[Original Novel] Pressure: First Encounter, Part 13

in #writing6 years ago


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Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

The last spoke very convincingly of an ability he believed he had to perceive ‘false humans’ walking among the general populace, spying on everyone else and reporting to monstrous, inhuman masters.

In each case every piece of news, every article and scientific study they came across was in their minds further proof of their worldview and anything to the contrary was a sinister deception orchestrated by enemy forces. For a tense moment, Angie wrestled with the idea that she might be under the same spell.

While lost in thought, she’d wandered down the staircase and into the engineering section. It was more brightly lit and a cursory glance around the room revealed the source. Strings of LED lights dangled from overhead netting, plugged into what looked to be a suitcase sized utility battery. It was at 98%...someone must’ve set these up very recently. Was it Nate?

“Eliot came down here earlier to check air and power levels”, she thought, “it could just as easily have been him.” The possibility was mildly comforting, but her gut suspected the worst and was vindicated when a powerful, hairy arm slid around her neck and yanked her into the shadows.

“Just looking for tools, right? Save it.” In the moment where she might’ve cried out before the meaty forearm compressed her windpipe, Angie instead gambled on plan B. “Be quiet” she wheezed, “Eliot will hear us”. A painfully long ten seconds passed, then the arm loosened and offered no resistance as she pulled away from it.

“Don’t scare me like that. I might be the only friend you have on this tub. What were you going on about earlier?” Nate’s face hovered in the sweet spot where one side was illuminated by the harsh LED lights, and the other was cloaked in shadow. His eyes stayed trained on Angie but only barely, wavering with the telltale signs that he’d been drinking before a look of sudden comprehension overtook him.

“Wormwood! You saved, Angie?” She was ready for the question and answered without hesitation. “I gave my life over to Christ when I was twelve. I had a hard home life and it was only the strength given to me by God that saw me through it. I don’t know scripture like I should, but I want to. Tell me about Wormwood.”

It was as if, faced with an elaborate and impossibly convoluted lock designed to stymie thieves, she’d inserted a matching key which depressed every pin to the precise degree required. “I saw it in you. You got the spiritchal understandin’ to grasp what Eliot and Leo don’t. They’s spiritchally dead, always have been, some just ain’t meant for the kingdom of God. I knew you was different, there’s a light in your eyes.” He caressed Angie’s cheek, now moist with nervous sweat she hoped he would mistake for humidity.

“It’s jes like you saw in the dreams. Leviathan risin’ up out the ocean, Gog here on Earth and Magog waitin’ up in th’ stars. What you think happens when they come together, Angie? What happens when the two come together?”

She widened her eyes and muttered “He comes”. The key rotated, and the deadbolt fell away. “Good girl. You saw it same as I did. All just like Revelations, the faithful left on Earth after th’ rapture strikin’ down Satan under the banner of Heaven.”

The connections were so tenuous it took several seconds to pin down which dream he meant, and how the elements matched up in his mind. It was eerie, like all at once being forced to look through a uniquely distorted lens at what seemed like madness before, yet seductively plausible so long as the lens remained in place. Tearing it away was like once again lurching between alternate realities.

Disorientation enveloped her. Whatever portion of her brain categorized ideas as fantasy or reality began furiously sorting through everything anew. No. No, what little she knew of scripture didn’t describe what she’d seen in the trench. It was obvious now that Nate saw what he wanted to, believed what he wanted to and would soon act on it, which reassured her that she’d been right to scoop a small handgun out of the locker behind her while he was distracted.

It felt like the telltale heart, burning a hole in her pocket, crying out to catch Nate’s attention. Natural paranoia mingled with what she knew were the early signs of hypoxia on the way up the staircase. Nate continued whispering scripture to her the whole way, none she knew offhand but all of which had vague parallels to their dreams.

Carefully picked from memory by a man she suspected was building, in his mind, a justification for something terrible. Intuition told her the time was drawing near when she’d have to decide what to do with him, and she once again became uncomfortably aware of the pistol jostling around in her coat pocket.

Fear gave way to confusion when they reached Nate’s apparent destination. By chance the mess was empty, he dragged her into the observatory unseen and for a moment she wondered if he meant to rape her.

It wasn’t consistent with Eliot’s opinion of him, but in the humid, cramped confines of the observatory with red emergency lights faltering, no nightmare scenario seemed beyond possibility. Yet, he wasn’t looking her way. By edging along the perimeter of the bubble she was able to see around the considerable bulk of Nate’s body and catch a glimpse of what he was working so feverishly on.

“Lifeboat separation”, read illuminated text just above a series of toggle switches on a panel that were folded flush with the floor a moment earlier. No wonder she hadn’t noticed it before. But at that moment, it was of no concern to her. He’d held fast to her arm until now, and was engrossed in whatever he was up to with the control panel. Angie was painfully aware that she would get no better chance than this, and had no choice but to act. Her hands quivered as she reached for the concealed pistol.

A moment later Nate lay slumped against the observatory wall. It was so quick, it took her a moment to register what had happened. Eliot’s breathing slowed. The ratchet, still held overhead as if to strike, dripped fresh blood.

“Oh my God, Eliot. I think you killed him.” He turned to meet her accusatory gaze but seemed more than anything surprised to see her. Had he not acted to protect her? Did he even realize she’d been taken? “Did he hurt you?” She shook her head, tearing up. “He didn’t...do anything to you, did he?”

Again, she shook her head, then crawled across the grated floor and into his arms. The embrace was brief. Once he examined Nate and confirmed that he was only unconscious, the two cooperated to slide his corpulent frame bit by bit down the stairwell, and to heave it into the nearest bunk.

“What are we going to do with him?” Nate rummaged through some boxes at the end of the cylinder and barked back “Leave him behind.” It seemed practical, but uncharacteristically cruel. Even so there was no room aboard the Argyro in which he could be imprisoned and no safe method of restraint if they were to take him along as they evacuated. Unless he were kept unconscious.

Eliot obviously hit on the same idea, retrieved the EEG gear and began setting it up. Soon after wiping the blood and sweat from Nate’s forehead, the crown of electrodes was tenderly put in place. Suppression of consciousness was an ‘undocumented feature’ of the device,. It was originally intended to study prolonged dream states. Almost out of reflex, Angie initiated visualization.

Though he’d been hit just minutes earlier, Nate had somehow already entered REM sleep. Someone else might’ve overlooked that discrepancy, but it was a red flag to Angie. The screen cast flickering light over the contours of their faces. A tropical garden lay before them, flowering plants of all types laid out with obvious deliberation along a path out of the forest and up the side of a hill.

As their view moved along it they could see that a ring of mountains enclosed the region, which was lush almost beyond belief. What little Angie knew of ecology prohibited the natural formation of a biome like this. Sparkling waterfalls issued forth from rocky swells, but with no obvious source of water behind them.

Animals native to different continents entirely grazed alongside one another, oblivious to the strangeness of it. And over everything, a hazy undulating pattern of light that lent it the quality of a painting. Only when the two looked skyward did the source of that light become clear.


Stay Tuned for Part 14!

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Missed your posts man. Actually was busy with exams.

Hope those went well. I remember final exam week being tremendously stressful back when I was in school.

As mentioned in previous chapters, something like this could happen, so many doubts and mistrust in the group was going to end with a tragedy or a badly wounded companion. This time there was no death but it could happen later if this is not solved quickly.

The story is very beautiful and really fascinating
I have enjoyed it very much
You are a successful person

Then Nate is a man to be feared! That dialogue between him and Angie is brilliantly real. People believe what they want to believe! Thank God Eliot appeared and managed to save her. It seems to me that Nate's dreams have to do with paradise or some biblical passages. This part is very interesting!

One of the best parts, good narration, uff, I took my time to read calmly.👍

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Sounds like Wormwood's having quite the effect on Nate's brain- at least that's what I'm gathering from that last bit about the REM cycle. But who knows, I'm usually wrong, haha:)

Don't be put out that I didn't upvote your posts. I can't upvote for another 6 days because I messed something up while trying to delegate. I'll upvote again when I have my full SP back.

Hey man no worries it's all good. Shit happens. Besides I really like your writing and am hyped to read your stories. Jus sayin- in the future, no need to give a heads up. All good here

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