PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1
“Is it on?”
“Uhhh, yeah. Yeah it is.”
Noah had discovered it first. A cave deep underground that seemed to bring everything in it to life.
“Okay, test #1, concentrating the cave magic into a dying bird we found on the street.”
“Jesus Charlie you don’t have to go into details.”
“Shut up Willow, I can do what I want.”
“Charlie, be nice.”
“Jeez okay. Activating the machine in 3… 2… 1…”
BANG
The cave seemed to be filled with this unlimited source of energy that could bring things to life as long as they stayed in the cave.
“It… it’s completely burned to a crisp.”
“I think we see that Noah.”
“I’m gonna die building some dumb machine.”
“Noah don’t lose hope, I’m sure we’ll get it to work and and, you can grow old, and properly live your life, j- just, don’t lose hope, we’ll figure it out.”
Noah’s condition didn’t get better by staying in the cave, but he was healthy, despite his deteriorating organs he was healthy. In theory, if this cave energy or magic or whatever it was, was imbued into Noah, he could remain healthy, despite his illness, it was, it was worth a try.
“Damn we work fast.”
“Shut up Charlie this took a week.”
“That’s rather fast.”
“Just… just run the damn machine.”
“Jeez Noah you’re a real prick.”
“I’m dying, Charlie.”
“Okay… I’m sorry, test #32, concentrating the magic into… What is it?”
“A deer.”
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“Right, nearly dead roadkill.”
“Charlie.”
“Sorry Noah. Activating the blaster in 3… 2… 1…”
“It’s not a bla-”
zzZZ-FWOOOM
This was our 32nd attempt to imbue a living organism with magic permanently. At first nothing happened to the deer.
“It, it’s healing!”
“Wait what?”
Our last attempt resulted in a grossly twitching and convulsing bat, healing was definitely a first.
“Charlie, Willow, let’s bring the deer to the surface.”
“Alright.”
“Fine.”
After some heaving, Noah, Willow, and I managed to bring the buck to the surface and lay it on the grass.
“Is it just me or does the deer look almost completely healed?” I asked the group.
Noah bent down and began petting the dear.
“It does… look a lot healthier,” he replied.
“I think it is,” replied Willow.
Suddenly the buck picked itself up, standing tall at around 4 feet and stared at us for a few seconds, before dashing off into the woods, 3 times as fast as any deer I’d ever seen.
“Whoah,” I gasped, “that was rather fast.”
“We know, we have eyes too,” retorted Willow.
“Jeez, okay. Do you guys think that was an effect of the magic?”
“I think, I think it was,” interjected Noah
“Wow, okay, the machine works. I think we should get back to this tomorrow, it’s getting late. We can run some more tests and-”
“Can’t we just use it for me Tomorrow?” Noah cut in.
“Noah, listen, I know, you don’t want to have the threat of dying at any point dangling over your head but we really don’t know what this thing can do, alright? Let’s just run some more tests and see what happens, but I promise you’ll grow old okay? I promise you.”
“I-”
“Just get some rest Noah, we can talk more tomorrow.”
I woke up with a start at 4 in the morning, with a long day of testing ahead of me I decided to go to the lab early.
As I made my way down the stairs, I could hear the machine powering up.
Shit shit shit what’s happening
“Noah? Willow?” I called out for my friends.
“Charlie?” replied Noah’s voice, sounding deeply sleep deprived, “What are you doing here I thought you’d be asleep?”
“Noah what are you doing?”
“I’m gonna live Charlie, I’m gonna explore the world that was made for exploration, I’m gonna grow old, I’m gonna-”
“We haven’t even tested it on humans before!”
“I- I don’t care, I’m sick of waiting around, I’m sick of testing this damn machine, I want to live my life and see the world-”
“Are you crazy!? At least a few more tests.”
But I could already hear the buildup in the machines blast, the slow hum that was speeding up by the second.
“You can’t stop me Charlie, I’ve thought about it all night and this is truly what I need. I’m gonna live and- and we can grow old toge-”
Suddenly his voice stopped and I felt a massive force push me back coming from the lab.
Then, the force went back in the direction of the lab and disappeared.
“Noah??” I cried out, “Noah are you okay? Are you there? Noah!?”
There was no response.
“Noah!?”
Still, no response.
I made my way as fast as I could down the stairs repeatedly calling out for him over and over, praying to whatever god was out there that he was still alive and finally I made it to the bottom.
But it was empty, the only evidence of Noah being the fading lights of the machine.