Chapter 14: Pavarti [5]

[South Africa, 2217]

As they walked, Isaac explained everything to Neicia and his dad. Both took it with apprehension. He'd expected that from his dad, always one to play it safe. Neicia's reaction was less anticipated. She refused to hold his hand, there was no welcoming hug. Just a cold determination, and a blank stare.

Across the street, a man in a tattered jacket watched them. There were more people along the path. Eyes everywhere. Isaac kept a mental note of where they were, and ordered the bus to drive to pick them up along the route.

They crossed an empty intersection, and Thomas fell to the ground.

"Dad!" Isaac turned around and went to help him up.

"We should go back," Thomas said. "Explain this was all a mistake."

"Dad, I killed one of them." Isaac pointed to the sky. "There were only five that came. We need to run, and hide."

"Where can we run?" Thomas refused the help and stood up on his own power. "Where is it safe? With them. They can protect us."

"Protect us?" The bus pulled around the corner the side door opened for them. "They're trying to kill us. They hurt you. They're using your and your cowardice to inspire cowardice into others."

"Cowardice?" Thomas stood tall and clenched his fists.

"Yes." Isaac nodded and gestured for everyone to get in the van.

Laura went first, followed by Neicia. Thomas stood planted in the middle of the road.

"Son, we need to go back and fix this."

"There is no fixing this."

"Who's showing cowardice now? I'm ready to face the enemy. Are you?"

"You can face the enemy, but you can't face your fears. Fears that the enemy will strike. Fears that-"

"Fears that I will see you killed at their hand."

"If one of them gets the chance to kill me, they'll take it. Nothing you say or do can change that. The further I am from them, the longer I live. Now get in the bus."

Thomas clenched his jaw, but then hopped in. Isaac was the last in, and the bus took off. After a few blocks, it stopped, and picked up Danny, who was carrying a large back pack, but brought no one with him.

"Nobody in your life Danny? Why don't I find that surprising?" Isaac gave him a quick glance and the bus was off again.

As they reached the outskirts of Johannesburg, Isaac made his way to the back of the bus, where Neicia was sitting with her arms folded, staring out the window. He casually sat down next to her in the booth.

"So, what do you think?" Isaac asked.

Neicia smiled, tensely and sarcastically. "For being a bookworm, you're intensely stupid."

"How so?"

"You'll get caught. It's only a matter of time."

"You think I chose this?" He held out his hand, showing her the singed tracker. "I told you, forces beyond my control. It's almost like this stuff wants me to fight back."

"But if they're after that stuff, then you should just give it to them. And then they'll leave us alone. This could be over, right now."

"It's not that simple."

"It never was with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"How long have we been seeing each other?"

"I don't know. A year. Maybe two now that I think about it."

She nodded over to Thomas. "This is the first time your dad has seen us together like this."

"Because he would take it the wrong way."

"No, because you made it more complicated than it needed to be. I love you. But this is too much. We need to find a way to give them what they want and get them off this planet. And you need to tell your dad about us. His eyes are about to pop from intense staring."

Isaac looked over at his dad, who's eyes did resemble an inflated balloon. "This is a hell of a time to tell him."

"There's never a good time for it." She whispered. "Go tell him."

He stood back up, and made his way back towards the front of the bus, where Thomas was sitting. Halfway there, the ground shook slightly. It was hard to tell, in the moving vehicle, but he was sure it was the ground and not the suspension.

He looked out the window, and the source was pretty clear. The high rise Isaac, his dad, and Neicia had spent the last decade living in was dust. A large cloud of rubble, the more solid parts toppling to the ground.

The rest of the bus was gaping too. The spectacle was impressive. Rather than destroy a city block bombing the place, they surgically imploded the building. How they did it that fast was beyond Isaac. He didn't even register predator drones in the area.

"Anyone still think we should have stayed home?" Isaac asked the bus. No one answered.

The bus came to an unscheduled, gradual stop. Isaac turned his gaze from the side window to the windshield. Two elderly people were standing in the middle of the road, holding out boxes, asking for supplies.

"We have to help them." Thomas said.

"Like hell we do. We need to help ourselves."

"Watch your language boy." Thomas stood up and made his way to the front door to greet the stricken.

"Why don't we just take them with us?" Neicia asked.

"Just where are we going, anyway?" Danny chimed in. "Doesn't do those people any good to wander about with us if we don't even know where we're going."

Just as the front door opened, dozens of men and women with guns charged out of the surrounding buildings, bushes, and toppled cars. Half of them were carrying guns. The other half had kitchen knives, sticks, shovels, and other random weapons.

"Do as they say." Isaac held up his hands. "They have us."

The rest of the bus crew held up their hands and slowly got out.

Towards the back, a tall man with the biggest gun was standing on an old park bench.

"No need to worry. We don't want to hurt you. We're just gathering supplies and you can be on your way."

"But we need those!" Laura shouted.

"Need?" Tall man said. "For what? To help the aliens? I don't think so."

"We've taken over this bus." Laura took a few steps towards the man.

"Come again?" The man got down from the bench and looked her over.

"It's true. We're running." Laura stopped walking as the guns bore down on her.

The whole group broke into laughter.

"Are you people idiots?" Tall man said. "Where are you going to run? You'll be dead in a few hours."

"Or a few minutes." Isaac pointed to the sky, just behind tall man.

Tall man looked behind to see a predator drone flying their direction.

"Take cover!" Tall man yelled.

The whole crowd ran back into their crevices. Isaac stood alone in the street. He connected to the onboard computer of the drone just as it launched a missile at him.

Isaac switched to tracking the missile and changed its target. The missile curved and flew right back into the drone, pulverizing it in a giant fireball.

"Dad, Neicia, Laura, back in the van." Isaac ordered. "Danny, you can stay with these folk if you like, they seem your type."

Tall man was the first out of his hidey hole, pointing his gun strait at Isaac. "How'd you do that?"

"Don't worry about that." Isaac said. "Just know that those aliens want me specifically dead. And the longer you stand next to me, the bigger the waves of war will come sweeping over you. Let me and my friends go, try your luck with the next transport."

Tall man considered it for a minute. But then he yelled to the crowd; "Change of plans. We take this one to the dead zone."

The crowd rushed him and he was dragged away from the city and into a jungle outgrowth.

*****

[Florida Present day]

Pavarti parked the truck on a flat stretch of land just at the boarders of NASA's cape Canaveral. A group of soul jumpers and scribes were waiting for him. Just not the ones he had to worry about.

As the driver-less delivery trucks full of the Pavarti particle pulled in behind him, Pavarti stepped out of his vehicle and took a few bold steps towards the group.

"I'm sure you've heard what happened to your friends in Alaska." Pavarti said casually. "And then again in Nevada."

One of the younger ones nodded, but the rest remained still.

Pavarti smiled and continued his approach. "I'll give you one bit of warning. The only chance they had to survive was the one I gave them. The same chance I'm giving you: Run, tell your leaders an old man is doing all of this."

Nobody moved. Pavarti shrugged. "Very well then."

He reached into his jacket as if he was going to pull out a gun. That forced the soul jumpers to attack with their souls. As they collided with his jacket, all of the soul jumpers screamed and fell to the ground. This left two scribes.

This time he actually pulled out a gun and shot them on the spot. Worried about incoming surveillance, he made his way to the entrance key and a giant circle of land dipped into the ground as a large platform. Once at the bottom, the trucks left the platform and plugged the cargo into specific slots in the wall.

This lab didn't go that deep comparatively. But the size was tremendous. It was circular, as most of the others. With the tubes for the Pavarti Matter circling the facility like a giant science dough-nut. The trucks were already unloading the matter into the tube, filling it about a quarter full.

As soon as Pavarti stepped off the platform, it lifted back up to the surface, supported by more than a dozen pillars. Once the platform sealed him in, artificial lights hummed to life.

Pavarti weaved between the pillars in the floor, and made his way to the command console. There, plastered in big red letters, was an error message. There was something wrong with the machine. He would have to fix it before he could carry out his plans for another salvo of genesis eggs.