Proteus Machine

By Philip Fleisher

 

 

            “Police! Open up!”  When no response came, Zeno broke down the door.  He signaled his team to go in.  He looked at his watch.  “5:58” he said to himself, “not much time.”  Dodging around wrecked furniture, they surveyed the scene.  It was a lower class apartment on the west side.  The front door led straight into the living room, which was furnished like a dumpster.  A putrid smell that made Zeno nauseous lingered in the air.  And it wasn’t just this particular room.  It was the whole building.  In fact, the whole west side had gone downhill since the attack three years ago.

            There was a picture of a family hanging from the wall.  It made him sick looking at it.  He knew that there was a good chance that that family was no longer around.

            “5:59.” Zeno sent half of his team to the kitchen while he and the other half entered the bedroom.  Beyond the over turned bed and the ripped wallpaper, on the other side of a large cracked window, stood a tiny balcony, protruding from the façade of the building.  Though it wasn’t clear at first, a hooded man stood on the balcony. He stared over the barren terrain that was now New York City, watching the sun peek over the horizon.

“Put your hands on your head!”  With one swift movement, Zeno extended his arm, pointing his weapon at the man.  Zeno had done it, he would be the first.

The hooded man released a noticeable snicker.  “Ehzoh ihki honzeir.” Thought Zeno didn’t know what this meant, he knew he was being taunted.

The sun lifted into view and light burst into the tiny apartment.  The cloaked figure threw off the black shroud that had hooded him.  His face was flat and extremely pale.  He didn’t have any hair on his head.  He had no nose, just two little slits where his nostrils would be.  His eyes were not human; they were red and demonic.  His mouth held razor sharp teeth that Zeno later thought had obviously missed out on the miracles of orthodontia.

            Zeno looked at his watch, “5:59:50. 10 seconds.” With that, Zeno jumped through the glass window, spraying glass shards everywhere.  No sooner than he landed on the balcony, had he flipped out the blades that lay on the underside of each of his utility gauntlets. The primary swipe from Zeno was blocked by the demon’s hawk like talons.  The two battled on the balcony, a scrape to Zeno’s face, a blade swipe across the demons chest.  He kicked the demon down.  Without thinking, Zeno fired blaze of energy out of his wrist down on the demon.  The shot released a flash of color that would have blinded the team had they not been wearing their special all purpose goggles.  Before the laser reached the demon, Zeno’s watch beeped 6:00 am.  The sun rose higher.  With a red glow the demon disappeared into the air.  The shot fired right past where he had been lying down and hit the balcony floor instead.

The balcony floor broke into pieces and Zeno fell to what would have been his death, had he not had the high tech machine on his arm. Out of his armband fired a grappling hook that attached to a piece of the shattered balcony.  As he climbed back up to his team, he look down and saw that nothing was left of the demon but his cloak.  “Damn! I almost had ‘em!”  “There’s always tomorrow chief,” said one of the men.

Zeno cursed as he removed shards of glass from his battle suit.  No one talked to him as they loaded the hover copter.  Zeno hated the west side.  It was a desert, a big desolate wasteland.   The fallen buildings created a maze that made it hard to maneuver the bulky copter.  Very few buildings remained upright.  The ride back to the New City was always slow and depressing.  It made him remember the old city, his family, and his wife.

They finally escaped the labyrinth of the west side, and began to approach the New City.  The new city was encased in a force field, to prevent against attacks like those that destroyed New York City the first time.  When Zeno was angry, he liked coming to the outside wall and throwing rocks at the force field and watching them disintegrate.  When the driver keyed in the password, a small section of the force field disappeared and they drove in.

The rebuilt city was marvelous.  Giant sleek buildings, flying cars, machines at our command, “Technology is wonderful,” he thought. 

The traffic was slow.  They turned on the television monitor to find out that there was a messy accident with an overturned truck carrying hazardous material to dump outside the wall.  After an hour, they finally made it to the Defense Headquarters.

Zeno was hot, sweaty, and tired and could not wait for a shower and some sleep.  Not that he was able to sleep.  He hardly slept in the past three years.  Every time he closed his eyes he would have nightmares about his wife and children.

He also needed someone to look at his face.  There was a large gash in it from where the creature scraped him.  He touched it gently and it stung.  “Damn nemi……”  But there was no time to clean up.  A meeting that he was supposed be at was set to start 15 minutes ago. 

He ran to the meeting room where a bunch of old men were sitting, discussing the current state of politics and random chit chat.  He burst through the door and suddenly all eyes were on Zeno. 

“Sorry, traffic.”

“Oh, it’s perfectly alright,” said what seemed to be the leader of the old men “We were waiting for you to start.”  His name was Mr. Jofines.  He was the defense secretary for the New City.  In Zeno’s opinion, he knew nothing about anything that went on in the Defense Headquarters.  He just liked the power.

They all sat down and officially started the meeting.  “There is a problem,” started Mr. Jofines.  “We started this Defense system to protect this city from the Nemorians, and frankly it’s not doing that.”  Mr. Jofines stared directly at Zeno.  “You and your team, Mr. Borialis, have gone outside the wall multiple times with no success in catching even one Nemorian.  Consequently we, the board and I, have decided to close the Defense Operation down.”

“You’re doing what?!?”  Zeno was shocked.

“You have not captured, killed, or even fatally wounded a Nemorian.  Therefore the operation has been deemed unsuccessful and we are stopping it immediately.  Face it, your wasting time, I wouldn’t be surprised if you just fool around out there and the Nemorians don’t even exist anymore.”

“Are you kidding me?!? Look at my face!”

“You’re wasting the government’s money…”

“Don’t you mean your money…”

 “….and I won’t stand for it.  There hasn’t been an attack on people inside the barrier once.  And there won’t be one ever.”

“That’s not true! What about the one that got inside and killed that woman?!?”

“That was because you let it in.  You and your team are the only ones that leave the barrier.  And we don’t even know that that was a Nemorian.”

“The damn nemi mutilated her!  And we’re not the only ones that go out; all out garbage is dumped outside the walls!  Are you prepared to put this city in jeopardy to save your self a couple bucks?”

“O.k. Lets say it was a ‘nemi,’ where is this ‘nemi’ now?”

“They return to the Aether when sun hits them!”

Anger boiled in Zeno’s blood.  He wanted to yell at Mr. Jofines.  He wanted to hurt him.  He wanted to kill him.  He wanted his wife.  He wanted his sons.  But they were not with him anymore; they were killed by the nemi, along with half of the city three years ago.  And all he wanted was his family, and in his mind, exterminating all the nemi would bring them back.  It was his self-appointed task to destroy the nemi, to bring vengeance his family’s killers.

“I know about your feelings towards the Nemorians and I am truly sorry.  But we need the space in order to pursue something a little more profitable.  From now on, you’re not allowed out side the barrier.”

He wasn’t going to let the board do this to him.  He was crazy.  Ever since his wife and sons disappeared, he’s been crazy.  He was devoted to finding them.  They were all he could think about day and night.  They haunted him.  He knew they were dead, but somehow, he thought that they would suddenly appear, he’d come home one day and they would be there, as if they never left.

“Commander?  Are you listening to me?”

And the truth is he had killed more nemi than anyone knew.  The missions at five in the morning were a show.  He would leave his home at sunset and run straight to the Aether.  He knew where it is.  Nemi hunting is what he called it.  He loved hurting them.  Killing them.  Standing over the bodies and sucking in their pain.  And he wanted more. Always more.  He loved it.  

“Mr. Borialis! I demand your attention this instant!”

He would kill and then hallucinate, see his wife, standing before him, as real and alive as he was.  It was like a drug, an addiction.  And just like a drug, he needed more each time.  And he was not going to let the board do this to him. 

He pointed his utility gauntlet at Mr. Jofines.

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Philip 2003