Paradise Awakened Trilogy

by Mackenzie Morris

  He nods his head and carries Dmitri to the automatic doors. "I'm gonna take him flying one last time."

  18

  Isidore reloads the dual 9mm pistols he stole from Doss. He walks down the littered streets now stained with blood and gasoline as his eyes burn with tears. A group of Inquisition butterflies flies up from the side of a store and Isidore fires at them, dropping four to the pavement. Without even blinking, he shoots an android who was looting the ruins of an apartment building. The man collapses as he clutches the wound in his stomach. From across the street, Isidore spots an inquisitor whose legs have been trapped under a burned out truck.

  The man is moaning in pain and looks up when he sees Isidore. "Mr. President . . . please. Help me. I've lost a lot of blood. Just call my squad leader."

  Isidore places his boot on the suffering man's neck to hold him down while he unloads the remainder of the clips into the tan trench coat. After the inquisitor stops moving, Isidore pulls off the golden insignia and stuffs it in his pocket which is quickly getting full of necklaces. Again, he loads his guns and takes aim at a group of inquisitors who have been scouting around this area.

  One of them with bright red hair and bushy sideburns steps forward and holds up a bazooka on his shoulder. "Mr. President, put the guns down."

  Isidore screams at them as the tears stream down his face. "Not until I kill everyone in this hell hole. You could have saved him, but no one cared. Now he's dead!"

  "No one could have saved your son. We had the brightest scientists and doctors working on a cure, but it just wasn't possible. We ran out of time. We did all we could."

  "Shut up!" He fires at them until he can't anymore and falls to his knees in the middle of the road. When no one screams or sounds like they're dying, he looks up.

  Doss is standing in front of the inquisitors with his wings outstretched to defend them from the bullets. He walks up to Isidore and holds out his hand to him. "Don't do this."

  "Don't tell me what to do!" Isidore shouts as he picks himself up. "This is your fault."

  "I know, but killing people isn't the answer."

  "Says the man who kills children!"

  Doss reaches out to him again. "No."

  Isidore swats his hand away. "You don't know how much you've ruined my life."

  "I know you stole my guns."

  "You stole my son!"

  "Just calm down for a minute." Doss says.

  Isidore sees the inquisitors clear the street, fleeing the threat of approaching chaos. "Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down? I'll calm down when I'm dead."

  "I can arrange that."

  "You're threatening me now?" Isidore asks. "Gonna infect me with your tainted blood too?"

  "Stop."

  "I'll stop when I'm dead."

  Doss laughs and pushes his sweat-drenched bangs out of his eyes. "You can't just keep repeating that."

  "I'll say what I want, robot."

  "Robot?" Doss places his hands on his hips. "At least I'm still a man. Did that machete hurt when they chopped it off and turned you into a bitch?"

  Oh, that's it. Isidore rolls up his sleeves and holds up his hands where fire and electricity flash to life. "You're dead."

  "I'd like to see you try. I've killed men ten times as honorable as you."

  He glares at him darkly. "Just like my son."

  "He was my friend. I never wanted to hurt him."

  "You pretended to be his friend so he would trust you."

  Doss jumps to avoid a bolt of electricity. "No. I was his friend since he was little. You know that."

  When Doss draws his sword, a wall of air sweeps out, causing Isidore to drop down to his knees. He fires again, but the bullets ricochet off of the platinum wings. He jumps up and sends a wave of flames towards the archon, engulfing the road with an inferno.

  Isidore crawls under the car as Doss's sword smashes down on the roof with incredible force. Metal, gasoline, oil, and shards of glass rain down on top of him. Something slices into his arm, but he quickly holds his hand on the gash and a pale green glow stops the bleeding. Just as he makes a plan for a quick escape, the mangled car is thrown across the street where it crashes into a van.

  Doss dives down on top of him, sending his fists and the hilt of his sword into Isidore's chest and face. Isidore kicks at him. "Stop! Get off me." Doss obliges, but delivers a powerful kick to Isidore's still healing groin. Screaming and trying to crawl away from certain death, Isidore spots a smoldering wood plank. Without thinking, he tosses it at Doss and painfully stands. "What's wrong, Doss?" He wipes the blood from his busted lip on the back of his arm and gasps for breath. "Where are those archon powers, huh? Is the tiny angel scared to fight?"

  "I'm kicking your ass, android."

  Again, Isidore creates a blazing inferno, causing Doss to fly up in the air to avoid it. He flies higher until he's out of range of Isidore's magic. But Isidore has one more surprise for this arrogant murderer. He kneels down on the hot pavement and holds out his arms. The air begins to tingle against Isidore's skin as he closes his eyes and slams his fists into the ground. The buildings creak under the weight of the increased gravity and force bearing down on them. He opens his eyes and slips out of the intense concentration just in time to hear Doss cry out as he is pulled down from the sky and crashes through the remains of an office building. Just for good measure, Isidore summons the last remaining scraps of his energy to gather power and send an enormous ball of dark matter hurling into the building remnants where it slams through, demolishing everything until it dissipates on the far cavern wall. As his vision begins to blur and the world spins around him, Isidore knows that he is going to pass out, but at least he took down Doss.

  * * *

  Doss coughs as he wakes up under a heap of crumbling bricks and twisted metal. Broken glass has sliced through his right boot, leaving a nasty-looking bloody gash on his calf. As he pushes the rubble off of him and manages to sit up, he takes a look at the destruction surrounding him. A dark purple film shimmers on everything in the vicinity. He's seen this before. Dark matter. It's basically just a concentration of very angry nanobots. He wipes it off of his arms and chest. Seems like Isidore doesn't know much about archons. Still, Doss hates the stuff.

  He gasps in pain when he stands and puts pressure on his legs. He has to laugh a bit. At least he won't have to get a robotic leg like Byron, poor guy. But in all seriousness, Doss feels terrible. Falling from flight again has shaken him and brought back those same terrifying feelings of helplessness and vulnerability.

  As he stumbles out of the wreckage, he watches papers and leaves being scattered by the cave breezes. A large fire is burning along the southern wall and the gunfire has tapered off. Maybe there will be peace tonight. Or the androids have killed off all the humans. He desperately hopes it's not the latter.

  This entire civil war is pointless. No, it shouldn't even be called that. It's genocide. While those terrorists may have been humans, that doesn't mean that all humans are capable of such cruelty. Isidore of all people should know. They just lost one of the kindest ones. It's no used to dwell on that right now. Doss will pay for that in time . . . he's certain of it.

  Where is his sword? He tosses around a few hunks of cement until he finds it then slides it in the sheath and puts his wings away. Where does he go now? Surely Isidore and the others won't let him stay here anymore. It's so much better down here than up on the surface in that shack he has in the middle of the desert. Sure, it's his secret place that is fully stocked with supplies and clothes, but everything up there is horrid and there's only so many cans of beans a person can eat before they just stop eating altogether. What Doss wants to do is find a way to help bring peace down here. There is no reason for everyone to be killing each other, especially when their population numbers were plummeting to begin with. He's not angry with Isidore and Kazimir for what they tried to do to him. In all honesty, Doss almost wishes that Zach had just scrapped him like he was told. He
resigns to be a wanderer, to stay down here, far away from Isidore, but close enough to help if needed.

  Just as he starts limping down the road, he spots someone lying face down in a long black coat with a familiar head full of silver braided hair. Isidore. Should Doss help him? Is he okay? As much as Doss is still on edge from their fight, he knows that he can't walk away and leave him here. He sighs then nudges Isidore with the toe of his boot. "Hey . . . you alive?"

  When there's no response, Doss kneels down and picks him up in his arms. It's a good thing that Isidore is a little guy or Doss wouldn't be able to do this with how weak he has gotten in the past week.

  * * *

  Doss kicks the metal door. "Zach, it's Doss. I have Isidore. Let me in." The door slides open and Doss finds himself staring at the barrel of a laser pistol.

  Kazimir doesn't seem happy to see him. "Bring him inside, place him on the sofa in the lounge, then leave and never come back. If I find out that Dmitri dies from your blood, I will personally hunt you down and skin you alive with my teeth."

  So it seems that bad news doesn't always travel fast or at all. Doss pushes past his creator and carries Isidore into the lounge where Katarina is sitting on Zach's lap with her hands under his shirt. "Um, I need that sofa, please."

  They break off their kiss and Katarina jumps up. "Doss? What are you doing here?"

  "What does it look like?" He lays Isidore on the sofa. "He's just recovering from our fight."

  "Fight? You two were fighting? Is that why you're bleeding all over the floor?"

  Doss looks down at the pool of blood that has smeared under his right boot. "Don't touch that. I'll clean it up after I get this cut bandaged."

  "Why were you two fighting?" Zach asks.

  Doss sits at the table and rolls up the leg of his pants. "Stuff happened."

  Katarina tosses him some bandages. "Stuff?"

  "I'm not the one to tell you. Ask your father when he starts up again."

  "Tell me. What's wrong? Are you . . . crying?"

  So he is. He wipes his face on the back of his hand and continues to dress his wound.

  "Doss?"

  He doesn't answer her.

  "Doss, what are you doing back here? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

  "Dmitri's gone. He died this morning."

  Katarina gasps and covers her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God. I knew he didn't have much time left. Did he hurt much?"

  "Yes, especially near the end, but he's not suffering anymore."

  "Did you get to say goodbye?" She asks through her tears.

  "I did. I was holding him when he took his last breath. I think he had been holding on, waiting for me to come back to him. The first night after we bonded, he told me that he was afraid of dying, but I told him that I wouldn't let anything harm him. He didn't know that even then, I was the one killing him."

  "I don't blame you."

  "But I do." Doss says. "Somehow, it all seemed like a good idea this time. I thought that because Dmitri and I were so close, that he would be able to adapt to my nanobots and stay strong long enough for us to find a cure, but in the end, he died faster than any of the rest. I'm done trying this. I can't keep doing this to children. I'll never bond with another human. Now I've killed the one that I cared for the most."

  The door slides open and Byron steps inside, looking more pale than usual. "What are you doing here?"

  "I want to help." Doss says.

  "Why is my wife crying? Did you hurt her?"

  "I'm only going to say this one more time. Get everyone in here and I'll tell them."

  Once everyone is in the room and Byron is holding onto Katarina to console her, Doss turns his chair to face them all. His voice wavers as he speaks. "I have news that I wish with all my heart and soul was not true. As you all probably know, I bonded with Dmitri one week ago and when I did that, destructive nanobots entered into his bloodstream. This morning, that precious little boy left us." Doss chokes back tears as he starts to lose any composure he had been hiding behind. "He's gone and it's all my fault. I know that no matter what I say, no one will be able to understand why I did what I did. But there's one thing I hope people do understand. I loved Dmitri. I was his best friend since he was five years old. We'd play with his robots and he'd always have something new that he built to show me. I'd walk him to school and we'd get donuts on the way. He loved to play with the butterflies in the park as we ate and watched the artificial sunrise. We'd stay there laughing at jokes and telling stories for so long that he would be late twice a week. Then after school, I'd meet him again and I'd carry him on my shoulders all the way home while he told me about his day. Only in the past year has our time together been less often because of my increased assignments with the Inquisition, but even with that, I'd make time to see him. I would never intentionally harm my little buddy. I was positive that it would be different with him. The others I bonded with were strangers to me for the most part. Dmitri was the only one that I truly would have given my life for. And it's for that reason that I believed he wouldn't die. In the end, I was wrong."

  No one says anything to him now. Some of them hide their faces in their arms or simply shake their heads. The room is silent and cold. Minutes pass until Remiel spots the blood on the floor.

  "Whose blood is that?" Remiel asks.

  "Mine."

  Remiel cleans up Doss's blood on the floor as the others talk amongst themselves. He throws the blood-soaked rag in the trash can. "Uriel, you really should look into carrying a negator with you."

  "A negator? What's that?" Doss asks.

  "It's a liquid concoction that shuts down our nanobots so they won't hurt people."

  What did he just say? Doss flips over the table and lunges at him, pinning Remiel against the wall. He tightens his grip around the young archon's neck. "You're telling there's a way to stop the nanobots?"

  "Yes." Remiel gasps. "What's wrong? I have some in my backpack. Don't hurt me, Uriel. I can't breathe."

  "That negator better be a brand new invention made after this morning."

  Remiel tries to pry Doss's fingers loose. "It's been around for about two years. Clark brought it back from Himmel."

  "Have you been deaf this whole time? My nanobots just killed Dmitri! Why didn't you give me that stuff so I could save him?"

  Remiel doesn't answer. His body goes limp.

  Doss lets go and watches him slide to the floor, gasping for breath. "Remiel, why did you let him die?"

  "I didn't know until today. I swear! I've been with Zach telling him about the other archons and the IGR."

  "And you failed to mention this?"

  "I was getting there, but I didn't think it was very important. You told Gabriel that you weren't going to bond with anyone else so I didn't think you would. If you had asked, I would have told you, but you left."

  Doss turns to the next person responsible. "Kazimir? You didn't know?"

  "Of course not."

  "Why didn't you ask? Isidore, your son was dying and you didn't even think to ask everyone around if there was a cure?" He holds out his hand to Remiel. "Give it to me."

  Remiel hands him a small vial from his bag.

  Doss holds it in his hand and watches the pearlescent liquid glisten in the light. "Four hours. Four hours ago, Dmitri took his final breath in my arms and now I'm holding the one thing that would have saved him. We could have gotten him to a hospital and he would have recovered. But no one thought to ask. How could you?"

  "Don't try to pass blame to us, Doss. Dmitri's blood is on your hands, not ours. And don't yell at Remi. He had nothing to do with this. Now get off your ass and leave before I kill you."

  "Let him stay." Isidore says.

  "Are you sure?" Kazimir asks.

  "If there's actually going to be anyone left alive in Paradise, we need all the help we can get to stop this massacre."

  Doss stands then bows to him. "I won't let you down."

  "You already did."
<
br />   19

  Isidore presses the button on the wall to open the front door to the laboratory and he stares at the mob of people who have huddled on the pavement, some wrapped in blankets and others with guns at the ready. What could this possibly be? "Can I help you?"

  A woman stands and bows. "Don't shoot us, please. We don't mean you any harm. We are humans and androids who don't want to fight anyone. Will you let us in? We seek electricity and shelter which you have. We can help you guys out. Some of the androids were trained to be medics and that human over there with the sniper rifle used to be security and he can shoot. Two of the human women are pregnant and one android is."

  "An android is pregnant?" Isidore asks, knowing that this could be a problem if the baby is a hybrid like Katarina. While things are okay most of the time, there are times when the birth defects are horrific which is why there is a law against android and human couplings. "Is the father human or an android?"

  The woman looks down at the ground and whispers. "Human. Her owner never registered her. Then he raped her and abandoned her when he found out that she was pregnant. Don't turn her away. It's not her fault."

  "I wouldn't turn her away, or any of you for that matter." Isidore holds out his hand to them. "Come inside and head to the back of the facility. You will find bedrooms there." He watches them go by until he steps in front of the two men with sniper rifles on their backs, preventing them from entering. "You two don't look like these refugees. What are you doing here? Who are you?"

  The young muscular blonde man smiles and bows. "I'm Jarred, Jarred Cunningham. And this is my android and best friend Jayce. He doesn't talk much."

  "What do you use him for?" Isidore asks.

  "Well, nothing. He's my friend. He does what he pleases."

  "No slave collar?"

  "I don't make him wear it except when we're around inquisitors." Jarred says. "I like to think of us as being equals more than anything. I help him and he helps me. We're also partners."