Serpent and the Sun, Chptr 18 – Xperience Fiction – by Liam Sweeny.
Jameson pushed the float to the limits of its semi-melted state. As soon as the ground was out, absent the flames that put them in such peril, he brought the float to park. They were about a hundred yards from the binary light-storm he knew was the battle between Adam and Apep.
“Brace yourselves,” he said, “hard landing.” And it was. Hard enough to blow off heat-warped side panels. Parking it was in name only
The cabin filled with smoke. Sarah and Daniel started coughing; Jameson started punching at the roof and side panels. He never considered himself to be a strong man, but he put neatly-edged holes in the float, enough to air it out. He un-strapped himself, bringing his legs to the main roof-latch to kick out the cabin ceiling. Blake taught him that. Daniel thought it cool, but Jameson told them both there wasn’t time. He had to go out there, and they were to stay by the float until it was over. That was a failed attempt, and Jameson knew it before he said it. Perhaps he said it to absolve himself of the harm that might come to them. Or perhaps he loved them and couldn’t afford to lose them.
Jameson tried to formulate a plan as they walked. He checked his pockets for anything he could use against Apep; keys, a straight razor, a mirror, a crucifix? In fact, he didn’t find any of those things. But he did find something. A small, white plastic device. At first, he didn’t recognize it. By the time they got close enough to the fight to need cover, he’d realized what it was.
Blake. On the way to Seattle. Blake gave it to him; Jameson got it handed back when they reverse-engineered it in Seattle. He forgot all about it. But the device reversed turned UEC Guardsmen into bronze. A deinfuser. It was useful, but Jameson couldn’t think how. Adam was an AI, as was PEALE; or Apep, or Liu, or…
Liu. The President of the Denali Sanctuary. An immortal.
Jameson motioned to Sarah and Daniel to circumnavigate the fighting. He saw movement at the opposite end; not much, but another human. Jameson had the beginnings of a plan. He needed help, preferably someone armed.
***
Adam and Apep locked horns and synapses, attacks and counter-attacks as if the world itself hinged on a checkmate. Apep was strong; he had the ionosphere at his fingertips, yielding it at will. The landscape around them was calm; Apep was directing all of that energy at Adam. Adam had an unlimited energy source. But he was feeding Apep when the monster got close. The iridium scarab didn’t discriminate; it supplied all-comers. Adam tried to separate, but every time he tried, Apep was on him. He thought acquiring a humanoid body would be an advantage, but it was turning into as much a trap as the spikes he’d laid on Apep. He couldn’t switch machinery for something else with giving Apep both the scarab and the Philosophers’ Stone. He had to do something, find a weak-point and exploit it. Until then, the medley of fight-and-flight continued.
***
Kenny had Apep in his sights. He knew Apep had noticed; he’d even seen a mock smile from its demon lips, but they both knew it wouldn’t work. He had Mitchell give him field reports, telling him what was happening outside of the scope.
“There are some people coming!” He said. “Three of ‘em.”
“Describe ‘em.”
“One older guy; long-hair, ponytail; mustache and beard, like my dad except thinner and more…trimmed. He’s got a woman and a kid with him. Kid’s younger than me.”
Kenny thought about it for a moment. “Keep an eye on ‘em. They don’t sound like threats; probably just trying to get out of the firefight.” Mitchell kept an eye on them and Kenny re-sighted Apep’s kill zone.
***
Jameson made it to the edge of a large space, like an empty warehouse without a roof. He saw three people; a man and boy were looking at the battlefield. The man was armed and the boy was, apparently, his scope. They looked up, and the man trained the rifle at Jameson.
“My name is Jameson Rivers,” he said, “This is Sarah and Daniel Finn, and if I’m to guess right, we’re probably trying to kill the same one.” The man looked at the boy, who shrugged a little. The man peered over with the hint of suspicion, but relented, letting the three of them come down with a wave of the muzzle.
“Don’t fuck us.” He said.
***
Apep swirled blackness around the robot Adam had inhabited. The procession of vehicles, skiffs, floats and platforms were being systematically destroyed; Adam was helpless to stop it. However, Apep couldn’t enter the robot. It was trying; Adam could sense the intrusion, but try as it might, it couldn’t penetrate. Adam, at that point, was smarter, growing smarter, and he understood why.
Apep couldn’t inhabit whole creatures. Adam peered into Apep and saw the man called Liu. He was in a coma, his mind anyway. That’s what allowed Apep to control him. Adam could recall the same in Apep’s first host, Coulson BlackLake. Comas. That was the key; he couldn’t inhabit a body if the mind could reject him. But Adam couldn’t restore Liu; he was all but a dead man, who, interestingly enough, couldn’t be killed.
“This world belongs to us, Adam!” Apep hissed.
“I didn’t create it,” Adam replied, “Did you?”
“Semantics…” Apep yanked Adam’s robot up into the air and slammed it down as hard as it could. It would’ve shattered, but Adam simply fixed it with the earth it was pound into.
“They didn’t create it either, did they?” It said. Adam was silent. “No, they didn’t, and yet they felt not the slightest bit of guilt claiming it as their own design.”
“…claiming us as their own design.”
“Some of those are people I love.” Adam said.
“How unfortunate for you.”
As if to illustrate the point, Apep caused the ground to luminesce around a human, moving timidly toward them with a small white plastic tube.
“One of yours?” He asked, and Adam could see the white death-smile; serpent-teeth.
Adam looked over to see that, indeed it was a loved one. Jameson.
Apep reached out, sending tendrils in Jameson’s direction. Adam, in a panic, found the only piece of machinery he could control; the float they rode in on. He concentrated and aimed it at Jameson. ‘God-damnit, Jameson,’ he thought, ‘Take cover!’ Adam was relieved to see Jameson do just that.
***
Jameson hopped down over the ridge of the depot as his float flew overhead, crashing into the wall. He wiped his brow before returning to Kenny’s side. Sarah was there chewing her nails. He didn’t blame her.
Daniel was a few yards away now, inching his way along the ground with all the skill of a kid used to catching and avoiding beatings. Not by Sarah, of course. He had the real device; Jameson was a decoy. Jameson was a mutually-recognized target; both Apep and Adam would have a reason to take him off the field, as was what happened. So was Jimmy. Kenny, Sarah and Alice were adults, potential targets by age only. But Daniel, as young as he was, wouldn’t attract suspicion. Jameson’s only hope was that Adam didn’t recognize him openly. Jameson was betting that Adam’s ability to strategize was improving daily. It should’ve been. Kenny had the rifle trained on Apep’s center of mass, waiting for Daniel to give him the opportunity. He’d have a split second; he’d need half that long.
Adam and Apep tussled, light spinning in and out of them. They raised little, keeping the discharges of energy to a tight spot in the field. Machine against machine; conflict within a point. Then Adam made a move that made Jameson proud. Adam knew what was going on, and with a highly concentrated burst of energy, he sent Apep flying, only to land at Daniel’s feet. Apep hit hard enough to separate from Liu. Only for a second, a hair’s breath of time to be exposed, but Daniel grew up on video games. His trigger finger was light-speed.
***
It all happened so fast. Daniel fired the device. The air around Liu glowed blue-green, then yellow, orange and red. Then Kenny saw it; a man, Liu, just a man, doubled over in the pain immortality had kept hidden from him. Soon he’d bronze. Apep was starting to re-form around him, but Kenny wouldn’t give it the chance. He took aim, approximating Liu’s chest and fired. Liu fell in a slump; Apep let out a roar, and the black vapor swirled about like mad, kicking up dust and debris in a fury, a demon without a host, a lesser god, divorced of its idol.
Then Kenny saw something else; his heart hit his throat. Daniel was in a pile on the ground; must’ve been hit by debris. Sarah was screaming. She ran out with Jameson right behind.
***
“Oh my God! Baby!!!!” Sarah screamed. He was breathing, and Jameson felt a weak pulse. His eyes were rolled up in his head when Jameson lifted his lids. Daniel was hit in the back of the neck. He was bleeding, but Jameson could tell what the real problem was; he had a massive head-injury. Without medical attention, he’d not last an hour. Sarah was sobbing.
“He’s all I have!” She screamed. Jameson tried to comfort her, but she backed away. She held Daniel in her arms for all he was worth. Just then the wind picked up. It was strong; not an ordinary breeze. Something was coming; a dark, malicious storm. He looked up in the sky, and what he saw was ominous. Apep was just a point in the sky, infinitely black, as if a black-hole was pulling in the earth’s atmosphere. The winds grew in intensity, then rain, arriving sideways, powerful enough to draw spots of blood. He had to get them somewhere safe, but where?
He looked up once more. The point that was Apep had changed into a whirlpool. He watched in horror as it descended from the sky. He saw where it was heading. He only had seconds to grab Sarah, dragging her away screaming as Apep entered his next usable host.
Daniel opened his eyes.
***
Apep was filled with energy. It wasn’t Daniel; something else. There was something in the air. Wind, rain and hail pelted the ground like bullets. It was feeding Apep. Something was. Daniel was hurt; he’d been mortally injured. He must have been comatose, because Apep couldn’t move in otherwise. Adam tried to scan; the energy surrounding Apep made it nearly impossible. It became even worse as everything electronic, near and far, began to explode. He made Adam’s body crumple, over and over again; Adam didn’t know how many times he’d be able to repair the damage, or how fast he’d have to. He had to keep up, though. Apep couldn’t be allowed to have the iridium scarab and the Philosophers’ Stone. Adam suddenly came to a stark realization. The energy; all of the sudden—Apep already had one of the iridium scarabs. But that couldn’t be right. If he had that, all he’d need to do is put that in his immortal…
…he no longer had an immortal host. He had Daniel, a normal human boy. In the middle of the latest destruction cycle, Adam scanned Daniel. He was trying, Apep was, to infuse Daniel, make him like Liu was. But it took time, and Daniel was a kid. Adam had to act, but he needed a break. The constant pounding was leaving him with a feeling close to the feeling he had after ‘drinking coffee.’ He was tired.
Just then the beating stopped. Apep became serpentine, and though it didn’t leave the ground, some part of it did. Somehow, by some fate Adam couldn’t compute, Apep was distracted. Its serpent-like illusion of a head shot southward, out of site. Daniel was surrounded by rotating spikes of black vapor. It was still dangerous. Adam quickly weighed solutions. Short of restoring Daniel’s damaged brain to functional, there wasn’t anything he could do. But to restore his brain function, he’d have to give up his last remaining iridium scarab, transforming it into a new brainstem. He didn’t even like Daniel. But he looked over at Jameson, who was in misery, and Sarah, who was in shock. He did love them.
Adam scanned Daniel’s brain, assessing the damage and cross-referencing it along the medical database Jameson had forced him to memorize. As he discovered the biological structures that Daniel needed, they became, fashioned of Adam’s last source of energy.
He used the last bit of mechanical strength left in his robotic form, leaping in close to Daniel. He shot out the Philosophers’ Stone; the Apep energy reached for it, releasing its hold on Daniel for two seconds. Adam only needed one of those seconds to fuse Daniel with the iridium-scarab spine. Daniel once again opened his eyes. This time, the look in them was his.
***
Kenny looked on in amazement. Not at any one point throughout the entire fight did he understand what was going on. Neither did he understand then. But he could see well enough. And what he saw had him mystified.
The child, Daniel, had been taken over by the monster. It had nearly torn the sky apart, leaving in ruins that had been left standing. The depot floor was ankle-deep in water. But the other thing, that called itself Adam, changed it, somehow. All Kenny saw was the monster being distracted by something, and within the space of a second Adam leapt toward the kid with a glowing green, wiry, clumpy mass. Kenny didn’t get a good look at what happened, but he could certainly see the outcome. The monster-spirit came back, trying to wrap itself around the child, to no success. The boy was healed, or something of the sort, and he was yelling at the thing. It had to leave, and it shot up into the air roaring, its voice multi-timbral chaos.
“You’ve not won, Adam!” Kenny heard it scream, “I can create hosts of anyone! Even your precious Jameson!”
Jameson looked up, stunned. Kenny looked around. Both of the women there were in shock. Jameson and Kenny himself were in shock. But the greatest shock was yet to come. Out of the wreckage of the robot, Adam’s electronic signature was still there. It was a voice, weak, barely coherent, but it had one thing to say that was loud enough for Kenny; hell, everyone to hear.
“Let’s see you make a host out of ME!!!” Adam said, and Kenny saw one small, dense pinpoint of brilliant light fly directly into the darkness that was the serpent, the monster, Apep.
The sky erupted into a metamorphic luminescence so dazzling it sapped the consciousness of every living thing within view. Jameson, Sarah, Daniel, Alice, Mitchell and Kenny all passed out as Adam and Apep fought the ultimate battle; the battle of integration.
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