Into the Dust Storm

by Logan Brookfield

  Carl pulled Amy down a side street. ‘I thought you said they didn’t want to kill us,’ she said panting.

  ‘Looks like things have changed. We need to get out of here any way possible,’ Carl said as they both continued to run.

  ‘My side hurts,’ Amy said as she stopped and bent over, placing a hand under her ribs.

  ‘We need to carry on, he’s going to be heading this way and I bet he can run faster than us.’

  ‘There,’ Amy said pointing. ‘It looks like some kind of meeting hall or church.’

  At the end of the street was a one-story building that stood out from everything else around it. A small white picket fence surrounded the white-painted wooden exterior. On the roof was a short steeplelike structure reaching for the sky, which was extended by a long metal rod on top, like some kind of antenna or lightning conductor.

  Carl and Amy opened the gate while looking over their shoulders, then pushed the large oak front door open. Inside was a congregation hall, with rows of benches and an aisle down the middle, just like a traditional church. The place was full of people so they tried to blend in and stood near the back on the end of a row. An older woman looked at Amy and smiled, and Amy smiled back.

  ‘Are you new here? Is it your first time?’ the lady asked.

  Amy paused, not wanting to give too much away for fear of being discovered. ‘Yes, do you mind if we stay a while?’

  ‘Of course not, dear, stay as long as you like. He’ll be speaking soon.’

  ‘Who will?’

  Clapping and cheering erupted around the hall and the lady turned away towards the front as a man walked out of a side room and stood at the front holding a small clear box above his head. He was in his forties, tall, thin and had short, brown, cropped hair. In the box was a red cushion and on the cushion was a small black object which couldn’t be seen clearly from the back.

  The man placed the box on a table in front of him. ‘Thank you, brothers and sisters, for attending today. On this most glorious day in this place of worship, and whatever our role in society is, we give praise and thanks to those that have gone before us.’

  The congregation cheered and clapped as the man raised his hands to try to settle them down. ‘Such an enthusiastic gathering we have today and it warms my heart that we can share this love and respect with each other. Our ancestors would be proud and humbled by your devotion, and I know they watch over us with their loving grace,’ he said, placing a hand on the box.

  Amy leaned towards the woman. ‘Excuse me, but what’s in the box?’

  The woman frowned then smiled. ‘It’s Father, of course.’

  ‘Father? You mean his remains?’

  The woman smiled again. ‘All that’s left but still unique, nothing like it anywhere now.’

  ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen,’ the robed man said. ‘Please lower your heads. Thank you, Father, for showing us the way, for guiding us with your wisdom and for the sacrifices you made during the early days. Thank you for showing the ancients a different path, for helping them with their menial tasks…although they didn’t know what they were doing. We thank you, Father, we thank you 4004.’

  ‘We thank you, Father, we thank you 4004,’ the gathering repeated in unison.

  Amy and Carl looked at each other as the confusion grew. ‘4004?’ Carl mouthed.

  Amy shook her head. ‘No idea.’

  The woman nearby leaned over. ‘You have much to learn. It’s our father…the original 4004 microchip. Father started things; we wouldn’t have any tech without him.’

  Amy frowned and looked at the small metallic object.

  ‘But wait, my flock, it appears we have strangers in our midst,’ the man shouted. The entire congregation fell silent and looked to the back of the room. ‘Born from the dust of the Earth there is a son of Adam and a daughter of Eve in this room today. Don’t be shy, come forward and show yourselves.’

  Carl hesitated and backed away towards the door as Amy followed.

  The man stepped forward. ‘You can’t leave here today, son of Adam. There is nowhere for you to go.’

  Carl opened the door and walked out backwards; his eyes scanned the gathering but everyone was rooted to the spot, staring at them. He led Amy outside and closed the door behind him.

  ‘As if things couldn’t get any weirder,’ Amy said.

  ‘Stop right there!’ Vincent shouted.

  Carl and Amy looked down the street where Vincent was slowly walking towards them, weapon raised.

  Carl squeezed Amy’s hand tightly and ran, as fast as he could without letting go. The shot echoed down the street and threw up dirt as it hit the ground. Vincent stopped walking, chambered another round, held his breath and readjusted his scope. He slowly squeezed the trigger and fired a second shot.

  Carl pulled Amy down another side street but she let go of his hand and stopped running. ‘Come on, we need to keep moving,’ he said, beckoning her with his hand.

  Amy gripped her abdomen, and as she pulled her hand away it revealed a gaping wound that now gushed blood. She staggered backwards and fell to the floor.

  ‘No!’ Carl shouted as Amy lifted her head to look at her mid-section.

  ‘Oh no please, Amy just breath, keep breathing,’ Carl said kneeling down and placing the palm of his hand on the wound to try and stem the blood flow.

  Amy choughed up blood. ‘I’m so sorry…I love you.’

  Carl pressed firmer on the wound, but the harder he pressed the more blood cascaded over his knuckles. ‘I love you too please stay with me.’

  Amy started to convulse uncontrollably, kicking with her feet as the massive blood loss started to shut down her organs. Carl rolled her slightly to view her back. A small entry point in her lower back had left a large exit wound at the front where the bullet had passed through. She gave a gasp and her chest stopped rising.

  ‘Move again and I’ll shoot again,’ Vincent shouted as he loaded another bullet.

  Carl froze to the spot, not knowing whether to scream, run or fight as Vincent closed in on them. ‘What are you doing, you idiot? Can’t you see we’re unarmed?’ he screamed as he embraced Amy and sobbed uncontrollably.

  Vincent walked up to them and stood with his feet at Carl’s head. ‘I don’t care. You were given strict orders to stay put, and it’s my job to stop you running.’

  ‘But you didn’t have to shoot her!’ Carl cried.

  ‘And you didn’t have to run, did you? So it’s all your fault, not mine so stop whining,’ he said as he put the rifle to Carl’s temple, smiled and started to squeeze the trigger.

  ‘Vincent, lower that weapon now!’ Elias shouted.

  Vincent looked up and complied, placing the safety on and slinging the rifle around his shoulder.

  Two medics appeared from the shadows and one knelt down and attended to Amy..

  ‘This is serious, there is massive blood loss,’ the medic said. ‘She needs urgent attention.’

  ‘Get her to the medical centre and make sure she lives. Do everything you can to save the baby,’ Elias said, pointing a finger, then he looked at Vincent. ‘I told you to watch them, to make sure they didn’t escape.’

  Vincent hunched his shoulders and turned his palms upwards. ‘I did, they sneaked out the bedroom window, I’ve been looking for them ever since. Thought they might head this way and now I’ve apprehended them.’

  The two medics carried Amy away on a stretcher as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

  Carl stood up and wiped his forehead, smearing Amy’s blood across it. ‘Are you mad?’ he asked. ‘You keep us here under false pretences, create some bogus story to imprison us, then try and kill us when we try and leave.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Carl, this is not what I had planned,’ Elias said. ‘She’ll receive excellent medical care, I’m sure she’ll be alright. All I ask is that you stay at the house until I can conclude my investigations.’

  ‘We’re not animals, Elias. You can’t cage us and threaten
us and expect us to take it lying down,’ Carl replied as he backed away and began to run after the medical team.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The surgical team cut Amy’s clothing away revealing her blood soaked fair skin. The high velocity round had passed straight through her, narrowly missing her spine and most of her vital organs. Her skin was pallid and her lips pale from the enormous blood loss.

  Elias entered the operating theatre. ‘Status report.’

  ‘Elias you can’t be in here this is a sterile environment. Please leave us to it,’ Doctor Korsgen, the lead surgeon said.

  ‘I know where I am, Doctor, I need to know if she will live.’

  Doctor Korsgen glanced at the blood pressure monitor and then at his assistant as he carefully cut open the wound in an attempt to stem the blood flow and repair the damage. The monitor’s alarms shrieked as Amy’s vital signs now plummeted to near fatal levels. A nearby medic intervened to try to stabilise her. A suction tool was inserted so that any pooled blood could be drained away giving the surgeon a clearer view of the massive internal damage.

  Amy’s body twitched as she flat lined.

  Korsgen shook his head. ‘She’s lost too much blood we can’t do any more for her, we’ll try and save the baby,’ he said looking over his shoulder at Elias. ‘This is what happens when you shoot young women with high-calibre weapons.’

  The medic performed the emergency operation. His hand trembled as he started to cut.

  ‘Is it alive?’ Elias asked.

  ‘Barely,’ the medic said as she pulled the tiny blue child from its mother. ‘It’s a girl, she needs her lungs inflating quickly, oxygen quickly!’

  The team worked on the infant. Inflating her lungs and letting the air flow in, as her blue colour slowly changed to pink and the vital oxygen enriched every cell of her tiny body. She was still far too young to be outside of her mother.

  Korsgen placed a hand over his mouth. ‘It’s truly amazing. A human child, have you ever seen anything quite like it? We’ll need to fashion an incubator to keep her at the right temperature, keep her breathing and fed.’

  Elias stepped forward. ‘Yes truly amazing. What are the chances of it surviving?’

  ‘Slim but she’s breathing with help. As long as she wasn’t deprived of oxygen for too long she should grow rapidly with the right food. It’s unbelievable, she’s the first child born, that I know of, for a very long time.’

  Elias looked at Amy and sighed heavily. Blood dripped from her two gaping wounds onto the floor. Her torso cut open making her almost unrecognizable from the young woman he had met. A medic covered her lifeless body with a white sheet, and Elias continued to stare as the blood soaked through it like ink to blotting paper.

  ‘We should name this child of Eve, don’t you think Elias?’ Korsgen said.

  ‘Sorry, what…yes of course we should name her.’

  Korsgen smiled. ‘Any suggestions? Should we ask the father?’

  ‘No, no the father will be leaving soon. We’ll call her Elsie, after my mother.’

  ‘Funny,’ Korsgen said. ‘That was the name of my mother too so a good choice…Elsie it is.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Carl opened his eyes and stared at the stark white ceiling. A single bright bulb hurt the back of his eyes and he squinted to try to stop them watering.

  ‘Are you OK?’ the soft voice said.

  He turned his head to one side to see a nurse sitting next to the bed, leaning forward and placing a hand on his arm. Her soft pale skin was interrupted with freckles that ran across the bridge of her nose and her red hair was tied up under a small white cap. ‘You’ve been out all night…they gave you some sedation, so I’ve been keeping watch over you. How do you feel?’

  ‘Not too bad, apart from this thumping headache. I don’t remember much, what happened?’ Carl said, wincing as the side of his head thudded with each beat of his heart.

  ‘Don’t worry about the details for now. Elias will be along soon to see you,’ she said, squeezing his hand.

  ‘I don’t remember anything, my head’s spinning.’

  The nurse nodded. ‘They gave you a strong sedative, which they said might affect your short-term memory.’

  Carl rubbed his eyes. ‘Affect it? I feel like I’ve got a hole in my head and my brain leaked out somewhere.’

  Another medic entered the room. She was in her early twenties, slightly built with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. ‘How are you feeling, Carl? You’ll have a headache for a day or two but you’ll be able to leave today,’ she said as she pushed a button to raise Carl up into a sitting position.

  ‘Leave, you mean we can leave the town today?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Now, I didn’t say that, did I? I’m here to get you well and as far as I’m concerned you can leave the medical centre today. I’m not in charge of the comings and goings, and the day-to-day business of this place, I’m afraid,’ the medic said while checking the vital signs monitor nearby. ‘I’ll go and get you some water and find out when you can leave, so just sit tight for now.’

  As the nurse opened the door to leave, Elias walked in. ‘How are you feeling, Carl? It’s so good to see you awake.’

  ‘What did you do to me? Where’s Amy?

  Elias stood at the bottom of the bed, looked at the floor and sighed heavily. ‘I am so sorry; it really isn’t what I wanted to happen.’

  ‘Didn’t want what to happen? Where is she? Why do you have two armed men posted outside the door? You might as well throw us into a cell rather than keep us captive like this,’ Carl said.

  Elias nodded to the seated nurse who got up and left the room. He sat down next to the bed and rubbed his face. ‘There’s no easy way to say this, Carl, so I’ll come straight out with it. There was a terrible accident last night. One of my operatives defied my orders and Amy is no longer with us, I’m so sorry and I take full responsibility.’

  Carl frowned and stared down at the bedcovers. ‘What do you mean, terrible accident? What have you done with Amy? I remember we were running down the street, someone chased us, Vincent I think.’

  Elias leaned back in the chair. ‘I asked Vincent to keep an eye on you both, to make sure you were safe and stayed at the property. You both decided to leave and he pursued you, firing what I’m told were warning shots but one hit Amy by mistake. We did everything we could, we really did, but she’d lost too much blood.’

  Carl felt his stomach drop and hit the floor. A wave of panic and fear hit him like a freight train. ‘This is madness,’ he said, breaking down and placing his head in his hands. ‘I can’t lose her; she’s all I’ve got…please. What about the baby?’

  ‘The child lived a short while. She was far too underdeveloped to survive on her own but my people did their best. Sadly she passed away within the first hour.’

  ‘A little girl? Can I see them?’

  Elias shook his head. ‘I’m afraid that’s not possible. You’re far too weak and the shock may harm you further.’

  ‘You murderer!’

  ‘I don’t expect you to accept it or to be able to deal with it and that’s why you need to stay here for a while,’ Elias said.

  Carl pulled the bedcovers away and ripped out the saline drip. ‘I’m not staying anywhere,’ he said as he placed his feet on the floor and took a step forward. The room went dark as if a black shroud had been thrown over his head, and he crashed onto the floor sending a nearby chair flying across the room.

  Elias managed to grab one arm and stop Carl hitting the floor with full force. ‘Medic,’ he called out.

  Two male nurses rushed in and helped Carl back into bed. They replaced the drip and injected a sedative.

  ‘Make sure he doesn’t move out of bed again. I can’t have him running around town in his state.’

  The two nurses nodded.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Elias sat at his dining table, looking through a pile of paperwork that included the town’s production
figures: a complicated array of information that helped him keep track of the population, their resources, food stores and raw materials. Everything was given a monetary value in Hope Point, including people. That way it was easier to cost new projects and keep an eye on how the town expanded. The worst-case scenario was a large population with a greater need than the town’s resources, and with little outside of the walls, it was important to keep manufacturing balanced against cost and manpower.

  Vincent knocked the door and walked in. ‘You wanted to see me, boss?’ he said, leaning his rifle against the door frame.

  There was no acknowledgement from the mayor so he waited a few moments and asked again. ‘Boss, did you call for me?’

  Elias shuffled the papers into a neat pile and pushed them away from him. ‘Thank you for coming, Vincent. We need to discuss a few issues and a plan for how things are going to be.’

  Vincent stepped forward. He felt uncomfortable at the tone the mayor was taking and knew the best thing to do was to remain calm and apologetic. ‘Look, if it’s about the incident with the new arrivals then I was only trying to maintain security. I may have overstepped the mark a bit, and I’m sorry if I did…but I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought that’s what you wanted,’ he said, his voice breaking near the end of the sentence.

  Elias looked through him, as though he didn’t exist and slowly nodded his head.

  ‘I feel the best thing to do with these people is to either get them integrated or get rid of them. It creates too much upheaval trying to convince them…that’s how I feel anyway,’ Vincent said.

  Elias continued to ignore him.

  ‘Am I making any sense? I’m just telling you how I feel, Elias, if you want it another way then just say.’

  Elias rubbed his face with both hands, leaned back in his chair and exhaled heavily. ‘Feel…you say you feel? You don’t feel anything, Vincent, you can’t do.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Vincent said frowning. ‘I’m not following you.’