by D. L. Denham
“Are you ready, Reho?” Ends asked, his hand on Reho’s forearm.
Reho nodded.
“Load the Usona Invasion,” Slater said.
Chapter 15
The room blurred, Ends’ face morphing into Slater’s as Reho left the Cockpit.
A demolished town surrounded him, its buildings still on fire and smoke hanging in the air like storm clouds. His eyes peeled open; wet ash had hardened on his face. How long have I been lying here? Wind stirred the ground around him as a chopping noise filled the air. An aircraft passed over him, low to the ground. Reho moved but stumbled to the ground. The sudden motion had caused his body to rise into the air as though he’d jumped. He stood slowly and attempted again. He lost his balance and flew into a nearby building. A fire raged inside; the bricks were hot. The aircraft kept moving. Reho felt for weapons and noticed his clothes had changed. He wore a black military uniform with a heavy black dust jacket. He removed the jacket and tried to walk again.
By taking smaller steps, he was able to walk in a more normal manner and move his body forward. His strength had been multiplied, but there was something else: gravity. There was less of it.
At first he saw no one moving on the streets; the only movement came from flames and the aircraft. The war appeared to have had been over for some time, and he imagined everyone was dead.
Reho heard strange, mechanical communications; it wasn’t English. Feet shuffled closer, sounds of metal clanking. Three suited Hegemon walked across the intersection. He dodged behind a smoking truck; it was a ’57 Chevy, its paint burned off. Ahead, a Jeep was parked. It wasn’t burned and looked to be functional.
The military Jeep housed cases of weapons and ammunition. He grabbed two assault rifles he’d seen in films—Colt M16s. He slung one across his back and shouldered the second. He found a belt lined with pouches of M16 clips and grenades. Military gear like this had rarely been seen in Usona.
The aircraft returned, this time dropping two Hegemon onto the street behind him. He hadn’t been spotted, but they were positioned in his direction. Reho ducked between two buildings, sliding farther than he had intended.
Both Hegemon stopped at the Jeep. Behind them, the aircraft lifted and disappeared.
As good a time as any.
Reho unpinned a grenade and tossed it into the back of the Jeep. The Hegemon saw it coming and dove away. The explosion, stronger than Reho had expected, sent debris high into the air, metal fragments raining down around him. He emerged and emptied a clip into the closest alien. The armored suit reflected the bullets, as had the ones back in Jaro. Reho ejected the clip and jabbed in a new one as the second Hegemon fired its pulse rifle. Reho scurried along the buildings, careful to maintain contact with the ground as he ran. Bricks exploded as he ran, blowing a cloud of dust around him. A cloud of fragmented brick and mortar hung in the air as both attackers positioned themselves behind vehicles farther down the street.
Reho shouldered his assault rifle and unpinned two more grenades. Both flew through the air, landing beneath the vehicles where the Hegemon had taken cover. Before they could explode, Reho equipped both assault rifles and waited.
The explosions were intense, sending one Jeep high into the air and into a building, spilling fiery debris into the street. The other vehicle skidded across the street. Both Hegemon recovered just in time to see the bursts of bullets.
Reho aimed for their helmets. He’d spent half his clip before they cracked. As gas jetted from the fractures, one of the creatures flopped on the ground. The other plugged the leak with its hand and returned fire. Reho brought both rifles together and blasted the Hegemon’s weapon. The pulse rifle exploded, taking off the alien’s hand; green fluid spilled from the wound. Reho emptied a clip into the alien’s helmet, killing it. He knelt and pressed a finger into the fluid. Behind the helmet he saw the green, lizard-like skin. Jimmy.
Four Hegemon fired from the distance. Reho slung both assaults onto his back and ran.
His feet moved like they had in Arcade, only faster. He felt his balance readjust as he zipped through the streets. His body adapted fast. Then he jumped.
His body flew forty feet into the air. He’d always been able to jump higher than was the norm. He thought back to the twenty-foot-high fences cutting off Virginia Bloc from the Safe Zones of the Blastlands. But here, his abilities were magnified; he just wasn’t sure of his potential. Reho ran as fast as he could without losing balance. He spotted a three-story building that hadn’t been touched by the explosions and fires.
Flying upward, he crashed onto the building’s roof. Pain jolted through his feet as he landed. Three figures shot into the air and landed in front of him. Before Reho could access his rifles, bullets tore through the air around him. He dodged the array of shots and leapt to the next rooftop. The bullets made craters in the rooftop around him sending shards of concrete into the air, stinging his eyes. He jumped from the building and crashed through a fourth floor window. The building was also untouched by the war. Reho cut across the apartment building’s hall to the stairwell and proceeded to the ground floor.
On the lobby floor, three Hegemon sat waiting. Their blasts peppered the walls behind him and shredded the columns. Reho felt pain as one of the pulses hit his leg. He looked down and saw no damage. The pain was there, but his pants weren’t even torn. No blood ran down his leg. The bullets aren’t real.
A bright light filled the room, and his surroundings blurred. He emptied his clip at one of the attackers and tried to reload. His hands fumbled sending the clip crashing to the floor. The firing ceased and his vision cleared as the light receded. They were gone.
From behind, a Hegemon kicked him to the ground, sending him rolling across hundreds of spent shells. Reho went for his other assault rifle and sent a burst in the alien’s directions. The creature dodged the shots with surprising quickness. It grabbed the barrel and ripped the strap off Reho’s shoulder. The pain sent Reho to one knee. Its fist flew across Reho’s face, sending him down onto both knees. Reho swept his feet beneath the Hegemon, sending it to the ground. Reho locked onto it as they wrestled.
The alien’s strength was equally matched.
Reho dodged its punch as he slipped behind the alien and punched its helmet. The glass cracked. Reho removed one of the clips from his belt and used it as a weapon. He dodged and blocked, then jabbed the clip twice into the alien’s helmet. Reho blocked, grabbed the alien’s leg, and sent it back to the floor. Reho crashed the clip repeatedly until gas spewed. Whatever the gas was, it burned like liquid nitrogen against Reho’s face.
Everything went out of focus again as the bright light returned. Reho felt weightless. Then he was gone.
***
The blurred faces of Slater and Ends returned. Slowly, the images separated. Reho took a few deep breaths then reached for his leg and lifted a hand to his face, rubbing where the gas had stung him.
“Feels real. Doesn’t it?” Slater asked.
Finch detached the wires and pulled one of the monitors closer.
The avatar he had seen before was running down the same streets Reho had traveled to escape from the Hegemon.
“We recorded part of it,” Finch said.
“You did good,” Slater said. “But I think you can do better when you understand how the system’s physics work.”
Reho stumbled as he attempted to stand.
“It’s the solutions we used to put you under and bring you out,” Reeves said as he steadied Reho. Finch hit play, and Reho watched a virtual figure mimic what he had done. It bounded onto the rooftop. Reho could still feel the sting in his feet.
“Drink this. It’ll calm your nerves,” Sola said as she joined them around the monitor.
Reho took a sip of the hot coffee.
The video continued. Reho watched as the spread of bullets moved pass him. His feet blurred beneath him. He leaned in close to the low-resolution monitor.
“It's the frame rate, you’re just moving too f
ast for us to see it clearly,” Finch said.
“You moved fast, but it might not be enough,” Slater said. “You need to get some rest. With some training, you will get better.”
***
Mirrored buildings surrounded him, reflecting a dazzling array of blinding lights from every direction. The sight was dizzying as Reho focused away from the buildings and onto the ground. He was back in Neopan.
Or was it Arcade?
A car raced past him; it drifted as it attempted to make a turn, then flipped into the air and slammed into a building down the street. As Reho approached the accident, glass rained down around him. The car exploded, sending Reho flying backward. He tried to stand, but he was too dizzy. Everything around him pixelated until no light was left.
Something flashed and Reho was in a white hall lined with doors. A phone rang somewhere in the distance. As he walked he saw an open door. It was the same hall he had been in before except now there were no needles, newspapers, or Coke bottles on the floor. Jimmy would be waiting as he always had.
Reho entered through the open door. Inside the room, he approached the familiar black door painted onto the far wall. Who had painted this picture of a door? Now, the eye above it looked more like a decal than some gross painting. Reho cringed, as the door he had entered through slammed shut behind him.
There was no Jimmy. Instead, a translucent table with two chairs stood in the center of the room, a red phone atop its glassy surface.
“You want to know who I am? You want to know the future? The past?” a voice thundered.
Reho knew that voice.
“Yes,” Reho replied.
Ring.
Reho picked up the receiver.
“How may I help you?” the familiar female voice asked.
Screams flooded from the speaker and echoed around him. Reho knew the voice. He had always known the voice.
“Who is this?”
“How may I help you?” she asked again.
“I want to know who you are.”
“I’m Mary,” her tone had changed. “When are you going to let me go? Whatever it is you want, you can’t have it. And you can’t have him!”
“I can’t have who?” He knew the name. As impossible as it seemed, he knew she would say it.
“My baby. You can’t have Reho!” Her shrieking cracked the phone; it crumbled to the ground in countless pieces. The pieces morphed into piles of cracked, red whistles like the one he had received from the boys in the Blastlands.
“You wanted to know who I am.” The voice was different and came from somewhere behind him.
The man wore a white laboratory coat and held a clipboard and pen. His face was friendly and covered with wrinkles. He wore a name badge: James Sorensen. Above his name was an encircled cross with a curved crossbar and a loop on its lower line.
“I don’t understand,” Reho said.
“That is why you are here. Please have a seat, and I will answer whatever questions you have. But let me caution you to choose your questions wisely. Not all answers will be helpful.”
The man and Reho took their seats at the table.
“Why my mother?” Reho asked.
“Why was she on the phone, or why was she abducted and taken to Omega?”
“Both.”
“The answer is simple. She was on the phone because she is the one thing that will motive you to try and destroy us. And the answer to your second question: We weren’t strong enough to take your planet before your people annihilated themselves with nuclear weapons, and there are not enough of us now to take your planet after the civil war on our home planet. Your mother was one of dozens taken over the years. She was an experiment, an attempt to create a stronger weapon against the rest of humanity. After all, Neopan had been a failure.”
“A failure?”
“It failed to bring humans out of the ash and rubble, off the mountains and away from the jungle. We believed a utopia is what you desired above all things. But only some came and even fewer stayed.”
“You wanted us all in one place. One city. Why?”
“That, I feel, is a question to which you already know the answer.”
“Annihilation.” Reho popped up from the chair and walked away from the table. Neopan was meant to be a death trap.
“And Log? Arcade?” Reho asked.
“They are just older versions of our own systems. We gave them hoping it would help keep the city full until the others arrived. Then a few years later, we spotted the steam boilers and iron buildings. We saw humankind rebuilding out of the rubble, living in the kind of miserable conditions to which no higher species would ever resort. Apparently, it wasn’t a utopia humankind wanted. It wanted pain and struggle.” He rose from his chair and stood next to Reho.
“And Earth? Once you rid it of us, what did you plan to do with it?”
“The Hegemon are refugees. We fled our planet so long ago that we can’t even remember what it was like to live in our own atmosphere.”
“Are all the Hegemon like you?”
“Yes and no.”
“Then what are you?”
“I am like you, in many ways,” he replied.
Reho stepped closer to the door. How could he be like me? Human?
“You’re father was not like you,” James said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your uncle would tell you that your father was fast and strong and that you were like him. But you’re not like him, and he was nothing like you. Your father was weak and often lost all his money on the races. Anything he did win, thugs would steal from him. I told you there were questions you might not want to ask.”
The room flashed red as a siren blared. Reho cupped his hands over his ears. He looked up just once. For a moment, he had not seen James but Jimmy. The familiar green lizard-like skin and claws like knife blades. And he saw the room as it had been before: an abandoned, trash-filled room in OldWorld Chicago.
Water seeped through the floor and covered his legs.
Chapter 16
Sirens and red lights turned everything to chaos. Reho woke, gasping for air as the image of Jimmy faded, replaced by his own reflection in the water on the floor.
“They hit us hard. The river is flooding the tunnels,” Finch shouted over the deafening siren.
“Where’s Rainne?” Reho asked.
“They’re still in the room, I think,” Reeves said. Slater and Ends heaved cases onto the table and began packing equipment into them.
Reho heard Rainne and Thursday shouting in the next room. He sloshed through the water and struggled to push the door open against the rising floodwater. Inside, Gibson and Sola packed equipment into similar cases.
“Reho!” Rainne said, standing atop the submerged sofa. “How did this happen so fast?”
“The river is flooding the tunnels,” Reho replied.
“What’s the evac plan?” Sola asked.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling we have much more than water to worry about.”
Ends waded into the room and handed Reho and Thursday a pair of modified pulse rifles.
“How are we getting out if the tunnels are flooded?” Rainne asked.
“Slater has that covered,” Ends replied. “But the entire system is out down here. We don’t know what’s topside.”
“Let’s go!” Slater yelled from the other room.
“Wait! I can’t explain how I know this, but I think this might be the Hegemon,” Reho said.
“It’s always the freaking Hegemon,” Thursday said rushing past him. He had ripped the splint off his leg that Coder had made.
“I mean it might not just be Log and the Vectors or even Kawasaki,” Reho said.
“We’ll know when we get out. Either way, we have to move,” Ends replied.
Reeves positioned a ladder under a place in the ceiling that Reho had thought was an air vent. It was open now, and Reho could see metal steps leading up.
The water
was waist-deep. Its icy chill sent shivers through Reho as he climbed onto a table and lifted Rainne onto his shoulders and out of the water.
“This is the plan, and no one deviates,” Slater said. “No matter what you think should happen, it means jack. What matters is getting Ends’ crew to the Southern Hanger and back to their ship. They and the equipment must make it.” His eyes moved from face to face, but Reho knew his words were directed at Reeves and Finch.
“Yes sir! Let’s go,” Reeves said, moving up the ladder through an escape hatch that led to the surface above the tunnels.
“Send up your stuff,” Finch said, as Slater and Ends lifted cases to Finch and Reeves topside.
Ends fed the last two overstuffed bags and a container upward.
As soon as everyone was topside, Finch sealed the hatch as the water bubbled onto the building’s floor. They were in an old warehouse in above Shibuya. Piles of trash scattered the room.
“We have to move this equipment to the tank,” Slater said. “It’s three hundred yards from the back of the building.” He eyed Reho, Thursday, and Sola. “Take point and shoot anything that isn’t human!” He grabbed one handle on the heaviest container and Finch lifted the opposite end. The others followed likewise, each carrying two cases.
Behind the building, a crimson early-morning sun greeted them. Once Reho’s eyes adjusted, he could see crowds of people moving along the street. The tunnels had flooded everyone out of their underground dwellings.
“We’re halfway there,” Finch said.
They were exposed as they traveled in the open from the warehouse to the next building. The sun beamed down on them as they approached a massive outer door made of thin metal that slid on wheels. It opened into a room that reminded Reho of the train station in Darksteam.