Rage

NINE

The first thing Raine felt was a stabbing pain at the back of his neck.

Instinctively, he reached up with his right hand to rub that spot as if it might ease the way-beyond migraine level of agony.

But his hand didn’t even respond.

Then, confused by what seemed to be a clear command to rise, his hand finally did pop up, as if released from invisible netting.

It rose only inches. Then it hit something.

He realized then that his eyes were shut. It hadn’t even occurred to him to open them. If he could make the pain simply stop, maybe he could go back to sleep. Sleep seemed like a good thing, something he wanted, needed. And he couldn’t help thinking it would be easier to slip back to sleep if he kept his eyes closed.

But he heard someone talking.

The voice was muffled at first. A woman. Talking to him? A dream? He wondered.

“Emergency extraction of Ark 1138. Revival procedures begun on remaining vital pods.”

The voice sounded familiar. He had heard this voice before. Someone he knew. But her words made no sense to him.

None at all.

“Evaluation of pods complete. Pods one through eleven have had essential systems destroyed. Revival impossible. Pod twelve undamaged. Revival progressing normally.”

No sense. Wait…

Ark. Pods.

Still, the fiber of memory was so thin. He could barely connect what those words meant. Ark? Pods? He mulled them over and over.

Until-he opened his eyes.

He saw something only inches above him through the clear protective mask of a helmet. Swirls of smoke, tinged purple and green. And he heard a whooshing sound. On, then off. Then again.

Ark. Pods.

And then he remembered: I am in a pod. Inside this thing, this Ark.

He licked his lips and tasted something strange. Something had coated his lips-a slick, metallic-tasting balm.

“Opening pod twelve,” the woman said.

Now he remembered that, too. It was the computer.

He heard the sound of things moving. Felt a rumbling under him. Then the thing that had him sealed in here, the cover that restrained his hand from moving up, began to slowly open.

And the sounds suddenly became louder. • • •

“Caution: emergency fire system in operation. Remain in your pod unit until complete.”

Another bit of memory came to him. Along with Ark, pods, computer… I’m Lieutenant Nicholas Raine.

I was sent here.

More shooshing noises. Raine turned left, a slight angle of the head, to see a whitish cloud being shot out, aimed somewhere in the back of the Ark.

He tried to sit up.

Again his body seemed glued in place, but eventually he could raise his head, only making the pain at the back of his neck worse.

Then his hand moved over to the edges of the pod. His fingers closed on the edge, grabbing as best they could with gloves on. His actions were deliberate, like his body was planning some terribly complex strategic move.

He lowered his head and then brought it up again, this time pulling himself up, performing the incredible feat of sitting up.

Sparks shot out from a wall ahead of him. From above, a sharp cracking sound. More sparks flew from where he saw exposed wires.

The colored smoke… that came from the automated fire extinguishers hitting the fiery spots, picking up the ghostly lights from the computer. Until they stopped.

Pod twelve. That’s me, he thought. Pod twelve is okay. Pod twelve survives.

He looked at the other pods. One was cracked, matching a crack that ran straight across the floor… and stopped only a foot from his pod.

Another pod was split open. But whoever was in it just lay there. It dawned on him: I’m the only one alive.

Something had happened deep underground. The Ark had been damaged, the pods malfunctioning or wrecked by whatever had occurred.

Maybe not a good idea to just stay here, he thought. Despite the computer’s advice.

Getting his legs to move, though, was proving to be as difficult as moving his head had been.

But with thinking and planning, he eventually got to a standing position… and walked over to the computer.

He opened the face mask of his helmet. The extinguishers putting out the fire had slowed, then stopped completely.

Good-I won’t be cooked in here.

The computer talks. And he remembered that he had been told he could talk back to the computer.

“What happened?”

The computer didn’t answer. He started to repeat the question.

“What-”

“Seismic occurrence, marked at a depth of 219 meters. Pressure exceeded Ark specifications. Electrical and control systems began to fail. Emergency extraction begun at 0930 hours.”

Raine nodded. Guess one didn’t have to thank a computer.

“Anyone else survive?” he asked, a question he was pretty sure he knew the answer to.

Another hesitation.

Then:

“No.”

Yes, lucky me, he thought. Then, another question:

“The year?”

“By the Julian calendar, June 11, 2114. That calendar is no longer accurate.”

The calendar was wrong. How could a calendar be wrong? How could time be different?

What could happen that could change time, days, months?

Then a last word. The last bit of a puzzle. Falling into place in his mind like a wooden jigsaw.

He said the word: “Apophis?”

The computer showed video. Appearing on the big screen high above the pods.

He saw the asteroid racing through space.

The screen went black.

“Attention: systems unstable. Immediate evacuation of Ark 1138 is necessary.”

Were there fires still burning somewhere within the Ark? Could this still turn into a tomb for him?

He heard a sound, turning.

The Ark’s porthole door was opening. He flipped down his mask. Even with that amount of time passing-accurate calendar or not-he wasn’t sure if it was safe to breathe outside. It disturbed him, to think he could have traveled all this time only to die once he stepped outside. Radiation. The air. Whatever the hell the world had been transformed into.

The door kept opening while he stood there, watching, nearly petrified by the idea of leaving this.

Like being born, he thought.

The stairs had cascaded down to the ground. He heard the sound of rock crunching, a grinding noise. The Ark, he noticed, sat tilted at an angle to one side.

Could be goddamn anywhere.

But with the door open, at least he knew… I’m not underwater.

“Evacuate now. All systems shutting down.”

The door to the future-his future-lay open.

With his legs wobbly, his whole body still weak and undependable, he walked out.

Step after tentative step.

The light outside was blinding.

Raine brought a hand up to shield his eyes. His shaky legs were barely up to getting him down the steps, and he felt as though he might tilt forward and fall flat on his face.

He heard his own breathing in his mask.

Heavy, labored sound.

Can all my organs work okay after sleeping for so long? My heart, lungs, everything? What about muscle atrophy? And yet, for someone who just slept a hundred years, he didn’t feel too bad. It certainly seemed as though his brain was sluggish to respond, though. Memory shaky. Thinking more cloudy than clear.

It was He looked up. No clouds here, just brilliant sun.

A sunny day.

Raine took another step down.

Words surfacing like debris after a shipwreck.

I’ve been in a shipwreck, he thought.

He touched the ground. Uneven, lot of rocks scattered here. The brilliant sun making it hard to take in the full landscape.

Was the sun always this bright?

Or was that new, in this year? Whatever year it was.

He brought his other foot off the step, now fully off the Ark. Fully born into this world.

Seeing nothing around him.

Which is when he felt something wrap itself tight around his neck.

An arm. • • •

The choke hold closed his windpipe. Another hand ripped off his helmet, exposing his head and throat.

Then before him, the face of a monster blotted out the sun. All he could see were eyes.

A monster, except that he now saw that it actually was someone wrapped in ragged cloth, like a mummy, all the way up to their eyes. Colored splotches like tattoos on the skin. Dark, narrow eyes looking right at his.

Raine tried to free himself from the man behind him, wondering how many were attacking.

But his muscles were too slow, too weak to respond, and the man in front of him-he now knew that the thing in front of him wasn’t a monster, but a human-held a knife that caught the shimmering brilliant sun like a deadly jewel.

The man shifted the knife in his hands, enjoying the moment. His eyes on Raine’s, the life slowly draining out of them. He brought the knife to Raine’s neck.

Didn’t last long, Raine thought.

Not much more than the others, all dead, inside.

The blade tip touched skin. Right above the choke hold, under the chin, tip pointing up. Was this a ritual or simply something being enjoyed? The suffocation started kicking in.

Not long now.

“Die, Ark man.”

Words. From a human. The first he had heard in such a long time.

One last attempt by Raine to wriggle free, a bit of a kick with one leg. But whoever held him was big, the hold powerful.

Then-a crack.

And instead of the knife slicing up, the man in front of him bloomed a red hole in his forehead.

Another crack, and Raine felt the choke hold magically release as if he were sprung from a trap.

The attacker in front fell forward, coming to kneel in front of Raine. The one in back just stumbled away before falling backward.

Shots, Raine registered.

Someone shot them. Then the sound of an engine, and from the distance-from behind a rocky outcrop, a jagged triangular piece of stone stories high-he saw a car.

Well, not exactly a car.

The thing was open, exposed, and looked more like a cannibalized version of a dozen vehicles than any car Raine could recognize. A pair of metal roll bars were the only protection on the top. It was the strangest thing with wheels he had ever seen.

And yet, driving it, coming straight at him, was someone who looked almost normal.

At least he wasn’t wrapped in tattered pieces of cloth from top to bottom. No face painting.

He drove with one hand. His other held a rifle, barrel pointing straight up.

The vehicle sent a spume of dust flying behind it.

Raine waited.

The vehicle screamed to a dusty stop in front of him.

“Better get in, stranger. Unless you want to play with more of them.”

Raine looked at the man. Scars. Skin a dark bronze, as if toasted by the brutal sun. He didn’t let go of the gun.

“In? Why? Where will we-”

“You got questions. I got answers. Some, at least. But with those two dead, a lot more bandits will be heading here. We got to move. Now.”

Raine looked down at the bodies, registering that the man in the crazed vehicle was his savior.

“Get in my damn buggy.”

Buggy. That what he calls this thing? This mutated version of what was once a car?

“Right.”

Raine stepped into the vehicle, which pulled away the moment his right foot left the ground.

“Hold on. And take this.”

The man handed him a rifle. “I’m guessing you know how to use it.”

“Yeah.” Raine had to shout over the sound of the uncovered, unmuffled engine, animalistic in its deep roar.

“Keep your eyes peeled. Left, right. You see them, take a shot.”

The buggy raced over the ground, bouncing crazily with each indentation or pile of rocks it hit, sending Raine shooting up and down.

He felt his stomach tighten, nauseous. An aftereffect of his cryo sleep?

He licked his lips. Thirsty. And maybe, despite the stomach-churning ride, hungry? He didn’t know.

“ ’Kay, stranger. We got to go through there. That ravine. Quickest way back to my settlement. And I’m thinking… quick is good.”

“Right,” Raine said again, dully. As if it was an obvious fact.

Right.

“Eyes open. Got it? I’m Dan Hagar.” He looked over at Raine and grinned. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.”

Raine held the gun tight. And now, like some primal memory returning, he let his hand slide down to the trigger. He looked down at the gun. He didn’t know the brand, looked almost homemade. Like a standard army issue M16 rifle someone pieced together. But it was a weapon he guessed he could shoot. One that (It came back to him…)

– he had killed with.

He was good.

A good shot. He remembered that now.

The buggy screamed into the chasm made by two stony fingers of what looked to be the beginning of a pair of mountain ranges.

Raine’s hand tightened around the trigger hold.

“Where are we?” he said.

“What?”

Then louder.

“Where are we? Where are we-”

“Time for that when we’re out of here. Shit-goddamn-”

Raine looked ahead. A ragged metal chain-laced with twisted pieces of sharp metal, a spiky net-suddenly rose up, shutting off passage through the chasm.

Raine glanced up. He saw movement on either side of the ravine.

As they roared into the trap.

“Get that gun up. And… hold on.”

The vehicle went even faster toward the metal barrier ahead.