The Amber Project: A Dystopian Sci-fi Novel (The Variant Saga Book 1)

by JN Chaney

  “Lucky me.”

  “We wouldn’t have bothered, but they were all over the place, and I wanted to salvage through the equipment to see if anything was worth keeping. So far, nothing,” said Mei.

  “Where are we, anyway? I don’t remember seeing this place on the way in.”

  John sighed. “Yeah, about that…”

  “We’re trapped,” said Alex from across the room.

  Terry looked at John. “Seriously?”

  John nodded. “When those rocks fell, they blocked the exit. It’s the only way back.”

  “Yeah, good going,” said Alex. “I always wanted to die in a hole. Oh, wait, no I didn’t. That’s why I left in the first place.”

  “Shut up,” said Mei. “We all get it. You’re pissed. Deal with it like an adult.”

  Alex waved his hand and muttered an obscenity only he and Terry could hear.

  “Basically,” continued John, “we’ve gotta get to the city. Then, we can find another way out. There’s plenty of roads leading away from the city, according to our maps. We just don’t know which ones are still usable.”

  Mei nodded. “Right. And even if we manage to find a road out, it’ll add at least a day or so before we can make it back to Sarah.”

  Terry sat up a bit. He expected pain, but there was surprisingly very little of it. Had his body healed already? It took Alex over a day before he could walk again and even that was impressive. “How long was I out?”

  “Six hours,” said John.

  “What about Roland?”

  Mei and John both hesitated, which could only mean one thing.

  “Dammit,” muttered Terry. He pressed his fist into the floor, cracking his knuckles.

  Mei bent down and clasped his fist with her hands. “It’s not your fault. You did more than anyone else.”

  “She’s right,” said John. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You were amazing.”

  “It didn’t make a difference. He’s still dead.”

  “And if you didn’t do what you did, the rest of us might be, too,” said Mei. “So stop it, okay? We don’t have time for doubt right now. We don’t’ have time to wonder what we could have done differently or what we should have done. There’s four of us here…five if you count Sarah…and I expect us all to make it home alive. Do you understand?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “How do you feel?” asked John after a moment.

  “Better,” he answered. He looked at Mei. “We should tell Sarah what happened.”

  “I already did. Hours ago.”

  “She’s refusing to leave,” said John. “Said she’d wait for us to come back.”

  Terry tried to move, but Mei stopped him.

  “Hang on,” she said, unwrapping the bandages. “You didn’t bleed much. I only had to change the cloth once.” The last wrap stuck to him before coming off. The air felt cool against his newly exposed skin.

  Mei took a moment to examine him. “Wow,” she muttered, almost inaudibly.

  “What is it?” he asked. “How bad?”

  John leaned in and examined it. “Now that’s cool.”

  “It looks good,” said Mei. “Really good. It’s not anything like before. I don’t understand it…”

  “Explains the lack of pain,” said Terry, looking at his gut. There were several scratches, but many of them were scabbed. “How long before I’m back to normal?”

  Mei shrugged. “How should I know?” She reached for the medical kit and grabbed some swabs and disinfectant spray. “I’m not a doctor. Even if I were, this is uncharted territory.”

  “You still think he needs the spray?” asked John.

  She applied the disinfectant. “Better safe than sorry.” The spray stung when she used it, but he didn’t flinch. She wrapped a fresh gauze around him. Once she finished, he relaxed.

  “What do we do now?” asked Terry.

  “Stay here for a bit,” she said. “You need to rest, and we have to see if we can find a better way out.”

  “Why not move the rocks? You know, go back the way we came.”

  “We could try, but we might risk another cave-in. For all we know, the whole ceiling could collapse. It’s a big risk.”

  “So is going farther in. There’s bound to be more of those razorbacks somewhere.”

  “You’re right. What do you think we should do?”

  He hesitated. “Did you…get Roland’s weapon? We might need it.”

  “Mei saved his pack, but the rifle didn’t make it,” said John.

  “It was crushed by the cave-in,” said Mei.

  “At least you got the pack,” said Terry. “What’s the plan?”

  “We don’t know yet,” said Mei.

  “It’s okay,” said John. “Together, we’ll think of something.”

  “Right,” said Mei. “And in the meantime, I’m going through the rest of the equipment. There might be something we can use or take home. This trip doesn’t have to be a total loss.”

  “What can I do?” asked Terry.

  “It’ll be hard for you to do anything without your goggles,” said John. “Here, I saved them for you.” He reached for his pack and took out the battered headpiece.

  “Don’t bother. I don’t need them.”

  “But it’s pitch black in here,” said John.

  “I know, but I can see you fine.”

  Mei leaned in closer, examining his face, her goggles nearly poking him in the nose. “No way…”

  “So you can see everything?” asked John.

  “Yeah. It’s all sort of a dark blue-ish color. Not as good as normal, but better than wearing those things.”

  John held up his hand. “How many fingers?”

  “Three,” said Terry.

  John looked at his fingers. “Lucky guess.”

  Mei touched the side of his left eye, sweeping her fingers across his brow. “When did all this start, exactly?”

  “When I tripped and fell on that car. It happened again when I tried to kill that thing earlier…right before I passed out.”

  “No try about it,” John assured him. “You killed it dead.”

  Mei pushed John away. “How long are these…episodes, usually?”

  “A few seconds, I guess, but I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes, and it’s not going away.”

  Mei seemed to think for a moment, though it was tough to tell with the goggles on her face. “It must have something to do with your reaction to the gas. All the stuff happening to you—it’s the only thing making any sense.”

  “Hard to say,” said Terry, though he was more certain of it than anything. Still, he no longer wished to talk about it, nor did he see the point. He couldn’t stop breathing Variant, no more than he could sprout wings and fly. Whatever was happening to him would continue to happen, he decided, no matter what he did or said or hoped.

  For now, he was stronger, better able to help his friends if they needed him. That’s what really mattered, wasn’t it?

  That’s what all of this was for.

  *******

  Mei squealed and Terry opened his eyes. A dim, gray light glowed in the distance. It seemed to be coming from her lap.

  “I did it! I got it to work!”

  “Got what to work?” asked John. He was close by, combining Roland’s pack with his own.

  “The pad I found,” explained Mei. “It’s the same as ours, except older and in much worse condition. I tried swapping parts with the extra one we had from…Roland’s pack, and it didn’t work either. But when I started disassembling it, I found an Ortego disk inside.” She held up a thin, translucent disk roughly the size of a thumbnail. “This is from the other pad. I swapped it with the one I found. Looks like it works, but it’s still booting. See?”

  Terry got to his feet and walked to where they were sitting. Alex joined them. They all watched the display come to life.

  The home screen
was exactly the same. A series of chimes rang and a capital “O” flew onto the display, extending into the word “Ortego.” Immediately following the logo, a fancy-looking subtitle appeared, which read, “Building A Better World.”

  Mei tapped the screen, and it changed to the desktop, which was littered with files. “Hang on, while I open the disk folder.”

  Several dozen files appeared, one after the other. They were mostly text documents, but there were a few audio and video files as well as some spreadsheets. “Wow,” said John. “I can’t believe it still works.”

  “Of course it works,” said Alex. “Those disks last forever. Longer than any of the hardware they made to read them.”

  “True, but most pads have enough space already. It’s rare to see a disk,” said Mei.

  “Maybe the person who had it before filled it up,” suggested John.

  “Yeah, could be,” she said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Alex. “Seems useless.” He walked away. “I’m gonna take a nap while you kids play. Wake me when you’re ready to get out of this hole.”

  Mei sighed. “He’s right. We should go. This place is dangerous.”

  Terry sat next to her. “Is this the only pad you found?”

  “Oh, no way! There’s several. I don’t know if we’ll find another Ortego disk, but who knows?”

  “Okay, so let’s pack them all and get out of here. I feel good enough to walk now. What do you think?”

  “You’re sure?”

  He nodded. “I feel totally fine.”

  John used the empty pack to house the pads and gave it to Alex. Since he didn’t have a rifle and therefore couldn’t fight, it made sense.

  The team left the area and headed in the direction of the city. Terry had been placed in charge of the map, since he could look at it without having to remove a pair of awkward goggles. “Left up here,” he said as they made their way through another tunnel. “Only a few more passageways and we’re there.” He and Mei had plotted the best route they could think of before leaving, making sure to stay away from open areas or places where animals might make a nest. They got lucky with the last room, which Mei admitted was probably a mistake, seeing as it was huge and could’ve easily housed a dozen of those things.

  Surprisingly, they didn’t see any other rabs in the tunnels, or evidence they’d been there at all. If there were any others, Terry was glad to avoid them.

  After an hour, they found the exit door. It was latched tightly, the same as the one they’d entered through. John and Terry lifted the bar and pushed together. It opened easier than the last time.

  The access door came out onto a stairwell, which led them to the edge of the highway. Back in the light of day, Mei, John, and Alex were free to remove their goggles, which they did immediately.

  “Finally,” said John, rubbing the back of his head. “That strap’s a killer on my skin.”

  “Be happy you had one. We would’ve died without them,” said Mei

  Terry took a deep breath. After spending nearly a day in the tunnels, the change in Variant quality was noticeably refreshing.

  The city was all around him, though he could barely tell one building from the next. When he’d looked at this place from atop the hill, it was easy to see how big or small each of the towers were. But now that he was close enough to touch them, they all looked exactly the same.

  Thunder rang in the distance. The clouds were moving this way. “We need to find some cover before the storm gets here,” said Terry.

  “One of the buildings?” asked John.

  Terry shook his head. “Somewhere more open. There’s no telling if there’s any animals in there. It’s better if we can see them coming.”

  Everyone agreed. They packed their gear and hustled forward. There was a large clearing adjacent to a nearby intersection, which the map called Starlight Park. It was mostly dirt by now, but a few occasional clumps of blue grass appeared the farther in they went.

  They managed to find a standing gazebo in the park before long, though once the rain started, it became pretty clear it wasn’t entirely without its problems. Still, the leaks were manageable, and the shelter afforded them a chance to rest.

  Mei grabbed the pack with the pads in it and unloaded a few. John asked if she wanted help, but she declined. “I’m only passing time. You guys relax,” she said.

  John and Terry sat at both ends of the gazebo, their rifles in their laps. Terry tried to do as Mei suggested, but the thought of more razorbacks—what they were capable of—kept him on edge. He began to think he wouldn’t get any rest until they left this horrible place.

  Alex, on the other hand, seemed oblivious. He was lying down, using one of the packs as a pillow. Terry envied him.

  The rain fell for hours, tasting bitter, but it cooled the air. The sun climbed to its zenith, only to disappear behind a pair of gray, thunderous clouds that stretched far away. The leaks in the roof of the gazebo dripped and splashed, pooling and then streaming through the cracks in the floor. Everyone had to reposition periodically, but it didn’t take long to learn where the water was going.

  When the rain did end, the sun had already gone, replaced by the night’s clear and starry skies.

  John and Terry agreed to take shifts. They wanted Mei to rest and Alex couldn’t be trusted with a gun.

  Through the long night, the gazebo shone with the glow of Mei’s pad. Terry made a few attempts to talk to her, but she didn’t seem very interested. In the end, he left her to the task. She worked silently, methodically, as though there were nothing else in all the world.

  Hours later, shortly before the new dawn, Mei began to tremble, sobbing quietly in the corner. Terry, still on watch, heard her whimpering and went to her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, touching her shoulder.

  Her eyes, bloodshot and glazed from lack of sleep and sheer exhaustion, stared deep into the ground. She clutched the pad between her hands, pulling it close to her chest, and swallowed hard.

  There, in the middle of a Starlight Park gazebo, surrounded by darkness and with streams of tears gliding down her golden cheeks, Mei told Terry the truth about the Jolt.

  Chapter 20

  Ortego Disk 21

  Play Audio File 0017

  Subtitled: Gas Origin

  Recorded February 22, 2157

  GIDEON: I’m sending this message out to anyone with ears to hear it. It’s about the gas. Before you ask, the answer is no, I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t even know what it is. All I can tell you is how it got here…or at least where it came from.

  This morning at around 0730, we attended a video teleconference between our office and the home lab. They were getting ready to launch the first live test of their new project, a matter transmitter, while we watched through a little camera on the other side of the room. The test was supposed to run for approximately three minutes—safety reasons, I think. They planned to transport a small device from one containment unit to the next, both of which were within view and being observed by local personnel.

  Everything appeared to go off without a hitch, the same as it had in the hundreds of simulations prior to the launch. But when the rift appeared, and they sent the beacon through, nothing came out the other side. After three minutes, Doctor Bell gave the word to shut everything down, then started apologizing to the government officials nearby. I heard someone yell back that the machine was unresponsive. Bell apologized again and went to check it out. I couldn’t see where, but the cameras were still pointing at the machine, so I kept watching.

  A few more minutes passed, and the rift or tear or whatever the hell it was, started growing—not huge, but bigger than it was supposed to be. Then, it fluctuated, which seemed natural when you took into account the time limit they set for the devilish thing. We all thought it was simply going to collapse. But it didn’t. Not at all. It only got worse.

  Then, it stopped. I don’t mean that it shu
t down, only that it wasn’t fluctuating anymore. I thought maybe Doctor Bell had fixed it.

  That’s when the screaming began. I couldn’t see who it was, but it scared the hell out of me. People panicked and ran, but they didn’t go very far. In a few seconds, every person in the room was on the floor, crying for help. Someone screamed, “Gas! Gas! Gas!” And another yelled, “It’s burning!” After a moment, they were dead, and the gas…well…you’ve seen what it does to the bodies.

  The reports came in. People everywhere were dying, the same as they had in the lab. We tracked the news coverage and monitored the path of the breakout. Whatever it is, we’re certain it originated there.

  My name is Doctor August Gideon, and I work for the Ortego Corporation. I wish I knew more about what went wrong, but I don’t. All I know is in an hour the gas will be here, and I’ll be dead. There’s no running from it, no getting away. All I can do is send this transmission with the hope it’ll help.

  I’ve attached the blueprints of the facility, along with detailed instructions on how to theoretically turn off the machine. I say “theoretically” because I have no idea whether or not Doctor Bell actually tried to do this before he died. If he followed procedure and it failed, there may be no way to recover this situation. But if not, we may still stand a chance.

  Good luck.

  End Audio File

  January 09, 2347

  The Surface

  The four teenagers from under the earth sat in a circle listening to a dead man talk about the end of the world.

  “I can’t believe what I just heard,” said John when it was over. “How’s any of this possible?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mei. “But there it is.”

  Terry stared at the blank screen. He’d listened to the recording a total of four times. Two before he woke the others and two after. He still couldn’t believe it. All his life, he’d been told that the Jolt was natural—how mankind wasn’t smart enough to create something as brilliantly complex as Variant. Sure, there were theories here and there, but no one ever offered any proof. It was always a guessing game, and eventually people got tired of playing.