by Jason Luthor
“Neither can I.” His eyes go to Jackie, and she can’t hold back this huge smile when he does. “And you, young lady. That’s one hell of a thing you did out there at Fort Silence. I see you’ve finally learned what it means to make the big decisions.”
She looks away, her brown skin flushing darker at the compliment. “I didn’t do anything.”
“I know you don’t believe that. Not anymore, at least. You’re too confident now. I can see that.”
Jackie finally looks back his way and gives him a firm nod. “I’m not scared of who I am anymore. I believe in myself.”
“What changed?”
“I remembered what I’m fighting for.”
“There’s no better motivation, and a good reason to start believing in yourself again.” He lifts underneath the mantle to take a peek at the uniform. “And I’ve got to admit, the mantle looks good, but that uniform suits you.”
“It’s a symbol.”
“You’re damn right it is, but the person inside the uniform defines what that symbol means.” He points from Jackie to me. “You two are everything I believed you were when I first met you. I’m looking forward to seeing you lead Central to a better future. Which, by the way, I heard you saying you were planning to bring your people in from the Tower.”
She nods. “Yeah. It’s been almost two years, and not only does it feel like it’s the right time, but there might be clues back there about what we need to do next. To end the Creep, once and for all.”
“I’m looking forward to us having new guests.” He stretches a hand out toward me, and I grab it back. “Mr. President, with your permission, I’d like to organize some housing for our new guests. With the power running, I’m sure there are plenty of buildings we can clear out and get ready.”
“Yeah. Of course. Just, didn’t you tell me once to call you by your first name, Gabriel? We’re friends, after all.”
“You’re absolutely right,” he says with a smile back at me. “Well, I’m looking forward to a friendly drink and some dinner with you and Anne soon. My house.”
“I’m looking forward to it already.”
Jackie’s Recording 46
You know, I meant it when I told Mandy that there were still plenty of threats to worry about. I didn’t want to go into details, since I didn’t want to scare her. The thing is, when you start talking about Angels and the Creep . . . things can get pretty scary pretty fast. I spent almost a year away from chasing down Angels and the secrets of the Towers. I don’t regret it, because Central Freedom needed me. It wasn’t until the fight at the Panzer that I started to seriously think about the Angels again. And then there was that conversation with Yousef . . .
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not surprised when I feel Pocket Space ripping apart behind me and crimson light spilling out onto the rooftop. When I say I feel it opening . . . Well, I guess what happened to me at Fort Silence just made me more aware of Pocket Space. The Upper Domain. So, before he even says a word, I’m greeting him. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”
“I knew you would be. I know you were. I knew you had.” His voice is as dark and otherworldly as ever. My eyes don’t move from my view of the city far below me, but they don’t have to. He materializes in front of me when I won’t look at him, hovering beyond the edge of the building and hundreds of feet above the streets below him. “Well, you’ve certainly changed, Jackie Coleman.”
“Did you know this would happen?”
“I did. I didn’t. I will. And I won’t. Ultimately, it was up to you.”
“I guess that makes sense. The Upper Domain is like a code. You’re swimming in it all the time, aren’t you? That’s the only explanation. You’re probably not even fixed at one point in time.”
“You’re starting to see with clearer eyes.”
“I know it’s useless to ask you for answers, so I just wanted to say thanks.”
“To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“It’s just that . . . during the fight at Fort Silence, I remember feeling like I was dying. Again. This time though, I felt something inside, like I was going feral again. I didn’t, though. That’s why I guess I should be thanking you. You saved me when I fell off the Panzer, and you did something to make sure I wouldn’t go feral anymore. I mean, that’s what I think happened, based on what you said last time we talked, at Highpoint. So, this time, instead of going feral, something better happened. Thanks for that.”
“Was I wrong when I said you were seeing with clearer eyes?”
“What do you mean?”
“I gave you no power, Jackie Coleman. I told you that no power in the universe could help you transcend your human limitations. Of all the times I’ve ever done anything for you, this was the time I actually did the least. I’ve told you before that my strength in your world is limited. But we’ve had this conversation before and may have it again. Human beings repeat time, although in a very distinct sense from how I do. And yet the point remains. What you did is what you did, not what I did for you.”
“But you told me you were going to give me a gift. The gift of not going feral, if I didn’t want to.”
“Did you want to go feral?”
“No.”
“And that’s why you didn’t.” He vanishes for a moment in a wave of red light, reforming on the rooftop ledge next to me and looking from the streets to my eyes. “Humans beings have one power, the one gift in all the universe that can be found nowhere else. The power to choose. You chose for yourself, Jackie Coleman, to become what you became.”
“Then what did you mean when you said you were giving me a gift?”
“I merely said the words you needed to hear, so you would believe it was possible to become more than what you are without becoming less than human. I only told you the things that would make you believe in your own power.”
I take a step away from him for a second before turning around again, still feeling conflicted as I stare at him, red light dripping off of him and into the air. “I get it. From the time I first went feral at Highpoint, to my brain becoming a conduit for Pocket Space at the Panzer, and all those predictive lines I started seeing after Yousef defeated me . . . It was all because I was changing. I just had to have something to hold onto when the change actually started happening.”
“A powerful connection to your humanity.”
My eyes are burning when I say it. “Mike.”
“It’s an interesting thing, how humans form such powerful bonds to life when faced with death.”
It takes me a second before I say anything else. “I need to ask you something or, at least, talk about something. What I started seeing those visions . . .”
“You presume I know the answers to what you’re about to say.”
“The Creep is coming from the Upper Domain. Who is making that happen?”
“I do not know.”
“Director Pygmalion, from the Tower. Yousef saw him. Could he be making it happen? It doesn’t make sense, but . . .”
“Jackie Coleman, I do not know, but I told you years ago that there was only one question worth answering, only one path pursuing. The path of the Angels. You chose this detour instead.”
“Alright. I get it. I already kind of felt that I was only going to get my answers by going back to the Tower. But there is something I know you have to know about.”
“Do I?”
“What is the Eye in the Utter Wilderness? Because I keep . . . feeling those two words, like they’re just left inside of my mind even though nobody ever told them to me.”
A smile crosses his lips. “And what is the Utter Wilderness?”
“It’s Pocket Space. The Upper Domain. There’s something there, something like you, except . . .” I shake my head. “It’s not what’s causing the Creep here. But whatever caused the Creep to be here is what brought the Eye, too.”
“You still see it.”
“Sometimes, when I blink, or when I close my
eyes. Sometimes when I’m surrounded by the Creep. It’s like it’s chasing me.” I stop talking for a second. “I need to see that future again. Those predictive lines, the ones that let me see everything my enemies are about to do . . . Is that just a smaller scale version of the visions I’m having?”
He smiles. “The ability to see all immediate potential futures is only a little different from being able to see all the distant potential futures. Still, there’s still so much you have yet to understand about what happened to you at Fort Silence. But, I’d like to indulge you, if it means you are returning to the path.”
He doesn’t say anything else as he turns to me, his body evaporating into red fire and leaving me just standing there for a second. I’m about to call out for him when the world around me suddenly starts to twist, like it’s being turned into spirals, and I’m falling into that spiral. The world is spinning and getting darker as I’m rushing toward a black point in the distance. Then a chill starts to soak into me, sinking deep into my bones. It’s a feeling I remember. It’s what it feels like to have the Creep sinking down around you, choking the life out of you and sending waves of fear through your body. I can feel my chest heaving as I struggle to breath, the whole world going black and empty, like nothing exists except for me.
Then, suddenly, the world comes rushing back into my face, but I’m not staring at the city anymore. I’m staring at a world covered in Creep, from one end of the horizon to the other, with hundreds of tendrils the size of buildings reaching up and scraping at the dark sky. Everything underneath me is muscle and saliva slopping over itself, tendrils pulling back and forth while they’re traveling along a world of living tissue. Underneath me, a thousand eyes blink open, some the size of cars and others the size of buildings, each one of them pointed at me. Those cold yellow eyes stare as I drift across a gigantic mouth that opens up along the ground. Inside, it’s filled with dozens of rows of teeth that sink down into the throat below me, a throat that sinks into the earth for miles and looks like some endless tunnel into the void.
And out of all those writhing tendrils and tugging muscles, I see a walking death whose body is broken in on itself. Its hundred mouths drip saliva as a dozen bent legs writhe along the ground, dragging it across the Creep as it screams into the air. Its black tentacles slide around its body in continuous motion, slurping over one another as the being aims its screaming mouths at me, the sheer pitch of it rising until my ears are ringing with what feels like a thousand crying people. A half dozen talon tipped tendrils slice at the air as its body bursts open from its side, giving birth to another half creature, like a giant worm that wraps along the ground with its enormous, razored mouth, burrowing into the Creep and exploding out of the ground not far from the creature.
But it’s the skies over my head that finally make me look away, as the giant Eye as big as a city descends through the clouds, parting them as the bright yellow tint of it burns my skin like the heat of a star but also making me feel as cold as a corpse. For a second, I’m staring, until I see white lights appearing on the horizon, burning white fires sparking into existence and burning as they hover in the air. All around me, for miles and miles across every inch of the horizon, those fires burn in the sky, encircling the Eye from all directions. And there, in the center of each fire, is a person, clothed in white with eyes that are lit silver. For a second, I’m bathed in a mix of cold orange and white light that peels at my skin and make me feel as if a cold hand is squeezing my heart to a stop.
I close my eyes, but I can still see the Eye somehow, in my vision, while a thousand incomprehensible voices screech at me through the air. And just as the screaming fills every part of my hearing, feeling like they’re about to shatter my mind, the Stranger’s voice booms through my ears. “And this is your world if the last door opens. The darkness of the uncaring universe that waits at the edge of your existence, ready to devour everything it sees. And an equally uncaring force that has no interest in the fate of humanity.”
I’m just on the edge of screaming when I suddenly feel a warmth on my arms. It’s not coming from around me or some light in the distance though . . . it’s coming from me, and when I open my eyes, I see the white fire burning from my body as the darkness around me starts to melt away. The fire grows stronger and stronger until the horrible things I’m seeing start to fade, burnt off as the fire around me ignites the world. It keeps burning the darkness away until I’m standing there, in white emptiness, with only the Stranger looking at me.
“Do you see, Jackie Coleman, what the nature of your universe is?”
“I don’t . . . I don’t understand.”
“All reality is uncaring and vicious. It waits for its opportunity to snatch up what little life there is in existence. What do humans matter in a world like that?” He stops, his hands outstretched, and suddenly I’m seeing images fading in and out of the white background. Images of me, climbing the Tower to Floor One when I was younger. Images of Tommy leading Dodger and Mike down the Tower to find me. Images of us fighting for Central Freedom and battling at Fort Silence. Images of me shielding Mike from a hail of bullets pouring into my back. Images of Tommy and Dodger kissing after a long day. Images of Mike having dinner with Cynthia and Mandy. Images of Mike smiling at me as we sit in the Green Zone, his hand brushing his fingers through his hair. The Stranger looks around, looking at the same images I’m staring at. “Does any of this matter, Jackie Coleman?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Because it’s real to me.” I can feel the fire in my hands burning hotter. “Because those people matter to me. Because I don’t care if the universe cares about us or not. All of those people are important to me. I’d change the world for them if I could.”
“Then let me tell you something else. There is no other force in the universe that could make that choice but humans. Stars blink in and out of existence. Soil is filtered away. Even the planet you’re fighting for won’t exist forever. None of those things can choose. They simply are.” He stops again as he continues to look around, with more and more images appearing. Soon, I can’t even recognize them. “Humans create meaning. Can anything else in the universe claim to do that?” His eyes look back at me. “They recreate the universe with the meaning they give it. It’s . . . extraordinary, even if most humans are content with the mundane.
“I told you before that I find you interesting. The people you will face fight for vanity. Immortality. Glory. But you, Jackie Coleman, go out of your way to save the lives of even the people who would kill you. You have even made a promise to avenge the family of a man who tried to murder you. That’s why I find you fascinating. But now, the prologue is over. Now, the real story begins. But why? Because now, you have a degree of power that will make you the target of powerful forces far beyond anything you’ve encountered. What will you do when you find the answers you’re looking for? When you battle the forces that created the world as you’ve known it? Powers you couldn’t imagine.”
“Sally was something I’d never faced before. Judge was something I’d never faced before. I’d never been manipulated by someone like I was by Yousef. But I’m still here. I’m here, and I still believe that it’s wrong for me to take a life if I don’t have to. I still believe it doesn’t mean anything if I only care about the people who care about me. Because the world’s going to keep killing itself if someone doesn’t stop trying to take revenge. It’s going to be one life taken, and another and another, until all of us are dead.”
The images behind him fade out, and then it’s just the two of us, standing in that empty white space again. The Stranger nods at me, his smile still as creepy as ever but . . . maybe just a little more sincere. “One final secret, Jackie Coleman. I told you, long ago, that Judge’s death freed up some of my knowledge and powers. The same happened when your friend, Mike, destroyed the Creep Colony. Because of him, I more clearly understand what is to come. The Angels you must face.”
“So, what
comes next?”
“The place your doctor told you about? I know its name. Tower Babel.”
“I won’t go. Not yet.”
His eyebrows raise as he stares at me. “A surprise.”
“I mean, I’ll go eventually, because I know it’s what I have to do to protect everyone. But I have somewhere else I need to visit first. Let’s just call it unfinished business.”
“I see. You’re going home.”
“Not today. Not tomorrow. But I’ll be going back to the Tower before I do anything else about the Angels.”
“I should not be surprised, Jackie Coleman.” He bows his head a little as a red portal opens up behind him, burning its way through the white reality around us. “I’ve told you I am neither all powerful nor all knowing. Still, I know there’s one thing I can trust. When the comes time to move forward, you’ll know. I’ll be watching and waiting, as always.”
With that, the burning red energy swallows him, the portal closing around him before I’m left standing there. The white reality I’m standing in starts to fade, and then it’s just me again, there on the rooftop. My eyes flick off to the horizon, staring into the distance, in the direction I came from two years ago. At the same time, I think about those things from my vision, about the Angels and the eye. Both of those things will have to be dealt with before there’s any peace for us.
“It’s war, then, for just a little while longer.”
Tommy’s Recording 43
Sitting around at the bar with Dodger and Yazzie, I can’t help but give Yasmine a once over. She glances my way and waves me off. “I appreciate it, Mr. President, but I can drink alcohol without it emptying out of my stomach. Everything’s healed up.”
“You know I hate it when you call me that.”
“I know,” she says with a smile. “Now, I thought we were going to make a toast.”
I’m about to agree when a voice behind us catches our attention. We all turn to see Jackie’s Vanguard leader, Kali, coming up to the table. “Mind if I grab a drink? I could drink alone, but I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”