Ruins of the Fall (The Remants Trilogy #2)

THE REMNANTS TRILOGY: BOOK 2

NICHOLAS ERIK

Copyright © 2016 Nicholas Erik. All rights reserved.

Published by Watchfire Press.

This book is a work of fiction. Similarities to actual events, places, persons or other entities are coincidental.

Watchfire Press

www.watchfirepress.com

www.nicholaserik.com

Cover & map design by Kerry Hynds

www.hyndsstudio.com

Ruins of the Fall/Nicholas Erik. – 1st ed.

Ashes of the Fall
begins in March 2048, on North American Circle Anniversary Day. Con man Luke Stokes has travelled to New Manhattan from his home in the Western Stronghold because of a cryptic message from his genius brother, who he hasn’t seen in fifteen years:
I need to see you by tomorrow. Come to 1611 Park Boulevard
.
Here’s something to help you. You’ll have to figure your way through customs on your own, though. I have a project that requires your skills. – Matt

Chancellor Tanner, leader of the Circle, recaps a number of things during the anniversary: the world flooded in 2025, influxes of refugees came into the then United States. Through a series of engineering programs—raising the coastlines—the United States managed to survive the floods. But the expense and strain plunged the existing country into disarray. In 2026, after a series of so-called terrorist attacks in the South by religious fanatic Damien Ford, a single group—the Circle—took power. Stability required a number of concessions: Religious Suppression Act of 2026, following the destruction of Atlanta, and the Computing Standardization Act of 2027, which brought all technological development under control of the Circle.

During NAC Anniversary Day, a 9.3 magnitude Earthquake along the Cascadian fault line rocks the Northwest. A volcanic eruption at the Yellowstone volcano covers much of the west in ash.

Luke finds his brother murdered in his apartment. Special Committee Agents are already en-route. To survive, he takes his brother’s HoloBand—a small microchip implanted at the base of his neck, which connects to neural wiring and identifies a person, allows them to make financial transactions, and connect to HoloNet, a brain-extension network of information. Thus, Luke “becomes” Matt Stokes.

Luke is taken to the Origin Point, a gleaming capital at the center of Manhattan. He meets with none other than Chancellor Tanner, who is paranoid and locked in his ivory tower, having not made a public appearance for years. Tanner is dying, and is curious about the progress of a new, unknown project called HIVE, which he says will save humanity. Luke learns that his brother was a member of the Inner Circle—a group of twelve decision makers—and worked closely with Tanner. Matt was taken when he was fourteen, and placed in a special Circle run program called Gifted Minds, for genius children.

After following a trail of leads, Luke finds that all but one of the engineers involved with the HIVE project have been murdered. From this engineer, he receives a box with a 2.5” SSD drive labeled “The Antidote,” a beta version of HIVE running on a not-yet-released HoloBand 6.0, and a two-page suicide note from Matt. Gives Tanner the HIVE beta, which Tanner tells him is incredible and will save the world.

Meets with Olivia Redmond, who claims to be helping Matt enact his plan from the grave. But Olivia shoots Luke, then turns him in. Luke is sentenced to death and sent to the newly opened Otherlands—the wreckage of the South is now a place to send those with criminal tendencies, separating them from “polite” society.

On the Hyperloop, he meets Kid Vegas—son of the infamous Damien Ford. They’re saved by Director Blackstone, head of the Otherlands, who is working with Olivia Redmond. Blackstone wants to quietly remove Tanner from power, and needs HIVE in order to do so.

Luke, not trusting any of this, escapes the first chance he gets, living in an abandoned FEMA camp and bartering with a mysterious group of nomads called the Remnants. But six months later, Kid Vegas hauls him back to the Otherlands. Luke is sent after the remaining HIVE drives—there are three total, of which two are still missing. He tracks down one drive, and begins looking for the other, during which Luke discovers the truth about HIVE from an old associate of Matt’s: it’s a virtual reality construct that people can jack into and escape the problem of living (HIVE: HoloBand Interactive Virtual Existence). Whoever controls this technology will be able to offer a downtrodden populace a panacea to a gritty, tiresome world. Matt designed it as a sort of mutually assured destruction plan, giving a section of the source code to each of the factions to bring about peace. Even if the source code was assembled, it would require his HoloBand in order to run as a final failsafe.

Luke finds his brother’s secret research facility deep in the middle of the Otherlands. There he discovers Matt “alive”—existing as an artificial intelligence construct downloaded to a computer mainframe as an additional failsafe, in case something catastrophic occurred. This demonstrates the true power of HIVE and the technology behind it: not only can it placate the populace, but it is also powerful enough to store and even potentially create human consciousness. However, before Luke can decide what to do with HIVE, he is captured by Kid Vegas and taken to a white-washed server farm.

It is then revealed that Olivia Redmond, Kid Vegas—who were part of Gifted Minds—and Director Blackstone, who ran Gifted Minds, knew about HIVE’s potential to change the world. They have been using Luke to retrace Matt’s steps and secretly track down the HIVE source. Olivia killed Matt, and created a series of clues for Luke to follow in order to get him invested in HIVE and the outcome—a classic con artist move. They also needed him invested in Matt’s supposed “plan”—his “suicide” note was a forgery orchestrated by Blackstone, talking about “great sacrifice”—because Luke is the only one who could run Matt’s HoloBand—the literal key to making HIVE function.

Olivia Redmond kills Tanner—revealed that Tanner consciousness was kept alive via the HIVE beta. Director Blackstone seizes control of the Circle.

With the source code fully-assembled, Luke is jacked into HIVE, along with Evelyn Vera and Carina Alonso, where he remains for three years in blissful stasis. He’s in a relationship with Evelyn, and they have a nice, big dog named Ramses.

At the end of the book, Luke is broken free of his virtual reality by Jana Rose, who tells him there’s an all-out factional war between the Lionhearted, Circle, Ashes of the Fall and Remnants. And they need Luke Stokes to end it.

As Jana Rose drags me into the fire-scorched streets of New Manhattan, my eyes tear up from the smoky haze. Through the blur, I recognize my brother’s apartment building. Which is when I realize that I was inside the Gifted Minds research facility down the street. It makes sense that Chancellor Tanner would locate the server farm here. The security infrastructure was already in place—and besides, there’s a full circle synchronicity here that even I can appreciate.

This is where Matt’s new life began.

And, now, I’ve experienced the same thing.

Still, even in my slightly confused state, it strikes me as an audacious
fuck you
from the now-deceased Tanner. The server farm was right under my brother’s nose the entire time—and he simply had no idea. Like Tanner was daring him to find it, and Matt came up short.

Then again, Tanner had no idea about all the looping contingencies built-in to HIVE, so I guess they were both a little behind the curve.

“Come on, Luke,” Jana says, smoke cloaking her face. “We only have a couple minutes.”

I just woke up from a three-year sleep, so I’m not moving too fast. Every time I move my head, image artifacts streak through my vision. A large dog, fragments of an idyllic life that was never real. I shake my head, trying to get rid of the cobwebs.

Instead, it just makes everything worse.

Jana, fed up with waiting, yanks my arm hard enough that it hurts. “Our people are
dying
, Luke. They didn’t save you to daydream.”

A rocket bursts into one of the high-rises down the street. Was it Matt’s old apartment? Where Olivia Redmond shot him in the head only moments before I arrived? It’s impossible to tell in the swirling chaos. Glass and twisted metal stream down as panicked residents shriek. One thing’s for sure: the people of New Manhattan aren’t used to this sort of disturbance.

Jana pushes me towards a car and shoves me inside. It’s not an automatic, which means she has to drive it. Before I can ask her if she’s up to it, she floors the accelerator so fast that my head whips back into the seat. The two-door sedan shoots through the debris and heavy ash.

“What about your people?”

“The Hyperloop station,” Jana says. “Half an hour. They know the drill.”

“What happens if they’re late?”

Her expression tells me all I need to know.

“Might want to buckle up,” Jana says. As if on cue, a vehicle pulls in behind us, clinging to our tail. I recognize the driver’s uniform—Special Committee. Good to see there’s been a lot of progress in the past three years.

“The secret police are up our ass,” I say, squinting in the rearview only to catch sight of a familiar face. No—it couldn’t be. I can’t trust my senses right now, but I swear that it’s the same bastard who jacked me into HIVE.

The man leans half his body out the window, his perfect side part barely moving in the stiff breeze.

“You see this asshole?” I say.

“How can I not see him?”

“You remember him?”

“Should I?”

I think
yeah
, because I’m pretty sure this guy was there when Jana was lying in the middle of the road and I saved her from being shot like a dog. But then again, she wasn’t in the clearest mental state at the time. 

A bullet explodes from the barrel of his rifle, shattering our back windshield. It lodges itself in the padded headrest, only two inches below Jana’s exposed head.

“It’s Kid Vegas,” I say, no longer doubting myself. Not many men who can make that shot. “You gotta swerve.”

“I’m trying,” Jana says. She whips the wheel, taking the car down a narrow alley. The side mirrors are immediately ripped off as we scrape against the walls. The pursuing sedan follows us without slowing down. Kid is forced back inside the vehicle. In the rearview, I see him urging his driver to speed up.

The expressionless agent floors it, sending the car’s front fender hurtling into our backside. We both rocket out of the narrow street, headed straight for a jewelry store’s window display.

At the last minute, with our tires already touching the sidewalk, Jana brakes and cuts the wheel almost a full hundred eighty degrees. Our sedan launches into a tailspin, colliding against the glass with a thunderous
crack
. Kid’s vehicle, still going almost full speed, rushes past and slams against the back wall.

“We gotta go,” Jana says. She unhooks her seatbelt with the casualness of someone about to head to the movies. “The station’s only a couple miles from here.”

“How long we got?”

“Not long enough to sit here and ask questions.” Jana’s door is already open.

I look into the ruined store, trying to see if Kid is still alive. There’s no movement from the smoking sedan. I can’t see how he survived. It gives me a small sense of satisfaction, knowing that the person who stole three years of my life—conned me out of them—is six feet under. But then a series of hallucinations burst across my vision, and I’m brought back to the reality of my other problems.

A dog’s shrill, incessant bark pounds in my ears.

“You hear that?”

“It’s the engine,” Jana says. “We gotta go, Luke.”

“No, it’s a dog.”

She gives me a funny look, her tattoo scrunching up around the edges of her eyes. “There’s no dog, Luke?”

Woof. Woof
. I hold me hand out, as if to say
enough
, but it won’t stop. “Don’t tell me there’s no dog.”

“You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine,” I say. My ribs ache from the strap digging into my chest. “Just give me a hand, all right?”

Jana helps me undo my seatbelt. It takes a couple tries to open my ruined door, but eventually I manage to stumble out on to the sidewalk. The neighborhood’s residents have woken up and are looking down from their apartments. But everyone is too afraid to come down for a closer inspection.

And so Jana and I run off into the empty night, towards the station.

I stare out the Hyperloop’s windows, at the barren soil racing past. The steel handcuffs feel cool against my wrists. A light frost covers the ground outside. The damaged Hyperloop moves slow enough that I can get a glimpse of the landscape. Footsteps patter against the capsule’s metal floor, but I don’t turn. Even though there’s little to see, I’m fascinated by reality.

After all, three years have passed in what seems like nothing more than a single, halting breath.

From nowhere, an image of a big dog lying on the grass flashes across my field of vision. I recoil from the window, heart racing.

“Ramses?” I say. But there’s no dog. Only the infinite emptiness of the open plains.

“Hey,” Jana says, shaking my arm. “
Hey
.”

I turn to her with a half-sneer to mask my fear. “I’m thinking. You might recognize it if you ever did it.” Adjusting to reality is tough, especially after you’ve spent the last three years in utopia. I catch myself wishing, in the recesses of my subconscious, that I could go back. Especially since the world of HIVE seems to be bleeding into the actual world anyway.

“We didn’t bust you out to think,” she says. Her green eyes flash in the dim light as the train car rattles forward. I can see that she’s taken a gunshot to the arm. Or maybe it’s from a blade. Either way, the cost of my freedom has indeed been high.

Blood drips down her torn sleeve, but she barely notices.

“You’re bleeding,” I say, pointing at her injured arm. Well, as best I can—since my hands are shackled, I can’t raise them to quite the right height. “So you broke me out because you wanted me for your own prison?”

That’s not it, of course. I’m valuable: I’m what makes the entire HoloBand Interactive Virtual Existence run. As the only one who can use my brother’s HoloBand—the key to the entire system—I might be the single most valuable person alive.

Nathaniel Blackstone’s gonna be pissed when he hears about this.

“Just a flesh wound,” Jana says, her fingertips lightly brushing over the torn skin. The Rems must not feel pain the same way as a normal human. Out on the middle of the highway in The Lost Plains, I remember she was three-quarters-dead, and still stronger than me. Whatever the Remnants are, it’s a heartier stock than the rest of us.

So I can actually take her at her word, that it’s just a flesh wound.

“So you broke me out for my good looks,” I say. “Since it wasn’t for my brilliance.”

“We have a plan.”

Her punkish, dark black hair barely moves when she shrugs. Jana flashes a grim smile that shows a row of strong, white teeth. Coupled with the tattoo running along the right side of her face—an elaborate tangle of beautifully inked vines and flowers—the expression makes her look totally insane.

But then, she’d have to be, to plunge into the heart of New Manhattan and snatch me directly from the Circle’s jaws.

“You know the Circle is gonna come after you with everything they got.” Must be Stockholm Syndrome. But I’m thinking my old captors—Blackstone, Olivia and whoever else heads up the Circle these days—might be preferable to my new ones.

Jana just replies, “It’s like I told you near the servers.”

My mind flashes back to the white-washed, antiseptic room filled with pods, streaked in blood and soot because of the raid. The signs of war somehow made the scene less surreal. Probably would’ve shit myself if I’d seen endless rows of humans suspended in virtual reality stasis. But most of the pods had already been destroyed by the time I’d woken up.

High costs indeed.

“The world needs a hero,” I say, dredging up Jana’s words from a sea of cluttered thoughts. I also manage to recall some other ominous snippets of our terse conversation.

All-out war
.

This is only the beginning
.

I swallow hard when I recall the last directive:
I’m the only one who can end it
.

As if reading my mind, Jana says, “You’re the only one who can end it.”

I jump slightly in my seat. The cuffs rattle. She touches my arm, not gently, but more like how you’d control an overly skittish dog. I brace myself against the capsule’s glass window, breathing heavily.

Then I laugh.

“You find this funny?”

“Not really,” I say. But it’s dawned on me—the reason for HIVE. The
necessity
for it. We are all afraid of life’s vastness. The empty plains on which we can make our mark. Life is not short. It is excruciatingly long, and we need a way to burn our time, distract us from the immensity and absurdity of our existence.

This is particularly true when our real existence is painful.

We are all trying to distract ourselves from the misery. Before, we succeeded with more mundane methods. Silly stories, computer games with photo-realistic graphics. But now, we don’t need to live vicariously at all.

Technology, in its omnipresent march onwards, has eradicated yet another middleman. With HIVE, we can
live
the way we always wanted: briefly, gloriously, and unconsciously.

“Why’d you laugh, then?” Jana says.

“I think reality is vastly overrated,” I say. “Give me HIVE any day.”

“You might get your wish.”

My blood chills, and I turn. Her green eyes stare at the front of the small Hyperloop capsule hurtling towards—where, I don’t know.

“I don’t like where this is going,” I say.

“A lot of people are mad at you, Luke.”

I haven’t found myself wishing that the Lionhearted ruled the world often, but right now might be one of those few times. The Biblical notion of turning the other cheek and forgiving those who have thrown stones is comforting.

Unfortunately, it is not reality. I fucked the Remnants over, stole the slice of HIVE source code that my brother gave them for safekeeping. The one bargaining chip that they had, keeping them from destruction.

Didn’t matter if my intentions were to fix things. Plans don’t work out the way they should, especially when you’re being had. Kid, Olivia and Blackstone played me, strung me along, and then pounced once I had put together most of the pieces. I thought I was helping my brother save the world.

But really, I was just passing the baton of power from Chancellor Tanner to Director Blackstone.

You’re only ever judged on results. And my results are shit.

“So, with HIVE, is Blackstone—”

“Chancellor, yeah,” Jana says. “I told you, Luke. Three fucking years happened.” Her voice sizzles with annoyance, but somewhere, in the layers of hurt, I sense sympathy. She doesn’t think whatever the Rems have planned for me is the correct play.

I wish she would tell me. Being unceremoniously cuffed without explanation tends to get the mind conjuring up a host of nasty scenarios.

I look down where she’s rolling a small plastic case between her fingers. It’s no larger than a tube of lipstick, and Jana doesn’t strike me as prim. Although her heart shaped face and brilliant eyes make her pretty—elegant in the same way a German Shepherd is.