The Penumbra Paradox - ONC 2023

Chapter -14. The sky is falling, literally.

"What do we do now?" Arya questioned worriedly, "if it's raiders and not the government, then I think it is still safe to keep the map with us."

"First of all," Benji stopped after stepping out of the garden cave showing his palm, "why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Silas." Arya replied.

"Hmm. Silas." Benji paused and clicked his tongue in disappointment. "You knew better. You know what? I understand everything now. Why you were so hell bent on taking so many risks, apparently putting both of us in so much danger."

Arya remained silent, a little bit of guilt and a whole lot of triumph written all over her face. Because, the only thing that mattered at that moment was the fact that she had finally found the map.

"Whatever," Benji shook his head, "what was Silas looking for in that book? to search for Alluffrat or something?"

"He never said anything about that."

"So, more secrets huh?" Benji sarcastically concluded, "cool Ari. You still want to hide things from me, go ahead and be my guest."

"Benji, stop it. I am as lost as you are, right now. You do understand what Silas means to me, right?"

Benji gazed down and nonchalantly nodded and proceeded towards the air cruiser.

Fiana carried an extra bag of supplies, mostly some vandalised produce from the garden, and loaded it herself into the cruiser.

"Plan?" Fiana asked, a lot fiercely this time. Arya had not seen that amount of determination on her face.

"Listen to me Fiana." Arya faced Fiana and held her shoulders, "this is our problem, the main city is under some sort of danger and we are gonna go help. You go find survivors of your tribe. Sure, Oja must've had a plan to escape after the attack."

"No." Fiana pushed Arya's hands down. "Sister dead."

Benji and Arya glanced at each other, both equally confused.

"Don't...Ca...care." Fiana struggled to complete her sentence.

There was a wave of realisation on Benji's face. He opened his mouth in hesitation and then shut it back.

"Spit it out." Arya demanded to Benji.

"I think," Benji squeezed one of his eyes, guessing. "I think, she wants to find a new purpose, now that her sister is no more and forcing us to find a cure is meaningless, she would rather find a new assignment to look forward to."

"It's you speaking." Arya declared, as she turned on some switches on the cruiser dashboard and dragged the holographic navigation portal online.

"What say, Fiana?" Benji looked back from his pilot seat. "Am I correct?"

Fiana shook her head as a no. She looked up and said, "know. Main...city. Danger."

"What?" Benji frowned and hushed to Arya. "What does she even mean by that?"

"She knows what's happening in the capital and she wants to help." Arya tightened her grip on the joystick of the cruiser.
___________________________________

After having passed through a gravitational conundrum under a full blown eclipse and riding through one of the worst weathers of the apocalypse, finally the cruiser had made it across Penumbral continents to reach the district -1, the capital city.

"Requesting clearance to land, for the air cruiser, ID -3012."

There was no reply from the other side.

"I repeat, there was a short delay to join the first reinforcement. This is Dr Arya and her team, requesting to land. Cruiser ID- 3. 0. 1. 2."

Arya saw the devil's eye volcanic valley through the lateral windshield, it spewed ash and dirty smoke from its mouth - a sign of recent activity. She had never come to believe about the recent Devil's eye volcanic eruption from her friends until now.

The air cruiser manoeuvred around the location of the said underground city performing several touchdown rituals, as there was no clearance for the landing.

"Why are they not answering?" Benji re-checked his comms, by turning it on and off.

"The comms were down in the main city, that's what they announced yesterday."

"So should we go ahead with the landing then?" Benji worried, making another turn in the air to keep up with the altitude. There were strict litigations about the touchdown protocol and they didn't want to get into anymore trouble.

"AVAH anything?" Arya seeked help from her trusted AI friend.

"Negative, Arya. I see no signals." AVAH assured.

As Arya checked all of the 360 degrees around the cruiser casually, she saw it again. A flash of some kind, like the surface of whatever it was, was actually refracting and reflecting sunight at the same time.

Arya froze momentarily, this time it was no fluke. But if she had shared it with Benji, he wouldn't have had believed it, or so she thought.

"There is some kind of visual disturbance in the atmosphere." Arya modified her concern in a palatable way, so that she was not disregarded this time.

Benji swiftly turned his neck around and made an eye contact with Arya. "Is it the same shape shifting glass ball thing you saw earlier?"

Arya chose silence this time.

"Yes." The reply came from Fiana, from the back seat. She even pointed her finger toward something in the skies.

Benji squinted his eyes, continuing to make a third round of touchdown protocol in the air, as there was still no clearance for landing from mainland down below.

As he tried turning his cruiser around with a gentle tug on joystick, there was an eye blinding flash, followed by a dance of colours on a patchy spherical surface of some kind. Hexagonal discs of shimmering colors were arranged with each other in a honeycomb pattern at the far end of the horizon where the sea met the land of capital city.

Benji lost control of his joystick as his concentration was disturbed, like a ripple in the absolute calm waters, leaving the burden of piloting the ship solely on Arya.

"No no no." Arya pulled the joystick with all her might and commanded AVAH to run anti-gravity thrusters at hundred percent. "Brace for impact Fiana."

The cruiser flew down in godspeed, until it staggered once or twice before stopping flat, just above the surface of the sea surrounding district -one.

Arya hyperventilated and took a few seconds to put herself together. "Now you believe me?"

"Uh huh." Benji nodded rather comically,  still hyperventilating from the unexpected event.

"I feel so... relieved," Arya pushed her head back on the seat, "You don't believe the sky is falling, until a chunk of it falls on you, right?"

"Margaret Atwood." AVAH replied in agreement, sending Benji, Arya and even Fiana into a bout of laughter.