by Amy Cross
“Don't tell me who I cared about,” Robinson said firmly, getting to his feet and waving the phone around, still trying to catch sight of the other person in the room. “Where the hell are you? You can't hide forever, I'll -”
“Still clinging to science?” the voice asked. “If you want to see me, it's easy. Simply accept the faith in your heart and I will appear.”
“It's not faith!” Robinson shouted again. “When will you stop -” Feeling a twinge of pain in his chest, he stumbled for a moment and then shut off the phone's light. Standing in complete darkness, with his eyes wide open, he listened to the sound of his own heartbeat. Light flared all around him and then died away again. “It's not faith,” he whispered, wiping sweat from his forehead, “it's just a drug-induced illusion.”
“Look at me,” the voice replied.
Sighing, Robinson looked up at the darkness above him.
“Look at me,” the voice said again. “If you're not scared, then prove it. Feel the faith and look at me.”
“Just for a moment,” Robinson whispered, his voice trembling with fear. “Just for one second, for one -”
Suddenly a blast of light filled the room, dazzling him and dropping him to his knees. He wanted to look away, to shield his eyes, but he could only stare up in wide-eyed astonishment as he saw a vast blue sun sparkling and burning just a few meters above, sending crackling darts of energy dancing through the air and churning with an immense force at its heart. It was as if he had finally arrived at the heart of the universe and was staring straight into the cauldron of life itself.
“Now you see me,” the voice continued, sounding much stronger than before. “Behold, I am Harrington Cole and I have become God.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Did you hear something?” Katie asked, turning to look over at the door. “It sounded like...”
Ignoring her, Quix reached up and grabbed a section of the damaged metal staircase.
“Shouldn't Robinson be back by now?” Katie continued, before turning and seeing that Quix had already begun to tug on the metal, causing tremors in the observation room high above where Doctor Leach and a technician were watching through a window. “Hey, where are you going?”
She watched as Quix let go of the metal and moved around to another section, giving it a tug that caused the observation room to shake again.
“Hey!” Katie shouted. “Don't you think -”
Before she could finish, the lights flickered and died, plunging the room into darkness with only a couple of emergency lights still running over by the door.
“Great,” Katie muttered, watching as Quix pulled on another section of metal. “What are you doing?” she shouted. “Quix, we should -”
Hearing a sound nearby, she turned and looked toward the door, and a moment later she realized she could hear someone in the corridor.
“Thank God,” she continued, “now we can get out of here.”
Stepping forward, she stopped suddenly when she saw a figure stepping into the doorway, and she realized with a sense of horror that it wasn't Robinson. Instead, the figure seemed to be a girl, although she had large, twisted protuberances extending from her back, just like the dying angel from the lock-up. Unable to see much in the poor light, Katie took a step forward, and finally she was able to make out the face of a girl with the darkest, reddest eyes she'd ever seen.
“Hey,” Katie said after a moment, “are you -”
“Help me,” the girl whispered.
“We'll get you out of here,” Katie replied, “we just need to -”
Hearing a scream, she looked over her shoulder just in time to see Quix pulling another section of metal, and this time the observation room began to tip over, finally coming loose from the wall and falling. Two figures fell out in mid-air, slamming into the ground before, seconds later, the observation room came crashing down on top of them. As the dust settled, Quix looked around with a faintly-satisfied smile on her face.
“Help me,” the girl in the doorway whispered again.
“What's your name?” Katie asked, turning back to her.
“I...” The girl paused, before stepping forward, revealing her twisted, melting body. She let out a gasp of pain as she tried to raise her wings, finally revealing her twisted and damaged angelic form. “Help me! You have to -”
“Help me!” a voice called out nearby.
Turning, Katie saw that a woman was crawling out of the observation room's wreckage. Covered in blood and with deep cuts on her face and neck, Doctor Leach was struggling to pull her damaged legs behind her as she dragged herself past the vat, seemingly heading for one of the trolleys in the corner.
“You,” the female angel whispered, limping across the room.
“Keep away from me!” Doctor Leach shouted, clearly panicking as she tried to get to the trolley where various medical items had been stored. Behind her, she was leaving a smeared trail of blood. “Someone keep that bitch back!”
“You made me like this,” the angel said, stopping in front of her and reaching down. “You turned me into this thing.”
Without replying, Doctor Leach crawled past and reached up to the trolley, but the angel grabbed her hand and pulled her round.
“Look at me,” the angel whispered, leaning closer. “Look what you made.” Reaching out, she placed a hand on the side of the doctor's face, causing the woman's flesh to start burning.
“Stop!” Doctor Leach shouted. “For God's sake, you have to -”
Before she could finish, flames began to erupt from the angel's body, quickly consuming both figures in an inferno that forced Katie and Quix to step back as the wall of heat began to spread. Almost as fast as it had appeared, however, the inferno flared and died, leaving the angel in position while Doctor Leach had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash on the floor.
“We can help you,” Katie said after a moment, her heart racing as she watched the angel turning to her. “I don't know what they did to you, but we can get you out of here!”
“Help me,” the angel whispered, taking a step forward and reaching a hand out to Katie. “Please -”
“Don't touch me!” Katie shouted, ducking out of the way.
“They took me,” the angel continued, stopping in the middle of the room. “My name...” She paused, with tears in her reddened eyes as if she was struggling to summon the memory. “I had a name... I was called... Megan...”
Before she could finish, a shot rang out and she fell back, landing hard against the floor with flames starting to emerge from the wound in her neck.
“Another failed experiment,” Hanson said, entering the room. “Poor Meg, she looked so promising for a while.”
Making her way past Katie, Quix aimed her gun at Hanson's face.
“Oh relax,” he replied with a smile, “we're way past that point. Right now, your friend Robinson is bearing witness to the moment of ascension.” Reaching into his pocket, he took out a syringe and injected himself in the neck, before dropping the needle and taking out two more syringes. “Might as well use the last of it now,” he added, as he used his trembling hands to inject himself a couple more times. “A little extra faith for the journey. Just enough to -”
Cutting him off, Quix grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall, before knocking him to the floor.
“Robinson's bearing witness to what?” Katie asked, kneeling next to the dying angel. “Where is he?” She reached out to touch the angel's shoulder, but the heat forced her to sit back. She watched as the angel tried to get up, before finally it slumped down dead against the floor. With tears in her eyes, Katie stared at the corpse for a moment before getting to her feet and making her way across the room. “Where's Robinson?” she shouted.
“Enjoying an audience with Mr. Cole,” Hanson replied, “and, I imagine, having his eyes opened to the truth.” In the distance, sirens could be heard getting closer. “It's all over,” he continued. “All that remains now is for Mr.
Cole to ascend to his rightful place, and no-one can stop that. I look forward to taking my place at his side. Soon the world will enter a new phase, marked by an ever-present god who guides his people.”
“Who's Mr. Cole?” Katie asked, pushing Quix's gun away.
“You should know,” Hanson told her. “You spoke to him.”
“I never spoke to -” She paused, before thinking back to the voice she heard while she was in the vat. “Subject A? Is that who you mean?”
“He has waited so long for this moment,” Hanson replied with a smile. “Biding his time, waiting for the technology to catch up to his vision, and now we've made it all come true. Our reward will come in the next life.”
“You want to die?” Katie asked incredulously.
“No,” Hanson replied, “I want to live, and the only way to do that is to pass from this wretched body and enter the kingdom that Mr. Cole will build now that he has become God. And then, from there, we will reach down and govern all of mankind.”
“He's mad,” Katie said, turning to Quix. “The guy's completely insane. We have to get Robinson and get out of here. Then we can get the police to take these idiots away.”
“I can feel it,” Hanson continued, gasping as he stared up at the ceiling. “I can feel his mind expanding and starting to fill the universe. Everything is happening exactly as he promised, you'll see it soon enough. After all these years, God is finally...” He let out another gasp as his pupils began to expand.
“What's happening to him?” Katie asked, taking a step back. “It's like he's overdosed on whatever he injected himself with just now.”
“Who are you?” he whispered. “There's another voice in my head, someone else.”
“I heard him too,” Katie replied.
“Not him,” Hanson gasped, “someone else! Another voice, almost as if...” He paused, with fear and pain etched across his face as he slowly turned to Katie. “I was wrong... God is... real... God is... angry.”
Katie watched as Hanson reached up, as if he was trying to touch something that only he could see. After a moment, he fell down and let out a cry of pain, before trying to get to his feet, only to stumble and fall back down. Leaning forward, he seemed to be in agony for a moment, and then finally he slumped to the floor.
“Somehow,” Katie said, turning to Quix, “I don't think he's gone to paradise.”
***
“Secure this whole area!” Wagoner shouted as he made his way past two of the police cars that had pulled up outside the Harrington Cole building. “I want the place locked down, no-one gets in or out!”
Armed response teams were already getting into position on neighboring buildings, and a moment later a police helicopter swooped low over the scene.
“Sir!” Milhouse shouted, getting out of one of the cars. “You can't just -”
“Robinson is in this building,” Wagoner continued, “and he's not slipping away this time. After everything he's done, that man is going to spend the rest of his life rotting in a jail cell.”
“You need to listen to me,” Milhouse continued, keeping up with him as he took his camera from his pocket. “I don't think you quite know what you're dealing with. I don't think any of us know! There's something different going on with Robinson, he's not... I don't quite know what it is, but I don't think he's normal!”
“That's not exactly a newsflash.”
“I don't just mean that he's weird,” Milhouse continued, “I mean that he's... very, very different. I've been looking into it, and the earlier Robinsons, the ones who've been around all these years, I'm starting to think that they might be the same man.”
“I'm not buying into his bullshit,” Wagoner explained, stopping by one of the police cars and looking up toward the top of the building. “Robinson is just like any of the rest of us, he's one man -”
“And what about these men?” Milhouse asked, showing him a photo of the graves. “He's not just a man, he's more like a series of men. I've been through the archives, and there's been a guy named Robinson operating in London since, well, since as far back as the records go.”
“So it's a family business, is it?”
“Either that or...”
“Or what?”
Milhouse paused, staring at the photo of the graves. “There's something about him,” he said after a moment. “I've seen photos of someone who looks exactly like him, but a couple of hundred years ago. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was the exact same man and...” He paused for a moment. “I've seen enough things over the years,” he said finally, “to feel like maybe I can believe this is true.”
“You have?”
“I have.”
Wagoner stared at him for a moment. “You need to see a police psychiatrist.”
“Sir -”
“Get out of here,” Wagoner replied. “We've got reports of an active shooter inside this building, and I don't have time for your conspiracy theories.”
“But -”
“I'm sending a team in,” Wagoner added, “and if anyone in there puts up resistance, lethal force will be used.”
***
“Robinson!” Katie shouted, hurrying along the corridor with Quix just a few steps behind. “Where are you?”
Stopping at the end of the next intersection, she looked both ways, desperately trying to work out where Robinson might have gone. She read the labels on the various doors, before spotting one a little further along that seemed to have no label at all. Making her way over, she reached out and grabbed the handle, only to pull back immediately and look at her burned hand.
“It's hot,” she whispered, turning to Quix. “I think he's in here!”
Hurrying over, Quix covered her hand with the sleeve of her jacket and managed to turn the handle, pulling the door open to reveal a dark room inside.
“I see him!” Katie shouted, pushing past and rushing to the center of the bare room, where Robinson was on his knees, staring up at the dark ceiling. “Come on,” she continued, grabbing his shoulder, “we have to get out of here.” She waited for hm to reply, but he seemed mesmerized by something. “Robinson?” She stopped suddenly, before turning to Quix. “Something's wrong.”
Making her way across the room, Quix looked down at Robinson's face and saw that not only were tears streaming from his eyes, but he was staring up at the ceiling with an expression of true wonderment.
“Robinson?” Katie continued, nudging his shoulder. “What's happening?”
“What do you mean?” he whispered, his voice sounding frail. “There's no-one...” He paused. “Are they here? Are you sure?” Another pause, as if he was listening to something that only he could hear. “I can't see them. I don't know why, but maybe they're not important anymore? Maybe you're right and it's time to ascend to a new kindgom.”
“Who's he talking to?” Katie asked, turning to Quix.
Stepping closer, Quix grabbed Robinson's chin and tilted his face toward her.
“I felt that,” Robinson continued. “You're right, I think they're here, but what do they want? If I can't see them... Does that mean they can't see any of this?”
“Any of what?” Katie asked, looking around the dark room. “It's like he's lost his mind. I mean, even more than usual.”
Quix snapped her fingers in front of Robinson's face, trying to get him to notice her. When that didn't work, she slapped the side of his face.
“Let me try,” Katie said, adding a slap of her own, before trying again, this time slapping him as hard as possible. “That's kind of fun,” she muttered, “but it doesn't seem to be helping.”
Quix tried again, slapping Robinson with enough force to almost knock him over. After a moment, she shrugged.
“I never imagined it could be so beautiful,” Robinson continued, staring up at something that only he could see. “It's burning with the intensity of a thousand suns. Tell me, how does it feel?” He paused. “I'm not surprised. I suppose the human brain wasn't built to interpret such thin
gs, and as for language...” His voice trailed off for a moment. “The language has not been invented,” he continued finally, “that can do justice to this sensation.”
“What's that sound?” Katie asked, leaning closer to him before realizing that the faint, repetitive thump was coming from his chest. “It's his heart! It's beating so hard, I can actually hear it!”
Reaching out, Quix checked Robinson's pulse by placing two fingers against the side of his neck. Looking up, she stared at the dark ceiling.
For Robinson, however, the ceiling wasn't dark at all: he was still seeing a vast, burning blue-and-white sun that seemed to be getting hotter and hotter, and the light was far too bright for him to notice Katie and Quix standing right in front of him. He could still feel the drugs surging through his system, and he'd long ago given up trying to fight the sensation.
“Your friends are worried about you,” the voice explained.
“Let them worry,” he replied. “I can't see them, so to me they don't exist.”
“You would have said the same thing about me once.”
“That was before -” Feeling something against the side of his neck, he winced. “How long will it last?” he asked finally, suddenly filled with panic. “I don't want it to end! I don't want the serum to wear off!”
“Perhaps your faith will remain.”
“Or I might go back to my old self,” Robinson continued. “I might lose every ounce of faith, I might not be able to see you anymore.”
“That will be the case either way,” the voice replied. “I feel my time here is coming to an end. I've been in this place for too long, and it's time for me to explore my new consciousness. Nothing is holding me back. I can go anywhere, any time.”
“Take me with you,” Robinson replied.
“I cannot.”
“You must! I don't want to stay here like this! I don't want to go back to how things were! If you're going to explore the universe, you'll see things that I can't even imagine! You have to take me with you! I can't -” He paused, filled with an unshakeable rage at the thought that there were mysteries he might never get to see. “I can't stay here,” he added finally. “I've seen everything on this planet, I want to go with you and explore the universe.”
