Benjamin Wray - Acid Reign - Genesis

Ripp just smiled to himself as he went back to checking the information from the contract.

Bean tapped the window again and tried to open the door one more time. Gus mouthed a huge “what” at her.

She was confused at why the door wasn’t opening, so she got right next to the small window and screamed.

There was still no way of hearing her clearly but Gus waved and smiled. That seemed to do the job as she put her hands together in a praying manner and stepped away.

“You done flirting?” Ripp teased.

“Seriously?” Gus shot back.

Ripp smiled.

Gus started to reverse again just as an alarm went off alerting them that someone was standing in their path.

“She isn’t moving,” Gus said, with growing irritation.

“Just run her over.”

“She really is an idiot, but I couldn’t do that.”

Gus reversed slowly, and then inched forward, then backward, then forward and backward again trying to get a wide enough gap to escape the torturous predicament.

“I’m losing it,” Gus cried.

“Told you to just run her over.”

“Stop saying that, ’cuz I’m gonna do it.”

Just as Gus was about to push on the accelerator, Bean moved to the left enough for Gus to have his opening. They were finally free.

Bean came into view as they pulled away. Gus tried to remind himself of all the help she had given the three of them over the years, and felt horrible at the thought of how close he was to running her over.

Lilly watched the whole scene play out from Bean’s rickshaw and couldn’t stop laughing. There was finally a gap between Bean and the metal wall, and Gus took it.

The transport disappeared into the rust colored dust clouds that always hung out just outside the East Port’s gate. It was like a portal into another dimension, leading to a violent, cold, unpredictable world that Lilly longed to be in.

Bean came charging over and hopped on the bike part of the rickshaw. “Love those two,” Bean said with a confusing sadness in her voice. “Okay, now. Let’s be on our way.”

“Can’t wait.”

“I’m hungry, how about you?”

Lilly knew what was coming next and followed along silently with her mouth as she rolled her eyes.

“I know a good place. Best dog in Nucrea.”

She said the same thing every time they were together. Bean burst out in laughter as the rickshaw jerked forward. Lilly’s face twisted as her courtesy laugh was cut short. She desperately grabbed for her bandana and quickly covered her nose and mouth as air rushed over Bean’s body and gathered inside the rickshaw’s cab. The malodorous wind swirled, and tossed Lilly’s hair, reminding her that she would be directly behind Bean for the duration of the ride.

William checked the fiber-optic connections and compared readings on the displays. Satisfied, he unplugged them. The displays flickered, but remained connected. Vitals, brain activity, and a seemingly endless display of numbers and DNA strands filled the screens.

The man on the chair was unconscious this time. There was no need to create the same diversion he had with Amon. Yeong had caught on to the attempts to delay the project and had given him an ultimatum that he couldn’t ignore. He had to make it work, at least until the Catalyst could find another way to get his family safe.

William set a tablet on the small white table and activated a 3D hologram of a DNA strand. He studied it for a moment, took some notes, then typed in a command on a virtual keyboard. The DNA strand separated and a second appeared. He manipulated the first and combined it with the second, then immediately shut down the hologram display as if it had been some horrible scene of carnage.

It was too late to be a martyr. He was now responsible for the enslavement of the last people on earth. The beep of the keypad shook him from his self-loathing.

A soldier, whose face was completely covered with a tactical mask, opened the sliding door. He looked quickly down the hall and stepped inside the chamber.

William relaxed when the soldier pulled a small piece of folded paper from a pocket on his vest and handed it to him. He quickly read it, pulled a small piece of paper from his own uniform and gave both of them to the soldier.

“Make sure she gets this today,” William pleaded.

“I will.”

“Please, it has to be today.”

The soldier turned to leave then paused. “William?”

“Yeah?”

“We’ll get you out,” the soldier whispered.

William nodded.

“Just make sure you keep your end of the deal,” the soldier added.

William stared into nothing as the door closed. He didn’t know how to feel. He thought that his life and his family’s would be a fair trade for humanity’s future, but he couldn’t help but feel hope that the plan would still work. For now, it was done, the data and equipment worked, and Yeong had his neural implants. There was only one chance to stop all of this. It was a long shot, but something had to be done.

Gus navigated the heavy transport along the broken highways of the Fringe with ease. His nervous attention to every detail of the terrain and the worry of everything that could go wrong usually made for as smooth a ride as possible.

Lights on one of the launchers Gus had mounted before they left lit up as a burst of air drove one of the sensors into the ground. The monitors in the cab flickered, then pinged, displaying movement three hundred yards behind them.

“You called it,” Gus said as he hit Ripp in the arm.

“I think we should stop by the ’ol waterpark.”

Gus looked over at Ripp.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“How far do you think it is?”

“Up ahead. You think it’s another runner?”

“No. Whoever it is, I’m sure it has something to do with those soldiers from the other day.”

After a couple of miles, Gus turned off the main road and passed by a faded sign that read, North Clackamas Water Park .

Four Nucrean soldiers were crammed inside a transport. They all fell into each other as the vehicle hit a big pothole.

“Shit, private! Those dark spots on the grid are holes,” the captain said as he maneuvered back into his seat. “So avoid them.”

“Sorry, Sir.”

“Private Allen tries to hit as many holes as he can sir,” Private Gray said.

The group laughed.

Allen looked down at the grid and saw that Ripp and Gus had changed direction. “Cap. Targets changed direction. Headed east, north-east. Orders?”

“Well, soldier, follow them.”

“Sir.”

The captain noticed the tension and anxiety building in the young soldier, and remembered his first time in the Fringe.

“Take a deep breath and relax. Just keep following, go where they go, and stop when they stop. Just not right next to them. Copy?”

“Sir,” Allen said with renewed confidence.

“And Private?”

“Sir?”

“Watch the holes,” the captain said with a smile.

“Sir.”

Private Gray sat back in his seat and looked over at Corporal Alvarez, who was staring out of the small window in the rear door.

Alvarez had been out in the Fringe a handful of times with his father, but never this far. He watched the terrain change from a smooth level road with barren tundra on either side to a cityscape of destruction.

“Doesn’t feel right.”

“The Fringe never feels right, Corporal,” said the captain with a reassuring tone.

Alvarez saw old transports that were piles of rusted metal and shredded fiberglass. Most buildings had been reduced to rubble, but there were a few scattered that held their frames. Surprisingly, a couple of buildings looked intact. Those were the vaults of the Runners. Alvarez wanted to be a Runner before he joined the Nucrean Guard. He still dreamed of what it would be like to walk around the floors of one of these buildings, stepping through a portal into another time.