Floor 21- Dark Angel

by Jason Luthor

  “Well, there’s no denying that. You saved my life.”

  “You did the same for me.” I take a deep breath as I stand beside her. “You enjoy the Green Zone?”

  “Are you kidding? It was probably the single most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”

  “When we went there, I wanted you to just have a normal day, you know?”

  “I kinda understood that, but . . . I needed it. It really did me some good.”

  “I’m happy. Thing is, I also took you out there for another reason.”

  “Why’s that?”

  I nod out to the city. “Jackie, I’ve never known anyone to put herself on the line like you. I know you want to protect people. Pretty hard to do that, though, if you’ve never seen who you’re protecting. Those people paddling out there in their boats. Kids running around in the fields. People who’re just trying to play a baseball game in the evening. Then there’s Cynthia and Mandy. That’s who I’m fighting for.”

  “Mike.” She bows her head. “I came here to help you protect them.”

  “And based on everything you’ve ever done, I’m trusting you on this Fort Silence thing. If someone asks whether it’s a good idea to make this alliance, I can always put my trust in you. I believe in you, Jackie. If you say something’s the right call, I’ve been friends with you longer than anyone else out here. I’ve fought beside you. Hell, I’ve cried about you when I thought you were dead.”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Don’t think you could’ve done anything about it,” I say with a grin aimed at her. “Point is, you’re saying the alliance is a good idea, so I’m with you. You’re telling me to put some trust in Yousef, so I’m with you.”

  “It’s not like I think he’s some all-knowing, perfect leader, Mike. I just think . . . I don’t know. When you listen to those stories about how he lost his sister in the Creep, it’s hard not to see that he’s struggling like a lot of us are. I just think he wants to protect people because he knows what it’s like to lose them, is all.”

  “Like I said, I’m trusting you on that. I don’t know the man.”

  “But?”

  I cross my arms and turn to her. She shifts a little and looks me dead in the eyes. “But if things go sideways, and he turns out to be more power hungry than you’re making him out to be?”

  “He won’t.”

  “But if he does.”

  She shakes her head. “You know, I’m always on your side, Mike. But the people in this city need someone that can protect them, and I can’t be that person. Not without some structure, some system in place. There’s just too much out there to fight, and I . . . I’m never going to back down from the fight, but I won’t always make the right calls. That’s what the system is for.”

  “Jackie, I get that. When the system fails though . . .”

  “Everyone’s talking like they want it to fail. We need to give it a chance. We need to give Yousef a chance to show how secure he can make things.”

  “He’s getting that chance, Jackie. I’m just saying, push comes to shove, I’m going to need you to be able to admit if you’re wrong. To help us push him out if we have to.”

  I can see her eyes narrowing behind her mask. “Would you listen to yourself? You’re talking like you want it to fall apart before we’ve even tried it. You think we can survive out here without Fort Silence? We need to trust Yousef. If that means we have to change the way things work out here, then we have to give it a chance.”

  “And when’s enough enough? I just need to know if there’s a line in the sand. What will it take to make you admit you were wrong and say it’s time to break that alliance?”

  “I . . . I don’t know, Mike.”

  Can’t help the frown across my face as I look away for a second. “That’s dangerous. Can’t get into something like this if you don’t even know the lines you’re not willing to cross. If you always defend his actions by saying it’s for everyone’s own protection . . . we might end up having martial law if we just keep giving him more control.”

  “That’s worse than seeing everyone die? Than losing Central because we weren’t willing to do what was necessary to make sure everyone lived to see another day? It’s not just the Creep, Mike. Those raiders are bringing hardware that you guys can’t match without Fort Silence.”

  My head snaps back to her. “Don’t think I get that? Spent a year here now, Jackie, giving my life up for these people. Willing to die for these people.”

  “I’m not saying you didn’t.”

  “Might be hard to believe, but I know Central better than you. You’re faster, stronger, but Central’s been my home for a long time now. I’ll live and die for Cynthia and Mandy. I’ve seen how weak we can be and how we need to get stronger. You know what though? I still haven’t given up on how necessary our freedoms are. Jackie, we were in it together back in the Tower. Me and you. When nobody was asking questions, who were the only two doing it?”

  She looks at me from just under the slits in her helmet. “Us. You know that.”

  “I do. That’s why I need you to understand, nitty gritty, when things get right down to it, I’m not willing to give Yousef the kind of power they had over us in the Tower. Not even remotely. The second a person can’t walk where they want without feeling like they have to look over their shoulder . . .”

  “That just might be something we have to have if we’re going to make sure everyone stays safe.”

  “Well, then in a century, we’ll be alive and just repeating the mistakes that got made in the Tower. Putting a society out there that survives on fear and intimidation, I’m not sure that’s worth fighting for. So, if I have to, I’ll fight for this city, this society. The one we’ve made in Central. Doesn’t matter who I have to take the fight to.”

  Her face tilts up, and then it’s just me and her staring at each other at the edge of the building, wind whipping at my hair and her eyes cutting at me through the dark. “What’re you telling me, Mike. Just give it to me straight.”

  “I love you, Jackie. You’re the only person I had in the Tower to talk to about the world out here. You’re the person who came to save me when I was being hunted, and you kept me from becoming so depressed that I could’ve . . . could’ve ended things early. I would’ve never gotten a chance to meet Cynthia and Mandy if not for you. Because all of that, I’m trusting you on this alliance.” Our eyes are locked, and I suck in a deep breath. “But if you stand by that alliance when things are starting to look like the Tower, if you’re not willing to stop that before it goes too far, we’re going to end up on different sides of this thing. Just . . . please don’t let that happen.”

  “Are you saying you’d fight me, Mike?”

  I shake my head and start to step away. “I don’t want to, Jackie. That’s not even close to necessary if you just keep your head up and don’t trade away our freedoms.”

  She’s still calling out to me as I’m heading for the roof exit. “You want to be that person, Mike? You? After everything we’ve been through, you want to be the one who fights me?”

  It stops me in my tracks, and honestly, when I look back on her, my eyes are burning. “No, Jackie. It’ll break my heart if I have to.”

  “You want to . . . You’ve seen what I can do. Do you really want me to have to . . . to have to defend this alliance by fighting you? If you do something that puts the alliance at risk, then lives will be on the line. I’ll . . . I’ll have to step in. Do you think you can win that fight?”

  “Jackie, it’s been a long time,” I tell her as I drop my head. “I can’t beat you if we’re just talking about strength, but let’s not forget something. I just have to miss one dose. One. That’s all it takes for it to come back.”

  Even from here, through the slits in her helmet, I can see she’s almost crying, too. “It?”

  “This,” I say as I tap on my temple, a spark of blue fire escaping my fingertips before I drop my hand to my waist. “I’m the one
who nearly brought down the Tower. Remember?”

  “Is that really what you want, then? Where you want this to go?”

  “No. But I have to protect this city. No, I have to protect Cynthia and Mandy. That’s more important than anything else. I brought them here from the Deadlands, and I’ll do whatever I have to to make sure they stay safe. And I’m not going to let them live in the same world I did, where saying the wrong thing could get you arrested. Where you wonder if life’s worth living. So, whatever happens between you and me, whatever our future is . . . I’m putting that in your hands, Jackie.”

  CLASH OF THE TITANS

  Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 01

  There’s nothing like the rumbling of a Vertwing’s hull plates while your legs are swinging in the breeze to really put some life into you. Our bird’s in the air over Central Freedom as we’re dropping in for the first time since Fort Silence and Central Freedom decided to shake hands and play nice.

  The whole time, all I’m thinking is that it’s about time we took it to the raiders.

  Behind me, I hear a voice shouting out to me. “Sergeant. We’re five minutes out from Central Primary.”

  “Yeah, I got it,” I tell him as our bird starts to dip, its wings tilting as the repulsors shudder, the whole Vertwing starting to descend. The city looks like a jewel from the sky, way different from the blocky concrete buildings in Fort Silence. My gigantic hand holds tight to the railing above me, bracing as we angle down through those huge skyscrapers and the garrison at Primary. “This is going to be one hell of a party,” I shout back at the team. “Wait until we tell the boys back home we got to walk the streets of a real city and not wander the Deadlands while being waist high in Creep.”

  The whole sky’s filled with Vertwings coming in for landing on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, where I’ve been told we’ll be staying. Overhead, I hear the roaring sound of our Talon escorts angling away to avoid the cloud of incoming Verts. “It’s beautiful,” I shout back over the roar of the Vertwing. “When we make our drops on those raider compounds with a thousand pounds of missiles raining down on the enemy? Death from the sky. They’ll never know what hit them.”

  Our bird’s descent starts to slow as we’re approaching the courtyard. We got cleared for the first class treatment, with a parking spot right in front of Primary herself. As we’re dropping in, I can see my people below, men and women from the fort who’re already unloading their gear and getting ready to settle in. Need a place to bed down when night comes, after all. Though, if I’m being out in the open about what I’m thinking at the time, then I really just want to get a view of the Green Zone. The thought of 20-foot statues everywhere and a lake where people go boating is almost too much to believe.

  Soon we’re on the ground and the bird’s repulsors have shut down. It feels good to get back on solid ground, though the second my foot hits the ground, all eyes look at me and the team. It’s kind of hard to avoid ten-foot-tall walking tanks with battle armor as thick as a man’s body and boots that shake the ground when we’re on the move. We’re not the only people walking around in power armor on the grounds. There are troops from Fort Silence riding around in that Apotheosis class power armor. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good stuff. Agile, lightweight, strong as hell compared to a regular soldier, slides like butter along the ground, and can take anything short of a rocket to the chest. It’s not really different from what you see the raiders wearing, that Absolution class armor.

  It's just that none of it can put a dent in what we’re rolling in. Our armor, the Zero-One, wasn’t designed for fighting normal infantry. We can, but it’s not our specialty. The Zero-One was created with the sole purpose of being able to pound every other class of power armor into the ground.

  “Equipment check!” I shout to everyone, going through my own weapons as they go through theirs. There’s the obvious, of course. A rifle more than five feet long that fires penetrating, heated spikes with enough force to puncture a tank. Then there’s the less obvious, the grenades the size of a man’s head that line our waists. Sure, they’re too heavy for any normal person to carry, but we’re not exactly normal in these suits. Then there’s the blades strapped under our wrists. Grotesque, huge blades, but they are awesome. Cuts a suit of power armor clean in half. Well, other people’s power armor.

  Everyone looks my way and confirms they’ve got their gear. It’s all I need. We start rolling to the doors of Central Prime to check in with whoever’s managing personnel. While we’re walking, I can’t help but take a look at our reflection in the glass windows. We’re giant war machines walking between little people, and it’s one damn beautiful sight. Standing there, my death’s head helmet staring back at me with those vacant eyes, a four-armed deity painted across the heavy breastplate of my armor. It all takes me back to the day I picked my codename. Kali, the goddess of destruction.

  Excerpt from “On Purity,” by Yousef Suliman 01

  Humanity stands on an edge between its past and its future. While many consider its greatest threat to be the Creep and the many threats that exist in the Deadlands, the truth is that humanity’s greatest threat does not come from the outside. Instead, humanity faces its greatest challenges from within.

  Although we can only view the history of our race imperfectly, thanks to the great loss of knowledge that happened in the Following Fall, we understand that throughout the vast majority of our history, humanity remained pure. It had no other choice but to do so. There was no Creep, no strange and violent powers that existed in the world.

  From ancient times, mankind existed and thrived on the basis of its spirit, its ingenuity, and its determination. Sweat and blood greased the wheels of progress and brought humanity from its roots as a cave dwelling species to the peak of human existence. From ancient days spent chasing animals for miles during a hunt, to an era in which it flew cars through the sky and grew enough food to feed the entire human species several times over, our people drew upon the nobility of the human spirit to reach a cultural greatness we have never again achieved.

  Imagine, a world in which flight was common, in which all people were instantly connected to one another thanks to an extensive telecommunication infrastructure, and in which the machines of men towered over cities and guarded against danger. It was a world of unparalleled prosperity. But, mankind in its hubris overstepped its bounds and attempted to change its fundamental nature.

  In my life, I have never possessed the religious streak of my departed sister. However, tales of mankind’s pride are found throughout religious traditions from around the world. In the Christian belief, mankind constructed a tower with the intention of breaching the gates of heaven. In Islamic tradition, there is a similar story, of an ancient ruler attempting to build a tower to confront God.

  I am not concerned with the truth of such stories. What should concern all of mankind, however, is the lessons these stories teach us. Mankind’s impulse to become more than human, to become gods, has driven some of the worst scientific endeavors in our history.

  I do not need to remind anyone of the August War or the Following Fall. I do not need to remind anyone that it was thanks to untamed pride that we experimented with forces we did not understand and paid the heaviest of prices. Although how it happened has been lost to us, there is no one who argues that the current state of the world is not the fault of our own ancestors. We toyed with a power and welcomed a deadly evil, the Creep, that possesses such destructive force that it nearly wiped out mankind.

  But have we learned anything from our hubris? Have we learned the lesson of our ancient past? No. It is clear that we have not. Because even today, we continue to toy with forces we do not understand. The Deadlands are a testament to mankind’s continuing folly. Out there, beyond the safety of the walls which guard Fort Silence or the bridges that separate Central Freedom from the mainland, there still persists those who would change the fundamental nature of mankind in order to achieve greater power. Th
ese people hope to reclaim the ancient technology of our ancestors, to use it to make themselves stronger. It is the greatest arms race in the history of mankind. The arms race meant to harness the Creep.

  Dodger’s Recording 13

  Truth is, it’s hard to really say how much has changed. Maybe I’ve just become so used to being disappointed by things that I’ve kind of stopped getting too hopeful about the world. I know that’s depressing as hell, it’s just hard to really get excited about things when life’s always trying to flip on you. I’m not saying the situation in Central doesn’t bother me. I mean, it does. It probably bothers Tommy more though. It feels like it’s personal for him. Everywhere we go, he’s always on edge.

  Like the other day, we’re walking down the street, just minding our own business. He’s got this look though, like he wants to scream. I tug on his sleeve and kind of just lightly bump into him. I’m trying to get his attention while being cute enough about it that he doesn’t get frustrated. “You okay there, pal?”

  He smiles at me. “What do you think?”

  “Maybe not?”

  His eyes look past me, to one of the building walls. Behind the crowd that’s marching along the sidewalk, there’s two soldiers standing there with rifles strapped over their shoulders. It’s frustrating, and I huff a few strands of hair out of my face. “I know that I always wanted to get out of the Tower just to go back to being in a military dictatorship.”

  “At least they haven’t made any arrests yet,” he says as we keep walking. “The president made sure to bargain so that policing and military personnel were kept separate. I guess I’m just hoping at this point that the agreement holds up.”

  “Well, I’d say I’m with you on that one.”

  Just after we’ve gotten across the street, we hear the hum of a tank as it’s driving by. We both turn around to watch the blue repulsors of about three tanks pushing the vehicles along, all of them speeding off down the street. I shake my head. “I wonder where they’re going?”