Frostarc

by Arthur McMahon

  “So I yelled at them. I hollered at them to go back and die if that's what they wanted. No one moved so I started shootin' at them and then they started to run. I grabbed my bag and crossed the glacier all on my lonesome.

  “Now I'm here and so are y'all. We survived because we're the strong ones.”

  “You bastard!” Tears leaked from Luciele's grizzly eyes. She had not been friendly with many of those people, but she knew them all. At first she may have disliked both Daryll and Tim, but in the end she had thought they were good men who were going to lead the others to safety, despite their character flaws. Caleb ran to his bed and started bawling. Luciele took a step forward, meaning to go out the door, but Tim did not move out of her way. “I'm going to report you to the security guards!”

  “Report me?” said Tim, chuckling to himself. “I did what I had to in order to survive, little missy. And b'sides, what evidence do ya have about a gunfight that happened next to a glacier on the other side of the sea? They won't arrest me just because of hearsay.”

  He was right, and Luciele hated him for it. She stepped back into her room. “You stay the hell away from me and my son.”

  “That'll be kinda hard seein' as we're neighbors and all, but I'll try my best. Don't want to get too close to your sickly boy anyhow. Good thing we're allowed to carry our weapons during this crisis in order to protect ourselves. I might be needin' mine for self-defense if the kid starts acting weird.”

  “Don't ever come to our room again!” She slammed the door in his face.

  “Don't forget to tell the guards about his past!” yelled Tim through the thin metal door. “Y'all have a good day now!”

  Luciele walked over to the bed to cry with her son. Caleb sat up and tried to dry his eyes.

  “We could have saved them if we stayed with them, mom. We could have saved Samuel and the others.”

  Luciele did not know how to respond. She and Kozz had tried to explain to Caleb that saving everyone was impossible, but he always refused to believe it. They left the others in order to save themselves. She could not bring herself to say anything uplifting to her son. “Yes, we could have.”

  Together they let their tears fall for the fallen they had left behind. Screams broke out in the hall, shouts of a person turned infected attacking the masses. “Papa!” cried a young boy. The man had fallen to the infection, but swift action from the security guards quieted the situation. The man fell to the ground with a tranquilizer in his back.

  The event in the hallway only made their sadness worse. Caleb's tears for Samuel and the others had become tears for his father, Harold. Luciele's thoughts coincided with her son's, and they comforted each other as they let their sorrows and fears pour out in the privacy of their room.

  They were on a journey to a world which they barely knew and they had no idea where they were going to go once they got there. Harold, father and husband, had fallen. Their friends had left them. They were all alone, but at least they had each other.

  The nourishment level was a mess of people gallivanting about the food courts, dining halls, and bars. Kozz could have easily been lost in the crowd, guards and personnel unable to pinpoint him in the masses, but it was too soon. He wanted to wait until night when there would be fewer people walking about, when Marissa would be in bed.

  He grabbed a bite to eat, some sort of meat in tube form— lord knows what it really was. Kozz sat down at a table with his snack. Marissa found him. She brought over a plate of greens.

  “May I join you for dinner?” she asked.

  “Sure, toots.”

  “So, Mr. Kozz,” she propped her elbows on the table and intertwined her fingers, resting her chin on her conjoined fists, “tell me, who are you? Where are you going?”

  “Does your captain say I'm required to answer these questions?”

  “No. I just wanted to chit chat. I'm curious as to who you are.”

  “Well, who I am is a secret. You should understand from my clearance level that not many people know who I am.”

  “Indeed. But your secrecy intrigues me, and I am not easily intrigued.”

  “I'm just a guy on my way to Erde, just like everyone else on this ship, as far as you're to be concerned. There are people I need to see.”

  “What kind of people, Mr. Kozz?”

  “We've all suffered one way or another during these trying times, haven't we, Marissa? We all need to see our families, need to make sure they're alright. I've been away from my family for awhile. It's time I paid a visit. I just used my old clearance card to get me on the ship that was leaving the soonest.”

  “You used your clearance and your friend the military commander. You have connections that the average man does not acquire.”

  “I've lived a long time and made a few friends along the way.” Kozz was uncomfortable with all of the questions, and he finished his meal. It was time to leave. “If you'll excuse me, doll. My belly's full and I'm all worn out. It's time to hit the sack.”

  “Yes, I should sleep soon as well. I have early hours on the ship.” She picked up her fork as she prepared to eat. “I'll be seeing you soon, Mr. Kozz.” Marissa sat in her chair and watched Kozz walk away. She eyed the gleaming scarlet weapon at his side. Her fork punctured several leafy greens and she took a bite. She chewed her food without interest, her eyes intent on Red. She had seen that gun before.

  Kozz went back to his room, closed the door, and waited for the hours to pass. His plan was to go for the database in the middle of the night. He heard the other residents of his level talk the evening away with each other, several spending time in the lounge until the late hours. The voices dwindled away, one by one, until there was not one left. Doors closed and latches locked. The only sound in the hall after that was the soft steps of a patrolling guard.

  For several hours Kozz listened for any sound, only hearing the guard as he walked by. Kozz timed the man. His patrol brought him past Kozz's door every half hour, to the minute.

  Kozz knew he needed a security card to reach the loading levels, and he had to avoid detection at all costs. He let the guard walk by one last time before Kozz opened his door and hid himself in the corner next to the doorway, concealed from anyone who would glance inside from the hall.

  Pressed against the wall, Kozz waited for the guard to patrol by at the half-hour mark again. He heard the soft steps approach and stop outside his doorway. The guard looked inside and saw that Kozz's room appeared empty. He walked in to search for Kozz, and he found him.

  Kozz leaped from his position. He clasped a hand to the man's mouth and brought him down to the ground. The guard reached for his weapon, but Kozz punched the man's hand into the floor and shattered the bone inside. The guard tried to scream, but Kozz used his punching hand to chop at the man's throat, temporarily cutting off his air supply.

  The guard gasped on the floor. Kozz was going to knock the man out with a swift blow, but he realized that the guard's weapon was loaded with tranquilizer darts. Kozz grabbed the dart gun and shot the man in the leg. A moment later he was asleep.

  Kozz closed the door and lifted the man on to the bed. A quick search of his body led to a security card. Kozz took the card and the dart gun, knowing that it might do better in a stealth situation than Red would.

  Kozz crept down the hallways and corridors, avoiding the other patrolling guards with ease. There were not many, after all. Half of the lights in the halls remained on, but it was still too bright for him to be completely hidden. If he were seen the guards would have no trouble recognizing him. He would have to be cautious. Cameras monitored the passageways, but they were placed more for general observation and had many blind spots for Kozz to sneak through.

  Getting to the elevator was simple, but using it would create a distinguishable noise through all the levels. Kozz hoped that use of the elevator was common enough at night to not attract attention. He entered the elevator car and selected the lowest floor, the uppermost loading level. A voice requested his s
ecurity card and he shoved it inside of a blinking slot. A machine inside the elevator scanned his card and granted him access. The car was lowered to the levels below.

  Anxiety gnawed at Kozz's nerves. He hoped that his elevator would not stop on the way down for another passenger requesting a ride. Luckily, it continued its descent without interruption.

  When he reached the loading level the elevator stopped and the doors opened. A guard stood just outside the elevator doors, but he did not turn right away to see who was exiting the elevator. Kozz reached for Red on impulse, then consciously forced his hand back to the dart gun. He fired a tranquilizer as the man turned and the dart hit the man underneath his chin. The guard’s eyes fluttered and he sank to the ground before he could signal an alarm.

  Kozz spotted another guard in the distance, but the loading level was enormous and the other guard had not seen what had taken place. The entirety of the room was filled with comatose patients held in medical care incubators. The distant guard walked slowly through the rows of sleeping patients.

  Kozz dropped low and dragged the downed guard behind one of the incubators. Inside was a young girl, not more than six years of age. Kozz watched her for a moment. She was breathing softly. A tube was inserted down her throat, and Kozz was able to see the nutrients that were being fed into her system. Several monitors were placed on her head and torso. The outside of the glass incubator held a series of digital numbers and he could see her heart rate, neurological signatures, and a bunch of other stats that don't matter, he thought. All that mattered to him at that moment was that she looked like a beautiful little girl, sleeping the night away and dreaming of whatever little girls usually dream about, but he knew inside was a terrible demon that was tormenting her. He had to find out what was going on. The little girl needed him.

  Kozz crept over to the loading freight elevator and near it was a small map showcasing the three freight loading levels. He was currently on the third level. The first level looked the same as the third, but the second level had a large section bordered off on the map that was labeled as a lab. That was his destination.

  Kozz pushed the button for the freight elevator and listened as the beast roared its engines and clanked its way up the shaft. He looked around to see if the distant guard was heading his way, but he seemed to pay no attention to the elevator and continued on his route through the incubators. Kozz would not have long before one of the guards he had taken down was discovered. He needed to move fast.

  Kozz entered the freight elevator. There was enough room to fit more than one hundred men of Kozz's size. He felt like the lone turd in an otherwise empty litter box. Someone had to have noticed him by now.

  The elevator dropped and the accordion-style door opened to another loading level which was just as big as the one he had left. Thousands of occupied incubators carpeted the floor, but at the dead center of the room was a lightly walled off lab which Kozz could see was filled with computer terminals and large machinery.

  Two guards standing at either side of the elevator saw Kozz as he exited the elevator. They raised their dart guns and commanded him to halt, but he smacked the man to his left in the face hard enough to drop him to the ground and then Kozz fired a dart into the forehead of the woman to his right. Before the guard he smacked could recover from the blow, Kozz fired a dart into the man's thigh.

  A guard amongst the row of incubators called for assistance on his communicator and fired his darts spasmodically. Metal tipped needles clinked on the metal wall behind Kozz. He reached inside the elevator and slammed the back of his fist into the controls, sending the freight car to the level below. They were on to him now, and the bulk of the guards would be coming from above. Their delay in getting the elevator would give him a few more seconds.

  Kozz ducked behind an incubator. The guard reloaded his weapon and continued to fire at the area where he thought Kozz was hiding. Kozz ran like an ape on his hands and feet from one incubator to the next, making his way towards the frazzled guard. Kozz sneaked up on the man from behind and shot a dart into the back of the man's calf. The guard dropped like a rock, Kozz catching him by the arms to soften his fall.

  The chaos of the moment had quieted. Kozz's heart pounded, and it ached only slightly. He had not taken his medication in the last few days. Something within him had grown stronger. He felt young again, like he did when he was an Enforcer, taking down evil crime lords and punishing those who threatened his Cooperation. He crept through row after row of unconscious infected. The room lights gave the rusted metal of the loading level a red glow, but the cool blue lights from within the incubators highlighted Kozz in purple as he dashed towards the lab area.

  Thin sheets of cork-board wall sectioned the lab off from the rest of the level, but it was not a completely walled off room. Two rows of computer terminals, ten or so in each, lined the north and west borders of the lab. The south end where Kozz had entered was full of file cabinets and tables with papers scattered all about. In the center of the lab were two large machines.

  In one machine a man stood with the assistance of a harness and was surrounded by four glass walls. He was completely naked other than the opaque black bowl which surrounded his head. His body moved in slow motion. The man was either awake or being controlled by his harness, but either way the movements seemed unnatural. Wires attached to the crest of the bowl spiraled up into the large machine which reminded Kozz of a giant microscope.

  In the other contraption an unconscious woman rested on top of a bed much like those in the incubators. Her body was covered with a heavy, black tarp while her head was surrounded by the bulk of the machine. Inside the hollow where her sleeping head rested two metal plates spun at varying speeds, slowing and quickening at seemingly random intervals.

  Both machines were faced towards a large computer terminal at the east end of the lab where a young woman had fallen asleep in her chair. Kozz saw that she was the only person within the lab at this late hour. She was leaned back in her chair, snoring the night away with a large pair of headphones wrapped around her head.

  Kozz hustled over to the woman and fired his last dart into her exposed neck. She jostled at the pressure of the needle penetrating her soft skin, but she never woke from her sleep. Kozz wheeled her out of his way and accessed her terminal. The six screens had all gone into rest mode, but fortunately she had not chosen to log off before taking her nap.

  Kozz slipped the headphones off of the woman's head and put them on his own. A jumble of noises entered his ears, making no sense to him at all. It sounded like decelerated static noise that jumped and dropped in pitch every second or two. He found a graph on one of the screens that coincided with the noises, recording them as they went along. Kozz took off the headphones. The noise was starting to hurt his head.

  On another screen Kozz found the woman's message system. He opened up the list of recent transmissions and scrolled through a few documents that were sent to colleagues. One of the files was a thorough description of a parasite, the same one as was discussed by Presider Conway in his interview. The bug looked like a microscopic tick. Discussed in the report was the parasite's “perfect cellular and DNA structures” which were both “unlike any seen in other living organisms”. The report also described an “antenna” that was placed on the bug's underside. It used the antenna to hold its location on its host, but it also acted as a receiver for an “extremely high-speed electromagnetic frequency”.

  The article continued to discuss the advanced tools the scientists had used to slow down the frequency, making it so that they could listen to its intricacies. “At first we thought it was an unintelligible mess,” said one of the researchers. “The waves are impossibly fast, many times faster than the speed of light. The waves seem to be propelled by some sort of unreadable energy, an empty force which surrounds them. After decelerating the waves in our recordings, and repeatedly listening to them, we discovered patterns within the frequencies. In fact, after breaking down the patterns into
smaller bits, the recordings were found to have sound structures that were unique to each pattern, but when layered together they created a sort of code.

  “We separated these codes into their own categories, labeling them as 'values'. Each value was found again in future recordings we listened to, but the values had their own unique variants each time they were found in a different recording.

  "An even smaller structure was found within them that again could be found repeated in future recordings, but unique unto itself in the smallest of ways.

  “These recordings have been found to be too structured to be created under a natural setting.”

  The freight elevator was in motion. Kozz found the information fascinating, but it was not enough for what he needed. He had to move on. “So the damn things are being controlled by someone?” he asked himself. “Is that what they mean by not natural? But who?”

  Kozz scrolled through more messages, finding more interesting pieces, but none provided him an answer. Then he came across a message sent to 'The Office of the Presider' entitled 'Preeminent Hypothesis: Top-Level Security Locks in Place'.

  “So this young broad snoozing away on the job has some important responsibilities and high clearances, eh?” Kozz shook his head as he opened the transmission, “Guess she'll be losing her job over this one.”

  The freight car opened. Kozz heard one guard commanding others. They were moving his way.

  “This message is for Presider Conway's eyes only. All others who attempt to breach the electronic locks in place will be prosecuted.” The document was opened before Kozz's eyes. The sleeping woman had to have been the one to send the message to the Presider.

  “Over here!” shouted a guard from the south entrance. “Raise your hands and drop to the floor!”