Crashland – Chapter 13

His hands worked in tandem now, one over the other, over the other. His feet shuffled sideways, his right hip having seized up and making it nearly impossible to walk in a straight line anymore. He kept his head craned to the left, keeping the green light in his line of sight. His steps were interminably short, but he could see them getting closer. Rattling around in his field of vision, the green lights formed wild streaks.

Though it was hard to tell, the lights appeared to be growing dimmer. He felt his chest getting heavy too, his breathing getting labored and his heart pounding in his ears. All outside noise faded as this alone consumed his attention.

“Oh no.” He slowed his pace and put a hand to his stomach. He could feel a terribly sick feeling there, biting pain and a slew of warmth that felt unnatural. There was even a lump beginning to form there as well, one that was very sensitive to the touch.

“Oh hell.”

His cauterized wounds were opening inside of him. Unless he got to help soon, he would bleed out in a few minutes. The knowledge brought his feet to a complete stop. His hip hit the wall and he could feel himself sliding down the floor a second later. Despite the warm surge in his stomach, he was beginning to feel very cold.

His eyes settled on the green glow again, what would have been his salvation. A tired, broken laugh escaped his lips. How could they have left him behind? Was that Simon’s life somehow more important than his? He should have guessed as much. Simon was intrinsic to their plans to reboot the system. He was just being kept on as an outside advisor.

That made him laugh too. How strange was it that he had chanced upon them entirely by accident? And how comical was it that he had lost them now? How could he not laugh at such circumstances? In reality, he had lost nothing by being left behind. If anything, he was right back to where he was, dying alone in the cold, cold night.

And the green lights continued to dance. Waves and waves of energy streaking across his darkening field of view…

*               *               *

And then, there were fields of data flowing. Blue numbers against the cold black background. The last vestiges of the worldwide network being breathed back to life. The green light grew too, extending its tentacles to the grids of numbers and multiplying them further. Holden watched and felt something he hadn’t in some time. The blackout that had followed the Crash seemed to be in the process of reversing, and he was bearing witness to the whole thing.

Was he witnessing the salvation of the entire system, or was this just some cruel, taunting vision? How could this be happening now? He had no way of knowing.

And just like that, the piercing lights blinked out. At all corners of his vision, things began to grow warm and bright again. He could feel it spreading through him. After days of night, the sun was rising once again. He could see fields of green spreading out before him, landscapes dotted with trees, entire fields of tall grainy, stocks.

“Oh… not again.” A quick look around confirmed his worst fears. He was flanked by buildings, wooden panels painted in red. Grey cement lining the foundation of the walls. He was back on the farm, just outside of where he had witnessed the terrible bloodbath.

He set his small boots into the muddy, hay strewn earth at his feet. He could feel the presence of others, specters of men moving about doing things unseen.

“Son,” a benevolent voice said from beside him. He recognized it and grew afraid. “You mustn’t dottle out here. You’re needed elsewhere.”

He breathed heavily and felt words that were not quite his own leave his lips.

“Where father?”

The man knelt down next to him, his hand over Holden’s shoulder. He pointed off in the distance, to a far point in the field. Holden followed the line of his finger to see where he was indicating. But in the strange, glowing light, all he could see was a swaying field of sameness. Golden-brown, and not much else.

“I don’t see anything…”

“There,” he father said with emphasis. He strained harder to see what he was pointing to. There, amidst the tall grasses, moving like a snake in the grass… He could see it, but mainly because of the absence it was creating around it. Wherever it passed, the stalks fell apart and became an emptiness in an otherwise full field. And just as quickly, the absences disappeared, sealing shut behind the intruder that caused it.

“What is it?”

There was no answer. His father’s hand tightened on his shoulder and he felt the other take him by the bicep. He was spun around a second later, the face staring into him not his father’s or any he recognized. It was barely even human.

It’s right eye was entirely synthetic, the gold scrawling on the inside indicating the company name. He recognized it… The jawline was fixed in a way that looked entirely artificial, the metal insets at the side indicating that it was surely loaded with implants. He barely had enough time to take it all in and grow afraid when it began to speak to him.

“You know…” it said, the voice crackling and synthetic. “Only you can find them.”

“Them?” he asked, looking back to the field. All he saw was the one disturbance, no others. But the stranger insisted.

“They are out there, William. Only you can find them. You have to stop them.”

He felt the words insinuate themselves into his mind. He could feel the truth of it, the knowledge that whatever was out there was dangerous and well hidden. He couldn’t see how he could stop it, whatever it was, or why he would want to try. But he knew the man meant what he said.

Something else came into his mind just then. Three people, their faces appearing in his mind and stirring up curious feelings. Marta, Jana, and Robert. He knew these people, could feel that they knew him too. Where were they? Why was he thinking of them now? Did he need to find them too? Did he need to find them first? Was that what he was thinking?

“Do not let that distract you,” the stranger said, as if sensing his thoughts. “You cannot help them now. You must focus your thoughts on finding them and ending them.”

A wave of cold struck him. He looked the stranger directly in his one human eye. “What do you mean?” Something about what he’d just been told made him angry, he couldn’t be sure why. “What did you mean by that?”

“You need to move, William. You need to keep moving.”

“What did you mean?!”

*               *               *

“William! William, wake up!”

Holden’s eyes snapped open. Green light flooded in, and something terrible that was growing around him.

“C’mon, William!”

He looked up at the source of the noise, the direction of the hand that was shoving his shoulder. Jacobs was looking down at him, something terrible burning in his eyes. Green glinted off of gold there, something terribly familiar about that.

“What… what’s happening?”

Jacobs didn’t reply. Reaching out with his left arm, he grabbed him beneath the elbow and yanked hard. Holden felt himself being thrown to his feet.

“C’mon! We need to get out of here!”

Holden fell onto Jacobs shoulder and began shuffling his feet forward. Their momentum was entirely due to Jacobs, he simply did his best not to stumble and fall flat. Holden could scarcely believe it. They seemed to be gliding over the ground with terrible ease. Were he awake enough to appreciate the situation, he might suspect that Jacobs had some physical enhancements he wasn’t aware of.

“C’mon, William! We’re almost there!”

He could sense where they were moving. The path he had been tracing seemed to be only partly correct. Proceeding perpendicularly from the green lights, they headed into the dark, a hole darker than the rest opening up before them.

“Steps!” Jacobs yelled. He realized what he meant a second later when his feet began to kick the stoops of the mounting stairs. He pulled them up as quickly as he could, but the effort was causing him pain and slowing them down.

“Were almost there,” Jacobs said.

“I can’t…”

“Yes, you can, William. Just a little bit further.”

It took all he had left, but he managed to get his feet up and over the stoops a few more times. All the pain, all the added strain Jacobs was feeling having to push them along. But in time, he was rewarded when the last step came and no others seemed to follow. Holden was hoisted over this last one just as the noise behind grew into a crescendo. He felt Jacobs arms break free of him, as if he had been tossed. His legs fell out from under him and he felt cold stone come up to reach his face a second later. His stomach wailed at him. He had landed hard.

“Jacobs…” he moaned. He rolled to his side. A strange, grainy texture seemed to moving against his skin. Many hands descended to meet him.

“Jacobs!” he repeated louder. The hands seemed to be repositioning him, and when he looked back to where he had come from, he saw that the stairs had caved in. Dust and debris had been thrown everywhere behind him. His heart sunk when he realized the last of it. It wasn’t Jacobs who had hurled him forward, it had been the cave in itself. Lying at the mouth of the stairs, Jacobs body was strewn out and bleeding. Whatever had thrown him free had taken him full on in the back.

“Oh God, no…”

“Take er easy,” a new voice said. “You’ve been through hell just now but you’ll be fine.”

“He better damn well be, after Jay went back for him.”

“Shut up, we already lost one!”

Holden eyes drifted shut, the last words barely registering. In his state and with all that had happened in the last few minutes – or could it have been hours? – not much making sense to him. What had just happened? What had he seen before Jacobs pulled him out? All he knew was that someone had died, and strangely, he might at last be joining them soon…