Farewell from Paradise

by Saltzman, Brent

“Who are you guys?” Sam asked.

  They didn’t answer. They just moved closer. Lions circling a zebra.

  “Hello? What’s going—”

  His next words were muffled, as a sack was thrown over his head and he took a karate chop to the back of the neck before promptly blacking out.

  30

  The Legend of Diakrino

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Logan and Lauren slept on the couch. John Pierce was nowhere to be seen. Beverly Pierce was talking to a doctor in the hall. Delaney Cooper flipped through the photo album on the table in the corner of the room while Sam lay still, his heart monitor chugging along as normal.

  Printed upon the glossy pages were freeze frames from Sam’s childhood. Sitting in a pile of leaves with both younger sisters. At a football game with his father. Waiting in line to see dolphins at an aquarium.

  And then, she saw something unusual…out of place.

  It was a picture of an older, black man with curly white hair, easily in his late sixties. He was holding a baby Sam, wrapped in a blanket. And he was wearing a silver watch…

  “Everyone has the same thought the first time they see,” said Bev, who’d silently looked on as Del was examining the picture.

  “Who is he?”

  “My father. Well, adopted…obviously.” She sat down and admired the photograph. “Was a cop. Retired before Sam was born. Had to be. Chances of a black man adopting a white preteen girl back in the ‘60s were pretty low unless you were in a position like that.”

  “What happened to ‘im?”

  “He died, right when Sam was about four.” She poked her chest. “Heart failure. But, he made an impact. Only thing in Sam’s life that ever made any sense. He loved him so much. So much. Used to talk to him for hours. Tell him things. Words of wisdom. It got to the point where we knew he was living off borrowed time. But he never stopped talking to Sam. I used to tell him he wouldn’t remember anything he said when he grew up, but he always swore he would, one way or another.”

  “I’m…I’m sorry, Mrs. Pierce…”

  “It was a long time ago. Almost thirty years. Past is past. One of the things he used to tell Sam. It’s funny…even though there was no blood between them…I used to catch this spark, this twinkle in Sam’s eye when he was growing up. The same I saw in my father’s. Never did quite understand it.” She closed the album. She didn’t want to see any more. “Sam doesn’t remember him much, though, so I doubt he remembers any of the stuff he kept trying to pass on. Left him his watch when he died. I gave it to Sam on his eighteenth birthday.”

  Del looked at the pile of clothing on a table near the bed. Atop the folded shirts, jacket and jeans was a broken watch.

  “Idiot threw it when he lost his temper a few years back. Twice, actually. Couldn’t afford to get it fixed. But he felt so bad he hasn’t taken it off since.”

  The unconscious Sam took a deep breath. The heart monitor slowed, then picked back up again.

  Del asked, “So what did the doctor say? Any word on when he might be wakin’ up?”

  Bev took too long to answer. Far too long. “No…they actually think that he’s living off borrowed time, too.”

  Hewas still blind when he started to come to. He was seated in a cold metal chair. His hands were tied behind his back. He was shivering. A faint wind was whistling. There was the tumbling of locks as a door opened, followed by hurried footfalls and an apologetic British voice: “I’m terribly sorry about this, Sam Pierce!” The bag was stripped off his head. White light filled his eyes. “It was a simple misunderstanding on the part of my people. They are deeply sorry for the inconvenience.”

  Sam’s eyes adjusted and Dr. Tam, dressed in a black jumpsuit, went to work untying his wrists. Before him was a blown-out window wall, beyond which the ruined cityscape of Paradiso lay engulfed by snow. The metropolis of hexagonal towers stretched far and away. The sky was as white as the ice falling in crystal sheets

  “What’s going on?” Sam asked with a cough.

  “We were doing recon when we came upon you. My team did not know to which side you had pledged your allegiances.” Tam angrily muttered, “Though I imagine the fact that you were being chased by one of his pawns should’ve been a decent clue!”

  “Whose pawns?”

  He hesitated, somewhat surprised that he didn’t know. “Diakrino, of course. He’s taken over the city in the wake of Evron’s poorly-executed rebellion and turned many of the Sentry Bots to his side. We are here to take it back.”

  He asked, “What is Diakrino, exactly? What’s his deal?”

  “His deal?”

  “Where’d all the evilness come from?”

  “Ah.” Dr. Tam pulled up another chair and sat with his back to the shattered glass. “None of this has been proven, of course, but there are…legends. Diakrino was once a man, just like you or I. But, like many men, he was lost. Infuriated by his own bad luck, envious of those around him, and frustrated by humanity’s lack of compassion for its fellow man.”

  Like a grainy black and white movie, Sam could see a vision in his head as the doctor spoke. There was a bearded man in a hood, face obscured by shadow, angry and alone in a world that constantly rejected him. Embittered by the greed of those he called peers.

  “So,” Tam said, “he decided to test humanity.”

  “How?”

  “Two things, really. First, he created a computer program that wiped out every electronic bank account in the world, essentially bringing everyone to zero. His hope was that, with greed out of the equation, humans would learn the lost art of selfless cooperation instead of pushing each other out of the way for a few more dollars on their paychecks.”

  “And?”

  Dr. Tam sighed. “There was anarchy. Civilizations collapsed. People treated the numbers in their wallets like lifeblood. When it was gone, instead of forming together…they tore themselves apart.”

  Sam could see riots in the streets. Looting. Slaughtering. People hoarding their goods instead of sharing them. Policemen refusing to work because there was no money for pay. Hospitals shutting down without funding.

  “Diakrino was predictably disappointed with the result. So, he tried something else. One more test. He created a virus in a laboratory, then unleashed it upon the world.”

  The bearded man emptying test tubes into a lake, a sewer, a water treatment plant, and the air as a gas. It spreads all over the world.

  “The results were…devastating. Much of the population…perished. And again…humanity itself could not overcome, and the new lower populations were constantly at war. So, in desperation, the last standing government in the world created the city of Paradiso and left it in the hands of machines. Human beings, it was determined, could not be trusted.”

  The construction of a great city surrounded by a moat. Machines building it beam by beam. Humans downgraded to mere numbers.

  “But I thought Paradiso was built because the earth couldn’t handle the growing population?”

  “Incorrect. It was built because the population was dwindling as a result of Diakrino’s virus. I assume you saw the propaganda film…it’s very misleading, to say the least.”

  “I assumed as much…so what happened next?”

  Tam pushed up on his glasses. “Diakrino was crushed, of course. He had hoped that humanity would bond. But we did not. We devolved into savages when our precious money was taken and put our lives in the hands of computers when our population was threatened. So…he changed…as the legend goes…from the man who so desperately wanted to believe in humanity into the monster you see today.”

  A final vision. The bearded man grew until his clothes burst off his body. His skin became scales. Wings sprouted from his back. He became the great dragon.

  “He is the product of hate, disappointment, and, most importantly, the one thing that has threatened each of us our entire lives…doubt.”

  “Doubt?”

  “Doubt, Sam Pierce. Doubt is the most powe
rful force in the world. Doubt in yourself. Doubt in others. It can keep lives from happening. It can make opportunities fly by. It can force you to accept a fate that does not make you happy. This is the curse that created Diakrino. The burden of doubt in his fellow creatures.”

  A silence. Sam took it all in. Everything suddenly made sense. Doubt had ruled his life. Doubt in his family. In his father. And, most importantly: in his own self.

  In that moment, he suddenly knew how to get back to Delaney. How to escape Paradiso.

  He had to overcome all doubts.

  He had to test his faith in himself.

  “We believe that humanity’s legacy is worth saving,” said the doctor. “You’d be amazed at the discoveries we’ve made! Just last year, as a matter of fact, we excavated this ancient religious site. Apparently, back in the time before times, millions of people worshipped an apple god! And there are shrines to him littered all over the world! We call them the Order of the Fruit.”

  “Uh, actually, that wasn’t a god, that was…well…” He pondered the idea. “You know, maybe it was a cult, now that I think about it…”

  “Come with me.” Dr. Tam stood. “We are running out of time. We are going after Diakrino within the hour. It is obviously imperative that we fill you in on our plan.”

  Tam took him to the wide, open basement level of the building. There, a few Bots with blue eyes, and a handful of people in black jumpsuits, were gathered around a map of Paradiso.

  “We are fortunate to have many Bots on our side,” Dr. Tam said as the eyes in the room turned toward them. “Including a very important one.”

  A large mechanical conglomeration of wires and gears descended from the ceiling. A pincer held an orb of shifting light.

  “Good. Morning. Samuel James. Pierce,” said the Overseer, the tone of its voice oscillating every few words. “I am glad. You have. Decided to. Join us.”

  “The hell is this? I thought you were the mascot of processing?”

  “Incorrect. I do not. Wish to. Process. I simply did. What is. Necessary to maintain. Order. As you can see. The results of the other option. Are less than. Ideal.”

  “The Overseer,” Tam explained, “is still plugged into many of Paradiso’s systems. He will be able to open many doors and aid in getting us to the center of the city, where Diakrino has made his lair and where he is holding your damsel in distress, if I may add.”

  “I get the cliché. So what’s the plan?”

  “Simplicity is beauty. We will lead two teams, approaching Diakrino’s fortress from two different directions. He will not be able to cover both. Unfortunately…” He pointed to the center of the map. There was a square representing the central tower surrounded by a thick black ring. “Diakrino has created a moat of sorts, cutting off access. We will have to improvise when we arrive.”

  “Really?” Sam raised his eyebrows. “That’s it? Nothing really complicated, relying on ridiculously good timing and stupid coincidences?”

  “No, of course not! What, do you think this is some kind of adventure story?”

  “I guess not…So, when you say that Diakrino can’t go after both squads…”

  Tam paused. “He will inevitably choose one. And I cannot guarantee we will all come back alive…”

  The team of cardboard stock characters around the table nodded, all willing to lay down their lives—well, the lives Sam invented. He didn’t feel like giving any of them backstories. Advice from an old friend: don’t turn a two-hundred-and-fifty-page story into a five-hundred-page bore with pointless details.

  “And what team will I be on?”

  “Actually, I may have misspoke earlier when I declared that there would be two teams…”

  There was a deep, strong voice from the darkness, thick with the dialect of the Scottish highlands. “There will be three, lad.” And out of the shadows stepped Darwin the giant, complete with his furry garb and club.

  “I didn’t forget about you, mate. Brothers do not leave brothers in their times of need.”

  “What about this being my lone personal journey or whatever?”

  Darwin shrugged. “Journeys are always easier with someone by your side, mate.” He slung his club over his massive shoulders. “And I can be quite the someone in battle.”

  “As our teams will be larger than yours…uh, numbers-wise…,” Tam looked up at the giant, “you will be much stealthier and have easier access to Diakrino’s stronghold.”

  Sam had a sudden realization. “Wait a minute…you’re playing distraction?”

  “Uh…” He pushed up his glasses again. “In a word, yes. We will provide diversions on separate ends of the city, clearing your path. Well, all except the Sentries…”

  “They won’t be doin’ us much harm in the way of me bat.” Darwin swung his club at the air. “They won’t pose much of any threat, I can assure you of that.”

  “Good.” Tam handed Sam an ear bud. “Use this to stay in contact with the Overseer. He will help you.”

  The giant machine nodded, its gears whirred in complacence.

  “I must warn you, Sam Pierce,” the doctor uttered grimly. “Once you step into those streets…there is no going back.”

  “There is no going back,” the doctor said as he explained to Samuel Pierce’s family the magnitude of the experimental procedure they had considered. “His heart’s failing. We don’t know why. This injection could, in theory, jumpstart it, but we can’t offer any guarantees. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t expecting turbulence.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked John Pierce in his usual surly tone of voice.

  “Fluctuations. Up and down. Once we inject it, he’ll go through a period where he’ll either accept or reject the drug. And he’ll either come out of it, or…”

  Thunder groaned outside. Muffled behind rain.

  “Do you want my opinion?” the doctor asked. When no one answered, he gave it anyway: “I don’t think it’s a very good shot. But it’s probably the only one we have.”

  31

  The Impossible Climb

  From the top floor of a wrecked building somewhere in the steel jungle of Paradiso, Sam and Darwin watched with silent unease as Diakrino’s fortress sat upon the former shell of the Overseer’s tower in the distance. A ruined castle constructed from the corpses of the surrounding structures, the stronghold was complete with turrets, steeples, and was surrounded by a circular chasm at least fifty feet wide.

  They hadn’t figured out how they’d cross it. But they decided that getting there was the first and most vital step.

  In the streets below, the army of malicious Sentry Bots zipped between alleyways, ever vigilant. And over the vista of ice-covered buildings, the shadowy silhouette of an oblivious Diakrino flew up to his castle and perched atop the central spire, then proceeded to casually clean his wings like a bird.

  “Delaney’s in there,” Sam said, staring down the citadel with a determined gaze.

  “Are you ready, lad?” asked Darwin.

  A plume of green smoke rose from the edge of the city, several miles away.

  The first diversion.

  Diakrino let out a bloodcurdling roar that rocked the icicles dangling from the frame of the shattered window.

  “Not particularly…”

  “Such is life,” the giant snickered. “You will not always be ready.”

  And with that, he pushed Sam out the window.

  But there was no fear this time.

  As he raced past broken windows, he grabbed the descender of the rope tied around his waist—which looked like a metal buckle or a clamp—and smoothly, yet rapidly, rappelled down the side of the building with ease, landing with a soft thud in the snowy street. Darwin followed close behind, and after making sure the coast was clear, they made their way through an alley, eyes wary.

  A Sentry Bot whizzed by the street, seemingly without notice of the intruders. But they were wrong. It came back and hostilely raised its tendrils toward them
. “Halt! You are in violation of Paradiso code—”

  The Bot was smashed against the wall after a prompt, robust swing of Darwin’s club. It crumpled to the street.

  “Well,” Sam said, “that was easy.”

  The terrifying roar of Diakrino was accompanied by a shadow that enveloped the alley. They hugged the wall and froze as the dragon soared overhead, making its way to the other side of the metropolis.

  “Where ya reckon it’s going, lad? His face sure is tripping ‘im…” whispered the giant when he was certain the monster was far out of range.

  There was a quick puff of static in their ears, then the Overseer’s synthetic voice: “Dr. Tam and. His team. Have set off. The second. Diversion.”

  “Right, we better make haste then.”

  They took off toward the center of the city, using the alleys as cover and quickly sprinting across the narrow streets. They found one path blocked by rubble, only to hear the Overseer again. “Please look. To your left.” A door opened at the bottom of a building. “You may. Pass through.”

  Inside, the door closed behind them. They stepped through a thin hall, hiding a few times to avoid some of the Sentries floating about like watchdogs. The top of Darwin’s head kept grazing the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. They eventually made their way up to a central market plaza, snow falling through the atrium of broken glass above.

  “They will be. On alert,” said the Overseer. “Please be advised.”

  “Gee thanks!”

  There was abrupt silence. Like when the crickets cease chirping in the midnight rainforest. And then they were surrounded. A dozen Sentries, at least. Eyes flashing red, tentacle drills spinning. They closed in on the trespassers, who pressed their backs to each other, Darwin’s club armed—but probably insufficient.

  “What is. Your. Status?”

  “Not good…”

  They prowled closer…and closer…and closer…

  “Hope you’re really good with that bat…”

  Darwin didn’t have to be.