The Bloodless (16 page)

              Justice wiped the sweat from his brow. Despite the looming cold front, the air was getting stuffy due to the amount of bodies piled into the shack. “So we may be alone in this but if we come across other parties I think we should absolutely make it a priority to share information. There is no such thing as too much information.” Justice said.

              “True,” Fox said, “but don’t share unnecessary information. There are still some out there that may have illusions of grandeur, people like that will not last very long at all. Also, at this point I would be very cautious of anyone claiming to be Armed Forces, it is not likely that they will order any more troops into this region.”

              “All right already,” Pillar said slamming her hand down on the table, “let’s get on with the plan!”

              Everyone was quiet for a moment and for that moment they were all on the same page, done with Pillar’s shit. Justice looked over at Crist who smirked and winked at him. He pretended not to notice and looked round the room, his mouth curling ever so slightly, in spite of himself. “Right, that’s why we’re gathered here,” Justice said nervously.  “I’ll try to keep this succinct. The end game in all of this is to infiltrate the main building, but that presents an issue due to the overabundance of high powered security measures. One way to do it, which I believe to really be the only way, is to cut off the power source.”

              “I thought that’d been done?” Saturn asked.

              “The power plant has been blown up, yes, but the compound still has power. My plan is to shut down the power substations that have kept the lights on this whole time,” Justice said.

              “Sounds simple enough,” Burns said.

              “Well it’s not,” Justice responded, “It’s going to be tough, very tough. We still aren’t quite sure what we’re going to see as far as resistance but we do have a good idea about what surveillance we’ll have to bypass. Each station has a central control room, those are the main targets. Once in there I will be able to access the system controls and shut the station down. We’ll have to do this for six substations.”

              “Aren’t there seven stations?” Crist asked.

              “Yes, but when we take the sixth offline the seventh will come down with it. Or at least it should,” Justice said.

              “Why?” Saturn asked.

              “Honestly,” Justice said, “I have no idea. That’s just the way the system was set up.”

              “That doesn’t make any damn sense,” Pillar blurted out.

              “No it doesn’t,” Justice said. “After the stations are shut down, bombing runs can be made by the Armed Forces to thin the enemy’s numbers. That’s when I will go into the main building and attempt to shut down The Cloud.”

              “That even possible?” Burns asked.

              “Theoretically, yes,” Justice said. “But we won’t know for sure until we get in there.”

              “Are the Armed Forces on board with this?” Burns asked.

              “They will be,” Justice said. “Once they hear the air space is clear they’ll be itching to get another shot at those monsters. I have some connections that have told me this,” he explained.

              “Drop a nuke,” Buggs suggested.

              “We can’t just drop a nuke,” Justice said. “We don’t yet know the composition of The Cloud. It’s entirely plausible that nuclear gamma radiation could interact with The Cloud in such a way that it goes haywire and actually disperses into the atmosphere. That’s bad,” Justice said before Saturn could ask, “because then it would move past an isolated incident and into a global epidemic. Can you see how something like that would be bad?” Saturn slowly nodded her head as if she only half understood why a global epidemic where people die off but come back to life only to kill all those around them would be bad. 

              “So basically,” Fox said slowly so everyone in the room could understand, “we would be best served to accomplish this mission in as little time as possible. There has been evidence that The Cloud will expand soon. When and by how much we do not know, but it does seem to be Mendel’s plan to infect a more widespread demographic.”

              The shack was quiet for a few moments as everyone sat in silence, obviously contemplating whether they wanted to still be there or not. “Well, what are we waiting for,” Pillar yelled getting to her feet. “Let’s fuckin’ go!”

              “Jesus Christ, Pillar,” Crist said, “would you just shut up for once?”

              Pillar sat back down in her chair. She didn’t say anything, but she glared hard at Crist.

              “Okay guys,” Justice said, “I don’t have anything else for you tonight, but we will be going after the first substation in a few weeks. I expect everyone to return. Make sure you take a communicator so I will be able to send you the exact date for you to return. In the meantime secure any supplies, ammo, or other materials you think you may need. Obviously only things you can carry.”

              “Why is that obvious?” Saturn asked.

              “Because if you had been listening you’d know we’ll be walking,” Justice replied. “So if you want to bring things you can’t carry, that would be stupid, but you are more than welcome to look like an idiot. Any other questions?” When there weren’t any, Justice dismissed anyone who wasn’t living in the shack and they all went their separate ways for those few weeks. The semi-confident tone that Justice thought he conveyed wasn’t reflected on the inside. He was nervous as hell, but he figured that a solid amount of scouting and knowledge would help that feeling. He also figured it was the first substation, how much could possibly go wrong?

CHAPTER 9

The Devil’s in the DMT
 

              My mental well-being had spiraled out of control and as I pondered my life, I stood on a precipice; I had to decide whether I would continue, already having lost so much, or would I just give up, hoping that there were other people out there who would take up the cause in my absence? But then I thought, “Who the fuck gives up after one mission?” I knew for sure I had to go on. I reminded myself that this is war and that casualties are to be expected. Of course I didn’t expect it to be so devastating so early on. My heart had to be closed off, I had decided that much. I couldn’t get close to any of these people again, the pain was too much to deal with.

              Literally though, I was standing on a precipice. I was at the top of the nearest mountain looking down with a new found appreciation of the land surrounding the base. I had been far without physically travelling great distances. My purpose was laid out before me and my head was clearer than it had ever been in my life. Whoever said drugs are for losers never went on a week-long DMT bender that covered the span of half a day. Drugs are incredibly useful, if applied in appropriate situations and taken in moderation.  Drug ABUSE is what’s for losers, and for a while there, I was definitely a loser.

*****
 

              The days seemed darker later in that year, but it had little to do with the winter season coming on. I was still coming out of my depression. Well, it wasn’t so much of a depression as it was a jaunt into unmitigated sadness sprinkled with candy coated insanity. I was in a bad way to say the least. Luckily at the time (unfortunately, looking back), I had the means and knowledge to make premium LSD and even stumbled upon a DMT recipe. I also had ready access to an almost unlimited supply of mushrooms, the most magical of kinds. Since it was supposed to be an autonomous community, Abiyah had its own cattle herd and with herds of cattle came mounds of cow shit, and with mounds of cow shit came plenty of fungal growth.

              I thought the hallucinogens would help shuttle me from the plane of darkness I found myself endlessly dwelling within. I was horribly mistaken. The trips took me to an even darker, surreal plane that teetered on the edge of non-existence.  But then I experienced a trip that was an accumulation of everything bad inside me and it served as an expulsory experience. It helped to clear the demons that fought to keep me blanketed under my suffocating depression.

              At the outset of the journey, as I like to refer to it, I was met with a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long, long time: hope. Well, it was more a mixture of hope and fear, but the fear was directed at the hope, a foreign emotion I was very weary of.

              I rose in the morning and stumbled through my usual routine: eat, cry, reinforce fortifications, cry, wallow in sorrow and then I ingested a handful of mushrooms and I think a drop of DMT got in there too, I can’t recall because I combined substances more than any one person ought to. The shrooms I took had been aged with a very precise process that made the psilocybin exponentially more potent and I was in a particularly self-destructive mood that day. A typical mushroom trip lasts about four to six hours. This one lasted fifteen. I was desperate for them, they were the honey to my Pooh Bear. I barely chewed. After inhaling the fungus, I went and laid down in my bed, closed my eyes, and waited for oblivion. Faintly, in the back of my mind I knew what I was doing and accepted it. In reality I had no clue what I was getting myself into and I haven’t been the same since.

              It started off slowly: a tiny tingle in the depths of my abdomen that gradually made its way to the front. The tingle steadily spread over my stomach. It was like I could feel the psilocybin fusing with my blood cells and absorbing into my smooth muscle tissue.  I felt the tingle creep up my chest and start jumping on my heart. On its way up it also kick started my adrenal glands sending a fresh flow of action-time juice coursing through my veins.

              Suddenly my whole body went numb and every drop of sound around me ceased to exist. It was as if my soul was taking a deep breath before plunging into a lake of icy cold ethereal energy. Before the sound came back, a kaleidoscope of colors burst into my mind’s eye. It was like a liquid light show inside my head. For several minutes I was paralyzed from head to toe and was forced to take in the multitude of dancing shapes and colors. When I was finally able to open my eyes I found myself enveloped by a thin purple fog that got denser as I moved through it. I was never aware of getting to my feet.

              I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my foot falls but I could sense that there was a surface below me, I may have just been above it, floating. The fog seemed to follow me almost as if it were contained to the finite space immediately about my body, like my own personal cloud, but a benevolent cloud. The top of it came down just enough to allow me to see the world around me and it wasn’t Earth. It may not have even been a physical realm I found myself in. There was that unexplainable feeling in the space, it was space because I wouldn’t call it air, around me as though I had been transported not to a separate plane of existence, but a plane that existed within ours.

              My eyes saw more clearly than they had in the past, so clearly that I was seeing through solid objects. Every fixture around me had a ghostly haze to it, almost as if it was all semi-transparent. There was a quick moment of serene bliss before I was washed over with a foreboding sense of fear. A cold breeze twirled around my neck causing me to spin around and come face to face with a sight that caused my heart to pry apart my ribs and leap out of my chest

              A horde of Bloodless, ten-thousand strong, were charging toward me and I was surely about to die. I stood there frozen, like a mosquito caught in the sap of a tree, and waited for Death to take me. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate and soon they were upon me, but they did not take me. With my eyes still closed, I could hear their ragged breathing and smell their rancid scents. Before I opened my eyes I could feel that they had surrounded me but when I dared to peek, a most unexpected sight stunned my eyes.

              The Bloodless were being held at bay by the cloud around me. This sight gave me a glimmer of courage and I began to slowly move through the horde. They seemed mostly docile, towards me at least. I could see on their grotesque and often battered faces that they were definitely angry, bloodlust twinkling in their dead eyes. Then awkwardly, they all turned to face in a single direction, like a congregation gathered in front of the Pope’s balcony for his first Mass. I followed their line of vision and saw they were all staring at a figure poised atop a distant mountain. The figure, even from far out, was massive. It was human in shape but had large bat-like wings protruding from its back.

              This was a menacing figure, I could feel the waves of hate and evil emanating from it. I continued making my way through the Bloodless mob, moving closer to the mountain as I felt compelled to confront this evil figure. I don’t remember why, I just remember having an overwhelming NEED to get closer, to confront this malevolent being. However, as I moved through the army, it seemed to perpetually grow in size, not allowing me to make any progress. I began to run and as I ran I was bumping into a lot of the bodies around me. Soon the horde became agitated and would not allow me to progress any further.

              They formed a wall to impede my path. I was trapped. Before I could react, many bodies came bearing down upon me and soon I was buried beneath thousands. I couldn’t breathe. The light began to rapidly fade from my eyes. I squared my shoulders and looked Death right in the eye. Again I resigned my fate to Death and again he failed, or refused, to take me. From far away, underneath thousands of bodies, I heard my name being called out. It acted like a mortal tether and ripped me from Death’s vice grips, surrendering me unto my own existence.

              I found myself momentarily conscious in my own dimension. I took deep breaths as though my head had been held underwater against my will. As I panted heavily, Crist appeared before me, more beautiful than I had ever seen her. She was bathed in a golden light and a long white billowy robe covered her body. I was shocked, yet glad, to see her, but I was also a little hesitant to accept her presence. I had been mistaken before and it nearly cost me my life. She could sense this, I think, so she extended a translucent hand to me. I reached out tentatively and was surprised I was able to take ahold of it. As soon as I took her hand I could tell I wouldn’t be able to let go regardless of how hard I tried.

              Warmth began to spread over my body as we ascended into the sky, a bubble encircled both of us as we broke free from the Earth’s atmosphere. We were deep into the brilliance of the glowing universe but it was a truncated universe. All the planets, known and unknown, surrounded us as if welcoming us to a party of which we were the honored guests. Stars burned bright and danced about us. Great thick waves of uncompromising hope stole over me as we moved through this quaint universe. Rapidly approaching was a black hole that devoured everything in its path and we were next.

              On the other side of the black hole I found myself looking upon infinite crowds of translucent people, both of Earth and of extraterrestrial origin. It’s as if they were assembled just for me and they looked to us as we careened over their gathering. Some waved but mostly we were ignored. Suddenly we were slowing down, coming to a stop but I couldn’t tell why. Then we began to descend upon the ocean of spirits and when I looked down, what I saw I had not expected, nor did I want to see.

              My wife and son stood below, looking up at me. My son’s mouth moved but his voice I could not hear and that’s when it occurred to me that I had not heard a single note escape from any being for the last few hours. Had it been a few hours? My sudden realization alarmed me and I was convinced that I was no longer allowed to hear the voices of those around me. I did not panic, however, as the sight of my family filled me with an increasingly familiar feeling; Hope.

              I’m not sure how I returned to my body or who escorted me there, but next thing I remember is opening my eyes and finding myself still lying in my bed. A rare midnight moon shone bright through my windows, casting a sliver light over my life. My brain felt restructured. I had regained my sense of purpose. My hope originates from my family, and with that I hope I would have the strength to eliminate the evil that took them from me.
 

*****
 

              I saw in the distance a lone figure moving across the landscape and knew it was Fox and I knew he saw me because I could see him. He usually wasn’t in big open space like that unless he knew only friendly eyes were in the area. I always admired Fox’s ability to be so omniscient all the time.

              I met him down in front of my shack, we shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. “It is good to see you are looking healthy, sir,” he said as he let go of my hand

              “Thank you,” I replied as I led him to the work table. “It’s good to feel healthy, or at least relatively healthy.” There were maps strewn about the table, all with my scribbling covering them. I had been busy since coming up for air. “Do you think anybody else is coming?”

              “I do not know for sure. I want to believe they will all come back, but I have not had any contact with anyone since we split.” He looked apologetic. From there we started going over the maps, highlighting general weak points in defenses, and pinpointing likely patrol routes. It felt almost pointless doing it with just the two of us. We were just a couple of boys drawing up diagrams of our future treehouse we were going to build even though we lived in the desert.

              I had sent out a message to everyone to return because the plan was back on. It was unnerving, however, when I didn’t receive any replies, except from Fox. So many questions ran through my head: Did their communicators still work? Did they still have their communicators? Were they alive? What would be the probability that they all died? Would I be able to recruit a new team that was similar? The actual thought of having to go back out and find an entirely new team was mortifying to me and gave me even more nightmares.

              “Most likely we’ll have to get in at this point,” I said as I placed my finger on a point on one of the maps. “It seems to be the most viable since it’s an odd location and hard to get an eye on.”

              “You gonna need some firepower to get in there…” At first he scared the shit out of us, but when we turned around and saw it was Burns, our hearts lifted. Well, I can’t say for sure for Fox because who knows with him, but mine did anyway. We greeted him and he took his place next to us. As we brought him up to speed on the next mission other people slowly filtered in. It was a good feeling to see everyone return, especially since I didn’t expect anyone to come back.

              Even Buggs came back which was a surprise and would’ve been a huge shock if not for the fact we were able to smell him coming. Pillar with all of her candy coated loveliness came back with a super upbeat attitude. Crowder did seem a bit reluctant to be back but still displayed his enduring enthusiasm to do his part. Saturn, with her giant rifle slung over her back came in quietly and just sat down. She seemed different as usually she’ll let her presence be known, which was an odd behavior for a sniper but we just went with it. It appeared as though she was taking her role more seriously, taking to being unseen and unheard.