by Wid Bastian
The day before the attack, under the cover of darkness she moved her soldiers closer to New Fairbanks and hid them in the ruins of the old town. Her minions killed all of the colony’s advance scouts before any signal could be sent to warn the colony.
The Iss were more difficult to neutralize. She could not find and destroy them, but she did distract them and keep them from alerting the colony. When her soldiers emerged from Old Fairbanks and began their final trek to New Fairbanks, the Iss were a hundred plus kilometers to the south chasing false, but very credible, evidence of an attack on an outpost near Juneau.
She had long since given up hope of ever catching and killing Iss Konge, leader of the Iss people. She knew there was no way he was going to expose himself to any significant danger. Like her, his lifespan was indefinite. Like her, he was one of the originals from Forged Bay. Like her, he had created not only a life, but an entire race of beings that worshipped him as a deity. Unlike her, he was devoted to helping humanity survive. Iss Konge wanted to see Cassia destroyed and all of her servants vaporized, but he had no power to make his fantasy a reality.
Until now? Cassia considered. Was it coincidence that this new, powerful enemy came from Alaska? Was he a student of Iss Konge? While she had no intel to support it, Cassia concluded that he must be. If she could just capture the boy, maybe she could draw Iss Konge out, lure him into a trap…
After the raid the boy was taken to the government’s secure compound in Canada. At the moment, the defenses at the massive facility were impregnable. But over the decades Cassia had learned that no human fortress was capable of withstanding her army’s assault given enough time, patience, and planning.
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Iss Konge surveyed the destruction, which was total. He watched from a distance as the government troops and aircraft secured the New Fairbanks colony and began the cleanup process. Transports carrying the parents of the dead school children were the first to arrive. No doubt they were hoping against all odds that somehow the reports of the carnage were inaccurate or overstated, but they were not. Everyone was gone.
Except Neron. Somehow he had survived. Word was passed to Iss Konge through government channels - one survivor showed all the signs of “significant genetic and/or nanomite enhancement”. He was a young boy, not more than fifteen. He knew it was Neron.
According to credible reports, Neron killed more than a hundred Plague singlehandedly. If this was true then he indeed did have the special gift Iss Konge had been anticipating for over five decades. He might be the one capable of ending this abomination before every last human on Earth perished.
Iss Konge spent the day chastising himself for his own stupidity. By the time he had reached Juneau he knew he’d been set up, but it was too late. Cassia was very clever and had planned her diversion well. She gladly sacrificed a few hundred of the infected, who died at the hands of the troops waiting in ambush for them, to achieve her goal of decimating New Fairbanks.
When the war began humanity dominated Earth, but it was at war with itself. By the time the West and East joined forces it was too late. Cassia’s army spread planet wide. With every conquest she grew stronger and her numbers increased. The soldiers and civilians she infected became new soldiers in her army. Her nano-human hybrid mist was spread everywhere not only by her, but also by her most trusted lieutenants who preserved it in sealed containers letting it loose at every opportunity.
For a while, Iss Konge was paralyzed by guilt and regret at having been duped. As he watched, forced to look at the bodies being stacked like firewood and burned in a great open-air crematorium, the weight of his failures felt even more unbearable. He was tortured every minute of every day because he was responsible for all of this. His decision all those years ago to let Cassia live, indeed to help her, was the only reason her armies flourished today.
How he wished he could go back in time and make things right. He would kill Cassia instantly, without regret, without remorse. The devoted souls of the Iss and the many thanks over the years from the colonies for his courage and support were only window dressing, a façade covering the ugliest of truths.
The truth was he deserved to die. Unable to die, unable to right his wrongs, he was forced to carry the weight of his sins.
Iss Konge spent his days literally walking in the shadow of death. Watching and waiting and looking for any sign of hope, he was prepared to exert his last ounce of energy to find a way to destroy Cassia. He remained convinced, as did most of the credible government scientists, that if she could be eliminated her armies would crumble. Certainly the ability to create more of these abominations would be gone. No one believed anyone but Cassia was capable of creating the terrible beasts.
Standing in the pines, surrounded by his people, Iss Konge thought back to the Cassia he once knew. Her hair then was long and blonde. While she was a warrior, she was not without feeling. She loved her husband and her son and she had a very human moral compass in many ways stronger than his own. Cassia was a principled warrior before the nano experiment, a person who intended to sacrifice herself to bring about peace.
But that person was long gone.
Cassia had become the ultimate evil, a never ending pestilence, a horror beyond anyone’s worst conception. The nanites that combined with her DNA brought out the killer in her and destroyed her goodness. Her physical appearance changed so much she barely resembled anything human now, other than the fact that she still walked on two legs.
This boy, Neron, is my hope, humanity’s best hope, Iss Konge said to himself. Once his abilities are fully developed he may be able to do what no ones been able to do in half a century, kill Cassia.
Then, and only then, Iss Konge might grant himself limited redemption. He might be able to purge the sin of genocide from his blood stained hands.
Chapter Twenty Four
When Neron awoke he knew he wasn’t anywhere near New Fairbanks. He was lying in a hospital bed, but it was not like any hospital bed he had ever seen. The room was huge and full of strange machines he did not recognize. His right arm was wrapped in a foil-like covering and immobilized.
His first thought was, I’m starving. He felt like he hadn’t eaten for days. Had it been days? Neron realized he had no idea what time it was, where he was or what happened to… Then the memories came back in succession. The target ball game, the alarm, Shayla, The Plague… was any of it real? Had he just imagined everything? What was he …
“It’s Neron, right?” the man in a bright white lab coat asked. “Your name is Neron?”
“Yes, Neron. Who are you? Where am I?”
“I’m Dr. Lazzari, but you can call me Ken. You’re in Canada at a government complex. You could not be in a safer place anywhere in the world. We’re treating your injuries. I’ll bet you’re hungry. What would you like to eat?”
“Yes… what is available?”
“Available… Ah, you’re from the colonies. What would you like? Steak? Hamburger? Vegetables? Perhaps a dessert of some sort, pie and ice cream perhaps?”
“You have meat here? Honest to goodness beef?” Neron asked.
“Honest to goodness, pure, unadulterated beef. We have a large heard of cattle on the premises. How about a nice, big juicy steak?” Dr. Lazzari asked.
“No, I’d like a hamburger. I’ve always wanted one of those. I’ve only read about burgers in old books.”
“Yes sir. A burger, fries and a soda pop, coming right up.”
“You have soda too?” Neron was amazed. He thought he might have died and gone to heaven, whatever heaven was. He’d only heard about heaven in storybooks.
A man dressed in a military uniform entered the room. The doctor nodded to the officer, checked Neron’s vital signs and said before he left, “A nurse will bring your food in shortly, son.”
“Who are you?” Neron asked the soldier.
“Major Gorman. I’m your liaison officer. I’m the person you go to for anything you need, Neron. If we have the ability to get
you something you desire, we will.”
“Why? Who are you people?” Neron began to remember more now, his memories slowly re-surfacing. “Where is my mother? Where is… Shayla! Is she?”
Gorman walked to Neron’s side and took his left hand in his own. He squeezed it hard, not as a man would give comfort to a boy, but as a man giving comfort to another man. “They’re dead son, but you know that. Everyone is dead. Think back. The Plague invaded New Fairbanks. The monsters were everywhere. You killed them by the hundreds.”
Closing his eyes Neron could remember, at least in fragments. He recalled seeing Shayla dead and holding her body in his arms. He recalled jumping on to the concourse, slashing and stabbing The Plague with his right hand…
“What’s wrong with my hand?” Neron asked. He tried to move his right arm, but it was pinned to a stand that was bolted to the floor.
“Your hand is a weapon; a very effective weapon against The Plague. We were hoping you could tell us what it was.”
“I don’t know. It…” Neron stopped talking and focused on his right arm. Concentrating, Neron pulled his right arm free from the restraint and sent the stand flying across the room. Gorman jumped back, clearly startled.
“I just want to see my hand,” Neron said. “I won’t hurt you or anyone else.”
Removing the foil with his left hand Neron saw it – his right arm and hand were now gunmetal grey. He still had skin on his arm and hand, of a sort; it was metallic, but it remained soft to the touch. A black ring, an aura, in the center of his palm mildly pulsed in conjunction with his heartbeat. His fingers were bright silver blades with all the dexterity and function of a normal hand. He held up his arm in the light and turned it over a couple of times, examining it from different angles.
“That restraint was measured to withstand…” Gorman pulled back. “You are tremendously strong.”
“That I do remember. I don’t feel weak or sick. Why am I in a hospital?”
“You are, you have, changed. Your body is reacting to the nanogene in ways, well, quite frankly in ways we’ve never seen before.”
“Am I a prisoner here?” Neron asked.
“No, not at all. We are monitoring your body, performing tests, observing you. The last thing anyone wants is for any harm to come to you.”
Neron listened with his ears, but also with his intuitive sense. Major Gorman wasn’t lying to him, not exactly, but he definitely was not telling him the whole story. For the moment Neron felt safe.
“Then I’ll be leaving now. I hate hospitals. There must be somewhere else you can house me, a place I’m supposed to be.” As Neron said this, he began to unhook the lines that were attached to his body and he reached for his IV.
“Neron, please,” Major Gorman said. “Let a nurse do that.”
The machines sounded silent alarms. Two nurses came in and started to fuss over the equipment. One of them tried to reconnect some type of monitor to Neron’s chest.
“No, I want these things off me. Now,” Neron insisted. As he said this, he read the nurse’s fear. She was scared to death of him. So was Gorman. Why? Neron wondered. Have I hurt someone without knowing it? Did I kill people as well as The Plague back at New Fairbanks?
After getting a confirming nod from Major Gorman, the nurses removed Neron from the machines and took out his IV. Just then his lunch arrived.
“May we talk while you eat?” the major asked.
His increased senses betrayed him. The smell of the burger caused his mouth to water uncontrollably. “Okay.”
“How much do you remember? About the attack, I mean,” Gorman asked.
“Bits and pieces… well, more than bits and pieces. When I have an episode, I black out. Usually.” Neron took a second bite of his burger. It was topped with vegetables, lettuce and tomatoes. His sandwich was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted.
“Your memory was impaired because of the dampening serum you were taking. We’ve removed all remnants of the serum from your system. Our guess is that you will experience no more blackouts and you will continue to change, perhaps faster now; perhaps much faster.”
“What serum?” Neron asked. The burger was almost gone and for sure he was going to ask for another one.
“Your mother, we assume, gave you dampening serum. She undoubtedly got it from the Iss. They produced it almost by accident decades ago when they were searching for ways to control the changes the nanogene was making to their bodies.”
“Mom did not know any Iss. You’ve got that wrong.” Neron was now devouring his fried potatoes, a dish he’d enjoyed many times before.
“You don’t recall being given a bitter tasting light brown liquid? She must have given this to you at least weekly,” Gorman said. Before Neron asked Gorman offered, “Want another burger?”
“Yes!” Neron said. He felt much better after eating.
“The liquid, Neron?” Gorman probed.
“Yeah, she gave me something like that. It was for my allergies. Even the slightest hint of pollen plugs up my head like you can’t believe.”
“The serum was not for allergies, Neron. Your mother probably did not want you expressing. Your father was gifted too or didn’t you know that.”
“What do you know about my father?” Neron asked skeptically.
“Everything. He helped build this place. He was a hero, Neron. Just like you.”
“After the burger comes and I eat it, we need to leave,” Neron said. Neron didn’t want to be here any longer. He wanted some peace and quiet and time to think. He did want to know more about his father, but not now.
His mother was gone. His sister was gone. His home was gone.
Yet somehow, despite his staggering loss, he felt more alive than ever before in his life. His body was surging with energy and his mind was super sharp. Sensing no attempt at deception, Neron was confident Gorman was telling him the truth about the serum. Why did his mother lie to him about this his whole life? What did she not want him to become?
Gorman said his father “helped build this place”. Maybe that’s what his mother was afraid of; this facility or these people, or both. Maybe she was afraid or angry his father had died while serving here.
Neron ate the second hamburger in less than two minutes. Then he dressed in a light blue, once piece uniform Gorman gave him.
It was time to check out his new home.
Chapter Twenty Five
Major Gorman and Neron walked outside. It was a bright summer day. The air was warm, pure and it smelled like flowers. The grounds were impeccably kept. There were trees and bushes and grass… life.
“Welcome to Newfoundland. You couldn’t have arrived at a more beautiful time of year. Summer is spectacular here,” the major said.
“How far north are we?” Neron asked.
“Not as far north as New Fairbanks, but we’re still in the Frigid Zone. The town of Nain used to be just to our west and the Labrador Sea is right over there,” Gorman said, extending his hand northward. “This is the last remaining major human complex still above ground. We are literally surrounded on all sides by the most extensive and sophisticated defenses available. Welcome to Capitol City, Neron.”
“Capitol? The capitol of what?”
“The capitol of the world.”
“I didn’t know there was such a thing. Who lives here?”
“Government leaders, military leaders and our brain trust. From here we will ultimately defeat Cassia and re-take the planet.”
“Why does nobody know about this place?” Neron asked.
“People know, of course they know. It’s just not much discussed, for a variety of reasons.”
“The Plague, they must know about it,” Neron said.
“Yes, they do. They are constantly probing our perimeter. From time to time we catch their spies and send them back in tiny pieces. But they cannot penetrate our defenses.”
“Why not make everyone this safe? If you can keep The Plague out of here, why not -
.”
“So many questions,” Gorman said. “Let’s save a few for later. Right now, I’d like to show you your new school.”
“I’m going to school?”
“It’s not like the schools you attended in Alaska, Neron. This is a special place. Surely you’ve heard of H-TEC. Our school is no secret.”
Neron had heard of H-TEC. Supposedly it was buried deep inside a mountain in Greenland. The kids who went there were gifted, which was another term for special abilities the government wanted to exploit. His mother had always spoken of H-TEC with great disdain. To her it was the worst place on Earth.