Wait a second. I think I see a change in the terrain! I pick up the pace a little bit. Sure enough, just up ahead there is a little divot in the ground. It looks like it’s a small depression in the ground that dips down about four to five feet. This is wonderful! It’s a small little incline that could support the natural curve of my back. It also looks like my captors just barely avoided this in their car. The tire tracks in the dirt skirt along the outside of the crater, suggesting that they swerved just in time to get out of the way. A small part of me wishes that they had not dodged it. They would have wrecked their car, and that would put them in the same scenario that I am in. It would serve them right for the way they treated me. Punks.
I walk to the edge of it, and I place one foot down. My foot gives way under the shifting sand, and I lose my balance. I roll down the rest of the way and hit my head at least twice. Ow! That really hurt! I end up on my back looking up at the now dusk laden sky. My head is throbbing, my tummy is roaring, and my vision is blurry. I’m hurt. I’m alone. I’m scared. It’s times like this that I miss my mom back when she used to be nice. I remember some of the good times, and it makes me cry. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes, and I decide not to hold them back. I curl up in the sand in a fetal position, trying to imagine my mom’s warm embrace from back when she used to snuggle with me as a young boy.
“M-m-mommy!” I cry out. My voice doesn’t even echo out here, because there is nothing for my voice to reverberate off of. That fact solidifies the loneliness, and I cry all the harder. I am exhausted, thirsty, hungry, sore, and soaking wet because of my sweat. I try to focus on the stars that are slowly making their evening appearance, but they are very blurry. That’s the last thing I remember before my vision fades to black.
I wake up, and roll over to look at the sky. The sky is completely black and I can’t see a thing: no stars, no moon, no clouds, nothing! I sit up so I can get a good view of my surroundings, and I still can’t see anything! How am I supposed to find my way now? I start to panic and I frantically try to get up. I’m so scared right now! I start feeling for the ground, and I can tell that I’m still in the crater. At least that hasn’t changed. I turn over onto my hands and knees to prepare myself for whatever wild beast may be watching me and thinking that I look good as a snack. I don’t discount the possibility of their being one or some that would want to. However, I don’t think that train of thought will get me where I need to go. I feel all around me to find the edge of the crater, because I need to get out of here. Finally, on my feet and out of the crater, I look around hoping to see a trace of something besides black. I settle on a direction that I think is north, and I start walking. As I leave the crater behind, and my feet are on the somewhat flat surface of the desert floor; the entire atmosphere around me changes.
The black all around me shifts.
It’s almost like a large black barrier moved away and retreated to the horizon, leaving only the sandy floor uncovered. This is getting weird. The ground is as bright as it would be during the day time, but the sky is still pitch black. I look at the ground to see if the tracks are still there, but they’re not. The only thing is my little crater bed. I turn around to look back at the horizon. It’s like I’m inside a large black bubble. I hear a noise that sounds like it’s coming from the horizon, but I am not too sure. It’s a deep, low rumbling sound; almost like a roar but not quite. The rumbling becomes louder, and I can now feel the ground beneath me start to vibrate a little. Each time the rumbling increases, the vibrations in the ground become stronger, and I can feel it reverberate throughout my body. In the distance, I can see this glow forming just above where the ground meets the bubble’s edge. The glow becomes brighter and highlights an object beneath it. I squint my eyes to make out what it is, and all I can tell is that it’s a rounded off pyramid of some kind. The light is turning into more than just a glow and resembles a light that is getting brighter. It crackles and strikes the top of the mound sending a solid stream of furious lightning straight at me in a line parallel to the ground, and roars past me going over my head. I whip around to follow its course, and I see it strike a similar rounded off pyramid. The second one glows all around as it receives the stream of lightning, and then sends it off in another direction. I look back to the first one, and it’s glowing all around as well. The lightning stream is still connected, too. The lack of food and whatever must have finally got to me. I have to be hallucinating. The crackling grows louder, and the continuing stream shoots back towards me again. It goes over my head, and connects to a third rounded pyramid. Just like the first two, it begins to glow, crackle, and shoot off the stream elsewhere. The stream comes back over my head again for another pass and lights up a fourth pyramid. The stream grows in velocity and shoots back towards the first one completing the circuit. I look back to the first one that I saw, and I start counting. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. There are five of these pyramidal stones that are all glowing, and are all now connecting with lightning. Judging by the overlapping pattern that the stream has done, it has formed a star shape. But why lightning?
The bubble overhead opens up with a thunderous crack to reveal venomous black clouds. The clouds begin to rumble as well, and all I can think to myself is “here comes more lightning; yay.” This isn’t the case. There’s rumbling, yes, but it’s not like the roaring rumble that’s being given off by the lit-up rocks. This sounds more like how rain clouds are supposed to sound when they are full and they need to let all of the rain out. As I look up, I close my eyes and I raise my hands to the sky. I could use a little refreshing rain right about now. After all, I am in a desert. I’ll admit that the lightning star is intimidating, but it’s not hurting me so I am not worried about it, yet. Bring on the rain! I feel the first few drops, and they’re very warm and comforting. This is so nice. I love warm summer rains! I use my hands to smooth the rain over my face, and back over my head. Then…I freeze.
This doesn’t feel like rain on my skin. What is this? It feels thicker than water, and smells slightly like copper. I open my eyes, and I am covered in blood! It’s raining blood all over me! I panic and try to escape. I pick a random direction and run. The humming of the electric star gets louder and louder and becomes deafening. I stagger, fall back, and cover my ears because it’s so loud. I turn over on my hands and knees and crawl away from that side of the star. I stand back up and run towards another side. No luck there either, because that side buzzes just as loud. I clasp my hands over my ears again and I stagger backwards towards the center. There’s no escape from this. I am trapped. What do I do? Help me! Somebody please help me!
I look at the lightning stream and the beams glow really bright and shoot down a solid wall from every side; forming a solid, five-sided cage of lightning. The blood rain continues its downpour and increases in volume. It starts to splash back off the ground and onto my feet, pooling all around me. The downpour gets heavier. The blood level rises to the arches of my feet. At this rate, there’s nowhere to run, and laying down is out of the question. I briefly thought about jumping, but I really don’t know what purpose that would serve. Besides, I am the world’s worst jumper.
15
Code Black
Everybody panics. The great tunnel clears out. Sirens are blasting through the air. I’m the last to leave the tunnel, and as I exit, I see Stephen waiting by the buttons. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’ve been waiting for everyone to leave, so I can contact headquarters to find out what’s going on. If the people don’t calm down, I’ll request a code blue.” Stephen says. “It became really noisy really quick. Now that pretty much everyone has cleared out, I’ll call them.” Stephen turns and presses the button on the call box. Nothing happens.
We wait for a few minutes. Last time, they responded within a few seconds. “What if they’re busy?” I ask.
“Not possible.” Stephen says. “Up there, it’s never too busy because they’re all working, and each member has their own responsibility.
So, it’s only logical that the lady from last time should have answered by now, and I’m worried. What if something has happened to the whole vessel?”
“You know that would make sense. Everyone was getting excited due to the launch. Everything seemed to be going as planned. Until we sat down, though, that’s when we heard the captain’s voice shouting ‘Brace for impact’ and then it’s as if the whole city rumbled and shook. It was weird. What do you suppose happened?” I ask.
“I’m not sure. Let me try calling them again.” Stephen presses the button again. We wait a few more minutes. Nothing happens.
“Wait. Did you hear that?” I ask.
“Hear what?” Stephen says.
“That’s my point. Last time when I pressed the button, there was a clicking sound. Now there’s nothing at all. Listen closely when you do it.” Stephen presses it again and again and again. No sound is heard at all. “Wait.” I say. “Look at this!” I gesture over to the bottom of the panel, as something out of the ordinary has caught my attention.
Stephen and I are looking at a black discoloration on the bottom of the panel. Stephen bends down to look underneath. “I think I’ve found the problem.” He says. “See these little spindly-looking things here? These are wires. They’re somehow involved in making this panel of buttons work. From the looks of it, I think the panel has been electrically overloaded.”
“Elec-a-what?” I ask.
“Sorry. It’s something I was taught by headquarters a few days ago. I’m not going to get into that right now, simply because I can’t remember it all. What I do know is this: based on my observations, we’ve lost contact with headquarters.” Stephen says.
“So, what do we do now?” I ask.
“That’s a great question that I don’t have the answer for. I’m curious as to what the rest of the city is doing.” Stephen chuckles as he motions with his head down the hall. “Since you and I have been trying to figure this thing out, the noise from the crowd is gone. It’s like all the other citizens are either gone, or something else has happened.”
“Ha! No kidding. I’ll head that way to check things out and come back after a little while to let you know.”
“Thanks, Aiden. See you soon.” Stephen says. I turn and go through the hallway and into the big open area where normally a few pockets of citizens are gathered here and there. This time, they’re in one massive huddle staring at the information board that normally lights up with who is supposed to go to the tunnel. It’s blank right now. In fact, I see something dangling out of the bottom of this giant screen.
Wires.
I think it’s safe to assume that something very wrong has happened, not only to headquarters, but possibly to the entire vessel itself. I move closer to the crowd, not because I want to join in the open mouth-blank stare brigade, but because I have questions. I need answers. I need different perspectives, and the best place for that will be the mass majority. The only thing is that I hope I come across one who has the brain capacity to break free from their trance.
“Excuse me?” I ask the first person I approach. I wait… nothing. Ok. I’ll ask somebody else then. Here we go. This person looks bright. “Can I ask you a question?” I sigh very heavily. This is going to get annoying very quickly if someone doesn’t start talking…like now! I’ll try the guy in the front. Logically speaking, if he is in the front that means two things are possible: he was the first to leave the tunnel, made his way here, and everyone followed, or secondly, he was in the middle and pushed his way to the front. Either way, that guy has determination. Therefore, he should have enough sense to stop staring and talk.
Lo and behold, as I reach the front of the group, I see it just so happens to be my favorite person in the whole city to talk to. It’s Jahmez. Sigh. You know what? It’ll be alright. He’s not that bad overall. He’s just…random. So be it. “Hey there… buddy.” I say.
“Oh, hi there! Boy, am I glad to see you! It seems that everybody here has forgotten how to talk! I got tired of asking questions, so I pushed my way to the front. Who knew that I’d run into you again? Ha! I know you don’t mind talking, even if it’s insults.” Ouch. I deserve that, though.
“Yeah, I know. It’s good to see you too, Jahmez. Do you know what’s going on here?” I ask.
“Nope.” Jahmez says with a laugh.
“Ok. So, let me ask you this then. What have you noticed different about the board here?” Maybe a question that involves him directly will get a longer answer.
“I’m glad you asked!” Jahmez says with enthusiasm. “Do you see those things hanging down from the board?” I nod my head. “Well, I call those tails.”
“What’s a tail?”
“Glad you asked! I got bored one day and started asking my data pad a bunch of questions. The end result, was that I just sat down and watched a whole bunch of moving pictures of dogs doing silly things. Some sure do like chasing their own tails!”
He lost me. “How did you do that? I thought our data pads were only capable of typing out words. Moving pictures, you say?”
“You have to ask the right questions, buckaroo.”
Patience, Aiden. Patience. “Maybe some other time I will. For right now, what I do know is that those things up there are called wires.”
“I like tails better. At first, they were just kind of hanging there. Then, they started twitching a little. And now, as you can see, they’re wiggling all over the place.” He says.
Jahmez and I watch the tails… I mean wires dangle to and fro. Their activity increases more and more the longer we watch. One by one they start to curl upwards, and reach higher with each wiggle. That’s pretty cool. It’s almost as if the wires have a mind of their own or something. As the wires curl upwards, tiny flashes of blue and white colors start shooting out from the ends of the wires. The crowd says in unison, “Ooo! Pretty colors…” They are all staring with that same blank expression.
The wires produce more of those colors, as the wiggling becomes more vicious. The screen on the board flickers. It’s trying to repair itself! Amazing! I wonder if headquarters is doing the same thing. Wait… Stephen! I need to go see about the button board. “Jahmez, I’ll be right back.” I take off to go investigate. I turn the corner to find Stephen concentrating very hard as he’s staring at the button board.
“This is unbelievable!” Stephen says. “The wires started this weird wiggling motion, and the next thing I know they’ve reconnected to each other.”
“Do you think it’s a self-repair kind of thing?” I ask.
“I believe so.” Stephen wrinkles his mouth to one side of his face. We both watch as the remaining wires continue to curl upwards, and soon out of sight. I bend down slightly to get a closer look and then I hear a humming type of sound.
“Stephen the board is humming. Is that a good thing?” I ask.
“I should hope so. Before all of the excitement took place, this board used to hum a lot. I guess it’s back to normal. That would be nice.” He says. “Let me try calling headquarters really quick.” Stephen presses the main button to call. At first there’s a crackling sound, and then a voice could be heard.
“…is…can…hear us?” says the voice through lots of static.
“I think that sounded like the normal lady who you and I have spoken to before. I wonder if they’re having wiggling wire issues as well.” I say.
“I don’t know. Maybe they are.” Stephen says.
The crackling sound was heard again, this time a little on the quiet side. However, the lady’s voice is more pronounced. “I say again. This is headquarters calling the loading dock. Can you hear us?”
Fantastic! I leap with joy and press the button before Stephen has a chance to. “We hear you just fine! Is everybody ok up there? What happened?”
There is a pause. Then the lady from headquarters speaks, “I have just been informed that the captain is going to give a briefing to all of the citizens of the entire vessel in approximately 10 minutes. All citize
ns are required to report to any large information boards within their respective gathering areas. The captain will be broadcasted over a live video feed to the entire vessel.”
10 minutes. That’s plenty of time. I’m in no real hurry, though. I think I’ll stay here and talk with Stephen for a while. Besides, if the video is coming through the big screen in town, then I can stay here since it will be loud enough. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, and I just don’t want to be around everybody.
“Stephen?” I ask.
“Yes?”
“Do you mind if I just stay here? I really don’t feel like going back in that large room, only to get squished while everyone else crowds in to see the screen.”
“That’s fine by me. Besides, I could use the company.” He says with a smile.
“Wonderful. I was hoping you would say that. By any chance, do you know what happened?” I ask.
“Well, I sort of know a few of the details.” He says. “Right after all of you guys were loaded up in the tunnel; I could still hear a lot of orders being issued from headquarters; but not to us. The captain was doing a lot of yelling. It sounded like he was telling everyone to hurry up. Then right before the impact, or whatever that was, somebody shouted that there were incoming vessels. It was weird. I looked around, but I didn’t notice a difference. So, I didn’t pay attention to it. I should have. Right after that, there was that huge shake, the lights flickered, and then the wires we saw popped out.”
“That is weird.” I say. “How were you able to hear all of that going on?”
“I think someone up there must have accidently held the button down or something.”
“What do you think happened that caused the wires to pop out?” I ask.
“I’m not sure about that one. I could try and ask that lady in headquarters, but I have a feeling that all she is going to tell me is to ‘stand by for the briefing.’” Stephen says.
Fate Of The Dragon Page 20
