Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (20 page)

I can’t tell
him. One loose cannon could blow the whole thing — decades of
planning.
Buz was a little drunk. Jan said to him, “Listen Buz, my mom wants
everyone out before my dad gets home — he’s been in a bad mood
lately.”
Buz said, “OK, sure. Let me have one more —”
“No,” said Jan, “I’m sorry to do this,” and he looked at Buz, sighing
and thinking,
I have to say goodbye with a lie?

Buz was not so drunk that he didn’t know something else may be
happening. Too many people left at once, and there was suddenly too
much tension in everyone still there. In any case, it was obvious he had to
go. “OK, buddy, we’ll see you tomorrow, all right? No more school!” he
yelled up to the ceiling.

Jan looked at him regretfully, “Sure — we’ll see you.”
Buz lumbered his way up the stairs, and left.
Martha came out of the bedroom with luggage and went down to the

storage room, and they all followed her. They retrieved some big prepacked luggage she had stored for the occasion. When they got back
upstairs, Martha said to Rachel and Rebecca, “You girls are to come with
me.”

Lep. They had arrived in one of his uncle’s small wagons, parked outside.
Lep chimed in, “We could use you at the lab, and we were talking
about it. We need help loading everything.”
Jan looked at his mother, not knowing what to do.
“Go with them, Jan. They need you, and we’ll all meet up at the
rendezvous.” Martha was looking at Jan as if she was unsure of her
decision. It almost appeared that she was hoping he would resist.
Jan did decide to go with Lep and Dom. “Well, what are we waiting
for? Let’s go! We’re going to be free!” he shouted, realizing that the time
for talk was over, and now was the moment for real action. It was do or
die.
Martha slowed the emotional momentum. “Let’s pray. I want to say
Milchexidike’s Prayer.”
They all stopped their bustle. If they ever needed a prayer, this was
the time.
Martha had them all hold hands in a circle.

“Our Creator,
King of Eternity,
Holy is Your Thought,
Love's Kingdom comes,
Love's Will be done,
In Time, as it is in Eternity.
Give us this day, the fruits of your love,
and forgive us our loveless thoughts and deeds,
as we forgive others their loveless thoughts and deeds against us,
and lead us not into loveless desires,
but deliver us from lovelessness.”

“Let it be,” they all chimed in. A little quieter now, they departed the
house and went their separate ways. Martha left the front door unlocked,
just in case a retreat was called, and someone had to get back or hide
inside quickly. She deeply regretted leaving Griswolt like this, but had
been hardened and disciplined by the years of planning.

After they all departed, there was someone still on the road. Buz had
not gone home. He had started walking towards the neighborhood where
Tama lived. He would occasionally walk by, hoping to get a glimpse of
her. However, while he was on his way, he saw her with a group of others
in a rental bus as they passed by him going in the direction of Jan’s house.
It looked like it was loaded with boxes inside as well as on top, behind the
contiss driver.

“Where are they going in that thing?” he asked himself. He decided to
walk back, since there was no point in going any further. As Buz was
approaching Jan’s house from a distance, he saw Martha and the two girls
getting into a taxi and leaving. He went over to Jan’s house, and knocked
on the door. Since there were strange goings on, he decided to see if the
door was locked. When he saw that it was not, he went inside to find the
place empty.

“Something’s going on,” he said, “And I’m going to find out!” Buz
then went out and was fortunate to hail a taxi right away. “I need to meet
with someone traveling up ahead, so I need to hurry. There will be a good
tip for you if we catch up,” he told the driver. The driver willingly
accommodated him.

hile Jan’s graduation party had been going on, something
entirely different was happening a half-mile down the road.
Sak, the skinny, nervous pet of Barab was waiting for their
gang to find a place to get hammered for their own graduation

celebration. They were to meet in an unlit part of the block — no
witnesses for their gathering. He was wearing a full-length weathered
black jacket over his usual thin black leathercloth shirt and trousers.

As Sak was standing there, blowing on his hands because of the night
coolness, waiting, he spotted four figures walking his way. “I wonder
where they all got together,” he said to himself, thinking they had left him
out of something. As they came walking his way, he looked at them with
confusion, because their outlines in the night did not show the big outline
of Barab. “I guess Barab is coming later,” he said to himself.

As they approached him, they unexpectedly started running.
Sak looked past them to see what they were running from. As they
came into full view, he saw the one in front, and fear shot through Sak’s
gut like a knife. He turned and bolted in the opposite direction, but it was
much too late. They had the momentum, and they had him on his back on
the ground in seconds.
Kran, the one in the lead stood there, towering above Sak, and smiling
quite broadly. “You piece of shit, I got you now,” he said through gritted
teeth, “Your buddy Tans won’t be meeting with you tonight.” They all
started snickering. “Now tell me about the other night, the one with my
sister! What did you do to her, and how did she get those bruises?” He
had his heel on Sak’s chest now, and there was vengeance in his eyes.
“You were the only one there! She told me it was you!” Kran hissed, as
he dug his heel into Sak’s chest.
Sak was thinking,
Barab, he always has to beat on them, that fucker!
He had been out with Barab the previous week, and Barab’s favorite
method for a successful date truly was to drug a girl and rape her. Sak had
finally decided to join in, and their first conquest together was Kran’s
sister. They both had taken turns on her, but Sak was the only one she
remembered. She was not supposed to remember anything, according to
Barab.
Just then, they all heard footsteps coming up in the dark. There was
the familiar limp. Sak’s heart leaped.
It’s Barab!
Barab was already nine
feet and two inches tall, and weighed over four hundred and twenty
pounds.
Barab lumbered into the area, unaware of what lay ahead. At first, he
thought that his gang had someone down on the ground, and was robbing
him. When he got close enough, he stopped.
All heads were turned in his direction and Kran yelled “Back off!
This doesn’t concern you, unless you want what he’s going to get.” Kran
looked down at Sak.
Barab glanced at Sak, and back at them. He put his hands up, “No
sweat, guys, I don’t want any trouble.” He then started backing up slowly.
Sak was mortified. “Barab!” he pleaded. “Do something!
Barab looked at him, and said, “Hey, it’s not my fault your mouth
gets you into trouble,” as he continued to back up.
Sak exclaimed, “What? You fucker! I — ” and was not able to finish
as he had just gotten kicked in the mouth by Kran, who had turned his
attention back to Sak, now that Barab looked like no trouble.
“You know,” Kran grunted, between kicks, “I was going to kill you.”
He kicked him a few more times, and then he continued, “But after seeing
your buddy bail on you,” he kicked Sak again, “I kind of feel sorry for
you.” He looked at his friends. They knew it was their turn. He stood
back, and watched as they unleashed their own rage at the world on Sak
— but they did not kill him.
The quartet left Sak there, laying by himself in the cold. He stayed
like that for about twenty minutes. His head was bleeding, and his neck
was screaming at him. His stomach was starting to loosen up, but he
could not take a deep breath without a stabbing pain in his right side. He
agonizingly rose up, with a deadly eye, and it was set on the object of his
betrayal — Barab.
“All the garbage I took from that piece of shit,” he said with clenched
teeth and grim malice on his mind. Sak was only with Barab because he
thought he would protect him — this was the thought he could not allow
to rise.
Sak limped home, resolute, his ribs tearing at him, and he retrieved
something that he and Barab had built together and he had been sitting on.
It was a homemade bomb for whatever they may have decided to blow
up. Sak was good at making bombs. It also left a poisonous, potassium
chloride-based substance behind in the air as a deadly by-product.
He marched one neighborhood over to Barab’s house, and banged on
the door. Sak waited, stiffened and in shock from what he had just gone
through. The loss of his imagined safety of the gang was much worse than
the beating he had just received.
Barab’s older brother, the tyrant of the single mother family, answered the door. “Barab’s not here, punk,” he said to Sak. Looking Sak
over, he sneered and spat, “What happened to you — and what’s that?” as
he noticed the two-foot canister sitting next to Sak.
Sak responded with a mighty shove, for Barab’s older brother was
even bigger than Barab. Barab’s brother was drunk, and not ready for
such a surprise, he tumbled backwards, continuing all the way down the
stairs. Sak walked into the small upper foyer, and heard the mother yell
out from below, “What’s all that racket, you bastard?”
“Good,” Sak said to himself, “That drunken bitch of a mother is
home,” and he pushed a couple of buttons on the bomb, and forcefully
flung the bomb at Barab’s brother who was getting up from the bottom of
the stairs. Sak then tore out of there, slamming the door behind him. He
did not get far before he heard the muffled belowground explosion behind
him as he continued running his ass off, holding his stabbing right side.
It was dark, and he then headed —
where? Where can I go? I can’t go
home. Barab will go there first.
Sak was still in shock, but the pain from
his ribs was becoming much worse since the run. He walked towards the
city in the dark, but that was changing. The night sky was starting to peek
through the heavy clouds, and the larger moon was full. The lesser moon
was close to full, so it looked as if it might become a relatively well-lit
night later. As the clouds continued to pass and go, Sak was not very
comfortable with the exposure of the moons, and tried to stay in the
shadows.
“I’ll get a job in the mines out west,” he said to himself, as he walked
on, trying to figure out where to spend the night. He had a little money on
him. He was thinking about joining in the mines the hard way.
His now ex-idol Barab wanted very badly to be a miner, but was
determined to take the path his deceased father had, through the Miner’s
School. The problem was that although the tests were not demanding,
Barab still was unable to pass them. Unless you knew somebody who
could get you in, or went through Miner’s School, the only other way was
to start out in the areas close to the wildlands as an apprentice. This meant
becoming a “plebe” in a “fraternity” which sent plebes to do the deadliest
tasks. Many died in those mines, so they would take anyone who would
work. Sak continued to walk, hoping to make a decision before he
reached the city. He was able to thumb a ride about halfway, but it
actually took him a bit out of his way. He caught no other rides after that.
Deeper in the city, at Strakna Laboratories, Jan and Lep had dropped
off Dom at his uncle’s place, and were now entering through security to
prepare for the arrival of Dom and his oversized stagecoach, along with
the six contisses that pulled it.

The dozing night guard sat up when he saw Jan and Lep coming
through the front doors. “Hey Lep, what brings you here tonight?” He
took a furtive look at Jan. “Who’s the guest?”

Lep responded, saying, “We’ve got a late night delivery. There was a
delay earlier, and I’m the one who has to receive it.” He looked disgusted.
“I should be at a friend’s graduation party tonight, and I’m stuck here
doing this!”

“Too bad,” the guard said. He looked Jan over. “So who is this fellow?” he asked again.
Lep had been thinking about his alternatives for this lie. He opted for,
“Oh, he’s my buddy, Jan. We’re going to the party after this, and he
offered to lend a hand to speed things up.”
The guard made a thoughtful frown. Then he raised his eye-ridges
and said, “Good thinking!” He wanted to get back to his “magazine”. He
thumped his hand on the desk and said, “Well, you two had better get a
move on.”
They both passed by him and walked down two long hallways to the
elevators.
Taking the elevator down to the seventh floor, they immediately went
to the back of the building to where the freight elevators were located. Jan
and Lep then took the freight elevator all the way up to the first floor
loading deck. When they opened the big doors at the top, there was Dom,
with his big grin, waiting.
Jan was impressed by the setup that Dom had. The stagecoach was
triple the ordinary size, and had doors in the back for loading material
goods, or people, depending on the job. It was quite roomy inside the
cabin, and had storage capacity above the cabin as well. Dom had
changed the suspension and under carriage, sealing it. It was backed up
against the loading dock, ready to go.
“What’s that thing?” Lep asked as he was surveying the stagecoach.
He pointed to a big box that appeared to be bolted into the top of the
cabin. It was almost as wide as the cabin, and looked heavy.
“Oh, that?” smiled Dom. “I scouted out the rendezvous point, and
outfitted this baby for anything we might run into. You better hope we
don’t need that one.” He had a mischievous grin on his face.
Lep gave him a funny look, but then their attention was drawn by two
guard contisses coming their way to check out the scene. There was a
heavy fence separating the guard contisses from the stagecoach and the
driveway. The fence otherwise surrounded the entire complex of Strakna
Laboratories.
Jan had never seen guard contisses this close. They were fifty percent
bigger than ordinary contisses, darker in coloring, and they were making
Dom’s contisses very nervous. Jan went over to the fence to take a closer
look at them, when Lep snapped, “What are you doing? Get away from
them!”
Jan stopped and turned. “Why?” he asked Lep.
“They are mean as shit, that’s why!” Lep responded. “Dom’s contisses are spooked enough as it is.”
Jan took another look at the huge beasts. He knew that they could not
be mounted or ridden — they were only good for guarding territory. He
turned to Lep and asked, “What do you feed them?”
Lep looked at the contisses, and glumly said, “The kind you ride.”
Then he perked up. “Well, let’s roll! We’ve got a big job ahead of us.”
They all took the freight elevator down to the top secret fifth floor. As
Lep and Jan were gathering items, Dom busied himself with dismantling
the connections of one of the precious Platac-territory vaccine production
modules. They worked hard, for about two hours. The freight elevator
was big. It looked like they would be able to make it in one trip.
“Well, that’s it,” said Lep, smiling at the packed and loaded elevator,
“We’re ahead of schedule!”
Dom chimed in, “There’s something I still want to do.”
Lep said, “You still want to do that, huh?”
“Do what?” asked Jan,
Lep looked at Jan and replied, “He wants to go down into the bottom
of this place and tinker.” He was looking at Dom and shaking his head.
“We still don’t have the time, Dom.”
Jan agreed with Lep and said, “No! Let’s just get the hell out of here!
What about the guard?”
Ignoring Jan, Dom argued, “You just said we’re ahead of schedule!
Don’t worry about the guard. Lep, you know he’s sleeping by now, and
there’s nobody here! It’ll only take a minute.”
Lep studied Dom. “It
is
a good idea, if it’ll work.”
He made his decision, “Go, fast, and take Jan with you just in case.
We already have the elevator loaded, but I’m betting I’ll find more things
to take while you guys are down there.”
Lep was the boss here, and so it was settled. Dom and Jan took the
freight elevator down into the lowest level of the building.
On the way down, Dom told Jan what he was planning to do. “First,”
said Dom, “I’m going to bypass the safety systems and turn up the heat on
all the new vaccines they are making for the wildlands. It will destroy
most of those vaccines, so they won’t be able to come after us for fifteen
to twenty years.” He paused to smile at Jan, proud of his idea. The old
freight elevator was rumbling pretty well under the weight of the load
they had with them.
After seeing that Jan understood, Dom continued, “Then, I’m going to
lock up the hydrogen supply, then drain all the hydrogen out of the
storage tanks down there. It’ll take them at least ten to twenty hours to
figure it out and fix it all. By then, half of all the main vaccine batches in
this place will be mush.” Still grinning, Dom nodding his head, “That’ll
set them back a while — and the main batches will be their priority for
the next ten years, giving us a twenty-five year head-start at least!” Dom
thought he was part of some new super revolutionary group.
Jan was rolling Dom’s words over in his head. “Did you say ‘drain
the hydrogen’? That sounds dangerous.”
Dom replied, “They have special pipelines built for that in case of
emergency.” He paused, and looked thoughtful, “I don’t think they have
ever had to use it.”
Jan looked at him, eye-ridges coming together. “I hope you know
what you’re doing.”
“Me too,” said Dom, as the doors opened and he began to make his
way through the huge, dimly lit area first.
Jan could only follow as Dom traversed his way between stacks of
large piping, electrical conduit, and plumbing to one section of the
sprawling space down there. Dom pulled a couple tools from his kit, and
turned five different-looking valves with them. After he was done with
that, Jan followed him over to a big electric panel with buttons and lights.
Dom paused, studying the panel. He looked a bit confused, and then
he said, “Ah Hah!” He went over to the right side of the panel and opened
it. He pulled down on a big red lever. They heard a whooshing sound, like
air escaping, and the place started cooling down immediately. Dom
looked at Jan, apparently quite pleased. He said, “Here we go,” and
pushed a green button on the panel that was labeled, “Ex-Out”. They
waited. Whatever was supposed to happen didn’t, based on Dom’s
melting look of expectation, and he said, “Hmmm.” He was rubbing his
chin and studying the panel.
Then they heard it. A loud metallic creaking sound rang out, and Jan
noticed the sound was coming from some big pipes above them. The
pipes looked like they were bulging. He pointed to the pipes and yelled to
Dom, “Does that look right?”
Dom looked up, and his face became frozen. He quickly looked at the
panel again, and pushed another button. He looked at Jan, panicked.
“We’ve got to get out of here, now!”
“No shit!” yelled Jan. They both ran the obstacle course of piping
back to the elevator, and took it up to the fifth floor. It seemed like it was
taking forever. As soon as the doors opened, Dom called out “Lep! Lep!”
Lep came running around a corner. “Hey, keep it down!” he said.
“Something went wrong,” Dom said. He looked down. “I think there
might be a problem.”
“We’ve got to get out now,” yelled Jan.
“But I was about to get —”
“Now!” shouted Jan.
Lep ran and jumped into the elevator with what he could carry, and
they took it up to the waiting stagecoach. They all scrambled, filling up
the cargo area inside the stagecoach, and piling everything else on top
against the railings. Dom had also removed the inner seats for the
mission. The biggest item to haul was the vaccine module. Along with a
portable power supply and accessories, it took up most of the cargo area.
The stagecoach had already been backed up to the loading area, so the
task went quickly enough.
As they were loading the last of the supplies, they heard a ‘pop’ deep
below the floor of the elevator. A breeze started coming up, and Dom
looked at Lep with obvious fright and said, “I’m going up front to the
contisses. You guys hold on.”
Lep hopped inside the stagecoach, and Jan climbed on top, behind the
driver’s seat. He was in charge of the cargo on top. It was then that he
smelled the hydrogen. “I smell —”
“I know!” Dom yelled in fright, and as he gave a crack of the whip,
the contisses started for a run immediately, and they were off. They were
headed for the rendezvous point at the river, but had to travel through the
south part of the city first.
Jan’s heart was racing. They made it out onto the main street, and the
stagecoach was able to gain some speed. Jan looked backwards at the
vaccine lab, wondering what was happening down below, when suddenly
a blast came roaring out of the loading area they had just left.
“Yah!” Dom bellowed, as he cracked the whip again.
Lep yelled from down below, “Did you hear that? Dom! What did
you do?”
Then there were multiple crashing, booming explosions, and from the
street they could see the entire top of the first floor of the lab disintegrate
into a fire ball, pushing high up into the sky. Flying particles reached
them, pelting store windows and pedestrians as well. Lep climbed up
from the back of the moving stagecoach, and went up beside Jan, looking
back at the cloud of destruction where the lab had been. His face looked
like he had seen a ghost.
“Dom, the entire lab is destroyed! Do you know what this means?”
He looked at Jan with severe gravity and said, “Most of the population
here will die, and it’s our fault. It will take at least twenty years to start
producing vaccines again from scratch, just for themselves.”
Jan put his hand on Lep’s shoulder and said, “There’s nothing we can
do now. We’ve just got to get to the river.” He looked around at the
people moving about — people traveling, working, shopping, planning —
and a feeling of remorse took hold of him, but not for long —
Alarms sounded in the city. The boys still had a half hour’s travel to
the rendezvous. Swiftly, the police were out, as well as the NOV troopers.
Lep climbed back down below to keep an eye on their precious cargo.
“I never heard
that
alarm before,” Jan commented to Dom, as they
passed police buses and fire wagons traveling the opposite direction
towards the vaccine lab. “Just act normal, don’t drive too fast.”
Dom was obviously panicked. His face and body would freeze with
fear every time they passed a police officer or trooper.
We’ve got to get
out of the city,
Jan thought to himself.
That’s the first thing we need to do.
A few minutes from the river dock, Martha and others had gathered at
the city cemetery. Over two hundred escapees had already arrived in the
cemetery, and more were amassing at the river. They heard the explosion
from within the city, and saw the flash and dark cloud it produced rising
slowly in the night sky, accentuated by the city lights. Then they heard the
sirens.
“This is all we need,” Martha sighed.
“What kind of alarm is that?” Rebecca asked.
“It’s the National Emergency call to arms,” Martha replied. “All
NOV personnel must report immediately. Shit, they’ll all be out now.
We’ve still got to wait for everyone to gather here, and run to the river at
the signal.”
About fifteen minutes later, down at the river everything had been
going according to schedule. The cemetery group was to remain separate
until the last minute in order that they may more easily escape if
something went wrong at the dock.
Over three hundred LERN members had arrived at the dock, with
more arriving by the minute. They were all hurriedly loading supplies
onto the boats. There had been minimal security tonight. The two guards
and a few workers on duty had been bound and gagged.
A young stranger happened upon them. He had been walking rather
aimlessly, and found himself strolling along an unpaved road that hugged
the edge of a very high cliff. He had been able to see the river almost two
thousand feet down below from the edge of the cliff at its peak. The road
continued for a half mile or so, steeply downwards, ending at the dock
which LERN had chosen for their departure. It was the last dock before
the wildlands to the south.
The youth had come to the river, contemplating suicide by drowning
himself. He would have jumped earlier from a greater height, but was not
ready for the irreversible commitment of that route. His plans began to
change when he saw the gathering of people at the dock. As he was
arriving, he hid behind the wagons that were gathered and was close
enough to hear what was going on.
“These people are going into the wildlands somehow!” he said to
himself. He came out of the shadows.
“Please take me with you!” he said to the first ones he walked up to.
“I can help, please!” he begged.
The biggest one there, Winoni, walked up to him and asked, “What
are you doing here boy?” Winoni barked to some of the people standing
around, “We need to speed this up! Help those folks with the big trunks
over there!” Then he turned his attention back to the kid. “Well?”
“I was just walking down here, and I heard you are all leaving for the
wildlands,” he replied. “Please take me with you, I can help!” He started
coughing.
“What’s your name?” asked Winoni, considering it. After all, what
was there to lose now that they were escaping?
This kid really wants to go
with us, we do have the room, and I’m going to need miners.
He asked
him again. “What’s your name, son?”
“Sak,” the youth replied.
They heard gunfire cracking from the graveyard. “Shit!” said Winoni,
“That’s bad.” Then he turned his attention to those still loading up. “Move
it faster, and release those boats that are full!”
Meanwhile, at the NOV headquarters in Justilant, Griswolt, no longer
having military rank, had been deputized with everyone else there. They
all departed with groups of troopers sent to the south side of town.
Griswolt was fully armed, like the others. They were accustomed to
the unremarkable arrests of LERN members, but now it was different.
The ones captured tonight were packed to the gills with supplies one
would take when going hunting. They also had many more supplies with
them that could not be explained. The NOV command had quickly
assumed that there was a conspiracy afoot that was connected to the
explosion at the vaccine lab. Griswolt and his particular group of fifty
NOV troopers and deputies were on a search and destroy mission — kill
anything that looks like an enemy during the martial law that was now in
effect.