Nano Z (Book 3): Oblivion

by Brad Knight

  She'd not going to be thrilled about that. The skin on Mack's leg healed over. He gathered his elongated arm, got up and ran towards Amber, away from the hungry crocodiles.

  Mack's arm returned to it's regular shape and length by the time he reached her. She was on her hands and knees. Blood trickled from her forehead down into the dirt.

  “Jesus, you okay?” he asked. He carefully checked on her. Fuck, I did that. Well it was either that or let her be eaten by nanite infected saltwater crocs. So all things considered…

  Amber slapped him in the face. “Don't you ever do that again! Ever!” She was on her feet and wiping the blood from her forehead.

  “Yes m'am,” replied Mack with smile. That was when he remembered that there were still crocodiles nearby who were almost assuredly coming after them.

  Guttural roars came from the other side of the riverbank. Mack instructed Amber to run with a light push to her back. She did just that.

  In the distance, Mack could see the remains of a small town. That was where they had to go but the crocodiles were faster than he thought. They hadn't caught up, but they would soon enough.

  “You see that up there,” he pointed at the distant town.

  “Yeah,” Amber answered.

  “Good. Run there, don't look back. Don't stop.”

  “Why do I feel like you're not coming with?” asked Amber through breaths labored by running.

  “I'll meet you there. I need to take care of these bastards once and for all.” Mack stopped.

  “You better!” yelled Amber as she kept running.

  All right you scaly assholes. Now that we're not in the water, you guys are done. Let's finish this. Mack stood ready for the four meat puppet crocodiles who rushed towards him.

  The tip of each finger on Mack's hands sharpened and transformed into claws. Used to using his mostly nanite body, it had become easy for him. Yes it still hurt but pain, like anything else, is something you can get used to over time.

  You're not getting past me. No matter what. Mack readied himself. The infected crocs were almost within arm's reach.

  Chapter 17

  : Wild Things

  Amber once again found herself in an abandoned town. The difference this time? It seemed like it was at the end of the world. Of course it wasn't. It was just out in the middle of Northern Australia.

  Be careful. Who knows what's hiding where? Amber was conditioned during her time with Mack to always be cautious. She approached every situation as if it were dangerous. Because most of them in the post outbreak world were.

  The night started to blanket the sky. It got harder and harder for her to see. She threw away her torch a ways back so had to rely on her natural human night vision, which was not good.

  Mining was a big part of the Australian economy before the outbreak. The town that Amber arrived in was a mining settlement. There were basic buildings like a grocery store, pharmacy, restaurant and bar. Barrack like dormitories surrounded the tiny downtown area, which they used to house the miners.

  Amber headed towards the downtown area. She figured she was most likely to run into meat puppets in the dormitories. The teen could take care of herself but had no desire to needlessly get into a fight.

  There was an eery silence in the abandoned town. If she didn't have more dangerous and real things to worry about, she would've been scared of ghosts wandering around the husk of civilization. She wasn't looking for specters or phantoms. What she looked for were glowing eyes.

  Damn. Amber heard a meat puppet screech. She ducked down behind an abandoned car.

  A pair of dark silhouettes appeared, shuffling down the street. From their red glowing eyes it was clear that they were more advanced or evolved. That meant they were more dangerous. Amber was more than able to take care of them.

  With her machete in hand, she stalked the two infected. She chopped at one of their necks and stuck the blade of her weapon in the top of the other's head. They fell down to the street thoroughly dispatched.

  Amber moved on. She walked towards the town's only restaurant. It, like the mining town, reminded her of Middleton. Both were small, quiet and charming in their own unique ways. Even when they were empty.

  Holy hell, this place smells. Amber was met with the unmistakable stench of rot when she entered the restaurant. It wasn't rotten food though. Dead people sat slumped over in chairs around empty tables. Others had their heads down. Insects crawled in and out of the corpses.

  Unable to stomach the scene, Amber immediately exited and threw up on the sidewalk just outside the front entrance. Being the trooper she was, she wiped away the vomit and continued on to the bar.

  There was only one dead person there. It must have been the barkeep because he was back by the bottles of liquor. His brains were on the ceiling and he had a shotgun in his hand.

  Here goes nothing. Amber got up on the bar and bent the top half her body, managing to grab the shotgun. When she checked the breach she discovered the weapon wasn't loaded.

  Amber scoured the bar looking for a box of shells, and found one on a mantle high above. There were only five rounds in it, but five was much better than none. Convinced she was secure in the drinking establishment, she loaded the shotgun.

  After leaving the bar, Amber looked out towards the way she came. She wanted to see if she could spot Mack, but it was too dark to see anything. Confident that he'd survive and come for her, the girl kept exploring.

  There was only two buildings left for her to investigate in the mining town's small downtown area. She chose the grocery store on the off chance that there were some canned goods or bottled water left. It was the wrong choice.

  Amber looked through the still intact windows. She didn't see anything so she thought it was safe to go in.

  The second she opened the grocery store front doors, a mob of meat puppets came barreling out. They exited with such force that they knocked her down to the street. There was no time for shock or surprise. She immediately started crawling as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

  Amber got up to her feet and quickly walked backwards while keeping her eyes on the meat puppets who had their arms outstretched hoping to get a hold of her. A couple got close forcing her to fire two of her five shotgun shells. Their rotted heads blew up like melons.

  The meat puppets were between Amber and the pharmacy, which left her only two choices. She could either escape out into the wasteland and hope to outrun them. Mack might have a hard time finding her if she went that way. Or, she could head for the dormitories.

  Amber ran as fast as her legs could take her towards the miners sleeping quarters. While doing so she kept looking back to see how close the meat puppets were. There was a good distance between her and them.

  There was no need to use a door handle. She kicked open the door. At that point she expected a terrible smell and sights, and she got exactly what she expected. She didn't see or hear any meat puppets though. That instilled a false sense of security.

  Amber had to climb over bodies to make her way through. It was unpleasant, as her boots squished rotting flesh and other strange substances produced by decomposition. Whatever happened in those dorms, it was a slaughter.

  Someone shot this place up. Amber noticed the many holes in the walls. A little bit of moonlight shone through. As terrible as that was, it was good news to her. If everyone who was inside was killed then that meant they were much less likely to be infected.

  Amber felt kind of safe inside the dormitories, but something bothered her. It was hard to tell in the dark but it seemed like the walls and floor was moving. At first she just figured it was her imagination or her eyes trying to adjust to the lack of light.

  It wasn't until Amber felt something crawling on her arm did she realize that something was very wrong in there. She swiped off whatever was on her, then she heard hundreds of quiet screeches. The dark was interrupted by what looked like an endless amount of tiny glowing orange eyes.

  Okay. That
's your cue to get the hell out of here. Amber retraced her steps and headed for the exit. In her mind she was less scared of the infected outside than the creepy crawlers inside.

  Amber felt bugs crawl up her legs and onto other parts of her body. They were extremely aggressive. She would've screamed out in pain from all the bug bites and stings she suffered while trying to escape, but she was afraid that something would get into her mouth.

  Dizziness took over her body, and every step was harder than the last. Her mind became clouded. Thinking was hard. Her vision and coordination became impaired. She dropped the shotgun and staggered towards the same door she came in.

  Amber almost made it outside. She fell shoulder first onto the floor of the doorway. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get her body to move.

  ***

  Mack went to another place when he confronted the crocodiles. He went somewhere animalistic, primal. Full of rage and fury he charged the creatures.

  The fight between them didn't last very long. Despite having the numbers advantage, the beasts didn't stand a chance. In a matter of ten, fifteen minutes, Mack found himself covered in black gooey blood.

  Mack looked at the results of his fury. The hard scaled prehistoric creatures were ripped to pieces. Their natural armor put up about as much fight as a pillow.

  He turned away from the remains of the crocs. That's when he heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots. From the volume of the blasts he deduced that it was a shotgun that was fired. He ran towards the town and the shots. Amber was there somewhere, and he'd be damned if he'd let anything happen to her.

  It was a little creepy, but Mack followed Amber's scent to locate her. He ended up at the lone restaurant in the mining town. She wasn't there but there was some vomit on the sidewalk out front.

  Mack looked around. There weren't any places that Amber could've hid. He decided to go to the bar. The smell of spent gunpowder still hung in the air. Unfortunately that obscured her scent which made tracking her down much harder.

  Sure enough, Mack came across the bodies of the meat puppets that Amber blew the heads off of. They were splayed out in the middle of the street. Good job, girlie girl.

  Mack was happy to see that she dealt with some meat puppets. He was also happy that she was armed. But he still didn't know where she was.

  The only way to find her was to try and think like her. She'd search her surroundings first. Why? Because that's what he would do. And at that point the only things that really differentiated the two were age, sex and the nanites throughout his body.

  Think. Think. Think. Where would I go next? The grocery store! Mack headed towards the nearby store.

  He didn't even take a couple steps before he heard something that disturbed him. Nanites were talking to him. There were trillions of them, and they came from the direction of what looked to be dormitories.

  This can't be right. There are too many of them. There's no way that there are that many meat... oh no. What happened to Stephanie was still fresh in Mack's mind. It was the insects. Somehow they were infected. Countless tiny meat puppets was a nightmare that meant only bad things for Amber.

  Mack turned a corner and saw a small group of humanoid meat puppets wandering around the dorms. He started running faster than he ever had before in his life. If the creatures were still human he'd almost feel bad for what he was about to do to them.

  After disposing of the undead humans, Mack watched a virtual parade of infected insects crawl, fly and slither past him. When he looked where they were coming from it felt like his heart was literally crushed.

  No. No. No! This isn't happening. I'm not going to let this happen! Mack sprinted over to Amber. She was in bad shape. Her whole body was covered in stings and bug bites. He could see her veins through her skin. They were black. Each of her breaths were few and far between. His teenage charge's heart beat was dangerously slow.

  “Don't do this. Please don't do this. Please...” Mack picked up Amber's limp body. For the first time since his mother died when he was a teenager, he cried. As far as he was concerned, Amber was his daughter. Losing your child is the worst pain that life can deal.

  “I can't do this without you. C'mon fight it. You're strong. You're the strongest person I've ever met. If anyone can beat this, it's you!” Mack could feel that Amber was dying. At any moment she could slip away. In desperation he started beating on her chest. Not hard enough to hurt her, but he hoped that he could wake her up.

  “Don't... please don't.” Mack's tears streamed down his face, dripped off his cheeks and onto her. Keeping her safe and alive was all Mack had to live for. He'd failed at so many things over the course of his life. Seeing to her well being was to be the one thing he got right. If she died, he'd die with her.

  The tubing! Mack set Amber down on the ground. He tore his backpack off, straps and all. It didn't take long for him to find the IV tubing he salvaged from the ranger's station.

  Mack stuck the hollow needle at one end of the tubing into his arm. It took him three tries to find a vein. Then he prepared to stick the needle on the other end into Amber's arm.

  Wait. Do I really want to do this. When I changed it was extremely painful. Do I want to put her through that? Mack hesitated. He remembered the agony that Ted Gorman put him through when he was originally infected. The thought of putting Amber through that was terrifying. Do it! Do it or she dies!

  Mack sucked on Amber's end of the tubing to get his blood flowing through. Then he stuck the remaining hollow needle into Amber's arm. He made sure to stay elevated above her so that gravity worked more efficiently. All there was left for him to do was wait and pray that she'd wake back up.

  Chapter 18

  : Lazarus

  The last thing that Amber remembered was stumbling through the dormitories in the small mining town. She didn't recall why she was in such bad shape. There was no memory of losing consciousness. There was no recollection of Mack coming and picking her up out of the dirt.

  Amber was somewhere dark. She couldn't see anything around her. Strangely though she could see her own body in clear detail.

  A long silence was broken by the sound of footsteps against hardwood floors. She looked for the source and was surprised by what she found. She saw herself.

  She saw a version of herself from before the outbreak. She was dressed like a little punk rock chick with dyed streaks in her hair and purposefully weathered clothes. There wasn't a visible scratch or scar on her body, but she knew that they were there, on the inside.

  A hand came out of the dark behind her. It was big, about the size of an adult male. The hand was draped around her shoulder and rested on her chest.

  The hand was Amber's father's. His face appeared out of the dark, taking the appearance of a floating head. Both of his eyes were missing. In their place were sunken black holes. He smiled. Black oily goop came seeping out.

  Amber's father dragged the younger version of herself into the endless blackness. Wanting to save herself, the teen ran towards the spot that she saw them. When she reached it, her surroundings completely changed.

  Suddenly Amber was at her elementary school. It was a public school in the decent Dallas School System. She saw herself as a kid in the playground.

  Amber had a rough time in school. Other kids made fun of her. She didn't help her case by cursing them out and fighting, forcing teachers to constantly punish her. There was so much anger in her. Even from the outside looking in, she could feel the hate that built inside her little heart.

  Kid Amber was surrounded by children all pointing, laughing, and throwing things at her. From out of nowhere she produced a pistol. With a smile on her face she shot each and every one of the kids bullying her.

  Encircled by the corpses of her classmates, kid Amber looked at the older version of herself. Her face was spattered with blood. They locked eyes, and teenage Amber didn't recognize herself. That's when she realized that she wasn't that angry kid anymore. She was grown and more mature.
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br />   Kid Amber's veins started to turn black. Her eyes clouded over. Her mouth distended. She didn't let out a screech but it was bone chilling nonetheless.

  Teenage Amber felt compelled to look down at her own arms. Black veins spread through them too. Her skin split. Centipedes, spiders beetles and roaches climbed out of open wounds. She wanted to scream and freak out but she found herself robbed of her voice and barely able to move.

  There was a sharp pain in Amber's chest. Her hand rose up and grabbed at it. Before she knew it she fell down to her knees. Then down onto her back.

  Amber found herself floating on her back down the Norman River. The sky kept rapidly changing from day to night. Mack stood over her but she couldn't see how or what he was saying.

  The speed of the Norman River's current picked up. Amber couldn't move. She was along for the ride.

  Other people looked over at her from just above her as she floated down the river. Stephanie was there and gave her a warm comforting smile. Simon stood next to her. He looked annoyed as per usual. She saw the mad former Galatea CEO Ted Gorman. Next to him were some faces she recognized from the Golden Pony.

  The last face Amber saw before the Norman River ended at a waterfall was her mothers face. She looked remorseful. Amber didn’t know for sure but she thought she saw her mother mouth the words: “I'm sorry.”

  Amber went over the edge of the waterfall. She couldn't see the bottom. What she did see was a very bright light. It got brighter the closer she got, almost to the point of being blinding.

  An intense pain all over her body greeted her when she reached the light. She never felt anything like it before. It was as if every cell in her body was on fire. Was she in hell? After all, patricide and matricide were pretty big sins.

  “Amber?” She heard Mack's voice. Was he in hell too? It wasn't until she managed to open her eyes a little bit that she realized she wasn't dead.