The Dawn: Omnibus edition (box set books 1-5)

by Michelle Muckley

  “Just get Ruse on line, Stoat. That’s our focus.” Jackson had set himself up on an old plastic box that had been discarded in the plant room. He upturned it so it functioned as some kind of desk, and on it he set his laptop. He rummaged through his bag until he found a silver box. The inside was lined with foam, and as he clicked open the clasps which held it shut, Zack saw another disk drive device inside.

  “Ruse,” announced Street, half factually, half with surprise and wonder that it was actually real.

  Jackson took a cable and connected Ruse to his laptop. “Stoat, talk to me,” he shouted.

  “We're on,” Stoat called back as he slid himself out from the box, landing on the floor beside Zack. He grabbed the wires that he had connected into the switch system and inserted them into the back of the laptop. Even Street left the door unmanned. “Over to you, Jackson. I've done my bit.”

  Jackson checked his watch. He positioned his cap. They waited. They shared nervous glances as they waited for the unknown, for Jackson’s call. A faint beep came from the laptop and Jackson tapped on a small envelope icon. A message. It read;

  It’s done.

  Jackson didn’t wait any longer. Now that he knew security in Alpha had been breached he hit the enter key. The screen of the laptop became black, interrupted by a series of white lines, letters, and numbers which rolled at a relentless speed as the code began to run. “Wait,” Jackson whispered, his hand steady in the air as if he was scared to take a breath for fear of interrupting Ruse.

  It took five minutes before anybody spoke. They all watched the screen knowing full well that their lives depended on it. White was gradually replaced by black. By the end of the silence the screen returned to black, interrupted by a single white flashing cursor in the top left corner.

  “Time to put your black caps on, boys and girls. This is it.” Jackson checked his watch. He looked to Zack who had been quiet since they arrived, and then to Stoat who was crouched at Jackson’s side chewing on his fingernail. Even Street was crouched down, her gun in her lap and her hand resting on Jackson's forearm. She smiled at him before reaching over and kissing him on the lips. Jackson used one finger to type one word.

  F.R.E.E.D.O.M.

  “Just two more minutes, and then we hit the switch to the future.” He hovered over the enter key, just far enough away that he couldn’t hit it by accident. “If anybody wants to pray, now is the time.” But who was there left to pray to? The same God who had forsaken them?

  “When you hit that key,” Zack asked, “what will happen?”

  “I will become Omega and Alpha. When Alpha creates the new security codes, I will be the first to get them. We intercept them, we wait for Omega to reply to the message we send them. Then we draw back the curtains on the world. We wake them up.”

  “And the people inside?” Zack asked.

  “We pray for them, and hope they realise what we've done.” He corrected himself. “No, that’s not right. What we have undone.”

  “But if they don't, then it will be a slaughter. I know how they work. The Guardians won’t think twice, and there are so many extra Guardians and Comrades out there with guns.” His words deflated them. Street bowed her head, Stoat looked as if he was praying. “But there is another way. Stoat, you said that from up there you can access the sprinklers and the ventilation systems, right?”

  “Right,” Stoat confirmed. “The room connects into a larger plant room. It’s huge.”

  “Then let's give everybody a reason to get out. We cut the video, great, then what? Hope for the best? Hope they realise what is going on? Did we come all the way and make all this effort to hope for the best?”

  “So we do what?” Street asked. It was the first time she spoke softly, without anger. She had started to believe in Zack, too. Now she knew that he was worth the effort and the risk. “If we go up there to help them escape we will end up being captured ourselves.”

  “We smoke them out,” Zack said. Street looked at him as if he was crazy. “We set a fire in the ventilation system. We disable the sprinklers. Even the Guardians will think the place is on fire. They might be Guardians, but they are still human. They don't want to die. They'll be forced to open the doors.”

  “Boss, he has got a point, although you were wrong about one thing,” Stoat said as he turned to Zack. “The Guardians won’t open doors. They have the means to fight a fire. But this was a commercial and residential building before it was Alpha. Buildings like this were designed with Active Fire Protection systems. That means once a fire is detected, say by the sprinkler system, the detection system is usually programmed to carry out other automated tasks.”

  “Like opening doors?” asked Street hopefully.

  “Like opening doors,” confirmed Stoat.

  “And how do we set a fire?” asked Jackson.

  Zack grabbed Stoat's bag and pulled the battery pack from it. “We use this. We expose these wire tips and place them on something that will burn, and then turn power on. The current will be enough to start a fire. If we set it so it flows into the ventilation system, the heat and the smoke will travel to every floor. And if Stoat is right about the doors, then they can get out.”

  “But if the people try to run rather than work to overpower the Guardians, then it will just be like Gamma all over again.” Jackson checked his watch again. “We haven’t got long to decide. We need to provide a distraction.”

  “Not we,” Zack said, clutching the power pack to his stomach. “Me. If they are focused on me, they'll be distracted. We cannot risk them capturing you. If this works and we free Alpha, then you have access to Delta right along that tunnel,” Zack said, pointing northbound where Sam and Croft had disappeared to. “You must have information on that plan you showed us about where the equivalent switch is under Delta. You could take them all out. Free everybody. Tonight.”

  “And what about you?” asked Street. “If you are planning to be the distraction, they’ll capture you.”

  “I need to go back. Emily needs me,” he said as Stoat took the power pack from his arms. “I can't tell you why I know I have to go back. I can't explain it. It just feels right. I'll provide a distraction, and that might be all we need to save hundreds of people.”

  “So you want them to capture you? They'll kill you.” Street was up on her feet and one hand was reaching out to Zack. He took it and gave it a squeeze.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so. They use fear to control people. They need examples, and for that I think they will keep me alive.” Stoat was fiddling with wires on the top of the power pack trying to confirm Zack’s theory. He held the wires against a small plastic component and a trickle of smoke appeared. He looked up at the rest with a smile on his face. “I have to try.”

  “Wait,” interrupted Jackson. “Ruse is online. They have sent a request for a new set of security keys. It's time.”

  Chapter Fifty Three

  After saying his goodbyes Zack left the room and worked his way back through the dark corridors. Stoat gave him two light sticks, but it felt like some sort of token gesture because his torch was working just fine and he didn't need them. After arriving a few metres from the exit of the tunnel he waited for a while, listening out for Guardians or Comrades as they went about their business moving from tower to tower. When he was sure that he was alone he ran onto the platform. He cast his torch along the old tiled wall. Advertisements for old music albums and holiday destinations crumbled and faded with time. He made his way through the tunnels, the dust in the air catching his breath and tickling at his lungs. As he wound up through the spiral staircase where he had first exited with Serena and Duke he passed the final lamp. Right before he breached the surface it became the darkest he had ever known it in his whole time in New Omega.

  Jackson had also given him his watch which now read 8:33 PM. Jackson had told him to wait until at least 8:50 PM because it would take some time for the systems to generate new codes and new feeds, and the fire too would also take
time to travel through the ventilation systems.

  As he poked his head above the level of the staircase he could see four Red Eyes and a collection of Guardians taking their orders from the Comrades who sat perched on top of the tanks. They were only a few metres away and they were guarding the entrance to Alpha tower. The only reason he could see them was because of the red glow that radiated from inside the tracks, and the golden beam on the front of the vehicle. The Comrades and the Guardians were all wearing their white uniforms, but their faces were cast in shadows which made them look like ghosts.

  Zack positioned himself behind a burnt-out car that was partially buried in rubble. He settled onto the carpet of broken glass. He watched the Guardians larking about without a care in the world from behind the safety of his metal shield. It was impossible not to feel unity with those just the other side of that building, and he didn’t need any Unity Panel to achieve it. He imagined himself in the tower, which made every person inside real, with a face and a life that they had lost. People just like him who needed somebody to show them the way, just as Emily had for him.

  He was relying on Stoat to have set the fire as they had agreed. By now it should be roaring and Jackson, Street, and Stoat should be running away. He glanced at the doors and then back to the small air vents that Duke had shown him on the sides of Alpha. Once the fire was in the ventilation systems he would see smoke. Nothing yet. As soon as he saw proof that the plan was in action he would go for it.

  Another four minutes passed, and at 8:49 PM he saw the first sign of smoke billow from the side ventilation pipes on Alpha tower. White smoke, he thought. Success.

  He was crouched, poised on his toes ready to move. He rummaged around with his right hand looking for anything that could function as a boulder, a weapon. He found a heavy metal rod and after testing it for strength he gripped it with his left hand. He carried on his search and found a lump of brick, charred and angry looking, as if it was ready for revenge. Zack squeezed it a bit to ensure that it was strong. It was. Perfect.

  Just before he could move on Alpha Tower he turned and looked south, distracted by the change in light behind him. If he concentrated he could hear the rumble of the Red Eyes, but it wasn't that which caught his attention. Instead it was the flames running rampage across what had to be the Northern Compound. The Guardians outside Alpha began to celebrate, but Zack knew there was nobody in that building and wasn’t deterred. He felt more determined than ever. He had no idea where it was that Jackson, Street, and Stoat were supposed to retreat to once their job was complete, but the choice to return to the place from where they had come had gone.

  That was when he heard the first noises coming from Alpha tower. Fists began drumming against the glass windows, and Guardians outside swung into action. One of the Comrades was waving his fist around in circles with his finger pointing skyward. He was shouting at the driver of the Red Eye.

  “Turn this fucker around,” he shouted, before throwing off more instructions at the other Comrades in the other Red Eyes. The Guardians on the ground began running towards the doors of Alpha Tower. It was now or never. This was the moment that Zack would live or die by, and to him there was only one choice.

  He charged forwards, running as fast as his weak legs could carry him. He clutched the boulder in his hand and a metal rod in the other. It had been a lucky find, he thought to himself as he brought the rod down on the head of the first Guardian. The Guardian fell to the floor as he struck another in the side of the face, a sharp crack rang out and in an unexpected moment of clarity he assumed that he must have fractured the man's cheekbone. The very idea of it brought such an overwhelming sense of elation that he managed to dodge two more Guardians. He smacked the metal rod against the back of another Guardian’s legs, and using the boulder he smashed the eye socket of the sixth Guardian to cross his path. Blood splattered out across his dirty Omega uniform and his fall felt like another triumph.

  The doors were still closed. Maybe Stoat was wrong and he had failed to deactivate them. Zack didn’t wait to find out, and instead launched the boulder towards the glass and watched as the pane shattered in hundreds of pieces to the ground. It was the most beautiful sound, like rainfall on a pond, the rumble in the pit of an orchestra before a symphony. In the moment of silence that followed not even a Guardian moved. As the glass broke some of the Alpha residents backed away in shock, clinging to each other for safety as they saw the outside world. But most faces stared at Zack as if he were an alien from another planet, unable to comprehend the presence of a man in the Omega uniform outside of the tower.

  Why wasn’t he dead? Where were the signs of the nuclear winter?

  From behind those at the front of the crowd more Alpha residents streamed into the lobby, energised like charged particles arriving in a vacuum. Zack was the first to move. He launched the metal rod into the face of the nearest Comrade who fell backwards clutching his broken nose. Blood spilled out over his pristine uniform as if he had been sliced from the gut to his throat. The Guardian next to him reached for his Assister but before he could raise it Zack struck him in the ribs, catching the end of the rod against the Guardian’s knuckles. Zack raised his hand for a second blow. He made good contact with the Guardian’s hand, causing him to drop the Assister.

  Zack lunged forward and snatched the discarded Assister. He charged at Alpha Tower dodging the stunned Guardians. He shouted at the residents, “Run south towards the old Tube station. Go! Go now!”

  Zack saw the first of the residents running towards the door, following his instruction, kicking out the broken glass and tackling the Guardians to the ground. It would only take a few to head towards the Tube station and the rest would follow. He charged along the ground floor of the building, smashing the Assister and the metal rod into the windows, glass shattering at the speed of a machine gun.

  Then Zack felt an Assister strike the back of his legs. He swung out frantically, but he felt another blow on his arm, and then on his shin, pain shooting up through his body. He looked up just in time to see the white uniforms of Alpha running from the tower in the southbound direction as he had demanded of them. He brought his arm up to shield his face and told himself to take whatever the Guardians dished out, that he had survived worse, and that he would survive worse still if he had to.

  When the beating finally stopped he could barely hear thanks to a particularly good blow to the side of the head. He saw a Comrade lean over him, holding up a scanner to his wrist. The Comrade waited for a beep, before standing back up straight. “It's Zachary Christian,” said the surprised Comrade to his colleague. Zack heard a muffled explosion, and saw that one of the Red Eyes had fired at the entrance to Alpha Tower. He tried to move towards the doors but one boot in his bruised side was enough to cripple him. He rolled in pain, hoping as many as possible had got out. The Comrade leaned over Zack again. “You're going back to Omega. There is only one thing waiting for you.”

  He was in agony as they hauled him to his feet. He could feel blood trickling from his lip, and his ribs were throbbing with every beat of his heart. It hurt even to breathe. Even though he felt the urge to resist he was too weak to put up any kind of serious fight. He landed on the metal floor of a van, and through blurred vision he saw what looked like a giant pair of black boots with orange overalls tucked into them. The orange boiler suit leaned over Zack and pulled him upright, tossing him back down onto the bench seat. Zack let out a groan as he saw that it was Duke in front of him. He was talking on some kind of the glass panel. He could still barely hear, but he watched as another person slammed the doors of the van shut. The wheels rolled into motion and he leaned forward to try to listen to what Duke was saying.

  “Yeah, I've got him. But they have messed him up pretty bad. Yeah, of course he knows.” Silence followed whilst Duke listened. “It's worse than Gamma. We have lost over eight hundred of them. There were just too many.” Zack didn't know how to take this. Who was Duke talking to? Whose side was he on? Zack h
ad no idea how much time had passed. He closed his eyes, or they swelled shut. He wasn’t sure. He could see Emily’s face, smiling at him, telling him it would be okay. Then an image of Paris, Samantha, a child and a birthday cake. Images mixed on top of images. Was this it? Was this his life flashing before his eyes right before it ended? Then he heard Duke talking again and he knew he was still alive. “Sir, yes, we have him.” There was somebody else talking in the background. Was that Nielsen? Pederson? Didn’t one of them die? “There is some good news. The Red Eyes are making good eastern progress and we have destroyed their Northern Compound.”

  That’s when Zack gave up. He closed his eyes and tuned out. So, Duke really had double crossed him.

  “Yes, Sir. And there is more. We have taken Brighton. There's nothing of it left.”

  The Dawn: Rise of a Hero

  (Book Five)

  Copyright © 2014 Michelle Muckley

  British English Edition

  First Edition

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, places, or events is in every respect coincidental.

  This work is licensed for your personal enjoyment, but may be lent and copied without prior permission. These permissions extend to your personal use only, and do not intend to cover the copying of the material for distribution to the general public.

  For extra copies, and further information about the author, please visit:

  www.michellemuckley.com

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN- 978-1505218565