The Forever Gate Ultimate Edition

by Isaac Hooke

  "Then shouldn't we leave separately, too?"

  She nodded toward the black inverted cone. "Not if you want to transport that bomb out of here in one piece. We're going to need everyone."

  Hoodwink regarded the overhead canopy warily. Occasionally the bright blue sky flashed through the thick leaves, but otherwise he saw no signs of pursuit.

  He glanced inside the cab and noticed a small tablet that displayed a map.

  "What's the source for that map data?" Hoodwink asked Skull.

  "The ancient GPS satellites," the driver replied. "The Satori didn't bother to sweep up the upper atmosphere."

  Hoodwink wasn't familiar with that tech. "Can the GPS be used to track us?"

  "Hell no."

  Hoodwink borrowed a medkit from one of the soldiers and cleaned the blood from Sarella's cheek. He then applied a bandage to the knife gash. It was tricky, given that the bed constantly jolted about, but he managed. The worst of it was all the times Sarella flinched, reminding him that he was bringing her pain.

  After forty-five minutes they reached an overgrown road. The overhead canopy of branches and leaves still blotted out the sky just as thickly as in the wilderness.

  "This road mirrors the highway for a few hundred klicks," Skull shouted through the rear window. "It'll take us toward the coast." He glanced at the branches that shielded the sky. "We should be safe, for a little while anyway."

  As the vehicle advanced, an opening abruptly appeared in the canopy overhead, and Hoodwink spotted a glint of metal lying just beyond.

  It was the underside of a massive hunter killer drone.

  27

  A plasma blast tore into the middle SUV. The vehicle didn't explode, but the force of the blow launched it into the air and it somersaulted into the trees. The rear pickup accelerated forward to assume its place.

  "The scientists!" Hoodwink said, but nobody heard. They weren't going back for them, he knew.

  Alien, the commando on the anti-aircraft gun, opened fire. Blasts of plasma ripped through the overhead branches. Through the resulting hole in the canopy, Hoodwink caught a glimpse of the hunter killer as it swerved aside.

  Several smaller drones abruptly swooped down through that gap and fired their blasters.

  The commandos in both pickups returned fire. Smart bullet mode. The small drones began to fall. As did the commandos.

  Alien toppled from his post on the big gun. Half his face was melted away.

  Hoodwink immediately took up Alien's position on the anti-aircraft gun. He aimed it at the swarming drones and squeezed the trigger.

  The plasma bolts cut a swath through the drones and chewed into the vegetation beyond. Hoodwink got carried away in the battle fever, almost hitting the pickup behind them.

  He let go of the trigger and took a moment to recenter himself. He caught a glint of metal through the trees overhead.

  He swung the barrels upward and fired.

  A shower of slag and molten metal rained down. The hunter killer veered from view overhead, vanishing somewhere beyond the canopy.

  The two pickups continued to flee; the commandos fired at the small evading drones, and took out the last of the current batch.

  Skull swerved the vehicle to the right, turning directly into the wilderness.

  As he and the other passengers were jerked about by the merciless terrain, Hoodwink shouted to the driver: "What's going on?"

  "Gotta get off the road!" Skull shouted back. "Canopy's too thick for them to spot us, here."

  The branches of shrubs and trees that were swept aside by the cab recoiled, whipping past the truck bed and often striking the passengers. The group was forced to huddle close to the metal deck, using the sides of the bed and cab for cover. They were constantly jostled about by the terrain.

  Hoodwink kept expecting one of the larger combat robots to come leaping through the trees, or a combat tank to block their path, or another deadly plasma blast to tear through the canopy. Instead, those branches merely whipped at them continuously.

  After some time Hoodwink began to relax, as did the others. As much as they could relax with all that jolting, anyway.

  Eventually, after about an hour of travel, the two monster trucks reached an area where the trees were too dense for any further advancement. The canopy was so thick that no openings at all existed overhead, and the landscape was locked in perpetual twilight.

  Skull halted beside a thick bole. "We'll rest here a moment and let the engines recharge."

  Hoodwink glanced back the way they had come, and saw the broken branches littering the forest floor. "What's to stop them from tracking us on foot? Our trail is somewhat obvious."

  "Oh I'm sure they'll track us," Skull said. "The trick is to stay ahead of them. Keep them guessing."

  "We should have stayed on the road," Hoodwink said. "At least there we would have had a chance of outrunning them."

  "And what if they decided to stage a roadblock?" Skull said. "At least out here we know there's only one direction they can come at us: from behind."

  Hoodwink surveyed the trees. "Don't be so sure about that. One of his drones is probably watching us right now, transmitting data for multiple routes of attack."

  Skull nodded toward Pencils. "Run a standard sweep. Launch a few smart bullets to insure the area is clean. Make sure you turn your silencers to full, first. The sound of a fired bullet will travel for miles out here."

  Pencils nodded and he rounded up the surviving commandos from both pickups and dispersed among the trees.

  Two commandos remained behind to guard the civilians.

  Hoodwink and the others unloaded the three dead from the truck beds and placed them in a row.

  "It's a shame," Blake said when they finished positioning the bodies. "To end like this. They lived half their lives in chains."

  "But they died free," Hoodwink said.

  Blake nodded. "They did. But they're never going to see the world know that same freedom."

  "We have to bury them," Sarella said. "Or at the very least, hide the bodies."

  One of the radios lodged in the harnesses of the dead bodies abruptly clicked to life.

  "Hoodwink, are you there?" Jeremy's voice echoed. The digital distortion made his voice hard to understand. "Hoodwink."

  "Don't answer it," Skull warned. "You'll only let him know we're in the general area." Skull glanced at a commando. "Gather up the others. Warn them not to use their radios."

  "Yes sir." The commando jogged off.

  "What's the range on the radios?" Hoodwink asked Skull.

  "Five klicks in the open. But out here, dense forest like this? Couldn't be more than one klick."

  "Though his reception would be better if he was airborne, wouldn't it?" Hoodwink asked him.

  Skull shrugged. "Possibly. But those trees..."

  Jeremy's voice came over the radio once again. "Answer me, Hoodwink. I know you're there. Answer, or I'm going to kill your girlfriend."

  The suspicious part of Hoodwink made him reach for the radio. Skull caught his hand. "He can't touch any of us."

  Sarella smiled, but even she appeared on edge. She glanced around the trees uncertainly, searching for any hidden attackers that might have her in their sights.

  "All right," Jeremy's voice taunted over the radio. "I warned you."

  Sarella abruptly rolled her eyes and collapsed.

  The others instantly dropped for cover. All save Hoodwink, who rushed to her side, uncaring for his own safety, and lifted her into his arms.

  "Sarella. Sarella!" He checked her pulse. She still had a faint heartbeat. He scanned the trees. "Jeremy! Show yourself!"

  "Does anyone see anything?" Skull asked from where he hid behind a log.

  "Nothing!" Blake replied.

  "Hoodwink," Jeremy's voice taunted from the radio. "This is your last chance."

  "I'm going to answer." Hoodwink leaned toward the dead commando and grabbed the radio from the harness.

  He glance
d at Skull, who nodded slowly.

  Hoodwink pressed the send button. "What the hell did you do to her?"

  "Ah," Jeremy returned. "There you are. I knew you were within range."

  "Tell me what you did to her?" Hoodwink commanded.

  "You know already," Jeremy replied. "Search your heart. There's only one way I could have achieved what I just did."

  Hoodwink was quiet for several moments. "But she's not a surrogate," he said softly.

  "Oh, but she is," Jeremy answered. "She has lied to you. Although, judging from her current reaction, she probably believed the lie herself."

  He glanced at Skull. The man merely shook his head as if to say: "if she was a surrogate, I sure as hell didn't know about it."

  Hoodwink stroked Sarella's forehead. He leaned his head against hers.

  My dear, dear Sarella.

  "Are you still there?" Jeremy said over the radio. There was less distortion in his voice, Hoodwink noted.

  Hoodwink sat up straight and steeled himself to deal with Jeremy. He clicked the send button. "What have you done?"

  "Merely disconnected her," came Jeremy's response. "For the moment. You see, while you may have programmed a passcode into your own release mechanism, she of course has no such code."

  "Send her back," Hoodwink said.

  "Certainly," Jeremy responded. "The Shell tells me she is flailing about, trying to destroy the place. He will be glad to send her back."

  A few moments passed. Sarella's eyes abruptly shot open and she inhaled deeply, just as if she had been holding her breath underwater and had only resurfaced.

  After several deep inhales and exhales, her breathing increased to a near frantic state; she darted her gaze from person to person, eyes wide with fear.

  "What happened?" Hoodwink asked her, trying make his voice as soothing as possible.

  She tried to get up but Hoodwink wrapped his arms around her tightly. She fought him.

  "Calm down," he told her. "Tell me what happened. Calm down!"

  She struggled in his grasp for several moments, then abruptly grew limp. She pressed her face against his shoulder. "No. No no no."

  "It's okay," Hoodwink said. He massaged the back of her head with one hand.

  "I'm not human," Sarella said. "I thought I was. I—" She broke down and wept.

  Jeremy's voice erupted over the radio again. "I have golems with steel tentacles wrapped around her fish body at this very moment. They will crush her to death. What do you think of that, Hoodwink?"

  He pressed the send button. "What do you want?"

  "I already told you what I want," Jeremy responded. "I want you to suffer."

  "You want me to wake up?" Hoodwink said. "Is that it? So you can toy with my alien body? I can tell you my passcode. Or wake myself up."

  "I do want that," Jeremy replied. There was hardly any distortion in his voice. He was getting closer. "But not just yet. Besides, where's the fun in that? I want to eliminate you with my own hands. I want to look in your eyes when I snuff the life from your human body, so that you have something to remember for the rest of your days as you rot away your life in a prison under the ocean. But until then, I will leave you with a gift. Say goodbye to your girlfriend. Her body is about to become an empty shell devoid of all consciousness. The golems are tightening their tentacles..."

  Hoodwink frantically pressed the send button. "Don't kill her, Jeremy, please, I beg you! If you spare her, I'll do whatever you want."

  "Really?" Jeremy replied. "Even betray humanity?"

  "I—" Hoodwink couldn't finish. He glanced at Skull, Blake, and the others.

  I can't betray humanity.

  "You took too long," Jeremy said over the radio. "Good-bye, girlfriend."

  Sarella's eyes rolled up once again and she grew limp in his arms. Her head flopped against his shoulder. Her heart still beat, and she still breathed, but she may as well have been dead.

  Hoodwink felt like dying, too, in that moment. He lay there, not wanting to get up, not ever again.

  The commandos hurried back from the wilderness.

  "It's clear out there!" Pencils said.

  "Not for long," Skull told him. "Get back to the pickups."

  "The vehicles will only be half charged," Pencils said.

  "Doesn't matter," Skull said. "We're compromised." He got up and rested a consoling hand on Hoodwink's shoulder. "We can't stay here. You heard how clear the man's voice sounded over the radio. We have to go."

  Hoodwink nodded. But he still couldn't bring himself to stand.

  Skull studied Sarella. As if sensing Hoodwink's unasked question, he said: "I never knew she was a Satori. She fooled us all."

  Skull and Blake entered the cab of the pickup. "Hoodwink, let's go!" Skull told him.

  Hoodwink scooped up her body and carried her to the pickup, setting her down on the floor beside the commandos.

  "I'm bringing her," Hoodwink announced defiantly. "While she yet breathes, I'm going to care for her."

  No one contested him.

  As the monster truck bounced away from the dense thicket, Hoodwink stared at Sarella lying on the floor. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully. He willed her to awaken, but knew that if her Satori quadmind had died, she never would. The surrogate was completely brain dead. An empty husk waiting for a Satori consciousness.

  Hoodwink lowered himself to the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around the shell that was once Sarella.

  Jeremy stood above the three dead bodies.

  Behind him, the large metal transport rested on the smoldering ground. Sunlight pierced the foliage-induced twilight, thanks to the large hole in the canopy the flyer had burned away during its landing.

  The humanoid golems returned.

  "We've found their trail," one of the machines told him.

  Jeremy dismissed them to the transport. The fact was, he already knew where they were. He had dispatched the golems merely to confirm his data. Three of the bee-like scouts had them in their sights and were following closely. When Hoodwink paused to make camp, the drone scouts retreated for half an hour while his lackeys made their predictable sweep of the area. Then the drones returned and watched them all night.

  Jeremy considered calling in reinforcements to capture Hoodwink once and for all, and to end the game, but he decided to delay a while longer. His enemy had suffered much already, yes, but there was room for him to suffer more.

  Much more.

  And he thought again, as he did once before: Let him think his plan is going to succeed. Let him travel to the utmost brink, and the moment he is about to achieve his goal, I will pull the rug out from under him and send his world into ruin.

  Besides, he had a new trick up his sleeve. One that would tear Hoodwink open right to the core.

  28

  The two pickups made their way toward the coast over the next several days, sticking to the wilderness for the most part, and occasionally taking main roads when the situation warranted.

  The rebels stopped to allow the vehicles to self-charge occasionally, a process that occurred all the more rapidly when the solar panels residing in the frame were exposed to direct sunlight. The group subsisted on rations retrieved from another rebel support base they had stopped at along the way. The few personnel manning the base set several charges before abandoning it, if only to ensure a little surprise when their hunters finally arrived.

  Speaking of the hunters, there had been no sign of Jeremy or the robots since that fateful day. The commandos swept the camp each night for signs of micro-drones, and even fired smart bullets every few hours just to be safe. Nothing ever turned up. Still, Hoodwink couldn't shake the feeling that Jeremy was somehow toying with them. As the days passed, that feeling subsided, though it never truly went away.

  Hoodwink tried to care for Sarella's body as best he could. He poured water down her throat but she would not swallow; the liquid spilled out the sides of her mouth because her throat reflexively sealed up. Some of it
dripped into her lungs, and her unconscious mind made her cough it up.

  The loss of Sarella weighed heavily on Hoodwink's heart. She had fooled them all, even herself. Especially herself. A Satori in their midst who believed herself human, who had lived so long among them that she had lost herself in humanity and forgotten her roots. How many more surrogates were there like her? Surrogates who lived in human bodies, the memories of their former alien selves but distant dreams?

  Hoodwink knew in his heart that not all Satori were bad or evil. Their government, the Hivemind, was to blame for most of their policies. Well, their religion as it currently stood was also a problem. Still, somehow he would find a way to make humanity and Satori live together in peace. Somehow. Destroying the Hivemind was a good start.

  When he placed and detonated the bomb, many Satori would die, that was true. But most of the deaths would involve those who were part of the administration and support of the Hivemind. Ninety-five percent of the Satori population would remain intact, many of those in the sprawling coral city of Laranth, where the Hivemind resided, and the remainder dispersed throughout the smaller cities in the ocean.

  The Shell's core would be destroyed in the blast, too, and Jeremy would be rendered impotent. Without the Shell in control of whatever main AI operated the human robots, Jeremy would find himself in command of an army of overlarge and quite useless paperweights.

  As the days passed, and the rebels came closer to the coast, Hoodwink began to feel hope. Perhaps his plan would work after all. Perhaps Jeremy had lost interest in him, or the rebels really had evaded his surveillance. Hope. It was a good feeling. One that had been all too foreign to him, of late.

  On the fourth day, that hope turned to unbridled happiness because Sarella awoke.

  The pickup was traveling through a partially overgrown country road. The sunlight broke through the canopy in multiple places as the tree coverage wasn't overly dense. Despite the overgrowth, the road itself was relatively smooth, with the jolts few and far between. Skull was sitting beside Hoodwink while a commando took a shift at the wheel.

  Hoodwink was perched there in the truck bed, gazing at the sky between the branches, pondering the future, when he heard her voice.