New Alcatraz (Book 2): Golden Dawn

by Grant Pies

  Ransom pulled his knees up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around his legs. This was the first time the cold air really bothered him. The snow and wind acted like a crude surgical device digging into his flesh. The fire near Tannyn had died out just as quickly as it had come to life, and an eerie glow shone from the embers in a pile. They pulsed with each burst of wind that rushed by, like the earth was breathing and alive.

  “No, it’s fine,” Tannyn said. His voice grew weaker with each word. “Your dad won’t care. It’ll be our secret,” he said. His head nodded. “That’s it, Gray, breathe in. It smells good. Doesn’t it?”

  Ransom froze at the mention of his son. He let go of his knees and leaned in toward Tannyn. Without realizing it, Ransom dug his fingers into the snow under him. His hands reached deep into the ground. He made fists inside the earth and held piles of dirt and snow in his hands.

  “No, you can’t take it with you.” Tannyn’s eyes darted around behind his lids. “Remember, don’t tell anyone about this, though. It’s our secret. Come back tomorrow, and I will give you some of the fleece from the sheep.”

  Ransom crawled on the ground closer to Tannyn. Ransom didn’t realize he was holding his breath. He let out a gasp and a cry at the same time, grabbing Tannyn’s arm and shaking his limp body.

  “Wake up!” he commanded. “Wake up, you son of a bitch.” He shook Tannyn violently. He guessed that Tannyn’s muscles ached, and he hoped he was awake enough to feel pain. Why did he say Gray’s name? Ransom sunk his entire body weight onto Tannyn until he sunk down into the snow and frozen dirt. Tannyn opened his eyes just a crack and mumbled incoherently.

  “What did you do?” Ransom asked. His words seeped through his clenched teeth. He didn’t need any more of a reason to dislike Tannyn, but now he was driven to hurt Tannyn more than ever before. “What did you do to my son? What did you do to him?” he asked, but he had heard enough. His mind jumped and filled in the gaps between Tannyn’s mumbles and broken sentences. Higgs’ sheep must have been the source of the illness that plagued the village? He was the first to fall ill. Tannyn realized this. He must have infected Gray? Ransom ignored what was right in front of him, wrapping his hands tightly around Tannyn’s throat.

  Ransom pictured the scene that Tannyn mumbled about. He pictured his son helplessly cornered by Tannyn, and Tannyn handing Gray a sheep’s fleece. He imagined Gray, at the insistence of Tannyn, bringing the fleece up to his nose and breathing in deeply. Inhaling whatever rested within the fleece. Whatever spore, dust, or chemical that had infected Higgs first drifted up Gray’s nose and spread through his body. Ransom pictured the series of broken events, as described by Tannyn, and he gripped Tannyn’s throat tighter and tighter.

  Tannyn didn’t struggle. He either couldn’t or didn’t want to. Maybe Ransom was doing him a favor. Maybe he just wanted the pain to stop. More mucus leaked out of Tannyn’s mouth and ran down his face. A moist blister-like red sore covered the corner of his mouth. A hint of a smile grew across Tannyn’s face, and, for only a second, Ransom considered letting him live so he could suffer a natural death. In that second, Ransom wondered if Gray would be better off if Ransom walked back home and put an end to his son’s suffering as well.

  Ransom kneeled over Tannyn’s body long after he took his last breath. Holding onto Tannyn’s throat, he watched the last bit of fluid drip out of his mouth and puddle in the snow. He eventually pried his fingers off of Tannyn’s cold throat. He didn’t regret what he did, but he wasn’t proud of it either. He sat next to the body and stoked the fire, warming his hands and staring into the empty black, praying that something was out there.

  CHAPTER 33

  5280

  NEW ALCATRAZ

  “Because he’s dead, Merit! There is no reason to take him with us, or bring him back. It will only slow us down,” Ransom screamed both in anger and so the others could hear him over the howling winds. The snow in the air blew around the three men, and weaved through the prickly stalks of cacti littered throughout the desert. “He’s dead. And Gray will be dead soon too. That’s why we need to leave him here.” Ransom’s voice was raspy. The dry air coating his throat.

  “He had a family, Ransom. A wife and children. They will want to have his body.” Merit yelled over the winds as well, but there was no anger in his voice.

  “I have a wife and child too! Whatever disease it was that killed him could still be inside of him. We don’t want to bring that back to our homes,” Ransom said. He looked at Ash for support.

  “He’s got a point, Merit. Whatever he had killed him fast. Faster than Higgs, and it might not be safe to carry his body around.” Ash stood between the two brothers. He placed a hand on Merit’s shoulder. “It’s just a body, Merit. It isn’t Tannyn anymore. He is with the gods now.”

  Merit looked down at the snow-covered ground. The sun still hid underneath the horizon, its rays barely reaching into the sky. An orange haze shone through the dense snowstorm. Merit didn’t say much else. He stretched a thin blanket over Tannyn, and secured it with four small rocks, one at each corner. The men walked away. Merit turned to look back at Tannyn’s body, and, even before he was out of sight, the body was covered in snow.

  The cold pierced Ransom’s body. The winds shocked him like nails puncturing his bones. Any area of bare skin, no matter how small, was like an open wound. Throughout the previous night, more snow fell on the ground, now Ransom’s feet sunk even further, making each step more difficult. The men left large prints in the snow behind them, marking a trail that led back to Tannyn’s frozen body.

  The sun rose but its rays struggled to weave through the thick snowstorm. Any touch of warmth was welcomed, no matter how brief. Ransom’s stomach growled and pleaded for food. The dried strips of meat they’d brought with them had been eaten at least a day ago, and for the first time since they left their homes, Ransom felt weak. His legs were unsure, and his mind was clouded. Each exhale of breath that puffed out of his mouth was the visible sign of his energy leaving his body with nothing available to replace it.

  Merit led the group forward, but Ash slowed his pace to walk next to Ransom. His large body left deeper prints in the snow than either Merit or Ransom. By now, the men had at least made it out of the worst part of the snowstorm.

  “You know, you are pretty hard on him,” Ash said in his deep gravelly voice and motioned at Merit. “You two are just different, that’s all. He was close to Tannyn, you know. He was like a brother to him.”

  “Is that supposed to make me mad, or something?” Ransom asked

  “No. It’s just the truth. They were close. Ever since they were kids, they talked about this vault underground. They dreamed of all the things that they could find there. It was a dream of both of them to go there one day. Together. That’s why Merit’s upset. Even if we find this place, it won’t be the same for him. Not if he can’t share the discovery with Tannyn.”

  “I never bore any illusions that Merit and I were particularly close growing up,” Ransom said. “After Dad left, one of us ran around and dreamed of imaginary vaults and futuristic technology. The other had to grow up a bit faster.” Ransom paused.

  The wind stopped, and the snow simply fluttered down to the ground. Merit was far ahead of them by now.

  “Quite frankly, I don’t think he’s ever grown up. And his insistence on looking for this vault for decades has created a divide between us that I don’t think can be fixed.”

  “I get it.” Ransom’s shoulder was buried under Ash’s large hand. “You’re pissed off because he got to run around and play, while you had to pick up your father’s axe before your arms could hardly bare its weight. But I think you’re more pissed off now because Merit may have been right all along. For the first time, you not only think you may have been wrong, but you hope you are. That’s not something you’re used to. Maybe we would have all been better off if we looked for this vault years ago.”

  Ransom stopped walking, but Ash continued on. Ransom loo
ked down and noticed the ground was different. It was firm and dark underneath the snow. Ash looked back as he walked.

  “Who knows,” he said louder, so his voice would reach Ransom. “Maybe we will find time machines, laser guns, and people made out of metal. Or maybe we’ll just find medicine and food. Either way, we found something.”

  Ransom shuffled the toe of his boot into the snow, like he had seen his father do many times before. There was something beneath the snow he had never seen. It was black and rough, like dirt, but solid. He kneeled down and brushed more snow away with his hands. Within a few seconds, he was sitting in the center of a black circle. Up ahead he heard a voice.

  “Hey!” Merit screamed. “Over here!”

  Ransom’s head jerked upward. He jumped to his feet and ran toward his brother’s voice, his feet pounding on the black surface underneath the snow. Ash jogged toward Merit as well, but Ransom passed him and reached his brother, who stood pointing at the ground. The sun’s rays bounced off what looked like a shining metal door in the ground. Ransom raised his hand to shield his eyes from the light reflecting off the metal, and saw the words ‘Buckley AFB’ were branded on it.

  Ash arrived and when he saw the door, he looked at the others and the three men burst into laughter. Ash wrapped his arms around Ransom’s body, and lifted him from the ground. Merit laughed and clapped both Ash and Ransom on the back. Once back on the ground, Ransom and Merit hugged each other. Caught up in their discovery, they almost forgot about the rift that stood between them, and for the first time in a long time, Ransom smiled.

  “Let’s get it opened,” Ransom said eagerly.

  Ash grabbed the handle and lifted, but even he struggled to lift the heavy door. Merit and Ransom wrapped their hands around the door too, and the three of them strained until the door pulled back. A rectangle of darkness peered up at them, and a staircase led down into it. The three men looked at each other, with both excitement and trepidation in their eyes. Merit was the first to head down the stairs, and Ash followed closely behind. Ransom looked to his left and to his right. He saw the white snow and the bright sun above ground, and then he saw nothing but darkness and unknown below him.

  CHAPTER 34

  2075

  GOLDEN DAWN HEADQUARTERS,

  BLUE CANYON, ARIZONA

  The man dragged me back down the hall toward the cells. He stopped in front of one of the doors, opened it, and tossed me inside, like a factory worker would toss their dirtied clothes in the corner after a long shift. Without a word he slammed the door behind me. The ground was cold, and covered in dust. My legs were weak, and my breathing was shallow, as if I had just run a marathon while fighting off the flu. In the distance, I heard the moans and wails of the prisoners I passed by before I entered the stone isolation room.

  “Powell! Are you okay?” Vesa’s voice came from the back corner of the cell.

  She crawled toward me where I lay sprawled on the ground and pulled me toward one of the walls. She leaned her back against the wall and I lay on the floor with my head in her lap. I was soaked from the water in the other room and couldn’t stop shaking.

  “Where have you been?” Vesa asked, and ran her hand over my wet hair. My teeth clattered together, and I pulled my knees up to my chest. “I was worried. You’ve been gone for hours.” Her arms cast warmth over my body. She rocked us back and forth to generate more heat. The salt water from my clothes soaked into Vesa’s clothes until we were both damp. “Where did you go?” Vesa asked this time.

  “A room,” I managed to mumble. “A dark room, with water.”

  “An isolation tank,” Vesa confirmed. “That’s what they do here. They think these tanks can transport your mind to other places or other times.” I sat up next to Vesa, my back against the wall.

  “Oh yeah,” I said, waiting for her to offer more information, but Vesa didn’t say much more right away. I ran my hands through my wet hair. My body made a damp outline on the floor.

  “Whitman told me it was unlikely the tanks would work, but not impossible. He said the mind is, in fact, just an advanced computer. And under the right circumstances, a connection could be made between two minds. Two people. But it is very unlikely. At least unlikely given how the Golden Dawn is going about it.”

  “How do they go about it? Why is it unlikely?” I asked, and rubbed my arms for warmth.

  “They remove your physical senses in these tanks and just hope for the best. It’s just guesswork. They probably will never achieve anything that way. Our device, on the other hand, is much more exacting. It’s based on technology and science. Formulas and decades of research.”

  My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark cell, so I could take an inventory of what was around me, which wasn’t much. Stray clumps of hay were scattered on the floor. An empty bowl sat by the cell door, and a bucket that smelled of urine was pushed into the back corner.

  “What did Whitman mean, ‘under the right circumstances’?” I asked.

  “He never really said, but I imagine the subject’s brain would need to be somewhat in flux already. Trained to move through space and time, or at the very least not wholly tethered to this time.”

  Gradually, my legs felt like they could actually support me again. I tested my theory and stood. I paced the perimeter of the small cell, walking a bit faster and holding my breath each time I passed by the bucket in the back.

  “Tethered to this time,” I repeated.

  “Yeah, for example, a Time Anomaly Agent may be more susceptible to this process since their minds have already jumped around in time, but Quinn knows the Golden Dawn would be shut down in a day if he started ‘recruiting’ Time Anomaly agents,” Vesa said, making quotes with her hands. “So they go after the low hanging fruit. They find people who are dying, or they pay off nurses at mental facilities to take their most ‘untethered’ patients off their hands. Or they just recruit weak-minded people. People who are lost, or can’t think for themselves. Drug addicts and other co-dependent people. People who are so in search of some meaning in their life that they would willingly join this group. They take those people and they break them down even more.”

  “How?” I asked as I rounded the cell and passed Vesa. Each time I passed the cell door, I glanced out through the metal mesh. I could see two other cells across the hall.

  “Ask Doc,” Vesa said but immediately shook her head.

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “Nevermind…Torture, mostly,” Vesa said. “Of course they call it ‘reconditioning’, ‘rehabilitation’, or ‘pre-travel’. But it’s torture, plain and simple. They lock people in these cells for months at a time. If they speak out loud while they’re locked up, then they have to stay here even longer. They use electro-therapy on the recruits, don’t let them above ground, and never tell them how much time has passed. Once the recruits are broken, Quinn and some of the other men will rape many of the recruits. Men and women. Young. Old. Doesn’t matter. They tell the recruits it’s all for pre-travel prep, so they don’t fight back. At that point they are so broken down, they don’t know which way is up. Even if a recruit was able to protest they would be so physically weak it wouldn’t matter at that point. It’s rape no matter how they slice it. They do all of this under the guise of preparing the mind to travel through time and space. Breaking the mind down so it is ready to depart from the host body.”

  “So after all of that they put these people in the tanks? Like the one I was in?”

  Vesa nodded. Disgust covered her face. “By the time these recruits actually get to go in the isolation tanks, they want to escape so badly that I am not surprised if they let their mind go somewhere else. Plus the LSD doesn’t hurt.”

  “LSD?” I said.

  “Yeah, the water is laced with LSD. Transdermal absorption. LSD and salt. The salt just makes the recruits float and lose all sense of touch. The LSD soaks into your body, and helps with ‘untethering’ your mind. So naturally people come out of the tank and they think they went
somewhere.”

  “LSD,” I mumbled to myself. “Great.”

  More moans reverberated through the tunnels. Fragments of crazed speeches left the cells nearby, and bounced around until they ended up in our cell. It was too muffled to make out what the prisoners said.

  “So did it work?” Vesa asked. “Did you go somewhere?”

  I paused before I answered. I still couldn’t make sense of what happened. Surely it was a dream. I wasn’t physically in Buford. In the past.

  “I don’t think so,” I told her, but I must have sounded unconvincing.

  “What does that mean? You saw something, didn’t you?” she pressed.

  “I saw my parents.” I stopped circling the small cell. “I saw my childhood home.”

  “Do you think it was real? Or just the LSD?”

  “I don’t know. It seemed like I was there.” I rubbed my shoulder where the wound had been. “I felt like I was really there, but I felt like I wasn’t me.”

  “You saw your parents? Were you close with them growing up?” Vesa probed. “I mean, is there a reason your mind would want to go back to your childhood? Maybe it’s like a dream. Maybe there is some meaning behind where you went. An explanation.” But Vesa quickly countered her own statements. “Nah, forget that, I’ve never believed in that dream analysis bullshit.” She paused and looked at my face. She likely couldn’t make out much in the low light. “Are they still alive?” she asked.