by Brandt Legg
“You okay?” Amber asked. We were in some kind of dark, damp storage room.
“Yeah, great. What happened?”
“I Atomized you,” Flannery said.
“You can do that?”
“Not normally, but you can do it to yourself; you just don’t know how yet, so I kind of helped you.”
“Cool. Linh’s in B-Unit. Let’s Atomize ourselves over to there.”
“B-unit,” Flannery said, “that’s too far. Atomizing only works in very short distances. Or, I should say, that’s all I’m capable of doing. In theory it probably works across the universe but that’s beyond me.”
“Where are we?”
“The old chow hall. You remember the maps?”
Boom. Boom.
“That’s probably the new chow hall getting hit,” Flannery said.
Boom.
“Let’s get out of here,” Amber said.
“What about taking short hops to B-unit? Atomize, come out, Atomize, out again . . .”
“It’ll take too long,” Flannery said. “I have to do each of you separately. By the time we get there the unit will be blown up.”
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The building came down around us. “Get Amber to B-unit!” I yelled to Flannery as I Atomized myself. Now that I’d experienced it, I could do it.
I emerged in a courtyard littered with burning bodies. Two storm troopers fired but I was gone before their laser bullets reached me. Within my bodiless state, my intuition and timing were perfect. As Flannery said, there were limits – I went as far as possible in each Atomizing jaunt but pressure built to rematerialize. This time I burst onto the roof of a cellblock and was grateful for the smoke blocking the tower’s view.
Boom. Boom.
The building went out from under me.
Boom.
I Atomized in the falling fiery debris. There might be injuries to my body on my next emergence, I thought. Atomizing oneself was a power beyond all the others. I made a silent wish that the Movement’s enemies would never know this one.
The administration wing that housed the warden’s office felt safe, at least from the bombs. B-unit, sill intact, was visible from the window and just two buildings over.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
D-unit was gone.
I landed on A-unit’s roof. There was a break in the smoke and I could see inmates with laser guns fighting guards. They were going to level this place quick. Shots came from a nearby tower. Pain burned my arm and waist. I Atomized into B-unit.
Incredibly, Amber and Flannery found me on a metal stairway. They were fine, having mostly traveled underground. A minute of healing on my wounds from all three of us was all we had time for but it was enough to keep me going. Flannery used some kind of partial TVC to get us through a battle on the next floor.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
C-unit must have been hit. B-unit vibrated and a portion of its west wall collapsed. We scanned each floor as best we could and found Linh on the top level. She looked emaciated. Her cell was unlocked like all the others but she was chained to her bed. I knocked out the video cameras and then freed her from the restraints.
“I knew all this noise was your doing.” Linh said, trying to smile.
“We’re getting you out of here,” I said.
“The roof, hurry!” Flannery shouted.
Four stories above the prison, we surveyed our options amidst the war zone below. The parking lot was too far away and had been overrun with escaping convicts. The other exits, where employees parked, also had major fighting. Fires blocked most of our other routes.
“The river,” Amber yelled.
The Appomattox River waited beyond a ribbon of trees growing up a steep bank. Without hesitation I stepped off the roof and Skyclimbed toward the woods. Linh was light in my arms. Flannery had Amber on his back.
Boom. Boom.
B-Unit disappeared in a pile of rubble.
Boom.
The force of the explosion sent us crashing into a stand of pines. Somehow, I didn’t drop Linh. Flames licked at our heels. Struggling to Skyclimb through the burning woods, sick with smoke, still weak from my laser wounds, my every thought traced the Outviews. The Atomizing had shifted focus and priority from human survival to spiritual understanding. One of the mystics had once explained vibrational frequency to me, but I never really got it until I rearranged the energy that made up the physical Nate. The weight of the human world is felt both physically and mentally. Our body is at the slowest vibration. Once it dissipated, I felt freedom similar to the euphoric release experienced at my Outin death.
“Nate, Nate!” Linh’s terror-filled cries brought me back. She was on fire – we both were. Flames leaped and twisted in every direction. We came down in a rolling heap against a glowing, hot, razor-wire fence. Smothering, choking, screams. I was gone again.
Floating black water. The next time I awoke, someone was talking to me. “Nate, are you there?” Brittle skin. Smoke-crusted lungs.
“Linh?”
“No, it’s Amber.”
“Where’s Linh?” My eyes opened; it was dark. My night vision made everything blurry green.
“She’s okay.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Am I?”
“You need to work on yourself. Flannery and I have done all we can for you. He’s still helping Linh and the others.”
“What others? Where are we?”
“A few of Flannery’s inmate friends were at the river when we got there. They had a couple of rafts brought there by relatives on the outside. Quite a few injuries. We’re on the James River now – the Appomattox feeds into it.”
“How long has it been?”
“An hour, maybe longer.”
“No one’s after us?”
“They haven’t found us yet.”
“Those outboard motors will make it hard to hear helicopters . . . until it’s too late.”
“You worry too much.”
“I hear helicopters in my sleep.” I shivered.
I counted six figures in my raft, hard to say how many in the other, its silhouette barely visible, but both were big river rigs like the ones used by rafting companies back home on the Rogue.
“We were over the final fence when Flannery went back for you and Linh. The burns were horrible . . . it’s incredible how much the flesh can handle.”
“Linh?”
“She’s okay. You took the worst of the fire, but she was in rough shape before we got there. She’s in the other raft with Flannery.”
Lusans and the energy healings helped my vision return to normal and much of the pain to recede. I found Linh on the astral. “Hey, how are you doing?”
“Glad to be out of prison. Thanks for coming.”
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
“Kyle kept me company.”
“Really? I guess that’s why I haven’t heard his voice in my head for a while.”
“He told me about Fred Means, said you’d need help dealing with it.”
“Why’d he think you could help?”
“Because I knew Fred Means.”
43
We hit a rough section of water. Flannery interrupted the conversation, also speaking on the astral. “This day’s gonna make a helluva song.”
“It’s not over yet.”
“We’re not far from the Hampton Roads and then it’s a quick push out to the Atlantic. We’ll straddle the coast until we’re at the beach house. Might have time for a bite before sneaking back to the Cayce portal and safety. Shame to leave that Porsche behind though.”
“How come they haven’t come after us yet?”
“You saw Petersburg, they’ve got their hands full. Up until twenty minutes ago we could still see the glow from the fires. They don’t know she’s gone, yet.”
“I’ve made the mistake of underestimating Omnia too many times . . . they know.”
“Think positive, dude.”
“Thanks for saving us back in the fire.” The first few drops of rain hit my face.
“There can’t be a world without a Nate,” he said. “Hey, that could be a song.”
I returned to my astral conversation with Linh. “When did you meet Fred?”
“He came to question me two days ago. I knew right away he was you and it freaked me out because I thought he was there to help me.”
“Did you tell him anything you shouldn’t have?”
“I’m smarter than that. If he was a good guy, then he already knew everything I did. If he was bad – I thought of Dustin and Storch – then I wanted to be extra careful because he might have powers.”
“What happened?”
“It was strange, especially for him. Remember, you and I have had many past lives together, which means so have Fred and I. And he recognized me. I don’t want you to think he was enlightened in any way, but he had that feeling that people get when they meet someone for the first time who is already familiar to them.”
“Did he say anything?”
“He didn’t have to. His every question about my involvement in the Movement demonstrated his confusion. Fred Means knew it was impossible, knew it was wrong for a hundred reasons but in those hours we spent together, he was overwhelmed with love.”
“But he didn’t recognize me as sharing his soul?” I said.
“He didn’t love you and miss you with the desperation that crosses centuries,” Linh said. “He’s part of you, sometimes that’s harder to see.”
“Then why don’t I feel that same desperation when I look at you?” I regretted it as soon as the words were out.
Linh was quiet for a moment. “Because Fred could never have me in this life and you already do.”
It was my turn to be quiet.
“You just don’t realize it yet,” she added. “In a cruel test by the universe, you’ve not witnessed the right Outviews.”
“And I love you anyway . . . in this life.”
“You got yourself out of that one,” Linh said.
Amber interrupted, touching my hand and pointing to the lights blinking on the infrared cameras mounted to a bridge we were about to pass under. I broke off the astral and threw us into a TVC.
Pain from maintaining the TVC felt like small shards of broken glass in my stomach. I bit my lip bloody waiting for the choppers to pursue and fire upon our rafts. Kyle, back in my head, said, “Fear is a plague.”
“Are they coming?” I asked, relieved my old friend was providing guidance.
“They are here.”
A pair of flying gunship engines screamed overhead. Blades cut through the darkness. Whop! Whop! Whop! That sound had terrorized me for years.
“The TVC held,” Amber said.
The helicopters banked sharply, heading straight back, bearing down.
“Omnia may have found a way to crack a TVC,” I yelled. “For all we know, these choppers flew in from another dimension.”
“We’ll be okay,” Amber said.
“Nothing is sure, there’s no safety,” I growled.
“Steady,” Kyle warned.
“Kyle, you’re still there?” I panted. The choppers skimmed the water, their roar torturously loud.
Amber screamed. They missed our heads by inches . . . less.
“They don’t see us!” I shouted. “Kyle, are we safe?” He was gone. That made me think we were all right. Maybe he’d only been there for Linh.
Before we reached the ocean there were three more flyovers, the final one’s super-bright searchlight blinding Amber and two of the inmates. Flannery handled their healings, while I maintained the TVC. Chesapeake Bay emptied into the Atlantic. Our exposure remained the same but seeing an old brick lighthouse with my night vision brought a sense of déjà vu. The ocean felt safer. Three miles straight down the beach we’d be at Booker’s beach house. Before I could warn Amber that the TVC would fall apart, an Outview overtook me.
Two hundred years earlier, I raced through the jungle, afraid I’d be late and the man wouldn’t wait. I’d never been to El Castillo, the old lighthouse on the coast. As a young girl, I’d heard tales of the Mayan coastal city of Tulum, and even whispers of the sacred box that came from there. The Jadeo’s legend had been known, but not believed, for generations; by the time of my birth it had faded to myth and to those that would come after, it would be nothing at all. The reason Nares had chosen this remote place puzzled me, yet I would not have questioned him. He commanded respect among the greatest of our people, so I, a very young woman, a mere peasant, did what he said.
The narrow trail was hardly a trail at all and I worried I’d be lost in the jungle. Finally, the trees surrendered to the cliffs and what was left of ancient Tulum’s white and gray, carved stone buildings appeared. The lighthouse stood, though in ruins.
“You’ve come, Bola.” His arms pulled me up firmly. I knew no one stronger nor gentler. His kiss, containing more passion than my entire village, brought us to our knees and we rolled into the tall grass. It was only then that I looked into his hazel eyes and saw, past the wisdom and courage of Nares, the soul of Linh. “There is little time.” We kissed again.
“I’m sorry; it was a long way and twice I lost the path.”
“I had to see you before I leave.”
“But where are you going?”
“The future.”
“I don’t understand.”
His eyes penetrated mine and I could swear he spoke to me without speaking, but as the young peasant woman, psychic communication made no sense to me. “I would take you if I could,” he said.
“Please, Nares, you must take me. We could be together where you are going.” Our families forbade our union. “Pleeeeease,” I begged.
“Oh, Bola, if it were possible I would, if I could stay and find a place for us . . . but I must go. So much depends on it.”
“Someone else can go.”
“Others are going. Our efforts affect the past and histories not yet written. I wish I could make you understand but it is beyond my own understanding, and words do not come easy to me, you know this.”
“When will you return?”
“I will not.”
“Why must this be?” I cried and pulled at him. “Where is the fairness?”
“Life is not fair.” He ran his large rough hands through my long black hair, framing my face and kissing me softly, repeatedly. “Leaving you would be impossible if I were not sure we would meet again.”
“But you said you were not coming back,” I said through tears.
“We will meet again in another lifetime, and others.” He held me close and whispered forcefully in my ear.
“Even if that is true, it is far away. It is too much to ask, too long to wait,” I said.
“A lifetime is shorter than anyone knows. Don’t waste it on what might have been. Everything will be . . .” He gently pushed me back so our eyes could speak again. “Don’t you see, Bola? Everything will happen, everyone gets it all, sooner or later. And we will have our time. I promise we’ll be together and have more than our share.”
Something caught his attention behind me. I turned and saw a circle of yellow light open in the sky above El Castillo.
“I must go.”
“No, please don’t.”
“Bola, be strong.” A long kiss. He ran and scaled the lighthouse with an ease that seemed unnatural and leapt from the top higher than was possible. I watched, stunned, as he was pulled into the yellow light and vanished.
Without thinking, I ran to the base of El Castillo and clawed my way up, reaching the top, bloodied and breathless. Using all my remaining strength, I jumped toward where the light had been. Nothing pulled me in. Legs kicking, arms flailing, I plummeted to the ground. Dead.
44
I surfaced from the Outview screaming.
“Your name is Nathan Ryder, you’re nineteen, you’re from Ashland, Oregon,” Amber said.
“No, No! I’m
Bola, where is Nares?”
“Nate, where were you? What happened?”
I searched my memories, they gutted me. “He’s gone. We were in Mexico. Where was . . . What future?”
“Nate?”
“Damn it!” I sat up.
“What happened to you?”
“Is living all pain?” I said, softly.
“Attachment brings suffering,” Kyle said in my head.
“Kyle? Save me, man!”
“Where’s Kyle?” Amber asked.
“Kyle?” I yelled, but he was gone. “Where’s Linh?”
“She’s inside, asleep. We’re back at Booker’s lake house. As soon as you slipped into the Outview the TVC crumbled. Before Flannery could get any protection up, they were on us. I pushed you out of the raft and jumped. Flannery Skyclimbed over the water with Linh in his arms and reached us just as the machine gunfire ripped through the first raft. I’m not sure what he did. Some kind of a Timefold or modified TVC combined with Atomizing, hard to say, but we streaked through the waves in a fast-forward blur until we crashed onto the beach right in front of Booker’s beach house.”
“How did we get here?”
“I think Flannery Atomized you, because you vanished. I kept screaming at him, asking where you were, but some force was pushing me toward the old Cayce building. It was like having the worst headache and my legs felt like rubber. He carried Linh as we raced through the streets; it was dark and deserted.”
“You obviously made it to the portal.”
“Yeah, that was a trip. All I saw were stars and colors. Flannery held my hand. I wanted to ask about you but I couldn’t speak. The portal was a maze, I think we were in several, but it’s impossible to recall any details until we reached Wizard Island. There was a car waiting on the road and it brought us here.”
“When did I show up?”
“Flannery went inside a few seconds before me. I followed him out to the deck, but when I got here, he was gone and you were lying on the chaise.”
