Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (28 page)

He moved closer.

“Stay back," I said.

“Alright.”

He licked his cybernetic jaw.

“The legends also speak of a prophet, modeled after us, but born from the Machine God. A missing link that would bridge the gap between the divine and mankind.”

He spread his arm into an arc above his head.

“Don’t you see it?”

“See what?”

“Your life. You don’t have a family, you don’t have a memory. You were stranded in a ruin, discovered by the Bulwarks. You know how to fight without having ever been part of a battle. You heal and react faster than anyone else. And you lead people, naturally.”

His artificial grin stretched.

“It’s exactly like the prophecies have foreshadowed it. You were sent to bring us back to our benevolent deities. You will bring us to the Promised Space."

Pause.

“You are the son of the Machine God.”

I chuckled. 

Too much madness to take in.

Especially when delivered with the zeal of a Technoid.

I said,

“I hate to disappoint you, Naif, but I’m just some human who lost his memory. I get tired, I bleed and I curse.”

His smile didn’t wane.

“A lie told a thousand times is still a lie. You’re modeled after humans to connect with us, but you’re something more. Something better.”

He stepped forward.

“This is my happiest day. There are no human words to express my joy. I always believed in the prophecies, but know I see them becoming a reality before my eyes."

He fell to his knees and praised the sky.

“I’ve served the prophet of the Machine God. I talked to him. Which heretic could witness such glory?”

He crawled toward me and turned full-fanatic.

I said,

“Stay where you are.”

“You must remember your purpose. Only you can save us from this rotten world.”

His mouth foamed.

The Technoid repeated his mantra ad nauseam.

Naif's character left for good and made way for lunacy.

“Bring us back, please.”

Pause.

“Back to the divine.”

I stepped backward.

Then, a shot fell.

83

Ann-Lyze stood on the other side of the roof.

Held a Dust Viper in her scratched hands.

Finger on the trigger.

I didn’t know what to say.

My glance fell back to the ex-soldier.

Naif.

His brain was blown out. The crimson liquid poured out the massive hole on his right temple. Ann-Lyze walked over the steel bridge and joined my side.

“I thought he was going to kill you. I had to do it.”

I nodded and still didn’t know what to say. 

Was I supposed to feel relieved? I doubted he was going to kill me, since he didn’t make a move for his firearm. But he acted like a fanatic, and these folks were unpredictable. Partly human, partly something else. 

Conflicting emotions. 

I knelt next to Naif's corpse and found his eyes half open.

A smile painted his cybernetic jaw—one could say he died in happiness. 

I tried to get back up but my legs rioted. 

They gave way like mushed sausages.

Ann-Lyze tried to support me. 

“Are you badly hurt?”

“Just exhausted…”

Days of nonstop action took a toll on my body. The only thing keeping me afloat was my curiosity.

“Did you hear what he said? Me being the son of the Machine God and all that crazy talk?”

She looked at me with stern eyes.

“He was a Technoid. They are known for their insanity.”

“But is there any truth in his words?”

She gave me a look that spoke tomes.

“Please. I’m tired of being lied to.”

Besides, we were the only ones on the roof now, far enough from the Bulwark’s surveillance.

Whatever was revealed on the roof would stay on the roof.

Ann-Lyze pursed her lips and commenced.

“The aliens, or Machine God as the Technoids call them, tried to communicate with our race.”

“You already told me that theory.”

She ignored my tired remark.

“First they sent a signal. Then, probes. When that failed, they sent ships that approached Earth’s atmosphere. That’s what triggered the war.”

I knew.

She was keeping something from me, and I wanted to know what it was. My half-closed eyes looked at her face and saw her lips twitching.

“What happened then?”

She looked at me.

Speechless.

“Ann, just tell me.”

“It’s just a rumor which lacks any evidence. But after the many failed tries to communicate with us, gossip claimed that the aliens became more intricate in their approaches. Some scientists believed they had sent ‘advanced’ diplomats to Earth.”

“Advanced diplomats?”

My tired mind couldn’t comprehend.

Thankfully, Ann-Lyze talked like a five year old to me.

“During the war, soldiers tended to scavenge the battlefield for valuable wreckages, similar to what we do now.”

She paused, maybe for dramatic effect.

“I remember old feeds where scavengers found strange pods among the usual tech rubble. Guess what they found inside?”

“Robots?”

“Humans, contained in some kind of liquid, cabled to the pod they were put in.”

“What? Like a prisoner?”

“Or a test subject.”

Ann looked up at looked at the distance of the Concrete Jungle.

“The rumor said that the aliens found out how to manipulate human DNA. The scientists who believed in that theory claimed that after the failed cybernetic ambassadors the aliens had sent, creating one that looked like us would help with the communication.”

She swallowed.

“To bridge the gap between our species.”

“Are you saying that I—“

“I’m not saying anything. I just told you the rumors. Crazy rumors, to be honest.”

Maybe I should have told her about those weird space dreams that washed over me. That strange place from where I could see Earth.

But maybe these trips made me look even more lunatic.

Ann-Lyze’s eyes roared with compassion.

“But enough of the conspiracies. You look exhausted. You need medical attention ASAP.”

She was right, again.

So many questions were left, but my body failed to comply. Gravity pulled it toward the ground of the roof. 

Felt as if I weight like a concrete pillar.

Coated in titanium armor.

Before I offlined, my last words mumbled out.

“What about Naif’s body?”

“I’ll take care of it. And then I take care of you.”

My mind faded into darkness.

84

My eyelids opened up and recognized the ugly lamps of the medstation. Glitch, Ann-Lyze, and Ceedee stood around. They looked at me with worried faces that soon switched to smiles. 

“Look who’s come back to the living,” Ann-Lyze said with a smile that outshone the lamps.

“I’m still alive?” I said and looked at my bandaged hands.

“Unfortunately,” Ceedee said and everyone giggled.

My hands touched my body. I wore some kind of patient uniform and lay on a stretcher with iron railings. 

The antiseptic smell of mint and metal penetrated my nostrils.

Yep, I was back at the medical station, surrounded by friends. 

Bandaged like a mummy.

And felt like a living corpse.

“How bad do I look?”

“Not as bad as a Technoid," Ceedee said.

Wasn't really a compliment.

“Glitch?”

“You look like a ration I had for breakfast. After the diarrhea shot it out.”

“I think I get it.”

More chuckling from the round. 

I tried to remember why I had ended up in the medstation again.

“What happened to me?”

Ann-Lyze answered first.

“I helped you get up on the Sky Garden’s rooftops when you blacked out. I called for help and we carried you to the medstation. Then you slept for three days straight.”

“Three days?”

Ceedee pushed me gently down.

“Relax. Your body is exhausted from the constant pressure. All is okay.”

The nurse moved in.

“Ah, I see our hero has finally awoken.”

She did a quick scan and checked her datapad. Wiped some stats and medical jargon pages that sounded beep beep to me.

“You can be lucky you’re still alive. Your body took quite the beating.”

“How bad is it?”

“You’ll make it, I can almost guarantee it. But you need to rest, and your friends need to leave. I’m sure the Bulwark requires everyone's service now."

“Okay, hang tight,” Glitch said and wanted to high-five me.

I was too weak to raise my arm.

Oh well.

Ceedee saluted me goodbye but halted in the doorframe.

“There’s going to be a big celebration in the Sky Gardens in two days. Citizens of every rank can attend. You should come, too. After all, we’re all alive because of you.”

“If my legs don’t dangle around like wobbly noodles, I’ll come for sure.”

She gave me a wink.

“Swell.”

Glitch waved me goodbye with a peace sign and traversed the door next.

Apart from the nurse, Ann-Lyze was the last one in the room.

“Don’t feel bad about the Technoid. He had it coming.”

“I won’t.”

She looked as if she wanted to say more.

Her eyes glistened. There was something she needed off her chest, but with the cams and the nurse around, that was impossible. 

Didn’t matter.

We’d find private time, one way or another.

The nurse pulled up the sleeves of my shirt and tapped for the right vein.

“You sure have incredible friends. They waited for hours and wasted work opportunities of course, but this time we make an exception."

“Yeah.”

Pause.

“Nurse, will I be alright?”

She flashed me a professional smile.

“Oh yes, my dear. You broke down because of exhaustion and dehydration. Not to mention the back injury that your plates couldn’t fully absorb. But don’t worry, your body is already repairing itself."

She looked for the right set of words.

"I have to say, you have incredible overall health. If every soldier in the Bulwark had the same fitness as you, we would have won the fight against the Technoids a long time ago.”

“Maybe you should clone myself.”

She chuckled.

“I wish we had access to that kind of technology. Would make a lot of things easier.”

I waited till she took a blood sample and glued a powerplaster to my skin.

“Will I be able to leave the medstation today?”

The nurse cracked up.

“It’s good to see you carry an appropriate sense of humor.”

Pause.

“No darling, you need more rest, a minimum of two days. Excellent fitness or not, you’re still human.”

85

A few days later, the committee of the Bulwark Cluster granted me a free access to the celebration. No extra permission needed, whoopie. The citizens, guards and soldiers postponed their duty for a few hours and enjoyed their rare off-time. 

I met up with Ceedee and Glitch at the main rooftop of the Sky Gardens. Wounded citizen with bandaids and crotches staggered around, but their faces glowed with hope. 

Just one of the many aspects I loved about humanity—no matter how harsh the society and the wars tore at the psyche, as long as there was a flicker of hope on the horizon, humans pushed themselves up again and went back to work. 

Giving up was no option. 

Never ever.

“Hey, are you daydreaming again?”

Glitch pulled at my jacket and sucked on some kind of snack.

“The big party’s over at the club. Let’s go.”

“Right.”

We crossed the skybridge and entered Molotov. As usual, the place was packed. Citizens and soldiers alike sang melodies of victory and clinked beers. Some folks even danced on the bar counter and shook what their mother gave them. A minor felony only few days ago, now a common sight that even the guards seemed to enjoy. 

“What are you doing here?”

The sharp voice cut through the festive mood. Chief Orden pushed herself through the crowds, this time guard-less. 

“I thought we’ve been granted a day off.”

“Well, you aren’t. And you've just broken yet another rule."

She paused for the verdict.

"Two hundred hours of isolation in the cell. Six hours of max sleep, one ration per day."

“You gotta be—“

“—kidding you?”

She took a sip from the blue liquid. 

“Actually, this time I am.”

She forced up her mouth wrinkles and expressed something others would call a smile. It looked so unnatural on her face, it had to be a twitch.

“I caught you for a second, admit it.”

“Yeah.”

She finished her drink and patted my shoulder.

“Well, enjoy yourself sustainably. But tomorrow, I want you to contribute to our society. You have to make up for the days you slacked off in the medstation."

This woman was unbelievable.

I had saved her goddamn cluster almost single-handedly while being on the brink of exhaustion, and here she was, still lecturing me.

“Right.”

I wanted to add a witty line, but I remained speechless. Orden walked away and disappeared into the crowd. Ceedee pinched my arm.

“Wow. Was that Chief Orden’s first attempt at humor?”

“Maybe the hot & sour drink is melting her frozen heart.”

“Sounds like it.”

I ignored Orden but kept her on my To-Watch-List. The second I was fully fit, I’d deal with her again. She was never going to imprison me—or anyone else for that matter—again. With my growing reputation among the soldiers and civilians, I commanded more influence than ever before. And I’d use it to change this Bulwark Cluster—forever.

The Orden reign was going to end.

Soon.

Ceedee looked at me with a sharp smile.

“What’s on your mind?”

“The future.”

“Let’s worry about the present first.”

We moved on and joined Glitch's friends in our favorite spot. Ann-Lyze crossed her legs on the right couch and talked to a big guy with lots of bandaids around his left shoulder. Ceedee squealed when she saw Hecto raising his drink. She tiptoed around the table and landed on his laps. He ground his teeth.