“I don’t know what to think, either this is the most amazing view I have ever seen or the most terrifying.” Gregory finally breaks their silence.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
As they start looking around the fiery mountain, they notice all around it is ice and snow, which is in the process of melting as the hot lava reaches it. They could see some of the earth beneath it start to reveal itself. The ice stretched as far as they could see. Now some cracks start to form and steam was rising in a rapid pace. The hot red lava slowly started to change to a black dark liquid, which covers the ice and earth.
“What to do we do now, do you think Father Lemach and the rest of his people made it?”
“I am not sure, but Father Lemach did not strike me as a fool, and he would have known about this, in fact maybe that is why all the people were fleeing the Stream and away from the city zones.”
“Hmm…” Gregory runs his hand through his hair.
“Wait a minute… We did not think of something through all this crazy twenty four hours. We learned that the planet was shifting and moving, so what used to be the destination before is no longer the case. Since the link is down, the vehicle only knows what it had in memory, and could not update changes.”
“Oh right,” Gregory responds, “so now we are somewhere different physically but according to the nav system we are excalty where you told it to be.”
“Yeap that is it, and since we cannot tell where we are we cannot know where we want to go.”
“Great, this has become quite a trip, but at least we are together that is the important part.”
“I agree, and I think we have enough sustenance to wait this out for a little while and make a decision then. You said you found Syntech pellets?”
“Yes,” Gregory reaches for the bottles in the front cabin, while Jasmine goes through her backpack.
“Here are the two containers,” Gregory hands them to her.
“Good, and I have ours that we did not use, and also got some cans from Father Ed’s kitchen.”
“God rest his soul, he gave us more than we could ever have thanked him for.”
“Amen,” Jasmine responds. Then she pulls out his Stole, which she noticed that it has his blood on it. She remembers the ring and pulls it from underneath her gown. “I got those two things to remember him by, as relics, like Saint Philomena he died a martyr in the name of our Lord and His work.”
They fall silent for a few minutes, and then Jasmine continues. “I also got our active jump suits that we packed for the trip. They are more comfortable.”
“I have the med gun and Mr. Bills gun in the backpack. I have his data device as well. I am going to leave it in here as well, but technically it is mine now, since all his access ids have been removed.” She throws all the items into the backpack and seals it. “Okay time to change our clothes and we can talk about what to do.”
Gregory puts a hand on her shoulder, “I agree but not here, let’s go to the front cabin and leave Mr. Bill alone.”
They move to the front cabin with their jumpsuits, “Philomena close front cabin door.
“Request complete…” The door closes separating them from Mr. Bill.
As that happens Mr. Bills eeks out a slight moan, rolls a little then falls of the seat onto the deck and opens his eyes. His eyes were blood shot red and his grayish appearance had turned more yellowish and sick looking. “aaah… what happened?” He gets on his knees slowly and tries to stand but pain shoots through him with such speed and violence that he buckles under its weight. He lies back down on the deck and clenches his perfect teeth.
After a few moments, still clenching his teeth, he starts to get up again, even slower than before. He struggles every inch of the way until finally he gets to a sitting position on the deck with his back against the seat. He shakes his head trying to regain his thoughts of what transpired. He starts to recall the girl that had brought him this shame, and his hate rises inside of him. That hate for her will keep him going and alive. How did he survive? From all indications he should have died. He notices a backpack next to him, the girls backpack. He looks around the cabin and notes that he is all alone and that he is in the same vehicles rear cabin. His thoughts were all muddled at this point and it might be awhile before the hazy feeling goes away.
He reaches for the backpack and opens it. Inside he see the Syntech pellets and opens a bottle and takes two of the pellets, “that should help the healing.” Then he sees the med gun and that there was only a red tube left, “someone has given me the other two!” “Could it be that is why I am still alive?” He had questions and no one was around him to answer them. He looks at the front of the cabin and sees the door is closed. Maybe my subordinates survived and killed the criminals.
He looks again at the backpack and sees his gun and his device. He pulls both of them out, and leaves everything else in the backpack. He puts the gun on the seat, and starts to try and use his device. As he touched it the screen displays,
Access code or print needed…
Mr. Bill starts to access his device with his codes and with his prints but every time the message comes back…
id mismatch…access denied..
“Strange,” then he tries to use the administrators bypass code.
‘Access denied…’
Frantically he tries it again.
‘Access denied…’
“Is this mine, he looks at the back of it and sees the tag id, “yes that is mine like I thought.”
He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out an access card and inserts into the device.
“Access denied… Device locked…’
“Aaaahhh,” he almost screams this time, “that woman I hate her even more.” He had no doubt now that the criminals survived, and she hacked his device. He no longer had any id on that device.
I have to try and get to the control panel. I need to call ISDA main and see what is going on.” He clenches his teeth again knowing that the pain is coming as he makes a quick motion and stands up. A few grunts and hisses escape him but he does not scream out, he refuses to, for it was a sign of weakness.
Then he slowly walks up to the control panel, he sees a device inserted. Looks at the screen, and it shows him a disturbing message.
‘Voice commands only mode active…’
“I should have shot her with that old priest,” he sighs and goes back to the seat next to the gun. He puts the gun in his lap and closes his eyes.