An Obsidian Sky (25 page)

The explosion
of light overwhelmed me. I thought I would cry out from the bliss
that it was filling me with. My mind was crushed under its weight.
Then, just as I was beginning to believe that I would die, the
light was replaced by a sudden appearance of reality. It was a
reality purer than what I could see with my normal eyes. Aeniah
still looked the same, but she was different. I could see light
radiating from her. The red throbbing pulse of energizing blood
flowing through her veins captivated my imagination.

‘I’m
connected,’ I gasped.

‘Okay we only
have one floor. Just hold on until we hit the ground.’

The lift doors
opened and we raced out onto the building’s roof. The wind was
awesome in its ferocity at this height. With my enhanced vision I
could actually see it with its grey arms and tendrils slashing
across us, about us. I followed Aeniah’s radiating glory towards
the side of the building.

From here I
could see the expanse of the city. The Commercial District, seen
through the lens of the Promethean Layer, was even more awe
inspiring than before. Each of its buildings glowed and pulsed with
the yellow light of their power supply. I could see the power
distribution hubs which were as bright as a freshly exploding nuke.
The trees glowed with a greenness that was so fluorescent they were
almost in danger of seeming fake.

Sean was
waiting at the edge. Plugged into the side of him were two power
modules which threw out a static white.

‘I am ready to
take you down Sir,’ Sean stated cheerfully.

‘What?’ I
cried at a loss for how this feet of magic was going to happen.

Aeniah turned
tiredly towards me. ‘George, Sean is equipped as you might have
noticed with aerial repulsers. The two power modules I asked him to
requisition have given his repulsers the temporary strength to
carry us to the ground. However they were not intended for this
purpose and so, it is going to be more of a controlled fall.’
Aeniah proceed to firmly hold onto one side of Sean.

‘I am not so
sure about this,’ I said as I grabbed the other side. But it was
too late, we were already falling. The building raced it’s way
skywards as we fell down towards the ground. Floor after floor
rushed past us.

‘You gotta
slow down Sean, we won’t make a landing at this speed,’ I
exclaimed. He, of course, did not listen.

The ground was
coming into full view. The infected were all staring upwards,
staring straight at us. They were no longer the size of ants and my
confidence that we would be able to make it through them began to
fade.

We were so
close now that I could make out their faces. They were a pallid
color, drained of any blood and life. Their lips, much in the
fashion I had seen on first entering Ascension, had been torn from
their faces, exposing raw jaw and tendons. Some were missing limbs,
others were bloated beyond recognition as human. They had all drank
too much from the Promethean Layer and were paying the price for
that mistake. The best thing about the whole situation was that I
noticed that Sean’s rate of decent had began to slow.

I looked at
Sean, if it was possible for a totally expressionless and faceless
slab of metal to express strain, that he was expressing it. With my
enhanced vision I could see the sparks of failing circuits and the
fried components that might ultimately lead to our deaths. Even
though we were not far from the ground I knew that a fall of this
height would almost certainly leave us dead.

I looked back
at the infected and noticed something. They had been totally
drained of life. No brilliant light shined from them as it did us.
But I knew that they were all connected, I could feel the ripples
of energy emanating from them as it coursed its way across my
skin.

Aeniah let go
with one of her hands, I thought she had gone mad until I saw her
pull out her small pistol and begin firing at the infected that
were blocking our landing.

‘A little
help,’ she cried as she let pulses of blue light fly from the gun's
muzzle.

I reached for
the lancer that I had placed on my back for the decent but I saw
Aeniah shaking her head out of the corner of my eye. I realized
what she wanted, I realized that she wanted me to use the
Promethean Layer.

I drew the
energy that I could feel all around me towards me, I felt it flow
into me, as though a dam had collapsed. I threw my free hand out
towards the growing multitudes beneath us. A column of energy
ripped its way out of my arms and arced its way along the ground.
There was the sight of an awesome explosion as everything the beam
hit detonated with a tremendous fury. A terrific bang crashed
across the city, the percussive force of which threw the other
infected onto the stone floor. I continued to move the beam across
the infected decimating their numbers with ease.

We hit the
ground with a thud and I stopped the column of energy in fear that
we might get caught up in its devastation. From the right, the
centre, the left, heck from every direction they came. They growled
and hissed as they rushed towards us.

‘Pick your
fights,’ Aeniah urged and began to run with an incredible speed
towards the primary highway that led into the centre of the
Commercial District. I pushed my right leg backwards and began to
lurch forwards. This quickly changed into a run and before I knew
it I was gaining on Aeniah. It seemed as though the energy of the
Promethean Layer rushing through me had given me a strength and
vitality that I had never known in my entire life. I remembered
that we had forgotten the food, but this did not seem to matter,
because the Promethean Layer had restored the sustenance my body
needed.

We ran with a
speed that quickly outstripped our pursuers. They were very soon
left in the background. The huge buildings ahead of us seemed
almost to draw us towards them. As if the very magnitude of their
size drew us in with a force of gravity.

Soon we were
in amongst these structures. The light from the suns barely made
its way down to the ground level of the city. We took a right turn
and onto an immense bridge that lead across the water and cut the
city in half. With the city on either side of this incredible
bridge I spotted a building ahead.

The huge
building that looked like an arch swept over the top of the bridge
that we were travelling. In tall letters atop its mighty stature
were the letters ASTI. I of course knew what they meant. It was the
Ascension Social Transport Initiative for the Commercial District.
We were nearly there. In fact considering the speed with which we
were running, we would be there in a matter of seconds.

The highway or
bridge, whatever it was supposed to be, ran right through the
centre of the arch. On either side of the bridge was water, the
city was visible in the distance. It’s two supporting feet seemed
to fall into the water on either side, there was no entrance. I
could not see a way up there.

This was an
obvious problem. The ASTI building suspended as it was above the
bridge that we were on had no obvious way in, there were no
elevators, no ladders. There was nothing but air between us and it.
The buildings that were around us were only accessible by hopper.
The highway went through the air beneath the arch of the ASTI and
there seemed no way of jumping across to either side of the arches
legs. In fact the legs seemed to penetrate like needles into the
water around them.

I was just
about to ask Aeniah or Sean for a solution when I guessed their
intentions. Aeniah had hoisted herself up and onto the railings of
the highway. In a moment she was gone, plummeting into the water
beneath. I braced myself whilst running and threw myself up and
onto the rails. Without taking the time to do the dangerous thing
of thinking, I felt my body relax and fall into the water.

The fall took
seconds but it felt like hours. With the effects of the Promethean
Layer running through me it seemed that I could individually pick
apart and recognize each centimetre of my descent. After exactly
three seconds were up and I had fallen exactly two hundred feet and
nine inches a buffet of water slammed itself against me.

I instantly
lost my connection to the Eye of Orion. The star was slammed out of
existence in much the same way as the air in my lungs. I coughed as
water started to enter my throat. Flailing around in the water I
soon remembered how to float and how to swim. It was funny the
things that you could forget in a crisis. Although, I thought, a
lot of people seem to respond better in a crisis than me, but I
didn’t let these thoughts affect me too much right now.

I looked up
and away from the imploding water at the bridge. The infected had
begun to gather along the sides of the highway and were looking
down. I laughed despite myself at their inability to comprehend a
way down. I figured that they might not be able to swim.

I was soon
proved wrong. After just a second they began to dive in. I watched
as each of them crashed into the water.
Maybe they can’t
swim
I reasoned. But I was soon proved wrong again. Though they
might not have won any awards for style they certainly moved
through the water quickly.

I spun onto my
front and began to move my arms as if my life depended on it, which
it did. I could see the small outline of Sean racing towards the
arch’s legs and swam even faster to attempt to make up the
difference. Without the Promethean Layer's energy coursing through
me I had lost all of my energy. A tremendous headache was breaking
out and I felt as though I could see blood in my eyes.

I felt a hand
catching upon my leg as it kicked the water away. They were getting
close but I was nearly at the end. I heard over the splashing of
the water ‘DIVE!.’ It was Aeniah. I scanned the horizon whilst
swimming through the water and saw her head just as it bobbed
beneath the surface.

I reached the
spot where she had disappeared and swam into the deep to find her.
Everywhere there was darkness. My lungs were beginning to burst, I
was sure that they would not withstand this pressure. I hated this,
drowning was most certainly the worst way to die. Most of all I
hated Carvelle for starting this whole thing in the first
place.

It was whilst
undergoing these moments of hatred that my hand caught on something
in its downwards stroke. Yes, there was light coming from it. Not
the psychedelic kind of light witnessed when touching that energy
but the kind of light that came from a bulb. The water distorted
its exact position but I made a beeline.

I became aware
of entering an enclosed space. With blurry vision I could make out
a red light. I pressed my hand on top of it and lifted it away. I
was going to pass out, my vision was tunnelling. The light switched
to green and I heard the sound of metal being dropped on metal
behind me. I groggily turned my head and saw that I had been sealed
in.
Well,
I thought,
I am definitely dead now
.

My salvation
was found in that always welcome hissing noise of air being pumped
into an airlock.
Idiot
I thought. I was in an airlock. No
need to panic it will only be a few more seconds.

The water
slowly dropped its grip of the roof and a huge bubble of air
presented itself. I raised my head as best I could in what little
room there was at the moment and gasped the entire bubble in in one
go. The water dropped a little further and my head became
completely free of water. It dropped a little further still and my
feet began to be drawn back to the ground as the water lost its
buoyancy and my weight increased.

The door to
the interior of the ASTI opened and I was finally free. I half
expected some monster to be waiting to eviscerate me on the other
side of the door, but the only monster was a rather bedraggled
looking Aeniah. Amazingly she was smiling.

‘Forgot to
mention,’ she said, ‘the ASTI was designed only to be accessible
from the air. We had to use the emergency escapes.’ It was at that
point that I almost felt like killing her.

*

We were in
front of yet another AI desperately arguing our need of a
vehicle.

‘Mother
fucker, I'm your general. United World Security Forces. Under order
of the president I command you to provide me with a vehicle.’
Aeniah had lost her temper quite a while ago and had even tried to
punch out the holo of the AI. The AI, if that was possible, seemed
coyly amused at the effort to punch something made entirely out of
light.

‘I am sorry
Madame Corinthia but vehicle loan cannot be obtained by United
World citizens. Only citizens of Ascension may freely use this
service. You can obtain a rental permit from the nearest
attendant.’ The AI’s arm gestured towards row after row of empty
terminals.

Aeniah turned
to Sean. ‘Sean darling, why don’t go and get me one of those
permits
.’ Her voice played dangerously upon the word.

Sean bolted
away and disappeared down some corridors for a while. After a
period of about half an hour, in which the AI took more abuse than
I thought it was possible for one person to give, Sean
returned.

‘About bloody
time.’ Aeniah then put on her nicest possible smile and cutest
accent. ‘If it wouldn’t be too much trouble could you kindly give
me some transport.’

After looking
over the documentation that Sean had retrieved the AI transformed
her expression to one of absolute joviality. ‘Of course general, I
see your documentation is indeed valid. My apologies for the delay.
What kind of vehicle were you after?’

‘The fastest
one you have,’ said Aeniah and then after a second of thought,
‘probably make it the sturdiest one too.’

‘Okay let’s
see what we have for you…ah, it seems as though the closest match
to your criteria is a Muldune California. The vehicle is made of
reinforced Tordan® armour and its effective highest speed is mach
one.’