Eli and Rachel rose from their seats, and the entrance cavity in the floor opened once again. Well… That didn’t take too long. Jack walked toward the center of the room, where they had first entered the cube.
“All right,” he declared. “let’s get moving then.”
Philip stepped in front of Jack and held his arm in his path.
“No, there’s no need for all of us to leave,” Philip pointed out. “I just need to recruit our teammate. We’ll be heading back to where you’ve hidden the Saint after I do so.”
Jack backed away and retreated to his place at the other end of the room.
“In that case,” he responded. “make haste.”
Philip nodded and let himself fall through the cube’s entrance cavity, exiting the vehicle.
“He should be back promptly,” Ruby assured everyone. “Our crewmate, Jedediah, should be somewhere just outside the cube.”
Eli and Rachel sat down again, and Eli winced from his burn. Still causing pain? I guess burns from Outlaws do not subside in a short time. With his mind currently fixed on Outlaws, Eli was reminded of what Philip had told him about his ability to sense them. He hasn’t warned us about them being near. Does he not feel the need to because he is confident they cannot harm us, or are they truly not even in the vicinity?
Almost immediately, Philip ascended up into the cube once again, and he was closely followed by another Sentinel. This one was notably large – even larger than Victor; a bushy, black beard covered his face, and he was cloaked in a black trench coat.
“We’ve retrieved our half of the soul key,” Philip announced. “It’s time to head back.
Let’s get to it.”
“Hold on…” Eli broke in, puzzled. “How do we get to where the others are? Won’t the cube just take us back to where we fought the Outlaws?”
As Eli spoke, he felt the cube begin to move again; it was automatically returning to its previous point of activation.
“Yes, but there’s something we can do about it,” Philip told him. “The cube can be guided manually via our navigation system. Jack, I’ll go show you how to operate this thing, since you know where we’re supposed to be going.”
Jack headed for the wooden door at the other side of the room.
“Actually, Ruby already showed me how to operate it,” he pointed out. “She explained everything I need to know when she led me around.”
“Okay, then we’re all set,” said Philip, while Jack exited the room to take control of the vehicle. “In the meantime, let me introduce the two of you to our final associate: Jedediah. He has been a friend of mine for quite some time.”
Jedediah nodded toward Eli and Rachel in greeting.
“It’s good to meet you both. What are your names?”
“I’m Eli,” responded the young Sentinel. “And this is Rachel. It’s good to meet you too.”
The floor beneath seemed to shift as the vehicle changed direction: Jack had seized control of the cube.
“Do your friends know we’re on the way?” Jedediah asked. “We want them to be ready to go as soon as we arrive.”
Eli scratched his chin.
“I don’t think we ever notified them…” he admitted.
“Well, I would do so as soon as possible,” Jedediah advised him. “We don’t want to waste any time before opening the portal when we get there.” Eli closed his eyes, attempting to communicate with Ana. Why didn’t any of us think to do this earlier? We might have even been able to save Gerald if we had Ana or Jean come to disrupt the Outlaw’s illusion. I would have guessed that Jack would remember to do something like that.
Redoubling his efforts, Eli tried to dissociate from his surrounding environment and let his consciousness wander. His body grew numb as he drifted into an altered state of mind; he could no longer hear or feel anything from his surroundings. Ana… Where are you? Why aren’t you responding?
Eli waited; he thought he could feel some form of presence imminent, but he still heard nothing. There was no sign of Ana’s voice.
“I don’t think our group leader is expecting anyone to contact her at the moment,” Eli stated eventually. “She isn’t responding at all – sorry about that.”
Eli opened his eyes to find that he was speaking to no one, for the room was currently vacant.
“Where did everybody go?” he whispered.
Confused, he rose to his feet, only to stumble forward unsteadily. There was a strange weakness in his legs, and he lurched about before finally collapsing onto his back. The ceiling of the room spun above him, as he felt afflicted with a sudden light-headedness. His surroundings became distorted, just as they had during his encounter with the Outlaws. With terror now surging through him, Eli tried to stand up again. He slowly lifted himself from the ground as everything went dark; blackness enveloped him. Distant laughter reached his ears, while a flash of bright light temporarily blinded him.
When his eyes had managed to recover from the glare, he saw that his environment had completely changed. He stood in the middle of a primitive village, which was situated amidst a lush meadow. Light-green grass sprang up around miniscule buildings of stone; a warm sun beat down upon his neck with its rays, and he heard the sound of a stream gushing and frothing nearby, though he could not see where it was.
His light-headedness subsided, but laughter sounded in his ears yet again. Whirling round, Eli tried to identify the source of the noise; however, he could not find anything.
“Take a look around,” hissed a voice from behind Eli. He quickly turned towards the voice another time, only to face the stone wall of a building. “What do you see?” prompted the hidden entity. “I think there’s something happening over there…”
Eli heard the sound of nervous chatter and distressed wails to his left. A crowd had gathered beside a stand selling meat near the edge of the village; they were staring down at something, stupefied. With his heart beginning to throb and his palms starting to sweat, Eli approached the crowd to determine what they were obsessing over. Nobody took any notice of the young Sentinel as he pushed his way to the front of the group.
When he had a clear view of the spectacle before him, he gulped: A bloodied, mutilated corpse lay in the grass. The victim’s skull had been bashed in, and its right arm was detached from its body; Eli could not even determine if the body was that of a male’s or female’s, so disfigured it was.
“Oh my…” breathed the hidden voice. “That certainly looks tragic.”
Eli gazed about, attempting to identify the source of the voice, even though he now knew who it was. It’s Mary. What is she trying to show me this time? He observed the surrounding crowd, as he wondered if there was someone whom he might be able to identify. However, he recognized no one, and the crowd was speaking in a language unknown to Eli. Where is this
place? One woman burst from the crowd and rushed toward the corpse. She stared down at it with wide eyes, then unleashed a blood-curdling howl into the sky.
“Tell me, Eli,” Mary said coldly. “Why is it that you have no recollection of your time in the Living World? What are you hiding from yourself?”
Now deeply unsettled, Eli fled from the murder scene; he streaked past the corpse and those gathered around it. As he left the last of the crowd behind, he looked over his shoulder to cast a final glance at the corpse. The gristly sight only further adrenalized him, and he picked up speed. Suddenly, while his eyes were averted from his path of travel, he collided with a solid object and fell backward onto the ground.
A wooden post outside the village stood in front of him, and someone seemed to be trying to attach something to it. Returning to his feet, Eli saw that a man was nailing a board to the post. Once the man had finished and walked away, Eli stood and observed what was on the board: An image of a man’s face was burnt into it. The depiction triggered something in Eli’s memory, as it appeared vaguely familiar.
“It’s a notice for a wanted criminal,” came Mary’s voice once again.
While Eli stared closely at the image, attempting to identify it, a pair of villagers came to stand beside him. They gasped at the sight of the man and pointed at it with trembling fingers.
More and more of the villagers assembled around the post, studying the wanted notice.
“You and I are more alike than you think, Eli,” Mary told him, her raspy voice resonating throughout the air.
Eli retreated from the post as more villagers still gathered about.
“No,” he responded indignantly. “You and I are nothing alike - you’re a murderer. You killed my friend.”
Mary laughed demonically.
“But you killed my friend first – that makes you a murderer too. See? We are exactly alike in that sense, but that was not quite what I was alluding to.”
Though terror continued to rack Eli’s body, he stood his ground, as he desperately wanted to learn who was depicted on the board; his inability to determine the man’s identity, despite its familiarity, tormented him. The man had no hair on his head, a defined jawline, and narrow eyes. Where have I seen him? Wait!
The man’s identity became available to him the next instant: It was his father. Eli had not recognized him at first due to his missing hair and the primitive depiction style, but it was indeed his father. What was my father doing here? What part of the world is this? It’s certainly nowhere near where we used to live.
Eli had thought that his father had died of the virus, just like his mother had. Now, he questioned this assumption; in fact, he knew it was not true. His father had left his home prior to the virus’ outbreak near the city, although he was never certain as to where he had gone. How could I have forgotten something like that?
Eli noticed that a party of warriors armed with spears had stopped by the post. They studied the image of his father briefly, then left the village, hollering battle cries.
“They’re looking for my father?” Eli wondered aloud. “He didn’t murder that person, did he?”
As he said these things, a strong gust of wind enveloped him; the sky began to spin rapidly above. The people around him became blurred, and the ground heaved. The light from the sun began to fade, as Eli was subjected to another change in scenery. The ground, now consisting of dirt and stone, was lit by a full moon hanging in a starless sky.
Eli soon came to realize that he was standing by a highway, surrounded by urban settlements. To his left, there was a large truck that had parked beside the road; it was a commercial truck, probably for transporting some sort of food. Two people stood outside of it, conversing. One was a lanky man, but the other was nothing more than a shadowy figure whom Eli could not identify.
Despite his uneasiness and fear, Eli’s curiosity was intense enough to move closer to the mysterious pair. When he was just a few meters away, he saw the shadow-cloaked entity hand the man, presumably the truck driver, a thick helmet and a wad of cash.
As he struggled to understand exactly what was occurring, multiple memories were triggered at the sight of the truck: This was the same vehicle that had caused his untimely death.
Indeed, Eli could not soon forget the last sight he had laid eyes on in the Living World. Yes, that’s definitely it. And there’s an exit up ahead that leads to my home city. This must be the night before I was killed.
With this new knowledge, Eli became even more intrigued as to what the mysterious pair was doing; the shaded figure was now offering the driver a heavily padded suit, which looked
like it was designed to withstand tremendous impact. The driver put the suit on over his clothes and placed the helmet upon his head. As he returned to his truck and revved the engine, the shaded one seemed to be providing him with some final instructions. The truck driver nodded in acknowledgement and drove onto the highway while the dark figure waved after him.
“What on Earth is happening?” Eli whispered. “What did he pay him for?”
When the truck was out of sight, the figure swiveled its head back and forth to see if anyone was near, then rose into the air and disappeared. A Sentinel? Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t a human. Another gust of wind descended upon Eli, and his surroundings became distorted yet again.
“Now what?” he muttered. “Why am I seeing these things?”
The air rang with Mary’s chilling laughter as darkness closed in on Eli once more. Now, he was set in the midst of a sea of shadow - there was not a speck of light to be seen anywhere.
The ground beneath his feet had seemingly disappeared, and he felt as if he was suspended in a formless void.
“So many lost memories…” came Mary’s voice, louder this time. “What more could you be hiding deep in the recesses of your mind?”
Feeling threatened, Eli reached for his shuriken in preparation for battle; however, it was missing, no longer strapped to his back. Panic overcame Eli as Mary’s cackle rang on through the darkness, but he could barely move in his suspended state. Damn it. I can’t die here An emerald glow appeared before him, penetrating the shadows. The darkness retreated to reveal Mary hovering across from Eli, her hand ablaze with the green fire. Eli shivered, and beads of sweat streaked down his face, but he was still unable to flee. Mary’s figure began to advance toward him menacingly, as Eli looked on in horror.
“The secrets run amok ceaselessly, granting you no peace,” Mary hissed. “but it will all come to an end when you finally allow it to – when you can finally come to terms with reality.”
As she drew dangerously close to Eli, she raised her flame-cloaked hand in preparation to strike. Eli opened his mouth to scream, but no sound was released; a ringing filled his ears, and the image of Mary became blurred. A flash of green flooded his vision as Mary brought her hand down. Eli closed his eyes, awaiting death.
The next instant, he could hear his own scream resonating all around him; he had not died, nor had he experienced any pain from the expected blow. Eli slowly opened his eyes, only to see Philip and Rachel staring down at him.
“What in the Devil are you screaming about?” asked Philip in bewilderment. Eli quickly glanced about and realized he was lying on the floor next to the seating area in the transport cube. All of his fellow Sentinels surrounded him, appearing very confused.
“The Outlaw!” Eli gasped. “She almost claimed me – she was right there!”
Philip shook his head and sighed.
“You’ve gone mad, son,” he told Eli. “There are no Outlaws around. I can’t sense ‘em anywhere. You must just be shaken up still from your first Outlaw encounter.”
Eli got to his knees, wide-eyed.
“No,” he insisted. “It was the female Outlaw. She was right in front of me, and she almost struck me with that green flame technique she uses.”
Ruby stepped forward and helped Eli to his feet.
“You probably just experienced a trauma-induced flashback,” she assured him. “They can often seem very real, and they would not be abnormal for someone who has experienced what you have recently.”
“Yeah,” Philip added. “There’s absolutely no way you saw a real Outlaw. We’ve completely thrown them off our trail, just like we had hoped. It looks like we’re gonna make it out of here easily.”
Still trembling, Eli felt somewhat comforted by the Sentinel’s words, but he knew what he had seen was somehow real.
Jack walked over to the exit cavity in the cube’s floor.
“I suppose it’s time to move along now,” he announced. “We’ve wasted enough time already.”
“Wait…” Eli began. “Jack, shouldn’t you be piloting the cube?”
“Good gracious!” Philip shouted in exasperation. “We’ve already arrived at our destination. We’ve just been sittin’ here for the past few minutes watching you writhe about on the ground, trying to wake you up. You were trying to contact your friend, and the next thing we know, you’ve gone bonkers. There are actually going to be real Outlaws on our tail if we don’t get the hell out of here!”
Spending no more time in conversation, Jack jumped into the exit cavity, immediately followed by Ruby and Rachel.
“We’ve stopped right above the cabin,” Philip explained. “I think it’s still invisible; you can hide in there until Jack and I get the soul-gate open.”
Eli nodded in acknowledgement, while his uneasiness gradually dissipated. He leaped into the hole and felt his body being tugged downward forcefully; his feet suddenly collided with a hard surface, and looking down, he saw that there was nothing beneath his feet – or so it seemed.
Jedediah landed beside him with a loud clamor.
“This must be the cabin,” he observed. “How do we get in?”
The sound of canvas being drawn across metal could be heard as an opening in the invisible roof appeared, with Rachel looking up expectantly at them.
“Get in! Quick!” she hissed.
Eli and Jedediah obeyed, and Rachel drew the tarp back over the roof. The room was not well-lit, as only a narrow stream of light trickled in through a crevice in the roof during the early morning. The cabin was also extremely cramped: Jean, Ana, and Sarah were all still present, while Eli, Rachel, Jack, Ruby, and Jedediah had just entered.
Jack approached Jedediah and extended his hand.
“Okay, it’s time for you to give me your portion of the soul-key,” he told him.
Jedediah reached into a pocket in his trench coat and retrieved the piece without question.
Jack snatched up the piece, pulled the tarp away, and exited the cabin.
“Well,” Ana piped up in her gravelly voice. “That sure was a nice greeting. Jean and I were worried sick about you all.” Ana looked over everyone present. “And I see you’ve found some friends, just like you had hoped. I already met the one who escorted Victor here – they’re both keeping watch outside. Who are the others?”
Jedediah removed his hat and bowed.
“I’m Jedediah,” he said. “You can call me Jed.”
“And I’m Ruby,” said the female Sentinel. “Our associate is Philip, and you’ve already met Jacob.”
Jean was sitting in a corner of the cabin beside a sleeping Sarah; he was searching the cluttered group of Sentinels.
“Where is Gerald?” he asked. “Is he outside as well?”
Eli’s heart immediately sank with despair, and he saw Rachel look to the ground. What am I to tell him? He knew Gerald a lot better than any of us did.
“I’m not sure how to say this…” Eli began. “but Gerald is no longer with us. He was killed in a brutal battle with a trio of Outlaws.”
Jean’s face darkened, and he lowered his head.
“I see…” he muttered grimly.
Ana stood rigid with her arms crossed.
“That should not have happened,” she said. “If things had gotten too far out of hand, you should’ve sent one of us to help out. It was only a trio, right?”
“Yes,” replied Eli. “However, a couple of them were quite powerful. Also, I attempted to contact you a short while ago, but I was unable to. Calling for reinforcements would likely have been futile.”
Ana looked confused.
“You tried to contact me?” she asked, puzzled. “I’ve been prepared to receive signals from you ever since you departed. Surely I would have been able to respond if you had tried to reach me?”
“Well,” Ruby chimed in. “he did indeed try to reach you, but while he was doing so, he experienced some sort of strange panic attack that disrupted his efforts. He claimed he encountered an Outlaw, even though there are no Outlaws anywhere around.”
Ana nodded in understanding, although she still seemed a bit skeptical.
“I’ll note that these Outlaws have the abilities to induce hallucinations and delusions,”
Ruby continued. “They may be capable of more than we have known of them to be in the past. I believe that they are extremely dangerous adversaries.”
As the others were engaged in discussion, Jean rose and exited the building.
“Wait,” Jedediah ordered. “We should have as few individuals outside as possible. We don’t want to risk a chance of alerting the Outlaws.”
He attempted to follow after Jean, but Ana seized the large Sentinel’s arm.
“He needs to get some space for now,” Ana told him. “Let him grieve. I do not think it will jeopardize our mission in any way.”
Sarah, with Jean no longer beside her, began to stir a bit on the floor; Eli studied her movement carefully, waiting for her to awaken.
“How has Sarah been doing?” Eli inquired.
Ana followed his gaze and set her eyes upon the young child.
“She’s been doing pretty well, given the circumstances,” she reported. “She’s been subjected to a great deal of stress, and we have not been able to gather much for her to eat or drink, although she hasn’t been away from home for very long. We actually just barely managed to lull her to sleep again, so hopefully she will manage to benefit from some rest.”
“Well, at least she’s doing all right,” Eli observed. “We’re likely going to need to keep her with us for at least a little while longer, though. What are we even going to do with her after we get the soul-gate open?”
The sun now rose higher in the sky, as was indicated by the increase in light that entered through the roof.
“I imagine we would keep her somewhere in the Chamber of the Judge,” Ruby answered thoughtfully. “That is where the soul-gate will take us. As an alternate possibility, she may stay with one of the chieftains.”
Eli cocked his head on one side in perplexity.
“Chieftains?” he repeated. “I’m not familiar with that term. Who are they?”
“The chieftains are the ones who stood by the Judge while she addressed us in the chamber,” Ruby explained. “They serve as… I suppose you could say they are next in command. They play a role in the Judge’s decision-making process, but I am not sure if they can actually communicate with Angels.”
“Importantly,” Jedediah added. “a chieftain always replaces a Judge after she can no longer fulfill the role. In most cases, this is because the Judge has transitioned to Paradise; of course, the reason for a transition of power in this case would be death. I wonder who will succeed the Judge this time?”
A roaring sound could be heard from beyond the trees, and the walls of the cabin rattled and shook. Eli froze, fearing the worst.
“The Outlaws!” he hissed. “They’re here! I told you I saw them!”
He reached for the tarp covering the roof, but Jedediah slapped his hand away.
“That isn’t the sound of an Outlaw,” he told him. “That’s the sound of a soul-key being formed; it means we’ll be on our way momentarily.”
“Well, we’d best hurry,” Ana noted. “That sound will send any Outlaws remotely in our vicinity coming this way.”
“No,” Ruby corrected her. “Philip can detect Outlaws. He would not have produced such a clamor unless he knew they were far enough away.”
Eli noticed that the din and the impact from the soul-key formation had caused Sarah to toss about on the floor with discomfort. Eventually, she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“What’s that noise?” she yawned drowsily. Upon opening her eyes, she gaped at the number of Sentinels present. “Are we about to leave?” she asked quietly. “Where’s Jack?”
Ana came to stand beside the young Saint.
“He’s right outside,” she told her. “And we’re almost ready to leave.” All present in the cabin looked upward as something landed on the roof. “We’ll be leaving now, in fact,” Ana corrected herself.
The tarp on the roof was flung away yet again.
“Come on out!” came Jack’s voice. “We are prepared to leave. Philip says there are no Outlaws near, so we will be safe!”
Without hesitation, Ana lifted a now-elated Sarah into her arms and flew out of the building; the other Sentinels quickly followed, with Eli taking up the rear. Once everyone was hovering outside the cabin, Jack pointed north, where the forest transitioned into plains. He darted in that direction, and the rest hurried after him.
The group of Sentinels soon burst through the trees to find Philip, Victor, and Jacob standing below; Jean was sitting on the barren ground nearby. As everyone descended, Philip extended an ovular object forward with both hands: It was the completed soul-key.
“Alright, folks,” he announced while the soul-key began to adopt a sapphire glow. “The gate will only remain open for about thirty seconds, so don’t waste any time once it appears.”
The key now began to vibrate, and Philip clenched his teeth and tightened his grip. Sarah released a gasp with wide eyes as a swirling cone of blue mist came roaring from the soul-key.
The hair on the heads of the surrounding Sentinels was blown back by the force emanating from the enlarging portal of blue. In a matter of seconds, the cone had morphed into a giant sphere, and the soul-key split apart into its original halves.
“Let’s go!” shouted Philip over the roar of the tumultuous sphere. “The portal is finished!”
With the pieces of the soul-key in hand, the old Sentinel struggled forward against the powerful winds exerted by the portal; he reached toward the sphere with his hand, and when he made contact, he was drawn into the stormy mist and out of sight. Jedediah entered soon after, then Victor, then Ruby.
Jack was standing near the portal, waving his fellow Sentinels along.
“Hurry up!” he shouted as he cast a stern glance at Jean, who was lollygagging.
The small Sentinel heeded Jack’s words and marched briskly toward the portal. Jacob entered, then Rachel, then Jack. Jean finally approached the portal and reached into it tentatively before being drawn in.
Ana, with Sarah in her arms, entered just before Eli reached the sphere. He extended his hand toward it, but he froze at the sound of cold laughter echoing behind him. Stationary with fear, Eli dared not look toward the laughter. With the portal beginning to shrink in size, however, Eli freed himself from his terrified state and entered the sphere before it was too late.