Before long, the job was complete. With barely a look in her direction, Jeffrey left the room along with Jerome to begin preparations for their trip. As Lisa watched them go, she heard Akwen say something beside her. Focusing her attention on the tall, Cameroonian woman, she said, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Looking at her with impatience, Akwen repeated her previous statement. “I said, ‘I need your help upstairs. Go check on Doc, den meet me dere.’” As the dark-skinned woman headed out of the central chamber, she paused and glanced over her shoulder at Lisa. “And by da way, get your head on straight first. I don’t know what dat little spat between you and Jeffrey was about, but now is not da time to be distracted.” Turning back around, Akwen disappeared into the hallway.
As much as she didn’t like the woman’s attitude of superiority, she had to admit to herself that Akwen was right. Lisa’s training in the Marines had taught her to concentrate under extreme pressure. Yet somehow, this was different. This was too personal to just brush aside. Her thoughts still dwelling on Akwen’s words, Lisa exited the chamber, shut the hidden door, and went to visit Dr. Eisenberg.
Opening the door to the bedroom that the women had been using, Lisa stepped inside and closed it softly behind her. Because this room was the closest to the main entrance, and was one of the only areas in the pyramid with a bed, it became the default emergency ward. Furthermore, with a second bed nearby, it allowed Lisa a chance to rest, yet, be close enough that she could respond quickly should her patient need anything.
As with every other time she had checked on the doctor’s condition, she felt her pulse quicken anxiously, wondering if he would still be alive. Unconsciously, she held her breath as she stepped closer to the still form and searched for any signs of life.
She let out her breath in relief as she noticed the gentle rise and fall of the older man’s chest. Reaching out toward the controls on the wall, Lisa turned up the lights in the room well enough for her to see, yet not so much as to disturb her sleeping patient. “I’m glad to see you’re still with us, Doc,” she whispered. As she went about the task of reading his vital signs, Lisa continued to speak to her unresponsive friend. “We need you to stay with us. Don’t you go checking out early. You’re strong. Just hold on until Jeffrey and Jerome get back. They’re going to get some help from…”
Lisa paused, as once more the reality of her predicament hit her full force. “Doc, we need you. We need your wisdom and advice. What do we do? What do I do? I…I’ve really messed things up. How can I even begin to—”
The door to the room suddenly opened, causing her to stop mid-sentence. Looking over toward the entrance, she felt the bitter rock of her own guilt drop down, landing hard in the pit of her stomach at the sight of the woman who had once been her best friend; the woman who had been with her in the Marines; the woman who had travelled with her to 2021PK.
The woman she had betrayed.
“How is he?” Rebecca asked, her voice cold and clipped.
For a second, Lisa struggled to find her voice. Swallowing hard, she averted her gaze and looked down at Dr. Eisenberg as she responded. “He’s…he’s still alive. Actually, his vitals are somewhat surprising. For someone who has lost as much blood as he has, he’s doing very well. He appears to be stabilizing. If we can just get him to a doctor, I…I think he’ll pull through.”
Despite the awkwardness her proximity produced, Rebecca stepped closer to Lisa and studied the face of the wounded man. Several moments passed in silence as the two women, bound by their love for their friend, stood side by side next to his bed. Finally, Rebecca leaned down and kissed his forehead. “We’ll be back soon, Doc.”
Without even acknowledging Lisa’s presence, Rebecca straightened and headed toward the door. Lisa stood staring at the wall, her body as rigid as a block of granite. She wanted to say something, anything, but as soon as the words and sentences formed in her mind, she quickly discarded them. Then, just as Rebecca opened the door and was preparing to leave, she managed to get a phrase past the blockade in her throat. “I…I’ll take good care of him, Becky.”
Rebecca froze, the door obscuring her face from Lisa. “You had better. And by the way, my name is Rebecca. Only my friends call me Becky.”
Hot tears dropped from Lisa’s eyes to land noiselessly onto the bed next to the sleeping doctor as her one time friend closed the door with a thud.
3
Rodinia
Once the installation of the new core was completed, Jeffrey, Jerome, Rebecca, Mack, and Goliath assembled at the entrance to the pyramid, the few meager possessions they felt would be useful on this trip tucked away in their backpacks.
“Okay, Akwen,” Jeffrey said into his commlink, “we’re ready to leave. Open the front door.” Before he had even finished his sentence, the two thick slabs of stone that covered the entrance began sliding along their tracks and moved up into the space between the inner and outer walls of the structure.
“Dere you go. Be careful. And hurry back,” came Akwen’s reply through the comm.
Despite the calm demeanor with which she spoke, Jeffrey had been working with the Cameroonian long enough to tell by the subtle tension in her voice that she was as worried as the rest of the group. Just the fact that the normally stoic woman was expressing her concern for them at all reminded Jeffrey of just how serious their predicament had become. “We’ll check in every twenty minutes and swap updates. Good luck with fixing the ship. And hey, when you do get it fixed, don’t accidently set it off, okay? I think I can safely speak for the rest of the group when I say we don’t want to be stuck here.”
Jeffrey’s attempt at humor elicited only a short “hmph” from the other end of the line. Setting his commlink to standby, Jeffrey looked over at Mack. “Do you have the technical journals containing all of the pyramid specs?”
“Yeah. They’re right here,” the language specialist confirmed as he patted his backpack.
“Good, then let’s get moving,” Goliath said, his voice muffled by the helmet. Activating the cloaking device, the suit shimmered briefly before its silver metallic sheen changed into the likeness of a dark-skinned man dressed in leather garb, similar to that of a Roman centurion. Once the armor had completed its transformation, Goliath strode out of the entrance and into the sunlight.
As the giant passed, Jerome eyed the four-foot-long sword strapped to Goliath’s back in a makeshift scabbard. Grabbing Jeffrey’s arm, Jerome indicated for him to wait as Rebecca and Mack exited the pyramid to follow the giant.
“What is it?” Jeffrey asked once the others were out of earshot.
“I still don’t like the idea of Goliath carrying around Nimrod’s sword,” Jerome whispered. “With its ability to shoot energy off the blade, it’s every bit as powerful as the laser pistol Rebecca’s carrying.”
“Which is why we need him to have it,” Jeffrey countered. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re a little short on weapons. If we happen to encounter any resistance, I think you’ll change your opinion. Whether we like it or not, we’re all in this together. Now c’mon.”
Swallowing his concern, Jerome frowned as he followed Jeffrey down the steps and out onto the open plain. Within a matter of moments, the two of them caught up with the others. As Jeffrey pulled up alongside the giant, he scanned the landscape that stretched out before them. “So what do you think is our quickest route?” he asked.
Goliath continued to stare straight ahead as he replied. “We should stay on these rolling hills for as long as possible. However, in order to avoid the city, we’re going to have to turn northeast and cut through the forest before long. After that, we climb those hills on the other side, circle around, and approach from the east.”
Jeffrey’s brows furrowed as he considered the giant’s suggested route. “Why the east side?”
“For two reasons: First, I don’t see an entrance on this side of the Ark, so I assume it’s on the other side, and second, it’ll keep us from being se
en by anyone in the city,” Goliath said.
“Hey!” Mack suddenly called from behind them, his voice taking on an unmistakable New York accent. “Where’s da fire? I’m havin’ ta jog back ’ere to keep up. Slow down a little, will ya?”
The giant turned his head slightly and regarded Mack out of the corner of his eye. “Unless you feel like travelling through a dense forest filled with who-knows-what lurking in the shadows and climbing a steep, unfamiliar hill in the dark, we have to keep up the pace. The sun is already passed its zenith, and we don’t have much sunlight left. We’ll be fortunate if we can make it before dark. So I hope you’re ready for some exercise.”
A blank look crossed Mack’s face as understanding dawned on him. “Uh…you’s-a point is well seen,” he replied in a high pitched, odd-sounding voice that sounded to Rebecca like something from a slapstick cartoon character. The wolf-like giant shook his head in obvious disgust at the linguist’s silly accent and returned his attention back to scanning the countryside.
Jogging next to Mack, Rebecca looked at him with concern. “How’re you doing?”
Mack cast her a sidelong glance. His expression was somewhat hard to read, due to the artificial sunglasses created by the holographic projectors imbedded under his skin. “Well, other than the sheer terror brought on by the prospect of being drowned in a gigantic tsunami, or the panic that’s causing every nerve in my body to fire simultaneously, I think I’m doing okay,” he responded nonchalantly.
Rebecca’s face reflected her own anxiety. “I know what you mean. Let me tell you a little secret I learned a long time ago. Keep your mind busy. Analyze things and focus on the moment. Don’t dwell on what might happen. With that in mind, let me ask you another question. How’s your asthma? Just about every other time you’ve been forced to run, you’ve needed your inhaler almost immediately.”
A look of profound surprise lit up Mack’s features. “You’re right! I should be wheezing worse than Darth Vader without his helmet! And with all of the recent stress, I should be getting walloped by one of my massive migraines from my technology implants right about now! What…why do you think…?”
“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied in astonishment. “The only thing I can think of is that there’s something in the atmosphere that’s making a difference. Even the wound that I got on my leg from that dinosaur back in the Tower of Babel isn’t bothering me as much as I thought it would. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but I seem to be doing alright.”
“Well, I for one hope it continues! I feel strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark!” Mack commented as he quickened his pace slightly.
“Yeah, me too,” Rebecca said, mostly to herself. Lost in pondering other possible implications of this new discovery, Mack’s movie reference went completely unheard and unappreciated.
“So, do you still think this is Earth?” Mack asked after a brief lull in the conversation. “From what we saw in orbit, this planet only has a single massive continent. How does that fit with your theory?”
“Quite nicely, actually,” Rebecca replied. “If there really was a global flood, it would mean huge changes in the crust of the earth and massive tectonic movement. The Bible talks about the ‘fountains of the great deep’ bursting open, which could very well account for the mid-Atlantic ridge.”
“But, I thought movement of the plates took long periods of time,” Mack stated. “Didn’t the Flood last only forty days and forty nights?”
Rebecca shook her head. “That’s a common error. The Bible says that the initial downpour lasted for forty days and nights. But if you read the account carefully, it clearly indicates that Noah and his family were in the Ark for over a year, I believe.”
“A year?” Mack repeated incredulously. “But, how could eight people possibly take care of that many animals for that long? And I always thought that forty days would have been pushing it.”
“We’ll probably find out first hand soon enough,” she replied. “As for your other question, the plates could move quickly under catastrophic conditions.1 Evolutionary scientists often make this common mistake. They look at the way things happen in the present, and assume that things have always happened that way.”
“Wait…don’t tell me,” Mack said. “I’ve heard you guys mention this before. It’s called…uni…uniform…itism, right?”
Rebecca smiled. “You’re close. Uniformitarianism. It means, ‘the present is the key to the past.’ But, what scientists fail to take into account is that catastrophes can produce similar results to the slow, gradual processes, but in much less time.”
“But, then how would you ever be able to tell if something was formed in a catastrophe or by slow processes?” Mack wondered.
“Well, first you need a good reason to believe that a catastrophe occurred.”
“Would an ancient document stating that there was a worldwide flood count as a good reason?” Mack asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, I think it would,” she replied. “Also, there are other geological indicators.”
“Like what?”
Rebecca’s expression dropped slightly. “Unfortunately, I don’t know off the top of my head. Even when I first believed in Creation, I didn’t believe that Noah’s Flood was universal. Everything I’m telling you now was stuff that I read years ago, but dismissed as not being true. I’ve only just switched my understanding of things since we’ve been on this trip. I really wish I’d have paid more attention to it. We’ll have to do some more research using Elmer’s memory when we get time.”
Mack was silent for nearly a minute as he processed this information. “You know, I’ve never really gotten into science that much—except science fiction. But, this little adventure through time has really taught me a lot. So, does the Bible give a name to this pre-flood supercontinent?”
Rebecca searched through her memory in an effort to find the answer to Mack’s question. Finally, after several moments, her face brightened. “The Bible doesn’t give it a name, but I believe that one of the articles I read gave it a name. It’s on the tip of my tongue. It was some Russian word that started with an ‘r.’ I think it meant ‘home,’ or something like that.”
“Was it ‘Rodinia’?” Mack offered.
“Yes! That’s it,” Rebecca confirmed. “What does it mean?”
“It means ‘homeland.’”
“Rodinia,” Rebecca repeated as she looked at the beauty that surrounded them. “Yes. This is our homeland.”
Rebecca, Mack, and the others continued jogging for more than an hour, stopping only on occasion for brief rests, even though they were surprised and amazed at how little rest they actually needed. Due to the rate at which the group travelled, they soon found themselves at the point where Goliath had indicated the need to turn into the woods. As they drew nearer to the massive trees, they slowed their pace in wonder. For although the trees themselves were similar to the kind that the travelers were familiar with, the immense size of the majestic trunks and long, flowing branches filled the onlookers with awe.
“Look at the size of these trees!” Jeffrey exclaimed. “I’ve seen the redwoods, but these are even bigger. You could make an entire house out of one of these trunks!”
“Man, I feel like I just stepped into the woods of Lothlorian!” Mack said, his neck craned back to look up at the branches far above them.
“Incredible,” Jerome muttered to himself. “What do you—”
“Quiet!” Goliath hissed, causing Jerome and the others to freeze instantly.
The only warning they had was a low growl that emanated from a pile of brush near a fallen tree. Suddenly, a large animal the size of a lion charged straight toward Rebecca. While it looked somewhat like a feline, it was unlike any cat that she had ever seen. Its short fur was a dark brown color peppered in various places with shades of gray. The head and shoulders of the animal were devoid of any kinds of markings, but the midsection had black spots that turned into stripes near its hindquarters
and legs. Its front paws were much wider and thicker than any large cat she had ever seen, and its head was more angular. Instead of fangs, the animal had strangely-shaped teeth that resembled blades or knives, and its eyes, which were locked directly upon her, promised death.
As soon as she saw the creature, Rebecca took off running in the opposite direction, knowing in her heart that it wouldn’t do any good. Remembering her laser pistol, she reached into her jacket and tried to pull it out as she ran; all the while, she could hear the beast closing in on her.
Then, with the giant cat now less than five feet away, a loud crack echoed through the woods, accompanied by a brilliant flash. A moment later, the smell of charred flesh wafted through the air, carried by a gentle breeze as the forest once more returned to its previous tranquil state.
Her heart still pounding loudly in her ears, Rebecca looked over toward the source of the light and sound to see Goliath standing with his sword pointed at the animal. “Th…thank you,” she managed, after swallowing several times in an attempt to regain her voice.
“Whoa! That thing is HUGE!” Mack said incredulously. “You could probably put a saddle on it and take it for a ride! I bet it would even give a warg a run for its money! Wow, I didn’t even know they ever came that big!”
By now, Jeffrey, Jerome, and Goliath had moved toward the creature to examine it more closely. “They don’t come this big. At least not anymore. And actually, I don’t think it’s even a cat at all. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a marsupial.”
Escaping the Cataclysm Page 3
