The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ten years had passed since Simone’s aided escape from Severov’s facility in Moscow. The date was February 1st, 2042, and by this time, Simone was 51 years old. Over the course of the previous decade, the world had become much more recognizable, to all those who could remember the time before Drellic. The poorly organized, fickle factions in the United States, Russia, Japan, China and Australia, had become fully functioning governments that had implemented a worldwide initiative to clean up the ruins of the world’s major cities. They sought to rebuild society without the burden of a monetary system, and agreed to only reinstate each country’s own monetary system, once the majority of its people could rejoin the workforce and restart their economies with a clean slate.

  By 2042, Marshall Law had been lifted from every nation that still had a respectable military, and an era of world peace had ensued. This was due to the popular opinion, that if mankind were to repair the “Broken Earth”, they would have to do it as one people. Happiness and prosperity flooded the world. Many praised the Era of Drellic as a blessing in disguise, which paved the way for world peace.

  But there was one small group of Americans and Russians, who knew of a terrible truth brewing in Moscow, Russia. And despite their unique foresight, they lacked both the numbers and resources to alert the world and act on their knowledge.

  Unfortunately for Marco Gropovski, Simone West- Hammond and their small band of enlightened freedom fighters, Winston Severov had become one of the most powerful people in the world. He had become the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in 2038, as he had refused to be referred to by anyone as “Prime Minister”. He then became the President of Russia in 2040, after the President at the time was mysteriously killed in an unexplained plane crash.

  Winston’s charisma and high standards for his people, had led Russia to become the most powerful nation in the world, by the late 2030’s. Shortly after obtaining the presidency, Winston announced to the world that a team of his best scientists had discovered a unique mineral on the surface of Mars, which could be synthesized into a gas and used to reverse global warming on Earth.

  Winston then proposed the “first ever” manned mission to Mars; the purpose of which was to establish mines on the surface, with which to harvest the mineral. Over the previous ten years, Winston had made sure that anyone with any information about the previous missions to Mars, was killed. Simone and Gropovski were the only people still beyond his reach, with any knowledge of what was known as, “The Shadow Colony”. But Severov and his people were hunting them every day, and knew that they could not afford to come out into the open to make accusations. The entire world was in love with Winston Severov and saw him as the would-be savior of humanity.

  Gropovski was once Severov’s second in command, and one of the only other people in the world with knowledge of the Shadow Colony. But his fear for Severov, was only matched by his disgust for what Severov was responsible for. Just before her escape, Simone had been beaten senseless by Severov and left for dead in her cell. Simone’s comments to Severov, which provoked the beating, drove Severov into seclusion, as well as a tall bottle of scotch. It was then that Gropovski saw his opportunity to gather the few men that shared his point of view, and flee the compound, with Simone in their safe custody.

  By February of 2042, Simone and Gropovski were holed up in Anchorage, Alaska. It was a sparsely populated area during that time, and was one of the few American cities that had yet to enter the rebuilding process, since the greater focus had been on the continental US. This made it an ideal spot to stay off of Winston’s radar for the time being.

  Once they had nestled into their new base of operations, Simone had already learned all that Gropovski knew of the Shadow Colony, and watched in horror has Winston appeared on International Television, on February 1st, 2042. He had unveiled ten new MARC rockets in orbit around Earth, and they were each waiting to carry 253 new colonists to Mars, to mine a mineral, which Simone knew to be fictitious.

  Winston declared that a little over 2,000 people would be selected to travel to the Red Planet, to begin the mining process. He explained that only people in top physical condition would be eligible, and that a return plan had already been put into effect, which would ensure the colonist’s timely arrival back to Earth, one year after their arrival on Mars.

  It didn’t take long for Winston’s offices to be flooded with emails, calls and walk-in appointments. Colonist interviews were scheduled to begin at the end of the month. Unbeknownst to Winston, one of his upcoming interviews was going to be with an unrecognizable, Simone West- Hammond.

  Thanks to the Darkside connections from her past, Simone was still in contact with Dr. Robert Feldman; an old colleague of hers, who specialized in reconstructive surgery and prosthetics. Dr. Feldman was frequently sought after, for altering the physical appearance of sleeper agents, who were feared to have been compromised by the enemy. If the enemy already knew the face of an agent, Dr. Feldman was called in to supply that agent with a new one.

  Gropovski spent years trying to discourage Simone from posing as a naïve colonist; but it was no use. Finally, Gropovski himself found that he was no match for Simone’s persistent and persuasive nature, and decided to accompany her to the interviews; also with a new face and identity. It was the most difficult decision either of them had ever had to make. They were leaving behind everything that they were, in their attempt to make the journey to Mars.

  Although Gropovski didn’t know every last detail of Winston’s plan, he knew that Winston had made a bargain with “Shadow”, the organization that was secretly in control an underground facility on Mars, where the thousands of people already dispatched to the Red Planet from 1994-2012, had been sent for “processing”. The true identities of the members of “Shadow”, had been kept a secret from Gropovski, but he knew enough about the MARC procedure, to develop a plan for getting through to Mars, without being discovered by “Shadow”. Marco and Simone’s greatest challenge was having to come up with a plan to infiltrate the facility and somehow free the colonists that could still be saved.

  Gropovski knew that there were men, women and children of all ethnicities, currently on Mars. However, he had no way of knowing if any of them were still alive, or if anyone who was still alive, could even be saved. He didn’t even know exactly what had been done to them or what their true purpose was on Mars. He only knew that “Shadow” had been responsible for the creation of the Darkside Project, and were the true masterminds behind the early missions to Mars, as well as the Hades mission, which was responsible for Drellic’s arrival on Earth.

  This was the one truth that Simone had found to be the most unsettling. It confirmed that the organization she had dedicated the majority of her career to, had been lying to her from the beginning. But thanks to her history with said secret government organizations, the concepts of assuming a false identity and disappearing from the public’s eye, were not foreign to her.

  What plagued Simone even more, was not knowing why her former superiors were so willing and even eager, to condemn thousands of innocent people, to an unknown and presumably destructive fate. The only thing Gropovski knew for sure about their motives, was that Severov had said many times that if he helped Shadow reach their goal, then he would be given the means to become the sole ruler of mankind. And given Severov’s obsession with Drellic, Gropovski could only assume that something resembling the dark times of Drellic’s regime on Earth, was what the founding members of Darkside had in mind.

  Dr. Robert Feldman’s laboratory was also located in Anchorage. It was presumed destroyed during Drellic’s reign; but Simone knew better. She had stayed in contact with the doctor, during the months after Drellic’s death, and knew that his resources were still viable.

  Once basic phone and internet services were restored worldwide, Simone was able to track him down again, years later. It took some convincing, but like Gropovski, Feldman also had a dif
ficult time saying no to Simone, and agreed to meet her at his old laboratory, with some new gadgets he had been tinkering with.

  Marco had told Simone that Winston’s announcement about Mars was coming, and once it did, Simone announced her intentions to secure a seat aboard one of the Mars Arcs, and travel to the Shadow Colony, with the intentions of stopping whatever was going on there. More than anything, she believed that she owed it to her late husband, and all those who fought against Drellic, to try to stop anything like that from happening again.

  Naturally, Simone knew she wasn’t going to be able to accomplish anything on her own. Marco, who was 65 years old, and not in the best physical shape, was not an ideal recruit. But Simone knew that Dr. Feldman could quickly change that.

  Together, Marco and Simone arrived at Dr. Feldman’s lab, in the late afternoon. They slowly drove up the snow covered pathway leading to his front gate, in an old, rusting unmarked green van. They stopped at the rickety wooden gate, bundled up in dark green military jackets that looked like they had come from an army thrift store. Simone confidently stared ahead from the driver’s seat, while Gropovski sat beside her, in the front passenger’s seat, and seemed rather unconvinced of Feldman’s credibility.

  Through the wooden gate and blowing snow, Simone could see Dr. Feldman walking up, to open the gate. He was a tall Caucasian with short blond hair, parted to his left. He wore old fashioned looking eyeglasses, with circular lenses and a long white lab coat, which appeared to be covered in tiny coffee stains.

  He pulled the gate back and tied it to a tree with rope, allowing Simone and Marco to drive inside his lot and park near the lab entrance. The building had a very ominous look about it. It was an old three story mansion, painted dark gray, with black steel bars over all the front windows. Water damage lined the sides of the house and the slightly angled, flat rooftop, looked as though it were about to cave in. All in all, it was hardly a convincing work facility. But the same could be said about most of the surrounding structures, still standing from more than ten years before.

  Simone and Marco got out of the van and approached the crumbling stone steps, leading up to the front door. Dr. Feldman was peering down at them, from the open door way. When he and Simone made eye contact, they exchanged a friendly smile, but once she and Marco reached the top of the steps and were standing toe to toe with the doctor, the mood instantly became much more serious.

  Feldman looked Simone in the eye and asked in a monotone voice, “Are you absolutely sure about this?” “Of course I am,” she quickly replied. “I wouldn’t have contacted you, if I wasn’t. You know me better than that.”

  Feldman then turned his attention to Marco and asked him the same question. Marco just shrugged and replied, “I’m not getting any younger. If this is what I have to do to make a difference, then so be it.” Feldman then nodded and said, “Then, we’d better get started.”

  He invited them into the house. Before stepping onto the spotless white carpet, they were instructed to remove their shoes and coats. Once they did, Feldman told them to enter the large, empty white room and turn left. After making the turn, Marco and Simone found themselves face to face with their own reflections, in a giant mirror that took up nearly the entire wall.

  Feldman then walked up behind them and said, “Take a good long look, before we get started. Because those people you see standing in front of you, are now dead.”