Nick renford and jasper. Nick’s apartment.
NK: im back, and upset
RN: aww why nick? Did the boss try to give you another piece of furniture somehow stuck to you again?
NK: almost, I don’t want to talk about it, and Dorians being...Dorian again.
JSPR: so a self righteous prophet of doom?
And creepy...
NK: jasper! Good to see your awake! You really got to lay off the ruby...and im sorry.
JP: ahh, I will try to get off it, its expensive, I’ve only had an half of what I usually have in a day...and sorry for what?
NK: its nine a.m...and never mind.
Your eyes are red.
JP: yeah, well so are yours
NK: yeah, but mine are naturally red...
Yours are just...high red.
JP: I nearly forgot, kinda weird considering how messed up it was.
NK: what was?
RN: he had a dream.
A weird one.
NK: yeah so? You want me to interpret it?
JP: maybe, okay, so when I woke up from the being passed out from lack of drugs, I was hallucinating and was so weak I couldn’t move, but my dear chum renford here helped me find the stash I left here–
RN: I had to feed it to him...or I guess the term is smoke it to him. It was like feeding a baby...a depraved drug addicted baby.
JR: you were my friend a minute ago, don’t make me change that, we were doing so well.
RN: sorry
JR: okay so when I took a nap I dreamt of the data block, only in my dream it kind of melted in to a sheet, and I looked at it, there were symbols nick and writing. It was like a thin sheet of paper, and I could turn the ‘page’ of whatever it was like a super thin book. When I got up the block was right were I left it on the table and intact.
NK: that’s odd, I cant really get anything out of that, other than the obvious. It seems you just really want to know what’s on it.
JR: nick I think I read some of it.
I know...something, but I don’t know what it is.
It changed me a little.
NK: that’s impossible, we need an old decoder to read it, I don’t even think they make any sensitive enough to read them anymore. The only reason it survived is probably from the hardy material it is made from.
JR: nick, if you could sense what I am thinking right now, you would know I am telling the truth, something inside is...different. I can’t put it to words.
Its unnerving.
NK: your just high, go back to bed.
JR:...*grumble*
oracle, kona skol
OS: ah! *upon waking*
KN: what is it? A dream?
OS: the book...someone has learned from it!
KN: are you sure?
OS: yes, I felt its knowledge affecting an entity and being absorbed in to the aether! It is the first time any have looked upon it in over ten centuries.
KN: I will wake skol then.
OS: be careful child, sleep to us is a much different thing than most other living things.
KN: I am well aware. I hope he wont be too damaged by it.
*kona goes to skol’s tent, and goes inside*
KN: here goes...*shakes skol violently, he opens his eyes and shrieks hysterically*
SK: gah! I cant see! Why have you awoken me? *breathes heavily, in convulsive hysterics*
KN: its me, Kona, are you alright? You asked me to wake you when we had word of the book.
SK: Ancients damn it all, I can’t bloody see! And I can’t stop shaking. Curse you wench. *slaps Kona hard, she recoils by the entrance her hand on her face under her hood*
KN: you ordered me to wake you and I did.
SK: I know, I know...I thought I could handle it. And I will. I WILL.
*shaking*
KN: we should have waited, we are this close now, what’s a few more days?
SK: stupid woman, anything could happen, temporary blindness is nothing compared to what could of happened. Help me up and ready the wagon.
KN: of course.
*later*
SK: its cool, it must be nighttime.
KN: yes, the sun set an hour or so before I woke you.
SK: can you see anything? Where are we?
KN: we are still in the desert, but I can feel the crackle of information and electricity not far from here, probably a small settlement.
SK: good, we can access a thinking machine there and we will practically have it within the day!
*ramshackle buildings and the deep rhythm of electronic music, the sound of people gathering, neon lights*
KN: we are here
SK: take me to a terminal, quickly.
*kona leads them in to a ramshackle club, made of debris, when they encounter a computer displaying the song list*
SK: ugh, this thinking machine can barely be called that. What is this place? Their machines are infantile compared to my usual companions.
KN: the last time you encountered a machine of our races construction, was centuries ago.
SK: no matter, it is simple. *places hand on keyboard, but doesn’t type, his eyes roll back in to his head, and many images and code flash on the screen in rapid succession, his eyelids flutter slightly, and some of his tattoos flicker and glow for a few moments*
it is done.
KN: what did you do? Did you find anything.
SK: I have no need to find anything. I quickly synthesized a pathogen in the system that will advertize a great reward for any who brings forward the red-eyed one, the one who gazed the pages.
KN: how will they know where to bring them?
SK: I included a coordinate. A small oasis twenty kilometres north of where we are. A small nearly uninhabited rest area, too small to house a settlement, and too large for the desert to claim.
KN: what if they bring a thousand red eyed people?
SK: heh heh, we were lucky, when I was poking around in there primitive system, I found out that people with red eyes are quite rare, we would be unlucky if they brought more than two of them.
Eliza, and Victoria, Dorians translator
sitting on park bench.
EL: excuse me, but you look familiar
VC: I do? I don’t know you...im waiting for someone.
EL: wait, I saw you, you were with a man with a mask...I don’t know how I got there, but I remember you.
VC: oh, that was Dore– er, he wouldn’t like me using his name.
Dorian: its quite alright, she is a friend.
EL: I am? Who are you?
DN: don’t you remember? *turns to show her his mask*
EL: oh!...oh! Its you! I remember you! You were doing some sort of creepy magic show or something, doing like mind readings and stuff...it wasn’t very good.
DN: *laughs* that was no show. It was a necessity, and the moths...they are also mine. However I didn’t not expect them to be draw to you also. *Dorian extends hand and a large fat moth perches on it*
EL: wait, so yer like...a mind reader? My grandma say those don’t exist, but she always says it weird.
DN: like sarcastically? *laughs* I was meaning to talk to you actually.
EL: me? You don’t even know me, this is creepy.
DN: your friend nick, also my friend, will have some things to tell you. And you should seriously consider his words. I don’t want to scare you, but I feel as if some very terrible things are going to happen.
EL: what kind of terrible things?
DN: I don’t know, but I can feel it on the verge of my consciousness...a sort of warning.
EL: why should I believe you?
*at the question, Dorian turns his back to Eliza, with victoria facing her*
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
DN: I cant see you, but victoria can, show up fingers and I will guess correctly every time...because victoria will be telling me what they are in our thoughts.
EL: fine *Eliza holds up four fingers*
DN: four
*Eliza holds up no fingers*
DN: your making a fist at me now!
*Eliza gets frustrated and fishes a paper out*
DN: now you are holding a paper, and making a scowly face*
EL: okay, that’s weird you win, but one more. *Eliza pulls a little wooden puzzle ball composed of pieces out of her pocket*
DN: haha, well victoria doesn’t know what it is, she says it’s a wooden ball, but it is a puzzle, I collect those.
EL: alright, I will listen to whatever nick has to say. Why cant you tell me yourself?
DN: I fear at the moment he knows more than I do.
Nick and Eliza, at nicks house.
EL: nick? You look terrible, what’s going on?
NK: oh nothing out of the ordinary my life’s in danger, and I have people after me.
And im not even paranoid.
EL: I met a friend of yours, he said his name was Dorian.
NK: you met Dorian?, what didn he have to say?
EL: he said some pretty heavy stuff. I believe him. We are on the precipice of something awful.
NK: you may be in a little bit of hot water as well.
EL: me?! why?
NK: cause you know me, and apparently just knowing me puts you in a bad place.
EL: whats going on nick? What do I have to do?
NK: I was hoping you could stay with some non-crime affiliated friends of mine.
EL: nick this is freaky.
NK: well for some reason the government may have word of some super secret stuff I have and know.
And now they are curious, and have nothing better to do save fore the pursuit of power.
EL: where are these friends of yours? I don’t want to leave.
NK: do you want to live?
EL: nick are you serious? What did I do to deserve this? All this from just knowing you?
NK yes im afraid, im bad luck.
I have arranged for you to stay at jaspers house, and there you will stay for a few days, jasper is out on expedition, he was more than happy to get back out to the desert with his crew, after all the crap that’s been happening.
EL: what then? Can I come back after?
NK: afraid not, after things die down a bit, you will be seeing Dorian again, and he will be taking you in to the care of Markus, a very dear friend of mine.
EL: I trust you, but I still don’t understand? Why are they after you?
NK: well, they must know im affiliated with Giovanni and renford
EL: your crazy friend? Why is he a problem? I can see why the feds would want you if they knew you were working for a crime syndicate, but renford? I heard he’s harmless.
NK: *laughs* harmless is not the word I used...he is incredibly dangerous, but he good-hearted. And I don’t know much myself, but he was apparently involved with some shady projects taken out by esoteric branches of the fractured world order.
EL: really? I remember you telling me he was a doctor, but I have seen pictures of him, he seems quite young–although strange looking.
NK: yeah, he gets flac for that a lot, but from what I have seen he is a brilliant bio-engineer. Dorian mentioned that he rescued him from some deep dungeon of the factory’s core. I don’t know much else.
*rumble and yelling*
EL: what was that?
NK: I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling. Its about time you got out of here, here take this.
EL: whats this? Some secret document that the bad guys cant get ahold of?
NK: it’s a poorly drawn map to jaspers house skribbled on to a soiled napkin
EL: eww,
NK: go out the back door, and take my motor bike, wheel it out to the end of the block so that no one hears it, then when you are out of sight, fire it up and book it out of this part of the city as fast as you can.
*Eliza kisses nick*
NK: ????
EL: in case I don’t see you again.
*Eliza escapes through the door, nick waves even though she doesn’t see, after a few moments he turns, and he looks surprised*
NK: you?! Wait, who are–? *nick is hit very hard in his brain holder and blacks out*
Elizas journal\
I took the bike as nick said to jaspers house, its alittle different than nicks...okay a lot different, nick had sections of his ceilings removed for the sole purpose of installing huge machines there. Jaspers abode is nothing more than a grimy appartment with a bunch of smaller computer stuff all piled to one side, along with his fridge and microwave. He was obviously quite lazy and kept everything in reach. Its been three days already, and I’ve been living off Jaspers protien vitamin things. Im tired of drinking things, I just want some normal food. Dorian has since contacted me, just to tell me not to leave, and to prove his point he sent a police profile of me along with nick, they must really want him. Im not sure what to think, things are getting confusing and really scary, I’ve never been hunted before, and to say in the least it is quite horrifying and has me in terrible fits of panic every so often. I cant so much as hear a noise without freaking out.
*nick, an old man, a little girl and a business man all tied to a post by an oasis in the desert, three large men with guns patrolling*
kingsley: so have you even talked with the syndicate who wanted these people?
Carr: uh...no, it just said to bing them out here, and there was a reward.
Lyle: yes well it was enough to cause a huge stir in the underground , we had to wrestle the girl from the dead hands of the Barkley Tribe
CR: they are shit anyway, to be completely honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a hoax that was just prejudice aimed at red eyed folks
KG: im not sure, this form of communication for underworld affiliates was widely used during the eastern conflicts, it was nearly impossible to track, and often the slang terms for meeting locations were only known to the slime of the underworld.
CR: but wouldn’t the cops interrogate criminals and get at least some answers?
LL: it happened from time to time, but there were so many of these requests that the cops couldnt afford to pursue every one. And more often than not they would send out duds, with names that were made up on the spot, no one paid any attention to these in the crime world, but the cops would be racking their brains to figure out what they were.
KG: after a few decades of these mass unencrypted messages, eventually secret terms came up that were specific to certain gangs, eventually the code words were a form a business and were kept very secret, to the point that when they were at a meeting place, that meeting places name couldn’t be spoken while you were there under pain of death.
CR: so are you saying this place has a code word that someone used? How do you know the code word?
KG: heh heh, some of my family not only traded in the codex’ but made them as well, it all fell apart when the factory was established, but there are still a lot of codes out there, but since no one requests them, they are pretty much useless. That’s why when I saw that ‘ad’ with a reward posted on it, along with a name for a place that I only knew, I was aware that this was meant for me, or my family. I don’t know who we will meet today, perhaps an old partner of my families. It will no doubt be interesting.
*a ways away*
NK: so, im really confused about why im chained up in the desert with probably the only other three red eyed people in the world.
Little girl: *sniff* its hot, why are they being so awful to us? Where are my parents?
Old man: there isnt much to know, apparently it has something to do with our eyes.
Business man: that was obvious at the get go old man, what are you stupid? This is infuriating, I missed a very important MEETING because of these thugs.
LG: I don’t like this, my wrists hurt, these shackles are sharp.
NK: is there like a ransom on us or something?
OM: no one knows right now, it could be for money, or it could be the government finally killing off the last of us.
NK: wait wait wait...last of us? There were more?
OM: yes, long ago, before the wars, you are probably born of a cipher, or at least one of your parent were.
BM: shut up you useless old bastard, thats just a story, so people like us can have a reason to hate the government, despite what its done for us.
LG: please don’t yell...
OM: your obviously quite young yourself, if you believe that then they have you, and there is nothing I can say that will change your small, tight mind.
BM: humph, whatever, yer probably suffering from dementia anyways. How old are you? Like eighty?
OM: none of your concern blind one.
NK: okay hold it, so the wars...they were about what, seventy years ago?
OM: about that, I was twenty five when they ended.
NK: so what was this all about?
OM: well you can believe me if you want or not, but the government at the time could barely be called a government, it was more of a dictatorship with a facade of a democracy.
BM: bullshit, it was a fair elected democracy, I have done countless hours of research on the subject and had to write a thesis on the structured fall of the trade cities to the new order. The grades I got from that landed me the position I have today, where are you old man, begging?
OM: I will not address this acrimonious bullshitter, as I was saying, there was a strange problem that was small at the time but grew as things progressed. Some of the members on the puppet board had red eyes, and they in turn worked for the dictator Rahm Wedsdey.
BM: Rahm was killed early on, he may have been a bit harsh, but he didnt last long, they exhumed his body from the Thames three months after the election.
OM: believe what you will, your opinion will change once you have realized you potential. Now, what actually happened was that Rahm had indeed faked his death, and began giving his orders through his one subordinate on the board. Now heres the fun part, during wartime the newly hatched factory was quite small, but it was infact doing copius amounts of reasearch on the subject of cloning, and it was said that Rahm had a clone made simply to die and be tossed in to the thames.
BM: thats nonsence, were you there?
OM I was
LG: I believe you old man
OM: your not believing, you are knowing, because I know.
NK: what are you getting at?
OM: we can sense lies much better than the average people. What do you think they were researching in those dark holes of the factory? They found that while normal people could only tell if someone was lying if they had been trained to look for it, or had a small natural knack. Red eyed people knew almost one hundred percent of the time, despite age gender or training.
BM: thats...I mean, no...I wrote a paper, the teachers... I have talked to many veterans and if they supposedly knew, why couldn’t I tell if they were lying?
OM: because what they believed to be true, you also saw as true, even now I can see you are having that feeling, you know what I say is true, because I have seen it.
LG: I like the old guy, he doesn’t fib
NK: wait so you are saying...I mean, I kinda knew this, but I had no idea it had to do with my eyes.
OM: its not the eyes, it’s the genes, the eyes are just a side effect.
BM: I wrote several papers...years in school
OM: yes, if you wish to go further, you may stare in to my eyes and see for yourself.
BM: what are you talking about, I don’t understand.
NK: I’ve never actually looking in to anothers eyes that were red...(well a different kind of red XD)
OM: I personally have not met another red eyed soul in many years, and before my abilities had not surfaced, so I couldn’t tell you. Only one way to find out.
The business man and the old man lock eyes, the business man is uncomfortable.
BM: wait...wait...im...seeing things AHHHHHHH *collapses*
*old man eyes wide breathing heavily*
OM: wahahah! It worked I cant believe it! Sorry boy, I gave you some pretty bad ones!, I wasn’t expecting it to work!
BM: what did you do to me? My feelings hurt and im sad.
OM: I gave you some real war vet memories, they are filled with betrayal and pain. Your welcome, bout time the soft whelps like you learned what real pain is! Hahaha, still though im quite sorry, you will get over them.
Maybe.
*little girl and nick lock eyes, there is a flash and they both pass out*
OM: uh oh, that aint good....
kona, oracle and Skol
kona: it seems someone has responded to your message.
SK: ah haa! So soon, I knew it would work, I was a bit hesitant, but it seems there were some crusty old remnants left from the wars after all!
Are they at the meeting place?
KN: yes, they are at the oasis, im actually shocked that your plan actually worked. It was literally a shot on a million to have someone actually remember an area code from decades ago.
SK: there are all sorts of people in this world, and if that didn’t work there would always be other ways.
KN: however it seems there are four of them.
SK: what?! Why are there so many? I honestly believed the war would have eradicated nearly all of those rats.
OS: you should always foresee the unforeseeable.
SK: what a stupid thing to say, thats impossible, stop talking.
Lets go take back what is ours...
Eliza and victoria
*victoria knocks on door*
EL: yeah?
VC: Dorian is busy, you are supposed to follow me...
EL: who is it?
VC: victoria
EL: ahh the little creepy mind reader girl, I will be right out.
VC: im not creepy...
*silence*
*door opens*
EL: hello! So whats going on? Like iv been here for like a weeek
VC: I don’t know, im just supposed to take you somewhere
EL: okaaaay...uh what happened to Dorian?
VC: uh...hes tied up right now, and couldnt make it so he sent me in his stead...I hope you don’t mind.
EL: its not a problem at all, I would rather have a cute little girl over a scary mask guy any day
VC: I am un aware of how I can be cute and creepy at the same time.
EL: when you turn sixteen, you will know immediately. Its like a light going on.
VC:....oh
EL: nothing bad, you just suddenly want to start painting your nails black and wearing stripes and shades.
VC: once again...oh.
EL: you will figure it out.
VC: yay I guess.
EL: so where are we going?
VC: cant describe it, its far away.
EL: wheee, should we take the bike?
VC: there is a bike?
EL: yes there is a bike, here look *shows bike*
VC: how am I going to fit on there?
EL: you just ride on the back and hold on
VC: I’ve never done that, I hope you are a decent driver
EL: I am indeed, I think, I haven’t died yet
VC: reassurance...perfect
EL: c’mon lets just go before the things of my paranoia surface and we are forced in to a chase scene
VC: alright...sounds fantastic
*driving scene, victoria points the directions until they are on a lonely desert road, which they drive on for some time before getting to the foot of a large mountain before dark*
EL: holy shit almost out of gas, I don’t think we can make it back, is there a settlement or gas station nearby?
VC: we don’t need one, don’t worry you will see, we are going to markus’ house, and he's got lots of cool stuff.