Red Genesis

by Kailin Gow

  SEVEN

  The next morning, I got up early. I ate breakfast. I checked on all the power generators. And I sealed the room where the most sensitive data on Earth was stored. It wasn’t a common seal. After all these years, I had figured out what helped block the Monsters from the Shelter. Then I duplicated it around the Control Center and the Data Room. Hopefully, it would last decades, as the seal around the Shelter had so far.

  Then I walked with Mary through the Shelter to the lifts that would bring us up to the surface. I helped Mary put on the same suit Mom had made when she went above before I put on my suit over my clothes. This time, I had made modifications. The suit was lighter, less bulky, and had the ability to provide heat at subzero temperatures when the sun would go down, thanks to the solar panels I added to the suit, which would collect the energy and heat that it absorbed from the sun during the day to provide heat at night.

  I had also changed the boots Mom had made for us years ago. I made them lighter, but stronger and capable of withstanding different terrains and temperatures. I wouldn’t trip on heavy boots that I could barely run in again. It was the boots that stopped me from going Above Ground to find Mom.

  After outfitting Mary into the suit, we walked into the elevator, with our backpack and gears on and pressed the button to go up. We stopped on the last floor heading up, where we had to take the stairs to the sealed hatch.

  We opened the hatch, and Mary climbed out first. I handed her some tools. Then she closed the hatch, leaving me still in the Shelter as she went up to Above Ground.

  Like the last time with Mom, I stayed Below Ground and made my way down to the monitors where I could now see a 360 view of Above Ground. It was a modification to Mom’s first design of the helmet. As well as the ability to talk to each other.

  “Hello, Mary?” I asked. “How is it up there?”

  “Nothing like you’ve ever seen,” Mary said.

  “That’s why you’ll be documenting everything you see and in back to you and to your side with the helmet’s built-in camera. Back in Vintage Earth, the experience would be similar to a VR view.”

  “VR?” Mary asked.

  “Yes, Virtual Reality camera, but the one we have is much smoother and less dizzying.”

  “You have oxygen coming into the mask,” Mary said. “I don’t need oxygen to breathe, Evie.”

  “No, I know that, but all the helmet’s masks have built-in oxygen filters.”

  “I would like to lift my helmet to take in the air Above Ground for analysis,” Mary said.

  “Go ahead. The weather at this time is calm enough. There doesn’t seem to be a dust storm within the next couple of hours.”

  Mary lifted her helmet and took a few gulps of air. “No oxygen in this atmosphere,” she said. “High concentration of Carbon Dioxide. You would need to wear this helmet all the time when you’re Above Ground, Evie. Or die.”

  “Good to know,” I said.

  “Evie,” Mary said, “You will love being up here. There are mountains, sandy land, and the view of the Sun.”

  “I take it you find Above Ground, beautiful?”

  “Yes, it is beautiful, especially with the multiple shades of reds,” Mary exclaimed. “The space is wide open. No walls, too.”

  “Okay, Mary,” I said. “Keep your focus. Now move forward. Can you find the pipes leading from our water source to the Shelter?”

  Mary started walking forward. I can see where she was going. She was going exactly where Mom had gone last time. She was going the right way. “I see it, Evie,” Mary said.

  “Now see what is wrong with it. Why has the water stopped flowing?”

  Through Mary’s camera view, I could see there was a gash in the pipe. “Evie, part of the pipe had broken.” She walked the length of the pipe, showing me.

  “How big is the gash?” I asked.

  “About the size of an arm,” Mary said.

  I ran from the monitor room to the Shelter’s maintenance supply room, grabbing different pipes and tapes. I headed into the elevator and back up to the stairs to open the hatch to hand Mary the parts.

  She was already waiting as I handed the parts to her. “Thank you, Evie,” she said. “You should come out here after I’m done. It’s so peaceful and beautiful outside.”

  “I will,” I said.

  I closed the latch, climbed back downstairs and went to the monitors. After Mary was done, and everything that needed to be fixed outside was fixed, I was planning on joining her. My backpack was ready to go.

  By the time I reached the monitors, Mary was almost done. She was using her hands to solder the pipes together like a welder. Her hands were bright red with flames coming out of it. Holding onto the pipes for minutes while soldering, fused the pipes together, sealing it from leaking.

  “Good job, Mary,” I said. “Now can you use the protectant sealant to as an extra coating for the pipes?” She opened her mouth, and the sealant sprayed out from her in a steady stream of mists. She walked the entire pipeline spraying it before she stopped.

  It was as though the bright sunny day had turned into night all of a sudden.

  She stood up.

  All she could see, and all I could see through her camera, was darkness.

  I could feel the fear in Mary. It overwhelmed her. Although she was a machine, a robot, she had now developed that feeling. Something was pushing her to feel it. Something evil and vile.

  I checked her vitals through the computer, and saw how where her heart should be, the pulse rate had skyrocketed to the highest. Her body was heating up. Where her brain was, I saw some of the images she was seeing in her mind. They were terrifying.

  I couldn’t look because my body was beginning to react. I had never felt such fear. I was trembling, shaking.

  I fell out of the chair, sank to my knees and fell into a fetal position, holding my head.

  The room was filled with screaming. So intense, high-pitched, it rattled the walls.

  It was coming from the monitors showing what Mary was seeing. It was Mary’s screams.

  Somehow I got up. Crawling my way up from the ground where I had felt paralyzed with fear.

  I turned off the sound on the monitors. But I could still hear her screams in my mind.

  “Stop it!” I shouted. “Stop screaming!”

  I was talking to myself, commanding myself to fight this. To remember how important it is for me to be brave. “Stop being afraid.” I said. “We are not alone. Remember to have faith. It is stronger than this fear.”

  I heard the screaming stop. I had forgotten that Mary could hear everything I said. “I will fight them,” Mary said.

  I turned the monitors back on. The image I saw through Mary’s eyes was so terrifyingly horrible, it literally blew me backwards like an invisible force until I hit the wall behind me and fell.

  So these are the Monsters.

  Then I was out.

  EIGHT

  I woke up holding my head. My throat was dry, parched, as though I had been screaming nonstop.

  I had. But I had survived an attack from the Monsters.

  If I was Above Ground with Mary, would I have survived? If I was not in the Shelter behind a seal, would I have survived?

  I got up and walked back to the monitors. I was still shaking but I steadied myself. I used the satellites to zoom up from above to see how Mary was. Mary was left prone on the sandy ground outside. I checked her vitals, and it appeared she had shut down. Her circuits had been damaged.

  Had she been human, she would have disappeared…turned to black mist like what happened to the humans we saw in the footage of the Monsters’ attack on Old Earth.

  Fortunately Mary was not human, but a machine.

  Was she still there because she didn’t have a soul like a human, but was a machine? Did the Monsters feed not only on human fear but was actually capturing human souls?

  How long have I been out? I checked the time. I breathed a sign of relief. I had only been out a
few minutes.

  Were they still there?

  The satellite cameras showed that the dark mists had dissipated over Mary’s prone body.

  The sky was clear again.

  So now was my chance to go Above Ground to retrieve her.

  I picked up my backpack, placed it on my back, and head out to elevators. As I head up, the lights in the elevator began blinking. The Shelter was losing power. I had to make sure the pipes were fixed, and all the solar panels were up to generate electricity again for the Shelter.

  Fortunately, I brought along some tools and extra panels. When I go to retrieve Mary, I would be prepared to fix everything I need to Above Ground so the Shelter is good again.

  Because I won’t be coming back Above Ground for a long while, when the Monsters are still around, and I have yet to find a way to truly defeat them, I have to make sure when I was Above Ground, I accomplish everything I needed to before I go back into the Shelter again.

  What I experienced just now…neither Mary or I was strong enough to fight them off for good. But I believe, with maybe some kind of crazy insane belief that even my father and his fellow fighters believed in, even the kind my mother believed in…that we will be able to fight and defeat the Monsters someday.

  I reached the hatch and opened it.

  Sunlight flooded down on me and into the Shelter. I climbed out, and stood up, basking in the sunlight.

  It was the first time I have gone outside the Shelter. It was the first time I have stood Above Ground.

  Mary was right. It was beautiful seeing the actual Sun. The dusty soil beneath me felt so different than the concrete and carpet below in the Shelter. I wanted to paint the mountains with its jagged edge and capture the different shades of red along its surface.

  The clouds were like the ones I’ve seen in photos and videos of Vintage Earth. Puffy, white, and dreamlike. This was nature. It was still here. Still beautiful as it was from the day it was born.

  The Monsters have not destroyed them.

  The Monsters… I have to act fast before they come.

  I ran to Mary to check on her. She was as she looked like on the monitors. Her body had short-circuited. She was completely out, and I needed to recharge her, take her apart to see what was damaged, and heal her.

  But in order to generate the power for the Shelter, I needed to finish fixing the pipeline and the solar panels.

  I quickly examined the pipeline for every crack, dents, and possible leak. Mary had done a fine and thorough job fixing it. Next I checked the pool of water where the pipes received its source. The water level were several feet below normal. The rate it was losing water, the Shelter didn’t have long before the water supply would end. I had to find another body of water for the pipes to plug into the Shelter.

  Next, I checked all the solar panels and cameras, fixing snags and screens as I went.

  I checked the boundary of the Shelter. The protective shield my father had installed could not been seen above. With a special camera I held, I could see the outline of it. I could see the invisible laser beam that crisscrossed over it Above Ground.

  I was looking through this camera when I noticed strange floating objects in the sky…what the human eye would not be able to see. Bat-like shadowy objects that were flying closer towards me.

  As they flew closer to the ground, I recognized them as the terrifying faces I have seen on screen. The faces that Mary’s mind saw when she was surrounded by them. The Monsters were coming, and they looked hungry.

  I ran over to Mary, lifted her up and began dragging her to the entrance of the Shelter. As a deadweight, she was very heavy, but I had to get her down.

  I placed her on the ground as I tried to open the hatch to the Shelter. It wouldn’t budge.

  I realized it was the first time I have tried to get into the Shelter…that there must be a lock on it. I searched and found nowhere there had to be a lock. Maybe it was an invisible lock that could only be seen with the special camera.

  I looked at the hatch through the infrared camera and saw there was a lock. It was a combo lock. The last person to have gone through the Shelter’s hatch was Mom. She would have known the combination. She may have set it.

  I tried all kinds of combinations, and finally opened it. Of course, it was the date of my birthday.

  But it was too late.

  The Monsters had reached us. I put away the infrared camera and resealed the hatch. Protect the Shelter and its data, my mind said.

  All the solar panels were fixed, and the pipe still had its water source. The Shelter would be fine for a couple more years.

  Before the wave of dark clouds reached us, I bent down and lifted Mary with all my strength and wrapped her around me.

  Then I ran. As fast as I could. In the opposite direction Mom had gone. Where there was a light beeping on her map the last time, but she chose to go to the one on her way to where she could get supplies.

  How could you outrun the wind?

  I tried. I ran and ran and ran until I was so far away from the Shelter. I ran as fast as I could as though my life depended on it, which it did.

  Unfortunately, the dark mist followed and was almost upon us no matter how fast I ran.

  I was getting tired, carrying Mary and the backpack. I had never trained myself to run with an additional 200 pounds of weight on me. Mary, although she had the height of a 13-year-old girl, weighed almost 200 pounds herself because she was all steel, wires, and circuitry.

  And the backpack weighed close to 50 pounds. The additional weight was slowing me down. I had to stop to catch my breath, but couldn’t. Once I stop, they would be on me. I wouldn’t even have the energy or strength to fight back. I had to use what I had to keep going.

  The Sun was going down, and the air was turning cold, dropping in temperature dramatically. I climbed up a ledge and was making my way down when the dark mist of horrifying faces surrounded me. My legs finally gave way beneath me, and I collapsed on the ground. I was too tired to go on.

  My heart was beating faster and faster, and my head was pounding. They were whirling around me, trying to get into my head…into my mind.

  It was a psychological battle.

  They play with your mind, gaining an edge and grabbing onto your fears to control you.

  Physically, at this mist form, they couldn’t harm me. But it was what they did with your mind…the fear and anxiety that could kill you.

  I was beginning to see how the Monsters worked.

  I steeled my mind. I focused my mind only on good happy things. I thought of how much I love Mom. I thought of my father and how brave he was. I thought of things that made me proud. To be human, to have an amazingly rich human culture and heritage. I also thought of things that made me smile. My favorite movies, my favorite video games, my favorite foods. My bedroom and all its cute girly things.

  I thought about all the places I dreamed of going…the tropical beaches I’ve seen in photos, the snow-capped mountains, places where I could see artwork displayed.

  As I rested, my energy started coming back. I took out my fruit snacks and began eating. Right in front of the Monsters. I was proud of the fact I grew the berries I was eating myself. This pride made my heart swelled with confidence.

  Think Happy Positive Thoughts.

  The natural juice and sugar of the fruit was delicious and sweet. Eating delicious and healthy foods made me happy.

  Mary making a birthday cake with strawberries from our garden, made me happy. It was a happy occasion celebrating my 18th birthday, and I was happy to have Mary with me, as a gift from Mom.

  Munching on the delicious fruits I grew from scratch, instantly gave me energy. Before the Monsters could penetrate my deep focus, I was back on my feet. Carrying Mary and running.

  I ran down the mountain. The cloud followed me, but I was still ahead. There was a river at the bottom of the mountain, which I ran towards. It was the only water source I have seen for miles. If I survive this and go back t
o the Shelter, at least I would know where to find another water source for the Shelter.

  I was inching my way down towards the river when my foot caught against a rock. I fell and began rolling. Mary had slipped out of my arms and was left behind, while I rolled down to the edge near the river.

  Instantly, the dark cloud was all over Mary. I wanted to get up and go help Mary, but I felt numb. On my way down to the edge, I had rolled over several rocks.

  “God!” I cried in agony as I tried to move my leg. “Please help me.” Maybe something in Mary would come back to life and she would be able to hear me. “Help me.”