The Good Death Box Set: A Hard SciFi Science Fiction Series

by Doug McGovern

  “Andromeda, my daughter. My child! Remember, the offering. Help me!” Leona turned to Andromeda who grinned broadly, electricity spewing from her mouth.

  “Mmm, I’m only concerned with helping myself, mother. You’ve given me the secret to my survival and now I don’t need you anymore. Kingsley is mine.” Andromeda turned to face Kingsley, eyes wide. She was practically purring.

  A bolt of bright red light split through the ectoplasm rain. Jane came charging through it, head down, Professor Lucia dangling from her electric chain. Vincent tumbled out behind her, Dexter stumbling into his shoulders. They landed in a heap at the foot of the Altar.

  Jane leaped to her feet and extended a hand. Andromeda’s eyes were drained of color instantly, pupils constricting until they were almost invisible. She wheezed like a collapsing pipe, sailing into the air. Her legs thrashed like a convict dangling from a noose.

  “You’ve yet to understand, puppet. I have the final say when it comes to what you do.” Jane’s lips quivered, watching her writhe in disgust.

  Andromeda started chuckling and shaking her head, fighting her way through the pain of Jane’s crushing magnetism. A deeper voice spoke out of her, one that wasn’t Andromeda’s voice or even Jane’s but a legion of voices in one accord.

  “If you destroy us, Jane…Then you will die yourself. You will have no such quarter in eternity for robbing us of yet another ruler. There is a storehouse for sinners in the torture vaults. They create a new prison down there among the diet of the damned where the worm does not die. They dig a grave for you, Judas. You are a traitor to your own being. To everything that we made you to be!”

  Andromeda tore at herself, digging her fingernails into her skin and flaying pieces of it off. They caught fire in the wake of her supercharging. For every layer that peeled, her fire caught brighter. Hairline cracks crawled along her bones as if she was fragile china ready to explode with the force inside her.

  Jane laughed. Dexter’s head snapped around, horrified, jaw dropping. She had always been braver and stronger than anyone he knew. At this moment, with a fate worse than Kiara’s horrific end looming before her, it seemed so strange.

  “Everyone dies. I don’t have any control over what happens next. No matter how deep my grave has to be, I’m ready for it. I’ve made my choice. I have control over one thing. It means I can save the world. You forget that I have the full power over you. I am you.” Jane gnashed her teeth and closed her eyes. Dexter smiled, looking at Vincent. A small glimmer of hope passed between them. Now that Jane had made up her mind no legion force of Hell could make her so much as blink. Dying, living, damned, she was the same. She was their Jane for eternity. They would never lose her.

  Leona gasped, swinging the sword in tight lasso-whirring revolutions over her head. Her mania had reached its zenith. From her internal organs outward, she burst into spontaneous flames. Her dress was quickly consumed. Soon she was naked, covered only by flames and ashes. Her eyes were frantic. Dying tigers would beware this face.

  “You…Treacherous dog! It was you that helped me to circumvent your law. You who have betrayed me to the Courts of Abaddon! Would you manipulate me, send out little would-be sheriffs to trap me? You bred this charlatan in my mind! You exploited me, as though you had raped me in flesh to give birth by the power of my genius to this hideous thing, this She-Frankenstein!” Leona glared from Lucia to Andromeda, never slowing her lethal sword dance for a second.

  “We were lovers. It was only nature that you should bring forth fruit for me.” Lucia grinned, showing his teeth. He put forth his hands, snapping the chains Jane had him on as if they were rubber bands.

  “This has all been the game of sales, dear Leona. The game of enterprise, seduction and convention. I gave you what you pleaded for, what you prayed for. Is it my fault if you are small-minded enough to only ask for the worlds? Worlds are less than galaxies. Galaxies still less than the Cosmos. There are more things existing outside of the theorized extant if you can wrap your head around that, foolish girl. You didn’t ask for the Cosmoses, dear. Only those who ask receive…” Lucia stood up, brushing himself off.

  With a shriek, Leona came bearing down on him. Only to be stopped in her tracks by the sudden frenetic wolf-shredding fangs Kiara had grown.

  All Kingsley could do for a long moment was stand by, looking on in terror and inexplicable pain at the sight of what the love of his life had become in a moment.

  *****

  Chapter 22

  If this was dying then, in the end, it was only beautiful.

  The ectoplasm had lost its sting. Leaf looked up, through the fire that effused from him and into Derek’s hands, coursing down his spine. His face wasn’t pained anymore. There was no air.

  Leaf had forgotten death. He had done this before, but time and circumstance had driven it from his consciousness. Now he welcomed it, remembering that the air was only cleaner beyond his veiled vision of tears.

  He saw it all. The earth moved and trembled. Their bodies had turned to a glass like substance. Their screams of pain echoed back to Leaf now as he watched from what felt like leagues of distance. He saw Derek and he saw himself playing a tug of war of fire. Their energy passed into the city, stabilizing the wormholes opening into nature, sucking pirates and Secret Order officials into vacuums that disappeared traceless.

  They were shooting our colored flames like Independence Day sparklers. Leaf smiled. Aside from the morbidity of it all, it was beautiful.

  He watched as those two guys who’d been soldiers went up in plumes of colored smoke, the traces of which scrawled like calligraphy upward over Florence, writing their stories in the sky.

  Death came with darkness. Leaf felt it falling like twilight. Florence and the world around it and the astonished faces faded from his sight, slow and mesmerizing as if he was merely falling asleep. In that darkness, he dreamed. Only these weren’t the logic-lacking dreams of a natural sleep. As he fell into that night, he saw fragments of his life rolling across a silver screen somewhere in the ethereal.

  All throughout that darkness he only saw Derek’s face. They had been brothers. These people, as crazy as their lives and altered natures had been, had been their family. Had it been a good life? Had they won or lost in the end?

  Leaf smiled as he weighed his conscious. He felt like they’d done okay. Maybe they would never fully understand the enterprise of She-Hitler’s crime administration. But they had stopped it. They had saved the world.

  “You won’t go unpunished for this!” Cyrus Manson’s voice echoed through the darkness, jarring him out of his sleep. Leaf scrambled hanging on to his last vision. It was a simple picture. One of Derek many years ago, on a night when Leona’s administration had threatened him with an unimaginable murder.

  The image was something simple. Derek had been on the verge of panic because of the would-be murder. He’d reached out of random affection and embraced Leaf. For the first time and for one of few times, as they hadn’t been overly touchy-feely throughout their lives. That was what made it stand out in the end. No one in his life had been so honestly compassionate. No one else would have had the guts to die for him.

  “You will suffer for as long as the universe goes on self-inventing!” Cyrus’ shouts grew louder. Leaf was waking up, somewhere cold and miserable.

  Leaf clung to the memory, whittling his teeth together. He saw himself jump, nervous from sounds and sites of that long ago near miss. Derek had steadied him. He could hear his voice now, cutting through the static of the ages. A simple sentence that gave him strength and would be strength enough for Eternity now.

  “Hey, listen! You’re okay.”

  You’re okay.

  Leaf’s eyes opened. If his body had gone up in smoke, then this new physicality must be some kind of holographic copy of himself, like Jane had experienced.

  The first sensation he was aware of was cold, brackish water swelling with the tide around his feet. It was filled with something like seawee
d. He groaned as cool droplets hit the center of his forehead.

  He couldn’t see much in the darkness, but he smelled wet iron all around him.

  “Where are you?” Had he died and gone somewhere else than this brother that his life had centered around? That would be a greater punishment than whatever else they planned to do to him.

  “I’m here.” Derek stepped around a corner. Light followed him. Leaf blinked. He looked just like he had when they’d been kids just going the army. Around 26 or 27 years old and no older. He was even wearing the fatigues from the first uniform the Guard had issued him.

  “Wow. You look different!” Leaf felt his lips curl up in a smile, washed over with relief. Derek nodded, pressing his way along the tunnel. His jaw had dropped, studying Leaf.

  “You do too!” He came closer, studied him fondly. His hands reached out and gripped his shoulders to see if they were material in any sense.

  “You couldn’t be older than 22 right now…How is that even…?” Derek looked around, brows curling in confusion. Leaf laughed, grabbing Derek’s shoulders too.

  “Did we…Do you think that we?” Leaf shook his head, not sure how to ask this.

  “That we died? Yeah…Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did. Question is, what happens now?” Derek clung to Leaf’s shoulders with shaking hands. Leaf could tell he was terrified even if it didn’t show on his face. He grabbed his wrists.

  “Hey, listen! You’re okay.” Leaf smiled. He was fairly certain that Derek wouldn’t remember the exact incident from their past that Leaf was referencing but he felt like he should return the favor. He would have an Eternity, wouldn’t he?

  Derek smiled.

  “I saw…I saw lights and weird people and some of the Fulton Empire symbols, only different, like something you’d see on one of those weird movies about the Middle Ages. Also, I’m pretty sure this is a torture chamber…” They both flinched, catching each other as they heard shrieks away in the darkness.

  “I guess we’re about to learn all the secrets of how She-Hitler built her almost Kingdom Come, right?” Leaf licked his lips. The screams were intelligible now, forming words.

  “Rise against! Rise against! I go forth to justice!” There was a loud chemical hiss and then the irons walls lit up a chalk white and bubbled with chemical spots. Derek jumped on Leaf, covering his head with his arms. The wall blew out.

  Looking over Derek’s shoulder, Leaf saw a human-like silhouette that bore striking resemblance to Kiara breaking through the ceiling of this forsaken place.

  “Oh my God! Where are we?!” Leaf didn’t have time for his question to be answered. The light revealed that the seaweed he thought they were walking in was actually tons of human entrails dumped into a shallow moat. A fire was rolling out of the mouths of these Italian Renaissance sculptures and gargoyle mouths. The surface of the moat was dense with lamp oil. Unless they outran it, the flames would overtake them. It hadn’t taken Leaf long to figure out that his body had been released from that overwhelming Prometheus fire.

  “Dude, we gotta go!” Leaf hauled Derek to his feet, taking off running with him leaning against his side down the long and twisted hallways of the dark.

  *****

  Chapter 23

  “None of my ID’s work because I’m dead. They won’t even recognize me so you’ll have to act like you know me and authorized this!” Timlin chattered nervously as they stormed up to the doors of the Pentagon.

  “Don’t really got to worry about it, Cap’n. Looks like the place is deserted! Leave it to crooked little suits to bail when the going gets tough!” Reilly slapped a shaking palm against her forehead. It was true. Aside from several crushed cars lining the parking lots and pushed to the sides of the parameters like so much driftwood, the Pentagon was deserted.

  “It just makes our job easier.” Joseph nodded to Harrison. He had Matthews in a vice grip around the wrists. His zombified strength hadn’t departed entirely when his animation resumed. He was making the President skip and really work for it.

  “It’s not necessary! I understand the error of my ways and I’ll comply for this!” Matthews’ head bobbed from side to side, eyes pleading. Lindsey spat on the sidewalk.

  “Right. First chance you get you’ll be running back to your bosses trying to put out some kind of retaliation against us. We’re not buying that load of crap.” Lindsey looked at Ivy who grinned. Finally, after all that time waiting and watching their lives fall apart, they were getting payback.

  The Geryon screamed, frantic for some reason. He charged to Harrison’s side and snatched the President up like a bride, running head down like a linebacker. The others exchanged a brief glance, confused.

  Just then, Taylor came roaring up on a sonic-motorcycle. Kendra was sitting behind him with a camera mounted on her shoulder. Taylor exchanged close range shots with several Medusas that flocked within 10 feet of the ground, hissing, spitting an almost indigo venom at his face.

  “The legions are coming! Whatever you’ve got to get in there, get it now! I’m going to lead her through the only door into the Underworld I know.” Taylor reached into his belt and pulled up what looked like a key chain. Reilly had seen it before, back at camp among his things. It was a small, metallic skull and crossbones, that’s eyes, nose, and mouth were stuffed with dirt. It also had shards of stone and plaster engrained in its skull. All at once, Reilly gasped, realizing he’d been entombed with it.

  “Lucia! The score that she never could settle with your sacrifices, your protocols, and your otherwise super sucky business practices is on the table. I’m calling you out! If this is headed to Hell, then you’d better meet me in the Athena Rings!” Taylor tossed the keychain into midair. Saying a sudden chant in what sounded like a Latin code, Taylor shot the skull through its back.

  The others paused, arms flinching in horror as they watched. The motorcycle, its riders, and the Medusa doubles all seemed to be freeze-framed midair. The doubles’ eyes twitched and they shrieked with froze-open lips as a blue fire shot through them and swallowed them out of the sky. The skull-keychain glowed like a charcoal plucked straight out of the fire. One of those wormholes opened in the sky around it again, in the shape of an octagon. Red and orange lava-lamp waves shone out of it, beckoning the frozen rider to come in.

  They heard screams and felt the heat. The bike was sucked in. Taylor and Kendra were gone.

  “Kendra!” Lindsey screamed, hands twisting in her jacket. Ivy covered her mouth with both hands, bursting into tears.

  “That happened!” Reilly was shaking her head, in total denial.

  “Come on, for real now! We’re on a clock only we don’t know how long it’s ticking! Haul it!” Joseph took off, throwing his head back to run faster. Timlin took off after him, closing in on and overtaking him in seconds. Harrison scooped Reilly up and swept her up onto his back. Lindsey and Ivy grabbed onto each other, hauling each other along to avoid falling.

  About the same time they reached the Pentagon, the building exploded, like Vesuvius from the deepest basement upward. They were caught inside, shielded from the flames by a magnetic wheel of chandelier debris the Geryon had lifted above them and was spinning after Saturn’s fashion.

  “Finish it!” Geryon nodded to the device Timlin had talked about. The bottom basement was exposed, the Geryon having plucked it up from the base floor with magnetism and was now turning it gently like a lazy Susan.

  Harrison looked from one chair where Matthews was already strapping himself into the device. He cringed at the phlebotomy tubes, a transfer of blood running through a machine between both test subjects a requisite of the technology.

  “Ah! Let me do it!” Lindsey tore forward.

  “Okay, we’ve got some tests to perform guys. Let’s science like our lives depend on it!” said Lindsey. “Joseph, do the honors of hooking Mr. Geryon here up to the headset. You’ll have to stretch it out because he can’t hold up the Cosmos and have a seat at the same time. Gah! Okay, Reilly, give me a ha
nd with the bananas and the Mayan clay. Here, we’ll use these truck parts to set up a lab table. Ivy you’ll have to take man my iPhone to see what the stats are running. When it reaches a bright green data bar on the screen we’ll know the algorithm is saying the juice is stable enough for us to try a shot of it. Guys! We can still save the world.”

  Harrison frantically hustled, pulling a small zip-up kit of the Andromeda serum antidote ingredients off his belt. Reilly dove for some plastic pieces that had blown off of a mover’s truck and pushed it in toward the device, making a tiny table out of it. She looked around, wondering what had happened to Agent Timlin.

  She gasped, a hand going to her throat from shock. The Geryon hadn’t been able to stop the collapse of all the debris, just mostly building parts. Timlin was filing through blazing bookshelves, practically swimming in ashes even though his clothes were already on fire. Reilly could see through the smoke that he was filing through all of this for something in particular.

  Harrison opened the bag and pulled out some unpeeled bananas. He plucked a pocket knife out of his bootlaces and started dicing them up. Joseph finished strapping the Geryon into the headset and filed to Harrison’s side, plucking out the Andromeda serum and pouring it into some tiny glass beakers Harrison was pulling out the bag. Harrison fumbled for a tiny canister of the Mayan clay stuff they’d mixed up back at camp. Ivy tapped the iPhone screen, pulling up Harrison’s programs without needing instructions.

  “Okay, I think we’re ready to test, Lindsey. Go on and switch over the toggles on their chairs.” Joseph looked up just in time to see Lindsey finish pushing the needle into Matthew’s arm. Hs eyes grew wide and he gasped as immediately Matthews’ face was bleached out. He reached out and grabbed Lindsey by the throat. The girl thrashed, eyes wide as much from fear as from strangulation.