by Vee Bosse
“I...I’m finished. You won’t accept what I’m trying to give to you, so I’m ending it all right here and now. My fatal attraction will swallow this entire city...myself included. Ohh, Winkle Ramsay...I MUST HAVE YOU!!!!!”
Desdemona gritted her teeth as she clapped her hands together once more, forcing a massive quake to erupt from underneath the city. The temptress laughed maniacally, letting herself fall backwards against the roof of her skyscraper with tears continuously flowing down her face. Winkle and her dragons had been captivated by the worsening of the woman’s insanity, when a frightening sight captured their gaze out of the corners of their eyes.
“Guys, what the hell is this?!” Winkle asked as they all watched their horizons become consumed in all directions by a rapidly rising Venus Fly trap that seemed to be about ten miles wide. “Forget this bitch, let her kill herself! We’re flying out of this!!” Winkle commanded as her dragons rocketed vertically upwards in a desperate attempt to get away from the all-consuming plant with mouth walls that were about a mile wide in thickness. Nova’s crimson tail had wrapped around Winkle while she held onto his back for dear life, all while Carlisle generated a wind bubble around her to make sure she could breathe amidst their frighteningly fast ascent. “We’re barely escaping it!” the summoner declared as she realized that the flytrap was closing in on them at an alarming speed as well.
In the distance, they all noticed a glowing red goop that spewed out from the inside of the massive plant, creating an acidic flood that dissolved the city everywhere that it spread. “This is insane, what kind of power is this?” Winkle further declared. They had become familiar with how Desdemona was able to control and propagate plants at her will, including the conjuring of some truly frightening life forms that had attempted to take their lives. But with just a clapping of her hands, this woman was going to wipe Chicago clear off of the map.
Winkle knew that retreat was the only option even with the immense power that her dragons all commanded, and she looked down to the ground below to witness Leviathan dissipate back into its cracked gemstone that was clutched in her palm. She was temporarily relieved to see this occur, but her fear almost instantly returned the moment her eyes drifted back toward the disappearing skyline.
Desdemona had resigned herself to die along with them, and her comeuppance was guaranteed either way. They could have attempted to stop the gargantuan plant by killing the temptress, but they had realized that the risk was simply too great if they chose not to retreat. So, they climbed, all the way into the clouds hanging above the distant city below.
“I believe in you all!” Winkle shouted as the dissolving city below had now become consumed in absolute darkness. The plant was almost closed and sealed as its jaws rose high into the sky, with only a small opening of escape in the sky above the rising dragons. “Just a little more!!” The dragons dodged the acidic red spray that occasionally came close, and they strained themselves with all their graceful might as their eyes remained set on the thinning stretch of light above. “Whatever happens, I love you all!” Winkle closed her eyes, as the light suddenly beamed through her eyelids.
The flytrap was seconds from closing, but Winkle and her dragons flew majestically above its enclosing teeth. They were free from Desdemona’s city, which would soon disappear inside of the plant for a deep, underground digestion. Meanwhile, she lay in darkness on top of her skyscraper, with her tear-soaked eyes gazing towards the disappearing light above. She stared in awe at the majestic and colorful dragons as they faded from sight.
“You are all so...beautiful. All I wanted was to be a part of that beauty, more than anything else.” The wounded temptress raised her hand limply toward the barely visible light that was now almost completely choked away by her plant. “Why? Why do they always leave me?” The acidic smoke suddenly set in over her, as the plant sealed itself shut in the distant sky above.
As Winkle and the dragons glided high in the sky, the green flytrap stood still like a massive dome around the fallen city. The dragons had risen above the tragedies of Chicago, and they had no need to look back now. For the sake of their fallen friends, they wouldn’t look back. They disappeared into the clouds, while the city wept for them to return.
Chapter Fourteen
How to Stop an Invasion (With a Friend)
*******
“Christian, hurry and throw the ball!” yelled a young girl who looked to be about ten years old. She easily could have been considered a tomboy, given that she proudly wore jeans along with a black blouse. She tossed a football to her younger brother, seemingly only a couple of years younger than her. American football, basketball, and futbol were the three sports that endeared throughout the Western Latitude, and soccer had become a tribute to the fallen continent of Europe after Bain had plunged it into the ocean.
Furthermore, gender normatives went the way of racism, utterly disappearing from the world. It was true, however, that the majority of men and women still valued their respective genders, yet the act of questioning one’s own gender and orientation had become widely accepted by society.
“Brienne, Shuddup!” retorted a young, blue-haired Christian, throwing the football as hard as he could. It indeed hit the mark, flying past her extended arms into her shoulder to send her flying into the grass below. With a grimacing and irritated look on her face, she sternly took out a small knife from her back pocket that was made of a strange element only recently discovered.
“I told you not to push me.” Without hesitation, she plunged its edge into the ball, causing the electronic components inside of it to spark and fizzle. “Have fun finding another aerodynamic football.” Brienne threw the ball to the ground as she marched inside of their family’s large solar-powered home.
“Mom’s going to kill you!” said an emotionally charged Christian who was now alone outside, as he turned his attention to the orange cat of the house, ‘Droolums’. Inside of the house, Christian and Brienne’s parents were programming their cooking machine for a dinner meal, while Brienne herself took in the selection of crops from the gardens in the backyard. Dianne and Jameson Rivers had a decent sum of wealth after saving up their annual government allowances for many frugally-lived years. They were both in their upper forties, and had made the decision after getting married in their thirties to start a family and spend what they had saved on the responsible family life. This was not what half of the population chose to do, considering that football journeys across the latitude had become the sweeping norm for entertainment.
Once Brienne had finished gathering the crops and edibles for their dinner, she took to the entertainment room and enjoyed a few cinematic stylings on their advanced virtual reality system. “Jameson, tell Christian to come in and eat. The system is almost done with dinner.” Dianne had let her husband join Brienne in the entertainment room while she oversaw the machine’s recipe fulfillment, occasionally adding snippets of her own preferred spices and ingredients while the cooking system carried on.
“Honey, who is that man standing outside of our security perimeter?” Jameson said while Christian continued to take in the pleasant breeze of the sunny day outside. Suddenly, his gaze turned to a man with long, black hair, who had an impassive look etched on his face. He wore a long, brown leather trench coat with a standard business briefcase at his side.
“Let me know when the takedown is complete. I will administer the forbidden DNA,” the man said into a communications diode, suddenly popping open the briefcase to reveal a tranquilizer dart inside.
“He must be a fanatic. Haven’t seen one in quite a while,” said Dianne who was busy tapping a couple of buttons on her tablet device. “The Police Force has given us permission to activate vigilantism if he tries to hack into our defenses.” Jameson smiled in earnest, “That sort of thing just doesn’t happen in New Boise. We’ll wait until he gets tired and gives up.” Christian suddenly picked up a rock, and hurled it at the man.
“Christian, don’t dishearten him. Y
ou’ll just increase his rate of dentri-mentality.” He shot his mom a curious look after she spoke, not fully understanding why a stranger would be standing outside of their perimeter on the solar-tiled street.
The mysterious man heard the words loud and clear in his earpiece: ’It’s down, but you know this is suicide, right?’ The rippling gel-like waves of the security barrier that had put a stop to Christian’s wayward stone suddenly disappeared in an instant. At this sight, Christian’s parents’ faces turned from expressions of amusement into incomprehension and shock. “Christian, get inside, now!!!” Jameson screamed in horror while the man quickly aimed the dart gun at his kid.
Feeling a sudden rush of fear, Christian’s knees froze in place. His eyes grew wide as both of his parents pulled out their household’s auto-aiming pistols from their back pockets, desperately trying to stop the situation that they were suddenly faced with. They heard the dart gun suddenly launch the needle their son’s way as it hit its mark in the side of his neck. “NO!!!” Dianne screamed in panic, aiming her weapon at the man.
“You piece of shit, what did you just do to my brother!?” Brienne had beat them to the punch, although the damage had already been done. Her knife also found its mark in the mysterious man’s chest, forcing him to the ground in non-resistance.
“Wha...what did he just shoot him with?” Jameson asked in horror as he and his wife rushed to their son to inspect the needle, whose contents had already made their way into his bloodstream.
“I...I don’t feel any different,” Christian said pulling the dart out, still standing and feeling as normal as could be. Brienne’s attention remained on the man who had just accosted a top-grade residential perimeter: a feat that was rarely heard of in the Western Latitude, and one that always ended with the same deadly result.
“What did you just shoot my brother with? Answer me, or I’ll make sure your last moments on this planet are pure hell.” In contrast to the furious and stern stare she shot him, the man began to arrogantly cackle in defiance. He mustered up a few words in spite of the grievous wound that Brienne had just inflicted.
“I guess...I just wanted to see the world burn,” he said, coughing up blood.
“No, that answer doesn’t satisfy me.” Brienne had crouched down to get her knife back, yet suddenly, the mysterious man’s eyes went dim. Christian’s sister seemed disappointed that she couldn’t exact her revenge on the man who had assaulted her family, yet her attention had turned to a cloaked figure who had been sitting nonchalantly in the street ahead. He had very quickly packed up his computing device into his briefcase, smiling wide as though he was satisfied with his unprecedented performance in taking down their perimeter defense.
Brienne wasted no time in lunging her reclaimed knife at this man who bore an even deeper mystery than the one she had successfully taken down. Yet without a word, the hooded figure clasped his hands together and instantly vanished into thin air. “Did that guy just teleport?” she said, feeling disappointed once more. Jameson, Dianne, and Christian rushed over to the man who had spilled blood on their lawn, acting strangely unsurprised at how well Brienne employed the Western Latitude’s norm of civil vigilantism in appropriate situations. Brienne suddenly turned around to face everyone, seemingly taking in everything that had just happened.
The scene shifts to present day, just outside of the New Boise refugee camp in the Idaho territory. Christian gasped as he woke up, startled at yet another memory invading his dream space once again. He turned around to the opposite side of the tent to see Westin sitting up, staring back at him in concern.
“Christian, those dreams of yours seem to be getting worse. We made it all the way to the Idaho wilderness outside of the evacuation camp where you keep saying your family is, dude. Hey, I’m sure they’re fine.”
Christian’s night memories had been intense ever since his awakening in the Glass Submarine, yet this memory was like a massive light bulb just went off inside of his head. His unbelievable elemental ability...could that incident have been the start of it all? He jumped outside of the tent after nodding at Westin, noticing it was still in the dead of night. More importantly, he looked down into a previously unpopulated valley that was now filled with a vast multitude of electronically lit tents and newly formed colonies.
“Yeah, my family has got to be somewhere down there. They’re smart enough to follow the government’s orders to evacuate heavily populated areas. I’ll stop at nothing to protect them, then once the danger is clear in this area, we will go east to make sure your family is safe Westin.” Christian’s words did bring some comfort to Westin, despite the fact that he was aware that they had strayed farther west than anyone else in the group had. It was the two of them against whatever terrors the Eastern Latitude might have up their sleeves as they progressed on to conquer the entire continent. “I’m still kind of exhausted, so let’s look for em’ in the morning.” Christian agreed with Westin’s proposal, and they both stepped back into their tent on the nearby hill.
The scene shifts to that of Christian’s family. “Jameson, turn the water machine on so we can siphon some coffee, and put your music simulator away so we can have breakfast, please.” Dianne threw a piece of toast at Brienne who was delving into her studies on her tablet. She brushed it aside all the same, preferring to continue forward in her state of flow.
“She’s really focused, like normal. Let’s give her a moment, then throw an egg at her if she doesn’t listen.” Dianne smiled at her husband lovingly, still keeping an intense spark of passion as their twenty-year anniversary approached fast.
Their solar tent that they had propped up with the other mass of residents in New Boise came with fine-tuned air conditioning and heating, and most every amenity that they had all enjoyed in their homes. “I wonder when the government will lift this crazy evacuation order. I wonder what could be happening that would finally drive them to put the refugee plan in place,” said Jameson.
Dianne turned her focus back on the cooking machines which were now almost done with their breakfast. “We just don’t know, now do we?” The family took part in their fined-tuned morning meal with the usual feelings of content that came with the comfortable Western Latitude life. Yet, the unusual thing about this family was that even a couple of years after their son had been mysteriously abducted by their government, they kept a fourth, empty chair at the dining table to remind themselves that Christian once existed along with them. It was immediately after the abduction back then that they went home to find a computerized message on their home computing system: UPON RECONDITIONING, HE WILL BE RETURNED. Perhaps it was that lone message from their all-powerful government that had kept their hope alive. One day, Christian would be reunited with his family, at least that’s what constantly replayed in their heads.
The scene shifts to the area outside of the New Boise refugee camp. “As I understand, Mr. Xinling, these are the whereabouts of one of their leader’s parents?” The Great Wall of the East stood with his staff next to his commandant: O’ Ren Ichinaru, who was wearing a silver and red Japanese fox mask. Underneath, she had tied a black and gold bandana around her forehead, as its tied ends flapped in the cool mountain air along with her shining black hair.
“We will now begin our true conquest with the destruction of their defiling rebellion. Draw him out, send them all to the ground below so that they may answer for the blood they have spilled on our Sacred Earth,” said Xinling, readying his staff for the onslaught to come.
The scene once again shifts to the Rivers family’s tent. Brienne’s parents brought the finished breakfast product to the table as her dad grabbed an egg, assuming the passing position. She tossed her headphones and tablet aside, humoring her dad’s attempt to get her to put the e-books down.
“Yeah dad, I get it. Water, plea,” Before she could finish her sentence, all three of them suddenly felt an aura come over them that forced them to instantly drop their forks and gasp for breath. “The hell! This feels like...I�
��m dying! Guys!” Brienne gasped as they all managed to stumble to their feet and bust out of their tent to see the masses surrounding them all experiencing the same grip of death that they felt.
Their eyes squinted in the midst of the sunrise blazing against the nearby mountainside, as they barely managed to make out two figures on top of the hill directly above them. “Honey, what’s going on?” Dianne gasped as all three of them braced each other, falling to their knees as their life force itself continued to be absorbed into the ground. Just as they felt as though they were about to pass out, the aura of death suddenly disappeared, and the entire valley breathed a sigh of relief as their life force returned to them without delay.
“Those two! Mom, Dad, those two up there must be doing this! Wait, who the hell is with them all of the sudden?”
The scene shifts again to the outside of the New Boise camp. “This isn’t the leader, yet we received reports about how one of them had completely defiled our Eastern Latitude. It appears that this is him, O’ Ren.” Westin stood between Xinling and the New Boise refugees below, and without even a wink of hesitation, he was able to counteract the Opal Radiance death grip with even more proficiency than he had done in Tokyo.
“I don’t want to hurt you guys, but I will use this annoying power to save these people from your bullshit!” Westin barked with a determined focus.
“Unacceptable. Our reports led us to believe that your disgusting group had completely spread out across North America. Yet, we go to the home of one of your two leaders to snuff out the life of his family, and you stand before our eyes in defiance. Tell me before I send you all to the ground, where is Christian Rivers and Derek Maxwell? We will handle the rest of you after you three fall.”
The scene again shifts to where Christian’s family is standing. “Guys, I think vigilantism won’t work here. Maybe we should run!” Brienne said urgently, desperately trying to get her parents to listen to her.
