“Okay, Frankie, where do we go now?” I asked from the driver’s seat.
Frankie shifted closer to my head, “I dunno about you guys but I’m itching for a nice warm bed and a hot shower. We should hit the next town by nightfall. That’s where Vic is.”
“Sounds good to me.” I drove for the next ten hours as the sun disappeared back behind the hills and I felt my eyes of the verge of melting out of their sockets. It had reached nightfall and the road had started to look like an endless stretch of concrete. My concentration dulled when the sight of a towering barricade approached in front. I slowed down once reaching the gate that ringed around the entire town.
Diesel moved forward to look through the front windshield. “No look outs. Looks like the entrances have been permanently blocked too.”
“Think it’s abandoned?” I asked. Diesel gave me a one-shouldered shrug. “Argh! But I’m so hungry!” I whined.
Frankie typed into the tablet before putting it back into her bag. “This is it, but the barricade is new. There should be a way into the town on foot.” I killed the engine as the others climbed out.
“This is where your friend Vic is, yeah?” I checked. Frankie nodded and I dragged my backpack out of the car. “Fine, guess there must be a door somewhere.”
“There’s no way we’re getting this car through that gate.” Vance signalled to the thick sealed doors barring the entrance. “Considering we’re going to dump it, want to see what they were packing?”
“Not a bad idea,” Diesel agreed as he rounded the back of the car. “Could be more beer.”
“Or some food?” I asked hopefully. We walked to the back of the car where the tarp was pulled tight on their hooks. As soon as Vance unhooked one corner, an exhaust of rotten fumes erupted upwards like a burp. He only managed to unravel half of the tarp before the smell became unbearable.
“What the hell…” I edged closer and looked inside. “Holy shit! Is that…? It’s full of bodies! That’s so disgusting!”
Inside the tray, disembodied limbs and heads were crammed together like compacted bean bags. The shredded flesh had long gone purple and blue, the pink meat now a rotting black and the thickened blood had dried in the veins. These people must’ve been dead for weeks.
“Dinner anyone?” Diesel smirked jokingly.
“I think I’m actually going to throw up.”
“Looks like our old friends belonged to a cannibal group.” Vance pulled the tarp back over but the smell sat in the air like a fat cloud of puke.
“Cannibalism?” I wiped my mouth and spat onto the ground to clear the taste.
“Since World War VIII, more and more people have been converting to human meat to survive,” Frankie explained. “Before the Elite started the breeding program, humanity almost ceased to exist. No people meant no functioning society; no society meant no means of obtaining foods or resources. We had to revert to our primal state: hunt and gather from the land. Too bad we’ve stuffed up the land so much barely anything could grow,” Frankie said as she kicked at a fallen tree branch. “Which meant we only had human meat left on the menu. We did what we had to do to survive.”
“We? You were one of them?” I gasped.
Frankie shrugged. “I vaguely remember having to cook someone’s arm. It was nearly two hundred years ago though, about two life cycles. My only other choice was to starve. We all had to do it at some point.”
Vance chipped in, “If eating human meat is the worst thing I had to do to survive, then I’ll count myself as lucky.”
“I remember being eaten,” Diesel added with a snort. “They didn’t even have the decency to kill me first before they plunged into my intestines.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Diesel smirked, “Maybe, maybe not.”
I turned my head away and shuddered. “It’s times like these I’m thankful for my lack of reincarnated memories.”
“Let’s just dump the truck and go,” Vance said as he put the car into neutral and got Diesel to help him roll it off the road and into the ditch of trees.
“Well, it’s probably a good thing because now I’ve lost my appetite.” I soothed my stomach. The remains of other dumped, vandalised and burnt cars were stashed on the roadside as well. On the outer wall of the iron fence, there were masses amount of graffiti. Most of the graffiti depicted the classic FUCK THE MAN motto; some were drawings of genitalia and messy gang tags that were written over small poems to loved ones. Hanging over the side of the wall was a large banner with the words, “KEEP OUT.” It was printed in bold red with a radioactive biohazard sign underneath.
“It’s just for show. I’m sure,” Frankie reassured as I looked at her. Overhead, a brewing storm moved in from the south as we walked into the bush surrounding the fence.
We walked beside the fence for about an hour, looking for a way in when we found a child-size water pipe sealed behind iron bars. Diesel lifted the heavy rim up like a hatchet and we squeezed through onto our bellies into the pipeline. The water was clean but cold as we commando crawled through on our elbows. Once the pipe opened up, we had enough headspace to walk while slightly crouched as Frankie led the group with a flashlight. The water sat at our ankles as we walked further into the pipe network before stepping into a large, underground bunker. We used the concreted ramp to step out of the water, and followed the footpath along the walls into the hollowed tunnel and further into the mill. We walked for hours, making our way inwards into the main section of the underground system. Inside the concreted tomb, there wasn’t any natural sunlight and the lights running along the walls had long burnt out. Not even Frankie’s single flash light could break through the shadows surrounding us.
As we walked in silence, Vance suddenly tripped causing a sudden loud crack above us. Frankie swung the torch toward him just as Diesel grabbed Vance’s shirt and hauled him back. From the top corners, a thick slab of concrete hanging from the roof on wires swished past them, slamming into the wall so hard the entire room shook.
Vance scrambled back up on his feet, his harsh blue eyes wide in shock. Frankie quickly ran to his side. “Vance? Are you hurt?”
Vance grabbed his chest. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”
Diesel stepped around and picked up the snapped string near Vance’s feet. “These are trigger points.” He took the flashlight from Frankie and shone it further up the room. “Who knows how many are out there.”
“Well…” I stepped up beside Diesel. “At least this means someone’s home. If there are traps that must mean there are people and when there are people, there must be supplies.”
“Still thinking of your stomach?” Diesel teased as he turned back around, swinging the torchlight across the room. “What we need is more light.”
An idea suddenly struck me. “Hey, Diesel, you still have those matches, yeah? There were some old pallets a few rooms back that we can use as torches.”
“Not a bad idea. You wait here and I’ll go get them.” Diesel walked back through the corridors before returning with two pallets, one under each arm. He snapped the wooden planks out of their frames before distributing them. Then, with the matches, he managed to catch one alight. Once the flame was strong enough, we used it to set the others alight too.
“We shouldn’t be too far away from the exit,” Frankie said as she took her torch. “It should just be straight forward from here.”
The orange flare from the fire helped illuminate the surrounding corridors as we continued. My stomach was in constant chatter as I curled my arm around myself.
“I sure hope your friend Vic has some food,” I winced.
Frankie eased up so she could walk alongside me. The orange light caught in the vibrant shine of her red hair, making the blood red glow even brighter. “I’ve been meaning to ask about what you said earlier, is it true?”
“About what?”
“About your lack of reincarnated memories?”
I shifted my backpack higher. “Oh, yeah, that’
s true. It seems I’m the only person to be born without any memories from my past lives… that’s if I’ve even had past lives to remember.”
“What’s it like?”
I slowed at her question. “What do you mean, what’s it like?”
Frankie shrugged a little awkwardly. Her sixteen-year-old body looked tiny in the heavy folds of her jacket and thick twisted scarf. “It must be strange knowing so little and never experiencing death or multiple voices in your head.”
“It keeps things simple, I guess. I dunno, it’s like me not being crazy makes it difficult to relate to others, you know, being a freak and all,” I whispered as I shifted the torch to my other hand. Diesel and Vance were a good couple of metres ahead of us, scoping out the area for any other traps.
“You’re not a freak. Actually, I’m kind of envious.” Frankie grinned, followed by a thoughtful sigh. “I wish I could go back to my younger years, when it was just Vance and me before all the ‘others’ started showing up.” She indicated to her head with a tap.
“How many other lives have you had?”
“Eight, since my last count. Eight times I’ve dragged myself through life. Eight times I have struggled, starved and died. Even with the D400, their voices grow louder with my own drowning underneath them.”
I slowed. “Are you okay?”
“I am for now, but I’m worried about my future. How many other lives can we stuff inside the one body before even the D400 can’t keep them out?”
“I never really thought about it.”
She sighed and smiled. “It’s okay. Medicine is forever changing and advancing. I’m sure something will come up.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’ll all work out,” I comforted with a change of topic. “What was it like being brought up by Breeders?”
“Hmm… well, our parents were on their last consignment when they gave birth to Vance and me. I think I have like another nine or ten siblings out there somewhere. Breeders get good money, especially if they carry genes the Elite see as valuable.”
“Such as?”
Frankie glanced over with a small smile. “Lack of genetic deformities or deficiencies. Higher IQs. Healthy eyes and heart. Especially since the nuclear wars and famine, humanity dropped to dangerously low numbers with increasing stillbirths and infant deaths. The Elite required strong, able body citizens to rebuild their empires, so Breeders were paid well for their healthy offspring.”
“I hear most children born to Breeders are brought up in orphanages until they start their transitions.”
“Most, not Vance and I though. Our current employer scouted us out early; they tagged our imprints and collected us when we turned ten. Before then, we lived on our own. Did our own thing, ate what we wanted to eat and lived at the old mall. What about you?”
“My parents were part of the N01 Program. It meant they were in charge of us from birth to our last transition day. I have two older brothers, both I barely remember. I also have a little sister who has just started her transition.”
“The N01 Program is a better option than the Breeders. Smaller families mean more emotionally stable environment for the next generation and a better upbringing.”
“Sure, if you classify distant and cold as emotionally stable.”
“Better distant than vacant. Breeders just popped them out and threw them into the world. With Program N01, at least they had to make sure you were fed and healthy.”
The sound of heavy rain came from above us followed by a distant clash of thunder. Frankie and I turned around, holding the flame up to the cracks in the roof where water wept through.
“Hey! Frankie? Frankie?” We both then turned at Vance’s call. “I think we found an exit.”
Quickly, we reached the doorway to outside only to be welcomed into the rough embrace of a storm. The wind howled, pulling at the long trees branches until they snapped off and were hurled across the streets like heavy confetti. We eased out of the narrow doorway and dumped the dampened torches to the ground.
The road looked like it was made of black water. The storm had hit hard and fast as it flooded the streets and over flowed the drains. I counted just how lucky we were we escaped the pipes before we were washed out with the current. The town was eerily empty with no street lamps operating or lights on in the surrounding windows. With the heavy storm, the clouds smothered the moonlight, blanketing the entire town into darkness. Diesel signalled for us to follow him as we ran across the muddy footpath into town. The dirt path met up with the cracked road a few metres from the watermill and we took shelter underneath a nearby canopy. We tried to look inside the store but the curtain blocked our view and the doors were barred with wooden planks. Diesel smashed the window with his boot and cleared the frame of shards before stepping through. We all followed in, shaking ourselves dry from the rain and cold. We had stepped inside a gutted and abandoned convenience store. The wind from outside violently slammed the blinds against the windowsill as Vance and Frankie pulled a large cabinet over to cover the hole.
“We’re not going anywhere until this storm passes,” Frankie noted with an exhausted pant. She slipped out of her backpack and placed it on the top counter. She then ringed her hair of water and shrugged out of her drenched jacket.
“Can you get in contact with your friend?” Diesel asked.
Frankie shook her head. “We’ve lost touch for so many years. I don’t have her number anymore. All I know is she lives here but I’ll check the tablet to see if it has any information.”
I sat down and pressed my back against the wall. Everything hurt. My feet hurt, my head hurt, my muscles from my calves up to my shoulders were knotted in pain. I undid my shoelaces and kicked out of my boots and soggy socks. My skin was clammy and my toes felt like ice as I massaged them in my palms. I slipped out of my outer layering, but my clothes had been soaked straight through to my bra and underwear. I left my jacket to hang over the edge of a stool to dry.
Vance and Frankie had the tablet out on the counter as they rested on their elbows, reading something on the screen. The white light from the tablet shone brightly, casting shadows from their turned down chins. They were whispering about minor disagreements but I was too far away to hear. Diesel rifled through the shelves at the back of the store. I leaned my head back against the wall and took in a big breath. The storm was soothing as it chopped and banged against the walls and streets outside. I felt myself drifting, sleep sinking into the back of my eyes when a hand tapped my shoulder.
“Hey.” I peeled my eyes open at the rasp of Diesel’s voice. He knelt down in front before easing something into my hand. “You should eat.”
It was chocolate. I hadn’t had chocolate since I was ten, the day of my supposed transition. I inspected the long chocolate bar suspiciously.
“How do I know it isn’t poisoned?” Diesel looked at me puzzled. I added with a smirk. “You did say for me not to trust you, remember?”
Through the faint dimness, I caught his crooked smile as he unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite for himself. He tossed it back at me and I shovelled the rest of it into my mouth.
Intently he watched, his eyes squinted as though trapped in a muddling thought. I shifted uneasily. “What?”
“Just thinking.” He tilted his head to the other side. “You’re not like everyone else. I’m starting to understand that.”
I looked up, my cheeks bloated mid chew. “Just now you’re understanding that?”
“I don’t mean with your eyes or the reincarnation.” He looked outwards, annoyed at his struggle with his words. “It’s not the same with you, I’m not the same. I never did apologise for before, back at the camp. For not trusting you.”
I stopped chewing. “Wow… I err…” Now it was my turn to stumble over my words. Diesel had kept his voice low, perhaps afraid Frankie and Vance would over hear him and take it as a sign of weakness. He didn’t look at me either. He kept his eyes cast sideways, his lips pressed into a firm line. “Thank yo
u. I appreciate it… So, you trust me now?”
He snorted, “I’ll still sleep with a knife under my cheek but yeah, out of everyone, I guess I can trust you.” He then quickly glared at me to mask his embarrassment, “If you cross me I will kill you though.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I held my hands up, “Comforting. Don’t worry, message received.”
“Alright then.” He quickly stood but hesitated for a second, “I don’t trust easily Nadia. This… this means something to me, okay?”
I didn’t have a chance to respond before he turned away. This means something. I heavily swallowed. God damn, is there ever a time Diesel isn’t so intense?
Vance pushed off the table to grab Diesel as he passed. “Hey, Diesel, listen, I just wanted to say thanks… for before. You saved me back there.” Vance cleared his throat, his blue eyes unable to catch Diesel’s gaze. “I appreciate it.”
Diesel snorted. “Next time watch where you’re going.” He then clapped him on the arm with a smirk. “And don’t mention it.”
Vance chuckled before he turned and re-joined Frankie at the counter. I caught her softened smile and I felt myself grin too.
I fell asleep on my bundled up jacket and woke to a blurry white light hitting my face. The curtains were pulled back as muffled voices and footsteps moved around me. A flash of panic caused me to bolt upwards. Outside, I could hear arguing and the steady thump of fists connecting to cheeks. I flinched as a man wearing a gas mask knelt down and grabbed my shoulder. Instinctively, I pulled the knife from beneath my jacket and slashed at his chest, but he caught my swing. Two other men pulled on my arms and forced me into a stand. I only managed to catch a small glimpse of the room around me. There were patches of blood spilt on the floor that trailed out the front door. Diesel, Vance and Frankie were all gone.
“Let me go! Let me go!” I kicked their shins with my bare feet as they dragged me outside. I was shoved onto my knees as the slushy mud flicked up into my face. A small speck of dirt got into my mouth and I felt the grains over my teeth.
Soulless (The Immortal Gene Trilogy Book 1) Page 15