Oculus (Oculus #1) Read online

Personally, I think the free-spirited, nature-loving naturalists were closest to the mark. The earth’s population had swelled to an unsustainable number just before a natural disaster and it was simply too much. Billions upon billions crowded the Earth causing major cities to burst at their seams and spill out into previously uninhabited plains, mountains and even desert regions.

  The agricultural industry couldn’t keep up. There wasn’t enough wheat, rice, produce, and livestock to feed over twelve billion hungry mouths.

  The poor were the first to be challenged by the times. Flour was often mixed with plaster dust or any other kind of dust in order to makeup for lost volume. Then, eventually flour became a rarity.

  The more poverty and shortages spread, the more desperate the citizens of this world became. They say that many countries began enforcing strict laws to limit families from having more than one child. Those who were found to have broken the laws faced cruel and inhumane consequences. They say that babies were murdered and left abandoned just anywhere. Women who were suspected of having broken the law were made sterile. Governments fought each other. Solutions were offered but they all failed.

  Barely visible fissures became blatant fractures that eventually turned into chasms so wide they couldn’t be bridged by mere diplomacy. Instead, threats and force were used and subsequently civil upheaval and natural disaster changed the landscape of society.

  The sun burned hotter than it ever had, sending disruptive magnetic waves hurling toward Earth. Wars broke out. Solar activity peaked, and then the lights went out. All of them. Everywhere. And over twelve billion modern human beings became desperate savages overnight.

  The world as a whole was plunged into absolute mayhem under the cloak of perfect darkness. That’s when hell on earth was realized. At least, for those unlucky sects of society that were doomed to remain in darkness.

  The downward spiral of humanity was slow and then abrupt. My father said a solar flare is what kicked off The Great Change. In 2023, well before I was even thought of, the sun was said to have been experiencing solar activity like never before. Then, everything went dark at the worst possible time in the history of humanity.

  The Corps was the only saving grace. They had electricity. They had food. They had medicine and they had security against the violence that reigned supreme.

  They were prepared. Too prepared. I had my own theories about how the lights went out and why they stayed out in certain parts, but open discussion of such things is an offense which if found guilty of could land a person in the Dark Lands… or worse.

  "Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air." - Macbeth by William Shakespeare

  MY FIRST SPLASH KILL HAS had more of an impact on The Corporations than even Anna could have suspected. To say that I kicked over a hornet’s nest is an understatement. The company that has been trying to annex more land was publicly revealed to be The Fenra Corporation. The death of The Corporate appointed supervisor, in such a messy and sensational way, has pushed The Corp into some very public action.

  Once it was done, The Resistance transmitted all the gory details of the crime, including the name of The Corp that had appointed him, before Corp Security could lock the place down. Unable to cover the mess up, the Fenra Corporation has been forced to send a message about people killing their employees, while trying not to appear to condone his actions. Not that they likely give a damn about what he had been doing in his off time. But in the spirit of public relations they’re walking a delicate line between denouncing the actions of their deceased, scumbag supervisor, and finding out who has killed him.

  They rounded up the usual suspect: dissidents, local toughs, and family members of other children that Benson had taken. So far, everyone’s alibi has been backed up by the security cameras. It was one rare moment when corporate paranoia actually served the people. If those folks hadn’t been caught on tape, they probably would have ended up dead. The Corp might have just shot them on the off chance they had something to do with it. News doesn’t travel as quickly as it used to, but we got most of the details from a steady communication through HAM radio.

  It’s been two days since my return to our camp. I drag in to our quarters from my morning run, to find Anna out front waiting for me. The nervous way she’s pacing tells me that something is wrong. Wheeling, she stares at me with a haunted look in her eyes. I have rarely seen Anna so unsettled, she’s usually stoic in the face of anything we face.

  “Jesus, Sic. I thought you’d never get back. You aren’t going to believe what I heard on the radio. Just when you think The Corps can’t sink any lower, the bastards dig a fucking hole.” Her agitation sets me on edge; normally I can count on Anna to be focused and lucid.

  She is visibly shaking, so I took her by the arm, and led her to a rough bench on the front porch. It’s a crude construct, a few planks nailed to rough wooden boxes, but it’s one of her favorite places to sit and watch the sunset. Seating her, I use a gentle voice to try and soothe her. “Calm down, Anna. Just take a breath and tell me what is going on.”

  For a moment, she looks so lost, and frightened. Then she marshals herself and waves me off. “Right…okay. I just got off the radio with two different Resistance cells. One to the north, another further east. I waited to get confirmation…I just couldn’t believe it was true.” She shook her head, sending strands of silver and blonde fluttering loosely at her neck. “After you left, Fenra Corp came in and locked the place down. One of the first things they did was took the boy and his mother into custody.”

  I feel my heart twist in my chest as realization washes over me. Anna does have a weak point which would explain why she’s acting this way. The only time I have seen her behave like this was when a job went bad and a kid got hurt in the crossfire. “Felix.”

  Anna looks up at me in confusion. “What?”

  I wipe sweat out of my eyes and drop down to sit on one of the empty boxes we use for stools, suddenly feeling very tired.

  “The boy in the shed. His name is Felix.” Anna shoots me a pained look, sour as if she’s just tasted something foul.

  “His name was Felix.” I lower my eyes and look at the ground. Tears push against the back of my eyes. Another innocent life, snuffed out by The Corp. I might as well have killed the boy myself. Leaving him to the mercy of Fenra has proven to be a death sentence. Angrily pushing the pain away, and with it the tears, I look back at Anna.

  “What happened?” Anna opens her mouth to speak, and nothing comes out. She takes a moment to collect herself, and when she finally does speak her voice is rough, thickened by her emotion.

  “Fenra Security, their Chief Ingram ordered agents to take them in as part of their investigation. Not as suspects mind you, they called them material witnesses. Word is, the boy refused to cooperate with them when they started asking him about you, and they…tortured him. Fenra reported both he and the mother died of the sickness she had. Tragically, they were unable to save them. That kind of bullshit. One of The Resistance, a plant on the inside, saw them carrying the corpses to the furnaces. There was blood all over the sheets they were wrapped in. And suddenly, they now have a description of the mysterious killer of Hector Benson.” Burying her face in her hands she begins to sob.

  “Why didn’t he cooperate?” I run my hands through my hair, tugging at it in frustration. “I didn’t tell him not to tell them about me. Hell, there wasn’t anything he could say that would hurt me. He barely saw me.”

  Anna doesn’t respond. Her despondence is maddening, as I’m already second-guessing myself about the choices I’ve made. Kneeling down, I put my arms around her and she buries her face in my shoulder. Her entire body shudders with her sobs, and it takes a few minutes for her to get herself under control. By the time she collects herself, I need another clean shirt.

  “Sic, this is my fault. I should have told the Resistance to go pound sand. We’ve never done sloppy work in the past. It’s always more trouble than it’s worth. It
was stupid, it’s just…I wanted to stockpile some supplies so you could take a break. You’ve been working so much lately…” She exhales heavily, her emerald eyes fixated on the sky. Her frown lines are cavernous, and it’s obvious she’s holding something back.

  “Tell me the rest.” I demand firmly, and as her gaze drops to me, she seems to have trouble meeting my eyes.

  “The Corps are readying some sort of blanket response. The Resistance is reporting that people inside The Corps are telling their family members to stay out of the woods, and not just Fenra. All up and down the coast something big is happening. No one is talking about what it is, only that to stay safe people need to be inside the compound. Most of the Resistance cells are going dark so they can keep close to home. The few that operate in the Dark Lands all the time are spreading out, just in case The Corp launches a military sweep.” She keeps her eyes on the ground while she speaks.

  “And?” I refuse to let it go. Anna is horrible at lying, at least with me. Even her lies of omission don’t escape me. I can always tell when she’s trying to hide something.

  “The Resistance is capitalizing on the kill. The death of the boy and his mother are just more ammunition against The Corps as far as they are concerned. They have started rumors near every Corp facility about a Shadow Killer. An assassin coming for the heads of their leaders.” It takes a moment for the ramifications of what she’s saying to hit me and I feel my stomach drop.

  “So, they just decided it would be a good idea to tell the enemy the damn plan? Who the hell told them?” Anna gives a humorless laugh.

  “That’s the funny part about it. I came up with our plan. The only person I told was you, and I know you aren’t socializing with the Resistance. That means that they’re talking out of their ass, trying to spook The Corps. Unfortunately for us, what they think is an impossible boast is exactly what we were planning on doing. Even if The Corps don’t take them completely serious, they’ll take steps to review their security procedures. Which is going to make it that much harder for us to accomplish our mission.” Standing, I pace away a few steps then turn back to her.

  “Damn it! This is exactly why I said we should’ve stayed away from the Resistance. They’re a bunch of undisciplined dickweeds.” Anna lets out a yelp of amusement.

  “Dickweeds? Where did you dig that one up from?” The fact that she’s trying to calm me down to change the subject is not lost on me. I’m in no mood to be distracted.

  “All our careful planning and they’re just going to stomp all over it!” We have spent the last few years stockpiling supplies. Setting up safe refuges near all The Corp zones. Identifying the key executives that we can eliminate to destabilize their structure. Anna has spent years helping me put together a plan to destabilize, maybe even collapse, The Corporate structure. Now, all of that could be unraveled by a bunch of idiots talking shit from the trees. Rising from her chair, Anna walks over to me to rest her hand on my shoulder.

  “To be fair, it could all go away with a bullet to the brain as well. All we can do is plan for the worst and hope for the best. It’s my fault, I should have said no, but I was afraid they would send someone incompetent and then The Corp would really be on their guard. Imagine if they captured a member of The Resistance and interrogated them. We’ll have to be on our guard, but as far as I’m concerned we proceed with the plan. There is no way that The Corps are ready for someone like you.” I offer her a look that I hope carries every bit of my doubt and she laughs. “I’m not kidding. Let them worry about their security protocols and perimeters. Your strength is not just your ability to take down a target. It’s finding a way to do so when it seems impossible. You can still get each and every one of them, Sic. Now come on, let’s get you some breakfast.”

  Our day hasn’t gotten any better. After we eat, the reports pour in over HAM radio. Operators up and down the coast are reporting the same thing. Heavily armed troops geared up in full containment suits are searching the woods neighboring every Corp compound. It seems like a pretty lame offensive to me, so I wait anxiously for the other shoe to drop. Just before evening the figurative wooden clog hits the ground. Our dinner sits simmering on the stove, a nice bit of venison stew, courtesy of The Resistance as part of the payment for the Hector Benson job, when the radio squawks. Multiple voices fight to transmit their message.

  “I say again, drones spraying unknown substance over settlement and forest…”

  “…Soldiers maintaining a perimeter, keeping us contained in the area. Drones are saturating the woods with something…”

  “…Doesn’t appear to be a nerve agent. No apparent immediate effect…”

  The radio chatter continues late into the night. Around midnight, I hear the buzz of an approaching drone. Fortunately, we have an old gas mask and I force Anna to put it on. Part of my genetic enhancement is that I’m almost completely immune to most chemical and biological agents. I don an older gas mask hood that we’d acquired some years ago, just in case, and seal up the windows with wet cloth on the off chance the Corps drones come out this far.

  The next morning, Anna seems fine, and I feel no hint of illness. I venture out on my normal run. The spray from the drones doesn’t seem to have done anything obvious to the wildlife. None of the animals or plants are dead. Insects buzz around me as always. I’m puzzled; it’s not like The Corp to waste energy doing something that has no purpose.

  It’s been a week since the drones came. We sit down to discuss which mission I will take next and that’s when the coughing starts. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first. The radio squawks incessantly as Anna’s body is wracked by fitful coughing.

  “…Massive sickness in settlement…”

  “…Nothing seems to touch this thing. Symptoms come on suddenly…”

  “…Relatives of Corp employees are leaving in droves for the compound. They say a cure is available there…”

  “People returning from the compound cured. Having to sign indenture contracts for medical care…”

  “The untreated are dropping like flies here. Corps is refusing treatment without contracts…”

  We sit at the table, eating a breakfast that I can’t taste. It’s the ninth day since the drone flew overhead. Anna was up hacking most of the night and looks exhausted and drawn.

  “Anna…” I search her face, hoping she’ll open up about the elephant in the room. She raises her hand as a bout of coughing steals her voice away. When she manages to catch her breath, she looks down at the cloth she was coughing into and winces. “I could just go steal you the cure.”

  “Because that would never have occurred to anyone else.” Her sarcasm is a bit more biting than usual, a true sign of how poorly she must feel. “I feel like a fool. I should have seen something like this coming. You poke the hill and all the ants come pouring out. In this case, it’s fire ants.”

  I sigh. “They must have been planning this for a while. You don’t just have bioweapons lying around, and it would have taken weeks to distribute the agent and cure.”

  She nods, her face covered again by the cloth as she coughs. Taking a rasping breath she manages to respond. “Yes. The Corp finally hit on a brilliant plan. I’m sure whoever thought it up got a promotion. Spread a sickness that you have the only cure for. Make sure it’s terminal so people are given a simple choice, join up or die.”

  Anger flares in my chest at the laissez faire attitude she has taken. “So, what, you’re just going to roll over and die?” I don’t even try to keep the disapproval out of my voice. Looking up at me she flips me the bird while she coughs enough to clear her throat again.

  “What are my choices? Send you in for some suicide mission to get me a cure? Even if you could get in, with them watching every dose, you can’t do it without being seen.”

  “What does it matter? They already know I exist. I can get the cure and be back here with it in time to save you. You told me yourself that we plan for the worst and hope for the best.” Anna shook her head
.

  “It’s not worth the risk.” Standing, I pound my hand on the table making our breakfast hop from the surface of the table.

  “Bullshit! The only other option is you turning yourself in. Tell them that you were hit in the head and lost your memory or something. Get the cure and escape later.” Anna tries to laugh and ends up coughing for a bit before she’s able to speak again.

  “Oh, that’s rich. ‘Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir. I bumped my head and ended up out in the Dark Lands. Did I join The Resistance? What a silly question!’ They would give me the cure all right. Then they would quick-march me down to the Neuro Division and pull every last scrap I know out of my head. Everything about The Resistance, you…our plan. Fat chance. I didn’t go through all of this just to give them a win now. At least we can be thankful that your genetic alterations seem to make you immune. Believe me, this is awful.” She tosses her rag out of a gap in the shack. Grabbing another, she covers her mouth until another coughing fit passes.

  “Then it is settled.” I reply, and her confused eyes lock with mine. “If you can’t go back then the only option left is for me to go get you the cure. I’ll leave as soon as I can pack a bag.” Rising from the table, I start collecting my gear. A moment later, she follows after me. Pulling me around to face her, she raises a finger in the air, admonishing me to wait while she finishes coughing. Taking a ragged breath, she rasps at me.

  “You’ve heard how bad I’ve gotten in the last couple of days. You getting the cure in time to save me isn’t an option.” I open my mouth to protest and her sad smile closes my lips before I can argue. She shakes her head. “Oh, Sic. I know it isn’t fair. But if you stop and think for five seconds you will realize that I’m right.”

  She watches me with those damn judgmental green eyes, and I stop to consider her argument. I realize, with a heavy heart, that she is five steps ahead of me as always. It’s at least a day to the nearest compound. Even if I grabbed a vial and ran right back it would be two days round trip. At the rate she’s deteriorating, she won’t last a day. There’s no way for me to take her with me…