The Ouroboros Cycle

Step 001/07

THEN

— - —

A young boy stands in a long line of men and women in orange jumpsuits. He has a metal collar around his neck. He is marched out into the cold with a shovel in his hands, and as an adult with a flamethrower pushed back the encroaching flesh, he pushes the ashes into small piles to be collected. He is thin, and sick. Their camp hasn't received rations in three days - but the guards stay fed.

There is a commotion, and bullets whip across the frozen earth. The boy dives for cover behind a pile of fleshy corpses, and covers his ears against the screaming and shouting around him. It lingers for a moment, and then silence. When he opens his eyes, Anthony is leaning down to pick him up. The older man throws a warm blanket across Adam's shoulders, and carries him to a waiting personnel vehicle.

— - —

Aaron Siegal stands at a podium, delivering news of a breakthrough to the first assembly of their new Foundation. He beams as the audience applauds.

— - —

The Incredibly Ivory flees down a dark alleyway in the Three Portlands, Foundation agents fast on her heels. She has run for what has felt like hours now, and knows she does not have much left to give. She hears dogs barking and her legs burn like cinders. She catches sight of another agent rounding the corner in front of her, so she stumbles down a side street.

It opens into a quiet intersection, but she can hear them approaching from all around her. Exhausted and resigned, she collapses in the street. Paint and blood are smeared on her clothes, and she laughs now seeing the mess. Well, she thinks, at least they'll give me something to change into.

A moment later a car screeches to a halt in front of her, and Calvin pulls her into the car. When the Foundation agents exit the alleyway, she is nowhere to be found.

— - —

A phone is ringing.

— - —

In the distance is a mountain of fire and the sound of roaring machines and the continent being sundered. The earth shakes. Arians keeps the car straight on the road even as it bucked and buckled beneath him. In the back seat, Aaron is staring at the floor.

— - —

Through a small crack between two rocks, a man squeezes through followed shortly by his rucksack. He strikes a match, filling the chamber with light. Small white insects, those that haven't seen the light of day in a hundred generations, scurry for cover. The man lights his lantern and starts forward.

There's a draft from somewhere beyond this room, so he follows it. He ducks carefully under rock formations, tenderly brushing up against them so as to not disturb them. A bat flies low overhead and he is encouraged - this must be the right way. He presses on, and from somewhere not far off he can hear the sound of rushing water.

He opens into another cavern, but before he can get his bearings his foot snags the edge of the walkway and he tumbles to the ground, his lantern dashing and shattering against the ground, spilling oil and fire out in every direction. He hurries to stand, rubbing his side where he'd struck hard stone. Before he can move to put the fire out, a miracle catches his eye. In front of him is a waterfall, small but dozens of feet high. He approaches it cautiously, extending a hand out into the waters which he now sees flow up and around his hand. He splashes the water, which continues to flow up and out of the pool at his feet, towards some point in the dark far above him.