The Catastrophe Theory

by Bertauski, Tony

  Eve slowed the SUV as it entered the barn. A giant Faraday Cage almost reached the ceiling, and inside that was the twisted and intricate combination of metal and electronics that made up the Friar’s Lantern device. She had once thought it beautiful, the complexity of it, the way every piece fit together just so, but now she saw it for the ugly and unnatural thing it was.

  Some things should never be invented.

  The Faraday Cage itself was made of reinforced metal and locked, but Eve knew what she needed to find. And there it was, on a table in front of the cage. She stomped on the brake, throwing herself out of the SUV as she ran to the table and picked up the Lantern’s key. It was shaped like an old fashioned mortise key. But it wasn’t the shape that was important, but rather the electronics encased in the metal that allowed it — and only it — to turn on and operate the Friar’s Lantern.

  “Mom,” Cassie called out, and Eve turned to see the Dark Worshippers closing in. One of them fired a shot which zinged against the side of the Faraday Cage, throwing off sparks. Eve sprinted back to the SUV and jumped into the driver’s seat. She would have liked a chance to damage the Lantern but there wasn’t time. The important thing was keeping the key out of the hands of the Dark Worshippers.

  She threw the SUV into reverse and accelerated out of the barn. Two of the Dark Worshippers were in a firing crouch, but Eve couldn’t hear shots over the roar of the engine. As soon as she had space, she did a half turn, braked, ground the gearstick into first, and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. The wheels spun and the engine screamed, then the SUV jumped forward like a wild animal.

  Dark Worshippers scattered and Eve accelerated away from them. One must have fired a final shot though, because the left rear window blew out. Eve jerked in reflex and reached out a protective hand toward Cassie. Neither of them was hurt.

  Cassie took Eve’s hand and kissed her palm. “That was amazing.”

  Eve managed a half-smile. “Bond. Eve Bond.”

  Cassie made an effort at a laugh but it came out more like a grunt. “Where are we going?”

  Eve glanced down at the Lantern’s key in her lap. She needed to keep that out of the hands of the Worshippers and she knew exactly where to go. “The signal beacon.” She nodded toward the top of the hill. That had been the only thing providing hope while the Dark Worshippers were spreading their evil brand of darkness. “There’s a road just ahead, we just have to drive up that hill and we’ll be safe.”

  Eve returned her hand to the steering wheel and bumped the SUV off the grass and onto the road. In the rearview mirror, she spotted another SUV moving but it was far in the distance. There was no way her pursuers could catch up.

  The road wound upward, and Eve pulled back into third gear, then second as the ascent increased. She turned around a corner and saw a gate closed across the road.

  “Hold on, honey,” Eve said without hesitation, increasing speed. She wasn’t going to come this far and let a gate stop her. Her grip tightened on the steering wheel and she leaned forward, willing the SUV straight through.

  At the last moment, she saw the thick reinforced metal attached to the sides of the gate. She braced herself, then jolted forward as they hit.

  * * *

  “Mom? Mom?”

  Eve groaned. There was a blinding pain behind her eyes. She raised her hand to her forehead. “What happened?”

  “You crashed.”

  Eve jerked upright and opened her eyes, suddenly remembering what had just happened. There was blood on the shattered windscreen. “Are you okay?” She reached across to touch Cassie’s cheek. “You’ve blood on you.” Panic welled up inside her. She’d just deliberately crashed with her daughter inside the vehicle. What had she been thinking?

  “It’s your blood, silly.” Cassie was close to tears, but trying to be brave.

  “My beautiful strong daughter.” Eve hooked her hand around Cassie’s head, smearing it with blood, but she didn’t care. The headache had faded to a bearable throbbing.

  “Isn’t this touching? The daughter of light and her virgin mother.”

  Eve turned her head to see Ali pointing a gun at her. Letting out a despairing sigh, she turned to see a second SUV parked behind them. “Ali, please help us. You’ve got to believe me. Rourke and Emerson were evil evil men. They were just using you and your friends.”

  “Using me?” Ali’s lips curved up into a sinister smile. A smile that no fifteen-year-old should have been able to form. “For someone who invented the Lantern, you sure are dumb. You’ve been working side-by-side with these men for many years, and you’ve never noticed how much they changed in recent years?”

  The hazy dimness of twilight was descending, and the air around Ali shimmered, darker than everywhere else. At that moment, Ali barely looked human. Eve reached her hand out and gripped Cassie’s fingers. “It was you?” Eve’s dry mouth could barely form the words.

  “You don’t think they got it right first time, did you? Capturing all those souls.” Ali took a step closer. “I was the first successful experiment. But the souls used for me weren’t fresh. Emerson arrived at a plane crash two hours after impact. The souls had already found a heavenly darkness before being pulled back and thrust inside my embryonic self. And those souls still crave darkness. I crave darkness. And interestingly enough, most who spend time with me come to feel as I do.”

  Eve opened her mouth, ready to object, to argue, to reason, but closed her mouth again, the words unsaid. It was clear that Ali was not a creature that could be reasoned with. Eve glanced up at the top of the hill, which was now barely visible in the darkness. They had gotten so close to the beacon.

  “Looking for some hope?” Ali asked. “Here, let me help you with that.” She held a device up in her hand and pressed a button. The beacon lit up.

  “That’s impossible,” Eve gasped. “You said…”

  Ali smiled again, that dark horrible smile. “I don’t always tell the truth, you know. We kept the beacon in a Faraday Cage and now use it to draw everyone for miles around. Like moths to a flame they come. After a while, they begin to change. When that happens, they hate the light as much as I do.”

  Ali pressed the button again and the beacon shut off. Hope quenched. “Now,” Ali continued, “if you’ll glance to your right, you’ll see a burly man with a gun pointed at the girl who is now oh-so-empty of the horrible light she used to carry.”

  Eve didn’t look; she didn’t want to see a gun aimed at her daughter. She just squeezed Cassie’s fingers.

  “So you’ll hand over that key to me without thinking of doing anything silly.” Ali nodded down to where the Lantern’s key lay by Eve’s feet. “And then you’ll come with me. I’ve a mind to let you see your creation suck all that nasty artificial light from the world for the final time.”

  A shiver ran through Eve and a drop of blood dripped from her forehead down onto her lap.

  Ali reached over and gripped Eve’s shoulder. “Then we’ll spend some time together, you and me, until you start to see things my way.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Written by Elle Casey

  Eve saw the events from the past several days flash forward in her mind. This was the life review that came just before death that she’d heard about so many times, but the only part of her life she was seeing was the dark part, the time when all the lights went out forever.

  Terror she had never known before — even when being beaten and held prisoner by Ali’s minions — filled her heart. Jared was gone. Hope was gone. The man standing just feet away from her was going to put a bullet in her little girl’s head, and there was nothing she could do about it.

  A half-baked plan with no good ending flew through her mind. She was out of options and out of time, and she was definitely no hero; but doing something was better than just giving up without a fight.

  “Fine. You want the key? Take the key!” Eve reached down to the floorboard of the SUV, intending to grab it and throw it out the window int
o the weeds, but her fingers refused to close around the heavy metal object.

  “Stop stalling,” Ali said, sighing.

  “I’m not. I can’t grab it.” Eve frowned, unable to figure out why her fingers weren’t cooperating. Yes, the plan sucked, but it was a plan. It could buy them a few precious seconds, maybe even a minute. And just one more minute with her baby was worth trying for.

  “Mom, just give her the key. It’s over.”

  “I know it’s over, Cassie, I’m trying.” The harder Eve stretched, the more it seemed the key moved just out of her reach.

  “Moommm!” Cassie called. It wasn’t a whine, or a complaint. It was as if she were far away and not there in the SUV next to Eve anymore.

  Eve looked up to tell her daughter that it would all be over soon, to try and capture the look in her baby’s eye and hold it, to one last time see the girl who she loved more than life itself…but she couldn’t. Because suddenly Cassie wasn’t there.

  “Cassie!” she shouted, straining her eyes to try and see through the dust-covered windshield. “Cassie! Where are you?!”

  Eve forgot about the key and Ali. She forgot about the ogre with the gun trained in her direction. All she could think about was getting to her daughter. She fought the seatbelt that held her in place, that kept her from saving Cassie’s life.

  “Eve! Eve! Jesus, would you calm down?”

  Eve ceased her struggles. The dark night and dusty windshield faded out to be replaced by light. Burning light, so bright she had to close her eyes to it.

  It was coming from a lamp.

  “Jared?” she finally said, not sure she could trust her own eyes or ears.

  “Of course it’s Jared. Who else would it be?” He sighed. “Could you stop thrashing around, sweetie? You’re going to wake Cassie up and she just got to the half-sleep stage after tossing and turning all night. She’s already called out for you once.”

  Tears rolled out of Eve’s eyes and filled her ears, as the reality of where she was slowly came to her. The salty flow slid through her hair and landed on the pillow next to her head.

  Eve opened her eyes and saw the familiar ceiling fan that had hung over her head for years, turning softly, sending a slight breeze down to cool her tear-stained face. She blinked several times, praying silently that she wasn’t sleeping.

  “Man, that was one hell of a dream you were having.” Jared was sitting up in bed next to her, a book open and his reading glasses on. Eve had always said he looked sexy wearing those things, but today, he looked like an angel sent straight from heaven.

  “You’re alive,” she said, staring at him with wonder, her voice barely registering as a croak.

  Jared closed his book and pushed the glasses to the top of his head. “Babe, what’s going on?”

  Eve pushed her hands under her and sat up, trying to put everything together in her mind. Her chest felt like it was ready to explode with pent-up energy. Resting her back against the headboard, she let her mind wander to the place it had just been. Slowly the tension eased a bit, enough to make it possible to speak again.

  “I think I had some sort of out-of-body experience.” Eve’s throat was dry. It felt like she hadn’t had anything to drink in days. Had she? She wasn’t even sure what day it was.

  Jared leaned over and kissed her neck. “Feel like having another one?”

  Eve elbowed him in the ribs, turning her head to share her fearful expression with her husband. “I’m not kidding. I seriously experienced something big. Something…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Like, a premonition.”

  She couldn’t sit still any longer. Jumping out of bed, she began pacing back and forth.

  “I can see the alarm clock is working now,” she said, gesturing to the small black box on Jared’s bedside table. She almost cackled with happiness, but stopped herself. She didn't want to sound as crazy as she felt.

  Jared followed the direction of her pointing finger and nodded slowly. “Any reason why it shouldn’t be?”

  Eve ran her fingers through her hair. “Secrets. Secrets are the problem here.” She stopped pacing and stared pointedly at Jared. “I have a lot of secrets.”

  Jared put his book on his side table and stood next to the bed. “We all have secrets. Some secrets we can share and some we can’t. I get that. I knew that was the deal when we got married.”

  “Yeah, but I think it’s a mistake now. A mistake.” She started pacing again. Then she stopped all of a sudden as pain sliced through her heart. “Cassie?”

  Jared threw his arms up and let them drop. “She’s in bed! Asleep! It’s six in the morning, Eve. And you know she has a fever. She finally fell asleep after moaning all night.” He switched to pleading. “Please don’t wake her.”

  Jared came around the other side of the bed and took Eve’s hands in his. “Is that what this is about? Did you have a bad dream about Cassie?” He looked over his shoulder. “Did it have something to do with the alarm clock?”

  “No. Not the alarm clock. Or maybe the alarm clock, I don’t know.” Eve was too agitated to think straight. Could it all have been a dream? But it felt so real!

  Jared’s finger came up under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “Eve, I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath…and then tell me about this dream you had.”

  Eve did as he asked, mainly because she couldn’t think of anything else to do, but also because she wanted to tell him. No more secrets. She wanted to not be the only one in the room experiencing this horror. She knew that was selfish, but something inside her told her it was okay this time. It was okay to burden Jared with her truth.

  The deep breathing helped clear her mind a bit and made it easier for her to decide what needed to be done.

  “Okay,” Eve said, stepping back from her husband. “I’m ready to talk. But I need you to sit down.”

  “Sit down,” Jared said in a joking tone. “Whoa, this must be good.”

  “It’s not good. It’s horrifically awful. And the worst part is, I think it’s really about to happen.”

  “Do I want to hear this?” Jared said, slowly lowering himself to the mattress. He wasn’t joking around anymore.

  “No. But I’m going to tell you anyway. And I’m going to tell you all my secrets while I’m at it.”

  “Your secrets? Like what you’re doing at the Institute?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Babe, I…”

  Eve held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t try to talk me out of it. It’s too important. Just hear me out.”

  * * *

  “Do you have everything you need?” Jared asked Eve for the tenth time.

  “Yes, I’m all set. I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t sure she was being completely honest, but it didn’t matter. She had to do what she had to do; there would be no second-guessing or chickening out. The future of the world and mankind were at stake.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Jared rubbed her back, a sure sign he was in panic mode. “Maybe I should come with you.”

  “No, you stay here with Cassie.”

  Cassie. Their daughter, their beautiful angel, not the freakish science experiment that rose up in Eve’s nightmares to haunt her forever. “You promised you’d take her to the doctor as soon as the office opens.”

  Jared pulled Eve into a hug. “Yes, I know I promised, okay? I’m sure it’s nothing; you know these kid germs are all over the place. But I’ll take her, I swear it. We’ll be leaving right after you.” He pushed Eve away from him a little so he could look into her eyes. “I don’t like this at all. I want to go on record saying that.”

  “I know you don’t. But do you like the alternative better? Me doing nothing and hoping my nightmare was just too many beans in my burrito last night?”

  “Babe, you’re preaching to the choir, all right? I’ve been predicting something like this is going to happen for years. The fact that you could be involved in bringing the end of light to our world is a little more th
an freaky, I’ll give you that, but hey…I’m a believer. You had me at ‘Friar’s Lantern.’”

  Eve nodded, tempted to smile at her husband’s charm but way too stressed about her mission to give in to the impulse. “I’ll meet you at the airport after I leave for lunch. I have to hang around and act like it’s just any other day. If they suspect something’s up, I could have big problems.”

  “And if you don’t show up at lunchtime, I’m going to ride in there with the cavalry behind me. I’m not kidding.” Jared stroked her cheek.

  “I know you’re not. And that’s why I love you so much.”

  Eve and Jared shared a passionate kiss, Eve lingering just a little longer than normal, relieved to be awake and alive. The fact that Jared had not died in a gun battle trying to save their daughter’s life felt like a miracle, like the universe had handed her a second chance that she could not mess up, no matter what.

  “I won’t screw this up,” she whispered.

  Jared kissed her nose. “I know you won’t.”

  “How do you know?” she asked, needing to hear his words of comfort.

  “Because. You’re my wife, and I don’t marry slackers.” He pinched her butt and turned her around by the shoulders. “Hop to it, soldier. I have work to do here. Sick kid and all that.”

  Eve left the house for the Institute, her heart a bit lighter but the entire rest of her body on edge.

  * * *

  Getting through security was a no-brainer. She did the same thing this morning that she did every other morning when she came to work, only this time she did it sweating bullets and wondering if she was going to die of a heart attack before she even got to her workstation.