The Sounds of War (The Genesis Series Book 2) (21 page)

“Okay!” Elijah chuckled
. “You lost me ages ago. So what’s the quantum tunnel stuff, what do you mean?”

“Teleportation,” she smiled, “don’t you see? We’re going to do what Joshua did when God instantly sent him to Israel last fall to help Caleb
. We are going to teleport home.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Shaking his head slowly Elijah disagreed
. He began snapping his fingers again, “At least not just now. There’s something else going on and that non-local thing you were talking about is the veil between the spirit world and the physical world, I think we’re going to dematerialize and become particle waves!”

“Oh, and just where did you this revelation?”

“Here,” he pointed to his belly. “I may not understand in scientific terms, but I know we were sent here to be spies. Does that ring a bell for you?”

“OMG,” Emeleigh slapped her forehead
. “I totally forgot what we are supposed to.” She drew imaginary quotes in the air, “We are supposed to probe our enemy’s domain...hey I had a dream about this!”

Putting his hands on his hips he chided, “Yeah, well good, but I was told we’re to learn the purposes of our enemy.
We’re like the two spies that Joshua sent to Jericho before the walls came down.”

“Okay I agree, but how?” She stepped into his space and poked his chest with each question, “How are we to spy? What do we spy on in here?”

“I guess we go exploring.” Elijah lifted his shoulders and turned his palms up, “I don’t know any more than what I just said.”

“All right, let’s think for a moment,” she turned away, and then standing still, closed her eyes and thought aloud, “there are dimensio
ns on Earth. Four to be exact. And we know there’re at least six more in quantum…oh my gosh, Elijah! We’re in a dimension that time doesn’t effect, or has little or no affect.”

Cocking his head sideways he asked, “Explain please?”

“In Earth all things happen on a chronological timeline, right?”

“And,” he shrugged his shoulders.

“We’ve been taken to another dimension, one that has added capabilities, but where time’s influence is diminished.”

“So what now?”

She smiled and shrugged, “
We are either going to move forward in time or back. But the real question is how we get out of here.”

“Why don’t you just walk through the door?”

She chuckled and moved toward the door, “Now that’s a novel idea and so simple! Why didn’t I think of it? Come on, baby brother. Let’s try walking through the door.”

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it]. Matthew 16:18, AMP

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol (hell) for the rest of my years. I said I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living; I shall look upon mortals no more among the inhabitants of the world. Isaiah 38:10-11, NRSV

S
miling as she walked toward the door Emeleigh waved her hands and nothing moved. She ran a hand over the doorframe looking. Nothing moved. She looked for any mechanical device that might operate the portal, nothing. Looking intently at the ceiling, she jumped up and down crossing her hands over her head, still nothing moved.

“Oh, great
.” Frustrated she stood back and searched the adjacent walls hoping for anything that could conceivably open the door. “Now what,” facing Elijah, her expression dared him to solve the problem, “any ideas?”

Smiling down at her a
s an idea popped into his thoughts he gently pushed her aside and said, “Move over, let me try something.” Standing between her and the door he poked the tip of his index finger at the door, it disappeared! Snickering like a small child, he exclaimed, “Look,” as he stepped into the door.

“Houston, we have touchdown
!” Elijah deep bass voice broke into a shrill as he giggled and bounced in and out of the closed door. After going in and out of the door for the third time he turned and grinned, “Well are you gonna try it?”

“Dork
!” Slapping at his upper arm, she asked, “Is it okay? No one is out there, right?”

Laughing, he assured her, “It’s a go, come on
.” Grabbing her hand, he pulled and suddenly they both stood in a long corridor. For a few seconds they stood side by side each looking in the opposite direction, then as they turned to each other both shrugged their shoulders and wondered what next.

“Well,”
asked Elijah as the first to break the silence, “any idea which way?”

“No, but my gut says th
at way.” Pointing to her left, she took a single step in that direction, pausing for a second she checked with her internal guide, Holy Spirit, and knew instantly she had chosen correctly.

“Okay, let’s go.” Causally putting an arm around her
shoulders, he hugged her. “Sis, this is going to work, we are particles waves, remember,” snickering as he squeezed and admonished he added, “just keep following Holy Spirit and we’ll float through this.”

“Mmm…” Emeleigh poked his ribs and rolled her lips
between her teeth. Then tilting her head she looked into his blue eyes and said, “Not that you need to know this, but I love you, Little Brother, and I’m very glad you’re here because quite frankly, I’m shaking in my Reeboks.”

Staring down the long dimly lit corridor, she wondered at the countless small lights that seemed to
draw parallel lines down the length of the flooring. The effect put her in mind of a very long and very narrow airstrip. These lights seemed to stretch for an indeterminable distance. Nothing seemed to be down the corridor, no doors, no adjoining corridors, nothing but black walls and ceilings, and tiny blinking lights.

As they walked, occasionally she would pause and pat the walls. She felt the need to test if they existed
. From her peripheral vision, the walls seemed to fade in and out. This was both distracting and unnerving. Unable to withhold her apprehension, she whispered, “You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think we’re in some sort of hologram, and the program is not functioning correctly.” Sarcastically she added, “I’m ready to ask Scotty to beam us out of here. If somebody doesn’t beam us out, I think we’re going to be in this corridor forever.”

“Yeah,” Elijah agreed, “you’re right, the matter around us doesn’t appear stable.” Suddenly stopping, he grabbed her elbow and pulled her to a halt
. “Eme, you think maybe their world is unstable because God isn’t speaking life to it? Maybe that’s why they are so desperate to possess our world.”

“You might have something there,” Emeleigh nodded. “I swear it feels like we’re caught in a sci-fi movie doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I think it’s the
Twilight Zone
, not
Star Trek
.”

“Anything but
Left Behind
works for me.” Joking helped but she also felt the need to express the rising panic. “I just want to get out of this corridor. Holy Spirit, please show us what’s next.” As she whispered the words, she felt a nudging to turn to her right and face the wall. Putting her hand to her mid-section, “I just caught a vision of where we are going, come,” reaching for Elijah’s hand, she pulled and together they stepped through the wall and into a new dimension of time and space.

              
        
************

Emeleigh and Elijah stood slack-jawed and motionless except for unbelieving blinking eyes. Everywhere around them were
piles of stone and various building materials, broken and in disrepair. After some seconds, he looked at her questioning eyes, “I don’t know where we are, but I think it is Earth.” Pointing he said, “See up the hill, there’s some kind of edifice. I can’t see it well enough to tell what it is, but it looks like a Grecian temple. We might be in the past...‘cause I don’t see anything that looks modern, either we’re in the past, or we’ve just landed in a heap of some very old ruins, of a very ancient city.”

“Yeah, I agree, but this place is spooky, Elijah
.” Reaching for the comfort of his arm, she wrapped her hand around it and shivered as she whispered, “The sky is grey. Maybe a storm is brewing, huh?”

N
odding he pulled her close. As they huddled, they felt a shaking under their feet. Elijah reacted quickly and steadied her as he warned, “Eme, we need to get out of here that was an earthquake!”

“W
here…” She didn’t finish the question. An eerie screech began vibrating under their feet. Grabbing at his shirt, she pulled and simultaneously demanded, “Let’s go!”

The path below them blocked by rubble, prohibited down as an option, with n
o other direction available, they ran up the hill. The winding path, full of debris made the climb difficult but she was determined not to stop until they reached the top of the hill. Once there, much to their amazement, the temple was the only building on the summit.

Emeleigh gasped, “My God, Elijah, what is this place? How can that be a temple
? The steps going into it weren’t made for humans?”

Together they stood side by side each taking in the details of the building.
Evenly spaced gigantic columns, stood as sentinels across the face of the building. The top of the portico seemed to reach into the low hanging grey sky. And leading up to the entrance were monolithic steps, the dimensions of which no normal person could climb. The building itself was enormous, immeasurable as it extended in both lateral directions. Arching her neck, she looked to the building’s elaborate frieze, “Look at the carvings!” Emeleigh whispered and pointed.

Elijah took a step forward
, when he answered, his voice cracked, “It’s the Altar of Zeus!” Coughing, he cleared his throat, “Eme, we are in ancient Pergamum. I recognize the frieze from my Art History class. We must be...this must be the throne of Satan! Remember what Jesus said to John in Revelation?”

Pulling on
the back of his shirt, she turned him as she pointed to the people. Humans, shrouded in drab grimy torn garb suddenly began rising from the ground like witless zombies. As the multitude of faceless people began inching toward the temple, brother and sister watched in abject horror. As the walking dead scaled over the impossible to maneuver steps, Emeleigh and Elijah held their breath in disbelief, watching helplessly as people climbed to the pinnacle where they became sacrifices to obscurity.

Emeleigh twisted
the back of Elijah’s shirt as shrieks of terror and torture reached an unbearable crescendo. The screaming became more than their nerves could tolerate. The magnitude of the volume ripped and tore at the fabric of space and the ground began shaking again. Both Emeleigh and Elijah fell to their knees, as the ground shook beneath them, unable to gain nor keep footing, she buried her face in her brother’s chest, and began to cry hysterically, “Jesus! Jesus, oh Jesus, please help!”

As the cycle began to manifest again and the zombies began to rise again, Elijah
feeling a sense of urgency pulled her up to her feet. “Eme we need to move.” Looking around he saw a broken wall to their left. Putting a protective arm about her, he led her through the debris and as they stepped over the broken rubble, he saw the shelter they needed.

At first, it looked like a cave opening but
when he took a second look, he realized it wasn’t a natural formation, but one that had been constructed.
No matter,
he thought,
it will serve for shelter
. He had to get Emeleigh away from the horror until she could regain her composure.

Dragging her more than guiding, her face still buried in his chest as she wailed almost without breathing, he moved quickly to what he hoped was safety. The moment they entered the tunnel, he pushed her to the ground and after looking about to make sure they were in no immediate danger, he began to urge her to
, “Breathe, Emeleigh. Please just breathe.”

Still assessing the tunnel, he heard a scraping noise
behind them. He turned just in time to see the tunnel’s entrance closing in on itself. It was as if the tunnel had responded to their presence in some sort of autonomous way, deciding not to allow them to leave.

Also hearing the sound, Emeleigh looked up in time to see the entrance disappear
. She issued a single gasp and went rigid with shock.

Elijah squatt
ed next to her, placing a loving hand on top of her shoulder did his best to reason, “Sis, this process is nerve-wracking, but please get a hold of your emotions. I know you’re frightened, so am I. But we must fight it. We can think it through later; we can react later, but right now we need to keep our wits about us and keep going.”

Closing her eyes
, tears still streaming down her face, she shook her head and bit her bottom lip. Then slowly she responded, “Give me a minute, Elijah. Those people...those poor lost souls! I don’t think I’ll ever forget the screams. Wonder where are we, what was happening out there? Do you know? What could possibly be next?”

“About the screams,
believe me…I will never forget them later. As to what was happening, I think…and mind you this is just a preliminary guess, I think we saw a generation of people, climbing over what was built by the giants, in order to throw themselves into the pit of darkness. And I think every time the earth shook a new generation was repeating what the previous one had done. I’ll probably have a crying fit myself when we get out of here, but right this moment, I don’t know where we are, nor do I know what’s next. You sit still. I’m going to have a look around.” Elijah stood and walked down the tunnel for a short distance then turned and came back to stand next to her. “Something tells me that we’re going to get out of this okay, but in order to do so we have to go through the tunnel. Think Eme. We aren’t here, not really. I don’t know where here is, we are where we are because we’re in some kind of very strange supernatural phenomenon. So what we have to do is keep pushing on until we find out whatever the ‘programmer’ of this hologram wants us to know.

“Now then, th
e tunnel narrows and slopes downward into darkness but thankfully somebody left us those two torches over there. And since we are not going out the way we came in, let’s go in the only direction that is available.”

“Mmm,”
Emeleigh nodded and after wiping her eyes with her hands and her nose on the sleeve of her shirt she slapped both hands on her thighs and stood. “You are right, so let’s get on with it. But please Elijah, assure me this is a tunnel not a cave? I don’t think I can do the cave thing again!”

“It’s a tunnel. Look, it’s a fabricated tunnel
; see the stones? Those stones didn’t form these walls by accident.”

“Yeah, well, who made the tunnel, Smarty? Do you have an answer for that?”

Elijah handed her a torch and kissed her forehead, “This place is the throne of Satan, remember?”

“Oh, great, that’s just great. R
eal comforting!”

Moving
down the tunnel they soon discovered the downward slope grew more drastic the further they went. The trek became more difficult with nearly every step, as the incline grew more acute. Becoming almost impossible to maintain their footing and not slide, they inched slowly and then suddenly at the base of the slope encountered a new problem. They would have to crawl if they were to continue, the tunnel tapered off into a very narrow passageway, so narrow it became readily apparent one of them would have to relinquish a torch. Elijah suggested Emeleigh leave her torch behind. He would follow her and carry his, which would light the space ahead as well as the space between them.

This maneuver was manageable for about a hundred yards but then the passage nar
rowed even more. As they were about to turn back, Emeleigh called over her shoulder, “Elijah, we are about to go straight down, and it’s so narrow that the only way through is to slide. I think if we go headfirst rather than feet first, we can control our descent because actually, I think we are in some kind of ductwork. From here, it looks like it feeds into a larger space… I hope. I see light below so maybe it’s safe to get rid of your torch.”