by Mark Lingane
He placed some large pillows behind her, propping her up.
She looked down and saw her hair lying on the bed and the floor. “My beautiful hair,” she wept. She turned to Sebastian with a look of disgust and hatred. “It’s you. You’re a cursed, evil child. You make everyone sick.”
Then the great bell rang. His aunt’s eyes shot open and she screamed. For the first time in a month, she rose from the bed. She staggered down the stairs and flung open the front door. In her floral nightdress, she waddled her bloated body into the middle of the track, which was full of people running to the north. She turned and screamed at what approached.
Coming up the track toward her were the black-clad men, as the old stories had described them. One raised its arm toward her. There was a loud zapping sound, like a large angry mosquito, followed by a flash of blinding light. Ratty felt a tingling in her stomach and clutched at herself. When her eyes had recovered she looked down. There was a deep hole full of charred and blackened blood in the center of her body.
As she fell to the ground, another lightbeam flashed out and sliced into her head. The black-clad men walked on.
Sebastian ran out the door to see what was happening. He found himself in the middle of the men. He gasped as he recognized the strange black clothing of the boy he saw at the lake.
As one they all turned to face him, chanting, “Terminate.”
4
“WHERE AM I?” Isabelle rasped. She fought to open her eyes. All she could make out through her blurred vision, in the low light, were two thin dark figures. She felt cold hard stone beneath her. Water lapped around her body.
“You’s in the Dunhidin,” said the first figure.
“We thought you’s a goner,” added the second.
“You had the sickness,” said the first. “But we got you here, and you’s gonna be all right.”
“Where am I?” she asked.
“Dunhidin,” repeated the first figure. “Sacred caves. Heals the sickness from people. You gonna sleep now. You wake when you’s better.” The figure leaned forward and lifted her head up, helping her drink the cool sticky liquid from a rolled-up leaf.
She closed her eyes. “Sebby,” she said, as she drifted off into the blackness.
*
Sebastian wheeled around. He was completely surrounded by the black-clad men. He gasped in horror as he noticed the charred and blackened remains of his aunt on the ground. He looked up at the men surrounding him. He felt his head swim and his vision blur. The closest man raised his arm toward Sebastian.
Time slowed. He could sense the explosions going on around him. Heat billowed off the houses down the main track. Among the screams and shouts of the villagers, he heard someone call his name.
He could see right down the tube facing him. He saw a faint glow from deep within the tube.
There was a blinding light in his eyes. He felt paralyzed with fear. There was an unbearable pain in his head, and all went black.
*
Sebastian woke to the violent rocking motion of a galloping horse. An arm was wrapped tightly around him, pulling him into the person who sat behind him. He and his mystery rider were charging through the forest. The horse leapt over a massive log and through the narrow gap between two trees. One of the trees exploded, covering them in shards of wood and bark.
“What’s happening?” shouted Sebastian.
“Not now, Sebby. I’ll tell you later.” It was the comforting voice of Dr. Filbert, the vet.
The horse galloped on, its huge muscles flexing. It stumbled briefly over some large, slippery roots before bursting out onto the main track, hooves pounding, coat glistening in the sunlight. The wider track spurred it on to the freedom of the open road ahead, driven by terror from behind.
Two black-clad men appeared to the left, riding some strange machine that Sebastian vaguely recognized as a type of bicycle, albeit one that went very fast, was very noisy, and required no peddling.
One of the black-clad men veered toward the horse. The vehicle leapt off the ground, over a fallen tree and landed next to the charging horse. Dr. Filbert kicked out and landed a solid hit on the would-be assailant. The man lost control of his vehicle, which tumbled to the left, crashing into the other man on his vehicle.
An explosion followed the crash. A tree ahead of them shot up in the air before toppling to the ground, blocking the track. Dr. Filbert spurred the horse on. It leapt into the air and landed gracefully on the other side of the tree, forging ahead at full speed.
There was another loud crash from behind, followed by another explosion. Another vehicle shot out of the bushes on the right and landed next to the horse. The black-clad rider held onto his strange vehicle with one hand and raised his other to aim his weapon at Sebastian. Dr. Filbert tried to kick him, but the man was too far away. The vehicle twisted and rocked as the black-clad man struggled to steady his arm.
Dr. Filbert pulled back hard on the reins. The horse came to an abrupt halt and reared, prancing on the spot. The vet veered his great mount to the left through the dense undergrowth.
The black-clad man was unable to stop his vehicle and it roared into a tree. He was flung forward and landed on a large sheared tree stump, which sliced through his body.
And they were alone. Dr. Filbert reined in the horse, slowing to a gentle trot. He guided his steed into a gully, and the two dismounted. The horse lowered its head and greedily lapped the water from a small pool. Dr. Filbert glared out into the forest. There was no noise or movement. All points of the compass were quiet.
Sebastian flopped onto the ground.
“Are you hurt?” the vet asked. He ran his hands over the boy’s legs and chest. “Nothing major, if you are,” he said after the quick appraisal. He gave Sebastian a pat on the head.
“What happened at the village?” Sebastian said.
“I’m not sure. One of those men aimed his weapon at you, then went crazy firing everywhere other than at you,” the vet said. “Then you collapsed and the other men staggered around like they were suddenly lost. I grabbed you and got you away.”
“Who were those men?”
Dr. Filbert took a deep breath. “Okay, first let me say that I haven’t seen them before, but I’ve heard stories. And out in the more remote places you hear rumors. So this isn’t fact, got it?”
Sebastian nodded.
“They’re called cyborgs. Born normally, like you and me, but as you’ve just witnessed, they have machines and technology added to make them better—if you can call that better—and they’re all controlled by another central machine hidden away somewhere deep.”
“Part machine?” Sebastian recalled the small, intricate machines Mr. Stephenson had created. There was no comparison. “Where do they come from? And why are they chasing us?”
“There are stories of another time when there were a lot more people in the world. Something bad happened. We called it the Reckoning. We put too much trust in things most of us didn’t understand. Then we became dependent on those things. We became a great sea of mindless humanity shuffling from one place to another, unable to comprehend the complexity of life going on around us. We were given simple suggestions from one moment to the next.”
“Sort of like zombies.”
“Not really. A zombie is something that’s eaten a special plant that makes it more susceptible to hypnosis and mind control.”
“Is that why zombies eat brains? So they can get their minds back?”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Dr. Filbert snapped. “They’ll only eat brains if they’re told to. And it’s not as if they carry around the tools to do so. You’d need a decent bone saw, a scalpel for the skin, and a spoon.”
“What about salt?”
“Good grief, no. The brain’s already quite full of salts due to its acidic nature.” Dr. Filbert paused for a moment, scratching some abstract letters in the soil. “Why are we even talking about this? We need to focus and come up with a plan.” He picked u
p a stick and drew a rough map of the location. “I think we’re here.”
He pointed to a square in the mud. He drew a squiggly line a few inches from the square and pointed to the other side of the line. “There’s a small lumber community not far from here, about a half hour’s ride past the river. We can rest and gather some supplies there. Other than that, we must be a day’s ride from anywhere of note.”
“Tell me more about the Reckoning.”
Dr. Filbert sighed. “It was thousands of years ago. All we have are stories written and rewritten as the millennia passed. Who knows if any of it’s true?”
“Please. It’ll take my mind off things.”
Dr. Filbert looked into the boy’s sad, exhausted eyes and weakened. “All right, I’ll give you the abridged version, then we must get moving.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, the legend goes something like this. About a thousand years ago we lived in a time called the Information Age. Before that we had other ages like the Iron Age and the Bronze Age. Each age saw the development of mankind as we moved toward becoming more civilized.”
“What are we in now?”
“Please, no interruptions. But if you must know, I’d call it the Sensible Age. And so as we became more civilized, we found we had more free time. Then the population on Earth started to grow very quickly. Eventually there were billions of people on the planet with not much to do. So distractions were invented, which got smarter and more useful.”
Dr. Filbert cupped his hand around an imaginary device. He held it up and pointed it toward Sebastian. Sebastian thought back to the device he had seen, which seemed a mile away from something smart and useful that might provide fun distractions.
“These little devices became integral to the way everyone lived,” Dr. Filbert continued. “Each device would learn about their owner and predict what they would want to do next. Then the devices would communicate together to see what similar people would do and then recommend that to their owner. So in the end you had all these people all doing the same thing. In the end they couldn’t make any decision without their devices. Every part of the day was monitored. From what they ate, to who they talked to, who they should talk to, what they read, what they should read. Always suggesting. People became lazy. Eventually the suggestions became instructions.”
“I’ve seen them carry those devices. It’s like they carry their brain around on the outside. Was everyone like this?”
Dr. Filbert gave a small shrug. “Yes, until the huge disaster.”
He paused for dramatic effect. “No one’s sure what it was. It may have been a massive rock from the sky, or it could’ve been a planet vomiting, or even just the natural way of nature. Anyway, a great wave rose from one ocean and flowed over a couple of countries containing a vast amount of weaponry designed to poison the air and water. Something went wrong, a malfunction, and all these weapons zoomed around the world, targeting the densest population centers. Most were in the northern hemisphere. Down under, where we are, there were hardly any people, so hardly any weapons landed here. But there were enough to wipe out the major cities.”
“Is that where zombies come from?”
“Enough with the zombies. Hardly anyone survived. The people who were left split into two groups: those who rejected the devices—us—and those who couldn’t continue without them. We believe it was a warning. Never build something you can’t understand.”
Dr. Filbert scratched the stick idly in the soil. “For a thousand years those poor souls, the cyborgs, have been listening to those devices. Who knows what they’ve been telling them. Who knows what other machines the devices have developed.”
“But how did the cyborgs become part machine?”
“Maybe part machine is a bad phrase. The cyborgs have incorporated the latest technology around themselves and right into their bodies. It started simply enough. The devices had bits you could add on, like glasses. They could record what you saw; explain what you were looking at. It grew from there. Wearable devices that drowned wearers in so much information they couldn’t make any decisions. Maybe the devices suggested implanting the machines and the people followed along. Or maybe some big snakeskin salesman came along and told them it was what they had to do. A clever man with fancy words can sell anything, even a bad idea.”
“Who would do this?”
“There are names that are thrown around. Seth Pascal, Joshua Richards. You’ve probably heard people using their names when they’re angry. Or hit their thumb with a hammer. But they’re only stories.”
Sebastian nodded. “Mom said the Joshua name a lot. Usually when she was on her horse and other riders got in the way.” He placed his hands in his pockets. A look of surprise crossed his face. He pulled out the letter from his mother. He grasped it in both hands and stared at it.
“What is it?”
“It’s the only thing I have left from my mother.”
“A letter?”
He nodded. He opened the envelope carefully and extracted its contents. He unfolded the letter and read it quietly.
Dr. Filbert remained quiet until he had finished. “Anything you wish to discuss?”
Sebastian wiped a tear from his eyes. “It says she was …” he paused. “And she would always …” he paused again, unable to complete his sentence. He took a couple of deep breaths. “She says I should go to the academy and ask to see Nikola.”
“I assume she means the Steam Academy. It’s a long way from here.”
Sebastian started to rub his forehead as a mild headache eased its way into his mind.
“I could’ve gone to the academy,” Dr. Filbert said. “They asked me.” He looked up into the treetops. “I could’ve gone. But animals are better. They don’t break your heart then stab you in the back.”
Sebastian folded up the letter and carefully replaced it in the delicate envelope. He tucked it in the inside pocket of his tunic, next to his heart. His headache was getting worse.
“You all right?” asked the doctor.
“My head, it’s getting—”
5
SUDDENLY A BEAM of light lanced out of the forest, searing through the leg of the stallion. It shrieked in terror and collapsed to the ground, its eyes roaming wildly as life ebbed from it.
“My horse!” cried Dr. Filbert.
Out of the surrounding trees came a dozen cyborgs, encircling them, leaving no way out.
Sebastian held his head and tears ran down his cheeks. “The pain,” he whispered.
There was a hush as a silent wave rolled outwards. The black-clad men marched forward then slowed. They stood motionless. They looked from one to the other. One looked down at a thin black object in his hand. He shook the object and looked back to the others. He shrugged.
Sebastian fought against the pain, trying to remain conscious.
Dr. Filbert grabbed him as he began to fall, lifted him onto his shoulder and ran through the trees. “It’s you. You do something to them,” he shouted to Sebastian. “Do you know what it is?”
“No. My head hurts and it just happens.”
The doctor leapt through the undergrowth, ducking around the trees. His foot caught on a thick root and the two tumbled to the ground. Dr. Filbert struggled back to his feet, then reached down and hauled Sebastian up. They staggered off, with the bushes exploding around them.
They erupted out of the forest at the edge of a cliff. They teetered on the precipice and tried to regain their balance. They swayed above the hundred-foot drop. Dr. Filbert clutched at Sebastian as he hovered over the edge of the cliff.
Dr. Filbert saw that the great drop decreased significantly to the south and ran in that direction, dragging Sebastian along, looking for a way down. The branches of the trees whipped at them as they ran down the sloping ground.
A dozen yards ahead a cyborg appeared out of the undergrowth and stood facing them. They turned to escape. More were behind them. They were trapped. He picked up Sebastian and charged downhill, toward the lone cyborg. H
is footing gave way and the two tumbled over the edge and down the loose soil into the depths below.
Dr. Filbert clutched Sebastian to him as they tumbled downward. He dug the heels of his solid boots into the soil on the cliff face as they slid, trying to slow down their descent. He grabbed at the small plants that jutted out, until his hand was covered in blood. Then he lost his footing completely and they rolled down out of control, gaining speed. As the ground below the cliff approached, the doctor twisted as best he could and positioned Sebastian above him.
They crashed to the ground, with Dr. Filbert taking the brunt of the impact. Sebastian fell to one side, all the breath knocked from him. Critical seconds passed as the two lay in the pain and dirt. Sebastian rolled over onto his side.
The cyborgs had managed to find a way down. They were approaching from both sides. Sebastian remembered back to the first time he had seen one of their kind, dead in the water. The river lay only a dozen yards away.
He shook the doctor, who groaned. “Dr. Filbert, we must go.”
“I … can’t,” the doctor whispered. “You must … run.”
“Not without you. I don’t even know the way.” He grabbed the doctor’s arm and they crawled toward the river.
The black-clad men had caught up and were only within yards.
Dr. Filbert pushed Sebastian into the water. “Go. I’ll follow.”
Sebastian waded out into the water. He turned to check that Dr. Filbert was coming. The doctor was still on the bank. He had collapsed. He had been encircled by the cyborgs.
Dr. Filbert waved Sebastian onward. “Go!”
A cyborg stepped up to the doctor and shot a spear into his leg. The doctor screamed in pain. The cyborg started to drag Dr. Filbert away down the river. He screamed all the way.
Sebastian, with his head pounding, turned and continued across the river. He emerged onto the far bank, exhausted, and collapsed onto the wet sand. He looked back across the river.
As he watched, a large cyborg broke away from the group and took several paces back from the riverbank, methodically measuring the distance. He turned and faced the river. His legs hissed and panels rearranged themselves on his legs. He took long, heavy strides.
