Awaken: A Dystopian Science Fiction Adventure

by Troy McLaughlan

  He stood. “I think the only reason Max still lets me visit you is because he thinks I can get you to cooperate.” He shook his head. “So you see Lumenara, things aren’t what you think. I really do care about you, but I’m just as trapped in this as you are.”

  Memories of my own whipping by my father roared back. Another ruse to convince the Targs I wasn’t important to him. I was angry then as well and wouldn’t even look at my father.

  Fives, I had to whip you today, my father’s voice echoed. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice…

  “How can he do this?”

  John shrugged. “We’re at war. He needs every man he can get. Corporal punishment is expected to maintain discipline.”

  Blood from one of his lashes soaked through his shirt making a long dotted line. In my anger, I never considered what John was willing to do for me.

  I'm sorry.

  “Help me escape.”

  John swallowed hard. “If I do and we're captured, Max will kill me and then he'll do unspeakable things to you.” He took a deep breath. “So, before I throw our lives away, I need a reason.”

  He waited. One minute became two. I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t.

  He wouldn’t believe me even if I did.

  Two minutes became ten, but I still said nothing. I wanted him to become angry. To hit me and justify my distrust in him, but he just hung his head, picked up the plate of food, and plodded away. He opened the barred door.

  I sat up straight. I couldn’t let him go. Not like that. Despite what I did to him, he was the closest thing I had to an ally.

  I took several quick breaths. “I’m going to the Sanctum!”

  John froze and dropped the plate. He spun around. “The Sanctum? The Gaia Sanctum?”

  I nodded.

  He knows about Gaia, but how?

  His eyes widened. “Son-of-a-bitch, you know where it is, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but how do you know about it?”

  His eyes shifted from one side to the other. “Wait here—” His face scrunched up. “Bad choice of words. I’ll be back.” He raced into the corridor so fast he forgot to lock my cell.

  My heart raced. This was my chance. I tugged and pulled on the chain with all my might, but it wouldn’t give. I wrenched my thumb against the cuff trying to dislocate it enough to slip out, but it didn’t budge.

  A few minutes passed, and he returned carrying a tattered open notebook. I sat up straight and relaxed, trying to breathe normally.

  “Can you read this?” He turned it to me his hand covering part of the page.

  It was ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. “The tiger stone points the way?”

  He doubled over looking like he was having a heart-attack, except his smile spread from ear to ear.

  “What is that book?”

  “It’s my great grandfather’s notebook. He was on the original expedition team who discovered the Sanctum. When the Targs attacked, they still hadn’t figured out what it was or how it worked, so the scientists sealed the entrance and destroyed every piece of evidence, all except this. He figured if he could decipher the hieroglyphs, he might unravel the reason the Targs wanted it so badly.”

  He slid around and sat down next to me. “His son, my grandfather, used to tell us stories when we were young about a chamber he called the ‘Gaia Sanctum’. He told us we were fools to try and fight them, that we needed to rediscover the Sanctum and figure out how it worked. He spent years looking for it before he died. We all thought he was just a crazy old fool.”

  I snuck a peek at the hieroglyphs on the next page.

  Only the blood of my children will open the gate.

  “Help me escape, and I’ll take you to it.”

  He sighed. “Wouldn’t make any difference even if I did. My grandfather said we needed to find a key first before we could open the Sanctum.”

  My face relaxed, and I leaned back.

  His eyes slid up to mine, like he was reading my thoughts. “You know where the key is don’t you?”

  “Let me go, and I’ll show you.”

  His jaw tightened, and he shook his head. “It’s not much. Max is never going to believe this without proof.”

  “You said trust goes both ways. I’m trusting you, now it’s your turn to trust me.”

  He looked at me for a long moment. He set his jaw then stood up. “Alright, I’ll try to convince Max first and if that doesn’t work I’ll break you out of here, one way or another.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Time passed and voices echoed from the corridor.

  “This is insane,” Max said.

  “Just hear me out, okay?”

  John and Max appeared outside my cell. John opened the padlock and sprinted inside. Max followed, his eyes warily staring at me. One of them had a large purple bruise. I couldn’t help but smile.

  John sat down next to me, opened the book, and covered part of the page with his hand. “Translate this.”

  “For Gaia has escaped...from outer darkness...and journeyed into the light of Ra.”

  “There you see,” John said.

  Max put his hands on his waist. “I can’t believe your buying into her bullshit. So she can read ancient Egyptian.”

  “Damnit, will you put the pieces together. Why are the Targs gathering at that volcano? Why have they stopped looking for us? Why are they bringing in slaves from all over the world?” John slammed the book shut. “Because they think the Sanctum is there, and just you watch, they’re going to put those slaves to work looking for it.”

  Max rolled his eyes. “Well, now that we have them all in one place, we finally have a way to deal with them.”

  I didn’t like the way he said that. There was a menacing tone to his voice.

  John leaned in. “What are you talking about?”

  “You remember the tac nuke we discovered a decade ago?”

  John nodded. “Yea, the Russian brigade found it.”

  “Well it’s here now, and I’ve been authorized to use it against them.”

  Nuke?

  My eyes flashed open.

  Is he going to…

  “No!” I cried. “That will kill all the slaves. John please. You don’t know what it’ll do to Gaia.”

  John glanced at me and motioned a hand down. “You’re not serious?” he said. “Launching that nuke will wipe them all out, human and Targ.”

  “That’s precisely the point. No Targs, no slaves. Our planet will be free.”

  My God, he’s actually going to use it. He’s going to kill Gaia.

  “Max please.” My lips trembled. “Don’t use the nuke. Not until you free the slaves first.”

  “Are you insane?” He folded his arms. “There are tens of thousands of Targs at that volcano. Any kind of an escape plan would be futile. We need to strike them now while we can.”

  “Please,” I said. “I’ll do anything…anything you want.”

  Max stared at me like he did the first time I met him, his eyes moving over every curve of my body. My stomach churned while he took a finger and rubbed my cheek. “Yes, you will.”

  I shuttered.

  John snatched his hand away, and Max glared back at him. “You’re my best scout, so I’m going to give you a chance to redeem yourself. I want you to recon that compound and find the ideal place to fire the weapon.”

  “John,” I said, “don’t do this. I’m begging you.”

  He gave me a reassuring nod then returned an angry gaze to Max. “Not a chance in hell. I won’t be a party to the mass murder of our own people.”

  “Fine, I’ll just find someone else.” Max held out a hand and put his other on his sidearm. “Her cell key.”

  John stared at the gun and then back at Max. “So, now you don’t trust me?”

  “After the stunt you pulled the other night, you’re lucky I even let you in here. Now, we’re going to do it my way. Say goodbye to your pretty friend.”

  John rummaged in his pocket and took out
the padlock key. When Max reached for it, he dropped it on the floor and walked out.

  Max knelt and picked up the key. He tapped it in the palm of his hand a few times before turning to me. A wicked grin was on his face.

  “Looks like me and you are going to be friends now.”

  “Are you coming?” John said. A look of hate was in his eyes.

  Max’s face briefly flushed. He glanced at him and got up. Once outside, Max locked the door, and assigned two guards to watch me.

  I spent hours trying to think of a way to escape. I yanked on the cuffs until my wrists bled, but the chain didn’t budge. Even if it did, how could I get out of my prison cell?

  What was Max thinking? Did he really believe the Targs wouldn’t send another army?

  It was hopeless. Gaia was going to die by the hand of her own children.

  They’re going to cut their own throats.

  ~~~

  Later that afternoon, the man with the scarred face came to my cell holding a plate of hot food and a metal chair. I strained my neck, but John was nowhere to be found.

  Are you okay?

  My stomach churned with worry. Despite everything I did to hurt him, I still cared about him and I knew he still cared about me.

  What has Max done to you? Are we still going to escape?

  The guards opened the barred door and then locked it when the scarred man entered.

  “We’ve not had a proper introduction. Name’s Ben.”

  He set the metal chair down across from me. “Now, ye best not spit this back in my face, Missy, or there be hell to pay.” He sat down. “A mutual friend of ours sends his greetings.”

  He opened his hand, and scrawled on the palm were the Egyptian symbols for ‘escape tonight’. I gasped and he gave me a slight nod. He scooped up a heaping spoonful, of mashed potatoes and I opened my mouth. When I closed it, I bit down on something hard, metallic, with a straight edge on one side and a jagged one on the other.

  “That’s right mate, you’ll be need’n your strength for what’s about to come.”

  I put the metal under my tongue and gingerly ate a few more bites.

  Ben got up and stretched right between me and the guards. His eyes motioned to my mouth and my thigh. I took the piece of metal with my tongue and spat it onto my leg. It was a small key. Ben smiled while I reached my cuffed hand up from the side and grabbed it.

  After the rest of the meal, he gave me small sips of water until the tall plastic glass was empty. He then had one of the guards fill it so he could do it again.

  “There, I’ll be check’n in on you later, and ye best be thirsty when I do.”

  He turned and left, leaving the metal chair behind.

  Be thirsty? What could he possibly mean by that and why would he leave the chair?

  I sat for hours thinking about the statement. Eventually the guards turned away from me and began to chit-chat. I used the opportunity to unlock the cuffs, keeping my fingers wrapped around them so the chain on the wall wouldn’t give. After that, I kept my eyes focused on the corridor waiting for John or Ben.

  When Ben came into view, he locked eyes with me. He nodded and pointed down.

  Be thirsty.

  “Guard!”

  They ignored me.

  “Guard please, I’m so thirsty. Can you get me a glass of water?” One of them turned to me. He had an annoyed look on his face. I smiled and widened my legs, trying to look as inviting as possible.

  He grunted and left, returning a short time later with a tall glass of water. My smile disappeared, and my legs coiled under the bench like a steel trap. The other guard unlocked the padlock and swung the bars toward him.

  I sprang forward and leapt at the guard with the glass, driving my foot into his groin. He doubled over, and I grabbed his head with my hands and drove it into the metal chair. Blood splattered out, and he slumped to the floor.

  I snatched his taser from his belt and shot the other guard as he closed the barred door. The man’s body became ridged, dropping the padlock and collapsing to the ground. He couldn’t even scream. I took my hands and rammed the barred door into his head. A pulpy smack thudded and his body went limp.

  I’m free.

  But I didn’t know where to go. I ran to where Ben stood earlier, hoping to find him waiting for me, but the connecting corridor was clear. I spun around unsure of which path to take. On the wall near the floor were four Egyptian hieroglyphs written with a black marker.

  “Right, two, left, door?”

  I turned right and ran down the corridor. At the second intersection, I turned left and saw the stairwell I came down from.

  Where are all the people?

  A clock on the wall answered my question. I was 2:05 in the morning.

  The ceiling door.

  It didn’t appear to be open, and I remembered Ben unlocking it from the outside. I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I scampered up the stairs. A small seam gleamed. I dug my fingers in and tugged. The trapdoor budged and an alarm sounded. My heart jumped into my throat. I yanked at the door and it gave way.

  Footsteps pounded.

  I pulled myself out. Five people in Targ armor lay sprawled on the concrete floor. They didn't move, so I bolted into the corrugated metal tunnel. When I got outside, I searched for the volcano and headed for the tree-line. Muffled voices ricocheted behind me.

  John, where are you?

  I took off into the brush when a being in Targ armor jumped in front of me. I raised my fists.

  “It’s me!”

  John?

  My knees buckled, and I stumbled forward. He deactivated his helmet, and I ran at full speed and hugged him. Tears filled my eyes. I was breathing so hard it felt like my lungs were going to explode.

  “Hey, I missed you to,” he said. “Are you alright? Did Max hurt you?”

  “Yes and no.”

  He smiled. “Good. Turn around.” He pulled out a set of Targ armor, placed it on my shoulders, and activated it. He pointed to a tree. “Over there is your backpack, and I believe this is yours.” He held out a glistening shoulder high wooden rod.

  My staff?

  I curled my fingers around the middle and twirled it a few times. Even through the armor, it felt amazing, like holding a long lost friend.

  I turned to John and put a hand under his chin. My heart was full of many things I wanted to tell him. How sorry I was for how I treated him. How I wanted to let him know everything about me and my mission. How I worried about him.

  He just smiled back, took my hand, and kissed my fingers. “We better get going. The volcano’s this way.” He tugged on my hand, but I didn’t budge.

  “We have to go back.”

  John spun around. His eyes bulged and his mouth hung open. “What?”

  “We have to stop Max from using the nuke.”

  He raised a gloved finger. “I just got you out of that hell-hole. I am NOT taking you back.”

  “We have to.”

  He threw his hands into the air. “What about the Sanctum?”

  “If Max kills those slaves, awakening Gaia won’t do us any good.”

  John’s face turned a dull red. “Shit!” He punched his fist into the air. “Shit, shit, shit. I really wished you’d have told me this earlier.”

  A noise buzzed in his armor. “Hey,” Ben said, “it’s gett’n awful crowded down there. So if you two are done kiss’n, we ought to be leav’n.”

  John shrugged. “I’ve got Ben along the west ridge, covering our backs as a sniper.” He activated his helmet. “Ben, change of plans. We’re going to the nuke bunker.”

  “What the bloody f—”

  “Just meet us at the old mine entrance. I’ll explain it to you there.”

  CHAPTER 9

  John led me north for a few miles, and we hid from the numerous human patrols out looking for me. We let them pass before turning southeast for a least a dozen more. We ran into a river and followed it as it snaked around to the east.

>   A hill covered in thick trees with the crumbling timbers of a mining entrance was not far from it. There, in Targ armor, stood Ben. His helmet was off and a scowl was on his scarred face making him look even more menacing. He tapped his foot while he waited for us.

  “Okay, I give up mate. Just what, in the bloody hell, are we do’n out here.”

  John gave me a resigned look. “We need to hijack that nuke.”

  Ben’s jaw dropped. “Are you out of your God-damned mind?”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “What’s the problem?”

  Ben’s eyebrows rose, and he stepped right in front of me. He was so close I could feel his breath on my face. “The problem, Missy, is that nuke is inside a concrete bunker with only one way in or out. Plus, it’s guarded by at least ten heavily armed men. Not to mention the two others with heavy repeating rifles outside, and the two high resolution scanners that will pick us up before we even get within five miles!”

  I took a step back, and swallowed.

  “Oh,” Ben sarcastically slapped his fingers to his face, “there’s also a twenty ton steel door that will slam shut if so much as a twig snaps. That sound like a problem to you?”

  John pulled him back. “The main issue is the scanners. If we take them out the door will close, and if we don’t, they’ll know were coming.”

  The scanners...

  “What if we don’t take them out?”

  Ben gave John a queer look, and John shrugged.

  “The entire camp is out looking for me,” I said. “If the scanners got a fix on me, to them, you’d just be another patrol out trying to find me.”

  John cocked his head. “They won’t buy into that unless you get close enough for them to identify you.”

  That’s the idea.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “No,” John said.

  “If I leave my armor here and run towards them like I’m lost, the two of you can follow behind me like you’re in pursuit.”

  John shook his head. “We’re not doing that. It’s too dangerous.”