Discarded Colony (3 page)

They passed a number of plots, sparse open spaces and technical outposts before arriving. Soon after he was released down to the dirt floor and the drone buzzed away, he felt the unrelenting sun pounding down on his head once again. It would not be long before he was cowering behind his hands trying to alleviate the heat as always.

Plot 4578 seemed a fairly standard affair. It contained some type of asparagus plant which covered most of the surface area. A few tools to tend to them were sitting in a tray in the corner.

1: 4578 Revives

2: 7320 Convulses

3: Unify, inhale and free yourself

"4578 revives," he was thinking to himself. "I don’t think this asparagus is reviving much." Disappointed, he looked to the wall as he knew that his orders for the day would soon be displayed on them.

"Deliver nutrients at 30 minute intervals for 5 hours," scrolled the text across all four walls.

That sounded easy enough; no digging, scraping or planting. He looked into the tray of tools and saw that there was a spade and a rack of organic semi-transparent balls containing a liquid. Printed on each liquid ball were the words
MachiadonadroneX23.
There was also small spraying implement in the tray. "So, that’s the nutrients," thought Ryder. Going by the name it was probably some type of super fertilizer cooked up on labs on Earth. Ryder grabbed the spraying implement and squeezed a few of the liquid capsules into it. He began moving around the edges of the plot spraying the liquid on the plants. As soon as the liquid touched the plants they sprung up straight as if they’d just received a jolt of life. "Wow, strong shit," thought Ryder. As the sweat started to pour off his head and he diligently continued around the edges of the plot he kept trying to think about what he’d read the day before. "Revives... That’s got to be the clue", he thought with more excitement he’d had in a long time. Given that the capsules were made of organic material and difficult to detect, he figured he would steal one. He patiently waited until the very end of the day to slide it into his pants as he made his final cleanup of the plot. As soon as possible he wanted to see what was in plot 7320.

***

A few days later, after losing the arm wrestle and unsuccessfully trying to convince some other guards to let him into plot 7320, he’d started to give up hope of ever getting to the bottom of the messages. The liquid was safely tucked away inside his pants, but it would only take a random inspection or a shower day to lose it. Health wise, he was really running out of time. Each morning it was harder and harder to wake up and the constant barrage of sunlight in the day was becoming impossible to deal with.

Today they’d just had one their ‘training sessions’ in the major hall. This speech about corporal punishments was delivered by a small man that he hadn’t seen before. Presumably it was one of the other personnel that worked in the facility, but was not required to deal with the prisoners day to day. Ryder had always remarked that there didn’t seem to be a megalomaniacal and sadistic general manager of the facility that lived to only torment his captives. This facility, it seemed, was run by people that didn’t particularly want to be there either. Now that the session had finished, around a hundred or so of the prisoners were waiting for their plot assignments.

Then, out of the crowd he saw a woman coming towards him. Her head was down and her wavy blonde hair was hiding her face. She was shuffling along quickly in her white ensemble and soon she was standing before him.

"Sir, how are you?" she said. She seemed reasonably frail, but had an excited sound in her voice that puzzled Ryder.

"I’ve been terrible. Thanks for asking," replied Ryder. It was true that missing a day of his food rations had done nothing to help his ailing health. He’d spent the most of one evening hurling up acids from deep in his stomach.

She looked up and met Ryder with her deep green eyes. "I’ve been given this plot today and I’m afraid that I’m too weak to work on it. Could you take it for me? Apparently it’s very interesting work." 

Ryder began to formulate a reason in his head about why he couldn’t go. He didn't have time for helping people right now. However, the girl didn’t wait long to speak again.

"Plot 7320. It’s 7320." She said quickly.

He started to look around the room carefully. Guards were present, but mainly concerned with herding people into their transport areas. If this girl knew what Ryder was up to she was certainly not letting on very much. Some guards starting heading towards them so Ryder had no more time to discuss.

"Sure," he said.

"Good. The pickup is straight ahead. Tell them we traded. The game is to be won..."

The girl then disappeared into the crowd. Ryder now understood. She had said ‘game’ - like some sort of keyword. He was convinced that the old man had told her about their previous discussions and it was him that had lead Ryder to the first plot. Now there was this encounter. These people were guiding Ryder, but to what end he could not know.

***

At the plot, Ryder was disappointed. There was nothing but a few rows of potatoes growing in it. He was ordered to rip out half of them and plant some news ones. He just didn’t see how it all lined up.

1: 4578 Revives

2: 7320 Convulses

3: Unify, inhale and free yourself

The
liquid
and the
revive
clue he understood, but these potatoes and tools were hardly
convulsing
. He found a moment to secretly spill a little bit of the liquid on a potato hoping for a reaction, but nothing happened. Disappointed he passed some time carrying out his work.

He was getting towards the end of the day and was trying to dig up some of the deepest areas in the plot. Just as he was about to give up finding anything, he felt something; something soft and gooey deep down in the soil. He pulled back his arm and brought his hand to his face. He’d found something. They were there before him, living in the dirt.

They were earthworms.

Long, ugly looking creatures.

Wriggling.

CONVULSING.

He thought that earthworms had died off on Earth like many other creatures and insects. "How did they get these up here?" he wondered. They must have been bred in a lab somewhere. But there was no way they would normally be permitted in the plots as they would throw all the security sensors off. He heard the hum of drones in the distance and was sure that a handful of living beings in his presence was surely bound to raise some security attention. The worms were strange looking, not like any he had ever seen before. They had fine lines of fluorescent yellows and greens running through them.

This had to be what he was looking for! Hurrying, Ryder pulled out the capsule in his pants. Without hesitation, he put one of the worms on the ground and poured some of the liquid on to it. Instantly it started to shrivel, shriek and create smoke. It was changing colors, from red to blue to green. Ryder jumped back as the worm suddenly became red hot. He shielded himself from the horrible stench, causing him to drop the rest of the dirt and worms onto his pants and shoes. He could see patrol drones quickly approaching and the walls of his plot had started to glow red to indicate a problem. The worm continued to pop and roll in a flurry of putrid smoke. Then, after a few more seconds, the worm stopped shrieking and laid still, benign and glowing yellow in color.

Ryder looked up.

"Prisoner. To the floor. Violation alert. Prepare for extraction!" said the patrol drone as it approached.

Inhale and free yourself
the writing had said.

"Fuck it, if this thing poisons me to death then so be it". Without knowing what to really do next do he picked up the worm and snorted it into his nose.

His surroundings went silent. He stood still with his arms wide out in front of him. Quiet. He blinked a few times and waited for something to happen. Somehow, as if it was programmed to do so, the worm shot up high into his nose with great force. Ryder held his head and screamed in pain. He could feel the worm slithering and sliding behind his eye socket into his brain. The pain was horrendous like nothing he had felt before. He was sure his eyes or temples were about to explode. Suddenly Ryder couldn’t see anymore. He stumbled a few steps. Then, after a few more seconds, he lost control of his body and unceremoniously collapsed to the ground.

***

Darkness.

"He’s a goner," said a female’s voice.

Ryder felt a gloved hand opening his eyelids, but all he could see were blurry figures.

"Pulse is low. Vitals fading. I give him 24 hours at the most."

He could not see. He was barely conscious, but he could tell that he was lying on his back, naked, in a cool room with several people around him.

"Should we prepare a burial plot?" asked a second voice, sounding like a younger man.

"You really are a rookie, aren’t you?"

"What do you mean?"

With a whisper she replied, "Look. We haven’t been doing that sort of thing for the past year or so. We get so many of these coming through we either just burn them or fire them off into space."

The younger man gasped horrified.

"What do you expect? It costs money and you know that Sentinel is trying to save as much as that as possible."

"Err, ok. Should I inject him with something to put him out of his misery?"

His question was met with a forceful slap.

"What was that for?" said the male voice whining in pain.

"You haven’t been fucking listening to a thing I’ve been saying, have you? We’re saving money.

Wheel him over with the other bodies and we’ll shit them out into space".

Darkness.

***

The stench of death surrounded him. Flesh was under him, on him, beside him! Ryder pried his eyes open and couldn’t believe what he saw. He was in a long industrial looking tunnel and on a slowly moving platform that was piled with bodies.

"How long have I been out? Days, weeks," muttered Ryder. He had no way of knowing. Trapped under several corpses he was unable to move. He was again naked like he had last remembered. "What the hell happened to me? That worm? The girl?" He started to wriggle inch by inch. To his surprise he felt reasonably stronger than he had remembered.

After a few minutes, he managed to free himself and climbed to the top of the disgusting body pile to get a better look at things. He swirled around looking for an exit. He could see a light at one end and he decided to head for it. Ryder started crawling quickly amongst the bodies so he couldn’t be seen. In this area, he noticed that there didn’t seem to be any drones or security systems.

"No need for that on the dead body express," he thought. As he moved forward, he noticed some moving figures in the distance, most probably they were guards. He kept moving forward.

Overhead he saw some signage: ‘GARBAGE BAY 1 MILE’. "No fucking chance," he thought to himself with real vigor. Somehow, he was filled with energy and adrenalin, sensing that there was no going back. As the group of guards, perhaps four or five of them came closer, Ryder could see that there were wearing military outfits and that they were equipped with several types of projectile weapons.

It was now or never. Without even thinking Ryder leapt off the pile of bodies straight onto one of the guards, sending him crashing into the ground. He grabbed the guy by the neck and twisted it with a nasty crack. He then moved and punched another in the back of the head causing him to go flying into the pile of bodies. Another guard spun around, his gun making a loud whooshing sound indicating that it was warming up. Before the guard had a chance to shoot, Rider kicked him right in the neck causing him to fly back into the pile of bodies. One more came at Ryder with a bladed weapon which Ryder quickly grabbed and rammed into his forehead. Blood spurted out, covering them both and soon the body slid silently to the ground. Ryder followed up on the last guard with an elbow to the face, smashing his nose into a thousand pieces. Ryder grabbed the guard’s sidearm and put it to his head.

"Tell me how to get out of here. Tell me how to get back to Earth," Ryder demanded.

"You’ll never make it. Drones are on their way," spat the guard. He looked scared.

Ryder responded, "Look, I don’t want to kill you; I just want to get out of here."

At that moment one of the guards got to his feet and leaped at Ryder. Ryder saw him out of the side of his vision and span around with a looping kick that caught the guy in mid-air with a sickening crack. The guard fell to the ground, writhing in pain and bleeding from his mouth. He reached for his gun and aimed it at Ryder’s head.

"Tell me how to get out of here!" yelled Ryder to his captive once more.