And they bolted
towards one of the exits, their cloaks flapping behind their
heels.
__________
The entire
facility lay shredded in havoc. The workers sprinted out of the
place, their screams mingling with the high pitched blare of the
alarms all over the place.
The air of
enthusiasm and anticipation that had pervaded just minutes earlier
was now completely overturned … and now, a sense of unreality and
horror had clutched the entire laboratory.
Argos was one
of the last to make his way out of the hall and down the hallways
that led to the exit. As he ran, his blood thundering, he felt his
mind reel with shock at the event of the last minute or so.
We’re being
attacked by mystics.
He thought.
This can’t be bloody
happening!
He tore down
the long tunnel, towards the exit to this building. Doubts and
confusion exploded within him, but right now he kept them at bay,
knowing that getting out of here alive was the topmost and only
priority. The tunnel curved, and a set of large double doors
appeared at the end. Argos stopped before the doors, punching in
the password on the digitboard by the side of the board. A
clearance beep ensued, and the double doors slid in with a rush of
air.
A large
basement parking lot spread out before him. Almost all of the
vehicles were gone. The workers and engineers had almost all fled.
A large open door stood at the very end of the parking lot,
spreading outside of which was the cold night’s desert. Feeling his
heart pound as he ran, Argos pelted towards the last vehicle in the
line at the end of the line. His hover car, a black coloured four
seated vehicle, was waiting at the end of the line.
As Argos neared
the vehicle, he plunged his hand into his pocket, and pulled out a
small device. He clicked a button on the remote to his car, and the
front door swung open. Without pausing for a glance, Argos threw
himself into the driver’s seat, and slammed the door shut. Before
he could start the car, his eyes fell on the seat next to him, and
a death like stillness robbed his insides…
“Nice ride,”
said Zardin, as his eyeless sockets roamed over the vehicle. He
turned back to Argos, whose eyes seemed to bulge with terror.
Before the man could make another move, a pair of arms sprang out
from the seat behind him, wrapping his mouth shut. One of Zardin’s
men was on the backseat. He held the security manager to the spot,
covering his mouth so that his screams went dull.
As Argos
thrashed about, trying to rip himself free of the man’s clasped
hands, Zardin dove his fist into the man’s stomach. A muffled gasp
of pain, and Argos doubled forward.
“No need to
worry, silly boy.” Zardin whispered, bending to his ear. “We aren’t
here for you. We’re here … for something a whole lot greater.” He
thrust his hand into Argos’s pocket and drew from it, a shiny pen
shaped device.
The mineral
detector.
Zardin held the
device before his face, feeling a smile stretch over his lips.
“Excellent.”
The pair of
hands holding Argos’s mouth released, and Argos gasped for breath.
As Zardin surveyed the mineral detector, Argos stared at him,
looking thoroughly confused.
“The
mineral
detector?
” he blurted, clearly as perplexed as he sounded.
“
That’s
what you came here looking for?”
Zardin slowly
turned to the man, feeling his unpleasant smile grow longer. “No.
we came looking for the truth. And the truth,” He bent closer to
the man, whose face was aflame with shock and terror, “is that
there is no escape … from the
pain
.”
He shot his
elbow into Argos’s face, and the man slumped on his seat,
unconscious.
Zardin and the
other mystic on the backseat exited the car, and saw the three
other mystics glide over towards them from three corners of the
parking lot. The group gathered by Zardin’s side, while he
continued to gaze at the mineral detector keenly, twirling it
between his fingers.
“Mission
accomplished.” he said, pocketing the device.
The men stood
behind him, their hoods still drawn over their faces.
“It has now
begun, men.” said Zardin, striding over to the entrance of the
parking lot, sprawling outside of which was the lifeless desert.
The velvety sky spread overhead like a vast dark mast, sprayed with
tiny dots of silver.
The chill
cloaking him from all around felt soothing to his skin. And to his
soul.
“Prepare
yourselves,” he hissed, turning to the men who stood behind him.
“This is just the beginning … we have work to do.”
And together,
they strode out of the entrance, into the cold desert that
meandered outside.
A place far,
far away … A haven, an abode of beauty and perfection … The flowery
fragrance wafting the air … The beautiful, sloping hills filled
with greenery … The sky brimming with light with the freshly arisen
sun…
The boy gazed
across the sloping hills, his beautiful orange eyes gleaming. His
tidy crimson hair rippled in the gentle wind as he stood there.
He could hear
two elderly voices from the cottage hut behind where he stood. The
two most beloved voices he knew in this world … And then, as the
soft padding of feet on the grass came behind, he corrected: two of
the
three
most beloved voices he knew in this world.
He turned to
see his twin brother Eol walking up to him, stretching lazily and
yawning. He thumped Eol on the back, and the two of them walked
back into the hut where their elderly parents, Marion and Selia,
awaited with a steaming breakfast.
Ion let his
gaze carry over the three of them.
His brother
Eol.
His father
Marion.
His mother
Selia.
The four of
them seemed branded in that speckless, beautiful moment … one
beautiful, happy family. And life was as it had been meant to
be.
And then,
darkness ripped the world.
Marion and
Selia’s forms were frozen before him. But as Ion watched in horror,
they slowly faded … withering into the nothingness that now
consumed everything. They were gone, but their cries of grief
lingered as a lasting echo in the sudden darkness. An echo that
thundered through Ion’s mind.
And he whipped
around to face Eol … But Eol, too, was gone. He was falling down
into the darkness that swallowed everything. For an eternity, Ion
watched his brother Eol fall through the darkness … and for an
eternity, their eyes were locked, watching the breadth of blackness
abound between them.
And then the
darkness wrapped Ion’s brother, engulfing him too…
And Ion was
alone, in the middle of a boundless darkness. His parents were
gone. Eol was gone. He was alone. And he had now grown. His tidy
hair was now long, messy and unkempt. His skin was tightened over
his bones, and his orange eyes burned from within, no longer tender
and beautiful as they’d once been.
Everything was
gone … And all that remained was the blackness.
And then came
the laugh…
The world
rumbled around him as the voice laughed. A cold, mirthless voice
that rang with a force like no other. Contained with an evil like
no other. It was like listening to a group of hyenas shrieking as
one.
He looked
around. There was nothing, but out of nothing, a face formed,
swirling out of the blackness. A face that Ion had known for years
… dreaded for years. Hated beyond all else, for years. For this was
the face responsible for tearing everything from him.
The man had
glowing red eyes, and wild black hair.
“I’ve returned
for you … Ion.”
“No!” Ion
flailed his arms as he ran from the face, dashing mindlessly into
the dark. But the soulless hyena like voice followed him, seeming
to resound through his very soul:
“You can’t
outrun me, Ion. I am a part of you … You can
never
outrun
me!” The man ended with another burst of his ghastly hyena
laughter.
And everything
spiralled into madness, as the world tumbled out of reason, logic,
and rationality. And it all dissolved back into nothing. It was
over.
Ion jolted
forward on his seat, sending beads of sweat flying forward.
Frozen as ice,
he sat there for many unpleasant seconds, unable to grasp any
meaning in what lay around him, or where he was: logic and reason
eluded him, trickling past his mind’s hold. And time itself seemed
to have blurred. For a few moments, the only sensation reaching Ion
amidst the chaos of his thoughts was a loud, incessant banging
somewhere nearby. It took a while before he realised it was coming
from within: his heart hammered against his ribs with a ruthless
force.
The haze
enveloping his mind slowly cleared, and clarity struck him …
bringing a relief welling revelation:
It was just a
dream!
Warmth flowered
within Ion, and the panic clutching him vaporized. He slowly
reclined against his seat, listening to the rhythmic hum of a large
engine from somewhere nearby. He was in a hallway with five lines
of seats, of which his was the one on the extreme left.
Ion looked out
the circular window hanging by the wall on his left, and gazed out
of it for a few seconds. As his eyes met the sight spreading out
the window, the final traces of agitation left by the nightmare he
had just had instantly died. A gripping sense of entrancement
filled Ion as he gazed upon the ocean of darkness…
Space.
The one sight
in the universe which could invoke such a beautiful sense of
stillness in him. A serenity matched by nothing else. The expanse
of darkness was showered with fine crystal dots. Powdery light that
had voyaged legions to reach him…
A minute or so
passed before Ion drew his attention back to the hall he was in.
The space cruiser he was travelling in had numerous halls such as
this one, each with a vast capacity. A cruiser, unlike a regular
space ship, was a giant vessel built for carrying an enormous
capacity of travellers in it. Ion knew that the number of
passengers in this one easily numbered to a thousand.
Having dozed
off for how long he knew not, Ion was lost to the thread of the
journey. He turned to the man sitting on the nearby line.
“Excuse me,” he
called. “Where are we exactly?”
The man lowered
the magazine he’d been reading and looked up at Ion. He had two
short, black horns emerging on opposite sides of his head and two
dark patches hanging right below his eyes. Ion knew that these were
attributes of the fact that the man was an Iveling, one of the
countless species of intelligent, humanoid life forms that
inhabited their world. The intelligent humanoid life forms which
were otherwise called as the
man beings
, the pinnacle of
evolution in the known universe.
“We’re still in
cluster 54.” the Iveling replied.
Ion sat up, his
eyebrows rising. “We’re still in the
same
star cluster?”
“Don’t worry,”
assured the man, his eyes sinking back to his magazine. “We should
be reaching cluster 32 soon now. We’re almost at the space
gate.”
Ion thanked the
man and sat back against his seat, feeling a dull mass of boredom
settle over him.
Still in
cluster 54 … reaching cluster 32 soon … almost at the space
gate.
Cluster 32 and
54 were just two of the 72 star clusters present in the
spectrum(the known portion of their galaxy, but a mere speck inside
of it). The star clusters were imaginary spheres spread inside of
which were a hundred planets and ten stars. The 72 star clusters
formed what was called as the inner spectrum, the portion of the
spectrum carrying almost all known life, and the portion where all
the Republics, Kingdoms and states existed. To shrink the colossal
distances separating the 72 star clusters in the inner spectrum,
each star cluster had what was known as a space gate inside of it.
The space gates were portals connecting a star cluster to the
seventy one others.
Within a minute
or so, Ion saw what appeared to be a gigantic sphere like entity
formed completely of violet light appear in front of the ship. The
space gate seemed to be composed purely of violet light, looking
somewhat like a violet coloured mini star. The rim of the space
gate expanded across Ion’s window as the cruiser soared towards it.
And as they entered the violet sphere, for a blinding moment the
world seemed engulfed in a flare of brightest violet.
Then, as the
light died, the cruiser was emerging from the other side of the
same violet spherical entity. However, they had just crossed
billions of miles, and the space gate they were emerging from was
that of a different star cluster. They had just teleported from
cluster 54 to cluster 32, and across an unmassed distance that
could have otherwise taken hours of transport.
An announcement
drew Ion’s attention, informing them that they had just emerged in
cluster 32, and that the destination planet, Sacrogon, was a few
minutes away.