April 30th, 2032

Andrew couldn't get the thought of the water tank out of his head. Even when the group gathered themselves up and took off, his mind still dragged his body toward their destination.

"Any confidence in our situation?" Andrew asked.

"Less each minute," Jen answered.

"You mind seeing if you can gleam anything?" He called back to Sarah.

"I can try. Try to drive easy if you can."

"Can do," Andrew said. "How long until we grab Sully?"

Jen brought out her phone and begun typing in numbers. "Lemme confirm some details with him. He's off in Weymouth right now."

"Where's that at?" Andrew asked.

"South-East Massachusetts," Jen said.

"All right. It's in the opposite direction of where we want to go, but honestly, I'm kind of okay with pushing back the meeting with whoever is in charge of this enough for me to gather myself," Andrew said.

"I get you," Jen said. "Should be nice having some more support in this."

The both of them went back and forth—almost to convince themselves more than each other. Sarah rested her head on her arm and let her eyes fall closed. They had about seven hours ahead of them until they reached Weymouth. She couldn't even imagine the length of the in total. Mount Rushmore was half the country's distance away. The thought made her shudder, but knew that they'd be rotating shifts for driving so it wouldn't be as bad.

As silence rejoined them slowly, Sarah falls into her dreams. The world around her is pitch black. There is an echoing sound of clanging on metal. She spins in a full circle slowly to find out the direction it is coming from. Suddenly, in front of her eyes a patch of the ground ahead of her flashes in sync with the sound. Each reverberation fades it back to darkness but it always comes back—a white flash that reveals the dull-blue metal underneath. Under the surface she sees pipes of all sizes winding and unwinding off to the unknown darkness. A face flashed beside her for but a moment. It was familiar, but she could not place her finger on it.

Taking a step forward onto the flashing point a new point ahead of her began flashing rhythmically with the sound. It looked like the beginning of a grand staircase. She swallowed hard and was about to take a step forward, but was stopped by an arm on her shoulder. She turned to see John, looking no different than any other time she's seen him in her dreams. He always looked sixteen—and it always hurt her heart to know he'd never get any older.

"I've been looking for you everywhere...things are..." he looked around, confused. "Things are..."

This was how it always began—John coming so close to realization of his situation before it leaves and it's like the slate is wiped clean. Only...something in his eyes frightened her. They were different, like he was trying to keep from forgetting.

"Things are...not good. This place is full of poison. You have to leave."

"John..." Sarah turned toward him fully. This was the closest he'd ever come. "You remember?"

His face filled with fear. "Sarah...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to upset you last time. I...I didn't mean to imply that things were easy for you. I know it must be hard...hard to continue living, but I need to convince you to stay away from here."

"Slow down, John. What's here? Is this Mount Rushmore? I don't recognize it."

"You're inside the mountain. These halls are poisoned. There's a presence here that is...dark. I can't see it but I can feel its reach. Even now you're so much closer to it—it's dragging you to it like...like it's got you in its web."

"That doesn't make any sense...we're not even heading toward Mount Rushmore...we were driving to Massachusetts."

"Sarah...you're not going to make it there. The presence is changing so much. Please, you have to turn around."

"I...I'm sorry John, I can't do anything from here."

He turned and clenched a fist tight. "Damn it...this shouldn't be happening...wait, can you connect to..." he hung on the word. "to...Tiki. I think that was her name, right? She was from the outside. She was like that presence...but different. Do you think she can help?"

Sarah stood staring at him, silent. "I...don't know who you're talking about, John." She was confused, because he seemed serious.

There was an even greater look of fear and confusion painted across his face. "Was...I just dreaming that? Can I even do such a thing...oh god..." his eyes grew wide and he froze in place.

Stolen novel; please report.

"John, hey, stay with me here, I need you to talk to me. Who are you talking about?" She shook his side and he turned to her slowly.

"I...I was in the clouds. I...fought with you by saying something dumb. Do you not remember that?"

She did not remember that...was it possible that she was just as likely of forgetting? The thought terrified her. "I don't...I don't remember anything like that. The last time we talked we were back in Elysium—do you remember standing above that city of lights—higher up in the levels? We talked about what you wanted to be when you grew up."

"Grew up...? Sarah...I'm..." He stumbled not for forgetting, but because she knew it was hard to come to terms with.

"Dead...I know," Sarah nodded. "You don't always remember. I...sometimes find solace in pretending with you while I can."

"We...may not be the same..." he said, staring off into space once again.

"Not the same? What do you mean? We're still interacting here, right?"

"We may not be the same John and Sarah that keep meeting up."

It was Sarah's turn to share the look of confusion.

"I think...we may be connecting at uneven points. I remember things you don't and you remember things I don't. I think...I remember something about the future."

"The future?"

"Fragments, scrambled like..." he trailed off, and for a moment it looked as if he phased out of existence, but he was still there. "like stars. Like...a shooting star carries a glimpse and then its gone, and I have to wait for another star to pass to get another part. I saw a door. It opened...I think I saw a cave. I was scared. I remembered, but then...I guess I never really forgot. There's a darkness...above us all. I can't comprehend it, but a shadow of that darkness is back there—" He pointed at the flashing point of the staircase. "There's a remnant of darkness back there and it is here to only cause tragedy. You have to get away..."

"John...I'm afraid we can't. Even if that's true...we can't let it stay here. We have to do something about it."

His face turns grim. "I know...I just...I want to know that you're alive for longer. If you die...Sarah..."

"If I die, then I'll come join you here. You, Jay, we'll meet up with my Mom and we can be how we should have been."

He shakes his head, crying now. "No...I don't think that is going to work. You're the only reason I can connect with you—connect with my dad. It's because you pull us from...wherever we are. You're the star I see passing by—where I can get glimpses. If you die..."

Without another word, he was gone. Sarah stood staring at the spot he was standing. Her heart broke in two at the thought. Was...that true? Was her living the only reason that John was able to communicate with her? Would that mean that when she died she wouldn't be able to see her mother...? She fell to her knees, suddenly the darkness around her felt tragically cold. Still the mechanical clanging sound echoed and in a flurry a horrible anger flushed through all of her system.

She practically leapt at a running pace up the stairs. Her hands suddenly felt heavy with energy. Her footsteps bolted up the staircase and she found a door which she ripped easily off its hinges without even lifting a finger on it. Down a hall that lit up as she crossed it and suddenly the environment changed. One final step and the metal shifted to damp earth. Raindrops fell from a black sky with a million stars illuminating the plateau she stood at the edge of. The Earth beyond was...different.

It changed a second later to a different, dark existence that seemed to glow with a dark light that she couldn’t even begin to describe. It didn’t look like anything that could naturally occur on Earth, and yet she was watching it here.

Another second and it was back to the normal light—but even then she couldn’t describe it as normal. It was...it almost seemed like layers of lands layered on one another that she could somehow individually identify. Another second change. Another, back. Sarah’s eyes started to roll as it kept flashing back and forth she had to close both of her eyes.

She was in total silence as she kept her eyes closed—she couldn’t even hear the rain even though she could feel it against her skin. She wondered if she could just stay like this and wait out the storm, but a part of her knew that she’d have to confront what was ahead of her.

She opened one eye slowly and was confused. The world around her wasn’t changing so drastically...it wasn’t changing at all. It was all the normal light—she saw hills bounding off in the distance and she could almost make out large mountains through the fog of the storm. However, as soon as she opened her other eye when ease settled in she was immediately thrust into the visual overload that both changing brought.

She let out a sound of defeat and closed both of her eyes again. Slowly breathing to regain her composure, she opened her other eye this time, slowly. And almost amazed if it weren’t so awfully composed, the dark world stretched out just as far as the light had. Mountains were in different places, and she swore she could have seen a city off in the distance. Opening her other eye similarly brought on the overload.

Okay, this was vital information. Looking with both eyes was the straight way to not be able to understand anything. One side saw the light, the other saw the dark. What kind of world was this...and just what happened to me to make it this way?

Ezrael, do you read me?

A familiar voice rang in her ears...it was...John.

She turned around—her eyes still closed. “John?! Where are you? John? I’m scared...please...come back.”

She took a fearful step back as the anger was extinguished immediately and she fell over herself. Explosions rocked the earth as a dark figure grew from the depths as a massive shadow over the skyline—the stars glowing through their body like a backlight. Horrible laughing rang in her ears as her eyes opened on the back of the driver's seat inside the car, Andrew was at her side and shaking her awake.

"C'mon Sarah, we need to step out for a second. Something's wrong."

"I..." she was unable to finish when she saw out of the front windshield was the imposing face of George Washington. "How did we get here so fast? How long was I out?"

"An hour," Andrew said, not taking his eyes off the mountain. "We couldn't make it to Weymouth. The land around us just...changed. We just arrived here."

"This is really bad," Sarah said.

"What'd you see?" Andrew asked.

She unbuckled and still stared out at the mountain. "Death. Destruction...the end of everything."