Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (14 page)

The force of Gerald’s words made Gbenga take several steps back. Was this man even human? How did he know these things?

“How__ do you know me?” Gbenga’s voice was a quavering mess.

“I don’t know you specifically, but I know dream walkers. You have a stink about you. Why do you think I came over to talk to you? Since the year began, I have met three of you. Or maybe I should say since my awakening and cleansing.

Each of you tried desperately to convince me to stop my research. We kill your kind you know. Eleyon is so predictable. For every one of us that rises through the ages, a slew of you come into being. Dunno why that is. Maybe the great Eleyon seeks to protect his precious mortals. Heaven knows why he loves you turds so much though. To one such as me you are simply fair game, the dregs of the universe, with no more use than the discarded dung of diseased cattle.

“If three dream walkers could come to me in the space of six months, that must mean I am on a higher level in the spiritual food chain. It’s hilarious to know that Eleyon in some sick way honors me.”

He leaned back, opening his mouth wide and laughed. His laugh drove fear into Gbenga’s heart.

“But__ why?”

“WHY??!!!” Gerald roared bearing down on him in fury. Gbenga leaped back frightened.

“You ask me why?”

There was more laughter before he spoke again. This time however his voice was a hundred times deeper and creepier. As if it was a different person talking.

“Don’t blame Gerald. He is not responsible for his actions. Even for a mind as great as his, he is powerless to resist the will of the ether-tome.”

“The ether-tome?”

Gerald paused walking forward slowly, giving Gbenga a piercing look as he did so.

“Oh you do not recognize the term do you? No matter, you will soon. This is not Gerald speaking. This is the ether-tome. Gerald broke through the walls of your reality and reached into mine.

“He did it several times before I noticed his presence. When I did, I kept watch until the next time he appeared. A part of me stowed away in his body and he brought me into your reality where I began my own plans for world domination. The scientific marvel he is working on will enable I and my minions to cross over to this world and lay waste to it and there is nothing you and the other dream walkers can do to stop me.

“What the imbecile doesn’t realize is he has me to thank for most of his mindboggling discoveries. Don’t tell him I said so though. I gave him those insights because I want the world to worship and adore him. So I can put my real plan in place.”

Still chuckling he turned without another word and stalked off followed closely by his four bodyguards. They disappeared into the thick mist seconds later.

Gbenga stood in shocked silence for almost fifteen minutes before he was able to snap himself out of his horror and head back to the room. The world it appeared was doomed.

Next day (AP4, Austin Pearce building)

Gbenga stood in a large crowd in the AP4 conference room. He looked smart and handsome in a grey three-piece suit with comfortable black loafers on his feet. His luggage was downstairs with Aaron.

Raising his hand, he examined the face of the diamond studded Hublot he had strapped to his wrist. His flight was in two and a half hours.  He had to get back to Nigeria and continue preparations. It appeared nothing could stop the event now. Coming to Surrey had been a waste of time.

He fixed his hard gaze on Gerald Summers who was speaking to a crowd of one hundred and fifty people. There was a mesmerizing quality to his words. He told you of his plans for the future not as if it was his plan, but everyone’s plan. He included you, made you feel special, as if you were the only one in the world. With the adoring looks the audience gave him, it was obvious he had them under his spell. The many faces he studied looked as if he had said at least a word that touched them deeply.

He was speaking on his perfection of the cold fusion technology. Earth now had another source of power, clean, abundant and powerful, reducing reliance on petroleum.

The reporters of the major news networks, CNN, BBC, Aljazeera and half a dozen others were in attendance drinking up his every word. Everyone on the planet was probably watching this. That thought for some reason did not fill him with peace. The worst was happening and he was powerless to do anything about it.

Gerald’s eyes suddenly drifted his way locking on him. Their gazes locked and held and a smug smile lifted the sides of his lips ever so slightly.

Rage filled Gbenga and he knew. He just knew that if he had a gun he would damn the consequences and shoot him right between the eyes. Gerald’s smug look told him that he knew what he was thinking and he was amused by his helplessness.

Gbenga’s face grew dark with fury and he turned, slowly walking out of the AP4 conference room. Minutes later he was downstairs taking his bag from Aaron and climbing into the bus.  In the next hour the Air Nigeria flight he boarded was flying back to Nigeria.

Might started to feel faint in the light. The speed at which he moved was disconcerting to say the least. It felt as if he had been traveling for hours.

Suddenly his speed started to reduce. He was slowing down. He reached up trying to feel his face. He felt nothing neither did he see or feel his arm rising up.

“Approaching drop point. Be ready__”

The mechanical voice came from the suit he was wearing, or was it his head? He was not sure which it was. A white X appeared at a spot almost at the opposite horizon. This X was brighter and more blinding than the surrounding brightness.

A green triangle appeared over the X. As if someone or something was targeting the spot. He hurtled towards the X at dizzying speeds striking it with a loud thump making the whiteness instantly turn to black.

His eyes fluttered open. He sat up, looking around with his eyes wide in wonder. He had no words for the sights and sounds he saw around him.

Breathtaking greenery, vistas, waterfalls, turquoise colored clouds and a sunflower yellow sun shinning with a fierce brightness that made it impossible to stare at for too long.

He rose to his feet, looking around in wonder. He was in a sort of valley. High hills rose up in front and on either side of him. Behind was a flat tableau of carpet grass, so green that it was somewhat sickening to look at.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, he reached for the clasps of the helmet he wore and unlocked them, sliding it off his head.

“I wouldn’t do that__”  The words faded off the further the helmet got from his head.

He felt nothing initially and then the stinging began. It started in his chest area and quickly spread to his neck, mouth and nostrils.

Breathlessness came a few seconds later. He started to feel faint and suddenly his legs could not support his weight. He sank on one knee with a groan and raised his glove-covered left hand to his throat, rubbing vigorously to soothe the pain and stinging.

His helmet fell from his hand rolling about a foot away. His eyes started to bulge and he gasped for breath. What was happening? Was this planet irradiated too?

“No its not, the chemical composition of the air here is different from Nephilim. Your body system does not agree with it. You have to put your helmet back on.”

In some hidden part of his subconscious, it occurred to Might that this was the longest explanation Eleyon had ever given him. He collapsed lying down on his side.

With the last bit of strength he had on his insides he reached forward and grabbed the helmet clasping it back on his head. A whooshing sound filled his ears as sweet scented air flooded the insides of the helmet filling his lungs with the sustenance it needed.

Taking several deep breaths, he rose as a heads up display appeared on the glass of his helmet. He was looking at a holographic map in the glass, the same way you would look at the images on a 3D TV screen through 3D glasses.

A beeping dot appeared a few hundred kilometers away. Above it was the words 2nd keycard. The look on Might’s face turned to a hard frown. The keycard appeared to be at the bottom of an active volcano. That was if the map in his helmet could be trusted.

“You do not have much time__”

Might was about to ask Eleyon what he meant by that when he saw thick clouds of smoke rising above him. He swung around, shocked to see scores of creatures, some flying and some running, ridden towards him by furious looking humanoids.

He turned to the hill in front of him. If it weren’t for the horde rapidly approaching his position from behind, he would have been mesmerized by the beauty of the waterfall pouring down the sides of the hills into a massive underground pool.

He ran to the hills taking almost ten-foot bounds. When he gathered enough momentum, he leaped into the air easily scaling them, disappearing into the thick mist clustered on the peak of the one directly in front of him.

Landing with a loud thump on the top, his large feet dug deep furrows into the soft rock beneath his heels. The top of the hill spread for almost thirty feet in every direction. Beyond that was a drop. How far down this drop went was what he did not know.

Racing forward he dived off the edge of the hill, plummeted three dozen feet before smashing into the hard packed earth beyond the hill. He leapt out of the holes his booted feet made and starting running southwards.

The flying creatures swept over the top of the hill homing on him as he raced away as fast as his feet could carry him. He stole several backward glances as he ran to see what was chasing him.

They were the strangest looking creatures he had ever seen. Their musculature halfway down their bodies seemed mammalian but the other half from waist to legs looked like some gigantic bird of prey with long razor sharp claws attached to the back legs. In addition, giant wings sprouted from a point beneath their massive shoulders and there were half a dozen holes along each side of the body, three of which were opening and closing like the gills of a fish.

The humanoids that rode them wore black armor with huge boots that had spikes on the front and back. They repeatedly drove the spiked heels into the creatures to urge them to go faster drawing long streaks of green blood.

These humanoids carried spear like instrument in their hands whose pointed ends were glowing. They aimed the glowing ends at Might and fired bursts of red flame.

He ducked, running in a zigzag fashion as massive explosions erupted all around him.

“Why are they firing at me?” He roared thoroughly incensed.

“Because you are an intruder. Humans are not welcome in Viteolious X-6.”

“And why are they not welcome?”

“There was a misunderstanding during the first inaugural light jump__ several on either side were killed. When the time came to hide the second keycard it was done covertly by a team of navy seals.

“Interstellar war might have ignited if the Viteolians were able to trace where the light jump originated from. The technology of the Exilerons is still vastly superior to the Viteolians.”

“Sounds awfully enlightening__” Might began sarcastically. “But it still doesn’t solve my immediate problem. How do I escape from them__?”

The voice in his suit did not respond after he said that. ‘Great!’ Might thought to himself. ‘Just great!’

A particularly large explosion flung him around in a hard circle slamming him into the ground so hard that he almost lost consciousness.

Seething with anger, he leapt to his feet and reached for his belt remembering at the last minute that he did not carry any weapons on this excursion.

Another blast tore towards him; he dived to his right going in a slow roll. The resulting explosion was massive flinging him two miles to the side where he hit the ground hard digging a deep furrow into the hard rock surface of the ground.

Driving a huge fist into the ground, he pulled out a two hundred pound chunk of rock. Leaping to his feet and spinning around in a hard violent circle he flung the rock at the approaching flying creatures like an expert discus player.

The rock sailed through the air, smashing into the head of the creature that was in the lead. The crack flung the creature backwards where it hit the ground hard many miles behind. Its heavy body crushed the rider burying it in the sand underneath it.

Shots came more rapidly now. Might took off running as explosions erupted all around him once more. The creatures on the ground ridden by the humanoids were only paces away.

The one in front looked like some sort of bull with long shiny horns. He sidestepped as quickly as he could barely managing to avoid being gouged.

Grabbing the horns of the creature as it raced by he drove a hard blow into its neck making it sink to its knees. A loud screech burst from its lips. The speed at which he moved shocked not only the creature but also the humanoid riding it.

His powerful arm and the hard blow brought the thing to an instant halt flinging the rider off it. Lifting it, he used the heavy body as a battering ram to clear a path through the others racing towards him.

He spun around as a blast streaked towards his chest. He felt the threads of his suit tighten a few seconds before it hit. The explosion flung him back where he hit the ground hard many miles away.

The force of the explosion still pushed his body backwards. Using the momentum, he rolled and flipped to his feet sliding backwards with his feet digging long lines in the earth. Reaching down he drove his five fingers into the earth to slow his progress. It worked and he came to a grinding halt.

Raising his fists to the heavens, he brought them crashing down on the ground in the same way he did when he battled the Higuan giants. The ground beneath him imploded and exploded upwards in rippling motions. All the creatures and their riders disappeared in the high wall of sand and rock that erupted from the ground. The wall quickly disappeared into the distance leaving the stretch of land peaceful again.

The powerful earthquake his fists wrought unleashed a surge of energy, which shot into the sky creating a violent funnel of air that swept the creatures flying in the air aside like kites caught in a violent tornado. They crashed in their ones and twos burying their riders in the rocky ground.

Everywhere became quiet and peaceful. Might turned as a faint whooshing sound reached his ears. Something told him there were aircrafts heading his way.

He came face to face with another humanoid that was making what looked like peaceful gestures. Might’s eyes narrowed. He was on the verge of attacking it when the gestures became more insistent.

It spoke spewing out a barrage of unintelligible words. Might raised his hands, pointed to his ears and shook his head repeatedly to let the creature know he did not understand what it was saying.

The creature’s eyes grew impatient. He pressed a button on a black collar like thing around its neck. There was a screech followed by a burst of static. Before the creature opened its mouth to speak a green line burst out of the collar and slowly traveled from Might’s head all the way down to his feet as if it was scanning him. Only when the scan was done did the creature speak.

“I said you have to follow me if you want to survive this day.”

“Who are you and why should I trust you?”

“Because I am the only one who can hide you.”

“What if this is a trap?”

“I am not sure you really have a choice. You hear that whooshing sound? Well those are fighter crafts being mobilized. They are headed this way as I speak, about four minutes out. I can take you where you will be safe, give you food and a warm bath__”

Might’s eyes grew more suspicious. “And what do I owe for this generosity?”

“You must do something for me.”

“Which is?”

“That is not how it works. You have to promise me that you will do it. Give me your word.”

Might was tempted to say to hell with it, when the whooshing sound of the approaching fighter planes grew louder.

“Ok I give you my word. Help me escape and I will do what you want me to do.”

The creature nodded slowly and pressed a green button on its belt.
“You must come closer for this to work.”

Might took four steps closer and immediately a white light shot down from the turquoise colored sky surrounding them both. Seconds later, he felt a sensation similar to the light jump sequence and the world around him disappeared fading instantly into bright light.