Chapter 17: Mark of the Beast by Stephen Simpson
He jumped up from his bed and started running as fast as he
could toward the large, white building.
Lydia was here and he had to stop her. It was his destiny to
prevent her from stopping what had to happen.
When the first bomb went off, he staggered and fell. His mind was suddenly empty of the constant voice he had been hearing since he had been barcoded. He did not know who he was, and he did not know where he was.
The only thing he knew was that he had to kill Lydia.
*
The next explosion was the worst. It was closer to this side
of the building. A big plume of smoke rose from the building in shades of
yellow, orange, crimson, and charcoal. An explosive roar erupted from the cloud
of fire, and two large black circles formed in the shape. An outline of a mouth
gaped open, and the fireball swooped toward Lydia on the ground.
Liam was running toward Lydia, and it looked as if the red
monstrosity in the sky was leaping down to swallow her. He screamed for her to
move but she lay there looking up at it with a smirk on her face.
Lydia was not looking up at the monster shape looming above
her, her eyes were fixed on a big block of cement hurtling through the sky like
a comet. Fire and ash trailed behind it. It was coming straight for her.
Liam grabbed Lydia by her dislocated ankle and pulled her so
hard that she started to slide over the snow and grass.
“Cover your face!” Liam screamed.
Lydia covered her head with both arms as little pieces of
concrete rained down on her. When the big block landed a few feet away from her
head, she felt the earth shake beneath her. Sleet, mud, and grass flew up in a
tsunami and covered her whole body.
Liam fell onto the ground beside her. “What’s wrong with
you? That rock would have landed on you, flattened you like a pancake.”
She turned her head to look at him and smiled a wide smile.
“We did it.”
He looked sad. “I don’t know where Shaun is. He didn’t come
out the building.”
“No,” she murmured as the smile faded from her face.
They heard sirens and the thunderous sound of many boots
running on pavement as the soldiers rushed to see if they could try and stop
the total destruction of the data centre.
“Stay down,” Liam ordered.
She sat up. “There’s no way they’re not going to see us
here.” She looked over at the guardhouse and saw two silhouettes standing side
by side and guarded by a soldier. She nudged Liam. “I think that’s Giovanni and
Mandy over there.”
Liam sat up and squinted in that direction. “It does look
like them. Glad they’re safe.”
Lydia stood up, making sure not to put too much weight on
her ankle. She started to limp to the gatehouse.
Liam ran up and grabbed her by the arm. “What are you doing?
We have to get back to the fence and escape.”
She looked at him for a second and then it was as if a veil
fell from her face, and she knew exactly where she was again. “Yes. We have to
get out of here.”
Liam ran next to her, but the going was slow because Lydia
had to do a funny hobble limp run that was starting to hurt her hips more than
it was hurting her ankle.
A gunshot went off from behind them and Liam fell face down
onto the ground.
Lydia screamed, “No!” The sound of her voice echoed into the
night and chased the birds from the trees in the forest that they were running
toward. She knelt next to Liam and leaned closer to his face. “Are you okay?”
He did not say anything, but she heard a soft moan escape
his lips.
“Hang in there. I’m going to get help.”
She turned around and ran back the way they came. The
burning building looked beautiful, and she almost got mesmerised by the sight
again. The perfect vision of freedom and taking back the ability to make her
own choices. When man and woman were created, they each got their own free
will, and their own ability to make their own choices whether they were good or
bad. This ability was not bestowed upon a few who had to decide the will of the
masses.
She was limping-running with her head turned to look at the
blazing inferno that she and her brave friends had created, when she ran into a
solid frame. She fell backwards but a hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled
her back hard.
“Ouch,” she complained and looked at who it was.
Before her stood Jodie.
She could not help it when the first thought that flashed
through her mind was all the times that she had imagined kissing him. A warm
blush crept up her cheeks. She was confused because he had a murderous look on
his face, but he should have snapped out of the trance that he was in, like
everyone else now that the data centre was no more.
He pulled her closer to him and they were standing chest to
chest.
His face leaned closer. The fire behind Lydia was gleaming
on his face. Flames were reflected in his eyes, and it looked like there was a
fire burning in them. He hissed, “I knew you would come, and I was waiting for
you. Now, I will destroy you.”
She tried to take a step back, but he held her in place. Suddenly
she recognised who he really was and realised that there was never anything
that controlled him. He was her enemy. He had been her enemy since the
beginning of time.
Lydia laughed a soft, amused sound. “You can try as you so
often do, but, in the end, good will always destroy evil. Always. Try as you may,
you can make every effort to stop good, but you cannot and never will eradicate
it.”
Jodie circled his hands around her neck.
Shaun came from behind Jodie, holding a cement block from
the destroyed building in his hand, and swung it hard against Jodie’s head.
Jodie’s features went limp, and he slid down to the ground.
Shaun stepped closer to Lydia and brushed his knuckles
across her cheek. “You’re crying.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“You saved my life.”
He smiled a small smile. “Safety in numbers, remember.” He leaned closer and gave her a little peck on the side of her mouth. He put his arm around her, and said, “You let your little light shine, and because of you, we pushed back the darkness.”
All work created and posted on this blog is the intellectual property of Stephen Simpson.
Comments
Post a Comment