The Biomass Revolution (The Tisaian Chronicles) (19 page)

A growl from the pit
of Spurious’ stomach reminded him what time it was. At the end of the hall he could see the colossal white-walled cafeteria. The smell of cabbage and porridge filled his nostrils as he entered the mostly vacant room. He headed for the counter, opting for a bowl of warm soup instead of the usual.

The scent of the broth made his stomach growl deeper as he made his way down an aisle full of round tables, avoiding
eye contact with other employees.

In the corner of the room he saw Ing sitting by himself. Spurious approached his friend cautiously. He knew he couldn’t speak to him about Lana or the TDU again. It was a dreadful feeling, knowing he couldn’t completely trust his friend anymore. Times had changed and their friendship had drifted.
Yet Spurious knew they would always be friends, no matter what difficulties got in their way.

“Hey
, Ing. What ya got there?” Spurious asked, pulling up a chair next to him.

Ing looked
over, his blue eyes scanning his friend’s face as if he was an imposter. His eyes glared with contempt, something Spurious had never seen in his friend before.

“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Ing looked back down at his sandwich and tossed it aside. “You sure have a short memory. Do you not recall our conversation the other night?”

“Yes
, I do, but I don’t think this is the proper time or place to relive it,” Spurious snapped back.

“Ing I confided in you, I hope
you aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“Don’t worry
, Spurious, you have everything you want now; you don’t need to worry about me.”

“What do you mean?
You’re still my best friend…” Spurious paused, “it’s just that things are complicated right now.”

“Where have you been the past few weekends? Every time I knock on your door
, I get Anya’s artificial voice. She tells me you’re doing a special project at work.”

Spurious shrugged
, realizing they were going to have this conversation whether he liked it or not.

“W
ell, that is partly true. I have been assigned to work on a classified project and it’s required some overtime,” he lied, keeping his eyes fixed on the smooth white surface of the table below.

Ing nodded. “Well
, when you actually want to get together again, let me know. By the way, I have an appointment set up with the State to explore finding me a suitable wife,” Ing said, studying his friend’s face for a reaction.

Spurious couldn’t help but smile
. “Well, good, maybe they will find someone you’re really compatible with.”

“You should think about doing the same
thing,” Ing replied.

Spurious paused to take a sip of his steaming soup. “I’d rather not. I don’t want the State deciding who I end up
with.”

“The program works
, Spurious. Do you remember Anita and Furio from accounting? Their marriage was arranged by the State. Timea and Maria from fleet too.”

“Good for them. I’m sure
they’re really happy.”

Ing frowned. “So your mind is made up
, then. You’re going to pursue your other avenue?”

Spurious shot him a quick glance and dropped his spoon in his bowl. He had lost his appeti
te and decided he would use what little time he had left to go for a walk through the courtyards. He patted Ing on the back and left his distressed friend with a few words of advice. “Don’t pick the first one they match you with.” Ing laughed nervously and took another bite of his sandwich.

Outside
, the courtyard was filled with commotion. At the edge of the stone rotunda, Spurious could see several fully armored Knights, their swords clashing loudly against their thick armor with every move.

Spurious could see a large CRK tank called a Fox Hound, one whose function had changed over the years. During the
Biomass Wars the Fox Hound was used against enemy forces to destroy bunkers and reinforced enemy locations with its uranium tipped shells. Now the Fox Hound was used for demolition purposes, and at times was used outside the walls to cave in tunnels thought to be used for illegal immigrants.

The
Fox Hound had seen better days. It had been commissioned in the early 21
st
century. This one had two large dents in its armored plating, more than likely a result of rocket-propelled grenades.

On the top of the tan
tank, a Knight dressed in military fatigues manned a megaphone and was addressing a growing crowd of State employees from SGS and the other agencies in the vicinity.

“Citizens of Tisaia
! Employees who have given your lives to the betterment of human kind! Today, the Council of Royal Knights and The Governor address you with news we have all been waiting for. Today we tell you the TDU Headquarters have been found, and missions are currently underway to eradicate any surviving TDU members from Tisaia, and from the very dirt of this earth.”

The soldier continued repeating the exact same line
s, each time receiving a round of applause from the citizens and employees crowding around the archaic tank.

Spurious shu
ddered. Thoughts of tyranny raced through his mind as the reality of his situation finally made sense to him. For his adult years he complained about the routine nature of his life. He always knew something about his life wasn’t right.

And now he knew why. It was
at that moment, when the future of the TDU was uncertain, that he finally understood.

Spurious walked away from the growing crowd
, disguising his anger with a smile. He shoved his way through his co-workers, beaming with excitement. He finally knew he had a purpose. The only thing to figure out now was what he was going to do to change the future. He could be a part of this change, just like his parents.

He left the courtyard thinking again of what Leo told him just weeks ag
o. “You have the ability to shape Tisaia’s future.”

Finally understanding what that meant, Spurious tucked his head into the safety of his collar and headed back to work, avoiding the growing wind.

A
nother storm is coming
.

Chapter 8: A Daring Escape

“Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.”

~William S. Burroughs

Time
: 2:22 p.m. February 14, 2071.

Location
: Tunnels. Tisaia

What had been the TDU’s stronghold was now nothing more than a smoking wreck of tangled metal, wires and concrete. A thick layer of smoke trailed through the corridors, mixing with the stench of burned flesh and death. The underground beacon of hope was now a grave of ruined hallways. The mangled bodies of TDU staffers and soldiers lay scattered in the smoldering wreckage, some of them still whimpering and crying out in pain.

It was early afternoon and the clean-up process was well underway. A small army of Royal Knights w
as combing through documents in the war room, while another team worked on confiscating weapons and defusing booby traps in the armory. In the pantry a pair of Knights moved the broken body of Eddia, whose hand still clung tightly around a kitchen knife, his eyes wide with fear. 

The sound of sporadic gunfire broke out in the smoky tunnels as Knights uncovered TDU soldiers who managed to escape the initial onslaught.

Obi and his team had been lucky, escaping through a hidden tunnel used to transport patients to Lunia. To cover their tracks he had ordered his men into a sanitary sewer, where a foot of raw sewage ensured their escape. The Knights would never look for them there.

Commander Heri
, however, hadn’t been so lucky. He had attempted his escape from within the control room, ordering soldiers to the northern tunnels. The Dark Horses were waiting for him in the darkness, their swords drawn and blue goggles glowing through the smoke.

Obi shuddered, recalling the image of the commander being hacked down by the swords, his blood peppering the concrete walls as he cried out in pain. But it wasn’t the way he met his fate that bothered Obi. It was the surprise in the man’s eyes. As if he never imagined the
Knights would find him.

The bast
ard was too arrogant to see the damn Tin Cans coming
, Obi thought, crawling on his belly through the wretched sewer water. He looked back and saw his squad members battling through the mucky brown sewage behind him, relieved they had all made it out.

Time
: 2:42 p.m. February 14, 2071.

Location
: TDU HQ War Room, Tunnels. Tisaia.

Commanding Knight Augustus arrived with an entourage of his most trusted Knights, their swords still tipped with the fresh red stain of blood. They stood around what was left of a conference table, snapped in half by a block of concrete.

“Where is Commander Heri?” Augustus shouted. “I want his body brought to me immediately.”

The eerie sound of a body being dragged across the concrete filled the room. Augustus turned to watch two Knights pull the limp body of Heri into the office, dumping him at his feet.
So this is my adversary
, Augustus thought, staring at the corpse at his feet.

“
We’ve broken them,” Augustus muttered under his breath. He wanted to smile, to laugh even. He had waited for this day for so long and now it was finally here, he was amused.

“This is the man who evaded us for so long?” Augustus asked, laughing.
“Take this scum away,” he ordered. He watched the cold body of Heri being dragged out of the office.

“Supreme Knight Morr,” Augustus
said, taking a puff out of a nearly spent cigar. “Can you give me a status? I want to know exactly how many of the terrorists escaped.”

“Sir, as far as I know
, none of the terrorists have escaped.”

The
sporadic popping of gunfire in the distance interrupted them, prompting Augustus to shoot Morr an irritated look.

“Do you he
ar that, Morr?” Augustus asked arrogantly, putting one of his arms around Morr’s shoulders.

“That is the sound of gunfire. And unless our men are shooting at rats
, I’m assuming there are still some terrorists out there. So I’d suggest you get your men in order and eradicate every living thing that moves!” Augustus screamed, pushing Morr through the office doorway.

“Yes. Yes
sir,” Morr yelled. He rushed back down the hall towards his men.

Augustus sat in an ancient wooden chair, careful not
to scuff his recently buffed armor on the protruding splinters. He propped his legs up on the broken table and stared up at the ceiling, blowing another trail of smoke into the air. An odd sense of disappointment overwhelmed him. He had waited for this day for so long, but now that it was finally here something didn’t feel right—something was wrong.

Another shot rang out, echoing off the concrete walls. Augustus took one last drag of his cigar before standing up. It wasn’t time to put his feet up yet, there were still TDU to kill.

Time
: 3:00 p.m. February 14, 2071.

Location
: Tunnels, Tisaia

Obi could see a slight sliver of light in the tunnel far ahead. He took a deep breath, forgetting momentarily of the filth he was crawling through. That mistake cost him his last meal. The stench crawled up his nostrils, prompting him to dry heave into the muck beneath him.

“Are you al
l right up there?” Creo asked, a hint of concern in his deep voice.

Obi nodded and continued on. “It looks like
we’re almost there,” he said.

“We need to keep moving.”

“Where are we headed?” Ajax shouted from behind.

“We
need to find a safe house in the city, and regroup with the rest of the survivors at the checkpoint in a few days.”

Ajax
nodded in approval with the rest of the team, who at the moment were just happy to be alive. The small squad knew the dream of the TDU was still alive, but today they had suffered significant losses. Obi knew it would be hard to replace many of his friends, but there would always be a pool of citizens they could recruit from. As long as the State continued its oppressive policies the TDU would exist. The main obstacles would be finding the weapons and a secure location to rebuild their headquarters.

The team continued to cr
awl through the narrow tunnel swiftly, the stench of waste infiltrating their nostrils. A faint light was growing and as they got closer they pressed on, anxious to get out of the sewage.

They crawled faster, their weapons scraping against the concrete sides of the tunnel, but quickly they realized the light was
nothing more than an anomaly- an energy efficient light bulb managing to survive years of life underground, still yielding a small but bright glow. It had more than likely been changed by some straggler or refugee who had used the tunnel as a shelter long ago.

Two hours later
they emerged from the tunnel. Their armor and skin were stained with brown filth and sweat. Nathar dropped to his knees, dry-heaving until nothing but a milky fluid came out. Creo patted the young man on his back while the rest of the team scraped the waste off their uniforms in the cold winter night.

Obi took a step towards the ledge and glassed the landscape with his binoculars. He
could vaguely make out the shape of a storm drain jetting out over a small body of water below, most likely an old sewage treatment plant. He knew they were somewhere outside Rohania, but he wasn’t sure exactly where.

He squinted and glassed the horizon again, the skeletons of high rises and office buildings staring back at him. Judging by the
broken shapes of the buildings, he assumed they were close to the Boondocks. It was the one place where the majority of buildings were from the old world, artifacts rising into the sky as a reminder of a war not so distant. It was also not the place he wanted to be at the moment. The Boondocks were controlled by gangs; a number of them squatted in the old buildings.

“
Here we go,” Obi said, turning. “When I give the green light I’m going to remove this gate and we’re all jumping into the pool of water below us. I don’t care if you don’t want to, you’re doing it,” he said, glaring at Nathar, who was terrified of water.

Nathar
scowled, still recovering from throwing up his guts moments earlier. Obi turned his attention to the gate, kicking it twice with his steel toed boots, but the gate was secured tightly to the concrete wall and didn’t budge.

“Let me try
, boss,” Ajax said, maneuvering behind Obi. He let out a grunt and kicked the center of the gate, sending it flying off its hinges and into the water below. A large splash broke the silence of the night, as two large birds took off flying from where they were nesting.

“Nice work. Now, hold my rifle,” Obi
said, as he jumped into the cold water below without hesitation. His men followed closely behind, taking turns so their weapons didn’t get wet.

Silence flooded over the junk yard
as Obi sat shaking in the frozen dirt, his eyes scanning his surroundings for potential danger. Within seconds, his three comrades were next to him. Nathar spit a mouthful of water onto the ground. Ajax laughed and swatted him on the back, but Obi shot them a stern look to quiet down. They sat for a few moments before Obi took off limping across the gravel. His two wounds burned from what he knew was the beginning of an infection.

He
crashed against the rusted metal of the building, the fragile wall vibrating from the impact. Obi could only imagine what the roof looked like, hoping it even had one. They needed a place to get dry and clean.

He
made two hand signals from the edge of the building and Creo and Nathar took off running, Ajax staying behind to offer covering fire.

The front door
had been kicked in long ago and lay resting on the concrete ground. The glass cracked under Obi’s boots as he surveyed the guts of the building. 

Nathar and
Creo stood on the outside of the entryway, waiting for their commander’s order to enter and secure the building.

Obi hesitated
. He wasn’t afraid of Knights, but he was nervous that there might be stragglers that could give away their position. He waited a few minutes for Ajax to catch up with them before signaling Nathar and Creo to enter the building.

He
clicked on his night vision and continued to scan the junkyard from the outside of the building, making a mental map of the landscape. Two water silos towered above them in the distance, gaping holes visible in their sides. They hadn’t held water in their guts for years. The north side was filled with old construction equipment: forklifts, cranes, bull dozers, all machines designed to run off gasoline and now nothing more than useless artifacts from the past.

A large moon illuminated the junkyard below,
keeping Obi on edge. Any straggler could be lurking around in the shadows, but silence crept across the landscape. Satisfied, Obi clicked off his night vision and slipped into the darkness of the building.

Time
: 11:12 p.m. February 14, 2071.

Location
: TDU Headquarters Pantry, Tunnels. Tisaia

Nordica and Ran took turns peeking through a small opening in the fortress of stone where they were hiding. They watched helplessly as Knights gunned down their comrades, who lay dying. With each shot Ran shuddered, holding his ears and fighting back the tears swelling in his eyes.

“Keep quiet,” Nordica whispered
, smacking Ran with her dreadlocks by accident. “We can’t help them now.” 

“
We have to do something.”

“We don’t have to do anything, because there isn’t anything we can do,” Nordica responded. “But go ahead and be my guest. See how many Knights you can kill before you end up
just like them,” she said, pointing towards the carnage beyond the safety of the pantry’s walls.

Ran looked down at Juliana and Tsui, who shook their heads at him
, agreeing with Nordica. Defeated, Ran sat back on the stone floor stroking his pistol slowly, tears running down his face. Juliana crawled over to him and put her arms around him, embracing him in a hug. “It’s going to be ok,” she whispered in his ear.

***

“Do we have a body count?” Morr asked.

“Riya
confirmed we have fifty bodies,” Albri responded.

Morr nodded in approval. “Th
at’s about what we anticipated, but fifty strong and able to produce so much chaos? Damn, they were resilient little bastards,” he shouted over the commotion.

A clatter of armor echoed down the hall
, bringing Morr and Albri to attention. Augustus and his entourage had been surveying the headquarters and were now headed towards the war room.