Into the Dust Storm

by Logan Brookfield

  ‘Wait here, I’ll take a quick look,’ he said.

  Amy looked around, her eyes failing to adjust to the dark because of the bright spots of lights breaking through at various points in the hull. ‘Be careful and tell me what you see,’ she shouted.

  Carl reached the top of the ladder and pulled himself up and into a smaller, dimly lit area. Holes in the side of the wall let a thin beam of light flood in, making it just possible to see. The walls were covered in computer screens and dials and several high-backed chairs on castors lay on their side. What looked like human bones littered the floor, which was also covered in debris and broken wiring. The smell of rot filled his nose and made his eyes water as he squinted, looking closer at the array of screens. The area looked like some kind of central command room; perhaps the vessel’s main controls were based here. On the wall was a heavily corroded embossed plaque – ‘HMS Discovery Dreadnought Class Nuclear Submarine’.

  Against the wall was a row of desks; some were intact and still had headphones and telephones attached to them. Carl noticed another sign that said ‘Missile Control’.

  ‘I think I’ve found out what this thing was,’ Carl shouted. ‘Looks like it was some killing machine belonging to the ancients.’

  ‘Now, why doesn’t that surprise me,’ Amy said. ‘Is there anything worth…hold on, I just saw something…there’s something down here, Carl, quickly!’

  Carl ran to the ladder, climbed down a few rungs then jumped the rest of the way. ‘What is it? What did you see?’ he said, looking into the black abyss.

  Amy stared wide-eyed and pointed. ‘I don’t know, something moved over there. I would swear it was a person. I saw it move out of the corner of my eye.’

  Carl took the gun from his waistband and walked a couple of steps forward, squinting to try to see in the darkness that engulfed the remainder of the sub. He heard a noise to the left and trained his revolver in that direction as his heart started to pound. He glanced at Amy. ‘Cover your ears,’ he said as he fired one shot into the air. The bullet ricocheted and echoed through the bowels of the giant machine.

  ‘Wait, don’t shoot,’ a man’s voice called out from the shadows.

  Carl aimed in the direction of the voice. ‘Come out where I can see you. Put your hands up.’

  Out of the blackness stepped a tall figure in a long grey coat, wearing a hood, pulled down hiding his features. His hands were in the air and only his mouth could be seen.

  ‘Step forward into the light where I can see you,’ Carl said.

  ‘I mean you no harm. I was scared and was trying to hide and avoid you until you went away. I’ve not seen anyone else in a long time,’ the man said.

  Carl frowned and tried to make sense of the situation. The voice sounded familiar but he couldn’t work out where he’d heard it before. The man slowly removed his hood revealing his young features and short blonde hair.

  ‘Hugh!’ Carl said lowering his weapon. ‘It’s Hugh, my work supervisor from the Crystal City. How did you get here? What happened back at the city?’

  The man stared blankly at Carl.

  ‘You know him?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Of course, he saved my skin more than once. But I don’t understand what he’s doing out here.’

  The man took a step forward. ‘My name is Max, not Hugh, and I don’t think we’ve ever met.’

  Carl looked puzzled. ‘If you’re not Hugh then you must be his twin brother or something, because you look and talk exactly the same. You even have the same hair and everything.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help you,’ Max said. ‘I’ve lived here alone for more than two years and I’ve never been to anywhere called the Crystal City. Nobody bothers trekking out here and I prefer the solitude. But you’re welcome to stay and rest if you wish.’

  Carl shook his head. This made no sense whatsoever; he was standing in front of Hugh’s doppelganger, who didn’t seem to have any idea about his lookalike or the Crystal City.

  Amy stepped forward. ‘How do you survive out here? What do you do for food and water?’

  Max relaxed his arms, putting them down by his side. ‘I get by on very little. I’ve had to learn to adapt to the current situation, and it’s nice and quiet here too. I don’t bother them folks and they don’t bother me.’

  ‘Which folks?’ Carl asked.

  ‘The people at the settlement,’ Max said, pointing north.

  Amy looked at Carl then back at Max. ‘The settlement…you mean Sanctuary? Is Sanctuary close to here? Have you been there?’

  Max frowned. ‘I’m not aware of any Sanctuary. All I can tell you is that if you travel about ten miles that way, and follow the jagged rocks to where the dunes end, you’ll come to the settlement. That’s where the people live. I’ll take you part of the way if you want to go, but I keep myself to myself, so I won’t be going there with you.’

  Carl nodded. ‘Thank you, Max, it’ll probably take two to three hours walking, and if you can show us part of the way we’d really appreciate it. Our truck broke its axle so we’ll have to walk.’

  Chapter Three

  Edmond sat on the ground staring at the dirt as the sun blazed down on top of the escape capsule and the other survivors. The sense of loss was overwhelming and even he, the leader of the Cloud people, couldn’t find the energy or the motivation to move. The spaceship Lasell, the pride of the ancients’ tech and man’s only hope for a future had been obliterated in an act of terrorism, humanity’s beacon of light in a dark and cold universe destroyed in the blink of an eye along with a hopeful generation. All seemed lost and all seemed hopeless.

  The design of the Lasell had saved the bridge section, the science area and a security team…but only just. A small number of crucial areas had separated from the ship almost instantly, as soon as the ship’s computer detected the catastrophic explosion. The self-contained escape module then stabilised its orbit and returned to Earth on a pre-planned course, landing many miles north of the Crystal City. This was the last resort, something that was rehearsed and double-checked. A procedure designed to save the lives of those at the helm, but something that nobody ever dreamt would ever happen, and now what was left of the craft lay half buried in the baking sand. A large rectangular chunk of metal, scorched from re-entry and bent and twisted from the violent impact that nearly killed everyone on board.

  Captain O’Connor squatted down and stroked his beard. ‘Are you OK, Edmond?’

  ‘Not really. I just can’t believe it, we’ve lost everything. I’m finding it hard to think let alone speak,’ Edmond said, shaking his head.

  ‘We can have all the security protocols in the world, but it’s so hard to detect bad apples from within,’ the captain said.

  Edmond looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. ‘Of all the people to do this. It’s beyond comprehension. Hugh stabbed me in the heart, when I gave him a chance and a new life. I never even guessed I was nurturing a traitor and a murderer. I gave him everything and even considered him the natural successor after I was gone. Yet he builds a bomb, brings it onto our ship and calmly detonates it, nearly killing us all.’

  ‘It makes no sense at all,’ O’Connor said, looking down. ‘He was always the perfect student. In fact, come to think of it, maybe too perfect in some ways.’

  ‘Do we have a status report yet?’ Edmond asked, glancing up.

  O’Connor rubbed his eyes. ‘We landed further north than expected, and I’m just trying to get a bearing on where exactly. This isn’t a scenario I took very seriously during our practice runs and drills. I just never thought we’d be in this pickle. The explosion damaged some critical guidance systems so we could be many miles off course but I’m guessing within twenty miles of the programmed emergency landing zone. We have a bridge compliment of eight, two from the science team, ten soldiers, one of whom sustained a broken arm during the rough re-entry…and it looks like the anthropoids survived too, apart from one who died when its pod became detached. The others’ lif
e-support systems are intact and they are still alive.’

  ‘A pickle indeed. How about our provisions?’

  O’Connor nodded. ‘The module is stocked for such an emergency and we have enough food and water for about a week. We’ll need to set up a base camp here and send out a scouting party to see what, if anything, we can find nearby. We can ration the food, maybe stretch it to two weeks if we’re careful, but we won’t last long once the water runs out.’

  ‘Right, not quite as bleak as I thought,’ Edmond said. ‘What are we doing about securing the area? We’ve no idea what lives out here, or what roams these parts at night. If you listen carefully your ears start to ring because it’s so quiet out here. Nothing lives here, not even insects. It’s too hot and inhospitable.’

  The captain drew a circle in the dirt. ‘I’ve set up a perimeter with security details here and here. We’ll install sensors a little further out to give us advance warning of any intruders, but it looks fairly uninhabitable out here. There’s no vegetation or natural sources of water as far as we can tell.’

  ‘Well done, Captain, as usual I can rely on you. Forgive my melancholy demeanour, I just can’t believe what’s happened. ’

  O’Connor smiled. ‘It’s a big shock to us all, for sure. Oh, and one last thing…I’ve put two men in the science section to watch our sleeping friends. Before we set off they were showing changes and we must ensure that they continue to pose no risk.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Edmond said. ‘Before we ended up here I really wanted to see what happened to the previous crew. But with such a drastic change of fortune we’ll terminate them as soon as we feel it’s convenient to do so. If they do wake up they’ll consume valuable resources, resources that we can’t spare.’

  ‘Understood,’ O’Connor said, unscrewing the top from a canteen. ‘Drink something, please; you’ll quickly wither away out here if you don’t stay hydrated.’

  Edmond took the water container and took a gulp, then wiped his mouth on his sleeve. ‘If only we could make it back to the Crystal City. At least we could salvage some supplies, maybe even make some repairs and enable the drone sentries.’

  O’Connor took a drink. ‘It’s way too risky, we’ve no idea who is left and what the situation is. Even if we could make it back and use the drones for protection, it’s likely that the elevated radiation levels would make us so sick we’d all die eventually. That’s if we weren’t lynched by any surviving Wretches first.’

  Edmond wiped the sweat from his forehead. ‘So we either die a slow and painful death out here, starving under a baking sun, or take our chances amongst the radiation and angry population.’

  ‘Pretty much, yes.’

  ‘Can we get any long-range scanners online and see if there are any other settlements out here? I always suspected there were more, even if I didn’t admit to it at the time,’ Edmond said.

  Captain O’Connor pointed to the top of the escape module. ‘I’ve got one of the technicians trying to rig the antennae for long-range scanning. It’s fairly flat out here so we should be able to do a circular sweep for several miles. Did you really think there were others out here? I thought you said we were the last city on Earth.’

  Edmond repositioned his glasses on the end of his nose and tried to flatten down the wispy white hair either side of his balding head. ‘I didn’t want to find them even if there was. I had a vision which had a damn good chance of success and the last thing we needed was any external influences. If there are others, they would be aggressive and fairly basic in their nature and technology anyway.’

  A young soldier approached from the left, still wearing a city-issue black uniform and black hat. ‘Excuse me, sir, we’ve set up the perimeter as requested. We’ll also have wider perimeter sensors installed by nightfall as requested, but I think you need to come and see this. We’re unsure what to do.’

  ‘What’s up?’ O’Connor asked.

  ‘It’s the anthropoids, sir, they’ve woken up.’

  Chapter Four

  The sand ended abruptly where the old seabed met the jagged rocks. Boulders carved by millions of years of attrition now jutted out of the landscape like monuments to a forgotten age. A time when water dominated the globe and different seasons were experienced by billions of people.

  ‘How much further?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Couple of miles at most. I’ll head back soon and leave you to make the rest of the way yourself,’ Max said.

  ‘Come with us,’ Amy said. ‘You don’t want to spend the rest of your life living on your own in that war machine relic thing, do you?’

  ‘I appreciate the offer but I’m used to it now. It has everything I need and I feel more comfortable there.’

  ‘If that’s what you want then OK, it’s your choice,’ Carl said. ‘That thing gave me a headache though, made me feel sick. I can’t explain it but it’s almost like there’s some strong power source close by.’

  Max nodded. ‘There is, it’s a nuclear-powered submarine used by the ancients under the oceans to fight their wars. Its engines were powered by a reactor core that’s still intact but badly degraded. Your headaches are probably caused by the dose of radiation you’ve been exposed to.’

  ‘It must be giving out a lot of radiation to make us feel ill in such a short time. It’d be lethal if you stayed there, so how have you survived?’ Carl asked.

  Max shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’ve no idea, it never really affected me. I think I’m immune or something.’

  ‘Nobody has immunity to radiation,’ Amy said, placing a hand on her small bump. The baby was still tiny but she had no idea how even a small dose of radiation might affect it.

  ‘I can’t really explain it then. It’s never affected me so I can’t explain it any other way,’ Max said.

  They left the sandy ground and made their way up a slope, over rocks and onto the type of dust-covered, uneven ground they were used to. They looked behind them and could no longer see the submarine in the shimmering hazy sea of sand.

  ‘There…ahead,’ Amy pointed. ‘It’s Sanctuary, we’ve found it!’

  In the distance was a large town. Not on the scale of the Crystal City, and without the high-rise towers but it clearly had a sizeable population with the tops of buildings just visible, stretching out across the land. The whole place was surrounded by a perimeter wall with evenly spaced sentry towers.

  Carl looked through the field glasses. ‘That’s a big place. I don’t understand how so many people could exist not far from the Crystal City. We were always told there was nobody else, nobody could survive outside the city.’

  ‘Maybe they wanted to stay hidden. Maybe that’s how they survived,’ Amy said.

  Carl continued to scan the town. ‘Maybe…but it doesn’t look very hidden to me. It’s in plain sight for anyone to see from miles away. There’s also a sign directing you here.’

  Amy took a drink from the canteen and offered it to Max. ‘No thank you,’ he said. shaking his head.

  ‘You should drink something, it’s been a long walk,’ Amy said.

  Max smiled. ‘I’m really OK, but thanks for your concern. I’ll take you down this track and beyond that ridge. You’ll only have a short walk from there.’

  The dusty track turned into a wider road that led all the way to the tall front gates of the settlement. Carl looked through the field glasses again and saw what looked like soldiers in tall towers either side of the main gate and at various points on the city wall. Carl and Amy squatted down behind a rock and watched for a while. Feelings of fear and caution swept through them and a mixture of apprehension and excitement brought all their senses to life.

  ‘They’re certainly worried about security by the looks of that iron gate and the guards,’ Carl said.

  ‘Maybe they go to a lot of trouble to protect their sanctuary. If it truly is paradise, they might be shielding themselves from people who want to take it from them,’ Amy said.

  ‘Have you been inside this place, Max?
Is it safe for us?’ Carl asked.

  ‘I believe I’ve been here a long time ago, but I don’t remember much about it. If you have an open heart and mind you’ll be well received, but it’s not for me and I really must go,’ Max said, standing up and looking back out to the sand dunes.

  ‘But what are you frightened of, Max? What did they do to you? Please tell us…is this Sanctuary? Will we find peace here?’ Amy asked.

  ‘I really can’t…I’ve got to go.’

  A shot rang out and threw up dirt near Max’s feet as he froze to the spot. Amy and Carl hit the deck and lay on their front, scanning the landscape for the shooter. Max took a step and another shot landed, this time closer and just missing his foot. He raised his hands and looked around, trying to see which direction the shot came from.

  ‘Who the hell is that?’ Amy said.

  ‘Stay exactly where you are. The next person that moves will be eating lead,’ a man’s voice said.

  Amy and Carl stayed in their prone position while Max slowly turned around with his hands raised, to see a man approaching from behind. The man was medium height, late twenties, with short brown hair and stubble. He was wearing a black leather jacket, camouflage trousers and boots. Tucked under his right arm was a long hunting rifle with a scope.

  The man spat on the floor. ‘So nice of you to come and visit us again, Max. Where the hell have you been? You’ve caused quite a stink by running off like that…and who are these people?’

  Max lowered his hands. ‘Hello, Vincent…these good people wanted to see the settlement so I promised to bring them part of the way.’

  ‘We mean you no harm, we followed the sign for sanctuary,’ Amy said, slowly standing up with her hands raised.

  Carl stood up too and dusted himself down. ‘Like she said, we just followed the sign. There was a rebellion, and a mass exodus and we managed to escape the Crystal City.’

  Vincent looked around. ‘I don’t know of any other cities around here, but what I do know is that you’re trespassing on our land and tripping our proximity sensors.’