by J. D. Laird
“The harvest was nearly perfect.” Tobias says. “People grouped together in major metropolitan areas made it easy to collect large groups at once.”
Madison remembers the scenes she had seen in the cities they had passed through.
“Then the humans polluted the Earth, as they were told to. This created a global warming event that was the perfect cover for a rehydration campaign. They encouraged people to consume water supplied by public utilities without the awareness of the tiny nanobots that they were ingesting.”
Madison remembered the way that Tobias had tried to stop her from drinking from water tap at a rest stop. She remembered the way he had signaled to her that spiders were somehow involved.
“These nanobots then attacked the central nervous system of their hosts and were all triggered at preciously the right moment to make nearly the entire population docile.”
Madison remembered the analyst that had passed out in the control room, and the stories of the others at the base who had sudden become unconscious at the precise time that the base had lost power. She also remembered how all those affected had recently been on vacation. Whereas the rest of the base drank from a sheltered supply of water, these people had been outside and exposed to the same water as the public. These people had been infected.
“Taking out the electricity was merely a fail safe.” Tobias almost seems to smile as he continues to speak. There is an arrogance in his tone that Madison finds instantly terrifying. “Humans have become so reliant on electricity. Globally it has become as essential as food and water. To cut us off from it was to remove the power plug from civilization. Even if some people do survive this reaping, there is no hope of rebuilding what has already been lost.”
“No!” Madison hollers, her voice echoes off the walls of the truck’s cabin. “You’re wrong!” Madison’s mind is fighting that lies that are being fed to it. “If everything was so perfect then what about my flashlight? The one that still worked underground?”
“A necessary risk.” Tobias replies, unnerved by the raise in volume of Madison’s voice. “They did not want the pulse that affected our devices to accidentally injure the Earth. So they launched a surface attack and probe only.” Tobias turns to Madison now, but she was too unnerved to bring herself to look at him. “After all, they need the planet intact. They plan on using it for harvesting again.”
The implications of everything that Tobias was telling her was more than Madison could rationally organize in her head. All she feels are the emotions, but even those are so conflicted she has difficulty keeping them all in check.
“Humans are more than just programmed machines. We have free will! We’re strong!” If Madison screams loud enough it will make the statements true.
Tobias doesn’t flinch, doesn’t react to Madison’s screams. “All illusions, part of the design. This is the harvesting.” Tobias says. “Your eyes are the proof.”
Madison identifies for certain that she feelings angry now. The truck barrels forward at reckless speeds. Madison wants to get to the end, She wants to reach the end of the maze of columns to where the answers lay, at the labyrinth’s heart.
The one headlight catches something, motion, and Madison slows. “What was that?”
There is then more movement behind one of the pillars. Madison slows the truck to a crawl to get a better look. A pair of eyes, lit up by her headlights, peer back at her from the dark. Behind the eyes are a large form, at least seven feet tall. It has hunched shoulders and whipping behind it is a tail. Its face is not a face at all, just two slits where a nose should be and a long mouth with a row of pointed teeth poking out between from scaly lips. The creature’s skin looks hard and green. The being stares at Madison and doesn’t move.
Madison’s heart is racing. Everything is happening much too quickly. The horror of everything overwhelms Madison. She feels the need to fight back.
Tobias too sees the creature and for a moment shifts from his trance. He turns to Madison with the same terrified look in his eyes that she had seen when they first arrived to the strange place. “I should not have brought you here.” He says again.
Grabbing his head, Tobias screams as he appears to be suddenly struck with immense pain. Madison sees that the shard of metal the young man wears around his neck is glowing. It is glowing with a green light seemed to radiate from within it.
“We are fulfilling our purpose!” Tobias screams as he says the words. Madison knows that the words are not his own. Something has a grip on him.
Madison is ready to fight. She wants to fight against the questions and against the darkness. She wants to fight against the monsters that have taken the world away from her. The same ones who had killed her coworker, Dale, and had killed everyone else she had ever known.
Madison slams on the brakes and puts the truck into park. She then reaches for the amulet around Tobias’ neck. Tobias tries to bat her away. The two of them wrestle as Madison tries to pull the shard away from Tobias’ next, but Tobias is strong and pushes her back. He brings up a fist and it collides with Madison’s cheek. She barely feels the blow, she is so focused on grabbing the glowing fragment of foreign metal. Tobias then strikes her again. This time her head shoots back and slams against the driver’s side window.
Madison rubs the back of her head where it had collided with the glass. She only takes a moment to regain her composure before she realizes Tobias is staring at her. There is a look in his eyes. It is one that tells Madison she is in danger.
Madison leaps out of the truck and slams the door behind her. She dashes to the front of the truck. Tobias opens the door to the cab and hops out as well. He does so smoothly, as if his body is vapor. He moves stealthily, the only sound comes from the slow methodical fall of his footsteps.
“We should go.” Tobias says, his gaze is fixated on Madison.
Madison doesn’t waste time responding. She bolts in the direction of the nearest rows of pillars and Tobias moves swiftly to stop her. She runs full steam into dark, the sound of Tobias storming behind him echoing off the sides of the pillars.
Madison is surrounded by darkness. She races up and down the columns of electrified towers, searching for some place to provide her with sanctuary. Her lungs burn with exhaustion. As a bolt of lightning arches overhead illuminating the area, Madison sees a long reptilian tail disappear behind a pillar. Madison runs in the opposite direction.
Blinded, heaving heavy breaths and fueled by a need for survival, Madison rounds the corner of yet another column. It is nearly pitch black. Her only sense of her surroundings are the shadows of the pillars around her. Madison had the answers she had come for, she realizes. Even if they had not been the answers that she had wanted to hear. Madison realizes that all she wants now is to make it out of the maze of pillars alive.
Madison his something hard. It strikes her in the face and she falls to the ground. There is a shadow above her. Another bolt of electricity overhead reveals Tobias’ form standing over her. He has a clenched fist raised.
“It is over. There is no escape.” His voice is like glass, smooth and without a ripple.
Madison rubs her nose staring up at the man who has struck her. She is determined to survive. Madison shifts across the ground and props herself up on her elbows. Tobias still looms over her, not making a sound.
“So all of this was planned, everything?” Madison says. She is stalling, hoping to catch her opponent off-guard. “Then why take you? Why did they take you when you were a teenager?”
Tobias obliges her. “To test me.” He says. “To see if our species had reached its ripeness. They decided were still lacking.”
“But now we are ripe?” The words sting Madison’s tongue as she says them.
“The season is right and the crop is mature. This is our purpose.” Tobias says the phrases as if he no longer sees himself as truly human. Madison wonders if he is.
“Well I hate to mess up your plans but I don’t think I’m ready to be turned into
some kind of alien battery cell.” Madison shifts her weight underneath her slightly in the dark. She gets her body into to better position for what was inevitably to come.
“We are fuel, nothing more.” Tobias replies. “Our bodies were made for this purpose alone. “ Tobias then arches his back. “But spoiled fruit may not be allowed to pollute the batch.” There is fire in his eyes, one that tells Madison what is about to happen. The light overhead fades and a shadow falls on top of her. Two powerful hands wrap around Madison’s throat. Madison doesn’t even bother screaming.
Instead, Madison focuses on how she is going to fight back. Her knee come up under Tobias’ legs and strike his groin. The young man’s whole body quivers from the force and the grip on Madison’s neck loosens. Madison rams her forehead into Tobias’ nose and hears the cartilage crunch as she does so. With a chop, she then swings for Tobias’ neck and makes contact. He gasped for air and rolled away from the pain. Madison is not a victim, she never had been. She is a survivor and a fighter. Something her enemy would learn.
Free from Tobias’ grasp, Madison rolls away. An electrical bolt flashes overhead then and Madison’s heart jumps. A dozen of the serpent creatures have surrounded her in a half-circle. Their tongues are flawing and their shoulders are hunched. They are ready to pounce. Madison can hear the licking sound of their tongues in the dark over Tobias’ heavy and wounded breathing. They are all no doubt preparing to finish her off. Madison is soon blind again. She hopes she can react quickly enough.
“You are alone.” It is Tobias. He had disappears into the darkness. His voice sounds weak, his windpipe likely bruised by Madison’s blow. Madison looks around in the dark, trying to locate him, but the voice could be coming from anywhere. Madison presses her back against a pillar to protect herself from an attack from behind. She tries to hone her sense of hearing, listen for his approach. It is difficult to make out anything over the sound of her own breathes.
“You are of no value alone.” The voice echoes off the surrounding pillars.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Madison says smartly. It is a fact that now sits comfortably within her heart.
“Come.” The voice fills the air. “Come fulfill your purpose.”
A distant bolt of light and Madison sees something glimmer, it is the glow of the metal shard around Tobias’ neck, the implant that he had torn out of his arm and that the young man wore on a string. Madison grabs for it and feels her fingers wrap around the metal shard. She pulls, snapping the string that keeps it around Tobias’ neck. Tobias bellows and lunges for her, more ravenously than ever before.
A gunshot rings out. Tobias’ body flies to the side. A spray of blood fills the darkness.
39 Cassie
The smoke billows out of the end of Cassie’s rifle as she stares down the sights of her weapon. It had only taken one shot to bring down the young man who had been charging at Madison. One shot, a quick spray of blood and Tobias now lay somewhere in the dark on the ground. It had been a difficult shot to make, Cassie was shooting at shadows, but she was sure she had hit her mark.
“No!” It is a bellow from Debra as she races past Cassie towards her fallen son. Debra carries a gas lantern in her hand, it swings from side to side as she runs. The ambient light dances off of the pillars, casting long dark shadows in all directions. Madison steps away from Debra as she runs toward her. The shrieking woman falls to her knees besides her son.
Madison turns to Cassie and in the pale glow of the lantern Cassie can see that the Lieutenant is smiling. Madison runs quickly towards Cassie. There is something clenched in her fist. Cassie is startled when the Madison wraps her arms around Cassie in a fierce hug. Cassie’s body tenses up, she resists it at first. Soon, however, her body relents. Cassie has to admit that after everything she had been through, the human contact felt comforting.
A bark! Both Madison and Cassie turn to see the shape of Copper wobbling towards them in the dark. The dog’s fluffy tail is wagging. It runs up and licks Madison’s hand. The Lieutenant is crying, Cassie realizes. Cassie too feels tears welling up in her eyes, only she fights them away.
“The monsters.” Madison’s face then suddenly changes, as she remembers something terrifying. She surveys the scene. The only people in view are Debbie kneeling over the body of her son. Whatever ‘monsters’ Madison is referring to must have vanished. Apparently realizing this, Madison sighs and her body relaxes. She bends down and starts to furiously scratch at Copper’s ear. The animal pants with excited breathes, its tongue flopping out of its mouth.
“How did you get here?” Madison manages to say between residual sobs.
Cassie readjusts the rifle strap around her shoulder. “A dirt bike back at the house. That crazy witch-woman was able to get it working.” Cassie motions to Debra who is sobbing besides her son’s motionless body. “From there we found two motorcycles, one with a sidecar for Copper here. Debra was able to get those working again too. They were fast and small, allowed us to weave in and out of the traffic on the highways.”
“But how did you know where to find us?” Madison rises, one hand resting on the dog’s head.
Cassie gestures over to the crying woman and her son again. “Psycho-boy drew this place. Well, Washington, D.C. anyway. I don’t know what the hell this place is now?”
Madison sighs heavily and opens her clenched fist. In it she holds the metal shard that Tobias had worn around his neck. Cassie can see that Madison is studying it. “I don’t think he’s crazy. I think he was being controlled.” She then looks up, staring at the pillars. “And this place-“ She pauses. “This why they came for us, to turn us and our planet into this.”
“But what is it?” Cassie asks as a beam of light stream overhead.
“Some kind of power station.” Madison throws the metal shard onto the ground. “And we’re the fuel.” She steps on the piece of metal with the heel of her foot and Cassie hears it crack from the force of Madison’s heavy stomp. Madison then pivots her heel. When she removes her foot, the small shard is thoroughly pulverized.
“Then everything is gone? The government? Everything?” It feels odd for Cassie to say the words out loud. They are thoughts that had been building for days, confirmed as she and Debra drove tirelessly across the country and saw all the devastation that lay between them and their destination.
“Yes.” Madison is looking directly into the face of the Private. In the dim light, Cassie can see where her tears have left streaks down her face. “We’re the only ones left.”
Cassie lets the thought sink in. It takes some time. The enormity of all of it, it takes time to take hold. “But what do we do now?” The words creep out of Cassie’s lips unconsciously. She had been so used to taking orders, to following commands, even the most moronic of them. Now there was no one to lead her. No one was left to guide her except her own will.
Madison takes a long time to answer. She is staring off along the pillars, they continued on for what appear to be eternity. There is no end to them in sight. Eventually Madison squeeze out two words, “We survive.”
Cassie looks at Madison and then glances at the columns. It was true. Everything was lost and only they remained. They and the crazed woman.
Cassie glances over in the direction of where her maddened travel partner had run off to, but only finds her boy laying in the hue of the lantern. The woman has vanished.
Cassie is suddenly alert. She is startled by not having seen the woman get up. She could be anywhere now. Cassie grips her rifle tighter. She looks to Madison and her eyes widen. Madison seems to immediately pick up on Cassie’s expression, but it is too late.
A crazed face appears out of the shadows behind Madison, a raised knife in her hand. Copper yelps and runs off in the opposite direction. The mad-woman, Debra, screeches as the knife she holds comes plummeting down towards Madison’s neck. Cassie tries to react but can’t get her rifle up quick enough.
The knife’s point are inches from Madison’s neck.
Once a comfortable distance away from the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool, Gabriel flicks on his flashlight. The gunshot he had heard had not been that far away. Gabriel tries to hold the sound of it in his memory. He uses the recollection of it to guide him.
In his offhand Gabriel still carries the strange device that seemed to have both the ability to cause bursts of green flame and transport people large distances. Gabriel wasn’t sure what value it had to him, if any, but something tells him that it is prize that is worth holding onto. After all, it had cost him his eye.
As Gabriel gets closer to where he thinks he had heard the gunshot, he flicks off his flashlight. Instead Gabriel just uses the light from the occasional arcing beams overhead to illuminate his surroundings. Gabriel becomes a shadow, a shadow among shadows. He creeps in the dark and his body disappears in darkness.
Ahead of him Gabriel hears voices. The sounds of two females. Gabriel watches them from his hiding place behind one of the pillars.
The one has dark-skin and wears military fatigues. She has a badge on her shoulder, though Gabriel can’t identify the insignia. In her hands she holds a rifle. She doesn’t look menacing and the woman who is with her doesn’t appear to be afraid. This other woman has light-skin and is dressed in more casual attire. She has her hand on a dog’s head. Gabriel’s heart warms ever so slightly at the site of the furry pet. The dog looks pleased. The whole gang of them together seem to be rejoiced to see one another. Gabriel supposes he is grateful to see them too. He is grateful to see beings with human forms again after the all the monsters he had encountered of late. Not since Jules and Tayna did Gabriel feel glad to be in the presence of people again.
To the side of the two women is a light. It is an orange ambient light coming from a lantern. Besides the lantern is a body, it lay still on the ground. Gabriel recoils slightly and disappears behind a pillar, only letting his eyes poke out. The woman with the rifle had undoubtedly shot this man. Gabriel wonders if the same fate awaited him should he present himself.