Rise of a Legion
Page 4
Valiic burst through the laboratory window just below the zip line, with me right behind. As we landed on one of the lower floors of this cloud-touching building, a sudden shift in mood took me by surprise. Lights were blown to bits, while others flickered at a random tempo. The sun was setting, turning the building darker. An aroma of blood, human and qwayk alike, scratched at my nose. Streaks of black goop dripped down the walls, and every door was kicked in or broken. A wave of disaster had introduced itself to this place.
“Valiic, I have that feeling in my gut again,” I whispered to him.
“What feeling?” He turned toward me, unhooking his shield from his back.
“The same one I had before Bremco died.” I pulled my assault rifle off its mag lock.
“I’m with you on that,” he whispered. “I’d say you better put your night vision visors on. It’s going to get darker from here on out.”
I slipped on the visors and flipped on the holographic night vision projection over my eyes. Valiic watched with curiosity.
I smiled. “You enjoying yourself?” Maelkii could see through darkness as if it were day; the cost being color.
“Not as much as you think,” he chuckled.
I pulled up the hologram map from my cyberwatch and saw Kalvin’s beacon was still activated. He was only a few floors down from us. “Take front. I got your ass covered,” I instructed.
Taking the lead, he edged down the increasingly dark hallway. “Maelkii see at night… humans see color. Humans say blue… maelkii say darker shade of--”
“Shh!” I cut him off. “You hear that?”
“Not at all.” He kept moving forward.
“I think it’s--” I spun around, upper-cutting the ungie beast as it leaped at me. Dead, it bent and flopped in the air in unnatural ways as it fell to the ground. “Ungie beasts. Those abominations are patrolling the building!”
“I hate those bloodthirsty monsters!” he cursed.
“We need to turn our silent meter to max. Valiic, switch spots with me. You cover my ass, and I’ll take front. I don’t want your loud plasma cannon to alert whatever else is in here.”
I locked my assault rifle back on its mag lock and opened one of my pouches, then pulled out a suppressor. After pulling off my pistol, I spun on the suppressor and popped on my shield. Its diamond shape covered my body almost completely as I crouch-walked.
Taking the lead, I started maneuvering down the pitch-black hallways. Through my night vision visors, I could see the destruction in each room. Cabinets were opened, paper thrown around the rooms, and hologram projectors and glass lab equipment lay in separate pieces across the floors. Occasionally, I saw the lifeless bodies of qwayks and humans dumped for the rodents. From their wounds, I gathered they were questioned and tortured. In one room, I saw the burnt remains of two qwayk scientists. I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
Sensing my displeasure, Valiic reminded me, “Remember, James, we have our mission. We must evacuate Kalvin Keefe. Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way.”
“You can trust me to complete the mission,” I reassured him.
Coming up to the stairs, I looked at the beacon. “Kalvin is still in the same spot, about three floors down.” I showed Valiic and signaled him to start down the stairs.
A few seconds later, the entire building shook like we were in the belly of a beast. Soon after, distant explosions clapped my eardrums.
Looking over my shoulder, I whispered to Valiic, “You feel that?” Another explosion hit, this time closer. “It sounds like they might be trying to take down this whole building.” He looked at me for instruction. “Time to say screw it to silence. Simply put, we better put on the burners, or we may become far thinner versions of ourselves.”
I started to speed down the stairs. Soon, we were only one floor above our destination.
“Hold the destruction process. We have more intruders,” an unknown voice echoed through the hall a floor down. “Send the beast to my position.”
“It’s on its way,” another voice announced over their radio.
“Christ, we're going to have company!”
I leaped down the stairs, taking cover behind the nearest wall. Valiic, right behind, started firing down the hall.
“They see us! Take cover!” one of the voices yelled. They were enemy dytircs.
Using Valiic’s massive frame as cover, I fired a few shots at the hostile bonies. They fired back with their plasma rifles.
“They’re blocking our path!” I yelled at Valiic over the gunfire. Springing out from behind Valiic again, I fired a few more rounds. “Got one,” I called out as I nailed one right in the head.
“There’s another one coming from the far right room,” Valiic called out.
“Push forward! Hug the open doorways for cover.” I fired more shots, hitting another one. “One more, he’s on--” I stopped dead in the middle of my sentence as heavy stomping shook the entire floor as it moved up the stairs.
“It’s coming from the stairs!” Valiic called out.
We both glanced at each other. Our matching petrified eyes would have told anybody we knew what ungodly creature was headed our way. Valiic, only a few meters away from the last dytirc, bashed him against the wall.
Looking at my cyberwatch, I yelled, “It’s the second to last door to the left! Use your burners!”
“Maelkii aren’t fast, you see,” he retorted.
With the stomping echoing ever so close, our dread was realized. Up the stairs came running a granite-skinned, nearly indestructible, towering boultha. A beast grown in a garden of hard-granite, durable and strong as hell. After bashing into the wall, causing the skyscraper to shake, it growled and stampeded toward us.
“It’ll be tapping our ass cheeks in thirty seconds tops!” I yelled as Valiic burst through the doors to the room where the beacon had led us.
“He’s not here!” Valiic shouted. “It’s just a storage room!”
“What? Kalvin, if you don’t show your ass right now, we’re leaving!” I screamed.
At that moment, a stack of boxes tumbled over, revealing a small hiding compartment. As the compartment opened, out stepped Keefe, wearing a night vision visor and holding a folder.
“Get on Valiic’s back, right now!” I pointed at Valiic.
“Pardon?” Kalvin asked.
“RIGHT NOW!” I screamed, losing my temper.
He didn’t hesitate. As soon as he climbed on, I led the way right out the door. Looking back, I noticed the boultha was only a few meters away!
“Quick, Keefe, where is a window?” I yelled over my shoulder.
Now staring at the gargantuan thing right behind Valiic, Kalvin screamed, “Right hall! Right hall!”
Losing my footing in the chaos, I grabbed the closest wall-corner to change momentum. “Burners, Valiic!” I threw myself through the window to an unexpected twelve story drop. Now midair, I twisted my body and prepared for the impact. “Valiic, twelve stories. Brace!” I tried to warn him through the screeching wind.
Using my legs to absorb the impact, I smashed against the marble streets below. A crater Valiic’s size was left as I recovered from a fall that would kill any normal human; lucky for me, I’m not. However, another few stories more, and even I wouldn’t walk off that fall. To my side landed Valiic, who fared better from the impact than me.
Shocked, Keefe, still on Valiic’s back asked, “By my calculations, that was a forty meter descend. He is a maelkii, although you are human. How could you survive that descent?” Not letting me answer, he continued, “Could it be… sunset orange hair, bottle green eyes, superhuman build--” he paused, “James Stone?”
“On the nose,” I confessed, annoyed. Before Kalvin was able to say anymore, I turned to Valiic. “Where’s the boultha?”
“I lost the creature at the turn. I think it was running too fast to change direction.” He looked up at the window to check if the boultha was about to leap through the glass.
“Unnecessary. When the dytircs failed to pinpoint the location of the documents they desired, they decided to demolish Aegis Laboratory. Fortunately, they were unable to finish that process.” Keefe climbed off Valiic’s back.
“And what documents would that be?” Putting away my explosives, I indulged him.
“Research… research that carries a probability of divulging the Wersillian Legion’s motivations regarding this war.” He showed me the folder. “The Wersillian Legion would never encroach on an ARW system without logic. Somehow they obtained knowledge of what my researchers were on the threshold of discovering… something they did not fancy us identifying. That is precisely why I issued a priority code 199 Rederick. You must evacuate me to safety, immediately.”
“Very well. Just don’t twist your balls in a knot.” I used my cyberwatch to call the commander. “Commander Sizar, this is James Stone. We need a priority one evac right away. Location is Haveron Street, behind Aegis Laboratory.”
“This is Commander Sizar. I hear you loud and clear. The enemy is retreating, so your evac will be down in a few clicks. Hold tight. Sizar out.”
Kalvin stared at me, and I back at him. It was only now, taking in his face, that memories from my past, memories I'd buried, resurfaced. After all, Kalvin Keefe was the man responsible for many of the demons created from my past.
Chapter 4: Twisted Childhood I - The Beginning
February 3, 2100 – February 7, 2100
James Stone
When I was ten, I hated having such a boring dad. He wasn't one of those fun fathers who would spin you around by your arms until you were dizzy. He didn’t build me a go-cart or throw a ball around with me. He wasn’t the type to gush over my art work or inflate my ego in any way. Mostly I only saw him on the weekends when he fell asleep in front of his soap operas, beer in hand and chips scattered in easy reach. That was then. Today, two years later, I hard-wish that were still the case. Now, I hardly see the bastard as a dad. All I see is the monster he's become.
Clank, clank.
Behind the front door, my mother and I heard my dad fumbling with his keys on the porch. Mom had finished cooking dinner for us a few minutes ago. Most people had a Magic Meal in their homes to materialize different types of food on demand; or so I learned in school. Sadly, our poverty forced my mother to cook.
A minute went by before my dad bumped through the door and stopped to see us waiting for him. His drunk stare had us sitting with our feet on eggshells. Stumbling and struggling to make it to the table, he fell over his chair before sitting. Shaking in my shoes, I sat as still and upright as I could, yelling internally at each of my muscles to relax. The soft fumes from my ramen noodles hugged my nose.
Dropping his silverware, my dad looked at my mom. “Sarah, I was fired t’day. Er’since Earth started allowin’ aliens t’live wit us, da qwayks hav’ben takin’ our jobs. Now… it was my turn. Dos white-haired qwayk bastards are just… too… damn… smart fa screw-ups like me.” He slurred his words due to his drunken state before studying my mother’s face for a minute. I knew he was going to go off any second. After all, he had a hard-case of the aggressive drunk cliché. His cheeks boiled red. “Hey! Ya wanna say somethin’, den say it!”
“I don’t have anything to say,” she mumbled.
“Wha was dat?” He positioned his ear closer to her.
“I don’t have anything to say,” she repeated, a bit louder.
My dad pointed at her face and shook his hand. “Ya hav dat look again.”
“I don’t have any look.” Her eyes began to shine from the forming tears.
“Wha… wha do ya want fra me?” He stuttered his words and shook his head in disbelief. She sat silent, unable to think of what to say. Fueled by alcohol, his anger burst into flames. “Ya dink Ima failure, don’t ya?” He grabbed his plate and hurled it across the room, sending a tension-buffing shatter throughout the room. Standing up, he screamed, “Ya dink I lost ma’ job cause Ima failin’ husband who can’t support us!”
My mom sat in her chair in tears. It only added to his fire. Marching to her side of the table, he snatched her by the hair and pulled her to the floor. I jolted around in my chair, crying rivers of tears as he beat on her. This was the sixth time this month. He pounded away, bounced her head to and from the hardwood floor. Blood dyed her hair a scarlet red. One of her eyes was swollen, and her nose was crooked.
After she stopped struggling, he released his grasp and yelled, “I gav up everythin’ fa dis family… fa you… fa him! I spent every dime on both of ya, n’ wha hav ya two done?” He pointed at me but stared at her. “Ya sit on ya ass every day n’ defend dat disgrace ov a child. He’ll end up like me, a failure, n’ yet ya support him!”
“Dad. Stop, pl-please,” I begged, balling my hands into fists.
“James. Sh-shh...” My mom coughed through the blood running down her mouth.
Letting go of her, he turned to me. “I knew it was a mistake to have ya! Ya nothin’ more dan a screw-up, like ya ol’ man!” As he stumbled toward me, I fled the chair and sprinted toward my bedroom. “Come here, ya li’l rat!” he hollered.
As soon as I reached my room, I grasped the door by the knob and tried to slam it shut - but my heart skipped a beat as the door was blocked by my father. I froze. Next thing I knew, he backhanded me to the ground.
On my knees, adrenaline pumped into my veins...only, there was something else, too. I felt a burst of strength and energy like I’d never experienced before.
Kneeling down to face me, my dad said, “Come on. Ima takin’ ya to a dump where ya belong.”
Before he could grab me, my mom crawled back in the room from the kitchen. “Don’t you TOUCH him, Henry!”
“I swear’da God, Ima gonna KILL ya, too!” He turned to look at her.
“No! NO!” I wailed, punching him as hard as I could in the eye just as he turned back to face me.
I never expected what happened next. From the sheer force of the impact, his skull caved inward. His now lifeless body dropped to the floor. As his head banged against the carpet, his crushed brain swooshed around in his head. A line of his blood formed into a teardrop on my fist before falling. It plopped against the base of his eye socket and dripped to the carpet moments later.
“He’s… h-he’s d-dead! W-what did you-- h-how did you--” My mother’s eyes beamed up at me, then back at him; over and over.
“I-I-I d-don’t know. I-I didn’t think that… that would happen. I-I--” I stared with wooden eyes at the pool of blood that formed around my dead father’s head. “Jesus. What have I done?” The words bounced around in my head.
My mom used the wall to force herself up; her legs were noodles under her weight. Powering her way to me, she placed her hands on my shoulders and knelt in front of me. “James...James. Look into my eyes.” I did as instructed, only to see the same guilt I had reflecting back at me. “Whatever this is… whatever happened… how it happened… it doesn’t matter. We can… figure it all out later. But… now… in this moment, we need to get rid of the evidence. What you did and how you did it may scare a lot of powerful people if this was ever discovered. So, I need you to follow my every instruction. I know I’m asking a lot, but you can’t be a kid for this. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Good. Now come on, help me load him into the car.”
I'd seen enough crime shows to know she wanted to hide the body. And that was just what we did.
⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕
One foggy morning, four days after I'd killed my father, I jolted awake, screaming from a nightmare. My mother sprinted into my room and saw the sweat dripping down my chin and neck. Even with the cover over me, I had cold chills crawling around my torso.
“Honey, it’s okay. It was just a nig
htmare. You’ll be fine.” She put her arms around me, holding me as I settled down.
From the adjacent room, my grandparents sprinted in to see what the commotion was all about. “James, Sarah. Are you two alright?”
“Yes. Can you give us a few minutes? I got it handled,” my mom responded.
She and I had been staying at her parents’ house while she looked for a job. Two days ago, she'd put our house up for sale, saying it held too many negative memories.
About two hours later, I woke up again, this time to a pleasant dream. It was a Sunday, so I didn’t have school. I took a shower, ate breakfast, then went to play with my toys...at least I'd planned to play with toys; instead, I just stopped and stared at them. How could I go back to playing with toys after what had happened with my father? How could I imagine an ideal world using these toys when I could see all the flaws in this one, the real world? To me, it felt as if something pulled away some of the color from the world the moment my father died in front of me. I couldn’t bring myself to play with toys, so I just switched on the holographic projector for some television.
A few minutes later, my grandfather came into the room and sat on reclining couch in the corner of the white-walled, pictureless living room. “How’ya doing, sonny?”
I switched off the holographic projector. “How would you be doing if you killed somebody? I mean… I hated his guts for everything he put Mom and me through… still though, he was my father. Mom always said I act much older than I am, but… I just-- it’s hard.”
His eyes were locked on me, studying me for a minute. He then glanced to the other room, checking to see if anyone was there. “Your mom would kill me for saying this to you, but… I do believe it may help. I-I was in your position once before.”
“Jesus, Grandpa, you killed someone?”
There was pain reflecting in his eyes and through his voice. “Did your school teach you about World War III yet?”
“Heard about it. But the school system usually holds back on the details until high school. You know, with it being human history’s most brutal war and all that jazz.”