We docked in Luanda, Angola. I’d never been to the western coast of Africa. Actually, I’d never been to Africa at all. I hadn’t expected to see so many skyscrapers. I don’t know why, perhaps my American ignorance of anything south of the equator. When people came up to us speaking Portuguese I found myself wishing I could spend more time here. I looked at the flow, but now it made me sad. I had this feeling that the end of our journey could also be the end of my time too.

We packed into our vehicles and followed the lay lines as best as we could while staying on the main roads. After three days we noticed a convergence of the blue energy rivers above the River Zambezi. We followed the river as best we could. The lines growing darker and denser. And then suddenly the sky began to fill with dark blue from all directions. I took my glasses off to remind myself that the lines were merely information. The sky looked blue and clear. I put my glasses back on again and confirmed it. All lines led to Victoria Falls.

I'd never been to the Falls before. Despite the things we had created within the Beacon I still had to tip my hat to the simulation's creations vis-a-vis mother nature. The falls were not the highest or the widest, but when you combined both it created the largest sheet of falling water. Magnificent. I just stood there, allowing the sounds to drown everything out and filling me with peace.

My enjoyment of the scene lasted about 20 seconds.

"What are we waiting for, let's go!" Sara yelled.

I let out a sigh and we continued down the road.

Noa voiced what we all were thinking. She pointed, "The trace looks like it goes right through the waterfall on that side of that cliff. Any idea how we expect to get through that much falling water?"

Wen's answered, "If we could divert the water we should be able to repel down the side."

I dug into the information I'd cached from the early days. "625 million liters flow over that every minute. That's like 150 truck loads of water every second. We would need an incredible amount of energy to shift that much water."

Noa looked over at the water again, as if in a trance she said, "Like the amount of energy in a nuclear warhead?"

I looked over at her and slowly replied, "Yeah, except we already used our warhead, right?"

A devious smile grew on Noa’s face. "Yeah, but maybe, hypothetically, someone grabbed a second warhead when we were being attacked. You know, just in case."

I frowned, "And would there be any reason why that hypothetical somebody didn't mention it before?"

"Because that person might have been unconscious until everyone had left to rescue Charlie."

Ok, she had a point.

"Charlie, any ideas how to harness that amount of energy into diverting the river?"

Charlie asked, "You mean like put a timer on it and then detonate it underground over there, causing a huge drop so the water flows that way?"

I replied, "So… it’s the obvious solution, is it?"

We set off two miles up river and found a good spot. Charlie pulled out of inventory a driller attachment and mounted it onto Little Jefe. Two hours later, the bomb buried and the tunnel refilled with rock, we returned to the edge of the falls.

“Fire in the hole,” Charlie shouted.

The ground shook under our feet. A few minutes passed, yet the water continued to pour over the edge. Maybe we buried it too deeply.

Wen materialized an orange and began eating it nonchalantly. We stared at him until he noticed. "What? A lot of water needs to clear out. We’ve got time."

Two oranges later, we noticed a slight drop in the sound of the water rushing over the falls. Twenty minutes later, the water stopped. We walked along the edge of the cliff towards the place where the lines concentrated. I kept throwing looks upriver, imagining a flood suddenly sweeping us over the edge. But nothing happened and we eventually made it just above our destination.

I looked around and saw smiles. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Even Sara cracked a smile. Not Eyal of course, but I take what I can get.

And then I heard that voice.

"Thanks James!"

It came from above. John sailed over them, lifted with wings like looked like they belonged on a dragon. John carried a scared looking O in his arms. He looped around once before diving down and out of our sight. I got a good look at his face. That bastard was wearing the glasses we made for O.

Before we could react, ten other flying mutants careened down the side of the cliff and into whatever opening that swallowed our lay lines.

"Damnit!" I shouted, all my anger rushing back into my veins. Wounds reopened in my mind. I began shouting frantically, "Ropes! We need to get down there."

If I hadn't been so angry, I would have had time to appreciate the efficiency of Eyal's team. The Reds produced winches from their inventory that attached onto their suits enabling five of us to drop down at a time.

I wanted to join the first people down, but Eyal blocked me with his arm when I attempted to grab hold of one of the cables. He sent a mix of yellows and blues down first, presumably to set up a protective perimeter for the rest of us.

My anger got the best of me, “Dammit Eyal, enough of your bullshit. I’m going down.”

I had barely caught hold of the wire when we heard the explosion. We leaned over to see our first five team members tumbling down the cliff. I looked over at Charlie pleadingly, "Will the suits..."

Charlie looked pensive, "I don't think so, but we never tested this situation, so they might."

Eyal didn't wait. He took a cable and slid down on his own. Fortunately there was no second explosion. He sent us a chat message indicating all clear and we followed along. Three Reds, two Greens and a Blue stayed behind, just in case more of John’s team planned to ambush us from behind.

I swung into the tunnel and gave my eyes a moment to adjust to the dark. The mouth gaped unexpectedly wide. Five of us could stand shoulder to shoulder at the entrance. No light came from within, and even though we had lights on many of the suits, the cavern swallowed it up.

We sent multiple drones ahead of us to scout out the tunnels. What should have been a quick recon turned out to be much more complicated. Many branching tunnels appeared to the left right, and even above and below at times. The system resembled an any colony.

"We don't have time for this," I said, "The drones can't pick up the traceroute, only these glasses can. John is probably making a speed run to the end right now."

Eyal nodded to his team and they formed a perimeter around James, Noa, Charlie, Wen and Sara.

Even before the drones finished their sweep, we moved quickly but cautiously. I felt sure that John's group, not distracted by the possibility of ambush, moved more quickly.

Despite our caution, when the attack came, we were still taken by surprise. One of the tunnels created a huge hole blocking our path. We began walking around the edge of it, taking care not to fall in. That’s when they appeared.

The mutants burst out of the hole, using their wings to propel themselves up just high enough to grab four of our soldiers and pull them down.

We hurried to get back onto stable ground and turned to respond. We shone our lights down the hole to look for them, but it went deep and seemed to curve off at some point. Their metal suits should have reflected our light, but we saw nothing.

"Keep moving," Eyal commanded.

I hesitated. I didn't want to leave them behind. But Eyal pointed and I hurried along.

We walked for some time again. Finally, one of our drones picked up a signal. The operator sent it over chat to the rest of us. We watched as it entered a chamber that had no other exits. Well no, not exactly. It looked like a door had been carved into one of its walls. The drone panned around and fortunately we couldn't see John or his people in there yet.

We made a run for it and luckily did not encounter anyone else along the way. We entered the cavern and found it empty, except for the drone. Our remaining soldiers took up spots at the entry way while Sara, Noa, Charlie, Wen, Eyal and I explored.

The walls of the cavern were perfectly smooth. The entire room looked to be a cube. On the wall opposite our entrance we noticed the door relayed to us by the drone feed. Only, now that I could see it much more closely I realized it wasn't a door. It was more like the frame around a door. Through it you could only see the same smooth rock.

Sara looked at it and said angrily, “What is the point of this? Were these people idiots?”

"Put your glasses back on," Wen said.

We did. The flow of the streams led directly into that doorway.

Explosions rocked the cavern, and dust sprinkled down on us. We looked back to see John standing in the entry way, a snarling smile on his face. I could see our guards strewn about outside the cavern door. John threw O down on the ground in front of himself.

"Hello James."

I was about to respond when the doorway leading out sealed up. At least, I think that is what happened. I stared at the spot where we had come in and I couldn't tell if there had ever been a doorway there. The wall looked like all the others, perfectly smooth.

And then we heard a voice.

"Welcome."