Frostarc

by Arthur McMahon

  The wind kicked hard throughout the night. Caleb woke up before the sun and had to excuse himself to take care of nature's business. The cold air and blistering winds made it painful to be outside the barrier of his tent. The night sky above him was filled with billions of stars, all vibrant in the clear black sky. Caleb looked out towards the sea and saw that the fog had taken over the lower landscape. In that fog, though, Caleb thought he saw a small light flicker, something brightening up the fog in the far distance. The wind howled with a fury and blew cold flecks of snow at Caleb's back, pushing him in the direction of the faint light. “Come back to bed,” his mother yelled over the wind. I hope they make it, thought Caleb. He turned around and went back into his tent for the night.

  The following days were war against exhaustion and frost bite. Everyone consumed more food than they were accustomed to, using the energy to heat their bodies and move their feet forward one step at a time. It felt as if for days they were slowly making their way uphill, trudging through drifts of snow, their feet aching from stepping on the hard, uneven ice. If there was anywhere we would be safe from the demons it would be here on top of this glacier, thought Kozz, but we would never be able to survive long enough to wait it all out.

  Days passed before they were traveling on a noticeable down slope. A blizzard of stinging snow pelted them from every direction, the wind whipping the frost around in cyclones. Only after a long journey downhill did the wind let up, allowing the snow to drift lightly to the ground and land in loosely packed fluff. Before they knew it they were walking on the earth again, the snow drifts blurring the line between the glacier and the permafrost they were now standing on. They never saw where they had left The Great River behind, but it was now far out of their sights.

  Plowing through the piles of snow, they pushed onward with their eyes glazed over. The energy had been zapped from their bodies by what felt like an eternity of frigid travel. They turned northward after leaving the glacier behind and eventually found an abandoned home where they spent a couple of nights resting and recovering from their journey.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Heartache

  Kozz barreled down the corridor, explosions blasting away the structural integrity of the building behind him. Armored men and women blocked his passage to the entrance of the Narnkazi Complex. They fired their weapons, unleashing a flurry of plasma which disintegrated the walls around him. Kozz's glossy black armor reflected the fire of the explosions he left in his wake and absorbed the gunfire that he was unwilling to dodge.

  The coilgun cannon fused to the armor on his left arm whined as it powered up and pulsed with firepower, shredding the enemy's defenses with high-velocity expansion bullets. The two power-armored guards who remained were taken down with two swift blasts from Red's smoking barrel. Kozz charged through the steel door with his bulbous armor and dove off to the side as an inferno of flames roared through the complex entrance as if it was an industrial furnace.

  The quad within the complex filled with Narnkazi warriors. Kozz reached into his explosives compartment and pulled out a handful of pulse grenades, throwing them in every direction. The grand room filled with smoke and bolts of electric light. He seized the opportunity to run down a large hallway which led to the location of his primary objective, his orders being to eradicate the Narnkazi Regime and eliminate the Narnkazi Prime Dictator. Kozz tossed proximity mines around the entrance of the hall as he ran through it. Narnkazi warriors chased after him and triggered the explosives, collapsing the steel and stone structure and closing off the hallway. Kozz slowed his pace and marched towards the unguarded elaborate wooden doors in his path.

  He opened the doors and found rows and rows of pews filled with people and at the opposite end of the room was the Narnkazi Prime Dictator reading from a document at a lectern. The audience turned towards Kozz and looked at him with fear in their eyes. A woman stood up within the crowd, it was Kozz's wife Priscilla. “No Kozz. Don't! Please!” She did not make any sense, and why was she here listening to the preachings of the leader of this bloodthirsty anti-Cooperation regime? No matter, he would take her away after completing his duties. The Prime Dictator remained where he was, staring at Kozz from behind his podium. Red found her mark. “No!” screeched Priscilla. Red fired and filled the room with her blast. The bullet screamed down the center aisle and punctured the chest of the dictator, destroying the heart of the man.

  Somehow the dictator still stood. He stumbled down into the aisle with his hands over the gaping hole in his chest and walked towards Kozz. The dictator fell at Kozz's feet. He rolled on to his back and stared up at Kozz with his dead eyes. Jake's dead eyes.

  Kozz awoke with a cavalcade of emotions parading through his head. Though he had released many of his personal demons, his memories still haunted him. The dreams would not go away.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Port Town

  Looming in the distance were the darkened suburbs of Port Town. From the rocky outcrop on the hill where they stood, the group could see the sprawling cityscape that was before them. A grid of streets was hidden under the swath of buildings. The city's size, complexity, and density was unlike any other place on Frostarc.

  But the city was wrong, stripped of its liveliness. Port Town was the metropolis of Frostarc, a bustling city that could stand strong against any of the major cities in the Cooperation. Even Quartz, the only other large city on the icy planet, could not compare to Port Town in size. The skyscrapers in the heart of Port Town looked like empty silhouettes, shadowing the silent city below and serving as a ghostly monument to what the city once had been.

  But on second look, those skyscrapers were not completely dark, and a focused ear revealed that the streets were not silent. Port Town may have been wounded, but it was still alive.

  People roamed the streets, looking worried and frightened. Airships hovered over the city, circling the skyscrapers like curious flies. It was awfully dark for a city, but it still emitted enough heat and light for Kozz and the others to feel its energy from where they stood.

  Is it safe? thought Kozz. Are our people in control, or did those demons take over? They know how to play tricks, and learned how to use our weapons. I wouldn't be surprised if they figured out how to fly our ships and run our cities.

  We have to go in. Luciele and Caleb need to reach the quarantine zone. Richard and Kelly need to get to Quartz to find their families. I need to get to Erde and find my wife, my Priscilla. There is nowhere else for any of us to go, and there are no other options other than getting to the heart of that city.

  No use trying to sneak through a city of that size, we're just gonna have to march right on through and fight our way past the danger. I might not be able to protect everyone all of the time, but every one of these people following me is my responsibility. I offered them help to where they need to go, and took them under my guard. I must get them to the quarantine zone, I must protect them through to the end of this journey.

  The outskirts of the suburbs were as spread out as any small town on the other side of The Great River. The fenced yards decreased in size as they moved closer to the city, and the buildings became increasingly taller and thinner to accommodate more living space as the claustrophobic air of the city settled in. Faces appeared in windows and peaked around corners, but their eyes did not glow. Luciele, Kelly, and Richard tried to reach out to some of these people, but they ran or hid as soon as they knew they were noticed. Some figures followed the group through the streets from a distance. The creepy stalkers crept closer, but Kozz pulled out Red and let her beaming scarlet surface swing at his side. The potential thieves and miscreants backed off for the time being.

  “I don't like this,” said Caleb. “These people don't look nice.”

  “Just stay close to us and you'll be alright, baby,” said Luciele. “Those people are nothing more than rats. They'll try to take from you what they can, but they'll run as soon as we show them we're not scared of them.” Luciele
turned to Kozz. “What do you think is going on?”

  “The city's in chaos. There's no order left out here.”

  “Then where are the police?” asked Kelly, “or the military?”

  “I betcha they're all just on lunch break or something,” said Richard. Luciele and Kelly both gave him a flat stare while Caleb chuckled and Kozz let a smile lift one of the corners of his mouth. “What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood.”

  “They don't have the manpower to keep watch way out here in the suburbs,” said Kozz. “All hell broke loose in this city. It looks like a war was waged here, just like in every other godforsaken town we've passed through. They probably lost a lot of good soldiers to the demonic sickness that's taking over and had to fall back to the center of the city. I bet the Cooperation's forces are holding their ground in downtown where the quarantine zone is, that or they jumped ship and left this world behind.” That last comment dropped everyone into a somber mood, leaving even Richard unable to strike back with a witty joke to ease the tension. What if there was no escape from this madness?

  They searched for vehicles to borrow or tools they could use, but everywhere had been ransacked long before they arrived.

  Richard spotted their first infected city-person as it chased a man and woman down the street ahead. The woman found a sharpened wooden rod on the street and turned to stab the demon in the throat. It cried a wet scream as light jetted from its eyes. The woman turned and ran after the man who had left her behind.

  The daytime was dark with a dreary atmosphere and tall buildings blocked out the sun, but as night fell it became a different and more dangerous story. The stragglers who roamed the streets during the day were gone, and larger groups funneled out of hidden alleys. Kozz knew that these were the gangs that had taken over the undefended streets. Anyone caught out at night without a large group of others to protect them was in trouble. Up ahead was a group of twenty or more, all dressed in dark clothing to hide their numbers in the blackness of the night. Kozz kicked open the next door he saw to his left and hurried the others to get inside.

  Kozz led them into a tight hallway with a carpeted staircase which led up to a closed wooden door on the second level of the building. Kozz held Red close to his chest, ready to defend the doorway as the gang approached, but the bandits in black never arrived. Kozz looked out of the broken door and saw that the immediate streets were empty. He sighed in relief, but with a modicum of disappointment.

  They needed to find somewhere to spend the night, and this building appeared to be as good as any other. Luciele was at the top of the flight of stairs with Caleb and tested to see if she could open the door. It was locked. She knocked on the door and shouted into the wood, searching for an answer on the other side. She heard nothing and knocked again. Luciele pressed her ear to the doorway and heard a low mumbling coming from the other side, something she recognized but could not place. “Hello,” she shouted, but again found no answer.

  Kozz was wide enough that he touched shoulder to shoulder on either side of the hallway and had to turn sideways to slide past the others to make his way to the top of the staircase. “Thank the lord I don't have too much of a gut anymore after all of this walking,” he said as he pardoned himself past Kelly. He pushed his shoulder into the door to test it's strength, and did so once again with more force for certainty. Everyone moved a step or two down to make room as Kozz backed up. He was snug against the walls and flexed his arm muscles to gain more traction as he raised his foot to kick in the door.

  Click.

  “Shit,” Kozz shouted, “everyone down!”

  Boomph!

  Splinters flew like shrapnel in the air as a hole the size of a basketball blasted through the door and the slanted ceiling above them. Kozz and the others all fell down the staircase, piling on top of one another with Kozz's heavy mass weighing down on everyone else.

  The door was pushed open from inside and in the doorway stood a short old man with long gray hair which melded into his long gray beard. He pointed the barrel of his electron pulse gun at the pile of bodies at the base of the stairs, his bold brow casting a shadow over his eyes. Kozz held on to Red all the while and had her pointed at the crest of the staircase during his entire fall, holding her there as the old man showed his presence.

  “Don't shoot!” shouted Caleb from somewhere in the pile. His voice was muffled by the bodies of his friends. “Please, don't shoot!”

  The old man turned his head as if pointing a good ear to the source of the sound. “That a kid?”

  Kozz did not know if Caleb was yelling to him or the old man, but he was glad the child spoke up when he did. “Yeah. A young boy. Also his mother, two young lovers, and me. We're not here to hurt you.”

  The old man stood with his mouth open, staring at Kozz as if slowly understanding the words he said one by one. He closed his mouth and nodded to himself. “Mhmm, mhm, mhm. Why'd you en try en break down my door for then, hmm?”

  “Because you didn't answer the door,” said Luciele as she popped up and out of the pile.

  “Ah mhm,” said the old man. He lowered his weapon and raised a large smile that stretched from ear to ear, his wrinkled skin extending it from one puff of hair to the other. “Afraid! I was en thinking you were thieving me!” He licked his lips and stared at them all, lost somewhere in his thoughts. Kozz put Red down and was about to speak, but the man burst forth with what he figured he wanted to say. “Come on in then. Must be looking for a bed then. Too dangerous en cold out there for the kids en the gals. Come on in then.”

  He turned and walked back into his home without a concern. They worked themselves out of their pile and walked up the stairs, sharing looks of confusion. Caleb's chest hurt from the weight of the others falling on top of him, but it was not overwhelming. It seemed that his fractured rib was healing well.

  “What a crackpot,” said Richard.

  They entered the man's small home. Lights were on in every room with thick curtains stapled to the walls to block any of it from escaping out into the streets. Water was just starting to boil on an old electric stove top, and a decade old Rebel Moon documentary was playing on the man's telepod.

  “You have electricity, and television?” asked Kelly. “Do you have a way to communicate with anyone? Has the Presider or anyone said anything on the telepod?”

  “No no,” said the old man. “Dear no. No communication works en no broadcasts on the telepod. I have my generator en my film player en that's everything. Always stocked up heavy on canned goods en now it's finally come in handy. You try en get broadcasts and it's just that same message they've been playing for weeks en weeks about the quarantine zone. Had some news at first awhile back en that went down as quick as the rest of the communication.”

  “Did the news say anything about what is going on?” asked Luciele.

  “Nope nope. Nobody know nothing en they just say get to the quarantine zones.” The man sat in an old reclining chair and rested his weapon on the table at his side. His pockmarked, bulbous nose was a bright red. “Please sit sit. Not so much room but at least it's warmer en out there.”

  “Have you been by yourself this whole time then?” asked Luciele.

  “Yup, pretty much, pretty much. Don't go outside. Military checked on me twice, gave me a little fresh food and water but that's all I've seen.”

  “Wait,” said Kozz, “the military has been by? When did you last see them?”

  “Mmm.... A week ago maybe. They just stop by en see if I need help.”

  “Why haven't they taken you to the quarantine zone?” asked Kozz.

  “Because I don't want to go. This is my home en I'ma staying right here come hell or high water or infected zombies trying to eat me.”

  “Gotta say,” said Richard, “I'm impressed with your spirit, old man. What about your friends and family? Have you heard from any of them?”

  “Don't go en call me old man, I'll whoop you if I have to. Call me Clyde. Anyways, my wife passed o
n a few years back en my children live on Erde where all the big business is at. I retired awhile back en moved out here. Been by myself ever since, for once in my dag-blasted life!” Clyde chuckled at his own words.

  “You sure know how to be happy with all this trouble around,” said Kelly. “How can you be so relaxed when everything we know is being destroyed and turned upside down?”

  “I've seen a lifetime of trouble en it just don't worry me anymore. All of you kids have many many years left to explore, but I'm just sitting back en enjoying what the universe has left me before it comes to take me away. Trouble will pass until it's my time.” Clyde jumped up as he remembered the water boiling on the stove top. “Sheesh-ma-geesh! Sheesh-ma-geesh! No wonder why it was getting so muggy in here. I thought it was just because of all of you sweaty bodies. I was boiling the water in case I had to throw it on your evil faces, but now we can use it for something more enjoyable. Anyone want some tea?”

  Clyde was a gracious host and made sure everyone was well fed. The tower that supplied fresh water to his home was still intact and they all took the opportunity to bathe for the first time in weeks. As night set in Clyde rested in his armchair and the others gathered around to free their minds by watching some films on his telepod. The small apartment had little more than enough room to sleep them on its floors, but the carpet made a much more comfortable bed than had the cold dirt outside.