by S. T. Boston
Horrified, Oriyanna watched as Buer swung his gun around with lightning fast speed and pulled the trigger. Sam returned fire, but Buer's round had already hit him in the chest, ruining his shot; it hit the wall and ricocheted dangerously back. Sam went down hard, his gun spilling to the floor.
* * *
Adam knew he was dying, he'd known it from the moment he'd seen Oriyanna's face on the plane, right after she'd examined the bloodied mess on his arm. Somehow, it hadn't seemed real, but now it did. Over the vibrations which resonated through the pyramid he could hear Oriyanna screaming, followed by a booming voice which he knew belonged to the man-mountain, Buer, the one who'd tried to kill him back in Colorado. Where is Sam? he thought to himself. Why isn't he helping Oriyanna?
Summoning what little strength he had left, Adam got to his feet as a single gunshot rang out. Stumbling into the glowing passageway, he looked up in time to see Sam disappear into the chamber, his gun raised. Using the wall for support he staggered as fast as his legs could carry him, his mind not even registering the battered dead body of Finch as he passed it by, kicking the gun from his side. Through the delirium he watched, puzzled, as the pistol went skidding down the smooth floor, before coming to a stop a few feet in front of him. Bending down, he picked up the weapon; it felt as if it weighed a ton. Resting his weight back on the wall he continued his struggle. I'm going to make it he thought to himself as the brightly lit opening drew closer. I'm going to make it. Two more blasts of gunfire stopped him in his tracks, before he saw Sam's body fall to the floor.
* * *
“That's both of your little companions taken care of,” grinned Buer. “Mind you, I have to give them top marks for effort,” he added, glancing down at Mitchell who was still writhing around in a pool of blood. “You could have had the decency to hit him with a clean shot.” Without pause, Buer raised his leg and stamped on Mitchell's neck, snapping it in one, sickening crack. “It's just you and me now; we can enjoy this together.” Buer paced across the chamber and checked his watch. “One minute.” He smiled, fixing Oriyanna in his stone cold gaze. “I would throw you through once singularity is achieved, and let you burn with the rest of your people, but I want the pleasure of killing you myself.”
Oriyanna watched Buer lean forward, his hand reaching for her throat. As his massive body bent, she saw Adam standing in the passage, a gun raised in his shaky hand. Instinctively, she rolled out of the way as he fired; the single shot slammed into the back of Buer's head, spraying her with warm blood. Had he not been bent forward it would have hit him in the back. Oriyanna caught a momentary look of confusion and bewilderment flashed across his face before he fell forward, dead.
“Adam!” she shrieked, as the door began to slowly descend, sealing the room.
He tried to call out to her but his voice was gone, replaced by a fire burning deep in his throat. He couldn't even summon the strength to stumble the last few feet forward and fall into the chamber, which lay so tantalizingly close. As his legs went weak his body slid down the wall. Inch by inch the door dropped; he kept his wide eyes fixed on Oriyanna's for as long as he could, wanting desperately to go to her, wanting badly to help Sam. As the door slowly dropped, her face disappeared from view – it was over. Adam tried to relax against the wall and waited for the inevitable. Suddenly, strong hands were lifting him beneath his arms, pulling him forward, sliding him under the closing door. His weakened body screamed in protest but he went with it, not quite understanding what was happening. Sprawled on the floor of the chamber, Adam managed to roll onto his back and stared up at his saviour.
* * *
Whoever had killed those four guards had done so with military precision. Getting to his feet, Xavier suffered the pain of the two healing wounds stabbing through his body. Pushing the pain to one side, he rushed across the uneven stone ground toward the pyramid. Reaching the entrance, he felt his way along the walls, stumbling and tripping in the dark. He was sure that somehow, Oriyanna was here, she'd told him that one of her companions had seen combat; only a trained soldier or a very talented marksman could have dispatched those men so quickly. The building crescendo of sound which pulsated through the ancient structure only added to his sense of disorientation. Keeping one hand on the cool stone, he arrived at the switching point. Gripping the rope banister, Xavier descended down into the perpetually dark tunnel before arriving in the dim light of the lower chamber. He spotted the rope immediately and scaled the railing, peering down the deep shaft. Somewhere down there, someone was moving. Gazing down and dropping the first few feet, he watched the figure disappear into the passageway. Xavier let the rope slide through his hands, the building friction searing his skin. After what seemed like an eternity, his feet finally found the stone base. Releasing the rope, he hurried into the passage, just in time to see the same figure fire a single shot before slumping helplessly against the wall as the door began to close.
From deep inside the chamber, over the building upsurge of noise, he heard Oriyanna's voice cry, “Adam!”
Reaching the stricken body, he jammed his hands up under the man's arms and pushed forward, throwing him under the door as it dropped, before slipping through himself.
* * *
Oriyanna watched in amazement as Adam's limp body lunged into the room, followed by a tall, dark haired man. “Xavier?” she asked in disbelief, her voice all but lost to the noise.
“Where is the device?” he panted, reaching Oriyanna and helping her to her feet.
“On the west side of the room” she shouted, wiping Buer's blood from her face. Xavier rushed over and grabbed it with both hands, feverishly dragging it away from the Tabut. “How long do we have?”
“Forty seconds,” he replied as the door sealed shut with a heavy thump. “Can you turn it off?”
Oriyanna ran her eyes over the mess of wires and circuitry. “No,” she cried helplessly. “I don't know how to! It's probably booby trapped, too.”
“Get them through!” Xavier said urgently, his voice barely audible. Oriyanna stared at him for a few precious seconds, her face showing her bewilderment. “Get them through, save them, save yourself – I've got this!”
“No, no!” she pleaded, realising his intentions.
“Yes!” Xavier replied firmly. “Go!”
Oriyanna knew it was the only way; reluctantly she backed off, warm tears streaming down her face. She reached Adam first; he was still conscious, his eyes wide and feverish. Gripping his shivering arm, she pulled him across the chamber and over the divide, and let go. “Twenty-five seconds,” she heard Xavier shout as she reached Sam. Taking hold of him in the same way, she struggled to get his limp body into the west side of the chamber and deposited him next to Adam. She didn't even know if he was still alive. Glancing back at Xavier she fell to the floor and gripped them both tightly.
* * *
The low sound started deep down in the infrasound; quickly it built in volume, resonating through the entire structure. Sound waves travelled through the bowels of the pyramid, bouncing off the walls and seeking a way out. As the frequency intensified, the crescendo of noise spewed forth out of the two ducts on the external walls. For the first time in over three thousand years, the single, solitary musical note of Earth's silent energy echoed out across the plateau and into the night.
* * *
Adam felt the energy of the room flooding through his entire body. Using the last of his strength, he propped himself up on his elbows and gazed upon the Ark. Turning his eyes away from the brightly glowing artifact, he felt Oriyanna's grip, her arms tightly wrapped around his shivering body. Not long now, he heard her say inside his head. Just hold on.
The noise in the room sounded like the buzzing of a thousand bees, furiously buzzing inside his head. It built and built, and at the point when it felt as if his brain would explode it stopped, bathing the room in a deathly silence. All the hairs on Adam's body stood to attention as small charges of electricity passed over his body in tiny, exci
table waves. On the other side of the room was the man who'd saved him. A thin veil seemed to separate them, as if Adam was seeing him through a thick pane of glass. In bewilderment, he watched as the man lunged forward and tore something from the base of the Ark, and in an instant, he was gone. Head spinning and with his body on fire, Adam closed his eyes and thought about the beach.
* * *
Xavier covered his ears when the noise reached fever pitch. Abruptly the sound stopped, as though a switch had been flicked. As the singularity joined the two worlds, the energy expanded all over his skin and deep into his bones. The counter on the bomb ticked under ten seconds. Forcing himself forward, he reached for the Key Tablet. The highly charged air felt thick, making it seem as if he was trying to walk at the bottom of a swimming pool. Xavier reached for the Key Tablet, and grasping the warm metal he tore it away from the Tabut. The shock threw him across the room when the connection was instantly broken, powering the device down. Clasping the Key Tablet tightly, Xavier watched the counter hit zero, and squeezed his eyes shut. The explosion tore through the chamber; the Taribium picked up the energy of the blast and amplified it, but without the power of the Tabut it couldn't reach its full potential. A violent shockwave spread out across the plateau, shaking the ancient structures. The roof of the Tabut chamber collapsed when the Taribium melted into a mercury-like substance. As the roof gave way, so did the lower chamber; and rubble piled into the lift shaft as the ground shook, burying the Ark forever.
Epilogue Part One
Precisely seven days, twenty hours and fifteen minutes after the destruction of the Tabut, a single, solitary Arkkadian craft dropped into orbit around the Earth. Immediately, it dispatched the Sheolian vessel which had been responsible for the destruction of their scout craft, not ten days before. The attack was accurate and swift, and there was no time for the vessel to fire a single shot in return before the craft was engulfed in a massive ball of soundless fire.
Unseen by the sick and diseased world below, the majestic craft then skipped gracefully across the upper atmosphere, its hull glowing bright red. As it sped over the North Pole, a single bright Taribium covered sphere, no bigger than a large weather balloon, fell from its base and hurtled toward the ground. From the craft, they monitored the device as it fell. Reaching an altitude of one hundred thousand feet, the sphere automatically detonated with a thunderous crack which echoed like a sonic boom across the entire globe. From the sphere spread a dark brooding cloud, working its way out from the point of detonation creating circles resembling a stone being thrown into a clear glass-like pool of water. As it spread, bright blue pulses of lightning flickered through it, igniting the oppressive sky in an awe-inspiring light show.
From an orbiting height of two hundred miles, those aboard the craft watched as over the next twelve hours, the dark mass grew in size until it engulfed the entire planet, hiding every last square mile of landmass and ocean. As the last traces of land slipped from their view, the rain began to fall. In every corner of every continent it started slowly, no more than a drizzle, which quickly built into a torrential deluge that would last for seven days. With the flooding and destruction brought on by the downpour also came salvation, for within the falling rain came the cure to the virus, developed from the Earth-Humans who had bridged the six hundred light year gap to the Arkkadian world. Thanks to them, humanity on Earth would prevail.
Epilogue Part Two
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said a familiar voice, as Adam opened his eyes and squinted at the brilliantly white ceiling above. “I didn't think you were ever going to wake up!”
“Sam?” he croaked. It sounded as if he hadn't used his vocal chords in days.
“Yeah, who else would it be?” Sam laughed. “You might want to sit up and take a little look at the view.”
Adam lifted his head from the amazingly soft, warm pillow and looked over at Sam, who was propped up in an identical bed next to him, a wide grin creasing his lips. “Check it out,” he encouraged, nodding toward the end of the bed. Adam eased himself up onto his elbows. His joints felt stiff and weak, like his voice, he suspected they hadn't been used in days.
“Are we dead?” he gasped. The wall opposite the bed was made of pure, seamless glass. It revealed a magnificent city; Adam suspected they had to be a good ninety stories above ground level. A breathtaking array of buildings rose like glass shards into the crystal clear, reddening sky, before giving way to a vast green forest of mighty trees that stretched into the distance where they met the mountains. The spectacularly lit sky held a large, blood-red sun that dominated the horizon.
“No, but I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.” Sam chuckled, shaking his head. “Can you remember what happened?”
“Vaguely,” Adam replied, thinking over the events in his head. “I remember seeing you get shot, and I remember shooting Buer to protect Oriyanna.” The sound of her name on his lips brought him to a suddenstop. “Have you seen her?”
“No, mate,” replied Sam. “I've only been awake for an hour or so. Before that I was well and truly lights out, I don't remember a thing after killing Finch and getting shot.” He pulled down the neck of the plain black Tee-Shirt he was wearing. “It's funny that there's no trace of the wound at all,” he marveled, studying his unscathed skin. “I guess if you need healthcare, this is a pretty good place to come, even if the rooms are a little sparse.”
Adam looked around properly for the first time and realized what he meant. Apart from the awe inspiring view, which was decoration enough in itself, the room housed only their two beds. The floor seemed to be made from some kind of polished grey stone that sparkled in the light, and the walls appeared to be brushed silver. Above their beds hung two white squares which fed back to two monitoring screens via some kind of clear fiber optic cable that glowed neon blue.
“Do you know how long we've been here?” Adam asked, lifting the sheets to find he was dressed in identical clothing to his friend; a plain black soft Tee-Shirt and matching trousers. The material felt as light as air against his skin, and yet it was deliciously warm and comfortable.
“Eleven days,” came Oriyanna's voice from the end of the room. “It's nice to see you're both awake,” she added, as the door silently slid shut behind her, hiding any trace that it had ever been there.
Adam's heart almost stopped in his chest at the sight of her. The one-piece suit she wore was almost identical to the clothing they'd found her in a few weeks ago, but this time a bright red, silky, full length cape complimented the strange outfit. It began at her shoulders and fell perfectly around her figure, and her long wavy blonde hair shone in the evening sunlight, contrasting against the red material which flickered like flames as she crossed the small room.
“Eleven days?” said Adam puzzled. “Both of us?”
“That's how long the process takes,” she smiled, perching on the end of Adam's bed and looking at them both through her wide blue, hypnotic eyes.
“Process, what process?” asked Sam, sounding a little confused.
“The Gift shall be bestowed upon he or she who does a great service or offers a great sacrifice in the service or betterment of our people,” she said encouragingly. “Without you,” she continued, seeing the shock on both their faces, “not only would I have failed, I wouldn't have survived the night after the crash. Look around.” Oriyanna gestured to the vast city that spread out before them. “All of this is still here because of you, and Earth-Humans will endure, because of you.”
“You didn't think to ask us first?” said Sam, sounding a little put out. “I mean, that's quite a big thing to just do to a person.”
“Oh,” she gasped, a little surprised at his tone. “If you decide you don't want it, then it's easily reversible.”
“It's… okay,” he replied slowly, a sly smile lifting his lips. “I think I'll just see how I get on.”
“What happened back on Earth?” Adam exclaimed. He was a little ashamed to think that until Or
iyanna had mentioned Earth, he hand't thought about it, or what might have happened to his sister. Oriyanna reached across the bed and took hold of his hand, her skin as silky as the red cape.
“Your people have suffered greatly, but we have stopped the virus,” she reassured him. “The cure came from both of you.”
“How so?” asked Sam.
“As you know, before we came through Adam was sick, very sick,” she began. “Amazingly, Samuel you were one of the very few who had a natural immunity. Using the virus from Adam and the antibodies from you, we were quickly able to develop the cure.”
“What were the chances of that?” said Adam in amazement.
“Probably somewhere close to that of two species evolving to look exactly the same,” she replied with a smile, remembering their conversation back in the RV. “Sometimes, fate can give us a helping hand.”
“That's all very well,” cut in Sam, “but just how long will it take to issue that vaccine to near on seven billion people?”
“Don't think so primitively,” she almost laughed. “The process took seven days, but the airborne part of the virus was stopped within hours.” A serious expression shadowed her pretty features. “We estimate that in the eight and a half days the virus was active, close to a billion will have died.”
“That many?” said Adam in dismay, his skin turning white.
“You are a tough race,” she reassured him. “You will come through this, maybe even more united than you ever were. It took a great tragedy to bring our world together and make it what you see now. There will be some hard days ahead before you can move forward, but move forward you will – of that we are certain.”
“So, is it over?” asked Sam, “Are the ones who did this dead?”
“No, this is far from over” she admitted. “From what I've learned, we now believe there were many more Earth breeds like Robert Finch, all operating in secrecy.”
