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

by Venessa Kimball

  Ira quiets and looks down at the plate that has been set before him. There is a paired heaping mound of cut bread and a large bowl of broth. The rest of us are given a cup of broth and one slice of bread. Ira interlocks his immense hands and looks out at the colonists and guardians sizing him up, inspecting him, as they eat.

  Again, I jab Ira, this time in the arm, and take a piece of his bread in my hand and hold it in front of his. Ira looks down at me, then at the bread. He tenses, eyes darting uncomfortably between me and the mass of eyes scrutinizing his every move. He slowly loosens his hands and takes the bread.

  He regards Tom and the colonists by lifting the bread in his hand and announces, “Thank you.”

  I bite into my bread, and chew quickly. I didn’t realize how hungry I actually am until I taste the flavor of the bread. Actual flavor of food.

  Tom asks Ira, “Is that enough food?”

  Ira nods graciously. “More than enough.”

  Okay, that is plenty of small talk for me. “We know you are Rephaim, a breed of giants, but that is all. What are you and where do you come from?”

  Daniel, Ezra and Sebastian lean forward and stare at me, flabbergasted by my lack of diplomacy.

  I peer up at Ira. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound rude, it is just that we don’t have a whole lot of time.”

  Ira takes the bowl of broth in one hand, cups it to his mouth, then drinks. “No you don’t have much time, you are right.”

  Him saying I don’t have much time doesn’t sit well with me, but I let it slide.

  Ira continues, “Rephaim, like Nephilim, are watchers of your world.”

  Ezra asks, “Are you fallen angels?”

  Ira tilts his head toward Ezra. “An angel, is that what you think I am?”

  Ezra clears his throat, “I’m not sure.”

  Ira answers, “We are ‘the fallen ones.’”

  Daniel nods eagerly. “I knew it! Able to come to our world from yours freely.”

  Sebastian asks, “Are the Dwellers demons then?”

  Ira replies, “The beasts are pure evil, able to take hold and adapt to your bodies. If that is what a demon is to you, then yes they are. To us, they are just vile beings attacking you and your world. When your world was born, we were sent as watchers, protectors, to keep your race safe. The beasts, they belonged to another universe, another realm corrupted with the evil they spread. The beasts, these Dwellers, they found ways into your world through those that were weak and vulnerable. In those small instances, we were able to keep them away by slaying them.”

  I ask hastily, “So you killed the humans they possessed?”

  He shakes his head. “Medicine men, shaman, healers would pull the Dweller from the vessel, then we would slay them. As the world became more populated, civilizations expanded, the humans became stronger, more resilient. The Dweller attacks were rare and we were called back to our world beyond your universe. We had done our mission and it was time for us to return home. Before we left, we asked the humans to build monuments scattered throughout your world to be used as beacons of contact when you needed protection.”

  Monica asks, “Who called upon you to watch and protect our world from the Dwellers?”

  One of the colonists calls out, “Was it a god or goddess?”

  Another asks, “Was it the God of Christianity?”

  Ira tilts his head. “What you may call a god, a being, or the God of Christianity is containable in a singular word so that you are capable of grasping a representation of this force. What we were called by cannot be embodied in a solitary word let alone a solitary being. I say this only because I’ve been in its presence beyond this universe. It is called by no name because a name would never encompass the full truth of its existence, our existence.”

  Sebastian begins, “We have been beyond the veil of our universe and we have seen how far this force reaches.”

  Ira nods. “You have been beyond one veil. There are more and you have barely scraped the surface of the magnitude of the force’s reach. You have been to the universe these unhallowed Dwellers come from. Your race has ignorantly arched and pierced the veil of a universe that represents destruction for you and your offspring. Once you punctured that veil, those beings flooded into your world just as freely as you traversed into theirs.” Ira looks at me now. “The veil you must pierce to bring about the purification of your world is beyond the three stars you have seen in your dreams. That is where my world is.”

  “Orion’s Belt?” I ask.

  Ira smirks. “Is that what you call it?”

  I nod and guess, “That isn’t what you do though.”

  He shakes his head, but says nothing.

  Briggs asks, “Why did you come?”

  Ira looks down at the small piece of bread he holds between his fingers, and then scans each of the guardians’ faces. “You belong to the mounds. You are the branded ones.”

  “Branded?” questions Nate.

  Ira turns to him. “It is in your blood to be a part of this journey. Your ancestors made it so.” Ira looks at Sebastian. “This Copula device you have created and implanted in human beings, you did not have the knowledge of its ability to adapt you through an evolution when you created it, did you?”

  Sebastian confesses, “No I did not.”

  “The legacy created long ago was put in place to aid your survival during this time. That knowledge was placed in your visions for you to find.” To me, Ira says, “I’ve been watching for a long time. The bond you all share stretches beyond time to a civilization, a people, much like yourselves. Guardians with abilities not of this world.”

  Ira bounces back and forth between Sebastian and me. “A ritual, a call to our universe beyond the veil, afforded your family’s legacy. The bloodlines that sustained the legacy then, have come to be a part of it now.” He looks at all of us. “It is not a coincidence that you all have found each other. You culminate the essence of humanity, redemption, faith, love, sacrifice, loyalty and perseverance. All of you have become a part of this battle for salvation to lift up one vessel that holds the release needed to purify your world and make it anew.”

  Ira comes to rest his eyes on me. “The vibrations you feel, they have grown to become a defense for you and those around you to keep you safe. Your abilities have mutated, strengthened, once again to keep you safe. The divination you possess is increasing, revealing the depths of your legacy the closer you get to the Etowah Mounds. The visions you all will experience will only intensify.”

  He said a ritual. “What do you know of the ritual?” I ask.

  Ira stands. “I do not know what you must do. Only you and the messenger can conjure what needs to be released within you. There is one among you that is a messenger between the human world and my world beyond the veil. You and that messenger will know what to do when you get to the mounds.”

  He looks around the room at each of us, and then his head snaps toward the main tunnel like he has heard something. “My brothers need me.” He turns back to me before he leaves. “Don’t come out again! It is too dangerous!”

  In a flash, he disappears, leaving me wondering who this messenger is among us.

  I consider not listening to Ira and charging out there after him, when Nate comes up behind me and says, “Don’t even think about it. I swear I’ll drag you back by your hair.”

  His voice sounds stronger, more animated than it had just hours before. I turn around to catch the infamous smirk plastered on Nate’s face and the glimmer returned to his brilliant blue eyes.

  I gauge him closely as I say, “You seem to be feeling better all of a sudden.”

  Nate stretches his arms out in front of him, his smirk shifting into a gentle smile. “I am. There is no rest for the weary around you, Jes.”

  I look around for Xander, wondering why he isn’t at Nate’s side. “Where is you
r bosom buddy? I thought you two were attached at the hip now.”

  Nate crosses his arms over his chest and tilts his head at me. “Funny.” He thumbs toward a side tunnel. “Using the facilities.”

  I shrug and start walking toward Tom when Nate catches my arm.

  “Hey, I thought you would be happy that we were getting along,” he says.

  A small spark of electric current from his touch raises goose bumps on my flesh like it had so many times before.

  Nate quickly releases my arm and I try to overlook the sensation by changing the subject. “We should join the others with Tom.”

  I notice Xander appear at the entry of the side tunnel suddenly. He is leaning against the stone wall of the cavern, his face ashen with shadows cast under both of his eyes. Nate catches me looking at him and reacts quickly.

  He announces, “I got him,” and stalks off.

  As Nate approaches Xander, he is shaking his head at something Nate says. Xander’s eyes find me again and he forces himself to stand taller, trying to appear stronger somehow.

  I know better; he is not well. Nate pats him on the shoulder, and then Xander looks at him squarely before nodding in agreement, to whatever has been said.

  I’m distracted when Tom makes an announcement. “Jerry, gather the extra bedding. Looks like you all are staying the night. Follow me and we will get you settled.”

  Keeping an eye on Nate and Xander, I fall into line behind them as we tunnel deeper into the compound. Nate looks back at me and moves closer to Xander. I dodge his glare as he sizes me up, suspicious of my attention to Xander. What is with the territorial crap all of a sudden?

  “Remind you of your old training grounds?” Ezra asks as he comes up alongside of me.

  I survey the passage opening we are walking through and remember the feeling of being underground back in our facility. “Yes, it is kind of like going back home in a weird way.”

  I fix my gaze on Nate and Xander again. Their behavior is not settling well with me.

  Ezra must have picked up on my pre-occupation and asks, “Everything okay?”

  I don’t want to tell him something is going on with them until I know what it is. In light of not having our telepathic ability back, I take advantage of it and lie to Ezra. “Yep. A-okay.”

  We are coming up on a chain of cavities along the wall of the tunnel. Each outlet contains the fundamentals of sleeping quarters; makeshift cots, blankets, and lanterns. Tom and another from the colony hand out blankets and the guardians start to peel off into the outlets. Elicia and Nick are first to peel off. Sam and Corinna follow. “It is amazing how much expansion you have done in a short amount of time,” comments Sebastian.

  Tom explains, “Right after the first wave of Dwellers attacked, the number of natives exploded.”

  Nate asks, “Natives?”

  Tom replies, “Those that are not implanted. As more and more came, we had more working hands to cut into this mountain further and deeper. Most of these quarters were dug during that time. The numbers of natives finding us has gotten smaller for obvious reasons.”

  Ezra acknowledges, “The climate shift and Dwellers.”

  Tom answers, “We are still seeing natives that have somehow survived without implantation and haven’t been captured by the Dwellers.”

  Ms. Olivia and Luke, then Siobhan and Jake part company into three more honeycombed sockets while the rest of us walk on.

  Tom points to a passage. “Our compound is one of the few in the U.S. that has enough devices to still perform the implantations. We also have enough specimens of trace elements to survive another climate shift.”

  Daniel interjects, “Tom’s colony is one of only seven remaining implantation facilities in the United States, including ours.”

  Tom shakes his head. “Not as of two days ago.”

  Daniel stops walking, as do all of us behind him. I feel the burn in my chest flare as I think about the possibility of the Etowah Mounds facility collapsing.

  Sebastian makes his shared panic known. “What has happened?”

  Tom sees the sheer panic in our eyes and shakes his head. “No, not your facility in Georgia. The facility in Seattle. It is gone with no survivors.”

  Briggs adds, “I can’t confirm, but I’m positive our compound outside of New York was destroyed as well. That leaves us only five.”

  Ezra questions, “Why would they destroy the Seattle facility?”

  Briggs answers, “Why does there need to be method to their madness? They are savage creatures. They don’t need a reason, they just take and destroy.”

  Briggs starts to pace. “They took my family. When the first wave hit, I was on base. I don’t remember the drive to the house. I only remember walking room-to-room searching for them. I looked under beds, in closets, the car in the garage. I even looked in the under sink cabinets for my little Analise.” His voice audibly clefts as he says the name of his child, then he becomes silent as he stares at the ground in front of him.

  Frustrated by Briggs’ visible pain, Daniel groans, “The Dwellers, they know we are here. Facility by facility, they are eliminating our means of survival.”

  Briggs looks back at me accusingly. “Or searching for our means of survival.”

  I want to retort, defend myself, but I do my best to ignore him and bear his leer. I figure he has been through just as much, if not more than, me up to this point with the loss of his family so I cut him some slack.

  We move on to disperse into the outlets ahead when I hear the sound of a child giggling. It catches me off-guard and I stop walking. The giggle comes again and I turn into the sound. It is coming from behind us. Ezra must not hear it because he keeps walking.

  I call to him, “Did you hear that?”

  Ezra stops and walks a few steps back toward me. “Hear what?”

  I take a few more steps backward, and then I hear the hushed laughter again to my right. It is coming from a channel that branches off from this one. Like that wasn’t odd enough, I hear something else, a bark.

  CHAPTER 18: REMEMBRANCE

  Jesca

  I move through the tunnel with lightning speed and enter a small room housing a little girl sitting cross-legged with a silver puppy in her lap and a full-grown silver dog to her right. The little girl is startled by my appearance and she pulls the pup up close to her body protectively. The full-grown dog’s hair is standing on end as it growls and steps in front of the girl and pup. I stand perfectly still, making no sudden moves.

  Ezra is by my side now. He hisses, “What is a dog doing in here?”

  The little girl looks us up and down, then pulls on the large dog’s collar with one hand as she commands, “Shiva, no! Be nice.”

  Shiva quiets and sits on her haunches and the little girl places the puppy on a pile of blankets in the corner of the room. She stands up quickly next to Shiva, only a few inches taller than the sitting canine. The little girl extends her free hand to me first. I eye the dog cautiously as I carefully extend my hand to meet hers. Shiva licks her chops, and then closes her mouth, keeping her golden eyes on my movement.

  When our hands meet, I look at the girl and say softly, “I’m Jesca and this is my dad, Ezra.”

  The girl smiles with her large, brown eyes and nods. “I’m Tessa.” She looks at the gray dog and says, “This is Shiva,” then back at the puppy, identical to Shiva, just pint-sized. “That is Stella.”

  The pup doesn’t look very old. I cross my arms and nod at Shiva. “Is she the mother?”

  Tessa nods, turns toward the bundle of blankets, and sits down next to the grunting infant hound.

  Shiva rises from her seated position and steps toward me. Instantly, I tense up and hold my breath, expecting the worst from this huge pooch. Her cold, wet nose nudges my hand, and then she leans her body against my leg. My hand grazes her silk
y coat and she leans farther into my leg.

  Tessa giggles, “She wants you to pet her. She likes you. I bet Bear would have liked you too.”

  I slowly breathe out my tension and run my hand over Shiva’s shiny coat again, and again. She pushes the weight of her body into my leg and wiggles her back end, making me grin.

  “I guess she does. Wait, did you say a bear?” She did say bear, I heard her.

  Shiva runs her body alongside of Ezra now, nudging his hand with her nose.

  Ezra clarifies, “She said ‘Bear,’ not ‘a bear.’”

  Tessa looks sad all of a sudden. “Bear was my other dog. Stella’s daddy. He died.”

  As I stroke Shiva’s coat, I look at Ezra sideways. His face looks grim; he must be thinking what I’m. How did Bear die? Better yet, how are Shiva and Stella still alive without a device? I mean, the climate shift should have killed her and the pup. I didn’t want to ask Tessa so bluntly how one dog died and how the other lives, and how its offspring is able to survive in our transformed climate. I step toward Tessa and sit down next to her. Shiva walks over to the little hound and nudges it with her long snout, then lays down next to the pup.

  Ezra asks gingerly, “How long did you have Bear and Shiva?”

  Tessa runs her small hand over the pup’s back. She answers innocently in her high-pitched voice, “A long time. We got them before the changes happened and we had to come here.”

  Feeling sorry for this girl, I say, “I’m sorry about Bear, Tessa.”

  Tessa tilts her head as she continues to provide small, gentle strokes to Stella. “That’s okay. Daddy said that life is like a bicycle.”

  Ezra questions, “Like a bicycle?”

  “Something like that. There is a beginning and an end. Then, there is a new beginning. It happens over and over again, like a bicycle wheel.”

  It clicks. “Oh, a cycle.”

  Tessa looks at me. “Yep, that’s it.”

  She looks back down at Stella and continues to run her hand the length of her small back.

  Ezra asks, “Who is your dad?”

  She answers simply, “Tom Porter.”