by David Brush
James looked down the empty concrete hallway before rapping twice on the wooden door in front of him. Dim, artificial light shone down from the hanging fixture above, illuminating the complex buried deep beneath the earth. He waited a moment before raising his hand to knock again. As he did, the door opened.
“Hey, come in,” said Dr. Reya.
James walked into the apartment and took a look around. A modest couch and coffee table sat against the wall. There was a bed pushed up into the left corner of the main room, and a small kitchenette sat off in the other corner. A modest bathroom was the only other chamber separated from the large one by a door, just before the bedframe.
“Wow, nice place,” he said, walking in a little further. “Looks like you’ve got a lot of room here. They gave me a broom closet, but if there’s anything I’ve gotten used to, it’s living out of a closet. Looks like they even gave you a bathroom. You know what they gave me? A chamber pot. It’s like I traveled back in time three hundred years.”
She smiled. “Could be worse.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” he replied, taking a seat on the couch.
Dr. Reya sat down across from him on a rather frayed, felt chair. She poured two cups of tea out of the pot that she’d set on the coffee table, then slid one across to James.
“So I performed another Induction today,” she started, staring ahead for a moment before proceeding. “Another captured rebel. This one was from the Free Thought Brigade. He cried as I set up the final nodes, begging for mercy just like they all do. What the poor fool didn’t understand was that Induction is mercy compared to how Dante usually handles prisoners. I’ve seen men shot in cold blood, beheaded, hell, even burned in cages, all while that maniac pontificates to the cameras.”
“I remember seeing the videos online when I was younger. Those images never leave you, do they? They become a part of you, a dark cloud that follows you around for the rest of your life.”
“That they do,” she said with a distant tone.
James shifted in his seat a touch. “I thought I might end up back on the table today myself. Dante wasn’t happy when he found out that I can’t create the hypervolatilizer without the thermal stability of the Karrion catalyst. I assured him that Neuro Corp would have tons of it at the Atria Plant, but I think he’s still considering just binding me and being done with it. At least I won’t end up in one of his home movies now that he’s mellowed with age.”
“Believe it or not, he still makes the damn things, only now we’re Inducting people on them instead of murdering them,” she said, pausing to take a sip of her tea. “If you ask me, the people he murdered were better off than the people he bound. The newly Inducted have a lot of suffering to look forward to before they finally get to die. It won’t be long until they’re starving along with everyone else here. And it’s not like there’s not enough money to feed everyone. Dante just refuses to use any of it on food. You wouldn’t believe how much we spend on production value for those little propaganda pieces. It’s mad, but then again, everything is mad anymore.”
James nodded.
“This group is a twisted caricature of what it once was,” she continued. “In the beginning of the war, we were led by a man named Richard Crane. He detested violence and did his best to avoid it. Though we were the first group to take up arms against Dr. Nightrick, it was a matter of survival at that point, not desire. We couldn’t just let Special Branch silence us, especially when they were defending a system of oppression unlike any the world has ever known. After the war started, Crane only lasted a year before they captured him. Special Branch made a very public showing of his execution, and from there things spiraled out of control fast. Dante rose up from obscurity, propelled by a fringe element of radicals that helped him to purge the group of those who opposed him. He slaughtered hundreds of his own people to secure his reign. And it wasn’t just them, but their families too, men, women, and children, with no regard for the innocent.
“After a while, everyone remaining learned to just obey and keep their opinions to themselves. To be honest with you, when I first heard that Dante had been captured a year ago, I broke down in tears. I thought that maybe there would finally be a way out of this hellhole for everyone, but I underestimated how deep his roots were here. Had the Archangels been detained with him we might have been free, but with them helping to enforce his will, things were virtually the same as they had always been: hopeless. During the interim, one of the high councilors, Donatello Carisnio, or as he’s more commonly known, the Templar Knight, ruled in Dante’s stead. Turns out that he’s as big of a bastard as our beloved prophet, if not worse. The only bright side to Dante being freed is that the Templar took off with his own entourage, apparently unwilling to give up power. Part of me hopes that he comes back one day and we just finish destroying each other. All I do anymore is wait for the end, praying that we’re not the ones who win the war.”
“How was Dante captured in the first place?” asked James, taking a moment to glance down at his newly returned datacuff as it chirped lightly to herald the start of another hour. “I’d have thought that they would just kill him and be done with it.”
She shrugged. “I guess they learned their lesson from Crane’s execution. There’s always a greater evil lurking just behind the one you can see. Dante was captured in our botched attempt to blow up the Rikon Plant. We rolled enough explosives into the area to level not just the factory, but the entire surrounding city. If we had succeeded, hundreds of thousands of people would have died. Lucky for them, Dante decided to make another one of his little propaganda films before actually obliterating the area. He tries really hard to paint himself as some warrior of the faith, but on that particular day he couldn’t get out of the blast radius fast enough and he ended up getting captured by General Joseph Bismuth and his army. See, Dante is happy to make martyrs out of others, but he’ll never sacrifice his own precious life. In the end, the explosives were disarmed, Dante was carted off to the Toxic Truth, and we lost hundreds of people fighting an absolutely unwinnable battle. Doesn’t make for a great propaganda piece, does it?”
“No, no it doesn’t. And that sounds about right. He might be crazy, but he’s not suicidal,” said James, taking a long sip of his now lukewarm tea. “He fancies himself a prophet. I wonder if he knows how this all ends.”
“It doesn’t take a prophet or the gift of clairvoyance to know how this war will end,” she said, shaking her head lightly. “It ends with ash and bone.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dr. Nightrick paused in front of the makeshift living quarters that had been set up in the Atria Plant. He knocked twice on the oak door that led into the suite, waiting a moment before entering. Haley looked up from the book that she had been engrossed in to acknowledge the intrusion. She stared at the man before her, keeping her expression carefully veiled.
“Awfully quiet today, Ms. Hall,” said Nightrick. “Has your curiosity left you finally?”
“There’s no point asking you anything if I never get a straight answer anyway. I don’t even know why you bother coming up here. Doesn’t conquering the world require your time more than these pointless talks we have?”
“In most cases, yes it would,” he replied, stepping farther into the room. “But seeing as I haven’t seen you since your last little getaway attempt, today I thought I’d stop by and ensure you understand that the next time you break out of this perfectly nice room I’ve given you, I’ll be throwing you into a cage like the one you found Dante in. Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be.”
Haley brushed a strand of her auburn hair out of her face. “I wouldn’t be able to get free so often if your people weren’t so careless and stupid.”
Nightrick sighed. “You fashioned a piece of cloth into a garrote and nearly strangled an unarmed kitchen boy to death the first time, and the second time you feigned a seizure then used a crudely crafted shank to kidnap a paramedic and make your way down to the
distribution warehouse. Those aren’t instances of carelessness or stupidity, they’re instances of you taking advantage of my mercy. Now I suppose you could make the argument that mercy is indistinguishable from stupidity, but what is true power without the occasional kindness?”
“Yes, what a benevolent god you are. Maybe next you can tell me all about how your kindness and mercy led into the civil war that you’re now losing?”
“Do you know why I’ve done the things I’ve done, Ms. Hall? When you look at Induction, you see a world enslaved, but when I look at it, I see a world reestablishing balance. I see a world returning to the principles that gave our species power in the first place. Humans, in general, are naturally deficient creatures. For most of our existence, natural selection has worked to cleanse the weak, the undeserving, and the sub-virile from progressive generations, thus strengthening our genetic pool by forcing us to endure the crucible of evolution. But time, fate, and technology have made us weak. As we moved forward, we were able to cast a progressively wider shield around those of our kind who would otherwise have been rooted out, killing natural selection in the process. While it wasn’t exactly a cataclysmic change for humanity, it was a turning point for us. We had, in the name of civilization, once again defied the will of nature. This time, however, our defiance came at a price.”
“And so your solution to this made up problem of yours is to use a global eugenics program to destroy the weak. How noble of you.”
He shook his head. “Not at all. You misunderstand me entirely, Ms. Hall. I’m not suggesting that protecting the weaker of our kind was a mistake. The power and responsibility to defend the defenseless is one of the hallmark traits of civilization. Mercy, in fact, is the only quality that separates us from other apex predators. What I’m saying is that with Induction, we can make all people better through careful and well planned pairing. There’s a place for every person in the future that I’ve worked so hard to create. We need workhorses as much as we need scientists. A world full of intellectuals would be as useless as a world without them. I’m unlocking the true potential of our species by controlling one of nature’s own tools.”
“And the only price tag on your new world is freedom.”
“You think you’re free?” he responded, regarding her carefully for a moment. “See, that’s the problem, I think. Those of you who would shed blood in the name of stopping me believe that doing so would somehow make the world free. Did you choose the conditions of your birth? Then you’re a slave to fate. Did you choose the physical laws that bind you? Then you’re a slave to nature. Did you choose to fall in love? Then you’re a slave to hormones. Do you choose to digest your food? Then you’re a slave to metabolism.
“Freedom is an illusion. It’s a story that you all tell yourselves so that you can justify the terrible things you’ve done in the name of stopping me. I never wanted a war; I wanted a new world. I was born a builder, not a destroyer, and yet you’ve all managed to make me both. Life is one giant chemical reaction, and all I’ve done is manipulate the reactants in order to increase the yield of humanity’s potential. In time, people with your way of thinking will come around, or I will bring them around with force. I don’t even think you terrorists actually understand what Induction does. It’s not mind control, Ms. Hall. It’s just a slight alteration to your personality. It stabilizes the mind, bringing peace to the patient, lowering their violent tendencies, and even giving purpose to those who would otherwise feel like society had cast them aside. Induction is the great equalizer and the great stabilizer of our generation. After undergoing the procedure, the individual is still capable of thinking independently and acting exactly like they had before. You like the same foods still, enjoy the same movies, and are passionate about the same things as you were before undergoing the therapy. You’re no different afterwards, save the fact that you’re permanently and effortlessly in love with someone who loves you back. It’s a gift really.”
“You actually believe that freedom is an illusion, Nightrick? You think Induction is a gift? I bet if you were the one being dragged into one of your own Induction chambers you’d consider it to be a lot more tangible than you do when you’re pontificating to a prisoner.”
“Perhaps you’re right about that, Ms. Hall. Maybe I would think differently if I was the one being Inducted. But that’s a bit irrelevant really. Hypocritical of me?” He shrugged. “I suppose it is. But at the end of the day, anyone who says they’re not a hypocrite in some way or another is lying.”
“Justify it however you want, all things end in time. Frankly, I don’t know how regret doesn’t consume you. You think you’ve laid the foundation for some infinite empire, but you’re just a tiny man on a tiny planet with a tiny understanding of the universe. You may kill me and you may win a few battles, but you’ll never douse the fire that you’ve ignited with words or weapons. Only your blood can extinguish the inferno, and soon enough it will. When they drag you out into the streets and execute you for all of your crimes against humanity, remember that it was you playing god that led to your collapse. Your ego is going to be your downfall, Nightrick.”
“Guilt is for the self-righteous. If I die fighting this war, so be it, but I guarantee you that if I do, this country will burn until the sand turns to glass, and every man, woman, and child left on this planet will know that a pack of rabid dogs denied mankind its golden age.”
“It’s not your country to burn, Nightrick. What gives you the right to rule a nation that doesn’t want you?”
He crossed his arms. “If the people didn’t want me, I would have been dead a long time ago. They’ve made their choice.”
Haley turned her gaze away from him and back to her book.
“Well, I’ll leave you for now, Ms. Hall, to think about what we’ve discussed. I hope in time that you’ll come around to my way of thinking.”
And with that, Nightrick left the room.
James stepped out of the dining hall after finishing another tasteless meal of greyish goop. The Crusaders spared no expense when it came to obtaining advanced weapon systems, but when it came time to feed their own people, the budget would suddenly run dry. Living conditions in the facility were just slightly above full on destitution. The only thing that kept morale from completely depleting was the faith that the average person there had in the next life. They might be poor now, but to face the trials and tribulations before them with courage would mean eternal glory in the hereafter. James walked along the concrete trail that snaked throughout the sprawling complex, brushing his hand against the thin groove in the wall. He turned at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind.
“Good evening, James,” said Dr. Reya, speaking a bit softer than usual. “Would you care to join me for a drink?”
He nodded, following her back to her room in silence. Once behind the latched door, she retrieved an old bottle of bourbon from inside a makeshift cove in the wall and poured two generous portions into the glass cups she’d set on the countertop.
“Here you go,” she said, handing one of the drinks to her guest as he sat down on the couch up against the wall. “Enjoy.”
“Wow, where the hell did you get this?” he asked, holding the reddish brown liquid up to the light for a closer look. “Alcohol is a death sentence around here, I thought.”
She smiled, sitting down in the chair across from him. “As are all things worthwhile. You know, in the beginning we didn’t have to hide our vices and scurry around like rats. Richard Crane had his faults, sure, but he was a damn good leader. He was a fair man for a fairer time. Now, even the angels act like demons. I’m starting to think that there’s no room left in heaven. All that’s left to us is hell, and the graveyard that we slaughter each other for control over. Coren isn’t a country, it’s a crypt. I think if Richard were still here, he would regret ever having started this death cult.” She took a sip of the liquid, cringing ever so slightly as she did. “It’s always the first taste of bourbon that’s the most bruta
l. It has a fire to it that can be vicious, but appealing at the same time. I think that’s what this whole conflict has become really. It’s just the first sip over and over again.”
James raised his glass up and let the first swig of his own drink wash over his tongue. His face twisted a touch as his taste buds tingled in the aftermath of the ethanol. He eyed the woman for a moment before responding. “If you’re tired of the fire, then why do you keep drinking?”
“Trust me, I’d have stopped ages ago had an opportunity presented itself. I know a lot of the men and women here would love nothing more than to just go home at this point. This isn’t what they envisioned when they joined up. It’s not what they were promised. Dante is a talented manipulator. He knows how to twist people’s faith into meeting his own desires and ambitions. He’s very good at convincing others to join us, and then once they’re here, forcing them to stay. There’s only one way out of the Crusaders, and that’s in a coffin.”
James took another sip. “Faith is your weakness. You all believe in something just because you want it to be true. From what I’ve seen, wishful thinking can waste a lot of time, money, and blood. While I appreciate that faith is the only thing keeping this ship afloat right now, it’s also the reason that the boat’s going down in the first place. And trust me when I say this, the captain will be the first one into the life rafts if he has his way about it.”
Dr. Reya considered him carefully for a moment. “You think we’re silly for believing, don’t you? You don’t believe in God, James?”
“I don’t think you’re silly at all,” he responded, setting his glass down. “To be honest, I don’t know, Mira. It’s impossible for me to say what there is and what there isn’t beyond the confines of this universe. Could you be right about what you believe? Yeah, you could be. I can see very easily where the desire comes from for there to be an all-powerful creator watching over us. I’ve seen a lot of things during my short stay on this planet, but do I believe in a god? No. I believe in billions of them. We’re a planet full of gods, building and destroying as we please. We’ve moved mountains, built great cities, and razed them with a single stroke. Mankind wasn’t made in God’s image, Mira; God was made in ours.”