The End of Magic (Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy)

by GM Gambrell

  Thirty Five

  Jim decided the best approach was the direct one, so Simon set the Betty down as gently as possible near the entranceway they’d used to escape the Pit onto the street. The Magistrates were herding citizens to another location to integrate their energy into the Source, so the street was relatively empty. There were plenty of bodies, though, and as Duncan stepped out of the aircraft, he stared at the body of the Golem.

  “That’s him,” he told Jim. “That’s the man from Center.”

  Jim nodded and draped a sheet over the man. “I wish we could bury him now. His world has changed so much more than ours. We can, however, make sure his death was not in vain.”

  Duncan nodded and led them to the entrance of the Pit. Their group consisted of the pilots and gunners from the Betty, all armed with ancient assault rifles, and Jim, Duncan, Jessica and Simon. The Magician was exhausted from his ordeal of keeping the Betty aloft and fighting off the Magician fighters, but he was able to walk on his own, though he had returned to babbling nonsense. As they rounded the corner to where the entrance was, Duncan came to a sliding stop, trying to back up.

  “Oh no!” Jessica screamed behind him.

  There, in front of the entrance, were the twelve Warbots from Center, Texas. Their once shiny armor was dented and covered with scorch marks, but their eye lights glowed brightly and Duncan knew they were still in fighting shape. He pulled out the small shotgun he’d equipped himself with in the Betty and racked the slide, driving a new shell into the chamber.

  “No Duncan!” Jim screamed, jumping in front of him and pushing the shotgun down. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Hello, Duncan. It is a pleasure to see you again.”

  And then he heard Sir Dog bark.

  The digital voice was different, but he knew NAME when he heard him. “I don’t understand.”

  NAME, in the body of one of the Warbots, stepped forward. “My operating system has been transferred to a MARK4 Combat System. I am much more mobile now.”

  “But how? Their last orders were to protect Center and they’ve been doing that for a thousand years. They nearly killed Jessica and me.”

  Jessica already had Sir Dog in her arms, and the dog was merrily lapping at her face.

  “They were created to serve under my command. Therefore, my orders overrode their last orders. We are at your disposal.”

  Duncan suddenly got it. Just before the Last War, NAME had been built and put in charge of North America’s defenses, one of the grandest computers ever designed. The Warbots would obviously have been placed under his control.

  “It’s good to see you.”

  “And you, Duncan Cade. We feared for your life.”

  “We?”

  “Sir Dog is quite intelligent once you get past the constant licking.”

  “Okay…” Duncan said, wondering if he meant Sir Dog was like the dogs back in New Dallas.

  “We can catch up later,” Jim said. “Right now, we have a mission.”

  The Warbots came to attention and NAME said, “We are at your service.”

  Gunfire erupted from down the street as Magistrates rounded the corner, guns blazing and weakened fireballs forming in their free hands. Their magic was getting visibly weaker as the crews on the mainland wrecked the piping transporting the life force. Duncan was even hit with one of the half fireballs and quickly brushed the ash off. The Warbots, as slow as ever, returned fire, pinning down the Magistrates.

  “We have to get moving,” Jim ordered.

  Duncan pointed to the door and said, “This way.”

  The pit was utterly wrecked; the machinery and conveyor buckets were overturned, and the flow of green sludge from the pipes in the ceiling had stopped. The city was overheating above them, but the heat from the Source had died down considerably. The trough of green sludge from the city above was gone, and Duncan assumed it had run down into the tunnels leading to the Source. There were bodies there, as well, and he tried not to look at the remains of the people caught in the toxic sludge. Most were gleaming skeletons, the flesh burned off their bones, but others had been caught halfway into the flow. Their faces were locked in the agonizing positions they’d died in. They left two Warbots on the street to defend the entrance and the rest of the haphazard crew began making their way towards the tunnel.

  “I see you, Duncan Cade.” The voice drifted from further in the Pit, near where the entrance to the tunnels was. “I see you, Diamond Jim. I know why you’re here.”

  “Who goes there?” Jim asked but Duncan knew right off who it was.

  “Jeremiah Fredrick,” he said flatly.

  “That’s not possible, son,” Jim said. “That would make him over a thousand years old.”

  “Imposter!” Simon said, stepping forward, his exhaustion seemingly replaced by abject rage.

  Fredrick laughed. “I was wondering what had happened to you after the, shall we say, incident. I had hoped you might have been consumed when the sludge rushed through the dungeon, as so many were, but alas, I am disappointed. I probably should have killed you a thousand years ago.”

  “You would have been killing yourself.”

  “And yet the image of Jeremiah Fredrick has been so useful, both during the Last War and the thousand years after. Yes, I could have taken a new avatar, but the Magicians so love you. Did you know that right now, in an effort to please you, they are sacrificing their own to keep me going? To keep the magic flowing? They did it before, in the original Atlantis, though it was to a different man. Why you humans place all your faith in one man, usually a deception, is beyond me, but it has always benefited me. Your kind is so stupid, after all.”

  “I remember my name,” Simon said simply.

  “You’re the real Jeremiah Fredrick, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” he said softly.

  “No, I am the real Jeremiah Fredrick,” the other insisted. “He is but a shell, a birthplace, nothing more. I took his image and made it great. I took a no one and made him a god. I am the real Jeremiah Fredrick. No matter what he says, I am the only important one.”

  “May I still be called Simon?” the real Jeremiah whispered. “I have no desire to take on my former name, a name he has made equivalent to dirt.”

  “I’ll always call you Simon, if that’s what you want,” Duncan whispered back, amazed to be standing next to an actual thousand-year-old man. They were springing up all over the place.

  “How quaint,” the fake Fredrick spoke. “The new boy and the ancient man, together at last. And you, young man, I know you. You are the destroyer of worlds, the eater of societies. You proclaim to be saving your people, but you are destroying mine. How are you any better than me, Duncan Cade?”

  Duncan looked at Jim quizzically for a second, then turned back to the Source’s avatar. “You’ve murdered billions. You’ve killed an entire world.”

  “And you’re killing thousands by killing the magic. Are there so many differences in the numbers?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Duncan,” Jim ordered, training his rifle on the apparition. “He’s trying to obscure the situation. He’s trying to deter us from our mission. He knows it’s almost over for him.”

  The Source laughed aloud. “Is that the case, Diamond Jim?”

  Duncan didn’t know. The Source was right, to a certain extent. What they were doing would destroy the Magician way of life. Their cities would come crashing to the ground and the citizens who survived would starve to death simply because conjuring food was all they knew. There would be untold destruction and suffering.

  “He sees it, Jim. He sees what I’m talking about. Lead these people away, Duncan. Lead them and I will let them live. I will leave your people in peace. You may return underground and live out your existence in peace and serenity.”

  “It lies,” Simon said. “It always lies. He lied to me that first night in the desert when he reached into my head and pulled out my fantasy, my hopes and dreams. That’s how it works. It
preys on our hopes and dreams and turns them against us, making us happy while it feeds on our souls. It would no sooner let humankind live than it would stop breathing. It can’t do it. It has to feed.”

  The avatar of Jeremiah Fredrick grew, its body enlarging until it was ten feet tall with rippling muscles. The thing’s red hair turned to flame, its eyes a blazing blue. Its skin rippled orange and eyeballs began appearing, bulging out from underneath its skin. Flames leapt from its fingertips, and it showed a wide, evil grin.

  “What are you?” Duncan screamed. “Where are you from?”

  “What does it matter, foolish boy? I come from the stars, I am the eater of world, the destroyer of souls. I will destroy you.”

  Lightning streaked out from the beast’s hands and toward Duncan. Simon stepped forward and his body absorbed the energy. His entire body glowed blue for a brief second. One of the Warbots leapt up into the air, striking down with missiles. The beast grabbed it without touching it and flung it to one of the walls, where it exploded. Another dropped to one knee, the machine gun in its arm, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off the beast and it laughed aloud.

  “Your ancestor’s weapons are pointless,” it said, grabbing the Warbot with magical force and crushing it like a tin can. Another Warbot ran right toward it, guns and rockets blazing. The impacts had no effect on it, however, and it dematerialized, allowing the Warbot to run right through it. The machine couldn’t stop and ran into the wall.

  “This is what you bring to defeat me? Your ancestors brought an armada from every corner of the world, and you bring children’s toys?” the beast roared and the cavern walls reverberated.

  “Hardly children’s toys,” NAME said, stepping forward and raising his arm. The weapon he fired was different from the others, a bright green beam that looked similar to lightning. The light punched through the beasts arm and burned a hole through it. It screamed and the entire Pit shuddered.

  “This is not the Source. This is an avatar made in my image. It does not have the power to destroy us.”

  “You had everything, Jeremiah Fredrick,” the beast screamed at Simon. “You had the entire world at your feet. I made you a god.”

  “You killed everyone,” Simon said sadly. “You killed everyone…in my name…”

  “I killed them and I will kill you, and when there is nothing left to feed me on this world, I will go to your colony on Mars. They have grown and covered the entire planet now…I can feel it with every breath I take. I will devour their world as I have yours, and then I will move on into the stars. I won’t leave a seed here, this time, to evolve into the feasting ground again. No, I will make sure every last human being is gone. You are no more. Finished.”

  “We will stop you,” Simon told the beast.

  Flame leapt from the avatar’s fingers toward Simon, and Simon, quietly, held up his own hand and stopped it. The beast flung fire with his other hand and Simon stopped it as well with his other hand. The two struggled back and forth a few moments as Duncan, along with Jessica, Jim and the crew of the Betty, watched in fascination.

  “I cannot hold it long,” Simon told them. “And it’s already summoning help. Go now and destroy its body once and for all. End this madness.”

  “We will assist,” NAME said, launching the remaining Warbots at the great beast. The battle raged as robots were flung away among lightning bolts and fireballs.

  Jim and the crew of the Betty rushed by, unnoticed by the beast in its battle, but Duncan paused at Simon’s side. “I won’t forget you and I’ll set the record straight after all this.”

  “Thank you. Now go and finish this.”