Break the Bastion

by Christopher Rankin

  They encountered a dead end. The hallway ended in an empty patch of salt-stained concrete. The walls climbed to a blank blur.

  “Where’s the elevator?” Asked Callista.

  Her question was answered when a large section of floor lifted in the air. The elevator entrance was hidden in the slab.

  “This is the only way up,” said Strix. “Please step inside.”

  …

  In one of the dark recesses behind them, Nox and Morgan spied, kneeling like lions in the grass. They watched Lucas and Callista get inside the elevator car.

  “They’ve abandoned you,” Strix told Morgan.

  “They’re the monsters,” said Nox. “The humans. They destroy every bit of love and kindness. They’re predators, Morgan. Especially, Callista.”

  “I don’t know,” said Morgan, whose expression went from forbidding to haunted. “I guess.”

  “Remember what we talked about,” said Strix. “Don’t let weakness steal your resolve, Morgan. The universe itself needs you.”

  …

  Callista and Lucas rode the elevator up on a trip that seemed to take forever. The hum of the motors climbed in pitch until it felt like they were moving at the speed of sound.

  She took his hand as they flew up.

  Strix interrupted the quiet moment. He said, “We’re sorry for the burden you both must carry. Life is never easy for the strong.”

  They weren’t ready for the moment the doors opened and the endless monster of ocean was upon them. The sight of so much blue turning black made them nearly dizzy. The night air was clear and the stars burned bright pixels in the dimming sky.

  Ahead of them, they saw the familiar glowing red dome, the sight that had fascinated Callista for nearly her entire life. The transparent, faceted building looked like a half of a giant glass soccer ball. There was an entrance at the bottom.

  Strix told them, “The answers you need are inside.”

  Callista and Lucas didn’t notice the elevator car dip back down.

  When they got to the dome entrance, they heard two distinct voices inside. The tonalities, especially one of them, were frighteningly familiar. The booming man’s voice sounded cold and mechanical, yet somehow unhinged and mad.

  “You weakling, you can’t refuse!” the voice shouted. “It’s already over! Morgan and the other boy have already shut the dampening system down.”

  When Lucas and Callista got inside, they saw only one man under the dome. Blaise Lorrance had been creating both voices, speaking to only himself.

  He noticed them standing there.

  “Welcome,” he said, “my children, the parents of the new world.”

  Lucas took a step toward him, asking, “Doctor Lorrance, is that you?”

  The old man just smirked at first. Then he said, “In a manner of speaking, yes. In another matter of speaking, no.” He started to laugh.

  Lucas asked him, “You’re Belasi LaCrone. Aren’t you?”

  Lorrance nodded, saying, “Guilty as charged, my boy. Then again it’s hard to say who I am from one moment to the next.”

  “We heard you say something about Morgan. Where is he?”

  “That’s the best part, Lucas. Don’t you see. Morgan has become what he was destined to be. You two have become opposite poles of the same magnet. Creation and destruction. Don’t you see?”

  “What’s happened to him?” Callista called out. “What did you do?”

  “What did you do?” LaCrone asked her. “You played perhaps the most important role in his transformation.”

  “You’re lying!” Shouted Callista. She pulled her Strix out of her backpack and walked to the edge of the Bastion. With one hand, she dangled the electronic owl over the ocean. “Tell us where Morgan is!”

  Lucas followed suit, walking out of the entrance and dangling his Strix over the edge. “We’re tired of being manipulated,” he said, “by you or anyone else.”

  “You both have no idea what Strix is,” said LaCrone. “Even after all this time.”

  The old man stood in front of the dome, looking out over the ocean. Something shifted in his face. LaCrone’s look of pure determination turned to one of confusion and doubt. He turned back to Lucas and Callista as though surprised to see them there.

  “Oh,” he said, “hello, you two. I suppose I know why you’re here.”

  “Doctor Lorrance?” Asked Lucas. “Is that you or is it him?”

  “It’s me, Lucas, but there isn’t much of me left.” He sat down on the titanium, lowering himself slowly like a man of advanced age. “My goodness the tide is low. I don’t think there’s much time left.” He told Lucas and Callista to sit with him. He went on, saying, “I never thought I would see my beloved Bastion fall but I suppose Strix is right. It is the only way.”

  “The only way to what?” Asked Callista.

  “The only way to put this out of its misery. No more pain. No more hurt children. We scientists gave them everything. We cured their diseases, gave them food and energy. All they care about is their stupid war, their incessant fighting and their religious ignorance. All they do is exploit and throw away their children. Every new chance we give them is met with more exploitation and violence. It’s an animal that’s turned on its young. All my life, all my ambition, to help such a soulless animal, this society. Its heart is black I tell you. It never changes.” The old man appeared disgusted. “Well, they’ll see. They’ll see, very soon. The wave is coming.”

  “Where’s Morgan, Doctor Lorrance?” Lucas asked him.

  “I’m afraid it’s too late,” said Lorrance. “The work is done. Tell Morgan how sorry I am for what’s happened. Tell him it isn’t his fault.”

  The old man’s stare became vacant and his pupils dilated. “I don’t have much time,” he said, grabbing Lucas and Callista’s hands. “He’s coming back.”

  Lorrance’s eyes became wild and his face more angular. Half of his mouth tilted up just slightly in part of a scowl. He said, “That’s enough from the feeble old man. We have important matters.”

  Lucas and Callista again held their Strixes over the wall, threatening to toss them into the drink. Lucas told LaCrone, “I want to see Morgan safe and sound or we’re dropping them.”

  All of a sudden, there were two more people on top of the Bastion. Nox and Morgan were standing side by side, looking like two dead-eyed hit men.

  “You can’t get rid of Strix!” Nox shouted to them. “He’s in your head now.”

  “You’ll hear him all the time now,” growled Morgan. “Whether you like it or not.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Callista shouted to him.

  A threatening smile oozed over Morgan’s face. “Nothing’s wrong with me now,” he said. “I’m all better. Strix showed me the truth.”

  Callista looked down at the computerized owl in her hands. She yelled to Strix, “What did you do to him?”

  Her Strix’s eyes lit up. He told her, “We did nothing. You did everything. Don’t worry, Callista; Just like Morgan and Lucas, your transformation will come very soon. Today as a matter of fact. It won’t be easy for you but the results will be stupendous.”

  Like she had a king cobra in her hands, Callista threw her owl over the edge until it disappeared into the blue.

  Lucas held his Strix. He said, “Thank you for saving my life.”

  “We’ll speak again, Lucas. We promise.”

  Then he dropped his owl.

  He shouted to Morgan, “I’m sorry for everything and you’re my friend. I don’t know what’s happened to you but we can help. Just let us.”

  “You’re the one that needs help,” said Nox. “We’re just fine.”

  Lucas asked LaCrone, who was just standing by and smirking, “What’s all this about? I don’t understand.”

  LaCrone took a step toward them. His smile suddenly looked warmer, more like Blaise Lorrance. “Look,” he said as he started to laugh. “Look,” he pointed out to the ocean.

  A wave appro
ached from far east in the distance.

  The wall of brine seemed to beam out a foreign gravity, pulling away all the sound and leaving an empty white noise around it. Its size, something like a decade of tides all brought in at once, seemed impossible. The swell climbed over the horizon with the speed of a fighter plane, every second growing to a new absurd size. The wave was more than a match for the Bastion.

  LaCrone started laughing deep into his belly. “It’s moving fast,” he said. “There’s not much time left.”

  Every siren on the Bastion and throughout the city erupted in rolling screams. A rumble started all around them.

  LaCrone asked Nox and Morgan, “Did you take care of the dampening system, boys? We wouldn’t want old man Lorrance’s wall to make another miracle.”

  “It’s shut down!” shouted Nox. “Nothing to stop it from falling.”

  “Very well, Nox,” said LaCrone. “I believe you are no longer of any use.”

  At that moment, Nox Jaborosa charged like a sprinter toward the edge, throwing his body over the Bastion and into the ocean. He laughed all the way down.

  LaCrone told Morgan, “It’s your time, son. Now show the world the new you.”

  Morgan stared at Lucas like a boxer weighing in. With the coldest expression he could muster, he shouted at Lucas, “Now it’s time for us to finish this!”

  LaCrone told Morgan, “Your friend has taken what is most important from you, something you can never get back. He’s made you into a new man. Say thank you.”

  “I’m sorry, Morgan,” said Lucas. “I’m so sorry all this has happened.”

  “Shut up!” cried Morgan. “You’re not sorry.”

  He charged Lucas, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him toward the edge. The pair fell on the ground, rolling right to the edge of the wall. Morgan let loose a flurry of punches into Lucas’s stomach. He grabbed his hair and pulled his head over the edge.

  In the distance, the monster wave grew even more, blocking out the Eastern stars on its way toward them. Underneath, the water pulled back until the lower, barnacle-covered, portion of the Bastion showed itself.

  “You murdered me!” Morgan shouted as he pulled Lucas’s hair. “Now it’s your turn!”

  At that moment, Lucas summoned all the strength he had gained and threw Morgan’s body away from the edge. Morgan fell and slid several feet. Lucas stood over him before offering his hand to help him up.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said to Morgan. “We can’t let them manipulate us.”

  Morgan slapped his hand away, saying, “Screw you. I don’t need you or anyone else. I’ve got Strix.”

  At that moment, his owl started talking. It said, “The time is near. The future starts soon, my children. Callista knows where you need to go. You must leave now.”

  “Strix means my house,” she said. “Those boxes.”

  “Correct,” said the owl. “It’s the only way to survive.”

  Morgan jumped up and grabbed Lucas’s throat. “None of us are surviving!” he shouted. “Your lives are as over as mine!” He tried to wrestle Lucas to the floor. “I’m going to kill you!” He screamed.

  “After you catch me,” said Lucas. Then he used his tremendous strength to throw off Morgan, who slid a few feet into the wall of the red dome.

  Lucas took Callista by the hand and started for the elevator. While the car descended, the rumbling picked up, with such an intensity that it made their heads spin.

  The wave was close.

  They got out of the elevator and charged through the corridors of the Bastion. Callista did her best to keep up but Lucas was pulling her. The corridor turned to an open, cloudless night sky.

  The streets and alleys were teeming with people and Lucas and Callista had to fight their way through the crowd. The aimless horde of people was just staring at the screaming alarm horns. They all heard the sirens and felt the dull roar but they had no idea what to do.

  Lucas flew across the pavement like an Olympic dasher. Callista held on to his hand like she was dangling from the Bastion. They made it to the cable car station and hopped into one just as it was ascending the hill.

  As they climbed, they could see the Bastion.

  Just behind the wall, a shadow as dark as a black hole raised up. The hiss felt like snakes in their heads. The wave stood perhaps five hundred feet over the Bastion.

  When it broke, a shriek of stretching and ripping metal was followed by thunder. At that moment, Callista saw the red dome on top. Blaise Lorrance and Belasi LaCrone, tiny specks of shadows, disappeared into the black and foam.

  The wave poured over the neighborhoods, turning the streets and buildings into a death slurry. Wild currents and whirlpools churned up the dirt and trees, the buildings, the houses, the concrete and cobblestones.

  The cable car carried them over the tree line just as the water drowned the old tsunami watchtower, extinguishing the whining siren. Houses floated off their foundations, then collapsed into the soup. The electrical lines and transformers blew out like old-fashioned camera flashes.

  One more cable car had escaped the water and was following them.

  As they watched the destruction, Callista told Lucas, “We need to get to my dad. He’ll know what to do. He knew this was going to happen.”

  Callista’s hilltop neighborhood had become an island in the Atlantic by the time the cable car stopped. The water level was rising while they ran to the house. The sound of wet slaps and hissing took over the air. Sparks from the cable car lines flickered before the whole system dropped into the water.

  Inside Callista’s house, there was a strange peace and quiet. They ran up the stairs to her father’s office. She started to pound on the locked door before Lucas knocked it open with his shoulder.

  Her father was dead at his desk.

  Several empty bottles of anxiety pills were strewn around and his head was slumped over. When Callista went over to him, his body was cold and stiff. His eyelids were stuck open.

  She wrapped her arms around him and tried to pull him up from the desk. “Daddy,” she said, “come on. We’re leaving. There’s no time!” She tried to pull him up by his arms but it was impossible.

  Lucas stopped her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and holding her tight. At the same moment, they noticed the message on the desk. Her father had written the same text on dozens of pieces of paper scattered around the desk and room.

  “My daughter, I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough. Enter 12151979 into the box you found. Please be safe, my Callista.”

  He had also left a sealed letter addressed to Callista. She tucked it into her front pocket.

  Like a battalion of attacking soldiers, the water outside was almost up the hill. Hissing, sloshing and the sound of cracking trees had become the whole world around them. The foundation of the house shifted and trembled.

  She and Lucas hurried to the top floor of the house where the boxes were. The code her father gave her opened the doors to both.

  “He was going to go with me,” she said. “Why would he…?” She started to cry.

  All of a sudden, Morgan Battle was staring at them from down the hallway. Covered in silt and drenched in saltwater, he looked like a drowned coyote. Strix was strapped to his back with eyes beaming red.

  “Lucas Mucus!” He shouted. “You’ve destroyed everything I ever was and ever could be! You were supposed to be my friend.”

  Lucas took Callista by the hand and guided her into the escape pod. “If I don’t make it,” he said, “go without me.”

  Morgan Battle faced him from down the hallway. He had his muddy fists clenched as hard as granite. “Come on, you weakling!” He shouted. “Let’s finish this!”

  “Why are we doing this?” Lucas asked him. “Why am I going to fight you?”

  “Because I’ll kill you otherwise!”

  “There are worse things.”

  “Like what you’ve done to me and what I’m about to do to you.”

&nb
sp; Strix told Morgan, “Become your destiny. Kill him.”

  Lucas said, “You shouldn’t listen to Strix anymore. He’s a liar. He’s using us.”

  “The whole world used me,” said Morgan. “Not anymore. After this, it’s a new world. There won’t be Morgan Battle, the Bastion worker, or Morgan Battle, the poor loser. Strix has shown me that it can all be mine. It was meant to be.”

  He charged down the hall at Lucas, who managed to hold back the avalanche of punches. Morgan tried to wrestle him to the floor but he kept his footing. Then he got his arms around Lucas’s neck and pulled until both their faces were bright red.

  Outside, the water was rising. The house started to shake and tilted thirty degrees to its side, nearly knocking both boys over. Lucas was able to flip Morgan over so he was on top of him.

  “Just kill me,” said Morgan. “Finish what you’ve started.”

  Lucas pulled Morgan up by the arms and pushed his body into the other escape hatch along with Strix. The owl flashed his red eyes, telling him, “Thank you for your help, Lucas. We look forward to meeting again in the new world.”

  Just before he shut the door, Lucas told Morgan, “I’m sorry for what’s happened, friend.”

  “You’re not my…” came out before the pod door closed.

  Lucas heard Callista calling from the other pod. “Come on!” She shouted. “The water!”

  After he got inside, he hit the button that shut the door. They heard a sharp metallic cry just as the house dissolved from its foundation. The current caught the pod and they felt themselves whisked away.

  “Morgan…” Callista started to ask. “What happened to him?”

  Lucas told her. “He’s with Strix now.”

  They floated in silence for a few minutes before Callista asked, “What do you think Strix is?”

  “Something that’s been around a long time,” Lucas told her, “watching us.”

  “Do you think he’s God or the devil or something?”

  “Does it make a difference?”

  Callista remembered the letter from her father. She took out the envelope from her pocket, tore through the damp paper and started reading.