CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel

by A. Bernette

  Tomorrow he would get food, water, and a few other supplies. When he got back home, he would take care of his business there and prepare to leave again. He looked in the mirror as it warped his image, making his face stretch long and accentuating his nose.

  He had to do this. There was no choice. Everyone has their moment. Mave would understand - she had to. There were some things he could try to make right. There were some things that all the trying in the world wouldn’t change. He knew the difference. Looking at the reflection of his face, he accepted that this was something he could try to make right, despite the costs.

  He couldn’t control the dual powers of the World Consensus and UniCorps. They had chosen not to act, and by their inaction, they had forced his hand. He would not have blood like that on his hands. He’d done enough in his life he had to make amends for already.

  The data was in Marco’s hands now, and he had to trust him. It was all he could do and now Marco had to get the information out and warn the people of Southern Allegiance. He’d made Marco promise not to send it until he was back on the island and not to mention it to Stephen.

  “The less any one person knows about what is happening, the better.” It was what Rupert told Marco before leaving. He believed more people would be kept safe that way.

  Besides, Rupert was confident that when Stephen made it home he would be busy with investigating the ARC. He hoped Stephen would find whatever he was looking for. Stephen was also doing predictive modeling of the earthquakes, which might not help for the one coming to Southern Liberty, but Southern Liberty was just the beginning. The data was clear on that.

  Rupert waited a couple of days before trying to call Mave. As the call tried to connect, he thought about her reaction to what he’d said. He wouldn’t take it back even if it made her uncomfortable. It was the truth. He did love her, but maybe she needed space or time to think.

  The light on his watch blinked as it tried to connect unsuccessfully. He wondered if his phone function was still working since he’d talked to Marco the day before. He attempted the call to Mave once more, and again it didn’t go through – this time the attempt to connect suddenly ended. He couldn’t imagine she was sending his calls away, but he had no other explanation.

  ***

  Two days before Rupert thought he’d be able to head home Marco called again. “Locan is on his way. He’s coming a day early because there is danger coming, Rupert.”

  “I know. It’s why I gave you the report, to get the warning out,” Rupert responded.

  “I think it’s worse than you might think. I started looking at the data you gave me Rupert and comparing it with some that I got hold of from Southern Liberty. They don’t match Rupert. What you gave me isn’t all the data. It’s like someone randomly plucked out maybe ten to fifteen percent of the activity in the fault lines and took it out of your data set. So what I have looks even worse than what you have,” Marco said reluctantly.

  Rupert looked at his watch. Even they at the ARC had been lied to. He wondered how much more data they were missing and just how serious the problem was.

  “To make things worse, Rupert, based on what you show and what I show, I think we’ve got two fault lines, both active and converging. It wouldn’t look so bad with just one fault line, but the second one isn’t showing up in your data. I hadn’t gone in really to look at the stuff I had until you sent your report. Honestly, it just wasn’t that interesting until now.”

  “So something changed?” Rupert asked wondering what Marco knew.

  “Yeah, between these two reports, we are looking at a major disaster on the northern coast and it looks like it could happen anytime within the next month. If I had to guess, I’d bet it’s going to be as bad as or possibly worse than Southern Liberty. Rupert, you can’t go back home. You need to stay here, inland, where it’s safe.” The sound of concern was sincere in Marco’s voice as he waited for Rupert to respond.

  Rupert was silent for a moment. Staying in Santoria was dangerous in other ways, given he was presumed to be home and the air transport would expect to pick him up there. If there were no earthquake he would have no excuse for not being there. If there were an earthquake, he’d be trapped on his small island home with little chance of survival without evacuation. He already knew there were no plans for warnings or evacuations.

  “Are you there?” Marco asked into the silence on the other end.

  “Yes, Marco. I’m here. I’m just thinking. Neither leaving nor staying is favorable at this time. Did you already send out the report?”

  “No, you said to wait until you were gone. I figured I’d check with you since you may not be going. Do you still want me to wait to send it out? The longer we wait, the less chance our folks here have to save themselves. The danger in the Rift Valley seems on part with what’s happening right here. From the data we both have, it’s likely to wrap right around to your home in Trinabago. We have to do something, fast.”

  Rupert thought about his little island. At one time the risk was considered low or very moderate but since they’d put pumps in the northeastern parts of Southern Allegiance the whole area was experiencing more activity. More activity than had been reported to him and the others on the ARC.

  Rupert was a scientist and could see the data, but he reasoned that anyone who was paying any attention had to know that the tremors and minor earthquakes weren’t normal and the excuses and rationale given to the public weren’t realistic. Now they had more information that put the region at risk and no one was telling anyone anything.

  At that very moment, they were evacuating the Rift Valley, and though no full reports of how it was going left Southern Liberty, he was pretty confident it wasn’t going well. The same could happen in his home but this time there was information – facts and data – that could be used to convince people to get out of the danger zones.

  “Send it Marco. We do what we must,” Rupert said and clicked off the call.

  The tremors and small earthquakes were the rumblings of a giant slowly waking, with its moaning, groaning, and stretching. They needed to know that over the centuries, they had managed to awaken a sleeping giant.

  Marco pulled the reports and data he’d gotten from Rupert together and then added what he and Alexis had taken from their local government’s science division. He worked them both into a secure file and encrypted them before sending them the same way he and Stephen had sent files just a couple weeks before. It had to work. The subsystem was the only way to get the information out and he hoped someone was paying attention to it.

  He would know soon enough if the message made it into the right hands. He and Alexis didn’t think they would get to use the information they’d taken so soon, but now he didn’t feel guilty at all for hacking into the system to find out the truth.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Shift

  Santoria, Southern Allegiance

  Marco was startled by the sound of buzzing by his head. It was Alexis. He wasn’t expecting any calls to come through.

  “Hello?” Marco said anxiously.

  “Marco! Are you okay? Where’ve you been? I’ve called you three times? I heard what happened. Are you and your mom alright? Where are you?” Alexis asked without taking a breath.

  Slow down, Alexis. This is the first of your calls that has come through. We’ve been pretty much in the dark here. But I’m alright.”

  “How are you so calm? Haven’t you heard? There was an earthquake on the coast. It’s about a hundred miles from you. Didn’t you feel the aftershocks?”

  “Yes, I know about it. This one wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it might be. I’ll save my panicking for when I really need it. My mom was called out to help. She left a couple of hours ago. I’ve felt a few aftershocks but nothing major.” Marco moved away from where he peered out the windows.

  It wasn’t long after the earthquake hit early in the morning that Teresa had gotten a call on her emergency communication device. There was a shor
tage of emergency aid workers and medical providers in Valencia Major and anyone who could go was requested to come. She’d woken him up to tell him she was leaving and wouldn’t listen to his attempts to make her stay.

  Now, with the sun well over the tree line it looked like an ordinary day outside. He sat down at his desk to turn on his system. He didn’t want the regular news. He wanted the reports coming through the subsystem.

  “How bad did they say it was? We didn’t have much news here about it. They told my mom it was around a 5 or 5.5,” Marco spoke into his watch.

  “The news is saying it was a 6.0 but no one is seeing anything. They said the earthquake knocked certain data feeds out, so there are no pictures or video - only voice. I think that’s a little suspicious. Don’t you?” Alexis asked skeptically.

  “Yeah - very, but wait. What I’m reading now says it was a 7.7 on the Richter Scale but the news is saying it was a 6.0? And they told my mom it might be just a 5? ” Marco questioned, trying to wrap his mind around the thought that they’d flat out lied about how severe the earthquake had been.

  “Can you reach Stephen and Stella?” Marco asked. He’d been trying but the calls would not connect. “How’d you get through to me?” Marco asked curiously, since she was back home in Australia and not at her dad’s.

  “Cloning and masking and a few other tricks up my sleeve, but most people can’t get through. My dad says its only voice within Southern Allegiance. Since he deals with people from across the region so he would know.”

  Marco scratched his head and rubbed his eyes as the reality of what happened began to settle in. He’d sent the information out just three days before. There was no way for most people to move out of danger that quick, even if they listened to the report and believed it.

  Marco sat in his old wooden chair, careful not to rub his hands along the sides. He didn’t need splinters. He wanted to see what had happened and he needed to know how bad it was.

  He tried to pull up the reports from the subsystem, but it was painfully slow. Users not able to access the regular network had overloaded the old system and the only data that could come through was text. Videos and images weren’t available. Marco was getting the feeling that someone was making sure no one saw images of the truth.

  He didn’t need to see much more than what he saw in front of him, typed up under the heading, ‘Truth about S.A. Earthquake’.

  TRANSMITTED REPORT START

  Today at 7:26 a.m. Eastern Allegiance Time (EAT), an earthquake hit along the northern coast of Southern Allegiance. The earthquake, reported to measure at a between a 5.7 and 6.0 on the Richter Scale was measured by our local scientists at between a 7.6 and a 7.8.

  Loss of Life: At this time, actual numbers of lives lost are not available. The area affected is highly populated by regional citizens and many visitors from other regions. It is estimated that at the time of the earthquake there were seven hundred and fifty million to one billion people in the metropolitan area of Valencia Major. Based on the reports of missing persons, devastation, building collapses, and the collapses of roads and bridges we expect that the number of lives lost may number as many as a half of the people in the region.

  There was no public warning of the earthquake though data surfaced a few days ago of information that an earthquake was imminent. The source stated that warnings could have been given weeks to months prior to the incident.

  No photos or video feeds can be sent at this time. Once those capabilities are restored, images will be available.

  ###

  Next Update Scheduled for 12:30 P.M. EAT

  TRANSMITTED REPORT END

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Giants

  The Capital City, Northern Liberty Region

  Gregor Magiro adjusted his shirt and tucked it into the back of his waistband. The sun was beginning to set and he’d already missed dinner with his wife, again. They’d been going around in circles like they were windmills being blown by multiple storms. Presently, that storm came in the form of the towering figure of the man who appeared to be crossed with a titan, The Stache.

  Magiro counted eight times in less than two weeks that The Stache had been by to see either him or Silver. He’d come to Magiro’s office clopping his big black boots and casting shadows over everything within six feet of him, as he stood menacingly in the door way. Magiro could only step back out of the darkness and let The Stache in for another one of his unrelenting debates about the merits of UniCorps’s position.

  Each time he’d come, it was with the same argument. The same one that Mylar had made on the ARC just weeks before and the one Magiro and Silver had yet to give them the satisfaction of their full agreement on. They were feeling threatened -threatened by Magiro and Silver’s noncompliance. Threatened by the possibility that the two troublemakers might convince others to share the information that was still legally considered confidential.

  Magiro looked at The Stache, with his dodgy eyes in a murky shade of brown, and knew he and Silver weren’t the only ones he’d been visiting. The Stache had been up and down the tower and across the halls, visiting every major Representative so he could pressure them into staying silent and not allowing the bill Silver and Magiro had sponsored on environmental reporting transparency to go through.

  Magiro was fairly certain any conversation also included a clear reminder of the costs of desertion, which in their world meant not going with the program that UniCorps designed. What he didn’t know was how successful The Stache had been. Nearly all of the Representatives had fallen in line, not wanting to jeopardize their future political careers and the guaranteed lifestyle once their years of public service were over.

  However, Magiro and Silver had promised each other that neither would agree to anything The Stache asked, no matter how tempting. They now had the information they previously needed and burying it was no longer an option either of them could consider.

  Magiro sat down at the end of his oval table, his back towards the large window. The Stache stood with his fists leaning on the table. Magiro rested his elbows on his side, attempting to counteract the weight as he thought The Stache’s sheer size might tip it before he stood back up.

  “Do you know who I work for, Gregor Magiro? I mean who I really work for?” The Stache’s expression changed from the menacing bully. Magiro got the sense that his tough guy act was just that, an act, but one he’d mastered well.

  “You work for UniCorps and probably always will,” Magiro said, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back.

  The shimmery fabric of his special Representative uniform caught in the falling sun. He didn’t want to be here. As he looked at the mountain of a man in front of him, he could see that neither of them did. The Stache wasn’t any freer than he was; he’d just gotten a higher fee for his freedom.

  “You know you can’t beat them. No one can. They have lasted as long as they have because they will defend their position at all costs. I sat down with your friend Silver today and I told her the same thing. You two are okay and I know you mean well, but you are roaches getting in the way of a steamroller. You can’t win.”

  “Who knows? Roaches are pretty tough to kill. Trust me, we tried,” Magiro said back to Mirkal in an easy conversational tone.

  This was something new, a different angle from The Stache. He actually seemed concerned for them, but Magiro had known him long enough to know that he’d say just about anything to get what he wanted and right now he wanted Magiro’s agreement to pull in Silver. He wanted to know neither of them would talk, and more importantly, that they’d pull their proposed bill off the table to ensure it never received any press and that the public never heard of it.

  Magiro looked at the time and stood up, putting himself back into the shadow The Stache cast. It was late, it was Friday, and the last day before the two week break.

  “I have plans for the break and I hope you do too. I know why you are here. I know why you’ve been here nearly every workday
for the past two weeks. I can’t give you what you want, Mirkal. I can’t tell you what you want to hear. Let me show you out because right now I’m going home to enjoy my family.”

  Magiro walked past The Stache and opened the door. “Have a good break, Mirkal.” Magiro handed him the tablet he’d placed on the table by the door.

  “You can’t go against UniCorps; not if you’re expecting to win. They’re like Goliath and you’re like David, only without the rock,” The Stache said filling the doorframe.

  Magiro wondered what had been set into motion. He could feel the rumblings everywhere he turned. The attention of the two-headed Goliath had been peaked. The planet, with the problems that had been pushed beneath the surface, was now finally stirring itself awake, uncomfortable in the mess in which it slumbered.

  “I’ve known you a long time, Magiro. You get in their way and they will crush you. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you or your friend Silver.”

  With those last words echoing in Magiro’s ear, Mirkal ‘The Stache’ Dempstead walked out of Magiro’s office, taking his shadow with him.

  As the dark mass vanished down the hall, Magiro felt his wrist buzzing. He considered that he shouldn’t be hearing from anyone now. It was time for vacation. He looked at the number, which showed Preston Rochester Davenport II. He didn’t want to answer this call but not answering would mean even more trouble.

  “Magiro speaking,” he said after taking a deep breath.

  “Magiro, this is Preston. Preston Davenport.”

  “Yes, sir. Of course. What can I do for you this evening? I was just heading out for the break.”