The Chronicles of Qi

by J E Kerry

  ∞∞∞

  * CHAMBER 4 *

  The team arrive in the last chamber and drop through the vortex from the sky, screaming through their helmets. As soon as Wang reaches the maximum speed, rushing through the clouds and diving right into a post-apocalyptic skyscraper city, closely followed by the rest of the team, his suit self-activates its anti-gravity hover-boots and brings him back into a vertical position; hovering close above the ground.

  The soldiers follow his example and elegantly touch ground with their boots.

  “Damn close!” Aaron says as he sets foot on the unknown terrain.

  “Marvelicious,” Brian jokes on the good old Marvel superhero graphic novels.

  “I’m in for round deux,” (two) Philipe adds and bounces around.

  “We’re pretty much out in the open here,” Jodie notes while scanning the area.

  Wang spots something in the distance.

  “Over there!” he shouts.

  The team turns around and looks at a half-destroyed 21st century 7-Eleven supermarket.

  “Aww, an ancient 7-Eleven,” Brain says like an excited child.

  “I’m starving,” Rahul comments, so hungry that he could eat a cow right now.

  “Yeah, eat all you want from that place. It’s not as if there are more important things to do or something,” Brian once again pokes his banter mate.

  “Don’t give me that Brian, I saw how pale you looked when you were with the Jellyfish,” Rahul counters.

  “What?”

  “You wanted to eat them,” Rahul adds.

  “That is ridiculous and disgusting,” Brian says defensive.

  “Guys, is going to that place really a good idea right now?” Jodie asks trying to balance common sense with the whole rumblings of their stomach.

  Everyone falls into deep silence for a moment, staring longingly at the supermarket.

  “Kittens, let’s move!” Aaron finally decides for the team and they follow him to the 7-Eleven, carefully inspecting the surrounding before entering.

  The team step into the half-destroyed supermarket and look for food and water. Brian finds his favorite cookie brand ‘OREO’.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” he mumbles to himself in Chinese while also taking two boxes out of the shelf and hugging them tight.

  “See?” Rahul beckons to Aaron.

  Brian turns and notices them staring at him, “Yeah, yeah, very funny. Go mind your own business”.

  They both shake their heads, chuckling, then make their way to the various goodies on display.

  Right around the corner, Rahul has found a ‘Lays’ chips bag and crunches along the shelves, browsing for more stuff to eat.

  Philipe on the other hand sucks on his ‘Mars’ bar, heavily enjoying the full experience of chocolate, when Jodie startles him from behind.

  “So, you’re like ‘that’ guy,” she notes with an unusual smile decorating her face.

  Philipe turns around, with the candy still stuck in his mouth, obviously very surprised.

  “Quel guy?” (which guy) he mumbles.

  “That one,” Jodie continues as she takes a step closer and seductively wipes the caramel off his face, licking her finger clean while Philipe is literally hypnotized by the entire, almost erotic, event unfolding right in front of him.

  “Too sweet for my taste,” she adds and turns unimpressed around, moving on to a ‘spicy’ shelf section.

  Being under her spell, Philipe returns all the chocolate he has collected to the shelf and swallows sadly the last piece of ‘Mars’ in his mouth as Aaron suddenly calls for the team.

  “Ladies, look what I’ve found!”

  Everyone scoots over to him.

  “Backpacks?” Brian asks, wondering.

  “Look closer.” Aaron suggest and points to an entire wall filled with backpacks, sleeping bags, mats, travel mugs and other useful camping stuff.

  “Why would we need them?” Jodie wants to know as she inspects some sleeping bags.

  Wang agrees with Aaron, picking up on his thought. “Aaron is right. This is the last chamber and we still haven’t met any of the other teams. We might be here for a while.”

  “Besides, it’s getting dark outside,” Aaron explains. “So, we should pack as much ration as we can and look for a better shelter.”

  “But the suit will provide us with nutrition, no matter what,” Jodie disagrees in her typical manner of always being right.

  “No offense, but I’d rather like to eat some “real” food,” Rahul retorts and keeps eating from his Lays chips.

  “It’s junk food,” Jodie argues.

  “That’s not what it says on my tongue,” Rahul counters.

  “Not your tongue, your body. Come on, guys,” Jodie keeps on trying to convince them.

  “Oh, please,” Rahul says. “Potato, Potatoooo.”

  “Tomato, Tomatoooo,” Brian chimes in and they high five right under Jodie’s nose, as she’s once more annoyed by the idiocy of guys trying to be funny, rolling her eyes at them; bored.

  ∞∞∞

  Equipped with backpacks, sleeping bags and mats, the team walk through the destroyed street when a familiar noise catches their attention, and they pause.

  “You hear that?” Aaron notes concerned and peers into the distance.

  “Drones,” Jodie answers as she has already activated her long-distance radar and is able to see a group of drones flying through the streets behind the half-destroyed front of empty townhouses.

  Meanwhile, Wang has found a hiding spot: an ancient library building with most of the signs faded from age but enough letters visible to show it is a library.

  “Over here!” he calls for the other five teammates to hide behind the columns, just right before the drones arrive and scan the perimeter. “Activate your bio-metric shield and use your TPC function.”

  Wang touches his Nanotech DMG on the chest to have his quantum stealth suit bend the light around his entire body and protect him from being seen by the drones’ infrared cameras. He then switches into TPC (telepathic conversation) mode. The working nanites within the fibers make it possible that the invisibility cloak and the bio-metric shield go hand in hand.

  “Look at their movements,” Jodie addresses the pattern the drones use while checking building after building via their integrated thermal imaging camera and advanced radar sensor for long detection range.

  “They’re patrolling,” Aaron reads her mind as he zooms in closer on his Visuals in order to get a better look at the construction of these drones.

  “This chamber simulates a captive city,” Wang realizes.

  “Meaning?” Brian asks right next to him.

  “There are more of them or other AI threats out there,” Wang explains.

  “Plus, the other teams.” Philipe puts his two cents to the party as the drones make a turn and finally disappear around the corner.

  “They’re gone,” Aaron says relieved. “Let’s hide inside.

  The team once again follows his command and enter the ancient 21st century library.

  “Wow!” Wang echoes through the partially bombed 3-storey library stretching ahead of them and follows the others, deactivating his cloak.

  “When you thought it’s all gone…,” Aaron says as he leads ahead walking along the bookshelves.

  Jodie grabs a Shakespeare book from the shelf next to her and is in awe. “I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these.”

  “I once went to the City of Wisdom,” Philipe adds, seeking to be near her with a wink.

  “So, do they really keep them locked up underground?” Rahul asks Philipe secretively from behind.

  “The originals, yes,” Philipe responds omni-scientifically, “but you can purchase artificial ones, if you know what I mean.”

  “Gotcha,” Rahul says, grinning.

  “You’re still talking about books, right?” Jodie wonders with a rather unusual confused and yet curious look on her face.

  �
��Absofloatinglutely, ma chérie,” (my love) Philipe teases Jodie with his typical French charm, putting an arm around her while she rolls once again with her eyes and decides for herself to simply let him be, walking together up the winding stairs.

  “There!” Wang points to a door reading ‘Fireplace Room’.

  The soldiers step through the door as the room suddenly cools, whitening the walls partially with slow-forming ice.

  Their helmets activate automatically to protect them from the deadly cold.

  “Do you feel that?” Aaron asks.

  “It’s freezing,” Wang says through a clatter of his teeth.

  “The suit will regulate our temperature and keep us warm,” Jodie reminds them.

  Wang uses his Visuals and looks for the suit’s thermometer. It shows a maximum of -80 degrees. Right now, the temperature is at -5 degrees and dropping.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” he flags.

  Aaron is also checking on his Visuals, “Me neither”.

  Wang looks around and points to the books, “We need to make a fire.”

  “For real?” Jodie asks, shocked about the idea itself, to burn historical pieces of mankind’s past, but also that this suggestion has been made by Wang, who suddenly seems to warm up and come out of his little shell.

  “You have been aloof all this while, and the first thing you do when we are in a place together, not fighting, or training, you want to burn pieces of mankind’s past?” Jodie argues.

  “What good is the memory of old, if they are kept alive at the expense of the survival of the present?” Wang engages her, displaying surprising levels of philosophical self-awareness.

  “But …,” Jodie is stunned and tries to make a counter argument.

  “If deleting your memories will save your life, wouldn’t you rather do so and make new ones?” Wang keeps up the pressure.

  “I know, but how would you make new ones without a sense of identity?” Jodie asks finally finding a foothold. “Without having an idea where one is coming from, how would one know where to go?”

  “Get over it, Red-head,” Brian hisses from behind the helmet, rolling his eyes. “It’s a simulation.”

  Jodie is unable or unwilling to say anything more.

  “Voilà, let’s start it with the chairs,” Philipe tries to save the situation and shows Jodie how much he cares about her.

  Wang understands his friend’s noble gesture and nods agreeing with him as he already hands Jodie a wooden chair and they begin breaking it apart.

  Hours later... Rahul and Brian are already visiting slumber-land in their sleeping bags next to the fire, while Wang, Aaron, Jodie and Philipe sit in opposite corners to guard the room, their helmets deactivated.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Aaron starts his conversation with Wang.

  “Well, I used to be a monk,” Wang reminds him with a wink.

  “Right,” Aaron says, the fire crackling in the fireplace behind them.

  There is a nostalgic atmosphere falling in the room, making everyone either sleepy or reflective. It’s also the first time Wang is able to get to know Aaron better since they’ve started with the simulation. They were both born leaders. Together, they can make a very strong team, Wang thinks to himself in silence as he shoots another book over the head of Rahul into the fire and Brian’s snoring reaches its crescendo right next to him.

  “What’s on your mind?” Wang finally asks.

  “Actually, a lot,” Aaron answers him with a sigh and throws another book over Brian’s face into the fire, dangerously close to his cute little nose.

  “Such as?” Wang keeps asking.

  Aaron takes a moment to filter his thoughts and responds to Wang’s question with a counter-question that seems not only deep but also surprisingly intelligent for someone who’s usually mistaken to be ‘just handsome’.

  “Have you ever wondered why you’re here?” he begins. “I mean, why do we exist and what draws us to certain things and people in life more than to others?”

  “You talk about fate,” Wang guesses.

  “Yeah,” Aaron sighs again and stops for a moment, listening carefully to his teammate’s thoughts.

  Wang takes a deep breath and keeps ripping apart his book.

  “Well, we’re all connected,” he commences. “Each one of us is like these books, filled with stories that have a beginning and an ending. A library is similar to the Akasha, the archive of life, collecting our stories to form fate and connect us through Qi.” He looks up. “We can destroy a book by ripping apart its pages but once a word, a sentence has been written, it will manifest in this world, even after the fire has put it to death. And with manifestation comes connection. With connection comes a never-ending circle of fate. That’s why our soul can inhabit many vessels over time and with each connection we make in one lifetime, we direct the path for our fate. That’s why you might feel drawn to some people more than others, or you make decisions which feel right to you because your fate has already been written before you were even born. In other words, you’ve been here before; many, many times. And most likely, everyone you see in this room,” he points around, “has been your soulmate, in your very own circle of fate, for a very long time. And right now, we have found each other again. That’s why we harmonize as a team. That’s why our Qi is in balance and can flow without hinderance.”

  Wang pauses and remembers to have seen a pile of books with the works of ancient philosophers. He browses quickly through their labels and finds the one he is looking for; the translated book of his most favorite Chinese philosopher of all, Zhuang Zi (莊子).

  Wang finds a passage, smiling, and reads “The influence of the Tao on all objects under Heaven is a kind of energy, Qi, that permeates all things.”

  He takes Aaron’s hand in the glow of the fire and forms it into a fist, “You’ve killed the hybrid bird with your iron fist, because we were connected. Not only by our collective mind but because I’ve shared my Qi with you.”

  He puts Aaron’s right fist over his, “You are me.”

  Aaron gets it and places Wang’s left fist over his then tunes in, saying in stereo “And I am you.”

  “That’s the Tao of Qi,” Wang finishes his little lecture. “The secret of fate and all existence.”

  “Woah,” Aaron chuckles, “try explaining all this to Brian or Rahul.”

  Unseen by the others, in the other corner of the room, Philipe and Jodie keep watch at the window. They peer through the broken glass watching for any sign of movement. An awkward silence sits between them.

  Philipe finally decides to break the ice and bravely expresses to Jodie how he feels about her.

  “Wo xiang ni,” (I like you) he says in Chinese, which is an expression that a man would only use for a woman he’s very serious about.

  Jodie sits up straight, slightly irritated, “You what?!”.

  A little insecure about her reaction, Philipe turns his head to the window, embarrassed, “Never mind”.

  Not a second later, he spots some shadowy silhouettes in the distance and is back to his old self while Jodie keeps staring at him, bewildered by his very unique way of just switching from romance into military mode.

  “Soldiers!” Philipe alarms everyone in the room.

  Jodie now follows his eyes and observes nine soldiers speeding along the cars, looking for shelter.

  “Which team?” she asks, taking cover behind the window.

  Philipe activates his Visuals and swipes through the names of the last standing soldiers from the other teams, “One of Team3, three of Team4 and five of Team2.

  “So, we’re basically the only team fully intact,” Jodie says with a smirk.

  Philipe nods, “And that makes us the biggest target”.

  It suddenly dawns on them, “The fire!”.

  Philipe screams from the corner of the room to Wang and Aaron, “Put out the fire!”.

  “Why?” Aaron wonders, still quite relaxed while collecting more books to
destroy.

  Jodie sprints over, explaining, “The teams, they’re here”.

  “Too late, they’ve seen us,” Philipe warns as he scoots over and joins the group. “Allez (let's go), get ready for combat!”

  Wang kicks Rahul and Brian awake, who curl in their sleeping bags like little puppies. “Guys get up! It’s time.”

  The sleeping beauties slowly rise from the floor.

  “What up?” Brian yawns.

  “Get your little bambams ready to move out,” Aaron says while already accessing the files of each of the other team members to look for their weaknesses, leaving the instructions to Wang with a nod.

  “Ra, we need you to jam our frequency,” Wang says, and Rahul straightens as if this is his secret cue now.

  “On it,” he rogers with a wink.

  “Brian, you play the decoy and lure them to us,” Wang continues with even more confidence.

  “Gotcha,” Brian confirms.

  “Aaron, Jodie and Philipe gonna be waiting with me in the shadows. And, don’t forget to cloak,” he reminds everyone.

  “How about them?” Jodie asks, wondering about the fact that the enemy is able to cloak and fight the same as they do, leading to the question how Wang plans to solve this problem.

  “Rahul?” Wang asks, trusting him to come up with another good idea.

  “I could upload the virus I’ve used during our training simulation. That would disable their Visuals and cloaks for two minutes,” Rahul says, hoping that this suggestion will protect him from losing his last life and risking his place in the final unit, mainly because he’s the weakest link when it comes to combat and field operations.

  Wang is relieved, “Great, it’s all we need to surprise them”.

  Jodie checks something on her Visuals, “We should aim for Team 3 and 4 first. Each soldier has only one more life left”.

  Wang agrees, “Scoot!”.

  The last standing soldiers of team two, three and four enter the library. They swarm out to inspect the building.

  Brian has his Visuals and camouflage activated and follows a soldier of Team 3 along the bookshelf.

  He gets closer to the soldier’s neck and injects him with a sedative, using his glove. The enemy sinks to the floor.