by Clint Stoker
“Get up.” Air prodded Andre with the muzzle. “Everyone go to the closet.”
They walked back to the closet and waited as Andre stammered to follow them. Air pushed them all into the closet and closed the door. He took a drill and two screws from the tool chest. He screwed at an angle threw the door and into the frame. They weren’t getting out anytime soon.
Air retrieved the bin and tossed his new arsenal inside. He looked out into the street expecting Dex and half-a-dozen other purgers, but the street was empty. He pushed the cart out and continued to head west. It bothered him that no one followed him. Maybe his decoy didn’t work and the others were being pursued. Air walked past a large factory and stopped. He looked back… No one. He fired a shot into the sky attempting to draw attention from nothing.
An explosion rumbled the ground. An industrial plant, less than a mile away, collapsed in a sudden toppling wave. Air stood puzzled as a gust of dust crawled over him. A second, more powerful, explosion shattered every window and threw Air to the ground. Air covered his ears as dark smoke plumed into the sky.
When Air regained control, he stood up and started pushing the cart again. All at once, his right leg flew out from under him. He fell to the ground before he felt any pain. Then he realized what had happened. A heavy round past through his knee from behind. Muscle and bone were blown out the front of his knee. Blood poured from his leg. He turned to see who had shot him. Another bullet passed through his right calf. Adrenalin pushed the pain away. Air reached for an M16 that had fallen from the cart. He pulled it against his chest and looked back down the road. Dex was running closer with a high-powered rifle in his hand. Air closed one eye and looked through the sight. Dex stopped and lifted his rifle again but Air put a round through his chest before Dex could do anymore harm. Dex fell down and Air felt the pain from his wounds swell.
He grunted and squeezed his hands together to manage the pain. He didn’t notice someone coming until they were almost on top of him.
“You don’t have my infants do you, Air.” The Founder stepped over Air with a hand-gun pointed at Air’s face.
Chapter 26
The Founder stood over Air. He kicked the M16 across the road so Air had nothing to hope for. “You really went crazy this time, didn’t you? You blew-up half my artillery hangers.”
Air looked up in confusion.
“I suppose I should thank you.” He smiled with a smug grin.
“Save it.” Air gritted his teeth. He tried his hardest not to show his pain. He didn’t like the Founder seeing him like that.
The Founder waited for a few moments like he was expecting Air to say more. He leaned down closer and poked Air in the face with the end of his gun. “You still don’t remember do you?”
Air could feel the energy sapping from his body. Draining from his legs and soaking into his clothes. He closed his mouth as a last act of defiance.
“This was part of the agreement, Air. Don’t you remember signing on?”
“Shut up…” Air coughed, then closed his mouth again. This time resolving to keep it shut.
“We’ll fix you up again. Just like last time.”
Last time? Air thought to himself. “Liar.” Was all he said.
“You were there when we drafted the contract. You even added to it. And you signed it.”
Air searched his memory. “You said you could save her if I...”
“And I held up my end of the bargain.”
“No. You lied. You can’t bring people back once their dead.”
“Did Fields tell you that?” He smiled and tapped the gun against his hip. “He’s forgotten a lot too.”
“You’re a liar.”
“You really don’t remember?” The Founder stood up strait and smiled at the sky. He was going to enjoy this. “You’ve been hanging around here this whole time and you don’t even remember her. That’s irony at its best.”
Air wanted to ask more but he just coughed. Things were starting to get blurry.
“I healed Anna-Desi for you. I’ll admit I lied about sending her away from the city, as you had requested. But it never really mattered did it? Sometimes I wonder if she was really your motivation or just an excuse. After all, she never wanted to have the procedure done in the first place. I had to wipe her memory and give her a new past in order to make her stay.”
All Air’s memories seeped back into Air’s mind. This time, they seemed more vivid. He saw Anna-Desi as his wife. It was true. He remembered it all. Air coughed another painful bout.
“Do you remember now, Air?” The Founder was almost giddy, he was so pleased. “Do you remember our contract?”
Air shuddered. His head rolled back. Dizzy.
“Let me remind you… Every so often, residents become ungrateful. It isn’t their fault, they just forget, like you did.” He waved the gun at Air’s face. “That’s why you’re here. You’re the villain.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” It took all Air’s energy to lift his head.
“Yes, you are the villain. You were the villain before the city started, but I broke you. You’re a trophy now. Every time residents saw you, they remembered me. It makes them feel good to know they made the right decision. Their side won. It really unites the residents. The problem, as I’ve said, they forgot all this. They start to feel entitled to everything. And that’s where you come in.”
“You’re just making this up.”
The Founder stood up strait and let out a hearty laugh. “It’s in the articles. Didn’t you see it? The Cause is the center of it all. I need the rebellion to cause a little chaos. People remember what it’s like knowing they’re going to die. When I return to the city with you, the villain, residents will be so overjoyed. I am the hero and you are the villain. After that, everyone goes back to work and plays nice for a very long time.” He gave Air another annoying smile. “Fields liked to call the city a machine. Well, if that’s true, the Cause is the oil that keeps everything running smoothly. Is this making sense now?” He made a point to sound condescending. He loved making Air look stupid.
Air scowled, still not convinced. Though deep down, he knew the Founder was right. “If the residents knew about the babies, they wouldn’t feel good,” Air spoke in a shallow rasp.
“They all knew about the babies at one point. They just forgot. No one in this city wants to die, except you. And even you consented to the procedure to save Anna-Desi, or whatever makes you feel better about it.”
“Not everyone is like that. There are plenty of people who don’t think it’s right.” Air would have felt better if the Founder was lying, but Air knew he was right. His own memories came back to confirm it all.
“According to you or the infants? I know thirty-million people who outright disagree. You think it’s right to let thirty-million people die so five infants can live for seventy or eighty years? I don’t see it that way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you feel that way because the city needs a villain, and a villain needs a good credo.”
“Just kill me. I’m tired of listening to you.”
“We can go that route if you’d like. Villains don’t have to be alive. I can find a new one.”
“Then do it.”
“It would, however, make things easier for me if you’d agree to be the villain again.”
Air shook his head. “I’m not going to make anything easy for you.”
“I thought you’d say that. Tell you what, if you agree to come back to the city alive, I’ll let your friends keep the five they took. I’ll even let them live out the rest of their lives in peace. I can make another rebirth. The residents will live for nine more months.” The Founder bit his bottom lip. He was lying again. He needed the five and Air knew it.
“I’m not going back to your city.”
“Then I’ll kill you, but the others will have to die too. It’s your call.”
Overwhelmed with rage, Air struggled for breath. If the Founder needed the five that badly, he could c
ertainly find them. He had the resources. The Founder had even taken away death as an honorable option for Air.
Air sighed and lifted a hand over his face. He felt the throbbing pain in his forehead. The Founder pressed the gun against Air’s forehead. The bullet sat inches away from its final resting place. Air closed his eyes and spouted off a desperate prayer to anyone who might be listening. Please…
The last thing Air heard was a blast. A ripping, dissonant blast. It seemed to shake the ground like an earthquake. Is that what it feels like to get shot in the head?
Everything went dark and cold. He thought of his wife, Anna-Desi. She had been there, in the council, all along. He hadn’t even given her a chance. Maybe if he hadn’t been so prideful. He should have cared more.
Air slipped in-and-out of consciousness. How long had it been? It seemed like he had always been in this state of mindlessness. Grinding metal. The stink of burning stone and dust. So this is Hell? Still immobile. Still nothing he could do to change things. His eyes flickered open. He looked between his fingers. Mounds of what use to be buildings piled around him. The sky grey with dust. A heavy pain in his legs returned. Still alive?
“I’ve got you, Air.” Fenton climbed frantically over bent steel and concrete.
Air smoothed his fingers over his forehead. He forced his hand up. Nothing, no blood, no pain. Was he really alive?
“Can you hear me?” Fenton leaned over Air. His face drooped as he studied Air’s mangled appendages. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll get you out of here.” But he didn’t move. He just stared at Air.
“I’m alive?”
“Yes, for now. I don’t know how you lived through that.”
Air started twice before he could speak again. “Where is the Founder?”
“He’s dead. It’s a miracle you’re still alive. I used a lot of C4.” Fenton pushed over a cluster of cinderblocks that rested on Air’s legs. “It feels good. I destroyed the artillery.” An attempt to distract Air from his pain.
“What?” Air coughed the dust from his lungs.
“I felt guilty about the artillery bombardments.” Fenton breathed deeply. “The artillery is for killing the tribes people. They would have used it on us too, if we ever get out. So I blew-it-up.”
“You almost killed me.”
Fenton reared his head back and rolled his eyes. “I waited all day for residents to clear out of this area. When things finally looked clear, you showed up with the Founder. I thought you’d understand… Besides, everything was rigged on a timer before I spotted you. Like I said, it was a fluke.”
Air rubbed his head again. “I was supposed to die.”
“Well, you didn’t. So don’t blame me – no harm done.”
“The Founder planned everything. He knew I would rebel. He knew we would try to escape and mess things up. He’ll find us.”
“Are you even listening to me? Unless the Founder planned to be squished by a building, he isn’t going to find us.” Fenton nodded over to a pile of rubble where the Founder’s body lay pulverized. “Once he heard the blast, he took off running. He would have lived if he stayed put. It’s funny how things play out.” Fenton reached around Air’s torso and pulled him up. “Come on.”
Air grunted. “Leave me here. Let me die.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m only going to slow you down.”
“We can patch you up… Maybe get you a peg-leg or something. You aren’t going to die.”
“Seriously, Fenton.”
“No. You aren’t getting out that easy.”
“Easy? You think this is easy?” Air almost laughed.
“It’s going to be a lot harder trying to raise those kids. Whether you like it or not, they’re your responsibility. They’re alive because of you.” Fenton huffed, then dragged Air to a cleared area and set him down. He stepped over a mound of rubble and pushed over a large sheet of wood. The book bin sat on its side, smashed. He rolled it end over end, backed up the mound and set it next to Air.
“I’m going to take off your pants to make a tourniquet for your leg. I hope you aren’t shy.” He sat pulling off the tattered fabric, stiff with blood.
Air took his time to lean up on his elbow and surveyed the landscape. Artillery cannons crushed under the weight of the building. A crumpled mess of clothing and blood sat covered with bricks.
“Is that the Founder?” Air asked.
“That was the Founder.” Fenton looped the fabric around Air’s thigh, slipped a short length of rebar through it and twisted it tight. He must have felt a need to keep talking, for Air’s sake. “You know why I came here?”
“What?”
Fenton snapped his fingers right in front of Air’s eyes. “Do you know why I came to the city?”
“Why?”
“After you signed on, the rebellion died,” he signed. “I tried to hold on, but I got so sick of the artillery bombardments. I couldn’t live like that. So, I came to the city and forgot about it all.”
Air didn’t have the strength to say anything. And even if he did, what could he have said?
“Fields got me transferred here – as an artillery engineer. That brought back memories real quick. I hated Fields for a while… Now… Well, it just feels good to blow it up.”
Air managed a shallow smile. He missed Fields already.
---
Color soon returned to Air’s face as he sipped at a can of juice Fenton had given him. Fenton dragged Air into the misshapen book bin and started pushing it across the border to the northern wilderness. They had to hurry. Residents were still desperately looking for them. They traveled at a slow pace, so Fenton didn’t stop for breaks. The hours passed like days. Fenton brought a few supplies, but they didn’t have enough to last more than a few days. Fenton seemed optimistic, though the odds didn’t look good. They carried on that way until night fell over them. The darkness outside the city seemed endless. No more artificial lighting except for the cities distant, unearthly glow. Fenton stopped suddenly.
“Do you hear that?” he asked.
Air fought to lift himself. He leaned his head over the edge of the cart. At first, he could only hear his own heart beating. Then, like a calming song, he heard the cry of a baby.