Post-Apocalyptic / Sci-Fi / Dystopian
Date Published: July 3, 2020
Publisher: Skyland Press
Incarnate Number Seven, a cybernetically enhanced young woman with no
memories and only a basic operating system, awakens to a devastated world
painted in blood, desperation, and genocide. Guided only by a moody
artificial intelligence program and scattered digital memories into the
past, Seven must traverse the perilous Gateway region, fighting past its
savage inhabitants and monsters to learn who she was and what happened to
her world. Maybe, if she’s lucky, she’ll even save what’s
left of humanity in the process…
memories and only a basic operating system, awakens to a devastated world
painted in blood, desperation, and genocide. Guided only by a moody
artificial intelligence program and scattered digital memories into the
past, Seven must traverse the perilous Gateway region, fighting past its
savage inhabitants and monsters to learn who she was and what happened to
her world. Maybe, if she’s lucky, she’ll even save what’s
left of humanity in the process…
Excerpt:
I stopped
behind a fallen tree trunk at the edge of the lawn and readied the carbine at
my side. Peering through the scope, nothing was visible in the tower. All the
windows, their frames absent of glass having shattered long ago, were dark and
motionless. Then something moving on the front porch caught my eye.
It was a
man.
Hunched
over, the balding man was pacing across the porch over and over, occasionally
changing course and descending the stairs, only to reverse course and ascend
back to the porch. There was something erratic about his gait, though, almost
as if he was shuffling. He was flailing and wringing his hands into his
tattered clothes, bobbing his head, smacking his lips while he spoke to
himself. I didn’t know if it was his spastic movements, the screaming, or both,
but something compelled me to caress the cold metal of the carbine’s trigger.
As he crossed the porch again, the man’s head passed through the crosshairs. I
made sure the carbine’s stock was against my shoulder this time and then
started to squeeze the trigger. I held my breath, trying to steady the weapon.
I kept
ordering my finger to pull the trigger, but it… I couldn’t. I lowered the
weapon. I couldn’t kill again, especially someone who wasn’t posing a threat to
me. Listening carefully, I could now hear the voice screaming from the tower
better. It was a girl’s voice – pleading for help.
“What should
I do?” I cried out to KeepR.
“Shut up and
get us out of here, I-Seven!” KeepR’s electronic voice snapped within my head.
But there
didn’t appear to be anyone else present, aside from the man on the porch.
Perhaps the girl was just scared of his erratic behavior? “Maybe I can reason
with him?”
KeepR
snorted, “Good last words.”
I moved from
behind the tree trunk and started toward the house. “I’m going to try.” Maybe I
could talk him into letting the girl go without any need for conflict, but even
if he wouldn’t listen to reason, I was feeling tough in the 4300 armor. And I
had a pretty formidable gun, so maybe I could intimidate him into… moving
on.
The man
continued his pacing routine as I approached, seeming unaware of my presence.
When I reached the home, he was on the far end of the porch and just starting
to shuffle back toward me. What I’d thought was speaking was actually more
like… barking… or growling.
“Hello?” I
called out to him, attempting to sound confident, my heart racing. The carbine
readied at my side boosted my confidence a little, assuming I could use it
correctly this time.
The dog-man
reached edge of the stairs, stopped, and stared at me with bulging, bloodshot
eyes. His eyelids were drooped and flapped open, red and raw. He moved a few
steps closer, his pupils darting back and forth, examining me. The border of my
visor began flashing red as he let out a low growl. I wasn’t sure how to
interpret the visor’s flashing, but I imagined that it wasn’t good.
“You need to
leave that girl alone!” I demanded… or whimpered. I wasn’t sure which.
The man’s
lips curled, and the pitch of his growl rose, reverberating deep in his throat.
Then he was airborne as he soared off the top step – coming right at me!
My mouth and
eyes shot wide open as I realized what was happening. Suddenly, that familiar lucidity
returned to me…
My
perspicacity had activated.
As time
slowed and the dog-man floated toward me, his once frenetic movements and
twitches now seemed slow, his eyes bulging open, but barely moving. A stream of
saliva drifted from his gaping mouth. But what caught my attention most was his
outstretched arms and hands, which ended in sharp nails and bloodied
fingertips. My visor began flashing a vigorous red, and the red outline of a
rectangle surrounded the man’s body, but I had no idea what that meant.
A squeak
escaped my lips as the terror struck. Why
does everyone want to kill me?
Even as my
mind raced for a solution, my instincts took over, and I started to fall
backward, simultaneously flipping the carbine upward. As the dog-man fell toward
me, I thrust the carbine in the direction of his chest.
I didn’t
know much about guns, but even I couldn’t miss a target this close. I pulled
the trigger as hard as I could, and four holes punched through the man’s chest
as he barreled down at me.
Time
accelerated again, and the dog man hit me with painful momentum, smashing me
the rest of the way to the ground. The two of us lay there for a moment,
motionless, his weight crushing me. He was bigger than I’d realized, and he
stunk like excrement.
“So much for
talking!” I squawked, still reeling from the tackle.
“Told you,”
was KeepR’s only reply.
I was barely
able to force the dog-man’s limp body off me. I couldn’t bear to look at him
any further. This was going to do my guilt wonders.
So not lucky.
I didn’t
have long to mope, however, as my self-loathing was then interrupted by a
series of new cries erupting from inside the house. Not those of the girl, but
deep, booming howls. “No time for guilt, now you’ve got more to kill!” KeepR
noted.
Fantastic.
Pulling the
carbine to a ready position, I moved up the steps and rushed through the open
door, quickly grinding to a stop.
Wait! Shouldn’t I check to see if it’s clear first?
My concern
was instantly validated as another dog-man launched onto me, ramming a long
knife into the elastic joint of the 4300 armor along my right shoulder. I spun
and crashed to the floor, and when I looked back, my attacker had disappeared.
Ignoring the searing pain in my shoulder, the knife still buried in my flesh, I
managed to pull myself to one knee and examine the only logical doorway that
the dog-man could have disappeared through.
Then I saw
his balding head peek from the other side of the frame. A red, square reticle
appeared in my visor, covering his head. I pointed the carbine at him with one
hand and squeezed the trigger. The kickback from my carbine seemed
exponentially stronger than it had just a few moments ago, making me lose my
balance and fall to my backward again, the spray of bullets arching wide and
high over his head.
“What the?”
I cried out, trying to regain my stance. I was not very good at this. “KeepR,
how do I get time to slow down again?”
“To your
left!” was KeepR’s only reply as another dog-man emerged in my peripheral
vision, wobbling down the stairs. This one, a violently flailing woman instead,
was shaking and bobbing as she approached, waving something in her hand.
Is that a pistol? The two bullets she fired
impacted my armored chest plates, sending me sprawling backward, and I tripped
and fell to my back once more.
As I heaved
to regain my breath, KeepR yelped, “I know I was right! Quit thinking about
that and shoot it!”
Before I
could get back to my feet, the dog man that had been hiding on the other side
of the door was upon me again, pummeling me in the face. I pushed the creature
off and forced myself up again. I tried to pull the carbine up to fire, but he
was too close. He bore down on me and yanked the knife out of my shoulder.
More
pain.
I was in
over my head…
Brandishing
his knife once again, the dog-man lunged at me. His blade was deflected this
time only by the armor plating of the 4300. I grabbed him with both hands, and
we crashed into and cracked the wall, and then continued our spinning dance as
I tried to force the knife back toward him. Then my legs came out from under me
as we crashed over a small end table, causing it to collapse in the process.
Fortunately, in our desperate roll downward, the dog-man broke my fall, and my
weight did the rest, pushing the knife between his ribs at the sternum. He
trembled and shook a few times, and then that was three lives on my hands.
“Better make
it four!” KeepR reminded me as I turned back to face the dog-woman. This one seemed a bit calmer than the other
two. It seemed to be pondering another approach than just lung and kill, a
strategy that hadn’t worked so well for her companions. Rather than leaping at
me, she seemed to watch me, her pistol held limply at her side. Gradually she
crept toward me.
I wasn’t
going to risk another close call this time. I raised the carbine at her, and
she seemed to hesitate. “Sorry,” I gulped, propping the stock against my
shoulder to prepare for the kickback this time. Then I pulled the trigger.
Click.
Click. I tried again. Click.
So not lucky.
“Reload
idiot!” cried KeepR. But I barely even had time to grasp a spare clip from one
of the 4300 utility pockets and fumble with it before the dog-woman came
howling at me. At least her gun apparently wasn’t loaded either, since she
wasn’t shooting at me, but that didn’t dampen the stinging as she battered me
with it. I tried hitting her back with my carbine, but I couldn’t get much
leverage on it as she towered over me, swinging wildly. Again, I’d misjudged
the creature’s stature due to her previous hunching.
She pinned
me against the wall, grabbed one of my hands, and pushed it into my face. But I
pushed her head back on the forehead with the palm of my left hand, at least
interfering with her pistol whipping.
“I think we
have a stalemate,” I spat at her. “Can we please stop?”
Her
response? Burst forward again and start biting furiously at my face, spraying
saliva onto my cheek – her bulging, bloodshot eyes darting back and forth.
What do I do now?
“Remember
the bridge? Your visor can help you!” blurted KeepR, being helpful for
once.
Oh, right! I looked at the balding dog-woman and did my best
to “will” her to die, not really sure
what the visor would do in response. A flashing red lightning bolt appeared on
the left side of my visor. Not sure what that meant, but desperate to try
anything, I “willed” an affirmative to the visor. At that moment, the gauntlet
on my left hand pulsed with fluxing energy, and then something burst out of my
left palm, snapping the woman’s neck back with a loud crack in the process.
When the acrid smoke cleared away, I was still standing against the wall,
alone.
I examined
my hand, worried it wasn’t done pulsating, but it appeared as normal as ever.
The woman’s body, however, lay motionless on the floor in front of me, the
floor that was now visible through a cauterized hole right through her
forehead, just a few centimeters in diameter. Smoke was still rising from the
charred flesh surrounding the hole. I recoiled at the smell of… roasted meat.
“Excellent!”
cheered a giddy KeepR. A bit too giddy at having just murdered someone…
The
unpleasant churning in my stomach returned. Killing wasn’t getting any easier
yet. Remembering the other two dead ones only made it worse.
My chest
ached, but that pain was nothing compared to my still bleeding shoulder.
Examining the black marks on my chest where the bullets had ricocheted away
reminded me that such pain was actually good luck. It could have gone a lot
worse. Although the armored plates covered most of my chest, had the shots been
a little to the side I might not have made it. I was also a little sad to
realize that my formerly pristine white 4300 was now marred, covered in drying
blood and dirt.
But, at
least it could shoot… plasma? I wished I’d realized that sooner…
About the Author
Wilder Page loves science fiction, cyberpunk, dystopian, and
post-apocalyptic worlds. Especially those with stories where the personal
stakes are high, and the costs of failure are very real. But he also
believes in the triumph of the human spirit, and whether the future will be
grim or bright, well… that’s a choice each of us has to make
for ourselves. When Wilder’s not writing or daydreaming he spends the
rest of his time running, traveling with his wife and best friend, or
playing video games with his two amazing little kiddos!
post-apocalyptic worlds. Especially those with stories where the personal
stakes are high, and the costs of failure are very real. But he also
believes in the triumph of the human spirit, and whether the future will be
grim or bright, well… that’s a choice each of us has to make
for ourselves. When Wilder’s not writing or daydreaming he spends the
rest of his time running, traveling with his wife and best friend, or
playing video games with his two amazing little kiddos!
Contact Links
Twitter: wilder_page
Instagram: wilder_page
Purchase Links
Thank you for hosting!
ReplyDelete