Sentinel: The Race Against Dark Energy

by Andrew McIntyre

  “Trust me,… There is nothing ‘usual’ about us being here.” Responded Nell, “and we won’t be here long, so can we please get some water?”

  The whole room began laughing. “Water?” The barman questioned, derisorily.

  Saul intervened. “YES! Water,.. Please.”

  The barman stared at Saul in an intimidating fashion and for a few seconds, before turning and filling two glasses with water and slapping them onto the bar.

  The men in the room all began slowly talking with each other again, continuing with their card games and small talk.

  “Thank you.” Said Saul to the barman deliberately. “We also need to find someone.” The barman didn’t flinch, holding his stare, but said nothing. “He’s a very tall man, would have entered town a little time before us. You can’t miss him, he’s huge.” Saul continued. The barman thought for a moment or two, then nodded slowly.

  “Yep, we saw him come into town. He’s been here before. Always causing trouble and no different today. He killed some fella earlier and took everything he had, especially his clothes and hat. That aint right! What you want with him?”

  “He has something we want.” Saul replied.

  “That murdering son of a bitch, has something you kids want?” Asked the barman, laughing.

  “Very much so!” Saul said emphatically. “Do you know where he is?”

  “Yup,.. Far end of town.” The barman gestured, thumbing towards his right. “But you must be crazy or desperate to go looking for him.”

  “Oh it’s a little of both.” Interrupted Nell.

  “You don’t even have a gun.” The barman highlighted, looking directly at Saul.

  Saul reached for his phone as the barman’s comment struck home. “E, he has a good point. Got any suggestions?” Asked Saul, trying to think of a solution.

  “Firstly you need to connect your earphones and put them in your ears.”

  Saul frowned, “Not again?”

  “You will last exactly 4.8 seconds without the proper training, so YES again Saul.”

  Saul did as instructed but clearly dissatisfied. Then the phone began its usual routine of digits and bright lights flashing upon the screen. Saul’s eyes once again rolled back into his head becoming white all over and his body rigid. This time Nell was prepared and calm and simply awaited Saul’s return into the moment, which came some twenty seconds later, with the barman stepping back in horror.

  “Don’t tell me you have a manual on how to use a gun as well E?” She asked.

  “No, that would be ineffective. I have downloaded memories from the zero-point field from John Henry Holliday, which will offer Saul the same skills and even muscle memory, enabling him to use his weapon with the same dexterity and agility as an experienced gunslinger.”

  “John Henry Holliday?” enquired Saul, coming back out of his trance-like state.

  “Doc!” Said the barman.

  “You have given me ‘Doc Holliday’s’ abilities, via a download?” Saul asked.

  “Would you prefer ‘Butch Cassidy’ or ‘Thomas Edward Ketchum’? Asked E.

  “No,.. I’m fine.” Replied Saul quickly, “But as he said, I don’t actually have a gun, so some hardware wouldn’t go amiss.”

  “Text what you need.” E replied.

  “TEXT?” Saul confirmed, getting worried.

  “Correct.”

  “I don’t think we have time for Moose to mail order me a weapon, E.”

  “Just text the weapon you would like Saul.”

  Saul only knew one gun. It was the only one he could recall from western films as a kid. He tapped into his handset ‘COLT45’.

  With the barman, Nell and the seated crowd all looking on in wonder, the phone handset began whirring, clicking and buzzing, then began reassembling itself into a replica colt 45 pistol, but with a modern twist. As pieces of the phone became the barrel, the cylinder, the but, the trigger, firing pin, hammer and the handle.

  Saul was surprised, Nell was amazed and the barman perplexed, at what he had just witnessed. He raised his hands defensively. “OK Kid, so you do have a gun. Just don’t go waving that thing around in here.” Saul stood holding the newly assembled pistol and began spinning it around in his hand, rolling it back and forth at high speed, before finally slipping it into his pocket, leaving the handle still sticking out.

  The bar once again fell silent, impressed with his pistol acrobatics. “Well a sentinel has gotta do, what a sentinel has gotta do, I suppose.” Saul said cockily and walking towards the doors. The barman reached below the counter and pulled up a shotgun, holding it horizontally. “Can you shoot?” He asked Nell?

  “A little.” She said nonchalantly.

  The barman threw the shotgun over the bar into her arms saying, “He’s gonna need someone who’s got his back. Just point and shoot.”

  Nell quickly opened the weapon, inspecting it and examining down inside the barrels whilst assuming an Olympic-style shooting stance, grabbed two cartridges from the pile the barman had poured onto the bar, loaded them and quickly closed the barrel up with a click. Pointed it down to the ground and said wryly, “Clay pigeon champion three years in a row at my family estate shoot.”

  The barman said nothing, just stared at her bemused.

  “Never mind.” Dismissed Nell. Then walked over to join Saul leaving.

  “Hey Kid!” shouted the barman after them, “Are you who they say you are? Are you ‘Billy’?”

  Saul stopped in his tracks, turned and smiled. “Nope,.. I’m Saul. Saul Casey – Sentinel.” Then he turned and walked confidently through the swing doors, followed closely by his shotgun-toting companion.

  The main street outside was long. Long, wide and not really a street at all, being just dust, grit and sand. It stretched out before them up to the end of town where there was a coral and a livery yard. The wind was blowing gently carrying with it the obligatory tumbleweed and dust in the air. The pair split, with Nell moving over to the right hand side and up onto the wooden walkway. Saul remained in the centre of the street and both approached the livery with trepidation.

  The large wooden doors of the livery were closed and banging gently as the wind caught them. The populous of the bar were now all emerging in a huddle watching from behind and in the relative safety of forty meters away. The livery building had a first floor door with an arm and pulley mechanism above it for lifting heavy-duty equipment, which suddenly opened. Out jumped the Demonicon from the first floor opening and with its super-human agility, landed in the centre of street, leaving deep indentations in the dusty ground. The Demonicon was dressed in its victim’s clothes, being trousers, boots, spurs, a long coat and suitably topped off with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat which it slowly placed upon its head. It had a holster, gun and ammunition belt around its waist.

  Saul exhaled deeply and told his mind to slow down. The Demonicon let out a chilling unearthly roar, which resounded along the street and sent saliva flying from its mouth, its eyes steely black. It pulled back its coat to reveal its holstered gun, hanging from the bullet-filled ammunition belt, then in one and the same movement went for its gun. Saul’s right hand blurred as it drew its high-tech pistol from his pocket, aimed and fired two rounds of blue beaning light directly into the monster’s chest, sending it flying back some ten feet onto the dusty ground behind.

  Silence. The Demonicon lay motionless on its back. Then suddenly rolled violently to one side and up onto one knee firing back two shots from its pistol. The lead bullets sped past Saul’s head with a zip-sound. Saul panicked. He knew he’d hit the Demonicon, so why was it not dead? Saul dived to his left, shouting at his weapon, “E!! What is happening? I hit him, he went down, why is it still alive?”

  The beast fired again and Saul heard the bullet pass him getting closer than the first two. Saul dived again and released another bolt of blue light straight at the Demonicon, hitting its shoulder and spinning it around, to once again land on the ground with the area of shoulder hit, smo
king.

  Once again the dark energy Demonicon rolled and jumped to its feet, spinning wildly and with undiminished athleticism. Amongst the noisy skirmish, E’s voice came from the pistol Saul held, “It is only a headshot that will kill this entity Saul,” He said calmly.

  “Now you tell me!” Saul replied sharply.

  He fired off two more shots aimed directly at the creature’s head, but as they reached the target, the Demonicon’s head simply shifted sharply to avoid the blue energy bullets. “SHIT!” Exclaimed Saul, as he kept moving about to avoid being an easy target

  The Demonicon fired off a volley of further shots, which splintered wood and shattered glass behind Saul, but all missing. Then the Demonicon’s gun clicked repeatedly as it was now empty. Saul sighed in relief and proudly stood up and took aim. He knew he had time to get the effective head-shot he needed and so made the effort to ensure he didn’t miss. As he steadily aimed for the Demonicons black eyes, the creature ran forward and threw its weapon full force directly at Saul, striking him in the forehead above his left eye and sending him backwards at pace into the wooden decked walkway. The eight-foot creature bounded over to Saul and grabbed him with both hands, raising him above its head with Saul still delirious from the blow to his head.

  The Demonicon let out another evil, deafening roar as it spun around holding Saul’s limp body above its head, then threw Saul violently across the street, crashing into the wooden frontage of a store, smashing its window. As Saul landed just behind Nell and the barrels behind which she took cover, she saw his unconscious face and reached out to him in terror, at the thought of him being killed.

  The Demonicon strode over to the wooden walkway to finish the job and as it caught sight of Saul’s lifeless body, Nell arose from behind the barrels. Being stood on the walkway, she came level with the Demonicon’s head. She pointed the shotgun directly at it and shouted, “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Opening fire, with two cartridges, one after the other. The Demonicons’ head disappeared into a mass of lead shot, green blood and tissue, leaving its body slowly slumping to its knees. Then with a pounding sound, it finally fell forward with a weighty slam, into the dust.

  Nell didn’t flinch, ignoring the dead beast and turned to where Saul lay unconscious. She dropped to help him, but had no idea where to begin and simply called his name desperately. “E – What do I do?” She shouted.

  As the crowd gathered around the youngsters and the slain Demonicon, Saul’s phone lay next to him and recalibrated back from a pistol into its usual handset mode, with E once again appearing as a hologram. “Nell, point the phone towards Saul please.” He said, directing the distraught student.

  Nell immediately did as instructed and a white light emitted once again, flickering and pulsating, scanning Saul’s motionless body. “He has internal injuries, including three broken ribs and is also suffering concussion” Said E, again emotionless in tone. “Do not touch or move him, let me induce energetic healing through his own in-built cellular repair system.”

  The light emitting from the phone changed colour, to a pale red and continued pulsating and flickering but now with an accompanied feint buzzing sound. “This will heighten his parasympathetic nervous system, accelerating the healing process.” Instructed E.

  Nell was frantic, trying her best not to grab her injured companion and in so doing disrupt any good being done through the sci-fi treatment. Saul’s body began to twitch and as his fingers jerked and breathing became normal, his eyes eventually opened and a smile beamed across his face as he focused, seeing Nell directly above him. Moving just one finger, he quietly gestured to her to lean forward so he could whisper something. “What? WHAT?” Said Nell, urgently trying to get her ear as close to his mouth as possible. Saul said nothing but gently kissed her. She fell into his arms and continued with the kiss, with Saul flinching in pain.

  Saul eventually rose to his feet, feeling shaky but to a chorus of cheers and clapping from the gathered crowd. Nell helped him up and he held her close like a crutch, with his arm firmly around her shoulders. The people patted him and slapped him on the back inducing further flinches of pain, but he smiled and accepted the adulation.

  As Saul limped down from the wooden walkway, with Nell helping to carry his weight, the crowd began to clean up the broken glass from the window and two men attempted to lift the torso of the Demonicon and drag it away. Saul stopped and turned to Nell, saying, “Haven’t we forgotten something?”

  Nell frowned. “What?”

  “The scroll!” He said obviously.

  “Oh Yes!” Nell blurted, then ran over to the men dragging the corpse and halted them, going through the pockets of the long cowboy coat. She pulled out the scroll, which was folded into a smaller square shape and held it aloft.

  “Do you require a laser Saul,” Enquired E.

  “NO,… Not this time E.” Replied Saul, stepping forward and grabbing a cigar from a startled onlookers’ mouth. He unfolded the scroll and held the lit cigar to the bottom corner, blowing on as he did so until it smoldered and finally ignited.

  Saul dropped the scroll to the dusty ground and as the flames burned up and consumed the document, the wind blew the ashes into the air.

  Chapter 9: Re-Group

  The student pair limped off slowly into the dusty, wind-swept distance and found a wagon at the end of town on which to sit and gather themselves. “Why don’t we just rest at the saloon.” Asked Nell, “We can at least, get a coffee and some shelter, whilst you recover.”

  “No, those people have seen enough weirdness for one day with us around. Anyway,.. We gotta get back home.” Explained Saul, still moving uncomfortably.

  “Indeed.” Said E, appearing from the phone as Saul laid it upon the back of the wagon. “But I am afraid this is not yet over. You must as you say, go back home to Earth, just not the Earth you know.”

  “But he’s in need of medical attention!” Nell insisted.

  “He will be fine within thirty minutes, the enhanced cellular repair process now has him in a homeostatic state, his body is in equilibrium and will take care of that soon enough. But more importantly, we must visit the third time-space continuum location. Without the third element altered, we will not have achieved our goal and Dark energy will be able to reverse the alterations we’ve made so far.”

  Nell looked exasperated, but said nothing.

  “This is more relentless than cramming for exams,” Saul muttered.

  “You won’t be able to sit exams, should the last piece of the space-time continuum stay as it is Saul,” Insisted E. “You will have no universities on Earth, you will have no buildings, no communities, no,…”

  “I get it E! I understand the importance. But Nell and I are new to this – so just give us a few minutes to process everything.”

  “Of course.” Replied E “And whilst you do that let me help you by realigning your bodies’ molecular make-up. I am picking up signs of fatigue, dehydration and vitamin deficiency.”

  E’s hologram shrank back into the phone screen and was replaced by two white beams of light firing our in thin lines and hitting both of the youngsters, dancing about in systematic patterns scanning them both. The beams of light wandered up and down and horizontally at high speed, covering every inch of their physical forms and eventually shot back into the phone handset. “I have now increased the water levels within your bodies, added essential salts and nutrients and optimised your oxygen conversion rates.” E spoke like a doctor examining their patients.

  “OK E, What’s next?” Said Saul sharply.

  E once again powered up a holographic map out of the phone screen, but with further images floating around it. “This is Earth in 3000AD. Without altering dark energy’s current path it has already taken over your planet some years earlier, with the aid of Demonicons and now runs it remotely with droid workers and drones. The result being, it has turned it into a huge production facility for water, managing its supply throughout the universe. Mars was once similar to e
arth with fertile lands and water supply before Dark energy reduced it to its current barren state. Your planet Earth will go the same way if we do not alter this reality.”

  As E spoke, the map spun around, into different orientations as before and zoomed in upon the diagrams alongside, highlighting them as being huge water processors, sucking up colossal quantities of Sea water.

  “So how exactly are we meant to stop this from happening?” Nell asked, confused.

  E changed the image being shown to a view of a structure, which appeared to be sterile and stark, but with huge machinery. It showed drones and droids all swarming about managing the production plant, with ruthless efficiency. “This is the central command centre, from where the whole operation is run, with one overarching, central computer system. The computer system is automated to run until Earth is dry. In this reality, human beings are limited to a nomadic existence within the resulting desert areas left.”

  “It looks vast?” Nell noted.

  “In human terms, it is.”

  “Well, I would say we’ve been lucky so far,… But this seems like an impossible feat. How are we supposed to battle all of those robots or whatever they are, AND stop the extraction of water?”

  “We don’t!” Interrupted Saul. “We avoid them, then plant a virus!”

  “What the man said!” E added.

  “Do I detect a little personality creeping in there, E?”

  “No!”

  Saul smiled and shook his head.

  “So,… Don’t tell me, we must leave now and although time is nothing but an abstract concept created by human beings, we probably don’t have a minute to lose?” Nell broke in sarcastically.