Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  I bow my head to Luke, silently thanking him for his confirming the details of his culture. “Yes, and to have these two women specifically in the kiva has significance.”

  I continue describing the vision, “A shaman, aged, with unruly and thinning white hair framing his face, sits before the well-kindled fire beneath the opening in the kiva. You have to know that I’m watching all of this as an observer. I’m standing behind the mother and daughter and the shaman beckons them to come closer. The fire blazes higher and higher as the young girl takes her seat on the ground across from the high priest. The mother stands quietly at the girl’s side. Startlingly, the shaman releases an ancient cry. I do not know what he says; it isn’t English.

  Swiftly, I’m pulled from the scene in the kiva and back to the scene among the warriors’ blockade. The armed soldier invaders are ascending the rocky plateau and climbing over the stone palisade.”

  I close my eyes to see the setting in my mind as I describe it. “One soldier stands out among them. The way he commands and moves with determination, I can tell that he is their leader, the one commanding this invasion. He drives the soldiers’ cadence past the huts to the village center, where they meet the warriors’ blockage with force. Before I can see the fight, I’m pulled from the scene to the one in the kiva.

  As the shaman continues chanting, he draws up a round copper disc hanging on a piece of twine from around his neck. It is etched with markings, but I can never see it close enough.”

  I glance at Jesca and notice her hand cover the Copula dangling from her neck––the first device. “The mother walks around the fire to the high priest and takes the small, amber disc from his hand. The mother takes it in her hands and walks back to her daughter. Shakily, the daughter opens her hands to accept the metal disc.”

  Elicia chimes in, “They are performing a ritual. This disc, it is part of it.”

  I nod having made the same analysis. “Again, I’m pulled back to the warriors as they hold off the invaders. The warriors, they do not relent. Blood is shed, but they continue to fight. At the kiva, the mother closes her daughter’s palm over the copper disc. The shaman yelps and wails within the confines of the kiva as his chants intensify. The girl’s body sways softly in response to the incantation. Again, I’m pulled from the scene and taken back to the entrance of the tunnel. The white man, the soldier that brought the girl and mother here, he is guarding the passage. Weapon in hand, he is ready to fight anyone that tries to get passed him. Suddenly, the commander of the invasion charges him, but the soldier returns the force, not letting him pass.

  The relentless commander tells the soldier that he does not want him. He wants what is beyond the passage.”

  Ezra’s voice shakes as he says, “They want the girl.”

  I carry on, “In the kiva, the girl spreads her arms wide, closes her eyes and releases a fiery blaze from her body. It rises toward the filtered light falling from the kiva’s shaft.”

  I stop speaking and look into Jesca’s eyes, eyes likened to the girl in my vision. “I believe she is a direct ancestor to you, Jesca.”

  I look at the rest of the guardians. “I think that the invaders, the warriors, the white men, the soldier protecting the tunnel, the mother, the shaman are kin to us and we are all connected to this legacy. Jesca is the root, but we are the outgrowth, the bearers of consequence for a pact our forefathers made long ago.”

  Xander questions speculatively, “So, you mean to tell me that down my long family line, I’m directly linked to one of those people in your vision?”

  I can understand his skepticism and try to explain to him the best I can. “As I grew, the vision gained more importance to me. I needed to know if this was something that happened long ago or just my imagination running wild. I spent many nights unearthing records upon records of surnames, both Native American and not. I looked up events, battles that might have taken place at the mounds that could prove I wasn’t creating this vision in my mind. Befriending the local librarian, hours upon hours reviewing tribal records, I wasn’t going to let it go. The vision was too real to let go.”

  I move closer to Xander. “After what you told me about your vision, then Jesca telling hers, I know that there must be a connection. Each of you has a hand in this because you have an affinity to it through your blood.”

  Daniel speaks up, “Sebastian’s fascination, the Copula, the friendships between Sebastian and your families, the forming of our fellowship, the enemies and the allies we have gained, Michael Sanderson,” Daniel looks at Sebastian, “and Jaeger Sanderson, his father. Xander and Sam, Corinna. These were all echoes resonating from our past to align us with one another right now, in this moment in time.”

  Daniel looks at Ezra now. “I don’t know as much as you assume, Ezra. Sebastian told me what was necessary about the mounds so that I could keep watch over the site and intervene if there was a threat. You have to know that Sebastian has never talked openly about his vision before this very moment.”

  Daniel glances at me and I nod at him, thanking him silently for telling Ezra the same truth. Ezra runs his hand along his lips. His eyes dart to Jesca for a moment, then back to me. “ We haven’t seen all of the pieces of the puzzle yet. What if this is all we get? Just the few pieces of the puzzle we have right now? We don’t know what is expected when we get there.”

  He is worried and pained for his daughter’s plight, I don’t need to read his mind to know this. I’m about to console Ezra, encourage him to have faith that what must be done will be revealed to us, when Daniel interrupts. “I’ve seen things as well.”

  CHAPTER 11: PUZZLE PIECES

  Jesca

  Ezra and I both look from Sebastian to Daniel. Sebastian seems just as surprised as us to hear what Daniel has seen.

  He begins, “The vision started once we landed in the U.S. after you went beyond the veil. The closer we got to the Etowah Mounds, the more vivid they became. I figured the same would happen to you, as we got closer. It is already starting.”

  My heart races as I speak eagerly. “You have been to the mounds. Have you seen what I’m to do to fulfill the legacy?”

  Daniel shakes his head and immediately my heart plummets. “I only saw small pieces of what Sebastian saw; the fight in the village center,” he says seeming to hesitate.

  “What else?” I ask, knowing he’s holding something back.

  “Unlike Sebastian’s vision, the girl evolved into you. The shaman transformed as well.”

  He pauses again to my dismay.

  “Evolved into who dammit?”

  He eyes move to find Luke. “Olivia Walker.”

  Daniel speaking her name, calling her to be a major figure in his vision is a slap to Luke as he casts his wide eyes down to the earth He shakes his head in denial. “No, it’s not her.”

  As I think back to my time with her in Florida; in her bookstore, the healing she did for others, the strength of her life force and her spirit.

  “Where is she?” Luke’s quaking voice startles me from my memories.

  “Weeks after arriving at the mounds, another wave of guardians found us. Your mother and a group of civilians from Florida were among them.”

  Daniel’s account for Luke’s mother seems to calm him a little. “So she is safe.”

  Daniel bows his head. “Yes, she is safe.”

  Visibly puzzled, Sebastian comments, “I can’t remember the surname Walker among my research. It makes sense though Luke’s, since your father would be the one to have carried the Walker name, not your mother. Even still, it is becoming more and more obvious with Daniel’s vision and Olivia Walker finding haven in the Etowah Mounds all the way from Florida is not a coincidence. We are each drawn to this place and the legacy it holds.”

  Daniel relents, “I’ve only seen one piece of the puzzle. Until all of you are there, within the mounds and among what is y
our birthright, we will only know pieces of the whole.”

  Briggs chimes in, “Getting to the mounds is easier said than done.”

  His crew makes a resounding grunt confirming his statement. One soldier adds, “Yeah, even with the NOS we have on board.”

  I’m about to ask about this NOS the soldier he is talking about when Daniel continues, “Before we leave, you must know that our world has changed drastically in the past year. You have only seen the Dwellers in the dark of night. The Sondian fellowship crumbled soon after Gabriel Griffin took his own life. The Dwellers made it all the more important for us to join forces with the disassociating Sondians. We have been under constant attack by them. And our world by day doesn’t look like it once did.”

  Briggs adds, “Government shut down. No manned water supplies, no manned electricity, no one to run the grids globally.”

  Daniel interjects, “While not all of the members of our race have resilience, those that do always find a way to survive. It was a miracle we were able to increase the Copula implantation worldwide after the intersection.”

  What about the future? What about those who haven’t been implanted yet? “How are you able to continue producing and implanting without resources?”

  Monica jumps in, “Many of the institutions that housed the Copulas are still standing and running. After the intersection and first wave of elemental changes, many of the guardians stayed in the institutions to guard the supplies and to begin taking in people that were suffering. We created our own water supplies, and did what we could in regards to the lack of electricity. There were casualties among the implanted average civilian, but at least we gave them a chance to survive. Now, this far into the elemental shifts of our climate, the invasion of the Dwellers, those not implanted don’t stand a chance. They are most certainly casualties.”

  Her candid description of our world’s transformation in a nutshell makes me realize how much can actually change in a year’s time. With guilt, I admit we are the lucky ones. We had not helplessly witnessed the first progression of our world’s evolution. I realize that we will see the continuing progression of the evolution though, stirring the anxiety clawing at the pit of my stomach.

  Daniel’s words interrupt my thoughts, “You must know that the average civilian did not respond to the Copula devices as we have.”

  Concerned, Jake asks, “What? How did they respond?”

  “It didn’t heighten any abilities within them. No supernatural speed or strength either.”

  “They could breathe, that is something,” says Siobhan.

  Nick snickers, “You mean they didn’t have my hot ability?”

  Elicia rolls her eyes and maintains her focus on Daniel. “He means the metaphysical stuff, like reading minds?”

  Daniel shakes his head. “No Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis or Latrosis was evident.”

  Daniel looks at Sebastian and Ezra and says, “Just another reason why I believe the unique abilities each of us possess rose from our bloodline, our link to the legacy. The Copula just amplified their strength.”

  The more he explains to us about how the device is working within the average civilians, the more evident it is that we are unique anomalies forging through our evolving world.

  Daniel carries on, “Knitted within the many facilities our fellowship had generated, among colonies spawned on their own, pockets of resourceful, revolutionaries surfaced. They knew there would be a risk, the Dwellers’ attacks, but they knew that survival was only possible with that risk. These pockets were developing everywhere, just like ours in the Etowah Mound facility. Groups of people were working together as colonies. Soon, they began connecting, combining resources, and working together.”

  Strangely, an image of the little black ants moving along the gel tunnels of the ant farm, adapting and surviving flashes in my mind. We are the ants now.

  “They went underground because of the Dwellers?” Nate asks.

  “They had a pattern of attack,” Daniel says. “Night was when they were most active.”

  He points upward. “Due to the intersection of our galaxy and Andromeda, days are longer up there now. The colonies do most of their interaction, communicating during the daylight.”

  Nick asks, “So, how do they communicate? I mean, you said that the average human hasn’t gained any special abilities like telepathy so how do they work together, colony to colony?”

  Daniel explains, “In any given colony you can find all walks of life. Mechanics, newscasters, doctors, schoolteachers, housewives, chefs, police force, military. On top of that, a mixture of Sondians and Dobrians. The resources just needed to be harnessed.”

  I look at the soldiers and Briggs. They look worn from what this transformed world has doled out to them for the past year. I haven’t taken the time to acknowledge them, their fight in all of this for us. “How many are here in your colony?”

  Briggs’ eyes lock with mine. “There were two hundred this morning.”

  His words are a reminder of the lives lost during our arrival. My chest constricts, remembering the feeling of loss of one of your own. “I’m sorry for your losses.”

  Briggs shakes his head and shifts the weight of his rifle on his shoulder. “Don’t be. They are free. They are the lucky ones. Just a shame that they missed third Tuesday.”

  I shake my head, confused. “Third Tuesday, what is that?”

  One of the soldiers clears his throat. “Third Tuesday is burn day. We have to burn the corpses to prevent disease and illness.”

  Nick gags audibly, “That was the smell when we got off the plane?”

  Briggs nods. “Yeah. It’s about ten times better than the smell of rot and decomposition.”

  I start getting images in my head of what the rot would look like. I close my eyes and swallow down the bile bubbling up in my throat. Daniel’s timing to change the subject is the perfect distraction from the images. “Due to the pattern of attacks by the Dwellers being mostly at night, we are on an obvious curfew.”

  Ezra asks, “Who mandates the curfew?”

  Daniel replies, “We do.” He looks down briefly, then scratches his temple. “We don’t have government enforced laws out there anymore. The only thing mandating us, is surviving the evolution and the Dwellers attacks for as long as we can.” Daniel glances at me and says, “Or until we are saved.”

  Ezra counters him, “We may save ourselves. As evolution goes, there is death and rebirth. The end of one cycle leads to the beginning of a new one. Salvation might not be left to just one, like we believe.”

  He glances at me, placing focusing his concern on me. “And, the cycle of death and rebirth might not be a true death.”

  He surveys the guardians, seeking support, but no one responds. I don’t respond either, because I’ve no idea how this is going to play out. The legacy passed down from all of our ancestors is a new element in this that has me lost in this shit storm once again, pegging me as the possible savior of all mankind.

  CHAPTER 12: TAINTED

  Michael

  Kyoto, Japan

  Yelling, gunfire and blood-curdling screams are dulled as I let my mind drift away from the cacophony of chaos as I gasp for air.

  ***

  I knew things would be different when I returned. I assumed they would be in my favor, but I was wrong. As soon as I hit the tile in that Dobrian facility, death began to settle within me. The suctioning boom of the wormhole sealing behind me brought me to full attention, eyes wide and searching my surroundings for the others.

  I only stopped Sam and Sebastian temporarily beyond the veil and I hoped I’d finished the task as intended by my father, ending Jesca Sera’s life and the legacy that has been a fucking thorn in my bloodlines side for far too long.

  Her father, Ezra, was a bonus kill. His bloodline was tainted long before him when his ancestors committed to g
uard and protect the ones who carried this legacy. A legacy created to prevent our world and the inhabitants from reaching their maximum potential. All of them were tainted and blind to what we could become if we let the evolution take hold.

  Feeling my throat beginning to spasm, I see Ezra, Sebastian, Sam, Jesca, Nate, and Xander splayed out on the ground, a visible haze of dust floating in the air above them once stirred by the vortex. I watch each of the bodies for movement. They are alive, breathing but unconscious.

  I shove off from the ground, expecting it to be effortless, but my arms can barely lift my chest from the ground without the support of my knees; I use them as leverage to get my body most of the way up. I pinch my eyes closed in pain from the vertigo and splitting headache.

  I try swallowing to sooth the tension in the back of my throat, but I have no saliva. My mouth is drying up! I have to get up, get water and find help! All of a sudden, I see movement; it’s Sebastian. As soon as I see him, my vision begins to blur and a feeble wheeze catches in my throat. I cough softly to clear the feeling of my throat tightening, but it only leads to a fiery and excruciating assault on my esophagus upon inhale. Using my hands to push myself to standing, I wobble on my two feet and stumble, almost falling again. I clutch the open doorway ahead of me. Every breath I take results in a horrific sound, the sound of the raw chaffing substance coursing along my esophagus, within my lungs, flowing throughout my body.

  The less I breathe, the longer I’ll last––this becomes my mantra as I search for an escape.

  I slowly fill my lungs with the world’s scorching air, hold it in and begin to run. At first, I stumble, but then my adrenaline kicks in and I’m racing through hallways, checking doors along the way while releasing an inkling of oxygen every few feet.

  Every knob I turn is locked; every hallway dimly lit with yellowing lights doesn’t reveal a way out. The farther I stumble, the deeper I find myself in this maze, white tile floors turning to concrete.