The Children of New Earth (17 page)

“So, now that we’ve established you’re not going to kill us, we should let you know - “

“Yes, your pet bird and robot friend just arrived,” Micah interrupted. “They’re sitting up there.”

We looked up to see Lynn and Mark sitting on a pipe near the ceiling. They hovered down next to us and Lynn shifted back into human form. The crowd murmured excitedly among themselves. Apparently they’d never seen a shapeshifter before.

“Pet?” Lynn said, brushing a feather out of her hair.

“My bad, you’re not a bird after all,” Micah said, clearly impressed.

“Lynn, this is - “

“I know, I heard most of it,” she said. “I don’t like it, but if Cora trusts them, I trust them.”

“Now then,” Cameron said in his normal, cheerful tone. “Michael and Micah will show you to your room. Don’t worry, it’s much nicer than the one you were in just now.”

We stepped off the platform in relief. Though our mission to find the anarchists was only somewhat successful, we were happy enough to get a respite from the dangers of the outside world.

Just before turning away, Cameron addressed us one more time, “Oh, and welcome to the Neogen Sanctuary.” He then continued to walk past the crowd that had begun to cheer as they welcomed us into their home.

Chapter 12

We were given a large room with six beds arranged in a circle and a heating unit in the center. I was surprised that they’d have so much extra space, given the myriad of other inhabitants. Michael explained how this Sanctuary was used as a military base for a global war in in 2020s. Only a few people knew about it, and his father happened to be one of them. It was the home of a small city’s worth of personnel. The base had several entrances, different levels, and extended about a mile off the coast of the peninsula. It was also equipped with training rooms, laboratories, living quarters, recreational areas, and a plethora of other useful facilities. The hole we’d fallen into earlier was actually an old silo for nuclear missiles.

I also learned about the Neogens’ powers. Michael and Micah, the twins, were psychically connected since birth. Not only could they read each other’s thoughts, they could utilize each other’s senses, even if they were miles apart. Micah could be out scouting in town and Michael would be able to stay here in Sanctuary and still see, hear, smell, and feel everything his sister was. The two were even working on a kind of visual projection, where they could have normal face-to-face conversations even if they were in two different places.

Other Neogens had different forms of psychokinesis. They controlled various elements such as water, earth, air, and, most rarely, fire. Others were different forms of telepathic like Cora and the twins. Some could summon force fields, duplicate themselves, and even speak to animals. It was an amazing variety of abilities that I’d never seen before, and gave me a much better understanding of the power my generation had.

For the next couple days, Rachel and Aaron spent their time in training rooms, working on target practice, combat, and agility courses. Lynn spent most of her time in the room, with the various books she carried around but never before had the chance to read. Cora made herself at home in one of the labs, aided by Mark. I spent most of my time there as well, but would occasionally leave to explore the rest of the Sanctuary. There were often announcements over the intercom system; speakers were set up all over the base, probably used for important news back when this was still a military base. Now they told us inventory status updates, if someone was needed in a certain area, when it was time to eat or sleep, and various other kinds of information. I found myself believing more and more that this could be a permanent residence for us. I had no idea what had become of my home, and Cora’s Sanctuary was overrun. Not knowing what to do next, it gave me some comfort knowing I had a place where I belonged.

One morning, the wake-up announcement had been delivered, but we collectively ignored it. We did, however, wake to the sound of some excited Neogens entering our room. There were three of them, two girls and one boy.

“Rise and shine, friends!” the boy exclaimed.

“Can I help you?” Aaron asked with a small degree of sass, still not totally awake.

“I’m Seth. This is Amelia and Keli. We heard that you’ve been here for three days and still haven’t been in the VRC”

“VRC?” Rachel asked.

“Virtual Reality Chamber!” Amelia said with glee.

We exchanged glances. “Now when you say virtual reality,” I began, “do you mean big, clunky headsets with bifocal screens?”

“Heck no,” Keli replied. “This is 100% total immersion using salvaged neural gear from Eltech.”

That woke Aaron up. “Friends, take me to the VR Chamber,” he said, rubbing his eyes and pushing back his hair..

“Sweet,” Seth said, then he looked at Mark. “Sadly, we haven’t yet learned how to put robots in VR simulations.”

“Leave that to me,” Mark said.

After getting dressed and grabbing a quick breakfast, we all followed the three Neogens to this VR Chamber. Along the way, we learned about their powers. Amelia remembered everything she heard, saw, felt, and learned. All of it was stored permanently in her mind. Keli could teleport short distances at will and Seth could alter the density of his molecular structure, allowing him to perform feats like walking through walls or even deflecting projectiles.

After a few minutes, we arrived at our destination. It was basically a large room with about fifty beds, each connected with wires that converged into a single console in the middle of the room. One would simply lay in the bed, adjust the headrest where the neural interface was, the allow the administrator to set up the virtual scene.

“We normally use this for training purposes,” Seth explained. “Our brightest coders installed models of actual Demons in the program.”

“But don’t worry,” Keli reassured us. “It’s not real; you don’t really die and you can’t feel pain.”

“So basically like real life for me,” Isaac said with a massive grin on his face.

“Once the program reads your avatar as dead or critically wounded, you are pulled from the simulation,” Amelia said.

We walked over to the console and got a look at the interface. There were options to choose how many players, which training drill, the difficulty, and several other preferences.

“My personal favorite is fighting the Titan, but that might be a bit too advanced for you guys,” Seth said.

“That’s funny, considering we’ve fought against an actual Titan and you haven’t,” Lynn remarked.

“Whoa, you fought a Titan?” Seth looked both scared and impressed. “How’d you guys make it out alive.”

“We didn’t all make it out alive.”

“Oh, I see. I’m very sorry,” he turned back to the interface and began typing. “I know, let’s try Swarm Survival.”

“That sounds kinda terrifying,” Cora said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you,” Aaron said confidently.

“It’s virtual reality Aaron, I’m not stupid.”

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Seth indicated the program was ready.

“Go ahead and lay down on a bed,” Amelia requested.

As we did so, Keli explained the rules.

“Basically, you guys start out in a massive clearing in the middle of a forest. It’s at night so vision is limited.”

Amelia continued, “Once the drill begins, a Swarm will emerge from the forest and your job is to kill them all with the weapons provided. Ammunition is replenished but only at the end of each round.”

“So we can’t use our powers?” Rachel asked.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to integrate our powers into the VR program,” Seth replied. “That would involve hacking into the various engines defining the world and it’s a real struggle trying not to destabilize reality. But in my opinion, it’s better to learn how to survive without superpowers; that way, it’s easier to survive with superpowers, am I right?”

“That’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day,” Lynn said blunty.

“It’s still early,” Seth said with a wink.

“Anyway…the number of Demons will increase as you clear more and more waves,” Keli continued. “However, the larger the Swarm, the more time you get before the next wave.”

“Time to do what?” I asked, laying onto a bed.

“The ultimate objective is to get to the beach, which is some random distance past the trees in any direction, since the island is a circle,” Amelia said. “So you have a choice: Go for the beach early and brave the few Swarm inside the dark forest…”

“…Or survive in the clearing for as long as you can, and after killing a massive wave, make a run for the beach,” Keli said. “The only downside to that is if the next wave starts while you’re still in the forest, you’re kinda screwed.”

“Sounds like my kind of drill,” Aaron said with a confident smile.

“OK, let’s do this,” Rachel said.

The rest of us agreed, and as we settled into our beds, Keli teleported to each one of us, adjusting our neural headsets. Seth moved aside and allowed Mark to examine the console’s various input parameters. After some tinkering with the options, Mark went to a bed and connected himself to a single wire.

“Alright, my body won’t be there, but I will be able to interface with the simulation and guide you through it.

“Awesome,” Seth said. “Everybody ready?”

“Ready,” we replied in unison with the exception of Cora, who started to say, “I immediately regret th-”

And with that, Seth started the simulation. My headrest grew warm, and the bed began to vibrate. My mind slowly went blank, as if I was falling asleep. When I awoke, I found myself in a clearing with the others. The sky was dark purple with two white moons pouring light over the area, and we were surrounded by tall trees about fifty feet in every direction. On the ground in front of us were some guns, swords, crossbows, and a small stack of ammunition. Aaron, Lynn, and Isaac each grabbed a rifle. Cora took a crossbow. The swords were sheathed in black scabbards, and Rachel and I each hooked one to our belt.

“This is so freaking cool!” Aaron said, looking around. Just then, a booming, female voice echoed in the sky:

Attention! Round 1 will being in thirty seconds!

“Oh shit,” Cora looked very nervous.

“Relax, it’s not real, remember?” Aaron said in a mocking tone.

“Aaron, I swear…”

I noticed that over the past few days, the two were bickering more than usual, and not in a friendly way. I wasn’t sure why, but I suspected it had something to do with the transition from the danger of the outside world to the safety of our new Sanctuary. We slowed down, and were able to think past basic survival instincts. Our thoughts became more complex, more subjective, and more about our future. Consequently, perhaps the two were now slowly discovering their incompatibility. But this wasn’t the time to ponder over our group dynamic, we had some virtual Demons to kill.

Taking position, we made sure to face every side of the forest. My hands were shaking, and I wished nothing more than to be able to use my power. It wasn’t always reliable in stressful situations, but I felt safer knowing I had it as a kind of lifeline.

Round 1…Start!

We began to hear moaning and screeching as the Swarm came running from the jungle. There were only about ten, and our gunners were able to kill them as they left the treeline. One by one, the bodies of the Swarm disintegrated into digital nothingness. Isaac lowered his gun, looking quite pleased with his work.

“Well that wasn’t so - “

Round 2…Start!

“What the shit?” Isaac fumbled around with his weapon, quickly raising it back up.

This time, around 20 of the Swarm emerged from the forest. We gunned down most of them, but when the time came to switch mags, Rachel went ahead and quickly dispatched of any remaining Demons with her sword. Aaron reloaded least frequently, since he never missed a single shot.

“What I wouldn’t give for my airgun right about now,” Aaron said as he picked up a box of bullets.

By my calculations, the number of enemies are increasing exponentially each round.
Mark’s voice had been amplified as it sounded from the sky, just like the announcer.

We barely had a minute to prepare before Round 3 started, and not much more for the next. That was when the female voice began to tell us how long we had between rounds. Near the end of Round 5, Rachel and I each had to kill several Demons with our blades, giving the others time to reload. They came very close to using up all the ammunition allotted for this wave. I was skilled enough with a sword, but my swings were heavy and I couldn't quite commit to a perfect stab. Rachel’s attacks, however, were mechanical and calculated. She was aiming for decapitation, but a strong jab to the chest seemed to work just fine too.

Round 6 will begin in 3 minutes.

“I don’t know how much more we can take,” Lynn warned.

“Agreed. I say we make a run for the beach,” Isaac suggested

“We don’t even know how far the beach is,” I said.

“I think we can tough it out for another couple rounds, it’ll give us more time to run,” Aaron suggested. “Just make every shot count.”

“Easy for you to say,” Cora commented.

Assuming each enemy is killed with the minimum number of bullets needed, and no shots miss, you will be able to survive three rounds before the allotted ammunition is no longer sufficient.

“So, realistically, we have one more round left,” Rachel said.

“Speak for yourself, my perfect aim has nothing to do with my power,” Aaron replied.

“Here’s an idea,” Cora began. “Why not kill as many of the next wave as we can, but leave a few of them still alive. The next round won’t start until we clear the whole wave, so then we can make a run for the beach without worrying about any more of the Swarm popping up in the forest.”

We paused for a moment.

“That’s brilliant!” I said. “It’s so simple, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

“Well, honey, that’s why I’m the genius and you’re just kinda smart.”

“I’m trying to read the game code to find exceptions…it's mostly hidden variables and functions. But based on the data available, it could work.