Immortal (9 page)

His thoughts remained on Gabrielle as he
turned one corner, and then another in the maze of hallways that
led to his station. But as he negotiated the final few turns, he
did begin to realize that it seemed there were more Guardians
present than usual. At first he thought that maybe it was just his
imagination, but as he continued down the hallway, he began to
notice that through each doorway he passed he saw a Guardian
within. He knew that each station area had a Guardian, but he had
never really noticed their presence in the stations as he had
passed them before. And once again he began to wonder if it had
always been like this, and if he simply had not noticed. That
possibly since his interrogation, he was hypersensitive to their
presence. And why did they seem to be looking at him? He wondered.
Every doorway he passed, their blank expressionless metallic faces
seemed to be turned directly at him. Their vast dark and empty eyes
appeared to look right at him. He picked up his pace, turned the
final corner, and glanced behind him as he entered the doorway of
his station area, and then he walked directly into the
Guardian.

It was like hitting a brick wall, as he
abruptly came to a stop. His body slammed into the immovable
metallic body that towered over him. He began to lose his balance,
and fell backwards, as the Guardian’s hand shot out and caught his
shoulder. Even as he fell, Jericho tried to leap away from the
metallic hand as it firmly grabbed him, and stopped his fall. He
tried to wrench his shoulder loose, in a panicked moment of pure
fear. The primal urge of survival sent his heart into a hammering
stampede, as he was able to jerk himself loose. He bounced off of
the doorway frame, but was able to regain his balance. He backed
away from the Guardian with his back against the wall of the room,
and edged his way further into the room towards his station. He
watched cautiously as the Guardian returned the hand that had held
Jericho’s shoulder to its side, and then remained motionless.
Jericho reached his station. His heart still pounded in his chest.
His breathing was still rapid. And he continued to watch the
Guardian for a moment, and half expected it to approach him. It
stood there motionless. As his heart beat began to relax, he turned
to his station and activated the controls and began to work. As the
hours passed by, he glanced less and less at the Guardian, which
remained motionless and silent. By the time the mid-day meal came,
he had mostly forgotten his fear from earlier. Mostly, but not
completely.

At the mid-day meal break, Gabrielle had made
it to the meal room before Jericho, but not by much. She was only a
few people ahead of him in line, but far enough away to make
conversation impossible. She entered the room and made her way to
the serving wall, as Jericho approached the entrance. He watched
the two Guardians standing on either side of the entrance. His skin
crawled as he thought that the one to his right stared at him. Its
deep set shiny black eyes unmoving against the sea of grey that
made up its face, with only the reflection of the overhead lights
to be seen as a slight sparkle in those dead eyes. A shiver ran up
his spine, as he passed into the room, glad to finally be away from
it. From his place in the meal line, he saw Gabrielle pull her tray
from the serving wall, and as she exited the line, she gave him a
little smile and nodded her head towards the far side of the room
where they normally sat. He smiled and nodded back, and moved
forward as the line continued to move. Step by step as he came
closer to the serving wall, he noticed the location and position of
the four Guardians within the room, and try as he might, he could
not shake the feeling that each of them was looking at him.

“I’ve got to get over this.” He whispered to
himself, shook his head, and stepped up to the serving wall.
Seconds later, tray in hand, he exited the line and headed for the
table where Gabrielle sat. As he made his way across the room, but
he could not shake the feeling that the Guardians watched him. As
if their dark eyes bore holes into the back of his head, as they
watched his every move. He picked up his pace, and when he reached
the table, he sat with his back against the wall. At least if they
are going to watch me, he thought, then I will watch them too. He
began to eat.

“I love you.” Gabrielle said, as she placed
her hand on his arm. She smiled. He smiled back.

“I love you too!” He said, and took another
bite, but left his eyes on the closest Guardian. Had it moved? He
thought to himself. Wasn’t it turned slightly the other way when I
came out of the line?

“It was amazing this morning.” She said.

“It was.” He answered and then took a sip of
red liquid. Even as he drank, he quickly surveyed the positions of
the other Guardians. Had they all moved? He thought..

“I wonder what happened.” Gabrielle said, as
she took a bite of her own food.

“Happened?” He asked, certain now that the
Guardian farthest away had definitely been turned away from him
when he had left the line. He remembered distinctly not being
concerned about that one, as it did not face him like the other
three did. But now it faced directly towards him. It even seemed
closer than it had been.

“Yeah. You know. With the wall?” She said, as
someone passed by their table, and temporarily blocked his view of
the closest Guardian. Jericho, moved his head to the side to look
around, but the Guardian did not seem to have moved. He shook his
head and muttered to himself again.

“Gotta get over this.” He said quietly.

“What?” Gabrielle asked.

“Nothing.” He said. He put down his wafer,
and turned away from his constant observation of the Guardian’s,
and directed his full attention on her. “I’m sorry.” He said. “What
were you asking.”

“About the wall. This morning? I wonder what
happened?” She asked.

“I don’t know. The break has been there for a
while.” He said. “I mean, I don’t know exactly how long. I just
found it a few weeks ago.”

“Are you sure there aren’t any others?” She
asked.

“Like I said this morning, ever since I found
that one, I’ve looked and looked, but haven’t found another.”

“Do you think they fixed it?” She asked. “You
know. The Guardians?”

“Maybe.” He said. “It looked like it had been
melted back together.” He heard loud voices near the serving wall,
and turned in that direction. “I guess they could have done it.” He
said. The voices became louder, as she too turned to see what was
happening.

A man stood at the exit of the serving wall
line and held empty tray. He appeared to try to get back through
the stream of people as they exited the line. They dodged him as
they carefully balanced their full trays.

“It’s empty.” He yelled, and began to push
his way into the tide of bodies. “Get out of the way!” He yelled,
as he knocked over a young lady. Her tray flipped upside down as
she fell, and her meal landed on the floor with a crash.

“Hey!” She yelled from the ground as she
tried to get up, just as someone behind her fell over her and
dropped their tray as well. The man still fought his way back into
the exit line, as people began to fall in every direction. Trays
flew, and grey mush was dumped left and right. The man turned his
tray flat against his chest like a shield as he began to push
harder against the never ending exit flow of people. He never saw
the Guardian reach out and touch him with its control stick.
Instantly he convulsed and dropped towards the ground. He turned as
his hand still clutched the tray. It suddenly swung around in a
full arc, as it was propelled by his own falling weight. The tray
struck a glancing blow against the control stick, which was
deflected upward, and slammed into the Guardian. Sparks flew as the
tip made contact with the metallic body, and smoke began to flow
out from the neck area of the Guardian.

Bolts of blue light began to flash across the
Guardian’s body, as the smoke sent an acrid smell into the meal
room. People throughout the room began to scream, and rush towards
the exit. Those that had been in line, began to jump the line, and
run for the exit. The ones closest to the entrance began to try and
stop the tide of people that still streamed into the building, as
they tried desperately to get back out. One of the other three
Guardians had approached the smoking Guardian and appeared to
observing the situation, but had not yet intervened. The control
stick continued to arc against the metallic body, and the smoke had
now turned into flames. The flow of bodies that came out of the
exit line had increased with the panic, and in a frantic push,
several slammed against the now smoldering Guardian, and instantly
began to convulse as they were drawn into the power of the control
stick. As Jericho watched in amazement, a man dove over the crowd,
and landed against the Guardian’s sparking chest and knocked it
over. Its great weight crashed to the floor, and crushed one poor
unsuspecting person. Many others that had come in contact with it,
now lay on the ground as they convulsed and writhed. The crash
dislodged the control stick from its arcing contact with the
Guardian’s now charred and blackened metallic body, and slowly the
flames and smoke began to subside.

During the commotion, Jericho had risen from
the table, taken Gabrielle’s hand and led her towards the exit
door. Quietly, without protest, she had gone with him, even as she
looked back at the carnage. They merged with the tide of those that
fled. Jericho took one last look back at the Guardian that had been
closest to where they sat. Throughout all of the chaos, it appeared
to not have moved. But in the split second that he realized this,
its head did turn, ever so slightly, directly towards Jericho. They
are watching me! He thought. And then they were outside the room,
and the Guardians there directed them back to their stations.

It was almost impossible for Jericho to
concentrate on his assigned task for the rest of his shift. So much
had happened in such a short period of time, that his mind
continued to jump from one seemingly unbelievable event to the
other. He marveled at how nondescript his whole life had seemed
until just a few days ago. And now, the interrogation constantly
lingered in his mind, the beach, and the puzzle of mended fence,
with no way to get to the beach any longer. And of course there was
the impending link with Gabrielle, and the strange events that had
unfolded during the mid-day meal. No matter how hard he tried to
focus on his task, images of the blue light as it arced from the
fallen Guardian’s body repeatedly flashed in his mind. That and the
horrible acrid smell of the smoke that came from the Guardian as it
burned. It had been so strong in the confines of the meal area,
that it seemed to still surround him. They had fled, and had been
directed back to their stations, but he hated to be separated from
Gabrielle. She had seemed fine, if not a little shaken by the
commotion they had witnessed, but he was now sure in his own mind,
that the Guardians had been focused on him. Even with all of the
other chaos in the room. The memory of the Guardian, with its
slight turn of the head towards him, continued to haunt him. He had
no doubt now that they watched him even now, but why, he did not
know.

Even on his trip back to his station, again
as he passed virtually every doorway, it seemed that a Guardian did
not just stand right inside each entrance, but each of them seemed
to look directly at him. As if collectively they followed him.
Though, he had to concede, once he had reached his own station’s
entrance, and had passed by the Guardian there, it did not seem to
move, or even acknowledge his presence. As much as he tried to
convince himself that it may still all be in his own mind. That it
was just a repercussion from his interrogation. He still came back
to the immutable fact, that the Guardian in the meal room had
definitely turned towards him as he and Gabrielle left. Of that, he
had no doubt. And so began his thought process as to why they might
want to watch him. As part of his mind blindly worked at his task,
another part rolled through all the chaotic events of the last few
days, as he tried to isolate what he might have done to deserve
such attention. Obviously there had been the incident with Donovan,
but since Donovan had admitted his own disobedience and had
subsequently been punished for it, it did not seem to make sense
that they would still be focused on Jericho. It was as he thought
back to the break in the fence and how it was now sealed that he
began to wonder if that might be why he was suddenly the object of
scrutiny by the Guardians. But it wasn’t like there had been any
harm done, he thought. He and Gabrielle had gone to the beach, and
were only there for a few minutes. No one knew about it, and
nothing had happened, nothing at least that would have affected
anyone else or the Guardians. To Jericho, it just did not make any
sense.

These thoughts continued to ramble through
his mind as he completed his shift and he made his way out of the
factory. Turn by turn, and doorway by doorway, he averted his eyes
from the looming Guardians that still seemed to be everywhere. He
knew that just be cause he did not look at them, it would not stop
the feeling that they were intent in their observations. But at
least it allowed him not to have to acknowledge it consciously. He
took a deep breath, and let out a sigh of relief once he had
finally exited the factory and was on the road back to the village.
He stepped carefully to the side of the road through the exiting
crowds as they all rushed back to the village. There he waited for
Gabrielle. He was thankful that there were no Guardians visible.
Soon she exited the factory, caught his eye, and made her way
through the traffic to his side.