Thera felt like she had no motor control, unable to command her body to move. She and Jonah had rounded the bend in the path and as soon as they saw the stone structure they both stopped cold. Something about it grabbed at them, reached through the cold air to latch on to them with breath-stealing force. Thera felt her mind buzz and rattle in reaction to the thing before them but she couldn't grasp why. It was for what they had been looking. Thera knew that. The moment she set eyes on it she knew it was their only hope but why or how she knew that she didn't know.

Jonah's hand blindly found hers and she clung to him as though, without anchor, the ring might swallow her.

"I know this," she said in an awe-struck voice, at first not even aware she'd spoken aloud.

"Me too," Jonah said faintly and Thera tore her gaze from the maw of the rock circle to look over at him. His eyes were trapped by the beast of a structure and there was desperate need just behind his eyes. He knew it, too, but like her it evaded capture. It was in the mind, darting through her thoughts, but she couldn't wrestle it down and make sense of it.

Thera looked back the way they'd come and saw, a few paces behind her and Jonah, Carlin and Kaegan similarly hypnotized by the stone circle. Carlin looked like he'd seen a ghost. Kaegan just looked dumbstruck and confused.

Carlin, eyes still locked on the ring, walked slowly forward until he was alongside Thera.

"Do you recognize it?" Thera asked softly. Why they had all resorted to whispers she couldn't fathom.

Carlin nodded. His eyes narrowed, his forehead wrinkled and his lips puckered, and he shook his head. "It's... I don't know how I know it."

"We don't either," Thera said. But she did. She didn't know how she could but she knew that thing.

Jonah parted his lips thoughtfully before uttering, "It's... a... it's..." the word caught in his throat, in his brain, and it wouldn't dislodge.

Carlin's eyes shot open. "Chappa-ai!"

Thera looked over at Carlin and even Jonah pulled his eyes from the ring to look at his friend.

Carlin nodded. "Chappa-ai."

The way the word rolled off Carlin's tongue, the way it was accented and undulated, sinusoidal, through the air tugged with ancient memory. From Carlin's mouth, caressed by his voice and colored with his suddenly exotic inflections for that one word, was right. Thera had heard the word before, somewhere, and it wanted to attach to the stone circle. The word hungered for it, begged to claim the ring.

"Right," Jonah said in acceptance, although he looked a little unconvinced.

Kaegan slowly joined them, cautiously coming to stand on the other side of Carlin so the four of them stood, shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the circle.

"What is it?" Kaegan asked.

"It's called a Chappa-ai," Carlin said in a voice almost reverent.

Kaegan looked at Carlin, stunned. "You've seen this before?"

Carlin nodded slowly as his eyes traced the curves of the ring. "I think we all have."

Thera felt something else exploding in her mind, a plume of clarity, and she clutched Jonah's hand tighter when the smoke cleared. "It's a transportation device!"

Jonah looked down at her, into her eyes, and she knew he knew it too in that moment.

"This is how we can get away from here," Thera said excitedly, "how we can go someplace safe."

Carlin's face darkened. "And it's how enemies can come here."

Thera fell silent and took a half-step closer to Jonah. She knew Carlin was right, too.

"How can this take us anywhere?" Kaegan asked skeptically.

Thera looked over at the woman. Nowhere in her face was the staggering latent recognition or certitude this was their one chance at salvation. Kaegan didn't have the same unprecedented knowledge of the ring. The stone circle was significant only to her, Jonah, and Carlin.

"I just... know it can."

Kaegan's eyes narrowed but she didn't say anything to discredit Thera's statement. If anything, she appeared to reserve judgment.

"How do we use it?" Jonah asked.

Thera looked again at the stone, hoping that answer would just 'appear' in her mind, as well. There was no epiphany but her eyes did seek out, and find, a round pedestal nearby.

"That," Thera pointed and everyone else looked at the stump of a secondary device. "That's important; you need that to make it work."

Jonah looked down at her, eyes sincere, and he asked, "Can you figure it out?"

Thera wanted to laugh in his face at first. She couldn't even begin to speculate what this ring was or how it could magically save them (as she knew it could) but instead she found herself nodding. "I'll... I'll try."

Jonah squeezed her hand, looked her directly in the eyes a moment longer, then looked up at the others. "Let's set up camp here."

It was not yet close to dusk but Thera and Carlin were immediately in agreement and Kaegan, lost but for the time being putting faith in her comrades, went along with their choice.


As the hours wore on Jonah began to suspect he could not blast Thera away from the odd pedestal device. He had watched her stand before the bulky eyesore, then walk around it, bend over (as best she could) to examine the underside of the top console, then circle back around to the front again. When she got tired of standing she used the device for support and sat down on the ground at stared up at it. Then, when she was antsy or cramping, she pulled herself back up with the thing as an aide and resumed her vigil.

After an hour watching Thera stare and think Jonah had gotten restless and had him and Kaegan (Jonah preferred Carlin to stay with Thera and keep an eye out as opposed to leaving a still relatively unknown Kaegan with Thera) start searching the nearby homes for anything they might be able to use. It had long since ceased to seem ghoulish to take from the dead...they had little choice if they wanted to survive in a bubble that afforded only fragile protection from a full-blown ice age. It was a little easier here, on the surface, when they were assured they were not pilfering from a former coworker.

Food was becoming a more difficult item to find. What remained of the former inhabitants' consumables was beginning to spoil. Food gone over began to predominate in their forages and the quest for nonperishable (or at least longer shelf-life) things to eat grew harder for it. Water, too, was becoming scarcer. Without running water they were limited to what was already set out and untainted by bodies or rotting food.

In the residential sector, however, their foray into the buildings turned up a fortuitous byproduct they hadn't previously considered. Personal items, useful things not found in the administration building or the caves. There were dishes and cups, clothing and towels. Jonah and Kaegan had riffled through a number of closets and appropriated shirts and pants for everyone but they realized quickly they would only be using them to replace the painfully-thin blankets they'd substituted as inner lining for their orange jacket and pants. The clothes provided in the caves still proved to be much heavier, warmer, and durable than anything the 'toppers' possessed. Apparently environmental conditions for those lucky enough to be above-ground had been too pleasant to ever necessitate proper winter attire.

They had also realized, when they entered their first bedroom, that they wouldn't have to sleep on the ground that night. No one, when the attack began, had stayed in bed so the beds in all the houses were mercifully vacant. Jonah knew Thera would be grateful for that; he knew how uncomfortable it was for her, in her condition, to sleep on the floor night after night.

Kaegan was a quiet but diligent worker. She only 'chatted' in any real sense with Carlin, so she had been a taciturn helping hand during their searches. Jonah found he didn't mind her company, quiet and brooding though it was. It seemed to go some lengths toward filling a niche in their group, rounding them out as it were.

Laden with their restocked food and water bags, arms loaded with clothes, Jonah and Kaegan made their way back toward the Chappa-ai. From a distance they could see things largely unchanged from the last time they saw the other two. They were both standing before the pedestal, heads bent together as they tried to figure out the mystery.

Jonah smirked to himself at the sight.

So engrossed were they that neither noticed Jonah and Kaegan until they were a couple dozen feet from them. Jonah was not pleased about that.

"Any luck?" he asked when he was upon them and he and Kaegan dropped their armfuls of clothing to the ground.

"No, sir, I've been racking my brain but I can't..." Thera gritted her teeth in frustration. "It's right there! I can almost see it."

Jonah passed Carlin and Thera's food bags and spare water bags (Carlin and Thera had both kept their canteens to drink from while the 'scouting party' was gone) to Carlin as he smiled at Thera. "I think you need to take a break, Thera... you just called me 'sir'."

Thera blinked and looked up at Jonah. "I did?"

Jonah nodded and Thera ducked her head in embarrassment.

"Carlin," Kaegan spoke up and the younger man turned to the dark-skinned woman. "We found some books in a few of the homes; Jonah said you might want to look at them."

Carlin's eyes lit up. "Books?"

Kaegan nodded and motioned him to follow. "I'll show you."

Carlin glanced at Jonah for permission and the older man said, "Go on." He'd refused to let them tote the books around when they had important things to do but while they were all idling around the Chappa-ai Carlin might as well take an hour or so to explore. He might just learn something from the books and if it could help them then all the better.

Carlin and Kaegan went off together and Jonah slid closer to Thera's side once they were alone. He looked down at the pedestal that had so captured Thera's attention and really got a good look at it for the first time. It was full of senseless symbols arranged in three circles around a dull orange bubble in the center. It was both baffling and vaguely familiar.

Thera sighed in aggravation and Jonah slipped his arm around her.

"You sure this thing controls the Chap-eye?"

Thera smiled at the way Jonah pronounced 'Chappa-ai' and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I can't explain how I know but yes, I'm sure." She reached out a hand and traced her fingers over one of the glyphs. Certain ones were stronger to her than others, even though they were all of equal size and elevation. "Why do we know this?" she thought aloud.

Jonah shook his head. He didn't have an answer but it was undeniable he, Thera, and Carlin knew this thing. Somehow, some way, it was linked to them.

Jonah knew beyond a doubt that if they were going to survive it would be this thing, this Chappa-ai, that would save them.