by L. A. Casey
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Out of the Ashes
A MAJI NOVEL
Copyright © 2017 by L.A. Casey
ISBN-13: 978-1912223008
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under S.I. No. 337/2011 – European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Universal Service and Users’ Rights) Regulations 2011, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
License Notes
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Acknowledgments
About the Author
For those who believe there is life beyond the stars.
The Earth is dying.
Overpopulation, natural disasters, illnesses, world wars, a breakdown of government and law, and as of late, global warming. All have been a deathly combination to my precious dying world over the past few centuries. The latter has been the worst of all to deal with. The Earth’s ozone layer has depleted so much, it’s practically non-existent, and it’s causing nothing but death and destruction in its wake. Crops aren’t growing, animals and people alike are dying at a rapid pace, oceans and rivers are drying up to form deserts, and it’s getting nearly impossible to be outside without the UV rays from the scorching sun causing severe burns.
Since the year 2005, my beloved planet and race have been fighting a losing battle for survival. Nine point nine billion people out of a ten billion population have perished in the past 110 years. Nine point nine billion. Roughly, 100,000 people scatter the Earth’s surface, and that’s it. After 200,000 years of procreation, that small and still dwindling number is all we have to show for it. That number now defines us.
For the first time in existence, human beings have been declared an endangered species.
We have joined many other species in reaching an extinction point, and because of that, we are more vulnerable than ever. Five days ago, the announcement was broadcasted to the cosmos on our species’ status, and the Maji touched down on our exhausted planet four days later. That worried me greatly. Either they were close to our planet when the announcement went out, or they had unrivalled space travel speed to reach us so quickly.
In the year 2002, it was discovered that humans were not the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe—far from it. Including humanity, 233 known extra-terrestrial species lived in the cosmos. Several of them were hostile, several of them were peaceful and wished to co-exist, and several of them wanted to be left alone.
The greatest discovery in mankind’s history would quickly break the foundation of human life as we knew it. Back in that period, religion to billions of people wasn’t just a concrete faith; it was a way of life. With the news of other life in the universe, it unravelled many people’s beliefs and, for the most part, wreaked havoc and destruction. Holy landmarks were attacked and destroyed, leaders of all religions were slaughtered, and that was only the beginning of the terror humans would unleash on the Earth.
Around the time of the extra-terrestrial discovery and breakdown of religion, an advancement in science and medicine caused a massive breakthrough that created its own point in history. Prosthetics and blood and organ donations quickly became a thing of the past. Scientists discovered ways to grow new organs, create new blood types, replenish others, and attach augmented limbs to living tissue and have every human host accept it as part of their anatomy.
Scientists took up the vacant role of creator and decided to play god. They wrote DNA codes as if programming a computer instead of a live person. ‘Build-a-Baby’ became an ‘it’ thing for people with enough credits. Once an egg from a female and sperm from a male were donated, a scientist could design the DNA structure of the newborn based on the specific requirements from the parents. You could decide what your child would look like at every age of their life. You could eliminate all natural flaws and choose enhanced limbs and organs if you wanted your child to excel at something like sports. They could even enhance the percentage of useable brain to literally make people smarter.
Soon after that advancement, robotics and technology made its grand mark on the world. Androids were the new cell phones, hover cars were the new bicycles, holograms were the new video calls, and retina scanners were the new thumbprints. The world rapidly changed into a truly presidential digital and robotic era.
Aliens were real. Robots were real. Augmented humans? Very real.
All of it became the norm, and after a while, something else caught everyone’s attention because nobody could miss it. The sun began to die, and with it, so did the Earth. Not even the smartest of humans could figure out a way to protect our planet, and that was when the chaos really imploded.
It was currently the year 2115, and sadly, things had only gotten worse. With the Earth’s current fragile state, an unexpected visit from a new species had everyone on edge. Well, more on edge than usual. The Maji’s intentions for humans and our planet were unknown. For me, a twenty-three-year-old woman with no family, friends, or protection other than my two bare origi
nal hands, the not knowing was terrifying.
The Maji were the only reason I was so close to Command Central, and why I was out past curfew. Being out past curfew didn’t exactly make me a rule breaker since law broke down forty-odd years ago, but a person was still likely to be shot on sight if they were caught sneaking around after dark, especially at my region’s Command Central.
Over the past month, it had become the new World Base of Operations since the whole continent of Asia was wiped out in a terrifying set of quakes that, quite literally, shook the Earth. Once that incredible mass of land broke apart and became a huge crater on the Earth’s surface, those who were able scrambled together and reformed their military force.
The World Base of Operations had been set up six times since I was born, and like the other times, it was destined to fail, too. Though it was unreliable, it was desperately needed. Without the WBO, the Earth’s trading posts would be no more, and as of right now, the trading posts were the only way the people of Earth were being fed, hydrated, and getting medical care. Without the trading posts, we would all be dead in a few short weeks.
Or less if the Maji decides to gift us death sooner.
I shook my head at my defeated thoughts. My father would turn in his grave if he heard the cowardly words that ran through my mind. He raised me to be strong, to be a survivor, and never to quit when things got hard or give up when hope dwindled. He taught me that my life was a gift, and no one in the universe could take it from me without a fight. It was mine and mine alone.
‘Keep on keepin’ on, baby,’ he would say with that teasing crooked smile of his and a thriving glint in his ocean blue eyes.
My eyes, identical to my father’s, glazed with tears at the thought of him, and I quickly wiped them away before they had a chance to fall. I missed my father dearly. I missed my entire family dearly. My remaining family members had succumbed to the Great Illness seven years ago that wiped out ninety percent of the Earth’s population. I had been sixteen when my father and cousin died, and every day since had been a tremendous struggle.
I was born in an era when playing tag and going to school were things of the past. I wasn’t born in a hospital or even somewhere that could be called home. I was born on the roadside while my parents, uncle, and four cousins were making the tough journey to relocate somewhere that would provide us with a better chance at life. But that dream was not to be. My mother died during childbirth, and I almost didn’t make it either.
At the time I made an appearance, every mass of land on Earth was already deemed a war zone, and civilian casualties outnumbered the military’s. I only knew of the beauty that the Earth once beheld through the vivid tales from my father and uncle, as told to them by their father, and through the occasional picture I stumbled upon. My childhood was not all pretty pictures and captivating stories, though.
Instead of playing with my cousins or getting an education as I grew up, I was being taught to hunt, skin, and prepare game. How to filter dirty water to make it drinkable, and how to tell edible leaves and berries apart from the poisonous ones. How to clean and dress a wound to keep infection away, how to move without being seen, and how to fight as good as a grown man. How to store the meat for travel so it wouldn’t spoil, and how to use weapons. I was taught how to survive.
Even though I was grateful for my upbringing and thankful for the family I had, I knew without them that I was all alone on a dying planet with nothing but my thoughts for company.
Now and then, I’d come across other travellers, and I’d trade with them and even have an intelligent conversation here and there; but people, in general, were not to be trusted. Most of the men and women I met would either try to rob me, capture and sell me, enslave me, rape me, or kill me. ‘Try’ being the keyword. I had never killed another person—I came close more than a few times—but I had maimed quite a few. I had never felt an ounce of guilt for the things I’d done, though, because I was left with no choice. It was maimed or be maimed. Kill or be killed. Survival was all that mattered … no matter what you had to do to ensure it.
Humanity had died long before the Earth began to.
Focus, Nova.
I climbed the stairs of a long-abandoned building a few hundred metres away from the WBO and made sure to keep all noise to a minimum. Even though I did my best to go undetected, I knew my safety measures would prove futile if any augs were nearby. Augmented humans were the ultimate security system. The truly amplified augs had all their senses upgraded. If they detected me and wanted to find me and kill me, they would do so without breaking a sweat. There was no stopping an aug that wanted to kill. The Great World War that took place eleven years ago proved that.
I was twelve when it began.
I was in the woods with my four male older cousins—Jarek, who was twenty, Tala, who was eighteen, Zee, who was sixteen, and Sammy, who was twelve like me (only, he was a few months older). His mother—like mine and like a lot of women who birthed children without medical care during the war—had died in childbirth, too.
We were hunting deer and brought down a hundred-pound buck that had us grinning from ear to ear. Most days, we’d catch rabbits, badgers, and whatever else we could snag in our traps, but a buck as big as the one we brought down was a rare thing indeed. To make matters even better, it was my arrow that pierced the creature’s left eye and ensured our family would be eating well for the next two weeks. It also gave me bragging rights that I was definitely going to cash in on. In a family primarily of males, bragging rights were a big deal.
Not long after we brought down the buck, we heard screaming.
With all thoughts of our prized buck instantly forgotten, we readied our weapons, and together, the five of us ran from the woods. Ten minutes later, after the heart-wrenching screaming had stopped, we entered the clearing where we were staying. It was a survivalist camp and just one of many we’d come across over the years. But instead of children playing, women cleaning cloth on washing boards and preparing meals, or the men patrolling the camp’s border and weapon training in the practice ring, they were all lying dead amongst pools of blood and dismembered limbs.
I spotted my uncle first. I saw his trademark brown cap that he loved clutched in his bloodied hand, and when I scanned my eyes up to his face, I couldn’t stop the scream that tore free from my throat. His eyes had been gouged from their sockets, and his mouth was wide open as if he was silently screaming, even in death. My cousins tried desperately to shield both Sammy and me from the massacre before us, but they stopped when I told them what I saw. Sammy was the first one to break from our group, ignoring our protesting as he ran towards his father.
We all screamed in horror when a motionless blood-covered body on the ground suddenly stood, and like an android, it turned and grabbed Sammy by the throat and lifted him from the ground like he weighed nothing. With shaking hands, I scrambled for my bow that I had let fall when we entered the camp. I drew an arrow from my quiver and aimed it at the woman who was strangling my cousin.
I sucked in a breath, and a scream died in my throat when she twisted her hand, the hand that was around Sammy’s throat, and a loud crunching sound echoed throughout the deathly silent clearing as she broke my cousin’s neck. I promptly dropped my bow and arrow and puked all over the ground. I turned back in time to watch her release Sammy and to see his lifeless body drop to the ground with a thud. My screams became audible and rose even louder when Jerek and Tala both rushed forward, armed with their daggers, and speared the woman to the ground.
At first, they tried to restrain her, but she was hell-bent on trying to kill them, so with no choice, they began to stab her in her chest and her stomach … but she acted like she couldn’t feel it. Only then did I notice the skin of her right arm hanging off, and I saw the mechanics underneath it. I screamed at my cousins that she was augmented. It was hard to tell an augmented person from a human, and we had never had any reason to fear them … until that day.
Zee and I were wra
pped in each other’s embrace, and we roared when arms came around us. We struggled and fought against the hold until we heard the voice of the owner. It was my father. I was so relieved he wasn’t amongst the bodies that I was almost sick again. Through our sobbing, we had rapidly told him what happened. How we heard the screams, how we found the camp, how an aug had killed everyone, including Uncle Joe and Sammy. Without needing more information, my father cocked his aged gun and aided Jerek and Tala in killing the crazed woman.
Augs were a hell of a lot stronger than us humans, but they could die.
I thought it was the end of it, that the nightmare was over, but it had only just started. All the commotion had attracted two more people to the clearing, and I knew they were augs straight away. It wasn’t how they looked on the outside; the dead look in their eyes gave them away. My cousins and father fought them off, but Jerek and Tala were injured during the fight, and though I tried my best to stop the bleeding, they were injured so badly that they both died. Tala had winked at me before he died, and Jerek told me to take care of Zee and my father. I promised him I would. Both Zee and I were like robots following their deaths; we heeded my father’s orders without speaking, and we were numb whilst doing so.
My father managed to find a working handheld radio on a dead body of a patrolling member of the camp, and together, we held our breaths and listened to a broadcast from the watchmen who informed us that augmented humans were to be shot and killed on sight by civilians and military personnel alike. The collective chip embedded in every augmented human’s brain—a chip required to deliver updates to an augmented person’s upgrades—had been targeted by a terrorist group. The code for every augmented human had somehow been rewritten, and it had turned the augmented humans into an army.
The beginning of the Great World War was officially announced at the end of the broadcast. The war had only started, and already, my uncle was dead and so were Jerek, Tala, and Sammy. That left only me, Zee, and my father. We weren’t allowed time to grieve our loss before my father had us pack our bags to the brim of what could be carried, and we evacuated the area. We weren’t allowed to bury our loved ones, and we barely even got to say goodbye.