Karma City

by Gardener Browning

  Gemni stood atop the ruined shuttle. Malevolence etched his bleach-white face. He grinned at Jameson. “I am impressed that you survived yet another explosion. What does this make for you? Three?”

  “Sounds right,” answered Jameson.

  “I must know what makes you so special.”

  “You’ll have to kill me to understand me, Gemni. But you don’t look like you’re in any condition to fight…am I right, Luna?”

  Luna pulled her trigger.

  A rifle round struck Gemni in the thigh, blowing his leg out from under him. He roared and fell to the concrete, blood pouring from his wound.

  Gemni clawed his way close to Jameson, hatred and murder in his eyes, trailing a line of shining blood under his crippled leg. Jameson stood over the parasitic monster and kicked him in the face. Gemni’s head snapped back with a demonic hiss.

  Jameson spat on him. “You’re nothing. Now you’re gonna die.”

  “Step away!” Brighton warned.

  Gemni slammed his cold fingers around Jameson’s ankles and jerked him to the ground. Jameson’s head slammed against the concrete with a thud. Gemni wrapped around him like a python, quickly finding Jameson’s throat and squeezing off the air.

  “No human can overpower me,” he promised. Spit and blood pattered from his mouth and trickled down Jameson’s face. “Now you will watch your friends suffer as I choke out your heart.” His eyes crackled with orange fire and he shot a glance at Jack Halligan. “Hear me! Kill the Lessers!”

  Jack tugged at his hair. He hunched over with his head in his hands and staggered on his feet like a drunken vagrant. Spit dripped from his mouth and his fingers curled like talons. He whirled around and struck down Albert, knocking the doctor unconscious. Luna moved in to subdue him, but Jack evaded, snatching her rifle and tossing it from the overpass. Luna was stunned by his strength and quickness. In the moment of distraction, Jack jumped her, locking his arms around her neck and biting into her collar.

  Luna screamed for Jameson.

  Chapter 14

  Jameson, still suffering with the gunshot wound, struggled to pry Gemni’s terrible claws from his throat. At the corner of his vision, he could see Luna fighting with Jack near the edge of the highway overpass. Over him, Gemni cackled in pleasure. Jameson snarled and gasped; he kicked and writhed under Gemni but the Malady-elite beast proved supernaturally strong. Jameson knew in a few more seconds, he’d either black out or his neck would break under the fiend’s murderous force. He had nothing left, no more fight, and no more strength. This is my death.

  “No!” screamed Brighton from core of Jameson’s mind.

  The world darkened.

  The sounds ended.

  Only an echo of steady breathing surrounded Jameson. “Hello?” he called into the blackness.

  A street lamp winked on. The half-awake dream unfolded and Brighton appeared, leaning on the lamp post in his long black trench coat. One of Karma City’s nameless alleys took form around Jameson. He met Brighton in the lamplight.

  “Hello Jameson. It’s nice to see you again.”

  “Am I dead?”

  “No. I’ve pulled you back. Gemni is killing your body right now. Your heart will stop in another minute or two. But here, in your mind, we are safe, at least for a little while.”

  “If I die, you die.”

  “Not right away. I’m still a parasite, after all. I’ll consume your matter and sustain myself as long as I can. Maybe I’ll find a way out of your dead body. Transference. But probably not.” Brighton shoved off the post and stepped closer to Jameson. “Your wound, the burning in your lungs…you don’t feel the pain now, do you?”

  “No.”

  “That’s because I shut it off.” Brighton extended his hand. “Jameson, if you want to live, you must trust me. Let me take over.”

  Jameson concentrated on forcing Brighton from his mind but the effort proved useless.

  “Think about Luna. She’s suffering right now.” Brighton looked up at the lamplight and closed his eyes. Luna’s screams suddenly filled the alley. Jameson! Help!

  Jameson’s eyes watered and his fists grew cold.

  “Gemni will rip her to pieces, Jameson. By choosing your fate, you also choose hers. Let me out. Let me win this battle.”

  There was no point in resisting. The parasite was right. Jameson’s anger flared and his fighting spirit erupted. He looked squarely into Brighton’s inhuman eyes and nodded. “Go.”

  Brighton grinned and cracked his knuckles. “Gemni said that no human can overpower him.” He chuckled and stepped out of the ring of light. His face darkened in the shadows of the alley. “It’s my turn.”

  Luna drove an elbow into Jack’s gut and flipped him over her shoulder, tossing him to the concrete. A swift boot to the face sent Jack winding in pain. She clutched the burning bite on her neck and slid to Albert who remained on his back. She shook him awake. The doctor adjusted his glasses and wiped a line of blood from his nose.

  “What happened, Luna?”

  “Gemni attacked Jameson and turned Jack on us.”

  Jack slowly crawled to his feet, face dripping with blood. Luna pulled her combat knife and readied it against him.

  Albert shook his head. “I’ll take care of Jack.” He opened his medical bag and removed an ampoule and syringe. “A concentration of Quell will dial down his Malady and should break him from Gemni’s control. Now go help Jameson!”

  Fire puffed under the wrecked shuttle. The flames devoured the gasoline and swelled high into the air. Gemni’s icy hands shifted across Jameson’s throat, angling to snap his neck. “You proved weaker than I could have imagined,” Gemni taunted. “A shameful conclusion.”

  Jameson’s eyes became orbs of blazing emerald light and Brighton’s hollow, guttural voice echoed from his mouth. “We’ve only just begun.”

  Brighton, now in full control of Jameson’s body, clamped onto Gemni’s forearms and snapped the bones, cranking the hands toward the shoulders. Gemni shrieked in torture.

  Brighton hurled Gemni off him as if he were a small child, sending him tumbling over the puddles of gasoline and debris from the wreck. With blood bucketing from the hole in his back and his contorted arms dangling at his sides like broken tree boughs, Gemni hobbled to his feet, sniffing the hot air. His mouth frothed under his ghostly amber eyes. “I smell the parasite within you. You’ve awakened like me. Let us cease this combat.”

  Brighton did not reply. He advanced, closing in on Gemni who stood with wondrous fear in his eyes.

  “What are you?” barked Gemni.

  “It doesn’t matter,” spat Brighton. “It is what I will become that compels me.”

  Gemni backed away. “Such power…we can unite to supplant humanity.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are Lesser!” Brighton knotted his hands around Gemni’s throat and lifted him off his feet. He threw him through the air, sending him barreling into the wall of fire devouring the ruined shuttle. The lashing flames chewed the fabric of Gemni’s coat, crawling up his back and scorching his white hair. He ran from the blaze and fell to the concrete—a rolling, screaming mass.

  Luna stood beside Brighton and put her hand on his shoulder. “Jameson?”

  In a fluid, sweeping motion, Brighton scooped Luna by the waist and spun her around, just as the fiery form of Gemni made a sudden lunge. Gemni landed hard where Luna had been standing and quickly propped to his knees. Flames rolled over his body. The skin of his face had melted away leaving only an animated skull with glowing sockets. Blackened ligaments smoked and lengths of burnt clothing trailed in ashy wisps. Gaseous gurgles escaped his charred throat.

  Luna kept her scream in her throat and attacked, plunging the heavy blade of her combat knife deep into Gemni’s skull. The corpse, crackling with fire, fell at her feet.

  Albert joined them and looked down at the genetically engineered abomination of Graves Enterprises. “What should w
e do with the cadaver?” the doctor asked.

  “Let it burn,” snarled Brighton. His ferocious, green eyes closed briefly and when they reopened, Jameson’s brown eyes found the woman he loved. He took Luna in his arms and held her tight. After a minute, she pulled away and checked his side. “Your wound?”

  “Gone. The Malad-X healed me.”

  “You mean Brighton?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is frightening, Jameson.”

  “I know.”

  Waking with the clarity of the Quell, Jack rolled to his hands and knees, then staggered to join the group. “Luna, I’m sorry…I…”

  “It’s fine.”

  “No, it isn’t! I bit you! You’re probably infected now.”

  Albert put up his hand. “No, no, she’s not infected, Jack. When she was in my care at Oasis Hospital, I inoculated her with the Victory Vaccine. I had no medical record for her and since I couldn’t find the typical scar made from the injection, I thought it a wise preventative measure. And Jameson woke up before I could consider him. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”

  “You never told me that?” said Luna.

  “We were kind of in a rush to get out of there.”

  Jack sighed. “I feel a lot better.”

  “Almost infecting me with Malady is one thing,” scolded Luna. “Disarming me is another. You owe me an apology for throwing my rifle off the overpass.”

  Jack shrugged. “Would you have shot me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’m not apologizing.”

  The Iron Tribe radio on Luna’s hip squawked, interrupting the banter. “This is Northbound 4-8-4 to Luna Briggs. Do you copy?”

  Luna brought the radio to her lips. “Copy, 4-8-4. Go ahead.”

  “Approaching your location. All aboard.”

  The low whistle of the Iron Tribe’s mighty locomotive filled Luna’s heart with hope. “Looks like our journey continues…” She led the others to the edge of the highway. They looked over the guardrails at the railway below; the train wheeled toward them, its cars clanking over the tracks. A cloud of black engine smoke devoured the overpass.

  “Get ready to jump!” Luna shouted.

  Jack shook his head. “You people really are crazy!”

  Luna and Jameson balanced atop the rails and readied for the jump. Luna smirked. “Welcome to the team.”

  Albert slapped Jack on the back. “Don’t think about it and you’ll be fine. Running with these two, I’ve cheated death…geez, let me compute…” he tapped his fingers, “Oasis riot, Undertown shootout, Eden shootout, vessel explosion, River Commons riot, shuttle wreck…six times!” He shoved past Jack and stood on the guard rail. “Leaping from a highway bridge to a speeding train is a cake walk.”

  “Hurry up, Jack!” urged Luna.

  Jack kissed his airplane pin and joined the others.

  Luna, Jameson, Jack and Albert leapt from the bridge. They fell into a train car, crashing through a canvas rooftop.

  Luna groaned. “Is everyone all right?”

  “Surprisingly still alive,” Jack answered

  “That really sucked,” grumbled Jameson.

  “Lucky seven,” muttered Albert.

  Luna and Jameson looked out the train car window at the Karma cityscape slowly falling from view. Luna could see lines of smoke snaking up in places throughout the city.

  “How bad do you think it is?” she asked.

  Jameson sighed. “Gemni amassed a small army. Graves’ Malad-X fiends were out-numbered and likely destroyed.”

  “So now it’s the people with Malady killing the people without.”

  “As Gemni intended.”

  Luna wiped away a falling tear. “We’ve failed them, Jameson. Innocent people are dying because we didn’t stop Gemni in time. Graves has Carmen and it won’t be long before he releases Malad-X. How can we keep fighting? How can we win?”

  “I don’t know, Luna. But there’s always a path made by something that’s come before. Stay with me, stay ready, and we’ll find it together.”

  Luna sighed. She turned to Jameson and took him by the shoulders. “There’s something I need to say. It’s about your father.”

  “Luna, it’s all right. You did what you had to do.”

  She shook her head. “I shot him but I didn’t—”

  “I didn’t anticipate him being so crazy, either. Let’s just let it be over.”

  The melancholy song of the engine’s pipes bounced off the approaching mountain range as if a ghost-train answered back from far away. The group rested in the parlor car as the train chugged over the northbound tracks. Luna had left to discuss their ordeal with the Iron Tribe. Albert sat in a leather chair reviewing his notes on Malad-X. Jameson slumped on a couch on the other side of the car. Jack sat in a chair beside him.

  “Thanks for pulling me from the wreck back there,” said Jack.

  Jameson lifted his head. “Halligan, right?”

  “Yeah. How are you feeling?” Jack pointed to Jameson’s bandaged midsection.

  “Nothing to worry about.” Jameson closed his eyes and whispered, “Not now.”

  Jack recognized the anguish. He leaned toward Jameson. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you smell really bad?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Jameson gave a short chuckle and sat up. “You’re right, Jack. I’m infected. But my worm is worse.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” argued Jack. “I see and hear some weird shit; bizarre hallucinations that I can’t control.”

  “You’re a lucky man, then.”

  “Why is that?”

  Jameson leaned back and closed his eyes. “Because they’re only hallucinations.”

  An hour passed and Jack’s emotions tangled with his thoughts. Wherever this train’s heading, my first move will be a call to Donna. She’s probably worried to a panic. I should have taken that shuttle to Greely Park and got her out of the city. Now a war has broken out in Karma and we’re apart. Got to get home as soon as I can.

  Luna returned with a tray of food. “I passed through the kitchen car and the cook was whipping up one of my old favorites. Lobos style chili. It’s really hot and parasite free. Eat up. We need to regain some strength.” She passed the tray around.

  “Much appreciated, Luna,” said Jack. “How did your discussion with the Iron Tribe go? Are they going to help?”

  “I told the engineer everything about Graves, Carmen, the defeat of Gemni and the outbreak in Karma. I asked if he’d be willing to bring the train to Karma Station to take civilians out of the city, away from the violence. Save some lives.”

  Jack thought more of Donna and the danger she may be in. His heart fluttered and his stomach flipped. He would feel such relief to know she was aboard the Iron Tribe’s train and heading out of the city. “And did the tribe agree?”

  Luna ate a spoonful of chili and shook her head regretfully.

  “I don’t get it. Where’s the compassion?”

  “There isn’t any, Jack. The Iron Tribe cares only for the train, rails and its membership.”

  “Will they at least help us save Carmen and stop Graves?”

  “The only way the tribe will fight against Graves is if the Tribal Code is violated. You need to understand, there are only four rules that the tribe lives and dies by. The code is represented by the four routes, North, South, East and West. The rules are, ‘Northbound: The Iron Tribe shall not kill the innocent. Southbound: No other cause shall come before the needs of the Tribe. Eastbound: Death, and nothing less, to those who harm the train, its railway or family. Westbound: The train must survive.’”

  “All decisions align with these four rules?”

  “That’s right. They will not go to war against Graves because Graves has not dishonored their code.”

  “But Graves created Gemni and Gemni attacked the train. Isn’t that a violation?”

  “You just said it…Gemni attacked
the train. Not Graves.”

  Albert put down his papers, now stained with sauce. “Luna, where is this train heading, anyway?”

  “The Northbound 4-8-4 is scheduled to arrive in Rime in another…” she checked her pocket watch, “forty minutes.”

  “There are worse places, I suppose,” Albert remarked.

  Jack drummed on his knee. “Why does Rime sound important to me? I feel like I’ve spent time there; just can’t remember.”

  Albert leaned forward in his chair. “I’ve always found Malady’s ability to trap a person’s memory fascinating. Moreover, the memories are sometimes sporadically released in some patients. Tell me, Jack. What do you recall about Rime?”

  Jack dug the golden airplane pin from his pocket. He thumbed its edges and the memories revealed themselves in wavy flashes like coins glinting at the bottom of a wishing well. “The city of Rime is a salvaging and manufacturing empire nestled between the Rime Mountain pass. The city deals in scavenged materials. They use scrap metal brought in from parts beyond to produce valuable goods.”

  “Very good.” Albert took up his papers and scribbled some notes. “What is that in your hand?”

  “Oh,” Jack handed Albert the tiny airplane. “It’s a birthday gift. Helps me remember.”

  “Interesting.” Albert noted it. “I’ve never seen a real airplane.”

  Jack heard Corpse-Dad enter the room. “Hi-yah, son! Sorry I’m late. Couldn’t help but hear you talking about airplanes. Kind of my thing, you know.”

  “I know.”

  Albert shrugged. “Goes without saying, right? Probably none left intact with all the scavengers out there.”

  Corpse-Dad stood behind Albert. “There’s one on the mountain, Jack. You locked it away after my accident.”

  Jack leapt from his chair; chili splattered over the train car’s carpeted floor.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Albert.

  Jack snatched his pin and clutched it to his heart. “My bush plane! It’s on top of Rime Mountain, locked in the airfield hanger.”

  Jameson stood from the couch and paced the room. A half-curl smile formed on his face. “Let’s get that airplane and strike down Graves Enterprises from above!”