Ceaseless

by S. A. Lusher

  “Good-” Allan paused as he looked out the window. The killer was going around the building instead of through it. He cursed, hurried over to the wall and opened the window. Bringing his rifle to his shoulder, he glanced at the others, “get to the shelter. I'll be along shortly.”

  They didn't argue and hurried out of the room. Allan aimed at the killer and fired off several three-round bursts, hitting him in his massive chest.

  “Come on, asshole!” he screamed. “Come get it you stupid fuck!”

  He fired off a few more shots. The killer seemed to hesitate, then turned and began walking directly towards the building. Allan laughed and hurried out of the room. He rushed down the stairs, leaping down the final set of them and landing with a heavy thud on the ground floor. He glanced out the front doors and saw the killer, coming for him. Turning, Allan sprinted across the room, exited the structure and bolted across the exterior.

  He spied the bunker at the edge of the compound. Built to withstand the brunt of a full meltdown blast, it came standard with all power plants. It was a squat, rounded building just big enough to hold all the employees of the facility, although not comfortably. The door was open and Lucy stood at it, waving him closer, urging him to hurry.

  Allan crossed the distance and entered the small building. Lucy closed and secured the door behind him. He looked around the padded interior. There were straps and seats along the walls, meant for people to lock themselves into. Johnson had already done so. Lucy and Allan sat down and quickly began strapping themselves in.

  “How long-”

  The plant blew.

  * * * * *

  This time, Allan managed to retain his consciousness. The force of the blast picked up the structure and threw it clear of the area, at least several hundred meters, if not more, by Allan's estimate. It landed with a very heavy thud in the dirt. For a very long moment, nobody moved. The bunker had done it's job, for which Allan was very grateful. Finally, slowly, he reached up and undid the straps. The bunker had landed at a sharp angle, so that the back wall was now practically the floor. Standing up slowly, Allan considered their next actions.

  “Can we go now?” Johnson groaned as he freed himself.

  “We should check and make sure,” Allan replied.

  “Make sure of what? There's no way he survived that,” Lucy replied.

  “I want to be sure,” Allan said.

  Fighting against gravity, he moved up to the front entrance and unsealed the door. Opening it, he found himself peering up into the endless blue skies. He climbed up over the lip of the door frame and stood atop it, carefully balancing himself on the edge of the bunker, which jutted from the earth, half of it buried in the packed dirt.

  “Wow,” he said.

  Despite everything, there was still something pretty awe-inspiring about looking at a half-mile wide and deep crater, still smoking.

  “Could you move?” Lucy asked from behind him.

  Allan hopped off the bunker and landed softly in the dirt. They were about a quarter mile from the crater. An immense silence seemed to cover everything.

  “So, you really want to go check?” Lucy asked, jumping down next to him.

  “I guess there's nothing to check. He'd have been totally vaporized,” Allan replied.

  “You sound disappointed.”

  “I guess...I wanted a body. I wanted to know just who the fuck he was, why he did all this,” Allan replied quietly.

  “I guess so, but come on, we should get to that colony, try to figure out what to do next.”

  Johnson hopped down onto the dirt next to them. As one, the three survivors turned and began walking towards the colony.

  * * * * *

  “I could really use a shower,” Johnson said.

  It was the first thing that had been spoken since they'd set off. Allan estimated that they had perhaps ten more minutes of walking before they reached the outskirts of the colony. He wished they'd somehow been able to save the jeep, but he supposed it didn't matter. A couple miles' walk through the wastelands was nothing compared to what he'd been through over the course of the past day. He was honestly glad for the reprieve.

  “I could use some food, and a drink,” Lucy replied.

  “I need to take a piss,” Allan said after a long moment.

  Johnson burst out laughing. “Eloquently put.”

  “Are we screwed?” Lucy asked suddenly. “I mean, we blew up an entire power plant. I get the feeling that isn't going to go over lightly. I kind of like my job, you know?”

  “I'll need a new job,” Johnson murmured.

  “I'll take full responsibility for what happened. I'm not exactly anyone's favorite at the moment, so they'll probably be pretty happy to just pin any and all issues on me. I'll lose my job, and I might have to do some time, or go into debt or something. Those plants aren't very cheap. But I don't know, it doesn't really matter. We stopped him,” Allan replied.

  To that, neither of the other survivors seemed to know what to say.

  As Allan reached the outskirts of the small colony, which was essentially just a line of housing units, he hesitated. There was something wrong. At first, he couldn't tell what it was, only that it was making him nervous.

  Then he realized.

  He could hear absolutely nothing.

  No voices, no movement, no signs of life. For a split second, terror gripped him, sure that somehow, someway the killer had survived. Then he had relaxed. Everyone was probably just either hiding or had evacuated. That was fine. He could deal with that.

  “Come on,” he said, leading them into the backyard of one of the houses.

  Colonization had become so popular and routine that most colonies that sprang up, almost always around some kind of resource buried in the ground or some opportunity for regular business in a new area, that prefabricated structures were mass produced by several corporations to be bought so that colonies could be set up practically overnight. This particular grouping seemed to be very cheap and small. Allan doubted it more than two hundred people lived here. He moved between two of the housing units and came to the road beyond.

  He began walking along the road. The others followed silently behind him. They followed the road to a larger, more traveled thoroughfare and began following it.

  “Where is everyone?” Johnson whispered.

  “Probably evaced because of the meltdown,” Allan replied, but uncertainty had crept into his voice. Where else could they be, anyway?

  As they approached what must have been the 'town square' of the colony, Allan stopped. He found it difficult to fully comprehend what he was seeing. There was a small impact crater in the middle of the open area in the center of town, around which several business had been centered. Around the impact site, there were close to two dozen bodies, perhaps more. They were all dead. Necks crushed or chests punched in.

  Nobody spoke for a long time.

  “He must have landed here,” Lucy finally said, breaking the immense silence that engulfed the three of them.

  “And then killed anyone nearby,” Allan whispered.

  “Do you hear that?” Johnson asked softly.

  At first, he didn't. Then, he could hear it. An engine. Without a word, the trio turned and hurried off towards the sound of it. They found the killer standing over the popped hood of a civilian model jeep. He slammed the hood down and began heading for the driver's seat.

  “Now he gets in a fucking jeep,” Allan whispered.

  “We're not going to try and attack him, are we?” Lucy asked.

  “I...” Allan hesitated. For once, the sheer indestructibility of the killer seemed to weigh down on him. What could they hope to do?

  As he was contemplating this, the killer paused, one hand on the frame of the vehicle that he could probably barely only fit into. He stood frozen like that for a second, then stepped away from the vehicle and turned around.

  “Oh shit, I think he noticed us,” Johnson whispered in abject fear.

&nb
sp; But he wasn't looking towards them...at least, Allan thought he wasn't. Abruptly, something sailed out from somewhere amidst the several buildings around and hit the killer. There was a brief burst of sparks. Allan felt his chest swell with hope as the killer seemed to stagger briefly. Then another one shot out, and a third, a fourth. Soon, over a dozen of the things had penetrated the killer's armor, blue sparks dancing along the black metal.

  Abruptly, the killer toppled over.

  Dark shapes, what Allan recognized as men, soldiers likely, emerged from the buildings and alleyways surrounding the small square of open space the killer had been occupying. Allan was in the midst of considering how to react to this when he felt raw, furious pain explode across his back. At the same time he heard Lucy and Johnson cry out.

  As he collapsed onto his side, he heard a single sentence.

  “Take them to Obsidian Station.”

  Chapter 08

  –Obsidian Station–

  Allan's eyes snapped open.

  He found himself staring up at a blank silver ceiling of dull metal. For a long moment, he didn't move, as he was utterly bewildered. There was tension in him, adrenaline singing through his veins, but he had literally no idea where he was or why he was there, only that he ached, a lot. Some places hurt more than others, but his whole body throbbed dully in pain. He swallowed and found his mouth and throat dry.

  Allan closed his eyes, trying to clear his head. What was the last thing he remembered? His squad, dying. It was the first thing that came to mind. Only-no, his second squad dying. The outpost. The distress call. The killer. The chaos. The death. Allan's eyes opened again and he sat up abruptly and groaned as the world swam, his equilibrium thrown wretchedly out of balance. He laid back down, unable to remain upright, and closed his eyes once more. For another long moment, he simply lay there, waiting for the dizziness to pass.

  The memories slowed, settled, ordered themselves. Once more, he opened his eyes. It was then that he realized he was still in his armor. Slowly, cautiously, Allan sat up. His view tilted slightly, but not enough to cause any real problems. He sorted through his memories as he climbed to his feet. He remembered the killer, and the men in black armor with their guns that shot electrically charged bolts. For a moment, he felt hope spear him.

  There was something that could take this jerkoff down.

  Unfortunately, they'd also nabbed him and the other two in the process. What was the last thing he'd heard? The very last thing..

  Take them to Obsidian Station.

  So this was Obsidian Station. Allan turned in a slow circle, feeling like he'd just woken up from a ten-day binge. He was in an almost totally bare cell of metal. A single strip of light lit the room from overhead. The pallid white luminosity fell on the single slab of metal meant to serve as a bed that occupied one corner and the toilet that occupied the other. That was it. There was nothing else in the room with him.

  No window, a pair of very small ventilation grilles and a single door that was barely discernible from the wall around it, separated only by a razor thin dark line in the metal. There was no way to open it from the inside. Allan walked over to the 'bed', his legs feeling something close to stilts, and sat down heavily.

  He searched his mind for any clues that might shed some light on his current situation but could think of nothing concrete. Lindholm was a backwater colony world, barely more than a couple million people across the entire planet. Nothing happened there. That was kind of the point, the whole reason he'd sought it out.

  So what the fuck was all this?

  Allan's head continued to clear. How was he going to get out of this? He still had his suit of armor. Allan began checking all his pockets and pouches, anywhere he might have any kind of gear left on him. After several moments, he realized that he'd been stripped of literally everything but his uniform and his armor. He didn't have a bullet to his name. So what did that leave him with? Barely anything. Just his armor and...

  His radio.

  He turned it on and found that it still worked. Dialing into the team's frequency, he hoped that Lucy still had the tiny radio they'd given to her. Nestled in her ear, it might have gone unnoticed by their captors.

  “Banks, can you hear me?”

  There was a lengthy pause, then, “yes.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I guess so...I'm not hurt, well, I feel hurt, but I think I'm actually okay.” She paused. “They electrocuted me.”

  “Yeah...do you know where we are?”

  “Not really. I remember waking up at some point. We were driving. I looked out a window and saw a mountain and we were headed towards it. Then I was out again, then I woke up in this cell. Where are you?”

  “I'm in a cell, too. Last thing I remember is getting hit with the volts...did you see what happened to the killer?”

  “No. Just the mountains, then I passed back out. I don't suppose you know who these people are or why they took us?”

  “No. No idea. Might be some kind of corporation or some government branch maybe...what about Johnson, did you see him?”

  “Yeah.” There was a long pause. “...Allan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I'm scared.”

  “...me too.”

  Allan stood up as the door to his cell slid into the wall without warning. Two men in dark armor stepped in. He only had a moment to study them before they came forward and grabbed him. The armor was a flat black and totally featureless. There no markings, no insignias to identify rank or affiliation. Their faces were hidden behind shiny black visors that revealed nothing. We had a pistol on their hip, a rifle across their back.

  They hauled Allan out of the cell and into the corridor beyond, which was little more than starkly-lit bland metal, no windows and the vague outlines of doors along the walls. They grabbed him by the forearms, one on each side, and marched him down the corridor. For a long moment, none of the three of them spoke.

  They passed through doorways and more corridors, occasionally encountering other men and women in suits of dark armor. There was a hushed feel to the base that seemed to mute everything. Even the colors were pallid and weak. Allan spent a few moments trying to learn more about his captors, but couldn't quite place them. Everything certainly had the feel of a military operation, or perhaps a very highly trained, serious corporation. But corporations had insignias, and military business had a particular feel to it.

  This lacked both.

  So who were they? The only thing his mind fell on was that they were spooks: government. He knew that there was a branch of the government called Spec Ops, which handled some of the more high-risk jobs. Or the dirtier ones. But he'd heard whispers that there was something beyond even that. A black ops branch that no one knew the name of. A curious concoction of research and defense, intelligence and military action.

  Maybe that was this.

  “Who are you guys?” he asked, figuring why not? Maybe he'd get an answer.

  Both men remained silent, as if he'd never spoken.

  “You know I'm a Sergeant in the Investigations portion of SI, right? This is pretty illegal. You're going to be fucked,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Still the two men remained silent.

  Allan sighed and kept walking. Eventually, they came to one door among many and opened it. The two men walked him in and sat him down at one of two chairs in the room. The room itself was all but barren, nothing more than two chairs facing each other, a rectangular metal table in between them. The other chair was empty.

  “Stay,” one of the men said, his voice coming out mechanical through the filter in his helmet.

  “Oh, you got it, sir,” Allan replied, rolling his eyes.

  Both men left the room, the door closing behind them. Allan looked around. Still no windows. Not that it mattered. When he finally figured out why he wanted to see windows, to determine how long he'd been out, he wanted to kick himself. Stupid. He had a chronometer built into the head's up display of his suit.r />
  He activated it and saw that they'd been out for nearly four hours. What a huge waste of time. He began tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair while he waited, letting his mind wander. There was little doubt that the killer was somewhere nearby, somewhere inside the facility. Contained? It didn't seem possible, but there were no alarms, no dead bodies, no one running around screaming and crying uselessly for help.

  The door opened and someone stepped in.

  He was a man of average height and weight, although perhaps a little on the slender side. He wore a simple black uniform with no rank, nametag or insignia. His head was shaved bald, his skin very pale and his eyes were like emeralds lit from within by some malignant flame. Allan noted that both of his hands were skeletal and black, cast in metal and technology. He smiled as he walked in and took a seat across from Allan.

  “Hello, Sergeant Gray. My name is Director Blackwell. I'm pleased to meet you,” he said, speaking slowly and clearly.

  He reached across the table, extending his metal hand. Allan remained motionless. “Director of what, exactly?” he asked, finally crossing his arms over his chest.

  Blackwell's smile widened and he withdrew his hand. “Ah yes, information. Unless rather dire techniques are employed, typically information comes easiest when exchanged.”

  Allan stayed immobile, staring at the man from behind his opaque visor.

  “I'm the Director of this particular cell of a branch of the government. We do...experimental research, let's say.”

  “And I'm inclined to believe that I've met your 'research',” Allan said, his voice low.

  Blackwell nodded, losing his smile. “Yes, unfortunately...you know, I know you, Sergeant Gray. I know all about you. Why do you think I left that suit on? I have...well, you could say, respect, for you, I suppose. I was hoping we could talk about all of your interactions with the subject, starting from the very beginning to-”

  “To when your boys shot me full of volts?” Allan snapped.

  “Yes...I do apologize for that. But we...needed you. Now, I'd like you to tell me-”