Awoken (7 page)

One of the first things that Oa noticed was just how clean everything was. The ample lighting, which was both soft and warm in color, gleamed on the smooth white metal of the crossway. Not a speck of dust could be seen. He looked up and was surprised to see that there was art on the underside of the dome. He had not noticed the art from the floor of the city. The shell’s interior was decorated with images of strange figures etched into the metal. Somehow, each line glowed with light, creating a beautiful depiction of what appeared to be a great battle. He began to make out several figures in the chaos that looked like Awoken. In fact, one of the figures in the focal point of the scene appeared to be wielding a round shield.

“Oa, come look at this,” Ohm called, before Oa could interpret the art any further.

Ohm was next to a nearby tower. He stood gazing at it. Oa ran over to him, his boots making light pings as they hit the walkway. When he reached the building, Oa realized that the walls were transparent, revealing a sparse, yet beautiful interior. The architecture was simple and smooth. What caught Oa’s attention were the objects on display in the room. They were exotic and clearly ancient. Some sat on stands while others were so big they just rested on the floor.

“What is all that?” Oa asked Ohm.

“Memories, relics of our past. Artifacts like these used to be of great value and were obtained by the wealthy; but all things decay, Oa, including value. There are few left to envy such wealth, so there is little joy in it for the owner,” Ohm explained.

“Someone lives here? So do they just sit around and stare at this old stuff?” Oa asked, demoralized slightly by the notion.

“Actually, that’s exactly what they do. There is so much history to wallow in. Over there is a petrified tree,” Ohm said, pointing, “and there is an old lighting etch. Hmm … It’s a piece I’m not familiar with. Perhaps we could get a tour. Fred’s fiery spirit might brighten the mood of the owner.” He reached out and knocked on the glass. Instantly, alarms rang out from inside the tower and red lights began to flash inside.

A panel opened up above them and a segmented mechanical arm slithered out. A bulky boltspitter was attached to the end of the appendage. The sentinel waved around for a moment before snapping back to point at the intruders.

“Tight security,” Ohm stated. He tackled Oa over the side of the walkway as the sentinel blasted the space they had been standing in.

Ohm arrested their fall with Fred’s trusty aqua jet. They coasted to a safe landing in the lower levels, several avenues away from the tower they had disturbed. Their landing startled an Awoken out of its quiet shuffling. The skittish Awoken ran into a nearby building, slamming the door.

“Nobody likes you, I guess,” Oa teased, darting forward to look at some more glyphs he spotted up ahead. “Wow! Ohm! Look at these. That same symbol is here, but there’s a lot of different writing.”

Ohm inspected the work as he responded, “These are new. The writing is definitely the ravings of an oracle.” Ohm glanced over to see Oa staring at him. Sensing a question, Ohm proceeded to explain the term. “Oracles are lunatics that tried to climb past the Sacred Temple of the Enlightened to reach the forbidden peak of the mountain. Their programming gets scrambled by the power of the sky. If they survive to return, they will just scrawl lunacy in places other Awoken will see it. Look, here is some nonsense about laser porridge.”

Oa digested the information but didn’t respond. Instead, he began to read the script before him aloud, “First to sleep, last to wake, brood of death, our souls to take.” Ohm’s head slowly turned to look at the words. Oa continued reading, “Destroyer once broken, but the piece has been found. In Destroyer’s completion, all existence shall drown.” They stared in silence for a moment. “Below that, the single word Eol is repeated over and over and over,” Oa said, kneeling to trace the glyphs that trailed down the wall.

“Impossible,” Ohm muttered. Then he regained his composure. “Fred, I need an analysis of these scorings. Are they recent enough to imply the writer is still in the city?”

“They are recent enough,” Fred replied. “In fact, whoever wrote this can’t be more than a couple avenues away.”

Ohm spun on his heels and set off running down the lane as Oa rushed to keep up.

“What’s wrong? You said oracles just write gibberish. You said that the Destroyer is dead, right?” Oa asked, disconcerted by Ohm’s sudden urgency.

“I don’t think it’s gibberish. Not this time, Oa. The Destroyer is dead but the legacy of his broken vow still lives on,” Ohm snapped back, his voice rising as they raced through the maze of the city. “Every once in a very, very long while, one of those poor idiots gets scrambled the right way. Somehow, they catch a glimpse of the universal programming; and when that happens, secrets are revealed. Secrets that could help confirm my suspicions to the nature of Eol.” They rounded a corner into a dimly lit courtyard with no exit, save the one through which they had come. “Aha! Gotcha!” he exclaimed.

Before them, in a beam of light cast down from the upper levels, hunched a trembling Awoken. It was the oracle. The oracle’s clothes were scorched, and its alloys were rusting away. Sparks escaped from the oracle at random spots. The oracle stood, finger to the wall, writing with sparking energy. The energy darted from its fingertip into the wall, leaving a deep scorch.

Ohm ran up to the Awoken and pulled it from the wall, spinning it around to face him. “What do you know of Eol’s connection to the Destroyer?”

The oracle let out an eerie shriek; and its whole body sparked up, knocking Ohm back. The mad Awoken scuttled back to the wall, arms hanging limply at its side. Ohm stepped forward again and then froze; his head snapped toward the shadows at the edge of the courtyard.

“Ohm, we are not alone,” Fred spoke.

“I see them too. How far gone are they?” Ohm asked, his voice tense. Oa looked around trying to see what Ohm and Fred had spotted. Then he saw them, ominous shifting shapes in the shadows all around them.

“They are in the final stages of sleep; and even though pacifism is your best hypocrisy, I suggest we run. It would not be advisable to trust your new leg in combat this soon,” Fred answered.

“Just back away slowly, Oa. If we head out the way we came, the Howlers won’t bother us,” Ohm instructed calmly, heeding Fred’s advice.

Just then, the oracle sparked up and let out another eerie shriek as it started running toward the exit. Instantly, Howlers surged from the shadows, wailing and screaming as they tackled the oracle.

The Howlers were ghastly life forms, hardly recognizable as Awoken. Nearly all of their alloy skin had peeled away, leaving tubes and joints bare. A thick black ooze coursed over their exposed veins. The few remaining faceplates each Howler had flashed frantically in the dim light.

Oa snatched Seeker from his satchel as several Howlers lunged toward Ohm and himself. Oa recognized the familiar oily splotches on these Awoken that he had seen on Swift and her gang, but these Awoken were completely covered in the murk. He concentrated and sent Seeker zooming toward the oncoming Howlers. The orb pelted through the attackers, knocking them off their feet.

Ohm ducked under a charging Howler. He drove back up, using the Howler’s own momentum to send it tumbling over his back. The Howler was thrown into the air and fell to the ground, stunned.

Ohm turned to Oa. “Get out of here! Use Seeker to get over that wall. I’ll follow you. I just have to get that oracle before the Howlers tear it apart!” He ran forward and dove into the pile of rabid Awoken, chucking them out of the fray one at a time.

Oa turned from the chaos and sent Seeker to the top of the nearest wall spanning the gap between two buildings. He pulled with his mind, launching himself over the barrier while retrieving Seeker as he sailed over. He landed hard, tucking into a roll as he hit the ground. Oa sat back against the partition and listened to the noise of the melee. After what felt like an eternity, he heard the familiar sound of the aqua jet. The screaming had not stopped, but Ohm came sailing over the wall carrying what was left of the oracle in his arms.

Ohm lay the poor Awoken’s remains on the ground and sat down next to Oa. “I was unable to save the oracle,” he grumbled moodily.

“At least you made it out alive,” Oa said relieved. “This is a good time for me to use Seeker. Now Fred will be able to see how it works.”

“Of course! Brilliant idea,” Ohm said enthusiastically, his mood brightening.

“First, I need to know what the Howlers are. I met some Sleepers but they weren’t this rabid” Oa said.

“That is because they were not as infected as these ones. The Legion has been distributing Void capsules for quite some time. The capsules allow Awoken to immerse themselves in the Void. The experience is addictive because it allows Awoken to experience memories of those already dead. A side effect is the infection that covers their bodies. As it progresses, the Awoken start to sleep. The time spent sleeping gradually increases. Those Howlers are near death; and now the few times they wake up, they are driven mad by this world so they tear it apart trying to return to the bliss they felt in the Void,” Ohm explained.

“Are they really experiencing memories of dead Awoken?” Oa asked.

“I am not sure. Their madness is nothing like an oracle’s. Sleepers I have spoken to say that they see and hear lost Awoken all around them, reliving memories as if they were still occurring. It is similar to the stories of the Enlightened meditation, but it seems much more visceral. The addiction has consumed what was left of civilization out here in the edge-lands. That is why this place is so empty,” Ohm replied somberly.

Oa mulled over his past experiences. “So the Marauders do resist the Void in their own way, rather than drowning in the past—”

“Perhaps you see some truth in the convictions of a Marauder. Let us fix this oracle before the Howlers attract unwanted attention,” Ohm interjected, refocusing Oa on the task at hand.

“Not enough truth to escape Eol’s Law,” Oa said sadly as he got up and knelt down next to the oracle.

The limbs were gone and the oracle’s torso was shredded, leaking water everywhere. Oa could sense Ohm watching him closely as he began to quiet his mind. Oa let go of his uncertainty about the Marauders and his confusion toward Eol’s Law. His mind opened once more to the sea of symbols.
Could this be the universal programming
? Oa thought in wonder. He felt the familiar rush of awareness, but he did not let the storm shake him. He soared through it to a place where the broken oracle stood strong and tall, with a mind that did not have to chase sanity. Oa saw more clearly than he ever had. He found the point which the oracle’s aura emanated from, the soul ember, a pure singularity. As he gazed into the ember, pieces of information caught hold of his mind. He realized that the oracle was
she
and that she had a name,
Ibra
.

Ibra will be whole again,
Oa thought to himself. Seeker rose from his hand, glowing white-hot. Its deep hum resonated through the air as it spun faster and faster. Strands of glowing energy shot out from the Seeker, forming the image in Oa’s mind. Oa knew what Ibra should be, and he let his will stitch together the broken pieces before him.

Ibra was nearly too bright to look at, as new limbs and body were forged in Seekers blaze. Oa was lost in the bliss of reaching his potential. His focus was completely on healing the broken Awoken, when a voice edged its way into his mind, jarring his focus.

“Oa! You have to stop! Oa!” the voice said.

Oa was snapped out of the moment as Ohm grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him away from Ibra. The new Awoken was sitting up and looking around as the glow around her began to fade. Oa was dazed for a moment, until he spotted them: two figures at the end of the lane, standing in the dim flickering light, tall and ominous. Fear struck Oa as the figures’ heads lifted revealing a single glowing crimson eye that peered out from under a brimmed helmet. It was the Legion.

The two Legion soldier’s bodies remained perfectly still as their right arms raised pointing at Ibra, Ohm, and Oa.

“Fred! Aqua jet!” Ohm yelled, wrapping his arms around Oa. Fred activated the aqua jet, sending them rocketing up and over the heads of the Legion soldiers just as they fired their weapons.

Oa had never been close enough to the Legion to feel the deadened air around the black bolts that fired from their pistols. He looked back and watched, horrified as the Void bullets rammed through Ibra’s chest. She stood, sane and alive for the first time in many cycles. She stared down in confusion at her hands, watching them dissolved away into nothing. Sound returned, and Oa could hear the end of his own cry of frustration.

Ohm flew them to the end of the lane where they landed at a crossroads between several towers. The Legion soldiers spun around and walked calmly after them, weapons raised.

“Run!” Ohm commanded, and they took off around the corner as the wall exploded behind them in a deafening silence.

“I hate nihilistols,” Ohm grumbled, referring to the strange pistols the Legion carried. “Always disintegrating important things and making it impossible to hear anything,” he complained, as they sped through the streets of Bolleworth.

“Why are they here?” Oa asked, still in shock at the Legion’s sudden appearance.

“You’re the one who wanted Eol’s attention. It appears you have it. I might have a theory as to how they found us, but you’re not going to like it,” Ohm replied somberly.

They rounded another corner and found themselves running out of the city and back into the maze of the surrounding canyons.

“We will lose them here; just follow me” Ohm commanded. Oa followed as Ohm wove through the tall spires of rock at a breakneck pace. Ohm’s step faltered; and he halted suddenly, ducking into an outcropping in the stone wall. Oa rushed in behind him.

“Oa, there is something I have to tell you,” Ohm said with urgency in his voice as he grabbed Oa by the shoulders. “You need to kn—” Ohm’s voice cut out. Then he went limp and fell to the ground.