by Zac Strong
“Don’t you think I want to?” I ask as I peer directly into her sapphire eyes. “There is nothing I want more than to spend all day, every day, with you, and after I get back that’s exactly what I plan to do. I love you Jacee. I didn’t think it was possible to love again – to love more than one person, but I do. I love you, but I must do this. Please understand, I can’t live with myself if I don’t try. Xander’s did this plenty of times before, I’ll be back before dinner. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. I am still pissed you lied, but we’ll talk about that when I get back.”
She looks up at me as tears fall from her face. “Please,” she whimpers. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, bear-hugging her tightly. “Take this. I want you to have it.” I pull the blue handled knife from my belt and hand it to her. “Think about this anytime you want to take your mind off something.” My lips kiss her head as she breaks from my embrace and disappears into the hallway still sobbing. Her sweet scent lingers on my skin.
I pause another second to breathe. Feet icing over as I remind myself once more what is on the line. I must do this.
Xander, Leon, and Cyrus wait for me outside the gates of Elysium, already geared up and armed.
“This is the beginning of something greater than us,” shouts Xander proudly. Most of the able in the cave are here to see us off. “This is the beginning of the end for the Lethe Corporation, and for anyone who stands in our way!” The entire desert explodes into screaming and cheers.
“This is about our fallen brothers and their fallen brothers before them! It’s our time to rise and take back what is ours! This is our world! No longer will we hide in their shadows while they
hunt us down! No longer will they profit off the broken backs of innocent people! Lethe Corp will face their judgment at our hands, and this time we will show no mercy!!”
The ground tremors from applause. People are going insane. Elysium is on fire.
“To victory!” Xander screams, leading our long march to 34 with his gun raised high. I spot Jacee in the crowd standing outside the gates. Tears still dripping from her sapphire eyes. She’ll be fine.
The four of us make it outside of 34 unnoticed as we align ourselves on a section of the wall right outside the south gate. The early, dawn sky is the texture of smooth metal. It’s lit with a moon so full it almost seems day. The stars pale in contrast. Chunks of the old earth pass over the moonlight, floating above like a silent observer. A cool breeze blows past us in the deafening quiet. Every one of us is on edge as we anxiously wait for our next move.
Our sighting of Phryne’s banished husband making his way to the electric field of the south gate for his daily rations alters our original plan.
“Do what I say, and I won’t fucking kill you.”
He eagerly accepts our proposal.
Stacked, waiting outside the gate out of sight, I whisper at Xander loud enough for Leon to hear me, “Before we go in, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“What’s on your mind?” Xander replies, reaching out to hand me and Leon one of the remaining grenades we found earlier.
I tuck it into my pants and tighten my grip on my borrowed rifle. Looking back, I smirk before asking, “Who really won that duel between me and Leon in the pit?”
They both instantly crack a smile.
Xander shakes his head before he spits and replies, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
I can’t tell if he was kidding or not.
“Maybe you’ll get a rematch when we get home,” jokes Leon as we chuckle to ourselves remaining as quiet as possible. Even Cyrus can’t hold a straight face.
Then, a soft silence.
The realization of what is about to happen sinks in like someone just punched it into me. It anchors itself deep within my gut. A seriousness moves over all of us. This is finally going to happen.
I raise my gun and ready myself, lungs racing.
This is it.
Phryne’s husband steps up to the electric field like he’s done most days since Lethe banished him. The sentry droids raise their weapons but relax again after scanning him. The electric field vanishes. Phryne is waiting on the other side.
“Now!” shouts Xander.
We both close in and destroy the two sentries.
“Go! Go! Go!” shouts Xander as we push the gate single file into the city, guns raised and at the alert. Alarms wailing, 34 is under our attack.
Cyrus and Leon fire into two more sentry droids who just spotted their fallen comrades. They go down sizzling, a puff of smoke after each one hits the pavement.
We tactfully move a few blocks in, guns still raised, ready to kill anything that tries to stop us.
The look of confusion on Phryne’s face as she makes eye contact with me is priceless.
Middle of the street to our left, a squad of security droids approach. Red eyes gleaming in our direction.
I take aim. Three trigger pulls. Two of them fall.
The others circle behind the apartments to our left.
The gunfire alerted more of them. Out of nowhere, a group of Lethe officers rushes us from the front, bunkering behind their portable light barriers, sparing no ammunition. The sound of bullets and particle rays cracking over my head puts my entire life into perspective.
We sprint as quickly as we can to cover, running towards the gunfire, landing at the first busted wall in front of us. Our target building in sight. Hiding inside the Delta fortress across the street, Kalli’s virtual prison.
An explosion erupts from their gunfire, sending fragments of their barriers and the building around it in every direction. Leon’s work. My contributions are much more subtle.
I snap a peek around the corner behind us. Three officers rush towards our squad. Two droids behind them. They have us surrounded.
Holding only my rifle over the edge I hit one of the officers in the face with my first shot. Blood and brain matter smacks the concrete wall behind him. The weapon recoils. Bolt snaps back into position. The other two officers retreat to cover as the droids aim to kill, still advancing. A beam of particle rays traces my movements. It smashes through a wall as I barely escape, diving into the broken glass door of an apartment tower. Leon and Xander rush the droids from the alleyway behind me, reducing them to scrap metal in seconds.
No one sees it. It’s too late by the time my brain even processes what happened. From behind the dumpster a rouge droid fires. Cyrus absorbs most of the burst. He falls lifeless to the ground under the pink mist as we scatter for cover.
One of the human officers charges after me, trailing through the crumbling building I smash into. I point my rifle at his chest.
He grabs the barrel, jerking it from me.
Almost losing my grip, I plant my kick in his torso sending him into a splintered table. He looks up and reaches for me.
I lift the gun and fire three rounds into his chest and another into his skull for good measure.
Bursting out the back entrance, I meet back up with Leon and Xander across the street. Blood is everywhere. The smell of gunpowder and death fills the cool, morning air. The sun cracks the horizon in the distance sending streaks of orange and deep red stretching far into the darkness. The city’s alarm screams through the fog. Bullets ricochet from every direction, pinning us back between the brick wall and the side of a concrete building.
My eyes find the newness of the Delta Project facility again. Tuning the gunfire out, I frantically search for a path, but they have
us cornered on all sides. I have to get in there. I’m still coming for you, Kalli.
Just three of us left. Grossly outnumbered. We didn’t expect it to get this messy. This was supposed to be a simple hit and run. Lethe was prepared this time.
“I’m going to try to make a run for it!” I shout over the sound of heavy caliber gunfire. “Xander, can you cover me?”
An explosion erupts a few meters in front of our cover sendi
ng rock and shrapnel raining over us.
“I’m going with you. You’re not doing this alone.”
There’s no time to argue. They're getting closer.
We aren’t going to make it back.
“Whatever happens to me, don’t stop until you free those people,” Xander screams through the chaos.
Fuck that. I’m not going down this way. Not yet.
A fire surges through my bloodstream and down my spine.
Leon throws his rifle down as a tear beams down his face. From his back, he retrieves his spear and activates it.
“I’ll cover you. Looks like I won’t be getting that rematch after all,” he says, faking a smile.
Without giving us a chance to protest he screams, “Now!” and turns the corner sprinting straight at them.
Their bullets tear through Leon, but he keeps going.
Staring death in its eyes, he doesn’t stop.
Within meters of the bunkered platoon of Lethe droids and officers, the mountain raises his spear with both hands and slams it into the ground. Before I can blink great arcs of purple and blue electricity spring from the white-hot pole. Its glare reflecting off the tattered, metal plates of the droids one second; the next, an earsplitting flash of light leveling the block. The smoke from the explosion screams past the corner Xander and I hide behind as droplets of debris rain over us. He sacrificed himself for me, they both did. It’s up to us now.
I finish the upper half of a twitching droid sizzling at my ankles and race to the Delta building lurking in the shadows of this nightmare. Dodging the smoldering carcasses of Lethe, Xander’s right behind me.
We smash through the red-tinted glass of the entrance just as another formation of Lethe droids charges from behind. We only have seconds to spare.
The lobby’s deserted. An expensive metal desk sits pompously in front of us with a hallway bordering on each side. Delta Project in large, illuminated words hangs behind the desk, nearly touching the frosted glass wall where a larger neon triangle radiates a faint red. No credit was spared. There is newness in the air that twirls in the musk of gun smoke lodging itself firmly within my nostrils.
Ten doors on the stone wall to our left. Floor-to-ceiling windows flank our other side. From what I can tell, the building is laid out like a diamond. Windows on all sides. Fused glass floors the color of sandstone.
We take the last room at the end of the hall on the right.
Through the double doors, there are bodies on gurneys everywhere. In symmetric rows, sedated, and naked, only a thin sheet covers them in this cold, artificially lit lab. A few of the comatose strangers are attached at the neck to a large silver cord stretching to a central network of cables continuing through the ceiling. Two men in lab coats freeze when they notice us. Their hands rise to air at the sight of our guns.
“What is this place?” I demand, my rifle to his face. “Who are these people?”
“This is the Delta Project,” he replies.
“If I tell you a name… can you put her into one of these people? Can you bring her back?”
He laughs at my desperation. “The Delta Project doesn’t save you from losing yourself to rebirth, that’s just what Lethe tells you to make it easier to steal your consciousness. The Delta Project rips your memories from you and stores your consciousness for the entertainment of the rich, trapped inside their servers for an eternity for them to use as they wish. Everything that you are is digitized and stored. Imagine reliving the same dream over and over, every time someone plugs in. Eternal damnation.
“Why are they doing this?” asks Xander.
“After centuries of immortality, thanks to the upgraded Lethe catalyst in Olympia, people grew bored. There is only so much one person can experience before life itself becomes another monotonous chore. You plug into your computer and download the Delta Project directly into you – the ultimate virtual reality. As you exit this world you become someone else, living through their perspective. Imagine experiencing the life of a complete stranger without any of the risks. You feel every emotion they felt. You see everything they saw. Their thoughts become yours. You become them. When you plug in, your entire life changes. It absorbs you. Within seconds you completely forget who you really are. Even the most insignificant of experiences are addicting, no matter whose eyes you observe behind.”
“Where do they store the consciousnesses?” I shout. My hands, shaking uncontrollably. I feel a rush of adrenaline shoot straight down my spine. I want to kill this man.
“Upstairs! Look, we’re just doing what they say, following orders. Please… don’t hurt us.”
I lower my rifle as Xander blasts them both until they lay as motionless as the people they kidnapped for Lethe.
Xander looks at me, blood splattered across his face. “Enforcing evil is just as bad as creating it.”
We exit the lab cutting down another squad of Lethe officers and race upstairs.
The fluorescents in the stairwell flicker rapidly. Xander’s eyes meet mine as we hear more reinforcements tearing through the glass entrance. They’re just seconds behind.
The stale smell of this place follows us upstairs. Same layout.
Clear down both halls, we take the right again.
Reading every doorplate, we move swiftly through a labyrinth of closed corporate doors.
Distant traces of footsteps and conversation coming from one of the rooms freezes us both. They heard us. I think they heard us.
Less than a meter in front of me, a door opens.
“Hey!!” a startled voice shouts from behind it.
Xander fires into his open mouth with his rifle, silencing him forever.
My weapon moves to the woman left standing behind the bleeding corpse of her colleague. She’s dressed nicely. The executive type. Unarmed. Sobbing.
“Where are the servers? Now!” I demand.
Crying uncontrollably, she points to the last door on this hall.
“Please…” she begs.
I lower my rifle as she pulls a sidearm from behind her skirt. Xander fires six rounds into her chest sending her flying into the red-stained wall.
We sprint to where she pointed. Footsteps from the floor below us, they’re coming up the stairs now.
The door she led us to is black as night. Shiny paint, looks untouched. SERVER ROOM is printed on a square piece of plastic pasted in the center of the door.
The handle turns. The door swings open.
I’m too late.
“So, we meet again. I should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” speaks a man in a black suit with white pinstripes. His metal hand protrudes past his golden cufflinks.
I know exactly who he is.
I raise my weapon to blast him, but he jerks it from my hands. Two more Suits appear from the crowd of droids approaching from behind disarming Xander with a leg sweep.
“I see you brought a friend,” he hisses as he slowly sheds his jacket, laying it neatly on the chair behind him. He rolls up both sleeves, taking his time. He wants to drag this out. This is a game to him. “I’ve been hunting this one for a long time.”
The flickering red and green lights from the servers reflect off his metal arm. There is a low-sounding hum between the sound of his hydraulics.
Every muscle in my body begins to tingle.
He cracks his head to the left, then slowly to the right.
I lunge at him with everything I have, unsheathing the short sword hidden under my bone-junk armor.
He blocks with his metal arm and punches me in the chest knocking the wind from my lungs.
Xander follows with a right hook beside me. The first strike hits home, but his second is caught mid-swing.
The sound of the bones in Xander’s fist crunching under the Suit’s titanium grip is jarring, but not as much as his scream. I’ve never seen him this vulnerable, this weak.
I strike again, swinging for his neck.
The Suit is too quick.
He counters my
strike and pushes his metal fist through my face. His blow takes my vision with it, sending me to my back, as I feel the blood drip from the stinging above my eye.
Xander cripples him with a left and the Suit drops to the ground. His buddies dive at Xander, but he’s too quick. Xander pushes his fingers deep into the eyes of an advancing officer in the crowded room as I move to put my sword through someone.
The pair of Suits at the door tag team Xander. He’s tough, but he can’t take them both..
I crawl to the glass wall protecting the servers, using it as a crutch I try to stand to my feet. The man with the metal arm kicks me against it, knocking me back to the floor wincing.
He kicks for my head and misses denting the glass. Xander breaks free and tries to tackle him from the side but is knocked unconscious with an uppercut. He collapses on the floor beside me.
“Is this all you have rebels? Is this it?” laughs the man with a metal arm.
Xander lays motionless a few meters from me.
“We gave you a home. We fed you. We clothed you. We gave you purpose in life, and this.. this is how you repay us?”
Another kick crushes my abdomen as I struggle to breathe.
One of the Suits grabs a handful of Xander’s blue-streaked hair, lifting his face from the floor. Blood runs heavy from his nose to his shirt. Without a word, the Suit presses the barrel of his pistol to Xander’s head and pulls the trigger.
The ringing from the gunshot is all I can hear.
Everything… stops.
I’m barely able to rise to my feet as I grip the sword tighter in my shivering hand.
All I am is rage.
With every ounce of energy I have left in my body, I swing for his neck, giving it everything.
My sword slices through the Suit that killed Xander. His head separates from his body. Pistol still in hand, his red tie is first to hit the ground.
His partner retaliates landing a solid punch cracking a bone in my face. Then a second punch.
I roll past him just barely evading his third and stick my sword through his calf.
He winces out in pain as a river of corporate blood escapes him splashing to the floor.
