Read 2041 Sanctuary (Genesis) for Free Online

die,’ he said again, ‘and Trish needs us, needs both of us, needs you. Do you know what I said to myself when I realised what I’d become, when I reached my lowest ebb, when I thought about ending it all?’
    ‘No,’ Sarah said.
    ‘I said, “I’m not living my life like this, other people do not make me who I am, I make me who I am, ME!”’ He held her hand and placed it against her heart. ‘You! You decide who you are and if you don’t like what you are, you damn well fight back. Never give in, as at the end of the day, when there’s nothing else left, that’s all we have, that’s who we are.’
    Sarah stayed silent, thinking about his words and the power they promised.
    ‘And do you know what else?’ he said after a while. ‘I’m not giving up on you, even if you have. The same as I’m not giving up on Trish. Now get up,’ – he hauled her to her feet – ‘and let’s keep moving. I think I can see a way down.’
     
    ♦
     
    Some hours later, they’d made it down to the base of the falls using a honeycomb of sloping tunnels that criss-crossed the wall of the chamber through which they travelled. After they’d taken on some more water, the two friends carried on a while longer before stopping to rest. Sarah slumped down and then lay back on the hard ground, not speaking, just listening to the distant roar of the waterfall.
    Thankfully Jason’s visor had remained working, which not only enabled them to stay alive for a little longer, but also let him continue his search for Trish.
    Now that they’d stopped he turned the power off to prolong the life of his helmet’s depleted battery pack. With all light extinguished the darkness was truly complete. Newer to this sensory deprivation than Sarah, Jason came up with a novel suggestion to combat it – although considering her recent nightmare, Sarah knew she should have thought of the idea herself. There were two problems, however.
    ‘What do you mean?’ Jason said, turning his visor back on again. ‘You can’t or you won’t?’
    ‘Won’t.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because of all of this.’ Sarah gestured around her. ‘Everything that’s happened is because of me and because of this.’ She held out her pendant. ‘I won’t use it again … ever.’
    ‘What happened isn’t that thing’s fault, it isn’t your fault either, it’s no one’s fault.’
    ‘It made Trish … fall.’
    ‘That was the rope, or that light chasing us, it wasn’t the pendant.’
    ‘Wasn’t it? As soon as we activated the bridge that light appeared. It must be attracted to Anakim technology, like we thought.’
    ‘If you won’t use it, how are we going to get to the surface?’
    ‘You can use it.’ She unclipped the metal artefact from her neck chain and held out in his direction. ‘In fact,’ she said, ‘you can have it, it’s yours. I wish I’d never found it.’
    ‘What?’ Jason sounded shocked. ‘You’re serious?’
    Sarah remained silent in her conviction and he didn’t pursue the matter further, perhaps due to her determined expression.
    ‘Shall we try it, then?’ he said, taking possession of the pendant. ‘If my helmet goes completely we’ll need it.’
    An inner voice of warning made her hesitate.
    ‘It might be Anakim,’ he said, ‘but the light didn’t turn up when you turned it on last time.’
    He was right, it hadn’t, and Sarah was well past caring. She withdrew the Anakim orb from the safety of her coveralls and placed it on the ground between them.
    Only able to see the tiniest glow from Jason’s visor, Sarah heard the rustle of clothing, but nothing happened.
    ‘Are you touching it?’ she said.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then why isn’t it lighting up like before?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Are you doing anything differently?’
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Try one of the parchments.’ Sarah passed him one of the ancient documents.
    He tried a second time and again nothing happened. ‘Perhaps it’s because I’m