The Overlord: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

by Jared Paul

  The cougher wailed in a panic, "Where did he go?"

  "Look out!" It was too late by the time his petrified friend had slipped out the frightened warning.

  A couple shots fired throughout the room. As to who the shooter was or who was being shot at, I didn't know, but soon, all that remained was the muffled wail of two dying men. Their struggles were over within a few moments and the thin man that was still hiding before me let out a deep breath. I tried to decipher if it was a sigh of relief or a heap of nerves.

  The outcome of who had been killed and who had lived became apparent as Dr. Deadstock finally broke the silence of the room he had just cleared out. He grunted out in pain. It was almost a scream. At first, I thought he might be wounded. Unlikely, since it seemed almost impossible for him to sustain any kind of mortal damage. Yet, something was hurting him all the same.

  The frail man in the doorway then slid down his bandana and lifted up his googles onto his forehead, revealing a face warped from the effects of radiation. The distorted man then paced into the room. I heard the click of the Dragon's Throat being raised up to meet the intruder. Just as Deadstock was about to shoot the man, he quickly lowered his sidearm in surprise.

  "Choke?" Deadstock was both astonished and in disbelief.

  The mystery man's identity was made known. It was Dr. Chokeberry. During the Last War, if it was Zero that served as the Overlord's right-hand man, then Chokeberry could have surely been called his left. He was alive, not dead despite popular rumors, but what was he doing on Fever Island?

  With the frail doctor away from me, I was finally able to shuffle around on the floor and peer through the entrance for a closer look. Squatting, I discovered that the room beyond was actually an enclosed command center. The control room was grungy and bleak, full of clutter and garbage. Three-sided, there were wide observation windows stretching across from every corner.

  "I thought you were dead," exclaimed the Overlord.

  "Unless you’re a ghost, Doctor, I must be dead." Chokeberry stood frozen in awe.

  Deadstock reassured him, "It's me, Choke. I'm really here, but why are you here?"

  "I could ask you the same thing," his old friend timidly replied with a cautious step forward.

  The Overlord took note of Chokeberry's distorted face and his thin frame. "You barely look alive. What's going on here? What is this place?

  The somewhat idiosyncratic man elaborated as he paced throughout the room, "The badlands became my dominion after you left Earth. I found myself on the opposite side of the same coin that we once shared. I am the Underlord to your Overlord. I am the liberator of the wasteland and its secrets that humanity thought it could forget. This is where our creations have survived, Doctor. Here, I have advanced the Blood Tech further than you ever could. I have perfected the technology. Now, a single drop of blood can power a whole city. The Spider's Shield you just brought down could've been powered for years, maybe more, all from one drop."

  Deadstock seemed confused, "How's it possible that you’ve managed to create the Blood Tech all over again without the control of the Wandering Star?"

  "I haven’t," Chokeberry corrected. "The Blood Tech hasn’t been recreated, just new applications for it. I still had to wait for you to come back with the Wandering Star in order turn everything on. It all feeds off of you, but while I've been waiting for your return, I've kept myself busy. I’ve been building. This domain is where science has prevailed. Welcome to Fever Island, Doctor."

  "Choke, nothing good can ever come from the Blood Tech," sighed Deadstock. "Whether it's a drop of blood or a river, bloodshed is bloodshed. It has to stop. It’s too dangerous. The technology we created is a crime, not only against all of humanity, but to any living organism with a beating heart and flowing veins."

  "You're one to preach," snarled Chokeberry with a set of yellowy black teeth.

  The Overlord bickered back, "I’ve changed a lot since we last saw each other, Choke, but I see you’ve only gotten worse. I've been told your islanders, the Echoes, have been terrorizing the world’s attempt to restore itself.

  "Do you always believe everything people tell you?" he asked Deadstock.

  "I believe you might be a terrorist," gravely responded the Overlord.

  "Says the former dictator of Earth," quipped the frail man.

  Deadstock crossed his arms and leaned up against the clutter of a nearby control panel as he expounded, "The difference between a doctor and a dictator is that one strives to create a solution while the other merely destroys them. I was a dictator once, but not anymore. I’m just a doctor now. What are you?"

  Chokeberry considered the dilemma with a weary look in his eyes, then bit back with a question of his own, "What exactly is your purpose here on my island?"

  "In my exile, I’ve learned that sometimes to create something new, it must first be destroyed. That's why I'm here. I've come back to Earth for a final favor. I went looking for you, but you were nowhere to be found. Everyone told me that you were dead. Now that I've found you, though, I need your help."

  "I was wondering how the Thralls could've snuck past my defenses," Choke spitefully spewed out. "You brought them here!"

  "There's no way I could have known that Fever Island was your facility, let alone that you were even alive," defended the Overlord. "I did what I had to do to find out what's really going one here on this planet. I can't trust anyone else, but I can trust you. Good people died today in my pursuit for the truth of all this and I won't let it go to waste. The Blood Tech must be destroyed."

  "All I want is peace, Doctor." Chokeberry crazily veered up to Deadstock face to face. "I am already trying to help humanity free itself from its own chains as you always have."

  A weighty aura then overcame the Overlord. "War and terror are not the roads to peace, Choke. Peace can't be found through anything that we can possibly create. Those who claim to have achieved such peace have merely given in to an illusion of it. Peace can only be found through saving someone else, a life for a life in free will. I'm not about to pay for that peace with anyone else's life, only my own. All I want is to keep mankind alive, to give them hope. I don’t want the people to merely survive. I want them to live."

  Choke bobbed his head in passive agreement. "You make a strong case, but I've got to confess to you that my mind has already been poisoned with a different idea. It's Commander Zero. He's a master manipulator. Whatever he's told you about this place, whatever reason you're all here, it's probably not the truth. Zero's been behind everything about this place since the beginning. He's been commissioning all of my research in this facility while you've been gone. The primary goal was to figure out how to extract the Wandering Star, when and if we finally found you."

  "What?" Deadstock's purple eyes widened. "Why would he do that?"

  "For your road to peace," Choke clarified. "Zero believes that peace can only be achieved when every last person on this planet has bent their knees to a single cause and order, and that those who refuse must die. The Commander's been preparing the Thralldom to unite the rest of the world under a false messiah."

  "The Space Wizard of the Evening Galaxy," Deadstock connected.

  "Also known as you," said Choke gravely. "For now, anyway."

  The Overlord confronted, "Do you actually believe this deception will bring peace?"

  Chokeberry hesitated, "I don't know."

  Deadstock inquired back, "Then why are you helping him?"

  The sickly man confessed, "It'd been nearly twenty years since you departed from this planet. Without you here, it was like you weren't real anymore. You were just some story that people talked about. I didn't mean to betray you, but you weren't here. I had to reach for whatever hope I could see."

  "Somehow, I don’t think Commander Zero lines up with whatever idea we call hope," judged Deadstock. "What exact role is Zero having you play in his blasted prophecy?"

  The frail man informed in a despairing tone, "Zero wants the heart of the Blo
od Tech, the control piece inside of you to carry out his plan. Without the power of the Wandering Star, he won’t be able to wage a successful war against the Free World. He tasked me with finding a way to get it out of you, and I'll warn you right now, Doctor, I've found a way. The Thralls have kept their eyes up on the heavens for any sign, hoping to catch you and bring you back to Earth. In returning to this planet by your own accord, you have given them exactly what they've always wanted. You should've kept within the starlit darkness. You should not have come back."

  Perplexed, Deadstock asked, "I can understand why he would want to use the Wandering Star's energy for making war, but why would he use me as the image behind his savior, this Space Wizard? He would've known that I'd never want to take part in any of his manipulations."

  "Oh, but you already have, Doctor," ominously declared Chokeberry. "Even if you were to die, the idea behind the Space Wizard would still remain. Zero foretold that the Wizard would arrive carrying peace and power within him. You see, you're not really the savior that the Thralldom is looking for. It's what's inside of you that they're looking to. The wielder of the Wandering Star could be anybody from anywhere and it wouldn't affect the prophecy that's already been set in place."

  The Overlord probed, "If not me, who's Zero got lined up for the job? Himself?"

  Choke was inconclusive, "It could be Zero. It'd make sense. He certainly likes to draw attention to himself, but it's really just a game he plays. He's a plotter who's never been known for being straightforward about anything. At all times, Zero's got one hand behind the scenes. Personally, I believe he's molding this savior role for someone else, someone he could easily use as a puppet."

  "I wonder who that could be," mused Deadstock.

  "You'll have to find that out for yourself," regretted Choke. "There's no real way of knowing. Some secrets he keeps only for himself and that is where my knowledge ends. In all honesty, I could be wrong about all of this. As I said before, Zero is a master manipulator. There's no way to tell what he really wants or why he'd want it. We all just to have to wait to find out."

  "Not if I can help it." Deadstock then placed a comforting hand on his feeble friend's shoulder. "You've told me all that I need to know. We've got to take action now, together."

  Choke swayed, "What is that you think I can do for you?"

  "Many years ago, you helped put the Wandering Star inside of me," presented Deadstock. "At the time, it was the only way to keep it safe and out of the wrong hands, but I'm not interested in preserving its power anymore. I need your help to take it out. You told me that you've found a way. I want you to do it and then I want you to help me destroy it."

  Choke wavered, "Destroy it? Such sad words!"

  "You said you sought peace," implored the Overlord. "We can't create it, but we can destroy the one thing that stands in its way. Now is your time to truly help achieve the dream, the reality of peace. No more bloodshed. Please, we don't have much time. Not too long ago, I told Zero exactly where I was. He could be here any second."

  Chokeberry argued, "Even if I took it out of you, what makes you think it can be destroyed?"

  "You've got to have something in these piles of junk," he stimulated, propositioning to the clutter of the control room. "I know you, Choke. You always got a failsafe nearby. You've never been known to create anything without first having a way to destroy it."

  Choke rubbed his hands over his long patchy hair. "There is something, but it's not ready yet."

  Deadstock deducted, "The Plague of Phantoms? Zero brought me all the way out here under the belief that there's a massive weapon being built somewhere on this island, something that could destroy even the likes of me."

  "You're on to something with that, but like I said, it's not ready yet." Choke then raised up a forgotten point, "Why can't you just do it yourself? The Blood Tech is linked to the Wandering Star which, in turn, is linked to your own blood. Together, it's all indestructible, expect from the inside. If you're so adamant on destroying the Wandering Star, why don't you just kill yourself and be done with it? All you have to do is cut off the life force of your own cells."

  The Overlord contradicted, "Suicide is not an option, assisted or otherwise. I'm incapable of doing that."

  Choke challenged back, "Even for the good of humanity?"

  Deadstock returned, "Instead of righting a wrong, it'd just be making one worse. I can't do it. Furthermore, I've actually tried before. I don't condone the attempt, but I failed. The Wandering Star brought me back to life. I can be killed, that's certain, but not as long as this thing is still inside of me. Destroying it won't work from within."

  Chokeberry comforted, "Oh, I see. I understand, Doctor. It's alright. It won't ever have to come to that again. Not after this."

  "After what?" Deadstock dolefully queried.

  Ignoring the question, Choke swung open his smock and revealed two peculiar gauntlets hanging from his belt. He slid his hands into the braced gloves and lifted them up. Lights turned on all about the wrists and fingertips as a whirring sound loudly reverberated from the palms. The glowing gauntlets were beautifully crafted and sleek in design, a contrast to the filthy scrap of the wretched surroundings.

  Warily, Deadstock glanced at them. "What in the whole Milky Way are those?"

  "Behold, Doctor, my latest creations," said Choke emphatically. "These are the gauntlets of humanity, made solely to take back what you have stolen from us all."

  Dr. Chokeberry had suddenly turned for the worse, seemingly betraying his old friend once and for all. Whatever it was that had made him snap, he looked up at the Overlord with a malevolent grin from the madness inside of him. The gauntlets began powering up and he stretched his arms outward. His fingers clenched as if grabbing for something in the air.

  Against his will, Deadstock was levitated up off of the floor. He was floating helplessly in midair. It was as if a strange flowing presence was coming from out of the gauntlets, somehow latching itself onto the Wandering Star that the Overlord kept inside of him.

  "Choke, don't do this," the immobile Overlord pleaded. He shivered in pain as he slowly began to pixelate in place, on and off. I couldn't tell if it was a side effect of the gauntlets or if he was trying to break free with a weave.

  "I can't let you destroy what we created," howled Chokeberry. "I helped you build it and I won't see its end, not while I'm still alive. Everything that we've lost, we can rebuild with the power that's inside of you. Who needs true peace when the whole world can be ours? It almost was. We came so close with the Last War. It was a necessary war. The cleansing of the earth was almost complete. A few more moments was all we needed to control the whole planet, but you stole that chance right from under us. I didn't realize it back then, but it was the only hope for us all. I won't make the same mistake twice. I'm sorry, but this is the last chance we've all got!"

  Barely able to get his words out as he hovered over the floor in agony, Deadstock slowly reached out to his old friend, "Dictators and doctors, remember? What's it going to be, Choke? Are you going to be a dictator or a doctor?"

  An inner battle was then waged through the insanity of Chokeberry's heart and mind. He yelled out as if the inner turmoil was bring physical pain upon him. His green eyes looked away as tears began filling up and dribbling down. Finally, Choke deactivated the gauntlets and Deadstock fell onto the floor.

  "Forgive me." Choke's hands dropped down to his sides in surrender. The storm had settled within him as he plummeted to the ground in complete exhaustion.

  The Overlord got to his feet, walked over to Choke, and lent him a hand. "Consider yourself forgiven, just as long as I can have your forgiveness too."

  "Forgiveness for what?" Choke asked in defeat.

  "For not being a good friend," Deadstock revealed.

  "You can't blame yourself for my choices, but my forgiveness is yours all the same," Choke said as he threw off the gauntlets from his wrists and extended a hand. The two then embraced in a long o
verdue handshake.

  Deadstock then reverted to the immediate issue, "I don’t know how I'm going to keep the power out of Zero's hands since you're strategy to destroy the Wandering Star isn’t ready yet. Your weapon, how soon can you have it operational?"

  Chokeberry corrected, "The designs for the Plague of Phantoms are already finalized. All that remains is for the weapon to be built."

  The Overlord put forth, "How positive are you that it can put an end to all this?"

  "Absolute confidence," confirmed Choke. "It's what it was designed to do, to eliminate all of the Blood Tech through the destruction of the Wandering Star."

  "Of course," Deadstock said as a realization came over him. "Zero came all the way out here to nab the one thing that could destroy his master plan."

  Choke grew solemn, "Working for Zero, I designed the Plague of Phantoms beyond his council. When he caught wind of its creation, he wasn't at all pleased to hear that I was building a failsafe to his plot. He dialed down a radiation rifle's blast down to survivable effects and nearly burned me alive as a reminder for what I did." The frail man draped his fingers across his mutated face.

  "I'm so sorry, old friend," consoled the Overlord. "It seems that I don't know much about Zero as I should. Actually, I'm not sure that I know much about anybody anymore."

  With that, Deadstock cried out unexpectedly and grasped onto his own side, to which Choke inquired, "What is it? Doctor, what's wrong?"

  Deadstock clarified as he caught his breath, "Just an old wound that's come back to haunt me. It's nothing."

  His old friend pressed in, "It's from the Last day of the Last War, isn't it?"

  There was no response. At least none that I could see or hear, anyway. In the silence, I assumed the Overlord was nodding to confirm.

  "If you don't know much about anybody anymore, it's because there's a lot that's been kept hidden from you." Chokeberry went on, "Tell me exactly what you saw right before you left Earth. What can you remember that day?"

  Deadstock exclaimed, almost agitated, "You know well what happened, Choke!"