Winds Of The Apocalypse (38 page)

“You really don’t want me to comment on that, do you?” She growled. “I’ll lock the door, we are all going.” She gestured to Jon to help Morgan walk and then she shooed the rest of them
out as they all fallowed Lisa.

Casey was the last to get out as she took a look around the room and then grabbed the two joined shards of crystal and locked M
organ's body in their bed room.

‘It should be safe there for a little while until we come
back.’ She thought to herself.

The maze was quiet as they made their way down to the red brick wall at th
e end of a green musky hallway.

"Where are the other apocalypses?" Casey wondered out loud. “The privies time we were in here there were apocalypse guards ever
ywhere and now there are none.”

“D
o you miss them?’ Colin teased.

“No, just concerned, I don’t want any crawling cre
eper to jump us.” Casey stated.

"They are all busy.” Lisa said, taking a step forward. ”Utopia needs almost all the ‘man’ power she can get to execute Utopias master plan. “
She explained in a dark voice.

”Oh, how 'evil genius craving world domination'
of her.” Colin shook his head.

"Right…” Lisa looked at the teens before her.” Jon, help me here for
a second."

She said when she stopped at the wall. Jon looked at Morgan who he was sup
porting and his brother nodded.

Jon helped Morgan lean against the musky wall an
d complied with Lisa's request.

He came to stand before her and Lisa took his hands and stretched them out, and entwining her fingers with Jon's she started weaving nearly transparent silver strings, creating a nice silver ba
ll of what appeared to be yarn.

“Here we go.” She held t
he ball up for them all to see.

“What is that for?” Jon looke
d at the strings curiously.

"We don’t want Toby's body getting into the cha
mber with his soul, now do we?"

She said
, answering everyone's puzzled expressions.

"So I will bind Toby's body to this place and reality with us." She concluded as she finished making the thread,
giving one of its ends to Toby.

"Tie it around your waist; make sure it touches your skin.” She ordered. “As tight as you can, we don’t want to lose contact with you." Toby nodded, doing as he was told, tying the silver breakable looking thread aro
und his slightly trebling body.

"Once you are inside,” Lisa continued her instructions to him. “We won't hear you but you will still be able to hear us so we will count the time for you and I will tell you how much time you have until I have to pull you out. But remember this, time is a different concept in there, you feel it slipping a lot faster than it should on this side of the doorwa
y so you have to hurry. Ready?"

Toby nodded again. "Ok, oh and one more thing." Lisa remembered.

"I will shield you from the pain caused by the other apocalypses as they feed but Din will be in agony and probably disoriented so you have to get him to focus on you or you won't be able to get him to come with you. And don’t forget his body. You have to touch it to pull it out. Understand?”

“Fuck, couldn't you have shared this little
tidbit earlier?” Toby groveled.

”Toby…You don’t have to do this, let someone else go.” Casey looked at her friend, feeling like she was going to lose another one of her close compan
ions.

”No.”
Toby looked at Lisa. “I’m ready.”

“Then do it.” Lisa pointed at the do
orway. “Go on, touch the wall."

Toby took a deep breath a
nd placed his hand on the door.

He saw the blue light surround him and a second later his body became numb and collapsed to the floor as his sou
l traveled on into the chamber.

Colin and Casey hurried to the limp body and pulled him away from the doorway, leaning him against the wall behind them as they all watched the silver thread that was visible from the brick wa
ll, straining and pulling in.

Casey looked at Lisa, her face was contorted with concentration as she focused all her human and monstrous strength on releasing a little of the thread at a time to allow Toby fr
ee movement inside the chamber.

Meanwhile, inside the chamber Toby gasped in shock at the sigh that had been
revealed in front of his eyes.

In a space too big to measure were you don’t know where is up or down and everything seemed to blend into one color, he stood in a battle field surrounded by fal
len bodies.

Most of the bodies small, they appeared to be of children his age and some even younger, all of them decaying, aging without growing, long since lost the human
ity that they ones had in them.

"Din?!" Toby shouted, his voice trembling, still in
shock from the horrific sighs.

"Din?! Where are you!?" Toby screamed again, his voice coming back at him as an echo but no sound bu
t his own heart beat was heard.

Toby sigh, he didn't really expect an answer in this dead place but suddenly he felt a chi
ll run down his spine.

He turned around just in time to see Din appear inside one of the many fog like swirls of blue grey clouds that l
ittered the space between them.

Din’s soul was half floating in the air, his spirit surrounded by snake like fumes and the fog seemed to bind him from every pa
rt it could have a hold of him.

‘Is that how the
y are feeding?’ Toby shuddered.

"Din!" Toby took a step towards his friend and reached out his hand
s in order to try and grab him.

”Din.” His hands met his friends flesh and Toby screamed in pain, a horrible burning sensation shooting through his system as
his hands rested on Din’s body.

"
Ohh….Din…" Toby fought through what felt like raw iron pressed against his already opened skin.

He pushed his hands inside the fumes, refusing to give into the pain and give
up on getting Din out of there.

He felt himself almost thrown back, rejected like the side
of a powerful apposite magnet.

"Ten minutes, Toby!" He heard Lisa's voice; it seemed to come from everywhere, surroun
ding them from every direction.

"Shit."
Toby grinded his teeth. "No! I need more time!” He exclaimed, knowing that Lisa couldn't hear him.

”Shit! Din!" Toby screamed, finally grabbing a firm hold of his friend and pulling him out of the fumes, falling to the ground with Din’s seemingly
unconscious form on top of him.

”Din!” The incinerating sensation stopped but
his flesh still felt scorched.

"Din! Din! Wake up!" Toby rushed him, trying to pull his friend up from the floor and back into a conscious stat
e.

"Din! C'mon!" Din opened his eyes and cried out as Toby m
anaged to pull him half way up.

"I know
, I know it hurts but you have to focus, ok?" Toby forced Din to his knees and then grabbed a hold of his friends face, forcing Din to look up at him.

"C'mon! We have to find your body! I came for you! I am going to get you out of here! Stay with me, ok?" Din's eyes were wide open and tears ran down his face but a sort of understanding loomed behind the unfocused oracles as he slowly nodded, gesturing to the pile of bodies
to the left side of the field.

"Toby!
Five minutes! Get out now! You don’t have time!" Toby realized that Din must have heard Lisa's voice too cuss at that moment his body went rigid and he then tried to push Toby away.

Din tried to speak but words failed him, his throat felt burned. He raised one hand to his throat and with the other
gestured for Toby to leave him.

Toby growled
, he knew that Din was telling him to get out on his own but Toby wasn't having any of that. He shook his head furiously.

"I am not leaving you behind again! If you want me to get out you have to com
e with me! Do you understand?!"

Din smiled weakly at Toby's stubbornness, havi
ng only enough strength to nod.

 
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"Where are they?!" Jon asked, concerned, lookin
g at the unchanging brick wall.

"One minute." Lisa scoffed, looking at her human watch. "I will have to let the thread go if he doesn’t
come out soon, we can't risk …"

"No! Look!!" Casey suddenly screamed
, pointing at the wall as a transparent hand came through the red breaks that now glowed in silver and bright blue.

"Grab them! Pull them out!"

Lisa urged the excited teens as the space around them began to glow.

"Ten! Nine! Eight…"

Casey and Colin jumped up to the wall and grabbed Toby’s out stretched hand.

They pulled him harshly and together they yanked both him and Din free of the chamber, seconds before the thread disconnected and Din's body hit the floor alongside with Toby’s, his soul joini
ng the pile seconds after that.

"Din?" Toby crouched down beside Di
n's soul and slightly shook it.

Din steered, willing his eyes open
as he focused his gaze on Toby.

"W
here…Where am I?” He stuttered.

"You're safe." Toby smiled, looking u
p at Casey. “Give him the box.”

He said and then Casey nodded and crouched down a
s well, handing the box to Din.

“Open it.” Din looked at them lost. “Just open it
, we will explain in a second.”

Casey smiled.

Din shrugged and took the box into his hands, pulling the lid open and handing it back to Casey who pulled out the last shard of the divided crystal.

“No more riddles.” Casey whispered, attaching the last shard to the bigger peace she already had from the other two boxes, watching as it too merged with the half mended crystal, creating a cone like shaped whole c
rystal in the palm of her hand.

"Now what?"
Toby asked puzzled. "How do we use it?"

"May I?" Lisa took the crystal from Casey's open palm and pu
lled Toby’s body closer to her.

“Like this." She said as she turned the crystal and placed it on Toby's forehead,
looking at it with certain awe.

The crystal gave out a bright blue light and Toby's soul shimmered and disappeared, his body opened its eyes almost insta
ntly, smiling up at the others.

"Now you."
Lisa pointed at Din who still looked a bit disoriented. 

She moved closer to him and plac
ed the crystal on his forehead.

“It’s warm…"

Din whispered before his soul also faded and his body breathed in, in new life.

"Din!” Toby practically jumped on
his friend to hug him tightly.

"Wow!”
Din laughed, hugging Toby back.

“Having...Tr
ouble...To breathe here, Toby."

"At least you are breathing!" Casey laughed at him as she took the crystal back from Lisa. "Thank you for bringing our friends back,” She sai
d, looking into her human eyes.

“I’m sorry for…”

“It’s ok.” Lisa raised her hand. “Forget it Casey, I would have acted the same.”

“Right…” Casey smiled bitterly. “Now let's get back to our room and finally bring Morgan back…" Casey turned to h
er brother.

"What do you say M
organ? Let's…Morgan? Morgan!!!"

Morgan was lying on the floor, his eyes wide open but it was clear
that he was looking at nothing.

“Morgan!” Casey hurried to him as Jon laid his brother’s head on his knees; this scene was l
ooking horribly familiar.

"I'm dying…" Morgan whispered as Casey took his
trembling hand into her palms.

"No! You are not!" Casey screamed. “We have the crystal M
organ! You can’t leave me now!”

She exclaimed
, grabbing Morgan under his neck and knees and swinging him up off the floor.

"I am not going to let this happen again! We have to get back!" She howled, not giving her friends' the time to react as she turned on her heels and ran back to their room with Morgan's fading spirit in her arms, as light a
s a feather.

 
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