Tesla Evolution Box Set

by Mark Lingane

  “Stop. It doesn’t matter.” @summer placed her hand on the edge of the blade and pushed it away. The frightened soldier turned and fled, glancing back over his shoulder at them.

  “What is it with these men?” Sebastian said. “They’re so ungrateful. I saw you save several of them last night. I don’t get it.”

  “I know, but these men are fighting with us. We have to be tolerant.”

  “Why should we tolerate words like that?” he spat. Fury flowed through him.

  “You’re angry. I’ll let you adjust your attitude while I collect the packs.”

  “No. What? Oh, sorry,” he said to her back as she marched away. The last thing he wanted to do was upset @summer. He kicked himself and took a couple of deep breaths. “It’s just a word. It won’t matter tomorrow. It’s just a word,” he muttered, watching the men traipse by.

  Rain began to fall, spotting the dusty ground. He held out his hand and watched the drops hit his hand. He stared into his palm as the drops sizzled, then evaporated. He watched the moisture boil upward from his hand, no longer even reaching it. Lightning cracked across the sky and the rain tumbled down.

  He moved into the shelter of an open doorway. He didn’t notice the dark figure move in behind him.

  “Are you happy?”

  “Eh?” Sebastian looked around for the source of the muted voice.

  She stepped out of the shadows. “Are you happy?”

  “Memphis. What are you doing here?”

  “With her? Are you happy with that … that … her?”

  “Don’t talk about @summer like that. She means everything to me, and always has, from the moment I met her.”

  “I thought you said she couldn’t survive.”

  “She’s found a way.”

  “I’m happy that your dreams have come true.” The rain plastered her hair to her face. She let out a deep, stuttering sigh. “I just wanted to say … goodbye. I wish nothing but the best for you two. I’ll be staying here when you go.”

  “Okay. Can we part as friends? I’m sorry it ended the way it did.”

  She fought back her tears. “I hoped you’d see my face and realize it isn’t over for me. Please don’t forget me.”

  “Our time together was special, but—”

  “I’ll always remember when you said that I deserved more attention from you,” she said urgently, as her emotions broke around her words. “When you held me after we … you said you loved me.” She turned to leave, then stopped and faced him again. “Tell me you were lying when you said that, when we were lying together and you were holding me. Tell me it was a lie. Because if it was, then this would be a lot easier to deal with.”

  “Please, Memphis, it’s over. Good luck with your future. I hope you find someone better.” He turned to leave.

  “What’s she offering you that I can’t give you? Whatever it is, I’ll do the same and more. Whatever you want.”

  He held her arms and stared into her eyes. “Memphis, your part in this is over. Please, for me, for your own dignity, please don’t do this.” He let her go and turned away.

  She fell to the ground in the mud, sobbing. She curled up in the doorway and watched the soldiers march past the locals, who had gathered to cheer them on. Rank upon rank flooding by and shaking the ground with their synchronized footsteps, off to save the world. Why bother? What was worth saving? They boarded the sea of trucks and rumbled away, once enemies, but now together. The crowd dispersed, going back to their normal lives.

  Left alone, she sat looking out at the horizon. Her emotions were on fire. Her face soured as she thought about @summer. @summer was just another example of the unrighteous coming along and taking the meager things Memphis had been able to string together in a life that was full of unfairness. Her whole life had been unfair, full of people turning up and taking things from her. But now it was time to stop. She would show them all.

  79

  THE ARMY MET little resistance over the wasted terrain. The remains of towns and cities offered a brief respite from the journey, but when the soldiers started taking liberties with the locals, Nikola made the decision to keep moving, driving them forward like cattle.

  After four days Brad pulled him aside. “We can’t keep pushing them at this pace. They’ll crack. I’ll crack. Australia might be full of six-foot-two bronzed warriors, but America is a sick land with sick people. Let the men rest and regroup. We’re one night away from New York. Let it be a good night.”

  Nikola looked around at the exhausted men. He nodded. “I’ll leave it to you. You know your people best.”

  Brad ordered some of the trucks into a semicircle, and commandeered the illegal distillery he’d been watching the medical team assemble and set up. Some musical instruments were found and a festive air finally came to the army. The hours ticked by and the men rejoiced in the last moments of peace.

  Replicant. Calculator. Faker.

  Words that had been around forever, but in the hands of the drunken and diseased they took on new meanings. People hissed them as she walked past. She wished she could put the helmet back on and hide away from the hate. The people seemed to recognize a mask. They definitely liked to hide behind them in their groups or clans.

  Several men staggered toward them, glasses in hand.

  “Hey, faker, you want to see how the real experts get it done?”

  She hissed at the speaker and stepped away.

  “You tell her, Frank.”

  “A feisty one. You look like you’re searching for a boyfriend,” Frank said. He was bigger than most of the other men and wore his size as a robe of confidence.

  “Please leave me alone. I already have a good.good boyfriend.”

  “He’s good.good,” mimicked a voice. “Too good, is he? Well, I can show you a thing or two.”

  “Come and shake the hand of a real man,” Frank said.

  “You’re not worthy of touching,” she said.

  “And you are? You’re not even real.” Frank reached out for her, leering at her body. She swiveled out of his reach and hurriedly walked away.

  “I’m talking to you. You don’t walk away from me. You do as I say.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the men pursuing her. Her mind was in turmoil. They were meant to be allies; she couldn’t turn on them. She started to run. The men caught up to her and tripped her. She struggled back to her feet as Frank grabbed her arm. She spun away, twisting out of his grip, and pushed him away. He stumbled backward and fell over a tree trunk.

  She gasped. “I’m sorry. Please stop. We’re on the same side.”

  “You ain’t on our side, calculator. The Lord did not make you. He faked you over,” Frank said.

  “Does not compute. Does not compute,” shouted another.

  Someone grabbed her from behind. She twisted free and drove a punch into her attacker. He staggered back, clutching his jaw, and kicked out at her, catching her knee. She fell, landing heavily on her side. They threw their glasses and trash at her.

  “Hold her down. We’ll see how much of her is human,” Frank shouted.

  “Please leave me. Help!” she screamed.

  “Silence that deviant mouth of hers,” a man shouted.

  The scraping of steel on rock came from behind them. The men at the back of the pack turned and looked up. Their night went black. Frank swiveled around.

  “You have a problem?” the tall man said.

  “She injured Bobby,” Frank said. “Where’s the justice?”

  “She punched me in the face,” Bobby offered as corroborating evidence.

  “I am your justice.” Nikola stepped into Frank’s personal space, still and menacing. “Fear me now.”

  “We don’t like her kind here,” Frank said. “She’s not one of us.”

  “Neither am I, but you’re not bullying me.”

  They stood back from Nikola as he lifted the sword to throat height.

  Frank jeered. “You wouldn’t be so tough without th
at big stick of yours.”

  Nikola drove the sword into the hard earth. It vibrated, and electricity arced up and down the blade. The men stared at it intently. Nikola reached out with surprising speed and grabbed the nearest man, knocking him off his feet. He forced him onto his knees and slammed his head down onto the ground. In one swift movement, Nikola ripped his sword out of the ground, swung it around and buried it a hair’s breadth from the man’s neck. Frank shrieked, then whimpered.

  “If anyone, and I mean anyone, has a problem with @summer, they can come to me directly. You might find me a little biased toward her, but I would do this with anyone. We are all equal.” He looked around at the men, who were full of fear, desperation, hate, and exhaustion. “Do you understand?”

  “Why should we take orders from you?” Frank said.

  “Yeah,” Bobby added, “he ain’t one of us.”

  “He’s involved with them unsavory freaks,” another man said. “The kid’s bad enough, but the faker is … deviant. It shouldn’t be allowed to live with normal people.”

  Memphis sat back in the shadows, hidden from view, listening to the voices. Frank had done as she’d asked in exchange for the favor she had to grant him. But it had been worth it.

  Nikola sat down next to the solitary @summer. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, but looked down at her feet. “I’m probably the last of my kind.”

  “You’re not a ‘kind,’ you’re one of us. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “It’s hard to remember that when they keep calling me those horrible names.”

  “Would it make you feel better if I told you they’re only like that because they’re stupid, ugly people who are jealous and afraid of your—let’s be honest—dazzling beauty.”

  She looked at Nikola, tilting her head. Then she looked down and smiled in her distant way.

  He placed his hand on her shoulder, and realized he didn’t know what to do. “Maybe you should talk to Sebastian. He had to deal with something like this at the Academy. Being a tesla hasn’t always been easy for him.”

  “Please don’t tell him,” she said. “He has his own troubles. I don’t want him to see me like this.”

  “You’re a tough girl. It’s okay to show emotion, @summer. You do have emotions, don’t you? I’ve seen the way you look at Sebastian. You can’t fak—imagine those.”

  “Just because I don’t cry it doesn’t mean I don’t have emotions.” @summer said. “I never chose to be a cyborg. People did this to me.”

  “Probably people like those men back there. We’re often afraid of what we create if they turn out to be better than us.”

  She stared at her hands. Human hands attached to a human heart. Yet those bigots couldn’t see that. Faker. It was such a non-word, just a description, but the way they said it left no illusions about how they felt. Faker. Less than human. Less than them.

  “I’ll totally fake them over,” she said.

  “That’s the spirit. I’m sorry about it all. When you have a mob, you get what you get.”

  “I didn’t imagine spending the remainder of my life like this,” @summer said.

  “At least Sebastian’s here. Are you going to tell him?”

  “Will it change anything?”

  “It might make him treasure what you have together rather than letting it slip away. Love might be infinite, but life isn’t,” Nikola replied.

  “That is true.true. If there is a way, I will tell him. Maybe he already knows, deep in his heart.”

  “You should find him now. Tomorrow we’ll be there, in New York. The months of fighting have come to this, and who knows what will happen. I’ll leave that up to you.” He smiled. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. It’s not part of the primary directive.”

  She was shaking. The lights along her back were flashing red.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m all right. How long will the war be?”

  “I can’t answer that. But I’ll make it as short as I can. And still win,” he added.

  “Good. I’m not sure how long I have left. I can’t protect him if I’m dead.”

  The day came. It started quietly. The ground shook as it had for the last several days. It had increased in intensity as they’d traveled east. Today it was worse. Rain drifted in, incessant and dreary in the cold gray sky. The land turned to mud. They packed, and moved out for the last time. The roads became slippery quagmires, and the soldiers had to continually push the vehicles out of the bog. Mud coated everything. Exhaustion weighed heavily.

  They stopped for a brief respite. A forerunner came charging back over a nearby hill, shouting. The army moved on and crested the hill. They saw it. The tornado of electromagnetic power towered into the sky, a twisting and roaring trunk of light sucking in the blackness surrounding it.

  Brad stood next to Sebastian and they stared at the immense destructive force. The ground continued to shake in waves of intensity.

  “There it is,” Sebastian said. “New York.”

  “Manhattan is the correct name.”

  “It looks pretty bad. What was the last state we came through?”

  “Jersey.”

  “That was the worst.”

  “Jersey’s always been like that. The nuclear disaster improved it.”

  “We’ve come so far, and the city sits before us. A journey’s end?”

  The ground shook and the rubble around them tumbled down into the hollows.

  “I’ve lost every member of my family to this eternal battle, a battle that was caused by that man and his brother. Today I take my revenge,” Brad said.

  “Should someone say something? I always imagined someone would say something brave at this moment, just before an epic battle. Not me, though. My last attempts were pretty bad.”

  “There can only be one person.”

  They turned to watch Nikola come striding through the mud. “I’ve been thinking someone should say something,” he said. He saw their faces. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Men, soldiers, survivors, it’s time to stop this endless conflict. The Master wants to go to war. Of course, he won’t go to war. It will be you. You will either be fighting for him or against him; one side of the wall against the other. On my journey here, I met two brothers from the same town. The wall goes through the center of their town and the brothers live on opposite sides. They fought against each other and never knew why, other than they were told it was their duty. The Master wants you to do the same—to walk into the breach, unquestioningly. This is your life. This is my life. The choice needs to be made. Do you follow or do you stand? This is your life. This is my life. Our choice.”

  Nikola paused, looking over the assembled faces. “This is my life. I choose to be free of tyranny. I will not follow, so I must stand and fight.”

  A roar erupted from the amassed men. They cheered in unison as Nikola raised his sword in the air.

  He turned and pointed the sword to the east. “We ride,” he cried.

  Memphis pressed the button and the screen flickered.

  “You’re free? I’d like to see footage of how you bought your way out of there,” Reeves said.

  “Just get him.”

  “Why?”

  “I have information he needs to know regarding the tesla boy.”

  “What does he need to know?”

  “He’s back.”

  The decrepit old man disappeared from the screen.

  The image twitched and the Master appeared. “I don’t know which is greater, your nerve or your treachery.”

  “The tesla is coming.”

  “I don’t need him. He was easily beaten and a disappointment.”

  “He nearly beat you, and don’t deny it. He was severely injured. He is healed now and at full strength, even stronger than before. He’s like nothing you’ve seen, and he’s coming for you and your weapon.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

&nbs
p; “I’m warning you. But I know things that can help you defeat him and the army. I know all their plans.”

  “What army? I’ve dealt with the Peacemaker.”

  “It’s a combined army. Western forces, north, south and central, all together.”

  “What do you want?”

  “To be by your side at the time of victory. I want you to execute him at my feet.”

  “Are you sure you want to come back? You made your statement when you left.”

  “Just be at the meeting point.”

  The Master paused. “It’s encouraging to see you back.”

  She smashed her fist onto the disconnect button. The glass flexed under her force. She turned and walked away with tears flowing down her face. Her emotions screamed at her.

  NEW YORK

  80

  THE ARMY HAD rolled over the hill and now faced the brief expanse of water wrapping around Manhattan.

  “Is the river frozen?” Nikola said.

  “No,” Brad replied.

  “How do we get over? There are no bridges.”

  Brad pointed. “The tunnel under the river.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “Probably not. It’s ancient, and the Master could have an army waiting inside. Shall we send a team in?”

  “No, I’ll go. Never forget where you come from, that’s what I say. If it ever comes to the moment where you’re not prepared to get your hands dirty it’s time to give up. I’ll give you a shout if it’s clear and we can push the men through.”

  “You, on your own? Should be interesting to see.”

  Nikola threw his leg over the steambike and started the engine. The engine came to a boil and he set off into the long dark tunnel sloping down under the water. Deep cracks lined the ceiling, allowing water to drip down and form deep puddles on the tarmac. His headlight bounced off the water droplets, casting flickering shadows over the walls. The dank smell of rotting vegetation filled the air. Nikola dodged the murky puddles and branches erupting out of the walls.

  The tunnel leveled out as he approached a light. Several of the Master’s soldiers had their weapons trained on him.