The Fable of Marcus

by Sajjad Tameez

  Chapter 4

  High Wycombe

  Marcus was running fast through long and dark corridors; he was being chased,

  hunted like animal. His chest was getting tighter; he found it impossible to take long

  breaths. Something hideous was chasing him, although he could not see what it was,

  he knew it was vile and would stop at nothing until it caught him and killed him,

  cruelly. The corridors felt like they were never ending, the closer he got the dim light

  at the end, the further it appeared. His legs were moving but he was not getting any

  further. 'You will never succeed, you are destined to fail!' A chilling voice whispered

  from behind him. He didn't look back, he just kept his head down and ran, but now his

  legs were sinking into the ground, as if the solid concrete ground was magically

  transforming into quicksand and was chewing him up. He screamed out loud as he felt

  his entire body being sucked in and falling down, off what appeared to be a mountain

  of some-sort. Everything became blurry and in slow motion, and a voice began to

  echo as he fell endlessly 'it's ok... a scary voice hissed. The voice repeated the same

  words over and over and each time the voice became gentler. The voice became so

  tender that Marcus began to find it soothing. And in a strange flash his eyes opened

  and he leapt out of bed, and the female who was caring for him touched his shoulder

  lightly, 'it's ok... It was just a bad dream.' Marcus paced around the room in panic,

  'where am I?' He shouted, looking around the room, perplexed.

  'It’s ok, you are safe here.' The soft voice of the young female did actually help calm

  his nervous a little.

  She looked around the same age as him, she had long blonde hair and light freckles on

  the end of her small nose. She wore a light polo neck sweater, in a bid to conceal her

  freakishly long neck and her bright blue eyes stood out nicely along with her rosy

  cheeks.

  She smiled at Marcus, 'would you like something to drink, you must be thirsty; you've

  been asleep for a long time.'

  'Yes! Maybe hundreds of years, maybe more.' Richard remarked as he toddled in,

  desperately holding onto his trusted esteem, his wooded walking stick. Although his

  stick was very old and was ready to give way, he couldn't bear to lose it; it was like he

  had grown attached to it and always regarded it as his companion.

  'Please, I... have no idea to who I am or where I am.' Marcus stuttered.

  'It's quite alright young man, you are probably suffering from trauma and the shock of

  being revived from your sate after so long and with the attack you and your revivers

  suffered, I am not surprised that you are suffering from amnesia!'

  The female looked puzzled, like she didn't understand what he was going on about.

  'Will it come back... my memory I mean, will it come back?' Marcus asked,

  worriedly.

  'I certainly hope it will! It may take some time and maybe a prod or two, but we will

  get there, don't you worry, we will get there.' Richard said sounding like he was

  convincing himself as well. 'Now get some rest, I am sure Nicole is taking good care

  of you.' Nicole smiled. Marcus nodded and smiled faintly.

  'Well ok, I will leave you to rest and eat. I will wait for you in the great library in the

  evening; Nicole will show you the way.'

  Richard limped back out of the room.

  'I don't know what's going on, who I am... or anything!' Marcus moaned to himself.

  'That must be really weird, you know... not knowing yourself.' Nicole said while

  playing with her hair. When she looked at Marcus' upset expression, she apologised

  immediately, 'hey, I... I’m sorry, I didn't mean... like...'

  'It's ok, it does feel insane, I mean looking in the mirror and seeing a complete

  stranger look back at you, well, that's something else!'

  'So you don't remember anything? What about your parents?' She asked quietly.

  Marcus remained silent and just shook his head. He noticed Nicole gazing into space

  and so asked her, 'what about you... your parents?' He asked softly.

  'My real parents died when I was very young, I can't remember them at all. But I

  imagine how they would have looked and been all the time. Richard is like a father to

  me, he looked after me, along with many more like me.'

  Marcus stayed quiet for a little while and noticed Nicole staring over at the large

  mirror sitting on the wooden table in the corner of the room.

  'I have always been curious about my parents, I know they would have loved me,

  and... my mother was probably beautiful and my father handsome and strong too.

  Sometimes I get so anxious about them that I feel suffocated and want to run out and

  scream! But I know it wouldn't help.' She said, almost in tears. Marcus felt sorry for

  her and gave her an empathetic smile. But soon began wondering about his parents.

  And it was at this point when it really struck him, 'what the hell did Richard mean

  when he said, 'been asleep for so many years?' He may have lost his memory but he

  certainly was not dumb. 'People don't live for hundreds of years, forget sleep for

  hundreds of years!' He spoke to himself out loud.

  'For years, people all over England have talked about a boy, a special boy who has

  been asleep for centuries and will awake, he will walk freely, wearing no wrist lock...'

  she pointed at the silver wrist lock around her wrist. 'And bring victory to the people!'

  Marcus thought it strange that her wrist lock was different from Amy’s. Aside from

  the fact that it was smaller and different shape, it looked more like it was growing out

  of her as opposed to being wrapped around her wrist like a handcuff. But Marcus was

  already so confused that he thought not to ask the difference.

  'I remember Silvia, Richard's late wife used to read it to me like a fairytale every night

  before bed. I used to really like it, but truth be told, I never believed it. I thought of it

  as simply a story to help children and even adults to forget about the cold reality and

  sleep well.'

  Marcus stared at Nicole and began swallowing nervously.

  'What?' She asked as she noticed Marcus's eyes fixated on hers and his face flustering.

  'So... what... I am supposed to be... wait... you guys think that I'm that...' He shook his

  head in disbelief. 'I am not that boy from your stories; I don't even know my name!'

  'Everyone seems to think you are, even Tyler!'

  'Who's Tyler?'

  'You really aren't from around here are you? Tyler is a monster; he has spent years

  enslaving the human race. Before, I guess all humans were like you, you know free

  from this thing. But he changed all of that, now no one walks without that, well

  except you of course. I guess that's why he's after you so badly.'

  'What are these wrist-locks? And what do they do?'

  'They are computerised, and control all the humans.'

  'So why can this Tyler guy not just control you into giving me up?'

  'He can't with us, a few years back, when Tyler was at his peak, having everything

  under control – his control, he became complacent and this gave some people that

  knew about computer systems, an opportunity. They created something called a virus

  that infected the Dark-Tec systems and it brought everything down for thirty minutes,

  this gave some peop
le just enough time to pirate the system and configure it in a way

  that he could not control it anymore. They couldn't remove it entirely though. The

  wrist-lock is now part of the body – don't ask me anything about it though.'

  They were both confused on the functions of the thing on everyone's wrist, and knew

  that a lot of the things talked about it are simply speculation.

  'Does it hurt?' Marcus asked.

  'No, never; it's like having a hand, I can't really imagine being without it. It has never

  bothered me, grows in proportion to my wrist, in fact, until Richard told me of its

  origins, I quite liked it. Is that weird?' She looked a little embarrassed.

  'No, it’s not weird; it is actually very pretty, like jewellery.' Marcus smiled.

  'I have never had real jewellery, you know, made out of precious stones. When I was

  younger we made these...' She gently tugged at the brown beads which had small

  holes and a thin white string running through them, tightly holding them together.

  'Nice, it looks very nice.'

  'Can I show you something? I mean... if I show you, you have to promise not to say

  anything to anyone about it!' Her eyes were locked onto Marcus’s and she wore a

  ferocious look.'

  'Ok, I promise!'

  'Ok.' She smiled and excitedly leapt off the bed and crawled underneath it. Marcus

  waited patiently as she made sounds of rummaging. And after a few moments she

  crawled back out pulling a large wooden box, the same size as an adult shoe box.

  They both stared at it for a moment, Nicole clearly more excited than Marcus.

  'What's in it?'

  'I will show you.' She gently opened the lid; it had metal hinges on the back, which

  she desperately tried to stop from squeaking as she swung it open. And there it was,

  wedged in between two soft cushions, buried deep because of its small size. It was

  beautiful, magnificent and Marcus marvelled at it, but there was one question that

  played impatiently on his mind, 'What is it?'

  'It’s a ring – you wear it on your finger.' She carefully removed it and placed it on her

  finger. It was silver and perfectly round; it had a small stone at the top, a stone that

  glimmered magically, like a bright star shinning on a clear and beautiful night.

  Everything about it was perfect and screamed elegance, well, apart from the fact that

  it was way too big for any of her little fingers.

  'Where did you get it?'

  'It was my mum's, my real mum. Richard gave it to me and told me to never show to

  anyone, coz they'd try to take it.' She abruptly pulled her hand closer to her.

  Marcus smiled, 'it's ok, I won't take it – promise.'

  'It’s strange; I never thought I could miss someone I never really knew.' She said

  staring at the ring and moving her hand softly making the small diamond sparkle.

  'Are you talking about your mum?'

  'Yes, I think about her all the time! I have always wanted to go to the old library and

  find out about them.'

  'I am going to meet Richard at the library...'

  'Not that library!' She interrupted him, rolling her eyes.

  'Oh, what library are you talking about?'

  'Richard always talks about his collection of books as the great library, and it is good

  but not great! The great library is on the outside, you know... over the hills.' The

  pupils in her eyes began to expand in excitement.

  'What's great about that one?'

  'Are you kidding?' She smirked, 'that has so many books and records and... it has...

  like, the entire history of everything!'

  'Really? So why don't we go there?'

  'You really are kidding, right? No one goes there, not even adults. It's dangerous and

  there are computers there!'

  'Computers?'

  'Yeah, computers! So we can't but if we could then we could find out everything

  about our parents, even yours probably.'

  They both sat for a while, thinking about the adventure and the reward of finding out

  about their parents.

  ‘I see you are on your feet and looking well!’ Richard said, sitting on a wooden chair

  and peering over his reading glasses. He was, as usual, engrossed in the thick book he

  was reading and always found it a bother to look up whilst in middle of a good read.

  Some have even claimed that they have noticed him reading a book for a whole day

  without lifting his head once.

  ‘Yes... thanks, I’m feeling much better now.’ Marcus muttered in a quiet tone. He

  looked around at the huge collection of books, the shelves stood tall and straight

  almost touching the ceiling, they were all a dark-brown colour and were fixed

  perfectly along all sides of the walls of the large hall. There was an unusual smell in

  the hall; it smelt like old wood and damp grass – definitely a combination of fragrance

  that Marcus had never smelt before.

  ‘Well, don’t just stand there, come here.’ Richards’s voice echoed through the hall

  vigorously. Both Nicole and Marcus walked further in and sat on the large table next

  to Richard, who reluctantly forced his eyes away from the words in the book and

  closed it.

  ‘Do you know what this is?’ Richard said, pointing at the dark red, hardback book

  that he placed gently in front of Marcus. Marcus stared at the tatty old book and

  noticed that it had no title or image on the cover of the book.

  ‘It’s a book?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s not just any old book, this is a journal, a diary of a person who lived at

  the beginning of the change, and although there is not much technical detail, he has

  described his feelings and recorded incidents that we have learned so much from.’ His

  eyes were sparkling in excitement as he talked about the books and the knowledge

  and wisdom that they posses, but there was also a look buried within his eyes – a look

  of fear and confusion and this became more and more obvious when he began talking

  about the Dark-Tec systems.

  ‘The system was made by a man many years ago. He made it to serve as a way of

  tackling illnesses – illnesses which began spreading fast. But instead, he and his team

  of scientists found a way of prolonging life or delaying death, or so they thought. This

  was the biggest thing to ever happen and was tested on a few living specimens and

  was completely successful.’

  ‘How did it work?’ Marcus asked, wondering whether it would be rude if he were to

  peak into the tatty red book on the table.

  ‘That is a very interesting question. And there are many books that give some

  explication of its mechanics, but it is impossible for us to make heads or tails out of

  it.’

  ‘May I?’ Marcus said pointing at the book in front of him.

  ‘Of course.’ Marcus opened the book and began flicking through the very fragile

  pages; opening the first page or two, he could feel that even the slightest pressure was

  almost tearing the coffee stained type paper.

  As Marcus skimmed though the first few pages, and after much struggle of reading

  the blue, red and black inked scribble all over the page, that almost appeared like an

  abstract painting, he began reading some very interesting things. At that time, the

  infections, colds and flu’s were spreading like wildfire and stretched across England,

  so fast that no vaccine could stop
them. What was really interesting was that the

  author of this journal, although it was unclear on his position, believed that the

  government was to blame for the infections. He believed that they created a

  revolutionary weapon and in the inconspicuous form of a flu virus, well it had all the

  characteristics of the flu, but was in fact a killer and was almost incurable. That was

  when the scientist Darc..., the writing was so messy at this point that ‘Darc’ were the

  only letters of his name that he could make out, he came out with his invention of the

  ‘A.I.S.’ Artificial Immune System. It was, however, tested and had many flaws, one

  being that it was unstable and also spread similar to a virus. The author went on to

  give a brief explanation of its history and how it worked: in theory, the system was

  amazing; one or two artificial neurons would be inserted into the human body, these

  little neurons would attach themselves to the natural neurons in the body and fight off

  infections....’ Marcus tried to make sense of the rest of the page but he couldn’t.

  Throughout the rest of the journal, the ink was smudged; some of the pages were torn

  or even missing.

  ‘I don’t understand.’ Marcus said in a hushed tone.

  ‘My dear Marcus, no one here understands what is going on or what has really

  happened. But...’ Richard paused.

  ‘But... what?’ Marcus asked, trying to not sound too anxious.

  ‘But you... you are not from here or now.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘This means that you are completely human; there is nothing artificial in you or about

  you. And obviously you were preserved this way for a reason.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘That is what we intend to find out!’ Richard’s eyes were glowing in determination

  and his hand was gently stroking his white beard as he fell into profound thought.

  Marcus sat silently, not at all convinced that he would ever remember who on earth he

  was, let alone, be of any use. Nicole was also a little sceptical about it all, but

  remained completely silent and had full faith in Richard.

  Richard reached for his faithful companion – his walking stick and struggled to his

  feet, Nicole leapt up to assist but as usual Richard’s pride refused the help. Richard, in

  his prime was the greatest warrior of his time; he was often hailed as ‘Richard the

  Great.’ He fought with courage and never backed-down, he faced death every day,

  chewing it up and spitting it out as if his life meant nothing to him. He spent more

  time fighting for the cause than anything else, and if he were not fighting, he would be

  preparing for a fight. It was this bravery and heroism that earned him his rank among

  the people. But now, he had been old for so long that many people had forgotten his

  triumphs – he often wished he had died back then. But the one thing he promised

  himself was that he would never be a burden on anyone else.

  ‘I want to show you something.’ He said, huffing as he walked toward the back of the

  hall.

  ‘You come too.’ He called Nicole, who was already eagerly following behind.

  As they walked the length of the extensive hallway, Marcus noticed a small wooden

  door in the corner, it was no bigger than four-foot, and had a great bronze padlock on

  it. It was just a door and a padlock, but something about it gave them all chills and the

  small hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck began to stand. As they approached the

  door, Richard stopped and began to fiddle with his walking stick. He twisted the

  wooden top and unscrewed it until it popped off. Even Nicole had an expression of

  surprise, especially when he removed a thin, small key from the top of it. This made

  Marcus and Nicole realise why he kept that stick so close.

  It was an old looking key, it had rust around the edges and even the bit of golden paint

  that it had left was chipping away. Richard slid the metal flap covering the hole and

  inserted the key in fully. There was a loud click that echoed through the hall as it

  unlocked. Richard opened the squeaky door and stepped inside. Nicole and Marcus

  stared at each other with raised eyebrows. 'Ladies first!' Marcus grinned.

  As they stepped inside Richard lit a lamp and the inside of the small box room

  gradually became visible. The room appeared to be infested with cob-webs and there

  was a smell that made them all go blue in the face. But the thing that drew their

  undivided attention was slap-bang in the centre of the room and stared at them with a

  dark look, sending shivers down their spines. Although Nicole was already

  completely freaked-out with the spider webs, even she couldn’t tear her eyes away. It

  was like nothing they had ever seen. Although endless amounts of dust had

  manifested itself all over it, it still had a magical shine. It was silver with glimmering

  streaks of shinny black. The five different bits of it that were sitting together on the

  metal table, were all different shapes and sizes but peculiarly sat well together. The

  great rectangular box had many different coloured buttons and had wires at the back

  which dangled like black and grey snakes with small heads and claws instead of eyes;

  and the large thin square shaped object stared at them with a haunting look.

  ‘What is it?’ Nicole asked. Richard did not reply, but not in a way that he did not

  know the answer, rather he was staring at Marcus with the hope that he will say

  something. Marcus, however, looked more puzzled than ever.

  ‘I’m at a loss. What on earth is it?’ Marcus, spoke quietly, still not managing to break

  the long stare that he had with the object.

  ‘This is a computer system.’ Richard removed a grey cloth from his pocket and began

  gently wiping the excessive amounts of dust that was collated and that was when

  Marcus’s eyes began to open wide. His eyes were instantly drawn to a strange symbol

  on the rectangular box; in fact that symbol was on all the objects and for some reason

  he found it familiar. It was like two ovals crossed over each other forming a strange

  cross, small stars scattered around it and the letters ‘DT’ embedded in the middle. He

  reached into his pocket and removed the card that had his name on it and to his shock

  he was staring at the exact same symbol.

  ‘What does this mean?’ Marcus asked, handing over the card.

  ‘I’m not entirely sure but we need to find out.’

  There was definitely something about that symbol that made Marcus feel uneasy and

  he was now positive that these two places were not the only places that he had seen it,

  but his mind remained blank.

  'There is a way to turn this contraption on but according to some of the books I have

  read, this will give our location to the Dark- Tec Empire and surely they will send out

  their armies and destroy us all! Right?' Richard was almost asking rather than telling.

  'I guess,' Marcus was not in an adventurous mood but something possessed him to

  approach the computer and press the round power button at the front. Nicole closed

  her eyes tightly as if she expected an explosion or something, but nothing happened –

  nothing at all.

  'No power?' Marcus asked.

  'According to the books, these things have a power source that runs through the air,

  WiFi... or somethin
g like that.'

  'There must be another way to turn it on...'

  'Do you think it's a good idea to turn it on?' Richard asked lowering his head and

  looking out of his eyebrows.

  'Don't tell me you kept this thing for display purposes only!'

  'I suppose not.' Richard smiled.

  Stopping everyone in their tracks was a loud banging on the door to the main hall.

  'Quickly, let's get out!' Richard whispered loudly. They all stepped out of the room

  and Richard called out, ‘yes, come in.’ When the door opened, several random people

  from the crowd had gotten together and wanted to learn more about the boy. Richard

  welcomed them in and seated them all; those, who could find them, sat on chairs and

  the rest sat silently on the floor.

  The small crowd of men and women stared at the boy in amazement. One man even

  saluted him as if he was here to serve as a general of an army and that Marcus was

  going to lead them into battle. Marcus looked at around at the crowd and began to

  worry, he knew deep down that he was not the knight in shining armour that they

  presumed him to be nor did he want such responsibility.

  'What now?' A large man with long curly black hair asked.

  'Now we help Marcus regain his memory and take it one step at a time.' Richard spoke

  confidently and placed his hand on Marcus's shoulder.

  'How are we to do this? And we have had word that the Dark-Tec armies are out in

  force, turning every rock in search for the boy!'

  'Well then, we don't have time to waste!' He placed a stack of books on the table in

  front of Marcus and Nicole, 'have a look through these and the rest of you guys come

  with me. We will need to get some sort of defence going!' Richard and the excited

  crowd left, leaving Marcus and Nicole to flick through the pages on the thick books.

  Just before Marcus and Nicole really got stuck in, Richard peered back into the room,

  'I am assuming Nicole has already told you about the great library on the outside. Do

  not do anything stupid!' He stared with a school teacher look. Marcus nodded in

  acknowledgement and Nicole smiled innocently.

  When Richard left Marcus began reading and Nicole, not being able to make sense of

  anything, got bored almost instantly.

  'You don't have to stay here because of me.'

  'How about I make you something to eat?' She asked, looking to escape discreetly.

  'That would be lovely, thanks.' And she quietly nipped off.

  Marcus carefully looked through pages of the first book in front of him and remained

  confused. He didn't understand a word, yes, it was all in English, but read like

  gibberish. After a few extensive moments of being lost at sea, thoughts began

  knocking on his mind, like light drizzle tapping on a window. He began visualizing

  images, diagrams and strange symbols. He shook his head, believing himself to be

  hallucinating but he could not shake them off – a storm was brewing in his head. The

  ear-splitting sound of nothing began pounding on him like thunder and flashes of

  bright light struck him ruthlessly – his head felt like a volcano not far off erupting.

  His head became light, intense dizziness overwhelmed him almost to the point of

  collapse, his eyes rolled to the corner and now the images seemed like they were

  flying around the room at such speed that he couldn't bear it anymore. 'Stop!' He

  screamed with the palms of his hands pressed tightly on the sides of his head. The

  images then, in a split second, just stopped, like a speeding car colliding into a solid

  wall – the impact was so great that Marcus stumbled and fell helplessly to the ground.

  Hey lay flat on his back, staring at the thick wooden beams running across the ceiling,

  disconnected from the world around him. He felt like he was imprisoned in a dream,

  which was falling into the deepest and darkest realms of a nightmare. His body was

  iced-over, with the odd exception of a shiver or two, his breathing was fast and his

  eyes were glazed as if he were in a trance. He wanted to scream for help, but his

  paralytic state forbade him from uttering a sound. It was at this point that a strange

  sound appeared; the sound of a deep and chilling voice, ‘You will come to me...’ it

  echoed almost silently. He could feel his eye lids getting heavy, it almost felt like

  there was an invisible force that was clamping his eyes shut – darkness befell on him.

  It was like he left his body and floated gently into nothingness. He could see or hear

  nothing – his mind was blank, bar a single thought, one that sent quivers down his

  physical body, which was still laying, lifelessly beneath him on the ground, ‘I must be

  dead!’ He began repeating the words. ‘I must be dead!’ over and over like a chant

  until a loud and familiar voice spoke, ‘far from it, I would say! Stay with me boy...’

  he began to his regain senses; unfortunately the first was the sense of pain as a

  stinging rush tenderness ran across his cheeks. His eyes gradually opened and he

  could see Arthur slapping his cheeks and Richard standing behind him. ‘Come on

  Marcus, you’re ok; stay with us!’ Richard spoke soothingly.

  Within moments, the room was filled with people, curiously staring at Marcus.

  Marcus looked around with a lost look and quickly got his feet, he rushed towards a

  book-shelf were he saw a marker-pen. He hurried back to the table and, like crazed

  scientist, began scribbling; soon there were strange symbols, peculiar illustrations,

  letters and numbers that meant nothing to anyone, all over the table and now

  spreading onto the floor.

  ‘What is he doing?’ Arthur whispered to Richard.

  ‘I... I don’t know. It must be things that were stored deep within his mind. We’ll wait

  for him to finish, maybe he can tell us what’s going on in his head.’

  Marcus went on for another few minutes then stopped, he stepped back joining

  everyone else crowded around and shared their confused look, staring at the

  gobbledygook scribbled all over the table and the floor.

  Richard gazed over at Marcus expecting him to say something, but he remained quiet.

  ‘What the hell is all of this?’ Marcus whispered to Richard. By now, Richard was

  looking through an old book. He faced the book toward the crowd and showed them

  some of the symbols and numbers on the page – they matched identically with the

  drawings Marcus had done from memory.

  ‘Do you believe now?’ Richard spoke loudly. The crowd of people squashed into the

  room, all had expressions of shock and amazement.

  ‘These... these illustrations seem to be formulas of some sort.

  ‘What do we do now?’ A lady from the crowd asked.

  ‘There are many mysterious that need to be unearthed and answers will come... we

  just don’t know when. I will require all of your assistance in protecting our town and

  hiding this boy until which point that he knows and understands what needs to be

  done.’

  The crowd of people nodded in approval, some even cheered lightly to show their

  pledge of allegiance.