Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (3 page)

The report went on. Gbenga watched with sad frightened eyes unable to tear his gaze from the tall, black haired and rather harmless looking man dressed in an ill-fitting black suit. His blue eyes were hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses that seemed too big for his face.

The guy looked every bit the nerd, which in retrospect was what he was. No one would believe he was the man destined to bring on the apocalypse. Maybe he was the Anti-Christ spoken about in bible lore. Who knew anyway?

Gerald was a celebrity. He drew more crowds than a teenage Justin Bieber could ever have dreamed of. Even the most popular actors, actresses, sports stars and what not could not hold a candle to him. He was a freaking legend. And no one had a clue that he was about to unleash the darkness that would seal hundreds of millions of fates around the globe, most of whom were his loyal adoring fans and admirers. What a world.

His eyes narrowed as he thought this. Since he realized what was going to happen he had begun to find out all he could about Gerald Summers. Most of his research files and papers were on his desk at home. He needed to study them.

His eyes drifted to Might still lying prone on the bed. His chest rose and fell with his even breathing. Frowning Gbenga rose to his feet reaching for the cane leaning against the white plastic chair he had been sitting on. Putting most of his weight on it, he limped towards the bed.

Standing over Might’s even features brought tears to his eyes. He blinked them away furiously. Now was not the time for tears. There was still so much to do. Reaching down with his left hand, he gently stroked Might’s cheek.

“You have to come out of it bro__” He murmured. “I am not going to give up on you. Come out and help me figure out how we are going to survive the event. You are the only one that knows what I know and has seen what I have seen. I am alone out here. I need your help.”

Might did not respond. He listened for a tell, a shift of his toes or fingers, a change in his breathing, anything to tell whether the big guy heard him. Sadly, he got nothing. With a deep sigh, he headed for the door of the room, opened it and stepped out into the corridor it opened into before shutting it firmly.

Nephilim

The land became more rugged and uneven. There were huge craters everywhere. The interior of these craters were filled with a cloying darkness that seemed almost alive. The lights of the hover cycle beamed out illuminating tens of kilometers ahead.

Might eyes were hard as he revved the engines of the hover cycle making it zoom ahead with greater speed. The green cloudy haze that hung in the air had not gotten any lighter. In fact, it seemed thicker making visibility poorer.

His eyes drifted to the center console of the onboard computer. It counted down the miles he still had to travel on a digital stopwatch kind of thing. According to the computer, he had about a day’s travel before he got to within a hundred clicks of the biosphere.

His eyes narrowed as a thought suddenly occurred to him. He reached down and tapped his finger on the touch screen. The screen went blank for several seconds and then the word
Inquiry?
appeared followed by a series of dashes.

A key board materialized on the lower part of the screen a second later. He quickly typed in Biosphere and waited. Several shrill beeps later, the screen came alive.

My information systems are in serious need of updates. The satellite systems I automatically update from are either not available at the moment or are no longer in existence.

However, what I do have is this__

The biosphere is the biological component of earth systems, which include the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and other spheres. The biosphere includes all living organisms on earth together with the dead organic matter produced by them.

The information kept coming. Might put the hover cycle into autopilot and struggled to read it. Earth! What was that? Nothing he read seemed to make much sense. Eventually tiring of the seemingly unending stream of information, he reached for the screen again typing the words B1 twelve alpha.

The computer gave more loud clicks and started to type again.

B1 twelve alpha; designation biosphere is a top-secret military installation built by the remnant of the Aziomle communication franchise. Assisted in part by Zebra one, a code name for the top echelon of the science arm of the US military.

B1 was modeled after the Biosphere of the earth, hence the code-name B1 twelve alpha. B1 is an environmental controlled city, built when it became evident that the military was losing the war against the ether-tome, another code name given to the ether darkness; and the whole earth was becoming irradiated by nuclear and biological warfare.

As at the time of my last update, the site of B1 had been chosen with construction almost complete. This information you are reading was at the time of its uploading deemed classified. Password access was only given to the top level of government, but was later made public when the major onslaught led by General Holdstatt failed. This was to allow any stragglers or lost survivors to find their way to the biosphere.

The Biosphere was designed to be man’s last-ditch hope of survival. It is an impregnable dome structure, with highly advanced defense systems reputed to be able to fend off alien attacks. The biosphere is self-sustaining; it has its own climate, water, electricity and waste disposal system. It does not need interference from outside sources.

Pockets of human survival accompanied by what still remained of the world governments were herded to the Biosphere. Soldiers deployed to different parts of the earth began to find their way back to make their final stand against the ether-tome and___

With a screech the typing stopped. Might sighed surmising that was where the onboard computer’s records stopped. His eyes hardened as he looked into the greenish gloom around him.

Eleyon told him to find the Biosphere. What secrets lay in the Biosphere that could give him the means to get home? Sighing again, he took the hover cycle off autopilot and streaked into the distance disappearing into the thick smog around him.

A few hundred kilometers away, the computer on the hover cycle gave several loud beeps rousing him from his reverie. The sensors picked out about five different forms traveling in a straight line towards him.

From the little he could see on the computer, they appeared to be people riding on some strange looking contraptions he was not sure whether were machine or living. He drew one of his Ingram shaped guns strapped to the side of his biomechanical suit. The gun beeped as the ammunition it used generated and slid into the chamber.

He raised the gun up, pointing it straight ahead; the hover cycle slowly ate up the miles between it and whatever was coming. The gloom surrounding him suddenly lightened and the moving forms came into view. He stopped the hover cycle and waited, watching them closely.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at them. They looked like people, very tall people. His hand tightened around his guns and he did not lower them. They took a couple more steps closer making him able to see them clearly.

The things they rode on were the first thing to catch his eye. They looked like a sort of mutated camel with rivers of saliva dribbling from their mouths. The men or things riding them wore cloaks with large hoods, which shielded their faces from view.

They stopped short when they saw him. The tallest amongst them took a deep breath and urged his animal forward. He stopped five paces from Might’s hover cycle.

“Who are you?”

His voice sounded harsh and mechanical. Might was puzzled about that until he leaned closer and realized he was talking out of some sort of gas mask.

“My name is Might! Who are you?”

“I am Obededom and these are my men.”

“Men? Not machines?”

“Hardly__.” Obededom chuckled. “We are men alright. Or at least we use to be.”

“What do you mean by that?” Might said curling his finger around the trigger of his gun.

“You walk around this irradiated part of Nephilim long enough with or without protection and its bound to have some negative effect on you. My men and I are nomads. We have traveled these irradiated wastelands for years eking out a meager existence and surviving anyway we can.”

“Where are you from?”

Obededom shrugged. “Many different places. I used to live in Absalom. Neamo here was one of the warrior prophets of Gethsemane.” He said pointing at the tall well built man seated on the creature a few feet to his left.

“He and his companions almost got to Mount Karnack when the skeleton horsemen attacked them. About to be overwhelmed, one of his members activated a fusion grenade and he found himself here, lying a couple of miles beyond Karnack.”

“The same thing happened to me.” Might said with a gasp, looking at Neamo with awe. For some strange reason he felt a kinship with the man that he had only known with his amnesiac companions.

“Where do you come from Might?”

“Not really sure Obededom. I have no memories beyond a month ago. I woke up in the desert plains of Nephilim a few hundred clicks from Absalom with four other companions.

“We journeyed to Gethsemane hoping to find answers to our amnesia; there we met the head prophet Mordecai who sent us on a journey to find the city of light. Three of my companions perished on the way. The fourth managed to enter something called the flight and escaped from Nephilim.”

“Escaped from Nephilim?? What do you mean escaped from Nephilim? How does one escape from Nephilim?”

Might could see he had their full attention now. He lowered his gun but did not ease his hard grip on it.

“I think he found his way into the city of light.”

“The city of light? Isn’t that just a fairy tale? Does it truly exist?”

“I think it does. Swift was carried into it. I saw it with my own eyes.”

A long silence followed his words. A silence Obededom eventually broke.

“So where are you headed?”

Might paused hesitant. He did not want to lie but he also didn’t want to reveal too much to these strangers. He did not completely trust them yet. Eleyon spoke at that instant.

“Tell them__ you need something that they have. And they will only give you when you tell them where you are going.”

His voice came so suddenly that Might almost jumped. He was just able to keep it together.

“I am headed to B1 twelve alpha.”

“What is B1 twelve alpha?” Neamo asked with a puzzled look on his face. Might’s eyes widened in surprise at that, so Neamo could speak? Wonderful!

“It is called the biosphere. An abandoned military installation built__”

“To house the remnant of the human forces__” Neamo finished slowly. “After the failure of Holdstatt at the war of the ether-tome.”

“How in the world could you know that?” Might asked shocked.

“I used to be a prophet, remember? Our records are more reliable than anywhere else on Nephilim.”

“That doesn’t sound right. When I visited Gethsemane, Mordecai made it seem as if the prophets had no information about Nephilim’s dark history.”

“Dunno why he should do that__ its common knowledge among the prophets what the Biosphere was and what it was built for.” Neamo replied with a puzzled air.

“So you are saying he lied?”

“Prophets don’t lie. They have taken an oath not to lie. It is a covenant we made with Eleyon in the dark years after the ether-tome’s eruption. He must have decided to withhold some things from you for reasons best known to him.”

Might frown deepened and the caustic look he threw at Neamo told everyone he was not convinced. A troubled silence ensured.

“What do you hope to find in the biosphere?” Neamo asked breaking the silence.

“I am not sure yet. But whatever it is, I hope it will give me the means to escape from Nephilim.”

More silence followed his hard statement. Neamo spoke again.

“Then you are going to need food for your journey. We can only spare a couple of moldy bread and two tins of salted fish plus a canteen of water. Its engineered liquid so you do not have to drink too much of it at a go. And you can go longer before you need to drink again.” He looked to Obededom for permission as he said this and the man nodded.

One of the men at the back leaped off his animal and walked over to Might handing him a medium sized package wrapped in thick cellophane. It looked and felt like a cooler.

“Thank you so much__” Might said moved by their generosity.

“Don’t worry about it. Just wish we could do so much more. Travel safe Might and may the most peaceful and favorable things of the universe follow you.”

Obededom had already driven his heels into the sides of the animal he rode as he said this. The creature cantered forward, sweeping past Might. The others quickly followed and seconds later Might was alone again.

He sighed, strapping the cooler to the side of the hover cycle as he took hold of the handlebars. Revving the engine, he sped off into the distance; the onboard computer counting down the miles he still had to cover.

He traveled for several hundred miles before he realized that he was being followed. Nothing around him suggested that what he thought was true, but it was something he sensed deep within himself.

The fact that the earth began to shake a few seconds later also lent credence to the theory that something was indeed following him. Something or several something’s were racing towards him at high speeds. He amped up the speed of the hover cycle hurtling over the land so fast that he became a blur.

The thundering behind grew louder. He whipped his head back to catch a glimpse of what was chasing him but saw nothing. The scans on the onboard computer also revealed nothing.

Then he saw it. It was a giant of a thing, smoky grey in color with horns on its head and flashing red eyes. He had his gun out in a flash and fired long bursts of red flame, which created massive explosions behind.

The creature gave a loud shriek. He could not decide whether it shrieked in pain or anger. Only then did he notice the others. Their numbers seemed to be in the thousands but something told him they were not more than a few hundreds at most.

They came out of the cloudy haze in droves racing after the hover cycle, slurring and growling as they did so. He squeezed more bursts from his guns, decapitating tens of them, but more still came.

He increased speed, frowning when he noticed a grating clang coming from the hover cycle’s twin engines. He was pushing the poor thing too hard. Glancing back, he was shocked to discover that the giant grey creature had drawn much closer.

There were barely four paces between him and it now. Roaring, it crossed the intervening distance in seconds sweeping him off the hover cycle with a deft flick of its wrist.

The cycle fell on its side, slid for about twelve feet and became still. Might hit the ground hard and came up swinging as the creature bore down on him. The force of the blow lifted the giant creature high in the air and deposited it almost five miles behind. Its heavy body dug a deep furrow into the desert sand as it slid to a grating halt. Groaning loudly for a bit, it shivered and became still.

The rabid mob following it slid to a screeching halt and screamed when they saw their leader go down. With more screams, they raced back the way they had come leaving their leader lying prone on the ground.