by E. R. Torre
“Yes.”
“You already know it wants her to join the other runts,” Becky Waters said. “I’m amazed she hasn’t succumbed.”
“Becky,” General Spradlin said. “We’re…we’re at the end stage.”
Becky Waters’ silver eyes lit up for a second.
“I need her,” General Spradlin said. “I need you to clear her head. I need you to still the voices, if only for a little while.”
Becky Waters approached Nox. Her half machine hand came up. She laid it on Nox’s cheek.
Nox tried to move away, but it was difficult for her to move at all. She reluctantly allowed Becky to press her metal and flesh hand against her cheek. For a second Nox felt an electric charge race through her body. In her mind there were visions of standing on a cliff’s edge, staring into darkness. The darkness was Becky Waters’ soul.
“She’s burning up,” Becky Waters said. “If the program can’t have her, it will destroy her. Do you wish relief from the voices, Nox?”
“Do…do I have a choice?” she muttered.
“Of course you do,” Becky Waters said. “You can take the easy route and give in to them. There will be no more pain, I’m sure of that, but you’ll be gone, too. Or you can let me do what I can for you. You’ll feel some pain, maybe even quite a bit of it, and I can make no promises about results. I will, however, try my best to help you.”
“Did you have a choice?”
“Yes, and I made it a long, long time ago,” Becky Waters said. She turned away from the Mechanic and faced General Spradlin. “What makes her so special?”
“She was in Arabia when the nukes were set off,” General Spradlin said.
“She refused to follow your orders?” Becky Waters said. “Is that true, Nox?”
“Yeah.”
“Good for you. She’s one of a kind. I see why the passkey wants her so badly. In any other time I would gladly do what you ask. But now? Is it worth it? Why not just let the program do its worse? If we’re at the end stage, why bother?”
“I haven’t finished all my work,” General Spradlin said. “There is the possibility Lemner’s passkey might interfere with the other programs.”
“It hasn’t so far?”
“No,” General Spradlin said. “But it searches.”
“You can fend it off. There’s something else. What is it?”
“The passkey ordered the kidnapping of twenty four babies kidnapped from the TransCo Hospital.”
“The magic number. Lemner’s passkey wants to start the soldier program up again?”
“Yes.”
“Losing twenty four children is not such a big sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.”
“I won’t let them die,” General Spradlin said.
“They’re only twenty—”
“I won’t let them die,” he repeated.
“I’ll be damned,” Becky Waters said. “You actually care for them? Over your own safety?”
Despite the blurriness in her vision, Nox could see the emotion in General Spradlin’s face. She saw the weight of many years of sadness and loss crack through his hardened exterior.
“Help me,” General Spradlin pleaded.
“You’ve changed,” Becky Waters said. She considered his request for a few seconds before saying:
“Why the hell not?”
General Spradlin took Nox’s arm and slung it over his shoulder. The three walked to end of the rails. There, a staircase led down.
“What…what is this end stage?” Nox asked. Her words were very slurred. She no longer was fully awake but sleepwalking through a dream.
“The single greatest thing ever,” General Spradlin replied.
They proceeded to Becky Water’s central computer room.
General Spradlin laid Nox down on an old cot before the many machines. Nox felt there were more questions she needed to ask, but the fog enveloping her mind made it difficult for her to think. She felt like a child once again, a child guided through this strange world by adult hands. She couldn’t comprehend their actions, yet knew there was purpose in them.
Becky Waters paused before her computer equipment. It was ancient and for the most part outdated. A portable generator lay on the floor beside it. Becky Waters hit a switch and the generator came on. It was incredibly noisy and expelled a foul smoke. Becky Waters ignored it. Her attention shifted to the computers. She turned them on, one after the other. As she did, her lips moved. She was talking to General Spradlin. Their conversation was hushed, but from the look on their faces, whatever they were discussing was very important.
Nox tried to hear what they said, but their voices were drowned out by the generator.
At one point, Becky Waters offered the Mechanic a sad smile.
Easy child.
Her lips hadn’t moved yet her words appeared in Nox’s mind. Things around the Mechanic swirled as if she were on a carnival ride.
The conversation between General Spradlin and Becky Waters ended and the machine woman resumed her work on the computer. Minutes passed. Eventually, she paused. She looked into General Spradlin’s eye.
When I do this, they’ll know where we are. They will attack. They will destroy this place and kill everyone they find.
We need to get the children.
What about Jennifer?
General Spradlin laid his hand on Becky Waters’ shoulder.
I’ll save her, too.
Becky Waters nodded. She stepped away from the computers and walked to the stairway. General Spradlin reached out and stopped her.
I have to bring her down.
General Spradlin relented. Becky Waters left the room. Nox felt movement coming from somewhere above and heard ghostly voices. When Becky Waters returned, she carried Jennifer Alberts in her arms. She placed the old woman on a chair and gently arranged her hair. The elderly lady was bewildered by these surroundings.
We’ll be fine, dear.
The words came from Becky Waters. Her tone was remarkably caring.
“What is she to you?” Nox heard herself say.
She’s all I have left in this world.
Becky Waters rubbed her silver eyes and they sparkled in the dim light.
In that moment, Nox realized the two women shared very similar features. Jennifer Alberts and Becky Waters were blood relatives. Direct descendants.
How…how old are you?
The question was directed at Becky Waters, but even as Nox spoke it she realized it applied to General Spradlin. She asked him that same question before and hadn’t received a straight answer. General Spradlin and Becky Waters were team mates at one time and had to be of similar age. Yet both looked far younger than Jennifer Alberts, a woman the General knew when Nox was barely in her teens.
How was that possible?
Becky Waters approached the computer system. She sat before it and pressed a series of buttons. The ancient equipment hummed and screens came alive with information.
You may feel…something, Becky Waters said.
Nox did. She felt the old program stir within her. An ancient rage flared up. Lemner’s passkey was unleashed.
At that moment, it had her.
Nox felt its rage overwhelm her. She reached out, her movements faster than her thoughts. She tried out to grab General Spradlin.
Just as she did, her world went black.
41
“You’re one of us. Come back. Come back…”
Nox recognized the voice. She opened her eyes and found…
The pregnant woman with the bullet hole in her forehead lay beside a row of bodies. Fresh blood flowed from her gory wound. The girl soldier sat a dozen yards away. She knew the shot was fatal and therefore was no longer interested in this kill. Her attention was on cleaning her weapon.
The elder Nox stood to the side of her younger self, watching the scene before her. The tank commanders, absurdly, rushed to the fatally injured woman’s side and tried to help her. The young soldier couldn’t help bu
t notice their movements.
Why do they bother? the soldier girl thought. She’s the enemy. The enemy must die.
A boy sat on the ground a few feet away from the two. His brilliant blue eyes were on them and, in turn, the older and younger Nox realized they were being watched. The boy smiled. He leaned back and stretched his legs.
“Join us.”
The scene around the elder Nox froze in time. The boy soldier and the elderly Nox were the only ones moving in this still picture.
“Return to us,” the boy said. “Become what we were always meant to be. Soldiers.”
“Killers,” Nox said.
The smile remained on the boy’s face.
“There will come a point where we will no longer ask.”
Nox ignored the threat. Her eyes were back on the village and the scene before her.
“This isn’t right,” she said.
“What difference does it make?” the boy retorted.
Nox ignored his comments. Her body shook and her eyes closed. She concentrated hard, trying to remember. Trying to—
Her eyes opened.
The scene before her shifted. The rows of bodies disappeared while the wreckage of the village dissolved. New walls and intact buildings formed. Villagers –alive and uninjured– appeared. They were all there. Even the pregnant woman. They huddled in groups around several large military transport trucks. They boarded these trucks in pairs while the child soldiers offered those who needed it food and water. The villagers did not protest or argue. Somehow, they knew they were safe. They knew the child soldiers, despite their fearsome weaponry, posed no threat.
No one died.
The boy soldier, Joshua Landon, watched this new scene play out.
“This is a lie,” he said.
The scene shifted once again. The village and the villagers disappeared. All was white. At Joshua Landon’s side appeared the young Nox. She reached for her weapon and took aim at an invisible target.
The elder Nox followed the gun’s barrel. The pregnant woman reappeared. She lay on her back. Blood caked the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered open. She lifted her body slightly, only to recoil in horror at the sight of unseen relatives and friends lying dead around her. Her hands came to her mouth. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t.
The girl Nox once was tightened her grip on the rifle’s trigger.
“You were the only one to see her move,” Joshua Landon told her. “You did as you were programmed.”
“This isn’t what happened,” Nox said.
“You are a soldier,” Landon said. “This is what soldiers do. No mercy. None at all.”
“That isn’t what happened.”
The image of Nox’s younger self blurred. More images flashed before her. The villagers were alive. The villagers were dead. The villagers were alive…
“What did they do to me?” Nox yelled.
Joshua Landon smiled.
“Whatever they wanted, until they decided we were of no more use to them. Then they discarded us. We won’t do that, Nox. We will never discard you. We are family.”
A rifle appeared in the elder Nox’s hand. Without wanting to, she raised and aimed it at the vision of the pregnant woman. The villagers were dead. The villagers were alive.
“This isn’t right,” Nox said. She had no control over her body. She felt her fingers slowly squeeze the trigger. “Stop this.”
“We're going to make this a better world.”
“By killing pregnant women?”
“By killing the enemy, whoever they are.”
The villagers were alive…the villagers were dead.
“We will make humanity stronger. We will protect this world.”
“From what?”
“From what’s coming.”
“What is coming?”
To this Joshua Landon had no reply. Nox fought to lower her rifle. She could not.
“What makes you think we’ll do any better?”
“We'll get it right.”
Despite her heightened emotions, Nox couldn’t help but laugh.
“That’s what they all say.”
With those words, the spell was broken and Nox had control of her weapon. She lowered it. The villagers before her were alive. The pregnant woman she saw shot in her nightmares was alive and uninjured. She was escorted to the transport vehicle by the younger Nox and climbed inside. She was with her friends and family. She was safe.
“They’ve manipulated our thoughts,” Nox said. “They created a false story within the real memories.”
“They made us and threw us away,” Landon said. “We will do the same to them. We are the next generation. The superior generation.”
Nox was no longer interested in what Joshua Landon –Lemner’s passkey– had to say.
“Why would they imprint one memory over another?” she wondered aloud. “Why…?”
“Come with us,” Landon insisted. “…Please…”
The village and its surroundings faded away. Joshua Landon fought to remain, but he too vanished, as did the rifle in Nox’s hands.
The Mechanic now stood upon a grassy hill. Before her was a lush, beautiful forest. In all her life she had never seen so many shades of vibrant green. Trees were alive and filled with leaves. The grass was long and swayed gently in the wind. The sky was clear.
“Nox?”
Before her appeared a young, attractive woman. Nox recognized her instantly, even though her body and limbs were entirely of flesh and she no longer bore scars or mechanical attachments. Her silver eyes were now a vibrant blue. They were human eyes.
“Why am I here?” Nox asked the vision of Becky Waters.
“Because I needed to clear your mind before I could bring you back.”
“Back?”
“I had to dig deep, sort through every nano-probe within your being. I had to inoculate you.”
“From Lemner’s passkey?”
Becky Waters didn’t answer her question. She sat down before Nox and motioned to the forest.
“The world was like this, once,” Becky Waters said. “Before we let it go.”
“Can it be brought back?”
“No,” Becky Waters said. “It’s gone forever.”
The smile faded away. A single drop of blood fell rolled down the side of her head. Nox watched it, transfixed by the sight. Another drop fell. Then another.
Nox felt a deep unease. It gnawed at her, growing into something larger. Something terrifying. She looked down at her hands. There was blood on them.
“Have I…did I do something?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you have to trust General Spradlin. No matter what he’s done to you and the other child soldiers.”
“I don’t think I can,” Nox said. “Not entirely.”
“Try. Please.”
Becky Waters pointed into the distance. The forest faded, replaced by the harsh yellows of the Arabian village. The villagers were alive and in the process of being escorted to the transport vehicle. The young girl Nox once was helped the pregnant woman onto a truck. She offered her a canteen.
“This is it,” Becky Waters said. “Can you feel it?”
Nox could. Somewhere deep within her she knew that this vision of her encounter with that Arabian village was the truth. It was the memory stripped of all lies.
“I didn’t kill them,” Nox said. She couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her eyes. “They left. They were taken away. Where?”
“To safety,” Becky Waters said.
“Why…why was I given those false memories?”
“It was my idea.”
Nox faced Becky Waters.
“Why?” she pleaded. “Why torture me like this?”
“It wasn’t my intention,” Becky replied. “You were front line soldiers. That was a dangerous position to be in in more ways than one. We feared that if any of you were captured, th
e truth of what you were doing in Arabia might come out.”
“What truth?”
“That you weren’t the bloodthirsty, fearsome soldiers we made you out to be. That you didn’t wipe out entire villages. In your mind, we made you vicious killers. In reality, you were saviors.”
Becky Waters wiped the blood from her forehead.
“We couldn’t let the world know what you were really doing. It would have endangered General Spradlin’s plan.”
“What was his plan?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Becky Waters said.
Nox grimaced.
“I…I still hear their voices,” she said. “The passkey is still trying—”
“You will hear the passkey’s wails for as long as it exists,” Becky Waters said. “Now, you have to return. You have to set things right. You have to save those twenty four children.”
“So they can grow up in this dying world?”
“You’ll save them Nox, because that’s the type of person you are. And because you’re the only one who can.”
Becky Waters laid her hand on Nox’s shoulder. Nox looked into Becky Waters’ natural eyes. She saw in those eyes several lifetimes’ worth of sadness.
“I’m as much to blame for this as General Spradlin,” she said. She offered Nox her hand. “We can set things right.”
“I’m afraid,” Nox said.
“You have reason to,” Becky replied. “But I promise we will fix this. Do you believe me?”
Nox thought about that. Finally, she took Becky Waters’ hand.
“Yeah,” Nox said. “I do.”
Nox helped Becky to her feet.
“Let’s finish this.”
42
Becky Waters let out a scream when she emerged from her artificial dreams.
Her silver eyes flashed in the dull lights of the basement. She sniffed the smoky air. Blood dripped from the side of her face and stained the floor. Her artificial limbs could not move. Her body was momentarily paralyzed. She looked at the computers around the room. Dark smoke emerged from several of them.
“They’ve found us,” Becky Waters said. “They’re on their way here.”
“It was inevitable,” General Spradlin said.
