Transcending the Legacy (5 page)

The compound reminds me of my facility in Nevada, cavernous in some parts, industrial in others. Not like the institutional Kyoto facility though.

“
No facility will ever compare to ours,” says Nate as he walks beside me.

I have so much to say to that, but
I don’t. It will just complicate things between us again. I settle on something simple. “No, they won’t.”

Nate’s arm grazes mine as he leans in to whisper,
“Jes, I know what you are doing.”

I want to tell him that he has no idea what I am doing or how I am feeling for that matter.
He doesn’t know anything now that the link between us is gone. I notice Corinna and Sam just ahead of us. Responding to Nate would be dangerous and I need an excuse to break away from him before I say something that has the potential of stirring up things between us. When I reach Corinna, I put my hand on her arm gently. “Hey.”

When she turns to me,
I notice how different, healthier, she looks than she did when we were in Kyoto. The difference in her skin color is drastic. Her skin looked waning and now it looks vibrant. Her eyes are soft, not maniacal like they were when Sam was gone beyond the veil. Her lips are no longer chapped and flaking, but rather smooth and touched with color now. It is like she has been rejuvenated from her old, withered self.

She responds with a soft smile, “Hey.”

I glance at Sam and nod. He nods then quickly looks down, keeping the steady pace of the group. I can tell he is still tortured by his acts. No matter how many times we forgive him, his own guilt is unwavering, eating away at him. I feel bad for him. I look back at Corinna. “You look so different.”

She bows her head graciously and looks down as we continue to walk. “I am. Monica says that Sam and I are both responding well to the new Copula.”

Sam pulls Corinna’s hand to his mouth and kisses it gently as we continue to follow the soldiers down a long hall.

Briggs quickly points out the basics when we get to an enclosed cavern he calls
, “The barracks. Grab a duffle, pull supplies. We have it all spread out in containers.” He starts pulling out large
Tupperware
bins and opens the lids. He continues, “Pants and tops. Sorry, ladies, black is our signature color here.”

“What about our bags? How are we going to get them?” asks Elisha.

Nick shakes his head, “Sorry, hun, but I’m not going out there to get our bags.”

Briggs replies, “Don’t worry about your bags.
What you need is right here.”

Everyone starts to shuffle around, grabbing a duffle and pulling from the supplies. As I take hold of a bag, I think about what I had in mine on the plane.

“Sorry about the farm,” says Ezra from behind me.

His comment doesn’t register right away.
“What?”

Ezra stops pulling fr
om the supplies and peers at me. “The ant farm.”

I look down at the empty bag in my hands and remember letting them go back in Kyoto.
“I let them go.”

Ezra stops pulling supplies and looks at me.
“What?”

I look up at Ezra and see the
concern in his eyes.

“I let them go.
I figured they had a better chance at surviving if they had a choice. I shouldn’t make that choice for them.”

Ezra is about to say something, but he stops himself and
simply nods, letting my choice be without judgment. He makes his way to another set of bins to rummage through. I follow behind him. Ezra takes three canisters of water from the bin and places them in his bag.

Briggs slides in between us, watching what we take. “You will need more than that. Water is in high demand around here,” he says.

Xander is just ahead of Ezra in the line we have formed to collect goods. “How did you get all of these supplies?” he asks.

“Story time after you pack,”
barks Briggs.

I watch Xander as he grinds
his jaw back and forth, frustrated by Briggs’ comment. He looks like he is ready to rip off Briggs head and I can’t blame him for wanting to. It doesn’t take much to set Xander’s mouth off and Briggs is being confrontational with all of us. I look Briggs over; he is a pretty big guy and he is on high alert. Something tells me Briggs would not lay down if attacked, even if it was by a guardian. I move around Ezra and slip in between him and Xander. I tug on Xander’s sleeve to get his attention. “Our fight is not with them. Save it,” I whisper.

Xander breathes in deeply through his nose, then turns away from Briggs and right into me.
I step back to make space between us, but Xander immediately closes the space again. I try to back up, but space is limited as all of us are shuffling to pack our bags. Xander holds me captive in his intense turquoise gaze as his deep voice resonates. “You are right.”

Glad that he sees my logic, I
nod and start to turn away from him to busy myself with packing, but Xander catches my arm in a strong hold, keeping me from moving away from him. The touch stirs the familiar comforting warmth between us. A comforting warmth I don’t need to be thinking about right now.

His
voice is deep and low as he speaks to me, “No, I meant you are right about not choosing. I don’t think I could ever be...strong enough, self-less enough... to let someone I love go.”

I can’
t Believe he is bringing this up now. His words are meant to hit me hard and strip away the facade I am holding onto so tightly when it comes to him and Nate; they do. Thrown off by his raw words, I look up at him just in time to catch him shaking his head.

Gauging
my reaction to his words, he says, “I know for a fact that I could never let go of the one I love.”

His hand loosens its grip,
caressing my arm tenderly before releasing it. He slowly backs away, then slings his duffle over his shoulder and starts walking away from me. Once again, Xander has called me out and I feel my resolve weaken under his strong words. I am left riveted by the truth they hold and it hurts. Xander doesn’t get far before

Nate steps in front of him, keeping him from escape. “What’s going on?” he asks Xander accusingly.

The last thing we need is Nate and Xander getting into it right now. I step in between the two of them
and try to calm Nate, tell him everything is alright, when I notice his eyes! Their crystal-clear blue has turned murky and the eyes that have always been home to me appear foreign and dark. I take hold of his arm to try and break the spell he is under.

I call to him, try to get his attention beyond his glazed stare.
“Nate, are you alright?”

Nate pulls his arms away from my grasp
, like I have electrocuted him. He backs away slightly and bumps into Luke before rolling away from him and back into me.

His delirium has Xander anxious as much as it has me. Xander calls to him, “Nate!”

Xander takes hold of Nate and moves him to a muted corner of the barracks. I stay close to both of them, looking around us to make sure no one has seen Nate’s reaction. I notice Sam has stopped packing his duffle and is watching us.

Xander lowers his vo
ice just barely above a whisper, “Nate, man, what is going on?”

Nate’s blinks and
mumbles, “I um…I don’t…”

He continues to stammer, looking between both Xander and I. His eyes! They are back to normal, no longer murky.
What the hell is going on?

Nate clears his throat, “I guess I spaced out there for a minute.”

I look at Xander sideways and see
the reflection of worry in his eyes.

Keeping my voice low, I start to tell Nate what I saw.
“Your eyes, they looked…”

Briggs interrupts me, “Lady and gentlemen, talk later.
Boots are over here! Grab one pair of socks! This isn’t a fashion show!”

Nate glances at
Xander then me, seeing the concern on our faces. He rakes his hand through his hair and rests it at the base of his neck before he utters, “I’m alright. Just…tired. Didn’t sleep well on the plane.”

That is an understatement.
I’m reminded of him struggling in his sleep on the plane. Nate looks down at Xander’s hand still grasping his arm, then up at him.

“Cousin,
I’m fine,” Nate whispers sincerely.

Reluctantly, Xander releases his arm letting him move past us toward the supply line.

Xander watches him slip back into line behind Nick. The way he is studying him, I know he saw Nate’s eyes.

I
feel a flame of fear spark in me, the steady burn festering as I wonder what is happening to Nate.

“The fas
ter we pack, the sooner we can talk.”

I keep telling myself that as I open
my duffle and start packing haphazardly. Pants, a top, socks, boots, food, and a few bottles of water. I wasn’t hallucinating, Nate’s eyes did change. I know this because of Xander’s reaction. I zip up the bag and take it to Briggs. Holding it out to him, I ask, “Where do I put this?”

Briggs drags his eyes from me to the masses and bellows commandingly,
“When you are packed follow me. We need to load them. Then we can have our little pow-wow.”

We zig-zagged down what could easily be about fifty yards of trail, much like the trails in the Nevada facility.
I walk behind Nate, my eyes peeled for anything off. Xander is walking right behind me, doing the same I’m sure. I watch Nate’s stride, see if it is different, sluggish, something, anything.

Suddenly, his pace slows. My own footing stutters, not expecting him to slow down. I try to ignore it and walk almost along side of him. Unexpectedly,
Nate takes a hold of my hand and intertwining our fingers like it is completely natural to hold my hand as we walk. I’m unsure how to play off the feelings his touch is rekindling in me and what it might cause if Xander sees it. I look behind Nate and me, out of the corner of my eye, and see Xander’s eyes focused on our joined hands. With shock in his eyes, he looks up at me for just a moment then aims his gaze straight ahead over looking us. He is pretending to look through us, ignore what he has seen, but I know Xander and that isn’t possible. He won’t ignore it.

Nate runs his thumb over my index finger softly and looks over at me with those brilliant, warm, blue eyes.
“Remember when we first met, walking down that hall in the facility before our debriefing?” he asks.

His words, the sentiment, they are so authentic
, that I forget about our laced hands and everything else happening around us. I only think about Nate; the newbie guardian I met in our facility, seeking out his purpose, his new reality. Flashes of our time in the facility rolodex through my mind. I feel my lips stretch a little as I reflect on that time. It seems so long ago. “I remember. It feels like forever ago,” I say softly.

Nate’s
chuckle is low as he says, “Yeah, it does.”

He squeezes my hand once again, then releases it.
Feeling like I have been pulled out of a dream by the lack of his warm hand, I look at him curious as to what made him let go. Nate tucks his hands in the pockets of his jeans and continues walking by my side, smiling. I look back at Xander to see if he caught Nate release my hand. He is still staring straight ahead as we walk.

I look back at Nate and ask curiously, hoping he might divulge his thoughts about what happened to him back in the barracks. “What are you thinking?”

Nate glances at me coyly just like he used to. “What, you can’t get in my head?” he asks teasingly.

Feeling a little like my old self again, I mutter, “Ha, ha, funny.”

Nate grins with that classic gorgeous Nate-grin, instantly making me feel warm inside. His comforting grin doesn’t last though. It fades sharply into a grimace that makes my throat constrict with fear.

“No matter what we will always have those memories. Even if it was for only a short time, right?”

He is asking me this and all I am thinking about is the burning in my heart and the tears stinging my eyes and threatening to fall. Why does it feel like he is saying goodbye. I can’t look at him, so I look down at my feet and nod quickly. I breathe in deeply trying to clear my head and pinch the tears back long enough to look at him. “Yeah, forever, Nate,” I say breathily.

His grimace has softened in
to a solemn form and his eyes reveal the emotional moment we just shared. “Thank you,” he whispers shakily and quickly walks ahead of me. I think about catching up to ask him why he was thanking me until I realize that he was thanking me for us, our time together.

* * *

The rest of the trek is quick with Nate ahead of me and Xander behind. The flat black, extended cargo trucks are at the lowest level of the compound. This must be what is going to take us out of here.

“How do we get out of the compound?” asks Sebastian.

Briggs answers, “From a cut out in the back side of this mountain. We have trailed down to a level in the mountain where it plateaus onto flat land.”

I’m fascinated with how much Briggs knows about this mountain and how it sets on the land in regards to the flat lands behind it.

“You really know this compound inside and out,” Ezra acknowledges.

With his arms crossed, Briggs answers, “When you and your team have a year with nothing else to do except stay alive and dig, you learn more than you want to know about your circumstances and surroundings.”

After loading the trucks,
Briggs leads us into a small cavity off to the right. The cavernous room is lined with crated cargo, more than likely supplies. I glance between Sebastian and Ezra then straight at Daniel and say, “We need to know everything you know about this legacy. I know you kept it from us for our own safety, but now it is our only salvation and I need to know how to fulfill it. Each of us here is directly involved. The legacy has spread further than the Onoch bloodline.”

I look at Xander.
“You did it to save us in the forest.”

My eyes
move to Nate, then back to Ezra. “You sacrificed yourselves to save me.”

I look at Sam and Corinna standing off to the side. “Sam helped bring us back from beyond the veil.”

Then, my eyes land on Siobhan leaning on a cargo trunk off to the side with Jake. “Angela did it to save us all. Why? Because we each have a connection with each other.”

My
eyes move to Xander, then to Nate. “Some connections are unbreakable no matter what. Even when a link is broken.”

Realizing I just said that out loud
, and looked at both of the men I love when I said it, I quickly turn to face Sebastian, Ezra, and Daniel. “Forget about the manufactured links of the old Copulas for a second. We don’t have them any more with the new Copulas, but what if a cosmic link happened long before any manufactured link? What if it started with our families, our ancestors? I have been seeing things from the past in my sleep. Roan and Delilah taking me to the mounds as a child, then the vision shifts. I am lying on the dirt of a domed cave. There is a fire pit and an old man with tattoos on his face. He is chanting.”

I look at Monica off in the corner. “Monica has seen things also.”

Monica tightens her lips, but doesn’t deny her experience.

Siobhan pushes off of the trunk.
“I haven’t seen anything, just heard things in my sleep on the plane. Chanting.”

“I heard the same thing in my mind when we got off the plane,” adds Elisha.

Sam acknowledges, “Before I woke in the facility, after we made it back to our world, I was lying in a small dark place, the only light coming from a flaming fire pit.” Sam somberly looks at Corinna as she takes his hand in hers and squeezes.

Luke
adds, “I saw the same image while on the plane.”

Xander
clears his throat and puts his hands in his pockets before he speaks. “When Jes, Nate, and I...when we were…when we came back, I remember holding onto Nate’s and her hand as we waited for someone to save us. When I closed my eyes, I guess I went unconscious. I saw a cave entrance, then a tunnel. I was walking down into it. I was not in control and in my mind, I went through the tunnel into a small room, and came eye to eye with a young woman. She was dressed like a princess. Her eyes were...they were green like Jes’.” Xander looks at me, then away quickly. “Even though my mind was telling me to go back through the tunnel, go back to Jes and Nate, I couldn’t. I felt stuck, immoveable in her presence.” Xander looks back at me boldly. “I didn’t want to leave her presence,
ever
.”

Realizing he had slipped too far back into the moment, Xander clears his throat and turns away from us, arms folded, closed off.
I turn back to Sebastian. “This is what we know, what we are experiencing. Yes, you told us how the mounds fascinated you as a child, how you wanted to learn more, and discovered too much about the Sanderson family and how they were involved with our ancient Indian ancestors. You told us your theory of how our ancestors had trusted beings beyond our world to bring salvation when we needed it. Something you haven’t told us is how to use this legacy to save ourselves.”

“We don’t know how to use it,” Sebastian says agitatedly.

I can’t Believe that we know nothing. “Maybe our dreams, our visions, will give us clues. So far we have a princess, an old Indian chanting, a cave with a fire pit.”

Daniel chimes in, “A kiva.”

“What?” I say not realizing I have snapped at him.

“The cave with the fire pit is called a Kiva,” adds Daniel.

“Maybe these are clues, puzzle pieces. Not all of us have had these visions, but those that have need to tell us what they have seen.”

I look at Sebastian.
“You said that you were fascinated with the Etowah Mounds. How did that start?”

He knows more than he has told us, just like Ezra said on the plane.
I can feel it deep in my own bones now along with the small forewarning tremors inside of me. “Have you had visions? Is that what started the fascination?” I am face to face with him now, wedged between my father and him. “What have you seen, Sebastian?”