Chapter 10: What’s this life for?

Things change. Thats the way it is.” -Tupoc Shakur

What’s this life for? 

Duncan was at the trainyard in Artherman where he was looking around still. It was basically the same as when they first saw it after he came back from a zombie... It's the second time he came back here and found DNA samples from Sal's dad. With the DNA tests and a positive id, he was able to access a database but there wasn't much in them. Just some old footage of debates and ad campaigns explaining how evil Sal's dad was...  

He apparently caused the plague... “He worshipped one single God and refused to bow before any others, so the plague spread.” the newspaper read. 

“I remember him being on TV and he was sensible. He opposed the Golden Calf Guild and drug manufacturers. They were always telling us how to feel, I guess I just learned to block it out, I really don't remember any of it other than my initial impression.” 

Duncan scratched his chin and dazed off, relying on his equipment to monitor his surroundings. 

Id appeared in front of Duncan seconds before every alarm blared. Long enough for Id to say “Hey, Duncan. How are you?” 

Duncan almost jumped out of his suit.  

Sal, Paul, Blase and Cin came around the corner in time to see Duncan look like he's having a heart attack then attempt to compose himself.   

“Hi, Id!” Duncan yelled.  

“What are you up to Duncan?” 

“Trying to not have a heart attack right now.” 

“It's been so long since I ran that slow, sorry. It felt weird having so much time to think, I must have forgot.” 

Duncan heard Sal gasping for air then he appeared in front of him with Paul. He jumped again but he was on his guard from Id’s scare.  

Sal attempted to speak but all Duncan heard was, “Too far... Run... Never... Gahh.” Then rest of the group appeared. 

Duncan began his debriefing immediately. Not waiting for Sal to compose himself. Sal appreciated not having to do or say anything while he had his post run out of breath panic attack. 

“I’ve been studying you, Sal. Your family was surrounded with by conspiracies and subterfuge. I remember your dad, Sal.” 

Duncan turned and looked at Sal then continued. 

“He was in the news almost every day near then end. The Calf's Guilds stocks were constantly being hurt by Jimmy saying that the end was near. All outlets were saying he was in a crazy sect of religion that blew up idols. They started making them bigger and bigger and their stocks went through the roof ironically.” 

“My dad made the cure though?” 

“He handed out antidotes to anyone who would take them. He sent trains everywhere, then disappeared. Every single new station reported that the ‘Antidotes’ were the cause.” 

“Thats imposable! He didn't talk about his work, but I knew him. We never saw anything bad on TV about him either.” 

“The cure doesn't show anything to lead me to believe he was a bad man... The cure... I can't crack it! This New God particle is driving me insane! I just want to, measure it or understand it in some way...” Duncan trailed off. 

“It nothing new...” Sal retorted.  

“I will invent all the equipment and figure it out!” 

“I don't think it works like that.” Duncan ignored him again. 

“It's as if its living and moved away from me every time I try to look at it. It's so close but I just cannot find it. I can't see it. Peter couldn't see it. He’s back at the lab looking into priests and blessings. I didnt think anything of it but he seems to have become obsessed with his theories. A priest blessing it is preposterous, there must be an explanation.”  

Sal zoned out and started thinking about his dad talking to Dr. Jenkins about how they’d be rich, and the cure was blessed by priests. Was my dad using priests to make money? “Maybe that's why we went to church so much when I was a kid...” 

A mélange of malaise washed over him. “Dad, what did you do...” 

Paul snapped him out of his thoughts. “We cannot do this without a fight. We need weapons and armor. Obviously try not to kill anyone. They are weaker so we shouldn't have to fight but something tells me were going to need to... We will go get swords from the Chink.” 

Sal almost laughed and said, “the what?” 

“The Chink. Where else do you get metal work done?”  

“Blacksmith.” Cin interjected. 

“Ooohh.” Sal said. 

Everyone looked at each other and shrugged then went on their way. 

The place was north for a few hundred miles away from Jetsen's land of horrors.  

The sound of a hammer hitting steel on an anvil rang in the air as they approached the shop. The smith had his back to them; his arms were huge. It was as if his entire body was a single rippling muscle. He spoke without turning. “Welcome to my shop. What can I do for you?” 

“Swords and armor.”  

“And a rifle.” Blase interjected. 

“I'll be right there.” He slid the solid steel carriage axel into the coals and used it to Stire them then rested the end of it on a table six foot away.  

Sal felt the heat flare up from the doorway. The smith turned and shook Paul's hand, but Sal couldn't believe his eyes.  

“Your Asian!”  

Sal covered his mouth not intending to say it out loud. 

“Yup.” He chuckled. 

“Thats racist. How did this ever become a thing?” 

“Whenever a newly awoken person comes in here, they say the same exact thing.” 

He chuckled. “My great, great, great grandpa was a comedian famous for saying the words ‘Sometimes I do.” 

“The sound an anvil makes is chink, so he named this shop ‘Chinks’ and he thought it was funky because were Asian. It was a weird time to be alive, I guess. I don't understand the big deal or why it's funny but all y'all think it is for some reason. I do get a kick out of watching people react to it I suppose.” 

“Why don't you say blacksmith anymore though?” 

“Our slogan since the beginning was ‘If you got a tink in your armor a Chink’ll fix it.” 

“All right enough of this, let's get on with it.” Sal said unable to process things because he hated racism, but people here just ignore what others think. Racism is dead now. no one cares about opinions, only what is productive to staying alive. They don't even say anything about me being white or a man. No one has a preferred gender, and everyone is still happy. “I never liked all that junk anyway Sal thought to himself. He stayed quiet deep in thought.  

Paul ordered what they would need.  

Chink measured everyone and picked out light armor made of metal and padded for sneaking to muffle any clanking or scraping. Patches of leather lined the seams, and it was light as a feather.  

Id took daggers and a steel bow; Paul took a one-handed sword and a shield; Blase took a long rifle and a short sword. 

 Cin Didn't get any armor but got a steel bow and short sword the same as Blase of course except he had the laser gun that Duncan made for him.  

Duncan didn't want to use primitive weapon's; he was equipped with a few laser weapons and a laser sword he recently invented just for this quest. 

Sal didn't want to use a weapon, so Paul picked a large sword for him. 

“You'll need it. This sword suits you.” Paul smiled. 

It was hard to carry at first but felt good to have extra weight on his muscles. He held it out at arm's length and turned it from side to side. Each fiber felt energized as his muscles flexed. He holstered it on his back and smiled.  

He felt good. He didn't like weapons, but it made him smile because he felt like a real DND character. His arms felt good when he flexed, the leather and steel hugged his arms. Every direction he twisted and turned felt more stabilized and faster. The seams of the suit rolled and pivoted with the flexing of their muscles.  

Chink gave them a crash course in learning how to use them. “The legs and arms fed off the wearer's strength and can amplify leg and arm movement by 40 percent. Just move like you normally would.” 

 Sal, Id and Duncan practiced some team moves and Paul, Blase and Cin practiced together too. The suits were completely mechanical. it moved intuitively as if it was a part of their body. They all applied a paralyzing coating on the blades and arrows when they were all confident then Paul gave chink the Gold and other metal coins as well as some bars of Smelted metals. 

Before the left he said “wait, I am neutral. No one messes with me, and I sell weapons and armor. You might see some of my work used against you. I apologize and give you this warning.  

“Thank you, Chink Yugur.” 

“Good luck” 

They all waved and went on their way.  

The run back felt so much easier to Sal. He ran full speed and jumped and sailed through the air and landed in a tall pine tree then fell and hit the ground hard. The suit absorbed a lot of the shock, but the fall still knocked the breath out of him. He wheezed “I'm ok.” 

Id laughed at him and yelled, “Cool!” then jumped straight up into the air and went twice as high as Sal. Id kicked his legs and waved his arms trying to fly like a bird and slammed into the ground too. “Gahhh.” he wheezed with the air knocked out of him then waved to Sal tried to reply but only ehhhhuuuhhh,” came out. 

“Have you tried landing on your feet? Cin asked hoping to be helpful.  

Sal gave a thumbs up and started walking. 

Id did recon while everyone caught up to him. The town didn't sleep; people were everywhere. Some people were in cages and other dirt covered peoples in chains; human bones were strewn around in some areas. Groups of people disfigure their bodies for their cults. Each cult has a way to tell each other who they belonged to. They had horrible gladiator rings where rival gangs could kill each other, and practice moves on slaves.  

Id wanted to free them, but they had to wait for a little longer.  

Sal and Duncan finally made it, and Id gave them the run down and they waited for Sal to decide how they should go about everything.  

“Let's all get to the mind control facility and release all the zombies like Rick outlined and break all the chemicals and machines they have. Then Id, you will break the slaves free and hopefully make a path for them to flee then we get out before were seen.” 

They made their way through the city at breakneck speeds flying over rooftops. People herd them land and push off the tiles on the roof, but nothing was there when they turned to look.  

They passed thousands of cages around the city. So many people... I was a hellish land scape of wailing. The caged people were sun scorched even the darker skinned people were burnt the white ones were peeling and the layers hardened and stuck out all over ther bodies, none of them had the strength to speak, only cry. 

The mind control facility had a huge symbol on the face of the building, and it was ten stories tall and was longer than a mile and half as wide. They couldn't stop anywhere so they kept moving until Id found a spot and pointed Sal to go to. “It's unguarded for a few moments.” 

“Thank you, Id. We can use a window, find a way in that's free of people.” 

Id disappeared and came back to direct them.  

“Hows your radar look Duncan?” 

“I can get us through easily.”  

The black screen filled in as they made their way through the building. Duncan followed the corridors to a giant room. They had to hide above the ceiling tiles a few times to avoid doctors and security and finally made it into the largest room that was as long as the building and held a gargantuan zombie. Computers were hooked to massive fat humans who were stuck in the digital world wires protruded and all were all attached to the massive zombie.  

All of them had disfigured bodies, there were so many different cult members all hooked to the computers feeding into its brain. It's like their collective hate was being pumped into the zombie. 

“Ok we split up and cure the zombies and take out anyone who sees you. We meet at the roof in five minutes. I got the big guy.” 

“Got it.” They replied. 

Id ran fast and freed as many as he could using all his antidotes then found Duncan fighting so they cleared out all of them quickly, but thousands of men rushed the halls. “I'll make a path get to the roof!” Id yelled, then ran through the hall ripping men and women into pieces, Duncan ran behind through the wave of blood and guts. “Ahhh gross! Ahh noo! This is going to haunt my dreams. Ahhh.” Id yelled the whole time. 

They made it to the meeting spot and Sal wasn't there and they waited for over a minute. “I'm going to go look. Wait here for me Duncan.” Then he disappeared.  

Id searched the building but this time he didn't blow through the middle of people, he ran on the ceiling and walls, but Sal wasn't anywhere. Id ran over motion sensors and nets flew out everywhere, but he was too fast until he was hit from the side by a fast zombie and skidded through people and a net finally caught him. He struggled and broke free, but the men hit him with more nets until he was tangled in ropes and unable to shake them off. The men laughed and snarled and walked towards him, but Duncan broke through the roof killing a few guys. He grabbed Id and flew back upwards through the hole he made. Fire broke out from his burners on his suit.  

Duncan flew through the sky; the enemy took pot shots at them as they made their way out of the city.  “No! We have to find Sal! We can't leave him!”  

“We can't fight them all on our own.” 

“We have to!” 

Id wiggled free from Duncan and fell.  

Ids after image appeared everywhere, slave cages flew open. None of them moved a muscle. “Run! Please run away!” Id cried at them, but they were so starved and defeated, they couldn't stand up much less get away. 

Id ran until he felt weak. He couldn't find Sal and none of the slaves were able to move Duncan had a few slaves and made I'd leave. “All we can do is save the ones that we can. We have to leave.” 

Id rolled his shoulders forward and put his hands over his face in defeat. “Ok.” He whispered. 

Duncan flew away with Id once again, but this time with three slaves they were able to carry. The flew lower because of the extra weight so the bullets coming up from the ground were coming closer, but they evaded all the shots. As they left the city boundaries tears filled Id’s eyes.  

“Sal... and I didn't even get to use my daggers or arrows...”  

The other boys. 

Paul, Blase and Cin reached the Chemical factory. It was Northeast of where their friends went. It was a small town, but the factory was huge. A three-story warehouse with ten trucks that have giant tankers parked at the docks where they get filled up by tubes coming out from midway in the building. 

People in chains move the tube into place and others pull levers to start filing the truck and stop it when its full. A line of hundreds of slaves moved carts by hand in and out of the factory. Only a handful of guards are in place supervising, so it was easy to get in. Paul moved silently, Blase and Cin moved as Paul did following his every step.  

They looked like black, white and brown ants moving in lines and the supervising men beat them at random, not to enforce behaviors but they would find a weak person and hit them. Some of them fell so they would see who could stand back up, if they didn't stand up anymore the slave was executed on the spot. It took all of Paul's discipline to not help... If they were caught the whole mission would fail and so many more good people would die. 

Paul and Blase had to look forward and keep moving. They instructed Cin to do the same and keep moving. Paul wished he could be a robot and not feel. He felt if a black mold spung up in his chest to eat his heart and destroy it forever. Like his mind was warping beyond repair for having allowed that person to die and not even moving a muscle to help him. 

Blase touched his shoulder and brought him back to reality.  

“we're here.” 

Paul shook out of his trance then pointed to a door. 

“We go in through there. Cin Use arrows or throw something to bust the purple chemical vats. We will signal when the tankers are opened. We have to do this simultaneously. Then to the front of the warehouse there are larger tanks with green liquids, we hit those on our way out.” 

“Can do partner, but what about the slaves, those chemicals might kill someone.” Cin replied. 

“Thats right... Hmmm.” 

Ill go and warn them,” Blase said quickly. 

“Good, ok. Then run forward ahead of us and warn the other slaves. We will act if there's any trouble or if you signal.” 

Blase disappeared then reappeared in front of slaves who saw him coming.  

“We are going to break the tanks, get out of here. Get everyone out!”  

His eyes were glazed over but Blase saw the recognition in his face. The slave turned and whispered to the closest one near him until all of them heard and started to leave as a group. The task masters started to hit some of them, but the salves grabbed them and threw them into a vat of the purple liquid and their bodies dissolved instantly. The rest of the guards started to shoot at the slaves but were over run in a matter of moments. 

Sirens blared after the sounds of gun shots.  Slaves broke their chains with their bare hands and ran to the front of the building creating a distraction.  

Cin shot and arrow and it did nothing, so he used a Lazer weapon Duncan made but nothing still happened to the glass. Paul pointed at the metal lab desks, so they jumped down and each started to throw them. The glass started to crack after one throw, then another and nothing.  

“The design of the glass gives it strength. If we hit it in a singular pinpoint location it should break.” Cin stated. 

Paul found a gun and shot the glass, and it broke. The contents exploded out, smoke rose up. Everything the purple liquid touched started to Warp and melted down. The walls holding the other tanks started to melt. The liquid spilled onto the other tanks in the room but didn't melt but the walls smoked then the tanks fell. The portion behind the wall was significantly larger than what they thought. The roof started collapsing right after they left. 

The front of the warehouse was chaos. The slaves forced all the task masters into a corner and were pouring out of the building where gunshots rang out from everywhere, especially right outside the building. 

There were thousands of caged animals in the front area of the building. Before Paul could say anything, Cin took his hot at the massive tank of green liquid. Paul ran after the bullet, but it was faster than him. Green liquid washed over the remaining slaves and task masters and animals. Paul flew through the air from chasing the bullet and smashed into the far wall, barely redirecting his momentum and escaping the fluid. 

It didn't do anything to the humans, but the animals convulsed and crashed into the walls of their cages and roared. The animal gages seemed to melt away, the animals bent the steel like it was a paper box. They foamed at the mouth and attacked anyone or anything that moved. The animals fought each other and rolled and smashed through humans as if they were ground beef wearing clothing. 

Blase was outside shooting at the bad people from a roof. The shots sounded like they were a single shot, but twenty men fell, then he reloaded, and twenty more would fall. Paul and Cin jumped and flew through the air and landed on the roof Blase was on. 

“You and Cin go to the front and I'll watch the rear.”  

“There is a tank left, partner,”  Cin said. 

Blase aimed his rifle and blew a hole in it, then disappeared with Cin. 

The portcullis was down, Cin ran as fast as he could and hit it, but it wouldn't budge. He hit it again, then gave up and tried lifting it, but nothing happened. Slaves rallied around him and lifted the heavy metal gate with him, so everyone started pouring out from under it. Paul took out more guards who were killing and injuring the fleeing people, then ran to the gate, Slid under, then grabbed the metal gate from the outside with the help of the men they set free and held it for Cin and Paul.  

The slaves were so much stronger than the bad guys, they were even stronger than the team was. They saved 80 men and women; they ran at top speed back to Phoenix Ash, and the slaves had to slow down just so their heroes could lead them.  

Id caught up to their other party and told them what had happened and begged them to go help look for Sal, but everyone voted against him, so they all headed home to regroup. Id’s sad innocent eyes pierced His soul. He didn't say anything because he didn't know what to say, he just walked beside him quietly, and it seemed to make Id feel better. 

“Sal, where are you. I hope you're ok.” 

The sun lit a small portion of the sky into a pink hue, the deep dark blues and white clouds mixed in the most perfect way. The sun peaked over the clouds and Paul stared into the horizon and said. “This is the most perfect sunrise I've ever seen in my life. I heard tomorrow's is going to be even more spectacular.” 

They looked at each other, and Id smiled.  

Sal has a problem 

Sal looked up and saw his mobile and his crib, his mom’s face, he remembered feeling sad for no reason and asking God, “Why me. Why did I have to be born? Why now, what is this life for?” Maybe that last thing was from an old band my dad liked. 

Jeton's face appeared over his crib and said, “Your dad was evil. So many people died because of him. He kidnapped a poor priest and forced him to curse water so he could sell the only cure.” 

“No, he didn't,” Sal's baby voice said in a shriek, then he started crying. 

He’s a bad, bad dude.” 

Sal lifted himself up and fell back, then almost got discouraged, but he refused to cry. He stood again but Jetson’s face and body towered above him, and he ran and got taller and taller, but a cubical appeared around him and he was trapped again.”  

Jetson was the same size as he was now, but he condescendingly drank his cup of coffee and said, “If you could get that through your head, that'd be great.” then his face radiated red light and said, “Your dad tried to kill my father and steal his company, you don't remember anything do you?” 

“Corn pop was a bad dude and you're a bad dude, Sal!” 

“You're bad.” He mustered to say. 

“I'm your boss, you can't talk to me like that!” He started to grow horns and laugh louder, and it echoed through his mind. 

“It.... It’s you...”  

“Who Sal!! Say it!” The figure was fully formed now with giant horns and sharp pointy teeth, its hands wrapped around Sal's Throat. 

“I don’t know!!!” Sal shouted at the top of his lungs and faded into darkness again. 

A vision of Dr. Jenkins flashed through Sal's mind. 

“We have to kill him now, right now! We're all going to hang if the plague spreads and it leads back to us! How did it get out! It was gain-of-function research... It was sealed in the lab!” 

Jetson’s voice was there, but all Sal saw was the demonic thing that had been choking him, and its mouth moved. 

“It all has to end; the whole planet needs to be reset...” 

“Your mad! I will fix this. Now go play your little MMO video game.” 

“No father... you must be reset. You will be reborn, perfect and horrible like our souls.” 

The old scientist was thrown in a chamber, and gas came from the ceiling. His looks of worry instantly went away, and his face drooped, and his eyes went blank. 

It hit a panel on the wall, and a computer popped out and he targeted all transportation systems so no one could escape their locations. A monitor on the wall showed a train exploding just outside a station. It skidded to a stop and looked like a massive, coiled serpent. 

“Hahahaha!! The figure laughed while looking at its father.  

“I'm going to sleep for a hundred years until the earth is destroyed then me and my army will take over the planet! I hope it'll still have chicken!” 

Then housands of men rolled into cryo chambers, and the demonic figure lay down in its pod, and all the lids closed in unison. 

“Leroy?” He asked, but it was too late. The lid was shut.

 
Sal was all alone. Blackness filled his vision. So deep and dark he almost faded into it, almost gave into the void, and it went on forever. Anxiety riddled his body with tremors, but he relaxed; something inside his body knew to relax and let go. A blinding light pierced the veil of his heart, and he woke up.  

Someone was shouting, “It's me, Sal, don't hurt anyone anymore. Please, Sal, I love you. We just want our Sal back.” 

He recognized the voice,  

“Id, is that you?” 

"Mom?” She didn't reply; she held my head and rocked back and forth, crying because she didn't know what was wrong with me.  

“It's ok, mommy, I love you forever, I'll be ok, I promise.”