The Final Convergence Part 1 (The Convergence Saga Book 6) Read online

  THE FINAL

  Convergence

  The Convergence Saga

  Book 6 / Part 1

  by

  Rick Kueber

  Stellium Books

  Grant Park, IL 60940

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedication

  As always this book is dedicated to my son Daniel, and my family

  but also to Annette for all of her hard work and dedication and Tabitha whose creative soul inspired me to create something unique and beautiful.

  The Convergence Saga is a work of complete fiction. All characters, organizations and events portrayed in this series are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Chapter 1

  Almost Home

  Again, it seemed my dreams were haunted by my sordid past. Sunshine beamed in through the sheer white curtains and lit the unadorned, white walls and ceiling. It appeared brighter than natural and caused my eyelids to flutter in its brilliance. A thick and heavy, white comforter and freshly laundered sheets wrapped my naked body in soft, heavenly warmth. The room too, was warm and the pillows were full and cool. At the foot of the king sized bed stood a woman I was no stranger to.

  “Why are you in my dream?” I mumbled pulling the cover just below my chin and waiting for her to turn into some nightmarish decomposing hag or something worse.

  “I was just checking on you.” Her voice drew me in and sounded like sunshine feels; warming your face, lying poolside or on the beach. “You’ve been asleep for nearly fourteen hours.”

  “And what cryptic message do you have for me?” I rubbed my face with my open hands and my vision became more crisp. “What will happen when I wake?”

  “This?” She held her hands out and turned her head, looking around the room.

  “I don’t understand…” It made no sense. There was no riddle, no revelation, no nightmare hidden behind this comforting experience… And then it happened… the door swung open effortlessly and a thin gray being with brightly glowing eyes stepped into the room. ‘Let the nightmare begin’ I thought.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ The being spoke into my mind, but what it said was curious and its voice was comfortable and familiar, like an old flannel shirt worn almost too many times.

  “Wait…what?” I couldn’t believe my dreams. “Is there going to be a big bunny in overalls sailing through the window on a schooner to bring us some home brew too? This is just too weird.” I vigorously rubbed my face and ran my fingers through the tangles of my outgrown hair.

  “I think he’s delusional, or maybe he’s finally lost it.” The beautiful woman spoke to the little gray alien as she sauntered over to my bedside and placed her hand on my forehead. “He’s not feverish… Tanner, are you feelin’ okay?”

  “Maya…” My heart raced and my sinuses cleared immediately from the sudden rush of adrenaline. “Is that… is it really you?”

  “Yes silly.” She half giggled, bending over to hug me. “It’s really me.”

  “Sure sounds like you…” I hugged her back and peered over her shoulder at the strange, gray visitor. “Feels like you too.”

  “Naughty boy.” She whispered in my ear and kissed my neck.

  “No, I meant… you feel real.” I couldn’t bring myself to believe that this was my actual reality. “WHERE IS ‘NIX?”

  “I… I don’t know.” She turned her head in shame, or fear, as she spoke. “The people here, they pulled me from the wreckage.” Her eyes darted around the room haphazardly, but never connected with mine. “Stellan’s dead, Tanner… and I haven’t seen Phoenix since the accident.”

  “What?” I mumbled incoherently. My warm and fuzzy dream had quickly turned into a nightmare. “He isn’t dead… ‘Nix is NOT dead.” I was unable to bottle my emotions, and they poured out in heavy gasping breaths and sobs.

  “Maybe not. No one knows where he is.” Her eyes still avoided mine, but her hand reached out and our fingers intertwined. “Let’s figure this out together.” She stroked my arm to comfort me. “You’ll get used to this place quick, and then, when we’re both feeling back to normal… We’ll find him together… you and I.”

  “How do I get back to normal?” I wondered how normal anything could really be in this bizarre reality.

  “Well, do you want some dinner?” She asked with a smile, pulling away from me, but keeping hold of my hand. “Or maybe breakfast, since you just woke up?”

  “You’re serious? I’m not going to wake up in some Titan dungeon or something?” Of everything I had just experienced, her smile was the most real. “I’m starving! I’d eat anything right now… even nasty Taker bread, but if you’re really offering, breakfast would be amazing.”

  “I’ll just go and bring you back something.” She winked, releasing my hand and exiting the room with the grace of a ballerina and the playfulness of a child.

  I closed my eyes, pulled the downy comforter up to my face and drew its fresh scent in with a deep breath. “Mmmmmm…..” I audibly moaned.

  ‘Nice, isn’t it?’ The being spoke in my mind again. ‘I have followed your thoughts and I questioned our reunion on more than one occasion. You are a dangerous being, Tanner Astin, but that is why I chose you from the very beginning, isn’t it?’

  “You chose me?” I knew the voice in my head and I began to have flashbacks from my childhood. “Moro Dan?”

  ‘Yes, it is I, in my truest form, though also my most vulnerable. On this world with this pressure and gravity, I cannot remain this way for long. My life energy is not without limits.’ The short, spindly alien reached his long, strange hand out and grasped my arm. ‘and please, call me Dan. It feels more earthly.’

  “Sorry, I’m just trying to wrap my brain around all of this.” I spoke to him like I would have to any of my companions.

  ‘Interesting choice of words, considering the thing that could save you and the rest of the lives on this planet… your brain is already wrapped around that thing.’ Easing up the grip on my arm, Dan turned his eyes to the open door and it slowly closed.

  “Tell me about the thing in my head.” He had struck a nerve with his mental words. “What is this thing in my head, really… and why is it here?”

  “First, have your meal, and take in your new surroundings with your companion, Maya. Then, when the darkness comes, I will help you understand.” The being radiated an aura of kindness and mystery as his mind spoke to mine.

  “I’m kind of getting tired of all this, ‘I’ll tell you everything later’ crap.” I didn’t intend to come off as angry or abrasive, but never the less, that is exactly how it came out. He said nothing, but cocked his head to the side and his eyes had a look of emotion I recognized as empathy.

  “Who’s hungry?” Maya bounced through the door with a smile on her face, a bubbly demeanor and huge plate of food in her hands. “Okay… did I come back at a bad time? I can just put this down here and come back later.”

  “No, it’s fine. He was just leaving.” My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. “Please… stay.”

  Moro Dan exited gracefully through the opened door without speaking, at least I didn’t hear his voice in my head. Maya smiled and waved a minimal good-bye to him as he disappeared down the hallway. When he was gone from our sight, she closed the door and sat next to me on the edge of the bed. I looked over to see a plate full of delicious looking food. There were scrambled eggs, smoked sausages and even biscuits with jelly. I took a bite of the eggs and they were light, fluffy and felt like heaven on my tongue.

  “The only thing that could possibly make this any
better’s salt and pepper.” I grinned at my beautiful friend. “But I’m not complaining.” I mumbled as I took a bite of one of the sausages and its spicy flavor was almost overwhelming.

  “Oh, yeah… I almost forgot.” Maya rushed from the room and before I could even begin to feel concerned, she returned with a steaming mug of coffee and salt and pepper shakers. “Here ya go…”

  As I took the first delicious bite a bit of gristle made an uncomfortable feeling, grinding between my teeth like tough rubbery leather. Suddenly two memories made me cringe and the few bites I had taken burned their way back up my throat and filled my mouth with that putrid, acidic taste. First: I had just told Mariah that I was so hungry that I could eat anything. Second: in the deadly dark of night, a woman (whom I had every reason to believe was Maya) had told the others to take the bodies of the disgusting mountain man and the frail little girl inside because they were running low on meat.

  “So…” I swallowed hard as my eyes watered. “What kind of sausage is this? I mean where did it come from?”

  “Only the best for you!” She grinned devilishly. “Pure pork sausage, just made a few days ago.”

  “You wouldn’t bullshit me would you?” My stomach rolled, even though I wanted to believe her.

  “Why would I?” She wondered about his odd question.

  “Because this could be…somebody.” I looked at the half eaten sausage through my watery eyes. “This could be Maddie.”

  “Oh, no. Human flesh is only for the Takers that live here. They tend to the livestock. You’ll see.” She spoke matter-of-factly.

  “You feed people to those zombies?” I was angry that human life and dignity had fallen so low on the ladder of importance.

  “Only as a last resort, and only if they are already dead. We can’t afford to waste anything here.” She tried to explain and I could tell she was upset by the inhumane ideals I was insinuating.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to see, but somehow, I believed her. It took a minute to get past the thoughts of cannibalism, but after sprinkling my eggs lightly with the black and white specks of nirvana, I devoured every bite, even though I was so full that the last few bites were difficult to swallow.

  “Oh my god! That was delicious!” I took a deep breath trying to settle the food in my undersized stomach. “How’d you manage to make all of this… and the heat and lights.. am I dead? Is this heaven?”

  “No, silly.” Maya leaned in close and kissed me, half on the lips as if she were testing the waters. “Up for a walk?”

  It seemed strange that Maya was being so intimate with me, as if we had a past. We had never even looked at each other in a desiring way, but I suppose we did have some history together and perhaps that was comforting to her. Maybe that’s what she needed and desired… “Sure, why not?” I shrugged my shoulders and felt like, once again, my questions were being avoided. I was wrong.

  Maya took my hand and led me from the room. The warmth of the carpet on my bare feet was reminiscent of a world long gone. We stopped briefly at the front door of the cottage and a pair of fleece lined leather slippers awaited me. It seemed surreal that all of this was happening, but the fact that the slippers actually fit my wide feet was unbelievable. It was as if someone had anticipated my arrival.

  “Come on.” Handing me a black leather jacket, Maya grinned and opened the door.

  The gravel road outside was busy with pedestrians and bicyclists. Passers-by tossed waves or gawked as if I was some glowing eyed monster, which I sort of was. To our left, dozens of rustic little cottages lined either side of the road, scattered out just enough to give the false sense of privacy and to my right was a huge, two story lodge built out of logs, or so it appeared. This community was nestled deep in the heart of the mountain forest, but the trees around the cottages had been cleared and allowed the clouded, blue skies and sunshine to pour down without hindrance.

  “You see there?” Maya pointed out the roofs of the small dwellings. “Every one is completely covered in solar panels and even on a cloudy day they make more electricity than we can use.”

  “So how many people live here?” I couldn’t get over the number of people who were out and about and how many of them looked my way with familiar, sparkling hybrid eyes.

  “This is one of the largest mountain communities. We’re at the very back end of it.” She pointed to the lodge. “That building is the end of the town… if you want to call it that. There aren’t any real stores or anything, just houses. Probably two or three hundred little ones like these and maybe, I dunno… a bunch more than that, that just keep getting bigger and bigger, the closer you get to the front end.” She looked upward and tweaked her lips to one side as if deep in thought. “There’s probably eight or ten thousand people here, but there are a lot of these places. Some don’t have solar power yet, but they will.”

  “And what about breakfast?” We paused when we came to a fork in the road. The road remained gravel to the left, but turned to pavement to the right.

  “About a mile down that way…” She pointed down the gravel fork. “is a couple of the farms. Someone knew what the hell they were doing last year and this past spring they had acres of crops planted. There’s cows, chickens and even pigs. A few people kinda run it all, but that’s where all of the Takers live and work.” She pulled me along with her up the paved fork of the road, even though I was fascinated with the thought of seeing the farms. “There are probably nearly five thousand Takers working the farms all the time. We don’t waste electricity on the farms if we don’t have to and there is only one real tractor and it can only do so much. If we use it too much, we’ll run out of diesel fuel and then It’ll just be a yard ornament.” Maya let go of my hand, wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder. “Everything is so different, but its kinda cool. Everyone working together. It’s almost Utopian.”

  “Utopia? How’d all this happen?” I started questioning if I really had died and gone to some hippie, commune heaven.

  “We’re on the edge of the biggest national park in the country.” Her effervescent personality and attitude made it nearly impossible to be pessimistic. “I learned that from a brochure in the lodge.” She giggled. “Anyway, everybody was just drawn here, I guess. The whole place is almost as big as a small city. There’s about 25 square miles of cabins, homes, and mansions. They’ve got about five little farms and there are Titans all around us, sort of like guardians. It’s still all weird and sometimes creepy, but it’s pretty damn cool, really.”

  “And everybody… and all of this… just works, huh?” I mentally scratched my head.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” She wrapped her other arm around me and interlocked her fingers and we rhythmically bumped together as we walked. “They said they came here right after the first wave of the invasion and it just kind of worked and more and more people came. Some were hybrids like me and some were Takers. Somehow, they’ve survived here from the beginning.”

  Bumping along became awkward and slowed us, so we walked along the busy road, holding hands, wrapped up in our conversations about everything that Maya had learned since her arrival. I was curious about the apparent buzz of activity and she explained that it was in preparation for the coming winter. Our last journey had taken us farther north and higher into the mountains than I had realized and there would be snow soon and not just heavy flurries like the night before. According to rumors Mariah had heard, once the snow began, it would cover the ground and stay until spring. I took comfort in the fact that there was electricity and that meant there would be heat, lights and running water. Some sense of normality seemed possible in this unique new world, but in the back of my mind the fate of Phoenix lingered and I knew there was chaos and death beyond our borders.

  Chapter 2

  Revelations

  The afternoon waned into evening, and the sun set early. The air was crisp and winter’s bite came quickly as the sky darkened. Maya and I had walked for miles and never left the co
mmunity. It seemed so strange to see electric lights in the fogged windows of cabins and cottages. Many of the residents turned their lights out and closed up their homes, locking the doors, and joined us on the road. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were all coming out just to see me and walk with us.

  “Hadn’t we better head back?” It seemed like a good way to break into a conversation about those who walked with us.

  “We could turn around, but that would be a hell of long way to go.” She squeezed my hand. “We’ve gone in a big loop, baby. We’re almost back.”

  “Oh.” I felt foolish and I wasn’t sure how I felt about her calling me ‘baby’, but it didn’t feel like such a bad thing. “I guess after the sun went down, I lost track of our direction.” The truth was that I was distracted by the beautiful young girl on my arm. I leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “Where are all of these people going?”

  “Same place we are.” She whispered back and nipped my earlobe between her teeth in an intimate, playful gesture. “We have a meeting at the lodge tonight… and you’re the reason why.”

  ”Me?” I was puzzled. “But, I just got here.”

  “Yes, you did.” She winked at me. It was meant to comfort me, but it did not.