Chapter 2, Part I

“Menthrall, it’s worse." Jahure pointed to the ominous red blip on the radar, now a few hundred miles away from the northern outpost. He worriedly looked toward the door, hoping no one would come in and discover them.

Menthrall sighed. “It was your idea to come back here and check on it this time of night, Jahure. What did you expect?" He too glanced furtively at the entrance. “If we’re caught, we’ll be in deep trouble! They’ll find out we-"

“Yes, yes Menthrall. But what do we do now? It’s obviously coming closer to the outpost by the minute! If we stay silent, we could be making a very bad situation worse!"

“What do you want to do, Jahure? You know that they’ll find out that we kept quiet – the punishments are severe for withholding critical information."

“We didn’t know it was critical, Menthrall! We simply thought it was an off-chart flight!"

“We still should have reported it, and continued to investigate until we identified the ship. We made a terrible mistake. All we can do now is leave for our homes, and hope for the best."

“And not report? Menthrall, this is going too far; there are lives at stake here!"

“How do you know? We can’t identify the ship, Jahure. Even if we reported now, they wouldn’t be able to intercept it, let alone stop it from reaching the border."

“But the border guard is unprepared-“

“Are you with me or not, Jahure? We’d lose our jobs, our homes, possibly our lives for this mistake! Are you going to throw away your family to alert the guards of a possible border attack?"

“But-“

“We need to leave, Jahure. If we’re caught here-" Menthrall stopped short. Footsteps sounded outside the building, gradually getting nearer. He groaned.

“I had forgotten that the guard’s shift begins tonight! We need to get out of here, now!" The officers shut down the radar, deleting the account info the computer had recorded onto the computer. Grabbing their swipe cards, they hurried out the automatic doors into the darkness.

Little did they know what darkness they had unleashed.

*****

The young guard shook himself awake, suddenly aware of the faint sound echoing through the corridors of the outpost. He sat up in his bunk, gazing out into the empty hallway, trying to identify the noise. A humming noise, that’s what it was, he decided. Quietly he climbed out of bed, carefully stepping towards the door. Could it be the generator – no, it couldn’t be the generator; that only powered on for emergency situations such as violent atmospheric conditions.

He switched on his flashlight as he followed the noise into the narrow hallway on the second floor. What could it possibly be? The guard took a turn as the hum became louder. The noise was coming from-

But the hallway was empty; it was a dead-end to the external elevator! He confusedly shined his flashlight about, the beam radiating off the steel elevator door. Maybe the air conditioner was broken, he reasoned as he looked into the vent. Sure enough, the fan blade was hitting against the filter, creating a hum-like rattle. The guard sheepishly switched off his light. So much for the noise in the dark, he thought as he turned to go back to his room.

The hum suddenly grew much louder, drowning out the rattle of the fan. He turned around to face the elevator again. For the first time, he noticed the faint glow of the button on the wall. Why was that on-?

Suddenly he understood what the humming was. It was the noise of the elevator’s motor! But why would it be powered on? The guard opened the electric door and beamed his flashlight inside; nothing. Probably an error in the circuitry, he thought.

“Well, I guess I can manually turn it off from the dashboard, though it’s strange that it’s on this time of night." Turning the key in the lock, the guard carefully removed the cover, revealing the administrative controls. Just as he thought, the power was on, explaining the louder hum he had heard earlier. He reached for the power switch and turned it off.

Suddenly the car doors began to close. Frantically, he turned to race for the small opening, but tripped on the cover panel, and crashed to the ground just as the car was cased in inky blackness. He reached for his flashlight, only to discover that it had been lost in the confusion.

What had happened? The power had been cut off; there was no possible way that the doors would close as well. He would just have to spend the night in the elevator, waiting for morning, when his comrades could get him out. The guard stretched himself across the floor and tried to sleep. But he couldn’t ward off the feeling that something wasn’t right.

Suddenly something shuffled across the floor; the sound of footsteps. But was it footsteps, or else-

The guard leaned against the wall, every muscle tensed. He was not alone.

*****

The screams continued through the streets of Netopia, as more innocent bystanders were thrown aside or killed in the mob’s blind fury. Never before had a public event so offended the people of Netopia, and never before had the city experienced such rage. The throng was a tidal wave, destroying everything in its path.

A small boy ran screaming in front of the mob, separated by only a few feet from the young man in the lead. As he gained ground, he made a grab for the child, missing by only a few inches. The next grab would not be a failure-

Suddenly the man saw him, standing in the middle of the street, a shining white light in the midst of darkness. With a cry, the child ran toward the glowing figure, hugging the tall being tightly.

Lova picked him up, soothing his strained emotions. His mother had probably been a victim of the mob, killed by the beings of this world in their angry pursuit. Finally, he gently placed the little boy in a nearby house, ignoring the staring eyes of the mob. Hopefully they would be content to leave this child untouched…

Lova turned to the overwhelming mob with a calmness he had never felt before, his mind far away in another world, in another place, on another One. With calm assurance, he looked the young man in the eye.

“Here I am, an innocent man. Kill me if you must."

*****

Airlanda looked up from the monitor, concernedly gazing about the room. Was that an active heartbeat he heard? Rising from his seat, he stepped into Isle Two, surveying the statistics intently.

A shifting sound echoed from Section Four, drawing his attention to a bed in the middle. Did the chest just heave a breath; no, it couldn't be! Airlanda hurriedly scanned the monitor beside the bed, looking up the vital statistics. Patient #298-127's beating heart had never reassured him; it was a sure sign of life enclosed in the nitrogen-preserved corpse. Something was terribly wrong.

Airlanda hurried back to the control central, logging onto the administrator master panel. Mental connecting himself to the simulation, he gazed intently into the rendered world, inwardly cursing how large He had made it.

Zooming in on the downtown area of Netopia City, he examined the crowd of people by the sustenance store, surrounding the fence. Who, or what, was tied onto the fence that incited such wrath and hatred in the masses? Zooming in farther, Airlanda recognized the form as that troublesome #298-127, not far from leaving the false reality.

Airlanda disconnected his mind from the simulation, intense fury shaking his frame. What were those stupid beings doing, trying to kill someone who was living! How he wished he could simply destroy the entire simulation once and for all, sending millions of beings to their demise!

But however much he wished it, he knew he could not; he did not have the authority or the power to commit such violence. Many were the woes of being a rebel underneath the authority of Him! He would simply have to wait for this enjoyable event to take place.

He was jolted from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps; the sound of utter failure. Forever he had lost his grip; his chance to destroy him without mercy. Now he was beyond his reach, safe in His arms for the rest of eternity.

Lova strode up to the silent figure standing in the control central. "So this is it, the reality for those pitiful Netopians down below."

"It should come as no surprise to you; you've known ever since you left your death-like trance. Why should you care?"

Why should I care? Because of all those deceived people down below, who murdered me because I told them the truth! And you've been the one-"

"I have always been the one, ever since I was banished from His presence! Ever since that day I saw His conceit, His pride and His selfishness, I refused to associate with Him, preferring instead the company of you fools in your simulation!"

"You deceive yourself so willingly, though you know the truth that you cannot change! You live as much of a lie as we did in Netopia!"

Airlanda looked up, examining the corpse he had let slip through his fingers. "What of it? I will never reunite with Him, and I will fight Him until-"

"He utterly defeats you, forever separating you from His presence", finished Lova quietly. "I pity you, for you seek to alleviate your guilt and hopelessness by the destruction of others, just as your children down below. My work is done, but others will continue to share the truth, despite your best efforts to stop them."

As Lova spoke these words, his glow began to radiate brighter and brighter, shimmering with an intensity that almost blinded Airlanda. For a brief moment, he saw Lova's face looking upward, seeing for the first time the One he had lived and died for.

Then the room was empty.