Transcending the Legacy (30 page)

“Jesca!”

Nate’s second call to me is urgent, but coming from behind me. I turn to change directions and I trod back through the stream, feeling a little steadier on my injured leg when my feet are pulled out from under me. My chest and chin hit the ground hard and the gripping force that has yanked me off my feet drags me along the musty loam and into the frigid shallow water of the stream.

The compressive grip around my ankles softens and releases. I take my chances in rolling over and drawing my gun on the thing that has attacked me.

When I see his bloodied face against his dark skin, and the dull grey tone of his once brown eyes, it takes me mere seconds to register who my attacker is. “Briggs.”

The hybrid
Dweller has him. The scenario of our truck colliding with the torn up asphalt, causing us to crash, and Briggs being drawn from the wreckage by this hybrid Dweller before we emerged, or Ira and the other Rephaim could find him, zips through my mind as I scoot myself out of the stream with one hand, and aiming my gun at him with the other.

The hissing voice comes again from inside of my head, “Noooo, not Briggs.”

This hybrid Dweller uses Briggs to start moving on me. I fire two shots at his chest before the click, click, click of an empty clip replaces the sound of gunfire. I drop the gun, turn, and try to scramble through the muddy soil. My speed isn’t enough.

Briggs’ hands grip my shoulders and flips me on my back. Crouched over me, Briggs’ brings his face to mine, narrowing his clouded eyes and opening his mouth.

I place my hands on his shoulders, attempting to push him away. I use all of my strength, but it is not enough against Briggs’ and the hybrid Dweller within him.

That is when I see Nate charging full speed at us out of the corner of my eye.
Not slowing the closer he gets, he bears down and charges Briggs’ throwing him off of me and into the water. Nate leaves me and rushes Briggs.

Ignoring the pain, I rise to
my feet and yell at him to stop, “Don’t Nate!”

Before Nate gets to him, Briggs leaps high above him into the trees, dodging his attack. The rustling above moves around us from tree to tree in a circle as Nate comes back to my side.

Surprised,
I hear Xander yell my name just as he, Ira, Ezra, and Lathan spring from the heavy woods with Shiva keeping pace behind them. Xander’s eyes are charged with anger as he glares at Nate.

I yell to them,
“No, it is Briggs! It has Briggs!”

No sooner I say his name, Briggs drops like a sack of potatoes from the treetop onto Ira’s back, then rolls to the ground.
Ira is on his body instantly, with one hand holding him down and other wielding his dagger up high. Ezra, Nate, and Xander, and Lathan huddle around me guardedly looking on as Ira delays his strike.

Lathan growls, “Kill him Ira!”

Ira peers at us nervously as he says evenly, “It doesn’t have him!”

I feel the woods around me closing in, knowing that the hybrid is lo
ose again among us.

Ira lowers his dagger and releases Briggs’ body back to the ground. Lathan backs into us, guardedly looking among the trees above.

Ira rises and just as he stalks toward us, a shooting pain and current of nausea has me bent in half. Ezra, Nate, and Xander take hold of my hands and arm to keep me from toppling over.

As I catch my breath and stand as upright as I can without the paining coming again, Nate and Xander release my hands, but Ezra’s
tight hold on my hand remains. I feel the slightest tremor radiating from his palm and I fear the worst. I look at him and see that his warm brown eyes have gone cold and milky.

It has him! The hybrid
Dweller has Ezra!

I try to make him fight. “No, Dad. Fight it! I know you are in there!”

Nate and Xander try to pry Ezra’s hand from mine.

Xander yelling, “Ezra! Let her go! Ira
, help!”

No, not Ira!
He will kill him! My vision blurs from the tears welling up in my eyes as I hold my free hand out to Ira and cry, “No! He can fight it! He is strong!”

Suddenly, I hear
the screeching sound of the birdlike Dweller creatures again. I look up to see them circling low, ready to strike.

Ira places his hand
on top of Ezra’s and mine to tries and separate us.

I wail, “Please don’t leave me!
Fight it, Ezra!”

My saddened wail shifts to a yawp of blustering anger as I narrow my eyes on my father. “Damn it
, Ezra! Fight back!”

The guttural growls and snarls of
the Dweller creatures are distinct and frightening. I angle my eyes in the direction of the sound and see three of them approaching us. Behind them, a mass of human occupied Dwellers spotlighted by the flashes of lightning are writhing and tearing through the woods straight toward us.

Having seen them, Lathan bellows over the roll of thunder. “Ira, they are coming!”

I take hold of Ezra’s
other hand and continue my howling assault. Ira, Lathan, Nate, and Xander are trying to pry us apart. I grind my teeth as I try to stay tethered to him. “I won’t let you go! It can’t have you too!”

My eyes dart to the creatures crouching low to the ground making their approach. Then dart to the sky,
the Dweller hawks stalking us, getting closer to attack. I look at the human Dwellers charging the woods; men, women, and children. Fear, pain, sorrow, agony, hate, love; very emotion within me is rolling, stirring, building.

I look back at Ezra and pull him into my arms, clapping my arms around him.
Nate, Xander, Ira, and Lathan take hold of me and try to pry me from my father, but I lock onto him with no intention of letting go.

I whisper into his ear, “I won’t let it have you
, dad. I love you.”

I let go of my built
up energy and send it straight into Ezra, hoping that it finds the hybrid Dweller within and forces it from Ezra. With Nate, Xander, Ira, and Lathan still trying to pull me from my father, I open my eyes in time to see the approaching creatures and the human Dwellers begin to blur and fragment. The weightlessness comes quickly and we are gone.

“We are almost there Jes.”

The back of Roan’s figure as he walks ahead of me comes into view.

Delilah’s voice is at my back. “Slow down Ro, the mounds aren’t going anywhere.”

I don’t turn, I have been in this remembrance before, my first trip to the mounds. The climb is hard and I’m tired, Even though it is a memory, I’m tired.

“Almost to the top.” It is not Roan’s voice now; it is Ezra’s. Why am I he
aring Ezra’s voice in my vision?

Ana’s voice replaces Delilah’s and says,
“You can make it, Jes.”

Why am I hearing Ezra and Ana’s voices?
Without thinking it through, I attempt to reach for the figure ahead of me to turn him to me. Just as before in my visions, my hands aren’t my own to command suddenly. I want to physically turn around and look at the face of the woman behind me. To see if it is Ana, but again I can’t budge, my body doesn’t listen as I continue to climb mindlessly behind the figure ahead of me.

Suddenly, Roan’s form clears the stairs and the sun shines directly onto
my face, brighter more intense than I have seen before in this vision. Roan’s figure continues to walk away, leaving me standing at the top of the mound alone. I can’t hear or see the woman behind me either. I should feel panicked, but I don’t. The hypnotizing sun’s comforting glow has me at peace suddenly, until the hypnotic brightness of the light flickers then flaps, turning into both darkness and light reflecting in my eyes. I blink repeatedly to try and bring focus to the blurred scene before me. As the transformed source of light sharpens, I see the familiar flapping flames of a fiery pit before me. The shaman’s tanned, wrinkled face and striking amber eyes come into view just beyond the licks of fire rising between us. I’m in the vision again. The feeling of the fire on my face mirrors the warm of the sun, until the warmth intensifies becoming blistering. All of a sudden, my body reacts not on my own accord, and slides back away from the flames.

The shaman begins chanting and
the sound of drumming begins reverberating off of the walls of the kiva. The shaman raises his arms and unclasps the chain hanging around his neck. As he brings it over his head, the shine of a copper disc the size of a quarter gleams in the firelight. Continuing his incantation, the shaman holds the medallion away from himself, just as the woman from the thatched roof hut comes into view. It’s Onawah’s mother. The high priest places the medal in her hands and she turns to walk toward me. When she approaches, Onawah lifts her hands to accept the copper medallion; they are trembling. Looking upon the copper disc I see the primitive inscriptions circling the outer rim of this ornament and just beyond it, the reflection of the wide awake one; Onawah. Other than her deeper colored skin, her face would mold perfectly to mine. Unexpectedly and without control, Onawah’s eyes close, leaving me in darkness. The chanting continues and the drumbeat becomes more thunderous, but not so much to not hear Ezra’s calming voice on the surface of it.

“Fulfill the legacy and don’t look back
, Jesca.”

Why does he sound
like he is saying goodbye?

Ez
ra’s voice comes again, fading ever so slightly, “I finally understand what Ana meant that night in the cabin.” I feel my heart begin to race as he continues, “It is a different way of existence, Jesca. Transcending our world doesn’t mean we are no longer part of it. It just means that our cycle has come to pass and it’s time for us to let go of this world.”

A painful emptiness that radiates throughout my chest takes my breath as I hear those words. He is letting go. The thought of him letting go stirs my mind and body into action and I awaken expecting to still be holding Ezra’s hands willing him to fight for his life, but I’m not.

I’m try to sit upright, hands pushing off of the earth, and
eyes wide trying to adjust to the low lit cave, when Ira’s hands take hold of my shoulders and hold me down.

Panicked, I look into Ira’s amber eyes and ask urgently,
“Where’s Ezra!”

Ira speaks quickly, urgently, “We jumped. You sending your energy to Ezra somehow projected us to the mounds.”

I didn’t know the direction of the mounds. It must have been Ezra.
Not having an answer yet, I ask him again, “Where is he?”

Ira ignores my question and continues to speak quickly, nervously. “When we materialized here, you lost consciousness.”

Feeling a little disoriented from the loss of consciousness still, I ask “How long was I out?”

Ira’s voice is thi
ck as he says, “Not long.”

I try to stand
, but Ira continues to hold me down by my shoulders. I try to push his hands off of me with no avail. I look around him at Xander sitting on his knees, wide eyed. I angle around the other side of Ira and see Nate kneeling also, his head downcast. I felt wobbly myself from the jump, but they looked worse off than me. I find Lathan standing in the cavern opening, concern in his eyes.

I look at Ira.
“I need to see my dad. Where is he? Is he talking to Sebastian? Daniel? Where are the others?”

He doesn’t answer. He just stares at me, wordless.

I call out, “Ezra!”

All of a sudden, I notice a light flickering beyond the opening to this cavern in the tunnel beyond Lathan. I recognize Daniel’s voice right away, then I hear Sebastian’s. Are they talking to Ezra? Ira is distracted by their voices and loosens his hold on me enough for me to take advantage of it and push away from him to stand and back away against the hard rock wall of the cavity. Back on me in an instant, Ira blocks me from escape.

Xander immediately rounds
Ira and comes between him and me, resting his hands gently on my arms. “Jes, I need you to listen to me.”

The sound of his tone sends up another red flag that something is wrong.

I narrow my eyes on both of them. “Let me go.”

Ira looks down.
“Can’t.”

Can’t?

I study Ira’s grie
ved face, he is affected by something that has happened. I look at Xander, the same expression is there. My anger begins to fail as my worry takes over. My voice quivers, “Where is he?”

Xander’s blue-green eyes don’t leave me as he speaks tenderly. “Jes, Ezra is gone.”

I shake my head, denying what he has said.
“No.”

I point at the ground beneath me and raise my voice,
“I brought all of us here! He is here!”

Ira speaks, “He is here, but his soul is not.”

Hearing the tension rise in my voice, Lathan pulls away from the opening to this cavern and moves toward us.

My voice swells without my control, “No!”
I try to angle past Xander and Ira to the cavern opening, try to break free and find my dad, but Ira captures me in his arms. I fight against him, kicking, hitting and screaming. I turn on him and hit his chest, but hitting Ira is like hitting a wall, no budging.

I wail, “I need to see him!”

Ira lifts me off the ground as I’m kicking and screaming and starts walking, carrying me in his enormous arms. I scout the walls of the cavern, shadows cast along the jagged cut rocks as he wisps me out of one cavern and into another. Breathing hard through the cries and tears, Ira sets me down on the ground. In a flash, I turn around and all at once my tears, my breath, my reality stops. The only thing that doesn’t is the thud of my heart and the ringing in my ears as the image of Ezra laying on a makeshift cot, blanket draped over his chest sinks into my mind.

Ira slowly and cautiously lets go of my midsection letting me
stand on my own. There is no fear of me running. There is no run in me any longer.

Xander is by my side and I feel the presence of others behind Ira and I. Could be the guardians, Daniel, Sebastian, but I really don’t care, because
I’m still processing what is in front of me. Legs still weak, I slide my feet along the dirt and rock to my father and kneel down next to him.

Maybe he is sleeping or unconscious
, like I was? Any minute, he is going to open his eyes and say some smartass remark about my blubbering. The idea fades quickly as I continue to look at how still and statuesque he looks. I lift my hand and rest it just above his heart as I look down at his face.

He is not going to wake up
, Jes
.

My entire body begins to
tremble and shake as the tears flow uncontrollably now.

I shake my head, not understanding how he didn’t make it.
“I had his hand. I was sending all of my energy into him to save him,” I say through tears and sobs.

“He used your energy to get you to safety. Get all of you to safety,” says Sebastian.

I think back over the last moments with Ezra; how everyone was trying to pull me from Ezra, how even though he was fighting the hybrid Dweller consuming him, he wanted us safe.

The hybrid! On alert, I look back and Sebastian,
“The hybrid!”

I rise from Ezra’s body and Sebastian rises with me.
I look at Xander, Ira, Lathan, and Daniel urgently. “It was in Ezra!” I look at Xander, “Do you feel it?”

Xander shakes his hea
d hastily, “No, I’m alright.”

I don’t see Nate. “Where is Nate?”

Xander’s eyes widen and he runs from the cavern. In a flash, I’m behind him following him into the room I woke in. Xander is standing in the middle of the cavern a few feet behind Nate who is still kneeling on the ground.

“Nate,” calls Xander as he approaches him slowly.

I try calling out to him, “Nate.”

Unnaturally fast, Nate stands and angles his head toward Xander,
revealing the dull, milky gray eyes of the hybrid. Swiftly, Xander puts his hand on Nate’s shoulder. “Nate, I know you are in there.”

At once, Nate takes hold of Xander by the arm and waist and throws him against the cavern wall. Xander crumbles to the ground, but rebounds quickly rolling onto his hands and knees.
I spy Daniel draw his gun from the holster, in an instant I grab hold of his hand and strong-arm him, pointing the gun to the cavern ceiling. “No! You can’t shoot him!”

Ira and Lathan move in on him now and I yell, “Nate is still in there! I can save him!”

Nate has backed into the far wall of the cavern, head hung low and his clouded murky eyes targeted on me beyond Ira and Lathan’s careful approach.

Knowing Nate is fighting for control in there, I need to let him know I’m fighting for him out here.

“Nate,
you are stronger than it! You can break away from it!”

Nate’s
furrowed brow, suddenly relaxes and his thin hard lips go slack. His lips begin to quiver. He is trying to speak! Trying to break away from the hybrid Dweller!

Suddenly Nate’s lips gain sound. He whispers, “I’m not going to let it take you.”

Hearing Nate in control, Xander and I both move in on him at the same time when Nate leaps into thin air above us all, landing hard on all fours on the ground beyond us, then bolting from the cavern into the tunnel. Xander and I both turn to chase after him, but Ira scoops me up around my waist, lifting me from the ground while Xander escapes after him.

“Put me down! I have to go after him! Nate!” I yell.

Sebastian rushes to me and places his hands on either side of my face to steady me. “Jesca!”

“I have to go after him Sebastian!
I have to go after both of them!”

Sebastian takes hold of my head firmly again and raises his voice, “No you can’t!”

Suddenly, the ground beneath me us quakes, almost shaking us from our feet.”

Daniel
announces, “They are attacking again!”

Unexpectedly, the boom of an explosion resonates through the walls.

“What is going on?”

Sebastian
replies, “The Dwellers! They attacked the compound before you projected here! We lost many in the colony, Jesca! Our weapons aren’t holding them off and Seth and Cale are doing what they can!”

Lathan strides to the opening.

Ira calls to him, “Where are you going?”