After The Fall (Book 2): The City

by Dalton, Charlie

  Donny groaned too, then shrieked when he opened his eyes to see giant horse teeth in his face. He bolted upright and skirted back on his hands and feet. It took a moment before he recognized the animal.

  “Donny!” Jamie said, rushing over. “What happened?”

  “What happened?” Donny said, wiping the horse saliva off his face. “Your girlfriend swung the biggest door in the world open—right where we were standing! That’s what happened!”

  “So you should have been standing somewhere else,” Jamie said, concern flipping to anger in an instant. “She didn’t know how it would open.”

  Actually, that was probably a lie. She wouldn’t have known how it would open before she hacked into the system. But he wasn’t in the mood for splitting hairs.

  “Forget the damn door!” Isabelle said, using Humperdinck’s harness to right herself. “You guys have got some serious explaining to do.”

  She turned to Lucy, who was approaching with Fatty.

  “How did you do that?” Isabelle said, tempering her tone.

  “How?” Lucy said. “I’m not sure. I empty my mind and it comes to me.”

  “Your finger. . .” Isabelle said. “You. . . What are you?”

  “She’s Lucy,” Jamie said before Lucy could respond. “She was created in a lab by some of the world’s greatest scientists. She’s the same as you and me but with a few. . . alterations.”

  “I’ll say,” Isabelle said.

  A smile came to her lips. The kind an older sister had for a younger one.

  “Do you have any other skills?” she said. “Super strength or speed maybe?”

  “No,” Lucy said.

  “Bummer,” Isabelle said. “Still, I’d take wires in fingers any day of the week. You’re full of surprises, my girl.”

  “Sure, Lucy opens a door and everyone’s impressed,” Fatty said with folded arms. “I make the world’s most delicious stew with hardly any of the ingredients I need and no one cares.”

  And no one cared this time either, ignoring him. They all turned.

  Denver City’s door was open.

  92.

  THE DOORWAY was a single dark square and showed nothing of its confines. It reminded Fatty of the entrance to the underground commune and the darkness within. He couldn’t say he was a fan of the place, so why should this place be any different? In truth, he wasn’t really a fan of anywhere that wasn’t his bedroom. He was most happy when living with all the comfort and conveniences of home.

  He didn’t like going to new places and actively dreaded going somewhere new where he’d have to figure out where everything was. He actually wasn’t lazy. He merely liked doing things he liked. The problems only began when he had to do things not out of choice but necessity.

  And this whole adventure had been one of necessity. He never wanted to fight the Reavers or escape from them. And he most certainly didn’t want to head into Denver City’s dark square entrance.

  And yet here he was, once again forced to do something he didn’t want. People used to say to him that one day he would be an old man lying on his deathbed and, looking back, wouldn’t he think he’d wasted his time sitting at home? Fatty’s unspoken argument was always that he’d only get to live to a ripe old age if he continued to live the way he wanted. Live a dangerous life on the edge and he’d die a lot sooner. What would he say on that deathbed? That he wished he’d taken more risks? Unlikely.

  The Denver City walls were metal, similar in design and construction to the City near their commune. Lucy led the way. She’d had access to a map during her—he could hardly believe he was even using these words—connection to the computer system and could recall the relevant details.

  “This way,” Lucy said.

  She came to a stop. A lump in a white coat lay on the ground up ahead. Unmoving. It was the perfect setup for something really horrific to happen.

  “Uh, guys,” Fatty said.

  “Cut it out already, Fatty,” Donny said, not taking his eyes off the huddled form.

  He gripped the length of wood he was using as a weapon in both hands and prepared to bring it down on the prostrate figure if there was any movement. He leaned over it, checking the body. There were no bite marks or even much blood—only a thin layer under his nose.

  “He hasn’t been dead long,” Donny said, checking the man’s pulse.

  “Rages?” Lucy said.

  “They’d be walking around now if it had been,” Donny said. “No. Something else did this.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” Jamie said. “And keep your eyes peeled. Whatever got this guy could still be in here somewhere.”

  Great. Then let’s continue to head deeper into the unknown.

  Ten minutes later, they turned another corner and found two more bodies. Same symptoms, same killer. Fatty was about ready to jump out of his skin at any moment. But worse awaited them ahead.

  Most of the corridors they walked down sported at least one body. Others contained four or five. The more there were, the stronger the smell of rotting flesh. As the reek began to dissipate, they came across a whole new body and a whole new cloud of choking decay. The entire City was crammed with dead bodies.

  Fatty was sure it wasn’t only him suffering from a bad case of deja vu.

  They’d been walking for an hour and hadn’t run into a single living occupant. Dr. Beck had said they should speak with a Dr. Vassal when they got here. Did every City only have one occupant? It was an awful lot of space for one person.

  “What happened to everyone?” Donny said.

  Here we go, Fatty thought, rolling his eyes. Here come the theories.

  “I thought this City was supposed to be inhabited?” Donny said.

  “It was,” Lucy said. “It was full, like the other City. But then something bad happened here.”

  Jees, really? You think?

  “Did you see what did this?” Jamie said. “What killed all these people?”

  “No,” Lucy said. “I can find out if we reach another connection point.”

  “It doesn’t matter what happened here,” Fatty said. “Let’s find the controls of this cannon, target the Bugs, fire, and get the hell out of here.”

  For once, no one argued. Huh. Things were beginning to look up.

  93.

  WHAT’S WRONG with me? Isabelle thought.

  Since when was she afraid to explore new places? Especially a place rich with treasure beyond her wildest dreams. She took a step toward the open doorway before taking two back.

  It was the history of this place, she knew. It was its history and myths that prevented her from taking the step across the threshold. It was the countless stories she’d been told as a naughty girl by her parents, teachers and everyone else she’d ever met.

  She stamped her foot, balled her fists and let out a little scream. She was so frustrated with herself. And yet still she couldn’t bring herself to take that step. Neither could Humperdinck. He usually stood right at her side but he wouldn’t even come near the doorway. He stood a few dozen yards back, nodding his head and digging with his front hoof.

  It wasn’t the nod of, Go ahead. You’ll be glad you did. It was his signal that something wasn’t right, that she ought to be careful. Danger was afoot. Isabelle always heeded his warnings. She never saw what lay behind the barn door he was wary of or what might hide along the shortcut he suggested they avoid. She trusted in the fact nothing bad happened to her when she followed his advice.

  What was worse was that she had the same feeling in the pit of her stomach and was second-guessing herself. And yet, she was still arguing about whether or not to enter that dark landscape.

  “Hey! Hey you!”

  A pair of men emerged from the forest. One was tall and strong, the other short and old. The strong one was walking toward her.

  “Hey!” he said.

  More treasure hunters. Damn! They would strip the place for sure.

  “Come on, Hump,” Isabelle said. “Come on, boy.�
�

  Humperdinck was having none of it, and snorted, stepping side to side nervously.

  “Sorry, bud,” Isabelle said, checking on the men’s progress. “I’m going to have to play dirty.”

  She took her emergency carrots out of her pocket. Humperdinck whinnied and took a step forward.

  “That’s it, good boy,” Isabelle said.

  The big man was running now, closing the gap fast.

  “See? No monsters in here,” Isabelle said.

  They were both inside now, Humperdinck happily munching on his carrots. Isabelle looked at the wall on the side and hit the big red button with the word, CLOSE on it.

  The giant door swung shut. For a moment, Isabelle thought the man was going to make it inside, but he was a fraction of a second too slow.

  “Sorry, chum,” Isabelle said. “Maybe next time.”

  “Wait!” the strong man said as he sprinted the final dozen yards. Too late. Isabelle waved at him as the door slammed shut. Isabelle sighed with relief.

  “That was close, huh?” she said to Humperdinck. “And you wanted to stay out there! Don’t worry, we all make mistakes.”

  94.

  LUCY HADN’T hesitated or taken a single wrong turn so far as Jamie could tell. She always seemed to know where she was going as if she had been there before and knew it well. They passed similar rooms with familiar layouts from Dr. Beck’s City. Clean, futuristic and built for purpose.

  Jamie’s legs began to ache long before they reached the room Lucy stopped in. It had to be somewhere near the top of the facility. Multiple monitors ran along the outer edge with a round table in the centre. Hung above it was a large transparent plastic screen with mysterious white lines drawn over it.

  “Is this the cannon control room?” Donny said, struggling to get his breath back.

  “Yes,” Lucy said.

  “Complete with big red button,” Donny said, eying the button in the centre table.

  “That’s the button to fire,” Lucy said. “There’s a whole list of protocols to go through before we hit it.”

  She pulled the tip of her index finger off and hooked herself up to the console. Jamie stood behind her, ready to catch her if she fell. Lucy took a step back but did not collapse this time.

  “I’m okay,” she said, that same haunting voice returning.

  Her eyes darted side to side, scrolling through invisible information the others couldn’t see.

  “Accessing emergency power now,” Lucy said.

  The bulbs fired up, flicking on and bathing them in horrible bright fluorescent light. The terminals powered up and flickered with complicated charts and data displays. None of it made any sense to Jamie.

  “Hey, this screen looks like the deck of the flight simulator!” Fatty said, excited.

  He sat at it and enjoyed watching the various lights and dials.

  “Charging the cannon now,” Lucy said.

  “Wait,” Jamie said. “We need to aim.”

  “I have already input the coordinates,” Lucy said.

  A low humming noise grew in volume, building and rising. Soon, the entire control room was vibrating.

  “Uh, is this normal?” Fatty said.

  No one answered him. No one knew. No one had ever fired a weapon like this in the history of mankind.

  “It must be, right?” Fatty said.

  “We’re at fifty percent power,” Lucy said.

  “That’ll do, won’t it?” Fatty said.

  They needed full power. Nothing else would do. But could the City take it? It shook hard but clearly, the monitors had been designed for such turbulence.

  “We’ve reached full power!” Lucy said.

  “Fire!” Jamie said, hands clasped over his ears. “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

  Lucy slapped her hand on the big red button. The sound doubled, the whirring strung out over a symphony of chaos. Any second now the cannon would let loose a plasma shot that could end the Bugs, end their dominion over the human race, end the carnage and destruction wrought upon the human race, forever. They would finally be allowed to grow and thrive as the masters of their own world.

  “Wait,” Lucy said. “Something’s wrong.”

  “What?” Fatty said, his tone of voice capturing their collective fear.

  “What is it, Lucy?” Jamie said.

  “The weapon. . .” Lucy said. “These aren’t the controls for the weapon.”

  “What?” Donny said. “When what are they for?”

  “I thought I was prepping the cannon for firing,” Lucy said. “But the button wasn’t to fire the cannon. It’s been sabotaged. It’s for. . . It’s to. . . Oh no.”

  95.

  THE TREE dwellers looked up from the canopy of their homes and in the direction of the Great Pointing Mountain. The source of the cracking sound. A huge fracture formed in the side of the mountain as it began to tear apart.

  The children cried and howled in fear. Was this the end of the world? For all the noise, you might have believed it. The parents hugged their terrified children close and watched. They didn’t console their kids that it would be better soon.

  They didn’t wish to lie to them.

  96.

  ALONGSIDE THE epic rumbling was another disorientating sensation, one that began in the pit of Jamie’s stomach and worked its way up to his skull. He’d felt this way once before. In the hyperloop pod as it screamed from the City and slid along the rails at an alarming speed. His stomach was several yards behind him, racing to catch up but never quite succeeding in getting there.

  But how could that be? He wasn’t moving.

  Jamie glanced out the window. The world shook like an enormous earthquake was rocking them to their foundations. He feared the building might collapse. He could feel it already, movement beneath his feet, leaning over to one side. The forest spread out below like a giant carpet, began to shift. . .

  But it was moving in the wrong direction.

  If the building was falling, they ought to be getting closer to the ground. But they weren’t. They were getting farther away. Heading up. The trees and foliage shrank beneath them, becoming smaller.

  “What’s going on?” Jamie said, hands over his ears.

  But even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew the answer. The cannon wasn’t discharging. They hadn’t been sent there to launch it. Instead, they’d been sent there to launch a rocket.

  Up into the sky, leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, rising ever higher. The G-force was a monster crushing Jamie with its giant hands, forcing him into the floor and not letting him up for a second.

  “Lucy?” Jamie screamed. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s Dr. Beck,” Lucy said. “He tricked us. He tricked us all.”

  97.

  THE MOMENT Lucy had pulled the trigger and hit the shiny red button, a file, hidden from her, had been executed. An image appeared in her eyes, filling her vision.

  “No. . .” Lucy said. “No!”

  Wherever she looked, whether she shut her eyes or turned away, the same figure was standing right there in front of her. Dr. Beck.

  “I’m very sorry,” Dr. Beck said in her ear, crystal clear despite the roaring engines. “I didn’t mean for it to come to this. I feared that if I told you what you would really have to do, you wouldn’t even begin the journey, and turn back to your friend’s doomed commune. But perhaps, if you aren’t too angry, and you came this far already, you might go a little farther.

  “After the Rage attack on our City, when you escaped and the others were killed, I knew I had to do something. So I went to Denver City. I snuck in and sabotaged their system. Their weapons technology is exceptionally powerful, matched only by its instability. I couldn’t allow them to fire their rocket, not when I knew you were still out there, not when it could carry you to the rest of the ship.

  “They wouldn’t listen to me. They would never give up on their mission, their part of the plan, because we at the City would never do it either. Don’
t think too harshly of me. I wanted to give you, and our species, every chance. If you’re watching this, then I made the right decision.

  “The cannon might work but could we seriously risk the future of our entire race on a single shot? What if their shields endured the blast? Would the cannon successfully destroy them? Will we even get the chance of a second shot? Too many questions, too many unknown answers. We needed our Plan A to succeed or at least make the proper attempt.

  “I sabotaged the cannon, causing a leak that will kill them all. It’s a sacrifice I wish did not have to be paid. But they will be remembered. As the people who gave up their lives so the rest of us might have a chance to survive. It’s time for you to fulfill your destiny. It’s time for you to become what you were meant to be. Our Mother.”

  EPILOGUE

  THE WORM had a change of heart. This was strange because the men always claimed he didn’t even have a heart. So how could he possibly change it?

  They’d had an awesome deal at the Mountain’s Peak commune. Food, water and plenty of women to keep their beds warm at night. Virtually the entire clan had left. The Worm doubted many would return to that part of the world again, not after seeing what lay in the bottom of the valley. It still gave him shivers to think about it.

  Still, the valley caught between those two mountains was not the same as the commune they had successfully defeated. They’d perhaps been a little too hasty in giving it up. Especially since finding a replacement had been so difficult.

  The rest of the clan had dispersed at the same time with the Worm but that didn’t mean they were necessarily with him. He didn’t know where they’d gone. Furthermore, he didn’t care to know. Two dozen had surprisingly—to him at least—stuck with him. He didn’t pretend to be a great leader. He took care of himself. If they decided to leave, so be it.