☼
Twenty minutes later the party was in full swing — lots of shouting and laughing. I’d given up on escape for now. I slid down against the back wall, hoping to get some sleep, but images kept swirling through my head: my dad, Walter, Richie, the Lost Souls, Cindy…
I clamped my eyes shut and tried to drive the reality out of my mind. Cindy — I guess I always knew our relationship was doomed, even if all this hadn’t happened, but I thought at least she would be out there somewhere — a little patch of beauty and love in a world that didn’t have much of either. That alone would have made my life a little easier to take. But now…
I looked up when the guard outside the door made a funny noise. It was like he was about to yell but got cut short. There was a series of thumps on the other side of the door. The guard grunted and there was a snapping sound.
A few seconds later there was the tinkling of a set keys, the door opened, and a figure filled the entire doorway.
It was Benny.
“We gotta get out of here,” he said.
“You got that right,” I agreed, smiling. “I’ve never been so happy to see somebody.”
Benny stepped aside and I saw the crumpled body of the guard lying motionless on the floor beside the door, his neck broken.
Mental note, I thought. Benny isn’t so harmless after all.
We snuck toward a door at the far corner of the atrium, away from the sound of the partiers.
We were almost there when a guy rounded the corner, unzipping his fly. He looked up and spotted us. Benny moved to run after him.
I grabbed his arm. “You’ll never catch him in time — we better move.”
The guy started yelling and we started running. I glanced back over my shoulder. Tory appeared, running after us with the gun in his hand. He raised it and fired. He was too far away to hit anything.
Benny and I tore through the doorway. He didn’t even slow down as we switched direction into a corridor full of debris. I guess he knew this place inside-out. There was still yelling behind us, but it was farther away. After a half-dozen twists and turns we made it to a hallway that looked like it led outside. The yelling was moving away, like our pursuers had taken a wrong turn.
We reached a door, but it was boarded up from the other side. Benny stepped back and kicked at it, and couple of the boards broke, leaving an opening. We squeezed through and we were outside. We took off, trying to put as much distance as possible between us and the gang.
“Thanks a lot, man,” I whispered when we finally stopped for a breather.
“You make sure you tell them about me,” Benny said.
“What?”
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The CCE — you’ll tell them how I helped you.”
I’d almost forgotten about that. “Yeah — yeah, sure I’ll tell them. You did good.”
I felt like a jerk playing him like that, but I wasn’t sure what he’d do if I told him the truth. We walked for another twenty minutes. Finally he stopped and pulled a couple of stray pieces of junk away from the wall of an abandoned building. There was an opening behind them. He may be unhinged but he knows this place. We crawled in, then he pulled it all back in to cover the hole. We were in another hallway. We walked down it to another room full of debris, and sat down in a clear space on the floor.
“What did I tell you?” Benny said. “Those guys are a menace.”
At first I wasn’t clear what he meant. In all the confusion, I’d forgotten why we hooked up with them in the first place.
“Thanks for getting me away from them,” I said, “but those aren’t the guys I’m looking for.”
Benny looked nervous. “So — who?”
I hesitated, wondering how he’d react.
“They’re called ‘Vita Aeterna’,” I finally said. “Heard of them?”
His face was blank. He shook his head. He genuinely didn’t seem to know anything about them. I pushed on.
“I’m also looking for my Uncle Zack,” I said. “He disappeared a long time ago — before I was born.”
He stared at me. “Disappeared?”
“I thought he was dead, but now I’m not so sure.”
Benny’s body stiffened. “Could be Dead Shift,” he said. “What do you want with Dead Shift?”
“Dead Shift?” I said.
“I see them sometimes,” he said. “They call them that because they’re all supposed to be dead — whatever that means.”
“Do you know where I can find them?”
He looked at the floor and wrung his hands together. “You don’t want to find those guys.”
I couldn’t help thinking that somewhere buried within the tangled web of his mind he had the information I was looking for.
“Why not?” I asked.
He rubbed the scar on his right temple. “I don’t want to talk about that.” For a second I thought he was going to make a run for it. He was shaking. “Who are you, anyway?” he asked, rocking back and forth, suddenly suspicious.
“Relax,” I said. “You can trust me. I’m just doing research.”
He settled down a bit.
“You don’t have to get involved,” I said. “But do you know anybody that might know where I can find this Dead Shift?”
For a few seconds he was silent.
“You’d really be helping us out,” I said, hinting that the CCE were behind it all.
He perked up at that, eager to help.
He leaned in close to me and whispered. “There’s these guys called ‘The Rebels’. They’re trying to get rid of the government.” He said the word ‘government’ like he was biting off something that tasted bad. “I tried to join them once…”
He looked down again at the floor. I figured it was best not to ask what happened.
“They might know,” he continued. “I heard that sometimes they talk to the Dead Shift.”
“Can you take me to meet with these Rebels?”
He started fidgeting again. He got up and paced back and forth in front of me.
“You don’t have to come,” I said. “Just tell me where I can find them.”
He started whispering to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists: “No, I won’t fail — I won’t! I’ll measure up!”
He turned to face me. “They move all over. There’s a couple of places I’ve seen them before. I’ll take you.”
CHAPTER 18
The Rebels
There was no further sign of the gang, so we rested for an hour or so, then headed out. Benny led me through yet another maze of alleys. It was daytime, but surrounded by masses of skyscrapers, we were always in the shadows. Every one of the places looked abandoned.
This was like another city I didn’t even know existed. There was nothing here — no people, no vehicles, no cameras. Just crumbling ruins and piles of garbage. I thought we had it bad where I lived, but this was something else. I wondered at all the work that went into the buildings towering over us. Now they’d been left to rot. What happened?
Benny was shaking.
“Why don’t you wait here,” I said, trying to let him off the hook. “It’s better if I go to meet them alone. Just give me the directions.”
He ignored me and kept moving. A couple of hours later we reached a huge open square with an ancient-looking stone building in the center. I’d never seen anything like it. It had pointed spires that swept up from the roof, and what was left of a big round window with shards of coloured glass in some kind of pattern. There was a big cross at the front — a church. It looked ridiculously out of place in the midst of all the giant skyscrapers. Benny stopped. He was petrified.
“Is this the place?” I asked him. “This is where you saw the Rebels?”
He nodded, staring at the building like it was going to fall on him.
“In there?” I asked, gesturing at the church.
He nodded again, faintly. I turned and headed for it.
I looked over my shoulder. Benny was still
hanging back.
I stopped and called to him. “You coming?”
He finally stepped toward me. It was like he was dragging himself forward. I turned back and continued walking.
We reached the massive archway at the front. The wooden doors, which looked like they’d originally had some kind of picture carved into them, were in shreds. I walked inside. There were lots of holes in the walls, and even though there wasn’t much light outside I could see well enough. I looked behind me. Benny was stuck at the front door, mumbling to himself — I guess trying to talk himself into coming in.
I turned back. I was standing in a gigantic open space. The floor was made of wooden boards. The ground underneath must have buckled, because the floor bulged up in the middle, like a huge pimple. A lot of it had been ripped up, probably for firewood. Here and there were scattered what was left of some benches. Ahead of me, at the far end of the building, was a maze of tubes of all different sizes, some round, some — the biggest ones — square.
I hiked over the bulge in the middle, avoiding the numerous holes in the floor, and reached the jumble of tubing. Stuffed into the center of the back wall, almost buried by the tubing and other junk, was what was left of a keyboard, like for a piano.
“A pipe organ,” I whispered to myself. I’d heard of them, and seen pictures, but I’d never seen one for real.
I turned and looked back. Benny was standing on the highest point of the floor, like he was at the top of a hill. He was staring down at me. He took one step forward. I heard a board creak — but it didn’t come from him — and it didn’t come from me.
A voice came through my HUD, “Alex Barret, you need to come with us.”
“Benny, you bastard!” I yelled up at him.
“What?” he said. He turned and looked back. “I didn’t do anything, I swear,” he yelled back.
A shot echoed through the building. Benny collapsed and slowly rolled down the incline of the floor in my direction. He came to a stop almost at my feet. A swarm of soldiers appeared on the floor/hill above us, their weapons drawn. From their ink-black business suits, like what the big-wigs wear only made out of bullet proof fabric, their black ties, and the blood-red stripe across each of their chests, it was clear who they were.
SecureCorp.
Benny started to push himself up.
“Stay down!” I whispered to him.
They rushed down the slope toward me. There was nothing I could do. When they reached me, one moved to either side and gripped each of my arms.
The leader, a weathered, skinny guy with a pock-marked face, stood in front of me, staring. Beside him stood Cash, the leader of the gang who’d held me prisoner. A thin smile curled up on his lip.
“Didn’t I tell you, Weber?” Cash turned to the pock-marked guy. “Where else was he gonna go?”
“Help my friend,” I said, nodding at Benny.
Cash sneered at me, then stepped over and kicked Benny in the head. Weber’s expression didn’t register anything. He and the others ignored Benny and led me out the way I’d come. I fought to get free but there were too many of them.
We marched out the front archway and into the relative light of the outdoors.
“I haven’t done anything,” I protested, struggling against the hands gripping me.
“Shut up,” Weber said, without emotion.
The group turned and headed south, toward the Quarters, dragging me with them.
“Wait,” Cash said, grabbing Weber’s shoulder.
The leader turned his head and glared down at Cash’s hand, like it had contaminated him. He held up his own hand and everybody stopped.
Cash saw the look and removed the offending hand. “I found him,” Cash said, “like I promised. Now let’s have my reward.”
Cash held his hand out.
Weber turned to face him. He didn’t say a word. In one fluid movement, he hauled a gun from the holster at his belt and shot Cash point-blank in the chest. Shock registered on the gangster’s face as he stared down at the gushing wound. Then he toppled over and was still.
“Let’s get out of this shit-hole,” Weber said.
He holstered his gun, waved his hand again, and we continued marching, like nothing had happened, leaving Cash’s lifeless corpse in the street.
We marched through the rubble and shadows. I hung my head and trudged along, devastated. After all I’d been through — it was all over. And Benny had probably died trying to help me — another life on my head.
About ten minutes later, we’d just entered the junction of a cross-alley when there was the pop of a gunshot and the front man in our group went down. The soldiers rushed for cover as more shots took out several others near the front.
Weber motioned to the two guys holding me, then ran off directing the others as a gun battle went on. My captors dragged me behind what was left of a dumpster. All around us the firefight raged, shouts, screams, running boots, gunfire.
After a few minutes I heard grunts on either side of me and my two guards collapsed to the ground, blood pooling beneath them. I scanned around in panic, expecting to be next. Nothing happened. I was about to take off when a new pair of arms grabbed me and started dragging me backwards.
I finally got a look at my new captors. They were rough, like the gang I’d met before, but their clothes were clean and they had determined looks on their faces.
“Stay quiet,” one of them whispered. “We’re on your side.”
The gunfire echoed into the distance as they led me down another series of alleys. We finally stopped, and one of my new captors talked to somebody on his HUD. He nodded to his partner.
“Who are you guys?” I said.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” one of them said. “For now, keep it down. We’re not out of danger yet.”
I could still hear gunfire, but it was sporadic. Then it stopped altogether. After about twenty minutes we stopped in front of a side door for one of the abandoned skyscrapers. The guy in front pulled out a key, unlocked it, and we went through. Inside was a massive open space. Far in the distance were a few doors to what looked like offices.
The guy holding me nodded to his right. We twisted and turned down a bunch of hallways until we finally reached another large empty space. All the debris had been cleared out, and there were cots positioned against the walls.
In one corner were several desks and chairs. We sat down on a couple of the chairs and waited.
After a few minutes another group came into the room. I was shocked to see that two of them were holding up Benny, who was limping and looked pretty badly injured, but was alive. They led him to one of the cots and laid him down.
Before the guards could stop me, I rushed over. A woman was bending over him.
I grabbed her arm. “What are you doing!”
“I’m trying to save your friend’s life,” she answered over her shoulder.
They’d gone to the trouble of bringing him back here, so I assumed she was telling the truth. I stared down at Benny. He was unconscious. Blood from a wound in his side was soaking into the cot. The woman cut away Benny’s shirt. The wound was nasty and still bleeding a lot.
“Is he going to live?” I asked.
“If I can stop the bleeding,” the woman said. “You should leave me to it — there’s nothing you can do. I’ll come and let you know what happens.”
“Don’t worry,” a familiar voice came from behind me. A hand was placed on my shoulder. “She’ll take good care of your friend.”
I jumped and turned. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
CHAPTER 19
Reunion
Standing beside me, like some ghost out of the past, was my old school teacher, Travis. I stood there with my mouth open. He smiled, enjoying my confusion.
“Surprised?” he said.
“I figured you were dead or something,” I said.
“Not yet,” he laughed.
I was speechless, still trying to process what was h
appening.
“What are you─” I finally blurted out.
“Doing here?” he interrupted me.
He smiled. “Some of my views were filtering back to the Elite, and pissing them off. I was already affiliated with this group part-time. It would have been full-time as it was if it wasn’t for Laura.” I raised an eyebrow. “My daughter,” he said, and I nodded. “The previous Rebel leader was killed during a raid.” Travis closed his eyes for a second, remembering. “Meanwhile, I got wind that SecureCorp were planning to make me disappear. I beat them to it and went underground.”
“You always were paranoid, man,” I laughed. “Since when do they care what you say? It’s a free country.”
He gave me this annoying sort of patronizing look. I told him all that had happened. He shook his head slowly as I described my Appraisal and the aftermath.
“We heard about you,” he said when I was finished. “We’ve been keeping an eye out. Lucky we found you before they got you out of the Dregs. I’ll tell you one thing. They really want you bad.”
“But why?” I said. “What did I do?”
He motioned with one hand, and led me to a room with a few boxes and a large table in the middle.
“Let me guess,” I said as we walked through the door. “You guys are planning to overthrow the government or something.”
It was his turn to smile. “Not quite.”
He nodded toward a couple of the boxes. We went over and sat down on them. We were alone.
“What do they want with me?” I asked. I was so glad I’d run into him. Maybe finally someone could tell me what was going on.
“I’m not sure about that,” he answered.
“What the hell’s the deal with my Appraisal?” I said. “Nobody’s even told me what it is.” I looked into his eyes. “Do you know?”
Something changed in his expression. He shook his head. “All I know is that SecureCorp is desperate to get you back.”
Vita Aeterna Page 10