Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series) (11 page)

“He stumbled upon the Music room after a run in with one of those armed goons,” Roland added. He pointed to the bloodied and bruised temple just above Dax’s eye.

“Stupid military Black Ops! That freakin’ idiot almost killed me...would have killed me, if the room hadn’t started turning upside down. Windows breaking, wind spinning. I know it sounds crazy but...” Dax said, angrily. I wasn’t impressed.

“Pfft!” I spit.

“You sayin’ I’m a liar?” he taunted me. I knew he was telling the truth. He was caught in the crazy aftereffects of the explosion earlier. Olivia turned from both of us, upset.

Morgan stepped in, again, “He was hurt, Luc.” She glanced up at Taylor, who was still gripping his sledgehammer. “He needed help.”

Morgan finished her scolding of us and I huffed, completely annoyed. Taylor eased his stance and held out his hand to shake. Dax slowly obliged. I turned away, ready to leave.

“I’m Taylor.”

“Dax.”

“Gangs all here!” I pouted.

Quickly, I pushed my way to the back of the room. My head hurt with a weird, building pressure. When I looked up from my mini tantrum, I found that things were much worse than I first thought.

“Greetings,” Felicity said, in a small voice.

“Are you kidding me?” First Olivia’s psycho ex and now, my nemesis. I squeezed my backpack to my chest and leaned against the wall. Slowly, I let the gravity of the situation pull me down to the floor. Roland and Morgan watched me, worried. Taylor walked over and slid down the wall, right next to me. He let out a heavy sigh as his hammer hit the ground.

“No fear, brother. We’ll get through this,” he said, confidently.

My bag began to hum loudly, with multicolored rays of light. They pierced every tiny seam of the fabric, like bright pin needles. Reaching into my backpack with shaking hands, my face washed over in painted waves of light. I looked up at everyone, embarrassed. They all took a step away from me.

I smiled uneasy, “No fear.”

LEVEL 14:
Believe

The faces all around me, they don’t smile, they just crack with scared realization. Their eyes spinning with fear of the unknown. In my hands was my secret. The mysterious stone I had hidden away in my locker. I had snatched it up as the explosion ripped open the top of my locker. Stunned and silent, everyone remained absolutely still. The multicolored pulsing of light slowed to nothing, revealing
its
true surface. Metallic black, with lines of yellow and orange light rippling beneath its shiny skin.

“Don’t freak out,” I warned, with a new smile and confidence. I felt better now. Maybe it was the relief of finally sharing my secret. Maybe it was the stone itself, filling me with positive energy. My wristband gauntlet came alive, filling with warm heat and sparkling purple lightning. It crawled down my arm, tickling me as it did.

“What...is...that?” Felicity asked, breaking the silence. Her voice still completely annoying. I shrugged, barely making eye contact with her.

“I don’t know,” I laughed. Last time I had seen the stone it was just a little bigger than a deck of playing cards. Now, it was the size of a large book, like our American History textbooks, or an old fashioned Bible. The edges were rounded and smooth. I shouldn’t have been able to pick it up and hold it, but it was as light as a feather now. I propped it up onto my index finger and spun it like a basketball. It had been impossibly heavy before, but not now.

“This is what General Love is looking for,” I said, still spinning the alien device.

“Who?” Morgan asked.

“The one in charge. The man missing one of his ears.”

“Van Gogh,” Taylor corrected. We all half heartedly laughed.

“I found it on the office floor this morning. It was only the size of a matchbook.” I looked around the room and watched as each person had their own reaction to it. Felicity clung to the opposite side of the room, with doubt plastered across her face. Taylor watched it cautiously, never moving from his spot on the floor. Morgan stepped closer, as if she wanted to hold it too. Her eyes alive with wonder. Roland just stood there, as if he had seen a ghost. I knew that face all too well. It’s the same look he gets when we watch the latest
Alien Mysteries
television show. That worried me. Dax looked angry. Not at the artifact as it was twirling on my fingertip, but at the fact that Olivia had pulled from his grasp, and walked up to me. She slowly knelt down, studying the spinning stone.

“I thought it exploded...” she whispered. She reached out a hand to touch it, and I held my breath. Just before her fingertip reached its surface, it stopped itself from spinning and pulled toward her. I tried to hold onto it, with no luck. Her hand slid along the stone with little resistance. The yellow waves of energy turned to a deep crimson red, under its black skin. It was beautiful and tiger-like.

“Tell her,” I barely whispered, but hadn’t realized I did it aloud. Olivia’s eyes flickered up to mine. I tried not to let go of the stone as it absorbed her touch. She smiled and pressed her palm onto its surface, quickly changing the color of the whole thing to red. Blood red.

Both our hands locked into place on it. It felt the same as when my hand had been stuck to it before, in my locker. I tensed up. Olivia never panicked though. Instead, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

* Tell me what? *
she asked, in my head.

I could hear her thoughts. I stared at her hard, overwhelmed by this new magic trick. Was this thing some kind of telepathy device? I have been holding conversations with the thing for twenty-four hours now. Hearing Olivia inside my brain was wonderful.
This was too crazy.

* This is crazy! *
she agreed.

My mouth fell open. She smiled with her eyes, proud of herself.

So, you can hear my thoughts?
I asked, with my thoughts.

* Yup, every word. *

Uh oh.

* Tell me what, Lucas? *

Huh?
I played dumb.

* You said, tell her...well, tell me what? *

The truth.

She tilted her head and smiled,
* So, tell me. *

I’m scared.
I whimpered, in thought.

* Me too, but doesn’t this feel...amazing... *

Maybe.
I tried to lie to her, and myself.

* Liar... *
she teased, and I let out a small laugh.

“Olivia!” Dax moaned. He had seen enough and pushed his way over to us. He reached for her shoulder, slapping his meaty hand onto it with force. Immediately, he flew backwards against the wall in a flash of purple lightning. He was knocked out, cold. The commotion caused the stone to fall away from our grasps. It covered itself in a dark black hue as it fell toward the carpeted ground. It landed with a dull thud. When it hit, it embedded itself more than a six inches into the floor. Everyone in the room jumped to attention.

“Dax!” Olivia called to him. He didn’t respond. He laid unconscious in a heap of smoke and karma. She rushed over to him.

“This isn’t real!” Morgan started to freak out. Her hands shook uncontrollably. Roland tried to hold his sister and calm her. He never took his eyes off the black stone though. Taylor stood up and walked over to the stone. He stared at it for a moment, upset by Morgan’s reaction. He noticed that there was no more electricity around it.

Taylor’s brow furrowed as he leaned down to pick up the stone. His large hands wrapped themselves around its glassy dark surface. He took a moment to gather his strength and pulled at the embedded mystery. It wouldn’t budge, not even an inch.

“Come on...” Taylor grunted, and dug his feet into the floor, steadying his weight. He yanked at the foreign object with all his might. Still nothing. The stone was as light as a balloon just a moment ago, but now, it was heavier than gravity. It angered Taylor something awful.

“I can’t move it...at all...” Taylor huffed, brushing his golden locks from his face.

“Pick me up...” I barely whispered. My magical gauntlet-phone beeped with a new message. I squinted at the tiny digital writing that flashed upon the screen.

_____

..........

ONLY

..........

_____

“Only what?” I asked it. Everyone watched me, suspiciously.

__________

....................

ONLY YOU

....................

__________

I winced, “Oh.” Only I could pick it up. As I looked around the room, I realized how insane I must sound; talking to my mystical gauntlet. Olivia slowly walked back over to me, stopping just before the sunken stone. She nodded to me to continue my conversation.

“What are you?” I asked, aloud. My voice was shaky and the room fell silent.

________

................

BELIEVE

................

________

“Believe?” I was lost.
What did that mean? I don’t understand. What are you?

________________________

................................................

BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE

BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE

BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE

................................................

________________________

It spelled the same word repeatedly, until the entire screen was filled with it. The word burned into my retinas.

“Believe in what?” I asked again. The response I received was quite unexpected.

“I think I know what it is...or could be...” Roland spoke up. His voice was low, but full of seriousness. The screen suddenly blinked back to black, with all the words gone.

“What?” I asked.

“Your tablet...I need your computer tablet,” Roland mumbled, reaching past me for my school bag. He quickly removed a slender touchscreen computer from it.

“Roland?” Morgan asked.

“Not now, sis. I need to access my files,” he said. He pulled a small, black and white USB stick from his pocket and jammed it into an open slot at the bottom of the computer tablet.

“Your files...” I smiled. Roland was a bonafide conspiracy theorist. Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Roswell, you name it...he had a file for it.

Felicity pushed herself from the back wall and into the conversation, “Well, what is it, Roland?” Roland ignored her as if she were a pesky fly, buzzing around his head. She crossed her arms, angrily. His fingers slid along the smooth glass of his tablet, tapping away on the electronic keyboard.

“Here it is,” Roland said, to himself. Everyone moved in closer, surrounding him in a circle. Everyone except Dax, he started snoring from the floor, instead.

“Talk to me, Ro. What do you think you know?” I asked.

“It’s not from this Earth,” he started.

“Alien?” Morgan asked, worried. She placed a finger in her mouth and began chewing the nail.

“Not exactly...another dimension, maybe,” Roland said, flipping through different folders and pictures. Pages of reports he had painstakingly listed in alphabetical order, whipped by at a frantic rate. Thank goodness Roland was a speed reader too, because I couldn’t keep up with his pace. Roland Saint, my own personal X-file.

“What dimension?” I asked, excited.

“Here!” Roland double-tapped the computer screen and it zoomed in on a particular file. He leaned the screen forward, just enough for all of us to get a good look.

“Lake Titicaca, Peru. There’s a massive rock wall with a large square cut into it. Inside that square is another carving, like a small door. Within that door is an even smaller hole, smooth and perfectly round. It’s been there for years...like hundreds, maybe even thousands of years,” Roland paused, just long enough to be interrupted by Felicity.

“So what.”

Roland continued. “The ancient Inca civilizations believed this door was made by something, or someone, not of this world. They called it
Puerta de Hayu Marka
...” he drew in a deep breath.

“What does that mean, Ro?” I asked.

“Gate of the Gods.”

We all looked at one another, trying to understand.

“What does a door in the side of a mountain of dirt have to do with
that
thing?” Taylor asked, pointing at the stone.

“It’s not a door, Tay. It’s a Stargate,” Roland corrected. Taylor rolled his eyes, annoyed.

I leaned in closer. “I’m not following you, Ro. What are you hinting at?”

“The ancient Incas wrote of a golden sun disc that fell from the skies one day. It was rumored to have unique abilities. It’s written that their priests were able to open this Stargate with the sun disc.” Roland’s face drained of all its blood as he looked down at the stone. It was now pulsating in a golden yellow hue, as vibrant as our sun.

“A key to another dimension? That’s impossible,” Taylor shook his head. Everyone took a small step away from the glowing rock. I bent down and scooped it up, once more. It was light as air, again. My hands buzzed with a slight vibration as it changed color again, from yellow to black.

“T, nothing about this situation is possible,” I smiled, trying to calm everyone.

Olivia placed her hands onto the stone again. Its glossy skin rippled over in a deep red hue, just like before.

* Do you really think this stone is some kind of key, Lucas? A Stargate? *

I don’t know.
My answer only made her more nervous.

“So, if that thing is a key...where’s the lock?” Morgan chimed in. “Where’s the door?”

“Don’t you mean...Stargate?” Felicity added, snotty.

Roland nodded her way, “Thank you.”

Olivia and I exchanged a quick glance, still holding the stone in our hands. My eyes found Roland’s serious stare. “Where do I plug this thing in, Ro?”

“Luc, I don’t know,” Roland sighed. The stone flickered gold for a second, before settling back to red again.

* Lucas, there has to be more to this. *

I agree.

* I need to find Sophia. Do you think this beautiful mystery can help? *

Maybe. I promise I’ll do everything I can.

Olivia smiled at me and slowly removed her hands from the stone. My chest filled with tightness as she let go, and the color of the stone immediately switched back to its familiar, glassy black. With our moment over, I grabbed my backpack and slid the stone back into it. From behind me Dax began to stir, rustling softly along the floor.

“How long have you been able to communicate with it?” Roland asked me, glancing at my otherworldly gauntlet. His question startled me.

“Um, from the beginning...I think.”

“Hmm...maybe it’s a dimensional computer, like a galactic telephone,” he shrugged.

“You mean I’ve been receiving space emails?” I laughed. Dax, now fully awake, shot me a dirty look. I returned his gift, and added a middle finger too.

“Space emails? Maybe,” Roland thought out loud. I glanced at the tablet screen in Roland’s hands, mesmerized by the picture of the mystic doorway gouged out of the mountain.

“I have some other theories too...” he said.

Smiling at him, “I know you do. You always do, my friend.”

Taylor stepped up to us, “Enough with the fairy tales. You two have been playing way too many video games.”

“Don’t forget the comic books!” Morgan teased, scooting up to Taylor. We all laughed, nervously. For a short moment, things felt normal.

We needed a plan. We weren’t accomplishing anything hiding away in this giant closet. I searched the room, trying to hold in a large yawn. I was so exhausted. Across from me, Roland continued reading his many files on the tablet. Morgan and Taylor moved to the front of the room. Olivia had sat down next to Dax, who was holding onto his anger like an addict. His steely eyes watched me, unforgivingly. Felicity watched me too, from across the room. It bothered me just knowing she was breathing the same air as me. She stuck her tongue out at me, and began scribbling in a small notebook in her hands.