The Landcruiser was silent. Devoid of chatter. Devoid of excitement.
Devoid of any goodness it had held only an hour ago.
James had managed to tow Hugh out of the ditch with relative ease and they’d gotten off the road before the glassy green goo had done to them, whatever it did to Darrel.
But the whole event had altered the atmosphere of the car irreparably. Hugh had insisted they drive slower to reduce the burden on Mindy and James was inclined to agree, mainly because the only straight route to his safe house had a meteor on it.
There was more than just one of those meteors. They hadn’t run into anymore directly but James could see them scattered from time to time. More were falling as well, little wisps of light streaking across the sky as they crashed down to earth. James could only hope his preplanned safe house hadn’t been struck by one.
Or had a meteor near it.
Whatever the hell the green acid goo was, James wanted absolutely zero to do with it. The memory of what Darrel had become was ever-present in the back of his mind.
Are those dropping all over the world? Considering what he knew about the system, that was more than likely. Which meant whatever was happening to Darrel was happening to a lot of other people.
The panic people must’ve been going through.
Speaking of panic, most of it had left Amy. Her usual rambunctiousness was gone though. Replaced by a quiet fear mixed with a heart full of care for the only one who was worse off than her.
Jake. The young man hadn’t uttered a word since James had ushered him into the car. Not to Amy. Not to the looper. Not even to himself. He had just huddled into Amy, seeking some kind of want as his mind racked through the grief and guilt of his own decisions. He was distraught. But until he thought of something better, kind words were the only thing James could offer Jake.
So the Landcruiser remained silent besides the rumble of the engine. The ride became a lot more bumpy as James rerouted to the most remote roads he could think to use, trying his best to avoid any people. Seeing them would do no good for anyone in the car’s mental stability. Especially if they were behaving the way the looper expected people to in an apocalyptic environment.
No people. No strangers.
A good rule to live by if James didn’t want to complicate his life further. There was already one massive rift in his plans, he didn’t need another.
[2:32:45]
Two hours and thirty minutes till Zenith’s Calling began. Two hours and thirty minutes until James had to deal with another curve ball, besides the meteors that turned people into Splintered.
Whatever a Splintered was.
Glass zombies feel too simplistic. Then again, simple was effective.
They were still close to the house. Only a couple more minutes of driving through paddocks and sideroads till James could start setting up their temporary residence. He was already beginning to regret not bringing more defensive equipment.
I’m going to need to make pitfalls. So many pitfalls. What would stop a glass zombie better than a hole three metres deep? Bullets, but James had a limited supply of those.
“Hey, James,” Jessica asked, in a light voice. Her words were soft enough that Jake and Amy likely couldn’t hear them over the sound of the Landcruiser’s engine.
“Yeah,” he replied, keeping his eye on their destination, close enough now that he could see the bricked chimney.
“Are you okay?” She queried.
James felt a little surprised by the question, giving her a side glance just to make sure she was talking to him instead of Jake.
“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be.”
“Because you-” She paused, stealing a glimpse at Jake who was lost in Amy’s warmth to hear her. “-you killed someone, James. I thought you might be a little hung up about it.”
“Do I look hung up about it?” The looper asked.
“No.” She grumbled. “Not in the slightest.”
“Then I’m fine,” James concluded.
“How does it not bother you?” Jessica asked. The question felt like an accusation, only there was no judgment in it. His apathy towards his actions confused her, due to her own conclusions about his character or just her Source.
Why did it not bother him?
“I’ve done worse,” James said with a shrug. “Besides, he chose to die trying to rescue his loved one. That's a good thing. Bittersweet but good.”
He could understand her confusion somewhat. His reaction to murder stood in direct contrast to Jake’s. One of them was caught in a trap of negative emotions and the other stood apathetic to what he had done. The looper must’ve looked monstrous to Jess. He was sure of it.
Jess didn’t seem to find his answer satisfactory and she opened her mouth to say something but before she could get the words out, the radio started crackling to life again. In the drowsy static way it had before.
Another system announcement. The last one was so cheerful, who wouldn’t be excited for another?
Yet the all-consuming, ear-piercing noise never came. Even as the radio started crackling with static there were no alien tones to it. There was just a beeping. A low, constant beeping like that of an…
Emergency alarm.
The kind that would overtake the world in a global disaster. Which was exactly what was happening at that very moment. As they closed in on the house the emergency alarm whispered in the car. Then it went silent for a moment, only to be replaced by a voice speaking through layers of radio fuzz and static.
The voice was a woman, although not one that James recognised. Her tone was formal and her cadence professional as she addressed them and the rest of the world. The looper assumed that this same message would be on every tv as well, along with being streamed live for the world to hear.
“Hello. My name is Alina Lume Harris, acting director of the communications division for the C.S.O. I’m aware you’ve likely never heard of us, but please, listen to what I’m about to say. All of your governments and leaders will want you to know.”
She paused, clearly leaving space for listeners to gather themselves.
Alina Lume Harris. James mentally filed that name away for later. In some respect, he’d expected something like this to happen. But he’d thought the Australian government would be addressing him. Not the C.S.O. People didn’t know what the C.S.O was and wouldn’t heed it warnings or advice nearly as much as the government.
Not like it’s a smart idea to always listen to the government.
The voice returned over the radio, and Alina continued.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, our world is facing disaster. Our world leaders were given a choice between annihilation or Trials, and humanity has chosen Trials. Trials we will now face with a price that we must pay.”
She let the words sink in. Jake, who hadn’t moved since he’d gotten into the car, stirred a little, raising his head to hear the words more clearly.
“I will not lie to you. What is to come is a bloody, ugly future that none can predict nor prepare for. We have been stranded in deep waters, without a shore in sight. Ascendance is our path now and it will be paved whether we like it or not.”
James didn’t find that description particularly inspiring.
“However, we at the C.S.O have been planning for this event. We are already in your cities, we have already secured the cooperation of your governments and militaries. We are here to help. We believe that humanity must make the most of this opportunity, regardless of how brutal it is.”
“Starting to sound real cult-like.” James groaned to himself. The C.S.O was global. The thought had crossed his mind, and Dupont had somewhat confirmed it, but Alina’s declaration was the last nail in the coffin.
Whatever this organisation was, it stood at the heart of the change brought by the system. They knew what was going on. They were preparing for it. And now, they were transmitting a call to action under the guise of an emergency broadcast.
“To the Invited, have patience. There are other means than the one prompted to you by the system. The C.S.O will welcome you, but it will not welcome those who are not above their lesser instincts. To the Sparks, hold your resolve. This is a trying time for all, and the system has seen fit to bless you with power. However you choose to use it, consider your fellow man. Finally, to those who remained untouched by the system. The Sparkless. Be wary. The new age had a place for you, but you will be the most tested of all. You will need to earn your place, but do not lose hope. There is a way.”
Alina addressed all groups formed by the system, leaving the details bare. She didn’t sugarcoat the dire circumstance of those without the system’s touch, nor did she glorify the violent nature of the Invited. She made the reality plain to see. James wasn’t sure what group that benefited the most, but he was sure as shit that it swung things in the C.S.O’s favour.
They were authority now. In the time of disaster, they were making it very clear that they had the answers. They held the power.
They’re threatening the Invited not to kill Sparks. But you wouldn’t know that unless you were Invited. They’re hanging the Sparkless by a rope too, dangling the chance of salvation in front of them. Then there's regular Sparks, who are caught in the middle. It was a delicate balance the C.S.O was aiming for. A status quo they were aiming to enforce before and Sparks got a head too big for their shoulders.
They would succeed. For some. James was dubious whether the effect of their warning would be completely widespread. There were going to be some people who got supernatural abilities and just decided they were the messiah. Even in less extreme cases, James could easily see a class shift between people amongst the chaos.
More reason for James to shy away from people as a whole.
The crackling had died down enough that James assumed that was the end of the broadcast. He hoped so. They were only a couple hundred metres away from the Airbnb James had rented, which he would be considering his property for the foreseeable future.
But Alina wasn’t done. The looper had assumed she’d have left the way she spoke of for Sparkless innocuous. Because it wasn’t real. He was wrong.
“Zenith.” She said, letting the word rest in everyone’s mind for a moment. “Zenith is the way. Zenith is the path for Sparkless to become Sparks. The way for Sparks to empower their Sources. The way for Invited to walk the path to Ascendance. These next days and weeks will be trying, but know that there are people out there on Zenith fighting for us. Brave souls who have earned the call. All fifty-five…”
The static cut out for a moment.
“...fifty-six of them. They will light the way for us, so please, pray for their victory. Because until the first Spire had been formed, we will be fighting a losing battle. But we will be fighting it together. Remember my next words carefully. These times will be trying, but we will not surrender. We will not be erased.”
There was a pause again, and this time, James was sure it was intentional. To build whatever fanaticism they had cultivated already.
Alina spoke again. But there was no static this time. Just a clear, burning declaration.
“We will not go silently into the night.”
The transmission cut and the radio went silent.
There was gloom in the air.
Not just inside the car. In the world. James could swear he could almost taste it. The situation had been laid bare for all to see. What was happening and what was about to happen, was not something humanity was ready for.
Doom sat on the horizon.
[2:27:12]
The way Alina corrected herself from fifty-five to fifty-six didn’t escape the looper’s notice. The integration alert about being the fifty-sixth human to conjoin with the system wasn’t something he was going to forget.
The C.S.O knew about him. Not specifically, but they knew about him. They also knew what Zenith’s Calling was.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
A battle. That’s what it sounded like. A battle James had no way of refusing.
“They couldn’t have been more vague if they tried.” Came a voice from the back, clearly trying his best to add a little cheer and humour to his tone.
James turned to see Jake, doing his best to not appear as shaken as he was. His eyes were still marred with shadows of guilt, but they weren’t nearly as hollow. He’d pulled some parts of himself together, just to complain about the C.S.O broadcast.
There’s the Jake I know. James thought. The horridness of the world had failed to put out the light in his eyes and it was getting brighter once again. Tough son of a bitch.
“Sounded like a cult to me.” James joked, trying to keep Jake’s mood from returning back to the slums.
“They said they’re supported by every government. How is that a cult?” Jess asked. There was a humour behind her question that was clear.
“All governments are cults.” The looper declared. “It’s just a bunch of big cults supporting one super cult.”
“Wouldn’t that make all of us cultists?” Amy pointed out, laughing just a little. Her expression was still a dour one, but she was slowly settling into their new reality.
“We should start our own cult,” Jake suggested, holding onto his girlfriend tightly. As if she was keeping his mind from falling back down into a darker place.
“And name ourselves the James’ J’s with Amy as well,” James added, declaring his abysmal name for the world to see.
There was a collective “No” from all passengers, killing the idea before it ever got off the ground.
It wasn’t like the general mood felt any lighter. There was still the same hanging threat over their heads. But for that brief stint, things felt better.
Jake made things feel better.
************************
The house James had chosen as prime real estate sat on a small flat plain between two hills, looking down on a descending mountainside. Enough fauna and trees to make a good cover with just enough visibility for the looper to see any intruders coming.
It was a big house, converted from what had once been a barn. Too tall and too wide for the modern scruples of suburbia. Bricked walls and steel slated roofs jutted out from either side of the wooden skeleton, providing an almost comical asymmetry.
Settling in had taken time. Hugh had insisted on taking the master bedroom to watch over Mindy like a hawk, who had awoken in a daze barely ten minutes after they’d gotten inside the house. He’d insisted James apply first-aid again even after the looper had assured his father that Mindy was fine.
Well, besides the purple bruises on her shoulder but James wasn’t a magician.
Yet.
With a safe space and a moment to breathe, everyone besides James had either decided on solitude or to confine themselves to the company of their significant other. Sure, they talked about what they planned to do and James gave them the rundown of his ideas. But no one had the energy to do anything. The day had been so taxing that they just couldn’t give anymore.
The looper was sure none of them actually felt safe. Except maybe Michael because he was a dumbass. The house was just a couple of bricks and wood. It wouldn’t survive the acid that seeped from the falling meteors.
The house would also not survive being hit by a meteor.
Safety was relative at this point. The house was more safe than being on the road or being in the car. That was enough for everyone to collectively agree that sleep was better than staying awake to strain each other's nerves.
James couldn’t say he was surprised. The gravity of the situation was just too vast for them to deal with and they all knew that. The complete shift in priorities was something that their tired minds couldn’t quite get. Tomorrow they would understand. Tomorrow, they would regret going to sleep when there was so much that had to be done.
That was where James came in.
He had no desire to sleep and plenty of chores to file down. And a timer to keep track of.
[0:45:47]
“Dad asked me to ask you if you could quiet down?” Michael said from inside the house, holding a packet of Skittles in one hand and a flashlight in the other.
He’d scavenged both from the supplies James carried inside the house. Hugh had decided to take dinner duty upon himself and cooked something that the looper didn’t have the time to eat. It must’ve been something Michael despised, considering the teenager was snacking.
“Mike, I’m installing…” James' voice trailed as he tried to think of a word for bomb that didn’t make him sound insane. “...Defences. It’s not soundless work.”
“Dad still wants you to quiet down,” Michael repeated. “Everyone’s going to sleeping or-”
“Don’t,” James said, cutting off his little brother.
Putting explosives under tiles wouldn’t have been so loud if the looper could get away with a half-assed job. But he wasn’t letting one of the people under his care step a little too hard on the house patio and blow themselves to kingdom come.
“What?” Michael said, in his annoying nasily teenage voice. “Chance of death sends people’s libido through the roof.”
James huffed, choosing to ignore his little brother's words. He only had two more to install and then he was done with the immediate house defences. All are wired together into the house's smart system. James had hijacked the tablet and its programming for his own defensive needs with a bit of script he had memorised.
The plan was to eventually wire all the defensives, cameras, heat radar and other devices into the house's internal system but that would take time James didn’t have. The time he’d planned on having. As it was, he’d set up the bare necessity. The generator was good to go with enough fuel to last till the next ice age.
The water tanks were good to go, and he had spare filters in the house that Hugh could probably figure out how to install if the current one broke down.
Food was a harder problem to fix, but there was enough money, goods and guns in the house to figure that problem out.
As for protection…
I should’ve bought more razor wire. James lamented. He wasn’t expecting things to turn so drastically so quickly after his foresight ran out. Everyone was still alive and mostly free of injury. That wasn’t how things had turned out in his first life.
He had saved them.
They’d be alright. They’d be able to survive. If the worst happened to him when the timer got to zero.
That was enough.
“James. Hello, earth to James!” Michael shouted from the patio, refusing to get his bare feet dirty and take a step down from it.
“What?” James grunted, fixing the tiles so they all looked uniform.
“That girl with the weird-looking blue eyes was staring at you the entire time we were eating dinner. While you were working out here.” Michael stated, with a weird, creepy look on his face.
“Yeah, that’s Jessica. She’s weird. Your point?” The looper said, cutting to the chase.
“Is she single?” Michael asked, causing a deep urge to slap him to bloom in James' heart.
“Life isn’t solely about relationships and sex Mike,” James grunted. “Spoiler alert for puberty. You’re going to grow out of it, and spend the rest of your life embarrassed by all the stupid shit you did during it.”
“What if I don’t grow out it?” Michael asked, with an aloof look on his face.
James sighed. “You wi-”
“No,” Michael said, a lot more forceful than James was used to. “What if I don’t live long enough to grow out of it.”
Ah. Dad didn’t tell him to do anything. James realised, raising himself up from where he was sitting with the explosives. He walked his way over to the patio, keeping a keen eye on the golden timer. He’s just scared.
[0:42:23]
His brother didn’t have anyone to go to besides him here. With Hugh watching over Mindy, Michael wouldn’t get a word in, and his little brother probably didn’t want to talk to anyone else about it.
They weren’t his family.
The looper marched his way over to where his brother was standing and sat the rascal down on the patio, dealing with a boatload of complaining about getting dirt on his soaks. He wrapped a hand over his brother’s shoulder, becoming keenly aware of how much bigger he had grown. The last time he’d put his hand over his brother’s shoulder in reality would’ve been when Michael was four.
Then he’d become a teenager and wanted nothing to do with his idiot brother.
“You’re not going to die, Mike,” James said when his brother remained stiff and silent.
“How do you know that?” Michael asked. “That guy on the road today. He died. Then he turned into that… thing.”
Did he see? That made some sense. Hugh would’ve been too distracted with Mindy to keep Michael from seeing something he definitely shouldn’t have. Then again, it was pretty hard to hide the truth when the sky was on fire.
“Mike,” James said, trying to find the words he was looking for.
“Promise me you won’t die,” Michael stated abruptly.
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t do something stupid and get yourself turned into a glass zombie?” Michael repeated.
“Weren’t we talking about you?” James questioned.
“We were. But then I thought about it and realised you're way more likely to die than me.” Michael confirmed.
“Since when?”
“Since you started charging glass zombies with shotguns!” His little brother reiterated. “How did you even get a gun?”
“Trade secret,” James said, holding a finger to his lips.
Michael responded with a punch delivered to his side. His brother looked a lot less terrified by his own mortality than he did a few moments prior. James could tell Michael was trying to cover his fears under the facade of fearing for his brother but what was the point of pointing it out? If it made Michael feel more safe to confront his mortality through James, that was fine.
"Hey, Mike."
"Yeah?"
"In the morning, remind everyone not to step on the tiles too hard," James warned.
"How early in the morning?" His little brother questioned.
"Before anyone has time to step on the tiles too hard." The looper answered.
"What do I get?"
"I'll teach you how to use my shotgun."
"Deal!" Michael said, nodding to himself like he'd somehow cheated James out of something expensive.
I'm glad I already left a physical warning, just to be safe. James had already stuck an absurd amount of post notes on every part of the house, directing its residents to read the manual in the kitchen before they stepped on a bomb or broke his generator. He'd highlighted the part about the traps, so there were no untimely accidents.
James shooed his little brother away, condemning him to sleep once he was sure the boy was free of worry. In reality, he needed to get ready.
The looper grabbed all the padded black clothing he’d bought earlier and donned the Kevlar vest he’d stolen. Then he grabbed all the holsters he had, planting three pistols on his person before adding his shotgun and rifle to the mix. An assortment of knives joined the fray along with a much larger machete he kept strapped to his waist.
Finally, he adorned a backpack filled to the brim with basic living supplies. He’d prepared it just in case he needed to venture out on his own.
Unluckily, that was now the case.
With all those things in hand, the looper took one last look at the house and his Landcruiser. The place looked peaceful. It looked safe. It was filled to the brim with everyone who was important, all pleasantly sleeping with full stomachs.
They had defences, water, food and power to last them at least a month.
They had each other to rely on.
I hate this. The looper found it hard to feel any other way about leaving after working so tirelessly to create some semblance of hope in a world of despair.
But he had to leave. It wasn’t safe. He knew that.
And he hated the system all the more for it.
[0:27:34]
“Yeah, yeah I know you shitty timer,” James muttered, staring at the timer. It was blinking now. It had started doing that after the thirty-minute threshold.
He started his descent down the mountainside, doing his best to move with speed so he could gain as much distance from the house as possible. The meteors had stopped falling now but that didn’t mean James didn’t keep an eye out for them. As he travelled through the meadows and grassy plains, the looper made sure to keep a torch firmly planted on any motion.
The country was interesting at night. The silence was almost deafening. The safe house was so remote that James didn’t even hear the echo of another human. That was good. He was not in the right head space to deal with people.
He dearly hoped he wouldn’t have to. For their sake.
Eventually, once he deemed himself an acceptable distance away from the safe house, James planted himself on the nearest comfortable rock.
And waited.
[0:3:23]
Dark emotions swirled in behind James' eyes as he gazed up at the golden timer. He had hope. A hope that Zenith’s Calling wouldn’t steal him away. There was a possibility it would spawn some creature in the vicinity for him to slay. There was a chance that he’d simply have to answer the calling and then he’d be able to leave. All these little hopeful possibilities that the looper mind systematically purged.
[0:2:45]
Because there could be no hope.
There was just him.
There was no need for hope when he was who he was. The looper held no fear for himself because death had already claimed him so many times. Instead, he was filled with deep gripping anxiety in his heart that the Invitation would take him and leave everyone he cared about stranded in the deep.
[0:2:12]
We will not go silently into the night.
The words were a nice sentiment. James would’ve liked to follow them.
But there’s only silence in my heart. The looper felt the same thing he always did when his emotions became too volatile. An overwhelming amount of nothing. An emptiness where his soul should’ve been.
He had no delusions of grandeur.
James knew the things he might be forced if Zenith’s Calling was anything close to what he guessed.
And he still felt nothing. All he wanted was to be back up the hill, with the people that made him feel things.
[0:0:34]
The timer started blinking like mad past the one-minute threshold.
Promise me you won’t die.
The words rang in his head. James couldn’t even place why. Michael hadn’t meant them, because he didn’t think his brother would die. There was no real promise there.
Yet as he watched the timer tick down to zero, those words were the only thing he could think about.
A promise to his brother, which felt more like a responsibility to all of them. Because if he died, no matter how positive he tried to imagine it, James knew there was a good chance they’d all die with him.
He couldn’t let that happen.
Regardless of the cost.
[0:0:0]
[Invitation timer has expired]
[James Matthew Groves, you have been summoned by Zenith’s Calling]
[How shall you answer?]