Rebellion | Rebirth: A Nativity Story

It was no use. They were completely surrounded and there was no getting out without a fight. 

Therese looked down at the cracked face of her watch. 8:25. So the time had come and gone then. She tried hard to swallow the panic that was rising in her belly. They were supposed to be at the drop point fifteen minutes ago. Even if they did get out of the the Dominion warehouse before then, there was no guarantee that they would wait. After everything they had done, everything that had happened - it all might amount to nothing now, no matter what they did.

 Therese pressed her shoulder into the cool metal of the wall. Her knees began to cramp up. They had been crouching here for what seemed like an eternity.

They had been in the warehouse for forty-five minutes now. The original plan had only allotted Therese and her partner fifteen minutes to get in and get out. There had been more guards than they anticipated, however, and by the time they had made their way to the fifth floor of the massive storage facility, the men that guarded the halls at night had been ready for them. 

Thankfully, Therese was a good shot, and Jordan was just as sharp. They had made their way all the way back down to the ground floor, but they were trapped in a small office now, with heavy gunfire penning them down from the outside. Therese let her dark eyes shift over to Jordan from where she crouched beside her. A cramp seized her belly and she trembled. 

"We have to come up with a plan. Eventually, they're going to drag us out." 

Jordan gave her a strange, worried looked and her almond shaped eyes flicked quickly downwards before turning back towards the heavy locked door of the office. 

"We need to find a way out of this building and back to the drop point." Jordan's eyes broke away from the door and she scanned the dark room. Wising up to the tactics of the two rebellious women, the guards had cut the electricity, casting them all into darkness. The guards were better equipped though, and Therese had quickly judged from a few well-placed shots that they had already assumed their darkness sight goggles. The worried look stretched further over Jordan's face. 

"Maybe we can get into the vents. We're close to the outside. On the ground floor. There might be an ventilation shoot we can get out through." 

Therese's look said everything her words did not. 

There was no time to get into the vents and there was no way she was going to make it. Another violent flash of pain stabbed through her belly and punched up into the space around her lungs. She shuddered as a wash of red filled the corners of her vision. 

Jordan read it all. 

"Okay, Okay. There was a hall. About fifteen feet away. Maybe, if I can get out of the door fast enough, I can get into the hall and lead them away? When the coast is clear, you can get out of one of the side doors and get yourself to the clearing." 

Therese's face fell. It was a suicide mission and they both knew it. A wave of panic washed over her again and Jordan read it there. She reached out a hand and touched the pain-wracked woman gently on the cheek. There was a hardness to Jordan, a way in which she was cut and in which she carried herself, that gave her an almost severe presence. But in that moment, everything melted away, and her features became soft and wide. A tendril of Therese's long dark hall fell free and licked against Jordan's soft skin. 

"What's happening now...what's happening here - it's bigger than all of us, T," Jordan said gently. "Do you remember the sign? Do you remember what the seer said?" 

Though another wash of pain had come over her, Therese nodded. 

"The star in the East. As it rises so must the other set. Such is the rebirth of man." 

"The rebirth of man..." Jordan echoed her, sliding her hand from her friend's trembling face and placing it over the taut swell of her belly. 

"What you carry here is the most important gift ever set upon man," she went on. "This baby that swells with life in your belly is the future of man. Without him, we are finished and our species as we know it is doomed. Without him, we cannot hope to overthrow The Dominion. He is everything, Therese. Everything. For him, I would die a thousand times." 

It was true. All of it. And Therese knew that. She had known that from the moment she had seen the burst of light that night by the foot of her bunk. 

A sudden rain of gunshots exploded against the door, piercing the momentous moment between the two women. A new seizure of pain ripped through Therese's belly. 

"He's coming," she whispered, falling back onto the floor. Her legs were trembling so badly now that she could not hold herself up any longer. The soft look on Jordan's face melted away and that look of hard determination returned. She gave Therese's hand one last reassuring squeeze before rising from the floor. Never taking her eyes off the door, she retrieved the last of the ammo from her belt and reloaded it into the small, worn out pistol that her grandfather had given her. 

With the gun reloaded, she turned to give her terrified friend one last look. 

Jordan really was a beautiful woman. Thin, strong arms, a slender waist and generous hips - combined with her long dark locks and piercing almond eyes - gave her an absolutely stunning Amazonian look and the severeness that comprised her gave her the hard aloofness of a goddess. In that moment, she looked every inch a goddess to Therese. 

"When you hear the shots retreat, come behind. Check and make sure the coast is clear and then make for the security door. If we are where I think we are, then you should find one about 20 yards away from the corridor I'm going to lead them down. You'll have to act fast. They'll have the front exit covered, but if you can get out of that security door and back out into cover and eventually to the drop point...well, you might just have a chance." 

Therese ground her teeth together and swallowed the pain. She willed the tears not to fall. 

"I understand," she said nodding her and speaking in a voice lower than a whisper. 

Gunfire exploded against the door again. They were running out of time. Jordan rolled her shoulders and stood up tall, looking towards her destiny with a face made of stone. 

"Keep him safe, Therese. Whatever else may happen, keep him safe." 

With that, she strode towards the door and threw it wide. As soon as the space was wide enough to clear, she threw herself through the opening and opened fire in the direction of the guards. Keeping her back to the wall and her gun high and straight, she made her way quickly across the open space, all the time keeping her course straight and true towards the small corridor. 

Therese could hear the gunfire as it followed Jordan's wild screams. When the ricochet of the guns sounded like no more than the clatter of static, she made her way towards the open door.  

The coast was clear. In some additional miracle of the heavens, the guards had done as Jordan promised and had all followed in tow. Therese took a moment to thank the forces above as she made her way across the wide open space of the ground floor and towards the little security door that Jordan had described to her. All around her was the sign of The Dominion's carnage. 

The other hostages they had brought here had all been terminated. Blood coated the large boxes and metal containers that dotted the space. Chains wrapped around blood soaked limbs lay in piles stacked as high as the doors. One box bore the sign of beast, a sigil of The Dominion, drawn crudely in what looked like the clotted splats of blood. Therese saw the face of the old woman that had lived in the slave quarters above her once. Of the rest of her body, there was no sign. 

The child in her belly flailed suddenly and a crippling pain filled her body. Therese could feel all the strength leaving her body as she threw herself through the unlocked security door and out into the cool darkness of the night. 

Therese gathered what strength was left to her and darted across the shadows of the dark yard, not even looking for guards or men concealed in the night. About 150 yards away, she could just make out the shape of a gate, stretched across the thick and heavy walls of stone. Beyond that, she knew, was the dark cover of the forest and the little clearing where all her hope now lie. She grit her teeth and bore down hard. Crouching a bit beneath the pain she pushed herself towards the gate. 

When she reached the rusted metal gate, she fumbled with the lock clumsily. 

"Dammit," she cursed, her fingers trembling. 

Her hands were as white as sheets. Behind her, she could hear noise erupting from within the darkened warehouse. A sudden mad hope that Jordan still lived gripped her, but she had no time to think. Her heart pounded in her chest and the blood roared in her ears. 

The pain was coming more frequently now, and Therese knew she would not be able to support herself much longer. Finally managing to flip the lock over, she pressed her weight against the gate and threw it open with a loud groan. 

Once she was in the woods, Therese filled her lungs with the thick, earthy air. Something about the rich scent of pine and mountain air spurred her on and renewed her. She moved deeper and deeper into the woods, picking up her pace all the time. For a time, the child gave her peace, but she could feel the pain creeping there just beyond the edges, waiting for her to stand still. 

It seemed like another eternity had passed until Therese began to make out the faint thinning of the trees. She was close to the clearing at last. 

Therese kept pushing forward. Her lungs were burning and screaming for her to stop, but she knew that even now she could not. Jordan's words and the wriggling of the child in her belly spurred her on. 

When she reached the clearing, it was empty. Therese's heart fell. 

She was too late. Far too late. They had come and gone without her and there was nothing she could do. She was lost. The Dominion had taken them all, had killed all the people that she loved best. Jordan. Her mother. All of them gone now. She was all alone. How could she ever have hoped to escape them? 

Something the old crone said came suddenly to her mind, unbidden, like a faint whisper. 

In the darkest of the night, remember they seek light.

In a near delirium, Therese thrust her hand deep into the pocket that jutted from the side of her worn canvas bottoms. She wrapped her hand around the small cylinder and pulled it out into the darkness of the night. The light of the moon shone faintly through the thin canopy that stretched partially above the small clearing, creating a shard of light along its smooth side. Therese thrust it into the air and pressed the small release button on the button. She closed her eyes as the bright white spark of the flash flew up into the darkness of the night above. 

As she crumpled to her knees and felt the blackness overcoming her, she could just make out the 3 familiar shapes that seemed to appear, as if from no where, from the surrounding trees. They moved like liquid, each dressed in a different color. They made their way towards Therese as the ripping pain in her belly made her shudder. 

The first one to reach her was draped from head to toe in a long robe of gold. His long, pointed face and silver, white hair glistened before her.

"Mother," he said in a gentle voice. "We have been waiting for you." 

Therese nodded. 

"Yes...yes...the baby...the baby..." 

"Shh...shhhh..." said a new voice. A woman's voice. A woman's face was swimming before her now. She was the most beautiful woman Therese had ever seen. Even prettier than Jordan, with shimmering blond hair and wide blue eyes. The beautiful woman wore long robes of an eerie violet, and the faint smell of frankincense wafted from her.  

"You are safe now, sweet Mother," the woman cooed at Therese. Somewhere in the corner of her mind, Therese realized the woman's hands were beneath her and were rising her from the damp earth below. Once on her feet again, the third and final face appeared before her. 

This man's face was dark, as dark as Therese had ever seen, but a beautiful golden glow. From head to to he was covered in robes of soft brown silk that sometimes shifted to a deep gold or a deep lilac. Therese watched him, entranced, as his face spread white into a brilliant white smile and bright hazel eyes warmed her. He spread his arms and Therese fell into them. She pressed her face against the warm tautness of his chest. 

"My child, my sweet child," he whispered, as if only for her. Therese let her eyes close and began to let the darkness take her as she started to dissipate into the warmth of his voice. 

"You have made it at last and we have come to exalt you," the man said again, holding her, lifting her off the ground and carrying her off into the darkness and the safety of the woods beyond. The pain was constant now and Therese let it carry her off too. She let her head fall back and grab one last glance of the sky above. 

The bright white burst of her flare still burned brightly above the mystical band of three and their little broken doll. 

Therese let herself drift off. 

She had survived. 

And tomorrow? 

Well, tomorrow she would be the mother of a savior...