The Overlord: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (14 page)

"What’s stopping you?" I presented. "You succeeded before."

"Have you ever asked yourself that maybe I never did?" He then twisted back around away from me, continuing to advance up the stairs.

I asked in slight terror, "Are you saying that you never had any real control at all?"

Grimly, the Overlord nodded, "That, my young friend, is a question that's been haunting me for some time."

"Only you could know the answer to that, Doctor." It was all I could say.

"You wouldn't like my answer," he said back.

Switching subjects, I asked sincerely, "If you don't mind me asking, what was it that you meant before about the way I walk and the way I talk?"

A chuckle snuck out from his lips, "Look, no doubt you've been through a lot, Solomon. You've probably even had to do a few desperate things just to survive, but killing someone else clearly hasn’t been one of them."

I disputed, "I've killed before. I’ve had my share in battle, believe me."

He enlightened, "Yeah, but was it life or death? Shooting a man from far away isn't the same thing as being neck and neck with one that wants you dead more than anything else. When you reach the point where you got to kill just to stay alive, it changes you. The way you walk and the way you talk loses its youthfulness. It loses its innocence. If that ever happens to you, I want you to look at yourself in your own reflection and tell me if you’re looking at a man or if you're just staring at a ghost of one. That's what I meant by the way you walk and the way you talk. There's something inside you that's still alive. You're not a ghost. You haven't changed into one yet. I hope you never have to, Solomon Boone. I hope you never do."

I had nothing left to say or ask after that. What he said was beautiful, but at the same time, terrifying. I began to wonder what kind of ghost he thought he was. What brought him to that sad conclusion?

"Come on," ordered the Overlord as he picked up the pace. "Let's move up and stay focused. Permission to speak freely is denied from here on out. Maintain complete silence unless you've got an update on the enemy. The only sound I want to hear is the heaving of our lungs."

As we neared the top, we found the source of the light we had seen from the hallway below. It was indeed daylight all along. The ceiling was one big skylight that illuminated the entirety of the stairwell shaft. We had followed the light that far and it hadn’t betrayed us yet.

"Any idea where we might be?" queried the Overlord, though I think he already had his own answer.

I made a speculation as we crossed the final steps. "Looks like we made it to the center of the island complex. This must be the top of that control tower that we saw from the landing zone."

"That’s a very confident evaluation. Are you positive?" I could tell he was already in agreement with me, but he wanted to test out the limits of my intelligence.

I assured him, "I think I would know. I nearly got splattered against its neck on our way in from the sky."

"You're right," grinned the Overlord. "We’re in the Fever Island control tower. The main Blood Tech generator can't be far away. It’s around here somewhere."

At the top, the very last step led us to a grated platform where we found Nix waiting for us, leaned up against the top rail. The platform was tight and barely left enough height for one person to stand between the grate and the skylight. Reunited with Nix, we formed up.

"Were you able to obtain a signal?" asked Deadstock.

"No, my Overlord," stated Nix. "The static interference is worse up here than it was down below."

Deadstock was surprisingly pleased, "Good. That means we're in the right place."

Up on the platform, there were two other metal doors just like the one we had come in through at the bottom of the stairs. The only difference was that these two doors hadn’t been left open. Adjacent from each other, one door was closed, but looked generally accessible. The other was welded shut onto its own framing. Out of all the doors we had seen, the surface of them had all been left bare and untouched. The welded door was not so ordinary. On its face, we found three lines written in graffiti.

In an unsettling font, it read, "You have climbed too high. Your journey is wasted. All hail the Underlord."

There was that mention of the Underlord again. Who was he? What was he? Was he just a ghostly rumor or was there something more to this unknown man?

Nix pondered the eerie words, "What do you suppose that means?" She was more curious than me. I didn't know what it meant or cared to find out.

"It was put there to scare intruders. It's nothing." That was my story and I was determined to stick to it. The whole thing was starting to make me nervous the more I thought about the possible meaning and its mysterious author.

The Overlord declined to add to the speculations as he opted to go for the easy door first. It was unlocked and swung right open. The entrance lead out into the sea air. Outside, a small area was attached to the top of the control tower. There, a generator hummed and plumed with energy. The only way to get to it was a narrow bridge without any kind of guardrail. It was short and flat, looking easy enough to pass over, but it hanged over the daunting heights of the whole island. One ounce of fear and a body’s balance could be done for.

As we crossed the narrow path, we stopped midway when Nix let out an elated scream. I nearly almost fell off in the process. "My radio's coming in clear," she said. "I’ve got a connection with Azure Squad. Transferring the signal over to you now, my Overlord."

"Well done," he commended as they both started clicking away and adjusting their earpieces.

"Of course, up here of all places, we finally get a signal," I said to myself as I looked over the sides at the swallowing depths below us. I knew there’d be no jet pack to save myself if I lost my footing.

"Radio check," Deadstock began. "This is the Overlord. Violet Squad reporting in. Radio check, anyone."

A crackled voice replied through our radios, "Nice of you to join us again, Doctor. What's your current positon?" I immediately identified the voice's host as Commander Zero. I’d recognize that Australian accent anywhere.

"I'm at the top of the control tower," said the Overlord. "Where are you?"

Zero responded with a laugh, "You’re not going to believe this, but we don't really know where we are. You’d think it wouldn't be that hard to find a single tower on this concrete maze of a rock, but this island has us all backward. We're lost. As you can probably see by looking up at the sky above, we at least managed to eliminate another one of the Blood Tech generators. That means there's only one left and it must be near you somewhere on that tower."

"We’ve got it located. It’s in my sights. I'm practically standing next to it." The Overlord looked the generator over from the middle of the tiny bridge.

"You got enough demolitions?" asked Zero.

Deadstock veered over to Nix. She nodded in confirmation with a slip of a smile as she patted some ordinance hanging from her hip. "Yeah, we got demolitions. We're covered."

"Right," went Zero. "See if you can't flick off that last generator then. Whatever you do after that, don’t go anywhere. Stay at the top of that tower. Send me your exact coordinates and I'll come to you."

"Copy that. Sending you my location now." He slid down the cover of a communications panel strapped to the underside of his forearm and started tapping away on it.

Seconds later, Zero replied, "Got it. Ace, mate! I'm on my way. Zero out."

"Copy that," Overlord completed.

Deadstock then returned to lead us further over the bridge. Its dimensions might as well have been the trunk of a little tree. Safely to the other side, a vast energy stream was emanating from the Blood Tech generator into the Spider's Shield above, holding up whatever last webs still remained. Nix placed the demolitions on the generator and it was all over and done with before any of us could even wince down on the way back.

With the Spider's Shield neutralized once and for all, the "Lunar Wrath" was going to swoop in and ground more legions to take the island by storm. It would’ve made sense for the flagship to have already done so when the destruction of that first generator had left such a wide gap in the webs. Even so, it was still safer to have all the beams out of the way when the time came to withdraw.

With reinforcements, a deep search would begin for the Plague of Phantoms, the very thing we'd come for. Before such company would arrive, however, Deadstock had a little side mission on his mind. He fixed back to the Underlord's welded door that had been purposefully sealed up to keep something in or something out. It's possible that its intent was to appear that way all along, to appear irresistible. After all, what's more enticing than a locked door?

Back at the top of the stairs, the Overlord pulled out the Dragon's Throat and proceeded to fire multiple rounds into the welded frame. With another hefty shot into the handle, the door broke free from its place and fell over toward us.

Cautiously, we all came up to the opening when something went wrong. It was an explosion. An array of endless white light blasted through the door from the other side. We'd been struck with a weapon of immense magnitude. The Overlord took the blunt of the force as we are all thrown backward onto the grated platform at our feet. A deafening ringing reverberated through my ears. Immobile, I couldn't move a single limb.

Nix extended a hand out to me, "Solomon!"

Reaching out for me from the floor, she began to wretchedly crumble before my very eyes. Her flesh and armor became like ash as her form disintegrated into an enveloping white haze. I yelled back for her to no avail, stretching out a comforting hand to reach back for her.

I never cared much for Nix, too abrasive of a personality for my taste, but she was a human being and a fellow Thrall. She didn’t deserve to go out the horrible way that she did. Nix was one of those rare people that I didn't like, but would make the world a less interesting place if they weren't around. That interesting world was burning to ash as she did.

All the while, I noticed that the Overlord was surging like a light rapidly fading on and off. His body was slowly being eaten away, but at the same time, the renewable energy that he carried within his veins was rebuilding him. He was caught between a state of decay and renewal.

I felt none of these effects that I saw transpiring in that horrible instant. All I felt was myself gradually fading into unconsciousness. Before I lost all control of my senses, the last thing I remember was a splendor of the richest purples upon the deepest of blacks and suddenly becoming nothing at all.

11

THE DICTATOR, THE DOCTOR

When I awoke from the horrors of the white fire, I was surprised to find myself alive and unscathed. Alone, all I could find were Nix’s ashes. I was caked in her dust. Her remains were flittering about in the air and landing everywhere. For her, there'd be no rise from the ashes like the fabled Phoenixes she so adored.

There was no trace of the Overlord that I could find. The last I saw of him, he was still alive. I then realized what it was that had saved me from the blast. Dr. Deadstock had transported my cells during that instant, bringing me back when it was all over and thus sparing me from the effects of the radiation. In that maddening moment, he had thought only of protecting me. Why? Furthermore, where had he gone?

From the depths of the stairs behind me, I then heard the careful pace of a single pair of feet. Coming up onto the platform was a frail and thin man. Draped in a tattered smock that I can only guess used to be white, he stepped up to my limp body. I couldn’t tell where he was looking under his tinted lab googles and a ghostly bandana wrapped about his face, so I did my best to play dead. He examined the ash covered floor, indifferently, as he stepped over me toward the door. Though the feeble man was struggling to support the weight of a radiation rifle in his hands, he displayed no interest in shooting anything.

He approached the entrance where the welded door had been located. The door was all but gone, blown to bits from the blast that had come from the other side. I tried my best not move, but I had to find out what was going on. In my peripheral vision, the slender man stood in the darkness of the doorway. It was as if he was waiting for something, the right moment.

Beyond the shadows of the open doorway, I could hear two islanders talking to each other in the room on the other side. One of them had a nasty cough, suffering from the radiation poisoning. The two Echoes were quarrelling back and forth, switching on and off from Japanese to English as they tried to decide what to do with a captive they held in their custody.

"Never have I seen anyone survive a blast like that," said the healthier of the two islanders. "My gun must be broken. Piece of junk."

"It wasn't the gun," the other coughed. "It was him."

His companion snorted, "What's so special about him?"

"I think he's the one they call the Overlord, the Space Wizard," moaned the cougher. "It has to be him. Who else could survive the firepower of a radiation rifle?"

"The Overlord?" The alleged shooter’s voice rapidly filled with terror as he pondered that name. "Holding him prisoner suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. I don't like this. We should call for backup."

The sickly accomplice scoffed at his companion's notion, "Don’t be such a fool. The fact that we have just captured him is proof enough that he’s not the great warrior he would have us all believe. Besides, who would we call? There's nobody here. We're it. Everybody else is gone. Anybody who hasn't already escaped is dead."

The other Echo asked, "What about the Underlord?"

"The Underlord has betrayed us," the cougher explained through his heaving lungs. "He left us all for dead. That coward went and hid as soon as the Thralldom descended from the sky. It's just you and me now."

"Quiet!" I heard the other unexpectedly say. "I think he's waking up!"

With that, all I could hear were the cries of terror. I couldn't tell who it was, but the horrified yelling was followed by the sound of a gust of wind, cracking like a whip. It was a weave. The Overlord was weaving, transferring his matter to somewhere else in the room.

The cougher wailed in a panic, "Where did he go?"

"Look out!" It was too late by the time his petrified friend had slipped out the frightened warning.

A couple shots fired throughout the room. As to who the shooter was or who was being shot at, I didn't know, but soon, all that remained was the muffled wail of two dying men. Their struggles were over within a few moments and the thin man that was still hiding before me let out a deep breath. I tried to decipher if it was a sigh of relief or a heap of nerves.

The outcome of who had been killed and who had lived became apparent as Dr. Deadstock finally broke the silence of the room he had just cleared out. He grunted out in pain. It was almost a scream. At first, I thought he might be wounded. Unlikely, since it seemed almost impossible for him to sustain any kind of mortal damage. Yet, something was hurting him all the same.

The frail man in the doorway then slid down his bandana and lifted up his googles onto his forehead, revealing a face warped from the effects of radiation. The distorted man then paced into the room. I heard the click of the Dragon's Throat being raised up to meet the intruder. Just as Deadstock was about to shoot the man, he quickly lowered his sidearm in surprise.

"Choke?" Deadstock was both astonished and in disbelief.

The mystery man's identity was made known. It was Dr. Chokeberry. During the Last War, if it was Zero that served as the Overlord's right-hand man, then Chokeberry could have surely been called his left. He was alive, not dead despite popular rumors, but what was he doing on Fever Island?

With the frail doctor away from me, I was finally able to shuffle around on the floor and peer through the entrance for a closer look. Squatting, I discovered that the room beyond was actually an enclosed command center. The control room was grungy and bleak, full of clutter and garbage. Three-sided, there were wide observation windows stretching across from every corner.

"I thought you were dead," exclaimed the Overlord.

"Unless you’re a ghost, Doctor, I must be dead." Chokeberry stood frozen in awe.

Deadstock reassured him, "It's me, Choke. I'm really here, but why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," his old friend timidly replied with a cautious step forward.

The Overlord took note of Chokeberry's distorted face and his thin frame. "You barely look alive. What's going on here? What is this place?

The somewhat idiosyncratic man elaborated as he paced throughout the room, "The badlands became my dominion after you left Earth. I found myself on the opposite side of the same coin that we once shared. I am the Underlord to your Overlord. I am the liberator of the wasteland and its secrets that humanity thought it could forget. This is where our creations have survived, Doctor. Here, I have advanced the Blood Tech further than you ever could. I have perfected the technology. Now, a single drop of blood can power a whole city. The Spider's Shield you just brought down could've been powered for years, maybe more, all from one drop."

Deadstock seemed confused, "How's it possible that you’ve managed to create the Blood Tech all over again without the control of the Wandering Star?"

"I haven’t," Chokeberry corrected. "The Blood Tech hasn’t been recreated, just new applications for it. I still had to wait for you to come back with the Wandering Star in order turn everything on. It all feeds off of you, but while I've been waiting for your return, I've kept myself busy. I’ve been building. This domain is where science has prevailed. Welcome to Fever Island, Doctor."

"Choke, nothing good can ever come from the Blood Tech," sighed Deadstock. "Whether it's a drop of blood or a river, bloodshed is bloodshed. It has to stop. It’s too dangerous. The technology we created is a crime, not only against all of humanity, but to any living organism with a beating heart and flowing veins."

"You're one to preach," snarled Chokeberry with a set of yellowy black teeth.

The Overlord bickered back, "I’ve changed a lot since we last saw each other, Choke, but I see you’ve only gotten worse. I've been told your islanders, the Echoes, have been terrorizing the world’s attempt to restore itself.

"Do you always believe everything people tell you?" he asked Deadstock.

"I believe you might be a terrorist," gravely responded the Overlord.

"Says the former dictator of Earth," quipped the frail man.

Deadstock crossed his arms and leaned up against the clutter of a nearby control panel as he expounded, "The difference between a doctor and a dictator is that one strives to create a solution while the other merely destroys them. I was a dictator once, but not anymore. I’m just a doctor now. What are you?"

Chokeberry considered the dilemma with a weary look in his eyes, then bit back with a question of his own, "What exactly is your purpose here on my island?"

"In my exile, I’ve learned that sometimes to create something new, it must first be destroyed. That's why I'm here. I've come back to Earth for a final favor. I went looking for you, but you were nowhere to be found. Everyone told me that you were dead. Now that I've found you, though, I need your help."

"I was wondering how the Thralls could've snuck past my defenses," Choke spitefully spewed out. "You brought them here!"

"There's no way I could have known that Fever Island was your facility, let alone that you were even alive," defended the Overlord. "I did what I had to do to find out what's really going one here on this planet. I can't trust anyone else, but I can trust you. Good people died today in my pursuit for the truth of all this and I won't let it go to waste. The Blood Tech must be destroyed."

"All I want is peace, Doctor." Chokeberry crazily veered up to Deadstock face to face. "I am already trying to help humanity free itself from its own chains as you always have."

A weighty aura then overcame the Overlord. "War and terror are not the roads to peace, Choke. Peace can't be found through anything that we can possibly create. Those who claim to have achieved such peace have merely given in to an illusion of it. Peace can only be found through saving someone else, a life for a life in free will. I'm not about to pay for that peace with anyone else's life, only my own. All I want is to keep mankind alive, to give them hope. I don’t want the people to merely survive. I want them to live."

Choke bobbed his head in passive agreement. "You make a strong case, but I've got to confess to you that my mind has already been poisoned with a different idea. It's Commander Zero. He's a master manipulator. Whatever he's told you about this place, whatever reason you're all here, it's probably not the truth. Zero's been behind everything about this place since the beginning. He's been commissioning all of my research in this facility while you've been gone. The primary goal was to figure out how to extract the Wandering Star, when and if we finally found you."

"What?" Deadstock's purple eyes widened. "Why would he do that?"

"For your road to peace," Choke clarified. "Zero believes that peace can only be achieved when every last person on this planet has bent their knees to a single cause and order, and that those who refuse must die. The Commander's been preparing the Thralldom to unite the rest of the world under a false messiah."

"The Space Wizard of the Evening Galaxy," Deadstock connected.

"Also known as you," said Choke gravely. "For now, anyway."

The Overlord confronted, "Do you actually believe this deception will bring peace?"

Chokeberry hesitated, "I don't know."

Deadstock inquired back, "Then why are you helping him?"

The sickly man confessed, "It'd been nearly twenty years since you departed from this planet. Without you here, it was like you weren't real anymore. You were just some story that people talked about. I didn't mean to betray you, but you weren't here. I had to reach for whatever hope I could see."

"Somehow, I don’t think Commander Zero lines up with whatever idea we call hope," judged Deadstock. "What exact role is Zero having you play in his blasted prophecy?"

The frail man informed in a despairing tone, "Zero wants the heart of the Blood Tech, the control piece inside of you to carry out his plan. Without the power of the Wandering Star, he won’t be able to wage a successful war against the Free World. He tasked me with finding a way to get it out of you, and I'll warn you right now, Doctor, I've found a way. The Thralls have kept their eyes up on the heavens for any sign, hoping to catch you and bring you back to Earth. In returning to this planet by your own accord, you have given them exactly what they've always wanted. You should've kept within the starlit darkness. You should not have come back."

Perplexed, Deadstock asked, "I can understand why he would want to use the Wandering Star's energy for making war, but why would he use me as the image behind his savior, this Space Wizard? He would've known that I'd never want to take part in any of his manipulations."

"Oh, but you already have, Doctor," ominously declared Chokeberry. "Even if you were to die, the idea behind the Space Wizard would still remain. Zero foretold that the Wizard would arrive carrying peace and power within him. You see, you're not really the savior that the Thralldom is looking for. It's what's inside of you that they're looking to. The wielder of the Wandering Star could be anybody from anywhere and it wouldn't affect the prophecy that's already been set in place."

The Overlord probed, "If not me, who's Zero got lined up for the job? Himself?"

Choke was inconclusive, "It could be Zero. It'd make sense. He certainly likes to draw attention to himself, but it's really just a game he plays. He's a plotter who's never been known for being straightforward about anything. At all times, Zero's got one hand behind the scenes. Personally, I believe he's molding this savior role for someone else, someone he could easily use as a puppet."