F A D E- New Kansas

by Tom Cain

  F.A.D.E

  by

  T.J.Cain

  Prologue

  Sixteen years had passed since the event that the broke the world took place. The sky at night had a hue of pulsating green mist like an aurora hovering above the New Kansas skyscrapers. The city was seemingly empty; the years had worn the population down to a four digit number, well, at least in this zone. The buildings were not damaged because of the blast but because of the occupation of the Border Control Company and resistance by the local population against a tyrannical leadership.

  At the head of the Border Control Company also known as the "BCC" was a man named Ivan Swiss. Mr Swiss as he is known by his subordinates is one of the most mysterious figures of all the zones surrounding F.A.D.E Labs. He constructed a vast army of survivors from the surrounding towns, cities and states and put together control zones inside New Kansas. He employed the soldiers with a mix of old currency, false promises and manipulation. After he had obtained enough manpower to set up control bridges and fence lines around the main city areas he had members of his staff stationed at them at all times. This meant that anyone traveling through this city would have to make it past one of his checkpoints first, and usually pay a tax. Mr Swiss made a lot of money very quickly this way and then suddenly vanished into thin air. Rumors of his demise were followed swiftly with a visit from a member of the BCC and punished heavily. Eventually people just stopped talking about him altogether but never forgot he was lurking in the background somewhere plotting his next big move.

  Surprisingly Ivan Swiss had answered to somebody in New Kansas before the event, commonly referred to as the ‘flash’, a very astute Japanese doctor by the name of Katsu Ahiro. Dr Ahiro had employed Ivan Swiss as the head of the F.A.D.E Labs security force before the disaster and shortly after "re-employed" him in a very similar capacity as the head of the BCC. After the event, Swiss saw an opportunity to form a strong alliance with the labs, and didn't argue with the setup, he did, however have other plans.

  F.A.D.E labs was in the centre of zone one, and was the only intact building standing without damage in the whole centre state. This always made the surviving population question as to how exactly it happened that all other buildings had been damaged by the on-going violence and the labs had stayed unharmed.

  Thirteen years, two months and sixteen days ago, Dr Katsu Ahiro was the Head of Scientific Development, Chairman and Division Director of F.A.D.E Laboratories. Although he was one of the founding members of the company he still wanted to play a major role in the on-going development of their research and new technologies. Katsu over the previous decades had been working with many teams in many different countries to develop a safe source of reusable power with little or no adverse side effects to humans or animals. He found that performing experiments on dark matter energy had provided the best result thus far and continued to take the matter into the next phase of testing.

  Using all the skills he obtained over years of study he created the first Dark Matter Energy Reactor or DMER, commonly known in the labs as simply the "dimmer". The device was the size of two normal house bricks laid together. One glowing green dark matter particle rested hovering inside a glass sphere supported by titanium shock absorbers at four different angles. The particle emitted a luminescent green haze which was trapped by the glass but seemed to radiate slightly outside casting a green pulsing shadow on the surrounding equipment.

  The F.A.D.E lab building was built to replicate the design of the dimmer, and was itself large, green and spherical in shape. Actually quite an achievement from an architectural standing as some of the support columns from the outside of the labs did not look as though they could have supported themselves let alone a large dome shaped green steel centre building. The centre room of the labs was not actually spherical inside but perfectly square and very spacious. Each wall was white and clinical with only the blue company logo printed directly in the centre. To the touch, the floor was bumpy and coarse almost like mild sandpaper, Dr Ahiro demanded it be made this way as to provide better footing when the team was working with sensitive materials such as dark matter. Inside the room there stood four desks next to each other perfectly in line and with a two foot gap in-between each one. These four stations were for the teams to work at during their day and held all the important equipment required to perform this dangerous job.

  On desk number two stood the dimmer and Dr Ahiro, with him a senior professor named Doctor Mary Willis-Scott who was another Head of Department but from the Cloning and Life Sciences Division. Together they carried the dimmer device over to a specially crafted control panel and inserted it in place securing all four corners and making sure it was properly locked in. The team were now asked to go and make sure everything was working as it should be before Dr Ahiro pulls the switch to begin the test.

  "Doctor Ahiro why did you choose New Kansas to do the dimmer test?" said a keen new intern.

  "The place choice was an obvious one, and the reason I chose it was because…actually, you tell me young man, where is New Kansas located geographically?" Dr Ahiro enquired calmly.

  "ummmm well it's obviously in Lochwell, and it's basically the centre state?" the now slightly worried intern said nervously wondering if he was right.

  "Exactly! New Kansas is a centre state and the perfect place to do this mass effect test, without this location we could have never been able to get the data we are about to get" Dr Ahiro asserted.

  With that the intern ran off to attend to some settings at one of the many control panels spread around.

  Mary and Katsu looked on and waited patiently as the teams around them connected wires, and flicked switches, pulled levers and readied their stations.

  "I think we may have done it Mary, I feel this is exactly what we needed" Katsu spoke quietly.

  "I hope that the clones we made were up to your expectations Dr Ahiro, ignoring number seven, he was troublesome from the start, at least the other seven showed promise" Mary said.

  Katsu had a deep respect for Doctor Mary Willis-Scott as she has been a principal contact with developing the life science department of F.A.D.E Labs. Although Katsu did not have any children of his own he often saw Mary as the closest thing to a wife he would have in his life. His decisions were often sharp and to the point, but with Mary he often seemed slightly more gentle and comfortable.

  "No no Mary please, you created nine fully grown adult clones, this was a marvel of science and you are the leader in your field, you should be nothing less than saluted for your efforts" Katsu commended her.

  "Please Doctor Ahiro you say too much, Seven was…" Mary is interrupted.

  'seven is just as interesting as the rest, each have their own individual unique attributes, he is just slightly more interesting than the others" Katsu said while pondering the position of some of the equipment being moved about in front of them.

  "They all had the same growth pattern, they all had the same incubation periods and AB negative blood type, he seemed to develop that advanced healing on his own similar to Eight, but it wasn't something we programmed" Mary seemed concerned.

  "Put them down over there!" Katsu shouted at a staff member. "Mary stop worrying, right now let's get this M.E.T done and then have a look at the data, we can talk over what happened with Seven afterwards ok?" he said.

  Mary got the hint to concentrate on the task at hand and moved over to a control console showing nine glowing red dots on a map of Kansas.

  "They are here doctor, all nine located and ready for the effect fields to take place" Mary said authoritatively.

  "Excellent, ladies and gentleman" Katsu's voice echoed across the vast white laboratory and halted all lab staff almost immediately.

  "We have come to the p
eak of our reasoning, we have arrived at the exact destination and vision that I had shared with many of you several years ago. It seems like forever since we started this world changing experiment and now finally with the World Council, the Lochwell Union's, the governmental orders and commercial consent we can finally go ahead and start the Dark Matter Energy Reactor and finally prove to the world we CAN have a power source which is harmless to the environment and can power a country with one small machine". The doctor said with conviction in his voice.

  The lab technicians and staff members let out a cheer but were very quickly hushed by the waving hand of Katsu.

  "As you know we have tried this on smaller scales with no ill effects and even on human clones created by Doctor Willis-Scott here." Some of Mary's staff clapped, Katsu now annoyed looks in their direction.

  "But it doesn't stop here, the data we collect today will change the world and we will have to be responsible for processing that data and handling the results as a team. I want all of your focus on this project for another six months after this test and I promise you will all have your well-earned bonus and a long break" Katsu raised his fist with authority and the teams clapped and cheered.

  Mary looked back at Katsu who was now standing up on a raised platform behind some white steel support railings. Katsu nodded his head at Mary and she gave the command to flick the switch on the reactor. The teams moved furiously, twisting cogs and connecting wires, a man on the far right hand side of the room pulled down a small silver lever, took a step backwards and a deep breath and looked at the dimmer through his blue tinted goggles. The Dimmer shook quietly on the platform it had been placed on and the glowing green core seemed to pulse faster and faster.

  Everyone was silent. You could hear the sound of vibration from the Dimmer platform and the sound of breathing from the excited members of staff. After about ten seconds of waiting the whole room suddenly jolted as if something had struck the side of the F.A.D.E Labs building, this made a few standing members of the team slightly uneasy and some moved towards the sides of the room or closer to something to hold onto. The now violently glowing green machine let out a very high pitch hum as though someone had turned on an old television nearby. It shot a burst of green light outwards in a ball emanating from the centre of the dark matter particle. The light faded out before it hit the roof of the lab but then very quickly there came a second ball of light which passed through the walls and then a third came with another mini quake under their feet. A few members of the life sciences team let out a worried yelp as the short sharp jolt of seemingly tectonic movement sent a female worker to the ground. Just as quickly as the rumbling and the light had come they stopped and instead of the earth movement and green glow, the light turned yellow and seemed to be growing in the centre of the device. The light gathered for what seemed to Katsu as a lifetime as they all held their breath and the ground began to shake again but instead of subsiding after a few seconds the shaking continued accompanied by a very low buzzing sound which forced them all bar Katsu to cover their ears and cower to the floor. Katsu checked the gauges in front of him and on the wall, the energy levels were registering off at maximum. The power output of the device was incredible.

  The sound and light reached a deafening and blinding peak, suddenly the yellow turned back to green and the sound stopped, the staff got back to their feet staring at the Dimmer machine. The team all looked at each other confused, there was no sound of breathing now, no sound of vibration or yelps and buzzing. The sound from the room seemed for a few seconds to be sucked out the air by the light in the centre of the glowing green ball. It now reached critical mass and released its full force, this exploded outward in a sphere and engulfed the room in seconds moving through the walls at an incredible speed. Katsu could look at nothing other than the centre of the DMER, he had visions of his life flashing before his glazed eyes. His heart pounding with the thud of the deep buzzing which returned to the room. Katsu squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, only to have the light subside in an instant.

  He turned to face the team, but no one was there. The lab was empty. Only the white overalls, blue trousers and black slip on shoes remained lying lifeless on the floor. No sound came from any corner, no noise from anywhere. The pale white clinical lighting tubes pulsed in their frosted plastic covers on the ceiling. Katsu stared in shock at the lights, still dazed and confused with the event.

  "What is this?" He said to himself.

  He glanced down to where Mary had been standing, her clothes remained on the floor, a cloud of black smoke hovered over he white jacket then dissipated into thin air.

  "What have I done? Where have you all gone?". The room remained silent, Katsu stood still, wondering what to do. He turned to face the glass double doors at the entrance of the lab.

  "Mary, what have I done?". He stood in shock.

  CHAPTER ONE

  VAULTS, FAULTS AND CREEPS

  The aurora in the green tinted sky pulsated to and fro over the dimly lit horizon; the last flickers of the dying sun touched the deserted and desolate New Kansas city rooftops. The wind came from the east gushing through the streets like a predator hunting for its next victim. John steps out of the darkened doorway of a building, his large frame forcing the metal plating on his boots to twang as his foot hit the floor. The flickering of barrel fires glimmering off the metal of his enhanced right arm.

  Under his dark hat gleamed the eyes of menace and confidence for the task at hand. Monument Street is known for its strange and desperate inhabitants, the cracked and crumpled concrete laying out before John spoke of conflicts past but nonetheless he ventured down it as he had done so, so many times.

  Sticking to the shadows John maneuvers down alongside the broken walls of what used to be a courier company before the flash. He had been in the head hunting game for a number of years now, the only real way to make any good trades or cash in the dying world. John edged along the building to stop at the cracked edge of the office block and peered down a darkened ally.

  The building across from the alley was a restaurant and now had rusting pipes, dripping water running along the outside of the building and down into the darkness. The alley was empty but his prey was down there somewhere; John walks out to the center of the alleyway opening and stares down into the ever increasing darkness. Old newspapers, garbage bins, old food and rubble splayed out before him. The narrow alley had a sharp left hand turn about twenty meters down and a dim orange light glowed from around it. Taking each step with caution John strides down the path and presses himself up against the left hand wall peering round the corner. He spots a man dressed in dark ragtag clothes playing with something on the ground. The man grumbles and stutters, his voice deep and grimey like grinding stone.

  “Come on you gotta get some of that” the man grumbled at the ground. John picking his moment steps out, his boots hit the floor hard and the creep turns around to stare at the face of his capture or death.

  “It ain't right what you do Test, you don't hunt your own” the slobbering figure discerned, recognizing Johns face.

  John stared distastefully at him then quietly spoke “Listen, you got two choices with how this goes down, firstly you can get over here, get this zip on those grubby little wrists and be a good boy and I can drag you to Hark. Or I can crack your skull open and carry you dead to him. I don't really want to waste the energy with carrying you to the Bank”.

  With that the creeps face became suddenly less confident, and the creep stands up his leg shaking. John shuffles his left leg forward and maneuvers onto the ball of his right foot as if to launch into a sprint. He stands still while his bounty considers his options. A strong gust of wind passes John's ear and rushes across the face of his foe. The wind made the nervous man even more edgy and he twitched his right hand towards his back.

  Like a flash John pounces from the ball of his right foot towards the fumbling creep, time slows for John and he reaches decisively into his black leather overcoat and
for a titanium weighted pipe mounted on the left hand side of his rib cage and held in a brown leather gun strap. The creep was going for a small revolver in the back of this blue overalls, but by the time his right hand came close to the grip of the gun John was already bringing the pipe down on his head. With a terrible thud and sharp crack the pipe hits squarely in the center of the creeps skull sending bone and brain across the alleyway. The man drops to the floor like a boned fish. John secures his weapon in his jacket and stares for a few seconds at his lifeless bounty. It doesn't move.

  “I warned ya, and you didn't listen. You types never do. Now come on.” John mutters to himself.

  Grabbing the body firmly by the shoulders and leg John easily tosses him over his shoulder and squares his footing for the long walk back to Harks Vault.

  The weight on John's shoulder only drives him more to get back to the Vault and collect his bounty faster. The alleyway is swiftly left and John makes his way out and right down on the main road where he strolls down the baron Monument Street every now and then hoisting the body higher onto his broad shoulders.

  The Vault is situated on the Main concourse of Baxters Way, it used to be a bank and is now a base of operations for Hark Reilly and his troops.

  John strides up to the Vaults wire mesh out-gates which are straddled on steel posts each side of the thick wooden doors leading into the bank lobby. The gates are easily prized open with John's hands and with the creep still over his shoulder he strolls into the bank lobby area which is made up of old wooden desks and a green and white patterned floor stained with mud and blood and oil, desks, papers and old stone lay in ruin and strewn across what used to be a bustling place of finance.

  Across from the entrance of the bank is a downward ramp leading down to a solid metal door. A single green bar light lay flickering above it. John bangs three times on the door and after a few moments a small side flap slides open and a husky but dim witted voice asks