Chosen Different_Book 1

by Nat Kozinn

  The Beast hits the button and waits for the elevator. When it comes, he walks inside and smashes through the ceiling. The Beast is not strong enough to snap the ForteSilk strand that holds up the elevator, the substance is truly a miracle. The strand is attached to a piece of iron, and he is strong enough to snap that. After a few bashes, the iron connector breaks. The elevator is not going anywhere now. The Beast jumps back out into the lobby and heads toward the stairs.

  He goes through the first few floors of the Tower, breaking down doors and slaughtering everyone he sees. Soon The Beast realizes it will take too long to kill all the people in the Tower one by one. Besides, the Lord asked him to send a message. The Lord wants the whole world to see the true power of a Chosen Son. The Beast knows just how to do that.

  On the sixth floor, after he is certain he's killed everyone on that floor and the levels below, The Beast jumps into the stairwell and smashes the stairs to pieces. Then the creature leaps up to the seventh floor. Instead of hunting down and killing all the residents, The Beast stops and yells.

  "Attention everybody, this is one of God’s Chosen Sons speaking! I am ordering y’all to come out from your houses and head on up to the roof! If you stay inside or try to run from me, you gonna get killed, and I’m gonna take my time about it!”

  The Beast waits for a few moments, but no one comes out of any apartments.

  "Looks like y’all gonna need a demonstration!"

  The Beast sniffs out the closest occupied apartment and kicks down the door. He searches through the apartment and roots out a middle-aged man hiding in his closet. The Beast drags the man into the hallway. Then the creature uses his claws to strip the man's flesh from his body. The Beast moves slowly, allowing the man's howls of pain to echo in the hallway. The screams are bone-chilling.

  The Beast gets just what he was looking for: people start flowing out of their apartments. They are terrified of The Beast, but are more terrified of what he will do to them if they stay inside their homes. He lets them leave unmolested, providing they head up the stairwell.

  The Beast sniffs out one older woman who tries to hide in her apartment and drags her over to the stairwell, making sure the whole building can hear her scream.

  29

  Maintenance and expansion of the national communication network known as think.Net will be the responsibility of The Unified Logistics Technology and Research Applications Corporation, Inc (Ultracorps) for a period of 100 years from this date. Ultracorps will receive no less than $300,000,000 annually for those services, adjusted annually for inflation. This payment will be in addition to whatever monies are collected by Ultracorps from its customers.

  Article 1: Communicate with Loved Ones Act of 1992

  The Slug is speeding towards the Metro Center, thanks to Nita. Meanwhile, I’m focusing on getting my body patched up well enough to fight. With the help of the Manna from Gary, I've managed to get everything important functioning. The big loss is my index finger. My right hand is going to be a lot less useful without it. If I find a gun, I'll have to shoot with my left hand. Luckily, I made myself ambidextrous.

  My new kidneys are also giving me trouble. Sarah is smaller than me, so her kidneys are too. It takes them a little longer to clean my blood. I'm working on enlarging them, but I'll have to cope for now. I also have to deal with a couple of small infections that have cropped up. I've had to suppress my immune system so it doesn't attack my new foreign organs, which has allowed the infections to spread.

  I have to concentrate intently in order to target my T cells, B cells, and antibodies solely in the areas of infection. Then I kill those cells before they can get near my new organs. I can't slip up. I don't even look up when a conductor approaches me.

  "Ticket please, sir?" he asks.

  "Excuse me?" I must not have heard him right.

  "I need to see your ticket, sir," he insists.

  "What are you talking about? I paid at the turnstile. There are no tickets," I answer without looking at him.

  I kill off all the rest of my immune cells. I'm going to have to focus on whatever is happening here on the Slug. None of those infections will kill me anytime soon. I snap out of it and look at the conductor. He's familiar. It's Ben, the conductor who drove the train my first day out of Section 26 and found me after I got bashed in the head.

  "How are you, Gavin? Nice to see you again. You don't look so good," he says.

  "Ben, right? Not to be rude, but don't you need to, you know, drive the train?"

  "Most people don't know it, but the Metro transit system is almost entirely automatic. Steam valves control a system of breaks that engage and shut the engines down. The whole thing's controlled by a central hub that's run by Ultracorps, which means it's run by think.Net. They just keep us conductors around because people would be too scared to get on the train with no driver."

  I guess that explains how Nita can speed the trains up for me so easily. She can literally control them. I thought she had to give an order down a chain of command at least.

  "That's fascinating, Ben, but I don't quite understand what's going on here," I tell him.

  "No, I don't think you do. I know more than you do, and I still don’t understand what's going on here. No one can truly understand. If Nita is involved, then she is the only person on earth who can fully comprehend what is occurring.”

  "You know Nita?"

  "And I know about you. I know how you've been spending your nights. I know who you've been hunting, and I can imagine why you don't look so good. Managed to find the Thomas Calhoun did you? That's The Beast's real name. Looks like he did what he does best."

  "He tore me open. He killed my girlfriend... How do you know his name? How can you know all of this?"

  "Does that really matter, Gavin? It seems like you've got something else you should be focusing on."

  "You're right, I do," I say firmly.

  "So what's the plan then? Charge at him with your bare hands? Go for a kick to the groin?" he asks.

  "I don't know what the plan is, but I do know that no one else is even trying to stop him."

  "And Nita? What is her position on your fool's quest?"

  "She says it's a bad idea, but she knows she can't change my mind. Are you going to try to change my mind?" I ask.

  "Me? No. Who am I to disagree with the smartest person in the world? If she says your mind can't be changed, your mind can't be changed. Although it does seem a little odd that she stopped a train yesterday to keep you away from The Beast and now she is speeding up trains to get you to him. I guess you getting torn open boosted her confidence in you."

  He's right. It is strange. This whole thing with Nita has been strange. How she tracked me down. How she seems to know my every move. I haven't thought about it because I've had more immediate concerns, but Ben is not wrong. Nita is up to something. I haven't even tried to think of what it could be.

  "I haven't thought about it. I've been focusing on getting my body healed so I can kill The Beast."

  “Since you’re so focused, you probably haven’t been thinking about how convenient it is that Ultracorps’ opponents in the Metro Area keep disappearing without a trace. There’s Lauren Conrad, of the Idle Hands protest group. Oh, and don't forget Brian Leonard, head of Local 159, a labor union which opposed the expansion of Ultracorps into more municipal services. Not to mention Andrea Blaue of the Los Angeles Times, Assistant D.A. Stephen Beagleman, and the latest, Alderman David Gabbert.

  “The Beast got Alderman Gabbert. I found his bones,” I say.

  “I knew it. I knew it,” he responds, giddy with excitement.

  “Are you saying he killed all those other people? Are you saying that somehow Ultracorps is controlling him? Somehow Nita is controlling him?”

  “I don’t know how she does it, but it is the only possible explanation. To quote Sherlock Holmes: ‘If you’ve excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,’” Ben says with a terrible Bri
tish accent.

  “No one can control The Beast. He believes he’s a Chosen Son. More than that, he thinks he can actually speak to the Almighty Himself…” It hits me like a ton of bricks right as I say it. “That’s how Nita does it, through God.”

  “Hallelujah,” he says sarcastically.

  “When I fought The Beast, he was about to kill me, but he stopped and prayed for guidance. Someone answered his prayers. Someone on think.Net. He went into the stare and had a conversation with someone he thought was God.”

  “I'm pretty sure God doesn't have an account. For that matter, I doubt The Beast has an account. Eating people doesn't really pay all that well and think.Net isn't free."

  "But I know someone who calls me on think.Net anonymously. Someone who can make me answer calls even if I don’t want to: Nita. That’s how she controls him, she uses think.Net to force her way into The Beast’s mind, and he thinks she’s God.”

  Ben pauses and stares off. His eyes move back and forth, and he looks like he’s mumbling to himself. After about thirty seconds, he opens his eyes and drops his chin.

  “That makes total sense. I hadn’t even considered that. Congratulations Gavin, you figured out something that the second smartest person in the world couldn’t figure out. Bravo,” Ben says. He’s trying not to show it, but he’s actually bummed that I figure it out before him.

  “I did have more evidence than you. I’m sure you would have thought of it if you had seen The Beast in the think.Net stare,” I say. I can’t help it, he just looks so heartbroken.

  “Of course, of course. Did you tell anyone about this? Does Nita know you know?” Ben asks, perking up a little from my encouragement.

  “They said I was ranting about it after The Beast gutted me.”

  “Ouch. Well now we know why Nita’s helping you get to The Beast. He’s going to do her dirty work for her. Nita can’t have anyone knowing that she controls a mass murderer. Sorry Gavin, hurt feelings, betrayal of friendship, all that stuff. Nita is coldblooded.”

  “That explains why she wants me dead, but it doesn’t explain what The Beast is up to. What does she want with the Shimmering Tower?”

  "I know this one. I know this one,” Ben says and actually raises his hand. “You haven’t heard, because the press is keeping quiet about it, but the Tower just so happens to be the place of residence of Supreme Court Justice Gloria Burns. The court isn't in session now, but next month they’re supposed to hold a hearing on Ultracorps v. The Houston MA. That case will have reaching implications on whether Ultracorps will be able to expand its control in the other Metro Areas. You can guess how Justice Burns is expected to rule."

  "I can’t believe Nita would do this. I thought she was my friend."

  “If it helps, I think she might also be sending you to your death because of your Differentiation. Anthropomorphic Control sounds scary, but nobody knows what it means. When The Beast kills you and everybody else in the Tower, there won’t be any witnesses to say what the killer looked like. They’ll just blame it on you… That probably doesn’t help.”

  “It doesn’t.”

  "Well now that we know what Nita wants, does it change anything? Does it make you want The Beast dead any less?"

  My head is swimming as I try to make sense of this revelation. Nita is controlling The Beast? That does change many things, but it doesn't change the fact that The Beast killed Becky, and if I let him, he will kill countless other Beckys.

  "It doesn't change anything. After I kill The Beast, I can worry about Nita."

  "See, Nita is always right. She said nothing can dissuade you from hunting down The Beast and nothing can. The thing is, she assumes The Beast is going to kill you. That seems like a safe assumption considering that you lost your last fight, and now you're held together with spit and tape. What she doesn't know is that I've got something that might even the odds a bit. The Beast is an animal. You're a man. Mankind doesn't have teeth or claws, but we did conquer the animals. That's because mankind had weapons."

  Ben reaches inside his uniform and pulls out something. It's a knife in a sheath. He hands it to me. I take it, grab the handle, and pull out the knife. It is eight inches long and light as a feather, all the weight is in the handle.

  "Whoa, whoa. Slow down there, grabby Gavy. You drop that thing and it will cut through this train, the tracks underneath us, and about twenty feet of the earth's crust. It's a Maceo Steel knife," Ben tells me.

  "How did you get this? I've never even heard of one before."

  "Maceo only made a handful. It is the sharpest object that exists, that can exist under our current understanding of physics. It can actually cut through Maceo Steel itself. That is why you have to keep it in that sheath whenever you don't have it out. The sheath's full of a viscous gel. Technically the knife is cutting through it, very slowly. You have to be sure to take the knife out and put it back in every couple of months,” Ben instructs me.

  "I hope I live long enough for that to matter."

  "Me too. I have one more trick up my sleeve. If you get in a tight spot with The Beast, contact me on think.Net. Thirty seconds later The Beast will go down. It should buy you some time. Here, you should know me on think.Net."

  I log on think.Net and accept the knowledge request from Ben. Now we can call each other.

  "How are you going to hurt The Beast?" I ask.

  "That's just another thing you shouldn't be worried about. I'll leave you now to worry about those things you should be worried about. I have to go pretend to drive the train. One more piece of advice, the Zen Warrior act is all well and good for getting to The Beast, but once the fighting starts, you let those emotions out of the bag. Anger, love, sadness… humans need emotion in order to function. You’re a human, aren’t you, Gavin?"

  Ben turns and walks to the front of the Slug car. As he is walking away, he says one more thing under his breath, too low for anyone but me to hear.

  "And since you’re so smart, if you’ve got some time after killing The Beast, maybe you can figure out how Nita's been tracking you and him. I'm still stumped by that one."

  #

  The Slug finally pulls into the Alameda St. station. The Shimmering Tower is three blocks away. The other passengers are not pleased. Apparently, making the next stop five miles away and on a different Slug line confused them. The doors open. I can barely make out the conductor telling everyone to exit over the din.

  As I head into the station, I hear angry shouting. There are police in front of all the station exits. Those officers aren't letting anyone through, no matter how pushy the mob is.

  "Listen lady, I don't know why in God's name the Slug let you off here, but we can't let you outside. It's for your own protection." I hear one officer plea.

  I have to get back out to the tracks if I want out. Before I can, I'm stopped by a think.Net call. It's Nita.

  >>>Gavin do not be alarmed, the officer is Larry.

  <<
  I feel a tap on the shoulder. A hefty middle-aged policewoman grins at me. Nita didn't have to tell me it was Larry. Nobody else would look as dumpy as that and still grin from ear to ear.

  "Sir, I need to ask you a few questions and perform a complete cavity search. Please come this way," Larry, the burly female police officer says. His badge says Rhonda.

  Rhonda points me to a door marked supply closet and we step inside.

  "Here, put this on." Rhonda/Larry hands me a bundle. It's a police uniform. Of course, Nita has a plan. I'll do whatever Nita wants right now, as long as it gets me to The Beast.

  I put the uniform on. It's a bit large so I take water from my digestive system and run it into the rest of my body, making me look bloated and fat. Now the uniform pretty much fits. Rhonda/Larry watches it happen.

  "Pretty impressive transformation. It's like you're my Padawan. I assume you've seen Star Wars. You know they were supposed to make a third one? Another tragedy caused by the Plagues." She/he says.

  "So what's the pla
n? I can get out of the station now, but how am I supposed to get in the Shimmering Tower? Tell all the other cops to step aside, Luke Skywalker is here to save the day?"

  "That would be fantastic, but alas, Nita has a plan, and you always want to follow Nita's plan. She wants you to get as close as possible to the building, then I'll create a distraction and you can slip inside."

  "How are you going to get that many cops' attention?"

  "Honey, Rhonda has her ways."

  The uniforms allow us to move through the crowds in the station and past the barricades in front of the exits. Outside it looks like a warzone. There are police officers, firefighters, and EMTs everywhere. We walk to the Shimmering Tower.

  There the police have erected a makeshift fort. I watch a Strong-Woman place B-Crete cinder blocks for the police to use as cover. I bet the Strong-Woman could give The Beast a run for his money, but that would violate The Different Acts, so she won't do that.

  I separate from Rhonda/Larry and make my way through the two hundred or so cops who have setup the perimeter. I try to look casual as I head up to the front. Finally, I make it as far as I can without anyone noticing. I call Larry on think.Net

  <<
  >>>Watch and learn, my boy. This is how you make a scene.

  There's a gunshot. Then I hear Rhonda/Larry yelling at the top of her lungs. I'm concentrating too hard on the task at hand to focus on what she's yelling, but it's something about somebody getting fresh. I take a quick scan to make sure the police officers are looking at the scene, and I dash into the front door of the Tower.

  Once I make it in the front door, I spend a harrowing moment waiting to see if anyone saw me enter the building. I can still hear Rhonda yelling, but no one is saying anything about someone going inside. Guess I made it.