by Mike Essex
FIFTY-TWO
Grace Wilkerson
“We’re approaching the Houses of Parliament,” said Grace to Jill.
“Perfect,” she replied.
“Have you detected any more sound waves?”
“Nothing yet. Hopefully the next one will help us determine the source. Then we should be able to stop everything. The main sound wave is still going strong but doesn’t seem to be causing any deaths at the moment. It’s as if the goal is something else.”
“Any idea?”
“Control?” pondered Jill. “Whoever did this loves being in control. The sound wave is designed to take over people’s bodies. As for their end goal, I have no idea.”
“That makes two of us,” said Grace. She hung up.
Jill looked at the phone. “One day she’ll end a phone call by saying Goodbye to me.”
The Houses of Parliament entrance loomed up ahead. The Deck walked past hundreds of people hoping that they wouldn’t change. Knowing that someone could attack them at a moment’s notice.
Gabe kicked open the door and pointed his gun inside. “Everyone switch to non-lethal weaponry,” he motioned for them to follow him.
Grace walked behind Gabe covering him with her gun. The team moved as a single unit, breaching each room and checking the corners for people.
When they reached the large chamber that housed the sick they swept their guns around them. The blue light did nothing. Everyone here was human or at least as human as they could be. “This is horrible,” said Grace. “We can’t let this happen again.”
“We won’t,” replied Gabe.
Tobias watched them through a monitor. “How long will you chase me?” he said. “Time for me to chase back.”
The servers around Tobias flickered on and orange lights activated one by one. His body struggled as he attempted to control so many people at once. Fifty separate voices filled his head and he started to shake uncontrollably.
He thrashed his arms around and another man appeared from the shadows to hold him down. “You can’t do this without her. You have to stop,” said the man.
“Just lower the frequency!” shouted Tobias and the man obliged.
Tobias started to control his breathing again and twenty of the lights went out. “It’ll still be enough,” said Tobias. He still had the power of thirty people and that would allow him to test his new found power.
“Look!” shouted Grace as she saw the eyes of the crowd flicker to a dark orange. One by one they saw all fifty people get taken over and then saw lights flicker off and on as Tobias wrestled to control them all.
“What’s happening?” asked March. “This shouldn’t be possible. No one could sustain this many Tethers. It’s impossible.”
“I don’t care what is possible,” shouted Gabe. “Just aim your weapons.”
The ten members of The Deck did their best to cover the thirty opponents they now faced. With each person they covered with blue light another one would be left exposed and free to attack.
“We can’t cover them all!” shouted one of the team.
“Then run!” said Gabe. They dashed towards the door at the far end of the corridor but one of the orange eyed men jumped down and knocked Gabe to the floor. Another five people climbed over the railings and stood in-between The Deck and the door.
The remaining orange eyed people circled around them blocking both the entrance and exit.
“We have to shoot!” said Chris.
“No,” said Gabe. “These are innocent people.”
“They’re already dying!”
“None of this is their fault. Stand down!”
Chris switched his gun back to its blue light.
Without warning an orange eyed man jumped at Gabe kicking him to the floor. They stood over him and reached for his face. Grace kicked them off him and they landed on a wooden table. “Back off!” she shouted.
One of the team looked back to see what was happening and moved his gun away. This released an orange eyed woman from the blue light who used the opportunity to dive at him. She grabbed the solider by the throat lifting him up into the air. It was far beyond her normal strength.
“That’s impossible!” shouted Grace. She shone her light onto the orange eyed woman leaving her standing in her current position. Two of The Deck released the grip she had and set their friend free.
No sooner had their friend dropped to the floor than another two orange eyed people made their move. They ran towards Gabe with their arms outstretched. Gabe punched one of them, knocking them to the floor. Grace punched the other.
As they fell down two more people emerged. They trampled on their fallen friends like they were nothing. There was no loyalty amongst them.
Grace tried to fight them off. She elbowed one of them in the face and dropped to the floor so she could kick another one of them over. It worked but it left her exposed. A third man grabbed her and pulled her over. Gabe tried to save her but he was attacked by an orange eyed woman who kicked the back of his legs sending him downwards.
The remaining orange eyed people rushed in all at once. Their attack was perfectly coordinated with military like precision. They focused on the team members who were shining blue light. As soon as one of them got hit with the light and was stunned, another one of them would attack the soldier and bat his gun away.
“Forget this!” said one of The Deck’s soldiers. He switched his gun to bullets, seeing no other option. “I’m sorry boss,” Before he could even fire an orange eyed man snapped his neck.
Grace kicked her legs frantically trying to get rid of her attacker. He sat on her chest and held her arms down. She couldn’t save herself.
Gabe could only watch Grace get attacked as he was dragged along the floor by his attacker.
Grace tried to raise her arm but it was smashed to the floor by her attacker. She lifted her head to look for help but every one of The Deck had their own battles.
Suddenly the attacker on top of Grace was kicked to the floor. “Who?” asked Grace. She saw the face of the man who had saved her. It was no one she had ever seen before but his eyes were a pure blue.
Gabe felt his legs fall to the floor. He was no longer being dragged along. He too turned around to see he had been saved by a different unknown man.
He looked around and saw many people attacking the orange eyed men. The stalls were no longer full. Every single sick man and woman was helping The Deck and fighting to stop their friends.
“This isn’t you James,” said one of the men to his orange eyed friend.
“Why are you doing this?” Asked a woman to her identical twin, whilst she pinned her down.
Grace was taken aback by such a heart-warming display of friendship and family. It was a reminder to her of exactly what they were fighting for; the ‘have-nots’ who refused to give up on life.
The Deck joined in and started to pin the orange eyed people to the floor. It wasn’t an easy fight but the extra numbers helped.
“You go on,” shouted Chris to Gabe.
“You got this?” asked Gabe.
“Yeah. You need to save Emmie.”
Gabe and Grace ran out of the large chamber.
“Jill? Do you know where we can find Emmie?” asked Grace over the phone.
“Yes. There’s a small trace of the audio signal coming from underground at your current location. It could be Emmie or it could be someone else. Either way you need to find a way down,” said Jill.
Grace hung up the phone and they soon found a spiral staircase that led down underneath the Houses of Parliament. As they ran down the last step they were both knocked to the floor by two unknown attackers.
“What do we have here?” said Vlad, his orange eyes pulsing stronger than ever.
FIFTY-THREE
Grace Wilkerson
When Grace awoke she found herself in a padded room. She was tied to the wall in chains with Gabe next to her. She nudged him to wake him up.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Hell if I know. You just woke me up!” replied Gabe.
“At least I don’t have to hear you snoring anymore.”
The room was small. It had a broken bed on one side and the rest of the room was just white padded walls.
“Are we in a mental institution?” asked Grace. “I’m not crazy am I? Was this all just some messed up dream?” she joked.
“You are crazy but that’s not why we are here. We were knocked out by a two large men. My legs are sore underneath so they must have dragged us here.”
The door opened and in walked Vlad, his belt of knives dangling from his hip. “Hello pets,” he said.
“Where is Emmie!?” shouted Grace.
“She’s safe. I’ve been removing all the lies you put in her head,” said Vlad. “Like how you told her I killed a billion people.”
“Tobias?”
“That’s right,” he replied. “This body is just a vessel but I’m the one controlling him. He hates it when I take control but he is the best person I know for inflicting pain and a man like that can come in handy.”
“You’re sick! You killed all those people and you are causing more pain now. Why can’t you accept what you did?”
“What I did?!” shouted Tobias through Vlad. He grabbed the broken bed and threw it out of the room in rage. “They did this to me! I wanted none of this.”
“It was your team! Your team was the one who stopped the Siege. That’s what you told everyone.”
“Lies,” he replied. “Yes my body stopped the Siege but it wasn’t something I asked for. When it was all over they made me into a hero, knowing if I told the world the truth it would destroy me as well.”
“Who?” said Grace.
Vlad leant in closer and opened his mouth ready to speak. “Oh you know them very well. It was…”
Seeing an opportunity Gabe reached forward and grabbed a large knife from Vlad’s belt. He swiped upwards, cutting through the belt of knives, sending them clattering to the floor. He finished his motion by jamming the knife into Vlad’s neck who tumbled backwards in shock.
“This is our chance!” Gabe grabbed the sharpest knife he could see and cut through his chains at the most rusted part. He tossed the knife to Grace and shouted “Quickly.”
Vlad found his footing and looked ahead to see Gabe running at him with a large curled knife. He had just enough time to say “My scythe,” before the knife was hooked around his neck and Gabe pulled him to the floor.
Vlad didn’t move. A deep cut ran along his neck and the injuries he had caused to himself earlier had now been ripped open.
Gabe looked at Vlad’s body waiting for it to move. “Is he dead?” he wondered out loud. Before he got an answer Gabe was kicked backwards by the man’s twin.
Grace, now free of her chains, ran over to the taller twin with a cleaver. She swiped at his head but he darted backwards. She aimed for his arm but he pulled it away. He was fast, ridiculously fast.
“It won’t work,” said the twin. “This body understands time better than you ever will.”
Grace continued to swing the knife towards him and he dodged every shot. It was as if he knew exactly what Grace was going to do. She swiped towards his head and he ducked and dove towards her. Grace hit the ground on her back, bringing back the pain she had felt at TethTech.
“No,” shouted Gabe.
She started to rise to her feet but the twin put his foot on her to push her back to the floor. Gabe grabbed at the twin but he moved away. It gave Grace a chance to get up and she bounced onto her feet. She wasn’t going to be defeated by her back again.
She whispered a plan to Gabe as the twin looked on. “I know exactly what you’ll do,” the twin said.
Gabe dashed at the twin and drove a knife towards his eye. The twin let the knife almost touch his eyeball before he backed away.
It gave Grace the opportunity she had waited for. She sat by Vlad and pulled the scythe into his throat. “Stop!” she shouted. “If you don’t let us go then I will kill your brother.”
“I’ll survive,” said the twin. “I’m connected to a greater power now.”
“Not forever. As soon as you stop being linked to that power you’ll die. Do you want to be controlled for the rest of your life?”
The twin tried to think about this as Tobias wrestled to keep control of his thoughts. He’d been under Tobias’ control for so long that he’d started to learn how to fight back. He had learnt how to feel human again.
His eyes flickered from orange to green.
“No,” shouted Tobias, struggling to keep control of the twin whilst fighting The Deck on the upstairs levels. His nose began to bleed. He was feeling the pressure of controlling so many people.
“You need to stop,” said the shadowy figure next to Tobias. “You can’t do this to yourself.”
Tobias let out a gasp and the twin felt his freedom return to him. “1012 days, 12 hours, 53 minutes. That’s how long he has controlled me,” he said. “My name is Gunto and I have been Tobias’ servant for far too long. If you let my brother go then I will release you from this room. But next time we see each other he will be in control of me again and next time I won’t be beaten.”
“What about Emmie?” asked Grace. “Is she here?”
“I’m afraid not,” replied Gunto. “You need to go direct to the source. She is on her way there now.”
Gunto grabbed Gabe’s phone from his pocket and pulled up a map. He marked an area with an X. “This is the place. You have to hurry, I know what Tobias wants and it will threaten everyone,” As he finished the sentence he felt an intense pressure in his head. He dropped to the floor holding his head with his hands and screaming.
“We have to go,” said Gabe dropping the knife and running for the exit. “Come on,” he shouted to Grace who looked on as Gunto writhed in pain.
Gabe pushed the elevator button and it opened instantly. “Grace! It’s not safe here.”
“But he was going to tell us everything,” she replied. She looked back and saw Gunto’s face. A mass of veins was now pulsing on the surface of his face and over the back of his head. His eyes flickered back and forth to orange.
Tobias continued to pull the life away from Gunto. “You are no longer useful,” he said. His voice echoed out from Gunto.
In between the thrashing Gunto could only utter a few words: “46 years … 10 months … 21 days …. 3 hours …. 8 minutes … 12 seconds … of life.”
“Grace!” shouted Gabe.
Gunto tried to crawl towards Grace but he was forced away from her. The force sent him backwards so hard that his spine ruptured and he collapsed onto the floor. His eyed returned to normal and in his last breath he uttered “Never, enough, time.”
As Gunto died his brother could only watch. Tobias had a simple message for Vlad, which he sent directly to his brain. “Your brother is dead. If I release control of you now then you will die. You are mine forever,” Vlad knew it was true. The freedom he had been promised was now gone. He would always be Tobias’ slave.
Vlad stopped fighting Tobias’ influence and gave away the one thing he had always craved. Control.
As Grace ran to the elevator Gabe watched as Vlad chased after her. “Faster!” he shouted.
Grace didn’t look back. She just pushed on. “Press the button,” she shouted.
Gabe knew not to argue. He pressed the button for the ground floor and the doors started to close. Vlad removed a knife from his belt and took aim.
As the doors were about to close Grace turned to her side and slipped inside. A knife followed her through and hit the back wall narrowly missing her. As it clattered to the floor the doors shut and Grace let out a sigh of relief.
“Jill,” said Gabe speaking into his phone.
She answered instantly. “Yep.”
“Can you put an elevator out of service?” he asked.
“Sure can. It’s probably connected to a central control room. I’ll just hack through ther
e and…”
“Great,” he interrupted. “I’m sending you the serial number now,” he hung up.
Jill rolled her eyes. She was tempted to stop the elevator before they reached the top, to get payback for their rudeness but she resisted the urge.
When they had reached the ground floor Jill sent the elevator down so it was stuck between floors and sent a signal so that it would stop there.
As she finished her phone vibrated. She checked the message on the screen and packed a bag. There was somewhere else she needed to be.
FIFTY-FOUR
Emmie Keyes
“Where are we going?” I asked Rex.
“A power station, Emmie,” he replied, as Tobias spoke through him. “Although not one in the conventional sense. This station powers something very different to electricity but far more vital to life.”
“The people that made you this way, they were just trying to save everyone,” I replied.
“I have no doubt of that,” he replied. “But the lengths they were prepared to go to for results. The pressure they were happy to put another person through. Inexcusable. Don’t think for a second they won’t do the same to you.”
“But why?” I replied. “There’s no threat now. There’s no reason they would hurt me.”
“No threat? There is always a threat Emmie. There is always a reason for science to push on and experiment to get results. They just need someone to test their theories on.”
“So why haven’t they experimented on you again?”
“Power,” he replied. “When I was freed I did everything I could to rise to power so they could never hurt me again. No-one notices when someone unknown goes missing but when it’s someone famous or powerful it becomes world news.”
“So that’s why you started TethTech?” I asked. “For power?”
“Yes and no. It gave me the power to protect myself but I‘ve also been secretly selling my shares for months and it’s given me the money to fight back.”
“Fight back?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Rufus drove the car through the city, past destroyed buildings and people living inerty in ramshackle houses. London had been transformed into a third world city. It was now one of the largest shanty towns in the world.