Last Chance Volume 2 - The Legend of the Hathmec: Planting the Seed

by Bradley Boals

  “I have been here multiple times over the years, and I have sent my little beetle spy into those buildings hundreds of times. It took a while, but it finally found the path—and the building I had been looking for all those years.”

  Walter removed a small computer screen from his bag and switched it on. It resembled a 1990s laptop, but there was no keyboard. “It will take a few minutes for it to reach the room, but when it does, you’ll see what you need to see.”

  Matthew looked at the screen and asked, “Does that thing work like the mirror glasses? Will we be able to see what it can see?”

  Walter grinned. “You are correct, Mr. Chance. This little gizmo has been very helpful over the years.”

  Walter set the screen down at his side and turned to Amanda, requesting that she go over all of the things she had written down while on the transport.

  “Do you really want me to read those now? It’s awful dark out here.”

  Walter passed his flashlight down to Amanda and told her to go ahead and start.

  Amanda pulled out the paper she had stuffed into her pants pocket. A beam from the flashlight was all it took to get her going.

  “I see billboards that talk of the Minister and the CCWO. I see a picture of the Minister with a small child in his arms. I see signs on buildings with encouraging words to people. They say that everything is going to be all right and to trust in the Minister.”

  Amanda turned the page over and continued. “I see people wearing the same clothes, just the one style. Some of the people wear gray, some white, some red, and some green. There are no shades to the colors. I see men with uniforms standing around directing people. Everything is clean, no graffiti or trash.”

  Walter asked, “What about the people? Do you notice anything about the people?”

  Amanda nodded. “They all seem happy and healthy. They almost seem too happy.”

  Walter took the paper from Amanda and read over it. “What do you think of the Minister, based on what you saw?”

  Amanda thought for a moment. “Based on what I saw, he seems like a good guy. Everything looks good. He seems to be helping people.”

  Walter folded the paper and placed it into his bag. Pulling the computer screen into his lap, he motioned for everyone to gather around. “You must stay quiet and listen with your ears, see with your eyes, and search your heart for answers.”

  The small beetle-like object had flown through several air ducts, doorways, and windows to reach its destination, finally coming to a landing in the corner of a large room. The screen showed dozens of beds arranged in multiple lines, and people were lying in them. Men and women in red suits walked up and down the aisles. Two of them had stopped at the bed of what looked like a teenage girl. She was hooked up to an IV bag but wasn’t restrained in any way.

  Walter touched the screen a few times and said, “I’m focusing all volume sensors on those two there. Let’s see what they’re doing.”

  The man in red addressed the woman in red. “This is subject number 589YZ. She has shown an increased resistance over the last two months. We have increased the carrier percentage level in her blood to fifty percent, but she continues to resist it.”

  The woman in red stared hard at the girl and said, “Pick up the knife that is lying on your stomach and cut your right arm above the elbow.”

  As Walter’s group watched, the girl in the bed tried to resist the command. Her hand staggered and shook as she fought the urge to pick up the knife. She strained and could be heard yelling at the woman in red. “No!”

  The man in red responded. “Increase to sixty percent.”

  The IV that the girl was hooked to changed color. It went from a clear liquid to a brown-toned gel. As the brown-colored substance reached her arm, the girl’s resistance started to wane. Before another minute had passed, she had picked up the knife with her right hand and cut a gash in her left arm. She screamed in pain and tried to throw the knife at the woman in red, but she didn’t have the strength. It fell back to her stomach.

  The man in red motioned to the woman, and they walked away from the girl’s bed. “She’s at sixty percent. Her body won’t last another week at that rate. Go ahead and put her out of her misery.”

  The woman in red moved back to the young girl and grabbed a syringe filled with some type of blue substance. The girl in the bed pleaded, “No more! Please, no more!”

  The woman in red replied, “Don’t worry, child, it’s all over now.”

  She plunged the syringe into the IV bag as the young girl looked up to her and smiled. Within seconds, the young girl started to struggle with her breathing. A few seconds beyond that, and the young girl had taken her last breath.

  Amanda gasped at what she had seen. “Did they just kill that girl? They didn’t just kill her, did they?”

  Walter shook his head and said, “Yes, Amanda, they just killed that young girl.”

  Matthew’s blood began to boil as he watched the two camp employees move on to the next person and conduct a similar experiment. He had to know what was going on.

  “I don’t understand, Walter. What’s going on here? What were they doing to her?”

  Walter pressed a few points on his monitor and then answered Matthew.

  “They’re conducting experiments on those people. The reason is simple. The inhabitants of the Genesis Camps are special. By special, I mean they pose a direct threat to the Minister and the Council. The Mercury Camp is more like a reform school for young people. A punishment location for those who are not loyal enough to the Minister.”

  “What kind of threat could a young girl possibly pose to the Minister?” asked April.

  Walter clutched the Hathmec on his chest and raised it for all to see. “They are immune to it.”

  Connor couldn’t believe it. “You mean the people in there can’t be controlled by the Hathmec?”

  Walter explained that the Minister had started injecting children with a serum in the early 2000s that allowed him to control anyone born after that date. “As I told you before you left on the last mission, he doesn’t have to use a carrier stone. They are in the bloodstream of the people.”

  He went on to explain that late in the 2000s, it was discovered that although children were being injected with the carrier stones, they were still resistant to the Hathmec.

  “It’s a product of our own immune systems. Our bodies started to figure out a way to fight off the carrier stones. Only a small percentage of the population was affected, less than one tenth of one percent, but it was growing.”

  April, Matthew, and Amanda now began to understand what was going on in the Genesis Camps. Connor was still fuzzy on the specifics.

  Walter tried to clarify. “These camps were developed and run for the sole purpose of either determining a way to bypass the immunity or to rid the world of anyone that couldn’t be ‘helped,’ in their words.”

  Connor asked, “Is it just a few people? I mean, how many people are in there?”

  Walter turned the screen back on. His beetle bot had flown to another location in the buildings. “Here, see for yourself.”

  The beetle bot flew around a huge block of a structure that not only resembled a prison but was being operated like one. There, the group saw hundreds upon hundreds of people locked in cages. Some looked to be as young as ten years old. Others were adults, but they were small and looked sick.

  Walter said, “It’s genocide, and the world is gleefully allowing it to happen, because they don’t know it exists. Even if they did, the Minister would just cloud their mind with rubbish to block it out.”

  Amanda’s eyes glistened with tears as the beetle bot hovered along a pathway that showed a row of cells labeled Castaways.

  “Walter, what does that mean? What are castaways?”

  Walter dropped his head, almost embarrassed to answer her question.

  “The castaways are people who were born with some type of physical or mental ailment. If modern medicine isn’t able t
o correct their ailment by the time they are ten years old, they’re brought here and experimented on. I’m not going to let the bot go any further. I don’t want you to see any of that.”

  Amanda couldn’t believe what she had just seen. This was something she could never have dreamed existed, and she now understood why Walter had her write those things down. The Minister was playing a global mind game, and he was winning.

  Walter could see the distress in Amanda’s eyes. Gently, he said, “This is what the world has been turned into. The Minister convinces the vast majority of the population that he is the wonderful leader they need while in the background he controls everything that they see, do, and feel. Even the slightest threat is handled in a barbaric way. In his mind, he can justify any and all of his own evil actions. We are the only people in the world that have any chance at stopping him.”

  Connor voiced a thought. “So, these people in there that are immune to the shots, they’re like me and Matthew. That’s why we couldn’t be controlled.”

  Walter shook his head. “Actually, no. You and Matthew were never given the shot in the first place. You can still be controlled by a carrier stone when you aren’t wearing your Hathmec. The people in there can fight off the shot and a physical carrier stone without the pendant. They’re special.”

  Matthew picked up a rock lying by his leg and fired it into the brush ahead. “We have to do something. We have to get those people out of there.”

  Walter put his hand on Matthew’s shoulder and said, “We will, but we can’t do anything until we finish our missions. We can’t go up against the Minister with a partial Hathmec.”

  Amanda and April were proud of Matthew for what he had said. Amanda knew that Matthew was unselfish and brave. Those were two of the qualities that she loved most about him.

  Matthew said, “What’s next, then? What do we need to do next?”

  With somewhat less enthusiasm, Connor added, “Yeah, what do you want us to do next?”

  Walter smiled as the beetle bot, having returned from the camp, hovered in front of him. He placed it and the screen back into his bag and stood up.

  “First thing we need to do is get to the new compound. Then we’ll talk about our next move.”

  The group had started to make their way back down into the ravine when a light suddenly popped up behind them.

  “You there! Don’t move!”

  Two security personnel from the camp below were rushing toward them through the brush. The light Amanda had used to read off her list had been noticed, and they had been sent to investigate.

  The group stopped in their tracks and Walter whispered to them, “Don’t turn around.”

  “You can’t be down here! We need to see your credentials, immediately!”

  Flashlight in hand, Walter turned to face the two men. “Sorry, fellas, I think I left my credentials at home.”

  As he spoke, Walter flipped a switch on the flashlight, and a light as bright as the sun filled the ravine, blinding the two security personnel and signaling to everyone else at the compound that something was going on. The two guards fell to the ground, moaning in pain. “My eyes! I can’t see!”

  Walter grabbed April’s arm and said, “Ok, time to go. This place will be crawling with Genesis Camp thugs in no time.”

  The group ran through the wooded area. Mud and dirt flew around everyone’s feet as they rushed back to the bridge. Matthew stayed behind Amanda with Connor. They’d only gotten about a hundred yards when out popped Agents Blake and Marco.

  April asked, “You two have been here the whole time?”

  Blake responded, “We were told to tail you guys. Do you need any help?”

  Walter jumped over a log blocking the path and said, “We just need to get to the bridge as quickly as possible.”

  Marco interrupted. “Why don’t we just use the wormhole door? It will take us right to the compound.”

  “Why do you have the wormhole door?” asked Walter. “It should be at the compound.”

  Marco explained that everything in Sector 37 had already come through the wormhole and was now located at the new compound. “It only took twenty minutes to complete, and then Agent Bryan brought it out to us. He used it to go back to the new compound and left it at the bridge for us to use. We can use it to get back to the compound and then take the door through with us.”

  “That’s genius!” Walter exclaimed. “Let’s do it!”

  The seven of them maneuvered their way through the thick forest, being careful not to make too much noise. That logic was sound, but it also slowed them down. But Walter knew they would be ok if they could just reach the bridge.

  As they made their way back down the forested slope, Matthew heard footsteps coming up behind them. Once they got clear of the wooded area and looked back, he could also see lights shining down on them from the sky.

  Walter yelled, “They have hover tanks searching for us! Run as fast as you can to the bridge!”

  They could all see the bridge in the distance, along with a figure that stood close to a hanging door. It was Addie, and she was yelling to Walter and the group.

  “Hurry! The door is open—just run through it!”

  The group was still several feet away from the door when Matthew noticed something creeping up behind Addie.

  He yelled, “Addie, watch out behind you!”

  Addie turned in time to see ten guards running toward her, and she immediately moved away from the door and engaged them. She scattered a large number of carrier stones in their direction and used the attribute charm for the first time.

  She was amazing. Her ample skill was on full display as she blocked the guards from getting to the door. A kick here and a punch there kept the men at bay. One man tried to grab her, so she flipped him over her shoulder right into two others who were rushing up to tackle her.

  Walter pushed April and Amanda through the door first, and then Connor. Matthew was next, but he resisted. “We need to help her!”

  Walter yelled, “Get in the door, now!”

  Matthew agreed, but didn’t like it. Agents Blake and Marco reached the door and told Walter to go on through. “We’ll help Addie.”

  Walter refused. “We can’t risk losing you, too.”

  He looked back at Addie as she fought on. She glanced back at him and shouted, “Go on, I’ll figure something out!”

  Walter walked through the doorway and pulled the mechanism in with him. It was as simple as reaching for a handle and pulling it closed. The door was gone, as if it had never been there, and Addie was alone to fend for herself.

  Connor and Matthew now stood in the new compound and counted all that had come through with them. Agents Blake and Marco came through and seemed upset. Blake said, “We should have stayed. She’ll never make it out there on her own.”

  Marco replied, “We did what Walter told us to do. That’s what soldiers do.”

  Walter was the last to come through. The first thing he saw was Matthew and Connor waiting for him.

  Connor asked, “Where’s Addie? Did you leave her there?”

  Walter explained that Addie could take care of herself and that one person didn’t make or break the mission. “She’s extraordinary. If anyone can get back to us, it’s Agent Addison.”

  Connor was confused by Walter’s comment. Just minutes earlier, he was touting human life and the atrocities that were occurring in the Genesis Camps. Now he was telling them that Agent Addison is just collateral damage in preparation for the bigger fight. Something didn’t feel right to Connor. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

  Agent Johnson rushed up to Walter and asked, “What happened out there? Why didn’t everyone come back?”

  Walter told Johnson that he might have to change up some of his plans. “I hope she finds a way to get out of there, but we have to assume the worst.”

  Walter saw Amanda standing close to Matthew and Connor. She looked stressed but also angry. That feeling would work well for wh
at Walter had in store for her. In his mind, the trip had been a success—he had the result that he’d wanted. The potential loss of Agent Addison was a serious blow, but Walter knew he could work through it.

  “Amanda, I need to talk to you. Please come with me to my new office, and we’ll have a quick discussion.”

  Amanda replied, “I want to see my brother first, and then I’ll be there.”

  Walter nodded in agreement and said, “Don’t make me wait too long. Agent Johnson will let you know where to find me. It’s time we discussed your future with us.”

  As he walked down the corridor, he added to himself in a whisper, “Or discuss a past with us.”

  Chapter 7

  PHASE TWO

  Matthew, Connor, and a relieved Amanda walked around the complex, looking for Steven. Dozens of Walter’s team were still setting up screens, tables, electronics, and signs. It was impressive to see all of them working in unison.

  The compound in Sector 37 had been a cold place, where dark walls and industrial aromas overpowered the senses. The new compound in Sector 4 was less abrasive, almost comforting.

  Larger than the other complex, it had wider hallways and a couple of extra levels. It was located well underground. Johnson had said something about it being a shelter from the early 2000s, but the kids had no way of knowing that for sure.

  The layout of the complex was circular in design with a bank of elevators positioned dead center. A person could get dizzy walking around them to the adjoining rooms. Amanda peered into each of them, trying to find Steven. She made one quick pass by door D-3 and stopped in her tracks. There he was, playing solitaire in a corner.

  “Steven, what are you doing?”

  Steven looked up to see his sister with Matthew and Connor. “I’ve been waiting for you guys. Where have you been?”

  Amanda kissed the top of Steven’s head and said, “We were out looking at something with Mr. Walter.”

  Connor added, “Yeah, you didn’t miss anything. I would rather have been here playing cards with you.”

  Matthew stuck his hand out to pull Steven up and looked at Amanda. “I think you need to go ahead and find Walter. He seemed to really want to talk to you.”