Chapter 5: Hybris
When they finally saw the light of the day, poor Eva had taken a bullet in her hand and their pursuers were following them a few tens of meters away. On reaching the end of a tunnel, the group found themselves in torrential rain, creating a lake at their feet. Noah yelled “finally!”. Daryl glared at him, and then took the lead in a line that went around the newly formed lake, with the idea to take refuge in the forest. But before halfway there, the soldiers’ footsteps were heard. Commander Ramsey was howling threats. And then gunshots rang out. The group froze. The soldiers were screaming, then they heard a man running along the tunnel. Thus, the Commander emerged from the dark hole, with several Others hanging on his calves and arms, and jumped into the lake. He never reappeared again.
Daryl cast a questioning look at Christian, who made a sign that he did not understand how the Others had entered the bunker. In truth, the rain had violently roasted the speaker circuits around the hill. Suddenly the group realized that he was stuck too. The narrow path to the forest was already largely flooded and impassable, and they were stuck to a stone wall, with as the only “escape” from the currents and the rain a tunnel full of Others. Death assured, disarmed as they were. At the bottom of the line, Sarah dared to take a look inside. Many Others were gathered around the fresh corpses of the military. The water was rising quickly, however, and soon the tunnel would be flooded. Then violently, a stream of water came into the tunnel from the inside, and expelled all the Others outside, in the current. The tunnel was now completely flooded, and they had to climb up and hang on the wall to stay out of the water.
They only had a few minutes left before the water rose enough to carry them into the current. The storm was unleashed, and swimming was unthinkable. Daryl turned to Noah. “These may be my last breaths on this Earth. I want to know the truth.” He pointed to Old Goldblum. “With Joseph, we have identified significant underground activity for months. The tectonic plates had not experienced such a major upheaval for thousands of years. This kind of
phenomenon always causes an increase in extreme climatic phenomena.” He made a big gesture to designate the apocalypse which surrounded them. “You could not have access to our information, and yet, you know something.”. Noah took a deep inspiration, stuck to the wall, and said slowly:
“You want to know the truth? Very well. So know that all of this is not a coincidence. We are at the end of a cycle. The Others, the Earth which breaks, the Sky which splits. You see, the human being is a complex animal. Capable of solidarity and friendship, he is also capable of envy and ambition. The sages of ancient times had defined that the first principle to keep peace in human societies was the need for the measure. The ability to distinguish what is necessary and what is too much. The power to know when act and when not act, when energizing your humanity and when remain inactive. Generations were educated on these principles, and civilizations put them as fundamental structures. But men are easily corruptible, and one day, someone broke borders, abolished limits, destroyed measure. The ambitious jostled the order, and then this order was unleashed, because had been awakened a disease which wears out the body of human beings until transforming them into apathetic larva then into bloodthirsty monster, the hybrid. The disease of ambition, the madness of grandeur. And while Men begged Heaven to forgive them their madness, the order decided to clean everything, to reorganize, and it rained oceans, which cleansed the Earth of its impurities. In myths, this event is referred to as the deluge. New wise beings knew for the law of measure, and the madness which its crossing could generate. In Greek Antiquity, philosophers such as Plato, the Stoics, and Epicureans placed the idea of measurement at the center of their knowledge and their teachings. Never too much, never not enough. Balance, always, if not, hybris and death. But over time these principles were again forgotten. Some born with the ability to remember. I am one of them. Always between action and apathy, always between wisdom and candor, always between fear and courage. Always between ambition and laziness. We are our own
Gods. We are the ones who cause the disease, those who contract the hybrid, those who protect it like a sword of Damocles. Today, a cycle ends, and a new one begins. Maybe humans will not survive this time, and maybe, maybe it’s a good thing.”
Suddenly a rope fell on Sarah’s head. Twenty meters higher, Ben, all smiles in the rain and the storm, held the key to their survival wrapped around his arm.
