Stones: Hypothesis (Stones #2)

by Jacob Whaler

  Dropping to his knees, Matt kneels beside his dad and cradles his head. “I love you, Dad.”

  Kent’s lips part and move.

  Matt puts his ear close to the lips. Kent’s body convulses as he tries to speak. The words finally make it out in a whisper.

  “Go to her.”

  Matt lays his dad’s head back down gently on the grass and looks up at Leo and Yarah, their hands still on Jake’s chest.

  Yarah smiles.

  Leo and I will fight him together.

  Jumping to his feet, Matt twists and catches Ryzaard’s chin with the heel of his shoe, throwing the old man back to the ground. His eyes roll shut.

  Turning to Yarah, Matt pulls her Stone out of his pocket and tosses it through the air to her. His hand goes up to the middle of his chest.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Then he vanishes.

  CHAPTER 130

  It’s a trap.

  The bluescreen on the wall freezes with an image of Matt standing in a field of green grass. Two men lay on the ground behind him, shirts soaked in blood. A young boy and a little girl bend over one of them.

  Jessica tries to breathe, but her lungs feel like they’ve been ripped out of her chest. She tries to see, but her eyes are on fire.

  The last few days were sheer boredom. Hours of staring out the window broken up by short meals and conversations with the girl named Alexa.

  They were looking for Matt, that much was clear. The fact that they hadn’t found him yet was the only reason Jessica was still alive.

  She longed to see him, but prayed they would never find him.

  Out of nowhere, she noticed a tickle in her throat. Then a searing pain tore down her windpipe and into her lungs. She put a wet cloth over her mouth, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

  Now she can no longer breathe with or without the cloth. Her body drops to the floor. She has her back against the bed, coughing uncontrollably. She hears movement outside the door. The guards are talking.

  A small section of the wall in front of her opens, and a silver cube the size of a shoe box slides out on a metal rod. Thick black cables run from the cube into the wall. Green telltales flash along its side. It gives off an audible hum that she can feel through vibrations in the floor.

  She forces her eyes to stay open.

  The door opens. Two men walk through the opening, gasmasks on their faces. One of them holds a large rifle with his finger resting on the trigger. The other has a huge pistol in his hand, raised and pointing at her.

  The air stirs to her right.

  No, Matt. Don’t come. They’re waiting for you.

  Before she can finish the thought, there is a flash of brilliant white in the room. She swings her head in the direction of the light, no longer thinking of breathing. Stabs of pain explode in her abdomen.

  As her eyes drop down, through half open lids, she sees his face.

  Matt appears out of nothing. There’s something strange about his clothes.

  A scream of warning and rage, fear and pain and love, erupts from her throat and out her lips.

  Matt turns his head and looks down at her, his eyes open wide. He’s yelling to her, but she doesn’t understand the words. She catches a glimpse of a Stone in his hand.

  It looks black and cold.

  He’s gripping the Stone in two hands, holding it in front like a sword, but nothing happens.

  The sound of thunder pierces the room, and fire shoots across her line of sight. As she watches Matt through a slit in her lids, the clothes on his chest rip and explode. He staggers backward, his body slamming into the wall. There is more thunder as the two men rake his chest and legs with steel and fire. His arms fly backward.

  Just before her eyelids drop down and seal off the outside world, she sees him crumple to the floor.

  The sound of her own screaming stops, overtaken by blackness and oblivion.

  CHAPTER 131

  Ryzaard gets to his feet.

  Other than the broken jaw and nose and a few cracked ribs, he feels great. He looks down at the boy and the girl, still bent over a body on the ground, their hands on the chest, the look of desperation in their faces.

  “Your Matt is quite a hero. And a fool.” Ryzaard leans against a boulder to steady himself and laughs. “And he’s dead by now.”

  “You’re lying,” Leo says, his body visibly trembling. “You’re always lying.” Tears stream down his cheeks. “You said the same thing last time. You’ll never be able to kill him.”

  Bending down, Ryzaard picks his jax off the ground. “Amazing things.” He holds it up in his hand. “A jax can take quite a beating and still work. Just like me.” Brushing a finger against its side, he smiles when a small holo screen jumps up from it. He slides a thumb down its side. The holo screen blows up in size until it’s four feet across, hanging in the air.

  “So you think I’m a liar?” Ryzaard says. “Look for yourself.”

  At first, Leo turns away, but his head slowly comes back until he and Yarah are both staring at it.

  It shows a young woman on the floor of an apartment, her back leaning against a bed. She has her hand up to her mouth, struggling to breathe, but unable to inhale. Seconds later, there’s a blurry image of Matt’s face on the screen, standing only a few feet from the woman. The rest of his body is a blur.

  Ryzaard pauses the holo.

  “He got there all right. But I made it so he can’t use his Stone. What do you think will happen next?”

  From somewhere behind the camera, streaks of fire shoot across the room at Matt. The woman screams as Matt staggers backward, bullets and flames tearing across his chest and legs. He falls against a wall and slides to the floor, motionless.

  Ryzaard brushes the jax and the holo disappears.

  Without a word, Leo jumps up, holding his Stone in both hands like a pistol, and lunges at the old man. A small blue sphere of energy bursts from Leo’s Stone.

  Ryzaard falls back against the boulder. At the same time, white light envelopes him, absorbing the energy pulse from Leo’s Stone.

  Leo lets fly another shot of energy, his jaw clenched, pure hatred written on his face.

  The same white light surrounds Ryzaard again. He starts to laugh, wincing from the pain in his side and the cracked ribs.

  “Young man,” Ryzaard says. “I’m impressed with your ability to heal yourself so quickly while you were working on someone else.” He nods to himself. “Your gifts are considerable.”

  Yarah stands up and walks to Leo’s side. She grabs his hand and pulls him back. All the time, she keeps her eyes on Ryzaard, moving slowly.

  “And you, my little princess.” Ryzaard looks down at Yarah and nods to himself. “You have a multitude of rare gifts. Uncommon courage. Intelligence. Telepathy.”

  Yarah and Leo back up until they are standing just in front of the bodies of the two fallen men.

  “I know you are devastated that you weren’t able to revive these gentlemen. Their injuries were too severe, and by the time you got here, they were too far gone. But your valiant attempts are impressive. You both have great ability. Perhaps I’ve been too hasty in my attempts to eliminate you. It would be a shame to waste such talent.” He takes a step forward from the boulder. “Now that Matt is gone, perhaps you would consider joining me. Your gifts would make a great contribution.”

  Leo glances at Yarah and dips his chin.

  At the same instant, both of them lean forward and hold out their Stones. A stream of blue spheres the size of golf balls shoots out at Ryzaard.

  He falls back against the boulder as the same bubble of light jumps around his body and absorbs the attack.

  “You just don’t understand, do you?” Ryzaard says. “No matter how hard you try, you can’t kill me.”

  With a Stone in each hand, he sits down at the base of the boulder and closes his eyes, remaining still.

  Leo and Yarah attack again.

  This time, Ryzaard doesn�
��t bother to open his eyes. Moving inside his body, he begins the healing. First the cracked ribs. With three Stones, it doesn’t take long. Then the nose. Finally the jaw. The events of the day have given him a lot of practice, and he silently congratulates himself at how proficient he is at fixing his wounds.

  During the whole process, the children continue attacking. Ryzaard hardly notices. They are simply too young and inexperienced.

  After three minutes, he opens his eyes, refreshed and invigorated. “It’s time, children.” Standing up, he walks briskly to them, the white buffer around his body protecting him against a constant barrage of blue spheres. He hands clamp down on their wrists. “There is someone who has been helping me, and I would like you to meet him. His name is Little John.”

  Ryzaard vanishes and, with him, Leo and Yarah.

  CHAPTER 132

  As soon as he hears the door shut and the guards leave, Matt gets up to his knees, feeling the intense pain that riddles his chest and legs. For the first time, he knows how it feels to get shot dozens of times at close range.

  His eyes go down to his chest.

  His clothes hang in shreds on the blue skin covering his body.

  Thanks, Jhata. You just saved my life.

  Jessica is face down on the floor, as still as death. Matt rushes to her side and puts his finger on her neck.

  No pulse.

  Please don’t let her d—

  Before he has time to think, the door swings open again and two men in military uniforms burst in, the same two that just shot him up. One has a rifle. The other a pistol.

  “What the f—”

  “He’s covered in blue!”

  Matt springs straight at the two men, opening his arms, hoping to draw their fire away from Jessica and trying to make himself as large a target as possible.

  They engage their guns at point blank range and spray his body. Titanium steel projectiles disintegrate against his skin and fall to the floor like black dust. With looks of disbelief on their faces, the two men stumble back to the open door.

  Ignoring the searing pain, Matt lunges one more time at the nearest man standing only a meter away. He grabs the red hot barrel with both hands and twists it down and to the right.

  The man’s eyes grow wide, and he falls back through the door, leaving the rifle in Matt’s hands. The other man fires a few more rounds.

  As he takes shots to his chest, Matt flips the rifle around and points it at the remaining man. Adrenaline keeps the pain at bay. Lunging forward, Matt presses the tip of the rifle to the man’s forehead.

  The soldier drops his pistol on the floor and steps back through the door, hands above his head.

  Matt slams the door shut with his foot. Turning around, he sweeps the room with his eyes and finds what he’s looking for.

  A silver cube with green telltales lies on the floor next to the wall in full view. Thick black cables run from the cube under the wall.

  Matt points the pulse rifle at it and buries a dozen rounds into its interior. There’s a flash of light and sparks. The telltale lights go off.

  He immediately feels the difference.

  Dropping to his knees, Matt finds the flow of time, reaches for it and grabs it.

  Time stops.

  He collapses to the floor beside Jessica, chest heaving, barely able to breathe. He’s been holding back the pain, keeping it behind a barrier of adrenaline. He finds the barrier and rips it away, embracing what lies on the other side. It blows through him like wave of jagged glass.

  When he has processed all the pain, he pushes himself up to his knees and looks down at Jess. Arms trembling, he rolls her body over so that she is facing up, and then takes both her hands in his. He needs to take her to a safe place where he can heal her in peace.

  He has an idea.

  The air becomes a sea of white, and his eyes open to the ocean on his own personal world. Jessica lies on the sand beside him.

  It’s time to begin the healing.

  He checks again for a pulse.

  Nothing.

  In desperation, his hands go down on the sides of her head. His eyelids drop shut.

  Reaching out, he doesn’t immediately sense her presence. A wall of terror rolls over him.

  Is she dead?

  He gropes for a deeper level of concentration. He can feel Jessica’s presence, but she is moving away from him.

  Jessica. Wait!

  He makes a final push to jump to her side.

  His eyes open in a bright room staring down at a golden floor. Blue lines draw his eyes to white walls and up to the ceiling. A transparent glass sphere floats above his head, saturating the room in warmth. For a moment he simply stares up into it, drawn by an overwhelming sense of comfort.

  Tears stream from his eyes.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  The voice is familiar. Matt looks at its source kneeling beside him. Jessica stretches out her hand and takes his. Her skin is warm and inviting.

  “Jessica, how long have you been here?”

  “How long?” She laughs quietly. “Since forever.” Her gaze turns back up to the sphere.

  Matt smiles and casts his gaze around. On the other side of the room, a large door opens out onto a wide courtyard full of color and light. The music of songbirds drifts inside the room from outside, bringing with it the aroma of a thousand varieties of fruit. People are walking beneath trees, talking softly, looks of joy and surprise on their faces.

  Jessica stares outside, as if in a trance. “It’s so beautiful. Let’s go have a look.” She takes a step toward the open door, pulling on Matt’s hand.

  “Wait.” Matt puts his arms around her and feels her warm body next to him. His fingers run through her long hair and down her back. Lifting her chin, he looks down into her eyes and presses his lips against hers.

  There is no rushing. Only tenderness.

  As they pull apart, she looks up. “I love you.” Her fingers squeeze his hand even tighter. “Let’s go.” Again, she pulls him toward the open door.

  Matt doesn’t move. Her fingers start to slip away.

  “Jessica,” Matt says.

  Her gaze swings from the open door, back to him.

  “Do you remember?”

  “I remember that I love you and that I always want to be with you.”

  Matt takes a step closer to her and puts his hands on her shoulder.

  “You were a prisoner in a room. You inhaled a poison into your lungs. It made you sick, so you couldn’t breathe. I’ve come here to help you, to heal you, so that you can come back with me.”

  “Back where?”

  “Back to the world we live in. Back to your life. Our life.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Matt puts his hands on both sides of her face and looks deep into her eyes and sees only love and beauty and acceptance. “Jessica, do you trust me?”

  “Yes, of course, you know I do.”

  “I’m not sure exactly what’s happening right now, but I need you to try to remember the life we had together. I have to go back to the world we came from. I want you to come with me.”

  “Why would we leave?” A hint of confusion touches Jessica’s voice. “It’s so wonderful here.”

  “It is,” Matt says. “And I think someday we’ll be able to come back and stay. But right now, they need us in the world we came from. The world we were born into.” Tears start at his eyes and stream down his cheeks. “The truth is that I need you, Jessica. It’s selfish of me. It’s so wonderful and perfect here. But I need you to leave here and come with me.”

  Jessica reaches her hands up to Matt’s face and touches the stream of wetness. Her own eyes are filled with tears.

  “Can you tell me?” she says.

  “Tell you what?”

  “Tell me what kind of a world we came from.”

  Matt looks back up at the luminous sphere above his head. The fragrance of apricots and peaches drifts through the air from the co
urtyard outside the open door. Songbirds chirp in the trees. He detects the gentle touch of waves on an ocean beach somewhere out of sight. The faint smell of salt in the air.

  We could just walk through the door and be together forever. No more pain. No more suffering. No more fighting with Ryzaard.

  “Our world is different from this,” Matt says. “It has light and dark, intense beauty and utter ugliness, selflessness and depravity. Joy and sorrow.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Matt says.

  He looks around the room and notices for the first time that the Woman is standing in the corner, gazing on them with glistening eyes. Tears run down her cheeks as well. Her voice rises in his mind, like the sun in the morning.

  Her life on your world has come to an end, and she has come to this place of rest. It will be difficult for her to leave. Only a few choose to return. Your love for her is strong, but you must remember the choice is hers and hers alone.

  “Here’s what I do know,” Matt gazes at the Woman as he speaks to Jessica. “The Ones who made this beautiful world are the same Ones who made the world we come from.”

  Jessica follows Matt’s gaze across the room and sees the Woman. A smile graces Jessica’s lips, and her eyes go back to Matt, searching his face. “Are you sure you want to leave?”

  “I have to.” Matt swallows hard. “My dad needs me. My friends need me. The world needs me.”

  “Will we be together?”

  “Always.”

  Looking over her shoulder at the courtyard outside, Jessica takes a deep breath. Her fingers slip into Matt’s, and her eyes come back to him. “I’m ready to go with you.”

  A door opens behind them, leading into darkness.

  Jessica squeezes Matt’s hand, and they walk through together, moving forward into emptiness and cold. She hums a song that reminds Matt of a child’s lullaby.

  The air shifts around them.

  Jessica brings a hand up to her mouth and looks at Matt, a hint of worry in her eyes. A wave of coughing overcomes her. Her legs buckle, and she sinks down on one knee. “What’s happening?” she screams. “I can’t breathe!” She falls down and reaches up for Matt.