Titus

by Caleb Byrnand

  “Now nothing. Not even a dog or a cat.”

  Rosita is unconvinced. “They’ve probably been evacuated. Nothing so sinister that it would eradicate household pets.”

  They follow the signs towards the relief station tentatively. Seeing no evidence of anything untoward taking place, Tony and Rosita begin to relax. Cap’n has not. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” It silences the two, even if it was them just trying to work out what she said.

  The final arrow points them to a large vacant block of land in the centre of town. A humanitarian relief station had been set up by the locals at some point in time; barrels of fuel, water, medical aide, tents and temporary shelters. Now it is the scene of a massacre. Hundreds of bodies have been torn apart and spread all over the compound, from what looks like a vicious animal attack. But animals don’t impale humans from ass to mouth with giant spears. Patches of ground sporadically decorated with brass bullet casings reflect the midday light. There is definite sign of resistance. But against what? Or whom?

  Tony bumps Rosita in the arm.

  “You were saying?”

  CHAPTER XIV

  Gloria

  The baby is awake in her arms. It would be feeding time soon but the end of the tunnel is near, and the group is not stopping for anything. When they start to pass graffiti and old mattresses they know they are getting close.

  The kerosene lanterns turned up full, the warm light carries to the end of the tunnel, reflecting off a steel ladder leading to the surface. Lucia and Julián race ahead with their two kids.

  Gloria slows her pace, leaving Matias in the middle. “Go. I’m going to wait for him.”

  Matias stops and waits for her to catch up. “But what if that thing…”

  “If it were still alive it would have caught up by now. By the same token, so would have Elias, but I have to believe for the sake of this little one he made it.”

  Julián has raced to the ladder and begins to climb. Gloria takes a seat on an old crate and pulls out a baby bottle and a thermos from the bag. Matias would love nothing more but to leave the tunnels but his loyalty lies with her. “I’ll wait with you. If Elias is injured, he may need help up the ladder.” Gloria appreciates this and proceeds to pour out warm milk from the thermos into Seth’s bottle. Looking into the child’s eyes as it feeds, she connects with the brand new lifeform. For a second the world is only as big as what she holds in her arms, nothing around her even registered but the child.

  I miss this.

  A ceiling hatch opens and light pours though. Julián climbs the final steps getting his head above ground level, “ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!” He frantically begins to climb down screaming, “Go down! Go down!” Descending the ladder at such a pace he knocks Lucia off her rungs.

  The world got bigger again.

  Matias jumps to his feet and rushes to Lucia’s aid as she picks herself up off the ground. Julián slides down the rest of the rungs, grabs their kids and starts powerwalking his way back down the tunnel. Gloria stands up to try and speak to him. “What was it?”

  Julián takes a few steps past her before terminating his retreat. He turns around with tears in his eyes, the shock and adrenaline running its course and now the realisation of what he saw hits him like a tidal wave, rendering him speechless.

  Matias climbs up the ladder and pokes his head out, reeling for a second but composing himself. “The Guardians have been here. A relief station, everyone killed. Hundreds of them.” He pulls his head in and climbs back down.

  Gloria calls back to him, “How recently?”

  “I don’t know, they weren’t saying much. What does it matter?”

  “Well maybe they’ve moved on. Our other option is to go back down the tunnel another twelve miles to the nearest exit and wait out the fire.”

  Lucia gets back to her feet and approaches her husband. “What if Elias didn’t kill that thing? It could be still down there.”

  Julián will not be budged. “No fucking way I’m going out there. Going back sounds good to me. Anyone who wants to join me, I’m leaving now.”

  Fear is beginning to dictate their actions, and Gloria could feel the group unravelling. “Wait. We are always going to have to look out for Guardians, no matter which way we turn. I can’t make you do anything but why don’t we all just stop for a minute and collect ourselves.” The group complies. The collective panic begins to calm.

  “Hello?” Cap’s thick American accent echoes from the hatch and down the tunnel, scaring the life out of everyone and undoing all of Gloria’s good work. “Is everything okay?” she continues. Her tone is non-threatening enough as not to exacerbate their anxiety any further, and curiosity in the group begins to rear its head.

  Matias knew the most English and is standing closest to the man hole. “Hello? Who is you?”

  The American voice calls out to someone before leaning back in the hole. “Hi, we saw someone pop their head up for a second. We’ve been on the road all week and haven’t seen another living soul in days. Me and my two travel companions just came into town. What happened here?”

  Matias looks to Gloria with a ‘what did she say’ expression on his face. His English is not that good. Time to improvise. “Is it safe?” he calls out.

  Cap’s voice replies with an air of uncertainty, “Um… yes? We haven’t seen anyone, ah, alive.”

  Gloria turns back to the couple. “You still want to go back down there?” Lucia has no intention of staying in the tunnel any longer but Julián holds her arm.

  Matias looks to Gloria before making an executive decision. “We need to stick together. If it’s safe, I’ll call you up. If you don’t hear from me, go.”

  “Good luck. We could use some.”

  Matias puts one foot on the ladder rungs and with a big smile says, “What are you talking about? We are the lucky ones.”

  As they watch him scale the ladder towards the daylight, Julián’s grip on his wife’s arm tightening. Gloria smiles back at him but is summoned by Seth with a forceful cry. The cry echoing down the tunnel generates an air of foreboding, and adds to the agony of waiting.

  Having reached the surface, Matias only just manages to hold down his breakfast at the sight before him. Never has he seen such anatomy. So much red, like autumn, without the beauty. Just the horror. Cap’n stands back waiting for her eyes to adjust and senses to settle. Tony and Rosita stand by their Cap’s side.

  Matias has some questions. “What happened here?”

  Tony is as clueless as Matias, “I have no idea. We just arrived.”

  Matias is sizing them up, his faith and trust in people is somewhat diminished with everything that’s happened, but they’re unarmed so that’s something. “I am Matias. Who is you?”

  Tony begins to smile. “My name? Sorry, how rude. Just with all this craziness… Hi. My name is…” As he is about to speak his name a hover plane comes in from nowhere and lands outside the relief station. Moments later a second hover plane lands inside the relief station mere meters from them. The landing gears destroy tents, tables, and further desecrate the dead. Tony has a genuine look of disbelief at what’s happening before him, but Matias thinks he’s been set up and throws a wild punch hitting Tony square in the jaw. He dives on the ground and pokes his head inside the manhole and yells down the ladder, “Run! Run! It’s not safe!”

  He needed not yell as everyone is standing at the foot of the ladder, staring down the tunnel as if they’re facing a gun barrel. Petrified. Seth’s wail ever increasing, Gloria holds him tight. Out of the shadows creeps the dirt and blood stained Guardian, looking very pleased with his find. Matias’s echo bouncing its way down the shaft.

  Took the words right out of my mouth.

  CHAPTER XIV

  Titus

  Flying high in the sky and mirroring the path of the road soars Titus. Hanging on tight is Jason, now fully conscious and jabbering away.

  “The time taken for a signal to travel from the premotor cortex
to the parietal lobe; that’s thinking of an action and preforming it, was too fast for a send-receive processor to intervene. Seeing as Mother works on the principles of Quantum Mechanics, a specific form of entanglement is used between Mother and an individual’s Atom chip. Having the processor and the carrier entangled allows for an instantaneous reaction time when administering deterrents, and this means we can stop crime before it happens. From domestic violence to high treason, the rich and poor, all will be dealt with on equal grounds. Cool huh?”

  Jason is nervous and talking helps to calm him. Or maybe he’s just really happy and talking non-stop is just a by-product. Either way, Titus is relieved when he sees a spattering of tin roofs of the edge of town reflecting the sun’s rays, indicating that they have arrived at their destination.

  “We’re here. For the love of God you can shut up now.”

  Jason is clearly very thankful, but before he can share it Titus stops dead, hovering hundreds of feet above the town. He scans the area carefully, like a predator sensing prey.

  “Can you sense something? What’s happen…”

  Titus blinks his eyes and Jason’s body goes limp. He did ask for silence. Free from distraction he puts out his feelers, sensing six very scared people underground. To his astonishment, Cap’n, Tony and Rosita are present are well. The biggest surprise is sensing Noah, but when he picks up on Dumachus and one other Guardian, it all becomes clear. Annoyed that he is being forced into confrontation again, he takes a breath and missiles himself towards the the centre of the relief station.

  CHAPTER XIV

  Gloria

  A rock and a hard place doesn’t even come close. People she trusts in the rear yelling to go forward, herself in the front yelling to go back. The hunter Guardian survived, and is covered in what she hopes is his own blood, looking like he’s been through the wars.

  But if he’s alive, then…

  Looking over the wide eyed and frozen group the Guardian stops on Julián, staring deep into his psyche. Julián fumbles under his shirt for a moment before pulling out a handgun by the barrel and throwing it past the Guardian down the tunnel. The Guardian smirks a little before directing his attention towards Gloria.

  She is obviously scared but doesn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it. “What do you want?”

  The Guardian takes ones step forward. “Where is he?”

  Elias lives!

  “We don’t know. I just assumed you both had died.”

  The Guardian is not satisfied with this answer. He holds up his hands and uses his telekinesis to rip Seth from her arms. “No!!!” she screams.

  The infant travels through the air and into the Guardian’s arms. Both Seth and Gloria are wailing, and the Guardian shushes them both. A gentle sadistic offering that fails to work on either.

  Something above ground gets his attention. Dumachus. Clearly frustrated at having failed to kill Elias, he is eager to conclude his business before his boss comes. Without taking his eyes off the child, he repeats himself. “Where is he?”

  Gloria pleads with him, “I don’t know. Please don’t hurt the baby.”

  The Guardian is slow and deliberate when he speaks. Foreboding and menacing. “Call him.”

  Gloria calls out down the tunnel, “Elias?”

  They wait a few seconds before the Guardian reiterates. “Call him.”

  Gloria yells down the tunnel, “Elias!”

  Without waiting for a response the Guardian raises the stakes. “The baby dies if he doesn’t show.”

  Gloria turns up her volume to eleven and screams, “Elias! Please, he’s going to kill…” She is interrupted when a massive impact from the surface shakes the walls, felling a fine veil of dust throughout the corridor. Everybody instinctively looks upwards despite not having x-ray vision. Including the Guardian. His guard is dropped for a second.

  “Bang!”

  CHAPTER XIV

  Dumachus

  His hunter Guardian is on the move and making good ground. The on-board navigation making adjustments and corrections, redirecting the two planes towards the small town of Lobos.

  The small two-hundred-year-old town nearly completely deserted, the planes are brought in and land in an abandoned relief station in the centre of town. Dumachus can sense Elias’s troop a few meters underground and another four individuals on the surface.

  The people scatter as his plane lands, and Dumachus gets his dramatic entrance, just how he likes it. The doors open and he steps into the largest installation of death he has ever witnessed. He thinks he may have over exaggerated the degree to which his entrance ranks on a scale of dramatics. Bodies tortured and desecrated beyond distinction, toyed with and experimented on. Dumachus had met the rogues close up but never really got to see their handiwork until now. He feels as justified as ever and can’t wait to see the look on Noah’s face. Noah is a successful agitator for the cause, and a true survivor, and because of this he has developed a soft spot for him.

  Noah’s plane lands and the side door automatically open. When he emerges from the side panelling it is not a look of defeat or surrender he sees, but one of absolute horror. He begins to dry retch and turns away from the sight as Dumachus meanders aimlessly, reading the lie of the land.

  Rogues were here. Seven of them. Three days ago. Matias is face down on the ground a few feet away from an open shaft where the group wait for Elias. Three lost sailors are taking refuge behind a tent… and arming themselves. Hold on…

  Titus comes tearing down from the sky, his landing like a meteorite impact. A landing that sends a shockwave out in every direction. One second later a gunshot can be heard coming from the open shaft, but it is not enough to distract his audience.

  Now that’s an entrance.

  Titus dumps Jason’s body on the ground and looks around in disgust. When Noah sees Titus he gives him the look that Dumachus had been waiting for. Failure.

  Dumachus dips his head to Titus. “I see you’re taking prisoners now.”

  “He’s not leverage. I’m simply returning him.”

  Jason starts to come to and meets Noah’s eyes, who doesn’t give him a welcoming reception.

  Dumachus has had his fill of Titus’s self-righteousness. “What a hero. You know I finally got you figured out. You’re looking for redemption. Thought you found it with the Church all those years ago but that wasn’t enough. You found it on the cross but the Church took that away from you. Then when you tried to take it out on the Church that only made things worse. So now you’ll try to find it in saving another. You can’t save Noah, so now it’s Elias right?”

  Jason turns to Noah and quietly asks, “Who’s Elias?” Noah just shrugs his shoulders.

  Dumachus fills Jason in, “He’s the one who took your plane.”

  Jason arks up, “He tried to kill me. Left me for dead!” Noah smiles at the hypocrisy.

  “I figured something out too. It’s not me that has laid a path of destruction behind them, but you,” says Titus.

  Dumachus looks around, pointing out the hundreds of dead bodies. “I’m sure the residents of Lobos would disagree. Besides, I haven’t come here to argue with you.” Dumachus holds out his hand to the side and a second later a harmonic oscillator flies out of his hover plane and into his hands. Without any hesitation he points the gun at Titus and fires, knocking him backwards and stripping him of his powers. “This is the end Titus. It’s not about you abandoning me on the cross, or your betrayal to the Church, or even your most recent endeavours… maybe it is, a little. But simply, I won’t allow you to be registered and fall under the protection of the Light, and we can’t have you running round unregistered either.”

  Titus tries to use his telekinesis but it is to no avail.

  “It won’t last long, but not to worry. Neither will you. Now you’re as vulnerable as these pathetic humans you’re so desperate to save.” Dumachus flicks his middle finger in Titus’s direction and a powerful energy hits Titus with such force his body fl
ies backward like a rag doll, falling and tumbling on the ground for dozens of meters. Dumachus drops the gun and stalks him.

  “And Elias is next.”

  CHAPTER XIV

  Elias

  “Elias!” Gloria’s screams. The desperation in her voice echoing down the tunnel.

  Not yet. The hardest part was staying quiet and patient, especially with the hunter threatening his son. Elias prayed for something to distract the Guardian, a diversion, anything…

  A huge impact from the surface shakes the walls and grabs everyone’s attention, including the hunter’s. His prayers answered. This was his moment.

  “Bang!”

  The bullet spins in mid-air millimetres from the Guardian’s head.

  Damn. He caught the bullet.

  As the Guardian calmly extends his arms and hands over the baby to Gloria, Elias hammers the floating bullet with the butt of his gun, cracking the Guardian’s skull and knocking him over. Before Elias can shoot him again he raises his arm in defensive, shooting out a wave of energy from his hands that incapacitates everybody in the tunnel. Everyone but Elias and the Guardian get back to their feet. The punishment Elias has received is taking its toll.

  The nanotech does quick work of the Guardian’s cranial fracture and he too is once again upright. He approaches Elias and stands over him. Looking down he growls, “Get up.”

  Elias slowly gets to his knees when the Guardian thrusts his hand over Elias’s forehead, causing his body to go stiff for a few seconds. The Guardian pulls his hand away and smiles. Elias slowly picks himself up and grabs his gun, and when he is on his feet he stares at his troop with a trance-like gaze.

  “Elias, what are you doing?” Gloria asks. He steps forward and raises the gun, pointing it at Seth. “No!” She screams as she turns her body away. Lucia steps forward to shield her, but Elias just looks right through her.