FLOOR 21: Judgement (The Tower Legacy Book 3)

by Jason Luthor

  “Apeiron’s forces are on the go. If we don’t get out of the Tower, they’re going to seal us in. Carthage can only hold the security doors a little longer.”

  “Carthage?” I shake my head. I haven’t been keeping up with Anna’s diary, but why is Johnny siding with Carthage? “What are we going to do when we get outside?”

  “Survive, by whatever means possible. The radios are jammed with rendezvous coordinates for resistance members to rally at.”

  “What?” It’s the first time I realize that I’m hearing numbers squawking out of some guy’s radio. He’s right in front of us, and his belt’s clipped by a handheld that keeps repeating numbers. At first, I’m not paying attention, but when I finally stop to listen, it’s like my blood goes cold. I actually feel a shiver that dances from my head to my toes when I hear a woman saying:

  Begin Transmission

  4, 0, pause, 4, 7, 4, 2

  7, 3, pause, 5, 8, 3, 0

  7, 3, pause, 5, 7, 5, 4

  End Transmission

  I shake my head. “Those are . . . coordinates? A map?”

  “That’s where we’re to meet up with everyone else when we head east. Father’s trying to hold down the gates with the rest of Carthage, but we don’t have much time. After Apeiron’s done sealing the lower floors, they’ll just evacuate higher and leave us to the slaughter.”

  “By their soldiers?”

  “No. By that infection. That disease.”

  That’s all I need to hear. “The Creep.” Almost for the first time, I’m noticing that the walls are starting to shine, like in the early stages of an infestation. You see it all the time on the upper floors, where once in a while, the Creep starts to spread a little. Security beats it back and all’s right with the world. What I’m looking at here though? This must be the infestation when it first started. We’re so far down the Tower . . . this must be when it all began. “So, how do we get to the exit?”

  “Since the lifts have been shut down, they’ve been using the ladders in the shafts to get up and down. Think you can manage it?”

  “Do I? That’s literally all I do.”

  “What?” He looks a little confused, but he doesn’t have time to follow up on what I said, because our talk cuts out when firing breaks out ahead. We look up in time to see the Carthaginians shooting it out with what I guess are Apeiron forces. For a second time, I just don’t know how to digest it. Our version of Security wears a bunch of gear that’s been scrounged up over the years, or at least that’s the way I hear it. I mean, I’m a Scavenger, and I’m still wearing a baseball jersey underneath my security vest and body armor. That’s the way it’s always been in the Tower I grew up in. These Apeiron guys though? They’re dressed all in white, and they look geared out, with grenades strapped up and down their chests and lines of pouches on their belts. Their suits though. They’re almost like machines, and they keep deflecting half the gunfire being thrown their way.

  The only thing that saves us is how many Carthaginians are with us, not to mention the fact that the guys on our side are not shy about chucking grenades of their own. The whole hallway’s exploding apart as we’re forced to the elevator shaft, and then it’s a race. I don’t know how many floors I’ve come down over the last few weeks, but there’s one thought that slips into my head that makes me feel so jumpy, it’s like someone’s twisting a knife into my stomach: ground floor’s not far away. It’s something I’ve been dreaming about so long that my legs are actually shaking as we unload off the ladder. When I take my first step down, I almost can’t breathe. Some guy’s waving Johnny forward, and I can see fighting breaking out up ahead, but time feels like it freezes for just one second, like I’ve earned this moment and the universe is giving me a chance to soak it in. When my foot settles on the ground, I realize, this is it. Just, months of training and fighting. For this. Ground floor. I’m soaking it all in as my eyes go up to the arch hovering way above the ground and the huge letters molded into it.

  “London Town,” I whisper as I read it. Then my ears are filling with gunfire, and time is moving at full steam all over again. Johnny’s still pulling me along as we race through a hall so big that you’d be able to march hundreds of people through it. I don’t know what this was ever used for, but if this really is the bottom . . . I mean, I see stores lining the sides, but they’ve all been shuttered. Even with everything shut down, there are still holographic signs that light up the windows. Trees cut right down the middle of the hall, but a lot have been blown in half. You can see what’s left of their branches everywhere on the ground, and stone fountains that used to hold tall statues have basically been turned to pieces.

  We’re moving so fast that I’m barely able to take all this in, but up ahead, I can see the hall opening onto a huge plaza. It’s like the whole entry into the Tower is the size of ten baseball fields or something, and way at the end, I can see glass doors that have been blown into pieces. Red lights are flashing all around the plaza, and shootouts are happening every few feet. Carthaginians are firing at Apeiron Security from behind cover, but all the noise is being drowned out by the sound of a siren that’s screeching through the air.

  “What the hell is going on?” I scream as we tumble behind cover.

  “Blast doors are coming down. They’re getting ready to seal up the Tower. We can’t stay here, Anna.”

  “So, we’re going outside?”

  “We’re going outside.” The words make my heart stop. The next thing I see is him looking over the edge of the debris. “I see father up ahead. Come on.”

  I’m not even able to say anything before he yanks me onto my feet. We’re sprinting along the edge of the plaza, past stores, pharmacies, and whatever else they could fill the area with. It reminds me of the mall, just on a much bigger scale, if that’s even possible. Windows are shattering all around us and explosions are lighting up the stores. Up ahead, two of our escorts go down. I don’t need to ask what happened. By this point, I’m pretty well adjusted to seeing bullet wounds. It’s not the gunfire that’s scaring me though. In front of us, I recognize one of the men flagging us down. Dad . . . Anna’s dad . . . is holding a rifle and wearing a tactical vest. Wherever he scrounged it from, it’s not Apeiron tech. Still, behind him, I can see the windows of the Tower entrance rising up to a rooftop that’s so high above us, this place might as well be a cave. The light from outside is slowly being cut off though, and I watch as a massive wall of metal slowly lowers to the ground. It’s only a minute away from locking us in, and I scream, “We have to get out!”

  “I think I know that,” Johnny shouts back as we start to sprint the final few feet to the exit. There’s this second where I’m . . . I don’t know what it is, but seeing Anna’s dad, I feel like I’m seeing my own dad. I feel like I’m coming home, and the minute he smiles at me, I feel this warmth that melts through my stomach and into my chest. It’s like the best feeling you’ve ever had, like coming home after a bad day to see that your parents made you your favorite meal.

  And that’s when the world stops. All the gunfire, all the explosions, everything goes quiet as what’s left of the windows explode in one single instant. A roar louder than any noise I’ve ever heard blows through the room and sends people crashing to the floor. Around us, the air is glittering with a cascade of glass that falls to the ground in one shattering rainbow, and behind it is a wave of projectiles, like arm-length scythes or claws that are flying through the air. Suddenly, I feel Johnny dragging me to the floor, but not before I see dad’s eyes spring open. I slam into the ground and watch the man grab at his chest, feeling at a claw that’s cut straight through him. It’s literally just jabbing out of him. It’s . . . it’s terrible. I feel the air building in my lungs until I start screaming, to the point that I can’t breathe, and the whole time, I’m watching as he’s struggling to walk over to me. Then, I just watch him as he . . . he just slides to the floor. He hits his knee first and plants his hand into the ground, like he’s trying to sta
y standing. Then, he just looks at me, and somehow he smiles. He’s trying to say something, trying to get one final breath so he can tell me something. I can’t hear him, but I see him mouth four words before he collapses.

  “I love you, Anna.”

  Then, everything in front of me blows apart as a tendril larger than anything I’ve ever seen swipes across the ground. It cuts in from outside and sweeps along the floor, wiping up everything and everyone that’s standing there. People. Trees. Debris. It’s like someone wiping their teeth. Everything gets cleared out in one swipe. Then, with Johnny holding onto me, we watch something, just . . . It’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. Its face lowers down past the windows, staring at us from outside with jaws so big they could take a chunk out of the building. It almost looks like an insect, with rows of eyes on both sides of its head, and these huge mandibles that open up. When it sucks in, I literally feel like I’m getting dragged along the ground, like this monster’s creating a vacuum. Then it screams again before I see tentacles lowering past its jaws, like it’s getting ready to strike. “Johnny!”

  “Hold on, Anna!”

  It’s hard to tell what happens next. What I can say is I clearly see something that looks like a fist. I swear, it really is just a massive steel fist that slams into the side of the monster’s face and sends it rolling away. The rest of its oversized body- tentacles, claws, everything-go dragging away under the force of the punch. It happens too quick for me to digest, but the next thing I see is the steel barrier from outside slamming into the ground. Whatever that thing was, I’m almost sure it can’t get in now. The problem is we’re still in here, with Apeiron. As my vision starts to straighten out, I take a look around. Already, Security is closing in. Men have their guns up as they rush toward us, and they’re screaming at us to surrender. Things are changing though. These people, they’re losing their shapes. One second, they’re flesh and blood, and the next, they’re shadows. They’re becoming shadow men again, and even the voices I’m hearing are starting to trail off. It’s like listening to an echo, or trying to remember what someone said to you in a dream. Even the feeling of Johnny’s arms around me start to fade. I look his way, but he’s already almost completely gone, like a shadow of what he was. I’m screaming for him, clawing at his hand and feeling it fade out of reality. Still, he’s there for just a half second longer, long enough that I hear him say, “I’ll protect you, Anna. I love you. I love you.”

  Then, I blink, and that world’s gone. I’m still lying there, in the plaza, but now I’m back in my reality. The stores are dead. There aren’t any signs blinking. There are just bodies. Skeletons are trapped against the walls, and the Creep is hanging from the ceiling in columns that are thicker than pillars. The air’s humid, and I can hear wheezing and gasping coming from the walls. The ceiling . . . It looks like there are a thousand eyes up there, staring down at me, and I can clearly see thick tendrils pushing down into the plaza, like they’re probing the air. It’s hard to take in. I’m just still reeling, because whatever happened here, whatever I just saw, had to have happened centuries ago.

  When I look over to my side, where Johnny was just seconds ago, it makes me sick for a second. I push myself up so I can lean against some debris and settle my stomach. Then, I just suck wind, trying not to lose it. For a second, I’m sitting there, with nothing but the sound of that wheezing all around me. I’m trying not to crack because I feel like something’s being ripped out of me, like I really just saw my dad and my brother die. It’s like someone’s taken a piece of my heart, and I realize I’m struggling just not to cry. I don’t know what’s going on with these memories. I don’t know why I keep seeing them. Nobody’s been this deep in the Tower in forever, so I don’t know if it’s normal, or if I’m going crazy. I know it feels like I just lost my own dad, like I just saw him killed in front of me. In my head, I know he’s still safe, higher up in the Tower. That’s not the point. What matters is it feels like I just saw him die. Almost like I was really Anna for a few minutes.

  For the first time since I fought Geller, I take a look at my uniform. A lot of it’s in rags. The skin underneath is just . . . I don’t want to describe it, but I’m scorched to hell. My ribs are stabbing, and it burns to breathe. My leg feels broken. Everything inside me feels like it’s falling apart, and when I brush my face, there are streaks of blood that wipe onto my glove. Here I am, though. Ground floor. Just, with no way to get out. However they sealed the Tower centuries ago, it’s still sealed. We’re still stuck in here, behind a big wall of metal, and I just don’t feel like I have anything left. While I was hallucinating, it felt like I had all the energy I needed. Now, it feels like it took everything I had left in me just to get down here. My body’s screaming with so much pain that it’s almost impossible to move, but . . . but I want to find out how it ended.

  I stare up at that sea of eyes staring down at me from the dark. The tendrils above me just wave back and forth, slithering around in the air. When I breathe, fire dances through my sides and into my chest. Even when I just try and pull out Anna’s diary, it feels like somebody’s tearing into my muscles. Still, somehow, I force myself to do it. I get the cover open, and all I’m thinking is, if it’s the last thing I do, then it’s the last thing I do. That’s how I got here.

  So, let’s find out how it ends.

  “The years that have passed since I saw my own son . . . He was taken in the disaster, of course. Lost to me. So many were taken from one another during that time. I, ah, did what I could, of course, to see him saved. I couldn’t. So many of us couldn’t save the ones we loved.

  Perhaps that has been the most interesting thing for me to witness over all these years. The unchanging nature of humanity. Of course, I have always recognized its dark nature. I have witnessed it, first hand. All the . . . all the ugliness of that time. Perhaps it made me forget mankind’s capacity to love. I know I certainly lost my own ability to sympathize.

  Seeing these children struggle though, seeing them fight for each other, has moved something inside of me. They battle so fiercely for one another. None more so than her, that avenging angel. To listen to her, to hear her words . . . how so much like that girl from long ago. She may even remind me somewhat of my own son.”

  - An Unknown Recording

  JUDGEMENT

  Anna’s Diary

  9th of August

  They’re calling it the August War.

  Ever since all out fighting began between the Carthaginians and Apeiron’s Security, things have become increasingly worse. The local and state forces have been kept busy with the rioting, so they haven’t come to help in any of the fights against Carthage. It has quite literally been a war within a war. Of course, it’s not as if that’s all they’ve had to worry about. The disease outside the Tower has been spreading much faster than anyone thought possible. The beasts that have grown from it, the ones that grow as tall as buildings, have only been kept at bay by the great Panzers, the war machines that once saved the country. Now, those same Panzers have been withdrawn from across the city to help keep the Towers secure. It’s the Towers that the creatures have targeted. Outside the windows, you can see the Panzers standing in the city streets. The surrounding buildings have been torn to pieces from the fighting, and repair crews are working day and night to keep the giant war machines standing. At this rate, I’m not sure how long it will be before the Towers shut themselves off from the world completely.

  What I know is that I can’t be here when they do. As dangerous as the world outside has become, my family’s at greater risk here, in Tower Pisa. I’d never imagined I’d be fighting on the Carthaginian side. I’d never imagined that daddy would be one of them. But, I suppose I also never imagined what Apeiron would be doing. How they would be treating us. The lower class. We’re just disposable to them. We’re lab rats. Daddy was smarter than they gave him credit for though. He saw what they were doing with Pocket Space, with the engine. He might not have known about the human
experiments until he found out what was happening to Johnny, but when he did, he was in the perfect position to do something about it. He’s an engineer, after all. That’s why this may be my last diary. Tomorrow, the engine shuts down one last time, just long enough to give the Carthaginians a chance to break inside. There are already agents throughout the Tower. We just need to buy enough time to get Johnny out of the lab.

  When daddy confronted Director Kelly about it, we were all but told that Johnny was a necessary sacrifice, that he was a part of a human research program that could hold back the infestation. It’s the same one Johnny talked about before, about human energy fields. Neither daddy nor I are well versed enough to understand all the details, but it has to do with how certain humans can mentally connect to the disease. It’s a living thing, something that Apeiron believes can be controlled. Apparently, Johnny has more potential to do that than anyone else the company has seen. Kelly told us they needed him to save humanity. It all sounds well and good, until you’ve realized they’ve taken him. They’ve taken and they’re holding my brother against his will. Against my family’s wishes. And, I’m not a fighter. I’m not someone that can easily say they’ll start fighting. But for him, for Johnny, I’ll do it. I’d die for him. Whatever it may be that I have to do, I’ll do it.

  Daddy sent mummy out to the rendezvous far to the east, where Carthage has been taking refugees. I’ve heard they’ve secured it fairly well against Apeiron and the disease. I just hope that’s true. I badly want to see her. I miss our birthday parties and our times baking in the kitchen. I miss daddy being with us as we light candles. And, my God, I miss Johnny. He’s been gone for so long. The only comfort I have is that daddy seems to know for a fact that Doctor Geller has been keeping Johnny safe. That doesn’t mean Johnny’s been untouched, and I dread just thinking about what they might have done to him. But, still, he’s alive. He’s alive, thank God, he’s alive. Unlike so many we’ve learned about who have died during the course of the experiments.