The Tunnel - Part 18

Paris slowly recovered.  After a few days, he opened his eyes to see Atesta at his side.  He smiled and they kissed for the first time.  He said that he loved her and Atesta smiled.  Atesta told him that she would always be here for him and that her love for him will always protect him.

After a few days, the exodus to the new Calarrosa began.  First were the engineers armed with maps of the underground cave system in the planet.  Their mission was to begin building the water storage and pumping systems to lower the water levels in the planet.

After a few months, the fort and the meadows were visible.  It was time to start building a city.  For this, the architects and builders were sent to map out a fully sustainable city.  They chose a new site away from where Partica' shiny city was built.

The knowledge repository helped speed up many of the tasks.  The cube helped keep everybody heathy as they built their new world.  Farmers began to plant new fields and the rest of the people began to cross the portal for their final destination.

The green light was still there but fading fast.  They wondered who was still living in the planet.  Who was keeping that green light alive.

Finally, only Marcato, Paris, Lorca and Atesta were left in the old man's planet.  Atesta and Lorca were packing their few belongings and Atesta began to speak.  Lorca looked at her in the eyes and told her that he knew. Atesta asked him to come with them. That they could go get mother and make a new life in the new Calarrosa.  Atesta looked at Lorca and she knew the answer.  They hugged.  The legend says that they stood there, hugging, and whispering things in each others ears as they had always done.  To this date, nobody knows what was said.

When it was time to go, Lorca was there as he saw Marcato, Paris, and Atesta enter the portal to the new Calarrosa. Lorca reminded them that it was very important for them to find out the human life that still lights the new Calarrosa green.

And off they went.  Lorca felt a big void in his soul but he still felt that special connection with Atesta that transcends time and space.  He knew she was happy.  And he knew that they will see each other again someday.

THE END.

The Tunnel - Part 17

Tarania ran to help Paris who was badly injured.  She grabbed the repository and managed to get him back onto the floating platform and quickly headed back to the fort.

Marcato was waiting.  Nobody else was there except for Partica who was just sitting on the floor in one corner.  Everybody had successfully gone through the portal.

As they arrived, Tarania gave Marcato the cylinder and instructed him to put his hand on it so she give him access to it in case Paris died.  Marcato was more preoccupied about helping Paris but did so as instructed.

In that moment, Paris opened his eyes and tightly held Tarania's hand.  He thanked her for help. Tarania hugged him and with tears on her face quietly told him she was sorry for everything her people had done to his people.  She told Paris that she knew that he would be a good leader for his people as they built a better world somewhere else.

Marcato lifted Paris in his arms.  Paris would not let go of Tarania and asked Tarania to come with them and to let the portal decide whether she was true and ready to love again.  Tarania was allowed to go through the portal. And, Partica was left alone in the world it helped destroy.

As Marcato, Paris, and Tarania arrived to the old man's world, they were greeted by Lorca and Atesta.  Atesta alarmed ran to see why Paris was in Marcato's arms. He was unconscious. Marcato and Tarania explained what had happened.  Atesta asked Marcato to follow her to the tower room.  Once there, Marcato lowered Paris onto the bed in the center of the room and Atesta put the cube on Paris' chest, as she had done with Lorca before.  Atesta sat on the floor next next to Paris' bed, held his hand, and waited.

She remembered what Lorca had said about the meaning of life and how understanding the things that you were willing to live or die for was a way to center yourself on the things that really matter.

Lorca had said that this force, this feeling to give it all for others, was love and that love was the primordial force that drives the universe in the direction it was created for.

Love will eventually conquer all.  Humans vibrate and resonate with the universe when they are true to this force, when they listen to it, and when they let it guide their actions.

As she sat at Paris' bedside, Atesta thought about her feelings for Paris.  She had never felt what she was feeling at that moment.  She asked herself if she was willing to do anything for him.  Even die.  She then realized that this was it, that she loved him with all her heart.  And, at that very instance, she realized that the universe was quiet and at peace for a moment.

Lorca was looking at Atesta and Paris from the other side of the room.  He understood that the universe had managed to connect two souls that needed to be together to further its mission.  Lorca knew that soon he would have to say goodbye to Atesta as she embarked on her own quest to find her place in this vast universe, with Paris.

Lorca felt tears in his eyes, and smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The Tunnel - Part 16

After hearing that somebody was not able to enter the portal, Marcato and Paris ran to the beginning of the line.  There they found an old woman with ahead covering but with the same yellow jumpsuit as all the underground people.

They moved her to another part of the fort and began questioning her.  She said her name was Tarania and she confessed that she was one of Partica's council members.  She told the story of what had happened after Partica's people ran out through the back hatch in the underground bunker.

After a long tunnel, all 100 of them found themselves at the foot the orange mountain ranges that lined the horizon around the shiny city.  Partica had built a secret summer retreat half way up one the hills so we all went there to plan our next move.

After everybody settled in the myriad of rooms in the retreat, we all assembled in the central patio.  The retreat looked like a combination of a buddhist temple, roman summer house, and a Mexican hacienda.  It was built all around a great central court with fountains and gardens with a nice covered porch in front of all the rooms.  There were probable around 50 rooms all around.

Partica told the people assembled there that priority one was to recover the cube that the newly arrived girl had brought back with her.  We quietly understood that without it Partica will soon be loosing his power to control all of us.  In fact, secretly, many of us wished that the cube was never found so we could end Partica's reign.  That is, until something strange started happening.

We all started to notice that everybody around us was beginning to age noticeably.  We have been without access to the cube in its healing and regenerative powers for more than a month now.  This is when things began to unravel.

Partica lost control.  The guards stopped taking orders, dropped their weapons, and the infighting began.  Some wanted to try to defend and save the city from the flood, others wanted try to reach the fort and the portal to escape with the underground people, others were so angry that all they wanted was to recapture the underground people and force them again to work to get Calarrosa working like before, others simply began to cry and pray.

Tarania knew that was not going to end well so she decided to escape quietly through one of the windows of the retreat.  She told them that she had decided to join the resistance in any way she could as her last act of goodness in this world. She knew she would die soon.

Marcato and Paris looked at each other wondering if she was telling the truth. So, they asked her if anybody else followed her.  As she was saying no, Marcato's men shouted again that there was another portal rejection.  It was Partica.

When Marcato met with Partica, he could not believe what he was seeing.  A very hold human being, hunched over, with a cane, barely able to walk.  Immediately, upon entering his mind was telepathically filled with a plea for mercy.  Partica was begging for access to the cube to survive.  Marcato calmly explained the cube was no longer in Calarrosa and that the portal would not allow sentient beings with low vibrations pass through and that there was nothing he could do.

Even after everything that had happened Marcato felt sorry for Partica.

As the flood water continued to rise, the underground people kept moving into the portal.  As the last person went through, Tarania said to Marcato that before they left, they should take the royal repository of their people's knowledge.  This repository contained all of the accumulated scientific, engineering, astronomical, and medical knowledge from thousands of years.  This should help them restart a new civilization somewhere else.

As the flood waters began to enter the portal room in the fort, Marcato asked where this repository was. Tarania said that it was in a vault at the top of the tallest spire in the city and that she would take him there.  Marcato asked Paris to take Tarania on a flying platform back to the city to try to bring the repository back.

As Paris and Tarania arrived to the city, they could see how the water outside and inside the city was now at the same level.  The surrounding wall was not visible anymore.  You could only see the tips of the tallest buildings rising above the water. Nothing was moving or alive.  An eerie view.

So, they docked at the spire and went inside.  Tarania took Paris to a vault in the main room and put her hand on a panel to be scanned.  The vault opened and inside, on a pedestal, was a silver cylinder with blinking lights all around.  Paris asked Tarania how they would access the knowledge inside.  Tarania told Paris that she would grant him master access to all of its contents and to put his hand on the cylinder.

Once Paris had access, Tarania explained that to navigate its contents, he would he would first touch it and then navigate through it with his mind.  He could also ask the cylinder to display the contents he selected to the outside for others to see.

As she finished explaining this, they heard the door to the main room close behind them.  They turned around and saw Partica's chief guard blocking the exit with a spear in his hand.  He called Tarania a traitor and called Paris an ungrateful peasant that should go back to where he came from.  And then he charged.

He struck Paris in his abdomen before Paris could fight him off and subdue him.  During the altercation, Tarania ran to the door and opened it yelling to Paris to hurry.

Paris was on the floor, not moving.

TO BE CONTINUED ...