Chaos Mortalitus (9 page)

"Take care you two!" Kalden shouts as he heads to his car. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Angela and I find ourselves alone in front of the gallery, just staring at each other under the stars as I glance at my phone and see that it's 9:27 P.M. and the air is crisp and silent. "So you want some food Mr.?" Angela asks.

"Yeah, but you don't have to. We did already have it today."

"Well you did such a great job I guess you can be spoiled for today, plus I'm hungry again too." Angela says with a smile.

"Thanks babe,
I don't know what I would do without you."

Angela lets out a laugh at my expense. "Probably starve to death."

We stand facing each other and I know I am the luckiest man alive. I lean in and kiss my wife passionately
as if it might be my last.
"Wow! All this excitement today, what's gotten in to you Ashton?"

"Just trying to live like tomorrow may never come." I reply as I kiss her again.

Feeling her lips press against mine, my heart slowly melts. My life is this beautiful woman and the child that grows in her belly. "Well I'm gonna' get going so I can make it there before they close. Same as usual?" She asks sarcastically.

"That works for me. What's with look? You know I fear change."

"You got it babe, you're a weirdo. I love you with all my heart Ashton, from here to infinity."

"I love you too Angela and Seth. You two are my everything, nothing can ever change that." I reply rubbing my wife's stomach.

"Ok I'll see you in a bit, I shouldn't be long." She says walking toward her car.

"Sounds good, see you at home babe. Love you!"

My wife walks to her car and waves to me as she pulls away from the gallery. I realize how lucky I am to have her in my life, but then I remember something else as well. The mysterious package that awaits me at home, for in this moment I remember exactly what today has become, Tyler's riddle. I hurry to my car and begin my journey home, about ten minutes or so and I'll arrive, to what end remains to be seen.

CHAPTER: 6

THE ARTIFACT

Silence surrounds me on the car ride home as my hair stands on edge, uncertainty around every corner. Today holds record to any before it, one I'm sure not to forget for quite a while as time seems to be in its slowest form possible, inching closer to an answer. Anxiety and paranoia cloud my senses as the car creeps along steadily to its destination. Arriving at my home at 9:41 P.M. I can no longer allow myself to wonder alone, I just have to know what it all means. Hitting the exit switch to my car as the door springs up I gather my belongings, headed for the front door.

Each step gets harder and harder as I gradually make my way to the doorstep, placing my fingertip on the security pad to my home with state of the art design, hardwired to the Omega System. After a quick scan I hear the front door unlock and the lights come to life as I reach forward turning the knob and the door opens. My home is silent as I walk into the living room and instantly my eyes are drawn to the mid sized cardboard box sitting on my coffee table. Dropping my things, I close the front door and lock it as I hurry toward the box and begin to pull at its bindings.

Standing over it, I lift the cardboard flaps and look inside finding two items, a holographic display and rather simple iron lock box, finger print analysis required for entry. The box is similar to a lock box for a firearm or something along those lines, very confusing. I set the iron box down on the coffee table and place the holographic image processor next to it. Pressing the play button on the small device causes a holographic image of Tyler Morgan to pop up. The video begins to play as Tyler seems a bit nervous, scared even.

"Ash, hey buddy, so obviously if your watching this that means you've received the package without incident. Look I don't have a lot of time and I know this seems weird, but like I said earlier you don't know the half of it. By the time you see this I'm sure I will have been captured, hell who knows what they'll do to me. Let me just start by telling you the only things I know for sure." Tyler says almost rambling, but there is truth to these words somehow, I know it. "Six weeks ago I was contacted by the United States government while on assignment in Egypt. I was informed that there was a project that had come up and my expertise was needed."

"After agreeing to help, I found out that I would be deciphering an ancient language, like nothing I've ever seen. I arrived at the site three weeks in, after they'd gained access to the structure. Ash…the structure was an alien pyramid made of some unknown crystal material on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, about a hundred miles off the coast of San Diego." Tyler's words echo through me like the blast from a bomb.

"Holy shit!" I say aloud in disbelief. "Unreal!"

"I know this all sounds crazy, but that's not the worst of it. So I am taken to the site and brought onboard this pyramid structure, which has a look and feel like nothing I've ever seen. I gain access to the central chamber where inside I find everything to be very alien in a literal sense. Among alien markings and an ancient feel, I find a center column standing eight feet tall covered in thousands of symbols I assume. The symbols decorate the twelve large rings that make up the columns mass, each holding a thousand symbols. The rings move right or left lining up on a central point in front of the cylinder, acting like some sort of ancient combination lock."

Tyler's words are soft as he reveals the pressing matters at hand. "The feeling of the column is strange, its importance still unknown. Possibilities for the column code seem endless, so I was immediately ordered to study these symbols and decipher their meaning. After studying these symbols for weeks I wasn't any closer to an answer. Aside from the fact that I knew this was of alien design, I still didn't know much about the mysteries tied to this pyramid until yesterday, when everything I understood about this ancient discovery blew up in my face."

"I was examining the symbols one after another, looking for anything that might help my work in deciphering their meaning, when I found something. One of the symbols wasn't foreign to me at all Ash. Late yesterday evening, I remembered where I had seen that symbol before, and the eleven others like it. Ash, your painting, The Artifact."

"My God!" I say holding my hand over my mouth.

"I know how this must sound Ash. Hell, I know how it sounded to me when I made the connection! The symbols you painted visibly running the edge of the three-sided blade are identical to the ones inside the pyramid, one for each ring on the ancient column. I examined a print of your painting late last night to confirm the twelve symbols were identical to the ones you painted so many years ago. While everyone was sleeping, I snuck past the patrols and gained access to the pyramid, using my security clearance. After entering the central chamber I examined the rings on the column and found the corresponding symbols."

"Lining up the rings based on the symbol arrangement from your painting caused something to happened, something I don't think I'll ever be able to explain." Tyler continues as the anticipation begins to boil over. "The cylinder itself began to slowly drop down, almost to my waist level. As the top of it began to shift, and decompress, there before me lay something I could have never expected, something out of a dream. Ash, the object you painted, the Artifact itself lay there as still as can be, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, true divinity."

"This can't be happening…! This just can't be happening!" I say trying to calm myself.

"I didn't know what to do man, how to understand God's plan for me in all this. The only thing I could think of was to get it to you, that you might know what this means or what to do with it. I convinced myself to reach out and grab it, when suddenly I had these strange visions, this figure and a cloak, I can't explain it. Quickly, I fled the pyramid undetected back to my bunk aboard ship. I've encrypted a message and just emailed it to you, I'm going to steal a boat and head for the mainland soon. I'll be making my way to your home on foot, I just don't know how long you'll have before they find you." Tyler's words cause my heart to begin beating a thousand times a second.

"You need to take Angela and the Artifact and get the hell outta' there now Ash. I'm sorry I got you into this but I know this is the magic I spoke of so long ago, I know this is God's will. I don't know when or if I'll ever see you again, just know I did what I thought was right. Till next time Ash." Tyler's transmission terminates along with my sanity and then only silence.

"Oh my God, what the hell is going on?" I say as panic grabs hold. "This just can't be happening!"

A realization takes hold of me as my eyes are instantly pulled to the iron lock box. This terrifying second piece of the puzzle as I reach forward and pick the box up and place it directly in front of me on the coffee table. I take a seat on my black leather sofa, steady for a moment casting an intense stare toward the box. My heart pulsates, a drum beat pounding in silence, this surreal daze about as I reach forward and press my thumb against the security pad and hear the machine process the information. A green light appears and the box unlocks and inside awaits a revelation to be had, the origins of this dream perhaps
and destiny has finally found me
.

"Sir! We have it!" A soldier yells to Jonathan. "We have the location Sir!"

Standing not far from the man's position, Jonathan walks over and grabs the printout as he heads through the glass door of the intelligence office to address everyone on his team with new orders. Jason and Greg are connected via conference call and await their orders as they sit on the side of the road in their vehicle. "Ok looks like we have our target. 4983 Utopia Drive, a Mr. Ashton Mortal, let me repeat, Mr. Morgan's one and only transmission was sent to Ashton Mortal of 4983 Utopia Drive." Jonathan reveals to all units.

"Holy shit!" Greg says lunging forward in his seat.

"Sir, are you sure this isn't some kind of mistake?" Jason immediately asks.

"Negative soldier, target is a go. I want the target neutralized and the Payload recovered, do you understand me Lieutenant! Get to that address and get the job done now! That's an order Marine!" Jonathan screams into the receiver in the center of a large conference table.

"Yes Sir!" Jason replies irritated.

The two men sit torn between very different worlds, how can this be, their best friend, how could this happen? They know the importance of an order like this, what this could mean for their dear friend and take comfort only in the fact that at least it's them, at least they can try and keep an eye on him. They pray with all their might that Angela is not home; they hope that she is nowhere to be found. "I can't believe this man, I mean it's Ash bro!" Greg says trying to make sense of the situation. "He's our friend!"

"I know Greg, it scares me too. I just hope he's ok. Let's move, we gotta' get their first." Jason says as the men head for their new target.

I remain sitting, staring at the iron box terrified at what it all means, the mystery within and how it would change my life forever. Reaching my hand forward, hearing pin drops at the windowsill as a drizzle begins outside, I lift open the box to reveal the moment I'm truly not ready for reminding myself to breathe. In front of me lay the object from my dreams, the one I painted so many years ago, The Artifact. Staring at the dagger not knowing what to do, what to say as no words can describe moments like this, they just don't happen, ever.

"Jesus! This can't be happening! Fucking unreal!"

My eyes remains fixed for what seems like an eternity on the object in its flawless form, exactly as I imagined. I run my eyes a thousand times over it, studying it in silence as I trace the precious stone at its base, its worn looking anciently carved handle, the symbols that run along the blade edges. A strong connection can be felt as I examine the symbols on the solid three-sided blade, such a strange object as I also glance at the clock in our entertainment center displayed on our holographic visual screen. It reads 9:49 P.M.

A moment longer I wait, wondering what comes next, holding back with everything I am and I can't help but wonder what it means. Curiosity gets the best of me
, but if only I could have seen what was written in the glimmering starlight for me on this particular evening
. I reach my hand forward once more toward the Artifact, this truth to my riddle; for this is the moment I've waited for somehow, the moment revelation becomes real. My hand inches closer to the alien object as I wrap my fingers around its handle to pick it up for a closer examination. The second my flesh touched the mysterious dagger,
the universe and the man known as Ashton Mortal changed forever
.

Angela pulls out of the Super Burger drive through and begins her journey home. A short drive to the house, not even five minutes with the high speeds of automated driving. She loves her husband dearly, a devoted wife and soon to be mother and she counts her blessings to cherish every day with him. So many ideas for their son's new life, for the family she's longed for, yet she remains unaware of destinies onward approach as dark clouds are upon the horizon now and nothing can stop the damage left in their wake.

Another car jets down the coastal freeway not far behind Angela at amazing speeds, straight for its target with the two men inside trying to gain a grasp on the situation. "Should be there in eleven minutes or so." Greg says.