Iridescent - Chapter 1

OoOoO

So dawns the beginning of a new generation of weapons. Thanks to the experimental nanoids in their bloodstream these children will be reborn. They shall no longer be the weak abominations that they once were. They'll be vastly superior to the EVOs. Over time the children will learn to accept their new abilities. Or if not they shall be forced. No longer will we have any need for guns or nukes. When I'm done with you, Max you will be the gun, the nuke. The very embodiment of law and order. You're going to be my biggest success story. Once the world sees what you are capable of everyone will be begging to fund my research. Then I'll show that General.. Call me crazy will he. An old coot, who's been washed up and is just chasing after the impossible in a quest to redeem himself. We'll see who's crazy. Yes we will. Soon. Very soon. Are you ready for that day my dear Max? Are you ready to show everyone what you can do? Are you ready to teach those fools a lesson?

OoOoO

The dark night sky greeted me through the helmet's view screen as I opened my weary eyes. I felt dehydrated and weak from the lack of food and water. I was also stiff from the shoulders down and seemed to be having trouble hearing. Fantastic.

Wait…night? How was it night? How long had I been out?

Broken glass crunched under me as I moved into a kneeling position. The transport I had been traveling in was on its side in a field, bullet shells littering the ground everywhere I turned. I looked to my left, where the body of Lieutenant Reddick, laid sliced in two with a rifle still clutched in his hands. At my feet was the co-pilot's decapitated body, drowning in its own blood. There was no sign of the pilot.

Reluctantly, I went to work grabbing the rifle and a few extra cartridges from the bodies. With a nod at Reddick, I carefully made my way toward the back. The exit door was jammed up into the transport's body, but a few violent kicks soon remedied that.

About twenty feet away, a burnt out tank was parked upside down on the roadside. In the distance, a gray plume of smoke touched the sky. Bathed in the low light from my helmet, the scene looked a lot like those end-of-the-world movies Noah was always talking about. At least I wasn't getting my butt handed to me by a beefed up super bunny from the Wastelands. Yet.

I glanced in the opposite direction; there were more burnt out vehicles scattered around, each one surrounded by thousands of spent bullet casings, dried blood, and dead bodies. What the heck was going on here? What hit us? More importantly, why couldn't I remember anything?

"Guess I should get moving then," I muttered, walking in the direction that the helmet's compass said was North. "No sense staying in a cemetery."

To my dismay and curiosity, the closest city looked just like the crash site I'd arrived from. There was no sound, burning vehicles everywhere, and according to my scanners, not a living soul around. Whatever it was that dealt out this level of destruction was certainly effective.

Using a couple eye motions, I activated the suit's external cameras to start recording everything I was seeing. Sprays of yellow sunlight struggled to penetrate the dark sky through purple tinted clouds. A light, grayish mist hugged tightly around my legs, further helping the mood. Buildings stood quiet and lifeless facing each other. Most of them were charred beyond recognition. Near their entrances, silent bodies sat undisturbed as if waiting to be swept away by the slightest wind.

A collection of skeletons caught my eye as I continued walking. Lying near an overturned school bus, they were nearly completely rotted away. Two of them lay arm in arm, the adult's fingers tightly clutching the child. Their faces expressing great pain and unbelievable anguish. Turning off the cameras, I turned away and swallowed the lump that had developed in my throat.

Well, what now?

As if to respond, my stomach grumbled loudly. I guess that answered my question. I would get some food and then continue on my way home.

Up ahead, I spotted an abandoned convenience store with a couple sports cars parked at the pumps. It stood out because it was the only place that didn't have a morgue's worth of bodies lying around the place, unlike the restaurants and supermarkets that were still on fire. Unfortunately, a white truck that had crashed through the side of the building made up for that. Groaning quietly, I slowly crossed the street to check it out.

Not surprisingly, the store was empty just like the rest of the town. Various types of snacks and refreshments littered the floor everywhere I looked; most were still fresh, much to my appreciation. Setting the rifle on the front counter, I grabbed some empty backpacks and began to fill them with whatever I could get my hands on.

I was working on my third backpack when I first heard the singing. It sounded feminine, but also strangely inhuman. Curious, I activated my cameras and listened closely.

An army of skeletons lead me by the hand,

Through a hallway that was once so grand.

It's so dark, It's so cold.

I am now all alone.

Okay, someone else was definitely here. But why weren't any of my scanners picking her up? Leaving the backpacks, I went to the counter and retrieved my rifle. Silently, I followed the singing to the back of the store. It was down the third aisle that I found a dark figure sitting hunched over a pool of blood.

Ghastly horrors around every corner,

Just following the cries of the mourners.

In a daze I enter into the cold water,

To draw one final breath,

And give in to my eventual death.

The girl turned around, her face was flushed and streaked with trails of blood and tears, her long auburn hair plastered to her forehead. She was dressed in a green blazer, a white blouse that hugged her body tightly, and a green mini skirt that ended mid thigh. She looked to be a couple of years younger than me.

"Uh, hello?" I said, lowering the rifle.

She didn't answer. She just gave me a blank stare with her green eyes. From the long tail and furry ears atop her head it wasn't far off to consider her an EVO, albeit one that remained mostly human. I can only imagine what she thought when she saw me, a robot from hell come to take her life.

"Are you alright?" I asked as I kneeled, holding out my hand.

The girl cried out in terror and began to quickly retreat further into the darkness, throwing various objects in my direction as she did so. She didn't get far, though. Halfway down, the aisle was blocked by a couple of overturned freezers. The girl didn't seem to notice though. Instead, she frantically started trying to claw her way through the floor. The poor thing looked like she was going to have a heart attack if I didn't do something quick.

"No, no. It's alright," I said, removing my helmet. "See, I'm not a monster."

She stopped clawing at the floor and turned back to me. "Not a monster?"

"Not at all. My name is Max. I'm sorry if I scared you."

"M-Max..."

"That's right. Max. I'm Max."

The girl looked intently at my face, trying to decide if I was telling the truth. Eventually, she seemed to decide that I was truly no threat and crawled back toward me.

"So, what's your name?" I questioned.

"Name is L-Lucy."

Lucy. Yeah, it figures that I would find a beautiful girl named Lucy in the middle of an apocalypse. Or whatever this was.

"So, Lucy. What are you doing in here all alone?" I asked. "Where is everyone?"

Instead of answering me, her head snapped sharply to the left. She gave a low whimper.

"Lucy?"

Suddenly her face went dark, the color draining from it. She clutched at her chest with both hands. Dropping to the floor, she started to shake violently.

"Lucy!" I shouted.

She mumbled incoherently. Blood slowly seeped from her nose and into her mouth, causing her to choke.

Swiftly, I reached into my combat backpack and pulled the specialized first-aid kit they made us carry. Inside I found the last X-48 Anti-Shock needle, a solution to help calm someone whose body has gone into severe shock. Unfortunately, the solution was only to be used on individuals who had undergone, or survived as Doctor Holiday put it, the Rhaletron Program. It had been deemed lethal to a normal person's anatomy due to the high levels of radiation contained. And I was going to use it on a little girl.

Gritting my teeth, I plunged the needle directly into her left femoral artery and held on. The effects were immediate. Lucy shrieked loudly as the solution ravaged freely through her body. She feverishly clawed at my armor, trying to get me off her, her fingertips coming back bloody and torn. Her muscles spasmed so violently that I had to use my entire weight to keep her from hurting herself. Several times she bucked so hard I was almost thrown into the wall. It was New Mexico all over again. A river of blood gushed from her nose and mouth, threatening to drown her. I saw her eyes flicker as she focused on me for a few seconds. It looked like the solution was trying to eat her from the inside out.

Then, just like that, Lucy went entirely limp in my arms as the solution temporarily shut down her body.

Placing two fingers on her neck, I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt her heart slowing down. So I had made the right decision in using it. And I wouldn't be shipped off on a one-way trip to the White Knight's private shooting range as a punishment. Great. Things were looking up.

"So, what happens now?" I asked out loud.

A loud, piercing, inhuman roar sounded from immediately behind me.

OoOoO

The hair on the back of my neck stiffened, as my breath caught in my throat. I turned slowly around. And what I saw nearly made my heart stop.

"Oh, my-"

It was a man, or what had been a man. White foam frothed from the corners of his mouth as he stepped closer to us. Black blood gushed freely down the side of his face, mixing with mud and torn flesh. His right arm was completely bare, any remnants of flesh hanging loosely from the bone. It also smelled worse than I did after that little chase through the sewers that lasted two days. His one eye settled on the slumbering form of Lucy, and he let out a low moan.

"Oh, crud." I whispered.

Clutching Lucy to my chest, I deftly dove to the side. Seconds later something big crashed down where I had been kneeling. The man roared again, his gaze locked on me.

I ran. I ran fast. I ran dang near close to fifteen miles per hour. And he was behind me the entire time. What the heck was this guy?

Skirting a corner I rushed behind an overturned minivan and ducked down. The man not having seen me, kept running past.

I gave a sigh of relief. So I was safe. For now. Now what to do?

If this had been a normal mission I'd just call in Providence to come save me. But someone had decided I didn't need them. That nothing would go wrong. That this was just another resupply mission. And more to the point. What were we supposed to be picking up anyway? A small black box that Lieutenant Reddick had ordered me to carry and not open? Talk about suspicious. Ever since we received that thing, it's been nothing but bad luck. Thieves, Treasure Hunters, and even the Pack; all have tried to jump me for this thing. Maybe I should've left it back at the crash site.

Beside me Lucy gave a low moan, bringing me back to reality.

"Okay. Let's put the whole conspiracy things on hold for now. Got to find a way to survive."

A few feet from me, I spotted a small pile of abandoned pieces of concrete rebar and PVC pipes, probably from some nearby construction site. I took a deep breath. So I was being chased by some kind of, thing. I'm not going to say zombie. I've yet to meet a zombie. And I'm hoping to stay that way. Although he did seem to fit all the criteria; blood and gore, moaning, hungry look in his eye, smelled dead. Sounds like any zombie I've ever heard of. If that's the case I'm probably going to need therapy after this, because of what I'll probably have to do.

Okay, so I have two choices: Try to figure out a way to get back to the sports cars, while carrying Lucy. Or leave Lucy to fight for herself and forget she ever existed. Not the best of choices. And both would require putting her life in danger. Something I'd rather avoid if possible. So what should I do?

I stopped, having heard the low thud of footsteps behind me. I stood still, trying my best to be silent. The footsteps stopped on the other side of the minivan. I looked under the minivan and saw the familiar ripped shoes of the man, standing mere inches from us.

Not taking my eyes off of him, I carefully slunk forward towards the pile of rebar. If I could maybe grab one of them I might be able to defend us. Not sure what rebar could do to a zombie, but it had to be better than going bare-knuckles to him.

Sighing to myself, I eventually reached the pile and slowly stood up. Unfortunately, this was the same time that Lucy decided to have a little coughing fit.

There was a sudden movement from the side of my eye, a familiar shadow flying through the air. I leaped to the side, the man's feet barely missing my head by a few centimeters.

He gave another appalling roar.

Getting to my feet I rushed to the rebar, grabbing the nearest one. At the same time something smashed into me, breaking a couple ribs, and sending me flying through the air. I collided with the minivan, the armor being the only thing keeping my spine from snapping in two.

Almost instantly, the man was next to me. He grabbed me around the neck and lifted me off the ground.

"Crud." I gasped. How was he this strong? With the armor on, I knew I was at least close to two hundred pounds. No normal person should be able to pick me up this easily.

The man opened his mouth, giving me an unpleasant view of his gore-stained teeth. Gripping my head he moved me closer.

Well, that's enough for me. Dude's a zombie. Undead, grisly, I want brains, zombie. Gripping the rebar tightly, I swung it as hard as I could against the man's head. His skull cracked open, blood spraying in every direction as he slumped to the ground seemingly dead.

Too bad he wasn't.

The man gurgled blood as he reached out and grabbed me by the leg.

"Oh, so you're still alive?" I said, jumping back.

I struck the man again in the back of the head with the rebar, smashing it this time. It gave a sickening squish as I continued to ram the rebar into the remains. Dropping the rebar, I grabbed the headless body and slowly pummeled it until it stopped moving. But I wasn't done quite yet. Next I began smashing his spine and each individual limb.

That seemed to take care of it.

My hands were covered in his blood, but I didn't care. I was too busy thinking about what I had just done. How I had just killed another living creature using nothing but my own hands. How good it had felt. How I wanted to do it again. And also how I was slowly fulfilling the old doctor's wishes.