Rage

TWENTY-FOUR

Kvasir hovered over Raine.

“There’s a hot drink for you. Over there,” he said, pointing to a nearby table. “And some food. I guess you’re used to eating the synthetics by now.”

Raine nodded. He took a breath and sat up, rubbing his eyes. How long had he been sleeping?

Not much light got in here.

“Thanks.”

Kvasir was already walking back to his worktable, filled with instruments and trays, his workday-whatever that was-already begun.

The old man sat on a metal stool and peered down at one tray.

“Took a look at your buggy. It’s fine now.”

“The problem?”

Kvasir shook his head. “Fuel line clogged. You can only burn that crap they use for fuel for so long before you have to go in and clean it out.” He looked up from his work. “Didn’t they tell you anything?”

“Not much.”

“Well, you better learn how to repair your buggy yourself or you won’t last long.” A snort. “Not that you’ll last long anyway.”

Raine walked over to a side table. A chipped mug with a hot liquid. Tiny cloud vapors rose from it. Next to it, a chunk of something to eat. Cheese, bread, soy, chemicals? All of the above?

He picked up the warm mug and took it over to Kvasir’s table.

“How long did I sleep?”

“Through the night and most of the day. Guess your ’trites needed time to do the repairs.” He looked up again, eyes narrowed. No cackles yet today. Definitely in a more serious mood. “How’s it feel?”

“Good. I think.” Raine raised his injured arm above his head. “Yeah, almost like nothing happened. Even after the stitches. Guess the nanotrites are one bit of tech from the past… that’s turned out well.”

The laugh. Directed right at Raine. “Oh, really?”

Kvasir dropped the two metal scalpels that he held and they clattered onto a tray. Raine saw that he had been doing something to a rock, a clunky analog microscope nearby.

“You think so?”

Then again the grin.

“Think again. ”

Kvasir paced as he spoke.

“Sure, the nanotrites are wonderful biomachines. They’d do incredible things for you. Lifesaving things. Or so it seemed. Then something happened.” He stopped by Raine and looked him right in the eye. “Those miracle machines could turn bad.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Not with everyone, not all at once, but they can take over in a way that nobody saw coming. Instead of healing, the ’trites started changing. Some people just died from them. They were the lucky ones.”

Kvasir’s laughs had vanished. His face was set now, grim.

“You think the asteroid, that radiation, made all the muties? Think again, stranger.

“Sure, the asteroid may have made some of them, the subsequent radiation and all that. But when the Authority began experimenting with mutants and the ’trites, suddenly those savages were everywhere.”

“What? The Authority made muties?”

Kvasir shrugged. “Word is they took people, prisoners, and regular mutants, too… and let the nanotrites take over. Maybe like those things you left dead on the desert floor.” He sniffed the air. “Bottom line, they turned people into muties using the nanotrites, and also made the mutants worse. ” He took a breath. “Nice folk, huh?”

“And they just let them out, let them escape?”

Kvasir grew quiet. Not saying anything, as if he had something secret and debated telling Raine. “I don’t know.”

Not true, Raine thought.

“Who knows? In the end, who cares? They got out. They spread. The fact is that these new mutants loaded with ’trites became like a plague, a disease. Something that could be passed on. You’re already infected, so at least you don’t have to worry about any muties taking a bite out of you!”

Another barking laugh from the old man.

Raine reached out and grabbed Kvasir’s arm. “You mean to say I’m going to turn into a mutant?”

“Are you listening? Hell, doesn’t seem like your ears are working too well. Something can trigger the change. Doesn’t hit everyone. You could be one of the safe ones. He paused, then:

“I wouldn’t bet on it, though.”

“When will this happen?”

“You’re new. The ’trites inside you have been sleeping as well. Could be months from now. Years. Maybe never. The Authority spent years trying to find out what triggered it and how to control it. In the end, any of the Ark survivors left opted to have the nanotrites removed. Your best option, too, friend.” Another laugh. “Kind of an exclusive club.”

“I should get them removed, then,” Raine said.

“In good time. Don’t think anyone ever had them turn this early. For now they help you, work for you. Eventually, you’ll have to get them out.”

“And then… the mutants will become even more dangerous to me.”

“Yeah-just like the rest of us… Gotta say, though… most people don’t know much about this. Most think it’s just the asteroid. And that was part of it. Strange type of rock, I tell you. It’s why I’m working here.” He nodded, then picked up the chunk of rock on the table. “Something unknown, something strange inside that rock. And I want to find out what it is.”

Kvasir put it back down on the table in front of Raine.

Raine’s eyes moved to the table. The chunk of rock on a tray. Thin slivers of a strange material on smaller trays.

“Wait. You mean- that’s part of the asteroid?”

“It’s called feltrite. The core material of Apophis. The rock that changed everything.” He started laughing, degenerating into a cough, his mad humor probably the only thing that kept him sane.

If indeed he was sane.

“I promised you secrets. And you know what, Ark man… I keep my promises.”

He started walking to the door.

“Come outside. You have some decisions to make. Some options. ”

They sat on a metal chest, like a footlocker.

From this porch-itself a piece of wavy metal that bounced if they shifted their weight-Raine could look out at the nearby hills and the metal bridge.

For the first time, he got a sense of the world here.

“Sun’s going down.” Kvasir looked over at him. “Gets even more dangerous out there in the dark.”

“Guess I won’t leave today. First thing tomorrow.”

Kvasir spit, sending it flying past the porch. Though it looked clear, Raine could taste a salty grit, the fine dust and sand from the desert, filling the air and coating his lips.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

“Wellspring. Only place I know to go. Been told I can disappear there.”

“Disappear,” he snorted. “You know, you are a prize, Raine. An Ark survivor. You know things. You could be useful. Though not based on your buggy-fixing abilities.” A cackle.

Raine ignored the laugh. “You mean for the Authority?”

“They won’t stop looking for you. They will find you. At best, you will be their prisoner. At worst, they will kill you. They have killed so many others. And some end up as prisoners-the scientists, the researchers-trapped in Capital Prime working for the Visionary.”

“And who the hell is that?”

“Leader of the Authority. Don’t know much about him. There are theories. Point is, they have all the power. The guns. The science. Everywhere you see, and beyond-it’s all their world.”

“And you’re saying they won’t let me be?”

“That’s for sure.”

“So I go somewhere else?”

Kvasir turned and looked at him.

“Yes-and no. Okay, Ark man. Now I gotta just take a chance I can trust you. Can I trust you, Raine?”

“What do you think?”

“Anyone ever talk to you about the Resistance?”

“Resistance? Dan Hagar mentioned that some people were against the Authority. But he didn’t say anything about-”

“Good. Best people like him not know too much or tell too much. They might leave him alone, and his settlement. The Authority needs the settlements. For supplies, to keep people in check. But there is a resistance; there are people who fight back.”

Kvasir gestured at the open spaces of the Wasteland that lay before them.

“They have a ‘vision,’ too. Free people. Sharing the science, all the goods from the past. Sharing what was found after Apophis. Instead of it all going to Capital Prime.” He took a breath. “That’s where I think you belong, my friend. With the Resistance.”

For a few moments Raine didn’t say anything. “I was sent here on orders. You know. A mission.”

“Yeah. To protect people. The survivors. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s how the hell you’ll do it, friend.”

Another pause. Raine felt that this strange world just grew a bit stranger… and even more dangerous.

“I guess I could talk to them.”

Kvasir raised an arm.

“Look. See over on that hill there? Some muties. Just about dusk they gather. Always want to get here. But my little traps on the bridge stop them.” Another spit at the rock. The gesture belied the confidence of Kvasir’s words. He took a breath.

“Fuck you!” he yelled at them.

“How do I find them. This Resistance?”

Kvasir turned back to Raine. He reached out and gave his arm a squeeze exactly where the arm had been wounded. No pain.

Incredible.

But frightening now, too, since Raine knew the nanotrites were like time bombs ready to explode his humanity.

“Your arm’s good. You can travel. But not to Wellspring. No. You’re going to another city, my friend. Best you give the Resistance a reason to want to contact you. A reason to trust you. Time for the last secret.”

Kvasir stood up and headed for the door. The light and color was seeping from the sky.

“Let me show you something…”

Kvasir spread out a large roll of paper. Like an architect’s blueprint, it showed buildings, streets, a city plan.

“This is the Dead City. The Authority used their scientists to carry out experiments-on the nanotrites, on the mutants themselves-while also trying to understand this…” He put his hand on the piece of asteroid, the feltrite. “There are secrets in here, and they’re not even close to understanding them.”

“Who’s there now?” Raine said, pointing at the layout.

“No one. Dead, you know? Things started to go wrong. Things went so bad in the city.” Kvasir grinned. “The mutants escaped. They don’t know how that happened.” He snorted again. “I do, though.”

Raine looked at the old man’s grin.

“Wait-you did it, you worked for them?”

“Not in the end. I escaped. And I messed up things for them before I left. That’s another story. For another time, hm?” He paused. “I didn’t tell them what my suspicions were. Where they should be researching. Here, I’m just a crazy old man in the wilderness. They leave me alone. Occasional Enforcers will drop by once in a while to see if I have found anything. I give them crumbs. They leave me alone.”

“And this city is…”

“Deserted. Abandoned, save for the mutants. A half day’s journey from here. A city of mutants, my friend. And not just like the ones outside. The Authority carried out experiments. Those ‘experiments’ still walk around.”

“I’m guessing you’re showing this to me for a reason.”

“What were they trying to do? I never found that out. And what are they doing now? What was the Authority’s ultimate goal in experimenting with mutants? Whatever they were, they’ve taken those experiments into Capital Prime. But they started here, in this city. The clues are here.”

Raine looked at the layout, the streets, the buildings.

“Raine-what they were doing there, it got out of hand in a hurry. Bad enough for them to run without even packing up. Bad enough to not want to go back. They took their main hard drives and left, the city swarming with mutants. The experiments… out of control.”

Kvasir gestured at the city plan.

“Mutants… all over. So-some of the backup drives got left behind. It was just backup data. Not too important for them. But with that information, the Resistance might have something it could use to grow stronger. It could have-the truth.”

“So why don’t they go there, get the damn drives-”

“Not a chance they could get close. To expose themselves there-the Authority could find them. People speak. But you-” Kvasir jabbed a finger at Raine. “Who knows you? No one yet.”

Kvasir walked over to a tray, his pieces of the killer asteroid sitting harmlessly in it.

“You go there. Get the drives. Then, you go to Wellspring. I will let my contacts know you will be coming. There’s a woman. I used to work with her. If she’s interested, don’t worry-she’ll find you. It’s the only way it can work.”

Kvasir picked up his scalpels and scraped at the rock. “Something here,” he muttered, not really talking to Raine. “Some kind of force. Subatomic. Chemical. A new kind of force. If only I had better equipment.”

“And the mutants?” Raine prompted. “You said they are still in the Dead City.”

Kvasir didn’t look up. “Yeah. It won’t be easy.” A snort. “No. It will be hard. Deadly. But you are trained. Hell, after what I’ve seen you can do, it might actually be possible. Sometimes one man is better suited for a mission than a whole army.” He shook his head. “Either way, it’s safer than the stadium-”

“You mean the races.”

Another scrape. “Death traps, they are. A stranger trying to make his way in the Wellspring? Drive, kill, or be killed.”

Raine stood still, the repetitive scraping of Kvasir signaling the time passing.

Options.

What options?

He could just ignore him, this crazy old scientist. Could just go to Wellspring.

But then… if he were to do what he was sent here to do-if he were to carry out the mission, his duty- that wasn’t the answer.

After what seemed like long minutes of silence, Raine spoke. “Okay, Kvasir. I’ll go get the drive. Or try. I’ll bring it here, and then I’ll go to the city.”

Kvasir nodded. “Good. I will let them know. And Raine?” He looked up at the survivor. “I do have a few other weapons, things that might be useful. You can take what you want.”

Raine nodded but said nothing. Instead, he watched Kvasir take a flake of rock and slide it under the microscope.

“Yes… something… here…”

Raine went back to the schematics for the Dead City.

He spent the next hours looking at them, preparing… before he finally rolled them up, carried them to his cot, and lay down.