I stare for what feels like an eternity at the file, looking at the timestamp.
Seven days ago.
Filename: Echo-1.
“W-what is this?” I ask the screen.
“Memory dump of Echo Fox. Created during mind suppression, pending deletion. Location: Garbage. Restore or copy?”
All I can think to do is blink in shock. I take a minute to realize the screen has asked me a question.
“Copy...” I say but my voice catches in my throat and I have to cough to clear it. “Copy to local then prepare for re-upload. Link to halo,” I pause to look at the serial number of the mind halo. “Four-one-two-lambda-seven-sigma.”
“Link confirmed, copy in progress.”
A minute passes while I tap anxiously at the screen. Finally with a ding it announces it is ready. I hold my breath and place the mind halo on my head.
In a few moments I’ll remember everything. Who I was. Who Kara was. Most importantly, I’ll know what the hell is going on around here.
I look at the screen and it’s giving me three options. Overwrite. Append. Cancel.
My finger hovers over the options for a moment. I tap the “Append” option and long forgotten memories flood my mind.
6 - Kara
Hank’s teeth are so close now I can feel the heat of his breath against my skin. I try to pull away but his grip on my leg is too tight. Saliva drips from his mouth and onto my ankle. I brace myself for what is about to happen.
Maliah, Stilwell, and Nils struggle against their chains. They grab my arms to pull me from the monster who’s about to tear at my flesh, but it’s no good. It’s not possible to get far enough away.
Hank sticks out his tongue and runs it around my ankle and up my calf. I shudder at his touch and he laughs.
Behind him I see another blur at the window. I’m sure of it this time. It’s a person. There’s someone else out there.
“HELP! SOMEONE, ANYONE!” I scream at the world, hoping that whoever is staying out of view will do something.
“There aint no one around to hear you scream, darlin’,” Hank says as he runs the tips of his fingers up and down my leg.
From beyond the window the strangest thing appears. A metal box with two lights on it. The green one is lit, and the darker one which looks like red, is not. Where have I seen something like that before?
When the green light goes out and the red one lights up, it answers my question. An ear-piercing beep gets Hank’s attention.
He drops my leg and looks at the strange box. Another beep rings out and Hank charges for the door.
He’ll be too late though. I know how quick these things beep. I heard enough of them during the Death Match.
“Cover yourself!” I shout to my friends, turning and covering my head as best I can.
The third beep rings out, followed a second later by five explosions that thump through the room. I move my hands from my head in time to hear a body slump to the floor making a wet slapping kind of sound.
“That’s disgusting,” Nils says, looking at the carnage.
I turn around and again survey the room. What’s left of Hank sprawls on the floor next to the now headless men we dragged back from the chasm.
Igg and Ook are still sitting where they were, but are now headless too. From the looks of it, their collars directed the blast upwards and away from us. The ceiling is coated in brain and gore but at least we’re not.
The explosion has also driven away most of the flies, at least for the time being. So I’m grateful for that if nothing else.
“Who’s out there?” Maliah yells towards whoever just saved our lives.
The doorway darkens as the person steps sideways. They’re backlit by the sun so it’s hard to make out details. Tall though, that much I can tell. Well defined arms and legs speak of power, someone well trained in combat.
“Maliah?” the person asks. A woman’s voice.
“Aisha?” Maliah replies. “Is that you?”
“Yes! Maliah, I’m so glad to see you! It’s been forever,” Aisha says, moving into the room towards us. As she gets closer to us I see a resemblance.
“Too long,” Maliah says. “Guys, I’d like you to meet my younger sister, Aisha.”
An indignant snort escapes Aisha.
“Younger by like five minutes,” she says, laughing. “Maliah’s always trying to lord it over me, saying she’s older and wiser.”
“That’s only cause it’s true,” Maliah says, a smirk crossing her face. “Damn glad to see you though, sis. Saved all our asses.”
Once we’re free, Aisha says she’d been waiting for us to cross the bridge. She saw what happened but couldn’t intervene in time to help. Instead she raced back to where she’d been camping out to retrieve the trigger for the collars.
By the time she got back we were being marched towards this place. She hid out until she could safely move in with the trigger.
“Normally I wouldn’t go anywhere without it, but I hadn’t seen anyone in days,” Aisha says. “The Badlands are crawling with dumped criminals. Any that FTW don’t want for their games, they collar them and drop them beyond the walls. The collars ensure they don’t try to re-enter the cities. Once I figured that out I stole one of the triggers for my own personal protection. Comes in handy more often than you’d think.”
I shudder at the thought. If the rest of them are anything like Hank...
“We should get going,” Maliah says, interrupting my thoughts.
“Anytime you’re ready,” Aisha says. “We’re only minutes from the entrance to the base.”
“What about Stumpy here?” asks Nils and I throw a dirty look at him. “What?” he says, shrugging at me. “I thought that was his name.”
Aisha leans forward to look at the poor soul inside the cage. She cringes a little when she gets close. Whether from the sight or the smell I don’t know.
“Um, we’ve got medics who can help you,” she says to him, but he shakes his head.
“Kill me,” he croaks. “Just... kill me.”
“No!” I shout at him. “You can’t just give up after you’ve survived this long. Come with us, we can...” but I pull up short. What can we do for him? We can’t give him back his limbs.
“Please...” he says his voice almost a whisper.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Aisha asks.
The man in the cage nods. Aisha draws a dagger from a scabbard attached to her belt. A ray of sunlight glints off the blade as she raises it towards the man.
“How?” she asks him.
“Neck,” he says, angling his neck towards us. “It’s quicker.”
Aisha nods her acceptance and places the tip of the dagger against his neck. When she pushes forward, it’ll sever the artery and he’ll bleed out in seconds.
“Are you absolutely sure,” she asks the man.
“Yes, this is all I want now,” he replies.
Aisha pushes the blade into his neck then pulls it back out. She drops the dagger to the floor and holds him as his blood pumps through her fingers.
The man relaxes into her palm and Aisha gently lowers him to the ground. She runs a hand over his eyes, closing them.
None of us say a word. We pick up our gear and leave the building and the death it contains behind us like a bad memory.
We walk in silence, following Aisha. The path we take is short and winds its way around giant piles of debris, former buildings no doubt. I can’t help but think how much this world has lost.
I’ve only seen a small portion of what’s beyond the city walls, but it’s enough to know we weren’t supposed to live inside glass and concrete towers.
Things must have been so much more open when these buildings stood proud and tall. Maybe one day we’ll return to that.
Eventually we end up facing a building much like the one we just left. It’s a little worse for wear but it looks stable enough.
“Come on then,” Aisha says and leads us inside.
>
When we’re all gathered inside the building, I can’t help but notice it’s completely empty. Literally bare walls and floor, and nothing else.
“Is this it?” I say, trying to work out what’s going on.
Aisha and Maliah look at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. It’s a little unnerving how much alike they are. I get the idea I’m missing or overlooking something.
I take another look at the room we’re in, but can still see nothing of note. Just cracked concrete walls.
Nils and Stilwell are looking equally perplexed. I shrug at them then do the same to Aisha and Maliah.
Aisha, seemingly pleased with our confusion, walks up to one of the bare walls and presses her hand against a section of it. It gives under her touch and pushes into the wall and something mechanical thunks on the other side.
“It’s a little test, you see. If any of you had discovered the way in without being shown, well that’d give us pause to worry,” Aisha says.
Another thunk comes from behind the walls followed by a hiss of air. Dust blows out from the cracks in the concrete and part of the wall swings forward into the room.
I take a few steps to the left to see around the now open wall and find I’m looking into a long passageway leading underground.
It’s large enough that three people could comfortably walk down it side by side. Lights mounted to the roof of the passage let me know it must run deep into the earth.
“Not far now,” Aisha says. “Follow me. Maliah, close the door behind you please.”
Maliah nods and the rest of us file into the passage. Well, most of us. My step falters as I enter the tunnel. Visions of what happened last time I was underground flash through my mind and my body rebels.
Maliah puts a hand on my shoulder.
“These tunnels are much better built,” she says, obviously working out why I’m hesitating. “See, they’re reinforced with steel plating all the way down.”
I hadn’t noticed the steel walls before now. That does lend a degree of sturdiness to them.
“One foot at a time,” she says and gives my shoulder a light shove.
I close my eyes and step forward into the steel passageway. My heart beats fast in my chest. Maliah steps in behind me and stops. I open my eyes to see what she’s doing, and she presses her palm against a small raised piece of metal.
The door swings closed and my heart beats even faster. I need to calm down.
Maliah smiles at me and puts her hand on my shoulder again, and together we walk down the steel passage into whatever is waiting for us at the other end. Maliah knows, but she’s not telling.
When I ask she says she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.
When we reach the end of the tunnel, I can’t believe what I’m looking at. A vast underground cavern stretching off into the distance is waiting to greet us. But the most mindboggling thing is what fills the cavern.
Plants.
Everywhere. So many kinds. Some are small and run across the ground. Some have thick green fruit scattered between flowers while others grow tall but weighed down with bright red orbs.
“Welcome to our place, free of the influences of FTW,” Maliah says.
“What is this place? Did you make this?”
Maliah laughs and smiles at me.
“Only some of it. The cave itself is natural, for the most part. We added the lights, of course,” Maliah says pointing at the lights hanging from the cave’s ceiling. “We also expanded its depths and planted the crops you see here.” She waves a hand over them as we walk through them. “When we started, this was our goal. We wanted freedom from the cities to live life as we pleased. Beholden to nobody.”
As we wander further into the cave, a fine spray of water descends from above and covers my skin. I make a bowl with my hands to catch some it. When there’s a small pool in my hands I taste it, and it’s fantastic.
“Where does this come from?” I ask, looking towards the cavern’s ceiling.
“From a deep, underground spring. It’s why we chose this place, because of the access to freely accessible water. Plus, being this far into the Badlands keeps us off FTW’s radar.”
Scattered among the plants are people tending to them. Some pick the fruits while others work the soil. I suspect there’s a lot more people living here underground than it looks like at first. So many people living free fills me with excitement.
We emerge from the garden and into a small clearing. Timber huts line one side, and benches and seating arranged haphazardly around line the other. Some kind of communal gathering place.
At the far end there are a few people standing behind a bench chopping up some of the fruits and vegetables I’ve seen in the gardens.
Aisha, Nils, and Stilwell are sitting over near the people preparing the food. My stomach growls and I’m reminded how long it’s been since I last ate. I reach into my pocket for a protein bar and Maliah laughs at me.
“All this delicious food and that’s what you’re going to eat?” she says.
“Sorry,” I say, a blush warming my cheeks. I push the protein bar back into my pocket.
“It’s fine,” Maliah says and laughs again. “Eating real food takes some getting used to after a lifetime of living on protein bars. Believe me though, there’s nothing like biting into naturally grown food.”
“I got to taste real food recently,” I say, thinking back to after we thought we’d finally beaten Jameson. “I’m kind of wishing I didn’t though. It made going back to eating just protein bars so much harder.”
“Well, for as long as you are here you won’t have to,” Maliah says as we rejoin the rest of our group.
“True,” Aisha says as we sit down. “We’ve more than enough to go around.”
While we eat Aisha tells us about how this place works. We listen, engrossed in her stories of the struggles of their first years. How they almost abandoned the whole thing, but succeeded even after many had lost hope.
Her words are inspiring.
Once we’ve eaten our fill Aisha leads us through the cavern to what she called the Command Tent. As low-tech as everything looks outside, entering this tent shatters that illusion.
Ranged around the inside of the tent sit gleaming steel and glass screens. A few people stand near them, doing something I can’t make out.
“This is the nerve center of our operation,” Aisha says. “From here we can access virtually everything on the networks. We’ve got backdoors into so many places and cameras we can spy on almost anyone.”
“Does that include Jameson Fox?” I ask.
“Sadly, no. Most of his equipment is isolated on a separate network and firewalled to Hell and back. But recently we have learned of one interesting development about his inner circle, the people he trusts.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s Echo. We found her while trying to hack into his network. She’s alive and well and-”
“That’s great!” I cut in. “Where is she?”
“Well, that’s the tricky bit... she’s um...” Aisha tails off like she’s reluctant to say any more.
“She’s what? Tell me,” I say, storming over so I’m right in Aisha’s face.
She backs away from me, putting her hand on my chest to keep space between us.
“She’s working for Jameson. Happily so from what we can see.”
“What? You’re wrong. She’d never work for him. Not after what he’s done,” I say. The idea is ridiculous.
“See for yourself,” Aisha replies and swipes up what looks like footage from a security camera. “We recorded this yesterday.”
I watch as on screen Jameson and Echo walk along a hallway inside a building somewhere. Echo doesn’t look afraid. In fact, she’s smiling and talking freely to him. There aren’t any guards holding guns to her.
My whole world feels like it’s tipped upside down. My mind spins and I feel dizzy. My thoughts are disconnected, I can’t focus on anything. Nothing makes sense
anymore.
“Come on, you all must be exhausted after the day you’ve had,” Aisha says. “I’ll show you where you can sleep.”
I doubted I’d get any sleep, but next thing I know I’m waking up on a bunk. I must have passed out the second I lied down. I assume it’s now morning. It’s hard to tell because there’s no natural sunlight down here.
I hop down from my bunk and pad silently from my room. The rooms of the sleep areas are carved out of the earth. The inside them air makes me shiver, but they’re quiet and smell just a little musty.
My dreams from last night continue to haunt me. I kept dreaming of Echo where she would suddenly and inexplicably betray me. I’d then be dragged away, seeing only her face receding into the distance and Jameson coming to stand by her side.
I pull the curtain covering the doorway to one side and find the overhead lights are still on low. Aisha explained last night before we turned in that they try to keep the light cycle close to the natural hours of sunrise and sunset. When the sun rises up top, they’ll turn the lights back on to full.
A few people sit around the tables and talk in low voices. The only one I recognize is Aisha, and when she sees that I’m awake she waves me over to join them.
“Good morning, I trust you slept well?” she asks.
“Like the dead. I think I was out to it in seconds.”
“That’s good. We’ve got a lot to discuss today, so you’ll be glad you rested so well,” Aisha says, sliding a bowl filled with fruits towards me. “Eat up. The oranges are particularly nice.”
An hour or so later after everyone else has joined us and we’ve finished eating, Aisha leads us towards a tent much larger than the Command Tent. There’s even more equipment in this one, and in the center sits something large and covered with a sheet.
“I trust everyone is familiar with the air scrubbers?”
Everyone murmurs positive sounding responses. How could we not be? Air scrubbers are everywhere and we learn from an early age they’re what keep us alive. They scrub the pollutants from the air and release clean oxygen for us to breathe.
Boneyards & Badlands: The Complete FTW Series Page 18