Tales of Light

BETRAYED!

Part II

Basement Storage room.

"Hush!" Alexia whispered to the group of runaways that were hiding with her in this underground basement.

The stomp, stomp, stomp of the robotic soldiers echoed, sounding from above them.

It took all of Alexia's courage to stop herself from bitting off her tongue. They were so close now, she could clearly hear them searching the storage room above.

She held her breath, and prayed.

Some minutes of fear later, the intruders left.

Alexia heaved a sigh of relief and turned to the company huddled behind her.

There was one man, a wide-eyed teenage girl with her elder brother, a mother whose twins had disappeared too. In total, they were six in number.

They had been members of their mom's church who were left behind. Seeing no need to blame anyone but themselves, they had gathered after the catching up and confessed their sins and resolved to not collect the dreaded mark of the beast.

They didn't have to wait for long. Two weeks after the cataclysmic event, a man rose from nowhere, with power, affluence and authority and claimed he had the solution to the chaos on earth: that the whole world should unite under one government.

His identity and origin was well hidden. His henchmen were the ones who did the public announcements for him. And he had the full support of the higher authorities, who were clamouring for peace.

The government officials who remained were more than happy to relinquish the government to whomsoever was willing to take on the headaches that the chaos from the masses had brought.

But, as soon as he reared up sleekly under perfect guise, Alexia knew he was the foretold Man of Sin.

What was his name again? Gretel, was it?

She had been reading the Bible that belonged to her mom and he fitted the description quite nicely.

Now he has mandated all people in all countries to accept a chip in either their forehead or right hand so that the whole of humankind can be connected as one and to do away with the problem of sudden disappearances.

According to Gretel, had this chip been mandated earlier, it would have been easy to track those who vanished even to the furthest end of the universe if, as it was being circulated by the scientist, indeed they were abducted by aliens.

He also said, by the chip, they'd be able to transact and travel internationally. No need for cash, national ID cards, passports, Telecom sim cards; everything was encapsulated in the microchip that was as tinier than a mustard seed.

But Alexia knew that it was the seal of the beast and once one accepted it, even by mere ignorance, one becomes eternally damned. It was a blood covenant sort of thing, selling oneself to the devil, branding oneself with his mark.

Alexia had made up her mind to fight till, well till this whole thing ended.

Every single one of them in the basement had destroyed his or her mobile androids, neither could they go outside anymore because the surveillance satellites and CCTVs had been programmed to spot those without the microchip.

"We can't hide here forever. We'll starve," Lydia pointed out after the tension of being caught had died out.

Alexia paced. It was true. After hiding in their Adullam cave for over one month, she knew, much to her chagrin, that their supplies were depleting fast.