LOCKED (14 page)

"...Hey Danni?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you awake?"

"...No."

"I just wanted to say
that I'm glad I spent the past few days with you, and um... that I got to see
you again after everything that happened to me when this all started."

"Go on..." I could
just envision the satisfaction rolling off of her lips. I just sighed once
more.

"There's nobody else I
would've rather spent it with. I could die at any minute now, and I'm
kinda
glad it's with you."

"
Whoaaaa
,
lover boy." she laughed.

"What can I say? I've known
you forever. I know almost everything about you, I don't have a better friend
than you." She stretched out her arms once more and turned over to look at
me.

"You know just what to
say to warm up to a girl, huh?" she smugly remarked.

"Nah, I'm pretty bad at
being a ladies' man. Honestly, I just wanted to get that off my chest in case
anything else happens."

"I appreciate that, I
really do. I know it’s tough, but... things are okay for the moment. Tomorrow
could be a bloodbath for all we know, so just worry about right now. Is
anything else on your mind?" she softly grinned.

“Well, I mean... I know I
have something else to say, but I just don’t really know a good way to say it…”
I whispered to her, making sure that this conversation was staying just between
the two of us. My heart was beating faster and faster, and I had to lock my
fingers together to keep them from trembling.

"Shush." She laid
one finger on my lips to silence me. She removed it a moment later, and I
stayed silent.

"Did you really mean
everything you just said?" she asked. I nodded.

"That's all I needed to
know." Danni closed her eyes, and I closed my own. I cursed myself for
only watching old monster movies instead of romantic indie films, but that was
all swept away with a soft kiss. Our breathing slowed in this perfect reality,
and our motions and emotions were one. With a final pucker, she separated her
lips from mine with a quiet "mwah". Our eyes opened again. Danni
inhaled slowly, then grinned.

"Not bad for a tough
bitch, huh?" she boasted. I grinned back, too tired to think of a
response. I wrapped my arms around her, and let out one last heavenly sigh
before drifting off into the recesses of my mind again…

I felt a deep rumbling
beneath me. All sorts of uncomfortable sounds muddily traveled through my head,
as though they were on a plane far from where I was. In such an exhausted
state, I couldn’t quite connect where I had heard them before, nor did I care much
to put in the effort to do so. I rolled myself over, just waiting for the
surreal hallucinations to pass.

Without any warning, light
began to bleed through my eyelids. I felt a familiar pair of hands on me.

"GET UP LEO! UP,
UP!" Danni was shaking me awake. I shot out of bed, my slumber leaving me
instantly. The source of the noises was clear: the chatter of gunfire and
shouts rang through my head.

"C'mon, C'mon, let's
MOVE!" Danni was out of breath.

"Danni!" I called
as I yanked back on her arm.

"Where are we going?
What's happening?!" I begged her to answer me. She grunted in frustration,
and pointed out the window. There were more fires than ever, burning whatever
wreckage fell in their path. The smoke became the sky. I headed for the
elevator with Danni, and Eddy came tumbling out the second we reached it.

"We
gotta
go, we
gotta
go!" he hurried us into the
elevator, panting as he arrived.

"We're
takin
' a back exit. Tank's
gonna
be in the front, don't panic if you don't see '
im
,
he's there." The elevator doors opened again promptly when we arrived at
the first floor. Danni clasped her hand over her mouth when she got a better
look at the corpses burning outside, but we were quickly turned away. We opened
the door at the opposite end of the hallway in this once-pristine place. Behind
the door we were led through was a gray garage, but we didn't have time to
enjoy the scenery. We went through a door that led outside, and the scarlet
storms burnt our faces. We hurried alongside the building in the orange-red
light, and found the front. The detour was seemingly pointless; Eddy was
clearly trying to avoid something. Looking back at the miniature city that was
burning, I realized that the very same thing that Eddy was fearful of being
hunted by could easily hunt the
Sci’Lyk
!

"I’LL BE QUICK!" I
tried to dash to where I found them before, but Eddy grabbed my collar.

"GOD DAMMIT LEO,
THEY'LL BE FINE! WE GOTTA GO!" he shouted at me as loudly as he could. He
tried to hurry us into the truck, but a new, terrifying obstacle presented
itself...

The body of a soldier was
tossed in our direction. He was screaming through the air until we heard a loud
crack when he hit the dirt. His body slid by us, and other soldiers were firing
in the direction he was tossed. Then, the monstrosity burst through the flames.

God help us.

It was a black devoid of any
light, and its charcoal skin was moist, like an amphibian. Its body was divided
into segments, and it had the appearance of being a snake-worm hybrid. The tail
was a lethal pincer (which had an unfortunate soldier's arm stuck on the end).
Its head was pointed and blood-stained, sharp as a butcher's knife. It was
about ten feet tall, but around twenty feet in length. Its head and tail were
able to rotate in place, like an owl's neck. It let out a deafening
shriek-hiss. Its head focused on Danni, Eddy and I, and I took a deep gulp. I
looked down, then closed my eyes, ready for a brutal death. The very moment
that I felt the earth shift under me as it leapt forward, another force made
the ground rumble. Tank! My eyes were wide open again, but I was still rooted
to the same spot. Tank had tackled the creature from afar, sending both of them
rolling. They tumbled through the flames and carnage a few times, clung
together, before both threw the other away, the two of them then standing about
twenty feet apart in a deadly face-off. They both growled their menace; Tank
released a deep warning siren and the beast let out another high-pitched hiss.
They stared at each other through their own mode of vision: Tank in every
wavelength known to man and the monstrosity with echolocation. The two leapt at
each other at the same time! They grappled with each other again, desperately
struggling to find the other's weakness. Tank tried drilling into the monster's
thick hide with little success, and the monster pecked at Tank's metal armor.
Tank grappled with the head of it and tried to twist it around, but it squirmed
free. The beast wrapped its body around Tank's legs and tripped him. It tried
to take a lethal stab at his neck, but Tank sprayed his fire extinguisher into
its face. It cried out, and Tank drilled straight into its mouth. The
monstrosity wailed out even louder, black blood exploding from its face. It
quickly used its tail to burrow under the earth, and popped out underneath
Tank! He tripped once more, and the beast tried to stick its bloody and
battered broadsword-face in between Tank's plating. It must have hit a vital
wire, because Tank wailed out and drilled straight into the monster's face
again. It cried out again; it couldn't take any more of the abuse. The monster
quickly burrowed underground again, but didn't return. After we were sure it
was gone, Eddy ran up to Tank and surveyed him.

"He's out of operations
right now, but he'll be ok... it’ll take time, but I can work with
this..." Eddy sighed. I took the moment of peace to run over to the
Sci'Lyk
"village". It was still in pieces, but a
few of them survived; they were huddled against each other, but I felt a sharp
jolt of anger and agony when I saw the charred or mutilated bodies of a few. A
few cried out, and the others tried to tend to who could be saved. Some carried
the bodies over to the smaller, safer fires to cremate their dead. All around
was the smell of death, burning on a land once peaceful. I dragged my feet back
to the others, but fell to my knees and choked on tears along the way, damning
the world. Danni ran up to me and threw her arms around me, holding tightly as
if she'd never let go.

In the beast's wake was a tiny
note was on the ground. Eddy picked it up and read it aloud.

"Terrorists simply
won't be tolerated in America! This is not the last time
Jahnged
will give you payback! The disease’s effects have been used to positive effect
in my army, and we’ll decimate any in our way!" the note said.

"SON OF A BITCH!"
Eddy smashed his foot into the ground and threw his arms up.

The worst of the war was yet
to come.

WAR
ON NO MAN’S LAND

Eddy somberly began work on
Tank, seemingly concentrated on the communicator. It spoke out with a dull,
fuzzy tone. He had been trying to receive news from other U.S.P.L. locations
for the past few minutes, but with no luck. Danni and I shared a blanket and
watched in anguish as both the U.S.P.L. and
Sci'Lyk
mourned their dead and cremated them both out of respect and fear that their
bodies would be further mutilated by
Jahnged
if they
were buried. The night was merciless; it never seemed to end. Each star
flickered, each one a memory of a life lost in the war that had only just
begun. Then, the static on Tank’s communicator hissed loudly. A message was
coming through! The few of us who were left huddled around the device, hoping
it would announce good news.

"If... lines...
call..." The voice was audible, but it was stabilized after a few moments
of Eddy fiddling with Tank’s circuitry.

"Hello? Can you hear
me?" a man's voice called out; it was familiar, but we couldn’t quite
place it. He sounded older, but had a clean and professional tone. We all gave
a resounding "Yes!”

"Good! I believe this
is a U.S.P.L. zone I'm speaking to?" he spoke with such confidence and
prestige! We all looked around at each other curiously, and kept listening.

"Yes, I believe I am.
Anyhow, I’ll say something that I’m only giving you one chance to hear:
Jahnged
paid you a visit already, I know that much. If you
thought that it was a nightmare, believe me, that’s only the beginning of
it!" he smugly disclosed. Mixed with that smugness was malevolence by the
time he spat his last word.

We stayed silent.

"I’m not wasting a
single second that I’ve been given. It’s my duty to run this country now that
I’ve been given just the right opportunity to do it, and if that means
exterminating your little group and any like it that even think about stopping
me, then so be it!" he declared.

"I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON
A PLATE!" Eddy's face was bright red, and we had to do our best to calm
him down. The rest of us just couldn’t believe that Miller was still preaching
in his political tongue for the few who were around to listen to it. He was
Stalin. He was Hitler. He was Caesar. He was a man taught to fight the violence
of anarchy with brutality through order.

"I doubt that. I’m
using the
buala
to my advantage as we speak. Lay down
your weapons for the greater good of us all, or risk fighting a war you can’t
win!" Miller proclaimed before the communications flatlined.

"So how did Miller get
the name '
buala
', huh?" Eddy asked through
gritted teeth as he stared at
Beich
through eyes of
rage.
Beich
looked horrified; he was without an
answer.

"It doesn't matter now!
He must've gotten into your network. That's the only way we could’ve listened
to him just now." I butted in, just to try and avoid any unnecessary
violence. Eddy gave me a filthy look before Miller opened up the lines of
communication again.

"Don't think I can't
hear a word you animals are saying! You'll be among the first I deal with. I’ll
personally make sure that you’re wiped out just like your precious little town
was." he arrogantly snarled.

Now, I was the one who had
to be restrained. I felt the blood boil up in my face, ready to burst. What a
cowardly strategy; trying to rule by fear with an iron fist. What he didn’t
realize was that his iron fist was about to slam itself onto the sharp end of a
resistant iron nail. The communicator screeched out static one last time, and
all was silent besides the blaze behind us dying out. The sky was beginning to
be repainted from a deep black-blue to gentle orange-yellow. The sun was rising
on this new day, and I feared that it would bear witness to more bloodshed than
it had seen yet.

"Well... if anyone has
anything to say to anyone, it's about that time." I spoke when I sat down
next to Danni. Everyone in the group was silent for a few moments when Danni
recalled something that may have just saved us from imminent slaughter.

"...Oh! I've got
something! Ok, um... don't look at me like a freak after I say this,
alright?" Danni asked us.

Beich
,
Eddy, and I nodded.

"...0100110101101001011011000110110001100101011100100010011101110011001000000101000001101001011011000110110001100001011100100010011101110011001000000110000101110100001000000110110001100001011101000010000000110100001100110010111000110011001100100011010100110001001101110011100000100000011011000110111101101110011001110010000000101101001101110011010100101110001101110011001000111000001101110011011000110000."
she watched straight ahead as she recited this. We all gave her a blank stare.
She jumped in the same way a person does when they need to explain themselves
quickly.

"I just said not to
look at me like that! I—it's what was on the paper! In the doctor's office, the
guy ended up working for Miller and stabbed Leo!" she casually reminded me
as she informed Eddy and
Beich
of the betrayal earlier.
It came together like a puzzle.

"Eddy, that's—"

"Binary!" he
grinned his same old toothy grin. He ran inside the facility, and ran back out
in a few minutes with another small device. By now, the sun was peaking over
the horizon to see what was on the other side.

"Danni, say that
again..." he mumbled while he got out a small keyboard and attached it to
the small screen.

"0100110101101001011011000110110001100101011100100010011101110011001000000101000001101001011011000110110001100001011100100010011101110011001000000110000101110100001000000110110001100001011101000010000000110100001100110010111000110011001100100011010100110001001101110011100000100000011011000110111101101110011001110010000000101101001101110011010100101110001101110011001000111000001101110011011000110000."
she panted.

"Miller's Pillar's at
lat
43.325178 long -75.728760." Eddy read aloud,
pulling another cigar from his pocket. He lit it, and shoved it right into his
mouth.

"Latitude and
longitude!"
Beich
happily yelled out. We each
gave him the slow clap. His face turned red, coming to the disappointing
realization that he was the third wheel (or in this case, the fourth wheel).

"The doctor who gave us
that was even more psycho than Miller. He thought Danni and I would be dead by
the time we even realized those numbers were binary." I started to relax.
Knowing where Miller hid was a start. Now, it was a matter of capturing him.
After that, what price could he possibly pay for his actions? Was death the
only way?

"For all we know, Miller
could hop back on there any minute and hear what we’re saying. Locking him back
out’ll
be tougher than it sounds...” Eddy let out a
large puff of smoke and pointed to the communication device on Tank with his
pinky finger.

"If we're
gonna
do anything, we have to do it NOW." I suggested.
The other three inhaled deeply, and then nodded in unison. Our little group was
silent until Danni made another suggestion that likely ended up saving us all.

“Hey, I know someone who can
help us…” Danni whispered to me. She continued to me privately, and a small,
nervous smirk spread across my face. She had one hell of an idea, but it was at
least worth trying.

“What is it…” Eddy arched a
brow and asked with suspicion in his voice.

“If we told you, you
wouldn’t want to try it. You’ll just have to trust us.” I responded to him.
Danni was already walking back in the direction we came from the night before.
Eddy and Tank would have to come, but
Beich
would
need to stay behind and salvage what he could. By the time our voyage began,
the sun was already taking more than a peek at the landscape. It started
repainting the sky once more from the fiery red-orange to the calm deep blue
mixed with a light gray we were so used to. A few clouds further out on the
horizon tried to collage themselves into this picture, and we'd see later on
just how successful they were.

The sun was in the center of
the sky, staring at us with its burning, glowing eye by the time we arrived at
the destination Danni had in mind. We dared to travel down one of the roads
that Ortiz told us just the day before to not go down, and so far, it paid off.

We stood on the outside of a
ring of wooden fortifications in the middle of nowhere. We seemed to be in a
ghetto; behind the gates, there were dogs barking and scuffling. Trash burned,
sending up heavy puffs of smoke. Danni and I knew this place as the old
junkyard, but it had changed dramatically since we had last seen it. We saw a
steel fence, the only open spot in the ring.

"We have to see
Ortiz!" I shouted over the fence. A guard walked by the fence, his suit’s
build towering over it. I prayed that he recognized Danni and I, and it seemed
that prayer was answered. He silently motioned to one of his comrades out of
sight. Seconds later, a part of the wooden fortification was rolled back,
revealing the junk yard.  It screamed of the stereotypical “lean and mean”
junkyard construction. Tires were piled high, each one waiting for its time for
sacrifice, waiting to be useful after a lazy life. The scent of their
immolation not only made the inhabitants more aggressive and prone to psychotic
behavior, but also acted as a warning sign for any who stumbled into the
guerilla fortress. Well, a fortress of trash. Around the pillars of tires were
sloppily-constructed homes. They had roofs of tin, and were held up by bare
wood. The favela homes had no windows, and were so cramped that I hoped that
they were just “decoration” and not true living spaces. The pathways were
carved from dirt; most were invisible under the tracks of mech footing. The
entire slum reeked of a poverty brought upon itself.

We were accompanied by a
nameless, speechless guerilla. The only words he grunted the entire time we
were with him was that Tank was to be kept outside. Eddy, Danni and I passed
through the makeshift gate. There were the sounds of children playing but none
in sight. In a far-off corner, bulldogs fought over a scrap of meat. The air
reeked of burnt rubber and smoke. We were led through hallways comprised of
high stacks of every kind of material, ranging all the way from cardboard to
plastic to metal. We were led to a small "room" in the center of the
shantytown. It was open to the gray, sinister sky above but enclosed by walls
of steel otherwise. At the end of the room, Ortiz sat upon a rather
non-symmetrical throne of steel. Beside him was his mech, as sinister as ever.
He seemed to have been waiting, as he stood right up the second we entered his
"throne room". The guard left and slid the heavy door closed so we
could speak in private.

“I thought you would come
back.” he grimaced. It was difficult to tell exactly what his intention was;
was he testing us, or was he legitimately furious?

“Give us a chance. I think
you’d be happy to hear what we have to say.” Danni pleaded. Eddy and I let her
do the talking. Eddy scowled at me, as if he was saying “you were right to
think I wouldn’t like this plan”.

“I’m listening.”

“We know where Miller is.”

That was all he needed to
hear. Ortiz stepped forward, suddenly interested.

“Tell me!” he was far too
proud to ever beg, but this was as close as he would get.

“I will on one condition…”
Danni trailed off, looking back to Eddy, then back to Ortiz.

“I’ll hear it…”

“Your men will have to team
up with U.S.P.L. to fight Miller. Neither of us could realistically take him on
by ourselves.” Danni forced the words out and bit her lip. I couldn’t tell who
was more shocked by this development, Eddy or Ortiz. Both had their eyes wide
open, jaws dropped, staring at the other.

“Impossible. You,” Ortiz
pointed to Eddy, “are a threat to our way of life. There can’t be an alliance
between us.”

“Miller’s a bigger threat to
both of us than each other.” Eddy dared to utter a firm response. The shock
shifted to Danni. She seemed taken aback that he responded to the claim. The
negotiation was left up to him now.