Virtual Immortality

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Don’t even get him started.” Eldon laughed. “Zombies. Hah.”

  An hour later, they broke away from the traffic stream towards the nearest exit gate approach. Joey sank into the seat as the truck picked up speed and left the vagrant behind. It was rare for anyone to drive down this road.

  “No traffic here?” Katya mused.

  “No one wants to live this close to the gate. First place the Badlands nasties will destroy when they break through.” Kenny laughed. “Course, most of the stuff out there is happy staying out there. I think the wall is more to keep us in.”

  Ominous bulges swelled out of the wall every five hundred yards or so, laser turrets aimed into no man’s land. Weapons poised to incinerate the army of cybernetic mutants that, so far, had never materialized.

  The truck came to a halt within the checkpoint and two Division 1 officers approached.

  “Morning Mr…” The officer looked down at his armband display. “Marlon.”

  “Howdy.” Kenny tipped his hat.

  The patrol officer swiped his hand, moving through a few different screens from an armband display. “What is the purpose of your excursion?”

  “Artifact hunting, same as always.” Kenny smiled.

  “Number of people leaving?”

  “Five.”

  “Just for the record, you acknowledge that the UCF government is in no way responsible for injury or death that occurs as a result of your presence in the Badlands. You further acknowledge that in the event you contract any diseases or maladies deemed a menace to the general population you may be detained upon re-entry for quarantine purposes.”

  “Yeah…” Kenny closed his eyes; he had heard this routine so often he had to fight the urge to mouth the words.

  “Furthermore, you acknowledge that your vehicle and possessions are subject to scan and search upon your return. Dangerous biological or chemical contaminants will…”

  Kenny finished his sentence. “Not be allowed into West City and are subject to confiscation with appropriate fines.”

  The cop smirked. “Notice you have a female among you. You know that certain parties trade in women out there?”

  “Yeah, we’re hoping to trade her in for a pair of redheads,” said Joey, winking.

  Katya glared, muttering in Russian. “You can try.”

  “We aren’t going anywhere near those areas. Besides, I have an Eldon.” Kenny indicated his friend with a backward thumb.

  Eldon waved. “Morning Corporal.”

  The cop glanced at the marks on Eldon’s armor and chuckled. “Morning Corporal.”

  “Well you seem to know the drill, I just need your thumbprint here and you’re welcome to go get yourself shot.” The officer held a datapad over to Kenny who promptly pushed his thumb into the glowing square. “Good luck out there.”

  With the red tape out of the way, the inner gate thrummed closed with the heavy resounding crash of metal on metal. The outer barrier sank into the Earth, revealing a long stretch of old paved road. It led off into the desert of old Nevada, flanked on both sides by empty ground broken up by the occasional stalwart tuft of vegetation. A few scorch marks dotted the landscape wherever a bored turret operator had vaporized some unfortunate small animal. The truck bounced over the housing of the outer door and Kenny accelerated up to about sixty.

  He leaned back in the seat, his smile widened across his face. The old allure of the Badlands came to him this time, unburdened by guilt about leaving his daughter behind. She had given him her blessing for this trip; as much it disappointed her, she knew he only did it to help Joey. He poked at a display screen in the center of the dashboard, bringing up the navigation map and plotted the route.

  With that done, Kenny settled in for a long ride. “Gonna take anywhere from eleven to fourteen hours to get there.”

  Centuries ago, the ride would have been a third of that. Nature had reclaimed much of the area in the wake of the Corporate War. Roads and bridges deteriorated and in some cases disappeared altogether. Other places contained populations of dangerous bioengineered creatures.

  The heavy vehicle trundled on through the scrub brush and kicked up the occasional piece of debris as he drove the most direct route that they could risk. After several hours, they approached the foothills and Kenny brought the truck to a stop.

  He opened his door without killing the engine. “Nature break.”

  Knowing looks were exchanged, and soon all four men had lined up like a firing squad to water the same patch of ground. Katya stood a few feet behind them with her arms folded. She looked around for a place that would give her some privacy, but found the same flat nothingness in every direction. The largest puff of vegetation in sight would not have concealed an infant.

  Joey glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Hey Eldon, What do the girls do in the Marine Corps?”

  Eldon chuckled. “Well first, there ain’t no girls in the Marines. The women would be right up here with us. When you’re in the shit together it don’t matter, a Marine is a Marine no matter what’s between their legs.” Eldon grinned at the look on Joey’s face. “You’d have gotten your ass kicked more than once.”

  “Would they be trying to hit the bush?” Joey chuckled.

  “I ain’t even gonna to dignify that with a response, Joe.”

  “Oh to hell with you all.” Katya glared.

  “Just hide behind the truck.” Kenny spoke without looking.

  She slinked off, around the vehicle out of sight.

  “Yell when you’re decent, so I can break out some of the rations to munch on.” Kenny called out to her as he finished.

  She did not answer.

  “Guess she doesn’t like working with an audience.” Joey spoke loud enough for her to hear him.

  “Die.” Her response floated over the truck.

  A moment later, she walked into view, adjusting her armor back into place. Masaru had bought her some civilian-grade composite plate; the same sort of thing used by cavalry scouts and vehicle operators, only dark grey instead of theater-appropriate camo. Joey snickered at her obvious unfamiliarity with it, earning a glare without comment. Kenny handed out rations, giving everyone a pouch of protein slime flavored in various ways.

  Eldon looked at his and grumbled. “Fuck the omelet. Anyone wanna trade?”

  “Hell no.” Kenny chuckled. “Even the tuna casserole beats that atrocity.”

  Joey tossed his ration pack to Eldon and caught the omelet. He did not care what stuff tasted like.

  “Ahh, beef stew.” Eldon saluted Joey with the unopened pack. “If you close your eyes and let your thoughts run away with the flavor, you can almost believe that you’re eating real… shit.” Eldon made it sound serious up until the last word.

  Masaru did not open his ration pack, holding it with two fingers as if it were unclean. “You expect me to eat this?”

  “They don’t have sushi flavor.” Joey waved. “Shitty food is better than no food. Would it help you eat it if I told you they cost a thousand credits a pouch?”

  Masaru frowned with a heavy throat noise, the kind of gesture that equated to a death threat back in Japan.

  “They tried that, actually.” Eldon made a nauseated look. “Cold fish slime did not go over well.”

  “Sounds like my sister.” Joey smirked before squeezing the last of the semiliquid egg down his throat.

  “Ouch.” Kenny glanced at him.

  Eldon winced in silence and Katya glowered.

  “You have a problem with women, don’t you?” She squinted.

  “Calling my sister a woman is an insult to the gender.” Joey stuffed his empty meal packets back into the outer wrapper. “Maybe when they upgrade your programming to include a sense of humor you’ll count as one, too.”

  “I am not a machine.” Katya cursed under her breath in Russian.

  Masaru turned away so his smirking grin escaped her notice.

  “So what’s up with your sister?” Kenny gathered
up the trash from their meal.

  “She’s been pissed at me ever since she was born. Only thing I can think of is that I scored higher on the aptitude tests and coasted through school without working. I got straight A’s with my eyes closed while she had to bust her ass. Then, I”―he made air quotes―“waste myself in cyberspace while she gets a high paying job at some uppity corporate law firm.”

  “She does have a point.” Katya muttered, too low for anyone but Masaru to hear.

  “That’s a pretty shallow thing to drive a wedge through a family.” Eldon shook his head.

  Joey threw his hands up as if he had long ago given up that battle. Everyone climbed back into the truck as Kenny stuffed the trash into a blue canister bungeed at the rear corner of the bed.

  “So why the boy scout routine with the trash?” Joey glanced at Kenny as he got back in and closed the door.

  “The Badlands know how you treat them.”

  Eldon paused before closing his door. “I said, don’t get him started.”

  Joey laughed. “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

  In a spray of dirt, they got underway. Every so often, a tire would clip a rock or bit of scrub, jostling the truck. Masaru closed his eyes and meditated as Katya tried to ignore the building nausea in her gut from whatever she had eaten. Eldon and Kenny continued their usual banter and Joey snored, catching up on lost sleep. After about nine hours of driving, a faint beep pulsed in time with a winking light on the console. Kenny tapped his finger under the indicator.

  “We’re close. Got some active radar tracking coming from about a quarter mile ahead.”

  “Active? That doesn’t make me think abandoned.” Eldon shifted in his seat.

  “It might be something left over that’s still turned on.” Masaru spoke up from the back. “The facility must have power, probably a self-contained reactor.”

  Joey draped himself over the back of Eldon’s seat. “Let’s not do anything stupid.”

  “We already have,” grumbled Katya.

  “We can at least get a closer look than this.” Eldon put on his helmet and used the visor to zoom into the distance.

  Kenny slowed to eliminate the dust cloud as much as he could. In the harsh orange light of the setting sun, a gleaming ivory surface shimmered through the green of a nearby forest canopy. A wall came into view through a large bank of trees as they crested a small hill. Beyond the barrier, an immense metal turret glimmered in the waning light. As big as a two-story house, its two long barrels pointed off to the right.

  “Holy shit…” Eldon leaned forward. “That thing is made to take out starships. From the looks of it, either laser or particle beam.”

  “Is it gonna fire at us?” Kenny swiveled a small camera on the roof to get a closer view.

  “Fuck, I hope not.” Eldon gave Kenny a pointed look. “It shouldn’t, but who knows what kind of tweaking they did to it.”

  “There.” Masaru pointed at the display.

  Amid the wavering trees, burns and missing branches were visible, evidence that the turret fired at some point, but it was impossible to say with any degree of certainty how long ago. Kenny panned back and forth over the wall, finding no visible logos or signs that indicated who ran this place. A modest crater scored the ground at the base of a huge crack that separated the wall into two sections.

  Kenny pointed. “There’s our way in.”

  “Look at that.” Katya pointed past Joey’s face out the side window.

  All heads turned at a distant glint in the foliage.

  Eldon cycled through thermal, metallurgical, and electromagnetic detection modes on his helmet visor. “Looks like a van, got nothing on thermal.” He slid out of the truck, and crept in that direction.

  Kenny remained with the truck while the others followed Eldon into the grove until they reached an orange and purple van wedged between two large trees. A few years’ worth of growth had engulfed its oversized tires and begun to creep through the open side door. Eldon pulled at the vine-like weeds, sending a flurry of small animals zooming in random directions.

  The interior resembled a college dorm room on wheels, one exposed to the elements for several years. Posters, datapads, clothing, empty synth beer cans, and food related trash sat under a heavy curtain of fungus. From the shredded debris, it looked like animals had long ago eliminated any provisions. In the front dashboard storage area, a pile of printed flyers, still recognizable as HLM propaganda, were well progressed into a single lump of molding paper waste. Eldon sifted through the debris, and a pair of red panties snagged on the end of his rifle. With a smirk, he shook the weapon until they fell.

  Katya braved the rear, stepping over grey puffs of furry mold to several containers. Some held usable clothing, but the empty military case caught her attention more. Curious, she turned on her chem scan and closed her natural left eye, plunging the world into monochromatic green. Chemical traces appeared as swaths of various colors. The interior of the box had several brick-shaped lime imprints that faded toward the center. A pointed stare caused the eye to render a molecular diagram of several substances.

  “Most of the residue is cyclotrimethylene trinitramine with traces of Zeurium-3, dioctyl sebacate and polyisobutylene.” Katya’s vision returned to normal. “Looks like four brick sized blocks.”

  “You could have just said NE2, Kat.” Eldon shook his head.

  “She wants to sound smarter than she is.” Joey laughed. “It’s more believable when you aren’t reading it.”

  Masaru glanced at Eldon. “That stuff hasn’t been used in years. ACC?”

  Eldon shook his head. “Doubtful. Not with all this flowerbasket, HLM paperwork and beer. That’s probably just some street-chemist’s best attempt at making a bomb.”

  Joey ignored Katya’s persistent glare. “So the HLM came out here, or someone wants us to think so.”

  “Check the growth around the wheels, this thing has been here a long time,” said Eldon.

  “Who would go to all the trouble of setting everything up to frame the HLM for something?” Masaru paced. “They are just a group of idiots on the edge of reality; they are not taken seriously.”

  “I know a couple of dead Marines who’d disagree with you on that point.” Eldon frowned.

  Joey folded his arms. “I don’t think we’re going to get any answers until we go inside.”

  Eldon waved his arm in an “after you” manner. “Then let’s get on with it.”

  he approaching dusk cast glimmering strips of orange from the horizon as the distant mountains swallowed the sun. Kenny stashed the truck near the van, figuring that since it had remained undisturbed this long, his ride would too. Joey posed by the tailgate, adoring the western look of the Huntsman armor Kenny gave him. Its false brown leather coat contained numerous floating panels of light composite armor, attached to a black protective vest. Kenny squinted in the direction of the compound, searching for any signs of life. A few paces into the forest, something on the ground caught his eye.

  “Tracks.” Kenny stooped to get a closer look. “From the size and depth, I’d say a man in armor, ‘bout Eldon’s size or larger. Few days old.”

  Eldon edged past him to take point. “Got nothin’ on therms.”

  Masaru lifted his S-19, arming it with a flick of his thumb. The weapon looked out of place in contrast to the artful samurai design of his lacquered black armor, but not everything out here would give him the respect of getting close enough for his sword.

  Eldon moved toward the wall. “Somethin’ ain’t right with these trees. They almost look like someone copied and pasted them around.”

  Kenny brushed his fingers over one. “They are induced. Nanobots grow them in about six days. Quick cover.” He looked up into the treetops. “There’s some deviation in the upper branches once they started growing for real. They’re alive, but cloned.”

  Eldon advanced in a series of quick steps and tactical sprints between trees. Kenny attempted to follow suit. Joey traipsed al
ong behind them as if browsing through a mall. Katya stayed out of sight. Masaru brought up the rear, senses tuned to the world.

  The sun fell beyond the horizon, leaving the group in darkness. At this distance, the whirrs and clunks of the huge turret’s search pattern rumbled through the ground. Eldon raised his hand in a signal to stop when a flash of orange thermal movement caught his eye to the left. He dropped to a knee and sighted over his rifle, searching the field of bluish trees and black voids. All at once, nine amorphous shapes of red-orange emerged.

  Their gait was as inhuman as their size, moving in a hybrid stride that alternated between all fours and upright running. Each looked to be about seven feet tall while hunched forward. Bright blue lines at the end of the arms gave away the presence of metal claws. Cold spots on their head and torso revealed crude cyberware.

  “Incoming, left 40 degrees, nine hot spots. Claws. Big.”

  Kenny turned and drew in a long breath through his nose. The musky scent of wet dog hinted at the edge of his senses. “Canids, they are not inclined to talk. Probably hunting for dinner, and we look tasty. Just shoot ‘em.”

  “What the fuck is a Canid?” Joey asked as casually as if standing around at home.

  With that, a fur-covered humanoid leapt out of the trees and tackled him to the ground from behind. He made a noise like a stomped goose as all the air was driven from his lungs. The creature rode him like a surfboard for several feet from the force of the impact.

  Larger than a man, it had powerful muscular arms and a massive chest. Its face was a mangled combination of human and canine traits with yellow, glowing metal eyes. Mechanical irises narrowed as a grotesque mouth full of sharp teeth parted in a low growl. A tendril of drool leaked forth, fluttering in its breath. Despite a nose full of wet pine needles, Joey could taste carrion on the wind.

  Kenny turned to shoot, but another sprinted for him. He pivoted toward it, opening fire. Blue flashes from each shot burned the dying monster into his memory in a series of still images. The creature’s body crashed into a tree and scraped its metal claws into the bark in a futile attempt to hold itself upright. Sensing imminent death, it locked eyes with him. One final shot struck it in the face with a splattering crunch of disintegrated bone.