by Huth, Jacob
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Birth
Chapter 2: The Science of Rebellion
Chapter 3: Bosque City
Chapter 4: Raising an Army
Chapter 5: The Spikers
Chapter Six: The Pit
Chapter 7: Tartarus
Chapter 8: Jailbreak
Chapter 9: All Out War
Chapter 1: The Birth
A lot of people don’t know how it was before the attack. There was a large falling out between the USA and a terrorist group made up of scientists and radicals from various countries. The group launched a weapon unlike any that had been seen before. It was a weaponized gravity machine. It completely fried much of the world’s technology, leveled a handful of major cities and killed three quarters of the world’s population. When the terrorists activated it, it altered the gravity pull of the earth and ripped molten lava out of the ground. Lava enveloped cities, settlements, and people. The people who remained after the attack were people who lived far enough outside of the major cities or were in aircrafts or boats. There were some who grabbed onto a large piece of debris or a fixed structure and rode out the chaos. After the lava settled, the governments that were still standing used up the remaining resources to build settlements to harbor the survivors. After ten years, the peace among the settlements wore thin. People began forming their own settlements with their own governments. The new governments had no way to stop any conflicts since the military was essentially annihilated and only a quarter of the world’s population remained.
Over the years the temporary governments fell to organized crime. The crime organization “Kraken” took control of Marsh City, the largest city in what used to be America, and began running a more sophisticated crime operation. They managed to rebuild the city to a semi-livable state. Most of the city became slums while the crime lords built their own quarters and meeting places to the highest standard.
My name is Zero. People don’t have their official names anymore. When Kraken took over, they used the city records to find people who still had assets or some semblance of power and took them out. Everybody dropped their names and adopted a new name. Some people just picked a random name, but others picked one that would be their codename in the Insurgency. The Insurgency formed about 24 years ago when I was 5 years old. Kraken began rounding up those who opposed them for public executions. The Insurgency started out small, only a few people. Once they began sabotaging operations of Kraken, people joined at a rapid pace. For a few years, the Insurgency made progress against Kraken, but the success was short lived. Even rebellions have problems. It turned out that there were informants within the group who sold out the entire Insurgency. They were completely wiped out after being fed false information that led them into an ambush.
I remember the day they were defeated. I was sixteen years old. I felt hopelessness within the city. Kraken had destroyed the only real progress anyone had made against them. I was only a few days away from joining the Insurgency. I wanted to be part of the effort to take down Kraken. I started training in secret. I tried to build my speed and ability to move unnoticed. When the Insurgency fell, I had no idea what I should do. My parents died in the demise of the Insurgency. They were scientists that helped build weapons for the rebels. Growing up I tried to learn as much as I could from them. When they died, I was lost. I continued to live in our house to stay hidden from Kraken.
I recovered some of my parents’ more useful technology and hid it before Kraken’s agents came to ransack our house. I also made it a point to make myself scarce while our home was being taken out of the system. Once Kraken destroyed agents of the Insurgency, they would send their own people to do a sweep of the house and make sure it had nothing of value. Once that was done, they took it off the list and it became just another slum house. Luckily I was able to take some of our stuff and hide for a few hours. Once my home was cleared, I returned and tried to make a new start. All my training, all my knowledge… wasted. I kept the technology to keep it out of the hands of Kraken. My parents had some of the most advanced technology that anyone had ever seen. Even Kraken’s tech paled in comparison. I had to keep it safe.
For thirteen years, I lived on. I was just a normal citizen of Marsh City. I tried to stay out of the way of known Kraken agents. I spent most of my time with my neighbor and closest friend, Frost. Frost is the same age as me. His parents were killed in the Insurgency ambush as well. They were field medics who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were the ones who were leading the pack because the Intel they received said there were injured members of the Insurgency that needed aid. The group decided that it was the time to strike, but paid the ultimate price.
Frost chose his name because when he was a child he had a debilitating disease that would raise his body temperature nearly to the point of death. His parents worked with other scientists in the Insurgency to help him. Gene manipulation was a popular method among Kraken when they first took power. The Insurgency was able to steal some of the technology in a well-placed tactical raid. They used the manipulation on Frost to alter his DNA. They were able to keep his body temperature at a stable level, but there was a tradeoff. He acquired a gene spike. This is the side effect of gene manipulation. They come in many different forms and manifest themselves differently. Some people call them gifts, but others think they are curses. To keep his body temperature at a stable level, they had to manipulate his genes to produce an ice like compound to keep him from overheating. Frost’s gene spike allowed him to create ice and manipulate it. He also was able to project ice shards from his hands. His eyes turned from a dark brown to an icy blue color. His hair turned into a light blonde as well.
Kraken started manipulating some of their top agents with gene spikes. It was the only way to ensure that their agents would stop being killed off while on assignments. They had scientists come up with gene spikes that would make their agents seemingly invincible. Things got bad in Marsh City after they started making their elite squads. With the Insurgency dead and an army of gene manipulated soldiers, Kraken gutted the city of what little money it had left.
Gene spikes became hated among the normal people in Marsh city. If you were unlucky enough to have a physical characteristic that distinguished your gene spike, you would be shunned, insulted, or sometimes attacked by people. Frost had to work hard to hide his. Only those closest to him knew about it. Luckily for me, mine didn’t affect the way I looked. Oh, that’s right, I have a gene spike as well. My gene spike is the ability to alter gravity. I can create small temporal gravity alterations, send out force bursts from my hands and send an explosion of force from my entire body. The last one is extremely dangerous, though. I have only done it once. When I was a child, my parents attempted to recreate the effect of the weapon that originally started the war, but in me. They thought that if a person could hone that power, it could be used in a more positive way. I don’t remember much of the alteration process. When I came back to consciousness, the lab around me was nearly destroyed. My parents worked hard to hide my gene spike as I grew up. When Kraken agents came poking around, my parents just said there was a gas explosion and apparently it was good enough for them. They took to calling me Zero since I could create zero gravity-like bursts. Frost and I promised to keep our alterations secret from the others.
The day that we made the decision to resurrect the Insurgency sticks out in my mind more than any other. I was combing through some of my parents old research one morning. My house was dismal ever since Kraken raided and stripped it. I was able to acquire some meager furniture and supplies so I could live relatively comfortably. All I was able to recover was three boxes of research papers before it was all taken. I had only been a
ble to go through one of the boxes. Many of the notes and papers were very complicated and hard to sort out. I tried to diligently look through everything and learn what I could. It has taken me years to read through many of the papers. I know three boxes don’t sound like a lot, but they were three large footlockers packed to the brim with research. I could only read so much in one sitting. I cracked into the second footlocker and started reading the complex formulas and plans. A few pages in, a knock came at the door.
“Come in!” I yelled over my shoulder.
The door creaked open and Frost entered carrying a bag. “How’s it going?” he asked.
“As well as it could go. You know how complex these are,” I responded.
“I know. I brought a surprise though. I think you’ll like this,” he said reaching into the bag. He pulled out a can and set it on my table.
“What is it?” I asked looking at it.
“Open and smell it,” he responded.
I opened the can and instantly smelled a savory aroma. “Coffee?” I asked in a surprised tone.
“Yes. Coffee. Actual coffee,” Frost replied.
“Where did you get this? I thought that this was a banned item and only Kraken agents could get it,” I said.
“I was walking down to the market and saw one of Kraken’s supply trucks was driving along and happened to lose a box when it hit a pothole. I ‘liberated’ the contents and distributed them to people throughout town. I kept the coffee for us though. I figured we could use it for our heavy reading,” he said.
I chuckled and went to my stove to put on a pot of water to make the coffee. After a few minutes, we sat at the table with a hot pot of fresh coffee. I poured a cup and took a drink of the heavenly nectar. Nobody had been able to acquire something as simple as coffee for a long time. Kraken completely ran the supply trade in Marsh City and kept the “common” people from having what they called “luxury amenities” or what we call simple comforts. I felt the caffeine coursing through my body. We both dug into the second footlocker. After a while, I came across some blueprints that I didn’t recognize.
“Frost, do you know what these are?” I asked.
He examined them and replied, “No. I don’t know. I have never seen anything like this before. Are there any other notes on them?” he asked back.
“I haven’t seen any yet. I’ll keep looking,” I replied. The plans looked like gauntlets, but what did they do? They had to have some properties that made them special. Why would they keep these papers with their research if they were just armor? I set them aside and kept reading. Frost stopped me and said, “Look at this. I found a series of notes that reference something called ‘spike amplifiers’. Do you think that’s what those are?”
“Could be. What does it say?” I asked.
“Let’s see,” he said taking a drink of coffee, ‘Spike amplifiers are a gauntlet product that have the power to take the power of a gene spike and amplify it by ten times its original power. We have attempted many prototypes, but to no positive result. All seven test subjects that have tested the amplifiers have had negative side effects. Some powers were lost completely and some of the subjects died. No possible solutions at this time.’
“Well that sounds bleak. Maybe if we come across more notes we can try to figure out the flaws and build some of our own,” I said.
“Your gravity powers are powerful enough aren’t they?” Frost asked.
“I could always stand to hone them. I don’t want to accidentally blow an innocent house away,” I replied.
“Didn’t your parents recreate the core remover weapon in your gene spike?” Frost asked.
“Yeah but they toned the power down. They didn’t want me accidentally destroying life as we know it,” I said.
“That was smart of them,” Frost said going back to his papers.
I continued to read and was fascinated by the work my parents did. The papers outlined many plans for elaborate weapons. Most were made of a disruptor technology that could negate gene spikes for a short time. This would make the person vulnerable powerless until the effects wore off. The only problem was that the research didn’t mention how long it would last or if it would even work. We wouldn’t want to get into a sticky situation and have it not work. We read for a few hours before there was a commotion outside. I walked to the door and saw a crowd of people moving towards the city square. I stopped a young woman and asked, “What’s going on?”
“Hades is making a public appearance at the city square,” she said.
“Hades? In person?” Frost asked from across the room.
“Apparently. You’d better hurry or you won’t be able to get into the square,” she said hurrying away.
“We’d better go. Let’s pack this up quickly,” I said, almost running across the room to the table. Hades, the leader of Kraken, never made appearances in person. He would only appear on a video screen to address the public. His name came from a speech that he delivered a few years before. There had been a string of public disturbances that had disrupted Kraken operations. Hades gave an order to firebomb a section of the city to show that Kraken was still not to be trifled with. He appeared after the bombing on the large video screen in the square and delivered a fiery speech. In the middle of the speech, he referred to himself as “the lord of the underworld that is Marsh City and the citizens are the souls that are damned and forced to remain in turmoil forever”. People began calling him Hades and he adopted the name. He tightened his rule after that speech and began publicly executing anyone who had an unregistered gene spike or anyone who caused a public disturbance that could be referred to as an “act of rebellion”. After that, nobody really caused any problems. The city’s people had been pounded into submission by Hades and his elite operatives.
Frost and I made our way through the winding slums toward the large square. We arrived and got about halfway through the crowd before it became too dense to move anymore. About five minutes passed and two big lights flashed onto a balcony that hung off of Poseidon Tower, Kraken’s base of operation in the center of the city. It used to be the central power hub but once Kraken took over, they cut power off from the rest of the city and kept it all for themselves. Hades emerged and he looked even more terrifying in person. He was close to seven feet tall and had jet black hair. He had a slick goatee. His eyes were a piercing green color and his face was very sharp and harsh to look at. He wore a sleek gray suit and a royal blue tie. A microphone rose up in front of him and he began to speak, “People of Marsh City. We have forced order upon this cesspool of a city, but I think that you forget who is in charge. I know you have become complacent in your pitiful lives and I have decided that I will demonstrate my authority in a public setting by executing a scientist named Pipes. Think of this as a demonstration of my ultimate power.”
I immediately recognized the name. Pipes was a member of the Insurgency who worked with my parents. He disappeared after the fall of the Insurgency and nobody saw him since. We thought that he had fled the city, but I now saw that Kraken had taken him prisoner. I knew that Pipes would never give up any information that would implicate anybody in the rebellion. I was just worried for his safety. He was dragged out to the balcony by two guards. He was beaten and bloodied. He had endured years of torture only to be executed in front of people who knew him.
“Some of you may not know who this is. This is Pipes. He was a lead scientist in the Insurgency. We gathered him when we defeated the rebellion and he has proven to be a steel trap. He has kept the answers we want in his head and now his brain will be available for you all to see!” Hades said angrily. As he finished, he pulled out an antique revolver and shot Pipes in the head, point blank range. Pipes was no more. A gasp rose from the crowd and scattered screams became audible. I felt a rage building inside me. I began to shake with anger and felt the ground rumbling. Frost noticed my power starting to emerge and put his hand on my arm to stop me. I couldn’t help it. I shot a force blast towards the balcony and
in an instant, it crumbled. Hades was already clear of the balcony, but a handful of guards were taken down with the rubble. The crowd parted and I saw Hades gaze turn to me. His stare terrified me. I immediately felt fear wash over me. I had revealed my spike after years of being so careful to hide it. Hades fired his gun at me but an ice wall sprung up in front of me. Frost had revealed himself as well.
“We need to go! Now!” Frost yelled.
We took off in the opposite direction and snaked between the buildings. After every turn, Frost made an ice wall to gain us some time. “Where exactly are we going?” I yelled.
“I have an idea. Just follow me,” he yelled back.
We continued through the city. We reached the city limits and broke into the area surrounding the city. For about a mile around the city, there was no vegetation. It was a mini wasteland until a wall of forest sprung up. We came upon a large pipe in the ground and Frost said, “In here.”
“In the sewer pipe?” I asked.
“Yeah, just trust me,” he replied.
We ran into the pipe and finally slowed down to a walk. I felt bad. I had blown both of our covers in a moment of carelessness. “Frost, I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s fine,” he said in an annoyed tone.
I grabbed his arm to stop him, “No it isn’t fine. I ruined everything.”
“I’m just surprised at you. After years of being so careful to avoid detection, to avoid repeating what happened to our families, you reveal our powers in less than one minute to all of Marsh City and more importantly, to Hades,” he said almost yelling.
“I know. I’m sorry. I knew Pipes and after all these years seeing him like that was bad enough, not to mention that his brains were splattered all over the balcony,” I said leaning up against a wall.
“Look, I’m sorry I got upset. I know it must have been hard for you to see that,” Frost said finally calmed down.
“What do we do now? We can’t go back to the city. They will be looking for us I’m sure,” I said.