WARNING: This is NOT the BEGINNING of “EVEREST & THE EXCEPTIONS.” To start at the beginning, go HERE.
Rumbly Futch is purple. A stuffed purple bear. Only one of his googly eyes remains, the other socket holding a few loose threads and stuffing overflowing like bear brain. It was a gift from Mother when Everest had chicken pox at age twelve. He was already too old for it then. It is one of those items that Everest would have tossed out years ago if she hadn’t insisted, “Don’t throw out my treasures, Everest. You’ll break your Mother’s heart.” Everest didn’t understand how something that smelled of cabbage and body odor could be considered so precious, but the bear sat sentry on a display shelf above his bedroom window ever since. Adorable and terrifying. As Everest stares at screen eleven in this fourth floor room of the Grand Horizon, watching a thin man in Kevlar rip his own bedroom apart with a hunting knife, he finally understands why the bear has been so important to Mother. Rumbly Futch has a camera inside.
Everest reels, the breath sucked out of him. He braces himself hands-to-knees as the room spins. This can’t - this just - can’t. Too many thoughts, memories collide into what seems too complicated and intentional a conspiracy against his brother and him. Why is this room here? Why are there cameras in every room of the house?
A lifelong suspicion held by Everest becomes, in a moment, truth: everyone - even those he assumed were taking care of him - everyone is terrible.
Mother? Not Mother? Certainly his memory is playing tricks on him. If there is some subterfuge within his family, some plot to dissect him, it has to be the invention of Father. Mother must be an unwitting accomplice.
He knows that he should be most concerned at this moment with the three individuals rummaging violently around the belongings of his bedroom, but all he can think about is the variety of things the camera inside Rumbly Futch must have seen over the years. Exactly how long has his life been under observation? How long but not why. Everest is quite certain he knows the why. It must be - it has to be - the creatures. The monstrosities he sees. Is he truly so strange that he must be observed — or, imprisoned? Either way, it somehow makes brutal sense that there are cameras in his room. What does not make sense is why there are also cameras in the room belonging to his brother.
There is a rare panic in Everest’s voice, “How - how did those people get inside our house?”
V0Go responds, Observation facilities are usually built with a secret entryway that feeds directly into the test location.
Everest flails, “TEST LOCATION?! What are - what - I don’t - WHAT?!”
Chill, Argyle. Don’t try to make sense of it right now. You’ll just hurt yourself.
Harrison points at a screen on the second row, “There.” The camera in question reveals an open passageway that had been disguised as the inside wall of Mother’s walk-in-closet. Perfect. More to process.
Everest is absolutely bewildered, “Where does that lead?”
V0Go explains, The tunnels. But, now is not the time for Encyclopedia Browning. Get what you came for and get out. Now.
To which Harrison responds, “What did we come for?”
Acting upon V0Go’s direction, the twins gather a wealth of bursting file folders, reel-to-reel tapes, stacks of photos, and Betamax recordings. Some audio cassettes labeled “conversation” followed by numbers up to the thousands. They stuff them, unreviewed into a cardboard Kinko’s box as V0Go urges, I’m not getting the sense you realize how important it is that you hurry. Adrenaline doing its business on Everest, he trips over his own feet, splaying a stack of twenty folders across the concrete floor, contents scattered. As he falls to his face, Everest finds himself feeling a blast of heat coming from underneath a makeshift cabinet. He shoves it aside to discover a ventilation grate. A hot breeze emanates - and along with it, something that chills Everest to the very core. From the grate, he hears a deep and unearthly groaning - a source very far below him. Everest is certain he has heard that evil, hungry sound before - though he cannot place it, “We have to get out of here immediately.”
“Then, I suggest you get your butt off the floor,” Harrison jolts, “and grab those boxes!”
“How are we supposed to take all of this?”
“I DON’T KNOW - just stuff what you can in my backpack!”
Everest waves wildly at the monitors, “People with weapons are hunting us right now!”
“Do you want answers or DON’T you?!”
Gentlemen, I’m all for a good family spat, but right now, you both need to shut the hell up and focus on my voice. You have to move - and I mean MOVE, but there is one vital item that you must find and take with us. It is a mechanical box about the size of a garage door opener. It’s going to look a lot like me in color and material. It has a small green radar-like window and two lights on its face: one purple, one orange. You MUST find that - and you MUST take it with you.
“You mean,“ Harrison acknowledges, “ - that?” And Everest sees the device - not within the room they stand inside, but on the monitor. Worn on the center of the kevlar vest of one of the three individuals ravaging the Manning family living room - the smallest but most stately one, who seems the leader.
Are you saying they have it in hand? V0Go implores.
“I can see it on the chest of the one in charge.”
“Not the guy with the hunting knife.”
Did you say hunting knife?
“Yes. Why?”
Damn it. Time to improvise. You can’t leave the Grand Horizon just yet.
It’s Everest’s turn to chime in, “But, you just said - “
Okay - information dump. Listen closely. The Grand Horizon is a hub of energy - one of very few epicenters for this organization within this world…
“THIS world?!”
Shut it. Later. There are certain things that we can access here - DO here, that we cannot do elsewhere. You will leave this building very soon, hopefully unharmed, but you cannot leave until we get that device. They call it the Beacon Bright.
“Beacon Bright? Are you kidding me? Sounds like a Care Bear.”
I didn’t NAME it, numb nuts. I just NEED it. And your best bet at obtaining it is accessing the power of the Grand Horizon. A part of that applies to you, and a part of that applies to me. Because of the technological feed here, I can communicate with you freely, but once we leave this hotel, I don’t know when I’ll be able to speak with you next. Got it?
The twins stare - practically in unison, “Got it.”
Good. So, pivotal question, the thing interjects, can you still see the invaders inside your home?
The abject silence in the room is answer enough for all three of them. The masked individuals have disappeared from the monitors. Whether they are on their way or already inside the Grand Horizon, Everest and Harrison have no way of knowing.
“How did you know they left the house?”
V0Go replies, Because they have to eliminate you before 5:22 - or everything begins. Stuff that backpack and get your asses to the lobby.
As the twins clamor down the stairwell, Everest’s mind reels. He’s never felt an adrenaline rush quite like this, so often dampened by those meds. And then, it hits him. 5:22. That’s the time every day that Mother administers the injections. Exactly 5:22. Why? And why is that time so significant elsewhere, gummed up inside Everest’s memory? Everest is about to say something about the epiphany when his brother stops directly in front of him, an extended arm as if to wordlessly urge him not to move another inch.
In the echoed quiet of the stairwell, illuminated only by Everest’s calculator wristwatch and the blinking lights of V0Go in Harrison’s arms, Everest leans into admiration toward his brother yet again. How did they both come from the same uterus and yet, Harrison is just so - capable? So instinctively knowing. The things he can accomplish and build, the charm and wit, the ability within a crisis moment like this to not only refuse to freeze in his tracks, but have the wherewithal of a next step? How does he DO that? And why can’t Everest? Is it something Harrison perpetuated and practiced silently, privately? Because he doesn’t even seem to need to think about it at all. Harrison is, on a dime, brave and skilled and adept and, most of all, protective of his twin who struggles to catch his breath and keep up. The thought would fill Everest with affection if he weren’t so damn jealous.
But, there isn’t time for introspection, because Everest hears what stops his brother in his tracks: the slick, soft sound of assassins moving stealthily through the hallway on the other side of this stairwell door. Controlled whispers, no panicking. And yet, Everest has no idea what they are saying.
“Inde est introitus in periculo exponi iudicatur.” It is the voice of a harsh male. Tension, anger bent into his whisper. He is perturbed at the mission.
“Debent habere auxilium.” A second man, lighter and higher-pitched, more casual, but still speaking in Latin.
“Impossibile. Unde Auxilium?”
“Actorem? Vel bellatorem?”
“Comprimamus etiam cogitationes,” adds a third voice. A woman. Calm and in charge, “Habemus septem minutes.”
“Ita, matris.”
Then, the voice of the woman changes her tone. What comes next does not sound like an order - but rather as a statement of belief: “Ad voluntatem in tenebris venit.”
The two men retort in unison, “Sepeliet autem omnis quae sub caelo.”
Everest and Harrison hear the raise and click of weaponry as the three assassins make their way further down the hall. After the sound dissipates, Harrison chimes in, “V0Go - what were they saying?”
Um - we’ll unpack that later.
Everest follows Harrison stealthily out onto the Grand Horizon mezzanine, Harrison still cradling V0Go while clutching fast to his bursting backpack. As they peer beyond the corner, they see the menacing threesome, backs turned to them, flanked in attack mode staggered about at the floor of the towering lobby, eyes scanning the floors above them for movement, sound. Undecided, they signal to one another in harsh, militaristic gestures - and then swiftly on the move. The woman and the hefty man shoot grappling hooks from their gear that allow them to hurtle up the face of the interior wall, the man lands on the third floor while the woman slips elegantly over the ledge of the fourth. The more slight man steps down into the fountain featuring the statue of the monstrosity atop it. As he turns, Everest cannot help but notice the sheathed hunting knife on his belt. This is the one who was shredding up his bedroom. Not a fan. The slight assassin tiptoes about the shallow water, poking a metallic grate at its base with the tip of his weapon. He then looks straight up at the stone creature, eyes and muscles imposing - and the assassin spits on its stone visage, “Abominationem!”
Everest is surprised at what he feels next. Empathy. Not for the man in kevlar, but for the stone monstrosity itself. He eyes the image of the beast more carefully than when it had first startled him. Imposing and muscular, yes. Practically human and yet not at all in an inexplicable way. The face is almost smooth, void of features other than eyes of great pathos. Everest makes no mistake - whatever this hulking thing symbolizes is clearly dangerous and wild, but at whose expense and whose benefit? Everest has witnessed enough phenomena firsthand to have a sneaking suspicion that whatever this is could be real - and yet it does not seem to be of the same heinous variety as the creatures he has encountered. That does not mean it seems safe. Everest does not want to encounter the real thing - but if finding himself in that moment, would wonder if it might consider being on his side.
And then, without warning.
A-deedle-a-deedle-a-dee!
A-deedle-a-deedle-a-dee!
A-deedle-a-deedle-a…
Panicking, Everest lunges for the button on his calculator wrist watch reminding him that it is five minutes until his daily treatment. But, it’s too late. The thin assassin peers his head around slowly, seeing the boys on the opposite end of the lobby. He peels his hood off of his sweaty brow, revealing a pencil-thin French mustache, a glass eye, and a self-inflicted knife scar atop the flesh of each cheek, all profanely threatening. He throws the hood and his rifle to the ground - and he instead opts to grip the hunting knife blade downward in his clenched left palm. With a thick accent betraying his preferred Latin, he addresses them with menace, “Salve, my lamb chops. Luffly to meetcho in person.” And with that, he sprints immediately toward the boys.
V0Go compels Harrison, Put me down! On the floor. But, Harrison barely needs the warning. Where Everest’s instinct is to slam his own body up against the wall, hoping the approaching terror speeds past him, Harrison roars right back at the assassin, darting toward him like a terror. Is it bravery or madness or just a desperate attempt to confuse? Everest does not know, but he is wholly undone. The thin-lipped psychopath leaps with a lunge aiming the blade down hard toward Harrison’s shoulder, but Harrison surprises with a classic third-base steal slide and whisks underneath the assassin’s V-standing legs, grabbing the villain’s grappling hook and shooting it upward toward the ceiling without detaching it from the man’s belt. ZIP. HOOK. SHOOP! Completely taken off guard, the zipline catches taut around the man’s leg and torso and yanks him upward and away, the hook catching onto the enormous swaying chandelier above. Unable to untangle himself in the melee, Harrison is also swallowed up in the mess, and both men find themselves dangling, swaying, wrapped out-of-reach from one another on the same zipline rope thirty feet in the air. Harrison’s Atlanta Braves cap falls to the floor below.
“HARRISON!” Everest cries out - and he can barely make out the form of his brother, hanging upside down midair and unconscious like a spider’s appetizer. His body spins slowly and lifelessly amid the inertia of the tangle. Scatterbrained and on the verge of panic, Everest looks here, there, and everywhere. Anything that could help. Anything to save his brother. To get out of this mess. Think, think, think. Damn the fog of these meds! He scans the room for V0Go and sees the creature roll innocuously into one wall after another, completely unguided or aware of its surroundings, every time it wobbles, letting out an expletive until it stumbles inside the elevator, disappearing into it as the door closes. Ding. Some help.
Everest hears the grunting efforts of the assassin in mid-air, struggling to put himself in a position to harm. He alternates fury and uproarious laughter, eager to maim while noting the irony in his unexpected circumstance. He seizes the buck knife and begins to saw at the rope, Harrison dangling eight feet beneath him. Everest runs for the assassin’s rifle, laying submerged in the fountain. Having no idea how to actually do anything threatening with it, he aims it up at the oaf clumsily, “STOP CUTTING! I said STOP CUTTING!”
The villain roars, “You shtay rawt there, BOY. Rawt there.”
Everest fakes his best confident Harrison impression while finding himself altogether incapable of stopping his own left leg from trembling violently, “I will stay right here if you stop cutting.”
“No matter. Youz got nowhere ta go. I, fa one, am relieved.”
“Relieved?”
“Been hearin’ rumors ‘boutchoo for what feels like decades. And then to fin’lly ‘rive here and discover youz is such a disappointment. Staring at them monitors. The Everest Manning show. So much promise, butchoo never - do anything.” The man nods over to Harrison, “Nawt like he does, ammaright?”
What is that supposed to mean, Everest wonders. But, there is no time, “Then - why bother?”
“Anticipation, my sweet boy.”
“For what?”
“Today, acourse. We put in our time, me and Fritz. Today, we slaughter. And we take yours for ours.” Feverishly, the man with the pencil mustache begins sawing once again at the rope. In a mad scramble, Everest pulls at every contraption he can muster on the rifle until CLICK, the safety must be off because PIZZ, he inadvertently fires a shot that barely grazes the assassin’s ear. The shot rips through the glass dome roof at the ceiling of the Grand Horizon, glass shards raining down as thunder clouds swirl in the dark dusky sky above them. Everest cowers into the shallow fountain and the villain twirls, stunned, dabbing a drip of blood from the tip of his left ear. Everest finds that a shard of glass has barely missed gouging his own shoulder, but he has no time to think about it. As Everest pulls his face from the water, he hears two unmistakeable sounds: the wild laughter of the spinning psychopath on the rope above him and the cascading repel of the other two assassins, landing on the floor on either side of him, cornering Everest into no hope for escape.
The woman in charge looks upward at her dangling protege, “Egg. You undisciplined oaf.” But, Egg just laughs like a hyena, widening the one glass eye. The woman’s gaze falls down upon Everest, who is breathing hard, but making his best attempt at silent bravery. Her eyes rivet him. They are wise but weary - as if they are continually denied rest, “Well, Everest. Always unexpected.”
The gruff fellow (must be Fritz), grunts to the point, “No extrapolatin’, Zero! We gawt mere minutes.”
The woman pulls off her mask. Everest is taken aback that she is at least eighty years old. This does not mean that she is not strong. Her eyes set on him, he considers she may be the strongest person he has ever seen. He hears a hiss as he notices an oxygen tube leading inside her nose. She studies him. She speaks.
“No one would predict it to be you. They would hear the commotion and think, of course, it’s the troublemaker Harrison. But, look at you. Finding your own trouble all the same. Curiouser and curiouser.” Zero stares at him. She retrieves a bottle of prescription medication out of her pocket and places a pill on her tongue.
Everest refuses to break his stare with the woman called Zero as she approaches, her piercing blue eyes connecting with him on a deep level, “Always had my eye on you, Everest. Always been my favorite out of the whole lot. They all said you were the weak one. But, if I know anything, I know what lies behind the complicated eyes of my boys - and yours have always been the most complicated of all. Something brewing in you, sweetheart.” Then, she cocks her rifle dead-aim toward Everest’s face, “This one comes with me.”
Oh, I don’t think so.
The voice of V0Go startles the woman as she looks down to her chest and sees the creature roll and latch onto the device she has worn on her kevlar. V0Go and the Beacon Bright are now one. With a jolting pulse of electricity emanating out of V0Go, the woman is thrown back head-over-ass across the room, her weapon hurtling out of reach.
“What the hell was that?” Everest explodes.
I just upgraded. You get your brother down. I’ll take care of the rest.
Now connected to the Beacon Bright, V0Go is, in a moment, aware and activated. He rolls around the room like a fever, detecting weak spots and hurtling electric livewire shocks that require Fritz to dodge and parry. The husky assassin kept thoroughly busy, Everest dives for the unconscious Zero’s grappling hook and shoots it upward, parallel to his brother still dangling from Egg’s rope. Rising at a rapid pace, Everest grabs onto his brother at just the right moment, the inertia of it causing Everest, Harrison, and Egg to spin like a carnival ride, the chandelier bearing their compounded weight and swinging wildly. The jolt of his brother’s grab awakens Harrison, blood now rushing thoroughly to his head, “What - what happened? Everest, are you safe?”
Everest holds fast to his brother’s rope and backpack, using it as leverage to swing them towards the far wall, “Can you pull yourself up?”
“I’m pretty light-headed. What are all the fireworks?”
“That’s the dog robot. He’s suddenly a bad-ass.”
Using the momentum to their favor now, Everest swings the rope hard enough that it allows Harrison to right-himself-upside. The two of them hang, intertwined, swinging - the world below them a battle of electricity as a rainstorm pours in from the shattered dome above. Their living room. The Radio Shack. The humdrum everyday of the last many mute years. It now seems so far away - belonging to another life. To strangers who live in a cloud. For a moment, Everest Manning looks into the eyes of his brother and he feels - perhaps they do indeed match after all.
GASH!
Without warning, Egg hurls by, slashing away with the knife, missing Harrison by inches, but carving a heavy slit in the rope above them. It begins to untwine as it spins them into chaos, the three men on the two ropes folding in on one another, entwined, ropes creaking and popping. Everest knows they have mere seconds before they thunder to the floor below.
“V0Go!” Everest cries out, “Do something! We can’t hold on much longer!’
V0Go utters something indiscernible amid the chaos. Or at least, Everest thinks it can’t possibly be what he thought V0Go said, “V0Go! We NEED YOU! We can’t hold on!” With a trigger of his speakers, V0Go sends a shockwave of aural feedback throughout the rotunda. Glass rumbles and shakes. Fritz clutches his ears. The electric pulses emanating from V0Go cease. The woman in the mask slowly opens her eyes from the ground. And Everest and Harrison can finally hear V0Go’s words with clarity.
You don’t have to hold on any more, boys. Because it’s 5:22. Happy birthday.
A-deedle-a-deedle-a-dee!
A-deedle-a-deedle-a-dee!
A-deedle-a-deedle-a…
Lightning bursts from the heavens down through the hole in the skylight, grasping the twins like talons, enflaming their eyes and levitating them in midair. Everest feels an inhale within him - a life force that he has never experienced, eradicating the clouds and bringing precise clarity. What is this? Where is it coming from? It is like - like being born. For a moment, his eyes pierce directly into Harrison’s and he briefly senses a marriage of their thoughts and ideas, strengths and weaknesses, electrified a thousand times over with a tumble of calculation and information and emotion. He does not feel heat, but he feels a brightness, an aliveness. He cannot control it and embraces the euphoria without understanding what the hell is actually going on in his mind, body, and - dare he consider - heart. He feels himself floating slowly downward and safely to his feet on the floor of the mezzanine. He faces his brother in safety as it all evaporates - the moment, the feeling, the details rapidly fogging into another lost blur.
In the stillness, acutely aware of their own power, Everest and Harrison glance around them, Egg still dangling from above as the woman stares agog, eyes betraying her panic. She is terrified of them - if only they knew what to do with it.
Ever unrefined and persistent, Fritz lurches up from the fountain, yawping a threat as he yanks his weapon upward towards the boys. But, he is interrupted by the enormous KEE-RACK of the chandelier giving way. Rushing toward the floor, it hurtles Egg to a wounded safety, skidding across the concrete - but the same cannot be said for Fritz himself. The massive ornate mess crashes down in a tumult, impaling the villain, smothering him in a flood of his own blood swirling down the steel grate of the lobby fountain.
V0Go clarifies the order, Time to leave. And Everest scoops the little mechanical savior into his arms as Harrison tightens his backpack around his shoulders and the three sprint for the exit - Harrison reaching down to seize his Atlanta Braves cap - and the three of them leaving the Grand Horizon behind.
Shell-shocked, Zero stands and looks into the dead wet eyes of her drowned and impaled adult son Fritz. She shakes with a tremor - and she wails a lament loudly across the floors and walls of this once-hallowed place. An echo of grief signifying to all who hear that someone is going to pay dearly.
The rain is bucketing. They keep running, though Everest persists, “WAIT! I have to stop. The adrenaline is wearing off - and I’m hurt - we’re both wounded.”
You’ll stop when I tell you and not one damn second sooner. You have to get out of this town. You’ve awakened now - which means, they know it. They ALL know it. And that means they will find you if you do not KEEP MOVING.
Everest needs the moment to pause. He needs V0Go to explain. He knows he is not likely to receive either of these needs. To make matters worse, the further they trudge away from the Grand Horizon, the more difficult it is to make out what the mechanical creature is saying.
“We’re losing you, V0Go,” Harrison implores.
Fine - the dog concedes - give me a moment to scan the area.
With the aide of the Beacon Bright, V0Go assesses their surroundings, There. Junkyard. The boys scramble over a chainlink fence and rush to a decrepit abandoned baby blue Yugo.
Harrison stares, “You have got to be kidding. These things are the worst.”
Throw everything inside and get out of the rain.
Everest yanks at the handle, “How - you want me to break the window?”
Move over. And V0Go reaches a prod from out of the Beacon Bright directly into the lock. Click.
“Aren’t you handy?” Harrison quips, “Swiss-army dog.”
Just (static crackles) - get inside the car.
As they hurl their belongings into the Yugo, scattering them across the back seat, Everest stares at his own bandaged hand. The gauze is now wet and filthy. It dawns on him that things are different now. He rips at it until the shreds of bandage are tatters falling off of his hand and wrist. He tosses them into the junk heap.
Harrison asks, “Why are you taking that off right now?”
Everest holds his hand up to Harrison. Two clear bite marks, “I’m done believing what they said happened over what I know happened. I’m done pretending.” Everest ducks into the backseat as Harrison takes a moment of pause.
Harrison tumbles in as Everest rummages through the innards of Harrison’s backpack, the windows fogging from the downpour outside.
I don’t know what all you have here, but let’s hope it’s enough to make sense of what I haven’t been able to tell you.
“You haven’t told us anything!” Everest protests.
Patience, Everest. I don’t know enough. I do know a lot more than we have time to unpack right now. You simply cannot stay here anymore - and we’re losing my ability to communicate with you - but I will BE with you. I will protect you when I am aware of the need. You’ll just have to do it without my voice.”
“When will we hear you again?”
I’ve located signals in places along the path and at different strengths. But, you’ll have them searching for you now, so I can’t draw suspicion. You’ll know I can hear you when I play your triggers.
“Our triggers?”
For Harrison, it’s David Bowie - and for Everest, it’s…
“Bob Dylan.”
“What do you mean triggers?” Harrison implores, “Where did those come from? Why do those songs do something to us?”
Not my game, Ace. Not my rules. Just trying to figure it all out myself. The crackle, the interference is stronger now. They are on the verge of losing V0Go.
“V0Go - the thing that just happened to us. That - that moment in the Grand Horizon. It was - so alive and yet I am losing the details by the second. Clear as day and then just gone. I don’t - I don’t know…”
Kid, I know this is frustrating - but you’re going to have to figure this thing out along the way. There just isn’t an explanation that will matter - until it’s real. For right now, clear your heads, focus - and do what must be done. Follow this blip on the Beacon Bright. The same thing that just happened to you happened to another last night. A surge of that distinct power - she is in trouble, in need. Find her - and you will reach another place similar to the Grand Horizon - but also likely very different. That is where I can help you next. Find the signal. Find the girl. Get her out of there.
“Where is she?”
By the looks of the Beacon, I’d say Indiana.
Everest’s jaw drops. Of course. He knows. He simply knows. He instinctively reaches into his pocket, relieved to find that amid the chaos, her postcard is still there.
Harrison interrupts the thought, “Is that where you’re going, V0Go? Will you meet us in Indiana?”
We will meet soon enough - but I cannot get there quickly from where I am. If they are looking for you, they are looking for her. You MUST reach her before they do. I will be of far more benefit to you elsewhere.
“This piece of junk will never get us to Indiana.”
It will when I’m through with it.
And with that, V0Go shoots an electrical surge out of the Beacon Bright directly into the ignition. The twins watch as the motor is supercharged with beams of blue emanating from beneath the hood - and the Yugo revs with the power and grace of a Maserati.
“Oh, I like the Beacon Bright,” Harrison licks his lips and massages the steering wheel.
Get to the girl by any means necessary - but be careful and be vigilant - for men are not the only ones on your heels. Those nightmares you both see are absolutely real - and now they have a way to find you.
Everest blinks. He catches it out of the corner of his eye: Harrison’s grip on the steering wheel flinches. They heard the same phrase come out of V0Go’s speaker: those nightmares you BOTH see. Impossible. No. All this time? Harrison has known it was all true? His twin brother could see the same monsters just as well as Everest all along and he persisted in silence? He allowed Everest to suffer and be medicated and believe he was going insane - and the whole time, it could have been a shared torture? All this time, he could have leaned on Harrison? Stunned without words, Everest does not know what to make of the revelation - this brother’s betrayal. But, he can see in the rearview mirror that Harrison knows his secret is out.
Harrison puts the Yugo into gear and begins to drive north onto Interstate-65. As they drive in silence, Everest thumbing through the information they gathered at the Grand Horizon, Everest speaks to the machine.
“V0Go - who are you?”
I wish to hell I knew, kid.
“What just happened to us? Did we - did we just change?”
No, my boy. You just started.
And with a flicker of static, V0Go the electric dog falls silent.
Next: Read "EVEREST & THE EXCEPTIONS" Chapter Five PREVIEW: the horrific and thrilling continuation of Mark Steele’s upcoming fictional novel coming in October 2024.