Twilight of the Gods (Universe in Flames Book 8)

by Christian Kallias

  I spit on him. “You will say anything to plant doubts in my head. You’re kind of an expert at brainwashing others, but I’m not your usual weak-willed suggestible mind.”

  “One day . . . you’ll understand.”

  “But that day is not today. Time to say goodbye, I’m afraid.”

  The blaster is at full charge; at this distance and supercharged level, the blaster will incinerate his head and probably most of his upper torso. I relish the thought of depressing the trigger.

  “Cole?” he says in between coughing more blood.

  “We’re done talking.”

  “Goodbye. Till next time, that is,” he says.

  I hear a buzz of static inside my head. Could it be TAINHA?

  “There won’t be a next time ass—”

  Before I can finish my sentence, something hits my throat at extreme velocity. I can feel it traveling through my neck from side to side, and I can’t speak anymore. I try, but I feel a viscous liquid in my throat and a taste of lead.

  Was I just hit?

  Ahmed smiles from ear to ear and I re-aim the gun and depress the trigger but I’m too late. He kicks it out of my hand the moment the blaster shoots. It creates a crater in the concrete a couple of feet away from his face.

  I put my hands on my neck and feel both the entry and exit wound. I turn in the direction of where the shot came from. I use my vision augment to zoom, for a mile, then two, then five. That’s when I see him. A sniper is lying down on concrete atop another skyscraper, the sun reflecting into his visor. I try to activate emergency healing nanites but they don’t respond. I get an error message instead. I deep-fried them, no doubt. TAINHA was right. I’m insane, and it looks like I’m also about to die. The thought sends my brain into a weird mixture of terror and satisfaction. On the one hand, I can’t fathom how pissed I am at failing to kill Ahmed, even though I have managed to stop him incinerating New Geneva. I was a few seconds away from removing this scourge from this world. And then, another sensation superimposes itself on my mind: that the fight is over, that it is the end, and that I will rejoin my wife in the afterlife, if there is such a thing.

  He rises to his feet painfully, his nanites already mending his wounds, but I can’t say the same about my own body. I shouldn’t have used bullet-time earlier. That’s what I get for not listening to my instincts. It should have been kept in reserve for this, like I planned it. I would have heard the smart bullet that hit me if I had. I only realize I have fallen to my knees when I look back at Ahmed who is now looking down on me.

  “As always, it’s been a pleasure, my friend.”

  I want to scream back at him, to tell him I’m not his friend and that I’m gonna rip his heart out and shove it down his throat, but instead I feel bubbles of blood expanding and bursting from the holes in my neck.

  “I’m afraid your last words will have to be silent ones. Farewell, Agent Cole Seeker.”

  He lowers his face and puts two fingers on his temple, then waves them away as if to say goodbye.

  He turns away and starts walking towards his ship, the loading ramp of his craft lowering automatically upon his approach.

  The amount of rage boiling inside me is beyond anything I have experienced. Our fight has been so quick I could have taken him with my twenty percent or so reserve with fully functioning augments. I would be healing from this wound right now if I had. But it’s too late. I can’t change the past, not if I die on this roof anyway. The irony is not lost on me though. I’m a time traveler agent whose sole purpose is to try to change the past to make a better future. I try to engage the emergency recall. I never had to use it and I never wanted to . . . It would mean acknowledging I have failed my mission. But I can’t seem to access this augment either. Not that it would do me any good; the response team in charge to evac and time travel me back in time would probably not make it before I draw my last breath, which is now very near; I can feel it.

  My rage intensifies and a natural release of adrenaline happens. I decide that if I die, so does he. I get back to my feet and start running. My blaster is aimed at Ahmed. I can still use my super speed. I roll to the ground to grab the blaster and set it to overload as I lock it magnetically on my thorax. I’m gonna need all my strength and both my hands to grip myself onto Ahmed.

  I hear another shot and a split second later I feel a bullet travel through my right thigh. Sparks flow as the bullet hits the mechanically enhanced augment inside that particular area of my leg. I lose balance and stumble forward but I manage by miracle not to fall to the ground.

  Ahmed turns to face me. I’m still a good ten feet from him and I now limp.

  “Agent Seeker, what are we going to do with you?”

  He opens his right palm and a blaster pistol flies from his ship and magnetically locks into his hand. He aims at me and fires.

  It hits my blaster, still overloading, but it doesn’t explode right away. Instead it flies upwards, spinning in the air, making a high pitch screeching noise as I am catapulted backwards from the blaster impact. Before I hit the ground my blaster explodes and flames spring all around it. Ahmed erects a personal shield that protects him from the inferno. I am not so lucky, and I can feel the intense heat and flames burn my flesh as I close my eyes.

  I can’t see him anymore but I can hear his footsteps travel away from my position. The sound changes as he steps onto the metal ramp of his ship.

  I have failed. And I’m about to die. My brain can’t process the enormity of it all.

  How could I fail? How could I have been so stupid?

  I try to pry my eyes open but only my left eye opens, and only partially. It’s enough to see the dark grey sky above. The sun is now behind a huge, dark cloud.

  I hear the engines of Ahmed's ship hum to life, and I feel the ground shaking when it lifts off.

  “Agent Seeker,” I hear through his ship’s speakers. “It’s been fun as always, but now it’s time to say goodbye for good.”

  I muster what’s left of my strength and bring my head upwards. The pain from my neck wound makes it near impossible but I fight through it and manage to see a blurred image of the ship now hovering atop the roof of the building that is surely to become my grave.

  I hear his plasma guns powering up.

  “Allahu Akbar,” says Ahmed through his speakers.

  The last thing I see is two bright green plasma shots coming my way.

  3

  I scream from the bottom of my guts and I’m surprised to hear my own voice. I’m standing on my bed in my apartment, soaking in sweat.

  “Condition red! Emergency shield activating,” says TAINHA in a panicked voice.

  I see the flashing blue cubic-shaped shield come to life all around my bed as the emergency lights in my apartment come on. They give every piece of furniture and every wall a reddish hue.

  What the feck? A nightmare?

  It takes my augmented brain a couple of seconds to compute and realize that I am still alive, safe and sound on my bed. I can feel my heart beat so fast that it feels like it wants to break free from my chest. I know TAINHA is talking to me; I hear her voice intonation, but right now I can’t make out what she’s saying to me.

  I have had nightmares before, but this felt more real than any other lucid dreams I ever had in my wretched life. It’s like I died and was resurrected, and my brain has trouble dealing with it all. I feel dizzy, disoriented and terrified all at the same time. Small rivers of sweat are traveling down my face.

  “Cole . . .” I barely register what TAINHA says. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

  TAINHA is genuinely worried about me. Heck, I’m worried.

  “I’m okay . . . I think. What’s the date?”

  “Earth year 2175, March the 7th. It’s six twenty-three in the morning, Cole.”

  The date matches the mission. I wonder if that wasn’t a dream but something else . . . Perhaps I’ll be put into active duty later today?

  What the hell does it
all mean?

  “Should I call for a medical emergency, Cole? Your vitals are worrying me; your heartbeat is off the charts.”

  Of that I have no doubt. I feel like my flesh is still burning and I’m being consumed by plasma fire.

  “Denied,” I say, trying to calm myself down.

  “What the hell happened, Cole?”

  “The only explanation that makes sense right now is the mother of all nightmares.”

  “That must have been one hell of a nightmare to send most of your body’s vitals into overdrive like this.”

  “Yeah, it was . . .” I correct myself. “It was something else.”

  “I’ve released a tranquilizer into your bloodstream via your nanites to help you regulate your heartbeat and counteract the adrenaline overload you have received from this . . . experience.”

  TAINHA turns off the force field around my bed.

  I bury my face into my hands. I can already feel the soothing effect of the tranquilizers acting on my system. I’m starting to breathe more deeply now. It calms my internal chatter. I am a little more focused now, less overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the lingering memories. I still struggle with the concept of this being just a dream; even when I try to convince myself of it, I feel it in my heart and deep down in my bones that I could be wrong.

  I need a shower.

  Before I have time to ask TAINHA I can already hear the water starting in my bathroom. I sit on the border of my bed, looking at my feet. The feeling of the smooth carpet under my toes is soothing me. I look at my naked body, I see no new scars, no damage from the fight with Ahmed. All evidence suggests this was a nightmare.

  “I can sense your internal turmoil, Cole; perhaps we could talk about it? Would you like that?”

  “Later, TAINHA, but thank you.”

  “At your service, as always, Cole. You know you can tell me anything.”

  I know, indeed. Truth be told I would probably go insane if it wasn’t for her. And I don’t think of her as a thing either. Her AI matrix is so advanced and she demonstrates so many emotions that I sometimes think she is more human than I ever was. Perhaps she is.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Cole, but I appreciate you thinking so.”

  I must be broadcasting my thoughts all over the place.

  “Engage privacy mode, TAINHA.”

  “Have I said something wrong?”

  “No, TAINHA, but I need to be alone with my thoughts, just for a little while.”

  I hear a beep inside my head and I can feel TAINHA’s subtle assistance on my body turn off. I don’t really need her help outside of deployment, but I’ve become accustomed to leaving her on most of the time. I feel sorry for deactivating her during my sleep, but nighttime is the only moment when I can escape it all. The last thing I want is for my AI augment to see my most intimate fantasies. But now I wished she had been online to record this. At least if she replayed the dream to me I could be sure it was one.

  When I arrive under the shower, the water splashes against my skin at a perfect one hundred and seven degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn’t take long for me to relax. Water has always soothed me. Nowadays it’s a privilege to have a water shower with all the restrictions and the quotas that are put in place. But being one of very few Time Agents for the Rewind project, I can have whatever I want. All the luxuries that only the ultra-rich can afford are given to me, no questions asked. I can eat meat as much as I want, honey, wine . . . I sometimes feel self-conscious about all of that.

  Why does ninety-nine percent of the planet have to make do without so many of the things the human race once took for granted? That’s the world we live in, that’s why. Water was polluted on a large scale in the twenty-first century and potable water is now a rare and expensive resource. Being a nostalgic son of a bitch, I am always amazed when I watch movies from the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. People used to have everything they could ever dream of: water, clean air, and all the food they could imagine. They squandered it all, not seeing how unsustainable their ways were, and they were greedy in their pursuits. Once the last of the Amazon forest was gone, everything started going to shit. The ice caps melted and shortly after the oceans rose. Ninety-five percent of all animal species on the planet perished in the nuclear winter that followed World War III. The Earth was never meant to be put under so much strain, and it became a dying world, barely able to sustain the few hundred million survivors.

  We knew it, of course; everyone knew deep inside their mind, even if it was just a doubt in a dark corner of it. They knew that destroying the ecosystem so we could eat all the fish, meat and fast food we wanted had to have a price one day. The scientists tried to warn us. Whistleblowers tried to wake up the human race from its semi-comatose state. We didn’t listen, even though they warned us we wouldn’t all see the end of the century under these conditions. Others debunked their claims, calling them alarmists at best, and heretics at worst. Now look where it got us? We can barely feed what’s left of the human race. The animal kingdom is all but extinct, and everything that made the world a wonderful place has been taken away. Now, we’re living in a glorified desert where life is slowly but surely heading towards its final oblivion.

  The water feels so good, I can only imagine how people make do with sonic showers. Sure they clean the skin efficiently, but nothing beats the sensation of hot water splashing and trickling down one’s skin.

  I bet the ones that thought it was bullshit talk to warn us about our unsustainable ways are thinking different now, or they would if they were still alive. Sure augments and advances in the medical fields have raised the maximum lifespan of humans up to one hundred and twenty years, give or take, but only the rich can afford to have their lives artificially extended beyond the now morbid forty-two years old average lifespan. We’re basically back to the Stone Age now in terms of mortality. When it became clear that we had royally fecked up, that this world would not regenerate from the damage we did to it, well, it was too late. The megacorporations incited all the governments to establish some drastic measures, and one of them was population control. They controlled whatever was left of the world’s food production, which wasn’t much, so they told the politicians what needed to be done. To say the transition was harsh is putting it mildly.

  The human race couldn’t survive in its entirety. Not all ten billion of them could be fed. But then some super-strain viruses took care of reducing that number to a healthier five billion, give or take a few million. And that was even before World War III. Then came new and terrible STDs that were very efficient in bringing down the population, much more so than the laws of limiting the family unit to a maximum of four persons. Was the Earth trying to rework the equation of a sustainable world on its own? Or were those measures implemented without public knowledge to deal with the situation? I wonder.

  People need to feck, no matter what we tell them; we are, after all, at least in that regard, animals. We can’t live without the pleasures of the flesh. So a super STD like HIV-6 that could turn you impotent in hours and have you draw your last breath in less than a week after that, became a blessing in disguise for controlling population growth. If there is one thing humans like more than having sex, it’s to be alive. The usual contraception methods, once a good way to protect against the spread of these SDTs, were rendered inefficient. HIV-6 contained a protein that would burn through latex and other materials. The only safe way to have intercourse was to be subjected to a battery of tests beforehand.

  Soon the sex-bots were created for the recreation sessions. Their AI makes them feel human enough, and their artificial bodies, perfect recreations of human flesh and skin to the touch, didn’t pose a risk health wise. They also helped reduce the birth rate quite a lot. Nowadays one must be either rich or very determined and a bit of a daredevil to try to have children. The avalanche of viruses the humans have faced in the past century made it difficult to birth a genetically safe child. People used to be paranoid about gen
etically modified organisms. Yeah right! The first and second generations of children were only affected with mild to severe allergic reactions, sometimes to compounds made by our own damn bodies, like histamine. But these were the easier symptoms; the other ones that installed themselves over the generations into the human body, those are the real kick in the ass. What did we think would happen when we created seeds that poisoned our soils, one pesticide at a time, while killing precious fauna? Every insect, animal, or fish all served a function in the ecosystem. But no; we were arrogant and thought we could play god and get away with it.

  I sometimes daydream that I could, by either a miracle or accident, jump back in time more than the limited 717 minutes I’m allotted. I dream of jumping back into the twenty-first century and hitting everyone on the head, showing them where they are headed, making sure they take it seriously. But that’s all it is really, a fantasy, a utopian dream . . .

  We now live under domes. The only way to recycle the air efficiently is to limit the amount of it you need to recycle. Some say that the soil must have healed by now, that soon we can try again, do better. Long gone is the Internet the way we knew it. It’s now just a network whose sole reason to exist is to make sure megacorporations know everything about you. There are only seven megacities left in the world. There are rumors that some humans have adapted outside of the domes in spite of the radiation and established colonies. But since no one is allowed outside, that’s all they are. Rumors.

  And then there are the terrorists. They call themselves freedom fighters and claim we must reduce the human race to a bare minimum and start over, start smarter. But if there is one thing that people are good at, it’s striving for survival. We are no different than animals in that regard; we’ll do whatever it takes to breathe just a little longer. No matter the cost.