Beyond the Crystal City

by Logan Brookfield

  Amy covered her head with both hands.

  The truck smashed through the gate shattering the remainder of the windscreen. Twisted metal fragments littered the road behind as the truck thundered into the unknown. The headlights were broken and the front of the vehicle was bent and twisted from the impact.

  Amy lowered her hands and glanced at the road in front of them. ‘Where does this lead to?’

  ‘No idea but anywhere away from that place has got to be good.’

  Carl continued to drive and kept looking in the rear-view mirror for signs of the explosion. He could see smoke rising but wasn’t sure if that was the bomb or a fire that had broken out.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Captain O’Connor checked his watch and made his way along the ship’s main corridor to the observation deck. The cleansing had started and the ship’s scanners had already detected a large explosion and elevated atmospheric radiation readings. However, this situation needed eyes on before he could report a successful detonation to Edmond, and the only way to do that was by looking to see the scale of the damage and how the cloud of dust and debris was spreading. If successful the city and everyone within a hundred miles should have been vaporised in a fiery explosion. Beyond that for another hundred miles, most things on the surface would be destroyed in the blast or ignite from the intense heat. The weapon would throw enough radioactive dirt and dust into the atmosphere that a deadly cloud would drift around the globe, blocking the sun and creating a toxic cocktail drifting in the air and falling in the rain.

  The observation deck was a large area with a complement of six. On three sides of the room large floor-to-ceiling windows looked out onto Earth and the void beyond. On the fourth wall banks of screens showed a constant stream of data that the ship’s navigation computers would digest and use to stay on course. It was also where the calculations for collision avoidance were made. The Lasell had a database of every planet and moon on its intended course, also known asteroids and pieces of space debris. The ship could make tiny adjustments early in its journey to avoid objects many billions of miles away. The vast expanse of space became a smaller overcrowded place with many obstacles the faster you travelled.

  ‘Status report,’ O’Connor barked.

  ‘Sir, you need to see this for yourself,’ Midshipman Cline said.

  Cline was a tall, skinny, willowy figure with thinning blonde hair and a pale complexion. His light blue overalls denoted his senior rank and area of expertise.

  ‘Is that good news or bad news?’ O’Connor asked.

  Cline slowly shook his head. ‘I’m not quite sure it’s the effect we required, sir.’

  O’Connor approached the array of high-powered optical telescopes and chose the medium-sized one. The light bucket with its large mirror gave a crisp, clear image that couldn’t be affected by digital screens or computer programs. It was like looking through a clear magnified window. He closed his left eye and pressed the right one to the telescope’s eyepiece. Using his right hand he caressed the focuser to bring the city into sharp detail.

  ‘Damn it,’ O’Connor said stepping back from the optics. ‘Detonation occurred right on time but it doesn’t look like it was fully successful. There’s no chain reaction and the cloud is too small, nothing is reaching the upper atmosphere.’

  Cline stepped closer. ‘Does that mean it hasn’t worked? Can’t we leave as scheduled?’

  ‘It means Edmond won’t be happy and we won’t be going anywhere unless we fix this,’ O’Connor said shaking his head. ‘I told him this carried too many risks. Leaving the city unguarded and risking the Wretches overrunning it while we’re stuck up here. There were better ways to achieve our goals but he never listens.’

  ‘How else could we have done it?’ Cline asked.

  ‘A weapon launched from space was my preference. Nobody could tamper with it and we could have targeted the city within five miles or so which was close enough. But Edmond insisted that the city should be the weapon, a throwback maybe to the way the ancients used to defend their outposts. Once you’re overrun you can destroy the place and take all your enemies with it. Too much sickly sentimentality for the way it was rather than looking forward and the way it could be.’

  Cline nodded. His understanding of the ship’s navigation systems didn’t help him understand how the weapon worked. He was a data guy and presented accurate information for those higher in power to use.

  They both walked over to the wall screens and Cline pulled up a zoomed-in digital image of the towers and the surrounding area. ‘Only half of the buildings have been destroyed in the blast and there are other issues. Look at this,’ he said switching the camera to infrared. ‘The Wretches are on the move. Thousands of them are leaving the camps and heading for the city.’

  O’Connor shook his head and stared at the view in front of him. The remainder of humanity was on the move, leaving the camps and heading for the Crystal Towers, and there was nothing they could do from up here. ‘This is unfortunate but not unexpected,’ he said leaning on a table with both hands. ‘With the city empty and nothing to stop them they’ll take advantage for sure, but they’ll just act like savages and loot and burn the place, then turn on each other.’

  ‘Do you think the Wretches damaged the bomb?’ Cline asked.

  ‘It’s possible but the device is well protected within an impregnable strongroom and once it’s sealed nobody can enter. It’s also guarded by Black Hats who won’t leave the city until the last minute. Problem is the weapon relies on outside resources, such as power and coolant to fully function. Not a great design but the best we could do with our ever-diminishing resources. I come back to my original statement. A weapon launched from above the atmosphere was always the best option.’

  ‘Yes, sir, but how else will we complete our mission?’

  O’Connor walked towards the doorway, paused for a moment and looked back towards Cline. ‘Plan B. When Plan A fails we use Plan B.’

  Cline nodded slowly. ‘I’ll keep the data flowing and wait for your orders, sir.’

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The central area of the Crystal Towers smouldered in the blazing afternoon sun. Thick plumes of black, acrid smoke billowed from the pile of steel, concrete and melted glass. Only the few towers on the edge of the complex were now standing although most of them had had the windows blown out from the force of the bomb. Fires broke out randomly from the intense heat and everything near the core of the weapon melted creating a stream of molten material that meandered through the ruins like a flow of radioactive lava. Burning paper and material drifted down creating a fiery rain, igniting anything it fell on.

  A large group of ragged hungry people slowly made their way down the rubble-filled street towards the perimeter fencing. Two young men picked up the pace and started to jog, leaving the large mass behind them. They looked in all directions for incoming sentry drones but none were about. They both started to run as fast as they could and then jumped onto the chain-link fence, climbing frantically. A machine gun turret placed in a guard tower nearby spun round and pointed at the intruders then spun away. The damage had wrecked the central computers and without the correct instructions the turrets were just dumb chunks of metal.

  The remainder of the large crowd arrived and pushed and pulled at the fencing. It held firm for a while until its concrete posts were significantly loosened and gave way, causing the barrier to fall forward crashing to the ground as thousands of people started to run across it. They were screaming and shouting and looking for two things: food and revenge.

  Higher up in one of the remaining towers the surviving drones sat in their docking stations overlooking the city. They beeped and whistled as they waited for the command to attack but it never came. All communication within the city seemed lost and everything electrical was losing power and malfunctioning. The drones followed their last known instruction, which was to return to their lofty positions and wait.

  Smaller groups of people br
oke away and clambered into and over the channels and ditches designed to slow down unauthorised vehicles. Several explosions showered people with dirt and shrapnel as the unlucky ones ran across randomly placed land mines. Dismembered body parts were now strewn across the landscape but each land mine that exploded created a safe way through for the person behind.

  Felix hit the dirt as another hidden trap cut down a person near to him. The boom was deafening and he felt disorientated as his hearing shut down only to be replaced by a loud ringing noise. Dirt and blood fell on top of him like rain. At 18 years of age he was relatively young and fit and nothing was going to stop his chance of gathering food and supplies from the abandoned city. He wiped his matted and bloody long brown hair from his face and got back up, running in the direction of yet another fence. This fence was smaller and he knelt down beside it and pulled out his wire cutters. He made quick work of cutting a hole, which he clambered through, and could feel others behind him also trying to claw their way through. He was stuck halfway with the weight of a larger man on his legs so he kicked out several times, hitting the guy square in the face, which gave him the leverage to get all the way through. It was becoming a desperate race to try to grab the good stuff, if anything was left.

  Felix got back up and dusted off the dirt then started running towards the remaining towers on the right-hand side. He stopped running when he reached a patio area where ornate fountains trickled water and marble statues adorned the walkways. Compared to where he lived it looked like paradise, even if much of it was now being covered with a slowly descending fall of ash and soot. He wiped the black sludge from his face and walked through a set of open double doors, finding himself in a huge concourse. The white marble floor and strategically placed palm trees were like nothing he’d ever seen. The air was much cooler and he could feel his sweat-soaked brow beginning to dry. He looked up to view the broken glass ceiling several floors up. The burning sun created kaleidoscope patterns on the walls and strange mythical beasts were painted on the walls below. Perhaps they were creatures that roamed the earth before the wars or just a figment of some artist’s overactive imagination.

  The sound behind him grew louder as hundreds of people now headed his way. He closed his eyes and took a long deep breath, enjoying the beauty and tranquillity one last time. As the mob burst through the open doorway he picked up a metal pole from the floor and smashed it into a nearby sculpture of an old bearded man. The head came off in one piece and rolled across the floor as he continued to swing at the base of the ornament. His hatred for the Cloud people was overspilling and if he couldn’t take his revenge out on them, he would destroy everything they created.

  He got knocked over in the melee as people frantically searched for food. Some were drinking water from the fountains but then being violently sick afterwards. A smaller group noticed a store that sold food and they ran towards it, fighting each other with iron bars and knives. One man made it inside but had killed three to get there first. Another group piled into the store and stabbed the man to death while they pulled items off the shelves and into their bags. It was becoming a bloodbath and a dangerous place to be.

  Felix got up and decided to leave the madness behind. He made his way deeper into the city to look for food and to wreak his own havoc.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  O’Connor opened the outer door to Edmond’s private quarters without knocking.

  Edmond sat at his desk and stopped in mid flow, staring wide-eyed. ‘This had better be important.’

  ‘It’s failed, Edmond. Primary detonation occurred but secondary detonation and chain reaction failed. We’ve got a partially destroyed city, no mass destruction and the Wretches are on the move.’

  Edmond rubbed his face as his neck slowly turned purple. ‘What the hell went wrong?’ he said thumping the desk.

  ‘We’re not sure, technical malfunction possibly, but all systems were online when we checked. It’s also possible that the Wretches made it into the city and caused some damage to the electrical and cooling systems. That was always a risk as I’ve previously pointed out.’

  ‘Maybe some of our friends from within? I gave specific instructions for the inmates to be terminated and the city should have been completely cleared before detonation.’

  O’Connor stood with his hands behind his back. ‘As far as we know we have a full complement of people. All shuttles docked as planned and there wasn’t anyone left. Several Black Hats were killed during the termination of the prison level, which I believe you were notified about, but the rest made it on board.’

  ‘What termination of the prison level? Edmond said frowning. ‘I gave strict instructions for the gas to be used. It was the safest and most humane way to do it.’

  O’Connor stepped closer. ‘From what I understand there was a breakout which had to be dealt with by force. We lost some Black Hats but everyone was terminated as requested. The remaining guards made it back on the last shuttle. Maybe you weren’t told because it wasn’t deemed important enough.’

  ‘More likely my orders to gas them weren’t carried out and someone tried to cover it up. I’ll get to the bottom of this in time and if this caused the weapon’s malfunction, heads will roll. We’ve come a long way and put in a lot of time and effort to get where we are, for it to be derailed by someone’s insubordination.’

  O’Connor leaned on the desk. ‘Do you think we have a traitor?’

  Edmond shook his head. ‘I don’t know but I hope not. I’ve been very careful who we bring into our world but it’s always possible we have a bad apple.’

  ‘We know the boy and the pregnant girl made it to the detention level but as far as we can tell they got caught up in the rioting down there and were subdued.’

  Edmond removed his glasses. ‘That’s one real regret I have. We needed her if we were going to ensure our population grew in the future. We have samples of her blood which will help a great deal but I needed a live subject that could give us a constant supply of blood. We were so close to understanding her natural immunity.’

  ‘Well, they perished as far as we know along with all the other prisoners,’ O’Connor said.

  Edmond replaced his glasses. ‘What about Icarus?’

  O’Connor nodded. ‘It appears to be still online but you know as well as I do it relies on old-fashioned cooling methods. If the mob breached the catacombs then who knows what will happen.’

  Edmond adjusted his glasses on his nose and turned round in his chair. ‘Our ancestors built Icarus for one reason and one reason only. In a moment when all was lost and the city and everything around it needed destroying, several bombs hidden deep underground would vaporise all above. They are ancient and crude weapons but they do work and they will cleanse the Wretches. Unfortunately they won’t bring the nuclear winter we hoped for but they are better than nothing.’

  ‘But, Edmond, what’s the point? If we return here in thousands of years only to find others have developed a highly organised society, they’ll swat us like flies or look upon us like ancient explorers of no real importance.’

  ‘Trust me, there are no others outside,’ Edmond said. ‘There’s now only a population of Wretches who will die of hunger or disease, that’s if they don’t kill each other first.’

  O’Connor turned his palms up. ‘But how can we really be sure? Just because we’ve not heard any radio traffic doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of people somewhere. You know as well as I do, a small number of humans will multiply rapidly over a few hundred or even thousands of years. We are going to return to our Eden only to find well-ordered societies with superior weapons and we won’t be able to defeat them.’

  ‘The only thing that defeats us is your glass half full attitude,’ Edmond said getting up from his chair. ‘I’m sick and tired of your complaining and your lack of belief in what we are trying to achieve. We have a date with destiny and we are going to keep it with or without your blessing. Eden is out there, somewhere in the future. We onl
y have to travel forward and grasp it with both hands.’

  ‘O’Connor stepped back, realising he had angered Edmond. ‘Yes, I fully understand.’

  ‘But do you? Do you still want to be part of our great plan or would you prefer me to send you back down to our friends? I’m sure they’d be pleased to see you, or you could take your chances outside the walls?’

  ‘No, Edmond I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m fully behind your plans. I was just airing some concerns but I’m happy now that you’ve corrected me.’

  ‘Good, now let’s not have any more wavering. Prepare Icarus.’

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Felix made his way down the dimly lit corridor as the noise of the melee behind him tailed off into the distance. The strip lights on the ceiling flickered as the city’s damaged power supply struggled to generate enough electricity, and dust hung in the air from the rubble that lay scattered over the floor from the damaged building.

  He tried the handle of each door as he neared the end of the hallway. All were either locked or blocked with debris from fallen ceilings and items disturbed during the blast. At the end of the corridor was a locked door with a small window. Felix looked through and saw it led to another corridor, in much better shape than the one he was in. He tried the handle but the door was locked. At the side was a keypad so he punched in random numbers, but the door remained firmly shut.

  Looking around on the floor he found a short but heavy metal bar that must have broken away from something structural, as it still had a bracket and two twisted bolts attached to it. He held it in both hands and smashed it into the keypad, which shattered in a shower of sparks. But the door still didn’t open. He took one end of the bar, which was slightly tapered, and rammed it between the door frame and the door itself in an attempt to jemmy it open. The wooden door surround cracked and splintered and eventually gave way allowing the door to swing open.