2136: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Read online

  One of the Pavers jumped out of his Humvee and slammed the door. I watched him as he scanned the crowd as if he was dissecting us with his eyes. If you're searching for sympathy or empathy, you won't find any here, I found myself thinking. You made sure to strip us clean of that long ago. I couldn't help it; I felt a hatred boiling to the surface. Was I wrong for feeling such resentment towards them? After all, what had they done to me directly, other than supply minuscule rations once every two weeks and manipulate the people who had become my family? Oh right, and they killed my parents. Yeah, they'd never get me to forgive them for that.

  ‘Do you know why we are here?’ The Paver spoke.

  The leather strap on my mask creaked as my fingers flexed around it. But something about this Paver made me pause. He wore the standard grey uniform of the other Pavers: pants tucked in boots laced all the way to the shin, arm guards along the forearms, and a section of the suit that clawed its way up and along the spine and nestled just under the cerebellum. It was high quality Kevlar. I wasn't sure what material they had used to mesh with the aramid chemicals that were used to make Kevlar, but it was supposed to make the suit ten times stronger, and twice as flexible. The tightly knitted ringlets leeched into the flesh and could only be removed by undergoing a special procedure in the laboratory. So, as if our situation wasn't bad enough with the fallout of nuclear and biological warfare killing everything in sight, and the deadly radiation streaming down from the sky to ensure mortality was permanently etched in the mind, the Pavers were biologically enhanced super soldiers with these parasite suits. They called them TI-700s. Tech Intelligence. I just called them leeches. The Pavers’ every move was recorded into an embedded memory chip under the first layer of skin just beneath the armpit. All data was uploaded once a week for analysis. Robots in the flesh. How could the government say they were only suits if they permanently adhered to the spine and endoskeleton of its host? Like I said, the only way to remove one was in the laboratory through a special procedure. Catch my meaning? Only dead hosts were set free. Such is the brave new world we live in. What a future.

  As the Paver paced in front of the Humvee, my eyes lingered on the P57 Stun Gun strapped along his ankle, and the MissUp 488 on his hip. Each one could release up to 50,000 volts of electricity depending on the setting. There were three. And all three hurt like hell.

  My ranting thoughts paused for air as the Paver stopped his pacing a few feet away from me. Our eyes met briefly before I looked to the ground. Not sure why. Maybe I didn't want him to see my rage? Or maybe I was just a coward like everyone else, afraid to resist the system and demand our rights.

  He continued his movement along the buildings, meeting every Sifter and Metallic's eyes with his own blue grey. Their cloudiness made him appear older than he was, mysterious. I found myself examining his every feature. His gait, his hand gestures, his physique, and his voice. He was attractive. Had I not known he was a Paver sent here to ensure our compliance to a debilitating system that kept us imprisoned within our own depravity, I could have come to love him. Who was I kidding? You can't love someone for their voice. That's lust or infatuation. His TI-700 did little to hide his muscular figure. I found myself admiring his arms as they flexed with every movement of his body. What's wrong with me! The heat must have gotten to my head. Besides, we were from two different worlds. He worked for them, and I was here. He was half man and half machine, I am...well, I am all human. There was no future for me other than the ground. The sand, the heat, and the radiation would be my lovers for the rest of my time on this earth. However long or short that may be.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This was no time for fantasies.

  ‘You all right?’ I heard Roxx whisper to my side.

  ‘Fine. Just a little lightheaded is all.’

  I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't look up, afraid he would see me for what I was. See me going weak all from some false longing for companionship and love. My parents had it. Roxx and I have it, but it’s different. There’s no intimacy. He’s just another father to me. Don't get me wrong, I love him and he's done so much for me. He took me in when my parents were killed and gave me gifts. My father had seen the potential in me, and so had Roxx. I didn't become a botanist and microbiologist by chance. Roxx had something to do with that. All the books, materials, supplies, and equipment I used to teach myself all came from him. He had even constructed me a small workstation and lab underneath one of the abandoned buildings near the fairgrounds. It was secluded and no one ever went there, except for me, so there was no fear of anyone ever stumbling upon my secret place. Books were illegal now that the new law had been put into place. With the rest of the Divines having been lifted up into the sky, the authorities assumed none remained, and thus, to ensure that no one else learned these valuable skills, the Pavers burned it all. That was a sad day, I hear. I was too young to remember it. All I remembered was the black smoke rising into the sky.

  I acquired them, Roxx had said. That's all the explanation he gave and I didn't bother asking questions. I was older then and knew the world for what it was. Whether he had ‘acquired’ them legally or illegally, I didn't much care. I was just happy to have the reading material. My appetite for knowledge was unquenchable and I fed it incessantly. I learned quickly and soon was implementing basic experiments and cell engineering within my hold under the cracked pavement and fallen building. There was a basement underneath that was left of the building, unscarred by the bombs. It was dark, it was murky, and it was the perfect place to build my future. Funny, out of the pits of the earth shall rise a new hope. At least, I'd like to think the world's fate rested in my hands. My father had told me so, but I never believed him. No one person can change anything. The system is too strong; the world too lost and deprived of resources and energy to resist.

  My thoughts rushed back to the here and now as the Paver said, ‘We've heard a rumor that you're holding illegal contraband.’

  He looked into the crowd as if his eyes were mechanically enhanced too and allowed him to read people's minds. As far as I knew, they weren't. But then again, it's kind of hard to stay up to date with all the new technological developments when you're 10,000 feet below the new world.

  I'd call him the pacer if he didn't stop moving. I felt my head spinning. And not because I hadn't eaten for three days. The tightness in my abdomen grew from just thinking about the last time I had eaten a full meal. The red insignia on his collar caught my eye. Were those lions? The Pavers weren't military, officially, but they sure resembled it. They had rank, they had orders, and they always followed them. From one set of pawns to another. Nothing's changed. He's what would be considered a Lieutenant in the old-world army. The fact they had come three days early wasn't what made my skin itch, nor the accusations about contraband, but his rank. Why had the government sent someone so high up in the system to our small abode? Were the items in Roxx's shop that important? What were the Pavers hiding? What didn't they want us to know?

  We had nothing more to offer. Other precincts were doing far better than we were. It had been two months since we hit water. The Metallics had to dig two hundred feet before the liquid revealed itself, and even then, it had only lasted a few months. The well was already dry and the Metallics hadn't been able to locate a new water source since. Yeah, we had the HydroBeta tablets to help compensate for the lack of water our bodies needed, but those water substitutes could only go so far before the body started to shut down. No matter how good the supplement, the body always needs the real thing.

  The streets were silent. Only the rush of sandy wind hitting the top panels of the Market was heard. No one answered the Paver. They all remained motionless and had it not been for the clear resentment each one of them held for the government and the Pavers who did their dirty work, they might have had blank stares. I might have felt bad for the Pavers, after all, they were just doing their job like the rest of us. But they were the reason that my parents were dead. They were the reas
on so many others had lost loved ones, too. No, there was no place in my heart for anything but hate. I crossed my hands across my chest and gave what I thought was my best scowl.

  ‘You may not know me,’ the Paver began, ‘but that's not important. What's important is that I'm here to help you.’ He indicated to the other Pavers standing erect by the Humvees, and the few who had set up a perimeter around the crowd without anyone even realizing it. How in the world had they done that? ‘These are my men, and they are here to help you.’

  He placed both hands on his hips.

  ‘All that I ask...’ Here we go; what's the catch? ‘Is that you cooperate,’ he said. Our eyes met for the second time. I held his gaze until he turned to the others.

  ‘The UOA has made me your acting Enoch for the surrounding seven precincts of Delta A.’

  The UOA stood for the Union of Above, our new-world government that fancied itself a god. They named each of their Precinct Commanders ‘Enoch’ for this reason. According to the Bible, the most widely controversial and life-changing of books to ever be written, and the one the new government made sure to eradicate from the planet first, Enoch was lifted up by God into heaven. He was one of two humans to have never died.

  I liked our Enoch less and less.

  ‘One of you went into the Fields and stole something that belongs to the UOA. Turn yourself in and we will be lenient. But refuse and you will be prosecuted to the government's full extent. Death by hanging.’

  He walked back towards his humvee, opened the door, and stepped up on the running board with his hand clenched around the handle along the door.

  ‘For every day that passes that this individual does not turn himself in, we will reduce your ration by one per cent. You have until noon tomorrow to bring me the information that I need.’

  He spun his index finger in the air and all the Pavers quickly loaded into their Humvees and trucks and were gone just as quickly as they had arrived. We all stood paralyzed in the wake of their dust cloud.

  I felt Roxx's hand grip mine and give me a tug.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ I asked.

  But he silenced me with a raised hand as he led me away through the dust while no one else was looking. We went right past his shop and continued walking.

  ‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

  But he charged on with a strong pace, not bothering to answer. I struggled to keep up before I saw the Ferris wheel looming like a tall broken grave up ahead.

  Why were we going to the fairgrounds? There was nothing there but my small greenhouse and lab. Uncertainty crept its hand back into my ribcage as I followed Roxx. What was going on?

  ≈ Chapter 5 ≈

  The roadway to hell was darker than I imagined. And damper.

  I stopped at the metal wire dangling over the black hole leading down into the collapsed building. Roxx's body dangled in the heavy darkness. His eyes were white orbs when he looked up at me. The rest of his body was a shadow amongst shadows.

  ‘I'll go down first. Make sure it's safe,’ he said.

  Safe? Since when was anything ever safe these days?

  I nodded my head as he descended into the pit. What could possibly be down in this hole? It was not like anyone ever came over this way. I'd been coming to the fairgrounds for the last several years and had never once seen anyone else even remotely in the vicinity. It was a private place. A foreboding graveyard, and I was its gatekeeper. For some reason, that didn't deter me.

  I could just make out the circular outline of the Ferris wheel three hundred meters south of our current location. I had thought we were going to my workstation in the fairgrounds, but Roxx had made a sudden change in course and walked around the outer wall of the fence line adjacent to it, heading northeast, in the opposite direction to the setting sun. I had been through many cracks and crannies in Precinct 11, but never to this corner. We were on the edge of our precinct. The only thing that stretched on from here was the empty expanse of red sand and the occasional wind tornado tossing and ripping the tiny grains into the air – I could see several of them in the space before the horizon, as the light of the day dimmed. Rather surreal and peaceful actually. I'd have to start coming out here more often when I needed a break from science.

  It had taken us three full hours to get to this spot once we snuck off in the cloud the Pavers had left. Due to the radiation levels being at full capacity at that time of day, we had had to take shelter under an upheaved piece of the road until the sun shifted behind a part of the ozone that was still intact. While the sun's rays did their due diligence, we sat in silence, conserving our energy until Roxx peered at the watch around his wrist and suddenly leapt into the light. I had followed in close pursuit, wondering what the other inhabitants of our precinct were doing, hoping that when they realized we were missing they wouldn’t put two and two together and assume we were the culprits the Pavers were after.

  Now, after hours of dipping and diving, crouching and crawling, or pausing every time Roxx thought he heard something, I had stopped caring if anyone was following us. I figured, if they went to the trouble to stalk me for five miles outside of the precinct's main radius, then maybe it was worth them seeing where I was going. It wasn't safe being this far out by yourself, especially being a female. But I can hold my own. Roxx had taught me some self-defense in my father's absence. He claimed there would be a time and place when something more than books and knowledge would be required. Brains could only get you so far in a world that demanded muscle. And from the looks of it, as I peered down into the black abyss that Roxx had fully vanished within, I would be needing some of those muscles right about now. How did he expect me to climb down that narrow shaft? God only knows where it led!

  I peered down into the dark hole. I couldn’t see Roxx.

  ‘Come on down!’ His voice made me flinch. It sounded muffled as if it had to carry and wind its way through thousands of tons of shrapnel and crumpled concrete and dirt. I leaned my head near the gap in the earth.

  ‘Are you sure? How am I supposed to get down there?’ I yelled into the hole. Wherever there was.

  ‘Wrap the wire around your leg. Use your hands to lower yourself down. Like a pulley,’ he said.

  He made it sound so easy. I'll have you know, this wire he was referring to was a two-inch metal cord that was used to hold down telephone poles. It was also what held the carnival rides together. Needless to say, definitely not ideal for scaling concrete chunks with sharp iron staves protruding from every corner. If I didn't die from the fall, I certainly would die from being impaled on the way down. I knelt and inched backwards towards the opening. I’m normally afraid of heights or anything, but something about the permanent blackness emitting from the depths of an unknown chasm put some fear in me. I really felt my heart lurch when my feet disappeared from sight.

  I yelled back down into the hole.

  ‘I'm not sure I can do this. I can't see anything, and this cord isn't exactly ideal for descents into unknown dark holes where death is the only sure visitor you'll find.’ Even in fear, my sarcasm found its voice.

  His words cut right through the rubble and my mental debating and hesitation.

  ‘Stop fiddling around and get your rear down here. Now!’ he ordered.

  I don't know what it was about the sound of a father demanding your obedience and trust, but it got me moving. I latched my right boot around the cord like he said. Next, I removed my gloves from my back pocket and squeezed my fingers through their slits. I may survive the plummet into the mouth of the earth, but I sure didn't want to die of an infection from a rusted copper wire. Let alone a metal splinter. Yup, better safe than sorry. Such is the irony in a world that can kill you in a hundred different ways in the blink of an eye.

  I looped my left arm around the wire until it nestled firmly between the groove of my bent forearm and bicep. And with my other hand I grabbed hold of the black wire.

  ‘All right,’ I yelled over my shoulder. ‘I'm coming down
.’

  Ready or not, here I come.

  Slowly, painfully, I lowered myself into darkness. My eyes were at ground level just as the sun was fading away behind the Smoky Mountains to the southwest. I couldn't actually see the mountains from here – we were roughly 500 miles from those rocky slopes – but I imagined what they must be like. Majestic, mysterious, and full of an indestructible resistance to change. Maybe one day I would follow the A.T. all the way to the national forest and make camp there. Away from the system. Away from the heartache. Away from it all. It actually passed through not too far from our precinct and continued northeast for several hundred miles. I watched the orange glow of the sun cast its eerie glimmer along the sand dunes and abandoned festival rides. Their metal hinges and swings creaked in the wind.

  Something else was creaking. The strain on the metal wire from the heat and weight of the concrete blocks had weakened its resilience and it was starting to fray. I felt my hands slipping before my sharp tug on the cord sent a rush of cold damp air over me as I fell. I grappled with the metal wire with my gloved hands but could not gain traction. It was too damp. That's odd. I felt my hands lose their grip completely. I could see the orange glow of the sun peaking through the slit in the earth's surface, which was quickly shrinking as my body plummeted. The farther I fell, the colder it got. Here I come, death. Open your arms and embrace me. I've finally arrived.

  I felt a searing jolt of electricity fire through my ankle and up my leg. I heard a pop and cried out in pain before the air was sucked right out of me. The wall had caught my tumble. As my consciousness faded, and a new permanent darkness swept into my soul, the glow of the sun far above was merely a speck in the distance. After all these years, this was how I would die. Perfect, I thought. I'm ready for the next journey.