Of course, right as I finally heal myself, another bullet connects with my right calve, causing me to have to yell at the Chimera Cube again to heal me. The words barely have enough strength to get out of me this time. There is too much water in my airways, and the only way to get it out is by going to the surface yet again. But if I do that, I will die.
I have to keep swimming.
Since I am unable to command the cube to commence its magical internal-wound repair, I am stuck with extremely low levels of blood circulating through me and with another stream of blood flowing out of my leg. The pain was gone for a split second before the desire to permanently sever the connection between my spinal cord and brain that allows me to sense pain becomes a very real desire once again.
A pounding headache knocks every sensical thought from my mind as the lack of oxygen and blood take hold over my body. Like a robot stuck in the middle of a glitch, I keep moving my arms in an odd motion and legs wildly kicking behind me (if anyone asks, this is my pathetic attempt at swimming). But me swimming deeper and deeper into the ocean to avoid the gunfire won’t work—that’s not my goal anymore, though. I want to get as far away from the surface as possible so that when the lack of oxygen finally deprives my brain of the fuel it needs to keep operating, my body will sink so fast to the ocean floor that no one will ever find the Chimera Cube.
I open my eyes at the sound of a massive shockwave of force rocking my ears. A few dozen yards away in the water a massive column of air bubbles ripples throughout the sea as multiple divers enter the water.
The military is sending their own diving team after us. They won’t let my body sink to the bottom of the ocean floor only to never be found. Li knows I have the Chimera Cube. He will send an entire nation and a billion robots on a hunt looking for my body before he gives up.
The blood from the dead body, a body that could belong to Jake, Zhang, or Ai, blocks my vision as the cloud sinks deeper and deeper into the sea. The body itself is only a few feet above, the terrible irony in the fact that a dead body is doing better at escaping the gunfire than I am.
I won’t go down without a fight.
I place my palm back on the Chimera Cube and keep my eyes closed as I prepare to use all the oxygen left in me to deliver my final command to the Chimera Cube.
This time I don’t care about my own survival.
I want to kill everyone in sight, and if I’m lucky enough, this cube will be nothing more than a pile of ash by the end of it. This cube has destroyed my life. This cube keeps me up every night tossing and turning as I wonder how I can hold the future of the world in my hands and not have it drop on the floor and shatter into a million pieces. This cube killed my mother, killed my father, killed Riva, and now it’s going to kill me too.
It’s going to kill everyone I have ever loved.
But my one dying wish is that it will never hurt anyone else. I guess that means making sure it doesn’t help anyone either.
“Auto-detonate nuclear warhead.” I scream the command as loud as I can, but this time when I tap the Chimera Cube, it doesn’t respond. This command should work. In fact, I know it does—late one night at Gyurtog I tested it out when studying over the portion of the guide that talks about the weapons of mass destruction this thing is capable of creating. I tapped the cube once after creating it to have it deconstruct just in time—after all, the warhead is programmed to detonate only a second after it is formed.
But this time the cube doesn’t even light up in response to my command.
I scream again, this time with my mouth pressed up against the cube so that the sound waves can easily reach the receiver inside. But the normal stream of air bubbles that effuses out of my mouth when I yell underwater doesn’t escape my mouth when I scream.
No. I panic as I see the two figures closing in on me from my right side as another team of divers enter the sea to capture the remaining bodies. Directly above me the outline of a human is swimming right at me, every inch of their skin covered in the same bullet-proof suit that the Chimera Cube generates. The lack of oxygen in my brain makes it impossible for me to discern who it is barreling towards me or why they are coming for me.
All I know is that I am about to die.
Another bullet connects with me, this time piercing through my wet, heavy shirt and smashing through a bone in my rib cage. For some reason out of all the bullet wounds I have suffered, this one is by far the most painful.
This is the bullet wound that is going to kill me.
I scream again, doing everything in my power to squeeze out just enough air from my lungs to empower my vocal cords to work. Instead of successfully screaming, my body expels a series of horrible coughs as my lungs enter into some sort of hyperdrive mode where their only goal is to expel as much water from them as possible.
But every time my mouth opens, it only causes more water to flood inside of me. My vision is now reduced to two small circles, the lack of oxygen cutting out all blood flow to the cone and rod cells in my peripheral vision.
All light seems to fade from the world around me as the adrenaline and anxiety roaring through me reach a new height. The bag holding the Chimera Cube opens up just enough to allow the cube to slowly float out into the open sea.
I don’t even have enough strength to grab on to the cube and have it stay with my dying body.
I failed in my mission. All I had to do was protect this cube. All I had to do was make sure that no one could ever get their hands on it and that its power would always remain with me.
I feel a pair of hands wrap around my body.
But it’s too late.
I’m gone.
And the only thought echoing in my mind before the blackness takes hold of my consciousness for good is: the world is fucked.
Chapter 10
No one tells you what happens once you die.
Well, I guess that is because rarely does one live to tell the tale of their near-death experience. I can tell you exactly what happened.
My vision was full of blackness. The essence of time faded from having power over my consciousness, and a weird sensation overcame my mind. I can’t say it was a hallucination, but in a singular moment that could have taken years or only seconds every feeling and memory I have ever felt washes over me.
I see my mom, Riva, Reno, my dad, everyone I know and love who is no longer here. Yet the vision of them passes so fast that they all seem like nothing more than ghosts in my hollowed-out memory. Something about it is all so visceral and vivid that I can’t help but feel all the emotions I have for my life being released in a beautiful explosion and think that I am amidst all those memories and that I will be forever.
It all fades as fast as it overtakes me.
Now comes the part of death that I wasn’t expecting. The part of death that feels all too real to not constitute being a part of real life.
The blackness dissolves from my vision as I focus on the blue sky and bright rays of sunlight beaming down upon me. The salty taste to the air is all too familiar as it hits my dry tongue, and the warm breeze has a way of surrounding my being, making me feel like I am nestled in a cocoon of comfort.
The comfort fades as an explosive noise breaks the silence and shakes my body with the ensuing wave of force. As my eyes notice the towering concrete structure right behind my head, I finally realize that this is not some sort of dream.
I didn’t die. I simply passed out from a lack of oxygen to my brain and now I am awake in the real world.
I’m awake in hell.
“He’s awake!” I remain unmoving, my body in such a state of shock that even moving my lips to let a scream out is impossible. However, when a figure wearing an all-black bodysuit passes by me, my instincts kick in and cause the floodgates of adrenaline and fear to release inside me.
I place my palms on the rough cement beneath me and push upward. In my mind all it will take is one swift motion and I can stand up and run away from whatever mess I am currently in.
But the shock is still overwhelming my nerves and making my movements lethargic in the same way that a page on a computer buffers when there is bad signal to nearby routers. Then the reality of my situation hits me.
I almost drowned in the middle of the East China Sea. I almost died surrounded by military ships and dozens of soldiers who were all ready to kill me.
For a second I feel happy. For a second I feel thankful to be alive. But then I reach for my shoulders and instead of feeling the familiar smooth straps of the backpack that contains the Chimera Cube, I feel my wet shirt.
The Chimera Cube is gone.
The one thing I needed to keep safe is out of my hands. It doesn’t matter that I’m alive. It doesn’t matter that Li chose to save me and leave me here on the concrete. He knows that he won. Now that he has that weapon, he can kill everyone in China with it and conquer the Western world.
A surge of anger rises up inside me, immediately shutting out any confusion or relief I have about the situation.
I’m alive, but now billions are going to die.
He wants me to watch the world burn knowing I could have stopped it.
My chest expands as I desperately gasp for air, the crippling anxiety causing my muscles to feel like they are spasming uncontrollably. A sense of relief eases the tension inside me as a fresh round of oxygen floods my airways instead of gallons of sea water, but the desperation to stand up and run away isn’t quenched. I need to get up. I need to get off my back and let him kill me before I have to watch him use the one thing that was supposed to save the world to end it.
But that is out of my control.
Immediately upon inhaling, the knot my stomach is tied in unravels. With it, a hot liquid boils from deep inside me and spews out of my mouth.
It is by far one of the most uncomfortable feelings as my body tries to rid itself of all the excess water that was forced inside it by the sea. Internally, I am at war. On one hand, my brain is screaming at my body to get up and start running, but the internal processes taking place are far out of my control. All I can do is let the puke slide down my chest and force the water out of me as fast as possible. I gasp again for air and cough multiple times afterwards, the same terror of opening my mouth and having nothing but water flood in overcoming me once again.
The fact that I am on land, my body able to breathe freely without effectively killing itself with each breath is a reality I am still coming to terms with. My legs still feel like they are kicking through the warm water, and my eyes still feel like they have to strain to see what’s directly in front of me as the prospect of death comes closer and closer.
“I don’t know if it worked.” The figure in the black suit kneels down next to me as I am still in the middle of a coughing fit. I want to hit the figure away, my initial thought being that it is Li or one of his terrible henchmen. But I am practically immobile. The hot, yellow liquid from the pile of vomit rests on my stomach, seeping through my shirt and running down my face and neck to give every one of my pores the sense that they are being drowned by an alien form of lava. The pile only grows in size as I vomit again, my abdominals straining as I continue to hack and force the excess water in my system out.
I still feel like I’m drowning.
“Give him another shot.” A distinctly feminine voice comes from another figure that is wearing the same black suit that the one kneeling down next to me is. She is holding a large weapon that reminds me distinctly of the high-intensity laser launcher the Chimera Cube makes. It has the same bright titanium coating its exterior, a large turquoise tip at the end of the barrel of the gun and is four feet long with a diamond-plated handle to wrap one’s hands around for good measure. When Jake and I discovered this weapon in the patent notes at Gyurtog, we both got excited in a really fucked-up way as we imagined killing dozens of people with it.
The chaos is already beginning. I cough again, this time a chunk of water and old food coming out in one disgusting ball that lands on my chin. I don’t let the coughing hold me back. The determination and sick desire in me to rip the gun from the woman and use it for my own purposes are enough to overcome the shock that my body is experiencing. President Li is going to give a weapon like that to every imperial soldier, but not if I take it first.
Then I notice the straps of a backpack around the shoulder of the figure and realize exactly who the voice belongs to. It’s Ai.
“Sam!” The person in the black suit inches away from me wraps their arms around me. From the tone of the voice, I know that it must be Jake.
“You don’t have time to hug him!” Ai screams, still holding up the laser launcher. I stare at Ai, who is holding a weapon almost the size of her and has the Chimera Cube strapped to her back, and could not be more confused.
There’s no way this is real. I keep my arms at my side, my body unable to respond to the warm touch of Jake as the wet clothing of his suit wraps around my wet, shaking body. I’m dead. This is a hallucination.
“I can’t believe you’re alive, brother,” Jake says, visibly smiling from beneath the suit.
“How did I get here?” I pull away from his grip, my head spinning at the chaos ensuing around us. “What’s happening?”
“Oh, one day I will have to tell you the story in full.” Jake’s eyes are wide as he looks around, making sure it’s okay for him to speak without risking our lives. “You had swallowed too much water, so I caught your body with the help of the scuba gear and with Ai’s help I screamed at the cube to generate a sea scooter, which is essentially a robotic fish that is superfast and you can hold on to it and it’s sick.” Jake’s words are slurring together. He is speaking so fast that he is putting the moments when Ai gets stressed out and talks hurriedly to shame. “I’d go into more details, but the super short version is we had some weird three-way ride on the sea scooter as we both worked to navigate the scooter to a safe spot, while holding on to you and the Chimera Cube. By the time we reached the surface, Ai and I almost died right along with you. Luckily, we were able to get you onto this platform and let the Chimera Cube do its magic in time. It was the most insane five minutes of my life.”
Right as Jake finishes speaking, a round of gunfire prevents me from responding. Jake tackles me, throwing his body on top of me to shield me from the oncoming storm of bullets.
The stream of bullets headed right towards me finally wake me up to what is happening. I’m alive. Jake and Ai saved me. The dead body in the sea must have been Zhang. And now the Chinese military is attacking us from all sides.
Pieces of cement fall from the large wall of cement behind me and land on my body as the gunfire slowly tears away at the foundation of the pillar of cement that stretches hundreds of feet into the sky. I direct my eyes to the rest of the world.
On top of the pillar of cement is what appears to be an entire city with dozens of stairs, metal piping, and large structures the size of entire stadiums bolted into the support system holding this behemoth of a city floating hundreds of feet in the air. There are four enormous cement pillars roughly forty feet in diameter hundreds of yards apart that hold up this structure, and on either side of this city in the middle of the ocean are two more towers connected to the main mass by bridges. On top of the towers there are networks of metal bars that are hundreds of feet tall with tiny flames pumping out of the top, while underneath the towers are a similar network of metal bars similar to scaffolding of skyscrapers with massive pipes running through the center.
This floating city must be the oil rig, the dozens of lights on the structure and massive area of rooms all home for the hundreds of people who are employed on this rig. The smell of oil is nonexistent in the air, though; the only thing my nose can pick up on is the vomit still on my chest and the salt in the air.
This rig isn’t meant for drilling oil out of the earth. It is meant for causing an earthquake that will kill hundreds of millions.
The gunfire continues, but it’s impossible for me to tell from what dir
ection or how many people are shooting at me because that side of my vision is blocked by Jake’s body which is shielding me from the onslaught of bullets. For once, he has nothing encouraging to say. In fact, the feeling of his heartbeat against my back and breath on my neck do nothing but send chills down my spine.
Then the explosion happens.
At first a wave of heat hits my skin, one that is powerful enough to give anyone second-degree burns. I expect the terrible cacophony of sound to hit my ears next, but nothing comes. The explosion is so powerful that immediately upon the sound waves hitting my ears my ear drum rattles, on the verge of busting open. The explosion is nothing more than a buzzing sensation that is so strong, it knocks my brain against my skull.
Jake’s body is thrown off me when a hunk of metal flies from the center of the explosion and smacks him right on his head. Now with my body exposed to the shards of metal and debris from the explosion, I have no choice but to bury my head into the cement and wrap my arms around my head.
It’s impossible to tell when the explosion ends or if more of it is coming because the oil rig isn’t fazed one bit. With the exception of the fact that every one of my pores feels like it’s bleeding and my ears are screaming at me for subjecting them to such a traumatic noise, the air feels oddly calm.
If that was the explosion that was supposed to kill hundreds of millions, then that was anti-climactic. Even so, I don’t take my head off the ground, my body vibrating as all the memories of the explosions that have nearly killed me in the past take hold of my mind.
Then I feel two hands wrap around me and pull my body off the cement. When I look up, I expect it to be one of the imperial soldiers wearing their red protective gear or even Li Wang himself staring down at me, finally ready to tell me that he won for good.
But it’s Ai.
I only know this because after months of being with her every day, I know the shape of her body well enough to discern what it looks like when wrapped in a skin-tight compression fabric meant to shield her from bullets.
The Conspiracy Chronicles Boxset 2 Page 35