Chapter 35

Crackdown and Resistance

“In the beginning, Lucifer was the most beautiful of the angels,” said Gretchen, from her makeshift pulpit on the hill of the shooting range. “They called him the Morning Star, or Light-Bringer. Then Lucifer challenged God, and God cast him down into a pit of fire, where he became a demon, a monster. To most, this is just another Bible story, but our world holds many angelic people who are beautiful, powerful, and adored by all who look upon them...”

The three got out of the truck and joined the large audience. The audience was mostly men, but there were women and children as well. Gretchen spotted Leo and waved for him to join her. He walked through the audience, nervous, feeling everyone's stares as he walked up the hill, joining the pastor he'd met three weeks before. He had no idea what to say.

“This is Leo Edwards. He's the boy who came to us with a vision of the future. I didn't believe him in the beginning, but I can tell you that when he walked into my church three weeks ago, there was something different about him, and his predictions have been coming true. Leo, the aliens have informed us they have no intention of destroying the world. What do you think?” She handed Leo the microphone.

“Uh... Well,” Leo responded, aware of hundreds of people staring at him, mind blanking out for a second, “I can tell you that the alien announcement didn't happen in my vision of the future, and uh... I'd like to believe the aliens, but I don't.”

“Who's the Guardian?” someone shouted.

“You know as much about that person as I do,” Leo responded.

Gretchen took back the microphone. “A question a lot of people in this church were wondering about is, could this be the biblical Apocalypse? As in, the end times. Were people pulled up into the heavens? Or maybe vanishing and leaving their clothes behind?”

“How old are you?” someone shouted from the audience.

Leo took back the microphone. “I died fifty years after the Change, so I'm sixty-two years old. And I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if people were getting pulled into the sky or vanishing. There were clothes lying on the ground in the beginning because the Afflicted would tear off their clothes when they changed into monsters, but nothing like what you're describing.”

In the twilight, Leo could see over twenty big police drones hovering above them, in addition to ten smaller government surveillance drones. No surprise they were being observed, but he noticed the police drones were losing altitude, approaching the group.

Uh, oh.

A police drone hovering twenty feet away from Leo and Gretchen flashed its lights and blared its siren at an ear-splitting volume.

Gretchen took back her microphone and shouted. “We have permission from the land's owner to congregate here. We're doing nothing illegal!”

More drones flashed their lights and blared their sirens.

Boom! Someone fired a shotgun, blasting apart the drone hovering over Leo and Gretchen, showering both of them with buckshot. A piece of drone the size of Leo's fist whizzed by his face. There were more gunshots. More drones fell from the sky amid cries of pain as people got hit with falling debris. The surviving drones ejected their canisters and flew away. Clouds of tear gas formed. More screams. People started coughing.

“Shit,” Gretchen said in a suppressed voice. Then louder, “Everyone remain calm. Proceed quickly to your vehicles and leave the area. And please, stop shooting at those drones.”

Unfortunately, there was nothing careful or orderly about the mass exodus that ensued. The clouds of tear gas expanded, the wind blowing the gas up the hill. Leo supposed he'd soon level up in resisting the effects of tear gas. Coughing, he looked around for Trent and Mr. Osmond. He couldn't see them.

“Are you going to be okay, Gretchen?” Leo shouted.

“I'll be fine, Leo. Best look out for yourself.”

“Come on Leo, let's go.” A man Leo didn't recognize grabbed his arm and pulled him through the mass of people. “Give me your cellphone.” Leo handed it to him. Tear gas made Leo's eyes burn, so he could barely see as the man handed him off to someone else. “Go with that guy; he'll get you out of here.”

A helmet was shoved over Leo's head, and a leather jacket thrown over his shoulders. The second man dragged him over to a motorcycle. “Get on the back.”

Not sure what else to do, Leo did so. “I hope you know what you're doing.”

“It'll be okay. I know a secret way out of here.” The man started up the motorcycle and gunned the engine. The rear wheel kicking up dirt as the motorcycle shot forward, forcing Leo to hang onto the man to avoid falling off.

Damn. Leo's eyes were burning from the tear gas.

Future Man 10/16: Mr. Osmond! Trent! Are you guys okay? I'm on this guy's motorcycle.

Teach: They slipped us a kid about your size wearing a gas mask. Myself, Trent, and this kid are trying to get the hell out of here. I think this is part of a plan to help you escape. Shank 66 tells me the agency may have nudged the local police to crack down on us, but officially the agency has nothing to do with it. Excellent news, if true. The local police are very easily bribed. Let us know if you run into trouble.

Leo soon lost track of all the twists and turns they made as they left the dirt roads to ride through gullies and old stream beds. Fortunately, the motorcycle had a suspension made for off-road, as well as on-road use.

Imp informed him he'd leveled up on rough motorcycle ride tolerance and tear gas resistance.

Half an hour later, they were riding down a road Leo couldn't identify. They went through some tunnels, then entered a rundown neighborhood, before going down into a poorly lit parking garage and stopping in front of what looked like a large storage unit. The biker pulled the door open, rode inside, and parked. Several people rushed forward in the darkness to close the door again.

Leo got off the bike and removed his helmet, stiff and sore from the time he'd spent on the bike. His eyes still burned from tear gas.

“Did you ditch the drones?” someone hissed.

“I think so,” the biker said.

“You think so?” the first person asked, skeptical.

The biker shrugged. “If they're still following us, they're being really sneaky.”

The first person sighed. “That will have to do.” He flipped on the lights, revealing a storage unit that had been converted to a living area, with couches and chairs on one end, and a small refrigerator and eating area on the other. The speaker was a chubby, bearded man standing in front of a “Don't Tread on Me” flag hanging on a wall. It reminded Leo of the fictional prepper group in the VR game they'd just finished. In addition to the bearded man and the biker who'd brought him there, there were five others. Three men and two women, who were obviously waiting for Leo.

Leo stood up straight and faced the unknown group. “Somehow, I don't think you guys are with the church. Want to tell me who you are and what you want?”

***

Blinking away tears, Leo stared at the group of unknown people staring back at him. “And can you give me something for the tear gas? My eyes are burning.”

The biker went to the storage room's makeshift kitchen and wet down a couple of towels, tossing one of the towels to Leo. “We're part of the same loose network of anti-Bio-Blessed organizations that the church is,” the large bearded man responded. “I'm Flynn. The guy who brought you here is Rory.” He motioned towards the other five. “That's Hewie, Lewie, Mary, Ronald, and Betty. And no, in case you're wondering, those aren't our real names.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Leo looked up from his towel and nodded towards the five people. “I'm Leo. End of the World Guy. Nice to meet you.”

They all nodded back.

“What anti-Bio-Blessed organizations?” Leo asked, not aware that there were such things.

Flynn walked over to the refrigerator. “There were quite a few of us, initially. Most of the organizations weren't even that militant. I belonged to a perfectly legit consumer advocate group that just wanted the Department of Health to investigate Bio-Blessed for side effects, make sure the product came with a warning label, and restrict it from children. That sort of thing. At the moment, it's not 'advisable' for children to take it, but it's completely legal, and a lot of children do.”

Leo nodded, thinking of all the kids he knew who ate it like candy.

“Do you want a beer?” Flynn asked, grabbing one for himself. “Something stronger? Since you're sixty-two years old.”

“I didn't drink much in my previous life,” Leo responded. “Coffee?”

Flynn grabbed a thermos, poured coffee into a Styrofoam cup, and handed it to Leo. He popped the cap off his beer bottle, sat down on an armchair, took a sip of beer, and motioned for Leo to sit down on the threadbare couch facing him. “First, we were ignored and told to go away. When we persisted, they shut down our organization and declared us illegal. When we got together with a bunch of other groups to demonstrate, police met us using live ammo.”

Lewie's face twisted in disgust. “Twenty-one people dead and not a word from a single news agency.” Lewie was a skinny man in his twenties with thick glasses and a mild case of acne.

“I'm sorry.” Leo took a sip of his coffee. It was lukewarm, but he decided not to make a fuss about it.

Flynn took another drink of his beer. “So. When we heard the end of the world boy would be visiting a church group, myself and a lot of others really wanted to see if you were for real.”

“I see,” said Leo, not sure how to respond. “I wish I had real evidence to show you, but I don't. One of my contacts convinced the Professor, if that means anything.”

“We know the Professor,” Lewie said. “If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. I'd write off this end of the world shit as crazy talk.”

“It's entirely possible we've prevented the end of the world,” Leo said. “I don't believe we have, but it's possible.”

“If it does happen,” Lewie responded, “the first thing I'm doing is busting my friends out of prison.”

“Good luck,” Leo said, and meant it. Too many decent people were in prisons. Hell, he knew this from experience.

“I was thinking we'd interview you, Leo,” Flynn said, lifting up a large, older model video camera from beside his sofa. “We will post it on the dark web and let people decide for themselves.”

“I have no problem with this,” Leo said, “but my family does not know who I am, and I'd rather they, and a lot of other people, not learn my identity.”

“We'll use a voice-and-face-modulation program on your recording before we upload it to the dark web,” Flynn said, extending a retractable tripod and mounting the camera on it. “We don't really want to get caught, either.”

“I appreciate that,” Leo said.

Lewie raised his fist in the air. “Vive la resistance,” he said, before dropping his arm and taking another drink of beer.

Flynn fiddled with the camera until a red light came on. “Let's begin.”

Lewie tossed Leo a bunch of papers held together with a large paperclip. “What's this?”

Leo looked over the first few pages. Then looked at the camera. “It appears to be what I transcribed onto a tape recorder a couple of weeks ago.”

“Found it on the dark web. Does it look authentic?” Lewie asked.

Leo paged through it and nodded.

“Okay,” Lewie responded. “I get the Bio-Blessed-turning-people-into-monsters part. Some of that's happening already, but then you talk about implant wearers flying around and shooting fireballs? How dumb do you think we are?”

Leo shrugged. “I am aware of how unbelievable this sounds. The Change turns them into monsters and gives us powers. To be honest, I wouldn't believe me either.”

“Let's talk about the last shelter you were in," Flynn said. "You describe a military-type shelter. Do you know where it was?”

“I believe it was in a mountain range, hundreds of miles north of here,” Leo said. “The Afflicted didn't like the cold. They could tolerate it, but it made them sluggish. The shelter could have been in one of several mountain ranges.”

“Don't ask me how I know this, because it's top secret,” Rory spoke up for the first time, “but the place you describe sounds like Red Mountain Facility.”

Leo shrugged. “Possibly.”

“Then I don't get it,” Hewie said. “Red Mountain Facility is set up as a last-ditch, end of the world shelter, so if we get hit by an asteroid, people could live there for the next hundred years while the world recovered.”

Leo shrugged again. “That sounds right. It was pretty deep underground. A geothermal vent provides electricity. There was an underground farm that produced most of our food.”

“So why the fuck would you leave the shelter to fight these aliens, when you could have blocked off the exits, stayed in the shelter, and waited for them to starve to death? That shelter is located under half a mile of granite and built to survive a nuclear blast.”

“I believe Rory is referring to your last stand at the end,” Flynn said. “Care to explain?”

Leo chuckled. “Yeah. About that. I don't know how they found us, but somehow one of them did. Some Afflicted runner showed up near our shelter and sounded an alert to summon its comrades. I guess it smelled -- or sensed -- something. We killed the Afflicted and made the body vanish, but by then it was too late. Soon there were thousands of them in the area, running around our mountain range, searching.” Leo finished his – by now--cold coffee. “We ignored them for the first couple of weeks. Sometimes an Afflicted would smell something and sound an alert, and then others would show up to investigate, not find anything, and leave. Only, these guys weren't leaving. There must not have been too many people left to eat by then, because the bastards wouldn't go away. We ignored them, but crowds of weak runners attracted smarter, larger, stronger Afflicted, who only grew more persistent. Finally, we spotted one of the big guys floating around overhead, curious. It left, but we knew it would be back. That's when we knew we were fucked. It was a matter of time until they figured out where we were and started digging.”

“Even so, it should have taken years to dig you guys out, and that's if they had proper equipment, and it didn't sound like they did.”

“That's where you're wrong,” Leo said. “A Demigod-level Boss could dig through half a mile of granite in a few hours. Days at the most. That's why we came out for a last stand. Figured it was better to die fighting.”

Rory snorted. “I don't believe you.”

“Believe what you want,” Leo said. “I'm the one who died through it, and I do not want to die through it again.”

“On to the next question,” Flynn said. “Did you have sex?”

“What?” Leo looked over at the two women.

“Don't look at me,” Betty said, suppressing a smirk. “I want to hear the answer, too.”

“And I thought the last question was depressing,” Leo said. “Are you sure I couldn't make something up? That might be better.”

“Come on, Leo,” Flynn responded. “Truth.”

“If that's what it takes to convince you I'm not a twelve-year-old boy.” Leo sighed. “Since you read my transcript, you know I was a mutant freak guy and women weren't exactly pounding on my door. The few times I had sex involved financial transactions.”

“As in how?”

“Well, when I was in my twenties, I lived in a small community and scavenged for a living. I was good at it by then. I could get to places others couldn't, not without a lot of firepower anyway, and Afflicted runners didn't seem to understand canned food. They'd eat everything else in the vicinity, even the leather furniture, but I could always find canned food. Anyway, a few guys told me about this woman who was willing to do 'you-know-what' for the right price. The next day I went over to her place with the right price -- three cans of food.”

“Was she pretty?” Lewie asked.

“Hell no,” Leo answered. “She was what was available. Anyway, she threw her five kids out the door of her tiny, smelly hut. She didn't bother taking my clothes off. She pulled down my pants, and we did it. I lasted maybe thirty seconds. She threw me out the door maybe thirty seconds after that.”

There was some laughter from the group.

“That was my first time,” Leo continued. “I remember being disappointed. Like, that was it? That was the sex I'd heard so much about? Of course I met with the guys after that and there were high-fives all around. One of the guys broke out some of the worst moonshine I've ever tasted. If I wasn't a non-drinker before, I definitely was after that. And what was even more messed up was that the next day, I was ready to do her again. I became one of her better customers for a short time.”

“I see,” Flynn said. “Okay. On page twenty, you say...” The questions went on and on. It was like the day he'd spent with Mr. Osmond a couple of weeks ago, only worse. By the time they'd finished, the eight of them had gone through three pots of coffee and the morning sun was in the sky.