Origin: Eternity's End

by Uneeb Qureshi

  Piercing through the darkness his eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight that faded in through the windows and domes. The silhouettes of the animal bones and sculptures appeared in the exhibit hallways. The mammalian replicas peered back at him as if watching him. He kept to his task at-hand. He needed to find the museum director.

  He could hear shuffling coming from the floors below…

  Mekias hurried to the top floor until he could see the Audubon gallery in front him. Before taking another step he heard whispers around the corner.

  He ducked and hid in the shadows as he watched what looked like heavily armored Special Forces soldiers patrolling the hallways. Their muffled voices were barely audible underneath their gas masks. As they disappeared into the Special Exhibition gallery Mekias crouched through the darkness and into the next hallway.

  There were still three men hovering over several bodies, they were checking each bodies for something. Mekias recognized the clothing of the corpses; they resembled some of the robed people aboard the immortal vessel he was on earlier. He leapt and tumbled into the shadows of the dim exhibit nearly crying out in pain after a horrible landing.

  I don’t get how they do it in the movies…

  The assassins did not notice him. They were keeping busy with the bodies. Mekias fumbled for his cell phone as his heart picked up pace, what was he getting himself into? His sweaty palms barely held the phone in his grasp. He dialed the last digit but in his panicky state the phone slipped from his hand. He threw his arms out trying to catch it but it hit a railing causing a loud resonating sound.

  The sound alerted the assassins causing them to break into formation. They signaled each other to flank the corner the sound came from quickly; they did not want to take any chances.

  Mekias was beginning to think his luck was finally taking the turn for the worst. He dialed the number hoping someone on the other end would pick it up as the assassins closed in.

  “Oh God, oh God…” Mekias whispered.

  He was trembling slowly at first, the cold sweat set in. As he closed his eyes he heard a scuffle around the corner, then the familiar crackle of electricity. He peered over the exhibit surface and saw a museum guard still alive.

  His black armor had the same emblem imprinted on the tabard, he was a soldier of Sheppard’s legion. He masterfully used one of the assassins as a human shield, though the man already seemed dead.

  The museum guard shot a tazer wire and it connected with another assassin’s exposed throat causing uncontrollable spasms.

  As Mekias stepped around the corner his foot hit something, he reached down into the shadows and felt a gun in his hand. In his surprise he picked it up, it was loaded.

  One of the assassins must have dropped it.

  He picked it up and looked over at the museum guard. He had to return the favor. He discreetly moved through the exhibit behind the displays until he was behind the remaining two assassins. He jumped out with his feet spread firmly apart and yelled.

  “Freeze!” The two assassins glanced back and stopped.

  The Phoenix legionnaire threw his weapon aside and with inhuman celerity rushed forward, grabbing the pistols the two assassins held in their hands in the process. He pulled their pistol slides off, quickly disassembling the weapons.

  He threw the locking slides to the shadows beside him and made quick work of his opponents. With swift blows to the jaws and temples he quickly incapacitated them. The guard dislocated the assassins’ knees with powerful kicks, making sure they were no longer a threat.

  “Thanks.” He said as he towered over their immobile bodies.

  “So you’re one of Commander Sheppard’s men?” Mekias asked in surprise.

  “Yeah…how’d you know?” Mekias pointed to the Phoenix emblem.

  “Oh,” The man responded, “Are you with uh, Dar’s contingent?”

  Mekias shook his head, “My name is Mekias, and I’m a ‘mortal’ archaeologist.”

  The man shrugged, “What else is new these days,” He reached out his hand to help Mekias up, “My name is Krontos. But you can call me Kront.”

  The greetings were mutual, “So did you get the other two also?” Mekias asked.

  Krontos glared at him in shock, “There were two more?!”

  Laser sights painted both of them, before Krontos could act two wires shot out from the darkness and hit his armor. Electricity coursed through his body. With what muscle control he had left he grabbed the wires and removed them.

  His abdomen swelled from the spasmodic contractions.

  Several more men rushed in from the hallway and cut off all the exits. This time the lead shooter was lightly armored. The shooter’s vest read ‘POLICE’ but it was obviously fake.

  He ordered his men to hold their fire.

  “Put down your gun if you know what’s good for you.”

  Mekias obeyed, raising his hands in the air. He glanced behind him and saw an empty hallway, he could not remember if there was an escape stairwell behind him.

  Kront started breathing heavily taking the pain in, he whispered to Mekias, “Run out, behind you…”

  Mekias darted behind him but was immediately stopped by another pair of soldiers, they were surrounded.

  “Neither of you are going anywhere,” The point shooter replied.

  Mekias surrendered and looked around him. Shattered windows with soldiers trailing from nylon ropes were all around them. The soldiers instinctively used their night vision helmets to scan the room with their assault rifles at the ready.

  They were escorted out immediately through the back stairwell, one assassin barked orders to destroy any evidence left behind.

  With that, several bodies were dragged out by the remaining agents. Mekias identified one of them as the museum director.

  “Sir,” the radio channel echoed with reports, “the African-American male is wearing Israeli Olympic attire.”

  The assassin was dumbfounded, “Olympic?” He turned around saw Mekias being dragged past him. He read the words Avraham Brownstein on the back of the hat then checked the caller ID of Mekias’ cell phone.

  Back in the hotel, Avi was ready to head to sleep. He had received numerous phone calls to his room from the hotel manager about the debacle earlier.

  Apologies were exchanged but Avi had enough to deal with for now. He dug his head into the pillow and tried to get some sleep, but was interrupted yet again.

  He heard a few light knocks on his door and he peeked out from beneath the pillow to see Monica in the doorway. She was wearing the shorts Avi had given her earlier.

  “Can I come in for a second?” She asked.

  Avi was quick to oblige, he spun around on the bed and kept his hands locked on his abdomen.

  “Of course you may.”

  She walked in and sat on the edge of his bed, facing the door. She was too embarrassed to look at him while talking.

  “Okay so I might sound a little crazy but I talk to myself a lot, well in my head.”

  Crazy… Avi told himself, he could see she refused to face him. He reached over for his cell phone. He had a voice mail.

  Probably my agent on vacation, calling about this recent PR debacle.

  “Uh, I’m sorry are you busy right now? I don’t want to interrupt you now if you were about to sleep…” She said.

  Avi hid his cell phone; he did not want to seem insensitive in her obviously exposed state.

  “No, not at all, what’d you need to ask?” He dialed his voicemail as he listened to her, keeping an eye on her back waiting for her to turn around.

  God she has nice hair… He told himself as the message began.

  At first there was no sound, probably a blank message, then the words “Oh God, Oh God…” crept into the voice mail. Avi’s heart jumped.

  What in the hell-

  He then heard scuffling and static and his eyes grew wide. If this is another sick fan who got a hold of my cell…

  Then a conversation, his attent
ion returned to the hotel room as he saw Monica continuing her conversation in front of him. Her back was still turned as he continued to listen, he covered himself in his sheets as if trying to hide.

  His attention was split between her and the strange voice mail. She sat on the edge of the bed making strange gestures as her wavy hair bounced with every word she spoke. She was sincerely trying to make a conversation with him.

  Man…and her figure-

  He heard the names Mekias and ‘Kront’ faintly on the message before the conversation quickly ended in shouting and barking orders. Heavy breathing permeated the end of the message until it ended.

  He sat up straight on the side of the bed, obviously distraught at the message.

  Moments later he closed his phone and reached for his closest belongings. He turned to his side and saw Monica continuing to talk about what seemed to be camels and thieves.

  He cocked his head to the side and then thought intensely for a moment, they both might be in danger now. His immortal training kicked in, he jumped out of bed throwing the sheets in every direction. He held Monica with one hand, and grabbed his things with the other.

  He did not say a word. His moves were rehearsed, reflexive. Avi ran across the suite and kicked open the door to Monica’s room breaking the hinges off in the process. He stood over her bed with only his boxers on and dragged her with him to the closet. He investigated her belongings. He swung open the closet and saw her dirty undergarments before him.

  Is this really all she brought?

  “What are you doing! What’s going on?” She shrieked.

  He was losing the initiative. He could not afford to waste any more time searching for her things. Avi grabbed her laundry and held them in his free hand.

  “You pervert!” Her screams were getting louder as if she was screaming for help.

  He tuned her out. But as he saw her bra and panties in his hands Avi immediately realized why she was shrieking. He handed them to her but she refused to hold onto them. He led her out into the main suite again and kicked down Mekias’ door, forcing Monica to shriek in surprise.

  Avi grabbed Mekias’ hand bag and threw its contents into the toilet. His on-the-fly improvisations were not very effective. He tried to flush as many of his belongings down the drain as he could but ended up clogging it.

  “Are you crazy? What the fuck is wrong with you?” She yelled.

  He held an emotionless glare as he thought of what remained to be done. Monica was wearing a large sports jersey, hardly outer wear given the weather. He searched his bags and pulled out his blazer. He tried putting it on her forcefully but she resisted.

  They were going to flee to the streets any minute. Before his task was done, screams emanated from down the hallway. A series of armed men drew their weapons at them from around the corner. Monica finished donning the blazer herself and tried to retreat back into the room but Avi pulled her back into the hallway.

  He picked up Monica into his arms and ran down the nearest stairwell he could see. Leaping over the rails, floor to floor, his bare feet absorbed the impact of each landing.

  You idiot Mekias, you had to call my phone? He told himself, then he realized Mekias was wearing his clothes, I guess they would have found out regardless… He hushed Monica as he looked down the stairwell. They were cornered now, and there was no telling how many would be on the ground floor.

  He hoped for the best and continued to run down the stairs. His phone was buzzing in his bag. He knew he had little else to rely on and pulled it out, his hurried steps slowed to a halt as he read the text message.

  The archaic lettering told him it was the immortal script. It was an ordered communiqué from the Earth’s immortal ambassador, Team on the fifth floor, standard operation detachment. The stairwell door two floors above him burst open and he could hear the agents hurrying after him, he fled down the stairs faster trying to keep a distance. Shots were fired; Monica ducked and started shrieking as some bullets just barely grazed the railing by her.

  She held on tightly around his neck, she wished they would all disappear. She wanted to wake up in Africa and pretend this was all a bad dream.

  Avi set her down but held her close to him. He had a good two flights on the agents by the time he reached the fifth floor. Much to his surprise an Arab looking man with a thick beard appeared as he opened the door. He startled Avi for a moment, could he be trusted?

  The Arab man gave him a series of quick, guided hand gestures ordering Avi to the window down the hall. Avi nodded and saw two more immortal agents constructing a cinch assembly. The Arab man barricaded the door with a polymer-like starch that instantly hardened the cracks of the door.

  The door was then booby trapped with a grenade, no turning back now. Avi pushed Monica down the hall toward the other two immortals. The device could hold two. The two constructing the assembly jumped out first and rushed down securing the back way to the streets. The harness returned and Avi and Monica were bound together at the waist.

  “This isn’t exactly how I wanted to join at the hips.” His humor was wholly inappropriate for the moment but in his state of panic he could care less what he said.

  They both held onto the harness rope as they were thrown out the window, the fall was sudden and quick. Monica let out a fierce shriek alerting dozens of bystanders below of what was happening. Paparazzi formed at the base of the street underneath them as they lowered at several meters per second.

  Monica’s feet dangled and curled as she felt the free-fall. The camera flashes below made her eyes wide open, she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She kicked upward into his arms as he held her.

  “Hold me!” She crossed her legs and hid her face in his chest as soon as they landed.

  Avi looked around, dumbfounded and in shock. He was carrying a half-naked woman attached to a harness, the camera flashes doubled. Reporters yelled questions from every direction at Avi, he looked around for the two agents.

  The booby trap triggered on the fifth floor launching glass and debris onto the street below. Reporters ran for cover as flames erupted from the fifth floor hallway, it bought Avi time. Reporters switched their focus to the blaze on the fifth floor allowing Avi and Monica to escape unnoticed.

  They met up with the other two immortal agents who led them deeper into the streets to an armored motorcade just two blocks away. Inside the black SUVs were agents not in typical immortal attire. They entered regardless and the motorcade sped off into the distance immediately.

  Avi turned off his phone and removed its memory card; he threw the rest of it outside his window into a dark alley. He dug his face into the palm of his hands, his life as a celebrity was over before he knew it. This was a public relations nightmare for both him and his sponsors. But above all he was worried about his debriefing with his immortal superiors. The escape was not subtle in the least.

  “Doctor Bianchi, Mr. Brownstein I am agent Mensah with the FBI, you’re being taken to a nearby safe house for a few days.” The motorcade took off immediately, eventually breaking formation to avoid suspicion, “There have been several breaches to security and you both have to be taken into observation… until we can ascertain the fates of the remaining immortals.”

  Monica realized the brevity of the situation, “Where’s Mekias?” She asked Avi.

  His face was still in his hands.

  “He left me a voicemail earlier…I think he’s been taken by someone, I don’t know who or why. He was going to the Natural History museum to meet your museum director.”

  The motorcade eventually stopped at a flat in New York’s upper Manhattan district. Agent Mensah exited the vehicle and spoke into his radio as his men reported the area was safe. Avi and Monica were given clothes to change into before they headed up stairs.

  FBI agents were stationed on each corridor. They approached the doorway to the safe room and saw the sun just breaching the horizon, amber light filtered into the hallway of the building.

  The ro
om was amply provided for. Amenities were provided to last several weeks. The windows were obviously reflective on the outside, allowing no view of the inside. Monica sat on the couch, tears streaming down her face as she thought about where Mekias was, why did he go without me?

  Avi tried to console her but she shrugged him off, she did not know who to trust anymore. A man entered the room from the outside and saluted Avi with his fist above his heart, Avi returned the salute it was the standard for respect in the immortal legions. Pledging ones loyalty on their heart, it was a time honored tradition that was literally practiced in their ancient days.

  “Brownstein, meet me in the next room for the debriefing.” Avi nodded as she stood with his back straight, the man entered the office study with his aides and closed the door awaiting Avi.

  “Monica I had no idea this would happen,” He told her, it was no good she whimpered as she held back her tears waving him away from her. She fell to her side and dug her face into the couch’s pillow. Why is all this happening to me…?

  “Dar what is going on? I’m receiving these conflicting reports.” Sheppard asked on the screen, the static was natural on orbital re-entry.

  “Sheppard I just heard from Lee that the fleets he was in conflict with suddenly split and half of them jumped somewhere into deeper space. Then nearly an hour later we found them at the border of the Federation space and their trajectory seems to be toward Earth. I don’t know why this is happening now but they seem to be docking with certain Federation worlds. Most likely restocking. Jo says we can’t engage them while they’re in Federation space. If we do anything rash they will reprimand us, and we can’t afford to fight both of them…you know that.”

  Sheppard was alone in his transport as he entered Earth orbit, the approach was at a shallow angle. The craft skidded across the atmosphere to a destination across the globe. Its speed slowed with friction but the craft held together, it was designed for situations much worse than this. His boots began to pick up heat from the craft’s underbelly and the gravitational forces were picking up slowly.