The Brother

Chapter Seven

The door looked like a regular one. It was brown, about seven feet tall and stood out against the white wall. Jace pushed the door open and it did not produce any sound. The room which he entered, had around five cubicles neatly lined on either side. They seemed to be made of steel and he felt the cold on his knuckles as he knocked on one of them.

“Yes?” said the man who opened the cubicle. He was a brown man with a long nose and dark brown eyes. His hair was brown as well and he wore a uniform which was made of green shirt and trouser. The name tag on his left breast pocket read Thisara. He seemed to be annoyed.

“Here. I’m under Minerva’s order” said Jace and handed the black ball.

Thisara took the ball and pressed it hard between his index and thumb finger. After a couple of seconds, he eased the pressure and held it on his left palm. A thin blue sheet of light about four inches long appeared.

It looked similar to Jayram’s caller. Thisara seemed to take some time to go over the contents and then finally said, “Follow me sir.”

They walked down the length of the room and turned left. There were three doors. All of them brown and identical. Thisara pushed the left door open and gestured Jace to enter.

Jace realized that this was an elevator and entered without much hesitation. The elevator was made of glass. He turned to his right and he could see the fountain which he saw earlier. His eyes immediately scanned for Alby, but unable to find him, he looked ahead.

Thisara took the black ball and pushed it into one of the holes in the glass. Jace expected it to drop, but it clung to the hole as a wave of blue light darted from it in all directions on the glass wall.

The elevator slowly began to climb up and after what looked like ten stories, began moving right. Jace, who wasn’t prepared for this, ended up banging his head on the glass wall. Looking at him, Thisara said,” We’re gonna stop in another ten seconds”.

“Thanks for the heads up” said Jace and steadied himself as they came to an abrupt halt.

Thisara opened the door and stepped into the corridor filled with doors on either side. For a change, the walls were bright yellow in color and the doors were red. They passed through about six doors on either side and finally stood in front of a door on the right.

The sign on the door read, “Chief of Council” in gold. Thisara said,”Sir, this is your room. Do you want me to be waiting for you to return?”

“No. That won’t be necessary. Thanks for the help.”

“My pleasure, sir.” he said and turned around to leave.

A slight shiver ran across Jace’s body as he took a deep breathe in and waited for Thisara to be out of sight. Finally satisfied that he was alone in the corridor. He knocked on the door.

“Come in.” said a feminine voice from the inside. Jace’s heart was pounding against his chest as he pushed the door open.

He saw a white man with brown hair and blue eyes. He was clean shaven and his cheeks appeared to have sunken in. He did not look up and said,” Please have a seat.”

Tears streamed down Jace’s cheeks as he sat on one of the two chairs opposite the man and said,”You look older”

Hearing the voice of his brother, the Chief looked up and appeared to be delighted. His eyes shone as he asked his assistant to leave.

“Jace!” he said and moved around the table to hug the visitor.

And Jace felt the familiar embrace and couldn’t stop crying. This was the best day in the past year. He had never felt so happy. The two brothers finally pulled apart from each other and sat on a gray couch which was placed in the far corner of the room.

“How did you get here?” said Jonathan. “I can’t believe you figured out a way to find me.”

“I checked your room and found something that was beeping in the bow…” said Jace and was interrupted by Jonathan.

“That was a prototype. A friend of mine named Wesley had invented it. There were only three of them. He kept one with himself and gave me two of them. He certainly did not trust anyone else, not even his family members.”

“You were gone for three weeks. These people say that you’ve been here for seven years. I don’t understand…”

“Well, I guess you thought the device transported you from one place to another. The thing is, you time travelled. I had set the prototype to the date I assumed the war would end. But, unfortunately it’s still going on and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.” said Jon and massaged his forehead with his thumb and index.

“So how many times have you visited this place?”

“I think around five. You didn’t feel my absence because I used to return back to the exact time in which I left. But the last time I travelled, I had planned on finishing this war before moving back. You say it’s been three weeks? Well, I’ve been here for seven years.”

“Why do you want to win this war so badly? This does not concern us at all. We could go back and be happy” -- or at least try to -- Jace thought but chose not to say.

“The thing is, it does concern us. You see, our enemy, Stryke has plans on winning this island and moving back in time to rule the world. Do you know what his army is made of?” said Jonathan.

The idea of being ruled by a mad man whose army was filled with the undead, made Jace shudder.

“Yeah. Alby, the guy who brought me here, said that they were the undead.” said Jace.” So how do you take them down? Stand on a high wall and watch them try to make a ladder out of themselves while shooting them in the head?”

Part of the reason he asked the question was because he remembered watching plenty of zombie movies with the heroes gunning them down with a shotgun.

“Well, this isn’t World War Z. The undead can think like the rest of us. But are bounded to the person who converted them. There’s no concept of free will. Two years ago, we captured around three of them and tried the cure that Wesley invented. The subjects recovered almost instantly, but lost their lives in less than minute. Stryke is using people, who are literally a second away from dying, in his army.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Jace.

“Plan A was to unite the people and fight the war. But it isn’t working. Plan B is to use somebody to act as a spy and give us details about his camp.”

“But…” Jace prompted.

“Nobody is brave enough to do that. The idea of standing alongside their dead relatives bothers everyone here. I can’t consider the prospect of going in myself because I’m easily recognizable. Anyway, enough of me. Tell me about you.”

“Well, I spent the past three weeks without getting proper sleep. Mum is still not making much of a progress. The police gave up on the search to find you.”

“Oh. You look tired. I’ll arrange a room for you and we can take a walk later.” said Jonathan and pressed a button on his desk.

Jace heard a light creak and saw the bookshelf behind Jonathan slide open revealing a large circular bed with golden covers and white pillows. The bed seemed to levitate and was surrounded by a couple of chairs and what appeared to Jace as a small study table.

“This is my room. You can rest here for now. Don’t worry, you’ll have your own room before dark. Now sleep.” said Jonathan and gestured his brother to enter the room.

Jace did not think twice as he headed in and jumped onto the bed. Closing his eyes and trying to recall the events of the day as he drifted off into sleep.