The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League

by Bassett, Thurston

  “No,” Aadi said shaking his head, “this is how we use our tech. We have designed a system that transcends hardwired reliance. It is good, but it’s not on this scale. These waves must be converging on a focal point.”

  “A point? A receiver?” Brad suggested.

  “Yes, very likely. There would need to be more than one.”

  “People!” Brad called to everyone in earshot. “We need to scan for anything about building receivers or transmitters of a heavy duty kind in the Melbourne area!” Several of the team put their heads down and began their search.

  “My thinking is that these bastards are putting up these receivers somewhere here in Melbourne, and if they are here in Melbourne, they would be within a proximity that could be controlled. So there must be a central point that has control and reach. This central point will almost certainly be the point where the signal will be relayed to.” Brad ran his hand back through his hair as thousands of images and technical information scrolled through his brain. “It will look like a target or web formation…”

  “Got it!” The older man named Alex held his hand in the air. “Contracts and permits for multiple receiving towers of unspecified purpose.”

  Another hand shot up from a woman at a monitor. “Installation and planning permits are here. They are being erected this week. The spacing formation is as you say Sir, five towers around a central receptor.”

  Brad nodded, “And the location?”

  There was a moment while their computers did the work. The same woman raised her head. “Central location centres on the building occupied by Lucas and Associates.”

  Brad simply nodded.

  On one of the other monitors Brad was reading files on various experiments on Post-Humans in America and Africa. There were some notes on The League, but it was years old.

  “Brad Lewis?”

  Brad looked up to see a girl in a dark green jacket holding his mobile phone. “You had a missed call. I spoke to the girl calling you, sorry. She said she knows Sleepwalker, and that he left her a message on her phone. He is fine, he got wounded, he was just getting patched up then he’d find us.” The girl finished with a smile.

  Brad rubbed at his short beard. “Thank you. I didn’t think he had run into that much trouble.”

  He said, “It’s Belinda,” to Aadi who was sitting at a computer nearby, “I will ask her to join us if that is okay with you. If these people know who Athan and I are, it might lead them to Belinda, so I’d rather have her by my side.”

  “As long she does not compromise our position,” Aadi said warning Brad.

  “She won’t, she knows the drill, but she’s about to discover a bigger, darker world than she thought.”

  “Does she have any skill she can put to use here?” Aadi asked.

  “She’s studying medicine.”

  Aadi nodded and thought for a moment. “If you and Sleepwalker are planning on getting involved with these DPHR people, you are going to need someone to fix your cuts and bruises. It just so happens that I am planning to set up a medical area downstairs. She will be welcome to join us my friend. Call her; she can bring some things down here for you both. This case may take a while.”

  Brad took the phone from the woman so he could call Belinda. In such a short period of time their lives had changed so much. He knew that Belinda would support him through this, but he felt guilty for drawing her into this darker more dangerous world, that he had spent so long trying to avoid. She deserved a normal human life; but there wasn’t any turning back from what they knew now.

  Chapter 22

  “OKAY, GENETICS.” THE strange creature from the organic underworld said as he continued to unravel everything that Athan had ever come to believe about reality. “Horus was messing with it. That’s when you guys would appear, in your many and beautiful Post-Human forms and then and change history, for better or worse. You would know many: Julius Caesar was a popular one, Alexander the Great- he could move like a cheetah, and Nostradamus was a clever one, but constant premonitions wore the guy down.” The secretary smiled and shrugged. Athan watched him blankly. “There were so many more, and most were never recognized as particularly super human. They stayed under the radar. Mermaids were like you, but they branched off as a sub species of humans. There were heaps, but they scared the piss out of everyone so they were killed if they didn’t keep out of sight.”

  “Really? There were Mermaids?” Athan’s eyebrow was raised.

  “Well yes,” the secretary said condescendingly. “’Are’ not ‘were’. You are naïve. Umm, yeah, so lots of Post-Humans since the birth of humans, but there was a glitch if you will, a genetic hiccup. This is where you come in.” he nodded in Athan’s direction. “Every few hundred or thousand years, it’s not regular, there would be a double.”

  “Two with the same ability?” Athan said catching on.

  “Yes and no.” The secretary said looking past Athan. “Oh, here you are,”

  The female creature was creeping forward with a hot cup of coffee.

  “Thank you.” He nodded his thanks and she said something in Spanish, nodded to the secretary and disappeared back into the crevice she had come from.

  “Anyhow,” the secretary said, “the double. They called it the Gemini Anomaly, the Big Guys did. It wasn’t really a problem for a while, but then the Big Guys realized that there were times when the universe would become very taut. This would only happen in the location where the two particular beings were together. This would most notably occur between your plane and The Deep, the home of The Blind.”

  “The Blind. I’ve heard of them, I’ve seen them. When I was in a mind that was being manipulated. The endless plane of squirming creatures and the humanoid beings standing in between like toy soldiers.” Athan nodded with wide eyes.

  “Yes, I know. The way you accessed their plane is supposed to be the only way, and it should not have been as easy as it was. You were lucky to get out. That entire race of beings feed off the emotional output of humans. They connect with every mind in your realm. You understand so far? You dig?”

  Athan chuckled at the casual way the strange creature was giving him the truth of the universe in such a comic way. “Yeah, I dig, and it’s creepy. Go on.”

  “Yeah, they aren’t attractive like you or I. There’s nothing personable about not having a face. Anyway, the close proximity between the Gemini weakens the barrier between the dimensions, and each time the Gemini Anomaly occurs this barrier grows weaker. This particular time is worse; your counterpart has made a deal with The Blind, and he is tearing the fabric of reality to let them in for his own ends.”

  “What? My what? I’m one of these Gemini people? Are you sure? Who is this other person? Why would they do that?” Athan sputtered.

  In his confusion and shock Athan swallowed a hot mouthful of coffee, burning his tongue.

  “Hey slow down on that coffee man,” the secretary chuckled, “I heard it gives you a guys a buzz, but damn!”

  “Are you sure about all that stuff you just said? I mean…that’s a lot to take in. Not that there is anything normal about any of this.”

  “Look, yes you are part of the duo of danger. Sorry about that, but that’s how it’s happening. That Merlin guy had the same concerns. This has been happening since the dawn of humanity. Some of these people have become pillars of religious worship. Nice people, but when I gave them the spiel they lost it, same as you. I thought humans were a little past being surprised by this stuff.”

  “Those guys were like me?” Athan shook his head and squeezed his eyes closed.

  “Well those blokes had pretty much the same ability, yeah. There are some other surprises inside you too, but you will find those when the time is right.”

  Athan sat on the old wooden chair staring at the fleshy ground trying to organize his thoughts so all of this made some kind of sense.

  “And the other person? My opposite?” Athan said finally.

  “You’ve met him.”<
br />
  “The figure in black?” Athan asked, still in shock.

  He thought of the dark clad figure that had threatened him in the metaphysical landscape, the man in the white mask.

  “Yep. He was the reason we had to protect the mind of Mr Campbell for you. You remember that toothy pooch?”

  The bulldog-caterpillar…

  “Umm…yeah, I do. Thanks, I suppose.”

  “Hey, it was nothin’.” The secretary waved it off. “Those things are everywhere down here. Anyway, you need to stop that guy. He has made some strange deal, as I was saying. Those things from The Deep feed on the emotional output of human beings, and this guy has agreed to open the way for them to flood into your plane. Not only does this upset the balance and the way the universe fits together, they will be free to feed on any emotional output, not just strong emotional emanation. They will dumb humans down to drones effectively, open to suggestion and persuasion. It would take away what makes them human, their ability to choose, their imagination and their ability to truly love. And by extension that destroys our people, who rely on the power of the human mind.”

  “This is crazy!” Athan took a deep breath. “How can he do this to us?”

  “How? A radiation. You heard about that remember? This frequency of the Internet and mobile phone output creates the weakness in the barrier. This will open the gate and let them in. That’s the deal, you see? He lets them in, they subdue the people and then the ones he chooses become rich and powerful. The planet is theirs, or his.”

  “World domination then? It’s a bit of a cliché. What is your interest in this? Why are you telling me? Why should you care?”

  “I’ve told you about my people and others, Athan. These realities, dimensions, whatever you’d like to call them all coexist together. They form a balanced structure that is the foundation of the universe. If your reality is damaged, so are all the others, including mine.”

  Athan nodded. “How can we stop this?”

  “Kill him. Sorry for being blunt. Your friends can help you, I’m sure.” The secretary said with a shrug. “Generally we call both of the Gemini here and give them a choice, or give them the same offer. One or the other disappears. That’s the only way to effectively fix things, but your other has made some choices that have made him the obvious one to be eradicated.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Well, we gave him the same choice. They didn’t have the technology to open rifts or anything back then.” The secretary shrugged.

  Athan got up and began to pace back and forth. This was all beyond anything that had ever happened to any of them. Apollo, Furnace, Cal, Whirlwind and Deadfall, they were playing at being heroes in a world where some people deserved to live without being afraid. Alternate planes of reality, Gods and races of demon emotion suckers. It felt like things were getting out of hand.

  “Anything else?” Athan asked, because why not?

  How could things be any worse?

  “Yeah. There is something else.” The secretary made a cringe-like expression. Athan stopped still and closed his eyes.

  Of course there is.

  “When the Gemini are drawn together they create a disturbance in the world that other things feel.”

  “Other things?”

  “Other things. I believe you saw an image of some of them that your spy friend showed you.”

  Athan remembered the still from the film footage Aadi had shown them. “The pale junkies biting that person in the subway?”

  “Not junkies, Athan. These are things that share your world, but rarely do you hear about them. Shadow Folk and cabalus. They are genetic mistakes and experiments by the Big Guys. By your Gods.”

  “Like Post-Humans?”

  “Not quite. They pre-date the Post-Humans and the Gemini Anomaly. This realm was a playground for the big guys you see? They are beyond feeble planes of reality and worlds and races. They transcend it. They made all of us.”

  “So they are Gods?” Athan suggested getting confused again.

  “The idea of Gods means nothing. It’s a word a frightened race made when things got dark and they needed hope. These are beings that have always existed, but they continuously tamper and adjust everything that is. We are all experiments and playthings for something far bigger than any of us can comprehend. And they have asked me, personally, to tell you all this, so you can fix something that is a lesson for all of us.”

  “This stuff blows my mind.” Athan rubbed at his eyes. “Okay, so what are these old pre-human experiments about? And why do they concern me?”

  “Only some are a concern. The Shadow Folk, the things that go bump in the night. They have have lived alongside humanity since the beginning, some were destroyed by humans long ago, some still thrive. The dark ones are always so much more shy. They are called dark for a reason. goblins, vampires, wolfmen and trolls. Simple names that western civilization has tagged them with, but they are everywhere in many forms. Some without names. Entire races that live in the shadows of your own.”

  “That’s fantasy stuff, surely not…”

  “Where do you think the stories came from? They disappear into the dark crevices of the world and when the Gemini are born they are drawn together where your power makes the fabric of reality shiver. They are real, Athan. Those things you saw in that picture were cabalus. Goblins.”

  “They looked like junkies.”

  “These creatures hide in plain sight sometimes. You may have seen them, ugly and deformed in an alley amongst the homeless, or living amongst the poverty stricken. They feed on the street people when it is dark, and people that were forgotten, disappear. Vampires are similar, but they can look very human, and prey on people the same way. Humans are a food source. They were made with the expectation that these things would die off after awhile and be forgotten by the evolving race of men. But they held on, and found they could live alongside you if they fed off you.”

  “Oh, gross.” Athan shook his head. “Don’t the authorities track these things down?”

  “I guess. They used to, when people were more aware and fearful of such things. The Post-Humans were always the hunters of these creatures. Van Helsing was a famous Post-Human hunter of these creatures and Jack Lorde of course. He began hunting them during a Gemini Anomaly. That’s when most Post-Human groups have assembled to hunt these things. It’s the only time when the creatures gather in numbers.”

  “So, let me summarise. Me and this other evil guy are part of something called the Gemini Anomaly, and it involves the universe being pulled out of shape, so I have to get rid of this guy. Also, everything in every dimension feeds off humans.”

  “Check. I mean…what? Not everything.”

  “The Blind, the goblins and vampires…you.”

  The secretary held up his hands defensively. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That isn’t true. We are sustained by your memory and imagination. It’s a symbiosis. The Blind are physically affecting the people they feed off and the others… Well, they are in your plane and they like the taste of your meat. Far more threatening.”

  Athan blinked at the secretary who smiled back.

  “Right then.” Athan sat back and closed his eyes. “So the evil guy has made a deal with soul sucking demons so that he gets rich and leaves the population of earth weak and pathetic. And this means demons getting through into our universe will ruin everything between multiple universes. So we have to plug this gate.”

  “Yup.” The secretary gave him thumbs up with a reddish skeletal hand.

  “And not only are we contending with the PHC and an evil corporation, but there are vampires and werewolves and goblins too! I don’t even know how you kill these things. Silver, stakes, crucifixes?”

  “I think the usual ways should be okay. It’s been a while since people were out to kill them on purpose. They were a little more paranoid and wrapped up in tradition and mythology back then.” The secretary said crossing his bony arms.

  “But aren’t creatures lik
e these the source of mythology?”

  “Touché.” The being smiled his weird toothy smile again. “We would be so grateful.”

  “Yeah I bet. How am I going to get the other guys to believe any of this? You do realise that I will be going back wounded to meet the people I’m working with and telling them a whole lot of mythological mumbo jumbo.”

  “Well thanks to our friends here, you are not wounded anymore…”

  Athan looked at his bandaged arm and torso. He shrugged and rubbed the sore spots.

  Nothing.

  There was no pain in his wounds. They were completely healed.

  “Well, okay. I am impressed now. Thanks,” Athan said smiling.

  Just being healed made his odds of rescuing Furnace and destroying his evil double a hell of a lot higher.

  “I don’t know how you did this, but I’m grateful. At least we have a fighting chance if I’ve got no broken bones. Who is this double I have? My apparent opposite in this Gemini Anomaly How do I find him?”

  “You have seen him, though you won’t know it. You know his name, and you have suspected he may be at the top of your suspect list. He is called Dereck Lucas.”

  “Really? He’s the son of one of the founders of Lucas and Associates. How is that even possible? I mean…what are the chances of that?”

  “No. Grandson. He is the same age as you Athan. And as for possibility…” The secretary shrugged. “It is how it is. Fate I guess.”

  “Was he the figure in black? The one that wanted to kill me up there in the landscape above?” It made sense that these two could be the same person.

  The secretary nodded. “He has the same ability as you, pretty much. We call that place the Plain of Souls, because when you are in a human mind, it is like swimming in their soul, feeling what they have felt, learning what they have learned. The mind is the soul’s data bank or storeroom. Every good and bad experience filed for later. It’s marvellous.” The being smiled, nodding.

  “What do you mean pretty much. That doesn’t sound confident.” Athan said sliding his hands into his pockets.