The Edge of Forever

The Disease - Chapter 1 - Burning in Hell

2011-02-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Gabriel lay dying in the mud.

He gazed up at the darkness that was now pouring over him and the raindrops stung his eyes.

It was over.

All that struggle.

All that sacrifice.

Although his ears were still ringing, he could feel the heavy raindrops pounding his head and each drop reverberated across his battered body.

Lightning knifed through the darkness and the almost immediate thunder shook the earth.

The invasion had begun.

As water seeped into his nostrils he could feel a slight tingle in his sinuses.

He opened his mouth to scream but all that came was a whimper.

Another lightning bolt followed by thunder, and another, and another.

He closed his stinging eyes and, for the first time, began to feel pain shooting through from his limbs. He grimaced and noticed static through the ringing in his head, which grew louder and louder until he realized it was the rain.

Fighting through the pain, he rolled his head to his side and heard footsteps approaching him.

“He’s gotta be somewhere nearby. I saw his body fly into this ditch…stay low, dude.”

“Stay alert.”

Gabriel’s mind and body were still screaming at him but he knew they were talking about him. Yet, he couldn’t remember how he ended up in this ditch.

The footsteps came closer.

“This would be a lot easier if you let me use my flashlight.”

“Yeah, why don’t you just stand up and start screaming while you’re at it.

Gabriel found he could clench his fists and rolled over to his side and reached up. At that moment, another streak of lightning lit up the night.

“Dude, I found him…”

“Where...?”

The footsteps splashed over to him and Gabriel felt himself being lifted off the ground and onto someone’s shoulders.

“Gabriel, hang in there, man. This is not over yet. Don’t die on us.”

“Shit, I think they saw us. Drop! Drop!”

Almost immediately Gabriel felt himself flop back down into the mud and a second later there was a loud whirring overhead.

A whisper in his ear, “Don’t fucking move. Don’t breath. Don’t look up.”

The whirring hovered for a few seconds, Gabriel’s body was pure agony but he fought the urge to groan.

The whirring grew louder until something heavy landed near them.

“Oh no… Gabriel, never give up. This isn’t the end. There is a lot you don’t know. I’ll see you soon, my friend. Forgive me.”

Suddenly, the person got up and ran through the darkness…

“Come and get me you fuckers!”

There was a shuffling, a muffled scream then silence.

The whirring lifted and disappeared into the din of the blackness.

Gabriel lay in the ditch wondering what had just happened.

“Fuck! They got Rich. Fuck! Dude, dude, dude…Gabriel…you okay, man?”

Gabriel felt someone scramble over to him and a figure looked down on him.

Gabriel coughed.

“Who are you?”

“Wow, that was one hell of a blast you took. Don’t you remember your ol’ pal Tim?”

The name was like a spark in the darkness and slowly Gabriel’s mind began making connections.

“Tim…I know you. Rich…what happened…to…?”

“They got him, man,” Tim responded. “Now, we gotta get you out of here before they return looking for more or this place gets overrun. Can you walk?”

Gabriel rolled over and tried to get up but one of his legs felt shattered.

“No…my leg…hurts so much…gaaah.”

“Okay, man, hang on,” said Tim, picking up Gabriel in a fireman’s carry.

“Where are we going?”

“Only place we can go, man…to the past,” Tim said.

At this, Tim gingerly dropped Gabriel next to a dark vehicle. Tim opened the hatch and helped Gabriel in.

Tim strapped himself in and the craft silently lifted off the ground.

“Yeah, I got him. They…they took Rich. Yeah, I understand. We’re on our way now,” said Tim over a radio.

“Tim...what the hell just happened? What’s going on?”

“I guess you took a really bad knock to your head. We’ll have Dr. Meredith check you out as soon as we get back to base,” Tim responded as the hover ship sliced stealthily through the torrent.

“Stop with the b.s. What the fuck happened?”

“I’m sorry, Gabriel, it’s been a lot to take in at once,” Tim responded with a sigh. “You…we’ve all been betrayed. Everything was a huge setup. They’re invading us across the entire world and we’ll be lucky if we can make it back to base without being caught.”

“What?”

“Look, man, Brenna wasn’t the savior we all hoped. She was the key to their invasion… Now, our whole world has fallen to pieces. They’re pouring into all the major cities as we speak, killing whoever is left…whoever hasn’t died from the disease. In fact, I think the rain is carrying the latest strain and you were lying in that ditch for a while before we got to you….Gabriel…you with me? Hey, man…you okay? Hey!”

While Tim was trying to explain things, it all slowly came back to Gabriel. Brenna—he had sworn to protect her with his life—and, in the end, she almost took his. But, as he dealt with the grief handed him, he began to feel woozy and his head began to burn. His eyes, sinuses and throat were on fire. The rain was poisoned with the latest strain and he had taken a lot of it in while lying in the ditch.

If Brenna’s attack hadn’t killed him, the disease would.

Tim’s words echoed as Gabriel’s eyes rolled back and he sunk into darkness engulfed in flames.

He had always wondered if Hell really existed.

Here was Hell now…and the flames burned his soul from within.

Silence

2009-08-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread.

-- Blaise Pascal

Once the ringing in his ears had stopped, it finally began to dawn on him that he might actually be completely alone. More than anything, including the absence of humans, animals...insects…the silence was driving him insane.

The static silence bore down on him, suffocating, almost seeming to have a weight of its own, raining on him and weigh him to his knees.

It had been nearly a week and he still hadn’t come across a living thing.

If the terrifying reality that there were no human beings anywhere to be seen wasn’t enough, he began to drift into hysterics when he realized he hadn’t heard a bird chirp or a dog bark.

However, when he realized that there was no wind blowing in the trees, no wind caressing his face, he began sobbing and screaming uncontrollably. Yet, even in this fit of madness, his voice succumbed to the silence suffocating him.

There was no evidence to suggest there had been a nuclear attack—which was one of the first things that popped into his head. There were cars on the road, but no sign of drivers or passengers. He noticed that there were no skid marks on the road, as if the cars were to have suddenly stalled to halt.

It was almost as if time had stopped.

But it hadn’t.

His Tag Heuer kept on ticking. The sun kept rising. The sun kept setting. The stars would come out. The moon would silently creep across the night sky.

When the darkness came, it lent an overwhelming brunt to the silence that weighed him down—down to the ground.

What is Now Proved was Once Only Imagined

2009-07-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

My first living memory is a cacophony of chaos and muted explosions.

I remember being surrounded by frightened voices, huddled in a corner of my bedroom.

Something caught my attention from a nearby window, and I looked up just in time to see an airplane flying by as it dropped bombs on Managua.

What a way to begin life, eh?

At least I have no recollection of the time Sandinistas were having a skirmish on the street and one of their soldiers burst into a house, found a woman with her baby and pointed the nuzzle of his rifle to the baby's head, demanding provisions, money and who know what else.

My mother was defiant and held me tight. I was probably too young to remember, could not understand what was going on or just blocked it out.

Although I only spent five-and-a-half years of my childhood in Nicaragua, surprisingly vivid memories--images, smells, sounds and feelings--come to me from time to time.

Of these, my favorite is one that elicits indescribable feelings from the depths of my soul.

The sky glows crimson as the sun is setting behind my father. A cool breeze whisks through my hair and I can make out his silhouette as he tosses a baseball at me.

We are playing catch.

I know no worries.

I know no fear.

It is just me and my dad, and he is teaching me how to play baseball.

We are both laughing. Dinner is already waiting for us at home. But, for now, we are both having a good time, and that is all that matters.

It is a simple, yet poignant recollection, rife with detail.

It usually comes to me in the middle of the night, when silence prevails and I am alone with my thoughts.

I realized at a young age that this and other humble memories have had a profound impact on my psyche. And, since I can recall, I have always admired the smaller details before taking in the bigger picture. For, within each fragment, grain or speck, exists another universe and infinite possibilities.

Perhaps that is why when I studied the works of William Blake, one of his quotes struck a chord that has almost become a mantra of mine...

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.

Although our bodily senses allow us to perceive the world that surrounds us, there is more to life than those crude senses allow us to discern. When mind and soul are in harmony, our senses are expanded.

And, the greatest sense of all is imagination. Infinity is waiting to be unlocked within all of us, and that is a gift.

As Blake once said...

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

At the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

2009-06-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

At the shores of the cosmic ocean, I turn my eyes to the edge of forever.

While it is humbling to realize that we are just infinitesimal specks in space and time, we still struggle to find meaning in our lives.

What was before and what awaits us after our existences on this Earthly coil are questions that we cannot answer, limited by our human minds and bodies.

Yet, it is that human mind, galvanized by its most powerful asset, imagination, that has propelled us since man's first step on this planet.

Some argue, that this all a dream...that, at our deaths, we will truly awaken from this slumber. Many, try to make sense of our world through religion. While others turn to math, science and the stars for answers.

However, more than anything, we just find more questions.

But, do we really want to know?

I, much rather, enjoy the trip. You know...probing the limits of our imaginations and the depths of the human soul. Despite what life brings us, good or bad, we will find that we are merely standing in the wet sand, at the shore of the cosmic ocean.

Before us...the edge of forever.

Let's go on a trip.