“They’re following protocol,” Dr. Beck said. “We launched our rocket on schedule. They expect Mother to connect to the other projects, including their own. Plan A was always the warship. Eventually, if there’s no sign Mother is active, they’ll switch to Plan B and fire their cannon. But there’s always the chance what happened here happened there too. Rages could have broken in and destroyed everything.”
“The cannon is still intact?” Donny said.
“Yes,” Dr. Beck said. “So far as I can tell.”
“How do you know?” Donny said.
“Because I’ve seen it,” Dr. Beck said. “The satellites pass overhead there as often as they do everywhere else. Every few days I see it. There’s never any change.”
“I’d love to see the big cannon,” Donny said.
“You can’t see it from here,” Dr. Beck said. “But you’ll see the shot it fires off all right.”
“It’s close?” Donny said.
“Yes,” Dr. Beck said. “The closest of any two Cities. In fact, they were in the process of building a hyperloop between Denver and Las Vegas when the Rage hit. It’s deep beneath the earth’s surface. They got almost half the distance before shutting it down. As you can imagine, they had other concerns to deal with at the time. After the Rage swept across the globe, we drilled down to meet the tunnel. To use as an emergency exit should the need arise. We even constructed our own pod to zip along the line.”
“Why didn’t you use it when the Rages hit here?” Donny said.
“The Rages came from the base of the mountain,” Dr. Beck said. “That’s where the tunnel entry is. There was no way to reach it through the wave of undead.”
“Did you contact the other City?” Donny said.
“No,” Dr. Beck said. “It’s against the rules. Far too dangerous to make contact. The Bugs might be watching. They could see us and destroy both our Cities. Of course, that probably already happened, so perhaps we should have reached out to them. The benefit of hindsight.”
He turned to a door with ‘WEAPONS UNIT’ written above it in tall letters. He flashed his keycard at the security system. A red light blinked green. He pushed the door open.
Another lab. That was all this place consisted of, so far as Donny could tell. One modern lab after another. The people there had done one thing: work, work, and then work some more. In truth, was it any different from their commune? These people were working to survive, as they did. When luck was out of your hands, you had best work hard to prepare for the worst.
Humans were hardworking survival machines. They followed their impulses and got on with the job in hand. But unknown to the commune all along, hanging above their heads, was a hostile alien sword ready to bear down and destroy them all.
Ancient weapons, chipped and damaged, hung suspended in glass containers. Swords, longbows, shields, lances. . . Weapons Donny had no name for. Unusual for these modern labs. They were there to serve as inspiration, acknoweldgment of the history of what they were attempting to build on. It made Donny a little embarrassed to admit they still used these weapons at the commune to defend themselves.
They came to a weapon Donny had always admired. A broad sword. He came to a stop.
“Wow,” he said. “It’s much bigger than I imagined.”
“A bludgeoning weapon,” Dr. Beck said. “No particular skill is required to wield it. Save exceptionally strong arms.”
They continued walking.
“The good thing about old weapons like this is how simple they are,” Dr. Beck said. “Easy to maintain. The simplest options are often the best, I find. They’re also extremely effective when dealing with adversaries like Rages and Reavers. Easy to use, with no specialist knowledge necessary. Just swing away. Unless you become a blade master. That takes years of training.”
They came to another room. Dr. Beck waved his keycard again. The doors hissed open.
“In here, we have more advanced weaponry,” Dr. Beck said.
More glass cases, this time containing guns. All manner of shapes and sizes. They had the complete history of weapons in this place. Donny could only dream of having them at the commune. With one grenade launcher, they could have stopped the last Reaver attack in its tracks. One rocket launcher and the Reavers would never have gotten close enough to fire a single shot. It made Donny both angry and excited to think he now had access to these weapons. There was no way he would leave here without them when he returned to the commune.
Return to the commune.
Was that what he really wanted to do? Go back to medieval days after seeing what they had here in the City? No. He couldn’t see himself doing that. Neither should he have to. Nor any of the other commune dwellers. They had found a new, safer place. It wasn’t even that far away.
Then they could sit back and countdown to the end of the world. At least they could do it in relative luxury.
24.
THE NEXT secure room was the final one. No weapons in cabinets here. Instead, there were drawings and blueprints for futuristic weapons, like miniature pieces of art. They looked much like the guns Donny was used to but with a heavy futuristic component to them.
“Wow,” Donny said.
At the head of the room, resting upon a dais, was a Bug weapon. It glowed with green light, the canister on top filled with some kind of viscous liquid.
“That looks awesome,” Donny said.
“We expect Denver City will have developed a system much like this for the space module,” Dr. Beck said. “Only larger of course. And each drone unit will be fitted with one when sent to attack.”
“Sorry, drones?” Donny said.
“Small, independent robots,” Dr. Beck said. “We neither had the time nor the resources to send humans up to the ship. We manufactured simple robots instead. They’re a multi-purpose unit active in all modules, as well as serving as attacking units themselves.”
Donny didn’t understand a word of what Dr. Beck had said. He was mesmerised by the rifle.
“Can I pick it up?” Donny said.
“Sure,” Dr. Beck said. “Just don’t drop it.”
It was light, considering its size. The canister on top was bulky. He felt powerful with it in his hands. He pretended to drop it. Dr. Beck nearly had a heart attack, clutching his hand to his chest. Donny laughed.
“Don’t worry, she’s in safe hands,” he said.
“I hope so,” Dr. Beck said. “Drop it, and say goodbye to this City.”
Donny suddenly didn’t feel so confident.
“Really?” he said.
“The weapon is, by design, unstable,” Dr. Beck said. “It fires a bolt of plasma at the intended target. It disintegrates matter and tears holes in anything it touches. The only defense we have against such a weapon is a neutralizing shell. Allow me.”
He pressed a button on the rifle. Whom! A cool noise but nothing else.
“What just happened?” Donny said.
“I turned on the defensive shield,” Dr. Beck said. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
He opened a drawer and picked up a futuristic plasma pistol. He aimed it at Donny’s head and pulled the trigger.
“No, wait!” Donny said.
A fat globule of plasma exploded from the tip of the pistol. It splattered against something one foot from Donny’s head. It was only when the plasma made contact with the shield that Donny saw the faded yellow aura of the shield as it absorbed the impact.
“There’s the shield in action,” Dr. Beck said.
“Thanks for warning me,” Donny said sardonically.
“It had to use your own anti-matter reserves to create the shield,” Dr. Beck said. “The City in charge of defenses sought to figure out a way to re-absorb the energy back into the canister, returning you the reserves you lost. But the amount returned to you can never be more than it took for the shield to absorb it.”
“This is awesome,” Donny said. “It makes me invincible.”
“For a short time, yes,” D
r. Beck said. “After that, you’re on your own. A shield will fail once the energy reserves reach zero.”
“Will the Bug technology be the same?” Donny said.
“Mostly,” Dr. Beck said.
“How will it be different?” Donny said.
“It’s been eighty years since we captured the pod with this tech,” Dr. Beck said. “Who knows what advances they’ve made since.”
Donny didn’t much like the sound of that. Still, it would have given them a fighting chance.
“Can I try this baby out?” Donny said.
“By all means,” Dr. Beck said. “Please aim at the target.”
Donny held the rifle in both hands and took aim at the target in the shape of a Bug. He pulled the trigger. A bolt of pure plasma fired out the end. Donny was surprised at the lack of recoil. It struck the target, shearing right through it, and struck the mountain wall on the other side, sliding down it like liquid-hot magma.
“Oh, Momma,” Donny said. “Come to Daddy. I wish I had one of these when the Reavers attacked us.”
“It can’t ever be taken out of here,” Dr. Beck said. “If the Bugs ever picked up a signal of it going off outside, they would come down on us like a ton of bricks.”
“They don’t have sensors that can penetrate earth?” Donny said.
“Not to this depth,” Dr. Beck said. “The first time we tested it, we burnt a hole in the side of the mountain. The wall was too thin.”
“I wondered how you got the hole in the mountainside,” Donny said. “Where the Rages got in.”
“We filled it as best we could,” Dr. Beck said. “Of course, it turned out not to be enough. We moved the weapons unit to this room, with the rest of the mountain to take the brunt of the plasma. It would take some time to fire through all that rock to get to the other side.”
“But eventually it would?” Donny said. “Holy moly.”
“We aren’t supposed to have access to this kind of technology yet,” Dr. Beck said.
“But we do,” Donny said. “Best to use it while we can.”
He replaced the plasma rifle on the plinth and stepped back.
“How big is this warship you’re building?” he said. “It must be big to house everything the Cities have built.”
“Projects adapt and change,” Dr. Beck said. “But as means of comparison, we hollowed out a neighbouring mountain to build our rocket.”
“Wait,” Donny said. “What?”
“We couldn’t very well build it out in the open for the Bugs to see,” Dr. Beck said. “Anti-matter is very efficient as a fuel source, so—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Donny said. “But wait. You’re saying your piece of the warship alone is the size of a mountain? One of the mountains here?”
“That’s correct,” Dr. Beck said. “It’s not even the biggest section. Not by a long way.”
Donny turned pale.
“The other projects are larger?” he said.
“Yes,” Dr. Beck said. “Some of them much larger.”
“You’re shitting me!” Donny said. “Jesus.”
“No, I am not shitting you,” Dr. Beck said, the curse sounding unnatural on his tongue. “We weren’t building a ship to explore new worlds. It’s a ship to destroy worlds. An entire civilization, if we could. It needs to be large enough to house all the ships.”
“Woah, woah,” Donny said. “What ships?”
“The ships the Chinese built,” Dr. Beck said.
“The Chinese?” Donny said. “Just how many of these Cities are there?”
“Now? I don’t know,” Dr. Beck said. “When we started this program, about twenty. So few cities remained. There will be even fewer now. Look at this one. It’s empty. Full of rubble where it used to hold such promise.”
Donny was silent a moment.
“It’s still pretty cool though, everyone coming together like that,” he said. “What about shields? Defenses?”
“The Israelis, of course,” Dr. Beck said. “Tell me of another nation that has managed to survive so long surrounded by so many enemies who want them dead.”
“I don’t know much about the Israelis or anyone else,” Donny said. “I don’t really know anything about the world.”
Dr. Beck draped an arm around Donny’s shoulders and led him down the corridor.
“Then let me educate you on the history of war of our great species,” Dr. Beck said. “It happens to be one of my greatest passions.”
“War?” Donny said.
“History,” Dr. Beck said. “The greatest thing about history is we’re creating it. All the time. It’s hard to know when a single moment might contribute to the greater good. Sometimes these moments are noisy, loud, and obvious. Other times, they’re small, like a mouse’s whisper, audible only when looked at through the prism of time. Learning to identify those moments is a skill, one that can be sharpened with intense study.”
For the first time in his life, Donny was genuinely interested in learning about history. The history of war.
He tucked the handle of the plasma pistol deeper in his pocket, out of sight.
Very interested.
25.
JAMIE WENT to the security monitor room to get a little time to himself. Ideally, he would have gone outside and sat on a forgotten ridge of the mountain. It’s what he’d always done at the commune when he needed to think.
What with the Rages still parked outside the hastily-covered hole on the western side of the mountain, he didn’t want to risk causing a noise and bringing an avalanche of Rages down on their heads.
The news about Lucy—her having been created in a lab—had been a real shock to him. He’d been as certain she was a real regular person as he himself was. Something so obviously true had been proven false. Two plus two did not equal four. The sky was not blue. If he was wrong about Lucy, anything else he thought to be undeniably true could also turn out to be false.
Jamie’s eyes flicked from one screen to another. The Rages were still there. Milling around with nothing better to do. If they’d been sent by the Bugs, as Dr. Beck had suggested, they clearly hadn’t aimed very well. One of the creatures stood so close to the camera Jamie could see its bottom jaw, partially dislocated, moving up and down like it was chewing cud.
Jamie was repulsed by the things, but at the same time, he felt pity for them. They used to be people before the Rage got hold of them. They were all victims of the Bugs. The Bugs had wanted every man, woman, and child to turn into one of those things. Or better yet, die.
Then a thought occurred to him.
Perhaps the virus hadn’t worked out as well as the Bugs had expected. Maybe the Rages weren’t dead enough. Better a dead human than a semi-living one, right? But who understood the mind of monsters?
“Sorry for intruding.”
Jamie, taken by surprise, hopped backwards. He put a hand to his heart before seeing it was Dr. Beck.
“Did I frighten you?” Dr. Beck said. “I do apologize. I forget it’s still possible for me to creep around with this clicking, clacking walking stick of mine. You look like you were deep in thought.”
Jamie nodded.
“I was,” he said.
“About anything of interest?” Dr. Beck said.
“Not really,” Jamie said. “Just letting my mind wander. I guess you came here to check on the Rages. I’ll leave you to it.”
“There’s no need to leave,” Dr. Beck said. “If anything, I’m the one disturbing you.”
He didn’t offer to leave. He hobbled into the room and half-lowered, half-fell into the comfortable leather desk chair. Jamie sighed. Even the least comfortable chairs in the City were vastly more comfortable than anything they had in the commune. They had hard benches. Hard people needed to be fashioned by hard things, his father used to say. He was probably right. Still, a little comfort now and then went a long way.
“Sometimes I like to come here,” Dr. Beck said. “Getting a new physical perspective on things can help us
get a new internal perspective too, don’t you find? I used to enjoy taking a small picnic outside to sit on the mountain. Just sitting, thinking. Or not thinking, depending on how you look at it. I always liked to watch the sunset. You?”
“Sunrise,” Jamie said.
“It can get a little confusing about what time it is in here,” Dr. Beck said. “That’s why I have to set my alarm each morning to ensure I get the required amount of sleep and rest. Otherwise, I’d work myself into the grave.”
Jamie reflected on his and Dr. Beck’s habits of relaxation. He’d never known anyone else to meditate as much as he did. Neither his father or brother were much into introspection. Another inherited trait from his mother, no doubt. He liked that some part of her continued to live on inside him. It was like she was with him.
“I was talking with your brother earlier,” Dr. Beck said. “According to him, you were the one who found and rescued Lucy.”
Jamie nodded. He still wasn’t sure how he ought to feel regarding Dr. Beck’s planned use of Lucy. For his own selfish ends. He could understand the impulse, to create something that would solve their problems, but it still didn’t sit right with him. If he wasn’t Lucy’s friend and it was some abstract stranger perhaps he would have felt differently.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude,” Dr. Beck said. “We worked very hard on Lucy at the City. It’s nice she’s returned home. It’s where she belongs.”
“I thought she belonged plugged into a spaceship to fight the Bugs?” Jamie said, not bothering to hide his contempt.
“That was her purpose,” Dr. Beck said. “Not where she belonged. This is her home. You don’t approve of what we did?”
“I don’t think I made that much of a secret,” Jamie said.
Dr. Beck turned his head to one side like a dog having found a new toy to play with. Curious.
“You care for her,” he said.
“Sure,” Jamie said. “She’s my friend.”
“And you’re very close,” Dr. Beck said.
“Yes,” Jamie said, not understanding what he was getting at.
After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set Page 28
