“The end of Captain Alistair Buchanan, of Fulton Luxury Ocean Liners fame. He was a former cruel corporate master of ours, with whom the Boss-Lady had a great deal of history. His death serves as the signal to the world that the Age of Andromeda has begun.” She smirked sickly. Fireworks erupted midair.
The Captain looked up to see Leaf running towards him. He had wrapped a tarp doused in flame-retardant over his shoulders and hauled the man with the map up onto them, breaking into a frenzied sprint with a radio mic in his other hand. Derek dove forward.
“Roger!” The man’s wife was standing up in the raft shrieking at the top of her lungs.
Captain Buchanan stepped out of the blazing forecastle. Whatever had caused the explosion, only God and Leaf Manson knew. Buchanan was dead, but the colors of a disco ball still illuminated him and celebration rockets shot from his eyes in careening angles, peppering the deck at the Sergeant’s heels. Derek tore forward, the waves of his electric shock driving Buchanan’s corpse back.
“I dialed it in. They’ve got evac squad in route.” Leaf set Roger on his feet.
“Great job, bro. Okay, Roger? It’s Roger, right? If you can swim I suggest you bail. We’ve got this slop jar of crazy under control. Help is coming for you and the kids. Just hang on.”
If Roger could live to be a thousand years old, he’d still never be able to forget the day that two men rendered monsters had come to his rescue. Or how the sea took them. Their death along with the death of all the pirates onboard had been assumed long before the cruise patrons had been retrieved safely from the water. But Matheson and Manson didn’t die that day. From that moment on, the nightmare had barely begun.
For the soldiers, the Age of Andromeda commenced with Buchanan’s cruise liner collapsing like a ring of dominoes, imploding and tossing nauseous flames that made the faces of the onlookers black with smoke.
Those yet onboard were ejected like toothpaste into the waves. The Commodore tossed her head, laughing raucously at how bright the waters were under Leaf’s candle. She jabbed an indicting finger at Derek who realized with horror that his electronic vibration had drawn the sonar of a massive submarine to their exact location.
They were hauled inside the submarine even as the ship and Buchanan’s techno-colored, explosive body sank into the silt.
Leaf gasped as one of the submarine’s pilots hauled him up through the hatch by what remained of his blazing hair. The pilot gasped and cursed in Italian at the heat coming from Leaf’s remaining locks. Derek shouted and thrust him away with a charged fist that threw him into the control panel and cracked the glass.
“Ah, easy there, big guy! Not gonna hurt you. That’s the Boss-Lady’s area. We’re just changing your cell blocks. Welcome aboard the Geryon. Gentlemen, make these boys comfortable. One-way trip to the Florence headquarters, if you will do the honors, Enzo.” The Commodore leaned over the soldiers, jeering. They glanced at each other, feeling their pulses race in time as two sacks were tugged down over their heads and chains were wrapped around their necks. They were drug forward, gasping for breath against the strangulation, then tossed into a massive metallic cage that was halfway filled with gritty water and smelled like rotten fish.
*****
Chapter 24
No one dared to utter a sound in her presence. Andromeda had arisen in a fury. They could see it on every reflected face. When she moved, those pillar images of herself blazed like comets eclipsing the sun, then vanished.
She tore forward and swung her hands out in a single swipe like a mother bear in combat. Her fingers clamped as burning vices around the She-Hitler’s throat.
She lifted Leona into the air and squeezed with a gradually growing smile, watching as her eyes began to roll in her head. They bulged and popped out of their sockets, held back only by the optic nerves behind them like a ball and chains. Leona groaned like a drowning cat. Her feet scraped midair.
None of the guards dared moved. They had no great concern for their dying mistress. The Andromeda twisted her head to the side. What to do with her ruthless tormentor and innovative creator?
To the shock of everyone present, she set her on her feet. Andromeda loomed over her mistress, sneering at her plight. Death was too easy for this earth-scourge. She would have to break her. Bring her down to the dust along with all of them.
“You are mine.” Andromeda reached backward and plucked a piece from the side of her cage. She wrapped it around Leona’s throat and bent it in the form of a collar.
“Bring me a chain.” She looked straight into Kendra Reagan’s face. The reporter’s knees knocked together and she reeled, throwing up. Andromeda’s gaze never left her. Nodding, raising her hands, Kendra obliged.
“A chain? You’ve got more certainly?” She turned to the Dolls who scurried and brought forth many chains of varying size.
Andromeda braided them all together and melted them into Leona’s collar.
“Outrageous! When I get free of this—” Leona was cut off by the sudden harsh pain in her bowels. Andromeda had extended a hand to her stomach and pressed it there, beginning to slowly microwave her insides.
“Ah! Ah, aye-ah!” Leona continued to sputter unintelligible sounds. Andromeda nodded.
“Impudent, ignorant whore! You wanted to create a Frankenstein’s monster. Thought you’d get a mindless automaton? Now your servant is your master!” Andromeda wrapped the chain around her wrist and it melted against it.
Justice seemed to have its way, prevailing against the odds, conquering death and inexplicable scientific phenomena. No one so much as attempted to stop her. Andromeda began to drag Leona forward, chained by her throat.
They watched, breath bated, enwrapped by unholy terror. The Andromeda moved at a steadfast pace for the face of the waves. She then proceeded to set electro-magnetic feet to its skin. The charge within her and the conduit of electricity formed yet another miracle before their eyes. She walked on the water, hauling She-Hitler out to sea with her.
They disappeared from sight and then there was a pillar of silver shooting straight into the face of the sun. They could only wonder what this meant. What was happening away out there beyond the view of the cameras?
Quaking in their shoes, the Dolls began to turn cameras to face Kendra Reagan. They wanted her to take the lead now. To explain what had transpired. To give them hope for the uncertain future.
Kendra drew her hair back away from her eyes letting the salt water wind wash her face. She focused on breathing. There was a chemical taste in the air. The atmosphere had begun to discolor. Her eyes were picking up more dark red and purple hues than before. She swallowed.
“It appears that whatever Kelley’s motives were for the test, it proved to be successful. The test subject, referred to by the test-maker as ‘Andromeda’ has escaped with Kelley hostage. It appears that she has some sort of knowledge of electro-magnetism that exceeds what current scientific research has been able to compile. Using these advantages, the Andromeda has disappeared from our sight.” Kendra indicated to the water behind her, trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She’d have to be brave now. The storm was coming. No human force would be able to stop it or even slow it down.
“In the wake of what we have witnessed, we as humanity have some very important questions to ask ourselves. It is time to call for a cease-fire among the nations. We now have an enemy whose sole purpose is to transform each of us in the same way that you have witnessed in the transformation of the beautiful Jane Lewis into a creature beyond scientific comprehension.
“I call for an international peace treaty and a cease-fire in all conflicts around the globe. Your wars, your wants will have to wait until a tomorrow that may not come if you don’t band together now. I call out to humanity. To man, woman, and child. I call out on behalf of all other forms of environmental life that are threatened with destruction. Come down from your high horses, intellectuals. Rise up to the challenge of knowledge, simply distracted fools.
“In this
age of Andromeda, we are forced to evolve. Now, viewers, men of all governments, people of the world, we must dare to think. To think objectively and to learn. If we are unwilling to open our clenching grasp of worldviews, we will all perish by the sword of celestial things that exceed our education, even our imagination.” Kendra’s hands were shaking. She nodded fiercely and held them up as if in prayer.
“I implore you, the viewer, to hear what I’m saying. Because the consequences of human ignorance, avarice, arrogance, and above all else, the consequences of your prejudice now far exceed a price that you can pay. You’re not facing a nuclear war. The threat of murder from a foreign soil. Starvation, pestilence, or any of the oppressions of nature. You are facing the end of nature as you know it. Everything is about to evolve. Because natural science as we knew it, as we thought we understood, has been rendered obsolete. An age of gods has come.”
The speech had come from some kind of obscure place within her of manic desperation. Kendra fell to her knees. She was hollow. What good could her words have done? The end was coming. No one could stop it, could they?
Having done all she could do, the exhausted reporter passed out in the sand of the South American island. The Dolls then proceeded to swivel the cameras around, showing the viewers what this island looked like and where it was. Some overtook the pirate escorts that had brought Kendra here. The rest brought the cameras into Leona’s study and began to comb through her maps and books. They exposed her current projects to the screen and showed the Powers That Had Been the coordinates in hopes of a rescue attempt.
Far away, President Matthews had fallen to his knees. Everything that he had witnessed had rendered the so-called most powerful man in the world speechless.
Forget Armageddon. The world as they had known it had ended with an experiment. The world as it would be was coming. He held onto his knees as cameras and stampedes of human panic encapsulated him. Matthews closed his eyes, and the image of the Old World’s last brutality filled his vision. He would always be haunted by that girl’s death. Good riddance to the world that had allowed it to transpire. Let it all end now. He would face whatever came of it with pride that he had known her.
*****
Chapter 25
She heard a hundred feet pursuing her. Bullets tore wounds in the granite of her family’s mausoleum. They’d all been buried here at her sister’s hands. She had tried but could do nothing to stop it.
Kiara thrust her open palms against the tomb’s decrepit door. She gasped as the bullets pelted its iron surface.
Muttering softly to herself apologies for disturbing her beloved family’s fitful rest, she tore against the bolts.
“You little whore!” A pirate came sailing through the air, kicking her directly in the small of her back. Kiara spun around, breathless, and grabbed the woman by her retreating forearms. It was one corkscrew spin to break the girl’s arms and force her to drop her machete.
“You’ll have to be a little bit more original than that if you want to tango with me.” Kiara twisted her other hand to unbolting more of the iron locks. Leona had constructed this door, using the last of their father’s money in an attempt to bury him properly. It hardly made up for her sins.
The girl fell to her knees screaming. Another one stormed to her place. This one was dressed in a leather tunic and nothing else. She held a Viking shield on one arm.
“No, she’s a rookie. We weren’t expecting to bring the rookies into a fight with you. I can honestly say, I’m honored to meet you. I’ve been hearing rumors for years, but…” The woman jeered and tossed her head. Kiara rolled her eyes.
“You ladies do realize that mortal combat is nothing like in the movies, right?”
“Well, duh!”
“Okay, so you brought a machete and a museum-piece shield to a street fight? Pssh, yeah, that’s got Hollywood written all over it.” Kiara brought her knee up into the face of the shield. It was made of thick board, but Kiara had eyed where the handle’s bolts were and the bolts didn’t go very deep. Her kick had jarred them loose. She reached forward and spun the shield on the woman’s arm. The handle popped out of place and it clattered to the ground. She was left with nothing but her naked fists.
“Ah, this is mismatched as all get out. Okay, let’s do this a little more fairly.” Kiara reached into her belt and pulled free a small knife.
“Here’s my letter opener. Take this too.” She tossed her a 1911 she had holstered on the other side of her belt.
“Now, let’s explain to you the long and short of combat. Class is now in session. You get three minutes tops. Anything more is wasting my time. This globe is sinking, you got it!” Kiara popped her neck and stood with her arms flat to her side.
“Somebody help me ice this crazy bitch.” The tunic wearing pirate spat on the ground and aimed the pistol. Kiara barely moved to dodge the bullets. She stood plank-wood stiff. All eyes were trained on her, confused. Kiara sighed.
“You’re firing at me at point blank range. I don’t have to calculate for the curve of the earth at that close of a distance. Dodging your shots is a Zumba routine. Especially since you’re holding it like a gangsta frat boy, with it trained at least three quarter inches off me. Wouldn’t skin me at that angle. Now…”
Kiara reached out her hands in a penguin’s clap, struck the gun on either side, flicked the safety switch, and spun it out of the pirate’s hands. She brought her knee up into her ribs. The girl let out a loud huff and bowed over. Kiara brought the pistol down across her spine. She screamed and hit her knees. Kiara spun it over in her hand and brought the barrel down against her spinal column.
“It wasn’t so bad. Your face didn’t twitch which tells me you’ve gotten past the hand-to-hand freak out stage. Okay, but you’re barfing and we’re just getting warmed up. Get up. You’ve still got the knife. You’d be surprised what kind of divide and conquer a two-inch blade can achieve.” Kiara kicked the girl onto her back and put the pistol back in her belt.
“While you’re thinking it out.” Kiara turned back to the door. She huffed. The locks hung open save for one. The large brass heart with the angel’s wings in the middle remained latched. It had been a full decade or more since she’d last darkened the lentil of this tomb. Where did they keep the spare key?
“Key to my heart… Oh, damn!” Kiara felt a sudden surge of despair rising with the bile in her throat. How could she forget? The key to Leona’s heart was forced into the bowels of her grotesquely preserved former lover!
Alright. I’ll have to jar it open another way. Explosives are ideal, but where will I get them? She looked over her shoulder as the abandoned cemetery began to swarm with hundreds of pirates. All of them had donned ridiculous costumes.
“Mmm, ready for your audition, dearies? Today we’ll be practicing the dinner theater version of Poe’s ‘Tell-Tale Heart’.” Kiara rolled her eyes. She’d gotten the answer to the question of explosives in this instant. The final wave of pirates was each dressed in bridal gowns the cold shade of Edelweiss blossoms in this smoke-veiled sun. On each shoulder, they carried various rocket launching weapons.
“The A-plus goes to our brides in the back. See, that’s what you bring to a street fight with the likes of me. I’m top dollar, ladies, and I expect to be treated with top-dollar respect.” Kiara popped her knuckles.
“Well, don’t keep me waiting! From the top! Begin following the major scale.” Kiara plucked free another knife from the top of her boot and began to conduct for them, singing a German opera while she did.
Fury is often a handicap to the wicked. The bride’s conspired to fire on her all at once. That was the full force of their might. They blew through all rounds.
She had managed to stop her dance, drop and crawl to the tomb door’s edge at the speed of a lizard. The blaze of their rounds barely singed her. She knelt in the rubble of a score of headstones, that were broken now like busted teeth.
The door to her family’s tomb hung wide open.
“Congratulations! You gave me just what I needed!” Kiara loaded her pistol and stood up, shooting a row of them consecutively, with clean headshots. They dropped like flies and piled in the path of their storming sisters, making them roll and misfire on each other. It was madness. Kiara smiled and applauded them as she ran into the mausoleum.
She stopped dead in her own tracks as the smell of decay and years of regret wafted to her nostrils. The rubble melted around her feet, but she barely noticed the searing pain. Like the door that had enshrined her dead from the rest of the civil burial places, her heart was broken.
There in the center of the mausoleum was a statute to her elder brother, made out of the same opaque space metal that the Andromeda Cage had been. The funeral directors had been none the wiser when Leona had it installed here. Only Kiara knew the truth. That here brother’s remains weren’t actually lying behind the stone plaque with his name embossed upon it.
“Taylor? It’s me… It’s Kiara.” She laid her hand gently on the statue’s face.
“I vowed never to disturb your haunted rest, brother. I wouldn’t have. I swear to God! There will be no forgiveness for what I’m about to do. Waking you up like this... You see, I need your mask. The metal in it. It’s the only way to stop Caroline.” Kiara swallowed. It had been decades since she’d dared to utter her sister’s true name.
She reached to the statute’s face and ran her finger along the seam, knowing that the latch to the mask was somewhere along it. She would only take a piece of his armor. That didn’t absolve her of guilt in the least.
Of course, they both had known that her promise had been in vain as soon as she’d made it. If she’d gone to the ends of the earth, she’d never have been able to outrun her heart. She would have to speak with him again.
She pulled away his mask. There was his rotten face. His wide-eyes open on his living death. Harrison had not been the first, after all. He would not be the last.
The Good Death Box Set: A Hard SciFi Science Fiction Series Page 22
