The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

Chapter Six

  On the morning of January 9th, 2032, while Simone was at Langley Air Force Base, grieving over the loss of Callum, Winston Severov was standing in the center of the ruins of the White House, in Washington DC.

  What used to be the capital of the United States of America, had become a desolate region of rubble and waste. There had been no form of government present within the former city limits, since the end of 2028. By January 2032, Washington had become merely a temporary home, for fearless and tasteless grave robbers.

  Winston was kneeling over the body of Trevor Kinsey, on the exact piece of land that had once sat beneath the Oval Office. Kinsey was a tall blonde man, with chilling blue eyes that stared lifelessly into the morning sky, above. His flannel shirt and ripped blue jeans were meant to disguise him as an every-day blue collar civilian, but were now covered with ash and tiny extinguishing flames, from the laser rifles he had been gunned down with.

  Trevor had returned to Washington, after leaving his letter to Simone, to rendezvous with a fellow Darkside defector, who was also dead, thanks to Severov’s men. Winston’s foot soldiers had established a perimeter around the White House ruins, while Winston was in the midst of paying his final respects to his former colleague. He was draped in a black trench coat that was collecting ash from the burning cigar in his mouth. After exhaling a long thin puff of smoke, Severov used his free hand to lightly caress Kinsey’s cheek. He then took a deep breath, and in his thick Russian accent said, “You would’ve never survived in the world I want. I hope your new home is treating you well.”

  He then got to his feet and walked towards one of Drellic’s attack drones, which had been hovering behind him the entire time. The machine projected an image of Simone’s drone, blasting its way through the 747, where Simone had discovered Callum’s body. Just before the drone exited the plane, it had recorded a glimpse of the bathroom mirror. Winston ordered the drone to zoom in on the mirror, where he read Callum’s blood written words.

  “Stop him. Save them. I love you,” Winston whispered to himself, with a smile. He then scoffed and ordered the drone to leave. After thinking for a moment, he returned to Kinsey’s body and said, “Soon, my old friend. Very soon, I will have the power to rebuild this world to my specifications. Then you can look down on me, from whatever place you’re in, and you’ll finally realize that I was right.”

  Winston laughed, as he then walked away from Kinsey and followed his drone to the perimeter around the White House. There, he entered the recon ship that had formerly been in the possession of Callum, Simone and Maryann and quickly rocketed away from the area, with the rest of his people.

  Winston sat on a creaking metal bench, along the side of the ship’s rear cabin, and firmly held the Talin on his lap with both hands. He had stolen the Talin from Callum in Chicago, days earlier, and had since then, been studying its endless audio and video recordings from the ancient worlds of man.

  During Drellic’s reign, Winston was one of Drellic’s top advisors, in Drellic’s study of the behavioral patterns and will power of modern humans. In the end, it was Winston’s interrogation techniques that were the catalyst, for so many people across the globe making the decision to join Drellic’s cause. Being a loyalist to the old Soviet Union, and a strong advocate for the benefits of living in a dictatorship as well, Winston fell in love with Drellic’s philosophies, once he had risen to power. It was his invulnerability and merciless tactics that revolved around a sense of Darwinism, that made Winston feel that Drellic was truly the best thing to ever happen to mankind.

  Severov was not racist by any means. He believed in a unified human race. But he also believed that the best interests of every last man, woman and child on Earth, should be decided by a single person, who could force billions of people to follow one single set of rules, by which to conduct themselves in society. He believed that any who would openly challenge the laws of said person, should be made an example of, by way of public execution. He felt that such displays convinced the world that those who opposed, were not fit to exist in society. This was the way that Drellic had dominated humanity, and it generously catered to the belief system that Winston had adopted for himself, decades before Drellic’s arrival.

  Winston smiled, as he peered through the tiny glass window to his right, to see that he had already arrived back in Moscow, where his new Darkside facility was fully operational, at the base of a damaged skyscraper, behind the ruins of The Kremlin. Winston’s ship passed below the city streets, by way of a giant hole in the ground, just in front of the skyscraper. The recently formed chasm, led him to a set of giant metal doors that parted ways, once the ship came into their view. The recon vessel then came to a stop and hovered over the warehouse-like landing bay that Severov’s people had cleared out, to accommodate their stockpile of Drellic Tech.

  Since all Drellic Tech was automatically linked to the same network, it became necessary for Winston’s people to create firewalls, to keep rival factions from tracing their movements back to their home base. Using software that uploaded a type of computer virus into their own Drellic era ships and equipment, Darkside was invisible to Admiral Clement and company in the United States. After exiting the ship, Winston parted ways with his foot soldiers and made his way into a dark hallway off of the landing bay, which led him to a brightly lit observation booth.

  The room was filled with rows of computer work stations and rolling office chairs, which were filled by Winston’s various technicians and engineers. They were all seated in front of a huge, flat screen monitor that resembled a NASA display screen, inside an American Mission Control Center. The monitor displayed a large image of the planet Mars at the very top, and then a series of specific locations on the planet’s surface, just below it. Each location was accompanied by a glowing green stat bar. Each stat-bar was at a very low level, inside each display field. This indicated to Winston, that the facilities on Mars that he had been working tirelessly to protect for many years, were in dire need of replenishment.

  He made his way down the inclined floor pad, to the very first row of work stations. He then picked up an outdated looking office phone, with a tangled cord, and in Russian sternly said, “We need to get more bodies up there. I don’t care if it takes a decade. The quota is much higher now and we need results. Do what you have to do, to fulfill our end of this bargain.”

  He then slammed the phone down and left the room, the way he came. The engineers and technicians fearfully watched his every move, as he stormed out of the room. Winston knew quite well that those in his employ were in constant fear for their lives. His very presence was haunting to even his most intelligent and able bodied people.

  Winston had a reputation for doing anything and everything he could to accomplish his goals, without the slightest thought of consequences or remorse. He lived by a certain code of ruthlessness that most of those around him, could not even begin to fathom. This allowed him to live in a world, where his orders were followed blindly by all, without question.

  Meanwhile at Langley Air Force Base, Simone was sitting alone in Clement’s office, waiting for him to arrive. She was distraught beyond measure and shivered uncontrollably, as she stared lifelessly into a stack of papers on Clement’s desk. The Admiral entered the room a few moments later and sat behind the desk, to face her. He was about to speak, but was interrupted by Simone, immediately.

  “Why did this happen? Why was my husband killed?” Simone demanded. “You know something. I know you do. You’ve always known the truth. Now I need to know why Winston cared about his secrets so much, that he was willing to kill my husband!”

  Clement took a deep breath and replied, “A lot of people were sent to Mars. Thousands. But like I told you before, I don’t know the real reason they were taken there. And whether or not anyone’s still alive, I can’t say. That’s the truth.”

  “Well then, the truth isn’t good enough,” Simone snapped. “I have to find this man. I have to find him and kill h
im for what he’s done. I’ve never wanted anything more in my entire life.”

  “Now you’re just talking about killing yourself,” Clement scolded. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s got too many people and too many resources. Even if you found out exactly where he was, you’d never get within a hundred feet of him. And don’t even think about asking me to pool my resources, to help you. Even my unit is outnumbered and outgunned. After the world ended, Severov ended up at the top. You need to think this through, before you do anything rash. We’re not ready to go after him yet.”

  “I can’t accept that,” Simone replied, with a whimper. “He’s not invincible, OK? He’s not Drellic! There has to be a way!”

  “Of course there’s a way!” Clement yelled. “Don’t you think I’ve already spent a shit load of time, searching for it? We just haven’t found it yet.”

  “Well I’m going to. If it’s the last thing I fucking do,” Simone said.

  She then jumped out of her chair and quickly walked out into Clement’s hangar bay. Clement quickly followed behind her and yelled, “Don’t even think about taking anything else! This is all we’ve got, lady!”

  She proceeded to ignore the Admiral and boarded one of the recon ships in the hangar. A moment later, the engines kicked on and it began to ascend towards the roof of the building. Several officers ran into the hangar bay and pointed their rifles at the rising ship. Clement scolded them and told them to put their weapons down, knowing that mere bullets would have no effect against the ship’s outer hull.

  Clement looked up and could clearly see Simone staring down at him from behind the glass of the ship’s cockpit. Once they made eye contact, Clement slowly mouthed the words, “You’re just killing yourself.” Simone saw the message and understood. Several seconds later, she lowered the ship and returned it to its normal, stationary hovering position. She then exited through the side hatch and hopped back down to the ground. The soldiers pointed their weapons at her, but were again instructed by the Admiral to stand down.

  Clement approached Simone, looked into her eyes and said, “You’ve loved. You’ve lost. But I think that rage you’ve got inside you, is going to show you that anything is possible.”