Acid Reign : Genesis

Red and green moss covered the stone and brick walls of the old tavern’s cellar. Pools of brackish water reflected what little light shone through the top of a rounded door, silhouetting the old, empty wine racks that filled the room. Small lights on sleeping monitors and computers blinked. Containers of all shapes and sizes covered the floor.

At the top of the stone stairwell, light flickered around the edge of the thick metal door. Heavy footsteps and anxious chatter grew as the door flew open, flooding the room with light and chaos.

Two men carried in a man covered in blood. Another man rushed in from behind them and pushed one of the tables out of the way.

“Lay him down here.”

The injured man groaned as they laid him on the floor.

“Hang in there, Lev,” Nam encouraged.

Craig pulled his boot knife out and started cutting away at Lev’s tattered shirt. He pulled the sticky fabric free revealing a vest riddled with bullets. Two rounds had broken through on one side, splaying metal into jagged edges that had made the bullet wounds worse. He unlatched the vest and carefully slid it off the man’s chest, revealing more bruises and damaged skin.

“Get a kit,” Craig ordered, struggling to maintain composure.

Nam looked at all of the containers that Craig had just shoved out of the way, then back at Craig.

“Red box, white cross.”

Craig folded a towel he pulled from the table behind him. He pressed hard against the two holes. Lev arched his back, groaning and grinding his teeth.

“It’s bad isn’t it?” Lev whispered through a bloody mouth.

“You’re gonna be fine. Hurry with that kit!”

“Did we get the weapons?” Lev, asked.

Craig wanted to lie to him and say everything went as planned. He wanted to tell him that the pain he was going through was worth the victory and this would change the odds.

“No.”

Lev let that set in, and smiled painfully.

“We tried,” Lev said.

“We did, but you need to shut up now.”

Lev nodded and winced in pain.

Nam found a red box with a faded white cross on it. He dumped its contents on one of the tables and found a large syringe full of white pellets.

“Bite on this.”

Craig twisted a thick strip of cloth and shoved it in Lev’s mouth. Lev bit down and nodded, letting them know he was ready. Craig looked over at Nam, and then at Jesse who braced to hold Lev down.

Nam knelt down, broke the cap off the big syringe, and handed it to Craig. Nam pulled the cloth away from Lev’s side, revealing two shredded holes that for a moment were just holes, but then suddenly began to overflow with blood.

Craig jammed the needle into the first hole and squeezed, causing Lev to cry out. Jesse struggled to hold him down.

“That’s the first one. You’re doing great Lev. One more,” Craig encouraged. “Can’t see the hole,” he said to Nam.

Nam wiped the wounds one more time with the blood soaked towel, then Craig jammed the syringe into the other hole and pushed what was left of the pellets out.

Lev didn’t move this time. He chewed the cloth hard but the local anesthetic in the pellets started to work its magic. Everyone let out their own sighs of relief when they saw that the blood stopped.

“Alright, brother, alright,” Jesse said, as he hugged Lev’s neck.

Nam dropped the towel and patted Lev’s leg as he sat back.

“Grab a couple of fluids and the scope.”

Nam jumped up, went to the back of the room where there were more containers and started searching through the medical supplies for IV bags and the scope.

Jesse winced as he sat down next to Craig and closed his eyes.

“That was a disaster.”

“Yeah,” Craig answered.

“There weren’t supposed to be any Nucrean Elites around.”

“Well there were. We can’t worry about what should have happened or what shouldn’t have. The only thing we need to focus on is finding those rounds and getting them scoped before Lev dies.”

Craig put his hand on Jesse’s shoulder, stood without saying anything else, then went to help Nam look through the containers.

“Got ’em,” Nam said.

Nam rushed over with the two IVs and prepped the first one. Craig activated a monitor that he attached to a small brace made of smooth fabric and light metal. He inserted one of the IVs in a vein and put the brace on Lev’s arm. It compressed automatically. Craig watched closely as the monitor showed Lev’s veins fill with fluid.

Craig opened the scope’s box. The scope was a small wire that he connected to the monitor and a small panel of controls and buttons. He moved the controls, making sure that the scope worked.

“The anesthesia should be working by now,” Craig said, for the benefit of the rest of the group.

Craig cut a small incision just above the higher wound and inserted the wire. Craig expected Lev to move but looked up and saw he was sleeping.

The screen showed, in a fish-eye view, the inside of Lev’s body: organs, yellow fat, internal bleeding, and finally a bullet. He found the first bullet near a lower vertebra about an inch from the spinal column. He connected the edge of the splayed metal with the end of the wire and hit a sequence of buttons on the control panel. Watching the monitor, he saw the bullet dissolve as an electronic pulse broke it into dust. He quickly found the second one lodged in Lev’s pelvic bone and repeated the procedure. Craig used the scope to cauterize a couple of large bleeding areas, and then pulled the wire out.

“Thank the god who has forsaken us all, for the man, or woman, that created this wonderfully awesome tech.”

Craig stood, put his bloody hands on his hips, and hung his head for a moment. He was grateful that Lev now had a good chance to live, but that was a small victory compared to the huge disaster of the armory. He looked at Jesse who laid his head back and closed his eyes, then at Nam who paced nervously.

Footsteps echoed through the hall. Craig, covered in Lev’s blood, grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the metal door. Jesse opened his eyes and stared at his pistol he had pushed away, and closed his eyes again. Nam quickly pulled his sidearm and steadied it on one of the tables.

“Don’t shoot!” a female voice shouted as the door burst open.

Enna and three more rebels, all with minor wounds, hurried inside the room. She signaled for everyone to be quiet as she checked the hall.

“Damnit!” Craig fumed as he set his rifle down.

Bo turned to Nam, who had come to hug him, and squeezed him hard. “Good to see you made it, little brother.”

David and Ryan talked with Nam while Bo joined Craig over by Lev. Enna walked over to a table that was covered with supplies. She looked blankly at the table and then suddenly tossed it against the wall. They all looked at Enna.

“What?” Craig asked Bo.

“They took Bale,” Bo whispered, hoping Craig wouldn’t lose control too.

Craig was silent.

Enna was the leader of the rebellion group that called themselves the Catalyst. She was as beautiful as she was capable in any situation, mental or physical. Her dark hair and piercing blue eyes always stood out. She was tough but human, and loved her brother.

Enna’s parents had started protesting against the imbalance of the social condition in Nucrea when she was young. She and her brother, Bale, would follow them to their secret meetings and listen to them discuss a real future everyone deserved. She would listen to the arguments about whether to fight, or try to work with the Council to change everything. Some decided it would be best to leave Nucrea and try to create a new home in the Fringe, but you couldn’t survive for long. There were rumors of clean zones far away and tales of people that went looking for them, but never came back.

For years, the Council would make promises by implementing legislation that seemed to be amicable, but in essence was never a solution. Ironically, the legislation ended up supporting the same social system no matter what the efforts were.

When it was obvious that democracy was not going to change anything, the protests became violent. It wasn’t that the rebels thought violence was going to solve anything, it simply became necessary to defend their own lives against the Council’s attempts to eradicate anyone that opposed them. After the first member of the Council was assassinated, Yeong was appointed as Commander of the Nucrean Guard and soon initiated military law.

The Council member who was killed had supported the protests and had openly blamed the Council for the class system that was emerging. Whether he opposed his own Council as a political move or not, his death was a clear message.

Military law was established in cooperation with the Council, and most of the protesters were imprisoned. After hundreds of trials, all of them were convicted of civil treason and a choice was given. Those who denounced their corrupt ideals and entered a life of servitude to Nucrea were set free, and those who refused were sentenced to die in prison cells.

Enna’s parents had not taken any part in the protests, but were publically executed and left in the street. Anyone who tried to remove their bodies was shot.

After the execution, Craig’s parents took Enna and Bale into their home. The remaining supporters, all swore to each other that one day they would avenge their parent’s death, and that they would fight against the corruption and control of the Council.

Craig knew she didn’t want to be comforted, but walked over to Enna’s side anyway.

“How’s Lev?” she asked, dismissing the possibility of any spoken or nonverbal conversation about her brother. “Is he gonna make it?”

Craig had known Enna since they were young, and to anyone else she might have seemed heartless, but Craig knew that this was how she dealt with loss. Her parents had been executed in front of her, she had lost desperate friends to the lure of freedom in the Fringe, and now her brother had been captured and would surely be tortured and killed.

“Yeah, he’ll pull through, but he needs a doctor, and soon,” Craig said, in a way that let her know he knew about Bale.

“Let’s get him ready to move then,” Enna replied, looking for a way out of the moment.

For the first time since her parents were killed, Craig caught a glimpse of the pain hidden deep behind her walls.

Ryan joined the two of them. “We need to go back for him,” Ryan said.

Enna held back a flood of anger that would have been wrongly directed at Ryan. He was Bale’s best friend after all.

“He knew what he was getting into just like the rest of you,” Enna said.

“We can’t just leave him!” Ryan answered, frustrated.

“We can and we will. Bale can take care of himself.”

Enna knew he didn’t have a chance. Her brother would give the ultimate sacrifice for their cause, and that thought was the only thing keeping Enna together right now. She knew she had to hold them all together. This was bad, but they had to move forward.

“It’s Cole,” yelled a man from the hall as the door banged against the bar.

“Let me in assholes!”

Bo ran over and lifted the bar out of the slots. Cole burst through the doorway, out of breath.

Cole had long dark brown hair that complimented his even darker eyes. He was tall and carried himself well. For the last five years, he had been a member of the Consulate. More impressively, he was the only one that had been able to wrangle Enna’s heart.

Enna seemed to brighten and came over to meet him. Cole, still catching his breath, grabbed her tight.

“I’m sorry,” he said and kissed her head.

“Me, too,” Enna whispered.

Craig came over and joined the hug.

“Glad you made it.”

“You too,” Cole said as he let go of them both.

“Happy to see you,” Ryan said, with a narrowing glare. He never liked, let alone trusted Cole.

“You too Ryan.” Cole took in who was with them in the cellar. Jesse looked like he was sleeping next to an unconscious Lev.

“Others?”

“Jamis, Rob, and Chris all didn’t make it,” Ryan said sadly.

“And nothing to show for it,” Cole added.

“All I know is this inside guy better do his part or I’ll kill him myself,” Bo threatened.

“I know today went to shit in ways we can’t begin to explain, but we can count on him. He’ll get the program.”

Cole had a way of transforming the worst of situations into something inspiring.

“I know him. He will do anything to save his family,” Cole added. “What next, Enna?” Cole asked directing the conversation to her.

“We needed those weapons. We can’t take on the Council Guard with what we have. Luckily we have a Plan B. Craig?”

Craig brought a laptop over to the group and set it on the table. The rest of them gathered except Nam, who tended to Lev.

“Jess!” Craig barked.

Jesse opened his eyes and hopped up leaving his gun on the ground. He joined the rest of the group.

“Alright, Plan B,” Craig said as he turned the laptop on.