by Ryan Sova
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
© 2018 Ryan Sova
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Book cover designed by Donna Dean
http://www.donnadean.ca/
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
EPILOGUE
AUTHORS NOTE
PROLOGUE
Eliak sat down upon the grass. His bones ached and his ears rang from the commotion and sounds following the events of the day. Another child had been born the night before which was certainly a reason to celebrate. As elated as Eliak was though, his body was miserable. I suppose that being one hundred and twelve years old is bound to take its toll on anyone, he told himself. Eliak could scarcely believe that he had made it this long. It would not be long now before it would be his time to rest.
The warmth of the sun and the peace and serenity was soothing to Eliak. He needed to escape the noise and commotion of the village for but a moment, so he lay back on the soft grass and reflected. He had seen so much in his life and so much of what he had learned would never get passed down to his posterity. He gazed at the sight before him. This was a beautiful spot. He sat atop a great hill. The village and all of its commotion lay behind him. As far as the eye could see were rolling hills with vibrant green trees, lush colors from flowers and shrubbery afar off, glistening blue lakes and streams and birds flying in the distance. The others had done so well in choosing this place. It was so peaceful and serene here and utterly without a trace of the horrors of their past.
Eliak sat in peaceful reflection until the sun had nearly set. He was getting hungry now. He willed his old bones to move and slowly made his way back to the village. The sweet aroma of the cooks made his mouth water and his stomach ache. As he was nearing the dining hut a small child raced past him. Oh to be young again, he thought to himself.
Eliak finally reached his place at the table. He sat down in his seat and rested. He was so tired from his long trek. His bones ached and his entire body was sore. He was more than ready tonight to eat his share and make his way to bed for the night. The cooks were not finished as of yet, however, so he would sit here in miserable anxiety until he could satisfy the only two desires on his mind.
A pack of small children swarmed Eliak and said, “Great-grandpa Eliak, tell us the story of Noah and his ark, please.” This was followed by the phrase, “Please,” being repeated over and over again out of the mouths of several children repeatedly.
Several of the older tribe members turned and smiled at Eliak, one of whom was his daughter Elisabeth. She was fully grown now and had children and grandchildren of her own. All those who were once children had taken their part in sharing the story of how their race had nearly ended. The children of the tribe had all heard the story of Noah before, but it was something special to hear the story from great-grandpa Eliak, a man who was actually there to witness the great flood first hand and sail on the fabled Ark.
Eliak started his story just as he had done several times before, “Once upon a time the people of this Earth were so wicked and so full of violence and hate that God swore in his wrath that he was going to send a great flood to cleanse the world of all of its wickedness. Living on the Earth at this time was a man named Noah, your great-great-great grandfather. Noah was a very righteous man, so God had mercy on him and warned him of the terrible flood that was coming. One night God appeared to Noah in a dream and commanded Noah to build an ark, or a great ship that could carry him over the waters, so Noah did as God commanded and built this ark.”
A young girl named Esther interrupted Eliak, “What did the Ark look like great-grandpa Eliak?”
“You know Esther, I really don’t know. You see, I was only a baby when I rode on the Ark myself and I don’t remember what it looks like (this was not actually true, but no one was going to ever hear otherwise). But as I was just telling you kids, the Ark was a great ship that could carry you over the biggest, deepest waters. Even the meanest flood was no match for Noah’s Ark. So once Noah finished making the Ark, God came to him again and commanded him to gather a boy and a girl of every living animal on Earth. Now do you kids know why Noah had to gather a boy and a girl of every animal alive on Earth?”
Marcus answered, “So they could make babies and more babies and more babies until we had a lot of every animal again and we would not be missing any.”
Eliak smiled and said, “You are absolutely right Marcus! It was so that every animal would survive the great flood.”
Esther interrupted again, “Are there any other people, other than us?”
Eliak put a serious look on his face and with a deep voice said, “No Esther, we are the only people who are left because God washed all the others away with the flood.”
A young boy named Jhedial asked, “What if God gets mad at us again and sends another flood to drown all of us too?”
Eliak looked around the table at some twenty children and saw the frightened little expressions that were now echoed in each of their faces. Eliak leaned forward and looked around the room to gain eye contact with every child in the room. Once he had everyone’s attention he spoke, “Now listen to me kids, your great-great-great grandfather Noah asked God that very same question and this is what God told him. He told Noah that he was going to make a great rainbow in the sky after every time that it rains and he made the great rainbow for us as a promise that he will never, NEVER send us another flood again. Now have any of you kids ever seen this great rainbow that God made for Noah?”
All the kids around the table started raising their hands saying things such as, “I have great-grandpa Eliak.”—“So have I.”—“I have seen it too.”
Suddenly, the look of fear on the children’s faces turned to excitement and awe. Every child in the room felt like they had personally taken that ride on the Ark for themselves and talked to God themselves. There was noise and commotion at the table. It was simply amazing how quickly the attitude of paranoia had changed to elation for these young, impressionable children. Now if it were only that easy for Eliak.
The story of Noah and the Ark was defiantly a good story. It beautifully explained away the almost complete extinction of mankind and was much less terrifying than the truth. This story of Noah and the Ark would be passed down from generation to generation. Stories would be told hundreds maybe even thousands of years from now about how Noah saved all of mankind with his Ark. Eliak was now the only person left who knew what really happened back then. When I die he thought to himself, that knowledge will forever die with me. Eliak thought back to all that he had seen and
heard in his lifetime and quietly said to himself under his breath, “If anyone discovers what we have learned, God help them all.”
CHAPTER 1
Garry Henderson was in for another long day. He had not slept, again, and was facing yet another long and painful day of work ahead of him.
He started his same usual routine of shaving, brushing his teeth, making himself two peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches to take with him, shower, then get dressed and off to work. The routine had been the same for the past ten years. Others had told him that he should get a girl in his life to break up the monotony, but that just didn’t seem possible. What kind of girl would live with a man that screams?
He lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. He had barely enough possessions to fill this apartment. His thirty-two-year lifetime of possessions consisted of a futon, a queen-sized bed, a TV, a table with chairs, a laptop computer, a few lamps, and some pictures. The pictures were the only real thing of value, though.
Jollica Henderson (Garry’s mother) was forced into single motherhood at eighteen. A teenage runaway, she left home just shy of her eighteenth birthday and moved to Norfolk with the love of her life. That didn’t last long, though. Just four months after running away from her family she was alone and pregnant. It would be a hard life in the years that would come, but they were some of the happiest years of his life. Garry never knew his father and his mother’s family had disowned her shortly after she left. It was just he and his mother when he was growing up. However, just after his twelfth birthday fate would play a horrible trick on him. His mother slipped into a coma and died. The rest of his childhood was spent in foster care. The pictures were the only thing from his childhood that he was able to take with him and, as such, they were priceless to him. He would spend hours staring at them on nights like the last where sleep was the last thing on Earth that he wanted.
As Garry was preparing to leave for work, he passed by the pictures he had left on the table that Detective Grant gave him. An involuntary shudder came down his spine. Garry knew that by giving him these pictures, Detective Grant was making a serious breach of protocol. The pictures were from an active murder investigation that happened only two nights ago. Garry had taken the time to skim through the pictures last night when he had to put them down out of disgust. As bad as the pictures were, the dreams would be worse.
Garry performed his job like a trained robot. Ringing up groceries came naturally to him and required little to no thought on his part. The day passed by as a great blur. People would come and go, words would be spoken, items would be scanned, more people would come with more words and more items. The trick was to keep your eyes open. If I can just do that I will make it through the day, Garry told himself. Oftentimes on days like today, Garry would wonder if he could make it through the rest of the day. The way he was feeling he didn’t think he would be able to make it through the next five minutes. Garry would remind himself at times like these that he was thinking too much. If he could just stop thinking and only focus on the task at hand, he would make it through the day.
The torture session of work was finally coming to an end. Garry usually felt relieved at times like this. That feeling didn’t come today. The thought of those pictures that Detective Grant gave Garry yesterday ran through his head again and with them came another shudder. Garry knew what he was in for and he could only put it off for so long before sleep would eventually take over.
Upon arriving at his apartment Garry grabbed a bottle, sat down on his futon and took a sip. He had once, long ago, had the delusional hope that drinking would make his problems go away, that somehow the dreams would be less vivid, less horrifying, less real. He knew now that such a hope was completely pointless. He had been through this too many times. Garry sat back, took a deep swallow and slowly felt the effect of the liquor take hold on his body. It will take the fear of sleep away, at the very least it will do that, Garry told himself.
****
Rachel was excited. Today was the first time that she had the chance to see her brother John in eight months. She had been at the new house preparing things for after the wedding when he called her out of the blue. He told her that he was here to see her about something important and that she needed to keep it a secret. God, I love secrets, Rachel told herself and she quickly agreed to the terms. Maybe I will finally learn about what this new mystery job is that he has been keeping so hush, hush. She had no idea about what he was doing but whatever it was, it paid well. Just last year she thought to herself, I was searching for a place for me and my new fiancé to live when my brother out of the blue dropped two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and bought us this house.
John showed up in a Ferrari which impressed Rachel to no end. “Come on little sis get in! I don’t have all day!”
Rachel ran out to him barely able to contain herself with excitement. As soon as she had herself buckled in John held out his hand to her. “What!” she protested.
“You know what! Hand it over!” He said.
Reluctantly, she pulled out her phone from her front pocket and handed it to him. “You had better tell me about this new job of yours!”
“Oh don’t start with that again,” John said with an annoyed look on his face.
“Well! What is it that you brought me out here for?” Rachel said, still eager for this new mystery to be solved.
“You will see soon enough,” John said.
The car ride went on for the next thirty minutes. The curiosity was tearing her apart. She knew that continuing to question John about what he was about to show her was pointless. What little conversation they had was about the day to day things such as how the wedding preparations are coming, how mom and dad are doing, and about her new job as an accounting bookkeeper. Finally, the curiosity was just too much. “Why did you take my phone?”
“I know that I can’t stop you from running your mouth, but I can at least keep you from posting the pictures on Facebook. You’ll get it back after we leave. We’re almost there now little sis.”
This was not what she had expected. They pulled off the main road onto a dirt road that led into the woods. The next few minutes were taken in complete silence. Night was just starting to fall and it was getting dark already out here in the woods. John had to turn on his headlights to see where he was going. The trail split off in a couple of other directions but John seemed to know where he was going and calmly navigated through the woods. They were now deep into the woods when John announced that, “This is our stop little sis.”
The trail opened up into a small field. It was still heavily wooded in this area save for the small opening. This field was clearly designed for parking as it was not big enough for anything else. There was another car that was already parked here. John pulled in next to it.
“Who else is here?” Rachel asked.
“You will see little sis, come on, he is waiting for us.”
John led the way. It was very dark out here. Fortunately, John came prepared. John had grabbed a flashlight just before leaving the car. It was a difficult walk with the tall grass and weeds they were pushing through, trees, logs and branches to climb over, the never-ending dips and climbs, spiders and bugs and the sounds, oh the sounds. Rachel was a city girl and she felt very much out of her element here. Rachel’s biggest fear was that a raccoon would jump out of nowhere and climb up her skirt, or jump out of some unseen place in the trees and permanently attach itself to her face. It was fortunate that John was holding the flashlight; otherwise, they would have been stopping every thirty seconds to perform a search of the area in an effort to spot the little creature that was just waiting for the opportunity to put her in an early grave.
It appeared to Rachel that this was the destination that John had been leading her to. The trees were dense here and there was a man waiting for them. He was an older man probably in his late sixties or early seventies. He had on blue jean pants, sneakers, and a blue t-shirt. She almost didn’
t recognize him in casual attire.
“Mr. Callahan, what are you doing here?” Rachel asked with a puzzled look on her face. Mr. Callahan was the President and Owner of Sedilzar Pharmaceuticals, The Company where Rachel worked.
“You have been asking questions above your pay grade, haven’t you,” Mr. Callahan said in a bleak, emotionless tone.
“I don’t understand?” Rachel asked with true fear just starting to grip at her.
“Let me explain,” Mr. Callahan continued. “This company has a two point one billion dollar annual trade agreement with a certain Columbian drug cartel. This understanding has been very beneficial to our company and is the reason that our company has reached the point where it is today. That was until a certain accounting bookkeeper started asking questions.”
Rachel could feel the blood draining out of her fingers and toes. She was in real danger now and she knew it. “What does my brother have to do with all this?” Rachel asked.
“Your brother works for this cartel. He makes problems like you go away,” Mr. Callahan said.
“MY BROTHER WOULD NEVER HURT ME!” she yelled both angry and terrified.
“Don’t be so sure about that little sis,” John said. And with that, he reached into the back of his pants underneath his shirt and pulled out a gun.
Rachel was beyond shocked. She didn’t know what she wanted to do more, scream or cry. One thought echoed inside her head, run and I might live. Without a second thought, she took off. She pushed through the forest as quickly as her legs would carry her. She glanced back a couple of times, just enough to catch a glimpse of the light from John’s flashlight. He was not far behind her. She pressed on. Fear and pain had left her. Now all that remained was the basic instinct to survive. In her desperation she thought to herself, how am I going to get out of here? John has the car keys. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, she had to move. To move was to live. The forest was a little less dense here so she took the advantage and broke out into a full sprint. Something caught her leg and before she knew what was happening, her feet were out from under her. Her body slammed to the ground. She was now covered in leaves, dirt, and mud. The rock her face slammed into took a few teeth. She let out a panicked groan, turned her head and spotted the tree root that hindered her escape and in the very near distance, she saw the light from John’s flashlight and footsteps coming her way. Panic gripped her again. I have to get out of here. I have to keep moving. Her body ached from head to toe, but she was otherwise awake and alert. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest and was breathing rapidly. As she tried to get up, pain shot up through her left leg (the leg that got caught on the tree root). She could not move. She tried again and this time put weight on it trying to force it up. She screamed out in pain and fell flat on her face again. She turned to look at her leg. She wasn’t a doctor but she knew that her leg wasn’t supposed to be at that angle. Her breaths were coming in gasps now. She started clawing at the ground, dragging herself forward.
