Fiction: Afterlife Volume 3 (Chapter 40)

If you’ve never read Afterlife before, click here to go to the first chapter.

Afterlife is a sci fi/western action serial published every other week. Join us in a post-apocalyptic journey through a future where life has become little more than a struggle for survival. However, where there’s life, there’s always hope.

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Read the previous chapter here:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 39

Where:
Resistance forces attack New Atlantis.
The resistance struggles to infiltrate the city walls.
Everyone in Ayman’s group is killed and he’s seriously wounded.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

Check out Afterlife on Goodreads and don’t forget to rate it.

 

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 40

Mavery and Big Ed walked through the foyer of her office, past the counter that served as Big Ed’s security post.  The row house was big but still small for an office space.  Still, Mavery didn’t feel she needed anything larger.  “You want to get breakfast?” Big Ed asked.  “Now?”

“Sure,” Mavery said.  “Why not?”

“Eat croissants while our troops are fightin’ beneath the walls of New Atlantis?”

“What are we supposed to do?” Mavery asked as she stopped just in front of the front door.  “Starve?”

“We ain’t starvin’,” Big Ed said.

“Look,” Mavery said, “I realize you feel like you should be there, but I need you here.  You know that.  You’re my bodyguard.”

“I know that,” Big Ed said, “but still, getting’ breakfast like there’s nothin’ happenin’ just don’t seem right.”

“Seems like communications are cut off,” Mavery said.  “We’re in the dark.  There’s really nothing we can do right now except wait.”

Big Ed shrugged.  “I guess so.  But why don’t we work to get communications back up again?”

“Our communications guys are,” Mavery said, “as we speak.  And we’ve got hackers trying to hack into the IAO systems to see what we can find out from them.  We’re doing everything we can, baby.”  She smiled.  “So let’s go get breakfast.”  As she reached for the door, it flew open revealing a huge Hispanic man who was wearing jeans and a white tee shirt.  He wasn’t quite as big as Big Ed, but he was close, and he was muscular.  He grimaced, his eyes full of hate as he glared at Mavery.  His arms were cybernetic metal and he was holding a laser pistol, which he raised and aimed at Mavery’s face.

Big Ed lunged at him, knocking him into the wall and smashing a huge hole through the plaster, exposing sandstone.  The attacker’s laser pistol landed on the floor near the door.  He smacked his metal arm into Big Ed’s chest sending him flying into the counter of the security station.  Mavery backed up into the hallway that led to the stairs.  “Get out of here!” Big Ed shouted.  “Run upstairs!  Find a window!”  Mavery frowned as Big Ed stood and his attacker reached for the laser pistol on the floor.  Big Ed ran at him and slammed the door into him.  He grabbed the man’s metal hand which was holding the laser pistol and slammed it into the doorframe. The laser pistol slid across the floor towards the hallway Mavery was taking cover in.  The two men ran in her direction with the attacker in the lead.  Mavery cringed at his hate-filled face as Big Ed tackled him from behind.  The man jumped to his feet and turned towards Big Ed.  He pushed him with his powerful cybernetic arm, sending Big Ed flying back into the doorway.  The attacker turned to face Mavery again, snarling as he walked towards her.  Frightened, Mavery quickly picked up the laser pistol and started firing, hitting the attacker in the stomach and the leg.  The man didn’t even flinch as he grabbed the laser pistol out of her hand and aimed it at her.

Big Ed grabbed the man from behind, pulling him backwards so his laser blast fired just above Mavery’s head, blasting the hallway behind her.  Big Ed punched the man in his bloody wound, but the attacker just laughed and threw Big Ed into the security station, sending him tumbling over the counter.  His stomach and legs bleeding, the snarling attacker turned on Mavery again, aiming his laser pistol.  Mavery dove to the floor and the man’s laser blast grazed her left shoulder.  Big Ed leapt from the countertop and ran at the man again, smashing his cybernetic arm into wall.  The laser pistol fell to the ground again.  The man pushed Big Ed to the floor and jumped on him, putting his metal hands around Big Ed’s huge neck and strangling him, snarling.  Big Ed tried to punch the man in his wounded stomach but the attacker just laughed at him.  It was obvious to Mavery that he couldn’t feel pain.

As the attacker choked the life out of Big Ed, Mavery grabbed the laser pistol again and ran up to them.  She put the laser pistol to the man’s head near his ear, making sure she wasn’t aiming at Big Ed at all, and she fired, blasting brains and skull across the room.  Horrified, Mavery dropped the gun and collapsed to the floor as Big Ed pushed the body off him and gasped for air.

He sat up slowly and Mavery sat next to him, hugging him.  “Are you okay, baby?” she asked.

He nodded.  “Are you?”

“I guess so,” Mavery said.  “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Eileen Traymont and two security officers rushed through the door.  “We heard reports of laser blasts coming from your office,” Eileen said.  “Is everyone okay?”

“He’s not,” Big Ed said, nodding towards the huge body on the floor.

Eileen nodded.  “But are you and Mavery?”  Big Ed nodded.  “Good job defending her,” Eileen said.

“She defended herself this time,” Big Ed said.

“No,” Mavery said, kissing his cheek.  “She’s right.  You defended me.”

Eileen glanced at one of the security officers.  “Clean up this mess,” she said.  The way Eileen looked at the body, Mavery thought she recognized him.  “And station more officers here,” Eileen said.  “We can’t have something like this happening again.”

“We have plenty of security,” Mavery said.  “Don’t waste guards stationing them here.”

“You do your job,” Eileen said, “and let me do mine.”  She smiled at the security guard.  “Get four guards here to guard the door at all times.  Check the ID’s of everyone who comes in here against our database.  And if anyone comes in this office, two guards need to escort them and stay with them at all times.”

“Did you know him?” Mavery asked Eileen, nodding towards the body.

Eileen nodded.  “He used to work for me.”  She turned and walked towards the front door with her two security officers following.

Mavery hugged Big Ed again.  “Thanks, baby.”

Big Ed kissed her.  “Thank you.  You’re the one who saved my life this time.”

<>

Della was in the sand on his stomach, aiming his assault laser rifle at IAO soldiers on a nearby dune and firing.  Ace was next to him, also firing as were the other resistance soldiers behind them.  There were hover tanks all around them also firing at IAO soldiers and artillery.  The resistance forces at the northern wall were now surrounded on all sides by IAO forces and the force field was still up.  “They’re gonna blast us all to pieces before we even really get the chance to start the attack,” Della said as he fired, taking out an IAO officer who’d been shouting out orders.

“We just need to hold them off until the force field comes down,” Ace said.

Della fired at an IAO marksman, hitting him in the head as a hover tank appeared on the dune and aimed its laser cannon at the position Della and Ace were holding.  Several laser blasts hit the tank and it collapsed into the sand, smoking as flames shot out from it.  Della noticed two resistance hover tanks nearby that were firing at the tank.  “Hopefully we can last that long,” he said.

“Abby will find a way,” Ace said as he continued firing.  “Abby always finds a way.”

“Let’s hope so,” Della said as he watched an IAO leveler approaching from the distance.

<>

Ayman gritted his teeth as tears dripped down his cheeks.  The pain was almost unbearable as he watched lasers fly through the sky above him.  He closed his eyes and realized he was probably dying as he lay in the sand.  He put his right hand over the huge wound in his belly and felt the warm blood flow out.  His right shoulder was blasted through and his left forearm was gone below his elbow.  The pain rushed through him as he turned and looked at the bodies next to him, his gaze stopping on Ava.  His pain gave way to overwhelming anger.  His gun was gone but there were still two concussion grenades hanging from his belt.  “Goodbye, my darling,” he said to Ava’s body.  “I’ll be joining you shortly.”  With that, he rolled over and let his body slide down the side of the dune.

He crawled through the sand, coughing up blood as lasers flew by above him.  Every movement was a struggle, but he powered through it.  He crawled up another dune and slid down the side.  He stumbled to his feet and walked between dunes for a while, hunched over in pain as shouts and the hisses of laser blasts filled the area with the sounds of war.  Every step was a jab in his stomach and he grew weaker with each passing second.  “Allah give me strength,” he said as he crawled up the final dune to find the metal wall towering above him.  The hole was about fifty feet to the left and he wasn’t visible from it in his current position.  He crawled through the sand to the wall when he realized there were four other soldiers with him.

“This is it,” one of them said.  Ayman noticed three of them were soldiers and the other was actually a medic with a red cross on his helmet.  Ayman leaned up against the wall and the medic stood over him, shaking his head.

“He’s gone,” Ayman heard one of the soldiers say quietly.

“So this is it?” one of the other soldiers asked.  “There’s no way, then.  We’re dead in the water.”

Ayman leaned against the wall, breathing heavily as he looked out at the distant dunes to see IAO RLR’s taking out resistance soldiers by the masses.  None were even getting close.

<>

Alpha looked around him at his Warriors of Freedom, soldiers in black uniforms firing their assault rifles at the IAO thugs all around them.  Alpha ran down the side of a dune and drew his laser pistol, shooting at the leather-clad IAO soldiers on the dune in front of him.  He ran up the other side to find the spot where his friend and former right hand man Salvador had tried to stand his ground.  It was as Alpha had feared.  Salvador was face down in the sand with laser wounds in his back.  Alpha knelt down next to his dead friend.  “No hard feelings,” he said.  “I do understand why you left.”

Several warriors of freedom climbed the dune and approached him.  “Sir,” one of them said as laser blats flew past all around them, “you shouldn’t run up ahead like that.”

Alpha smiled at him.  “I’m a warrior.  I don’t need bodyguards.”  Alpha watched as a huge green laser blast smashed into his Ruff Ridah on a nearby dune.  Two more hit the massive vehicle and it burst into flames.  There were two IAO levelers in the distance firing in Alpha’s direction.  A huge blue blast came at the dune Alpha was on and he watched as it approached him and his men, knowing there was nothing he could do.  Alpha and his soldiers were engulfed in blue light as the dune exploded in a cloud of sand and blood.

<>

“If you hit the generator with a positively charged pulse,” Einstein said, “you will likely create a balance of charges and in effect stop the force field effect.”

Abby nodded as she trudged through the sand, her camouflage projector still hiding her.  She was already inside the shielded area.  The metal wall was close.  She had a grappling gun she’d stolen from one of the ranger units.  She didn’t have time to ask nicely for the equipment.  “How long until my camouflage projector dies?” she asked.

“You have a half hour,” Einstein said from her wrist.

“And you’re certain this is where the generator is?” Abby asked.

“It’s were I detect the highest electromagnetic readings,” Einstein said.

Abby climbed the last dune to find the wall in front of her.  She had the most up to date radar jammer available to the resistance and a camouflage projector, but there was no telling how far the IAO technology had advanced, especially since Averil Jones defected.  Abby knew this was a shot in the dark and she likely wasn’t going to return, but she knew she had to do it.  She looked at the fifty foot metal wall towering above her.  She heard laser blasts behind her, and confused, she turned to see several resistance squads rushing through the shielded area towards the wall.  “What’s happening?” she asked.  In her mind she quickly answered her own question.  “It’s Della and Ace.  They’re trying to create a distraction to keep the enemy eyes off me.”  She aimed the grappling gun at the top of the wall, knowing this was the part where she was most likely to be discovered.  She fired and the slender metal rope shot out and hit a spot just under the top of the wall.  The metal hooks spread into the wall and Abby pulled to make sure it was a firm catch.  Hopefully there were no IAO guards nearby to hear the clank.  “Here goes nothing,” she said as she strapped the gun to her belt harness and pushed the retract button.

She shot up towards the top of the wall in a matter of seconds.  She was hanging three feet beneath the top of the wall.  The sand was almost fifty feet beneath her.  The resistance troops were fighting with IAO troops a few dunes out.  Abby reached for the top of the wall and felt it with her fingertips.  She pulled herself up and over the wall, falling to the other side.  There was a narrow walkway along the top of the wall that led all around the city.  She unhooked the grappling gun from its harness and threw it over the side of the wall.  If she were to leave the city now, it would have to be through the front gate.  Abby concentrated on the task at hand, though.  She knew escape wasn’t an option.

She walked along the wall until she reached a ladder that led down.  Several IAO soldiers were approaching her, so she had to go somewhere.  There wasn’t enough room on the walkway for her to avoid them brushing past her.  “Probably just a stray laser blast,” one of them said.  “Still, we need to at least check it out.”  Abby climbed down the ladder towards a narrow alley.  She noticed an IAO soldier at the bottom preparing to climb up the ladder and she swallowed hard.  She climbed back up to see the two soldiers standing right near the top of the ladder, so she stayed at the top of the ladder, trying not to breathe too loud as the other IAO soldier climbed the ladder.  She noticed a landing about ten feet down and to her left.  Judging from Einstein’s report it was likely the roof of the generator room.  She noticed an antenna rising above it, towering over the wall to prove her theory.  The soldier climbing the ladder was just a few feet away now, so Abby had to act.  If she missed the landing, she was still thirty five feet above the concrete below.  She held her breath and jumped.

She clanked onto the roof of the generator room and looked up as the soldier on the ladder looked down in her direction.  She held her breath and watched him look down and shake his head.  Not seeing anything, he continued to the top of the ladder.  Abby slowly lowered herself to the doorway leading into the generator room from another landing.  She dropped to the landing with a thump, realizing it would have been nice if she had a weapon of some kind.  She was adamant about her promise never to kill again, though, and she did have her force field projector.  Einstein said once she shot a negative charge at the generator, however, her force field projector would become useless.  She opened the door to find two IAO soldiers in the generator room.  “Hey!” one of them said.  “There’s no one there.”

“Camouflage projector,” the other one said as he aimed his laser pistol in Abby’s direction.  She kicked him as hard as she could with her cybernetic left leg, sending him smashing into the wall.  She kicked the other soldier also, slamming him into the opposite wall.  As the two soldiers tried to come to their senses, Abby made her way past the control panels towards a lighted white sphere ahead of her, which was the generator.  She set her force field projector to negative, placed it inches away from the generator, and fired into it.  There was a low humming sound as Abby felt a wave of some sort move through her body.

“Hands in the air,” an IAO soldier said.  Abby turned to face him and five other soldiers with him.  He was holding a metal rod.  Abby immediately recognized it as a disruptor.  The other soldiers were pointing laser rifles at her.  They were all wearing outfits made from leather and metal, the usual IAO garb.  “We can see you now,” the IAO soldier said with a grin, “so don’t try anything.”

“Einstein,” Abby said.  There was no answer.  She was barely able to stand.  Her cybernetic leg had been weakened significantly, but it was still running on bioenergy.  The rest of her electronic gadgets were useless.

“Wow!” one of the soldiers said.  “We’ve hit the jackpot.  This is Abigail Song.”

She smiled.  “Give me a pen and I’ll sign an autograph for you.”

He spat at her.  “We’ll take you to the center of town and do the blood eagle before your friends have the chance to save you.”

“Let’s tear out her intestines,” one of the others said with a laugh.  “I think disembowelment is the way to go with this one.”

The leader with the disruptor shook his head.  “We’ll let Long John decide.  I’m sure he’s got something good planned for her.”

<>

“Well should we retreat?” one of the resistance soldiers asked.  Four more soldiers had reached the rendezvous point at the wall since Ayman had gotten there, making nine altogether including Ayman.

The medic shook his head.  “We can’t stay here forever.  Once the attack stops, we’re dead once they find us here.”

“And attacking is suicide,” one of the others said.

Ayman looked down at his wounds and frowned.  The other soldiers didn’t consider him a part of the conversation.  In their minds, he was already dead.  He slowly stood.  “Hey,” the medic said.  “Just stay down.  I can give you some morphine if you want.  It’ll kill the pain.”

Ayman walked past him towards the breach in the wall from which IAO soldiers were firing RLR’s out towards what was left of the scattered resistance army out on the dunes.  Ayman walked past the other resistance soldiers at the wall and made his way towards the breach.  He heard people shouting behind him but he was delirious.  He wasn’t sure what the voices were saying.  His body was in intense pain and his head was ringing as he walked out in front of the breach.  A laser blasted his right side and he spun, pulled a concussion grenade out of his belt and threw it into a building where two RLR’s were pointing out from windows.  A wave of pain shot over his body from his wounded shoulder.  The explosion blasted out the windows of the building, engulfing the RLR positions in an orange fireball.  A laser blast hit Ayman’s head and he felt intense pain.  He could no longer see out of his right eye.  He noticed another building across the street from the first where two more men were stationed with RLR’s Ayman limped towards it. 

“Allahu Akbar!” he shouted as he threw his last concussion grenade.  It landed between the two RLR posts and exploded, blasting the first few floors of the building to pieces and sending metal and glass flying everywhere.  Several IAO soldiers with laser rifles were running down the street.  They fired at Ayman, hitting his legs and he fell face forward onto the concrete.  He felt lasers blast through his back and he realized he could no longer move his body from the neck down.  Everything went numb and he could no longer hear.  He could still see resistance troops running through the breach, though.  There were dozens of them, and they were all firing their laser assault rifles as they ran.  Ayman thought about Ava and he smiled, knowing he’d soon be joining her now.  His last thoughts centered around her as he lost consciousness, watching the resistance army run through the streets of New Atlantis.

<>

The Tiny Dancer was firing ten foot diameter laser blasts, blasting breach after breach in the northern wall.  Resistance soldiers were pouring into the city now.  Della had heard that the southern army had also made it through after some serious fighting.  Things were looking better for the resistance.  Della had almost given up hope when he’d seen that the Ruff Ridah had been destroyed, but soon after that, the force field went down and the full on attack had started.  “Let’s head towards Rennock Tower and the center of town,” Ace said.  “If we can take out the IAO leadership, this thing’s over.  Besides, I can guarantee you that’s where Abby’s heading.”  Della nodded and followed him as he ran through the streets of New Atlantis, past burning buildings and blasted out storefronts.

<>

One of the IAO soldiers pushed Abby as they walked towards Rennock Tower, which Abby could see ahead in the distance.  Much of the city had been destroyed by the IAO when they took over.  Abby imagined even more buildings were destroyed now that the resistance would be able to begin the bombardment.  She watched several AAV’s zip through the sky overhead.  “Don’t you worry about those,” one of the IAO soldiers said.  “You’ll be dead long before they can help you.  Long John’s waitin’ for you.”  Abby noticed an IAO leveler parked in front of the tower and she frowned.  That would make any eventual attack on the building much harder.

They’d taken Einstein, her camouflage projector, and her force field projector, along with everything else Abby had on her other than her clothes themselves.  She was still trying to think of a way to escape as the IAO soldiers marched her down the street.  There were laser blasts as the soldiers closest to her fell to the ground, their faces bleeding out into the street.  Abby ducked as several more lasers took out the other IAO soldiers with her and she saw Della and Ace running towards her holding laser assault rifles.  Della ran up to her and hugged her.  Ace also hugged her and kissed her on the lips.  “Glad you’re all right,” he said.

“I’m glad you’re all right, too,” she said.  She found the IAO soldier who had Einstein and her other gadgets and she took them back, putting Einstein on her wrist and attaching her force field projector to her belt.

She glanced at the leveler up ahead as resistance troops walked past all around them.  It was a surreal sight, seeing resistance troops storming through the rubble-filled streets of New Atlantis.  “We need to take that leveler out if we want to get into the tower,” Della said.

Abby nodded.  “We need to take out the IAO leadership in there.  Where’s the Ruff Ridah?”

“Destroyed,” Della said.

“The Tiny Dancer’s gone, too,” Ace said.  “I just received a transmission.  And we took out their levelers outside the walls, so this one’s the only one left.”

Abby looked up at the sky to see that there only appeared to be two AAV’s remaining.  One was resistance and one was IAO.  They were locked in a heated dogfight above the center of the city, zipping around and firing at one another as each tried to gain the upper hand.  “Let’s hope the resistance one wins,” Abby said.

<>

Paul locked onto the IAO AAV and fired, but the pilot zipped away from him.  He checked his scanners and noticed a blip to the northeast just above him so he zipped next to it and started firing.  Somebody was firing at him from behind and he realized the ship had zipped behind him so he spun and started firing back.  The ship zipped away again.  “This guy’s good,” Paul said.  He checked his scanner and noticed the ship down and to his left, so he zipped to that location and quickly checked his scanner again to see where the enemy ship moved to.  It was behind him so Paul zipped behind it and started firing.  “Two can play this game,” he said as the ship zipped away again.  Paul noticed a cloud above him that would be perfect for cover.  He realized the skies around him were empty.  His stomach churned when he realized he was probably the only resistance pilot left.

He zipped into the cloud and waited.  The enemy ship zipped behind him on his scanner so he spun and started firing again.  He flew up out of the cloud and looked down.  He zipped to a spot that put him between the sun and where he expected the enemy ship to appear.  Lasers flew at him from behind and several hit his ship.  Paul felt a blast go through his abdomen and another go through his right thigh and he shouted in pain.  “Damn it!” he cursed.  The enemy beat him to the position and was coming down at him from the sun.  Paul fought through his pain and zipped back into the cloud.  His ship was starting to drop, losing altitude.  “Come on baby,” he said.  “I just need you to be able to do this one more time.”  He shot up into the sky, spun, and zipped back down quickly firing at his enemy with everything he had.  Lasers blasted through the enemy cockpit and the engine and the ship exploded in a fireball.

Paul took a deep, painful breath.  He was diving towards the city below.  He hit the eject button, but something was jammed.  He also realized that a huge hole had been blasted through the backpack on his back which held the parachute.  He frowned and thought about Aiyana McGowan and Denver as he plummeted towards the city below.  He tried to pull up, but there was nothing he could do.  He saw Rennock Tower and noticed a leveler in front of it so he locked into the leveler and closed his eyes.  “I’m sorry, Aiyana,” he said as he plummeted towards the leveler.  He would have liked to have seen her one more time, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

<>

Foxtrot had been looking for Javy since he’d received the message that the battle was nearing its end.  He’d been hoping to share the good news with the general personally, but one of Javy’s assistants had informed him that Javy had wandered out into the dunes alone.  Foxtrot grabbed a sand bike and headed out in the direction he’d been told Javy had went.  He rode over the dunes until he saw two figures on a dune ahead and he stopped and let the sand bike hover down into the sand.  One of the men was definitely Javy.  The other was General Schmidt, his cybernetic limbs covered by his brown uniform.  They were facing one another about twenty paces apart and Foxtrot realized what was happening.  “No!” he shouted, but it was too late.

They both drew laser pistols and fired, hitting one another in the abdomen.  Javy wobbled a little and fired again, hitting General Schmidt in the chest, and General Schmidt fired once more, hitting Javy in the face and they both collapsed into the sand.  Foxtrot drove his sand bike to the dune where the two men had just had their duel and stopped next to Javy, who was on his back.  His face was blown to pieces.  Foxtrot made the sign of the cross and looked behind him to see that General Schmidt was also dead, a hole blasted through his heart.  He looked down at Javy’s body and frowned.  “I hope you’re happy.”  He shook his head.  “So senseless.”

Somebody was contacting him on his communicator, so Foxtrot pushed the button to listen.  “Have you found him?” the voice asked.

Foxtrot frowned.  “No.  I haven’t found him.  We may have to label him missing in action.”  Foxtrot pushed Javy’s body down the side of the dune and watched it slide down into the sand below.  He waited a few seconds and did the same with General Schmidt.

<>

Abby watched in horror as the AAV plummeted down into the leveler, exploding in a ball of flame that took out the leveler and part of the bottom floor of Rennock Tower.  She ducked, standing a few seconds later to see Ace and Della also standing nearby.  Resistance soldiers cheered as they rushed into the lobby of the damaged skyscraper.  Abby followed with Della and Ace by her side.

The front of the lobby had been blasted to pieces.  The remaining wall was cracked and many of the paintings hanging on it were burnt beyond recognition.  Abby remembered her father showing her the lobby when she’d been a kid, and the paintings and photographs had once depicted Rennock family history along with the history of New Atlantis.  It had been a ten story high “Wall of Fame” with stairways and walkways that had now been blasted to pieces.  The wall itself was cracked in many places, but the thing that stood out to Abby was the metal wall that was now showing through in one spot.  It was an ancient metal wall with a metal door with a dollar sign symbol in the center.  It had been hiding behind the newer wall for centuries, possibly even millennia before the wall in front of it had finally been blasted away.  As Abby approached the door, she noticed a keyhole.  She took a key out of her pocket and looked it over.  It was the gold key with the dollar sign symbol she’d found in the cavern where she’d watched the video of her ancestor, Cheol Seong.  He’d said when the time came, she’d know what to do with it.  She inserted the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door.  It slowly opened.

Resistance soldiers were heading up the stairs and elevators to storm the tower and find the IAO leadership.  Abby turned and looked at Della and Ace.  “We’ll go with you,” Della said.

Abby nodded and stepped through the door, followed by Della and Ace.  They were in some sort of elevator.  A strange light came on that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves and the door shut.  The elevator started moving downwards quickly.  Abby soon wondered how far down they were going.  The elevator seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time.  A strange sound filled the elevator, like a rhythmic knocking sound.  The elevator eventually stopped and opened, revealing an ancient, cavernous room with gray stone walls and columns which went up to the ceiling hundreds of feet above.  The room was illuminated faintly by what seemed to be the same strange source that illuminated the elevator.  The two rows of columns spanned the massive chamber with a walkway between them.  The knocking sound filled the huge chamber and Abby stepped out from the elevator and walked down the walkway, followed by Della and Ace.  The walkway ended at two massive double doors, each with the familiar dollar sign symbol molded into the center.  Abby glanced at Della and Ace, then opened the doors.

 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4VTwWz2tj4]
 

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Continue on to the next chapter:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 41
Where:
Major secrets are revealed.
Huge questions are answered.
The journey continues from the end of Chapter 40.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

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