Escaping the Cataclysm

by Keith Robinson

  Peering through the curtain of rain that struck her face, Rebecca left Jeffrey’s side and looked over the edge of the platform, her pulse quickening. “It’s Sikaris! He’s pushing us!”

  Jerome, Mack, and Dr. Eisenberg, who were all in the back of the circular vehicle, followed her gaze, their eyes widening in shock. “Thank you, Lord!” the doctor breathed in relief. “You have not forsaken us!”

  Turning their attention back to the wave, Rebecca and her companions watched in fascinated horror as it passed beneath them by little more than a dozen feet. Sobered by the complete destruction caused by the wave, they stood in silence for several moments.

  However, once the threat of the tsunami had dissipated, Goliath grabbed the controls again, attempting to regain command of the platform and turn it around to head back toward the Ark. When the machine didn’t respond, he turned his helmeted head toward Rebecca questioningly. “That angel friend of yours is not relinquishing control of the platform. He’s taking us back to Valhalla. But why?”

  The companions exchanged confused glances as Sikaris guided them through the open doors of the hangar that housed the time machine. Setting the machine down, Sikaris, who now appeared only half as tall as before, stood to face them, his expression calm, but intense. “You must hurry! This structure will not last much longer!” he said. Even as he finished speaking the words, a tremor shook the building, causing pieces of the ceiling to fall to the floor around them.

  “But, where are we to go?” Dr. Eisenberg asked as he climbed out of the circular platform, his wounded side throbbing. “The pyramid doesn’t work!”

  Sikaris smiled reassuringly. “Yes, it does! I don’t have time to explain now. Just trust me.”

  The travelers exchanged shocked glances, and then sprang into immediate action. Akwen and Goliath headed directly for the entrance to the pyramid while Mack and Jerome lifted Jeffrey carefully out of the platform, Lisa following close behind.

  Stepping over to where Sikaris stood, Rebecca smiled weakly up at him. “I never thought I’d see you again. Thank you for saving us.”

  “Thank our Father,” he replied. “Now, I must go. There is still much work to be done.”

  Turning away from her, he walked back toward the open doors. “Wait!” Rebecca called after him. As he turned to face her, she rushed toward him and wrapped him in a warm embrace. At first, the angel was startled by the contact. However, after a moment, he folded his strong arms around her.

  Breaking the embrace, Rebecca stepped back. “Will I ever see you again?” she asked.

  “Most assuredly,” Sikaris replied. “But for now, I have another mission to complete.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked in concern.

  Reaching out with his right hand, he touched her forehead gently. “Father, open her eyes,” he prayed.

  Suddenly, Rebecca gasped in shock. Looking through the open doorway, she saw that the sky was filled with angelic beings battling against a horde of demonic foes. Yet, far in the distance, she saw a beacon of light on a hill. The more she studied it, however, the more it became clear that the light did not emanate from one source, but was actually the combined brilliance of many smaller lights formed in an oval shape. In the center of the blinding radiance was a large, rectangular wooden vessel.

  “Oh…” Rebecca breathed in sudden understanding, a tear sliding down her cheek. “Those lights are angels, aren’t they?” she asked. “They’re guarding the Ark!”

  “BECKY!” Mack yelled from the door of the pyramid. “Akwen’s bringing up the engines! We’ve gotta go!”

  “Yes, dear one,” Sikaris replied. “And I must join them, as you must join your friends. I will see you again soon. Rest assured, the battle belongs to the Lord! His purposes will be fulfilled.” With that, Sikaris turned and leapt out into the rain, his body taking flight over the rising waters.

  Rebecca turned, and then sprinted toward the entrance of the pyramid. Debris rained around her as the building shook. Leaping up the stairs, Rebecca dove into the time machine. Immediately, the door closed behind her and the whine of the engines increased. As she and Mack made their way up the stairs and into the control room, the pyramid and everything in it, began to fade.

  “It’s working!” Akwen shouted in triumph. “Da pyramid is phasing!”

  The now transparent machine began to rise up and out of the building. Silence descended heavily upon the travelers as they stared at the destruction around them. Valhalla began to crumble as the initial tsunami wave receded, causing the enormous undercurrent to scour the land. Lava had reached Asgard’s northern border and began eating away at the once beautiful city. Jeweled towers fell into the magma and burned brilliantly while magnificent marble walls melted like wax.

  Water continued to shoot forth from beneath the crust of the earth and torrents of rain fell from the blackened sky, causing the water level to rise quickly. The once mighty river that had separated the northern and southern sides of the city now merged with the floodwaters. The entire city was completely submerged, as was much of the terrain for miles. Only remnants of the northern portion of the city of the Aesir and Vanir still stood atop the plateau. However, the travelers knew that before long, even that would disappear.

  God’s judgment had been swift and sure. The wickedness of mankind and their demonic deceivers had been obliterated.

  As the pyramid ascended higher and higher into the sky, the last thing that Rebecca saw was a lonely ship sitting atop a grassy hill. Inside its walls was the hope of mankind: the last remnant of animals and humans who would survive to repopulate the earth.

  Arngrim slowly opened his eyes and realized that he lay on the floor of his workshop. His head throbbed and he could feel a giant lump forming on the back of his head. Outside the chamber, he could hear strange rumbling and swishing sounds. The lights around him flickered several times, threatening to go out completely. Moving carefully over to his worktable, he pulled out a hand-held lamp-like object. Shaking it so that it began to glow, he held it aloft and scanned the room.

  As his eyes came to rest upon the dead Naphil soldier lying in the middle of the floor, memory of the recent events came rushing back to him. Immediately his heart began beating rapidly, like some wild animal was trapped within his chest and fought to get out. The Cataclysm! his mind screamed in panic. Has it…Am I…trapped?! Rushing over to the door as fast as his aching body would carry him, he tried to open it. He pulled and pulled on the handle, crying out wildly in terror and panic. “NOOOO!” he screamed in anguish as he collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

  After several minutes, his rational mind began to regain control of his body. Climbing to his feet, he spoke out loud to himself in an effort to calm his nerves and think clearly. “Those pathetic humans must have sealed the chamber. That means I have only a few hours of air left. My only hope is to…to try to get this pyramid to work. It has to work!”

  As he began to cross back to his worktable, he tripped over the dead body of the wolf-like, Naphil soldier. Swearing, he kicked the thing in the side. The lights flickered again, and he knew that before long, he would be left with nothing more than his portable lamp for light. Staring down at the dead creature, Arngrim felt as if its sightless eyes were mocking him. Not wanting to be left in the dark with the dead thing, Arngrim grabbed the edges of the soldier’s armor and dragged the body toward the storage room along the eastern wall. Opening the door, he pulled it inside and dropped it. His task complete, Arngrim hurried out of the room and closed the door behind him.

  Crossing back over to his worktable, he heard the crunching sound of broken pottery and glass on the floor. Remembering the violent shaking caused by the earthquakes, he realized that many of his tools, containers of oil, grease, and other items had fallen off their shelves and were now scattered around the room, most completely unusable.

  Sitting down at the table, he began pouring over his technical journals, searching desperately for any possible way to alter the desi
gn of the pyramid. Eventually, the lights went out permanently, leaving him in complete silence and darkness except for the glowing lamp. Desperate, he lost all awareness of time as he scoured through his own designs, seeking some small hope.

  Before long, Arngrim’s eyelids began to droop and he felt an acute sense of weariness sweep over him. Putting the hood of his robe over his head to keep out the chill, he leaned over his worktable and placed his head against it. Maybe I’ll just rest for a moment, he thought sleepily. Just for a moment…

  Several days later, the glow of the portable light began to dim, then slowly went out, plunging the chamber into complete darkness, where it would remain undisturbed for thousands of years…

  27

  Goliath’s Story

  As the pyramid entered orbit around the earth and began travelling through time, Rebecca felt every ounce of strength drain swiftly out of her body. Feeling weak, she sank down onto the floor of the control room.

  We made it! she thought as she rested her hands against her head.

  Although she felt like crying, her body had long since used up its store of tears. Instead, she sat unmoving, her mind and body numb from the recent trauma and stress. Thank you, Father, for getting us through this, she prayed. Now if only Jeffrey… Her eyes flew open in sudden remembrance. Standing quickly, she stepped passed Mack, Jerome, and Dr. Eisenberg, who were all sitting on the floor, each lost in his own thoughts.

  Catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, Akwen turned her head and watched Rebecca leave. As the Cameroonian began turning back around, she suddenly spotted a metallic object sitting against the wall. “Elmer!” she cried. Leaving her post at the controls, she ran over to inspect the robot. Seeing no sign of damage, she spoke a quick command. “Elmer, power on.”

  Without hesitation, the droid’s gravity control devices began to whir as Elmer’s head rose up out of its body. “Greetings, Dr. Nancho. How may I be of service?” it asked in its high tenor voice.

  Akwen laughed as her eyes filled with tears of joy. “Elmer, you’re alright.”

  “That is an odd statement, Dr. Nancho,” the machine replied. “Why wouldn’t I be alright?”

  Smiling at the droid’s response, she explained. “Because da pyramid was taken over by an evil man while you were powered off. He told us dat you had been destroyed.”

  “He was clearly mistaken,” Elmer said calmly. “All of my systems are fully functional.”

  “Arngrim probably wanted to study him later,” Dr. Eisenberg said. “He lied to us.”

  “Well, I’m very glad you’re still functional!” Akwen said, then made her way back to the controls. “Now, I would appreciate it if you would plug into da ship and help me out.”

  “It would be my pleasure to assist you,” Elmer replied as the droid hovered over to the computer terminal that Akwen and her crew had installed in the pyramid when it had first been discovered.

  As Akwen arrived in front of the console, she noticed Goliath studying the controls and dials, a frown on his face. “So when are we heading to now?” he asked Akwen. The stool that she had once used had been replaced by Arngrim with a throne-like chair that was much too large for her, forcing her to stand. It was, however, a perfect fit for Goliath, who now sat comfortably in it, his helmet resting on the floor next to him.

  “I don’t know,” she said. From the tone of her voice, Goliath could tell that she was not pleased by her own answer.

  “What do you mean?” the giant replied in a low voice that bespoke of his agitation. “Didn’t you set the machine to take us back to our own time?”

  Turning to face him directly, Akwen frowned. “I was in such a hurry to just get us out of dere, I didn’t want to take da risk of trying to go forward in time. We have never been able to do it before, and if it didn’t work, we wouldn’t have had time to try again. So, I just dialed da counter back and launched.”

  “How much farther back did you dial it?” Dr. Eisenberg said in sudden concern as he stood.

  Akwen swallowed uncomfortably. “Seventeen hundred years or so.”

  “Why so far?” Goliath asked.

  “I don’t know,” she replied in annoyance. “I just spun da counter. Only after I started da launch sequence did I realize how far it went back.”

  “Can’t you change it?” he said, leaning forward in the chair.

  “I don’t tink so, but we can try,” Akwen said. “Elmer, can we change our destination?”

  The droid communicated with the computer, then replied. “I am sorry to inform you that we cannot.”

  Akwen nodded. “We have to wait until we land. But it shouldn’t be a problem. In da past, our jumps only went a maximum of a tousand years or so. If dat is da case now, we should stop about…3350 B.C.”

  “Do you remember what date it read before we launched?” Dr. Eisenberg asked as he crossed over to look at the controls.

  Akwen nodded. “It was at minus 2732, I believe.”

  Dr. Eisenberg raised one of his eyebrows in mild surprise. “Something just dawned on me,” he said looking over at Mack, who still sat on the floor near Jerome. “Do you remember what number was on the time dial when we found the pyramid?”

  Mack looked pensive for a moment, and then replied. “Yeah, I think so. Wasn’t it…1650 or something like that?”

  Dr. Eisenberg nodded. “Close. It was 1655. Think about it. The dial stopped keeping time when it was sealed up in the chamber by Arngrim. So, the year 1655 must have been the year the Flood occurred when you count from the beginning of creation. That means…” He paused mid-thought as he did the calculations in his brain. “If we go back a thousand years, we will be at the year 655.”

  “At least we don’t have to worry about food,” Jerome stated. “From the looks of it, Arngrim stocked the pyramid with enough supplies to last us for several months.”

  “That’s all well and good,” Goliath said, “but does anyone have any idea how we’re going to fix this blasted ship so that we can get back home to our own time?”

  “I don’t know, but I tink we have a better chance now dat Arngrim removed da virus dat was controlling da pyramid before,” Akwen replied.

  “That sounds encouraging,” Dr. Eisenberg said hopefully. “But going back to my original concern, if we continue on until the time you set on the dial, then we’ll travel all the way back to the dawn of time!”

  Jerome’s head snapped up at the statement. “Is that even possible?”

  “It’s a moot point,” Goliath said, turning his head to look at the three men. “The pyramid will likely stop after a thousand years anyway. Besides, you’re assuming that the dawn of time was only six thousand years or so from our time. But, according to the big bang, this universe is billions of years old.”

  “You still don’t believe, do you?” Mack asked.

  “I know what we saw back there, and I believe it was real,” Goliath answered. “But as for the origin of the universe, no one knows what really happened. I’m not going to spend my life worrying about it. I’ve got enough problems.”

  “But what you believe about where life came from directly relates to what you think is going to happen to you when you die,” Dr. Eisenberg said. “What could be more important than that?”

  “Stop trying to convert me, old man,” Goliath spat back. “Let me live my life, and you live yours.”

  Saddened, the doctor remained silent as Goliath simply reclined in his chair and relaxed.

  “By the way,” Mack continued, “What happened to you when Thor attacked us near Arngrim’s shop? You sure saved our bacon!”

  Still staring ahead at the control console, Goliath responded. “When I came to my senses after being struck by that Naphil and saw Thor standing there, I quickly activated the cloaking device on my armor. Fortunately, Thor and his lackeys didn’t have enough time to count our group and the alley was narrow, allowing only one soldier in at a time. This made it much easier for me to hide.

  “I follo
wed them as they took you across the rainbow bridge,” he continued. “I will admit that it was quite tricky. Since the cloaking device only bends light, it causes some visual distortion as I move. This meant I had to move slowly and wait for the right opportunities, otherwise I would have been seen by Thor, his soldiers, or any of the other guards along the way.”

  He paused, then finally turned to face Mack and the others, his wolf-like features frowning slightly. “The most difficult part was at the guardhouse. I thought for sure that the god that stood at the gate had seen me. Fortunately, by the time he turned in my direction, I had moved into a shadowed corner and remained still, making me effectively invisible. Then, when I realized that you were all boarding that circular platform, I knew I would lose you if I didn’t do something. So, I shoved one of the guards from behind as he was climbing onto the vehicle.”

  “That guard stumbling was a diversion?” Mack asked with an amazed grin.

  Goliath nodded slowly, his own expression lightening at the memory. “While the two soldiers argued and Thor reprimanded them, I climbed up the opposite side of the machine and hunched down on the floor in front of you, next to the handrail.”

  Mack looked shocked. “You were there for the whole trip to Valhalla?”

  The giant’s grin widened.

  “You’re slicker than a Jedi master using a mind trick!” Mack stated.

  “But, if you were with us all the time, why didn’t you break us out of that dungeon earlier?” Jerome asked.

  “There wasn’t enough room in the lift for me to sneak in without being noticed,” Goliath explained, “so, I didn’t know where you had gone. By the time I figured out that you had gone up to the top floor, you were being taken down to the dungeon. It took me most of the night to prepare a plan to get you out, but by the time I was ready to put it into action, those guards came and took you to Arngrim. I followed, but knew there would be no way to overpower all of those guards by myself. So, I waited.”