Wasteland: Rebirth, page 13
Work has been temporarily suspended in all of Eretria due to yesterday’s incident. Once we’ve determined there isn’t another Keon hiding, Waller will give the all-clear for life to resume to normal. The building is only one story high, though Jax states that there are three floors below the surface. There isn’t any security posted around the facility, so we’re able to go right up to the front door. Jax enters in a code on the keypad then has to go through a retinal scan before we’re allowed entry.
The lift is immediately to our right upon entry. Jax enters another code and we descend to the bottom floor. Before we’re allowed to exit the lift, we have to place specialized suits on, to prevent any kind of outside contamination or static from being transferred into the lab. We pass through a clean room where we’re blown with some kind of dust. Luckily the suits come with face shields, so nothing adheres to our skin or gets in our eyes.
The area we need is on the other side of the floor. Jax takes the gem and submits it to a cleansing serum while Neo and I grab stools. This process takes several minutes, after which the gem is removed and placed into a small tray and slid under a microscope. The face shield makes it difficult for Jax to get close to the eyepiece, but he manages.
“Looks like the gem is just a shell. I’ll need to remove it to get to the transmitter inside,” he says, leaning back in his seat.
“How long will that take?” Neo asks.
“Just a few minutes.”
Jax leaves the table and returns with a small grinder and tweezers. He works slowly for the next ten minutes, trying not to damage the component inside. It takes longer than he had expected, but he manages to crack the side, and expands the opening just enough to pull the transmitter out with the tweezers. He places the device onto another tray and directs us back to the lift. We discard our outfits before getting on board and ascending to the floor above. This level is segregated into different rooms, but all contain the same equipment. We take the first room we pass. Jax asks me to turn on the monitor on the far wall while he has Neo call up a radar image of Eretria.
Jax places the tray on a counter against the far wall, flips on the display in front of him, connects two electrodes to the transmitter, and begins to look for its frequency. It takes almost an hour to find it. Jax rattles off the frequency sequence to Neo, who inputs it. The only blip showing on the screen is ours. There aren’t any other Keons in Eretria. I have Neo expand the range to include Sirain. Seven dots flicker in one location, and two are several miles north from the rest. From what I can tell, they’re all in the Wasteland.
“Can we get this saved?” I ask.
“Give me a few minutes. I’ll go into another room and program this into a tablet. You’ll be able to take it with you into Sirain and always have a current visual on them.” Jax leaves the room.
“What do you think?” Neo asks, zooming into the red flashes.
“I wish I knew more about the Wasteland and what’s actually there. I’ve never seen it for myself. Only heard stories and conjecture about it.”
“There is one person who’s been there.”
“You really want Artemis with us? He’s more trouble than he’s worth.”
“Of course not. We can just ask him about it.”
Jax returns with the display. I turn it on, checking to make sure it matches up with what’s on the screen in front of us. Three of the Keons are moving away from the main group, heading east, both showing simultaneously on the two devices.
“What are you going to do with that?” Neo asks, pointing to the transmitter in Jax’s hands.
“Waller wants this secured in the vaults in the basement. Nothing can penetrate the steel, so no one will ever know it’s there.”
He tells us to wait by the entrance while he takes care of the transmitter, then we walk back to our residence. Lark wants to go, but Grainne wants her to stay. I agree with Grainne as she’ll be more comfortable having a woman around. Rove leaves to get the airship ready. Jax and Hunter pack up some provisions, while Neo and I talk to Artemis.
“The Wasteland is populated more towards the Tyrean side,” he says. “There really isn’t any place to take shelter. Structures from the previous society would’ve been destroyed long ago. The place is crawling with Collectors, so be on the lookout for them.”
“How will we know if someone is a Collector?” Neo asks.
“You won’t. Just watch your back. If they see an aerial unit land, they’ll be on you quickly, trying to steal it. I’d stay away from anything that looks inhabited. You don’t know who is living there. Most people in the Wasteland try to keep to themselves, but not all.”
“I want to go,” Grainne says as I sling a pack over my shoulder.
“It’s not a good idea. We don’t know what kind of condition Trea will be in.”
“She’ll know me,” Grainne says as Neo and I walk towards the door. “She’ll recognize me from the message. You have to let me go.”
“No, Grainne, you’re not coming,” I say sternly.
I hug her, kiss the top of her head, and tell her I’ll see her in a couple of days.
I just hope I’m not lying to her.
Chapter 10
Andred/Trea
The minute we’re back at the Letchworth, we go to bed, but I can’t sleep. I’m tempted to sneak into the closet to look over the tablet, but with Reider keeping an eye on me, it won’t be possible. At the moment, he’s holding onto my hand tightly, so I can’t even roll over and try to get comfortable. Commander Caderyn won’t be going with us tomorrow as he’s recovering from his injuries, so Reider has been designated the leader.
I’m the more experienced Antaean, so why is he put in charge and not me?
We’re woken up at first light by a dozen Tyrean soldiers. We each re-pack the duffle bags used when we left the Acheron Barracks. While we eat breakfast, I think about taking the tablet and transmitter; along with a couple of cameras. Just as we’re about to board the lift, I tell everyone that I forgot something, go back to my room, and clean out the vent, stuffing everything towards the bottom of the bag.
The soldiers escort us all the way to the outskirts of the city. The ten of us, along with five of the soldiers, are divided between an army vehicle and an airship. Reider insists that I go with him in the aerial unit. I agree, only because I don’t want an argument to draw unwanted attention. Laith is placed in charge of the crew in the vehicle.
We take off a few minutes before the rest, scouting for a safe place to land in the Wasteland. Reider looks at the display in his hands that shows the exact location of the Keons. One looks to be extremely far north of Sirain, which seems rather odd, but our main focus are the ones currently in the Wasteland.
I sit close to one of the windows and look out, but all I see is sand, boulders, and the occasional mountain. We pass over sporadic dwellings that have been long been abandoned. The pilot makes sure not to go over any area where the Keons are indicated. He doesn’t want them to know we’re moving into the area. Two hours into our flight, I notice a barn with a dilapidated roof near a home that looks unoccupied. I point it out to Reider. The pilot does a quick aerial sweep, then lands several hundred meters from the structures. The soldiers are the first to depart, checking for any inhabitants. Once they give the all-clear, the rest of us exit, heading to the main house. The pilot radios to the transport advising them of our coordinates.
The front porch is covered in sand, blown up the stoop, almost burying the steps leading up to the entrance. The wooden door swings open, its hinges barely able to support the weight. The place is completely dark inside. The windows are covered in heavy drapes, preventing any sunlight from entering. The interior vaguely resembles a home, but significantly modified. Several walls are missing. Only jagged remnants exist where they once stood. The floor is made of worn hardwood, scratched beyond repair. The walls are covered in peeling floral wallpaper. Derelict furniture lies scattered about. A couple of couches surround a broken coffee table along the far right wall. To our left is a bar with tarnished brass rails running the length of it, and dust-covered liquor bottles line the wall.
“I wonder who lived here,” Reider says, picking up a discarded blanket from the floor.
I find myself biting my tongue for fear of blurting something out. An odd sensation floods my body. I feel like I’ve been here before. I step away from the others and walk through a door on the left. Planks cover a gaping hole in the floor, so I use them to cross and make my way into a storeroom on the right. Shelves fill the room, their contents long outdated. Two very distinct symbols are on the sides of a couple of the empty boxes. One is a black bull standing on a red cape attached around the neck of a man who is being crushed by the bull’s hooves. The other is a bird with gold feathers against a blue background.
“Acheron,” I whisper, touching the bird emblem.
“Hey,” Reider says behind me, causing me to jump. “I thought you’d gotten lost.” He walks the room, peeking into a few crates. “Come on, this building isn’t safe. We’re moving over to the barn.”
I follow him, but pause when I’m on the planks. I look down and know instinctively that food was kept there. I shake my head at the memory, meet up with everyone in the front room, and we head over to the barn. The roof has an enormous hole, but at least it lets in sunlight so we can see. To pass the time until the transport arrives, we go through the weapons we have on board. Reider and I spend several minutes taking the safety features off the Levin guns and a couple of rifles. Several of the Antaeans object to the modifications, but I tell them it’s necessary. I look over the rest of the armaments, trying to see if any of them can be modified, and work on making adjustments to several Ammits, a weapon that shoots out cords that wrap around your target. I disable the ability to merely shock the captive. One jolt from the Ammits will now kill instantly.
Reider takes the soldiers and work on plans to attack the Keons. When I return to the barn, they’re arguing about what time of day would be best to launch our assault. Reider wants to do it during the night, but the majority of them are protesting, stating that there isn’t any way to see what we’re doing or where we’re going.
“Look,” Reider begins, clearly becoming frustrated, “there are a couple of Keons south of here.” He points to the tablet he has sitting on a hay bale. “We can take them out tonight, then figure out the rest later.”
A few agree with the plan, but to me it sounds incomplete. We should have a step by step procedure for attacking each location, not just play it by ear. Again, I begin second-guessing the Premier’s choice in having Reider lead this raid.
The transport arrives just as the sun is setting. We have to use floodlights on the roof of the vehicle in order to see anything. We eat a small meal, and those of us going tonight gather by the airship. Reider doesn’t want to take the transport since it will be too loud and could give us away. Also, we would need the lights on to drive, where as we can use the radar on the airship. I move some of the modified weapons from the aerial unit to the transport.
We climb aboard several hours after the sun has set: Reider, myself, and another Antaean, along with two soldiers, which includes our pilot.
Reider sits up front, transferring the Keons’ location from the tablet into the tracking system of the airship. It doesn’t take us long to get to their location, but there isn’t any place to land. We back track a little and set down near several large boulders. We group around the rocks, weapons secured around our shoulders. Reider looks through a pair of binoculars, then passes them to me. The three Keons are camped around a dying fire behind a burnt out home, sleeping. I change my focus from them to the house. Much of the main floor has collapsed into a basement. There’s a rut in the ground leading away from the foundation of the home, up a small incline, and to an opening in the ground. Much of the channel has buckled, but remains intact a few yards behind the opening.
A tunnel? An escape route?
I hand the binoculars back to Reider, who signals for us to follow him. We walk down the hill and then head east, away from the structure. We split up into three groups: Reider and me, the other Antaean with the soldier, and the pilot by himself. We turn south to get in line with the house, and then move west. Reider and I are flanking the north side. When we’re approximately a mile from the house I notice a detonator cemented alongside a rock wall, but it’s not activated. I point it out to Reider. He nods, but continues to walk forward, his weapon aimed in front of him. I bend down to examine it further.
Who would put a detonator way out in the middle of nowhere?
I stand up, and turn towards the direction we just came from. “Five miles in five minutes,” echoes in my head. I can see myself running a course, rounding the rock wall and boulders, trying to make it back to the house in time. An older man standing, waiting for me with a pitcher of water. “Again,” he says when I reach him.
Sounds of gunfire bring me out of my trance. I run towards the others. The three Keons are dead, and never got a shot off. Reider removes the tablet from a pack on his back and checks the trackers to see if Ojor is among the dead. He’s not. We each remove a torch from our packs and scour the area looking for anything that might tell us more about them. While the others search the back of the house, I make my way around to the front. A water tank sits along the south end of the property along with a storage shed. I open the shed, hoping to find something, but it’s empty. I go and stand in front of the house. I can picture what it looked like before the fire. I close my eyes, trying to focus on voices from ghosts.
“Meg, get up…Collectors will be here.”
I can still smell the smoke, see the flames, and the face of the man from my long lost dreams. The man who saved me that night.
“Andred,” my name reverberates through the night. “Andred, where are you?” Reider and the pilot round the corner. “Why did you disappear?” Reider asks, walking up to me at a slow pace. I wonder why he’s approaching me cautiously when I notice the raised Levin gun in my hand, aimed at him. The pilot raises his weapon in my direction, but I don’t lower mine. “What’s the matter, Andred? You look scared.”
I want to say something, but nothing is coming to mind. I know this place. This was my home, my refuge.
Refuge? No wait, the other location is the Refuge. But how do I know that?
I finally find my voice. “Why didn’t the Premier put me in charge of this mission?”
Reider stops his approach. “Is that what this is all about? You’re jealous that he made me the leader? Andred, look at yourself, you’re not thinking rationally. Your mind is still too fragmented that we can’t trust you to be in control.” He begins to step forward, but I don’t drop the weapon. “Put the gun down and we’ll discuss it.”
I ponder my next move. I feel split in two. Part of me wants to surrender since I’m not acting normal, but the other part wants to fight.
What is still bothering me? Why am I acting like this? I’m just like Reider, yet I’m not. How I wish this would all just go away.
Reider turns towards the pilot and nods. He fires his weapon at me. A Cruor Burst strikes me in the chest and I collapse to the ground. Reider is on top of me in seconds, jamming a needle into by bicep. My brain scrambles and everything distorts. I feel another pinch and I can no longer focus. I hear voices, but can’t make out what they’re saying. A device is placed over my head, covering my eyes and inserting something into my ears. A high-pitched tone rings followed by excruciating pain that radiates through my entire body. I scream until my throat is raw, then pass out.
When I wake, I’m in the transport, but we’re no longer at our previous location. Reider is the only one with me. My head hurts and I feel groggy.
“What happened?” I ask, sitting up.
“You had a violent episode. You acted as if you didn’t know who I was. I had to sedate you. You’ve been out for a little over twelve hours.”
“Why aren’t we at the barn?”
“We had to change locations. We’re closer to the final set of Keons. The Premier wanted us to get moving as quickly as possible to the next site once we told him about our raid.”
“How many are left?”
“Six. There were seven, but the one we had spotted north of Sirain is no longer there.”
I wonder how a Keon was able to get that far north.
Reider helps me to my feet and we exit the vehicle. Everyone is sitting around an extinguished fire, eating. I eat what I can, as I’m starving. We’re stopped in the middle of the desert, with nothing around us except cacti and rocks. While I was sleeping, Laith was designated to lead the next raid. The Keons are three miles east of our location and haven’t moved in a couple of hours. Since there are six left, Laith wants us all to go. The Antaeans will do the engaging, while the soldiers wait by the transports.
This time, we aren’t waiting for nightfall. Laith wants to attack in the early afternoon. Reider argues with her that it’s not wise, but she’s not backing down on her choice. We take a look at our weapons, making sure everyone understands how to use them, especially the Ammits since this was never demonstrated to them at the Barracks.
A mile away from the Keons known location, we break into two groups. Laith’s group heads north, while ours heads south. We go half a mile, then head east again, flanking the group. We stop when we’re close to their signal. Reider tells us to remain in our positions as we’re only there to back up Laith’s team. The anxiety is killing me. I hate sitting here and waiting.
“This is taking too long,” I say to Reider as he’s checking the Keons’ position on his tablet.
“Reider,” Laith calls. “You need to see this.”
We meet up with her and her team in the center of an old homestead. Piles of lumber stacked along a makeshift fence. The only thing left of the house is its frame and concrete foundation. In the center is a fire pit, charred logs neatly stacked. In the midst of the ash is a tarnished gem. I pick it up, rubbing the soot off, reveling its red color. Laith and Reider dig out the remaining five.
