CHAPTER 85
Laney watched as Gideon raised the stone above his head, chanting in a language she did not recognize. He swayed as he focused all his energy on the stone, chanting the same undecipherable phrase over and over again.
The crystal stone began to glow, first blue and then red, until it began to resemble a ball of fire. Gideon released it, but kept his attention on it the entire time. It slowly levitated higher and higher above his head, spinning increasingly faster as it rose.
It stopped rising ten feet off the ground, but continued to spin at an incredibly fast rate. Small sparks of electricity began to flash across the illuminated globe and it gave off a low hum.
Pressure began to build in Laney’s ears and she swallowed to try and release it. “I think it’s creating some form of acoustic resonance.”
“How bad can that be?” Tom asked.
“Bad,” she replied. “According to Biblical scholars, acoustic resonance is what was responsible for the walls of Jericho falling down. Acoustic weapons are even used by the military and law enforcement. They cause all sorts of lovely things, like blindness, severe nausea and even death.”
“So when you say bad, what you mean is really bad,” Yoni said.
A slight tremble rumbled underneath the enclosure. A sharp crack of thunder rang out and a huge fissure in the ground twenty feet from the entrance appeared.
“Yeah, I think I have to agree with Yoni. Really bad is a better description,” Jake said as he stared at the cracks beginning to appear in the ground across the enclosure.
While the appearance of the cracks was horrifying enough, each one was accompanied by a nightmarish screech, as if the earth itself was coming apart.
“We need to get that stone away from him,” Jake yelled, starting towards Gideon.
Laney tried to respond, but the ground had started to quake so violently that she was too busy trying to stay on her feet. Yoni put his arm around her waist. Together, the two stumbled forward.
Jake was ahead of them, but struggling just the same. Then the ground fractured directly under his feet.
Laney’s stomach plunged. “Jake!”
He started to tumble into the yawning crevice. Tom grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him back before he pitched over the edge.
“Thanks,” Jake said.
“It’s the least I owe you,” Tom replied. Arms linked, the two scrabbled along the ground. Laney and Yoni struggled to follow them. It was like trying to walk on a trampoline when someone was jumping on it. You'd go forward two feet and get thrown back five.
Little by little, they made their way closer to Gideon. They were only forty feet from him when a huge fissure split the ground next to them. Laney peered down. It looked deep enough to reach the bowels of hell itself. She shivered at the thought.
Slowly, the group started to make their way around the yawning cavity. But if possible, the tremors increased in frequency and the cacophony of cracking was now almost deafening.
Laney and Yoni collapsed as the ground beneath them began to undulate like a wave. She looked ahead of her and saw Tom and Jake holding onto their piece of ground for dear life. Gideon stood in an undisturbed clearing not far away, his focus undiminished by the destruction around him. She knew they would never be able to reach him in time.
He’s going to do it, she thought in dismay. He’s actually going to destroy the world.