Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition)

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  Fierce disappeared into the distance but Bill knew how to get to his destination. When he reached the den, he collapsed on a well-used mattress. Fierce gently told Bill that he was in his spot but would allow the human to share his place. They were brothers now. They were pack.

  Chapter Six

  Bill wiped thick pink drool from his chin. He tasted blood but felt no pain. Hours had passed since he arrived at the den, and he hadn’t tried to talk since. He could feel the inside of his throat changing. The changes would allow him to spread his gift more easily, but he had almost lost the ability to speak aloud. But that didn’t matter. He didn’t need to talk to anyone anymore. He could just wait until they joined with him and then he could communicate mind to mind.

  Everyone on the ship would be connected to him soon enough. His dogs had made friends. One had gone to the beachfront and licked the hand of anyone who offered. Two dogs went to the farmlands. They had fun nipping at the ankles of cows as they grazed in the fields. The last dog had gone to the Metropolitan District. It was lunch time and he brushed up against as many people as he could.

  The front of Bill’s shirt was covered in pink discharge that trickled slowly from between his lips. At first, he had started to swallow it, but his throat had grown too narrow. Something told him that the discharge wasn’t meant to go back inside of his body. It needed get stay outside to spread.

  Fierce curled closely to his body. The warmth of the dog was pleasant, but the warmth of Fierce’s mind as it flowed into his was true comfort. A memory of his late wife Emily floated to the forefront of his mind.

  ‘Who is that?’ Fierce asked.

  ‘My wife. She’s been gone for many years.’

  ‘Your mate is gone? You should go and get her. You care about her still.’

  ‘She’s not… gone. She’s just not with us anymore.’

  ‘Not gone but not here with us? That makes no sense.’

  ‘She died.’

  ‘Oh. Should’ve said that. If she’s dead, you shouldn’t wait for her to come home. You know she won’t.’

  ‘I know. But I still love her.’

  ‘Good. Good to hold her in your memory. But don’t hope for something that you know will never happen. If she’s dead, she can’t come home.’

  Bill pet Fierce’s head.

  ‘What’s home?’ asked another voice. It did not belong to Fierce.

  ‘Who is that?’ Bill asked.

  The voice answered the question with its own question again. ’What is home?’

  ‘Here,’ Fierce snorted and a flood of warmth, comfort and security washed over Bill’s consciousness.

  ‘I like home,’ the third voice said. ’Where is your home?’ it asked.

  ‘I came from New Earth, but it hasn’t been home to me for many years. My home has been this ship for the last five. But now this feels more like home. Here with Fierce. With our new friends who will be joining us,’ Bill said.

  ‘Yes. New friends. We need many friends if we’re to build a true home for ourselves,’ the third voice said.

  They needed many new friends. Somehow Bill knew that the third voice was right. He reached out to his four dogs out in the ship. The connection had grown stronger over the last few hours. The gift grew stronger inside him and the others it touched.

  Bill reached out for Jimmy.

  He brushed against Jimmy’s mind gently, then their minds linked like a firm handshake.

  ‘Bill!? Where are you!? They’re torturing me, and they won’t believe that I don’t know where you are!’

  Bill felt Jimmy grope through his mind for answers. He was scared and angry. Jimmy didn’t understand the gift that he was given. He didn’t realize what was at stake if the enemy found where Bill was hiding. Bill repelled Jimmy by the sheer force of his own will.

  ‘Jimmy. Be silent. You don’t know what is at stake here. You have been given a gift. You can’t talk to these people. No matter how they hurt you. You must be strong. Spread your gift to them if you can. Are you changed?’

  ‘I can’t talk anymore. My face is swollen. I feel like I’m choking on my own tongue.’

  ‘Let me see through your eyes and I will see what we can do to free you,’ Bill commanded.

  The barriers into Jimmy’s consciousness were lifted. Bill pushed his own mind into Jimmy’s body. Through Jimmy’s eyes he could see a light burning down on him from above. He could feel Jimmy’s skin crackling in its heat. There was a thick glass screen in front of him. Behind it, three MetroCorp officers in hazmat suits. They were talking animatedly, but no sound passed through the glass screen. Jimmy’s hands were shackled behind him. The shackles were attached to a chain secured to the wall. He was in the detainment cells in the heart of the Metropolitan District.

  Bill tried to move Jimmy’s tongue around in his mouth. Something red and wet flapped around in the lower reaches of Jimmy’s vision. Jimmy’s tongue had overgrown his mouth and was covered in purple pustules, just like those in the palm of his hand and Fierce’s tongue. The tongue could be a useful weapon. He knew it was in his power to influence it, to shape it in its growth and potential. He commanded the gift to focus on Jimmy’s tongue. His mind filled with images of animals and races of people he didn’t recognize.

  ‘Would this work?’ the third, unknown voice asked as a nightmare image settled into Bill’s mind.

  The creature was horrible and skinless. It looked like the unnatural crossbred spawn of a gorilla and a frog. It sat low on the ground, back-legs splayed wide, front legs propping its head and chest upward. The beast opened its mouth and shot out a tongue covered in backward-facing barbs.

  ‘Yes, that will do,’ Bill said.

  Bill withdrew from Jimmy’s mind and said, ’Soon you will be able to fight your captors. I will reach out to you when the time comes to fight back.’

  ‘I understand. I want to be near you, Bill. You know what’s happening to me. You can help.’

  ‘Yes. But not yet. We will come for you.’

  Bill reached out to all whom the gift connected. He was pleasantly surprised at how many the gift had now touched. All of the people from the diner were connected to him now. He checked in with every one of them. They were all being held in the detainment cells in the Metropolitan District with Jimmy. They were rounded up like cattle by the MetroCorp Security Force. Bill assured them everything was happening as it should, and that he would come for them when the time was right.

  Chapter Seven

  “What’s it doing?” Ross Fiamingo asked as he looked into the detainment cell.

  As the appointed representative of the Metropolis Corporation, this problem was his to fix.

  “We’re not sure, sir. This is the first time he’s been quiet since we brought him here,” CMO Kentaro said.

  The man who had once been Jimmy Staipell was no longer a man. He had been touched by a terrible affliction. It all led back to Bill Timms and the meteorite. Some kind of biological agent had been inside that meteorite, and it had started to spread amongst the passengers.

  “Can you stop the spread of infection?” Fiamingo asked. His voice wavered and betrayed his fear.

  “We can contain it. I’m certain of it. But only if you give me exactly what I need,” Kentaro said.

  “What do you need?”

  “The entire MetroCorp Security Force,” Kentaro said levelly.

  Fiamingo laughed nervously. “I can relay any appropriate commands to them on your behalf, but you’re not having command of the entire force. That’s out of the question.”

  “Then there is nothing I can do,” Kentaro said simply.

  “You are responsible for the health and wellbeing of the passengers aboard this ship. You make recommendations to me, but I am in charge of the running of this ship. You know how this works, Kentaro.”

  “You’re not in charge of this ship you little shit. You think you are, but you’re not. You should see how they laugh at you behind your back. You’re not the one the doctors
complain to when you decide we should spend more credits on pleasure-vids and exotic cuisine than medical supplies. But if you keep up this little game, you are the one who will have to explain how everything went to shit aboard the Metropolis Seven. Not to mention that MetroCorp quarantine protocols say that we should turn this ship around right now and head back to the Arcturus Gateway.”

  Fiamingo ground his teeth. He looked away from Kentaro’s piercing gaze and held back on what he truly wanted to say. “The nature of our working relationship does not change just because we’re in the midst of an emergency. You will advise me on the best course of action, and I will relay that to our security force. What is your recommendation, Kentaro?”

  “Hunt them down. Anyone who came into contact with Bill Timms or the people from the diner. If you’re not going to turn the ship around and head back toward the Gateway we need to quarantine everyone. You need to tell the people aboard the ship to stay at home and limit their interaction with others. Most importantly, we need to find the man who started all of this. We need to find Bill Timms.”

  "We’re not telling people to remain in their homes. They’ll panic and make everything worse than it already is. I will not cause a panic on my ship!" Fiamingo said.

  "That’s your choice. But it is the wrong one," CMO Kentaro said.

  Fiamingo looked over at his chief of security, Hurk Ferah. He looked like he was ready to survive the end of the world. He was clad from head to toe in state of the art smartsuit armor. The plating was designed to withstand an incredible amount of kinetic pressure, including small arms fire. Hurk stared out of the yellow glass faceplate with a near-permanent scowl.

  “You hear that, Hurk?” Fiamingo asked.

  Hurk nodded. “Find the infected. Kill ‘em.”

  Kentaro took a step forward. “No! You will not kill innocent victims of this infection!”

  Hurk raised an eyebrow. “You’ve seen what these things can do. How quickly this can spread, and you still think they can come back from it? You’re a fucking idiot, doc.”

  “I have devoted my life to saving the lives of others. We don’t understand this infection enough to make this kind of decision. Not yet,” Kentaro said.

  Hurk shrugged and looked back to Fiamingo. “What do you want us to do, boss?”

  Fiamingo considered for a moment. “Bring them in alive. If you can. But if any of them threaten you or anyone else… take them down.”

  “Of course, you must defend yourselves. Just remember that the infected are going to be scared. They’re going to act erratically. If we’re going to beat this, we need to understand it,” Kentaro said.

  “You got it, doc. You get a whole lot more detainment cells ready, and you better get a few body bags ready. Just in case,” Hurk said and as he left the detainment area.

  Fiamingo and Kentaro turned back toward the man who was once Jimmy Staipell and continued their observation.

  Chapter Eight

  Bill awoke from his dream to find that there was a woman in the den with him. Fierce hadn’t woken him upon her arrival. He knew they were pack. The dog was intrinsically linked with her, just as Bill was. The barrier between the dog and Bill’s own sense of self was almost gone. When Bill saw the woman standing in the room with him, he saw her with his own eyes but also through Fierce’s eyes. Bill had begun to lose himself. He wasn’t just himself any longer.

  He was more.

  The woman wore jeans and a t-shirt that clung to the curves of her body. The gift was growing inside her and had not yet touched her outer shell. Her name was Fi. As Bill reached toward her with his mind he was pulled into one of her memories.

  Through the eyes of her memory, he saw that she had dealt with a tragedy not dissimilar from his own. She sat in the passenger seat of a Volun Valkyrie, a sports-model two-person terrestrial ship. Her husband Mirka flew too fast over Lake Ceres when the engine began to sputter. After a few moments it died. She tried to eject herself from the Valkyrie, but the lever didn’t work. She pulled it again. And again. And again. She did not eject.

  Mirka looked over to her, his eyes wide and said, “I removed the emergency eject mechanism to improve the velocity.”

  Fi had never been angrier at her husband. She hated that she would spend her last few moments alive with so much hate in her heart. Fear mixed with the realization of his own stupidity froze him in his seat. His mouth opened and closed dumbly like a fish out of water as he tried to come to terms with his own impending death.

  The vehicle flew at terrifying speed toward the lake, with no way for either passenger to eject themselves to safety. They were far too low to use the parachutes stored under their seats. The blue water of the lake rushed up toward them with such speed that they didn’t even have time to put them on.

  Fi unclasped her harness. She leaned over Mirka and unclasped his too. She then placed her hand on the canopy release lever next to the ship controls.

  "I’m going to open the canopy! When I do, you need to jump!" Fi yelled.

  The lake’s surface rushed toward them.

  "Do you understand me?" she roared.

  Mirka snapped out of his daze and nodded. Fi pulled the lever.

  Cold air rushed into the cockpit as the canopy flipped upward. The drag caused the Valkyrie to tip backward just as Fi launched herself from her seat. She looked back toward Mirka and the ship as the momentum of her jump spun her around in the air.

  They never found Mirka’s body in the wreckage. After the insurance payout was settled, Fi used it to buy a ticket aboard the Metropolis Seven and escape from New Earth for a while.

  Now here she was, beautiful Fi, connected with Bill and his pack.

  "Do you know what’s happening to me?" she asked.

  "You’ve been given a gift," Bill said.

  His voice was thick and rough from the change. He had been sitting against the wall of the den for hours. Pink discharge leaked uncontrollably from his mouth. His entire body was slick with it now. Fi had a hard time meeting Bill’s eyes.

  ‘You’re pack now,’ Fierce thought.

  Fi visibly recoiled as the dog’s thoughts burst unbidden into her mind.

  "Did that dog just speak to me?" she asked.

  "Yes," Bill said simply.

  Fierce exhaled sharply and thought, ‘My name is Fierce, thank you very much.’

  "Fierce. Oh, I’m sorry," Fi said.

  ‘It’s quite all right. I was scared too when this one began to talk to me, but I quite enjoy it now,’ Fierce thought.

  "So, what do we do now?" she asked.

  "Has the gift manifested in you yet?" Bill asked.

  Fi’s cheeks flushed.

  "Yes I... yes. It has. Although it does not feel like a gift," she said sadly.

  ‘Show me,’ Bill thought toward her.

  "I can’t," she said and looked away.

  ‘Show me,’ Bill thought again, but this time it was not a suggestion. It was a command.

  "I can’t," she said and blushed furiously. "It’s in... an intimate place."

  ‘We are already connected intimately by our minds. Our bodies are just the shells for our true selves. Now show me, or I will take control of your body,’ Bill commanded.

  Fi unbuttoned her jeans. She slipped the pants over her hips, down her thighs and to her ankles. She kept her legs closed tightly as she kicked her jeans away.

  ‘Show me,’ Bill commanded.

  She stepped apart and her gift emerged from between her legs. It snaked out of her body until it reached two feet in length. The end was tipped with a tapered cone of flesh, dripping with the gift. Around the base were eight smaller tendrils with small hooked barbs on the inner edges.

  The gift had entered through Fi’s reproductive system and repurposed it. Now she could spread the gift to others. Fi’s new organ retracted itself back into her body. She slipped her jeans on as one of Fierce’s pack entered the den. Lumpy growths sprouted from its back, making it appear as though patches of hair were mi
ssing.

  ‘I was chased by two men with guns,’ the lumpy dog said as she limped into the room.

  Blood trailed after her. Bill’s eyes went wide with horror when he realized what this meant. The trail Lumpy left behind would eventually lead the men with guns right to them. Lumpy heard the thoughts rushing through Bill’s mind.

  ‘I was very careful. I led them to the beach and entered the tunnels far away. I looped around and confused my trail, so it will be a long time before they find where I have gone,’ Lumpy thought.

  Bill appreciated Lumpy’s caution, but it would ultimately do no good. The men with guns would be here soon. There was only one thing to do.

  The time for action had arrived.

  Chapter Nine

  Bill sent out a command to all of the gifted across the ship. If they were close enough to his location, come to him. Protect him. Bad men with guns were on their way. All other gifted were to converge on the detainment cells in the Metropolitan District and take it by force.

  ‘Remember, do not kill if you can spread your gift to others,’ Bill broadcast to his network of gifted.

  Hundreds of voices responded in a wave of assent. Bill could feel the locations of the gifted throughout the ship now. A large group were already on their way to the detainment cells in the Metropolitan District. A group of eight were on their way to him in the den. Fierce gave them directions on which vent to crawl into, and which way to turn once they were in the ventilation shafts.

  Bill’s sense of self diluted as he watched through hundreds of pairs of eyes. He was bombarded with sights, smells and tastes of hundreds of men, women and animals. Some of the cows in the farmland had been granted the gift. A couple of house cats were also gifted, as were a few plants dotted around the Residential District. The gift didn’t care whether a creature had the capacity for intelligent thought. All the gift cared about was whether there was life, because life was meant to be gifted.