e-ARK Salvation Locket

“Ok, I’m holding her down, cut it, cut it…and put it in - now!”

Just as one of the men brought the scalpel out of the case so he could cut and insert the miniature locket into the back of Christa’s right hand, the sound of others approaching – a large group – could be heard. Both men turned and glanced down the alley.

“Too late, we don’t have time…!”

One of the men came in close and screamed in her face, while at the same time, forcing his fingers into her mouth. “You need to swallow it! They're coming! I said, swallow it! It's the only way to save us!“

Christa kicked and thrashed against their iron grip, not knowing why the two men were even holding her down much less why they were forcing her head back and prying her mouth open. No scream escaped. Fear constricted her throat and the terror in Christa’s eyes matched the horror in her heart - as they shoved the very tiny gold, heart-shaped locket into her mouth. The smell and taste of a sickly sweet and slimy liquid that the locket was coated with, gave her pause. And then, almost without thinking, she swallowed it whole.

Their grip loosened and as Christa opened her eyes, she saw the two men staring at one another, then back at her, with glistening eyes that showed sad resignation as much as it did relief – and inevitability. Shouts, running thumping boots, high-pitched siren wails were getting closer. The men briefly looked down the street, turned back to face one another – exchanged a wistful look – and then both took a gun out and shot each other in the head.

As blood spattered her face and Christa screamed in terror, the door to the building that she was lying in front of burst open and two sets of hands aggressively dragged her backwards into the building – into utter darkness. Strong arms and hands held her down as well as tightly over her mouth. Within seconds, two scanners were being run up and down and all around her body.

A light on the scanner began to blink-beep rapidly, then steadily. She felt the pressure of a finger that ‘marked’ the location on the inside of her left upper arm. Christa heard an urgent, anxious whisper, “Here!”

Immediately, a thick, BP-like cuff was wrapped firmly around her arm as hand pressure increased over her mouth. An emphatic whisper, “Shush! Absolutely still…don’t move!” As he said this, the two men moved in close and huddled over Christa, while pulling a heavy, metallic blanket over all of them.

The sound of urgent, angry voices and whining body scanners, the scuffling of boots communicated urgent chaos outside the door.

The wait was interminable; breathing rapid; pungent fear-sweat. The hand over Christa’s mouth was gently removed as they threw off the covering and said breathlessly, apologetically, “Sorry…we’re sorry…Miss Christa…we’re sorry.”

Christa’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, and she could see the men’s faces. They were staring at her in an almost adulatory way…a look that conveyed awe, of being in the presence of someone special or great.

That this puzzled Christa would be a gross understatement.

Anxiously she ‘hoarsed’ out an angry demand. “What the hell do you want with me!? What did you do to me?! Why were those men outside going to cut my hand and insert that thing inside!? Why did they make me swallow it!? Why did they kill each other!?”

“We will take you to the Chief. But first we need to remove your GGPS chip. Sorry, sorry…”

One took out a loaded syringe, antiseptic gauze pads…the other, a scalpel, sanitary surgical gloves.

“Miss Christa, please try to relax…please try to trust us…this won’t hurt and won’t take long…but it MUST be done.”

A quick wipe of her inner, upper left arm – injection. Immediately Christa’s whole arm went limp. One cut into her arm while the other dabbed at the dripping blood, some falling to the floor. They both glanced at it and nodded agreement; about what, Christa couldn’t read. 2cm incision; the same deep. With tweezers, he reached into the hole and removed a metallic pellet. She understood; everybody had one – she just didn’t know it was in that part of her body. He dropped it into a cup with liquid. The other sprayed her incision, butterfly stitched and bandaged it.

“That’s it?” Christa asked.

The guy replied, “No, sorry…one more thing you need to do. It’s absolutely crucial and necessary. Sorry.”

He removed the pellet from the cup. Christa recognized the sickly, sweet smell immediately. “Please, you must swallow this now…please. We don’t have much time!”

“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on!”

With matter-of-factness, mixed with obvious mixed emotions, he said, “You’re the only e-Ark left. Only you can save us…you must swallow the chip. The 144K want to kill you. That’s all I know.”

Ignoring the huge question mark on her face, they forced her mouth open and placed the slime-covered pellet inside. Christa involuntarily felt the pellet slide down her throat.

“Come, we must go…now!”

As Christa was guided away, the other man quickly sprayed something on the area where blood had splattered – then threw a lighted match on it. The ‘whoosh’ was quick and all-consuming but left no mark on the floor.

“Come now, Miss Christa, we’ll take you to the Chief.”

The door at the end of the tunnel was solid and imposing. No handle, only a camera in the top right corner of the ceiling. Both men looked directly at the camera, then raised the back of their right hands to the camera until a light turned green. The door slid open, upwards. The two men said with heads slightly bowed and in awe-hushed voices, “Thank you Miss Christa, thank you.” And quickly walked away.

Immediately two other guards came directly to Christa and asked her to raise her arms.

“Please stand absolutely still, Miss Christa…please.”

Two hand scanners roamed around her body. When they reached her stomach, both scanners emitted a steady, shrill sound. They made knowing nods just as another man came into view.

“Welcome Miss Christa, I am the Chief. I am sorry for all that you have gone through. I think we owe you an explanation, but first, I am sorry to say we need to act very fast – we have very little time – we need to again do something to you that is quite unpleasant...”

“Who the hell are you!? And what gives you the right to abduct me!? And make me swallow, God knows what, and then stick me with needles and cut into me…and….”

He nodded slightly to someone behind her, “I am so sorry, Miss Christa, truly…”

At this, two guards approached and pulled her arms behind her back while a woman standing nearby placed a cloth over her nose and mouth.

Christa passed out nearly immediately.

She awoke suddenly soon after, she thought, with the feeling of overwhelming nausea, rolled on to her side and threw up; paused and caught her breath momentarily, and then threw up again. Then she felt pain in the back of her right hand and only then noticed that it was bandaged quite heavily. As she raised her head, she realized she was surrounded by a small group looking down at her anxiously. Two pair of arms helped her sit up and leaned her against the wall.

The Chief spoke, simply but firmly.

"I will tell you plainly and quickly and hope you can trust me – trust us. When our men took you in the street it was so they could implant a replacement GGPS monitor in the back of your right hand…a miniature gold locket. That locket replaced the standard issue tracking pellet that the Controllers have implanted through the 144K Peace Militia. You’ve heard of them, I’m sure…”

Of course, she had. Christa nodded, ‘Yes’.

“The problem was our men did not have enough time to implant the locket into your hand, so they did the next best thing, they made you swallow it. It was imperative that the Controllers believed you’re still on their GGPS tracking system and did not know about the locket. When our other men removed your ‘standard issue’ tracking pellet from your arm, they couldn’t just throw it away…it would have led the Controllers straight to your location and then swarms of Peace Militia would be here right now – and we’d all be dead.”

Christa interrupted, “But why me, why are you and they so interested in me!? I watched two men shoot each other in the head because of me! It doesn’t make any sense!!” She began to shudder with emotion.

“Miss Christa, have you ever heard of the e-Arks?”

Christa shook, then nodded her head, “I guess, well sort of, I’m not sure…your man said something about it…people talk…Peace Media calls them terrorists…they carry a deadly virus inside them…they’re a myth, a conspiracy theory or something, aren’t they?”

“No, they are not, and I know you are scared. I know you have a million questions, but we have very little time for you to take in a huge amount of information - and you also have a very big, eternal decision to make. Please let us put on this on your head.”

She recognized the device immediately. An n-LITE (neuron-Live Intelligence Transfer Echo).

Essentially it rapidly dumped information directly into the brain; with the added capability of temporarily bringing understanding and belief – allowing you to absorb huge amounts of data – and make sense of it.

Christa nodded a ‘Yes’.

The n-LITE was placed on her head and over her eyes. An assistant touched her reassuringly on the arm, “It’s ok. This won’t take long.”

The Chief’s image appeared immediately before her.

“You are an e-Ark, the only one of the original 12 remaining. It is imperative that we preserve your blood and tissue – and its genetic code. Without it, we are doomed. Without the DNA of an e-Ark, we cannot be rescued from the 144K and their Controllers. Their Global Genetic Position System – the GGPS – will soon dominate the world – not least because their chip bonds with and manipulates a person’s genetic code – to make it ‘controllable’. Your genetic code cannot be bonded with; cannot be controlled. We’ve found a way to duplicate someone’s code and bond it with yours. The 144K are far superior to most - elite in fact…but still far inferior to e-Arks – inferior to you.

Their propaganda castigates the e-Arks and promotes suspicion. Society’s urban ‘myths and legends’ affectionately call you e-Gods. The 144K have told the world you’re a cult and have a virus, on the verge of creating a global pandemic. The 144K and their Controllers want to destroy you and your DNA. If they can do so, the planet is well and truly doomed and their so-called, Peace Protocol will be in place. We want to duplicate your DNA and bond-transfuse it with as many people as we can. e-Arks carry the salvation of the world in their blood and bodies – we need your DNA to make as many e-Ark clones as quickly as possible.

The locket we embedded in your right hand carries a bonding technology to help you avoid detection and speeds up genetic code reproduction. It’s a mini-DNA factory, so to speak. It also fools the Controllers into thinking that their tracking pellet is still intact. We had to act quickly before their sensors detected unusual movement of your chip. Your stomach was the only place to keep them safe.

Miss Christa, I don’t know why you were chosen…why you are the one…but you are…and now is our time.

But there is one problem…this is only possible; if you are the one to save the world – you must choose to die. You must choose.”

Christa gasped as she tore off the n-LITE and saw the surgical table.