Nekar took a deep breath. “I am almost positive where and when we are.”
Omar shook his head in confusion, “When?”
Nekar closed his eyes and said, “It is 1943 and we are in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.”
Omar cursed and asked, “How do you know?” Nekar sighed, “This is the tunnel I left out of. I found loose flooring in a small shack that they locked me and the others into. Then they set it on fire. Look,” Nekar pointed down to ashen footprints on the brick in the tunnel.”
He shook his head, “That was us.” Omar reached to his teleportation device and tried teleporting away. It made a beeping sound and said, “blown fuse”. It must have happened when I touched the light from the archway.
He felt Bogdan’s large hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Bogdan shaking his head, “I told you we should have brought the weapons.”
Nekar asked Bogdan for a pen and paper. He wrote a note on it and folded it. Then he bent over to. “I need you to get this to the address written on the letter. Can you do that for me? It is the Master’s business.”
Alora nodded. “I can pass as a stray cat here and I will likely get out. My Queen follows the Master so I will do his bidding. I will not return here. I will find another way into Musterion.”
“Wait!” yelled Omar. “Please, I need you to stay on earth and wait. Wait until Jack Raven goes through the portal and give this to Tyree Jackson.” Omar took the smaller unaltered teleportation device and gave it to Alora. Alora put it around her wrist and though awkwardly it fit. Then she gave Omar a sideways look, “What? You want me to wait here for six decades? I like earth but not that much.”
“You said there are other Katken who have gone through Musterion to get here. That means they have longevity of life. Please, just find one you can trust and pass on the task. Tyree is smart and he will know what to do.” Alora left climbing up the debris and out of the tunnel.
They waited there for a moment until they heard people yelling in German, “Over here. As I told you I burned the building but there are no bodies.” There was the sound of dozens of boots above.
Omar looked at Bogdan who had his hand gun. “Look! There is a hole!” yelled one. They cleared the debris and as a Nazi started to enter the tunnel Bogdan shot him in the head and said, “Eight rounds left.”
“Bring explosives,” yelled one of them.
“We give up,” yelled Omar in German.
“Then throw your guns up through the hole,” said the predominant voice in the crowd of soldiers.
Bogdan threw the gun up through the hole. Another Nazi came down through the hole. He looked at Omar, Bogdan, and Sasha. His eyes widened but he regained his composure quickly. He said, “You, come with me.”
He climbed back up the hole and Bogdan followed. There was screaming and yelling and gunfire. Omar heard a struggle and more gunfire.
“Don’t kill any more you idiot, Dr. Mengele will want them alive,” said the leader. Bogdan is dead. Dr. Mengele ? Omar knew his history. Dr. Mengele was a sick man who had made advances in scientists by dissecting twins as they were both killed. The crimes this man had committed against humanity were too many to list. Dr. Mengele would take them apart piece by piece to see what made them tick.
They walked towards the hole. Nekar stepped forward. He was not shaking any more. He climbed out of the hole grabbing Bogdan’s leg to help him up. That was a bit disrespectful for the dead.
“The rest of you come out slowly,” yelled their leader. Omar climbed through and they bound his wings as soon as they saw them. They did the same to Sasha as she climbed out. The leader looked them over.
Then he said, “The doctor only needs one,” he lifted his pistol and shot Sasha three times in the head. “He will want the gargoyle.” Then he turned to the rest. “The story is the other two attacked us.”
Omar dropped to his knees with tears in his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs, “No! No Sasha, no!”
Nekar bent over and picked him up, “She is gone, now you must live or her sacrifice means nothing.” “Sacrifice? You idiot… she didn’t…” before Omar could finish the butt of a gun hit him in the back of the head and he fell to the ground unconscious.
Omar woke to find himself restrained on an operating table right beside Nekar in the same state. The corpses of Bogdan and Sasha were also on tables but not strapped in.
Doctor Mengele entered looking at Omar, “You are quite a specimen. You speak German and American English.” He pulled up Omar’s arm revealing his tattoo. “Yet you are marked as one of ours. But the funny thing is that when I reference the number on your arm it belongs to an Esther Metzger who escaped down the very tunnel you came out of. Do you care to explain?”
Omar was silent. “No? Well then there is the fact that I have already cut your skin open and it regenerates too fast for me to observe what is inside of you.” The doctor smiled. “I think if I could replicate that we could truly be a superior race.”
The doctor cut Omar’s arm with a knife and put a vial under it. He collected the blood until the wound healed right in front of their eyes. Then the doctor corked the vial.
“What did you do?” asked Nekar.
“What did you do indeed?” asked the doctor. “I am going to inject this into one of my little ones and see what it does,” he said,
“No!” cried Omar. “It’s a virus. You will start an epidemic.”
The doctor walked up to Omar and stood by his bed, “Really? And you carry this virus.” Omar saw Bogdan stand up from his bed. He got right behind the doctor and tapped him on the shoulder. The doctor turned around and Bogdan roared in his face. The doctor then laughed nervously and passed out.
Bogdan went to swipe his claws at the doctor’s throat when Nekar yelled, “No! Don’t kill him. You will alter this timeline and it will be another dimension but not your own. All of the things Alora is orchestrating will be for nothing.”
Bogdan stood up and nodded his head. Then he clawed away Nekar and Omar’s straps. Omar approached Bogdan and said, “You were dead,”
Nekar went to Sasha’s side and put his hands on her. He prayed aloud, “Lord, if it be your will bring her back to us for your glory.”
Omar walked over to him and smacked his hand away, “Don’t you touch her. She is dead.”
But then Omar heard Sasha call his name, “Omar…” He turned and the wounds on her head were healing up and the bullets had purged themselves out of her skull. He looked down at Sasha and then back to Nekar. “How did you…”
Omar was interrupted with the back of Nekar’s hand across his face. It hit hard. Nekar was very strong. “You are welcome, you prideful idiot. But don’t thank me, thank Christ.”
Omar felt shame at his accusatory anger. He would not thank Nekar or his God. He bent over and hugged Sasha as tight as he could with tears in his eyes. “You are alive…. You are alive. I thought I lost you.”
“Is it true?” she asked.
Omar looked puzzled, “Is what true?”
She looked past Omar to Nekar. “Did your God heal me?”
Nekar nodded, “He is your God to weather you will admit it or not he is your creator.”
She looked to Omar, “Tell me what happened. I remember being shot.”
Omar nodded, “You were shot three times in the head and you were very much dead. Nekar did something and you came back.”
“What did you see him do?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” I won’t say it. It has to be a trick I don’t understand but I won’t say that he prayed and she came back to life. “Omar, you are a scientist, you know what you observed with your eyes. What did you see?” she begged. “I need to hear it from you that way I can trust it.”
Omar sighed, “He prayed alright, are you happy? He prayed. But it was a trick.”
Nekar slapped him in the face again. “Stop lying.”
Omar turned and pointed at him, “Don’t you touch me again.”
<
br /> Nekar shook his head. Bogdan had tied up, blindfolded, and gagged the doctor. A soldier walked in and before anyone could silence him he yelled out, “The creatures are loose, the creatures are loose!”
Bogdan took him down after he had said that much but that was enough. They all ran out of the lab and into a long hallway. Soldiers crowded the hallway behind them shooting at them as they ran. Nekar dropped to the back and pushed the others ahead.
“What are you doing?” asked Omar but when he looked at Nekar he saw that he had been shot several times. As they ran down the hallway Nekar was the only one they could really hit with their pistols because he was behind them. He had put himself back there as a human shield.
Another bullet caught him in the side. He pushed them forward, “Come on. You need to get out to the open air where you can fly away.” Another bullet hit him in the shoulder.
Bogdan grabbed Nekar and picked him up. They finally made it to the door and once they hit the open they flew up into the sky. They flew over farm lands until they were far away from the camp.
They landed and went behind a barn. Bogdan set Nekar down. “Thank you for saving my life,” he said. Nekar had bled too much while they were running. His face was white. “I am a believer too,” said Bogdan. He knelt over Bogdan and prayed, “Lord we thank you for Nekar, please heal his wounds for the glory of your name.” Nothing happened.
Sasha put her hand over Nekar and said the same prayer. Bogdan looked at her, “It only works with believers.”
She nodded, “I am now.” Omar didn’t like the sound of that but he kept his mouth quiet. Can’t they see? If their God exists he is abandoning Nekar in his moment of need.
Nekar grabbed Omar’s arm and as if in response to Omar’s thoughts he said, “Shall the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ I am His to do with as he wills.”
Omar didn’t really feel up to arguing with a dying man. Nekar tightened his grip on Omar’s arm. “I die, with my people. I knew Esther Metzger… she was in the shack with us when I found the tunnel to Musterion.”
Omar shook his head, “What does that have to do with me? Why does that matter?” “She is still on Soterion and alive… your grandmother. You see, your mother was but a child but she escaped on earth after your grandmother escaped to Musterion,” said Nekar. His eyes started to flutter.
Omar shook Nekar. Sasha scowled at him for that. “Nekar, how do we get back to Musterion?” Nekar then said, “It just occurred to me… the key… it’s the key. Omar, Myles is going to bring you Misaki. Listen to her words. And…,” he coughed. Nekar gently grabbed Omar’s hand. “… your dreams. On Soterion they aren’t just dreams. They mean something. I see the fear in your eyes… that is new. But fear, it’s the beginning…” Nekar trailed off. Omar gripped his hand tighter. His eyes fluttered and he said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” He took a long breath and then was still.
Tears flowed from Omar’s cheeks. He did not moan or wail or sob but they came. This poor stupid man who has made sure we got to safety has sacrificed his life for ours. He gave his life so that we could live.
Sasha was a wreck. She went over to Omar and buried her head in his chest. He held her there and they both cried. Bogdan dug a grave there behind the barn. He said a prayer in Russian and at the end of it Sasha said, “Amen.” Omar found himself not minding her conversion as much as he initially had. It made sense in the context of the situation.
After the burial, Omar took the key from his pocket. He hadn’t looked at it closely until this time. It seemed to have a shifting light about it like the energy in Musterion that fueled the portals.
“How does it work,” asked Sasha. Omar shrugged. He held it out in midair and purposefully turned it as if opening a lock in a door. A light split out from the key and an open doorway formed. It was like one of the portals as such intense light came forth that one could not see to the other side. Omar insisted the Bogdan and Sasha go through first. Then he turned and looked at the fresh grave. It was missing something. Omar looked around the barn and found two sticks and some fishing string. He tied the two sticks together in the shape of a cross and then planted the cross there at the head of the grave. And before he left through the portal he turned and surveyed the grave with the cross at its head. There, that looks just the way I think Nekar would want it.
Then he stepped into the portal back to Musterion.
13
Strike the rock
Jack found his way back to the subway but he had to lose the masses of zombies chasing after him. They were faster than zombies in movies but a whole lot less unpleasant. They were not rotting; in fact they had some kind of advanced regeneration.
As he ran he had to out-smart them. They had some intelligence. They could pick up objects even shoot guns (those that had them) but they did not think as quickly on their feet as Jack did. Jack ran down the street and then doubled back to the subway hiding behind cars and trash cans and bushes. It tricked them. He saw crowds of hundreds running the direction he had doubled back from.
He entered the subway. Jack tried to find his way back to the portal but he could not find it. It’s not there or I am lost. Then he resorted to searching the tunnels for anything significant. Maybe a clue as to what had happened here.
He found his way to the only tram in the area. He boarded it and went to the driver’s station at the front. On the front window shield, in lipstick, was written “STRIKE THE ROCK IN THE CENTER ~Nekar”. Jack shook his head, “Nice shade of lipstick, Nekar,” he mumbled to himself. What kind of name is Nekar anyway?
But as Jack searched the subway he found more odd graffiti. He passed the stairs where he saw the writing “Go to the center.” And as he passed a bench he saw “Strike the rock with your staff”. Jack looked at his retractable staff and thought for a moment and then said to himself, “Nah.”
Finally Jack decided he must figure out what happened on this version of earth. He went to the surface and snuck around New York City until he made his way to a newspaper stand. There were no newspapers on the outside of the stand but Jack went inside and found some newspapers there.
The date was January 12th1989. The headline was “VIRUS DESIMATES POPULATION”. As he read on he discovered that a virus had killed off many people and was claiming lives daily. That must be what happened to Tyree, but it happened so fast… the virus must have mutated.
He flipped the page and dropped the Newspaper. The next page had written in big letters in pen across the whole page, “Jack, strike the rock. Go to the center.”
Ok, now that is a little too weird. How would someone know I was going to read this paper? What rock? Where is the center? Far be it from me to ignore that many messages. Jack began searching for a rock and he tried to find something that might say center on it. As he wondered the streets of New York he saw a sign for “Central Park”.
Jack found his way to Central Park and began searching for a rock to strike. Jack could not find a single rock. What he did find was the central location for the demonic aliens. Beneath a statue of an ugly dragon made of bones there were dozens of them and hundreds of zombies come to get their tasks. The statue of the dragon was made of stone. I have to strike that?
Jack didn’t hesitate. He ran through the middle of the zombies straight to where the aliens where under the statue. They began to reach for him but before they could he struck his staff to the ground sending a force wave over the crowd throwing them to the ground. Jack knew he had little time so he struck the stone statue with his staff.
Jack didn’t know what to expect from hitting the statue but he did not desire what came next. The statue started to break apart revealing a real dragon with shape slimy black scales. It grew as the pieces of the statue fell away. “How has called me to this realm?” it said in a booming voice.
Jack stepped forward and the thing laughed at him. “I don’t know how you have escaped my virus but you shall die.” The dragon opened his mouth and let out a black
and green smoke. Jack put his shirt over his mouth and tried not to breath. The smog it breathed was completely fowl smelling.
When it was done Jack looked up and couldn’t resist saying, “They make breath mints for that kind of problem.”
The dragon was perplexed. “You… you aren’t turned. You didn’t die?”
Jack shrugged.
“That’s impossible,” said the dragon as it backed away. “If it makes you feel better that’s about the first thing that has gone my way in several days. Hey, can you just turn my friend back and tell me the way out of here and I will be on my way,” said Jack. But the dragon wasn’t listening.
“My virus has taken over this entire world, how can it be that you can resist it?”
Jack shrugged again. Then the dragon looked angry. “I guess I will have to do this the old fashioned way.” It swiped at him throwing him yards to the side right into a tree.
Jacks arm hit the tree and he felt a snap. That can’t be good. Jack got up with his left arm dangling. Jack changed a setting on his staff to give off high electric volt charges rather than force strikes. As the dragon swiped at him again he hit it with his staff. The staff connected and sent a surge of electricity through the dragon’s body. The dragon stepped back but regained its confidence quickly. It uprooted a tree and slammed it toward the ground at Jack who barely just dodged at the last instant.
Behind where the statue had been Jack could see an un-hewn rock. Jack rolled towards it as he dodged the dragon’s next attack with the tree. The dragon sent zombies to attack Jack so he changed the setting back and forced them back but as he did the dragon struck at Jack with the tree. This time he was hit with a few of the branches of the tree. Jack stumbled back but in the direction of the rock. Then Jack used all of his strength to run at the rock and as the dragon went to strike at him again with the tree Jack reached the rock striking it with his staff.
As Jack struck the rock a flood of water came from it vaporizing the dragon as it hit it. The zombies came toward Jack but as the water got on them they were cured. They looked around as if having no memory of how they got to where they were. Amongst the zombies pursuing Jack was Tyree. Jack laughed as he tacked Tyree with a hug. "It's good to see you alive," Jack told him.
Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux Page 18
