"What do you mean you are sorry! Tell me!" Valens roared as he approached her. He pressed her against the inside of the desk.
She stared at him. "Atlantis is falling! The waves are going to overtake us! The damage is done!"
"No, I cannot accept this!" Valens slammed his hand violently on the desk. "Atlantis cannot fall! It was not built to fall!"
Barbaros's entire body appeared a shade paler. His mouth loosened, and his body lost all the strength it had. He silently wept.
"Atlantis cannot fall!" Valens slammed his hand down again as angry tears gathered in his eyes.
"It can! It is!" she screamed at him. "Can't you see my fear?" She hunched over, pointing to her heart. "I want to go home to my parents. They were so proud of me to get this job. Now I am stuck here! I can't leave in case someone comes. Duty til the end!" She calmed down. "They are going to die alone. I am going to die here alone. Go home while you can." She solemnly turned around toward her white cards. "If you must go to the tri-center, then go. They are going to tell you the same thing I have."
Valens raced away from her to a set of stairs located a few feet away from the desk. The stairs led downward.
Barbaros remained behind, slowly getting over his shock. He walked over to the woman. "Your name and abode." He bowed, placing his hands together.
"Aquilina, why?" Her tearful eyes drifted to him.
"Let me do this one act of kindness for you. Let me tell your parents." Barbaros, still hunched over, looked up at her. He gradually straightened up.
Aquilina's face froze, and then a painful smile spread across it. "The upper aqueducts. The house is the sixty-seventh on the right."
Barbaros turned to leave.
"Wait," Aquilina called after him.
He stopped.
"Tell them I love them. Tell them I am sorry for being a horrible child. I have led a disappointing life," said Aquilina.
Barbaros pressed his hands together. "No child is truly disappointing to a parent. We express our disappointment at the action one commits, not the person. You as a person are not disappointing." Barbaros's mind flashed with memories of a little girl with black curly hair. He closed his eyes, then reached for his wristband, activating "agility boost" once again.
Valens rushed down four flights of stairs. Once he reached the end of the fourth flight, he turned to his right, eyeing a door. Valens huffed and slowly made his way over to the door. He pushed it open, revealing a room with a holographic sphere with landmarks. Red lasers pointed to a specific location in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Morocco.
The sea water seemed to be bubbling up on the sphere. Valens stood in the way of one of the lasers. The heat from the laser burned through his chiton and into his flesh. "Arrgh!" he screamed out, clenching the burnt area. He moved out of the way, allowing the laser to resume its position on the sphere.
Valens glanced around, spotting quite a few items mounted on walls that had the appearance of telescopes with a reflective lens.
He charged over to the lasers that he had determined were the cause of the disruptive ocean. Valens reached his hands over to grab one. The metal burned him again, as he clasped his hand around it. He squeezed his eyes shut in pain and pulled on the device. The sounds of searing flesh reached his ears, as the smell of cooked meat taunted him. The laser would not budge.
A couple of people hearing the commotion ran in. They yanked him away.
One person pushed Valens away farther. "Go home! There is nothing you can do. The wave editor has malfunctioned. The monitor destabilized."
"How?" Valens yelled. He hissed, holding his hand.
"We do not know! Everything was fine, and then the next minute everything went wrong. Please go home. Give Augusta and Cecilia my love." The man patted Valens on his shoulder.
Valens gritted his teeth. He ran out the door, and up the steps until he reached the bottom of the third set of steps. He activated his wristband, choosing 'agility.' He raced through the building, turning everything into a blur. He made it outside. His eyes darted around. Valens saw slow blurs picking up smaller slow blurs. Blurs representing people pushed other blurs down. A sudden splash hit his face. He looked down, and water covered his knees. Valens frowned pushing forward. He felt resistance. The waves were trying to force him back.
Valens's heart felt dangerously elevated. His breathing became shallow. He could not get enough air.
The water splashed up again, this time washing some blurs away. He grabbed onto a pole as another wave surrounded Atlantis. It was higher than any building on Atlantis. The tide came crashing down with enough force to break the metal plates holding Atlantis together.
Valens gritted his teeth, forcing himself forward. Someone grabbed him, screaming in his face with fear evident in their tone. "Save me, save me, please!" Valens shook his head. "I am sorry, I have to get home." He pushed the person off. The person reached after him, screaming.
Barbaros made it to the upper aqueduct. "Program ending," his wristband warned him. The upper aqueduct creaked and groaned, then split apart. People and things were being rushed out to sea. Barbaros pushed himself until he made it to the sixty-seventh house. As he stood in front of the door, a giant wave loomed over him. Barbaros looked up. He whimpered, dropping his arms to his side. He hung his head as the wave crashed down, taking the upper aqueduct.
Valens raced through breaking metal and crashing waves. He clung to whatever he could reach. The metal platform suddenly titled, bucking up, then split in half. The platform he stood on started sinking. He ran up the tilted piece and jumped, nearly missing the still-stable part of Atlantis, but one of his hands caught the edge. He squinted his eyes shut as he tried to pull himself up. The wristband warned him, "Program ending."
Valens pushed himself up, managing to get his other arm to grasp the platform. He grunted, trying to pull himself up. As the needle retracted, he felt the strength he had leave his body.
Valens's body jerked down toward the dangerous waters. He cried, gritting his teeth. Valens shouted out, "Give me strength!" He pulled himself up, and his knees touched the platform. A small wave reached up and drenched him. The remaining part of Atlantis quivered, starting to buckle. Valens tapped his wristband seeking out an "agility boost."
The wristband flashed red. "Access denied. Your condition will destabilize. Monitoring shows your heart may give out."
"I do not care!" he shouted at his wristband. "I will make it home! I will hold my wife and daughter! Activate 'emergency protocol.'"
The wristband flashed red, speaking, "Denied."
Valens stood up as the metal creaked. He shouted at the wristband. "Atlantis is falling!"
The watch screen turned green. "Checking other wristbands." The wristband beeped and then spoke. "You are correct. I detect less than half of the populace. I have determined the best type of action."
The wristband injected Valens with the needle. A series of violent shocks traveled through him. Stunned, he could not move. Then all of a sudden his body jetted forward! No matter how he felt, he could not stop. The program rushed him through the wet metal streets, to a reasonably decent metal house that for now remained untouched.
"Program ending," his wristband spoke as he opened the bronze door to the house.
A woman with red hair immediately ran up to him. She was trembling. "What is going on!? I heard all this racket. I was too afraid to look out. You were gone."
Valens hugged her, pulling her tightly to him. He sighed in relief. He pulled her closer. "Augusta, I love you." He closed his eyes, taking her scent in. His hands reached up, and he held the back of her head. Valens pulled away, gazing into her eyes. He looked lost. He moved one of his hands to trace her facial features.
Augusta trembled,"What is wrong?" Her eyebrows went up and the center of her forehead wrinkled.
"Where is Cecilia?" Valens asked, tearing away from his wife.
"In her room. She threw a fit because I would not let her out to play."
Valens placed one last chaste kiss on Augusta's forehead. He gripped her hand.
Augusta tried to resist Valens grip, feeling an unfamiliar roughness. "What is going on? What happened to your hand!? Why are you wet!? Valens, talk to me!"
Valens turned around speaking, "Atlantis is falling."
Augusta let go of his hand. "Nooo!" she screamed.
Cecilia came running down a flight of steps, holding a stuffed animal and pouting. She noticed her father. Cecilia brightly smiled and then looked over to her mother who began tearing.
Cecilia ran over to Valens, leaning on him. "Papa, what's wrong with Momma?" She frowned as her little eyes started to water. "Is it because I was a bad girl?"
Valens reached down, picking Cecilia up. Once he had a firm hold on her, he kissed her cheek. Cecilia giggled, pressing her stuffed animal to Valens's lips. He kissed that, as well. He turned around to his wife, sweeping her up into his remaining arm. The three of them were pressed together.
Cecilia trembled, biting her lip. She tensed, picking up on the tension in the room. Augusta sobbed into the back of Cecilia's dress.
"I am scared," Cecilia admitted softly.
Augusta reached her hand up and ran it through Cecilia's red hair. "Atlantis is sleeping. Dry your tears. Cry no more. The workers who toil are sleeping. Atlantis is sleeping." Augusta's voice cracked as she sang.
Valens closed his eyes, rocking Cecilia.
The end
Words
Garther: A curse word
Jonther: Someone who abandons their friends because of religious, or political reasonings.
Prim Kings: A term for someone or others who are too upright, even when the situation does not call for it. It means you are doing it to get looks.