Free World Apocalypse - Genesis

by T. K. Malone

  Teah slipped off her helmet and went back into the front room, to say goodbye to Clay.

  “Ironic, really,” Cornelius said, looking up.

  “What is?”

  “That you’re on yer way to fight The Free World and yet you look just like one of ‘em.”

  Teah knelt next to Clay. “I’ll be back before we need to deploy.”

  “And I’ll be here.” At which Cornelius went back to playing with the boy. “Might even join my troops. Might as well be fodder like the rest of ‘em.”

  Teah made to say something, but knew he’d already know the truth of any words she could find to say.

  “Just do me one favor,” Cornelius shouted as she opened the front door.

  “What?”

  “Wesley should be in the bar; tell him to come here.”

  Teah slipped out.

  Connor was sitting at the bar, Trip standing behind it with a glass of ale in his hand.

  “My oh my, just look at you,” he said, grinning. “That what a Black City stiff looked like?”

  Connor turned.

  Teah dumped her helmet on the bar. “Somethin’ like it. Gotta take a ride up to the ridge. Prefer it if I had half a chance against a sniper.”

  “You’re leaving?” Connor asked.

  “Just till the army gets here; want a heads-up on their progress.”

  “You think they’ll just roll past the mine?”

  Teah grabbed Trip’s ale. “Hell of a lot ridin’ on it.”

  Connor fidgeted on his seat. “You gotta minute?”

  “Sure.”

  He looked around, as though in two minds. “Can we…” And he nodded over to a table in the corner.

  “Sure.” Teah went and sat down at it before rifling through her combats for her smokes. “What’s up?” she said through a curtain of smoke.

  Connor sat opposite her. He appeared nervous.

  “Do you remember that day in the sewer?” he asked, his voice low.

  “Bits.”

  “Like what?”

  “I remember going in; and now I remember the tramp, though folk tell me it was Lester. I still can’t see a face, though.”

  “Tell me: do you remember seeing the luminous liquid leachin’ from them and flowing into me?”

  Teah took another puff on her smoke. “You were layin’ face down, just layin’ in the dank water. The white was flowin’ toward you, surroundin’ you.”

  “And you? What was it doin’ to you? Was it leachin’ out your energy as well?”

  Teah thought hard. “No. It was pooling around my legs.” She shifted uneasily on her chair and took a swig of her beer. Something about Connor’s manner disturbed her. “What’re you getting at?”

  “Sable’s been searching for you. I can’t be sure, but I think she manufactured our escape from the compound, showed Croft the path, made Charm decide to leave. But like I said, I can’t be sure.”

  Teah scratched her head. “What’s she sayin’ now? I presume she’s with you all the time?”

  Connor leaned nearer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “She’s… She’s… She’s almost excited. It’s like nothing I’ve felt from her before. She’s been looking for you ever since we escaped.”

  “Do you know why?”

  Connor pinched one of her smokes. “That’s just it, Sable hasn’t told me. Lately, she’s been leaving me to figure things out for myself. I didn’t realize how much thinking she did for me. It’s like she’s getting ready to leave but there’s something stopping her.”

  “Like what?”

  “You. It’s got something to do with you.” He sat back and stared at her. “The day after the sewer, did you notice anything different about yourself?”

  Teah thought, but she didn’t have to think too hard. She’d known all along that since that day she’d healed real fast, as in stupidly fast. Her ribs; when had Briscoe broken them? A few days back, and now they were fully healed. And when she’d been tortured, she’d near enough healed overnight—until Jevans had done something to her. “Yes,” she whispered. “I heal fast, like really fast.”

  “So do I. Not only that, I can heal folk around me… Well, Sable can.”

  “What are you thinkin?”

  Connor took a drag on his smoke then looked long and hard at her. “I think Sable stashed a part of herself in you.”

  “What?”

  He suddenly became excited. “You know, that feeling we have when we’re together. It’s like we’re one. And that time I set her free; she refused to go. I think I now know why.”

  “Why?” But Teah felt fearful of his answer. She sucked at the last of her smoke. “Tell me, why?”

  “I think she was protecting everyone.”

  “From who?”

  Connor sat back and glanced at the bar’s front door. Byron Tuttle had just come in. He looked around, as though searching out someone, then his gaze settled on them and a blink of recognition crossed his expression. He rushed over.

  “I think I’ve got it,” he said, and sat down.

  “Got what?” asked an exasperated Teah.

  “Why Sable never escaped.”

  Teah looked from Byron to Connor. “Are you two messing with me?” But in her heart, she knew they weren’t. And then the answer dawned on her.

  “Sable hid a part of herself in me. She can only infect The Free World systems, if we both agree it’s right.”

  Byron clicked his fingers. “Correct,” he enthused, but then abruptly appeared confused. “But how did you know?”

  Teah looked uncertainly at a now-beaming Connor. “Guess you’re going to have to take me along with you,” he stated.

  “Along to where?” Teah asked.

  Tuttle patted the table, to draw attention to himself. “To where the networks all join,” he said, proudly.

  “Which is…”

  “There’s only one possible place it could be,” he announced, then leaned in closer.

  9

  Teah’s Story

  Strike time: plus 13 days

  Location: Morton Valley Pass

  Teah opened up the bike’s throttle and raced away from the compound, Tuttle’s words still ringing in her ears. Briscoe had purposely left the land arid on the other side of the stockade. Years of clearing its trees had turned it into a windswept and barren place. It was now gray and dull, much like the sky above it, like the weather itself, looking positively dystopian. The thin covering of washed-out soil and lack of cover had made it difficult hiding the hundreds of claymores that Kirk had provided. If all went well, they’d soon be adding a splash of red to the scene.

  As for Kirk, she didn’t like the man—something about him creeped her out. Connor thought him a psychopath, but Teah wondered if he wasn’t just a little strange. He was with Zac and Sticks now and hence not her problem for a while. She turned up the hill and onto the road’s zigzagging rise, between the redwoods that had for so long been her friends. She’d expected nerves, only to be surprised at feeling nothing but exhilaration. Now, behind her helmet, her smile almost stretched from ear to ear as she tapped her top pocket and the folded list it contained.

  If she survived this, Roy, Kin’ell, Jevans, and Sumner were going to die. All she had to do was find them. It had happened an age ago, but for Teah the memories were still just as fresh, fresh enough that she could taste the retribution.

  she said into her helmet mic.

  came the answer.

 

 

  Yes, it was just like before, the heads-up display bringing it all back. The preppers up on the ridge were as close to soldiers as she had available. Hard men and women who wouldn’t shirk their duty nor value their own lives above those of their comrades, and more importantly, who wouldn’t run. These were the ones Teah had decided she fitted in with most, and now clad in her combat gear, memories came rushing back in an avalanche. Oh, how she rued that she couldn’t stay
with them for the duration, but Byron had seen to that.

  She reached the summit of the road and pulled off, to scramble up a rough trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Teah let slip a laugh and skidded to a halt, hooking the kickstand out before dismounting, then she walked over to a huge redwood, a wooden ladder bolted to its trunk. It led to a lookout point about a hundred feet up. She began the climb.

 

 

 

 

  Eventually, she pulled herself onto a narrow wooden platform and whipped off her helmet, crawling around to a prostrate R-four.

  “Any sign?”

  R-four took her own helmet off. “According to R-seven, they’re rocking and rolling, four miles south of the Lester mine.”

  “Many?”

  “He says the column reaches back to Aldertown, so yeah, a few.”

  “Fanning out?”

  “Yep, both sides. We’re ready to do a phased retreat.”

  “Safe?”

  “Not in the slightest.”

  R-four offered Teah her binoculars and then rolled over onto her back. “You cool with this?”

  “With what?” Teah adjusted the focus on the binoculars.

  “Going to war against the black and gold.”

  Teah let out a grunt. “Ain’t been my flag for a long old time.”

  “Still…”

  “Still nothin’. Ain't is ain't, and no more is no more.”

  She scanned the valley. Lester’s mine looked better than abandoned. Though she couldn’t see its entrance, she knew it was sealed in with a rockfall they’d taken an age to build. Sticks, Molly and Kenny hadn’t been that enamored by the idea of being buried alive again, but had accepted it in the end.

  Over from the mine, Teah swept her gaze down the valley until she saw the head of the convoy. It was like a swarm of yellow jackets, except these were traveling in armored vehicle after armored vehicle, tank after tank, the black and gold of The Free World flag and pennants adorning every one. Farther back were the troops themselves, sweeping a line up the valley.

  “No hellos?”

  “Nope, I’d imagine they’re still smarting over the drones; still wondering what happened.”

  “I take it the tanks ain’t going to be that easy to stop.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “First charges?”

  “Lester’s mine. We laid ‘em there in case we needed a diversion.”

  Teah nodded. “How long?”

  “Coupla hours yet—they ain’t going fast.”

  Teah offered her hand, palm up, and R-four slapped it before asking: “You going up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Watch your step up there, then. It’s gonna erupt like a virgin’s dick.”

  Teah grinned. “Fast?”

  “And messy.” R-four put her helmet back on and Teah did the same, adjusting her heads-up display before climbing back down. She jumped on her bike and headed straight up toward the ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Teah opened the throttle one last time, pushing on another hundred yards up the slope, where she killed the engine. She yanked the bike around, pointing it back at the road, kicked the stand down, unslung her rifle and started running up toward the ridge.

 

 

  Teah crouched and hurried up toward a line of trees, through which she could just see at least one defensive position: a sandbag bunker ready to pick off any who made it to the pass.

  a cool voice instructed as Teah closed in on the bunker, soon sliding down beside a prepper.

 

  Teah’s head display told her it was R-two, who then said,

  Teah rested the barrel of her rifle on the sandbags and looked through the sight, linked in to her HUD. She scanned around, trying to get a feel for the terrain. Her vague, drug-addled memories of stumbling through the pass came back to her. Though she couldn’t see it from here, she knew its path ran within a narrow alley through the rock of the ridgetop. She could just make out its end, from where a treacherous, scree-laden path descended for around twenty yards into the clinging scrub below. Her current position lay some twenty yards below that, just on the edge of the tree line, though the trees up here were hardly impressive.

  On her left flank was another ranger grave, a pit like the one she was in, and beyond that, another. She guessed there were more snipers concealed in the sturdier trees at her back. She took a deep breath. When they come, she thought, they’d better come hard or they’ll be easy pickings.

 

  R-two ordered, and Teah knew her companion was the commander of this little group.

  R-three reported, an edge of fear to his voice.

  R-two instructed, cool as a cucumber.

  Teah could hear the sound of her own breath, steady and even. This was the all-important moment. Fire too soon and they’d give the game away. Too late, and body parts would be flying. She settled herself down, trying to get comfortable, training her sights on the exit from the pass.

  Teah said into her mic.

  R-two gave her a look, but then he nodded.

  he confirmed.

  Silence.

  and all hell broke loose.

  It was one-way traffic, all the shots coming from the preppers, slamming into, and ricocheting around the bare rock of the pass, throwing up a curtain of dust. Then, arcing through the air, a sole frag flew toward them. It landed short, but the explosion was immense. Teah ducked her head down, facing the dirt beneath her, then a curtain of scree rained across her body. The instant it settled, Teah grabbed her rifle and started shooting.

  The red heat signatures of The Free World soldiers spilled out of the pass, ducking and rolling for cover where there was none to be found. At first, they were easy pickings, soldier after soldier falling still, on the slope. But more and more spilled through, now using the bodies of the fallen for cover and getting off their own shots.

  An arm went back, preparing to throw another grenade, and like lightning, Teah took her shot. The fallen grenade exploded amongst the enemy, scattering body parts everywhere, removing their meager cover. Then a hail of smoke bombs rained down from the ridge, smoke hissing from them and quickly obscuring everything. The enemy held their heads down until they couldn’t be seen through the enveloping cover of smoke, something Teah could taste in the air as it slowly rolled down the hill and blanketed them as well. In her HUD, Teah watched red heat signatures begin to move, emboldened by their supposed cover.

  Teah said into her mic. For her it was as though the intervening years had never happened, as though she was back under the city and the wastelands, fighting the smugglers. Her hand was up, even though no one could see it, but the enemy’s advance remained cautious, despite the thick smoke screen cover.

  The silence became unnerving.

  Teah asked.

  R-two reported.

 

  and R-se
ven fired off a few random shots.

  The enemy dropped to the ground but soon sprang up again once they’d realized the shots were going awry.

 

  Teah spotted their leader waving his men forward, then saw another twenty or so spill from the pass. So that was it, she thought, enough to take the ridge, but she also knew the assault had been rushed. They’d probably only been sent up here the day before, tired and into unfamiliar terrain, eager to snatch a quick victory.

 

  It was R-two, his clear acceptance of her stepping on his toes a great relief to her.

  The wait seemed endless, the enemy picking their way down carefully as yet more smoke bombs fell from the ridge, but growing more confident under their assumed cover. And why wouldn’t they have made such an assumption? How likely would it have been that the preppers would have had access to military-grade HUDs?

  she demanded.

  R-two promptly answered.

 

 

 

 

  The lead soldiers were about fifteen yards away by now, and Teah’s jaw tightened. It was now or never.

  she barked, and squeezed her trigger.

  The slaughter was fast and furious. No amount of body armor could have helped then as the preppers’ bullets slammed home. The heat signatures in Teah’s HUD jerked backward in a sickening dance of death, until they all steadily, one by one, faded, and her display went blank.

  Cautiously, the preppers moved forward, walking amongst the fallen, bringing their lives to a confirmed end. When the smoke eventually cleared, it left wisps clinging to the bodies now littering the hillside, wafting into the air like departing souls.