“I always do,” said Drew, smiling but not knowing exactly what he could do against the timeless creature.
Cait smiled at her father and Drew, and they all knew it was time to go to work.
Chapter 9
Sam stared at the clock in the hospital room as he had for several days. He blocked the memory of watching eleven men die horrifically by turning off his mind to all thought. His mind was blank, sparing him the tortured thoughts that lay just under the surface. He’d been admitted to the emergency room after he and Gene emerged from the mine and was soon moved to the mental ward of the VA Hospital. His family had already left for the night as he stirred from the memories that began to emerge into his conscious thought. He saw the first man, Alberto Vasquez, try and walk the small ledge that led around the pit to the other side. He couldn’t make out what the bright glow below him was. Alberto yelled to him that something was moving down there. The red glow was rising to the surface. Five other men walked the ledge to get a better view and peered over the endless abyss.
“Sam, you have to see this!” shouted Alberto.
The rest of the men stood at the edge, looking down to see what they were describing. The fire erupted from the below them, in a split second melting Alberto and the others as they screamed and fell into the pit. The men who were peering over the side were on fire, dying an agonizing, burning death. One by one they were pulled into the pit by the creature’s fiery appendages. Sam, Frank, and Roy began to run from the carnage as they were the only three left alive, but the monster’s reach was great, and it grabbed Frank’s legs and pulled him toward the pit.
Sam’s eyes fluttered rapidly under his eyelids as his mind unwillingly recounted Frank’s screams and the smell of burning flesh as the creature’s grip cooked his legs.
“Help me! Oh God, Sam. Help me!” he screamed as he was dragged toward the edge.
Sam remembered looking at Frank. At once both Sam and Roy turned to help their friend. Roy dived forward, grabbing Frank’s arms, and that meant that Roy too was being dragged toward the pit. As they approached the edge, Sam recalled trying desperately to hold Roy while Roy was trying to keep Frank from being pulled down.
In his hospital bed, Sam was shaking uncontrollably and screaming as the full recollection of what happened was flooding his mind. He was suddenly silent as he fought an intrusion into his thoughts.
“It’s okay, Sam,” said the voice.
“What are you?” said Sam, now wide awake.
“You can’t tell anyone about them, Sam. The time isn’t right yet.”
“What are you!” he screamed, hammering his fists against his forehead.
“It doesn’t matter now. They can’t come looking yet. It’s too early. If they find them now, it will ruin everything, and I’ll have no choice.”
“Leave me alone!” shouted Sam, trying to block his ears as if it would stop the creature’s intrusion.”
Sam heard the sound of the door latch as it unlocked by itself.
“The door is open, Sam. You know what you have to do.”
“I won’t. I can’t!” he cried.
“You have to. Your pain is too great. You’ll have to tell someone about what you saw and I can’t allow that.”
Sam reeled as the thoughts of the creature began speeding through his mind. The screams of his men dying and the smell of burning bodies were all forced into his thoughts until there was nothing left.
He slid the covers off and stood trying to keep his balance. Something was still in his mind as he fought for control. He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. The corridors were quiet this time of night as the patients were usually sleeping. He looked toward the locked door that led to the open-air basketball court on the tenth floor of the hospital. As before, it unlocked by itself and opened. Sam walked through the door as it closed and locked behind him.
“It’s okay, Sam. You’re doing the right thing. It will be okay. I promise,” said the voice.
“What if I don’t speak of it?” he begged.
“You will. I see your mind, and you will eventually tell them. You have to do it. I just need some more time, or it wouldn’t have to be this way.”
“I can’t!”
“You will, Sam. I promise. You’ll be with him soon, and everything will be okay.”
The basketball court was surrounded by a metal cage designed to make sure there would be no accidents since the mental patients were allowed to use this place as therapy. Sam walked over to the edge, where the cage was securely bolted in place. He watched as the four large metal nuts that held this section to the asphalt began to unwind off of their shafts and fell to the ground. The cage bent up enough to allow a person to crawl under.
“It will be okay?” Sam asked through his tears.
“Yes, you can see my mind, and you know now.”
Sam winced as if in pain from the thoughts being shared with him. A look of peace came over him as his expression changed to one of absolute euphoria.
“Thank you!” said Sam, now sobbing. He got on his back and shimmied under the bent section of the cage. As he stood up, he could see the beautiful green mountains that surrounded the hospital. The hospital stood on high ground and was the tallest structure for miles, allowing for a spectacular view of the entire valley.
“It’s time now, Sam.”
With those final words, Sam stepped off of the edge, feeling a peace in his heart that no man before had ever experienced. He felt no pain as he fell to his death and slammed onto the parking lot below.
***
The afternoon and evening went by slowly at Quicks Bend as Cait tried to recover from the experience of having her mind invaded. The others had agreed to stay another night and put off discussing plans with Cait until early evening. As she rested upstairs, she could hear the others talking for hours. The mood was different; there weren’t the loud boisterous exchanges between Don and Gene as before. This was contemplative conversation, and she knew they were planning the expedition. She walked down into the kitchen and could see the men huddled around a makeshift map they’d created.
“Am I interrupting?”
“No, my dear,” said Kirby “We didn’t want to disturb you. We think we have a pretty good plan and were just waiting to share it with you.”
“C’mon, Cait. Sit down, and we’ll fill you in,” said Drew, pulling out a chair for her.
“Okay. The first thing we have to do is figure out how to get back into the chamber without the Italian military stopping us,” said Gene.
“Or even worse, following us,” added Drew.
“I think I can deal with that, so leave it to me,” answered Gene.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked. “How can we survive down there for such a long period of time?”
“We’ve been thinking we’d have to walk the distance as the slaves did, which would take a great deal of time,” explained Drew. “We’d need to carry food and water that would have to last for weeks. Gene thinks we have a better alternative, which would shrink the time down to days.”
“Days? That’s incredible. How would we do that?” she asked.
“With these” said Gene as he showed Cait a picture he’d printed from the Internet. “These all-terrain vehicles are what we used in desert warfare. We’d span over a thousand miles of desert terrain in a few days, no problem. They’re rugged and can carry three people with supplies, so we’ll need two.”
Cait studied the vehicle, which looked like a small, compact dune buggy, but much more sophisticated.
“Okay, but how do we know a vehicle could travel through these tunnels?” she asked.
“Because I’ve seen them,” said Gene. “Trust me, they’re smoother than most of the roads around here. The way these creatures must burn through the rock creates a surface as smooth as glass. It shouldn’t be a problem
. The only problem will be getting them assembled and into the cavern, which I understand is still buried. We’ll have to send them over in crates and build them, which doesn’t take long with six of us working on it. I can show you when the time comes.”
“I have a man on the inside that will be able to help with that,” said Kirby.
“Antonio?” asked Drew.
“Yes, he’s been hired to help excavate the chamber, and he’s been put in charge. He was already in charge of the local dig teams, so who better than him to coordinate the cleanup? As it happens, this all plays to our advantage under the current circumstances.”
“I also have a plan to keep them from following us,” said Gene.
“Sounds like you have it all figured out,” said Cait, sounding offended at having been left out of the planning thus far.
“On the contrary, my dear. It’s your expertise, along with that of Drew and me, that must get us into Khaheet’s tomb, or this is all for nothing,” said Kirby.
“Yeah, and for what I have planned to keep them from following, it’s pretty much a one-way trip. Either we end up escaping through the pyramid, or we’re trapped,” said Gene.
“How do we get out of the tomb once we find it?” Cait asked.
“Hagiel left records of his escape; I just have to figure out the modern-day translations to some of what he wrote. Some of it is forty-five-hundred-year-old mathematics and measurements on exactly where he found the air chamber and escaped. Don’t worry; I’ll be ready.”
“Maybe it’s not a good idea for you to go,” said Cait, looking concerned. “You’re not exactly twenty-five anymore.”
“I will not leave the fate of the world and my daughter to chance. I will be beside you, my beautiful daughter, no matter what our fate may be!”
Tears streamed down Cait’s face as she embraced her father tightly, knowing there might not be many more opportunities to do so. Nothing more needed to be said. He wouldn’t be talked out of coming, and deep down, she needed him to be with her. As the veil of pain began to lift from Cait’s heart, she had room for another emotion she’d been suppressing, fear. She was terrified that she wouldn’t get to pursue a life with Drew and cursed herself for all of the wasted time spent in misery. It motivated her even more to find a way to stop the awakening.
“We have to keep going here,” said Gene, never one for touchy-feely emotions. “We have a lot to do.”
“Sorry. Of course,” said Kirby, wiping his eyes with a handkerchief.
“We’ll have to split into two teams,” said Gene, writing names on the map under the first ATV, a specific type of ATV known as a Raptor. “Don, Kirby and I will take the lead in the first Raptor, and Cait, Drew, and Antonio will follow behind. We need expertise in both vehicles should something happen. You’ll stay behind at least one hundred yards should we come across the creatures or any unexpected situations. If we hit trouble, you haul ass back the other way, no matter what. We can’t use GPS down there, but I have an Earth locator that will function similarly. It uses the magnetic center of the earth to help gauge distance. Sort of like a compass but a little more sophisticated, and it gives distance and direction. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll get us close.”
“I’ll find a way to get back onto my property and get us some of the equipment we’ll need,” said Don defiantly.
“Everyone needs to travel light, just the bare necessities,” said Gene, standing as if addressing a team of young cadets. “We may have to ditch the Raptors and head out on foot, so only bring what you can carry. Food and water are a priority, and if we have to head out on foot, let’s hope we’re close because we can never carry enough to make it the whole way. And Lord knows I’d hate to have to eat Donnie. I like lean meat, and you’ve got a little too much around the middle.”
“Okay, smart-ass. If you do have to eat me, I hope you choke!” laughed Don as his cell phone rang. He walked over to the window to get better reception and pressed the button to answer the call. The others could hear his solemn reaction to the person on the other end of the phone, and the room went silent. As he hung up, he walked back to the table and sat down, staring straight ahead with a pained look on his face.
“What’s the matter?” asked Gene, knowing it wasn’t good.
“It’s Sam—he’s dead.”
“What! How the hell can that be?” Gene said. “He was no worse off than me physically.”
Cait winced, and in an instant, visions of Sam’s death filled her mind. She watched as he slowly walked outside, crawled under the cage, and threw himself from the building to his death.
“He killed himself,” said Cait as Don’s eyes widened.
“How did you know that?” he asked.
“Adrian did it. I don’t know how I know, but I do. He made Sam kill himself.”
“She’s right,” said Don. “He somehow got out on to the roof of the hospital’s mental ward and found a hole in the cage and jumped.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss, gentlemen,” said Kirby.
“We all are,” said Drew, reaching for Cait’s hand.
“I’m not sure why he’s revealing himself to me like this. He’s feeding me thoughts and feelings, but like before, I think I’m picking up on things that he’s hiding also. I don’t think he’s aware of it. I know he made Sam jump off of that building. He wanted me to know it, but I felt more than he intended me to.”
“What do you mean? What feeling?” asked Drew.
“I felt guilt, his guilt for doing this. He didn’t want to kill him, but he had to for some reason. I don’t understand totally, but I’m telling you he doesn’t know I’m picking up these feelings from him.”
“Please, let us know if you get these impressions. We may be able to use them to our advantage at some point,” said Kirby.
“I will, Father.”
“I have to get back and see Sam’s family. I can get you all to the hotel on my way, and you can get a shuttle to the airport.”
“Thank you, Don. We do appreciate it,” said Kirby.
They gathered their things and headed for Don’s SUV, taking one last look at the beautiful green mountains overlooking the river.
“I hope we get the chance to come back here one day,” said Drew as he picked up a small smooth rock from the ground and rolled it in his fingers as if savoring the last few days in an instant.
“Me too. We have some unfinished business that started in that river. I won’t forget it when it’s all over, no matter what happens.”
They hugged and left for the truck.
“We’ll see you in a week, Gene,” said Kirby.
“I’ll be ready. See you in a week.”
The SUV sped off up the dirt road, leaving a trail of dust behind. As Gene headed back into the then-silent cabin, he pulled open a drawer and removed a small set of keys. He walked over to a large wooden closet that was secured with a pitted metal padlock. He carefully turned the old key, as not to snap it off, and opened the doors that swung out with a shrill creak from the rusted bronze hinges. He scanned the equipment from his past, never having expected to use it for such a situation.
He gazed on rows of automatic weapons, grenades, infrared night vision equipment, ammunition, and camouflage clothing—all hanging as neatly as the day it was put away. Tacked to the inside of the wooden doors was a paper with the names of all the men that he’d served with who had met their end in battle, dying to protect the country that they loved. He’d always felt guilty that he was still alive and hadn’t made the ultimate sacrifice like so many of his friends had. It made him question his courage for a split second—until his soldier’s discipline brought him back. He crumpled the paper and held it tightly in his fist.
“You’re alive because you’re better than they were. Don’t forget it. It doesn’t take courage to die because someone else was better than you. You h
ave to get them there if you do it with your dying breath,” he said to himself.
He looked into the small mirror that hung on the cedar door, glanced at the crucifix that he wore around his neck, and said confidently, “I will.”
Chapter 10
Cait heard the phone ringing and put the pillow over her head to try and block out the sound. Her flight from the United States had landed at Pisa International Airport at midnight, and she hadn’t fallen asleep until after three in the morning. Although it was two o’clock in the afternoon, she didn’t seem to care, as she still felt drained and exhausted. The answering machine picked up, and she heard Drew’s voice on the other end.
“Hello, Cait. I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing. I’ll give you a call tonight. See ya.”
She knew there’d be no more sleeping once the thoughts of all that had happened flooded back into her mind. She reached for Adrian’s business card, which sat on her nightstand facedown. It was time to make the call she’d been dreading, but she knew that wasn’t the only emotion she was feeling. It was just the one she allowed her mind to process because it made the most sense. If she’d been looking forward to her dinner with Adrian, she thought, what would that say about her? The implications were frightening, and she did everything to block those thoughts out of her mind. As she dialed the number, she heard a male voice answer, but it wasn’t him.
“Hello, Ms. Kirby,” said a raspy male voice on the other end. “Mr. Valente has been expecting your call.”
“Who is this, and how do you know who I am?” she asked.
“Mr. Valente is a very resourceful man, Ms. Kirby. He knows many things. He is unavailable at the moment but has asked me to invite you, on his behalf, to dinner tonight.”
“Tonight?” she asked, surprised. “That’s a bit short notice. I just returned from a trip, and I’m very tired.”
“He insists that you meet him tonight, Ms. Kirby. He’ll be very busy planning some big events over the next few days and will have little time.”
The Awakening Page 9
