Sometimes I forget just how freaking massive this book is–45 chapters, though this sample chapter is one of the longer ones–considering it was the first full-length novel I’d ever completed. It took me eight months to finish the first draft, and four more to get to Draft 1.5. This is a story I definitely want to come back to, but I like it too much to do that anytime soon. I want to establish and develop my skill as an author before I attempt a rewrite (and trust me, it NEEDS a rewrite).
–Reagan Larsen
23
Waxing Crescent
189 Days
<p>ML=232 We have lost. Rathtorot has won. The [CENSORED] killed everyone! He has given us twenty-five days before he will destroy our sun. He has since left the planet. He mentioned it was uncustomary for him to do so so early and he had “important business” elsewhere.</p>
Richard woke up to his alarm ringing. It was five o’clock. He shut it off and stared at his ceiling for a minute, then realized he didn’t remember ever coming home from last night at dinner. What happened? he thought. He felt fine now. Did he have a seizure? Did people who have seizures hear and see things while doing so? He remembered hearing Lydia’s voice, and maybe his parents and Alturaz, but nothing else. The more he thought the more the images and sounds slipped from his mind. Maybe a good run will clear my mind.
He hopped off his bed and waddled over to the light switch. The light turned on and he blinked as his eyes adjusted to it, then turned to his dresser and got dressed in his black running clothes. He stretched them out a bit, they were just washed and a little snug, and sat down to put his shoes on. He stood up
kill alturaz
All the letters were lowercase and the handwriting was sloppy and disconnected like someone trying to write with their eyes closed. The marker was still open on his windowsill. It had been written inside of his room.
Richard looked around his room, balling his fists, ready for a fight. Did someone sneak into his room? Why would they write this? Dimension, Richard thought. Dimension wants me to kill Alturaz so he can succeed. Was Alturaz that much of a threat to Dimension? But why would he write it in such a way, and so poorly?
Richard picked up the marker. It was one he kept on his dresser. Unless it wasn’t Dimension that wrote it.
What if it was himself?
Questions ran through his mind, almost giving him another headache. This worried him. If his enemies had this much power over him, then how far could it go? Could they get him to hurt someone? To hurt himself? A note is one thing, and he didn’t feel any inclinations to do as it said, but if it was his hand that wrote it…
He didn’t feel like running anymore. Richard opened his phone, took a picture of the message, and searched how to remove permanent marker from glass. He stalked upstairs and found a can of WD-40. Apparently he could spray that on and it would help scrub it off. He spent the next few minutes making sure there were no more signs of marker on his window.
Satisfied with his work, Richard sat down on the end of his bed, unsure of what to do next. What happened last night was connected to this message somehow. Or maybe he was being irrational. He had slept through coming home, so maybe someone had snuck into his house while they were out and wrote it then. Either way it unsettled him.
Didn’t Rebecca say she needed to tell me something? He whipped out his phone and checked his messages. There was nothing new since yesterday. He sent a text saying, “Something really weird happened last night. What was it you needed to tell me? Sorry this is super late.” He waited a second then added another text, “Or super early. You know, since it’s before 6.”
He set his phone down and waited. She won’t be up this early, he thought. She’s not going to—
His phone buzzed.
“Eat a toasted bagel with peanut butter. That’s what he told me to tell you. I guess that works for breakfast, but it didn’t make sense yesterday.” So Rebecca was up.
“That’s it?” he asked.
“Apparently. We’re coming to pick you up in ten minutes. He still won’t tell me what’s going on.”
“K. I’ll be there.”
Richard went into the kitchen, found a bagel in the back of the fridge, and toasted it. He was still in his running clothes, but Alturaz would have known that or else he would have told him to change. After he finished the bagel he ran outside and found Alturaz, Devin, and Rebecca waiting in his sleek black car. It was electric so it made no noise. The moon was visible in the clear sky and the sun was just starting to come up. The summer air was chilly and gave his exposed arms goosebumps, and the scent of dew lingered in the air. A good morning.
Richard got in the backseat of the car and immediately said, “Hey, I’ve got some questions.” Alturaz drove off. “What the heck happened last night?” He would refrain from telling him about the note on his window. He would if it came down to it or if Alturaz asked. He already knew, of course, but Richard wanted some freedom in finding things on his own.
Rebecca, who was in the front passenger seat, turned to look at him. “Sorry to interrupt, but you need to see this.” She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture. On it was a message written in blood on a brick wall, a bloody leg just visible in the bottom left of the photo.
RICHARD EVERS THEINTERN
I CHALLENGE YOU
FIND ME AT EON HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL
7:00 TUESDAY
Richard cursed. “Tuesday, that’s today.” He glanced at Alturaz. “Toubab?” Alturaz nodded. Richard cursed again and started to panic. He’s challenging me? How does he know who I am? I’m not ready! I—
“Calm down, Richard. It’s not what you think.” Alturaz turned around to look at him like Rebecca and kept driving, stopping and turning where appropriate despite looking the wrong way.
Rebecca pulled her phone away. “There were sixty-eight of these found all over town, all saying the exact same thing.”
“Sixty-eight?” Devin asked. Rebecca nodded. “Man, too bad there wasn’t one more. Then it would be—” he saw Rebecca’s scowl and stopped. “Sorry. That was rude and insensitive. Sorry.”
“Why is he here?” Richard pointed to Devin with his thumb.
Devin let out a disgruntled “Hey!” and Alturaz said, “He is coming with us just in case anything goes wrong. He can teleport in and get you out fastest. Not that anything will go wrong, he’s just a precaution.” Alturaz turned the car down a familiar road. “Toubab had a run-in with Dimension who told him your name. He’s fully expecting a battle to the death, but when he sees that you are not Dimension he will do something else. If I tell you what it is, Toubab will find out something is wrong and kill you then and there. As you are now, you are not ready.”
“What do you mean, ‘something else?’ Where are we going?” Richard shouted. Sweat formed on his skin. His seatbelt was too tight. The temperature in the car was too high.
“I cannot tell you. All I can say is this: Back and forth, and look to the moon when you can’t move on.”
Richard swore again. “Oh, come on! Don’t give me that mystical crap! Just give it to me straight!” Devin nodded, keeping his mouth shut.
The car stopped, and Alturaz answered with, “I made sure you came in your running clothes. Whether you use them or not, that’s all I can say to ensure your safety.” He turned to Devin and said, “stay in the car. If things get messy I’ll let you know.” Devin nodded.
Alturaz got out of the car and rounded the front, opening the door for Rebecca. Richard also got out of the car into the fresh, open air.
And saw the ruins of his old school. Both he and Rebecca stared at the partially collapsed building. He supposed many people might look upon their old high schools and relive memories of their time there. Richard and Rebecca were no exception, but the memories they relived were not pleasant. The sight alone made him smell smoke. He could hear the thunder, though from lightning or gunshots he didn’t know. Both, maybe.
He is here, Richard shivered. Toubab is here.
But so was the national guard. Stationed on the grounds was an encampment with soldiers rushing this way and that. They had all but erected a small barricade of sand bags in front of the school. Armored vehicles were parked on the grass and on the road in neat lines and the roads themselves had been blocked off.
A soldier came to see them. He held a gun in his arms and looked ready to use it. “You can’t be here. This is a restricted—”
“I am Dr. Jesse Alturaz and this,” he gestured to Richard, “is Richard Evers, the intern at FRAIM Labs.” The soldier’s eyes widened.
Oh, now I get it, Richard thought, thinking of the combined words “the” and “intern” Toubab had written in the messages.
The soldier looked at Rebecca. “And who are you?”
Alturaz said, “she’s with me. It’s Richard you want.”
“Do you have an ID?”
Richard reached for his pockets but alas, these were his running shorts so he didn’t have his wallet. But Alturaz did. Alturaz pulled out both his and Richard’s ID’s and showed them to the soldier. He nodded his head in satisfaction and led them to the middle of the small camp. There were maybe two hundred people there. Police sirens wailed in the distance, getting closer.
In the middle was a man with graying temples and a nose that looked as though it had been broken several times. The soldier halted and stood straight and said, “Lieutenant Davis!” The man turned, a hard expression on his face. He looked ready to punch the closest thing to him. Richard, in trying to prepare himself mentally for a fight, sized him up. The man looked like he would be difficult to beat, but looks could be deceiving. Either way Richard wouldn’t want to fight him. This man had far more experience than he did. The soldier continued. “I have Richard Evers. Shall I call off the search team?”
Davis nodded his head and the soldier ran off. He looked at Richard, who was a couple inches taller than him. “You’re Richard Evers?” the man said.
“Yes sir, I am,” Richard responded, trying to be polite.
Davis waved his hand and called a woman over. “Sergeant Byers, this is Richard Evers. Give him the rundown.” Davis turned and shouted orders, sending soldiers scrambling to get to stations. Many of them lined up behind the barricade wielding their guns and training them on the building.
“Richard Evers?” she said.
“Yes ma’am?”
“You were the local hero during the attack on this school, right?”
Richard rubbed the back of his neck. He felt very out of place in his running clothes amongst these uniformed men and women. “Well, I don’t know about—”
Alturaz nudged him. “Richard, remember what I said and you’ll do fine. Don’t forget to breathe. We’re going to be watching from the side.” He patted him on the back, and turned away. Rebecca glanced back at him one last time.
“Mr. Evers, do you have any idea why Toubab challenged you?” she pronounced Toubab’s name with some difficulty.
What should Richard do? There was no harm in answering honestly. And if there was Alturaz would have stopped him. “I believe Toubab is gathering champions to fight him, so he must have found out about what I did at the school somehow and came here.” It sounded cocky, but Byers took it as an honest attempt at an answer.
Police began arriving and added their support to the military.
“Do you know how to use a gun? I know you know martial arts, but you’ll need something more reliable.” Richard nodded and she handed him her pistol. She gave him a brief overview of how to use it, but Richard already knew. It was a Sig Sauer M18, the chosen handgun for the US military. Sig Sauer released a civilian edition of the gun, the P320-M18, but Richard had never used one before. And now he held the real thing in his hands.
“Keep this close, and only use it if you absolutely must. Now, come with me,” she said. Richard followed her and together they walked to an entrance near the school. There a soldier waited for them carrying a bulletproof vest. Richard accepted it and put it on. Byers spent the next fifteen minutes going over what Richard was to do and what he was to say. They wanted him to go in slowly and find out what Toubab wants and what he plans to do next, if possible. Soldiers would be stationed all around and would extract him if he needed it. Their conversation, if one occurred, would be recorded.
“Are you ready?” she asked. “You have the right to say no. If you do, you will be taken to an undisclosed location where you will be safe from Toubab.”
“What about my parents? Will they know what’s happening?”
Byers bit her lower lip. “They will be notified.”
“And the rest of the city?”
“Depending on what happens in there, we’ll probably have to evacuate. Are you ready, Mr. Evers?”
Richard took a few deep breaths, then nodded. Byers nodded to the soldier who handed him the vest, and they walked to the main entrance. The glass and doors were gone so all that was left was the entryway. They walked in.
Byers turned on a flashlight. There was no electricity in the building so it became rather dark. Most of the rubble had been cleared away which gave the school a hollow, empty feel, like a cave. Their footsteps echoed down the hallway until they reached the first set of stairs. Up they went to the third floor. A blue curtain had been placed over the doorway here, and two armed soldiers stood guard on both sides.
“This is it,” Byers whispered. She checked her watch and set her hand on his shoulder. “He is beyond that door. If anything goes wrong, turn, run, and shout. We’ll get you out. I’ll be right here.”
Richard nodded and breathed in one last time. The soldiers grabbed a part of the curtain and pulled it free. Richard stepped in. The curtain behind him closed.
And there he was. Toubab stood at the opposite end of the long hallway. The destroyer of a thousand worlds. The man who ruined Africa and set the world into a state of hysteria. The wind moaned through the empty windows, shining light in the hallway every few feet. To Richard’s right were streaks of blood as though a body had been dragged back through the curtain. Toubab wore a silvery skin-tight suit with blue lights running up and down it, exposing his pale head. Richard had seen blurry footage of him before, but this clear shot of him struck him. He looked exactly like what he was. Alien.
“Welcome, Richard Evers Theintern,” he said. Similar to Dimension, his voice could be heard in every direction and vibrated his very being. His words were slurred and he almost hissed like a snake. “I been wanting to see you for long time. Now you here.” Richard shivered.
What a funny accent. Richard swallowed, summoning his courage. Alturaz is outside. Everything will be fine. “I saw your message. So here I am. But my question is, why are you here?” Richard took a step forward, and Toubab stepped back suddenly in a jerky motion, afraid. That’s right. He thinks I’m Dimension. And technically, he was.
“The same reason as you. I was summoned here. I am responding to message.” He sounded preoccupied as though he were doing something else while talking. It was hard to tell from this distance, but Toubab almost looked confused with something.
He’s onto me. “Well? Whatever it is you called me for, let’s do this.” Richard cocked the gun and raised it up to Toubab.
Toubab jerked his head to the left and fell silent. In a blur, Toubab punched to the side, but his arm disappeared just past the elbow. He was reaching into the fourth dimension. Richard heard a yelp, and Toubab pulled his arm back out of the other dimension, this time gripping Michael by the throat and throwing him to the ground. “Run! They’re everywhere! Gah!”
Toubab raised his other arm, about to strike. Richard aimed the gun up and shouted, “Wait!”
Toubab stopped moving and looked back at Richard, who stepped closer. Toubab looked back at Michael, who clawed at Toubab’s hands, then threw him out one of the open windows. Michael screamed as he fell. A sound like thunder blew from outside, but not a gunshot. That would be Devin catching Michael. One of the soldiers opened the curtain, but Richard spun and shook his head. The soldier retreated.
“Who are you?” Toubab asked, his voice cold.
“I am Richard Evers.”
“You not the hero of this… school? That is why I chose this place.”
“I am.”
“You are not Richard Evers Theintern. But you still may work.”
“What do you mean ‘still may work?’” Richard stepped in closer, but Toubab no longer recoiled as he had. So he had figured out he wasn’t Dimension. Alturaz said he would challenge him to something else, right?
“I have game for you.” A memory of Dimension standing above both he and Lydia flashed in Richard’s mind when he said this. Richard felt a pressure at his chest, and in a flash a small hexagonal plate the size of his palm appeared over his upper back just between and below his shoulder blades. Richard couldn’t see this, but it glowed blue around the edges and from it the same silvery material Toubab wore grew from it and wrapped itself around his body.
Richard felt its tickle along with a tightening like his skin was being pulled together. He scrambled to get whatever it was off of him. He saw it wrap around his sides and he clawed at it, but to no avail. It wrapped itself around him, and with a click locked itself in place. It had only taken three seconds to envelope him. Lines running up his legs and chest began to glow and pulse. It felt skin-tight but didn’t suffocate or squeeze. It wrapped around every muscle, between his fingers, and over his feet. He could see indentations for his fingernails and bellybutton and thankfully the groin and waist area had a thicker protection that wasn’t as detailed as everywhere else. He got used to the tight feeling quickly but felt weirdly naked. When he squeezed his hands the suit acted just like his skin. He could see his knuckles move and undulate as he flexed. His clothes underneath made no indentation; it was as if they weren’t there.
“What is this?” he asked.
“I have game for you,” Toubab repeated. “Is simple game. If you touch me, I consider you to be champion and let everyone in city leave. If you are who you say you are, then you can fight. Is good. You must prove you able to think as well. Not difficult, but you must have fastness. You have one hour to touch me when I say ‘go.’ If you do not touch me in one hour, I destroy city now. Sound fair?”
“No.”
Toubab frowned, unsure of how to respond. Something light hit Richard’s right thigh. He looked to see what it was, but saw nothing. Richard looked back at Toubab, who said nothing. I just have to touch him? There will probably be obstacles in the way. Okay… I can do an obstacle course. Richard held his gun at the ready.
Toubab levitated up in the air, his feet pointed downwards a foot above the floor. He raised his arms and said softly, “Go.” Richard took off sprinting and immediately felt a sense of nausea. His vision spun and he felt off-balance. He stepped forward.
No, it wasn’t his vision that was spinning. It was everything around him. With each step he took the hallway lengthened. He took another step, and the hallway grew longer. The square holes for windows became rectangles, and the clouds outside grew long and narrow. Another step and the effect increased. Another and another. Each time, Toubab grew further away.
What is happening? Maybe it will take me an hour to reach him… Richard ran, squinting his eyes to avoid looking around him. Doing so gave him a headache. His body wasn’t getting longer, and he could move normally. The ground slid underneath his feet, but he kept his balance. Toubab grew further and further in the distance. Richard allowed himself to pause. Looking around everything was much longer, but he was the same. So maybe, it wasn’t the hallway lengthening, but him compressing. He had only been running for a minute and made it a few feet down the hallway.
Then he got an idea. He stepped backwards, and the room compressed slightly back together, just as much as it lengthened when he moved forward. Richard walked backwards, keeping his eyes on Toubab, who grew closer as he walked backwards. Richard turned and ran back the way he came towards the curtain, until at last the room righted itself.
And took one more step backwards. This time, it was he who lengthened and the room compressed. Maybe, just maybe, I’m not supposed to run towards him for an hour, but away from him for an hour. I’m going to have to run around the world! He took off running, bursting past the stationed soldiers and leapt out of the window.
He expected to fall to the ground, but instead stepped on something hard. A bridge, made of condensed air. Rebecca stood below him, making a bridge for him downwards. “Thank you!” he called.
She looked like she wanted to say something, but visibly bit her inner cheek. Richard continued running, the world around him getting thinner and thinner as he grew longer and longer. He imagined he would look very strange to anyone looking at him from the side, but perfectly normal to anyone facing him head on. He would have to watch out for those people and buildings as they would come fast.
He never got used to the view, but he found a way to focus by staring straight ahead. He ran through streets, between houses, and down alleyways. When he came to a fence he jumped with his arms out, but found his jump had launched himself up in the air a good twenty feet. Before he knew it he made it to the outskirts of the city. He passed the train. He wasn’t as long as it yet, but he would be soon.
But as he ran he found it harder and harder to breath, and harder still to move. What’s going on? I can’t be tired yet! Alturaz had made him run much harder and longer than this. Then it hit him, almost literally. If the world around him was compressing, then so was the air around him. Soon it would be like wallowing through a thick sludge, and further on the air would be as a brick wall.
He stopped and heard someone scream. He was as long as a house now. But he didn’t care for them. And then he remembered what Alturaz had told him, and looked up at the moon. There’s no air in space… Which was another problem in and of itself. There was no air in space. How could he breath? He put a hand on his chest and took a deep breath, imagining what he was going to have to do.
Something beeped and he looked down. His finger accidentally pressed a button on the front of the suit. From around his neck more of the silver grew until it encased his face. A clear visor appeared and a HUD appeared with alien symbols and characters, charts and something that looked like his vitals. At the bottom of the HUD he could see a long bar. When he breathed in, the bar lowered a small amount. Oxygen, he thought. So Toubab knew he would be needing this.
Richard smirked and looked up at the moon. He didn’t have time to think what would happen if he missed. Everyone in Eon Heights was counting on him to make it to the moon and back. In less than an hour. Was it possible? Was he over thinking this? Maybe. But he had to try. Richard hopped once and ran, then leaped straight up into the air.
The air was thick enough that he could press against it with his feet. It wasn’t stable, but it helped propel him upwards. The clouds thinned and compressed as he went higher and higher into the sky. He heard his breathing inside his helmet. There wouldn’t be any air in space he could use to push himself, so in this final stretch as he reached the top of the atmosphere he pushed and ran harder than ever.
And then he broke free. No longer could he push against he air for there was no air. He continued at a pace that allowed him to stay free of the earth’s gravity pull. He quickly passed thin satellites and continued for the moon. Somehow, with some stroke of luck, he was headed straight for it. He felt weightless as though he were falling. His stomach lurched. Stars of all colors dotted the black background and shined like polished jewels. The moon grew closer and closer. He couldn’t tell if the compressing effect was working still, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now.
Richard got an idea, and chuckled. He positioned his body to be parallel with the moon, then raised his right arm towards it like a superhero flying through the sky. He kept his arm out and flew for another ten minutes, but never once got bored. The moon quickly approached him, and as it did so did his worries. How am I going to turn around? What if I miss it and fly off into space? What if I don’t get back in time. How will I get back to normal if I get back?
The moon looked like a thick disk in an ellipsoid shape. He got closer, faster and faster. He wasn’t going to make it. He was going to brush against the side, maybe bounce off. And that would be it. Everyone in Eon Heights would die and he would be stranded in space to die from a lack of oxygen.
No! His window was closing. He felt the moon’s weak gravity, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop him. He passed by the side of the moon, seeing all of the craters and dust. He was so close now. He could touch it.
With a scream, Richard dug his left arm into the moon, dragging it along its surface. His arm bounced back, stinging with pain from the impact. He was traveling at such a fast speed anything he touched would ram him like a truck. But that didn’t matter. He had to get back. Richard grit his teeth and threw his hand out again. It still hurt, but his hand caught and dragged along the rock, cutting into it. He yelled through his teeth, but the important thing was that it was working. At this pace he rounded the moon, rocks and dirt flying behind him. He didn’t dare rotate himself again to try and run on the surface lest he kick too hard and guarantee he miss Earth.
He didn’t know how long it was till he saw his home planet again, but he rounded the moon and there it was, only a crescent showing. The rest of the planet was covered in lights for the nighttime. Three, two, one, now! Richard pushed off the moon and sent himself flying back to earth. He clutched his arm. He couldn’t see anything wrong with it, but the suit was now scratched and discolored, but otherwise unbroken.
As he got closer, something became very apparent. He was going to land in the ocean, far away from Eon Heights. He may have made it back to earth, but there was no way he could make it to his city. No, there had to be something he could do. Alturaz would think of something. A way to slow Toubab down, or evacuate everyone before Toubab destroyed it.
He reached the planet much faster this time, which meant he was still lengthening and getting faster and faster. He neared the ocean and knew he would crash. He might be able to try and kick off the atmosphere and get to land where he could try to run back to Eon Heights. Or maybe the air would be so thick he wouldn’t be able to reenter at all.
He yelled, when right before he hit the highest clouds, everything snapped back into its rightful place. He almost threw up. Short clouds expanded thousands of times until they were their proper size, stars returned to their proper positions, and Richard was no longer several miles long. He fell, but didn’t feel the cold, his suit keeping him warm.
The ocean was massive, blue in every direction. It was beautiful the way its waves crashed against each other and sparkled in the early morning sun. This must be the pacific ocean judging from where the sun was. How long has it been? Am I too late?
Something caught his eye. It was a black plane, flying straight towards him. I go through all these lengths to run to the moon and manage to get back, just to get hit by a plane on my way down. Unfortunate. The plane turned its nose up and flew upwards above Richard, then turned and streaked downwards straight for him.
Just below the plane Richard could see an opening. There was a man there, strapped to the side. The plane got closer and closer, until it came over Richard. It caught him inside of its opening, then straightened itself out slowly. Richard floated inside the plane for a few seconds, the plane falling as fast as he was, then gently landed on the floor. The plane had caught him.
“Richard Evers,” the man who had been strapped to the side said. He unhooked himself and sat next to Richard. The interior of the plane was small and had two benches on both walls of the plane. This wasn’t a commercial jet.
“I need to get to Eon Heights!” Richard breathed, now aware of how tired he felt. The snap back to normal size had shaken him. “As fast as possible!”
“Don’t worry, that’s where we’re going. And, uh, I’m supposed to tell you that you have thirteen minutes left.” The man wore a uniform of some kind, something that looked like a pilot suit.
“I need to get to Eon Heights before then!”
“Don’t worry!” Another voice called from the front. The pilot, who wore the same black uniform as the first man, called from the front. She smirked, and turned back. Richard could barely see a sliver of land up ahead. “I’ll get you there in ten.”
“Sit down,” the man said. “And hang onto something.” They both did so, and the plane lurched forward. Richard held on with his right arm and kept his left arm cradled between his thighs. The man fished into his pocket and pulled out a note card.
The man pointed to a backpack on the wall. “You’ve never used a parachute?”
Now that you mention it, I’ve been skydiving twice, but never with a parachute. “No, I haven’t.” His voice sounded muffled. His helmet was still on. He patted his chest until he found the button to release the helmet. It was more a touchscreen than anything mechanical. The helmet shrunk back into the rest of the suit.
The man’s eyebrows rose, then he looked back at his note card. “Unfortunately with the way Toubab has things set up, if anyone other than you enters the school they will die, so you will have to do this yourself. I’ve set the parachute to automatically deploy at the correct altitude for you to get there at the right time.” They spent the next minute setting the parachute rig up to Richard as the man briefly instructed him on how to fall properly, how to arch his back, and how to steer.
“The school is the drop point. You need to angle yourself, uh,” he looked down and read off of the note card “’as if you would crash into the side of the wall.’ His words, not mine. Are you ready?”
“I’ve had worse landings, so yes. I am.” Richard stood up and looked out the window. He saw Eon Heights in a clearing in the mountains. They were almost there.
The man lifted a side door, not the bottom they had caught Richard with, and wind screamed in. Richard put his helmet back on and stood just outside the door. Once again I’m going to be jumping and trying to land on the school. Maybe this was how the time loop worked. Time really did pass but he would have to do and say the same things over and over again anyway, like school.
The man counted down from three, then shoved Richard out of the plane. He was falling again, but this time he knew he had a way back. Just a couple minutes left. He would be cutting this close. Too close. He floated down to the school, keeping his belly facing the ground. He saw the orange handle on the right side of the parachute and the metal one on the left. What if the automatic deployment failed? Could he use the parachute on his own? The man had told him how to use it just in case—lift up on the orange handle then punch down, then pull the metal handle straight down and lift your arms up. It sounded simple enough when he wasn’t falling a hundred and a half miles per hour.
He heard a beep and felt a jolt as his black parachute flew out behind him. Down below he saw the military, there seemed more of them now, and about fifty police cars all around the school. It was all too familiar. He looked up.
And there was Lydia.
She had no parachute but fell at the same speed he did. She was falling parallel to the ground just as they had when they fought in the air. He saw her lips move but couldn’t hear what she said.
Richard blinked and shook his head, and she was gone. Richard cursed and focused on his descent. He would land soon. He tried to push his legs out to brace himself for impact if he was to crash into the wall. His arm hurt, but the rest of his body would feel the same if he hit a brick wall. People yelled when they saw him, unsure of what to do. He saw Alturaz and Rebecca down below along with Cutter. They were all focused on him.
Before he crashed into the wall below an open window, something caught his parachute and he swung forward. He heard a swoop and the cords connecting him to the parachute were severed and he flew forward straight through the window. Toubab watched from inside.
Richard landed and rolled with his forward momentum, and punched Toubab in the face on his way up. “I’m back you bastard.” He smirked, feeling cool, until he remembered he had just punched the man who destroyed an entire continent.
Toubab felt at his jaw, but didn’t do anything. Richard stood up, now directly in front of him, and removed his helmet. They were the same height, though Toubab’s bald head gave him a slight disadvantage. His pupils slit like a cats and Richard saw his small fangs up close. A monster.
“Richard Evers Theintern, I admit I did not think you come back. You had help, but I let it.” Toubab looked at Richard’s hurt arm quizzically. He stepped back and rose into the air and looked into Richard’s eyes, literally seeing through him. He spoke louder this time. “When arena nears, I destroy this city and collect you as champion. You will save or destroy this planet.” Toubab slowly stepped out of the universe, parts of him disappearing entirely while the visible segments of his body morphed and molded in size and shape until they shrunk out of existence.
An air raid siren went off. Richard didn’t know Eon Heights even had those. They grew louder and softer in a frighteningly urgent tone. Richard sprinted down the hallway (which did not lengthen or compress this time) and burst through the curtains. The two soldiers who had been standing there were slumped against the wall, their guns hanging loosely from limp hands. Their necks and faces were purple and bruised. No time to think on that. There was nothing he could do.
He made it to the bottom and burst out the door where Rebecca ran in and hugged him. “You’re alive! Did you see the way we launched you into that window?”
“I know! That was so cool! I even rolled in, punched Toubab in the face, and said something cool.”
She laughed, and they laughed together. He had done it! Toubab would give everyone time to evacuate. Richard had run to the moon and back in less than an hour.
Cutter cleared his throat. “I helped too…”
Rebecca let go of Richard and turned. “Yes, you cut the parachute at just the right moment. Could you imagine if you weren’t here?” She turned to Richard. “You’d have just dangled outside the window as Toubab watched” Cutter smiled.
Alturaz finished speaking to Sergeant Byers and pointed her in the direction opposite of where they were. He ran over. “I’m sorry to break this up but Richard, if you want to see your parents again you need to leave now before the Military takes you away to a secure location.” He tossed the keys to his car and Richard caught them. “Press number two next to the door handle and get home. I’ve programmed a map to take you to your grandparents out a side street. It will take you along a dirt road through the mountains, but you’ll get out of the city faster that way. Now go!”
Richard nodded, hugged Rebecca once more, then sprinted to Alturaz’s car. Devin stepped out and opened the door for him. Richard felt invigorated with his victory. Plus, he hadn’t run almost the entire time he was in space, so it wasn’t as though he had run the entire time. His arm throbbed now, but he could still move it. First a stab wound on the arm, now a moon wound. What’s next? He felt he could take anything with the adrenaline running through him.
Richard closed the door and pushed the button to turn on the car. He pressed the button on the door and felt his seat move. He half expected it to transform into a jet or a tank, but no, it adjusted his seat for his comfort.
Richard sped off, driving faster than he should back to his house. He left the car running and jumped out, rushing to the front door. It was unlocked, thankfully, and he went inside. “Mom? Dad? I’m home!”
Together his parents came rushing to the hallway. “Oh, Richard!” his mother cried. They all came in for an embrace. “Where have you been?”
“On the moon. Come on, we need to leave, now!” They all heard the siren outside.
His parents looked at each other, and nodded. Daniel asked, “What are you wearing?”
“And what happened to your hand?” his mother asked, touching his bruised arm.
Richard pulled it close to him. “It’s nothing. Come on!”
“Where will we go?”
“To grandma’s house. There’s a dirt road we can use out of town to get there faster without all the traffic.”
Richard started to run to his arm, but his dad caught him by the shoulder. “You know, call it good timing I guess but we’ve already packed.” Richard stared. “Last night Jesse made the suggestion to have bags ready just in case. It was a good idea, so we did. Come help me get them.” Together they went into Daniel’s room. Against the wall next to the closet were three duffel bags. Daniel passed by the bags and searched in a dresser next to his bed. “Where is it,” Daniel muttered, then pulled out a leather notebook. “Ah ha!” He unzipped his bag and put it inside.
Daniel lifted his bag and Richard went to get his and his mother’s, but winced when he picked one up with his hurt hand. “Here, let me get that,” Daniel said. “You need to go to a hospital?”
“I’m fine,” Richard grunted. He didn’t like that he needed help to carry the bag, but it was the reality. “When we get to grandma’s we can go, but we need to get there first so let’s get going.”
Daniel was taken aback. “Son, are you okay? If this is about last night I’m—”
“No, it’s not. It’s something else, but I’ll explain in the car.”
They walked out and Emma took her bag from Daniel, then started for the garage. “No,” Richard said. “We’re using Alturaz’s car. It has a full tank of gas and he told me to use it.”
“But what will he—” Emma began before Richard cut her off.
“It doesn’t matter, just get in the car!” Richard swung the door open and walked out. He surprised himself with his anger. Where had it come from, and why was he so worked up? He should be excited and happy over his victory today. The excitement had worn off and all that was left was anger.
He stopped just before the car. “Hey, I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. You don’t deserve that.” He opened the trunk.
Emma plopped her bag inside. “No, I don’t.” Great, now she was upset.
The family got everything in the car and took off. Daniel drove. He never checked the map on the car, and even muted the voice telling him where to go. When Richard looked at him he said, “I know the road Jesse is talking about. I’ve used it before. It’s going to get bumpy, but it will take us out of town.”
The trip would be about three and a half hours until they arrived.
The family made it out of the mountains and onto the freeway beneath an overcast sky.
It was Richard who broke the silence.
“Mom? Dad? There’s something I need to tell you.” His parents perked up, listening. “You both know I’ve been involved with this whole Toubab situation. That’s where I was this morning. I’ve seen him. He was at the school.”
The road hummed beneath the tires. The car was electric, so the road was all they could hear.
“He’s gathering champions in some sort of tournament… He selected me to fight in it.”
The tires screeched as Daniel hit the brakes. He righted the car and kept going, but his knuckles were white against the steering wheel. “What?” his father said. “Richard, I hope you said no. You can’t reason with someone like him. I know you’ve seen the news!”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Richard said, gripping his arm. “He forced me into it. He said an arena is coming, and he’s going to use Eon Heights for it.”
“But Richard!”
“Do you know why you are still alive right now? It’s because of me! Toubab already challenged me to something this morning. Dad, he has powers and resources you’ve never seen before! He challenged me, and I won. If I lost, the town would be wiped off the face of the earth, but it wasn’t. Just take a telescope and look at the moon! I’m sure you can see where I was. That’s what this is for!” He pointed at his suit.
“So all this time,” he breathed, “you’ve been working with Jesse and now he’s taken your life from you all so you can fight an alien. What about college? What about your future? We want some grandkids; you need to continue the Evers family legacy for us, but you can’t do that if you’re killed by Toubab!”
Richard fought back tears. “A legacy of murder? Trust me, I’ve got that covered.”
Emma breathed in sharply but didn’t say anything. Daniel jerked the car to go straight, but his steering was getting worse. A tear ran down Richard’s face, and he took a deep breath. “But Dad, there’s something, someone, else, beyond Toubab. He—he’s the one who killed Dr. Flynn.”
“Daniel, look out!” Emma screamed.
A reflective black monolith, spiked at the top, fell from the sky and crashed in the road, its width almost as wide as the road itself, and it stood easily fifty feet tall. The cars up ahead were blown off the road and into the rocky sides. Broken asphalt, dirt, and stone flew into the air, pelting the top of the car. Daniel thrust his foot into the break and everyone lurched forward as the tires caught and stopped, skidding down the road. The car behind them bumped into them, the air bags deploying.
They ran out of the car. Behind them about one hundred yards a second monolith fell from above the clouds. The shockwave hit again and the three hid behind their car to protect themselves from the impact. A large man hid behind their car as well. Within seconds of each other a third and fourth monolith fell, forming a square. A family with four kids ran out of their car, screaming. A chunk of rock flew through the air, towards them. Richard shouted, “Behind you! Get away!” But they didn’t hear. The rock came closer, but just before it hit them, it shrank, morphing shape and varying shades of gray, until it disappeared. The family ran on, not knowing what almost happened.
The spires of each monolith began to glow, blue energy zipping around them, then the ground shook. The ground below them lifted into the air, rising up the monoliths like an elevator. Not one foot off the ground, a pulse came from the center, blowing off all the ground, road, cars, and people off the enormous platform revealing an ornate glass floor with sand blasted floral designs. Everything came off, except the Evers, as it rose fifty feet into the air.
People screamed and took video from below, others ran and cried. The Evers held each other tight until the glass structure stopped at the top of the monoliths.
A caped figure in black descended from the clouds, gently touching down in the center of the glass platform. Emma stood up, followed by Richard and Daniel. Richard took the lead and walked toward the figure. “Richard?” Emma asked, but she wasn’t talking to her son.
Dimension stepped forward, and came within ten feet of the family. He had been over fifty feet away before the step, or at least an illusion made it look so, but all it took was a single regular step for him to cross that distance. His voice threatened to shatter not just the glass platform, but the monoliths holding it up as well.
Richard nodded to Dimension. “That’s him.”
“Mom, Dad, I need to borrow your son for a while.”
Reagan Larsen 