Chapter 9 Ezra's Manor

Max

July 23rd, 2017

1:01 PM

New Exodus, Meridian Prime

Prescott and Blackwell Estate

We walked out of the dining room and went off to check out the rest of Ezra and Jeremiah's household. There was some wreckage in the halls that we couldn't get past. So, we had to make a detour outdoors through a hole in the wreck. There were more canons retrofitted near the house to defend it. We also spotted a ConDef truck parked near the house too. Joan must've taken it with Alkaline and the rest of the mean team holding Alex captive.

"Max, that ConDef truck is still there," said Chloe.

"Yeah, I see it," I said. "Keep your eyes peeled, huh?"

I took a peek at the canons with Chloe before coming back inside. Both positioned the same as the ones we saw earlier.

"More cannons," I said. "Just like at Blackwell's mansion."

"I guess the poison is mightier than the cannon," said Chloe.

"What?"

"You know, cause he ended up poisoning…yeah, that was bad. Sorry."

"Yup, pretty bad."

We find an entrance to Ezra's mansion right next door to Jeremiah's mansion. Through another hole in the wall just like the Blackwell manor.

"And we're officially inside Ezra Prescott's house," I said.

The hole we enter through takes us to a cellar indoors. Then eventually into a living room with wreaked havoc. The room looked nice on the outside though.

"Word of the day…ostentatious," I said.

"So why didn't he kill Jeremiah Blackwell?" Chloe asked. "Was he like his right-hand man?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what he was. Can you imagine taking orders from a paranoid psychopath?"

"Aren't all Prescotts paranoid psychopaths?"

"Maybe not every. David says Kristine is a nice lady on the team and Caroline has been a worthy CEO too."

"So, I've heard. Wouldn't say that gives me any reason to trust either of them though. You know what's happened to the likes of Sean and Joanna."

"Don't know Kristine and Caroline as well as David either but I can take his word for it when need be."

There was also and piano and a harp in the room that still worked. I walk over to them and I tap on a piano key that chimes and I drag my finger across the strings of a harp that makes noise too.

The two of us slide down another hole through the floor taking us to the main hall of Ezra's manor. We see the front door from the inside that we noticed was blocked earlier from the outside and now understand how. It was barricaded with junk ConDef probably found to slow us down.

"Look," I said. "ConDef barricaded the front door."

"And left a bunch of muddy footprints behind," said Chloe. "Including the mammoth-sized ones."

"Let's see where they went."

We follow the tracks of mud up the stairs in the hall. Wherever ConDef went, it's probably the way Alex had gone as well. I really hope those bastards didn't give her too much hell. Especially with Ares after seeing what he had done to Fernando back at Castle Camelot. Question is where have they all gone?

"So, where are all the ConDef guys?" Chloe wondered.

"I know, right?" I thought. "I expected to see someone by now."

"Yeah, it's like they all up and vanished."

"You don't suppose they're…herd ghosts?"

"Don't even joke about that."

Chloe and I follow the prints up the second floor of the hall where they take us to another door that was cracked open. It was clear to me they went through here.

"Chloe, check it out," I said. "Footprints go through this door.

I give the doors a little push until I notice it was blocked as well. Ares really must be getting desperate to slow us down from his head start with Joan and Elias.

"Crap, it's blocked from the other side," I said.

"Why bother barricading their path?" Chloe thought. "Unless…"

"They found something. All right, help push this open."

"Yeah."

The two of us give the door a couple of rams with our arms. The doors appeared to be barricaded by chairs. As soon as we gave the doors enough muscle to ram through the barricade, the doors are wide open I fumble onto a couch with another skeletal deceased sitting down. Nearly jumps me to death staring so close to it. It was another skeleton wearing clothes as well.

"Oh, hello," I sarcastically say.

Chloe noticed the dead guy was carrying a piece of paper and picked it out of its bony fingers.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a letter," said Chloe. "Signed by…Prescott."

"Really? Read it."

"My loyal subjects…as the sun sets on our glorious paradise, we must endeavor to preserve its riches. The traitorous Blackwell knows our secrets; so, we must act quickly. Destroy the dam, cleanse New Exodus…"

"Here we go."

"Uh-huh…and push forward into the depths of High Providence to claim the Ark of Genesis before, Blackwell, Ares, and the Germans do."

"Blackwell and Prescott turned on each other."

"Are you really surprised?"

"Well, I guess not. Let's go find that passage."

We finally enter the office and quarters of Ezra Prescott. Which is where the footprints had ended. With no other traces to follow.

"There are no more footprints," said Chloe. "They end here."

"Okay, so…where did they go?" I thought.

"Herd ghosts."

I scoff.

"Let's look around," said Chloe.

While looking around, I see plaque hung on the wall of a proclamation placed in the framing. One written to apprehend Prescott.

"This is amazing," I said.

"What? What've you got there?" Chloe asked.

"It's a copy of the British proclamation to apprehend Prescott. It seems like he was proud of being the most wanted man in the world."

Chloe and I continued our search for where Alex and her captors could've gone. I looked around a desk area that definitely belonged to Ezra and spot someone dropped a lighter on the ground. It was marked with a star and a number 76. I knew who it belonged to.

"It's Alex's lighter," I said.

"Did she drop it?" Chloe wondered.

"Yeah, on purpose. Whatever it is we're looking for has to be somewhere around here."

"There's gotta be another way out of this room."

"Maybe that passage Ezra mentioned in the letter. But where's the switch?"

The two of us look everywhere and nothing happens. I check a sword display and move the swords around and it's a no-go. Chloe checks under a small Ezra statue and nada. I look behind a picture from and no such luck. Chloe checks a button or switch on a clock she holds onto and it wasn't going to fly either. Then I look behind the shield of a Knights of Loomis armor display and before I could find anything, Chloe does so first.

"Max," she said.

"Yeah?" I respond. "Did you find anything?"

"I think so."

Chloe touches the globe map and turns the sphere around. Revealing it to be the key to the secret passage. Unlocking a stairwell hidden under the desk area as stairsteps were descending over the floor behind us. Chloe the key master strikes again.

"Whoa," I said with a laugh.

"It's a good thing they figured that out for us," said Chloe.

"How did you do that?"

"There's a bloody fingerprint right here where Meridian Prime should be and I…pushed it."

"Nicely done."

The two of us descended down the stairwell and into Ezra's passage. Can't say I enjoy walking around dark tunnels but if they get us to where we have to be, we'll find Alex and that ark in no time.

"So, the letter said that Ezra was moving his people to the ark," said Chloe.

"Yeah," I said.

"Do you think the ark is underground?"

"I think – I know it's underground."

We find a gate at the bottom of the stairs and I turn a wheel around to open it. The gate only opens halfway and I duck under to walk past it and so does Chloe. I turn my flashlight on that lights the way to our own conveniently private shortcut to hell.

"Looks like Ezra built himself a panic cave," said Chloe.

I chuckled.

"Yeah, I wonder where this goes?" I asked myself.

Then the gate behind us immediately slams itself shut behind us and jumps the both of us to death. Locking us away from the sunshine above us.

"Ah, crap," I said.

"I guess we'll find out," said Chloe.

"This place doesn't look very stable."

"Yeah…"

As we begin our traverse into Ezra's panic cave, we enter another room built inside the caves right under the mansion. The room appeared to be a study of some kind. Tables and shelves carrying books collecting dust, maps and prints spread out like scrap paper, you name it. Ezra was certainly onto some shady business knowing they were traitors amidst like Jeremiah.

"Our day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" Chloe thought.

"To be honest, it doesn't surprise me Ezra was more secrets up his ally after we've seen," I said.

We wave our flashlights around to see what we could find. Nothing in the room had interested Chloe but something in the room did interest me. My light shined on a drawing of some strange figures. One of the figures looking exactly like Ares. The others looking completely different. I pick up the drawing read the words that were written on it.

"My greatest fears have come true," I read. "The Dark Order has risen once again in league with their old master Ares in ascendance to the tip of the spear leading the Germans. Apollo, Nemesis, Thanatos, and Hephaestus all rise in our brutal competition to the Ark of Genesis. I also fear they may be the responsibility for Blackwell's uprising. These may be my last hours alive. Should that stand true, I wish the best of luck for whoever reads this. EP."

"Who's the Dark Order?" Chloe wondered. "What's the Dark Order?"

One of the other figures drawn behind Ares brought me back to watching Alex's captivity. The giant and robed figure. Were they who I had seen in the drawing? Other figures I had seen was a female detailed in a bikini-like armor and a hooded male. They all must be this Dark Order Ezra referred to in his note.

"I don't know," I answered. "But whoever they are, they must be the ones in this drawing. And I think I may have seen some of them when we saw Alex enter the mansion with Joan, Ares, and Alkaline."

"That can't be good," said Chloe. "Hey, what's that up on the ceiling?"

Chloe pointed her light above us and we were seeing markings on the ceiling on top of us. It was going to be difficult telling what the markings meant with a puny flashlight. There was a sconce in the room however that could light the room with fire if that could help us read the pictographs better. I still had Alex's light I picked up back upstairs and I lit the room with the sconce. Then viola. The room was brighter than the sun.

Not were the pictographs on the ceiling a lot easier to read, but the fire was highlighting words. A warning of some sort. Felt like a scene from National Treasure. The markings we were seeing were drawing of something rather elusive. We were just seeing a depiction of the Ark of Genesis as well as the city of High Providence that surrounded it. We were also seeing some strange objects drawn over the ark. Things that were round like a moon. Round objects with strings dangling like the tentacles of a jellyfish. Something about this imagery was far too familiar to my eyes. Something I've witnessed in my nightmares of Ares.

"Turn it off," I said reading the warning. "Do not be deceived. The Eternity Moons do the biding of the Eternity Shards and their wielder. To turn it off is to turn life as you know it upside down. Should one ever turn on the Ark of Genesis with the Eon Codex, the machine is not to be handled with the tawdry minded."

"What does all that mean?" Chloe asked.

"Chloe, I think I've seen this before."

"Where? When?"

"In my visions is where. I know what this is."

"Great, more visions."

"Those round objects on the wall. The Eternity Moons. Directly linked to the Eternity Shards. I know what Ares is up to. He's gonna use the ark to awaken the moons, snap his finger with the Eternity Gauntlet, and wipe out half of humankind. I think that's what my premonitions have been telling 'till now."

"Do these moons even exist? And where in the name of this voodoo horseshit would they even come from?"

"No idea. The only idea I have is that the sooner we catch up to Alex the better."

Note: So, I'm back in college assuring myself I'll do much better this semester than last. Which is why it'll be a little while longer for chapters to come out once again taking college more seriously than my story. You should all know what's more important for me to do.

Until next time, stay tuned, take it easy, and stay golden.