FLOOR 21: Judgement (The Tower Legacy Book 3)

by Jason Luthor

  I know that something will be happening soon. When it does, we’ll have to grab Johnny and get out of the Tower. Daddy’s full of talk about secret meetings and plans we’ll be attending. I don’t know what to think of Carthage. I don’t know that they’re good people. I know they probably want Johnny for selfish reasons. But, I also know that they’re the only chance I have of getting my brother back. Right now, I don’t care if Carthage is good or not. They’ll help me get my brother, and the truth is that there’s just not many good people in this world anyway. That’s why I have to hold onto Johnny. For as long as I can, I have to do everything I can to protect him. He’s one of the few good ones.

  Johnny likes telling that story about how I once saved him from the basement, but that was such a small thing compared to what he did for me. For as long as I’m alive, I’ll never forget Johnny standing up for me in our old neighborhood. This was back when daddy was just one of a handful of England born engineers living in the city, before the company started to bring more over to make a home in the Tower. It was part of the program Apeiron had approved in order to have their own employees moved to the states, where they could train others to better work with Pocket Space technology. We weren’t completely poor, but daddy was still low on the rung, and the neighborhood we lived in wasn’t the best. The worst of it though was being routinely tortured on my way back from school. My dresses were old and my shoes never shone like those of the rich girls. They’d bully people like me, watching and teasing as the poorer children made their way back home.

  Like I said, I was never a fighter. Smart? Yes. A fighter? Not at all. I still remember the day that they pushed me too far, when I finally couldn’t take it and I snapped at them. It was horrible. They were on me in seconds, like lions. But Johnny was there. Even if he was younger, even if he was the one I should have been protecting, he came to rescue me.

  Every bruise, every nick and scratch, he took those for me. I got help, but by the time we got back, the worst of the damage had been done. Johnny had been beaten black and blue, and he was out of school for almost two weeks while he recovered. Nothing ever happened to the bullies. Why would it? They were rich, and we were poor. What does the law care about people like us? Even here, in the Tower, all we’ve been afforded is technology from last century. Then to find out that they experiment on us against our will. At any rate, after all that, it was up to me to help him. I was with him every day afterward, feeding him and taking care of him. Johnny loved me. He would do anything for me. He took the worst kind of beatings to save me, the kind that society ignores because you’re inconvenient. Because you don’t have the money necessary to have a voice.

  They’re trying to do it again. They’re trying to take advantage of us, but this time, I won’t let them. I refuse it. If there has ever been an anger, a rage inside of me, it is for my brother. Now, it’s my turn to act. It’s my turn to show him his big sister can fight for him too. I would do anything for him. Will do anything for him. Because I love him. Regardless of how this turns out, I will risk life and limb to save him.

  If we’re able to do this and get back, there will be another journal entry from me. If not, if things go badly, then this will be the last time I write. If it is, if anyone ever reads this, please know that Apeiron cannot be trusted. Please remember I did what I thought was right, because family is always worth fighting for. Please, remember me. Please remember my family, whom I love with every bit of my heart.

  My father, Oliver Andrew Judge.

  My mother, Emma Victoria Evans-Judge.

  My brother, Jonathan Sebastian Judge.

  And myself, Anna Sally Judge.

  Know that I do this because I love them.

  I’m going to fight.

  An Unknown Recording

  Enthralled as I have been to see the hallucination induced efforts of the young woman, Jackie, as she’s struggled her way to the ground floor of the Tower, I could not have ignored the alarms ringing from the upper levels. All I’ve had to do to pass time these last few hundred years is watch, and little exciting has occurred on the lower floors in . . . well, the mind grows foggy when it has been functioning as long as mine has. Even the effect of the Pocket Space field has its limitations, and it only takes so many memories before one becomes, hm, confused about the passage of time.

  Nevertheless, I know it has been an extremely long time since any of the alarms began to ring. They’ve gone off periodically as Jackie has made her way to the lowest floor of the Tower, but that has been a special case, after all. She has been the only one in centuries with the will to push through the hallucinations invoked by the Creep. It should go without saying, though I won’t allow that to happen, that the intervention by Judge has made things all the more interesting. So intently had I been following Jackie that I completely forgot to keep tabs of the monster himself. I say that as if he’s so easy to track. Even with all the technology available to me, there is a reason he was shut up inside this Tower, forbidden from ever leaving.

  It is highly probable that I would never have seen him again if not for those other three. What were their names? Ah, yes. Mike, Tommy, and Dodger. A peculiar trio, and as determined to find Jackie as she was to keep them safe. They simply, for better words, lack her will power. Her spark. Still, Tommy may be as close as any of them to finding it, and I’ve continued to hold out hope that the last three would survive. Of course, I feel some sympathy for them. So, when I did switch my monitor to find Judge coming upon them, I momentarily pondered any action I could take. Which, of course, was none. I could merely watch and bear witness.

  He fell from the shadows, as he is want to do, and the three of them responded almost as one, and precisely as you’d expect: with gunfire. Judge is a category alpha mutation, though. He is a being of immense strength and speed, and he delights in using it. More importantly, he evolves to all new threats he encounters. His ability to adapt to novel stimuli is quite marvelous really, and nearly limitless. Neither gunfire nor explosives nor extensive physical trauma can subdue him forever, and in fact, only the presence of a second, divergent line of aggressive Creep cells in the Tower has kept him from consuming the topmost floors.

  Consequently, he was more than a match for these children. He was over their heads and behind them in an instant. He even gave them a chance to fire. It’s impossible to say with any great amount of accuracy, but altogether, the three of them must have unleashed nearly a hundred rounds into his chest. A bullet, as we found out centuries ago, isn’t much of a threat to Judge anymore. Parts of his body are hardened skeletal carapace as strong as any armor, and the amount of muscle fiber he has is far beyond human comparison. He simply grows it at will. It is that very ability to muster so much muscle in one single effort that is the key behind his incredible, superhuman strength.

  It should be no surprise then that he was able to shrug off a hundred bullets as easily as one. Even when he is pierced, the incredible regenerative capabilities of the Creep make him capable of recovering from his wounds in mere moments. So it was that he stood and absorbed all that gunfire, only to launch himself at the trio, their guns already empty. The girl known as Dodger was the first to go. He brought his shoulder into her with enough force that she was tossed back and into the hall, where her screams lasted only seconds before a tendril of Creep dragged her into the darkness. The next assault was on the one called Tommy. Tommy is the greatest of them, in terms of strength. He struck Judge across the jaw and nearly broke his knuckles doing so. Judge returned the favor, of course, by striking Tommy with so powerful a blow that the young man crumbled to the floor.

  With that accomplished, Judge walked away as a tendril pulled Tommy into the halls. He’d saved the timid one, Mike, for last. Now, this is what I’d been most interested in. The snippets of conversation I’d heard from Mike indicated that he feared Judge, as if he was seeing him in visions. Judge is rarely interested in people. The few that wander into the farthest depths of the Tower are typically slaugh
tered without question. Judge wanted Mike though, and that was worth noting. Still, something more than that caught my eye. Whatever else Judge wanted of him, he apparently wanted Mike alive. He could have used his scythe, or quite literally torn the poor boy in two, but instead he reared back to strike him.

  And, quite surprisingly, this was a moment of true revelation. With his hand fully drawn back, Judge suddenly stopped moving. I could see his arm tensing and the struggle in his face. It was . . . confounding, really. It also made entirely too much sense. After all, ah, the boy must have had something Judge wanted. Something he was after. At that moment, I realized that what Judge wanted was something that Mike was actually carrying in himself. A power. The whole team has referred to it from time to time, the boy’s ability to connect to the Creep. Perhaps it was me simply being obtuse, but it took until that moment, with Judge and Mike staring at one other from across that dark space, to realize Mike’s connection was far more powerful than I had anticipated. He could not only look through the eyes of the Creep, but he could control it, at least to some small degree. That’s how he was able to hold Judge off. He simply halted the monster’s ability to move by commanding his Creep cells to cease all activity. It was . . . fascinating.

  Of course, Judge has been killing for centuries longer than the boy has even been alive, and he quickly realized what was happening. Whatever power Mike tapped into, it wasn’t enough to hold a monstrosity like Judge at bay, and Mike quickly found himself snatched off his feet and carried into the darkness. Judge has none end to strike you when he can simply command the Creep to carry you away. It all took mere moments, and then it was over. All that was left was Judge, standing in the darkness, the sounds of those three screaming in the distance. And, of course, his laugh. The dead sound of his voice that has cursed these halls since the earliest days. Then, he simply stalked away. I’m following him now, from camera to camera. He doesn’t need to walk. He could simply break his way down, floor after floor, until he arrived at his destination. But, hm, I do believe he is enjoying himself. By all indications, there is only one place that he could be heading toward.

  Jackie’s New Recording: Ten

  Judge is coming. I know it. So, I’m trying to get ready, waiting here in the dark. This is all it comes down to.

  After I finished Anna’s diary, I sat in the plaza for a second. It was weird to just look around and see everything that used to be here. The store fronts were all busted apart or shuttered, not to mention the lights were all dead. Once, there were people that worked here. They spent their time shopping or just walking by the fountains. The people in this diary . . . they’d been here, too. Anna’s parents lived here once. Her father was born in . . . England, she called it? I guess he started his family somewhere near the Tower, since she said she’d been raised in the city all her life. However it happened, they all moved into the Tower together, and this plaza apparently was the first place they saw. London Town. They’d just wanted to live their lives. When I finished reading their names, it was enough to make me shake, like a cold finger was being run down my back.

  So, I’m sitting there, and the whole room’s going cold. It’s like someone turned up the air condition or something, but there’s no breeze or vents I can see. It gets to the point that I’m freezing, and I can literally see my breath coming out of my mouth. Just, that’s not all I see. As I’m looking into the center of the plaza, into this darkness where only a few lights are shining, I see someone. At first, I’m scared it’s Judge. I’m not ready. I don’t have what it takes to even put up a fight. Thing is, I don’t feel that dread, you know? That fear that he seems to create everywhere he goes. So, the next thing I think is that it might be the Stranger, except he always travels with that crimson glow around him. If it’s not Judge or the Stranger, I think it might be one more of Judge’s flunkies, so I pull myself off the ground, even if it hurts like hell to do it.

  My hand wraps around my bat as I try to steady myself. I’m ready to go down fighting if I have to. Still, that figure I’m watching doesn’t move. It just stands there, like a dark silhouette. Then it turns just a little, and I see the light catch its face. It’s not enough to see much, but it looks like a girl. She’s got long hair, but it looks really thin, and even the skin on her cheeks is pulled really tight. That’s when I realize who it is. The sundress is a dead giveaway, if nothing else. I don’t know why she’s here or if she’s come for revenge, but I know it’s Sally. She’s not looking at me. Her eyes are looking down at her hand, and I can see her flexing those huge claws of hers. While she ignores me, I stumble forward a little, ready to use my bat if I have to. I freeze in my steps though when she suddenly looks up and asks, “Do you know who I am?”

  I’m shocked she’s actually talking to me. “Yeah. Of course. Sally.”

  “No. Do you know who I am?”

  It weirds me out. Every time I’ve had this kind of hallucination, she’s vanished a few seconds after I’ve seen her, and it’s not like she’s ever spoken to me this clearly. I mean, how could she? She doesn’t exist. She’s dead. I killed her. I remember literally putting the needle into her neck that killed the Creep cells inside of her, and these hallucinations I’ve been seeing of her. . . well, that’s what I expected from being this far down in the Deep. This, though? Her, asking me questions? It’s like she’s alive again. The really weird part is, the longer I stand there, just looking at her, the more this warmth starts pumping through my chest. I feel . . . I dunno. I feel hurt. Not physically, just . . . like I’ve lost something important. That’s when I think back on the diary, and it’s like my mind suddenly puts it all together.

  “Anna Sally Judge.”

  It’s almost like saying those words has some sort of power because, as I’m looking at her, I see her skin healing, like it’s becoming, well, human. It’s not just her skin though. Her hair starts to get darker and look shiny, healthy, like when she was alive, and even her flower dress changes until I’m staring at a girl that’s literally my own age. This isn’t Creepy Sally. This isn’t the monster I . . . The person I killed. Her beautiful green eyes look at me, and she just says, “Call me Anna.”

  What else am I supposed to say to that? “Yeah. Okay. Anna.”

  “Judge is coming.”

  “Yeah, it’s like . . . it’s like I feel him. Like I’m getting scared just standing here.”

  “The Creep makes people feel fear, and Judge is the embodiment of the Creep.” Her eyes wander down my body. It almost reminds me of when the geneticist looked at me, except this doesn’t feel intrusive. It feels like she’s concerned, not as if she wants to rip into me. “You’re dying.”

  It almost makes me laugh, but I end up coughing instead. I cover my mouth, and when I pull my glove away, it’s stained with blood. Still can’t help smiling. “Yeah. I kind of got that.”

  “Everything is broken or torn apart.”

  “Guess Judge and his guys have really done a number on me or something. I’m surprised I’m talking, to be honest.”

  Her eyes tighten up as her fingers kind of brush along my chin. She turns my face, like she’s staring right into my cheeks. “Anyone else would be dead.”

  “Yeah, Geller . . . He told me that too. I guess my body just knows how to take a beating. Or something. I don’t know.”

  “No. Not because of your wounds.” She steps back and looks at me from head to toe. “You’re different. The Creep isn’t trying to take you, but you’re not . . .”

  “What? I’m not what?”

  “You’re not like us, but you’re not human.”

  “What?”

  “You have a change in you. It’s something, a deviation, in your cells. Something very similar happened to me, once.”

  I’m afraid to know what she means. I don’t even want to ask. “Is that how you . . .” I shake my head because this is all so crazy. “Is that how you became Creepy Sally?”

  “Yes, and no. You’ve seen the visions.”

  “I
’ve seen them. I’m not really sure I could have missed them. Why though? What’s going on? Why am I seeing . . . why am I seeing your life?”

  “Because I wanted you to see it. Because where Judge only wanted you to see chaos and violence, I wanted you to see what it was like for us, once. So you could see an image of the Tower before the fall. So you could understand that Judge wasn’t always this way.” Her eyes look up toward the roof. “Before all this. Before he and I became monsters.”

  “Even the stuff I saw with Director Kelly? It felt completely different from seeing your home and that birthday party, or even that vision of your brother giving me flowers.”

  “It was an imperfect vision of the laboratory of my own time. Judge’s mind has been battling with mine, even if he does not realize that it’s me that he’s been struggling against.”

  “Tell me about the last vision, Anna. The last thing I saw was the fight, here, when you were trying to escape. I know something was going on with Johnny.”

  Her eyes shoot to me. “Johnny was the first. He was the first successful binding between a human and the infestation. His hidden psychic powers . . . He didn’t know he could even use them for the longest time. Once they were unlocked, it gave him the strength to control the Creep within himself and in the world around him. There was never another human like him, before or since. No one has ever lived who held such powerful psychic ability. There was someone close though.”

  “You.” My hand squeezes on my chest, and I’m tempted to sit down, except I’m afraid I’ll never be able to get up again. “That’s what they were using him for.”

  “After the infestation spread to the Tower, they pushed the experiments harder than ever before. No human was made to stand that torture.”

  “David Marshall was trying to do the same thing. I’ve seen his experiments. That’s how the Creepers were made.”