No Geek Rapture for Me_I'm Old School

by Jonelle Renald

  In the back of the cave, one of the guard-goyles was choking on a bite of deer meat, and the other one pounded on his back until a chunk of something jetted into the fire. But they didn’t either one say a word or interrupt Chase’s report in any way.

  Glaring at the guards, Chase continued, “But I was able to rescue the woman from the Sarrabu Guardian and bring her with us here to Mount Graham, Behl mah Shargaz sa Gibil Sharur.”

  Mia settled into a spot just outside the cave entrance where she could hear Chase give his briefing to Cezary. She had gaps in her memory, but what she did remember didn’t match very well with what Chase was saying had happened. The topic of his report was the progress being made to bring her into the fold at iCon. This confirmed the feelings she’d had while working there about there being too many details known by others and the existence of undue interference into her personal life, and provided her with a motive (at last) for why it had been done. Chase made it sound like they had made a lot of progress, that they were close, very close to pulling her in. “Pfft! Not a chance,” Mia quietly said to herself.

  “As you know, we cannot harvest any human’s soul in the tank unless we are given their voluntary permission,” Chase said. “It’s true that we didn’t have an agreement from her to join us, have not received permission for harvesting her soul — yet. But given the value of her talents, permission would appear to be worth waiting for. On my initial meeting with this female, I sniffed out who she was through an analysis of her scent. To verify absolutely her consanguinity in regard to Enoch and other antediluvian patriarchs, a DNA blood test was performed, which confirms that what I discerned was, in fact, true. She is a bloodliner with a most ancient, pre-Flood heritage.”

  Cezary nodded. “That is a most helpful talent you giants have, Talmai — being able to identify any human through their scent alone, even to the extent of knowing their names, history, genetics, DNA particulars, and family heritage. In this way, we are never at a loss for knowing what inborn weaknesses our targets have, knowing the best way to manipulate them to act in ways beneficial to us, even if they might feel a reluctance to cooperate. In Dr. Marwitz’ case, she is vulnerable to appeals to provide assistance for others, the result of her lineage’s tendency to act as heroes and gallop to the rescue.”

  “Your praise exalts me, Behl Emukk Nadanumeh,” Chase replied. “I’m very honored to serve in whatever capacity I can. Mamitu kanpahmi daim. Yes. Yes, she is an ancient bloodliner — a nearly perfect match to the genetic makeup of pre-Flood humans with all the accompanying strengths of undiminished latent soulish talents that humans of a less ancient ancestry lack. I personally observed our old acquaintance Enoch keeping tabs on her, which is what first tipped me off to her potential value to us. Hair color aside, she bears a strong physical resemblance to Edni, daughter of Dannel and wife of Enoch, and to Ednami, their daughter who later became the wife of Noah. My recognition came just in time too, because otherwise she would have been lost to us in the closure of Edgestow College.”

  Cezary nodded quickly, “Yes, the timing of the discovery was most beneficial to our cause.”

  “Verified, as I said by blood tests,” Chase continued, “Maria Marwitz possesses a unique genetic makeup with DNA markers connecting her to several of the most ancient of bloodlines, which explains what we discovered next. In advance of receiving her permission, we decided to test her responses in the harvesting tank. Strictly to see what might be available to us at a later time. This testing proved that she has a very high level of latent soul potentiality, manifesting in empathic perception and in willpower and in pre-cognitive abilities, as well as in unparalleled dynamism and imaging. Going forward, properly fragged, the talents she possesses are ideally suited for our digital reaping process. Her soul could be detached from her spirit, and her talents harvested and distilled as constituent parts. Once incorporated into our VR, these latent soulish powers have the potential for replication multiple times, greatly enhancing the bottom line because they are quite valuable to us as a collection of unique and rare assets to offer, quite profitably, for sale at auction. As you know, it has been challenging to find humans with such attributes in the populations that have volunteered so far. And as you also know, we have had little success trying to concoct anything remotely similar from scratch, although we are making progress with our AI efforts by developing the database for our sentient world simulation. Without her abilities dropped in as a supplement to our software, the current construct of our VR would be extremely limited should we have to launch our own mind upload, executing the Geek Rapture as is. Without Ms. Marwitz’s talents, we would basically become like human mortals are in this realm — having little power or authority to utilize within our own environment.”

  “Has she declared a definitive choice regarding her loyalty yet? Is she still of an independent mind, or does she belong to the Nameless Weakling?” Cezary asked Chase.

  “At this time, it appears that Ms. Marwitz has made no final decision, her loyalties still of a divided nature, although there have been a certain number of steps taken in a backward direction, away from our preference which would be to proceed in the direction toward enlightenment. However, we still have a window of opportunity to turn that around.”

  Cezary pointed his finger in Chase’s face. “Then ensure that you keep her alive at all costs, even if you would rather do otherwise. I know you view her in an unfavorable light.”

  Shaking his head, Chase started to say, “Behl Shargaz, kima wardum semu daim —”

  “No, no, no, don’t bother objecting — it is true. From the beginning it has been obvious that you have had a different opinion on how best to exploit her potential, and have never made any attempts to entice and draw her in except at my urging. But in spite of your objections, we still wish to pursue alternative plans, allowing you time to obtain her voluntary permission. Or we may find a way around her resistance by finagling her permission through artifice or deception. Fool her into betraying herself, trick her into cutting all ties to our obtuse Competitor from Above, and then we could move forward toward the goal of meeting our needs. She has already shown herself vulnerable to perceived opportunities to offer assistance to others in need.”

  Nodding, Chase replied, “I’ll circle back with you about getting her permission and cooperation. Will keep you posted on the course of our progress.”

  Mia was so absorbed with trying to hear and understand Chase’s report to Cezary that she nearly screamed when she felt something from above drop onto her shoulder. The end of a rope! Had the monsters heard anything? She looked inside the cave — no one was taking any notice of her. She looked up. In the pre-dawn twilight, she could see the line of the rope dangling down the side of the cliff, and a face above that, but she couldn’t make out who it was, or even imagine who it might be. But since getting away was her only priority at the moment, trying to guess who her rescuer was didn’t matter. Whoever it was, they had already tied a loop in the end of the rope. She was about to settle it around her hips and begin to climb up when she remembered, “The boots are inside the cave!”

  She peeked back inside. The boots were sitting right next to the carcass on the stone table. There was no way she could go back in there and escape notice. “Frack the boots then! They’re too big anyway. I’ll have to leave without them.”

  Loop in place around her hips, she gave a tug on the rope to show she was ready. In a moment she was being pulled up. She helped by climbing as much as she could, in spite of her bruised and abused muscles and shredded bare feet. So in a totally unexpected and unforeseen development, the impossible was happening. She was being rescued, leaving the cave behind and escaping from the evil crew of Chase, Cezary, and their two minions.

  27 | Save

  The trip up to the top of the cliff was agonizing. Not only because of pain felt in her body while making the climb but also because of a constant worry that she
would be discovered escaping and re-captured. It all added up to great stress on over-taxed nerves, and her arm and leg muscle were trembling as she climbed. Without the help of the rope, she would have fallen several times over. She desperately tried to prevent herself from making any noise as she scaled the mountainside, but tiny rocks were knocked loose and skittered down the mountainside as she made her way up to the top, each one sounding like the alarm that would bring the monsters out of the cave. “Don’t look down, don’t look down,” kept echoing in her mind. And of course, she was already looking down when she thought, “Don’t look down!” Irrationally, she was sure that her glance would add to the notification powers of the falling pebbles. Who knew what would attract the attention of those monsters below! The climb to the top was going quickly, but the possibility of recapture made it seem endless. The sky was getting lighter by the minute. Anyone sticking their head out of the mouth of the cave to check on her would have no problem seeing exactly where she was.

  While she concentrated on climbing quickly and quietly, a separate part of her mind couldn’t help thinking about what she has just heard. She hadn’t completely understood what Chase had been telling Cezary, but she did grasp that there was more at stake in this escape than just the preservation of her own life. While she certainly had no intention of ending up in that tank ever again, they both had said they wanted something more from her, something beyond forcing her to participate against her will. They wanted more than to capture her memories for some experimental transhumanist procedure. Chase and Cezary thought they could steal her talents, strip them out of her soul, and somehow use them like an app or something to improve the program they were creating in their virtual reality world. It sounded like they intended to crush the parts making up her internal being (soul and spirit) like grapes in order to extract talents and latent powers, and then make the pieces and parts into a sort of digital soulish wine to bottle and sell at auction!

  At the top of the cliff, she reached up to grab the hand of the man saving her from the giants below, and in the dawning light, she recognized him. She gasped, “Oh!” and thought, “Enoch’s here?” The same Enoch who had gotten her off that chain link fence and then later rescued her from iCon’s harvesting tank. How had he found her — again?

  Safely at the top, she was hesitating near the edge, but before she could speak, he motioned her to be silent and to hurry. It hadn’t gone so well the last time when she had ignored what he said to do so she decided that doing whatever he said now would be a really great idea. A really, really great idea. Who knew what tortures awaited her if the hellish crew below grabbed her again. She silently nodded her head and followed in the direction he indicated. Questions and answers could wait.

  Looking ahead, Mia could see Enoch’s mode of transportation — a tall, muscular horse, same long mane and tail as a Friesian horse, but even in the dim pre-dawn half-light, she could tell it wasn’t black in color. A red horse was standing patiently several yards away, rope attached to his saddlehorn. She raced to the horse as quickly as she could with torn up bare feet on rough ground. Enoch was right behind her, quickly wrapping the rope up around his elbow. He smiled and whispered, “Never know when you might need a rope, right?” In a flash, he mounted and gave her a hand up to ride behind him. Once she was settled securely, the horse sprang into a full gallop, racing up an asphalt road that curved around the shoulder of the mountain.

  Riding behind Enoch, the irony of her rescue was not lost on Mia. Not two hours earlier, she had been entirely confident that God would never help her because she had done something too selfish and evil to deserve a rescue, had been certain that she was doomed to endure whatever tortures Chase had in store for her. But now, contrary to her earlier calculations, she was galloping away from that cave and those monsters — rescued. The logical conclusion now facing her was that she had made a mistake about God. Clearly, her assumptions were totally wrong. She was esteemed, valued as precious, and considered worth saving. Which made it likely that she was forgiven for everything. She hoped she would have a quiet moment to decipher what it all meant sometime soon.

  They came to a closed and locked gate spanning the road, topped with barbed wire. A sign on the gate read, “No Trespassing! Private Road. No admittance. Mount Graham International Observatory. Violators will be prosecuted.” Enoch looked back over his shoulder and said, “Hang on!” Without slowing down, the horse gathered himself and jumped easily over the top of the barrier. As they continued along the road, Mia caught a glimpse of the big cube with the doors at the top swung open in the pre-dawn light.

  Behind them, Mia heard a foul screech. The monsters had discovered their prisoner was missing and had taken to the sky to track her down. Enoch spoke again, “The chase is on! But don’t worry, we came to save you. Maru-Dannum won’t allow any harm to come to us or permit you to be re-captured. No rider Maru carries will ever suffer any kind of hurt.”

  As the light kept increasing, the horse galloped flat out down the blacktop, pine straw along the edges, branches from the tall fir trees meeting overhead. Mia looked behind. She was surprised to see white balls of light erupting from the ground along the road they were taking, lights that floated upward above the fir trees, into the sky. Mia said into Enoch’s ear, “We’re putting up flares behind us!”

  He turned and looked back as well. “Ah! I see! The Mount Graham sprites are working against us. Not to worry though ! We’re in good hands so to speak, and you will escape, in spite of these efforts by the mountain to help your captors.”

  High in the sky, there were shrieks from several directions. Mia looked up, but the sky above them was still clear. However, soon after, there was a screech that sounded insistent with two answering screams from other directions, all moving toward them now. Her kidnappers had picked up their trail!

  “Sounds like we’ve been spotted. But don’t worry,” Enoch reassured Mia. “We’re almost there. We’ve almost reached the gateway.”

  But Mia remained anxious in spite of the comforting words and buried her face in his back. The red horse plunged off the side of the road into the forest, and she looked ahead, wondering, “Where is ‘there’?”

  Without losing any speed, the horse ran down the mountainside, weaving between the pine trees, jumping over rocks and fallen trees in full stride. It was full dawn now, and Mia could see the horse wasn’t the normal orangish-red she thought of when she thought of a red horse or a red dog. This horse was red like a crayon or a cardinal or a cherry or a Valentine’s Day heart. The absolute primary color red, not mixed with any other hue or shade. She had never seen anything like it. Her speculations about the horse were cut short when she heard screeches in the air behind them. The monsters were closing in on them!

  The red horse leaped into the middle of a shallow mountain stream and galloped up the stony river bed. Mia looked ahead, and in alarm, tightened her grip on Enoch’s shirt. They were running flat out toward a solid rock wall! But as they got closer, she could see there was an opening between two tall rocks to the right of the waterfall in the stream. Without slowing, the horse shot through the gap. Instantly they left Mount Graham behind and were galloping full speed down a partially darkened tunnel into the supernatural realm. Mia thought she had heard the bellowing of gargoyles behind them, back on the mountain before they had entered the gateway.

  “Are we safe? Can they follow us?”

  “They will eventually find the entrance to the gateway, but we will be through the way station nexus and on to another gateway before that happens. And the second gateway, they cannot follow us through it.”

  Mia said, “We’re really safe then?” and Enoch nodded.

  She said, “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for saving me — one more time — from that awful predicament I was in! I had lost all hope that I’d ever get away from those monsters.”

  Smiling, Enoch said, “You were in need of resc
ue. I’m glad I could help you.”

  The horse galloped for a few minutes through the shadowy tunnel before Mia asked another question. “Could this be one of the same places the guard-goyles took me after they ran through the portal at Noonan Hall? I couldn’t see then, but it sounds similar.”

  “Yes, or one of the other tunnels connected to the nexus. All gateways lead here. Think of this like a central station for all the paths which link the natural and supernatural worlds. Everything converges here at the nexus. But not all avenues are immediately apparent to every traveler. Some gateways are hidden from eyes that refuse to see.”

  “Why was that first portal in Noonan Hall so painful to travel through? None of the rest of the gateways have been like that. What’s the difference?”

  Enoch replied, “The portal below Noonan Hall was fashioned millennia before the college was founded, constructed by the Nephilim that built the burial mounds throughout the Midwest. Later, the old French chapel was built above the cavern where it was located, and later still when Edgestow College was founded, Noonan Hall was built on the site of the old chapel, and the two basement levels were dug adjacent to the portal and its underground cavern. Unlike God’s provisions for traveling between the realms, this and all other portals built by the Nephilim are technology-based and work by tearing down both the traveler and the space-time continuum to essential particles in order to breach the boundary between the natural and the supernatural realms. The physical body of travelers is disassembled so it can be forcibly punched through to the other side. The other gateways were created by God — his bridges and stairways were always meant to provide transport between the two realms, and so there is no need to break through any barriers. No need to alter the body of the traveler in any way. No deformation required, so no pain. The Nephilim technology behind that portal in Noonan Hall was developed to avoid using God’s pathways, to hide what they are doing. But they failed to make their portals totally disconnected from the network of God’s paths, in spite of trying to make them secret and hidden.”