The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League

by Bassett, Thurston

  “Hmm?” Dan frowned.

  “What happened in Utah in 1978?” Athan interrupted.

  Dan turned to stare off into the creek watching the water trickle past. It wasn’t a very wide body of water, only a couple of metres wide, and there were reeds on either side except in a short space where Dan was fishing.

  “I cut the reeds out so I could chuck a line in here. It’s a nice spot; quiet. There are a few fish. I’ve caught some little reddies, but the young bloke who grew up next door said his grandpa used to get a decent trout or two out of it. No such luck for me yet.”

  Athan settled himself down on the ground in a dry spot, and waited for the old man to get to the point.

  Dan took a deep breath. “The Seventies were good to me. I was finally making some coin and I got girls, despite the fact that people were skeptical of my talents. They gave me some respect.” He glanced at Athan before he stared at the flowing water. “I was a big-shot homicide psychic. They were going to make a TV series based on the cases I worked on, but they decided it wouldn’t have got the ratings. Now days though, there are so many of those true events police medium TV shows. My story has been shelved or binned by now.” He shook his head. “They’d never be able to track me down anyway.” He began to wind in his fishing line. “Buggers stole the bait again. We know they’re down there, that’s the important thing.”

  He felt about in a little margarine container and produced a few worms that he threaded onto the hook before dropping his line back in.

  “’78,” he continued, “was like the climax of the movie of my ‘life story’. I had just finished with a case in the Adelaide Hills, when I was approached by a psychologist of some sort about the work they were doing with new technology in the U.S.A. I was a bit arrogant at the time, I was a bit of a celebrity, and this looked like my big break. They’d see how great I was at being a homicide psychic and they’d offer me work all over the States. Of course I said yes. I went with this bloke all the way to Salt Lake City, then out into the desert where they were doing the work with new tech.”

  “Area 51?” Athan said surprised.

  “Umm…I don’t know.” Dan shrugged. “We weren’t there long. We flew to China straight away. Couldn’t tell you where in China, but all of us felt like we were getting a bit of a raw deal. We were a little suspicious.”

  “There were more? Psychics, civilians or scientists?” Brad queried.

  Dan shrugged again. “Oh, I suppose all of the above. Couple of big shots too. We were brought to this big facility where there was a collection of sedated people and others that were locked up and quite aggressive. They were trying to achieve mind control with some. But they didn’t need me for the reasons they had told me.” He glanced back at the Brad and Athan, his eyes glazed. “They experimented on me, boys. They did all kinds of stuff to analyze my brain. They did it to all of us, at least all of us that had extraordinary talents. Two died in the experiments. And those of us that survived had to use our abilities to help them do things to regular humans.” He looked back at the water and took a deep breath.

  Athan raised an eyebrow. “You were the one responsible for the subconscious entrapment I have been encountering in these coma patients aren’t you?”

  Dan was silent a moment. “Yep. They told me they would kill my daughter if I didn’t.”

  Puzzle pieces falling into place…

  “Who did?” Brad asked.

  “I don’t really know who, exactly. But I do know that the DPHR are part of it.”

  Athan frowned, he remembered that DPHR stood for Department of Post-Human Relations, what he called the PHC.

  “The Post-Human collectors are part of it? I didn’t even know they existed back then.” Athan asked a little shaken.

  Are they involved now?

  Dan turned to the two men and looked apologetic. “Who watches the watchmen? The DPHR is corporate funded yeah, but if you climb the ladder, there’s always further to go, and someone uglier the higher you get.” Dan stared back at the trickling water again. “The government can’t run a planet. It’s the people with the dosh that own the place. And they depend on whoever pulls their strings. I couldn’t fight it. I can’t fight it. I tried, now my daughter is dead. And I know what they found in Java. They told me and smiled about it. Soon there will be nowhere with peace and quiet like this. They will find you wherever you are.”

  “That’s why we can’t waste time,” Brad said, determined.

  “You know those sniffer dogs they have at the airport that check ya bag for drugs? She’s a sniffer dog, and it isn’t drugs she can smell, it’s us.” Dan warned.

  “I know.” Brad crossed his arms. “We have to get to them before they can use her.”

  “What did you do to those people, the ones that were in comas?” Athan asked softly. He was imagining them tied down in hospital stretchers or restrained in medical machines.

  “It wasn’t just me. They had equipment set up, and there were drugs, of a sort. They needed those people to go away and a coma is quieter than a murder.” Dan shook his head.

  “Are my headaches linked to this treatment?” Athan asked, feeling a little selfish.

  Dan faced him and frowned.

  “Headaches?” Dan asked. “Oh, you did ask me for pain-killers last time I saw you. I didn’t even think about that. I may be able to have look? My abilities are probably very limited on you though.”

  Athan was standoffish, but nodded.

  Brad didn’t trust the man.

  “I can’t really apologize I’m afraid. I was under the impression that my daughter would be safe if I helped them lock those poor people in their minds. I was just being used. I had no malicious intent. They threatened my daughter so I did what I was told.” Dan frowned again.

  “Why these people in particular? What ties them together? I know some of them were involved in the experimentation,” Brad asked as a stood watching the ripples around the man’s fishing line. “Marketing, corporate representation…that kind of thing.”

  “Well, maybe they were standing in the way?” Dan offered. “Not everyone would approve of the things they are trying to do.”

  “And what are they trying to do, Dan?” Brad asked looking into the old man’s eyes.

  “I don’t know, Mr Lewis, I just did what I was told. They had a problem, and they used me to make it go away. They didn’t tell me about any grand plan. When it comes to it, I’m just an old man, disposable, like everyone else.” Dan got up and rested his fishing rod against the little stump and took Athan’s head in his hands. “This I can fix, perhaps.” He pressed his hands either side of Athan’s head and closed his eyes.

  Athan felt Dan’s mind reaching out with sharp invisible tendrils, trying to find the part of Athan’s mind that was being affected by what he had encountered in the minds of the coma patients.

  There was an odd invasive feeling and then a cold tingle. The world shrank away until Athan felt as though he was floating in the void. There were flashes of incomplete images all around him. It was as if the universe was pixelating, then the pixels shrank away leaving a quiet emptiness.

  “There ya go mate.” Dan finished and patted him on the head like he was a child.

  “Gee, thanks,” Athan said as he opened his eyes and blinked in the sunlight. “That actually feels a hell of a lot better. Thank you.”

  “That’s okay. I feel guilty as hell for you having to fix up what I’ve done.” He went back to his tree stump.

  “I thought you couldn’t use your abilities on Post-Humans,” Athan said still blinking.

  Dan shook his head. “I can’t. Fixing your mind was more like removing tissue paper that I had put there to start with. I couldn’t see anything.”

  “What can we do Mr Carl? I am not going to sit back and wait for the end of Post-Humans. I am not going down without knowing I had tried.”

  “I’m sure I would have felt the same way if I was young.” Dan shrugged. “I feel older than ever, th
is last year. Losing my daughter was too much for me. I came down here and found an empty place to live, where I could hide from the world. My fight is gone, but if you ever find the puppet master behind the curtain, let me know, so I can sock him one.” Dan reeled in his line. “Bastards stole the bait again.”

  While he slid some fresh worms onto his fishing hook, he paused and looked at the two men. “The people that we put to sleep, you freed them yeah? Maybe one of them knows something about why they were missing. They must have known what it was they were opposing to be removed in the first place, right?”

  Athan and Brad glanced at each other briefly. “Well, I spoke to one, when I woke him, but he didn’t know anything like that.”

  “What did you ask?”

  Brad impatiently cut in. “He just asked if he remembered anything from before he was in the coma and if anything in the mindscape was based on memory. I did some digging and found the ‘78 program that had utilized the best known psychologists and psychics in the world.”

  Dan nodded as he watched the fishing line.

  Brad continued. “We discovered that they were performing unforgivable experimentation on human minds. And seeing they summoned experts and psychics from around the world, it meant that this wasn’t normal science. This was something new. So we figured Post-Human testing had to be a possibility. And you would have had the skills and the prestige to get their attention. So we are here now following an avenue of enquiry.”

  Dan nodded, “That seems fair.” He was quiet a moment while he watched the grass on the hill swaying in the light breeze.

  Dan looked thoughtful. “Hmm. What if you question these men and women, they’re going to paint at least a rough picture of what you’re up against.”

  “They are missing or dying, Mr Carl,” Brad chimed. “Last we knew James Kallett and Andrew Campbell are still alive. Maybe David Li, but we cannot be sure.”

  “That’s a bit bloody harsh,” Dan said with a sigh. “I don’t know how to help you. I’m sorry.” Dan glanced at the two men.

  Brad took a few steps and kicked at some grass. “The only person I know who can go through that list of people quick would be you, Athan. You can jump from head to head till you find one still alive.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “I hope you find one alive.”

  Athan watched the water a little, knowing that every moment he sat there contemplating the complexity of their predicament he was probably letting another person die.

  “Let’s go, Brad. We’ve got a long drive,” he said finally.

  The two men began to hike back up the path.

  Athan looked back one last time, to see Dan cast his line back into the water. The old man looked sad.

  Chapter 12

  ANDREW CAMPBELL HAD awoken in the Ballarat hospital with a life-changing epiphany.

  Life was too short.

  Two weeks later he was taking his family on a mobile adventure around Australia.

  The beach was not at its best this time of year on the West Victorian coast. There was rain and cold wind, and there were few things worse than walking wet sand into a caravan.

  Andrew sat at the tiny plywood table going through the recent family photos on his camera, waiting till the morning, when they would join him.

  ***

  Athan knew the minds of the ones he had rescued, they left a sensation that he would recognize, but there was no sign.

  He had nearly found one: a doorway in the wall of a bony ravine, which felt like it should have been the mind of Mr Kallett, but the door was extinguished and became solid.

  James Kallett was dead.

  The soft glow was beginning to set and he knew it was time to take a break.

  Surely they can’t all be dead!

  He willed Belinda’s mind to materialize a doorway for him and it formed nearby, but there was something else.

  A feeling.

  He turned harshly to his right and began to jog across the fleshy ground.

  There was something he recognized and it wasn’t the figure in black; it was a doorway. It was a doorway he didn’t anticipate, and it was just through a bony forest not far away. It was definitely one of the minds he had rescued, but he couldn’t tell which one.

  They weren’t all dead after all.

  He climbed over some rougher ground that resembled rows of rib cages up to a plateau where the tree-like structures were pushing through the skin of the ground.

  Not far.

  The plateau with its spindly forest was totally unfamiliar to him. He hadn’t seen this remarkable landscape before, but a lot of the structures seemed strangely familiar to him.

  This new one didn’t, it was an oasis in a desert of fleshy shapes and ridges.

  And there was movement in there.

  Somewhere deep inside the tangle of skeleton trees Athan could see a creature moving about.

  It was low and cumbersome like a fat dog.

  He had, on rare occasions, seen creatures in the organic plane, but they had always managed to slip away or hide before he was able see them properly.

  This one seemed like it wasn’t going anywhere, it was acting like a magpie guarding its nest, maybe the doorway.

  Athan knew the figure in black was after him, and the doorway would be the perfect place for an ambush.

  He couldn’t hide; he needed to find the last of the coma patients.

  He pushed through the undergrowth, fighting against the springy stems that had sprouted like antennae and blocked the pathway.

  He wondered if it was new territory, or if the forest had pushed through the skin of the plateau only recently.

  The door was close, and so was the creature amongst the bony hedge.

  Athan wanted to hesitate, but he couldn’t risk letting the moments pass by. Someone else might die because he wasn’t fast enough to save them.

  There was nothing that resembled a weapon.

  He couldn’t defend himself.

  He also remembered being hit in the face by the figure in black. It was possible to be injured in this place.

  As far as he could tell, this thing was just an animal.

  He could see that the creature appeared to be a little fat, and probably slow on it’s feet, if they were feet at all.

  It shuffled about grunting like a pig, sniffing out truffles.

  As it came further into view, Athan could see that it was a weird cross between a giant caterpillar and a bulldog, it was a fleshy shade of pink with paler wrinkles in its articulated body.

  The door is conveniently behind it. Super.

  The creature stared at him defensively, its three little black eyes flaring wide and its rubbery lips rolling back to reveal four black scythe-like pincers.

  “Oh crap…”

  Athan stepped back, ready to run.

  It galloped forward on rubbery stumps to get closer to him. Like a miniature elephant seal galloping up the beach on a bed of its own fat.

  Its black glossy eyes twitched this way and that as it inspected the intruder. The grunting turned to hissing and loud clicks.

  It maintained its position between Athan and the doorway. There was no way he could get past the grotesque beast before it snatched at him with those pincers that threatened to slice into him. They looked like pruning shears. They would do a lot of damage.

  The beast sniffed and snuffled curiously, waving its flabby head this way and that.

  Suddenly, to Athan’s surprise, its lips slid down over its black pincers and the eyelids squinted around the black eyes, making them look almost cheerful.

  It began to act like a big puppy.

  It began bouncing side to side and lifting its head as if it needed approval.

  Athan was never a fan of dogs, and the monster wasn’t any more attractive than any dog he’d known, but he dared to trust the strange thing, at least to get close enough to the door that rippled like a puddle on the ground in the middle of the clearing.

  The creature wanted attention, a
nd was far too excited.

  Athan may have almost found it cute, but he had important business with the door.

  Life and death business.

  He moved sideways carefully, trying to skirt around the outside of the weird creature to get to the doorway.

  It just swiveled on the spot and didn’t attack, as if it was guarding the door just for him.

  “Th-thanks…” Athan stuttered, before he jumped into the black void of person’s subconscious.

  ***

  Andrew took a long sip on a hot cup of tea. Black, with three sugars, just the way he liked it.

  He closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth in his organs.

  He sat back and looked again at the credit cards and identification that lay cut up on the table. It made him sick in his stomach thinking about what he had done to all the cards from his wallet.

  These represented his life, but it was a necessity to destroy them.

  “Someone might think you were trying to disappear, Mr Campbell,” a voice said behind him.

  Andrew jumped in his vinyl seat and spilled hot tea all over his shirt and jeans.

  “What the…?” Andrew glared in disbelief at the man in the suit that stood calmly behind him.

  “Sorry! Sorry, sorry! I was going for a mysterious movie-style entrance, I should have given you a heads-up.” Athan held up his hands.

  “How did you get in here? Are you trying to kill me? I have a family, please!” Andrew’s eyes were wide.

  “I’m a friend, I promise.” Athan tried to reassure him, but the man was obviously scared for his life. “You thought I was going to kill you?”

  The man obviously knew he had got himself into some kind of trouble.

  As Athan stepped back he noticed a change in Andrew’s eyes.

  “Have I seen you before? I’ve have seen you, I’m sure!” Andrew said, nodding his head.

  “You have. Though, I didn’t think you would remember.” Athan smiled a little.

  Andrew stared back at Athan, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Then more recognition sparked in his eyes.

  “A dream? The hospital told me I had a visitor the day I woke up.” He waved a finger. “He wore a suit.”