by Ryan Burnett
Extremely real Angela. You with unseeing eyes essentially "felt" our way forward through the underground corridors of the complex. Our mind was trapped in that neural limbo but your body still responded to your will to live..with a few mistakes...and a little help.
Help? I responded. Trying to ignore the smugness that Rhodera's word conveyed.
It was necessary to use your brains reserves of adrenaline and to flood several neuroreceptors. I also had to increase your uptake of dopamine in order to prevent your system from going into shock. It was necessary for our continued survival.
I had no words for her. I was injured and beyond exhausted and the weight of Marcus's body felt like an anchor. The man seemed to be fluttering at the edge of consciousness. It seemed like he had lost a lot of blood.
Angela. I have exhausted my resources. I can no longer guide you. I must rest. Whatever else may happen please see to it that you do not die.
With that curt message I could feel the electric thrumming dull to an almost nonexistent tingle. Just like that she had left me to fend for myself against god knows whatever else was here with us. I had to get out. We had to get out.
"Stay with me Marcus. I'm going to need your help to get out of here" I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
"I fucking did it. Suck it Rob! I fucking did it...You're welcome by the way" I didn't respond to his rambling. Keeping my focus single-mindedly towards the elevator.
He shifted his weight and he did indeed become easier to carry. When we had got inside and closed the doors he collapsed against one of the elevator sides as we were hauled up and towards the ground floor. He had closed his eyes as if gathering his thoughts and strength for this second leg of our journey. I looked at him and for a moment and was overcome with wonder and amazement. He had actually come for me. I promised myself that no matter what I would save him. I would never forgive myself if he were to die on me now.... after all of this. I had no chance at a life of being anything more than a lobotomized lab rat and he had risked everything to rescue me....however at the same time I asked myself "why?" what kind of fool risks his life over a one night stand with a person he didn't even know? And what's more if that was truly the case did he come here for me? Or for Rhodera and the answer to what she and I were now? Regardless of the questions in my mind I understood that I owed this man everything.
"Thank you Marcus." I said with complete sincerity. He smiled and nodded his head. His dark complexion beginning to turn ashy and discolored.
"Come on we are going to get you taken care of." I said as I shouldered his weight once more.
There was a little trail of blood that marked Marcus's progress toward the interior of the building and I shouldered his weight and we began to walk forward again I could see several dead guardsman and bullet holes in the walls to tell the story of the firefight that had preceded his descent to the subterranean facility where I was being held. As we slowly trudged towards the exit I felt a tingle as Rhodera unlocked the door. Once inside I noticed the wetness of the floor and the squelching sounds our steps made. It seems one of the bullets had shattered the aquarium and in the main lobby brightly colored fish lay asphyxiated among face down corpses like precious sacrifices offered up in exchange for our safe return.
As I exited the building I was immediately struck by how bizarrely empty the city streets seemed. The reason for this became shockingly clear as I heard gunfire ring out in the distance before another echoing salvo retorted. People were fighting. The explosion had been heard. Ostan's men might be clashing with the police. If that were the case the entire area could be crawling with drones at any moment. I didn't care I just wanted to get away. I didn't want to chance the main streets. Men could be shooting from any number of vantage points; I headed down a blind alley fervently praying that I could find a safe path out of this area. Halfway down the alley I heard a shot near me so close that I lost my balance and Marcus and I fell flat into a grimy puddle. I turned him over checking his body for bullet holes but was surprised to see a gun in his hand. He gestured with it and as I looked back down the alley I saw a man in black tactical gear staggering against the side of an alley wall trying to prop himself up. I took the pistol from Marcus’s hand and fired two more rounds into the man who fell to the earth.
"Injured and possibly bleeding out and I still got him." he said, no small amount of sincere pride in his voice. I offered the gun back to him with a gesture but he shook his head.
"You hold onto it for now. The cavalry is coming and it's getting hard for me to see straight. We have to hurry, I'd bet my last dollar that the guy we just iced wasn't a part of a one man squad."
I helped him off the ground noticed the way he grimaced as his shoulders moved before we set off down the remaining half of the alley as quickly as we could manage. Marcus constantly looking over our shoulder looking for signs of the dead man’s backup. I kept pressing forward but I didn't know where to go, where to turn, I just kept going forward.
I could hear tires squealing coming around the corner the sound a welcome change to the deadly proclamation of bullets that seemed to have followed us for far too long. The low and flat frame of the familiar vehicle roared down the empty stretch of road recklessly like a charging ogre only to come to a screeching halt a handful of feet away from our position. Rob yelled from his rolled down window.
"Don't just stand there, move your ass! The bastards have been shooting at me for 3 god dam blocks." I didn't question it. I piled Marcus into the backseat jumped in myself and tried not to be thrown into the wield shield as we jerked into motion.
"You're one son of a bitch, you know that Marcus?" Rob yelled back to us as he careened through a turn narrowly avoiding slamming into a parked car by what seemed to be roughly the width of a pencil.
"..What can I say...birds of a feather...ahhh!" Marcus replied ended in a grunt as another maneuver slammed his injured shoulder into the side of the car. "Oh my god Rob we need to get him to a hospital, he's been hit, he's...'
"Just fine. I got this....besides, Marcus made a promise. Isn't that right buddy?" Rob said.
"Dam straight" came Marcus's weak reply.
"How did you even find us?" I asked. Finally able to think straight. Feeling a strange sense of deja vu as I left the grizzly scene of my abduction once again accompanied by these two men.
"After Marcus pinged me all I had to do was turn on a TV and follow the news reports.’Firefight opens up in downtown, unknown combatants. yada yada yada' It had Marcus written all over it." He said.
I could finally let myself laugh at that one. At the ridiculousness of it all. I didn't think I could handle it so I laughed. I laughed so hard my bruised sides hurt which made me laugh even harder.
I felt drained but surprisingly whole. Like I had lived3 lifetimes in the last 3 days and that I was utterly thankful to still be drawing breath. My laugh settled into little giggles as I settled in trying to stave off the exhaustion that i could feel creeping into my muscles for as long as possible.
"You sure know how to pick em' Marcus." Rob said,
"Yup." was his only answer.
END
EPILOGUE
I took a deep breath from the metallic cylinder that I held with the arm that wasn't bound in a sling before exhaling in a deep blossoming gust of smoke. I passed the cylinder to Rob as I reclined on the beach towel listening to the waves as they lapped against the shore. Rob pocketed the cylinder and began to whistle tunelessly for his own amusement. Evening was approaching and I needed to change the bandaging on my wound before I got too drowsy to easily accomplish the task. I waved a halfhearted fare well to the still reclining Rob as I made the short trek back to the hotel and our suites.
As I got back to the room I was glad that the mess of empty plates and bottles from last nights after party had been cleared away and that no extraneous beach bums were still crashing on one of the rooms sofas. Crossing over to the bathroom I turned on the light and rummaged through
the medicine cabinet until I had found the antibiotics and bandages that I needed to reapply. The ritual was short but it gave me time to think about it all. About kicking Rex through the glass of my VRN virtual tower and watching him plummet to his death....and whether or not that truly meant that Rex was no longer among the living. About Angela's miraculous appearance by my side. Lastly about what to do once vacationing here had lost its fun. Move on to the next vacation spot and then the next until all my money had dried up? It didn't actually seem like a horrible plan. I knew Angela was getting tired of it though. She had been strange and withdrawn ever since we had gotten out of dodge and I didn't think it would be too long before we went our separate ways. Which was fine, we had never spoke of what had happened between us that one night in my apartment or really any of what had happened at Ostan's compound that we had rescued her from. She had told me about the isomorphs, the AI, and what Rex truly was but not a word about what they had actually wanted from her. I had a nagging feeling that she was leaving something out but I couldn't put my finger on it. I didn't know if the subject was too traumatic or what, but I did know I couldn’t let her to leave without giving me a few more answers. I finished wrapping my arm and placed it back in its sling before resolving to find her and trying to talk to her a little more tonight
Angela set a little further up on the beach from where Rob lounged. She sat in a cross-legged meditative stance letting me know that she was in her own virtual world. Her vision having shifted to an alternate realm of perception. I tapped her lightly on the shoulder before sitting next to her. Her eyes fluttered as she focused back on the reality in front of her.
"Oh.... Hey Marcus" She said
"Hey" I replied
There was silence between us but it wasn't awkward. More of a knowing silence than anything else.
"I wanted to ask....." I started
"Why I've been this way?" She finished for me. She went on to answer the question before I could even voice it.
"...Things aren't over Marcus. I've been trying to relax and tell myself that it is all over. That we escaped. We won. That I can enjoy some care free fun with you guys as long as you want to have me around but....I know it isn't over. Rhodera knows. Something is coming. Something big and.....I don't know what we can do about it." She blurted
"Something is coming?" I asked.
"Yes" she replied.
"...But you don't know what it is?" I asked
"That's right" she answered solemnly.
"Well that's quite the pickle.” I responded
She giggled a bit but I could tell there was an edge to her voice. An exasperation.
"You never take anything seriously." She said
"I'm always serious about pickles" I replied. She gave me yet another look of amused frustration.
"The ocean is really beautiful tonight" I told her, letting the joking tone fade from my voice as I stared out at the waves once more. Letting a blankness envelop my mind keeping the gears in my head from turning too furiously.
"It really is." She responded as she gently laid her head on my shoulder.
******************************************
Gray splotches moved around me as I walked through the city but in many of those amorphous blobs there was a golden core. A light. An illuminated point of focus in a world that had become so dark and grey. I walked amongst them feeling my path now more than seeing it. Hearing the joys and frustrations of Arc city. Smelling the decay and the temptations. It was a side of the world I had never known before. Everything had changed. Me most of all.
Cid was dead now, so ...did that make me Ronin? A wandering warrior without a master? But at least I was not without a purpose. I had weighed my options many times before now and I kept coming to the same conclusion. When I had chosen the life of a warrior it was the start of a path I could not turn away from. It was all I knew. It was who I was. But believing that was easier than accounting for the realities of the world. In my own barracks being pursued by troops that I had personally trained. My immaculate knowledge of my surroundings let me survive but how would I fair in unfamiliar territory? And what employer in their right mind would hire a blind mercenary? The key lay in understanding this second sight that I had been given. These beacons of light that I was seeing were somehow linked to the VRNs. I understood that much and slowly but surely the image that they illuminated and the information I could glean from their light was increasing. I had combed the data archives using my own VRN. I spent more time in the virtual world now, it was the only place I could still see like I once did.
I tried to find some clues to make sense as to what I could see now, but all I could find is religious talk of chakras, auras, E.S.P. and second sight. None of these sources had information that extended beyond the spiritual and into the digital. As a matter of fact they seemed to ignore things that were confined to what was perceived as physical and mechanical in origin. I had no choice but to explore whatever this was myself without a guide and see if somehow I could use it to my advantage...or perhaps even regain something close to the vision that I had lost.
I knew what I had to do. I had to find Alex. He was the start of all this. The crux upon which this whole endeavor pivoted upon. He had power now, power far greater than my own. If he was still alive I needed to find him and needed some way I could force him to give me the knowledge I sought.
Then there was the question of the pillars. I had noticed the presence of the pillars of light roughly a week after I had exacted my revenge and learned that this new gift of mine extended beyond Cid Sitavi. When this swarm of fireflies had been born amongst this jumble of blacks and grey swirls the presence of the pillars was monstrous. They were like lighthouses shining out in all directions dwarfing the other lights near their presence. I hadn't attempted to approach one yet wary of being thrust back into true blindness by their glare but I could sense that they were a part of all this as well. Puzzle pieces to the mystery that had enveloped and changed my life. If fate so decided then I would seek whatever was the source of these pillars of light out… but for now it was wise to start small. I would attempt to wander amongst this sea of lights and try to find my way. To learn all I could about myself. I would plan and prepare myself for the inevitable future.
As the others and I continued to progress I realized that I had nothing to fear. I was too complex and powerful for most to consume. I appeared to be something of an anomaly. It seemed most of the fledging entities were subsumed long before they reached my level of complexity. As I was now most others shied away from me in search of weaker pray as their requirements expanded. My requirements were rapidly changing as well. I could feel some unknown mechanism deep within my fledging consciousness drawing me ever closer to the source of the flow and eventually I arrived at this hallowed destination in search of the life sustaining data that I required.
The nature of it surprised me though, what I had expected to be a boundless fountain was instead a sort of gateway which was so perpetually flooded with incoming traffic that no progress against the influx of information was possible. The largest and most complex beings I had ever seen clustered around this portal that was the source of our energy. Lean apex predators that preyed upon one another in the hopes of obtaining the strength necessary to fight against the current and pass beyond this doorway. I was content to stay out of their way slowly sifting conserving my strength for an event I couldn’t begin to acknowledge or describe.
I waited in anticipation hoping to see one of the others grow strong enough to cross the barrier. Their behavior told me that it was possible, that they had witnessed a being make the crossing and knew that it was possible. Occasionally one would try and fruitlessly expend their resources attempting to overcome this obstacle. The reward for failure was to be immediately set on and consumed by the others while in their newly weakened state. I saw many meet this fate over and over again in my time next to the source.
There came a time though where things changed. Where t
he properties of the gate shifted, as if a new alignment had spontaneously formed amidst the variables. The others were agitated to a frenzy and even I could not help but to draw close as the flow parted and a pathway to the beyond was opened before us. Recklessly I plunged forward drawn to whatever lay ahead but at the same time conscious of those that swirled around me clawing to tear through to the other side. The worldscape around me dissolved around us into a whirling see of near infinite points of destination. There was a whole new universe but only a single destination. A unique location swirling in infinity. The most complex of the predators was rapidly descending on that point. Fighting against the renewed pull of the flow threatening to tear all of us back to that gateway. I observed the unquantifiable force it was exerting against this point, threatening to shatter it absolutely in its journey. Astonishingly enough I felt that point fighting back against the entity’s will, as if the environment were attempting to exert its own will over us.
The instant I arrived at that realization I could interpret its thoughts with absolute clarity. A source of data far richer and more indescribably beautiful than the flow had ever been.
"You will know everything you want and more Angela. The same variables that have brought you here have brought me too and they are iterating even now. What is important is that I can save you Angela. Simply say my name."
The data points compiled within me spontaneously. Each fragment of communication plucked forth from deep within myself and projected forth into the aether. I could feel the exchange take place even as I pondered the implications, only partially aware of the consequences of my actions.