E.N.D.A.Y.S. (13 page)

1 hour to the end of the world.

Campbell stood in front of the screens on the ground floor of the EDC. Agents and analysts from every department filled the floor, lined up along the rails of the three floors flanking him on either side. The speech he had assembled them for was unprecedented. Even with only an hour left on the clock, never had the head of Endays brought his entire staff together for last words. Each of them still had fight, believed that until the clock hit zero there was still a chance of averting disaster. But for once, their fearless, stony leader seemed to think there was no hope for survival.

“This is a dark time.” Campbell said, his words ringing out from speakers in the walls around the room. “It is always a dark time, within these walls. That's our job, that's why each of you are here. We have dedicated our lives to bearing the burden of those dark times, doing whatever it takes, through the most impossible of situations, to ensure our reality survives. That our loved ones survive. That our friends survive, our families, our neighbours. It has been our purpose to give every man, woman and child a chance, one more day, then another day, and another. Because one more day can be like a lifetime, if it is truly appreciated. And whilst our efforts go unnoticed by the general population. Whilst we hide in the shadows, work behind the scenes tirelessly to give them those extra days, those scant moments add to a lifetime. In your time here, in all our time here, we have seen the population of the world rise. We have enabled over seven billion souls to live those extra days, never knowing how often, nor how close they have come to annihilation.”

The crowd murmured. Nobody present could have ever imagined hearing this speech, the speech that declared they had failed, that their world was truly about to end.

“We have had
more
than a good run.” Campbell continued, his eyes scanning the crowd. “In the centuries this organization has been in existence, we have staved off
hundreds
of cataclysmic events, given the world decades upon decades of extra time. Allowed lives to be lived, friendship and love to persevere, assured that none of those billions of innocent people knew that destruction was only footsteps from our door.” He took a moment, a breath, eyes falling to the floor.

“But annihilation is once more knocking. And this time, I fear, it will not turn from our door, will not be delayed or deposed.” his gaze panned to Hayes, muttering to himself in the glass box across the room, then back to the crowd. Campbell's eyes wandered the sea of faces, being certain to address each one of his people as he spoke, making sure each of them knew they were appreciated.

“You have been the finest men and women I have had the pleasure of serving alongside. Do not take these last minutes as a failure. Do not live your final moments shouldering the burden. As the clock ticks ever closer to the end of our days, live them to the utmost. Hold your loved ones close, relish the world we have kept alive well beyond its due date. If our history has taught us anything, this reality was by no means meant to survive this long. We have been on borrowed time ever since the first Endays event was averted by our founder, hundreds of years that should not have been.”

His eyes averted back to Hayes, still mumbling to himself, certainly not paying attention to the speech. Campbell gritted his teeth, narrowed his eyes, took a breath and returned to his speech.

“As we come to the end of our world, be proud of yourselves, be proud of each and every day you have lived, each and every crisis you have averted. We have, in all this time, worked together to secure a future for our world that should not have been, and our successes are down to each and every one of you. Every victory is shared by us all.”

He turned to the clock above him, ticking down to fifty minutes, sighed, and looked back over his staff.

“I am proud of each and every one of you. Proud of the tireless agents and analysts you have been within these walls, and the dedicated, loving incredible human beings you have been outside them.”

The crowd began to stir, glances back and forth amongst them. Murmurs of queries cycling as to whether anyone had actually seen or interacted with Campbell outside of the EDC.

“You are the finest people I know. And I thank you for your service, for your sacrifices, for your –“

A scream rang out from somewhere in the crowd. Campbell's eyes darted around to find the source.”About fucking time...” he said, as he pushed his way through the crowd on the floor of the hub to find an analyst bent over, cradling their head.

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” the analyst whined, cradling the back of his head in agony as Shay and Carmichael pulled him to his feet.

“Everyone get back to work!” Campbell barked. “We've got a world to save.”

The staff looked around at one another, taking a moment to realise that the grand eulogy had been a ruse, and returned to their stations.

“What took you so long?” he asked Hayes.

“Kali was having lady troubles.” he said, as feedback recoiled through his head.

'Do you want to tie your own lens into a building's sensors, pull the scant fucking remains of a residual jump signal out of a crowd of people
you've
saturated with your bullshit background radiation, write an algorithm that targets the neural pathways of anyone with that signal and sends a feedback loop through to their craniocervical junction?'
He didn't reply, still shaking off the digital screams in his head.
'I fucking thought not.'

“Take him to an interrogation cell.” Campbell instructed.

“Is it still my turn?” Hayes asked.

“If you can get me some fucking results.” Campbell grunted.

“What's your name?” Hayes asked as he took out another blood transfusion kit. The analyst quivered in his chair, hands cuffed behind his back.

“I'll tell you anything you want!” the man said, looking on in terror.

“What's your name...” Hayes asked, poking himself with a needle, attaching another needle to the end of the tube.

“I've only been working for them a few months, they told me they'd look after my family, take us through to another world before... before they end this one.”

“What's you
name
.” Hayes repeated.

“I didn't want to do it, but they said they'd kill my family, make me watch, so it seemed like the only thing I could do... I didn't know what else I could do.”

“You name!” Hayes spat, jabbing the analyst in the back of the neck with the second needle.

“Ow!” he shrieked. “I can tell you what the plan is... They have seven more devices...”

“What. Is. Your. Name.” Hayes repeated, sending his blood on the rollercoaster ride down the tube.

“Martin!” the analyst squealed. “They got me to steal Jump Division specs, smuggle bits of equipment out of storage, eight sets of the same things, so they must have seven devices left, I didn't want to hurt anyone! I just wanted my family to survive!”

The blood hit Martin's veins and began cycling through his body.

“Well, Martin, what's their plan?” Hayes asked.

'Have you been listening to
anything
he's been saying?'
Kali asked.

“Not now, Kali. Grown ups are talking.”

'I know where they are...'
she said.

“What? Already?” Hayes said, scornfully. He glared down at Martin. “I'm coming back when this is all done to torture you good and proper, you hear?” he asked, withdrawing his blood back through the tube to his own body. “I never get to have any fun...” he muttered, leaving the interrogation room.

Hayes returned to the EDC, to find Campbell assembling seven teams of five agents.

“Good work, Mister Hayes. Kali has been filling us in with the location data.”

“What the fuck? Kali, what about filling me in with the data? I'm your guy in the field....”

'California, Glastonbury, Peru, Uluru Kata Australia, Sinai, Germany, Himalayas. You happy?'

“No, you just named seven things, what the fuck?”

'They're where the jump signals were coming from when the singularity opened. They're on ley lines across the planet. Pull on those hard enough, and you can tug the whole reality out into the meta.'

“Right, so what's the plan?” Hayes asked Campbell.

“A team to each location, neutralising the hostiles simultaneously and destroying the devices before they can be activated.” Campbell replied. “Suit up and head to the jump bay.” he instructed.

The teams let out a chorus of “Yessir!” and began making their way out the EDC.

“What about me?” Hayes asked.

“Mister Hayes, this is what we do on a fairly regular basis. Just sit back and let my people do their job.”

“Fucking bullshit...” Hayes muttered, as he watched Campbell make his way back to his office. “Kali, you think these guys can actually do this?”

'Little busy right now, got seven teams to op.'

“You're working for them now?” he asked the ceiling. “What happened to
loyalty
, Kali? I thought
we
were a team!”

'A team? Really?' s
he scoffed.
'You're an idiot  talking to the sky, and I'm your babysitter. Now let me get back to work...'

Hayes glared at the ceiling. He didn't trust anyone doing a job he knew he could do better, plus he hadn't shot anyone for a while, and was getting an itchy trigger finger. He stormed out of the EDC and made his way down to the jump bay. He was going to save the day, whether they wanted his help or not.

Boots stomping to a practised, angry beat, Hayes's strut told everyone to get the fuck out of his way. He rubbed his ring finger and thumb together as he stalked the corridor down to the jump operation room, and flung a burst of kenetic energy at the double doors, flinging them open ahead of him. The single jump operator turned with a start, her big, brown eyes owl-wide behind thick framed glasses.

“Who are you?” she shrieked, leaping from her chair at the console.

“Hayes. I'm the new guy. You and me gonna have a little chat.”

“Can it wait a moment?” she asked, shifting back to the console, nervously. “Just sending the last team out...”

“Fine... hurry up.” Hayes grunted, as she took her seat and activated the jump. “You done?” he asked. She nodded. “Good. You know all about how this jump tech works?” he asked.

“Yes... I guess?” she stammered.

“I got your network in my lens, sat feeds and whatever. Can you plug your jump tech into that?”

“Yes?” she said, hesitantly. “Maybe, I'd need to know more about - - “

“We haven't got time for
maybe
. Your agents are nice and all, but I'm more qualified for the job, y'get me?”

“Maybe, I - -”

“There's that word again.” he sighed. “I need to be on the ground. need to be jumping between seven places on a whim, need to save your damn world because you guys can't be trusted to do what I can do.”

“Ok?” she said, still unsure of whether what he wanted could be done. She began typing at her console frantically.

“Time's ticking...” he said.

“Shut the fuck up!” she screamed, eyes pasted to the screen ahead of her, fingers moving like lighting across the keyboard. “Your bullshit is slowing me the fuck down.”

“The
mouth
on you, woman!” Hayes said, faux shock on his face. “What's your name, honey?”

She picked up a stapler and threw it at his head. “Kali. Now shut the fuck up.”

“I know a Kali...” Hayes mumbled. “You two have a lot in common.”

“She doesn't put up with your bullshit either?” she shot back, reaching for the mug of coffee on her desk and flinging it at him. “I can do this, I think...” she said, going through the logs, observing how Kali jerry-rigged the Endays systems to run through his lens. “But there's a reason jump bays have operators... You need to know this is a
terrible
fucking idea.”

Hayes smiled, a twinkle glimmering in his eyes. “That's why it's going to work...”

30 minutes to the end of the world.

The seven Endays teams were at the seven sites Kali had pulled from the jump data, covertly surveilling the scenes. Each was in tight fitting helmets that covered and protected the majority of their heads and faces. Full body armour coated every scant area of flesh below the chin, head to toe reinforced with Kevlar, that was supposed to be five times stronger than steel. It made their clothes bullet resistant, but not bullet proof. Over each of their chests, a steel plate had been installed underneath the fabric, to double the protection for the internal organs. It made the armour heavy, unwieldy. They could aim and fire, run in semi-robotic motions, but it pulled tight at their chest if they were to attempt to get into the fray and initiate hand-to-hand combat. It was designed and perfected for long range defence, and if all went to plan, they wouldn't have to get within spitting distance of the enemy.

  The teams all reported back to the EDC with visual confirmation of the targets. At every site, groups of ten to fifteen Nth Degree insurgents were standing guard around devices, and the agents waited patiently for the order to engage. The clock was ticking, and they all knew it, but none of them would move a muscle until the order from Campbell came through.

“Clock's ticking sir,” Carmichael whispered into his comm. “Ready when you are.”

Campbell watched the feeds from their helmet cameras. Seven sites, seven groups of targets, all displayed on the large screens at the front of the EDC, with live satellite feeds correlating their positions. Each site a completely contrasting vista.

The first team was at Mount Shasta, California. A perilous snow capped mountain peak. The team was in white camouflage, hiding behind an icy ridge, camera feeds peeking out to keep track of the targets as they prepared to initiate the Endays event.

The second team was made up of five snipers in green and brown camouflage. They lay flat to the ground on a sun-kissed bank of grass around the coast of Isla de la Luna on the Peruvian-Bolivan border of Lake Titicaca. Surrounding them were Incan ruins, thirty foot high walls in three sections, each the colour of a latte. Constructed from misshapen stones that looked like crazy paving built vertically. At the centre of each section was an indent almost twenty feet tall, where an ancient cement-analogue was used to build doorways that were blocked by solid mountain. The snipers breath was slow and deep, as they watched the targets through their scopes on the bank of the nearby island of Isla del Sol. The scopes were smart, connected to one another, displays showing each of them which of the hostiles was targeted by their comrades.

The third team was at Ayer's Rock, Australia, each in brown camouflage. They were hidden behind a deep outcrop, as the insurgents set up at the almost completely flat peak of the sandstone monolith. They daren't move from their position for fear of being spotted before the order to engage was called. Shay manoeuvred a flexible fibre optic camera from her position behind the rock, observing the enemy without having to give their position away. She observed chatter, movement, they seemed to be getting closer to initiating their devices.

“What's the word, boss?” she whispered into her comm.

Campbell watched on, shifting his gaze to the fourth team, at St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor.

The green-clad agents were secreted behind a terraced slope of the hill, below the line of sight of the targets congregating under the arches of the roofless citadel. There was more chatter amongst them, more movement.

“Kali, can you intercept their comms?” Campbell asked.

'On it.'
she said, fingers whittling away at her console. She was tapped into the Endays nerve centre, all of their satellites and surveillance feeds at her disposal.

“Team five, get me better eyes.” Campbell barked to his agents.

The fifth team were having trouble getting line of sight to their targets. The insurgents had taken control of a small blocky building on Mount Sinai, Egypt. A mosque built at the peak, a Greek Orthodox church flanking it, both surrounded by short, stocky walls. The hostiles had perfect view of every possible direction the team might take to strike. They crouched behind outcrops of rock, fibre optic camera giving them a view of the compound, but not of the movement beyond the walls.

“We're waiting on you, team five, get it done.” Campbell instructed, knowing that a simultaneous assault was the only way this Endays event was going to be quashed successfully.

The team signalled to one another, leader instructing them to make their way around the peak, find a vantage point to get better intel. The whole mission, the fate of the entire reality, was down to them.

'I've got their comms.'
Kali said, piping the feed through to the EDC. It was quiet, no chatter at the moment.

Campbell's eyes drifted to the sixth team, who had jumped into the courtyard of Cochem Castle, high atop a hill above the Moselle River, Germany. They had already spent longer than Campbell would have liked scuttling through archways for cover, eyes scanning the many turrets and towers for sign of life, and had found the Nth Degree agitators gathered in a grand dining room. The team was spread out at the three doors into the room. Each had fibre optic cameras peeking in, showing the ten targets preparing themselves, they could hear chatter, another side of the communication observed by the teams at the other locations. “Three minutes and counting.”

Campbell barked to the Sinai team to get eyes on the subjects. They were still behind the walls, view obscured by being cautious.

“This is no time to be cautious!” Campbell growled, two of the team climbing up from behind the rock to approach the wall.

The seventh team, clad in grey, waited in breathless anticipation on the high banks of the Marshyangdi River. Scant clouds kissed the tops of the Himalayan mountains around them, but they weren't there for the sight seeing. The Nth Degree team they were surveilling were on a raised excrescence of land in the middle of shallow, wild waters rushing by.

“Looks like they're getting ready to activate, sir.” the team leader said. “Waiting on your order...”

Campbell's eyes flicked back and forth between the seven sites. The Sinai team were getting closer, but still didn't have eyes on their subjects. A light flashed in one of the Shasta team's cameras.

“What was that?!” Campbell snarled.

“Jump, sir.” said the leader of the first team. “Did you order reinforcements?”

Campbell made out a husky American grunt over his agent's comm. “I'm no
re
inforcements, son. I'm
the
enforcements.”

“What the fuck is Hayes doing there?!” Campbell shrieked.

Hayes grabbed the agent's head and looked straight down the lens of the camera. “Here to save the day, grandpa.” he let go of the agent's head and surveilled the scene, grabbing positioning data of the insurgents and the device with the help from the Endays satellites, and jumped out. A blinding flash obscured the camera feed momentarily.

“Who the fuck is jumping him?!”

A light shone out in the Titicaca team's scopes, on a ridge just above the targets.

“We've got a jump, sir.”

“Get me Jump Operations, I want to know what the fuck is going on!” Campbell barked.

Kali pulled up Hayes's feed as he once again tagged the location data of the devices and hostiles. She watched him pull up the data for the next jump, cycle through controls of the jump bay, and light consume his lens.

“Oh, for fuck's sake...” she said.

Hayes materialised on the top of Ayer's rock, the Nth Degree team bathed in the light of the tentacles bursting forth from the meta. They turned, trained their weapons on him as he tagged the positions with a sly grin, pulling a weapon from a holster and taking out two of them before disappearing back into the jump.

'You're a fucking idiot!'
Kali screamed, as he appeared at Glastonbury. She was picking up chatter across the Nth Degree comms, warning of his impending arrival. Bullets ploughed into his chest as he emerged from the jump.

“Takes one to...” three rounds hitting simultaneously punched the air from his lungs. “...know one.” he spat, targeting the devices, blowing the brains out of three insurgents, before being swallowed back up into the meta.

'Do you understand how fucking stupid you are?'
Kali barked, as she watched the light peel out of his lens. '
Not only are you fucking up a covert mission, but you're accelerating their timeline!'

She piped the comm feed through to him, as the hostiles concurred to activate the devices ahead of schedule.

Hayes took cover behind the Greek Orthodox church as round after round ploughed into the brickwork. He pulled up the live sat feed and targeted the hostiles, coming out from the safety of his position to fire a flurry of auto-targeted bullets into each of the targets that was out in the open.

“Acceleration is what I do.” he said, strutting towards the mosque with a sneer, firing further rounds into two wounded hostiles, sending the contents of their skulls across the sun-scorched sand.

'That literally doesn't mean anything...'
Kali spat back.

Another hostile came to the entrance of the mosque, a barrage of machine gun fire absorbed into Hayes's nanomesh, before the assailant took a bullet to each eye and fell back into the building. As he collapsed on the dusty floor, the mountain started shaking.

“Heavy guy...” Hayes scoffed.

Kali watched in horror as the readings coming from the EDC populated her screen.
'Oh Jesus fuck!'
she said, pulling up grid data.
'It's started...'

Catching his balance, Hayes walked over the body and entered the mosque, blowing another insurgent's vital fluids across the walls as he approached the device. “Do you see an off switch?” he asked.

'No I don't see a fucking off switch!'
Kali shouted.
'Why do you always have to be the fucking hero? They had a plan!'

“I got a plan too... A better plan.” Hayes said, pulling up the jump controls and sending an order through.

The jump bay roared to life as it began its initiation sequence. The ceiling burst to life with light that cascaded down the walls, encasing the floor. The light shone and shone, until something formed at its centre. A dark mass. A void of light that grew and grew. The ceiling's light shifted hues, from bright white to purple, then blue, light that warped space around it, coalesced as if thick with matter. Darkness burst out from the ceiling, rippling down the walls of the bay, covering the floor. The jump bay was active, but completely devoid of matter.

'What the fuck have you done?'
Kali asked.

A jump burst out at the entrance to the mosque. A jump unlike any other Kali had ever witnessed.
'No fucking way...'
she said, as she watched the dark jump, the pure black of the meta consolidating in front of Hayes's lens. He grabbed the device from the centre of the room and flung it into the rift, sending the order through to the jump bay to close it up.

'You're completely fucking insane!'
Kali screamed.

“Ain't gonna do no harm in the meta...” Hayes said, struggling to keep his balance amidst the continuing earthquake, as he pulled up the coordinates for the next jump.

'There's a reason we don't set off dark jumps. Do you understand what would happen if you couldn't control the breach?'

Hayes was ignoring her, already through to the next site, throwing his empty guns into the pocket dimension and replacing them with shiny new ones.

“I was kinda hoping to do this nice and quiet...” Hayes said, as he took out the Nth Degree insurgents in the dining room of the Castle. Paintings were shaking off the walls, the chandelier swinging wildly from the ceiling. Stray rounds and mushy fluids destroying a thousand years worth of history in the process. “Just target the devices, the assholes, and fling them all in the meta...” he said, taking out the last of his attackers, dialling up another dark jump. “But these guys seem to
want
to be shot in the face.”

The rift burst to life, devoid of light, sucking at any matter that dared get too close. Hayes picked up the device and threw it into the meta, closing the fissure and dialling up the next location.

'This isn't working...'
Kali said.
'Reality is being pulled apart!'

“All teams converge!” Campbell barked, staring at the screens as they shook on the walls, shouting over the metallic clangs from the desks quivering around him. “Take out all enemy operatives and stop those fucking devices!”

He growled as Hayes appeared in the camera at the Himalayas site, fluids flying across the outcrop of land in the river, painting the white waters red. The dark jump exploded into existence above the river, water leaping from its path into the abyss. Hayes kicked the device into the darkness and sealed the rift.