by B.V. Bayly
Chapter Forty-Five
Gabriel abandoned his set of plans and searched the lower levels. He forced open every door in the hallway. Nothing. He retraced his steps back to the dead end he found earlier, searching for something he might have missed.
Where was it?
His hands ran along the smooth cold surface of the wall. He knocked his knuckle against the surface and listened. An echo. He repeated the knocking. The other side sounded hollow. He could hear the emptiness behind it. He focused, and pressed into the cold steel wall with his glowing hands. The steel turned red instantly, getting brighter and brighter until it burned white hot. He dug his fingers into the hot surface, breaking through the few inches to the other side. He worked the hole wider and wider, until it large enough to step through.
On the other side he found a hallway not listed on the map. It was lined with steel doors on each side. All were bolted from the outside and had small panels of reinforced glass windows in them. He rushed to the first door and peered through the window.
His stomach twisted. There were people strung up along the walls, each of them barely clinging to life. His hand shook with anger as he unbolted the door and stepped inside. The people’s faces looked like ghosts; stripped of all their will to live but unable to die. Machines pumped their blood through tubes into big containers full of ore – a brutal manner of recharging. The ore pulsed deep within, as if it was drinking the red fluid. This is what he feared. What he couldn’t allow the world to become.
Gabriel’s stare was broken by Ing’s voice on the radio. “Troops inside.” He pulled back his sleeve on his wrist. 4:48. He couldn’t save them.
He turned down the flurry of activity over the radio and rushed to another door, breaking it open. The room held more victims. Tubes plumbed into their chests – feeding another machine in obedience to the ore’s need for blood. One man’s eyes had lost their color. They stared blindly at the ceiling. Room after room he found the same nightmare. The same disregard for life. Men, women, children – all ore users. No one deserved this – their future stolen from them to feed the rest of the world. He walked over to the machine and stared at the dull ore bathing in blood. This was no way to live. Death was the only mercy left for these people. One by one, he unplugged the lines attached to them. His anger built with each tug; the ore surged in his chest for a release. His watch beeped. He was out of time. He needed to end this.
At the end of the hall was an open room that was larger than the others. It reeked of death, nearly causing him to throw up as the stench overcame him. He pressed the old copper switch on the wall, igniting a series of overhead lamps. Shadows moved around the room as the lamps swayed from the fight outside. The source of the stench came from a drain in the middle of the floor The rest of the room was crude – reinforced concrete walls with small chips hammered out of it, as if someone had chopped at them with a blunt axe. One section of wall offered a strange, glassy reflection of himself. Primitive guns were mounted on stands while a series of steel racks and leather straps stood across from them. A table was covered in ammunition along with several steel containers holding ore. The bullets glowed as he approached. The ore-tipped rounds were all different in design. He guessed they were still searching for the best results.
“Isn’t fate a funny thing? I spent countless resources searching for you, all in the hope of bringing you here.” A light flashed from beyond the glassy wall in the room. Gabriel twisted on the spot to face the voice. “And here you are, playing soldier with your friends from the Church.” Cymru grinned at him and laughed. “I knew the Church would target this facility, but once I heard their plan to bring you along – I couldn’t miss that opportunity.”
Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, Gabriel. Everyone’s corruptible – even the highest priests dream of sin. Supply that to them and well, they become an addict, trading anything for more.” Cymru paced behind the glass wall.
“All this for me?” Gabriel’s nostrils flared.
“Of course. You should have listened to your brother.” He chuckled. “I wouldn’t have had to kill so many people.”
“You better pray that the wall is strong enough to stop me.” He summoned the ore down into his hands, ready to strike the surface.
“Impressive control, but I doubt you are that strong. The design of this polymer is quite unique. I doubt you would be able to break through this fast enough to reach me.” Cymru crossed his arms. “If you would like to try, I can give you a head start before I call my men in.” He shrugged smugly.
Gabriel abandoned his plans, letting the energy dissipate from his hands. “So, this dungeon is yours.”
“One of many. As governments realize they have no future without the ore, I will build even more. Filled with people like you. Your immunity to the ore makes you perfect for recharging it. We will have a lifetime after lifetime of reusable energy – and in that time the earth will renew itself. It will be a new beginning for us. A chance for generations to survive the apocalypse we created. Don’t you see? You’re destined to sacrifice yourselves for the greater good.” Cymru waved his hands.
He shook his head. “There is always another way. We can change, adapt – learn to survive.”
Cymru laughed. “Just like your father! Your power over the ore blinds you to the truth. I studied your kind for years, trying to reproduce the mutation in your DNA. Hoping we could change everyone – making everyone immune to the ore. It was a foolish dream. I came to realize the solution was not to make everyone like you, but rather to use you for what you were made for. Think of it – your life traded for a million others. Some would call that heroic.”
“What’s happening in these rooms is murder.” Gabriel’s chest swelled with energy.
“No, it’s progress!” Cymru gritted his teeth. “We’ve done it for thousands of years and no one complained, except those sacrificed to move us forward in our evolution.”
He glared at Cymru, rage vibrating through his body. The ore burned with each pulse of his heart. “You’re a monster.”
“I beg to differ. Don’t waste your life opposing me. Stand with us like your brother did. The future is ours for the taking.” Cymru’s words pierced Gabriel. “How can you not see that?”
Gabriel stepped towards him, a white heat surging from his chest. “What did you do to my brother?”
“I gave him what he wanted. I unlocked the power that rested within him. It was beautiful. The way the ore manifests within your bodies – it’s truly incredible.” Cymru paced in the small space. “For years I have augmented individuals with ore. For some it just destroys the body – they don’t survive the operation. Others go crazy, the body surviving, but the mind fractured. But the truly gifted like you and your brother – the ore makes them gods among men.”
“You implanted ore in him?” Gabriel was shocked.
Cymru smirked. “You seem surprised?”
“Adin would never agree to that.”
“Well, he wasn’t given much of a choice. I knew what was best for him. And after, he thanked me.” Cymru smiled.
“You son of a bitch!” Gabriel rushed the clear wall and slammed a glowing fist against it. The surface barely cracked.
Cymru laughed aloud. “Gabriel, don’t bother. Just surrender. Even if you don’t, you’re mine.”
He slammed his fist into the impenetrable wall again. It didn’t do much. He searched the table for something to break through the wall. The ammunition would be useless; there wasn’t enough power in the shells to dent the surface. He popped open the steel containers. Each one was filled with lose shards of ore. He grabbed a red shard the size of his fist. The whole room was bathed in a fiery red glow as his own ore charged the new crystal. He marched at the wall and slammed the shard against it. The shard melted into the polymer surface.
“What are you doing?” Cymru stepped back from the wall.
“Exactly w
hat you did to everyone else here.” Gabriel gritted his teeth and pressed the ore deeper into the surface.
“Stop!” Cymru dashed to a ladder and began to climb it.
It was too late. The shard pierced the wall, Gabriel’s fist forcing it through the thick polymer. The super-charged ore flooded the room with a fierce energy. Cymru disappeared upward, out of Gabriel’s view. It was too late, he was feeding the ore more and more power. The ruby light from the wildly energized crystal filled the small space. He knew it wouldn’t take long. Cymru fell backwards onto the floor of the room, gasping for air. Gabriel dropped the stone on the ground beside him.
The old man’s hand shook as he pressed the silver disc behind his ear. “Help!” He coughed as his nose began to bleed. “Someone get down here!”
Gabriel wanted to watch the man writhe in agony, but he had a job to do. He didn’t say anything and turned to leave the room.
“Wait!” Cymru screamed at him. “Please! I – I can save your friends at the Church! The Horsemen are there.”
Gabriel wanted the man to die, to rot in that small room, but he needed to hear this. “What are you talking about?”
“Open the door! I’ll tell you everything. Get me out of here!” Cymru pointed at the pin pad at the end of the wall. “9 … 8 … 2 … 6.” He struggled to get the numbers out.
Gabriel punched it in and the door to the room released and slid it sideways. “Finish your story or I shut the door.”
“One of the Patriarchs is not what he seems. He deals with the Horsemen; they corrupted him. He told us your plan.” Cymru struggled to get to his knees and crawled towards the door. “They intend to tear the Church apart from the inside.”
“Where’s my brother?” Gabriel stared at him.
“I – I don’t know! They took him to another facility.” Cymru grunted as he continued towards the door.
“So he’s alive.” Gabriel breathed in deeply. There was still a chance.
“Yes.” Cymru collapsed just feet from the exit. “I swear it. Help me, please.”
“Help yourself.” Gabriel grabbed a steel container from the table and dumped it all over the floor. Shards of ore scattered everywhere.
“What are you doing?” Cymru recoiled, clutching himself.
“You put people through hell. I’m going to give you a taste of that. You want out … you can crawl out.” He shook another of the steel containers out all over the floor. Shards sparked and chipped as they hit the floor. He threw the final container down and marched out of the room, leaving Cymru screaming behind him.
He needed to find the black ore. Only two more rooms remained in the secret hallway. The first room held more equipment for recharging the ore. The next was empty except for two large steel doors that beckoned to him from across the room. The doors towered above him and were built for strength as if to intimidate anyone that approached them. A cold chill went down his spine. Something strong lay behind them. A menacing unknown. Waiting for him. He searched the room for a key pass but found nothing. No handle, no screen and no keyhole. The doors were completely sealed.
“Nate! You gotta leave! They know we’re here,” he cried out into the radio, turning up the volume.
Nate was obviously running, his voice bouncing with each step. “We’re trying! Did you find the cache?”
“Yeah, I am at the doors, but there is no keypad, lock or anything to open this thing.”
“Stay put! We are heading to you – Volmer move!” Nate screamed. Gunfire echoed in the background of the radio.
There was no time. He couldn’t wait for Nate and it sounded like he had enough trouble upstairs. Gabriel yelled angrily and slammed his fist into the centre of the doors. It glowed as he hit the surface, and the steel bent from the impact. Again, he aimed at the same spot. Right where the two doors met. The steel gave way to his strikes, folding deeper into itself and exposing a large crack between the two doors. He tried to muscle the doors apart, using his body as leverage as he pulled on the thin crack. Nothing. He tried again, desperate to pull the doors apart. The door creaked, barely separating.
It was progress though. Enough to slide his hand between the steel doors. He took off his vest, freeing himself from all the equipment – including his ear piece. He stood in front of the doors and focused on strengthening his body – channeling his rage – unlocking everything the ore could give him. Beams of bright light rocketed through his muscles, his skin on fire. He plunged his fingers deep into the crater of the door, his hands glowing. They burned as they widened the crack between the two titanic panels. The door screeched as it began to give way. Sparks rained down on him as the locks broke, sending bits of steel and parts to the floor. Gabriel opened the door enough to start sliding his body into the gap, his back up against one side as he continued to fight his way through the doors.
He spilled out of the gap and into a dark room. The door sprung partially closed behind him, as more pieces of it fell to the floor. He paused, trying to catch his breath, but something sucked the air from his lungs. Something in the room. It was empty and void. It choked him as he coughed, still trying to breathe. He spotted the faint outline of a switch on wall beside him, and he punched down the large lever with the heel of his hand.
The room awoke to the glow of yellow lights, one after another in sequence around the room.
There it stood. The black ore.
Death in its purest form. It was not a cache of pieces like they had hoped. It was a single massive boulder. Larger than him. He stood there, stunned by its presence. How did he do this?
His thoughts broke as Nate yelled from the hallway. He turned to look through the gap of the door, as Nate rushed into the room.
Nate surveyed the double doors and shook his head. “I don’t even want to know … do your thing and let’s get out of here!”
“Nate …” Gabriel paused, not sure what to tell him.
“The team’s at the exit. I can wait in the hall. How many pieces can you take out? Can you contain each one? Let’s …” Nate stabilized himself, grabbing onto the doorway, fighting the ore’s effects. “Damn …”
“Nate, look.” He stepped aside, allowing Nate to peer into the large room.
He squinted at first, then his eyes widened with fear.
“Come on.” Nate stretched his arm through the gap of the two doors, trying to push them apart to reach Gabriel. “We are getting you out of there!”
Gabriel shook his head and stepped back. “No.” He straightened. “I have to stop things here and now.”
“No!” Nate yelled at him. “We will find another way! We can detonate it from a distance and blow this place apart. Burying it!”
“It won’t stop them!” Gabriel stamped his foot against the concrete floor. “It will never stop them. They will recover it. Make another facility. One that we won’t be able to touch! It has to be this way!”
“No!” Nate slammed his hand against the steel door and rested his head on the small gap. “Please … don’t. Let’s go.” He reached his hand through the gap towards Gabriel. “Don’t do this! It’ll kill you!”
“This is why I came here. I have to do this. No one else can.” He grabbed Nate’s hand and pushed it back through the gap. He rested his head against the door. He could see the tears on Nate’s face.
“I’ll make it. I promise.” He broke into a smile as tears dripped onto his own face.
Nate stared back at him. Nodding his head at Gabriel, he grabbed the small radio off the floor, and handed it through the gap. Gabriel took it. Nate tried to smile then turned and walked away.
Gabriel’s eyes burned with tears. He put the earpiece on and listened to Nate’s shaking voice. “Fall back. Everyone, fall back.”
Gabriel stood there, staring at the massive black boulder that was patiently waiting. Several minutes passed until he heard Nate’s shaky voice.
“We’re clear. I’ll see you on the other side, kid. I’m not going anywhere.”<
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“Goodbye, Nate.” Gabriel took off the radio and let it drop to the ground. The clatter echoed in the room.
He remembered what Cymru had said and scrambled to scoop up the radio. “Nate! Can you hear me?” Nothing but static. Damn. They needed to know about the Horsemen and one of the Patriarchs. He had to survive.
Memories of his father, mother, and brother flowed into his mind, strengthening him. His father’s words repeated, “I find myself in a position of a destroyer of the ore … I must find a means to safely destroy the ore rather than leave it in the hands of those who would do evil with it.” I find myself in a position of wishing I was the destroyer of the ore rather than its discoverer. I have been conducting personal research into any means of destroying the black ore safely, rather than leaving it in the hands of those who would do evil with it,
Other voices spoke in his head, as he continued his slow stride towards the black boulder. “He felt responsible for all the ore and the way it was being used. It defined him, made him make decisions to try and change the ore’s fate: to change all of our fate.” Kyrie’s voice rang out. His palms burned, blazing against the blackness of the ore.
“I would like that.” Claire’s smiling face froze in his mind. He held onto the thoughts, his skin glowing, his hands brighter than he had ever seen. He pressed them down onto the cold, black surface. Images of pain and death swallowed him. Fear flooded his mind. He desperately wanted to pull away. To run back to Nate.
He closed his eyes forcing energy into the stone as the black ore fought him. His parents were smiling before him, walking in an open field of tall golden grass. Arm in arm, they strolled through it. They called for Gabriel to follow. He wanted to run towards them. To meet their arms waiting to wrap around him and tell him how much they loved him. It would have been easy to give up, but he couldn’t. His eyes popped open as he felt the black ore yield. The room filled with a blinding light. He screamed out in pain as it consumed him.
Prologue
Nate and his team watched from the safety of a bluff overlooking the facility. The ground trembled all around them, as if a great earthquake had struck. His men dove for cover as trees and broken branches crashed down around them. Nate refused to look away. The facility exploded into a mass of pure, white light. It filled the night sky like the mid-day sun fallen to earth. Everything and everyone within a mile radius was consumed by the raw energy of the blast. The blazing ball of light carved a crater deep into the earth. The image burned into Nate's eyes. Slowly the light began to retreat, shrinking into itself. A small object floated in the centre of the ball and the light seemed to be pouring into it. As the last of the light disappeared, it hung there for a moment - suspended in the air. A deafening crack echoed across the woods. With a final pulse of light, the object dropped into the crater.
Gabriel!
Daylight was fast approaching. The team of soldiers waited, positioned by the open crater. A whistle pierced the air. Two of the soldiers rushed towards a rope tied off to a huge root ball. They grunted as they heaved on the rope, pulling something up from within.
“It’s about time!” Volmer called down as he joined in hauling up the rope. The darkness had almost faded completely as the sun began to rise, exposing their position.
Nate didn’t care. He was almost to the surface. Robins lay down on the edge of the crater, his arm stretched out to him. Nate grasped it and struggled up over the steep ledge. “Call for extraction.”
Ing nodded and spoke into his radio as he jogged towards the tree line.
“Careful!” Nate ordered as he removed the tight straps from around his chest. His arms burned as he passed the body to Lawrence and Robins.
Gabriel's clothes were half burnt away, his skin covered in black soot. The crystal in his chest was exposed. Huge cracks ran through its surface and it was as dull as an empty piece of broken glass. Nate knelt down beside him, gently pressing his fingers against Gabriel’s throat.
Nothing. He refused to give up. He pressed harder, searching for a pulse beneath the cold skin.
“ETA is thirty minutes on a fast bird.” Ing returned. “We’re going to have to find cover until it arrives.”
Dub. A flicker under Nate’s fingers. Or was it his imagination? He closed his eyes and focused, his fingers frozen to Gabriel’s throat.
“Sir, we’re wide open here. Commander Reinhart!” Ing reached out and touched his shoulder.
“Wait!” He glared at Ing. “No one move!” He blocked out every sound, every sense – except his two calloused fingertips. “Come on, kid,” he whispered.
Dub. Again a small pulse gently pushed back against his fingers.
Nate twisted to Ing. “Make sure that bird doesn’t leave without Osho and a full medical team aboard for Gabriel. Let’s move out!”
Ing grinned at him and nodded. “Yes, sir!”
Note from the Author
About the Author
B.V. Bayly has had a myriad of jobs. Never one to conform to the traditional nine to five work model, he did whatever it took to provide for his family while still maintaining the simple life they desired. Imagine his pleasure when he discovered his passion was creating and telling stories. The life of a writer is far from the norm. He resides on Vancouver Island with his beautiful wife, two energetic sons, an angelic daughter and one lazy dog.
