Darklandia
Page 14
“No, she wouldn’t do that.”
“She did do that. Look.” He raised the lumen toward me and I knocked it out of his hand. “You don’t have to do this. You can back out now and we’ll leave. You and me, we’ll go somewhere else. We’ll leave Manhattan behind.”
“And go where? Chicago? We can’t just ignore what’s going on here. And I can’t leave my father on Level 16.”
“Sera, they’ll keep you on Level 16 with your father for the rest of your life. You’ll never wake up!”
Before Nyx could stop me, I leaped.
I let myself fall backward into the pod, a slow motion descent. My father’s face flashed before me, quickly replaced by the gray despair of a dying Manhattan.
After the leap came the drop.
The neuro-gel immediately tightened around my limbs. “Goodnight, Aaron.”
The pod had not fully closed before the jolt of 200,000 volts slammed into me.
19
“You’ve done well, Sera.” The health specialist gently slid the needle out of my arm. She grasped my arm and heaved me out of the pod and out of the cell.
The corridor on Level 16 was bathed in a beautiful blue glow. It reminded me of something I’d seen inside Darklandia. The sky. That was it. The sky inside Darklandia was gorgeous, especially today.
“What day is it?” I asked, as I dragged my feet across the shiny tile.
“Excuse me?” Specialist Young asked, as she leaned toward me.
The corridor appeared fuzzy as if I were viewing it through a clouded window. My heavy head bobbed with each step I took.
“What day is it?”
“It’s day twenty-six for you, Sera.”
“Twenty-six,” I muttered, as I slowly lifted my hand and attempted to count the numbers off on my fingers, but my hand was nothing more than a hazy blob. “How many more… days?”
Specialist Young led me into the laboratory where rows of cushioned chairs stretched and blurred into the distance.
“Many,” she replied, as she helped me into my reclining chair and strapped down my arm to receive the next needle. “Many more days.”
20
Manhattan, 2015
“The VR therapy doesn’t work for everyone, Mr. Fisk, especially the cases with the most severe degeneration in the brain tissue,” the technician said as they watched the female technician in the adjacent room slide Sera’s body out of the virtual reality pod, a giant medicine capsule which had thus far proved to be filled with placebo.
Darren Fisk tried to hold back the tears stinging behind his eyes as he laid his hand flat against the pane of glass separating the VR control room from VR-406, the virtual reality therapy room. The female technician, dressed in her yellow HAZMAT suit, wheeled Sera’s body across the room and punched the call button for the elevator that would deliver his daughter back to room 1621; the sealed hospital room she had lived in for more than two years since contracting the virus named after Felicity Locke, its first victim.
In 2013, the Felicity virus infected 71 million Americans and 2.3 billion people worldwide. Nearly one billion people died within the first six months, before Vitalis Pharmaceuticals developed and released a successful vaccine. The virus attacked the brain and nervous system, rendering its victims incommunicative and completely dependent on others.
Sleepwalkers. That’s what they called the victims of the Felicity virus. Once the virus took over, millions of people were found wandering the streets of cities all over the globe completely unaware of their surroundings.
For those who contracted the virus in the first six months, the vaccine had a low success rate. Many of them never woke up. Sera contracted the virus two months before the vaccine was released.
Though there was no detectable trace of the Felicity virus left in Sera’s bloodstream, the doctors still suited up every time they came near her. Darren was also required to wear the HAZMAT suit during the one hour he was allowed inside Sera’s room each day. The fact that she had yet to wake from her 26-month catatonic state was evidence that the virus may still be squatting inside her brain. The hospital couldn’t risk another outbreak, or a lawsuit, just so Darren could hold his daughter.
“But the therapy has an eighty-seven percent success rate. And Dr. Ming said Sera had an excellent chance of waking up.”
“Mr. Fisk, forgive me, but you are well aware of the downfalls of the procedure. You are aware it works better on those who contracted the virus within the last eighteen months; those with less evidence of degenerative tissue in the right hemisphere.”
The technician delivered this statement with care, but it didn’t prevent Darren from imagining an air of condescension in his tone. Darren didn’t want to think that the hospital staff had given up on Sera. He also didn’t want to think about the day his wife’s attorney delivered her living will specifying her refusal of the treatment. And just because the VR Therapy failed to wake Darren’s grandmother, it didn’t mean he should give up hope it would work for Sera.
The virus was under control now. The population of New York was rebounding. Every day, people were waking up with the help of the vaccine and the VR therapy. There was no reason not to hope it would work for his only daughter.
“With all due respect, Mr. Fisk, we can’t be certain that Sera is even aware of her surroundings or that she isn’t in pain. She needn’t suffer.”
“It isn’t that easy. I didn’t have an option with her mother. She made her own choice,” Darren replied. “I want to try again.”
The technician gave a pitiful nod before he exited the control room.
Darklandia may have failed, but there were other VR narratives they had yet to try. Three more. One of them had to work.
Eighty-seven percent. Those were damned good odds.
Acknowledgements
One of these days I’ll get my own pod to live out the narratives in my mind all by myself, but until then I’ll have to settle for working with totally awesome people.
Special thanks and so much love go to my old and new beta readers: Kristin Shaw, Jordana Welti, Michael Finn, Stacy Davis, and Renee Chavez. Writers are sometimes led astray by ego, stress, unruly plots, and too many ellipses. Your feedback helped me keep those in check.
Extra special thanks go to photographer Marianna Orlova at DeviantArt for allowing me to use the image of Sera for this cover. Your generosity and talent made this cover powerful.
So much gratitude and awe go to my magnificent cover artist, Scarlett Rugers, for making my first experience with a cover artist absolutely amazing and capturing such a breathtaking image of a young girl trapped in a society gone wrong. Thank you for putting so much thought and hard work into this project.
There are no words to express my gratitude to the many friends and family members who offered their support in so many ways during the writing of this book; especially my parents, my sister Penelope, my Aunt Bernice and Uncle Adam, and Martha and Dennis. I was already convinced that no one has a more generous family than I do. I am now certain.
And a huge thank you to all the readers who contacted me during the months I was writing Darklandia. Your enthusiasm and kindness helped me through one of the most difficult books of my career. Your continued support has allowed me to continue writing books for a living; a dream I’ve held since I was five when I used to record my stories on cassette tapes! I love you guys so much and hope you all continue to write me often.
Other books by T.S. Welti
No Shelter Trilogy (Post-Apocalyptic Love Story)
No Shelter (#1)
Left Behind (#2)
Buried Alive (#3)
No Shelter Trilogy Omnibus Edition (#1-3)
No Shelter Trilogy Prequel coming soon!
Carrier Spirits (Paranormal Romance)
Parallel Spirits (#1)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived in three countries, three states, and a zillion different cities. I write mostly science fiction, fantasy, and romance for readers ages thirteen and up. In my spare time I love traveling; misquoting movies and TV shows; consuming mounds of books and chocolate; obsessing over music and lyrics; and pretending to be a celebrity chef.
I began telling stories when I was five and began writing them down when I was six. I was painfully shy as a child. Writing and reading provided an escape from the scary world. In fact, I was so introverted, I once wrote a story about a girl who got rejected by her imaginary friend and the story was based on true events. I know, how sad. Thankfully, as I got older I grew out of the shyness, for the most part, but I never let go of my books or my pencil.
You can find out more about me and my books at http://tswelti.com.
DARKLANDIA
by T.S. Welti
http://tswelti.com
Copyright © 2012 by T.S. Welti
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without expressed written permission from the author; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1479280520
ISBN-10: 1479280526
Table of Contents
Title Page
Synopsis
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Other books by T.S. Welti
About the Author
Copyright
“Felicity”
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20