his hand on the cool metal and turned the knob. It opened into a large room with a hallway leading off to the right. The bright lights and crisp white walls reminded John of a hospital, or the Center where he worked. There was laboratory equipment set up everywhere on top of the smooth polished tiled floors. “Somebody went to a lot of trouble to build this here,” John said, glancing around. His expression was full of excitement and his jaw was hanging open. They walked around the room and inspected the equipment.

  “Do you know what any of this stuff is?” Jenny asked. She looked at John with wide eyes and held one eyebrow above the other, quizzically.

  “Some of it I recognize, it’s the same equipment we use in our labs in the R&D department at the Center. But some of this stuff I’ve never seen before,” answered John.

  Frank began pulling at John’s thoughts again, creating a sudden sense of renewed urgency. “You have to hurry!” Frank’s voice blasted through John’s thoughts. He grabbed Jenny’s hand and pulled her out of the room behind him and back into the corridor. They continued down the hall then stopped at a set of large double doors with massive deadbolts running along the top and bottom. There was a small three-inch window in each door at about eye level. John and Jenny each peered into one as they pressed their faces against the cold, solid-metal doors. They could see medical equipment stacked on the floor and on tables along each wall. Along the left hand side of the room there were five hospital-style beds with monitoring equipment. All of them were empty except for the very last one. There, lying on his back and chained to the bed, with his arms folded and eyes closed, was Dr. Frank Johnson.

  lock-down in London

  Adam and Brent entered the London International Airport from the jet-way. As they made their way through the terminal Adam's phone began to ring. He knew who it was before answering it. Jacob, he thought as he held the phone to his ear. “Hello.”