Visions of the Atom: The Last Children

by Luis Robles

  “No, I don’t see anything that would help us. Maybe I just need an extra hand. I don’t think that crank handle has ever been used before,” Jordan said as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

  Jordan and Clint pulled and pushed on the handle next to the door, but it did not budge; nothing happened. It felt dense and unmoving. After a few seconds of fiddling with the handle, they eventually heard a click, and the handle slowly moved out from the wall horizontally. When it stopped, it expanded, becoming double its size, and turned into the shape of a wheel, giving its operators more room to grab onto. Around the now wheel, arrows were engraved, right for open and left for close.

  Jordan tried to turn the wheel by himself, but it was too heavy. Saying that the handle would’ve moved, Clint joined and began to rotate it. With each rotation, the door opened a bit more; they must have turned the wheel eighty times before they had a big enough space on the door to squeeze themselves out.

  “I think that’s good enough. We don’t need the whole door to open to get out. You think you could fit through there, Clint?” Arnold asked, as Clint was the largest one in the group.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Clint replied.

  “Talk to us, Kenya, what did you find?” Arnold asked.

  “I think I know how to get to Avenn without any problem. He is three flights up,” Kenya answered.

  “Get a sip of water and grab whatever you think is going to be useful, and let’s go,” Arnold instructed.

  The group returned to the box and each grabbed a tightly sealed glass bottle of water. One sip was just not enough to satisfy their thirst; it was as if they hadn’t had anything to drink for days that they ended up consuming the whole glass bottle. They quenched their thirst they didn’t even know they had, and for just a few seconds, they were able to forget the hellhole they were in.

  “Make sure you get one for Avenn. We have to get going,” Arnold said.

  They each grabbed one flashlight, an extra bottle of water, and began running towards Avenn. They ran as fast as they could up to three flights of stairs. Along the way, they hoped they would find Avenn and be able to escape together. But the silence they heard as they got closer did not make them any more confident.

  “This is it, I remember this place. Avenn should be behind this door,” Arnold said.

  They began pounding on the door, calling his name, calling for Iris, but no one was there and the door to the Central Control Bay felt solid and impenetrable, like a mountain in between them.

  Jordan checked every wall, every crevice, looking to find another handle like the door they had opened before, but there was nothing.

  “Let’s keep looking!” Arnold yelled, becoming desperate to find a way inside. He used his bad arm to try to pull the massive doors apart, causing him severe pain. Even though he was in pain, he kept pulling at the unmovable object.

  “Stop it, you are hurting yourself. Stop it now!” Kenya yelled as she pulled Arnold from the solid door.

  “We have to get him... we can’t leave him behind...” Arnold said as he wept with a defeated voice.

  “There’s just nothing we can do for now,” Kenya said as she embraced him.

  “We can’t just do nothing. One way or another, we have to try to finish the job. We have to know what’s out there. Are there any weapons we could use... anything at all? If we just sit here, it would be all for nothing...” Jordan said, desperate.

  As Kenya embraced Arnold, she had a second thought; it was something she had seen in the map earlier.

  “There might be something else we can do. That’s if we can find a way outside Deimos,” Kenya said, stepping away from Arnold.

  “Tell us,” Arnold responded, still a bit emotional, trying to gather himself.

  They made their way three flights down and opened two doors with the mechanical handles to get to where Kenya was leading them. Once they were in the correct spot, they had to open one more door before they could see Kenya’s idea.

  “I hope there’s not another door behind this one because it is getting very tiring,” Clint complained as he wiped some sweat from his forehead. “Man, the doors are heavy.”

  “This should be the last one. The place we are looking for is right behind it,” Kenya responded.

  They opened the door to reveal a large room filled with drones from floor to ceiling on the left and right walls.

  “You do know we can’t use this anymore, right? We had about 1000 of them left before everything blacked out,” Clint said.

  “Wait, I think she’s on to something. Let her explain,” Arnold said.

  “Well… It kind of depends on Jordan if he will be able to do what I think he is capable of doing,” Kenya said.

  “Okay, go on,” Arnold said as everybody looked at Jordan.

  Jordan nodded his head, a bit embarrassed as he shrugged; he was already starting to sweat.

  “Remember what Iris said back when we first got on the cockpits and she explained the weapons inside the drones? I remember her saying that there was a kind of explosives in them when the ammunition ran out. We ran out, and some of the drones hurdled into the enemy and animated a large explosion,” Kenya said.

  “No… I don’t remember that at all,” Arnold replied.

  “Neither do I,” Clint said.

  “They weren’t there when we first got into the drone cockpits. But I do remember. She said that each drone had 250 kg of explosives,” Jordan said, already thinking about the possibility of what she was implying.

  “What if we could take them out? The explosives. And go out there, sneak in as far inside as we can, hit them where it would hurt the most,” Kenya said.

  Everybody looked at Jordan, waiting for his response. “Well, it will take me a little while to figure out how to detonate them and how they work, but I can do it... I think I could do it. I just have to make sure that I don’t get blown up in the process.”

  “Ok, let’s get on it. We don’t have much time... We can’t give them time to settle or to figure out a way in here. We’ll help Jordan with whatever he needs,” Arnold said.

  “Strike while the iron is hot. I like it,” Clint commented.

  They got to work on disassembling the drones right away. But it was not an easy task; even with a dolly, it took four of them to move one drone. They found instructions on how to dismantle the drone next to the tools for repair; however, it wasn’t hard for Jordan to dismantle one. For him, this was just his second nature.

  After being fairly certain that their explosive contraption would work, they moved on to do one more, and gathered a total of 80 kg of usable explosives, 20 kg for each one of them to carry. The rest of the explosives were too entangled in wires to be used outside the drone. They worked in unison like a well-organized team, each one of them keeping the most they could and trying to make themselves helpful for Jordan. But Arnold, although he didn’t tell anybody he was suffering, the pain from his shoulder kept getting louder, and the medication Iris had given him was just not enough. But he pushed through; he had to be strong. He had to be strong for them; he had to be strong for Avenn, had to be strong for humanity.

  “That’s it. This is the last one... we are ready to go,” Jordan finally said as he looked up to Arnold.

  “Let’s pack them up. Kenya, can you find us a way to exit from Deimos?” Arnold asked as he looked back at Kenya.

  They began to empty the bags with tools they brought for manipulating the drones and packed the explosives in them.

  “I’ve already looked. There’s several exits all throughout Deimos. Which one do you want to use?” Kenya answered.

  “Then let’s go for the closest one,” Arnold said, struggling to get his bag off the ground.

  “Are you sure you can carry that?” Jordan asked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I just need to stretch a little bit. I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Let’s get moving now,” Arnold said.

  They went to the nearest exit door, and they quickly found out that the
handle mechanism for the exit doors were not the same as for the interior doors, no; these were much heavier and larger. Because of its larger size, it took Jordan and Clint twice as much effort to push and pull to get a quarter of the way.

  As they opened the heavy door, the cold breeze from the tundra came in, chilling the room. Cold wasn’t something they were used to. It felt strange to them as it crept up and made their bodies cold. When they had just enough room to squeeze their head outside, Kenya took a look.

  “Yeah, this isn’t going to work,” Kenya said, getting back inside, trembling from the cold.

  They each took turns, taking their head outside, and every one of them came back in quivering from the cold. Also, the exit door they were trying to open was too far away from the alien building. It looked like an impossible distance. They were so high up from the ground that a jump or a slip would certainly kill them.

  “Isn’t there a closer exit to the nearest building?” Arnold asked as he rubbed his face, trying to bring warm back to it.

  Kenya went for another quick look. This time, as she put her head out, there were snowflakes on her hair. She looked at the tablet for a few seconds, zooming in and zooming out on the map.

  “There is one... two flights up. I think it would take us where Deimos’ upper body is resting against the building,” Kenya said.

  They made their way up to the exit door Kenya had suggested. Once again, it was up to Jordan and Clint to open the heavy door with a mechanical wheel. They struggled with all their might to open the door just enough for them to peek outside. Then, they opened a big enough gap in the door for them to fit through it.

  Clint volunteered to go first. He motioned them to join him, as he saw the coast was clear. The crew stepped outside, and they were bemused with the strange alien room. The floors were dark, the walls were covered in mazes of wiring, and many trinkets and devices of all sorts of shapes and sizes were in abundance in the room. They had an uneasy feeling walking through it, as they were half-expecting to walk out and meet their Maker. But the room was empty of life; that much was certain.

  The room was cold, as air from the outside rushed in through the crevices and apertures that Deimos’ body was not covering entirely as it rested against the building.

  There were two doors in the room, one on either side of the wreckage that came through the ceiling. They quickly checked them, but they were sealed tight, and this time there was no mechanism to open them.

  “I’m guessing this is as far as we go,” Clint said, reaching for his bag already.

  They were angry, and they wanted to do anything they could to avenge the Havens, even if it meant not doing much. But a flashing small light across the room caught the attention of Arnold.

  “Look at that,” he whispered, gesturing towards the light.

  “What is that?” Jordan asked.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Arnold said, walking towards the flashing light.

  “Careful, it could be a trap,” Kenya said.

  Arnold ignored the comment and continued walking towards the blinking light. As he got closer, the digital screen appeared in front of him. He stopped and stood still, as he wished he had listened to Kenya.

  An image began to appear on the screen, along with a voice, “You can come closer, it’s perfectly safe. This is simply a form of communication,” the creature at the other side spoke in Arnold’s same language, but it was mechanical-sounding, more synthetic than real. Arnold had heard before that they were able to speak in human language.

  In that moment, Arnold knew exactly what was on the other side of the screen. It was one of them, an Amphibian Slime, one of the aliens that had slaughtered countless lives. He was angry; fury ran through his veins like a raging river. He became dizzy and was almost disoriented, but he managed to keep himself together; he reminded himself that he needed to be strong.

  “Where is your leader?” Arnold said with grit.

  “That is exactly the question that I was intending to answer; in fact, as of this moment, it is the only question that matters,” the strange frog-like alien on the other side of the screen uttered.

  “Where is he?” Arnold repeated.

  “Before I answer that, please allow me to explain. My name is Veridiam Bahken, and I have been the one who helped you and the War Beast get here.” She stood silent for a few moments, letting it sink in to the now four of them watching. “A handful of others, and I, have chosen to go against our own kin to protect you, in order to try and save this planet from the hand of tyranny.”

  “Bullshit… If it wasn’t a trap before, it sure as hell is one now,” Clint said.

  An image of Deimos appeared on the screen, rising from the ground, next to Veridiam’s face, before she began to speak again, “We’ve known about the War Beast even before it surfaced. We were the ones responsible for correcting the missing map in the Haven’s archives, that prompted your chief to send you looking for it, in the first place. The map for the final resting place of the War Beast were divided between the five countries that helped build it for centuries; the pieces were lost, until we were finally able to put it together in the form of a broken file.” She stopped to allow them to speak.

  “You mean to say you knew we were coming?” Arnold asked.

  “Yes, we knew. Better said, we hoped you would come. We did everything in our power to help you get here. We blinded our generals, our surveyors, and defenses, to give you the best shot of success. We have decided that we would leave your planet regardless of what our leaders say, but we have also decided that we couldn’t just leave you here with them, with the true monsters. To answer your question from before, our leader is now attempting to communicate to our mothership through a high-power communication beam. We were only supposed to be the finders of planets for them. The mothership’s forces are hundreds if not thousands of times stronger and bigger than whatever you have faced here. As you can imagine, we can’t let that happen,” Veridiam explained as plainly as she could.

  To think that the visitors were just the beginning of what the alien race could do to them, it was apparent in their faces, in the faces of the humans, that the odds were stacked infinitely against them; it seemed like an impossible fight.

  “But there is still hope. There is still a chance,” Veridiam said hurriedly before their hope sunk into the void.

  “What is it?” Arnold dared to ask.

  “The high-power beam I mentioned earlier... There is a way to stop it. And by the chemical composition of what you have in your bags, I think that would be more than enough,” Veridiam told them.

  “Enough for what? What if we didn’t have this?” Arnold asked, suspicious.

  “Enough to send that being over to the next world. And if you did not have that with you, we were ready to provide you with our own similar chemicals that would have essentially the same effect. Look over to your left. On the corner of the wall, you will find a black box filled with much of the same that you are currently carrying,” Veridiam explained.

  “Tell us how to get to the beam,” Arnold said, determined.

  “Arnold, you can’t be serious,” Kenya hissed.

  “Yeah, man, what if it’s a trap?” Clint added.

  Arnold knew that common sense dictated not to trust a stranger. But he saw the hurt in her eyes as she spoke; he saw the conflict in her life and the suffering that she was going through—those things you cannot fake no matter how hard you try. And he knew that in many ways, it was because of her that they were still alive.

  “There’s twelve Hackaram soldiers in the room to the left of you, and three in the room to your right. They are fully armed and highly capable, and they will not hesitate to kill you. But do not worry at this moment; I have full control over those doors, and they will remain closed until you’re ready. That beam, or at least the easiest way to destroy it, is at the end of the next building, and eight doors down,” Veridiam said as she showed them a map of where they were located an
d where they needed to go.

  “Are there any more soldiers?” Arnold asked.

  “Not at the moment. All hands are preoccupied with the uprising that we’re forming outside. Even our leader is paying little to no attention at the War Beast. He must think that it was the last of it,” Veridiam said.

  “Kenya, do you have this?” Arnold asked as they looked at her.

  “Yes… I think so. There is not too much going on,” Kenya replied, giving a good look at the map, trying to memorize it. Nonetheless, she was capable, and within a few seconds she had painted the map in her head, remembering even the intricate details of it.

  “Once you get there, there will be a large pillar at the center of the wall in the last room. That pillar carries half of the power needed to power the beam. If you can cut it off there, you will cause a chain reaction. That will destroy most of our power grid. You have about 1 minute, or 2 at the most, to get back inside the War Beast. I will close all the doors behind you once you exit them on your way back to give you the most chance of success. If my calculations are correct, it will only feel a small thud once inside. How you want to get there is up to you. Do you have any idea on how to get past the soldiers?” Veridiam asked.

  “You said that you can control the doors at your will, right? How fast can you open and close them?” Arnold asked.

  “That is correct. It can’t be as soon as I finish speaking the command,” Veridiam said, trying to imagine where Arnold was going with it.

  “My open hand will mean open, and my close hand will mean close. Once we get past the first room of soldiers, I’ll need a clear path to the room where the pillar is located,” Arnold said as he pulled out an explosive with his good arm.

  He gestured for the group to hold their positions, except for Jordan, as he neared the door that was holding back the twelve Hackaram soldiers.

  Him and Jordan were just a few feet away from the door when he pressed the countdown button on the explosive.

  “As soon as the door opens, you slide this through as fast as you can,” Arnold said as he gave the explosive a mere 30 seconds and then handed it to Jordan.