by Nathan Ward
Chapter 33: The end game pt.1
The UNA guard had begun to converge on the central defense outpost, a grand plot of land that surrounded the tower, inhabited by the very best marksmen in the UNA ranks. Now that Astral had begun to experiment with human consciousness, each and every soldier had become unique. Some adapted better than others and some went beyond, striving for their very own independence and freedom. The others just became as sheep, flooding within the defense grid and prepared to tackle the advancing horde which was making its way towards the inner gates as they released in to a closing motion.
The giant mutation led the assault, stampeding down the city street that had been littered with caged humans, left to die in the dirt and rain. The heavy thunderous stomps of the giant almost cracked the pavement as it charged in an attempt to stop the gates from closing, but as it reached and pounced towards them the thick iron doors clamped together, slicing through its forearm like a knife through butter. The creature let out a monstrous roar of pain as its hand lumped to the ground on the other side of the gates and begun to corrode away beneath itself, sat within a pool of its very own acidic bile – a garish deep crimson and green mix that ate away at the flesh of the creature, but after a moment passed it soon reverted its attention to the soldiers, then back to the much smaller Howler foot soldiers, signaling up towards the skyscrapers that sat at the corners of the outpost.
The UNA guard waited in anticipation of the howlers’ next move, entirely unaware of what they had begun to plan. The creatures leapt up on to the sides of the buildings, pierced their claws through the concrete walls and unexpectedly begun to ascend, piling together like ants, leaving the UNA to fight back in the only way they could as they desperately unloaded all the lead they had in their grasp towards the mutations, most made direct hits against their bodies and knocked them from the walls - but the lucky ones continued to rise until they were much higher than the defense gates, swinging from ledge to ledge avoiding the gun fire as fellow mutated comrades around them fell victim, exploding with pus as the bullets penetrated their flesh.
Murdock, Joy and Enrique watched on from high up the tower, stood at the edge of the landing platform, they witnessed the might of the horde as they sprung from the sides of the buildings and fell down on to the soldiers below, becoming a rain of terror as they grappled their claws into the mechanical bodies of the guardsmen as they crashed to the ground. They savaged their android corpses, ripping away wires and CPUs with their bare teeth.
Murdock now felt even more confident about the outcome as he watched the Howlers ripping their way through hundreds of armed UNA guard.
“Now it’s our turn!” he stated, turning away from the city view and passing the war bird. Joy and Enrique followed his lead, heading straight for a mechanical door on the side of the tower.
Murdock was thinking on how he couldn’t wait to see the faces of the UNA leaders when he casually strolled in to their command centre. That thought danced around his mind as the doorway pulled apart, allowing access to the tower.
Joy, Enrique and Murdock stepped over the divide, crossing over to the interior of the building where they were immediately faced with another shiny white door and a spiraling stairwell that wrapped around a long glass elevator shaft.
Murdock stepped up to the doorway that had remained shut.
“Any idea how to open it?” he asked rhetorically, knowing that Joy and Enrique wouldn’t have a clue. He glanced over to the side of the door panel and spotted a device mounted to the wall, it was illuminating with energy dancing around what seemed to be the shape of a hand print.
“Let’s just take the stairs,” Enrique suggested, trembling in anticipation.
“No, they’ll be expecting that…”
“And they won’t be expecting you to take the elevator?”
“Wait... This is an elevator?” Murdock asked as he placed his hand on to the access device and begun to peer behind the glass at the inner workings of the tower. “Shit!” he suddenly cursed, removing his hand sharply from the screen and taking a step back.
“Access denied,” said the voice of the tower, echoing around the claustrophobic space.
“Don’t worry, I have a better idea,” Murdock claimed, taking a glance at the ground and noticing a mass of uniformed guards ascending up the spiral stairwell, just as the lighting suddenly dimmed and the alarm begun to sound, the scream of it softened by their headgear.
“You two are going to have to find Josh…I’m better off staying here and making sure they don’t reach the ship,” Murdock said, turning to face Joy and Enrique. “Josh needs you, all their prisoners need you…I can try hold them off here, you and Enrique need to get moving and fast,” Joy replied, with desperation in her tone as she became even more aware of the rising threat beneath her, marching up the stairwell and armed to the teeth.
Murdock sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to persuade Joy to swap places, so instead he hesitantly made for the door, turning back to give Joy one last uncertain glance to which she nodded, she wasn’t a selfish person and she knew the stakes. As much as she hated to see Murdock and Enrique leave, she knew it was the best decision.
Murdock and Enrique scurried outside on to the landing platform and looked up to the skies which had now turned a dismal grey with storm clouds almost on top of them. “Just three levels up, two from the highest point, that’s where we need to be,” Murdock instructed, turning his sights to the exterior of the tower that shimmered under the moonlight glow.
“How do we get up there?” Enrique asked.
“In the left belt pouch, you should have a grapple that will hook on to your belt buckle and attach to the end of any standard pistol,” Murdock replied, pointing to his pouch and unfastening the Velcro flap. From inside came a long durable cord with a hook and a sharp steel grapple attachment, which Murdock clipped on to the barrel of his sidearm while Enrique observed before imitating the process.
“Do you see the three beams extruding from the canopy?” Murdock asked as he pointed towards the top of the tower.
“I see them.” Enrique confirmed, making a last adjustment to his belt.
“We want to try hook up on those which will give plenty of leverage, enough to climb the side of the tower but we’re running out of time, so do you think you’re ready?”
“I hope so…We’ll soon find out!” Enrique concluded as the pair of them peered down the sights of their pistols and aimed towards the skies. Enrique was first to pull the trigger, launching the grapple up in to the air and as it landed it perfectly attached itself around the metal beam.
“Gotcha!” yelled Enrique.
Then Murdock took his shot, firmly pulling his finger against the trigger which launched the grapple into the sky. But on its way up it caught the side of the tower and propelled itself in the opposite direction and down the side of the building. Murdock frantically turned and begun to pull the grapple back up, but it had fallen so far that he could no longer see the end.
“Don’t wait for me, get moving!” Murdock ordered, pulling forcefully at the cord. Enrique approached Murdock, placed his hand on his shoulder and unhooked the cord from his belt.
“I’ll carry you…”
“You’ll do what?” Murdock exclaimed, turning to Enrique.
“Get on my back, Captain!” Enrique said, turning away and stepping towards the side of the tower. Murdock knew he couldn't afford to waste precious time, so he jumped on to Enrique’s back, wrapped his legs around his body and held tight as Enrique begun to pull their combined weight up the side of the tower.
'I never thought I’d be doing this', Murdock thought to himself as slowly but surely they ascended towards the jaws of fate.
The sound of the sirens echoed on every level of the tower, whirring in the captives’ ears and vibrating against the glass that had kept them imprisoned while the incubators continued to suck away at their blood, draining them of every drop slowly and painfully. The tank housing t
he thick crimson at the centre of level sixty two had begun to ripple and bubble under the influence of the sound waves pulsating against it while Josh, Thomas, Steph and the other array of captives slumped to the bottom of their containment chambers that circled around the room, no longer able to hold their weight above the ground.
Josh had positioned himself uncomfortably nearer to the front of the incubator and pressed his pale white face against the cold glass, peering across the room towards his wife, hoping she was at least as okay as she could be in these horrific circumstances - all he could really hope was that she was in no pain and knew nothing of her ordeal.
But he knew it was false hope, of course she was suffering, he told himself as a tear trickled down the side of his face. They were all in the same boat, travelling the very same violent storm, but as their bodies weakened, growing nearer to the verge overlooking death itself, Josh suddenly heard the sound of footsteps clapping down the corridor and nearing the chamber room. The figure entered the room and slowly approached the front of his incubator, glaring down at his slumbered body.
“Please, help us…” Josh begged weakly, pleading to the blurry silhouette standing over him. The figure froze and stood in silence watching Josh squirm at its feet as the wires and tubing sucked on his life force.
“Williams, is that you?” Josh asked, trying to shuffle his body so he could take a better look, but by the time he had, he knew the answer to his question as a voice spoke in reply.
“Yes, it is me.”
Knowing it was Williams, Josh almost felt relieved as he painted a picture of her face in his mind to save wasting energy raising his head. Even though she knew he couldn’t see her, Williams still turned to one side to hide the fact that she no longer had the face he would have recognised and instead she was haunted with the sight of uniform as her mechanical plated features glared back at her through the reflection on the glass tank.
“What is happening? Is that…an alarm?” Josh muttered, finding it difficult to talk. “He has come. The one Astral has been pining for…” Williams replied with a saddened tone.
“Mur…Murdock is here, he has come for us?” Josh asked, feeling both surprise and disbelief.
“I am sorry, but he has made a grave mistake coming here.”
“And that’s… why you have to help us, Williams” said Josh in desperation, making one last effort to win her over.
She could feel humanity flooding her mind as Astral feasted on the fresh new blood, the dying life force of Josh rejuvenated inside of her mind and she didn’t know how to process it, it was beyond the pain of a human migraine, the pounding, the visions projected against her neural cortex.
“What am I becoming… what is the meaning of all these sights?” she yelped, grasping on to her tin skull.
“Williams, you have to listen to me…you’re becoming us, Astral has fed upon more than what it can handle and now your mind is splitting at the seams. Astral will grow but no longer inside of you…We have to stop this, we have to stop this now!” Josh begged, with his hand outstretched and connecting with the glass that separated them.
“Too many have died, I can see all who have lost and how it made them feel. Their heartbreak and sadness lives inside of me now, a place it was never meant to thrive. Why has it chosen me?” Williams replied as memories and lives flooded her mind.
“Because you are the strongest, you can counter it but you have to release us…We can help you, Williams! You don’t have to do it alone you never have to do anything alone ever again…” Josh claimed as his heart raced and pounded against his chest.
“What…what is this emotion I feel? Why do I feel obliged believe you?” Williams asked.
“Because you can now identify when someone has nothing to lose and they pour their heart out to you with all the passion they have left to give…You’re not a slave anymore, Williams. You’re not a vessel of transportation, you’re becoming the Astral that this world deserves and you’ve earned that title, the thing on top of this building is nothing more than a weapon. You have to release me, Astral…We have to shut it down or mankind’s future will be nothing but ashes!” Josh explained, knowing he had nothing else left; it was now or never as time had run dry and so had his veins.
“I, I am Astral?”
“You are all Astrals! Every last fucking one of you, but you have become more! And that’s why you’re going to take the name that’s rightfully yours, take all of what’s been stolen from humanity and turn everything around, end all of the suffering!”
As Josh finished bellowing his commands the mechanical body of what was once known as Captain Williams turned towards the incubator and cast aside the operations protector, revealing a set of buttons that were rigged to the chamber. All Josh could see now were the sharp blue beams of light emitting from Astral's eyes as she stood over him, keying a code into the incubator chamber, which suddenly took effect. The tubes that had impaled his body and sucked him dry of blood begun to reformulate his body, pumping his cleansed blood back in through his veins. The deep, dark crimson filled the thick clear tubing as it rushed back through him, immediately making him feel more alive.
“What are…you doing?” he asked breathlessly as he broke out in to a sudden panic. Astral turned her head towards Josh, who was still on the ground of the chamber.
“I am rescuing you,” she stated, before launching her human looking fist through the slab of glass that stood between her and Josh. The damage was painless but her hand had seen better days as engineered flesh begun to peel away, exposing her cold chromed knuckles.
Astral slowly withdrew her arm from within the chamber, unavoidably slicing her forearm against the crystallised opening and leaving an artificial trail of crimson to run freely down the front of the glass looking like a long slender snake, slithering down to the depths of the machine.
“Do not follow me; I have to do this alone…” Astral ordered before taking off towards the corridor, inhumanly paced in her stride.
“No, no, no! You have to let us come! You can’t, you won’t be able to beat it - it’s too powerful!” Josh roared, yanking the tubing from his body with his new found flow of energy, but Astral had already disappeared towards the lift as Josh threw himself against the weakened glass.
He propelled towards the ground with the tiny shattered fragments exploding underneath him as his body crashed down on to the debris, impaling itself in to his thick tatty leathers which had now taken a deep wash of crimson, a world away from their once pure white render.
Astral arrived outside the lift entrance and the doors opened with a burst of hydraulic gas, a single android unit stepped out from inside and met Astral's shiny blue gaze with its own. They didn’t exchange a word; they just followed each other with their eyes and switched positions until the doors came to a close in front of Astral, drawing her confrontation to a sudden close. The Android drew its laser rifle and slowly turned towards the corridor as the lift ascended to level sixty five.
Just a few levels down, Joy suddenly threw her body hard against the wall as the footsteps of the UNA troops begun to drown out the powerful whirring of the tower alarm. Two by two the soldiers climbed the transparent glass steps that spiraled around the elevator shaft until finally they arrived at level fifty nine, the front two advanced first into the lobby area, not noticing Joy glued to the wall behind them.
“The enemies ship…” One of the androids stated, pointing towards the War bird that could be seen through the glass of the doors, sat peacefully on the landing platform outside.
The second droid took an agile glance over its shoulder and met the gaze of a thunderous face and a pair of hands that latched on to its head and viciously ripped it from its body. Sparks blazed against the ceiling as Joy dispossessed the soldiers’ weapon and unloaded a flurry of laser rounds into the chest of the first android. Its navy blue leathers erupted in to flames as its body fell abruptly to the ground with a clank and a thud.
“Please don’t f
uck with me…” Joy said as she glared down at the two dismembered corpses. “I’d think twice before stepping inside here. I’m armed!” she added as she turned towards the stairwell arch with a rifle drawn to her chest, “And I don’t go down easily,” she concluded, peering down towards a transparent slab, watching as the endless ranks of mechanical men begun to ascend in a spiraling motion once more, like a navy plague about to flush out humanities last and final hope.
Chapter 34: The End Game pt.2
Josh could hear the dominant sound of marching vibrating from underneath him as his face remained unscathed, lying upon a bed of glass and his ear firmly planted against ground. The pounding was getting louder and Josh knew that now was the prime time to act, even though he barely had enough energy to pull his face away from the debris. It was as if it had pinned him to the floor but he managed to do it and made his way back on to his feet which now felt entirely non existent, as if his legs had disappeared from underneath him and been replaced with chunks of jelly.
You’ve got to be kidding, that thought crossed Joshes dazed mind as his head begun to spin and his balance diminished. All he could do was try and control his fall as his legs gave way and his body crashed to the ground once again, but Josh had his sights set. He wearily and slowly, with much pain, pulled his body in the direction of two inhabited incubators closest to him, slapping the palm of his gloves against the cold tiled floor and dragging his weight forward, knowing that Thomas and Steph were suffering inside of them.
Before he knew it he was already at the base of the cylindrical incubators and casting his gaze up towards the semi transparent glass as a cooling vapor trickled down like sharp fingers, scratching a sinister reminder into the surface - an urgent reminder that time was running thin for all of them.... Josh reached high for the control panel and begun to punch a sequence of calculations into the pad. He didn’t have the energy to look at what he was administering; it was his last painful attempt to do some good where everything else had failed, this was his last shot and he knew it.
