“I know how to enter.”
Quentin looked over at Jims who raised his eyebrows. “You do? How?”
“I don’t know. I just know where the doorway is hidden.” He asked the others to stand back. He wasn’t sure exactly how he knew the way to open the fortress, but he did. It was the same as when he had opened the gateway to this world at the Taj Mahal.
He walked to the highest point in the area at the top of a small knoll. He was surprised that he could see the land stretch far to the north. In the distance, he could make out mountains which were topped with snow. He gasped. There were no mountains in the area, only flat land interrupted periodically by slight elevations. He shouldn’t have seen mountains; but at that moment, above the fortress of the Chokka, he felt the energy of the world and realized he could see everything. He saw the wastelands that lay beyond. He saw the mass graves of bones. He saw the desolate structures of the world.
It was at that moment, he realized why Orleans looked so familiar. It was because it was New Orleans. Only it was a New Orleans in a world of waste. Everything else in the world lie in ruin. Babel didn’t know if this was another duplicate world or if – for the first time he experienced this thought – he had somehow gone to the future of his world that had somehow been destroyed.
It was in that moment of seeing all that he also witnessed the man living alone to the north and recognized the need to meet that man.
For several moments he stood there. He closed his eyes and found that he could see better with them closed than with them open. At that moment, the secrets of that world and his ancestors were revealed to him. He became more than just part of that world, he became that world. His questions were confirmed. This was a future world.
He saw the man known as Julius Babel, his ancestor, and the fall of the world. He saw what Julius Babel did not know – that Julius had abilities. If fact, it was Julius’ abilities that saved him that day. When the warheads hit the earth, Julius unknowingly formed a field of energy around the facility using his mind. The world was laid waste but he and the people with him were not harmed.
He learned in that moment that the man to the north was with Julius in the facility.
Quentin watched him amazed. He had been around the Chokka during his childhood and had seen many things that filled him with wonder but he had never seen anything such as he was witnessing now. “He has become the Császár.”
“Yes, that he has.” Jims commented. Quentin turned and looked at Jims in surprise. Quentin thought he had said the words in his head; he realized he must have spoken them aloud.
They continued to watch Babel, as did the other members of the group. They knew they needed to get inside of the fortress. Surely the energy being released would draw immediate attention of the Klopph, even with Babel wearing the device. But they were mesmerized and could not move.
Babel opened his eyes and looked at the men around him. He was their Császár. Now it was time to lead them.
He raised his arms slowly above his head. As he did, four trees began to rise. The trees were lined up in perfect symmetry, creating a seamless square around Babel with him directly in the center.
Finally, when his hands touched above his head, the roots of the trees showed and the trees stopped rising. Then, with a motion that surprised the other men (and intimidated them if they told the truth), Babel violently heaved his arms downward, drawing his hands into fists as he did.
As unrealistic as it seemed, the ground shook slightly when in one fluid motion, he squatted and struck the ground with both fists. The men considered that foray on a human and thought such an incursion would crush the top of a man’s skull. They knew that Babel had shattered both of his hands, yet he showed no sign of being in pain.
Then, Babel stood and motioned for the men to join him; his hands were unfazed.
Quentin reached Babel first. He had his eyes fixed on Babel and once he crested the knoll, took a step towards him. Babel held up his hands for Quentin to stop and Quentin, not understanding at first, looked down and saw that a stairway had opened in the ground.
“So this is why no one could find the fortress.” Quentin said peering down into the dark hole. “It took a Chokka to open the doorway.”
The stairway led down nearly one hundred feet before it ended. It was pitch black at the bottom, the only light coming from the daylight above. That daylight was extinguished as the doorway above slid shut.
For a moment, there was only darkness and they were uncertain (if truth be told and the men would admit it, they were afraid). Then, out of the darkness came an explosion of light. One moment, there was no light, the next they were flooded in lit. The company was temporarily blinded, all with the exception of Babel. As the other men covered their eyes, Babel looked around. He was overcome by what he saw.
He was in the fortress of his ancestors, built by the Chokka countless generations ago. This was his history. And now, just as his family had made their place in a desolate world, he would now make his place. “I am home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Babel was reading his grandfather’s book
