Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (5 page)

Jenny looked up and down the road. It was absolutely pouring down rain. She didn’t know if she had ever seen it rain like this in Colorado Springs.
Can things get any weirder?
She thought to herself. She peered across the street at the martial arts studio. There had been a steady stream of the studio’s students coming and going all day. Now that the heavy rain was coming down, they all huddled inside the door and looked outside, much as she was doing now. It was so dark, and the rain so thick, that she only could see them when they moved.

She hadn’t eaten much for most of the day, so Jenny was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger and occasionally her stomach let her know it was empty rather audibly. Having finished the lunch she brought with her, which wasn’t much, Jenny was now out of food. The only way Jenny knew to calm her physical discomfort was yoga or simple meditation. She decided to do a mixture of both.

As she settled into the lotus position, Jenny concentrated on her breath, making it slow and steady. She was very intentional with her intake and the expressing of her breath. She focused on the pit of her stomach, centering all thought, and the strangest thing happened. In her mind, she saw a small light in the area she was focusing on. As she concentrated, it grew in both brightness and size. She continued until the light settled into place, a perfect view of chakras, just as she had seen in every book she had read on the subject. She felt a low throbbing of heat emanating from her entire body and then could see in her mind, this heat turn to a bright golden aura. Knowing what she had seen before, she opened her eyes and looked around. She could still see her aura, but nothing else, then she realized it was because she could see no people.

Jenny rose from her pose and walked to the window. Peering between the blinds, she looked up and down the street. Through the rain and the dark, she could see colors and shapes. She looked to the door of the martial arts studio. There, in the doorway and in the windows, she saw many brown shapes of various shades. But, there was something in the midst of the group that greatly concerned her. There was a black figure, darker than even this awful night’s darkness. It was like a void; it was so dark. It was surrounded by and outline of silver and red. She could see the brown shapes go to it, and go away. She looked away from the window, somewhat concerned that anyone else could see her aura. Turning her gaze inward, to look at her own aura, it was a mixture of bright gold and violet. She didn’t know what the colors meant, but she knew they meant something.

There were magazines and books that might illuminate the issue for her, but books don’t have auras and her aura did not provide anything that would allow her to read in the dark.
Well,
she thought,
I have nothing else to do, let’s practice with the meditative approach and the sight.
From that point on, Jenny Martinez began working on bringing the sight into her control. She played with what caused it to appear, what caused it to stop and then worked on making both happen at will. She sat on that floor for hours, learning to control this new gift. She was so interested in the meditation, that at some point, she fell asleep. It was a deep sleep, a good sleep.

Ted looked at his sister-in-law, sitting next to the front window, staring out into the darkness. Everyone else had long since gone to sleep, Natalee and Max sharing Max’s room, Kayla passed out in their bed and the pastor, Rich, asleep in a corner of the kitchen underneath the dining table. Ted liked the new friend they had made. He was a much more easy-going guy than any of the chaplains he had met in the service, and certainly more of a normal guy than the bible-thumpers Ted had met over the years. But, Ted was still prejudiced. He had grown up in a Jewish home, but had seen his own mother give up all of her money to a preacher in Los Angeles in the hopes of a miracle cure for her cancer, and none had come. Reason didn’t work with his Mom and Ted had become so embittered when his Mom had passed away and he found out how much money she had donated to this scam-artist. He vowed to give this guy, Rich, a chance, but at the same moment, he was not going to let his family be taken advantage of again.

Right now, he was concerned about Kate. When everyone else had gone to sleep, she had sat next to that window, waiting for her husband. Kate had said, “He knows we are here. He will come for us.” Ted had no reason to doubt that. In fact, Ted had counted on the steadfast nature of Calvin Ward since they were both eight years old. If Cal could get here, he would be here for his wife and daughter. Hell, Cal would be here for Ted, and Kayla, and Maxine too. It was just the kind of guy he was, he was the perfect person to bring into battle, he never left anyone behind, no matter what.

Ted thought back to a tour in Iraq, where Ted’s squad was pinned down under enemy fire. A Humvee had come to rescue them and had hit an IUD, blowing all the way into the air and toppling over four or five times. There was no chance that anyone had survived. There wasn’t even much left of the Humvee. Cal’s squad had been sent in to recover Ted’s squad, and as soon as he got there, Ted could see on his brother-in-law’s face that there was no chance he was leaving without getting to the damaged vehicle. Ted didn’t even try to talk him out of the rescue, even though the Major was screaming over the radio to pull out. Ted would only find out later that Cal had violated a direct order to come save Ted and his men. Cal told all of the men except Ted and Cal’s medic, PFC Cross, to pull back and then the three of them charged into open fire to see if anyone was there. There had been four men in that Humvee, and three of them were in pieces. The fourth was badly injured and they got him out. All three of the rescuers were injured. Cross even received a Silver Star and Ted received a Bronze Star for their actions. But the man who refused to leave a fellow soldier behind intentionally took the blame for refusing a direct order. The Major went after him with a passion. SFC Ward and Major Fine had never got along, there was no doubt. But, Calvin Ward had defied that order to save a brother in arms, and it had worked. The rest of them got medals, and Cal got a discharge. After twenty-six years in the army, Cal was drummed out by a vindictive prick who wasn’t half the soldier that Ward was. It took a Brigade Commander stepping in, just to get Cal an honorable discharge.

Now, that brilliant soldier’s wife worried at the window, just hoping to see her husband and son come walking out of the rain. Ted walked up, Kate turning toward him as he approached. He could see the tears welling up. He put his hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll get here, Kate,” he said softly, “You know he will.” Kate nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. Ted looked out the window she was staring through. “Jesus.” The rain was like nothing he had seen since he had been stationed in Panama in the 1980’s. “I didn’t think this kind of rain happened here.”

Kate shook her head. “It doesn’t,” she whispered,” In the decade we have lived here, I have never seen anything like it. Do you think it has anything to do with the power?”

Ted looked out at the road, seeing the huge streams of water rushing down the streets and into the storm drains, where it was beginning to pool into small ponds. He doubted there was any connection. “I don’t think so, but I don’t know, kid.” Ted always called her kid, and it had the effect he was hoping for. It is the little bit of normalcy that relaxes a worried person. He learned that from Cal. Kate’s shoulders relaxed almost unnoticeably, but it was enough, Ted knew that. “You should get some sleep.”

Kate nodded. “I will, as soon as I feel tired in the least.”

Ted gave her a hug. “Come on, why don’t you go climb into bed with your sister. I will take the sofa.”

Kate frowned. “No, Ted, it is fine. I can sleep on the sofa.”

Ted looked over to where Rich was curled up in the dining room. “We have new friends. I would feel more comfortable if I took the couch. Would that be okay?”

Kate looked over at Rich’s curled up form just as the pastor began to snore. She smiled at her sister’s husband a broad, joking smile. “You got it.”

Ted gave a soft chuckle. “Go, before I change my mind.”

They hugged again and Kate walked back to the bedroom. Ted looked out one more time, then lay down on the couch to get some rest. He thought for a long time about Kate’s question about the cause of the outage. Something wasn’t right. He wasn’t sure what it was, but this was something different than just a power outage. He slept soon after, but it was a restless sleep, full of vivid dreams.

The rain had been pouring through the small openings in the “outer garden” for hours and Jordan was just happy that the drainage worked in this small confined space. They had few dry spaces, but he, the doctor and Harris were all able to find good spots to lie down. They kept the door propped to let air in, just in case Rio ever tried to follow them, but in the couple of hours they had been up here, there had been no sign, nor sound, of him.

Doctor Pare huddled in close, even though the rain had not made it considerably colder. Quite the contrary, the rain added humidity to what was already a dark, hot space. Jordan began to wonder if he would become a mushroom, or just sprout them from his clothing. As far as he could tell, they had been outside for perhaps three hours when it had begun raining. Never having had to keep time without either sun or time piece, he couldn’t be sure.

“Do you think we can go back and get him?” The doctor asked quietly, trying not to wake PFC Harris. She was thinking of Rio.

“There is no point,” Jordan told her, “Each door we went through is made to seal back up as soon as it shuts. That is why I know no one made it out. The idea was to keep radioactive air from spreading if some got in. However, right now, that seems a little short-sighted.”

“So, what are we going to do?” The doctor asked. Jordan was amazed that he was being given such deference as to his wishes. He was the highest rank of the actual soldiers, but he wasn’t even an NCO. Though Dr. Pare was a civilian, she had authority in these cases.

“I don’t know,” he said, “What would you like to do?”

There was a long pause. “I would like to leave it up to you.”

Jordan didn’t say anything. He just sat and listened to the drip, drip, drip of the rain pouring through the little opening on the top of the enclosure. It was actually quite peaceful, it reminded him of a noise machine he had heard once that put babies to sleep. As he sat and listened to it, he also began to hear the heavy breathing of Dr. Emma Pare. Apparently, it did pretty good job of lulling forty-year-old doctors to sleep also.

DAY TWO

“The rain it came, and the flood soon rose. What could Noah do, but watch and hope?”

– Pastor Brick Martin, The Spring Life Church

Jenny woke to the sound of her own hunger. She smiled at the way her body was communicating with her. It had always been fascinating how the body would talk to a person to let them know what was needed. When it comes to hunger, one gets the feeling of emptiness, followed by a mumbling and grumbling from the stomach area. If one waits long enough to eat, the body will make an even louder noise, and eventually that will be followed by a severe pain or cramp. The body is an amazing thing. With the loud groan coming from her mid-section, she knew she needed to find some sustenance soon.

Rising up, she also felt the weakness in her legs from not enough fuel being fed to her body. So, she stood and stabilized herself for a moment before moving to the window. Outside, the rain that had begun the night before didn’t look like it was letting up in the slightest. It was hazy, but she could make out the figures in the clear windows of the dojo across the street. They had found umbrellas and three of them were standing out front. Using the techniques she had honed the night before, she turned her inner sight on and immediately saw so much more. She could not see the black figure, so she figured Mr. Fine must be away from the window. Reflecting on it the night before, she knew that was who the black figure must be. Her vague recollection about auras told her that black was not an evil color. If she remembered it correctly, black auras were about power, desire and oppression. She did not at all remember what some of the other colors were and reminded herself to try to go through the books in the light to find something about aura colors. If her phone worked, she would have googled it. She was amazed at how helpless she felt, how in the dark, without her smart phone. It was a good thing to remember.

As she looked up the street, she saw shapes and various colors – a brown, a blue, a red, a muddy gold, a dirty gray and the occasional flash of white. It was actually all she could do to not just sit there and marvel at the colors. But there was activity across the street and she saw the black aura reappear.
Mr. Fine has made an appearance
, she thought to herself. She watched him order some men to go one way and some to go another on their side of the street. Then he looked across at her building. She shrunk away from the window.
There is no way he could see me through the blinds, the shade and the window covering,
she thought.

She had just about calmed herself when she saw the shadow and heard the knock. She remained silent, uncertain why she was afraid of this man. A harder knock came after.

“Hey yoga girl” came the friendly sounding voice muffled by glass and window dressings. It was a voice practiced in friendliness with a purpose, it sent cold shivers down her spine. “Come on, I know you are in there. I want to ask you something.” He knocked again, but Jenny stayed hidden behind the counter. She then saw a violet color enter the black aura that was practically emanating through the front of her studio. She knew instinctively he was preparing to do something, but what? Apparently, something distracted him. She heard a voice and he moved off. Jenny knew she would have to make her way out of this building and get away, she realized that the man was not going to wait for long.