Paradise Awakened Trilogy

by Mackenzie Morris

  Katarina jumps when something loud moves behind her. She grabs onto Jarred's arm.

  "Hey." Isidore says as he sits next to them on the floor of the abandoned building.

  Jarred glares at him. "What the hell are you doing? You can't just sneak up on someone like that. Next time, you tell me on the radio that you're entering the same building as me. I could have killed you."

  "Sorry."

  They all look startled when a single shot rings out from far across the courtyard. Jarred turns his earpiece back on. "Jolt, did you hear that?"

  Broken static comes over the transmission as another shot is fired. Then the static abruptly stops and someone else's voice is clear. "Hello, Jarred Cunningham."

  "Who is this? What have you done with Jayce?"

  "Your husband is alive . . . for now. I'll let you in on a secret. Next time, take the shot when you can." The transmission goes silent.

  "Who was that? I recognize that voice, but I can't place it." Isidore asks.

  "Benjamin Crowe."

  "How did he find out Jayce's location?"

  Katarina is scanning the areas around the building where Jayce had been when she spots the answer. "Jarred, it looks like the electricity came back on in that side of the sector. There's a bright streetlight that could have reflected off of his scope."

  "You're right. That must have just happened. Look. It's off again. How did we not see that before?"

  "We've been focused on the building in the opposite direction. What do we do now?"

  Jarred stands and grabs his bag and rifle. "We go find Jayce."

  They make their way back down the deteriorating stairs and out into the street below the flickering lights and smoky haze hanging in the air. Jarred leads them quickly down the main road, making sure to stick to the shadows in case Ben and his men are still nearby.

  The sound of guns being readied makes them stop where they are. Katarina instinctively puts her hands up. Ben Crowe is aiming his machine pistol at them while he motions for his android thugs to move closer.

  "Hello there." Ben says with a dark smile. "Where are you people headed towards my sector? It's dangerous to be out here without one of my guards. Is there a reason I haven't granted you access to my base? Oh yes, that's right. I found out that you have been watching me and trying to kill me. Well, little do you know that I harbor a special hatred for snipers after one of them killed my lover eight years ago. She didn't do anything wrong, but that bastard shot her in the head for no reason. I never found him, but I will kill every sniper I can find. Don't worry. I'll wait to kill Jayce until you are there to watch it all."

  "Like hell you will." Jarred throws down something to the pavement where a cloud of thick white smoke fills the air.

  Someone grabs Katarina's arm and pulls her along. They run down the street as the gunfire echoes behind them and Ben's men shout profanities and cough in the smoke. Jarred pushes her down behind a car up on the sidewalk.

  Isidore kneels down beside them. "What now?"

  "We hope they don't track us down."

  A sudden gust of air swirls around them as large white metal wings sweep by. Doss lands in front of the car, blocking the enemy forces from coming any closer. He draws his sword and the wave of energy knocks them off of their feet. "Get running, guys. I'll fend them off. Go!"

  * * *

  Doss is still half out of it as they drag him up to the tunnel entrance of sector two where Ben Crow has set up his fortified base of operations. What happened? Doss remembers lunging in to engage Ben and his thugs, but then it's all a blur. Now he has woken up and he's naked, in handcuffs, and hurting all over. When he does fully come to his senses, he feels weak as he coughs then spits out blood. Strong hands bruise his arms and force him to walk. They pass a large open area and what he sees there makes him cringe.

  Dirty humans with slave collars around their necks and chains binding their ankles to concrete posts are screaming or crying behind the ten foot tall razor wire fences. Women and children are huddled together while the men are forced to move heavy crates across the road to a warehouse. What could be in those? Weapons? Supplies? There's no telling, and truth be told, Doss doesn't want to find out. It's sickening to watch the beings he swore to protect be beaten and enslaved while he is powerless to save them.

  Even though his muscles ache and his mind is foggy, Doss continues to struggle against his captors until they push him down on his knees and secure heavier shackles around his wrists. They pull the chains tight and hoist him up until he is hanging above the ground by his arms. Are they going to leave him here?

  Ben looks him over and grins as he slaps a cat o' nine tails against his palm. "Do you hear the screaming down there in those pens? Humans are animals who need to be kept in their cages until they are trained to obey. Why would an archon pledge to protect inferior beings like them? Well, I can't let you go around inciting uprisings from my little pets. So here you can watch them suffer and they can see their sworn protector be beaten down. A few weeks of this and they'll calm down."

  A few weeks? "You're going to leave me here like this for weeks?"

  "Oh, that panic in your eyes is beautiful, Doss. Let me help that. Spread your wings."

  "No." Doss says then flinches as the whip hits his side.

  "Do it or I will whip you until you do. Get those wings up."

  The second hit causes him to gasp and he knows he doesn't have any other choice. Filled with reluctance and humiliation, he spreads his wings and grits his teeth.

  "Higher, Doss. Let the humans see your wings."

  * * *

  Hours pass as Doss's muscles tense and ache and he grows weaker. All he wants is to lower his wings. It is the most agonizing torture they could have invented for him. He's naked, bleeding, and completely humiliated by the androids who pass by just to hit him with sticks and anything else they find. They mock him, but Doss only closes his eyes in a desperate attempt to ignore them. Despite his conjuring of false courage, the tears quietly stream down his face, especially when Ben returns once an hour to deliver a few cutting lashes with the whip. There is no moment of peace for him. An android is always watching him, whipping him if he lets his wings drop even a bit.

  If he was as strong as he used to be before he fell to Earth, he could hold up his wings for days without a second thought. He could pull free from these chains and kill all the androids by himself. Not now. Every day down here, he has felt his body deteriorating to the point that he is at right now.

  "Wings up." An android shouts angrily at him.

  Doss is trembling and breathing heavily as he strains to keep them raised. "I can't. They're . . . too heavy."

  The whip hits his back and he lifts his wings again. When the android walks off, Doss is first relieved, but then his uncertainty quickly comes back.

  "Uriel, what have you let these androids do to you?"

  Doss recognizes that voice. He wearily lifts his head and squints in the bright light from the spotlight on him. All five of the other archons in their white robes surround him. He locks eyes with the one he used to call his dearest friend. "Gabriel . . . help me."

  Gabriel's large golden wings glisten in the light in contrast with his dark brown skin. He laughs and instead of trying to release Doss, he punches him in the mouth. "Why would I ever help a traitor like you? How are your wings, Uriel? It hurts to keep them up like that, doesn't it? Oh, you're bleeding. Let me take care of that for you." He turns to the others. "Raguel, I think our buddy could use something to drink."

  Raguel tosses him a glass bottle. "Here's the strongest whiskey I have with me."

  Gabriel opens the large bottle. "So, should we give him a drink or clean those gashes?"

  He wouldn't. Doss isn't above begging. "No. Please don't. Have mercy."

  "Mercy? Just for that, you get the salt as well."

  More boots echo in the tunnel. "Stop right there, my evil children"

  Gabriel snarls and crosses his arms. "This doesn'
t concern you, Kazimir."

  A crowd of Zach's cyborgs fills the tunnel with all manner of weapons at the ready. They surround the archons, blocking off their escape.

  Gabriel glances at Doss then back at the cyborgs. "We'll be back for you, Kazimir. This isn't the end." He leads the archons back up the dark tunnel.

  Kazimir motions to the cyborgs. "Get him down."

  When the chains are released, Doss falls to the floor of the cavern and weeps.

  "Get your ass up and get walking." Kazimir orders. "We have to get out of here and back to the lab before my archons inevitably come back. If they wanted to fight, they could have stayed and made a bloody mess of everything. Get in the van."

  * * *

  Katarina gasps as a couple of cyborgs drag Doss inside the lab and drop him on the floor in the lounge. He is naked and shaking while he cries out in pain. She goes to help him, but Kazimir holds out his arm in front of her to stop her from getting close.

  Kazimir kicks Doss in the side. "Wings up, archon."

  Doss groans as he holds his side. Blood is pouring from a deep gash above his eye. "Have mercy, Kazimir."

  "I said wings up. If you can do it for them, you can do it for me. I didn't create you to be weak. You're an archon, for God's sake. Now start acting like it and get those wings in the air."

  As he holds up his wings, his body is trembling. He coughs and spits out blood on the floor as tears stream down his face and every muscle in his body tenses.

  Kazimir pets Doss's hair. "Good boy, Doss. That's my good little archon. Does it hurt to hold your wings up like that?"

  Doss gasps for air. "Yes."

  "Higher."

  "God, please. No."

  "I said to lift your wings higher." Kazimir orders harshly. "Now do it."

  Doss screams out as he lifts his wings and it is all too obvious that he is in complete agony.

  Kazimir slowly walks around him, examining him. A minute passes as Doss is crying and Kazimir shakes his head. "Well done, Doss. Put them away."

  Doss collapses to the ground as his wings fold up and slide back into their place on his back.

  Katarina covers him with a blanket as Isidore and Zach get to work on him, bandaging his wounds and checking his vital signs. She looks at Kazimir. "Why are you so cruel? Don't you see how much he was already suffering?"

  He wipes Doss's blood from his hands and pours a few drops of the negator fluid on them to stop the nanobots. "I didn't create him to be weak. Cruel? Is it cruel when a farmer expects his crops to grow? Is it cruel when a writer expects his pen to work? No. Things have their purpose and must carry out that purpose."

  "If he's a robot, why can he feel pain and why is he bleeding?" Jarred asks as he pours his forth cup of coffee.

  "Because I made him to have simulated human nerves, muscles, tissue, and blood. The rest is metal and wires. I wanted him to be able to feel pain so he would better protect the humans who were in danger. If he could know their pain, he would be more inclined to save them. It is imperative to have robots be able to feel pain so they can be trained correctly. Don't worry about Doss. He will be extremely sore and weak for a few days, but after that, he will be right back fighting with us on the frontlines. Isidore will take care of him."

  Jarred sits between Remiel and Katarina on the sofa. "Were you this harsh with Isidore?"

  "Not as much. Isidore is a more refined model, originally made with a completely organic body whereas Doss is a much earlier prototype that is mainly robotic with a few simulated organic aspects, like skin. I have to ride Doss much more than I ever have Isidore because if I don't, then Doss does this." Kazimir points over to where Doss is sobbing while they tend to his wounds. "It's unfortunate that he evolved and learned even the weaknesses of humanity. That's why the other six hate him so much."

  "Other six?"

  "You already know about Remiel there beside you." Kazimir says. "I created seven archons in all. Doss, or Uriel, was my very first and even when he exhibited signs of weakness and emotions, I didn't have the heart to scrap him so I kept him. The others, I refined and perfected so they wouldn't have the same emotional traumas and breakdowns. Doss always wanted to be human when the others were stone cold sentinels. It probably has something to do with why Doss fell and the others didn't. Though, no one really knows what happened. Even Doss doesn't remember. I was religious back then, living in Russia with my American parents and wife. I had just started working in the science division when people started freaking out about Y2K. We didn't know what exactly was going to happen so I took it upon myself to do something about it. I created the seven archons with unlimited funds and resources then got removed from my position because of it. So I moved to America to live with my wife's family. After that, I kind of lost my faith. But I still believed in my inventions and technology."

  Doss stops crying as Isidore's green regeneration magic spreads over his skin. He holds the blanket tightly around his body. "It's time I come clean about everything."

  "Tell us what happened, Doss." Kazimir says. "Why are you down here on Earth?"

  He takes a sip of water Isidore handed to him and clears his throat. "About twenty years ago, I was watching a little boy and his family on the surface where some people managed to survive in some caves near what used to be the city of Eden. They set up a farm and grew some plants. It was beautiful to watch humanity in that basic form as they worked to get their lives going again. I would watch this little boy as he played and grew up from the time he was eight years old until he was Dmitri's age. One day, he was playing and went too far from his family's farm. I knew there were bad people out there who would try to harm him. Sure enough, some slavers jumped down from the cliffs and surrounded him. They put him in shackles and were dragging him off. He was screaming for anyone to save him. That's when I messed up. I disobeyed the one order that Kazimir said was nonnegotiable. I drew my sword and flew down to help the little boy. I did the one thing that I never should have done. I killed one of the slavers. At that point, my programming started to bug up and I couldn't stop. I killed the slavers, the boy's family, and then I killed the boy as he was clinging to my robes and thanking me for saving him. Because I was created to protect humans, everything began malfunctioning when I killed one. It didn't matter if that human was evil. Then I flew back up into the sky, but as I went, I could tell something was wrong. That's when I blacked out and fell. My system decided to shut itself down because I was malfunctioning. That's why I'm down here."

  "What about the children you killed with your nanobots?" Isidore asks.

  "That's different."

  Kazimir looks enraged. "There's something you're not telling us."

  "I didn't actually stop there." Doss says. "I hunted down every last human on the surface and gathered them all together then went down the lines slashing them as they cried for help. I slaughtered them all with my sword and unleashed nanobots. Women, children, it didn't matter. I wanted to kill them all, just like Gabriel and Michael have been trying to do all along. Something switched in my mind and I felt that if I killed all of them, then they wouldn't need me to protect them. If they were all dead, then my mission would be complete. It's that final change that caused my system to shut down."

  "How many did you kill, Doss?" Katarina asks.

  "Just under ten million in forty-five minutes once I had them herded together on two continents. It was too easy and the more they struggled, the more I had to do it. That's why Kazimir is so harsh with me. If I hadn't disobeyed his orders, I would still be up where I belong. He knew there was some reason I fell, that I had to have disobeyed and I did. The wooden crucifix I gave Dmitri was that boy's father's. At night, I saw him reading the Bible to his family by the light from a fire. I didn't understand any of it, but I was completely transfixed by it. I kept it so I would never forget the hope that I destroyed in the world. After I woke up down here, the first thing I heard was the church bells ringing. I asked Kazimir what that was and I made it my goal
to find them. After a couple of weeks of recovering, I was officially instated into the Inquisition as Master Director Monroe's long-lost son. After my initiation as Grand Inquisitor, the very first thing I did was follow those bells to the cathedral where a priest welcomed me. I devoted my life to helping people and upholding the words that meant so much to that family. I felt that if I could repent enough and atone for my sins, then God would forgive me and I would be able to go back up to where I was before."

  "So you're a fallen angel?" Jarred asks.

  "Fallen, yes. Angel . . . no. Angels are pure and holy. I am tainted and condemned."

  Jarred finishes his coffee and slings his backpack over his shoulder as he stands and goes to the door. "Well, as much as I'm interested in the strange lives of archons, I can't wait around anymore. I have to go find Jayce. Kat, you're coming with me. Everyone else, stay here. I will keep in touch with you, Blice. So you keep everyone updated."

  Katarina follows him outside and down the street towards sector two. "So what's the plan for this little rescue mission? You do realize that Ben's not just going to let us waltz in there and get Jayce, right? You know how much security he has and he's not afraid to kill us. We've seen that much."

  "I don't know. I have no way of finding Jayce. I didn't implant him with a tracking device so we'll just have to go in blindly. I don't have a plan, Kat. I know that I can't sit around and do nothing while Ben is doing God knows what to the one person I care the most about in this world. Jayce would risk his life to rescue me and I'll do the same. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. The closer we get to sector two, the more dangerous this escapade becomes. There is no telling what is waiting for us, but Crowe did say that he's not going to kill Jayce until I'm there to watch it. Perhaps the best course of action would be to get caught and taken prisoner by Ben. Then we could at least be in the same place as Jayce. From there, we would be able to cooperate and figure out a plan to escape."