Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition)

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  Gunfire ceased as the last of the survivors were silenced. Captain Hane was restrained by two infected. Their flesh touched his. No matter the outcome of the conversation to come, Captain Hane would not survive unchanged.

  "Hello Captain," Ross said and changed the opacity of his visor to reveal his face.

  Captain Hane’s face contorted in anger and spat as Ross. The spittle landed lamely on his chest armor.

  "Unnecessary," Ross said.

  "It doesn’t matter what you do, boy. We’re all going to burn! Every damned one of us!" Captain Hane roared.

  Ross looked out of the bridge windows. Two stars burned in his field of view, and between them, a tiny planetoid. They were headed straight for it. Ross saw Captain Hane’s plan in an instant.

  "That’s right, boy. We’re already trapped in Krakaterra’s gravitational pull. In twelve hours we’ll pass between those two stars and roast," Captain Hane said and laughed madly.

  "Once you’re gone I’ll change course," Ross said simply.

  Captain Hane roared with laughter again and took a step forward. The Captain’s face was only inches from Ross’s helmet as he whispered, "You can’t. I’ve disabled the engines."

  Before he knew what he was doing, Ross balled his right hand into a fist and punched Captain Hane in the face. Teeth and bones cracked as his armored gauntlet met the Captain’s cheek.

  "Kill me, you son of a bitch. Just get it over with," Captain Hane said. Red mingled with flecks of white as blood and bits of broken teeth flowed from his lower lip.

  "No. Death’s too good for you," Ross said.

  The smile disappeared from Captain Hane’s face as Ross pointed toward the command center.

  "Give him the gift. Make him obey my every word. He can live the rest of his miserable life under my command," Ross said coldly.

  "No. No!" Captain Hane said and struggled against the two infected that held him.

  Captain Hane looked down at his wrist. His stomach turned when he saw tiny purple tendrils from the hand of the infected worming into his skin.

  "No! Please! Fiamingo! Kill me now! Don’t let me become one of these things! Please!" Captain Hane pleaded as one of the infected dragged him onto the command console.

  Ross motioned for one of the infected to come to him. There was a man under all the hideous growths that bubbled up from under his skin.

  "You heard my orders. Give him the gift. Make him into a deadly warrior. One that obeys my every word," Ross said.

  The lumpy infected passenger nodded and joined the other infected on the command console. It pressed its body against Captain Hane and wrapped its arms around him. The man’s skin spread over Captain Hane inch by torturous inch. Captain Hane screamed and rambled throughout the slow and painful process.

  Ross couldn’t bear to watch.

  There was a choking sound as the infected’s flesh grew into Captain Hane’s mouth, pinning his tongue in place and choked the words from his throat. Ross looked back then and saw the fear in Captain Hane’s eyes moments before they rolled back into his head.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ross stared out at the burning planet in front of him. The infected had left the bridge to spread their gift to the remaining uninfected passengers. Hane had been thorough in his sabotage. While Ross retained control over most of the ship’s systems, there was absolutely no way to get the engines firing again without actually going down there himself. If Hurk was still aboard the ship and willing to take orders he might have a chance.

  Ross looked back on how badly he handled the initial outbreak and containment and figured that if anyone was still alive out there, they wouldn’t trust him. He needed a way to make the remaining passengers on the ship trust him.

  While he waited for the inevitable, there wasn’t much else he could do apart from open and close doors to restrict the infected’s access to certain areas of the ship. He could access the surveillance network and perhaps if he could find survivors and direct them to safety he could begin to win back their trust.

  Ross enabled voice modulation from the command console, which changed his voice when broadcast over the comm network. Next time he spoke across the comm network, his voice would sound like the guardian shell program which should have taken control of the ship in an emergency. A module that Fiamingo himself disabled. He then routed comm network controls to his personal wrist-mounted comm unit. He opened the channel and spoke.

  "Please remain calm. Everything is under control, and help is on the way. Find somewhere safe and protect yourself. Everything will be fine," Ross said in full knowledge that nothing was fine.

  In all likelihood, no one aboard the ship would ever see New Earth again. Either they would burn in the heat of the binary star system, or they’d be quarantined by the Alliance if they managed to escape the planetoid’s gravitational pull. Ross searched for survivors through the surveillance network. He crossed between the surveillance feeds in the engine bay, maintenance and farmland areas, and hoped desperately that someone would be alive and close to the engines.

  The screen flashed from room to corridor to open space, showing sparse desolation and nightmarish grotesquery in equal measure. Some spaces showed no signs at all of anything out of the ordinary. Others showed bloodbaths and torture pits where the passengers experienced unimaginable horror. All that remained was red viscera and the occasional mass of growing bodiless flesh left behind after the infected moved on.

  The screen flickered to the medstation in the maintenance area, just outside the farmland. Ross’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the five people huddled in the corner of the room. He opened a comm channel to the medstation. This was his chance.

  "This is the Metropolis Seven’s guardian speaking. Are you all safe and well?" he asked, relying on the voice modulation to hide his true identity.

  The ship’s computer identified the five people in the room.

  Bacchi, A.

  Midgley, C.

  Black, S.

  Kruger, R.

  Colbert, E.

  They each lived in the Residential District and had found themselves trapped in the maintenance area during the outbreak, far from their homes.

  Bacchi looked up at the camera, tears streaming from her blue eyes. Kruger stood and walked toward the camera, his hands balled into fists.

  ‘Get us out of here,’ Kruger said simply.

  "We will. We are unable to launch any evacuation shuttles while the engines are offline. You need to bring the engines back online, then I will clear a path for you to board the evac shuttles," Ross said.

  Midgley looked stricken. Black hid his face in his hands. Colbert stared blankly at the wall and chewed on her bottom lip. Kruger clenched and unclenched his fists.

  ‘Are there any of those things out there between us and the engines?’ Kruger asked.

  There were, but Ross couldn’t tell them that. They’d never leave the safety of the medstation.

  "No. They are concentrated in the Metropolitan District. The way is clear," Ross said.

  Black got to his feet and walked a couple of steps toward the camera.

  ‘Where were you when our families were taken? Where were you when the security force lost control? Where were you when we needed you the most?’ Black asked.

  "Please proceed to the engine bay. Once the engines are online, you can evacuate the ship," Ross said, refusing to allow any of the emotion he felt to creep into his voice.

  ‘Don’t waste your breath. It’s just a computer, which means everyone in charge is dead. If this is our only shot to get out of here, shouldn’t we take it?’ Colbert asked.

  The others murmured in agreement.

  "I will open a path to the engines. Follow the light," Ross said.

  He opened the medstation door and switched on the emergency lights that led to the entrance to the farmlands. The group left the medstation and headed out into the ship. They followed the emergency lights through maintenance and into the farmlands.

>   Chapter Sixteen

  Fierce and his pack smelt the newcomers on the air the moment they entered the farmlands. The Metropolis Seven contained multiple levels of farmland that housed the various animals that the ship needed to feed its passengers. The gift spread from the dogs to the cattle, goats and chickens.

  Fierce thought it was interesting to see how the minds of prey worked. How nervous and afraid they were! Being terrified of shadows and jumping at loud noises would be an exhausting way to live.

  Fierce stood, and his pack followed suit. A few of the gifted bovine herd stood also, interested in this new perspective that the gift allowed them. Some of the herd had taken on predatory traits. Their flat teeth were pushed out of their gums by newly grown, jagged teeth that were made for tearing meat from bones. Eyes had either migrated to, or sprouted from, the front of their heads to allow better pursuit of prey.

  Fierce thought a command to the herd, ’You may come with us, but you must follow me.’

  A wave of affirmation flooded Fierce’s consciousness. He enjoyed the gift very much. It was so much easier to communicate. A scent or an emotion spread amongst a group could convey what thousands of words could not.

  The time to hunt had come. Fierce set out with his hunters in tow.

  Five dark specks moved against the green field.

  Prey.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Midgley saw the creatures first and shouted an incomprehensible string of jumbled words. His panicked ramblings made the others look toward the approaching horde. They ran as fast as they could, but the infected gained on them by the second.

  Ross watched on with wide-eyed terror. They rapidly approached the creek that split the farmland down the middle. The only access across it aside from swimming was a bridge that could be lifted from under the water. Ross activated the bridge and hoped that the survivors would see it in time to make use of it.

  Bacchi led the charge across field, with Black and Kruger close behind. Colbert and Midgley followed. Midgley issued a whoop of triumph when he saw the bridge supports rise from the creek. The group changed trajectory and headed toward the bridge, feet pounding grass as fast as they could.

  Bacchi hit the bridge first and sprinted across. The others followed, but not quite fast enough.

  Ross commanded the bridge to descend once again, hoping to slow the dogs, but Colbert and Midgley were still on it. Water rushed over their feet, tripping them. Midgley turned around just in time to see a muzzle snap open, lined with sharp white fangs. The jaws snapped shut. Midgley didn’t have time to scream as Fierce mangled his face. Colbert crawled along the descending bridge as the other two infected dogs launched themselves onto her back. They tore at her, not to kill her, but to spread the gift.

  Three of the predatory bovine creatures crossed at a shallow section of the creek. Once they reached land they charged at the three remaining survivors sprinting across the field.

  One of the bovine-things had once been a bull. Its horns were already wicked and curved before the transformation began. Now they were medieval head-mounted torture devices. Another horn sprouted from the bull’s forehead, pointing forward. Many smaller horns grew from the trunk of its natural horns, some as thick as twigs, and others as ghastly thin as hypodermic needles. The bull led the charge, lowering its head as it barreled toward the survivors. Thick tendrils exploded from the hide of the other two infected cows as they closed in.

  The bull’s eyes were closed when it hit Kruger. The multitude of horns pierced him from crotch to sternum, pinning him in place. He tried to scream, but he could not. His lungs refused to work. The bull shook its head furiously in an attempt to shake Kruger free, but he was stuck fast. The bull tried to scrape Kruger against the grass to pry him from his perch, but he would not budge.

  One of the cows whipped out its wickedly clawed tendrils toward Black, slashing and grabbing at his legs as he ran. He fell to his knees as the back of his legs were torn to shreds. The infected cow left him to his agony. The gift was his. It fell into step behind the other cow as it pursued Bacchi as the bull frantically tried to shake Kruger free.

  Bacchi was only yards away from the entrance to a large red barn at the side of the farmland. Once she was there, she would be close to the engine room. The ground shook as the cows pursued her.

  Ross opened the heavy barn door remotely and Bacchi slipped inside. Ross closed the barn door just as the cows slammed into it. Bacchi collapsed against the inside of the barn as the cows roared in frustration at their escaped prey.

  Ross sat back in his chair. Unlike the camera system in the medstation, the video from the surveillance cameras in the corridors and farmlands did not include sound. The savage brutality of the attack combined with the lack of audio made him incredibly uncomfortable.

  Bacchi held her head in her hands. Four of her friends were there one minute, and then gone the next. She stared into the dark corridor leading out of the barn.

  A cold, nameless fear coiled up from inside her. She didn’t want to move. She never wanted to move again, but she had to. If she gave up now, her friends had been killed for no reason. She would live for them and make every day of the rest of her life count.

  Ross activated the emergency lighting along the most direct route to the engine bay. Bacchi stood unsteadily, bracing herself against the wall. One of the cows slammed into the door behind Bacchi, spurring her into motion. She walked quickly toward the lit corridor.

  Ross took a minute to flick through the surveillance cameras in the immediate area, just in case any infected lurked between Bacchi and the engines. The rest of the maintenance area was dark, but the surveillance cameras were able to operate in low-light environments. The infected had definitely been there. Rust-colored streaks of dried blood evidenced past violence, but there were no signs of current activity.

  He flicked back to follow Bacchi’s progress toward the engines.

  The attack came without warning.

  A vent cover exploded from the wall as an incomprehensible horror reached out and grabbed Bacchi around the waist. Her legs kicked as the monstrous fiend pulled her sideways into the tiny vent. Her body folded in half with sickening swiftness. Her face came into contact with her own ankles as she disappeared.

  Ross stared at the screen. One moment she was there. The next, the only thing that was left was a wet patch of red that dribbled down the side of the wall.

  That was it. There was no one left in that part of the ship that Ross could contact and convince to help. Only one option remained.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Stuck in the gravitational force of Krakaterra, engines disabled, a flesh-hungry infection inside the ship, convinced that it had a gift that it needed spread to the uninfected, hope appeared to be in short supply.

  Still, a glimmer of hope remained. Krakaterra orbited the binary stars Gemon I and Gemon II in the Arcturus Sector. The Arcturus Gateway was close enough to the Gemon star system that there was a chance that a passing ship might pick up a distress beacon if Ross chose to engage it.

  In this sector of space, it was more likely that a Vartalen ship would respond to his distress signal. Normally the Vartalen would attack any human ship who entered their sector of space. They were a proud and warlike race, unhappy with humanity from the very first moment humans joined the galactic community. The Vartalen owned this sector of space, but thanks to the tourism treaty paid by the Metropolis Corporation to the Vartalen warlords, any Metropolis ship could pass through without putting their passengers in danger.

  The chances that another human ship was in this sector of space, passing through at the exact same time were incredibly slim. But there was a chance, and it was better than no chance at all.

  Ross engaged the distress beacon.

  The two infected passengers that held Captain Hane had now grown around the Captain. Their skin stretched over the Captain like a grotesque flesh cocoon. The Captain was motionless, save for the slight rise and fall of the cocoon br
eathing for him.

  Over the next few hours Ross went on a tour of the ship through the surveillance network, as he tried to get an idea of how many survivors remained on the ship. Only the infected hordes moved through the streets of the residential and Metropolitan Districts. They kept to the darker areas. They disliked the simulated sunlight that illuminated the ship. They didn’t seem to mind other lighting, like the bulbs used in the underbelly of the ship. Perhaps the infected kept out of natural light during the day for some reason. Ross decided he would keep the artificial sun burning until they were rescued.

  The surveillance feed switched to the inside of the medstation inside the Metropolitan District. Ross’s jaw dropped open as he saw the number of survivors crammed into the small space. The waiting area was full of people with missing limbs and other signs of recent surgery. There were almost a hundred people in the waiting area.

  It was the most uninfected passengers Ross had seen in one place for days. They looked scared, but they appeared to be relatively safe. Several the survivors were armed and clad in riot gear they pilfered from one of the many armories spread across the Metropolis Seven.

  Ross spent the next few hours locating lone survivors dotted across the ship and led them to the medstation. Even though there was every chance that the Alliance would quarantine, experiment on and ultimately destroy anyone aboard the ship exposed to the infection, there was still a chance that these people might go free.

  Ross had to believe that was the case. He had to believe that he might be able to go free too.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Days later, a proximity warning flashed on the control console. An incoming ship had appeared within the Metropolis Seven’s approach zone. Ross immediately looked up the ship’s credentials and smiled wide as they appeared on screen.