The Constant: Episode 1

by Booth, Trevor

  Sandra disappeared into the bedroom, Nathan couldn’t hold back his emotion any more, he cried for the first time in a very long time, but the tears would have to wait, a crashing at the door forced him to confront the situation, he slowly managed to drag himself across the floor with a trail of blood smeared behind him, he reached a small cupboard in the corner of the roam, he opened it and took out a face mask, he struggled to put the mask on just as the front door burst open.

  Three men in heavy black clothing carrying advanced machine guns stormed though, their laser sights pointed quickly at Nathan, Nathan coughed and sputtered as he laughed, the men crept slowly towards him, keeping their lasers fixed on him, Nathan looked across at the bedroom door, a brilliant flash of light filled the whole house momentarily, followed by an extremely high pitched squeal, they all tried to shield their eyes from the light and their ears from the sound.

  Gradually the sound and light faded.

  Nathan turned to see that two more men had entered the room, behind them standing in the doorway was a woman dressed in a dark red skin tight body suit, clothing so bold that only someone with an immaculate figure could pull it off, he hair was long and black, her face beautiful but cold, she took a few steps into the room then stopped dead.

  “No!” she screamed with anger, Nathan smiled at her, he looked down at his hand, he gently squeezed the small mobile phone like device he held, the screen lit up with a countdown appearing, five, four, three, the woman looked down at Nathan, she turned to run towards the door way but it was too late, zero appeared on the screen as it turned red.

  Around the house was a deep rumble, then explosion after explosion, the bombs ringed around the house so swiftly that anyone standing outside would not have time to escape, inside a siren sounded out as metal shielding rolled down over the windows and doors, the shielding was so well hidden inside the wooden beams above each window and door that you would be forgiven for thinking they were just ordinary planks of wood.

  The men in typical panicking style turned and started unloading their bullets on the wall, they fired blindly, the women in red turned and walked towards Nathan, she knelt down in front of him, her gaze so full of intent, this was a driven women, not one to go down so easily.

  Nathan looked up at the roof, a part of the roof retracted and a large metal vent dropped down, before the woman had a chance to even speak a word the vent kicked into gear, it was like a giant vacuum, it sucked with such power that it literally pulled all the air out of the room, they all quickly dropped to their knees, desperately gasping for air where there was none to be found.

  After only a couple of minutes the men starting dropping to the ground and passing out, the woman was far more tenacious, she stumbled around the room, refusing to give in, she reached down and grabbed one of the guns, she turned to face Nathan, the laser pointed directly at his head, but she did not pull the trigger, she paused, the look of confusion was written all over her face, she looked down to see blood pouring out of her chest, Nathan held a small smoking gun in his hand.

  The gun fell out of her hand; she dropped to her knees and cradled the wound, the vent above turned off, Nathan removed his mask and struggled over towards her, he got to his feet and stood above her, she turned her head and spat blood on the floor then wiped it off her mouth.

  “You have made a terrible mistake” said the woman, “You thought you were hunted before, now you will face my sisters wrath” she continued, Nathan looked down at her, “Why would you give your life for them?” he asked, “You would not understand, you have no honour” she replied, “I was like you, not so long ago, what’s your name?” said Nathan, “Don’t you dare look down on me, I will die with pride in my heart, not with the pity of a traitor” said the woman, “A traitor, is that what they told you?”.

  He held the gun to her head, “They will never find her” said Nathan as he pulled the trigger.

  He stood there for what seemed like hours, looking down at her, he never wanted to take another life, he was shocked out of his trance by the sound of crackling.

  He turned around to see that the walls of the kitchen were on fire, somewhere along the way they had caught alight, with the pain of the arrow wound still intense he knew there was nothing he could do except flee from the house, he quickly moved into the kitchen, the heat from the fire nearly cooking him as he rummaged through the draws, he found some old bandaging and a bottle of alcohol rub, he grabbed them he made his way to the front door.

  He burst through the door, thick black smoke bellowing out behind him, stumbling he dropped to the grass a few meters from the burning house. He bit open the bottle of alcohol with his teeth then painfully poured it all over the wound in the stomach and his back.

  Sheer grit kept him from fainting as he wound the bandage around himself several times, tying it off as tight as he could, to stop the bleeding, he looked up at his home, the heat from the blaze radiating in his eyes, his heart lurched in pain, tears for the family he had lost blurring his vision, the pain in his heart and the pain of his wound overcame him and he slipped into a dead faint.

  For nearly two days he flitted in and out of consciousness, partly because of his wounds and partly because he simply didn’t want to wake up, the isolation of his home meant that no one was going to come past any time soon, even with the giant cloud of smoke rising from the forest.

  Eventually he was awakened by an unexpected thing, his face was being licked by a beautiful golden retriever, Nathan pushed the dogs face away gently and struggled to sit up, the dog snuggled in, nice and close to him, barking playfully at him, Nathan smiled for a moment.

  “What’s your name boy?” asked Nathan before his attention was taken away by the smouldering rubble that lay before him.

  The fire had taken virtually everything with it, all that was left was piles of ash and the chimney in the middle, Nathan struggled to his feet and walked around the remains of his former home, everywhere he walked memories of his wife and children flooded through his mind, long winter nights snuggled in by the fire place and games at the table, his mouth trembled as he looked around.

  The dog walked through the rubble with him, like it could sense that he needed a companion, it walked as close as Nathan would allow it to, Nathan picked at the rubble, looking for anything he could salvage, but there was nothing, suddenly the dog ran over to the chimney and started barking and digging at it.

  “What is it?” Nathan said looking confused.

  The dog ignored him and dug at the base of the chimney, Nathan had to know what the fuss was all about, as he walked over the dog stopped digging and stepped back, the dog barked at the chimney, Nathan walked in close, he patted the dog, he was always fond of animals.

  Below the ashes at the base of the chimney was a large silver box, Nathan had never seen it before, it must have been below the floor boards, he picked up the box, pain suddenly radiated through his hand, the box was still extremely hot, he dropped the box shaking his hand, the lid to the box flew open and a single glass ball rolled out, he picked the ball up, it was extremely cool to the touch.

  The ball had an engraving wrapped around it, it read.

  “If we are separated, this will help, love Sarah”

  Nathan’s eyes sparkled as he smiled, Sarah was a brilliant girl, if anyone could reunite their family it would be her, it was in this moment that Nathan declared to himself that he would never rest until he was with his family again.

  He walked out onto the grass holding the ball firmly, the dog ran up to his side and barked, “Hunter, that’s what I’ll call you” said Nathan, he knelt down and placed his hands around Hunter, he gripped the ball tight and with his thumb he pushed down, the top of the ball collapsed, a stunning bright light burst from the ball, Nathan and Hunter disappeared, the light faded leaving the smouldering rubble of their home alone in the forest.

  Chapter 7

  The New World Awaits

  There was a growing sense of impatience, Nathan,
Marteen and Reginald had all spent time pondering the cogs, the duke had made no attempt, better to appear incompetent rather than actually prove it.

  “Who made this place?” asked Nathan.

  “It’s not entirely clear, this temple has been here since before the English, I read about it in our libraries, but there is no record of its creation, it’s simply always been here.” replied Reginald.

  “There must be something here” said Nathan, looking around the room, there were markings all over the walls, all of the writing was in a very old dialect of English, except for one sentence, written directly above the door, it was in plain English.

  “For him alone we stand, from behind we wait” said Nathan.

  “There’s something strange about this writing and door, everything else is made from stone, this door appears to be some kind of metal, like it was put here at a later time?”

  “For him alone we stand” said Reginald, “That is very strange, when I was a boy my father would tell me that very same thing, before bed each night”.

  “Well that’s sweet, but no one cares about your peasant father” said the duke with a sneer, “And what did you learn from your absent father” Reginald snipped wiping the smirk from the dukes face.

  The duke stared at the door, he murmured to himself, repeating an inaudible sentence over and over, rubbing his head trying to remember the words, “The seven became nine when” The duke said over and over, “The seven became nine”.

  Reginald turned to the duke, “When the one returned” said Reginald, The duke stopped and turned to Reginald, “The seven became the nine when the one returned” he repeated, “That was engraved above your bed” said Reginald, “I always wondered what it meant” said the duke.

  “And what does it mean” asked Marteen, Reginald approached the cogs, “It means, the numbers are the answer” said Reginald, he turned the first cog on the left hand side to seven and the cog behind it to nine.

  He then turned the right inner cog to one and stopped.

  “What now?” asked Reginald, the duke turned the final cog to nine, “The one is the nine” he said as the cogs creaked and moaned, the door that hadn’t been opened in decades opened slightly, a burst of putrid smelling cold air flew out, Nathan covered his nose, stepping forwards pushing the door open.

  “In, we go” said the duke, Ingrid stepped up to Marteen and took his large warm hand, the gentle giant looked down and smiled at her, they all quickly followed the duke in, there was no way they were letting him get away from them.

  Beyond the door was a metal stair case leading down into the darkness, lights above the stairs buzzed as they slowly turned on, Nathan stepped forward, the stairs led down as far as he could see, on the wall were three flashlights, he took one and turned it on. The rest of them looked on with mouths wide open.

  “How is it you know how to use such a device” asked Marteen, “You haven’t seen anything yet” replied Nathan, he shined the torch down the stairs, they lead down a very long way.

  “Well come on then” said Nathan handing the torch to the Marteen, “Lead the way”, Ingrid grabbed onto Marteen, “Maybe you should stay here” said Marteen, Ingrid pulled herself closer to Marteen, he smiled with his large shiny teeth and took her hand.

  “Yes, yes, this is all very touching” said the duke pushing his way past, grabbing a torch he charged down the stairs, Reginald followed closely behind.

  “After you” said Nathan, showing the way to Marteen and Ingrid.

  The staircase was longer than it looked from above, the steel grated steps creaked with every step, the cracking pace that the duke had set slowed to a crawl, there was a thickness about the air that made breathing quite difficult.

  After what seemed and eternity they reached the bottom, and what they found was something that none of them expected to see. Nothing! Just a large empty round room, all that was there was dust and a horrid stale smell, there were no windows down this low, the air had festered in there for years.

  Nathan opened his mouth and tasted the air, it was revolting, but he had tasted it before, it was an unmistakable smell, it was the smell that remained after all the air had been sucked out of a room, just like when he lost his family.

  He shook his head, and pressed on, Ingrid, the duke and Reginald all held their noses, Marteen walked around like there was nothing to notice.

  “Well this is just fantastic” said the duke.

  As they stared around at the room trying to find a reason for it, not one of them noticed that the wall behind them was slowly sealing shut, it was very quiet, almost perfect in its design, when the door fully shut a small hole opened up in the roof in the middle of the room, a tunnel lead straight up for what must have been a hundred meters to the sky above.

  Reginald ran to the door, he scrapped and pulled at the sealed door, looking frantically.

  “We’re trapped, were trapped!” he said panicked, Marteen and the duke quickly ran to his side to help, Nathan continued to look around the room, unfazed by closed door.

  Ingrid leaned against the wall next to Marteen as he pulled at the door, she ran her fingers through her hair, smiling, the duke stood back and watched Ingrid, frustration grew on his face, “so it’s wrong for me to look at the girl, but it’s okay for ape man here to inject her with his twelve inch penis” he murmured in distaste.

  “Say that again?” said Marteen towering over the duke, stepping back the duke quipped, “It’s obvious the girl is wet for you, lord knows why”.

  Marteen lifted the duke with one hand and looked him straight in the eye, “I am a married man, I love my family, do you understand” his left eye twitching, the duke just nodded, Marteen dropped him to the ground, Ingrid watched on, her eyes as wide as golf balls, fixated on Marteen.

  Nathan noticed none of what was going on, he stared down the hole but there was nothing but darkness. Reginald took a flashlight out of his pocket and shined it down, it wasn’t very deep. At the bottom was dozens of human bones.

  “That’s encouraging” said Reginald.

  Nathan made his way to the far wall, it was covered in dust; he waived away the dust revealing extremely large letters on the wall. He stood back it read.

  “IN THE BIGGINING THERE WAS A WORD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD”

  Below the writing was a metal disc, engraved on the rim of the disc was the numbers one to nine, and in the middle were six bronze poles all pointing different directions, like hands on a clock.

  Nathan smiled as he made his way across to the wall and sat down, “What are you doing?” snapped the duke, Nathan just smiled back at him, looking up with a glint in his eye.

  Marteen looked at Reginald curiously, Reginald shrug his shoulders, Marteen sat down next to Nathan, Ingrid and Reginald sat down alongside him, the duke continued to pace, he rubbed his hands on the walls, stuck his head down the hole, and up above, looking for any clues, he implored the others to help him, but as long as Nathan sat down, they stayed put.

  Eventually the duke grew tired of scurrying around, he found a spot on the opposite side of the room and plonked himself down, crossing his arms.

  And there they waited, not a word was spoken, a sweet smelling gentle breeze made its way down the tunnel, the longer they remained there the sweeter the breeze seemed to get, none of them knew quite why they were sitting quietly, but Nathan seemed confident, and that was enough for them.

  As the sun passed across the sky outside the light streamed down into the room, beautiful rays of light were cast across the room, the duke had fallen asleep, Marteen, Ingrid and Reginald weren’t far off it, their heads drooped down and their eyes hung out of their head, Nathan was wide awake, staring at the hole.

  It wasn’t long before the morning sun rose high enough that it was directly above the hole, it shone down like a glorious pillar of light, Nathan closed his eyes, he smiled with delight.

  “Of course” he said with excitement as he leapt up.

  The others were woken
from their sleep by Nathan’s excitement, he stood in front of the writing on the wall, “In the beginning there was a word, and the word was god” said Nathan smiling, “Very good, you can read” said the duke yawning.

  “Tell me Reginald, what is a word?” asked Nathan, “I believe the dictionary refers to it as a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds” replied Reginald, Exactly, “Sound” continued Nathan.

  He walked over to the disc, wrapped his hands around the edges and started pulling, he strained so hard his face looked like it was going to burst, Marteen came to his aide and helped pull, the disc broke free of the wall and the two fell backwards, Nathan got to his feet and held the disc up.

  “This is it” said Nathan, he placed the disc over the hole in the middle of the room, it fit perfectly, the sunlight slowly heated up the disc until it started to make a quiet humming noise.

  “In the beginning there was a word” said Nathan, by this point they had all formed a circle around the disc, staring in wonder, “Now what” asked Ingrid.

  “Yahweh” said Nathan, “Yah what” replied Marteen, “Yahweh, ancient Hebrews often referred to god as Yahweh” said Nathan.

  Nathan quickly scurried around trying to find a small rock, he picked it up and started writing the numbers one through nine on the floor, next to each number he wrote nine letters of the alphabet, A through I, J through R then S through Z.

  “What are you doing now?” asked the duke, “There are six hands on that disc, and each hand points to a number, I think the numbers need to spell out the answer, ‘Y’ is represented by the number 7, ‘A’ the number 1” said Nathan as he turned the dials, the tone of the hum coming from the disc changed as he turned the hands.

  “’H’ the number 8, ‘W’ is the number 5, ‘E’ is the number 1 and finally ‘H’ is the number 8 again” continued Nathan.