Höllenbadt: Book two of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  Chapter 21

  Winter closed in across the northern half of the United States, bringing snow, ice, and terrible winds for the next two weeks. Whilst people throughout the west suffered due to the Agents’ afflictions, so too were those in the east where cities and lives were drawn to a standstill, making for harsh conditions the authorities did nothing to ease. Where in previous times, they would ensure the on-going efficiency of society by responding to the weather and making it possible for people to continue their daily work live, they were simply disinterested now, leaving many to suffer and fall by the way side. It was becoming the severest winter of discontent since the Agent had begun to have influence, and even worse than the storms brought on by the authorities when they had used the HAARP installation as a weapon to battle the Agent.

  People froze in the west, deprived of energy to keep them warm, and people froze in the east without the systems being maintained by the authorities, now breaking down devoid of efficient operational maintenance. It was as if they did not care, and they didn’t. Their focus was on the Agent and so any lives lost were considered the price to pay for them to be able to reconstitute their grip on the nation as a whole. Foodstuffs were in such short supply with many outlets simply shut down when their stock ran out, forcing people to resort to behaviour almost mirroring the horrors of those afflicted by the Agent. And in the west, he sat in front of his amplifier sending out more and more viruses to make matters worse. Along the side of roads, inside of buildings, and between the sheets of ice layers, bodies froze, they fused, and they formed a sufferance of humanity, frozen until the seasons brought forth the thaw.

  In the skies over the great cities on the east, there still flew some of the machines of progress. Squadrons of military HyperJets streaked the skies in formations reminiscent of the ice crystals below, yet they were not of such elemental progression as the natural crystal formations, for they were deployed to control those who sought dissent brought on through hardship, and so similar to the Agent, the authorities began to completely disregard humanity, as they sent out their missions of destruction. Entire towns burned bright in contrast to the chilling white of the snows. Sectors of cities were marked as off limits and their tenements were blown to ashes. Gatherings were dispersed, their occupants sent to scatter in fear. Where once they were seen as their providers, now the authorities, were seen for what they had always intended to be, as the disgracing of the fundamental values to which people had ascribed, for the sake of power, and for control. Such was the impact of the Agent through his viruses that all real living had almost ceased for the people, their survival no longer seen as efficient. Those in power had their minds solely set upon victory over their adversary, and then they could build their machine world again, in a new form, and in a new shape. There was one thing and just one man who knew the secret they desired, and so they began to make plans to find him, to take him, and to use him. As he sat in the barn with his friends, John was again being made as the target of their objectives, and in time, he would also become know again by the Agent, as the one to fulfil the intentions of oppression held by him and the minions of his dark sect.

  At the fringes of the uplands to the west, the state of Nebraska was influenced heavily by winter, with the farm becoming inundated and ice bound, keeping the three adults and Frieda, restricted to life inside the barn. Conditions stipulated they be mindful of their supplies, forcing them to ration the food and the fuel for the sake of bare survival, as no let up was evident. Tobias had tried his holographic projector a few times to see if there was any news about the weather, however, broadcasts were limited to a few items advising there was no reprieve in sight for the next few weeks.

  News was increasingly becoming difficult to obtain as the authorities in the United States placed further restrictions upon citizens. The use of holographic phones was restricted to communications only in places where they had isolated their systems from attack by the Agent. Using any device for any other purpose was now strictly forbidden, so news from other nations was virtually non-existent. Nations across the globe were implementing similar restrictions as they too reigned in the operations of their vast networks, to only service what they regarded as essential for the limited functioning of society.

  But the Agent knew no bounds as he sent his virus attacks out across the network of transmission under his control. Fortunate for him, but not so for the authorities or his victims, the central systems established in the years leading up to the identification chip implementation, had seen vast capacities realised where data could traverse the globe in seconds from almost any location to another. And he continued to use the network – again and again sending out viruses to bring about suffering. His motives were to bring them all to their knees and then to gain an upper hand where he could make inroads into places not under his control and this included breaching the dividing fence across the United States. He sent his minions to gather up those afflicted so grotesquely and then to bring them in vast quantities inside transport vehicles, to his Seattle base of operations. Inside transport jets he placed them, and then gave the orders for their re-distribution into the eastern sector. Showing no remorse, he then enjoyed in his way of doing so, the visions relayed back to him as his squadrons ventured into eastern airspace where they dumped the masses – individuals and those joined through atomic meld were thrown out of the jets to fall to the cities below in a rain of horror…for his reign of horror.

  Bombardment was his new weapon to aid the spread of dis-easement and the spread of dismay. For many below, the clusters of twisted humanity suddenly cascading from the skies, made them fearful of being outside, and it made the authorities care even less for many places they had already considered inefficient to their goals. The Agent knew no ends, yet he sought an end. He knew nothing of what it was to hold compassion, nor did he care, for to consider such a thing was never within his constitution. And too, he held no regard for constitution, as such was his intentions to bring horror, oblivion, and deliver futility as his spectre that he had lost all sense of who he ever may have been.

  There was no more George Smyth, Agent Eight from authority central, under the command of superiors. He regarded himself as superior, yet he struggled with the true meaning of such notion. His megalomania was his character in each and every breath, and he laughed his way, toiled with the holographic controls for his vortex amplifier, and then marvelled at how destructive his beast could be. At times, he would seek to further this act of vengeance spending time gazing at the two horned Torus suspending the ringed Torus between them, looking for answers and wondering what it would be like if they were held at the brink of flux, in stability. He would engage himself, so inward he was…as was his viruses, and yearn for a time where it would stop its’ flickering, and deliver a splendid apparition of eternal nothingness to his soulless endeavours. But for most, he was far too distracted to care, far too distracted to think, and far too distracted to know that he held a vital key within his compound – a key to enliven the beast into complete furore, where he would be able to dispense with this world at will.

  Carmel stood beside him in witness of his latest measures of attrition, for he wanted her to show him her difficulty with such things. He wanted to slowly break her, as she had done to him all those years ago. And he wanted to then make her suffer at his hand, where her acts of condescendence toward him, would not compare to the hatred coursing through his veins.

  “Show me some blood you fools,” he suddenly yelled at the holographic images showing on the array before them. “I want to see the fluid of their lives wash down the drains of degradation. I want to see their essence be cast into the filth and the mire of their remains. I want to make them all nothing...”

  “Shut up you sick…sick…oh what is it you are called?”

  “Yes my former superior, I am sick. And…I am becoming sicker. Why? Don’t you like it? Are you not impressed with how I can dismember them? How I can tear at their very souls? Oh please, do n
ot hold back. Please tell me of your distaste, for upon that I will feed. I am distaste and soon enough, you will be like those others whom I hold deep below this factory. And in there, I will machine and shape you all to be delivered unto me, as my minions. For, I am sorry to say, there is simply nothing you, or they, can do about it. So it is your end to meet at my end, and at my end, there will then be nothing. I care not for the world I once aspired to under your orders. I am beyond caring even for the coldness of the authorities. They are nothing compared to me, and their feeble measures of compliance will be without relevance soon.”

  “Don’t count on it. Some will push, some will be strong, and they will challenge you. You appear to want domination, yet you care not for anything. You are disgusting.”

  “And so are you with your pathetic love for things, and your pathetic caring for those who are barely alive. Now watch as I take yet another step towards this end that lurks so very near.”

  He engaged the array once more and sent out a new virus he had been working on for the past few days. It was unlike any he had sent previously, for it struck at the authorities and at their machines with more effect than at any previous time. His holographic imagery relayed the impacts back to them as they stood watching. The matte black high-rise buildings collapsed and crashed to the ground killing people outright. Machines became dysfunctional causing mayhem, with the largest impact being upon those for processing and manufacturing foodstuffs. “Now they will starve,” he said, and then he broke into his familiar manic laugh. After a minute, he turned to Carmel, “And so will you! Take her to that room with the others so they can all share in their demise together,” he said indicating to a person standing at the doorway. “And don’t let them have any light for five days. By then I will have prepared my machines for them.”

  Inside the room, it was pitch black to the naked eye of normal sight, but to those inside, there could see an filed of aura around each other. Chan had instructed them on how to focus on their auras as a means to counteract their long periods of being held in darkness, and so each of them could see the light of each other at the time Carmel was sent to their room. As she entered, they all felt a simultaneous uplifting in their spirits – a moment Chan had told them would come soon. Since their initial contact when the Agent had shown them to her, Chan knew Carmel would be returned. He saw as it as the elemental natural flow of progression, which was something the Agent was entirely unaware of, and yet, he was to provide for though his ignorance. The moment she entered, they remained in silence, bringing her into their circle of light to welcome her and embrace her essence.

  Carmel was of similar feeling, as she had spent most of her time concentrating on the group of five since their first contact. Immediately and without word, she sat with them, embracing their love and their visions of light. She focused on giving to them as it was her way to give, and they could sense the resurgence of strength she offered. When it came time for them to finally speak to each other, it was not a discussion of the past, and it was not a discussion of what was happening in the world outside – it was a discussion of progression.

  “His mind is so very loose and distracted from any connection to his heart,” Chan said. “He is and will be his own undoing and now he has sent you here Carmel, as a means to bring this about. His senses are not aligned with the intentions of progression and so he thinks only through his mania, and by doing such things, he is devoid of all that will see him struggle eternally with his issues.”

  “He thinks that by making us weak and by making us desperate, of which we are not, that he will be able to control those he does not understand and through this misalignment and desire to control, he will overlook the connection to all that suffices to bring about change. It is then with this change, where he will be brought to reckon with his own self, and be brought to reckon with his deeds.”

  “We are not alone Chan,” Carmel replied.

  “Indeed, for there are many who will be ready to awaken from the darkness he pervades upon them. There will be many who are willing to listen once again to their hearts, and there will be just one who is the most instrumental to bring about this awakening. He has others who aid his cause, to him and them, as yet somewhat unknown. And together they will arrive to us.”

  “You are speaking of John aren’t you?”

  “Yes Carmel. I speak of John. I speak of his very being as the representative of the spirit and the will to awaken, and I speak of how he is to instigate this through his actions…as he has often done so in the past, the present, and will do so in the future. All of these times align, despite their seeming to be in lineal passage, for the nature of intentions in their true elemental state is one not bound by such passage, for they are congruent in lateral alignment and they contain all spirit.”

  “The Agent told me that you are all so very weak and would be unable to understand me if I spoke to you on that day.”

  “He is blind through his ways, for you spoke very clearly to us when he presented us to you, and it is through these actions, the Agent was polarised in his very intentions where he sought to endear suffering, yet he did precisely the opposite. We have strength as you can feel – a strength he cannot understand. Our bodies may be weak, but our hearts remain strong in feeling, for the Agent cannot afflict us through his efforts with starvation of both light and food.”

  “We will have to escape from this place.”

  “Yes. John will help.”

  “I know. The day I was captured, he gave me a look of such determination that I was confident in his strength to find us and avoid the guile of the Agent.”

  “So very true Carmel. An appropriate choice for both yourself and for him. Such communications can be the strengths of indication leading to the response through actions of those very intentions elemental in nature and therefore of progression in return to the aligned position.”

  Chapter 22

  By the time the arduous winter conditions had eased with sufficient thaw to allow passage, John and the others had taken to driving the vehicle at night as fast as they could manage towards Jamestown. They broke through the fence in the same way they had near Omaha, and then had driven onward underneath the transit way through Bismarck, for travel then on to Montana. Driving though the mountains had been difficult due to the amount of snow and ice, but their use of a snowplough blade the two men had fashioned from some old metal before they left the farm, had been adequate to get them through. After five days in the western sector driving at whatever time of their choosing, they had made it through the mountains and had stopped to make a plan of attack, at Spokane in Washington State.

  Kerry Ann was tending to Frieda as Tobias and John discussed what they would do when they approached the Agent’s lair at the jet manufacturing plant.

  Considering the nature of horses and their propensity to being flighty and nervous at times, Frieda had done well endured along with the adults, as she rode in the modified rear section of their vehicle, where she could stand up or lie down, depending on her choice. Now as she grazed outside the shed where they had decided to hide, she was as content as any horse when left to roam a field of ample grass supply. Kerry Ann was walking with her and supplied a good number of comforting words and the occasional pat in reassurance. Their hideout was in a valley to the west of the town, where the steep sides shielded them from both the incursion of bad weather, and also provided only one access point through a small canyon. They had considered this aspect of the natural geography as an advantage, should anyone try to come visit, or worse still, invade.

  Conditions in the western sector had continued to rapidly decline under the Agent, but in one way, this helped them as many had become unable to move about, from both the wintry conditions, and their state of physical health. When Kerry Ann grew tired of walking the fields and had considered Frieda to have settled in sufficiently to feel at home, she walked her back to the shed, to join the two men. Kerry Ann was not much of the mind to tackle concepts of technology
or strategy. She did hold the will to survive, and to hold dear to those she saw as trustworthy and genuine – both of which she could feel strongly from her companions. Despite this lack of input to the objective ahead of them, she considered herself to have an important role, which both men agreed upon. They felt for her as a close friend and as someone who was decent in giving, willing to plunge into uncertainty for the sake of decency, and a person who could handle logistics quite well.

  “How is Frieda?” John asked seeing her return with Frieda following behind.

  “She’s great honey. It’s good there are some open fields here free of snow. I’m sure she feels right at home. What are you guys doing? Are you hungry?”

  “Um, just some technology work, and yes, I am’” John replied with Tobias nodding in agreement.

  “Good! I’m starving, but don’t you go start thinking I’m here to fix you meals.”

  “Never Kerry Ann. Hey I’ll fix some food if you like,” Tobias offered. “I think John can work alone for a while.”

  “Sure Tobias. I’ll help you though.”

  As they sat eating a dinner of wild vegetables, some berries, and the last of the truffles Tobias had found, they talked about what lay ahead. John was intent on letting Kerry Ann know the full details of the plans he and Tobias had begun to work on. “Tobias and I are going to scope out the facility at Seattle. It should take us about two weeks. When we are there, I am going to take a few scanner readings to see what systems the Agent has in place. Tobias will help with some of that, as well as keep an eye out for anyone and anything.”

  “So you would like me to stay here and take care of things?”

  “Yeah, that’s what we thought. This place is a good base for us and we are going to have to rely on you to keep it that way. Without you, we would be out in the open in a way.”