Fallout (Tales of the Other Universe Book 2)

by J. G. Taschereau

  Adam clenched his fist and grit his teeth. The Creator showed no emotion to the hostile response.

  “I’m sorry, Iilil-ja, I really am. But it would be irresponsible for me to back you after what’s happened. I think you need to consider the possibility of abdicating the throne for the good of Magid.”

  “You must be joking,” Adam said.

  The Creator was again unmoved. Adam huffed and stepped within inches of the Creator. “How can you even suggest that? What do you think is going to happen to this country if I leave? You must know that that’s exactly what Oracle wants me to do. Don’t you see that they’re behind all of this? The bombings, setting me up with the hostage situation, it’s all to turn everyone against me. And you’re playing right into their hands!”

  “You know that I would never allow the Oracle group to do any harm to Magid so long as it was within my power,” said the Creator. “No matter what happens, I will hold them at bay. But you have to face facts, Iilil-ja. You’ve failed, and the people of Magid want you gone. Will you really fight them?”

  “I will not let a group of fringe extremists dictate what the real will of the people is,” Adam said, raising his voice. “Especially not when I’m almost certain that Oracle is backing them.”

  “Would you listen to yourself, Iilil-ja? Do you even understand what that would mean if you were right? If Oracle really has planned all of this, it’s only because you allowed them to do so. You’re the one who screwed up, so don’t take it out on me!”

  The two stared at each other as a hostile silence permeated through the room. Adam felt his temper building, rising to a level he hadn’t known since before he cast out his rage. He wanted nothing more than to punch the Creator in the face, right in the cheek where he still harbored that dull scar. That scar was reason enough for Adam not to take everything the Creator said as gospel, and was proof that the deity wasn’t as high and mighty as he pretended to be. It took all of his inner strength to force his anger back down. Instead he kept up his glare, unbroken until he heard the sound of popping and shouting outside of the palace.

  Both of them turned to the window, where the view beyond the perimeter wall of the palace revealed a street filled with people. Some carried torches and signs; many others carried weapons. It looked like the mob was moving towards the main gate of the palace. Although the order for the lockdown had been suspended, the guards were told to remain on high alert. They were going to have their hands full now as it became clear that more people intended to follow the angry call of the Western Liberty Movement than Adam had hoped.

  “I need to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand,” Adam said, breaking from the silent standoff with his other half. “I don’t expect you to help, but don’t get in the way. If things fall apart now, then you have every right to blame me all you want.”

  “I don’t blame people for their mistakes, Iilil-ja,” said the Creator. “I only ask that they pay for them.”

  Adam rushed out the door, not bothering to look back at the Creator. Alone in the room, the Creator frowned and sighed. Things were not going as well as he had hoped that they would.

  Miko Lith stood in the foyer of the palace with an anxious crowd of attendants, looking out the glass windows to the iron gate at the end of the pathway where a handful of guards did their best to quell the belligerent mob. Things were escalating as bottles and rocks were hurled at the guards. They were under orders not to initiate an assault, but if the mob tried to breach the perimeter then deadly force could be used if needed to protect the palace. It was a beautiful mess, Miko mused from the safety of the palace walls. She knew it wouldn’t be long before the walls were breached and the angry citizens would attack the palace. The guards wouldn’t be able to deal with such a crowd, and it would be up to Adam to fight back against his own people. That was something she was still wondering if he had the fortitude to do after all that had happened earlier that day. It was only a matter of time before she would be able to know for sure.

  She snuck away from the attendants, moving through the first floor corridor to the stairs that led to the dungeon levels. The lower levels of the palace may have been the safest place to hide with the thick stone walls left over from the previous regime. Miko didn’t go into the basement of the palace to hide, and was quick to make her way through the maze of dim hallways to reach her destination. One of the little known designs of the palace was an escape tunnel hidden deep in the dungeon level that extended for several miles beneath the city. It allowed for the king to make a secret flight from the palace in the event of an attack and led to a safe location that would make it easier to get out of the city. Aside from Adam and herself, no one else in the palace knew about the tunnel, so no one would ever expect it to be used as a way out of the palace, let alone as a way in.

  Moving aside a stone brick, Miko pushed down on a secret switch in the wall that triggered the hidden stone door to tremble and slide open with a dusty cough. As it stopped moving, Miko could make out the shape of several people standing on the other side. It was difficult to see who was there with only the dim torchlight further in the tunnel to illuminate them, but she recognized the closest figure at once and smiled when she saw his face.

  “Welcome to Magid Palace, sir,” she said, gesturing for the invading party to enter. The first figure stepped out, followed by his taller mechanical counterpart. The man’s long white hair stood out against his dark business attire and his red eyes seemed to glow with excitement upon his arrival.

  “Thank you, Miko,” said Mr. White. “Now what do you say we rid this palace of its usurper once and for all?”

  Chapter 7

  Breach

  Adam had, on occasion, come up with spontaneous rhetoric when there was need for it. In the courts of kings, behind the failing ramparts of many battlefield encampments, and in the underbellies of streets as he gathered together freedom fighters to restore order to the chaos of a city in peril. Still, these dire times were few and far between and more often than not the kind of majestic language needed to sway his audience was lost on him. Now more than ever, he would need to find the words that would restore faith in not only him but in the young government that now stood on its knees before the executioner.

  He reached the top of the grand staircase, looking down into the foyer where many of his attendants had gathered. They looked with fear and anticipation to the gate ahead of the palace where the angry crowd seemed on the verge of breaking through. Some of the attendants noticed Adam had arrived and turned their attention to him. Those attendants who had stayed in his service even as the government approached collapse had placed all of their hope in Adam’s promise to be a better king for his people. Looking down on them now, he saw the last glimmer of their hope still remaining. He had come too far to fail them all now. Still uncertain of what words he would say, Adam started down the stairwell as the attendants made way for him.

  Before he could make it half way down the stairs, he stopped as a horrible rumbling hit his ears. He screamed at the attendants to run, but it was too late. The faint rumble grew to an abrupt burst as an explosion blew apart much of the foyer, scattering stone blocks and debris into the air. Adam covered his face from the dust and smoke as he heard the screams of those below. With the power of wind, he waved his hand to blow the smoke away to get a view at the scene below. The lower part of the stairwell was gone along with the left half of the foyer floor down to the outer wall which now exposed the outside world. The statue of Mathias that had stood in the center of the foyer since the Liberation of Magid lay toppled, broken off at the ankles, joining the many others who lay dead or wounded below.

  In the time it took for him to register what had happened, Adam heard a cascade of explosions crescendo down the other halls and throughout the palace, mixed with shattering glass and crumbling stone. The stairs left beneath him shook and he clung to the railings so as not to fall as the palace started breaking apart all around him. Taking no chances, he rushe
d back up to the second floor and surveyed the damage from there. The halls were still hazy with particulate debris spread about by the explosions. He could make out the silhouettes of a few palace attendants scrambling to get to safety. The light that illuminated the halls flickered on and off before going dark for good. Adam was beginning to realize that the massacre he had found himself standing in that morning was nothing compared to the true war zone that the palace was becoming.

  Below, he heard the loud clamor of the mob from outside, made more audible now that the palace walls had been blown wide open. They must have taken the bombings as a signal that an attack had begun and the riled up citizens forced their way through the guards and bashed down the gate. A flow of people filled the front yard, armed with whatever weapons they had managed to get a hold of, and began their own attack on the outside of the palace. It was obvious to Adam that compared to the internal threat, the angry mob was less of a concern. Aside from their sheer numbers, they were not well prepared for a siege. Instead Adam realized that a greater threat had to already be within the palace walls. Whoever it was, there was little doubt in Adam’s mind that the assault was far from over.

  The sound of rapid gunfire drew Adam’s attention to the corridor to his right. He drew his sword and raced into the opaque air in front of him. As he rounded the corner, he called a gust of wind from his fingertips to blow the dust down the hall towards the sound of gunfire. Ahead he saw a pair of men covered in dark body armor from head to toe carrying assault weapons like those that the gunmen from the morning’s bombings had. They wore goggles that left them unfazed by the debris and opened fire on Adam as he rounded the corner. Adam jammed his sword into the wall and forced the stone foundation to shoot out into the hall and block the bullets. Another push with his hand launched the stone wall at the gunmen, toppling over them and pinning them to the floor.

  Adam ran over to the gunmen, finding them unconscious from the sudden blow. He inspected them, noting that they were different from the gunmen he had encountered earlier that day. Although they used the same kind of high-tech automatic assault rifles, the gunmen who had taken the hostages seemed less adept than these ones. If the gunmen from this morning were part of a fringe group of fanatics, it was reasonable that their access to body armor and advanced combat training would be limited. It only added credibility to Adam’s growing belief that the whole event had been staged. The men from the stock exchange were just meant to lure Adam out and help deal the last blow to his public image. The real masterminds behind the attacks were only now making themselves known by striking at the heart of the government with their own advanced weaponry and with Adam’s own people as pawns. There was no longer any doubt: this had to be Oracle’s doing.

  A new passion gripped Adam. It was already enough that he was losing control of his kingdom and everything in his life was starting to fall apart, but now the Oracle group was trying to take everything away from him. So long as he could keep fighting, he didn’t intend to let that happen. Sword in hand, Adam ran down the hall as he followed the sounds of gunfire echoing through the building. Around the corner he found another group of gunmen, but he didn’t give them a chance to shoot at him. A bolt of lightning sparked in his palm and shot out of his hand with the crack of thunder, striking the three men who were powerless to stop the violent force of nature. Adam leapt on them before they hit the ground, cutting them all down with his sword. He didn’t even think twice about killing them. Oracle had started a war, and even without his anger driving him, Adam was not afraid to destroy these hated enemies with extreme prejudice.

  The smoke from the explosions was beginning to clear now and Adam could see the extent of the damage on the rest of the palace. Whole sections of the floors and walls were gone, exposing the naked skeleton of the palace and making some paths dangerous or impossible to move around. The bodies of palace attendants were scattered around the floor of the hall, many in front of Adam having been killed by the gunfire and not by the explosion. It seemed the plan was to disorient the palace and cause an initial round of deaths by setting off bombs in tandem across the palace. In the chaos that followed, the gunmen went to work putting down everyone in their way. It was a gruesome manner of systematic execution that was working very well. The palace guards were not capable of fighting off gunmen. He was one of the few people in the place who would stand a chance, the others being the Creator and—

  Adam’s heart stopped. Dee. She was still in the palace somewhere. Adam moved away from the slain gunmen and ran down the hall to get to Dee’s guest room. With any luck it wouldn’t have been hit by the bombings and Dee would still be safe inside. Adam jumped over a break in the floor and rounded the corner to the hall where Dee’s guest room was. The door was ajar and Adam opened it without any notice. The room was in shambles, having been shaken by the explosions enough to cause decorations to fall from the walls and the bookshelf to topple over. The room itself didn’t appear to have been damaged by the bombs, but Adam noticed right away that it was unoccupied. Dee must have left the room after the explosions sounded, which meant that she was in danger of being killed by the wandering gunmen. Adam pictured her body in the hallway somewhere, blood dripping from her wounds and a sad, lost expression fixed on her face. He forced the image out of his head and hurried back out to find her.

  More gunfire came from up ahead. Adam hugged the walls as he followed the echo of the bullets until he reached the corner where he was certain the source was coming from. Hoping to surprise them, he decided to forego using the elements and instead just cut them down with his sword. He prepared to round the corner and strike at the gunmen when he saw two armored men fly by and slam into the wall in front of him. The force was enough to knock them out and they collapsed face first into a pile of debris on the floor. Adam stared at the pair for a moment to make sure they weren’t getting back up and then with caution moved around the corner. A flash of movement down the hall made him raise up his left hand to launch an elemental attack. He was thankful that he didn’t strike right away. A few yards away from him, Dee stood with her wand at the ready, lowering it when she saw that it was Adam who had appeared before her.

  “Greg,” she managed to choke out, her face flushing with relief. Adam stepped over the unconscious gunmen and ran over to her. He was about to ask her if she was alright when she gripped him in a tight embrace. He let the air out of his lungs in surprise, which Dee noticed and let go. “Sorry, I’m just so glad you’re alright.”

  “I was worried when I went to your room and you weren’t there,” Adam said.

  “When the explosions started I went looking for you or the Creator and ended up running into a bunch of guys with guns. Thankfully I had the mind to grab my wand before I left my room. Greg, what’s going on? Who are these people?”

  “It’s the Oracle group,” Adam explained. “The same people who were behind all the trouble we had to deal with in Kyoto. I suspect that everything that’s happened in the last two days was part of their plan to turn everyone against me. Now they’re trying to bring down the government.”

  “This is horrible,” Dee said, struggling to imagine such a possibility. “They’re killing everyone that they find. We have to stop this.”

  “Where’s the Creator?” Adam asked.

  “He left me to go talk to you a little while ago,” said Dee. “I haven’t seen him since then.”

  “I left him just before this all started. He must be somewhere in the palace, but we have to do what we can without him for now. Can you fight?”

  She showed a determined smile. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  “Glad to hear it,” said Adam. “This isn’t going to be easy by any means. There’s an angry mob of civilians attacking the palace from the outside and we’ll need to deal with them somehow. Meanwhile, the bigger danger is with the gunmen inside.”

  “I can handle the gunmen,” said Dee. “You should try to control the crowd outside.”

  “To b
e honest, I don’t think there’s much I can say at this point that will stop them. And while you may be capable with your magic, we don’t know what else Oracle has waiting to unleash. It’s going to be dangerous for both of us, but even more so for you. I don’t want to risk anything happening to you, so if it’s all the same I’d rather we do this together.”

  Dee’s expression softened. “Alright. So what are we waiting for?”

  The two started their search down the hall towards the front end of the palace. Since the perimeter of the palace had not been breached before the explosions went off, Adam knew that the Oracle operatives had to have already been inside. It wouldn’t be impossible to get them into the palace if there was a mole hiding out inside, but even so there weren’t many places for them to get in. It would be unfeasible to enter through the palace gate with the mob present, and even if they had infiltrated the palace before the uprising began they would have been seen coming in. There were only two ways Adam could think of for them to have snuck in: the portal system, which only he as king had access to, and the escape tunnel connecting the palace dungeon to a safe house at the edge of the city. In either case, there would be no doubt that a mole working for Oracle had been inside of the palace facilitating the planned attack, possibly for months. Adam kicked himself for not considering the option, but it was too late to deal with that now. He and Dee had to focus on putting down all of the gunmen still attacking the palace attendants and the advancing mob making their way in. It was only a matter of time before the civilians would be caught in the crossfire, even as they set out to destroy Adam’s government themselves.