Beneath the Veil (18 page)

“Do not fear me. This is what I really am,” she said, in a high ringing voice.

Energy pulsed through the room causing their clothing to pop with a static charge. Doc moved closer to her swirling form.

“What do you want of us?”

With a sudden compression of air, she returned to the form of a little girl.

“I want to set you free,” she said, in a small child’s voice. “Something terrible is coming that will wash this place away and bury it forever.”

“What do you mean?” Jen asked.

“Gather everyone together. We need to travel a great distance in a short matter of time,” Willow answered.

Jen ran to the bedroom to wake Marie and the children. They were huddled together on the tiny bed with their small faces pressed into worn blankets dreaming of people and places lost.

“Marie, wake up, we need to go,” Jen said, shaking her shoulder.

Marie woke and gathered the children’s things. Life in the camp had taught her to move quickly without unnecessary questions. In this world, delay could mean the life of her children. They scurried into the living room, pulling on shoes and coats as they went. Doc and Jackson poured the remaining fuel from a five gallon can into the van. Willow waited silently on the porch until Tonya reached out and grabbed her hand.

“Come, we have to go,” Tonya said. Willow smiled and followed her into the van. Jackson turned and did a headcount, then drove out to the main road and headed south.

C H A P T E R  S E V E N T Y - S I X

J
immy entered an underground hanger and walked to a gleaming control console. A dozen soldiers surrounding the room watched as his silver tipped finger hovered over a holographic screen. With a wave, a spot in the room begin to swirl and then a diaphanous craft took shape. He waved his finger again and a doorway appeared, hovering a few feet above the floor. With just a thought and Eva’s machine, he created a craft with unimaginable capabilities. Years before, it was his commanding officer who showed him the technology for the first time.

“Creates this stuff outta nothing,” Colonel Stevenson said.

But, that wasn’t true at all. He soon learned the device wouldn’t work with the operator alone in the hanger. With a few men present, the device worked, but took a terrible toll. Some men died instantly, while others suffered brain lesions. The brass realized they needed at least a dozen troops in the room each time the device was activated to spread the effects. The unsuspecting soldiers were told they were on a classified security detail. After a handful of exposures, headaches and memory loss would follow and the men were rotated off the base left with only hazy recollections.

Jimmy watched the soldiers’ faces as the magic happened and the craft appeared. The men stood at attention staring straight ahead, but later that night the strains of the device would manifest. He tried to avoid eye contact with a young soldier nearest him as he walked to the craft. When he stepped into the craft he stumbled through the floating doorway with his senses twisted. The inside of the ship was visible, but the outside was unseen. Once inside, he waved a hand and closed the opening. Although unnecessary, he was taught to control his thoughts using the hand gestures as an aid. The inside of the ship was plain and somewhat dated, created from images within his own mind. Each pilot experienced the technology differently and the craft could only be operated by one man. Any more, and the flood of conflicting thoughts would cause it to malfunction, crash or simply vanish.

In the 1950s, a B-52 crew was brought in to attempt to fly a larger craft. The crew managed to generate the machine and take off, but in-flight, the machine disappeared from under them and they fell to their deaths. Undaunted, Greyforce tried again, this time with the men outfitted with parachutes and oxygen. The results were even worse when the craft morphed into a smaller vessel. Only the pilot survived, returning to the ground with the craft full of crushed bodies.

Jimmy sat behind the controls of the craft, which like the hand gestures, were unneeded. He, like most of the other pilots, preferred to fly in a manner familiar to them. His cockpit resembled the old Cessna he learned to fly on. He engaged the throttle and levitated a few feet above the ground, pulled back on the stick, and the craft passed straight through the stone ceiling.

In an instant, he was travelling high above blue tinged mountains with green forest stretching in all directions below. The black circle tattooed on the land was far behind. It felt good to fly again, free for a little while. But he knew his wondrous craft could only go as far as the veil would let it. If he attempted to escape, the results would be harsh.

“Major, head south. The target is on the move,” Maxwell’s voice cracked through the radio. “I repeat the target is on the move.”

“Affirmative,” he responded. But Jimmy had no intention of following orders. In a flash, he raced to the airspace over the cabin and then landed in a field of yellow grass. He jumped out of the ship and ran into the empty cabin. The only sign of the others was Katie’s doll lying on the porch. He stopped to pick it up and then ran back to the waiting craft.

C H A P T E R  S E V E N T Y - S E V E N

“T
urn here, Jackson,” Willow said.

The van bounced onto a pitted dirt road with overgrown fields surrounding it. A barren tree was bent over the road with its empty branches reaching skyward. A round symbol was etched into the trunk of the tree.

“She has come this way,” Willow said.

“Evangeline?” Jen asked.

“Yes, she is near,” Willow answered.

“Then shouldn’t we be going the other way?” Jackson asked.

Jen spun around to look at Willow sitting in the seat behind her. “Who is she to you?”

“She is part of me,” Willow answered.

“I don’t understand,” Jen said.

“I am the last of a civilization that lived on this planet long before humankind. We left a gift for the future, a time capsule if you will, containing our technology and one of our own. I volunteered to be sealed inside a chamber meant to be discovered by an advanced and enlightened civilization. However, it was discovered quite accidently by Ezra Rhodes who set off an explosion deep in the mine that released the seal on the chamber.”

Willow stopped for a moment and looked out the window.

“Willow, please continue,” Doc said.

“When Ezra first entered the chamber it was his thoughts that drove the device to create many of the things you have seen. The machine was designed to regenerate me as an ambassador to the future in the image of the local people. Instead, I was split into two forms, Evangeline and Willow. Both based on images within Ezra’s conflicted mind. Evangeline projected the greed, despair and paranoia in his animal brain while I represented the better parts of him.”

“How do those soldiers factor into this?” Doc asked.

“Rumors of strange happenings spread and your government became aware of Ezra’s find,” Willow answered. “The military took control of the technology, set up an observation post within the mine and shielded this town from the outside world. Beneath this veil, they have enjoyed the freedom to experiment with the technology using the people of this area. They soon learned that the technology had value beyond its ability to generate matter from thought, it could also be used in other ways.”

“To turn people into monsters,” Doc said, sadly.

“Yes,” Willow agreed. “But they did not predict the outcomes and managed to set free a chain of events that they could not control.”

“Evangeline,” Doc said.

“And me.”

She turned her focus back to the road. “Turn here, Jackson.”

Jackson steered the van onto an uneven gravel drive.

“I know this place,” Jen said.

“It’s our place,” Daniel added from the back seat as the cottage came into view.

Jackson parked the van next to the house where Daniel had hidden his sisters.

“Why are we here?” Jen asked.

“Because, this is where it will end.”

Willow opened the side door of the van and climbed out. “Please take the children and find a place to hide.”

Jen and Daniel led the group into the cottage. The kitchen was destroyed from the last attack and the door to the basement hung from a single hinge across the opening. Jackson grabbed the door and cleared the path. Daniel found two lanterns on a shelf in the ransacked living room and then led the way down the dark stairway. They reached the basement and found it as they had left it with the heavy door that had once protected them lying on the floor of the storeroom.

Doc placed a lantern on the floor while Jackson righted an overturned table. They heard footsteps above them and then the creak of the wooden steps that led to the basement. Marie rushed the children into the storeroom. With guns drawn, Jackson and Doc approached the stairs and found Willow descending in the darkness.

“Evangeline is approaching. When the time is right, you must go to the river.” Willow turned and disappeared up the stairs.

“Wait!” Jackson called up the stairs. “How we will know when the time is right?”

Willow was gone. Jackson turned and looked at Doc, then both men grabbed their weapons and walked up the stairs leaving the others in the glow of the lantern light.

C H A P T E R  S E V E N T Y - E I G H T

“M
ajor Downs, what is your position?” Maxwell asked over the radio.

Jimmy turned his radio off and continued looking for signs of the van. A team was sent to blow the Jacory Dam which held back a lake large enough to flood the entire area. Maxwell planned to erase Auraria and its true history before shutting down the veil. Jimmy spotted the van and descended silently into an overgrown corn field. Vines and foliage engulfed the craft as it sank unseen into the red clay soil. When he opened the door, he was gripped by an incredible force and pulled towards the cottage. He came to a stop on the ground three feet from Willow’s bare feet.

“Why are you here, Major Downs?”

“Willow?” Jimmy stammered, staring up at the small girl. “I came to help the others.”

“Then, why did you bring that?” she asked, gesturing towards the unseen craft.

“It was the only way I could get away from...,” Jimmy started.

“Maxwell,” Willow finished his sentence.

“Yes,” he said.

The air swirled around her as she turned into a formless mass.

“Eva?” Jimmy stammered. “But how?”

“You can call me Willow now, Major. I escaped a long time ago. What you saw back at the lab was just a shell of my energy signature, nothing more than a shedded skin. Evangeline is coming, you should join the others.”

She released her hold and allowed him to climb to his feet. Black clouds moved across the sky and wind began to whip across the ground. Jimmy ran to the back door of the cottage where Doc and Jackson stood guard.

“Jimmy!” Doc said, hugging him.

“Never thought we’d see you again, man,” Jackson added, slapping his back.

“Good to see you guys,” Jimmy replied. “You know about Willow? What she is?”

“Yes, we know what she is,” Doc answered. “One of us.”

Lighting cracked overhead, shaking the tiny house. The three men kneeled on the floor and looked out a broken window. Evangeline appeared in front of the cottage. Willow approached and quickly engulfed her. Evangeline shrieked and struggled to get free. Willow forced her facedown onto the ground until lighting struck and ripped through her body. She was thrown down and turned back into a little girl. Evangeline dropped on top of her and grabbed her throat.

“You wanted to live like them, now you can die like them!” Evangeline’s black eyes shined in a maniacal stare.

Doc leaped up with his rifle in hand and ran outside with Jimmy and Jackson close behind. He aimed and put a round through Evangeline’s head, knocking her off of Willow, then fired again dropping her to the ground. She stood back up with the holes in her pallid skin already healed over.

A sudden gust of air moved past and Evangeline was pressed into the ground unable to move. A deep circular outline formed around her and then a doorway opened with Jimmy inside. He had managed to land the craft on top her. The wind around the cottage slowed and then reversed, pulling debris into the air.

“Go now to the river!” Willow shouted. “The veil is lifting, you must hurry!”

“I’ll get Jen and the others,” Jackson shouted, running towards the cottage.

Suddenly, the lights in the cockpit flickered and Jimmy’s craft disappeared. He fell onto the ground next to Evangeline and before he could escape, she grabbed his throat and crushed his windpipe. She then reached out and pulled Doc to the ground, breaking his leg. Willow intervened, jumping on top of her.

Doc escaped by crawling down to the river where the others were waiting. Daniel’s raft was intact, sitting along the river bank.

“Where’s Jimmy?” Jackson asked, lifting Doc onto the raft.

“He didn’t make it,” Doc answered, sadly.

With everyone onboard, Jackson jammed a thick branch under the raft and tried to move it forward. The raft slid a few inches then ground to a stop. Daniel jumped off to help.