James Decker - Fallout

“The world is going to die?” I asked. I wasn’t even really asking him. I was just trying to get my head around it.

“Well,” he said, drawing the word out. “That’s what the haan insist, anyway. I haven’t been able to prove it one way or the other.”

“So it might all be bullshit?”

He threw up his hands in mock dismay. “Who knows? It certainly could be true, but then, you know how the haan can be sometimes.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I do.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, licking juice from his palm. “Either way, it won’t matter anymore. You are right, you know, in that the foreigners who are outside the haan’s field of influence can see the haan, and what you call the haanyo ng, the duplicates or changelings, as they truly are. The rate of their spread frightens them, and they won’t let it continue much longer, defense shield or no.”

“Then how does exposing the haan in Hangfei help them? Won’t that make it worse?”

“It will make things much worse for the haan,” he said. “I need things to get much worse for them. Without letting them, or LeiFang know, I need them to become so threatened, so frightened, that they will do something they otherwise wouldn’t attempt.”

I opened my mouth to ask what, when it clicked into place, and I felt the color drain from my face.

The cathedral houses Rapture. All I know is it will let the haan wipe us out. I believe it. So does Gohan.

“What? What is he going to do?”

“I don’t know for sure, just that it’s bad, and he needs the haan to help him do it.”

Rapture, the weapon. Rapture, which meant the second coming of a god. A machine that had come from Shiliuyuán, the haan facility that had attempted to open a gate to our world from theirs, and pulled us through.

“…prepare for Second Impact.”

And I understood, then. I finally understood.

“You’re going to cause another Impact.”

Gohan smiled, broadly that time, pleased.

“Yes. You see, as elegant as the haan’s solution is, I don’t believe they should have to sacrifice themselves in that way.”

“Sacrifice themselves?” I said. “What about us?”

“They’d go extinct, more or less. The form of haan that remained would be a sort of hybrid, a shadow of the original, and we’d be gone too, either way. They don’t deserve that, so I’m going to give them a little push toward a different alternative.”

“Rapture,” I said.

“They wouldn’t be so foolish as to leave control of such a device in the hands of a human,” he said. “I’m not going to cause the Impact myself. They are. Once they realize it’s their only option.”

“That’s impossible,” I said, my voice weak.

“Is it?”

Could it be true? Could Gohan have truly provided the haan with the resources to build some kind of machine, some kind of gate, the same kind that had caused the first Impact?

Part of my mind rebelled against the idea, but at the same time, part of me believed it. All that money being moved into Xinzhongzi… the residents bought or forced out, and the security wall going up around it. The way the colony had stayed lit, even while the district surrounding it fell into blackout. The presence of a new electrical substation parked right next to the gonzo HQ…

“Their world is gone,” I said. “You can’t bring it back.”

“No,” he agreed, “but this one can be overwritten with one much more similar to the one they came from.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“The possibilities are infinite. It’s not bullshit at all.”

I stood up, my legs a little unsure. When I spoke, I heard hysteria in my own voice.

“But you’re talking about wiping out—”

“What? This world? All of its glorious accomplishments?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. “A long history of violence, oppression, and brutality that looked like it might one day produce an enlightened society but never quite did? What they lost… it’s what we failed to become. Wouldn’t you rather be a part of that than this?”

“If all this is true,” I asked, “then what do you want from me?”

“You are special,” Gohan said. “You were touched by the haan in a way no other human has been, not even me. I want to know what you know, what you learned when they took you. I want you to be there in the one piece of our world that will remain when this is over, and I want you to be part of it when we, the chosen, are evolved to join them in their glory.”

“You’re nuts,” I said. “You’re completely nuts.”

“I want to know why they chose you,” he said. “I need to know how to get them to—”

The lights in the train car flickered, and went out.

The train slowed, continuing on through its own momentum for several seconds before stopping completely. Then, with a pop, the car doors squeaked open a hand’s width.

“Another power failure,” Gohan said in the dark. “Stay put, I’ll get a flashlight.”

I heard him move, groping around for a moment. Then a light blinked on, and I saw him, the glow creating deep shadows in the contours of his plastic face.

“There,” he said. “Now I’m sure if we just—”

I snatched the flashlight from his hand, rising up out of my seat.

“Hey!”

I lunged for him, and pulled his badge from his belt. The clip popped free as he struggled to get out from behind the table, but by then I’d reached the nearest set of doors and pulled them the rest of the way open.

“Shit,” Gohan hissed, then shouted, “Stop her!” I jumped out into the tunnel, shining the flashlight beam back toward the rear cars.

“Vamp! Nix! Come on, hurry!” I called.

Two cars down, I heard a struggle, then something clatter and turned the flashlight to see Vamp and Nix hopping down into the tunnel with me.

“That way,” I said, pointing, “we just keep going in the direction the train was headed, the platform has to be somewhere up ahead.”

“Hold it!” a man barked, and I turned to see the beam of a flashlight move inside the train car. It turned at the door, passing in over Nix and casting a shadow on the tunnel wall. For a second, the shadow appeared as a tall, shapeless heap as the field hitched; then the beam jerked away suddenly as the flashlight fell to the floor. A man, one of the two suited men who’d been with Gohan, flew through the open car door and smashed into the concrete wall. His body stuck there, legs dangling like he’d been pinned through the back. Then something I couldn’t see moved away from him and he fell down onto the tracks.

Nix picked up the flashlight and stepped out into the tunnel. His eyes glowed softly in the dark but, I noticed, didn’t seem to throw any light.

I knelt down and took the pistol from the man’s hand. In the glow of the flashlight, I could see blood leaking from his mouth and nose but he looked to be still breathing. I reached down to check his pulse when a voice shouted from behind me.

“Wait!”

I spun around to see Gohan step off the train. He had taken a step toward me when Vamp threw a punch that knocked him down onto his knees. As he struggled to get up, Vamp jabbed him with a stun gun he must have taken off one of the guards. Gohan shook as the charge hit him, then flopped forward onto his chest.

“How many more are on the train?” I asked.

“I think just the one other guy,” Vamp said. “I took care of him.”

“Okay,” I said. “Come on, we have to get to the Xinzhongzi tower. We need to get Alexei and get him out of there. Gohan’s been playing us this whole time.”

“Playing us how?”

“Nix, he implied he was going to try for a Second Impact. Could that be possible?”