Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapters
Prologue
First Class
Powers
Withered
Invasion
Ruins
Perseverance
Stasis
Trial by Fire
The Pilot's Gauntlet
Into the Abyss
Unearthed
Paradise Lost
Rabbit
Shadows
Daemon
Fusion
Codex
Vengeance
Angels Fall First
Descent
Dreaming
Awake
About the Author
SLEEPERS
STEPHEN LANDRY
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Copyright © 2016 by Stephen William Landry
[email protected]
Cover Illustration by Rizky Nugraha
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database, retrieval system, or torrent web service, without the prior written permission of the author.
FOR TORI.
Chapters
1. Prologue
2. First Class
3. Powers
4. Withered
5. Invasion
6. Ruins
7. Perseverance
8. Stasis
9. Trial by Fire
10. The Pilot’s Gauntlet
11. Into the Abyss
12. Unearthed
13. Paradise Lost
14. Rabbit
15. Shadows
16. Daemon
17. Fusion
18. Codex
19. Vengeance
20. Angels Fall First
21. Descent
22. Dreaming
23. Awake
/ About the Author
Prologue
The fire from my match flickered in the middle of the night as you woke up next to me screaming. It felt almost as if time itself had slowed to a halt. Already we had been married for a week and it seemed nothing could stop us. Your eyes had turned a pasty white that night as your small petite and fragile limbs cracked as you stood waist up in our bed. Your jaw stood crooked as you slowly tilted your head studying the room around you. The room was yours just as it had always been. Zombie and fantasy posters hung on the wall lit by a black light you kept running 24/7. Your brother and I tried our best to keep it the same for you, before you fell away from us into the dreaming.
Two thirds of the Earths population went to sleep that night but not before delivering a message. Some told it in tongues while others spoke in dead languages no one could understand. You were one of the few that said it clear as day. I will never forget it, your voice as it cracked and groaned as your eyes met mine and I tried my best to wake you hoping you were only experiencing a night terror or that this whole thing has been a part of some bad dream. I failed and all I could do was listen as you repeated again and again, "we are coming".
Five years have passed since the day of your possession and now you lay still less in a coma aboard the Earth's first starship. You rest quietly in stasis as your brother not much older then I along with a thousand more survivors begin our deceleration toward what we have christened the Lamia, a daemon warship. Five years we have prepared for this day. This, our final stand against the daemons since they announced their arrival.
Five years ago everything changed when you entered the dreaming but that wasn't all. I can still remember the fire burning around the edge of the match as if the world was moving in slow motion. Time itself slowed to a halt around me but I felt my heart beat faster and stronger then ever. I thought maybe it was adrenaline or worry. All I wanted in that moment was to protect you. Before your mouth stopped moving I felt a power awaken inside me and I knew you weren't the only one that had changed that night.
------
Days after you slept the world went crazy. Riots broke out across the world. Everyone was trying to interpret the message. Some said it was the beginning of the end. Priests took to the streets and all over the world a fire of prayer ignited. The National Guard took to the streets and martial law was declared. Then NASA and several space agencies came on air and announced something that no one had seen coming. They had been tracking an unnatural object at the edge of our solar system. Days before the possession they had detected a signal from it. The signal similar to radio waves spread across the Earth. Everyone at some point had contact with it. We had all been exposed to something alien, something sinister. Many that fell died in their sleep. Committees were formed with volunteers searching for and rescuing the bodies of the dreaming.
In the first year scientists formed a new agency called Khione. They dedicated their time to preserving the bodies of the dreaming, many of whom were starving as the last of us did everything we could to take care of them. Khione developed the stasis chambers that froze the dreaming while NASA and other space agencies began working with military around the world to build a ship that could intercept the alien object hoping to find a cure. By the second year it worked. Built on the backbone of the "EmDrive", a project NASA had been secretly working on for years. All the pieces were falling into place and the first drones were sent into space.
They had four directives.
1. Hold still. - No sudden movements. Two things will happen they will welcome us and want to learn from us or they will see us as a threat and attack us. Whatever the hell is onboard is far more advanced then anything we can imagine.
2. Find a medium to communicate through – They will not speak our language though they may be able to read our thoughts. Each drone we have programmed to try multiple different ways of communication from mathematics and music to art and binary.
3. Be humble - Do not let your own feelings or beliefs cloud you.
4. Do not act hostile - Any act of hostility could be interpreted as declaring war. For all we know they are the same as us or perhaps they are just a group of refugees who have lost their planet. At the same time they could be explorers or it could even be some kind of prison ship. Nothing is off the table. Have an open mind but do not engage unless absolutely necessary.
This is it. A moment in history that will be remembered forever in time. Not long after intercepting the object which was slowly moving closer and closer to Earth drifting through the darkness of space like a derelict freighter our ship let loose a thousand drones each about the size of a man.
In that one night the drones were destroyed.
Black figures with white porcelain teeth that glowed fluorescent in the dark tore through the metal drones. The figures looked like daemons. Many of them resembled Baphomet however rather then a goat like head it was something more deformed. They were bipedal with wings and tails. Their bodies were strong enough to withstand the cold vacuum of space and they moved like feral animals using a magnetic field that surrounded their starship to move like sharks through water.
What the world saw that day changed everything.
The monsters of hell were real. Scientists theorized that many of the possessions throughout human history could have been caused by the same signal that hit the Earth. The daemons have been slowly embedding themselves as something for us to fear for thousands of years. Further study showed that the derelict vessel they were using to drift towards us was damaged. The daemons had been at war with someone else and they were running. We had no idea what they were coming to us for, we weren't even sure at first if they were truly hostile. Then the second message arrived. A small portion of the dreaming that wasn't in stasis woke up. Their minds were gone, they were infected. We called them the withered. They attacked with rage and hate and by the time we managed to take back control the daemons had sent us another message, one that said we were to bow to our new kings. Never in my whole life had I been more glad that you lay frozen, asleep. I prayed that you were dreaming of something better. A better world one with you and I, your family, our friends. A world that was at peace.
Your brother and I joined the infantry. A new division of the military was created to deal with the daemons. They called themselves the U.E.D. Aka United Earth Defense. Funded by Khione and various governments. The U.E.D. Enlisted civilians like myself and your brother Michael who were ‘chosen’. We did it so that we could protect you. It had been three years since the day you went to the dreaming. Vee, how I miss you everyday. How many hours of the day have I sat by your side waiting for you to wake up. Hoping that you could hear me. Wondering what it was you were dreaming.
Three years was how long it took for our gifts to appear. Some said if there were daemons then there must be Angels. They called us the chosen. Those that had contact with the dreaming moments after their possession had contracted side effects that made us more efficient. For some it was better eyesight, hearing, strength. Others it was like we had been given superpowers. When my adrenaline started pumping time seemed to slow to a halt. My mind moved faster then those around me. I could practically dodge a bullet when my heart raced fast enough. That same year a part of the daemon ship broke apart and accelerated towards the Earth impacting near Paris, France. Smaller ships impacted near Chicago, Mexico City, Brazil, and Okinawa, Japan. The daemons descended upon all of Europe and we had finally gone to war. You, your brother and I barely made it out of Chicago. We made a deal with our commanding officers that to protect you we would join the crew of the U.E.D. Perseverance, a starship equipped with an EmDrive built by a joint coalition between the U.S. and Chinese government.
Last year we left Earth and we have been preparing for this moment ever since. A thousand chosen against a horde of daemons. It seems the war between heaven and hell, the end of the world, that silly idea we always joked and wrote stories about has finally come true.
- - Jake.
First Class
I am twenty seven years old and dreaming of a forest…
We’re camping in the woods. Myself, you, your brother, a few of our friends. We are sitting around the campfire laughing, roasting marshmallows. Michael, your brother is strumming his guitar. A vintage Ibanez Artcore AF53. He’s playing random melodies. No real song. I’m not sure he even knows any real songs. It’s more therapy then anything else. He just strums whatever comes to mind. Moving his hands over the frets like he’s been doing this all his life. He only started to learn guitar a few years ago. You look me in the eyes and smile. Vee, your blue eyes, your black short hair. I memorize your figure. Just a few inches shorter then I am. I memorize your tattoos. You are only a few years younger then I am but you are far more mature then even most people my age. Just recently you had began an apprenticeship with a sculptor. You were going to change the world. I wake up to the smell of smoke.
The fire alarm sounds. A piercing screech takes hold of me and I rise instantly out of bed grabbing my pants and jacket. I place my hands over my ears and look through the dark. I can see the little red light of the fire alarm blinking on the other side of the room. I think about calling out to make sure that anyone else in my barracks that might be asleep rises buy fortunately I am already the last to wake. Michael and Todd have already made their way outside when I push my way through the door in a flurry of motion that makes me feel sick to my stomach. The entire barracks are on fire. I fall to the ground as a small explosion on the second floor sprays glass and wall across the concrete field I have found myself laying on. I try to imagine I’m in your arms. I try to remember my dream. To hold onto it as long as possible before the nightmare that is my reality takes me.
In the freezing air I look up and see a thin white trail of smoke reaching up to the sky above me. It’s half past midnight.
“Emily had another nightmare,” Michael says picking me up off the cold ground. Snow begins to fall around us. Sometimes I forget we have been training in Alaska. Its a different kind of cold. How I miss the comfortable cold weather of home. Chicago. One of the first cities taken by the daemons.
It takes only a few minutes for the emergency rescue services and fire department to appear. They begin to smother the fire. An officer named Ed quickly makes his way inside wearing as much flame resistant gear as he can. Moments later he carries out a young girl. Emily. The fire starter. I want to start crying. A part of me wonders if she is dead but this isn’t the first time this has happened.
“This is the third time now,” says Todd, a young man about my age with thick black hair and glasses. He was one of the few among us I had become friends.
“Least she didn’t go supernova,” said another.
“That hasn’t happened since before training began. She’s learned how to use her powers quite a bit since then,” said Todd.
I stood there in silence watching our barracks burn.
“Is everyone out?” I heard one of the older officers yell. We weren’t military, well not quite. We were members of the U.E.D. United Earth Defense. Each of us gifted with unique powers since the event took place and everyone fell asleep. We were being trained at a base in North Alaska to utilize our powers for combat purposes in preparation for war against the daemons. Many of us had already seen combat in Europe and parts of the North America. Michael and myself had barely made it out of Chicago with you. Vee, my fiancee, actually my wife. We married a week before the event. Michael’s sister. We carried you out of the city hours before the military dropped a nuke on top of it. Chicago became an irradiated wasteland. The first city to fall to the daemons. At this point that was only a few months ago. We found refuge in Michigan. It was there that our powers began to manifest (more on that later).
“Everyone is out, put the fire out,” said the U.E.D. Commanding officer on site. The U.E.D. Officer was Ed. He layed Emily’s body down on the ground. Her body was still smoldering, her skin covered in blisters under her charred clothes as if she herself had second and third degree burns covering her from head to toe. Slowly her skin began to heal as she opened her eyes. Tears began to fell as she threw her arms around Ed and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Bran, another soldier about my age who came into train with both Michael and I around the same time looked at the burning building. He whispers a word, some kind of prayer. I watch in silence as he inhales a deep breathe of air. His mouth seems to open an enormous length as he sucks in the air around him. Just as quickly as he inhales he exhales and a wave of wind moves across the barracks putting the fire out in an instant. The wind hits the barrack so hard it cracks the concrete. Not a trace of the fire remains.
&
nbsp; “Emily, are you ok?” I ask as we all move towards her. Ed is still holding her tight hugging her as she sobs away in his arms. Ed is more or less our teacher. He has no powers of his own. He volunteered to take responsibility for us. In some ways we are all orphans. Most of our loved ones are in the dreaming. He was a decorated naval officer. From what I heard he commanded an entire ship and fought in three wars overseas before the day of the dreaming. The event it seemed affected certain areas of the world far worst then others. Much of Eurasia and the Middle East was devastated as millions fell into the dreaming never to wake up. The United States military used it to hit as many primary targets as possible. Dictators fell asleep and never woke up as did many politicians. Practically anyone with too many enemies was as good as dead. Our own vice president was even caught inside the dreaming. Power plants shut down and oil pipelines exploded as operators fell asleep at their desks. Radiation leaked and fires burned across the Middle East as well as many parts of China, Japan, and the United States. The day of the dreaming the National Guard took to the streets and secured as much of the country as possible. We went days without power, without electricity, without any idea of what was going on. I can still remember holding you in my arms just as Ed held Emily now. Begging God to tell me everything was going to be fine. Praying that she would wake up. That she would smile. That her hand would move.
“I did it again, I’m so sorry,” Emily cried.
“It’s not your fault honey, don’t cry. We got everyone out in time. There is nothing to worry about. We all knew this could happen anytime. You must not feel bad,” Ed said comforting her.
Slowly all of us took a knee beside her holding out our hands and placing them near her. I stop breathing and I feel my heart bumping in my chest. Bump, Bump, Bump, I open my eyes and look at Emily. I reach out to touch her. My adrenaline is kicking in. Time moves slower.
Sleepers (Convergence Book 1) Page 1