This is my attempt at revamping Brave New World. I'm trying to make everybody more human and this more interesting.
Yes, a bunker as in a pillbox. A place where you hide and shoot people in war? Yeah.
Elder stepped out of his apartment, a knife twirling around his fingers. The messenger stepped back from the spinning blade and stared at him with a flicker of annoyance and disgust, which Elder of course did not notice.
The messenger surveyed the supposedly corrupt politician. The ambience of the annoying, slightly obnoxious man wasn't at all affected by his fanciful clothing.
Elder was a politician. Those who took the position took this name upon themselves as a symbol of service for the people.
James didn't think that Elder was such a terrible human being, but after a few days of giving him mail, he had abruptly decided the second day of his new job that Elder probably had grown too comfortable in his position, even though the world as they knew it was mostly controlled by Infected.
"So, what is it now?" Elder demanded.
His musings shattered, and he quickly handed the slightly greasy-smelling man the letter from the Council of Elders and left, not wanting to be in the vicinity of the man any longer.
Elder shook his fist at the quickly departing man and turned his attention to the letter.
He grimaced at the unofficial seal, which meant he actually had to lift a finger. Looking at the gray, empty street littered with small bunkers scattered on the sidewalk, he walked back into the large, gilded (cough*gaudy*cough) apartment and tossed the letter on the table, meaning to look at it later. It was probably an order to commission several more SAWs or disband a militia.
He sat down on a dining chair, and wondered miserably about the state of his life.
Of course, it seemed very glamorous in this Dark age, but he was emotionally miserable.
He didn't mean for politics to bog down his ideals. Now, he was fat and lazy, like most other Elders in the city. Only the newly elected were able to effect any action in this city.
Looking at the newspaper, he flicked it aside, the headline landing upside down. "Rebellion in left neighborhood of Ground Zero. Also, Infected Horde expected within the week."
He shuddered lightly at the thought of being on the front lines and looked at his now flabby muscles.
He curled one arm and felt its hidden strength.
He still had the power to help his people.
"Hmm? Gruhh….. What is it?" The knocking on the door became less pronounced.
Elder got up with a grunt and picked up the file and a pistol. Warily, he slid (well, not very covertly because he was kind of fat) to the doorway and opened it.
James stepped back and said nervously, "Have you packed yet?"
Elder made a confused face. "For what?"
James slapped his face and said, "You didn't read the orders yet?" 'I'm not surprised, he's so lazy and obnoxious.'
Elder quickly began to pack his things, assuming it was a short diplomatic mission. "I suppose they were orders to go to New World or something. Just an hour and I'll be ready to go."
James sighed. "This is actually a rather important assignment, and I was told to go with you along with another couple dozen people. We're going to be trading for something at the Upper Janus."
Elder turned, mouth working but nothing coming out. Finally he croaked out, "That's a warlord controlled village, and it's usually right in the path of a Horde invasion."
"It's important that we travel around the riots, and we can't let them have the file." James took the pistol and unloaded and dismantled it, giving it a rub with a nearby rag and some polish and waiting. He observed the slightly chubby man, rubbing grime off of his hands and the gun.
Elder sighed, knowing obviously that nothing could be done and that James wasn't going to help him. Gulping, he began packing again.
Annika thumped Elder on the shoulder, making him jump. "I'm not a subtle person, and I'm just gonna say it, we the people need a politician who's going to actually work for us." She took of the hand immediately, flicking sweat off of it with a look of disgust.
Elder turned at her and looked at the people who were going right into the frying pan, sighing. "I never thought that politics would bog down my ideals. I just thought that I could help the people with my political ability."
He looked down at his body. "You see this body? Before, I think I wasn't a heartthrob, but I liked to think of myself as good-looking. I was pretty strong, but politics bogged me down."
He gestured at his scars. "You see this one? This tear? It was the explosion of a mortar in a battle with warlords. I fought just like you, with you, and I never meant for politics to slow me down. I didn't get into the position for power or wealth. I'm a member of the military and working class, just like you are."
Annika nodded slightly, her eyes unreadable. "Hey Dan, get the overhead in the truck."
Dan heaved the machine gun on the armored technical with a grunt and bolted it on quickly before it dropped on his feet. James walked toward him, carrying a metallic box of ammunition.
Elder frowned a little, noticing all the heavy arms around him. "These are necessary? The weight will slow us down."
Annika turned around, her head slightly to the side. "You heard the news. This is the usual time for an invasion, and if you read the orders, you know we have to right through open country."
Elder rubbed his head and lifted a RPG-17 onto the long transport truck.
After fifteen minutes of acting as a beast of burden, Annika gestured to Tarif, who put his head back into the truck cabin and said, "Those who are about to die salute you."
Nobody laughed at the morbid banter.
James nodded to Dan as the truck began to grind forward. He jumped onto the turret and began scanning the streets, and watched as people trudged by, sullen, dirty and distrusting.
He tapped his fingers on the banister, exhaling. Watching a man trudge by, he unconsciously ran a hand through scraggly, graying hair. A girl-teenager looked at him with a slight amount of appreciation but noticed the official seal and quickly hurried off.
Elder tapped him on the shoulder, almost causing him to flip over the turret and drop on the cobbled street. "Argh!" Grabbing the banister, he pulled himself back into the truck, panting.
He looked at the chubby man angrily. "You need to be able to speak with Milhan Janus. Get back down there, if the riots come along, I'll probably get shot first.
"I need to talk to you. There's something bothering me." James curled an eyebrow and walked down with him. Dan quickly replaced James, nodding.
Elder held up the file and a map of the village of Upper Janus. He read out loud, "You are ordered to trade for thirty-five Nicholeion Series 17 routers with Milhan Janus. No matter what occurs, accomplish this and bring back the parts."
He looked up, his eyes narrowed. "This kind of router doesn't come cheap, and is usually used for replacements of faulty, almost dangerous parts because it can put a system in an almost-stasis. Plus, there is a project ongoing that might be flawed and have a programming error in the system. The connection is almost blatantly obvious."
James scratched his arm. "So what is the problem?"
Elder held up a recent, but outdated map. "We haven't commissioned a cartographer yet, but as you can see by this, Upper Janus is only thirty miles from the Infected region. I even think that distance has decreased over the years."
"I see. Can we get these parts anywhere farther from Dark Territory?"
"That is the problem. It can't be found anywhere else, because the last country that made these was abandoned right before Milhan pillaged it and retreated right as it was covered. A few of the Infected might even have worked for Milhan before."
James rubbed his forehead. "We are obviously integral in something. Whatever happens, we have to get these parts to whatever city."
Elder groaned. "The Council of Elders is trying to get rid of me or have an extraordinary amount of faith in me."
James yanked his collar until they were inches away from each other. "I have a civilian job delivering messages, but I am no fool or common idiot. I know the state of the military, and you are likely the least corrupt of the Elders, but you are still annoying to me and my retinas. You are able to accomplish this."
He let the heavy man fall back into his seat. "If necessary, I will bargain for you."
Elder shook his head no. His voice heated as he said sorrowfully, "I had always wanted to help the people, but not in a forced position like this. It seems there is no cho-"
He was flung to the side as the truck slammed into a stop. Shouting could now be heard and Dan was retorting angrily at the unseen crowd.
Elder stepped out of the truck and began to shout, "Please, move aside."
The ringleader, a red-haired gangly man began to shout, "You rich and power-hungry bastards keep everything to yourselves! Making the poor fight your wars while you gather all the grana*!"
He exhorted the crowd, which began jeering and throwing trash and absolutely rotten fruit at him and the others who stepped out of the truck.
"This a confidential mission! Please, allow me to pass! I am trying to help you!" Elder pleaded, and was pulled to the side as James, now splattered with the insides of a foul smelling egg and other unedible foodstuffs.
"People of Ground Zero! We are going to the North to bargain with a Warlord for peace. If you care for your fellow human, you will let us pass." James lied smoothly, mentally crossing his fingers.
Of course they did not listen at all.
"Why not help us, the poor, your family and peers! I believe you are lying. You are bourgeois, a counterrevolutionary! We will rid this world of capitalist roaders like you!"
The red haired man picked up a staff and hefted it in one hand. James noted his posture and held up his hands.
"Please, we need to get to the Upper Janus as quickly as possible." Elder pleaded ineffectually from his side. The thin dirty man stepped forward, his staff at ready.
Elder's pleadings died out. Unexpectedly, he spun a pistol into a clenched fist. The safety was already off.
"I have no time to deal with people that will not listen. Step aside, let us pass." The iron in his voice presented itself for the first time.
The crowd now hushed and fruit and trash dropped to the floor. The gangly man seemed to be frozen, his eyes burning. His breathing became harsh in the still air.
Unexpectedly, he charged forward, flinging the staff upwards right before Elder fired several times. The staff elongated suddenly into a spear, the blade slamming through the barrel of the pistol.
Elder dropped the gun and promptly pulled out a submachine gun. The rubber crowd-suppression rounds slammed into the man, who dropped like a sack of cement.
The crowd drew back and rapidly dispersed with pounding feet and cries of fear. Soon, the whole street for around twenty blocks was deserted.
Elder wiped sweat off of his forehead. It was an incredibly dangerous gamble, and luckily, it worked.
He climbed back into the truck, hands shaking. He looked up as James sat across from him.
"Well, that's not going to earn me any budget-raises for a while." He joked weakly. He wiped sweat off of his palms and unloaded the pistol, almost dropping it.
James sighed as Annika shouted at Tarif in the background. "You have improved my respect for you a small bit. I need to go up and see if the man is okay."
As James left to check on Dan and the red-haired troublemaker, Annika slid onto the seat opposite the overweight, sweaty man.
"That was extremely dangerous. Your skill for diplomacy is pivotal in this assignment and will bring us trouble if you are killed."
Elder just looked down at his hands and at the file.
"We will meet with twelve other separate convoys over the Kuran Mountains."
Elder looked up at her, his face contorted in a semblance of a grin. "That's a good sign."
Annika only looked away and left to check on Tarif. The truck stopped, allowing a few other confused co-conspirators to get inside. They looked at Elder and his torn up clothing and sat down well away from him.
Tarif looked around the devastated countryside, exhaling with a few short breaths. Looking out of the window, he touched his fingers to a nearby fire-arm as they passed by a burning village.
Annika slid into the shotgun seat. Tarif looked at her from the corner of his eye and said, "We have the firearms and men needed to help that village. This is a very coldhearted action you are asking me to do, to just pass by all those in need."
Annika looked at him with a gaze that sliced through him. "This is something that can create the resources to help people later. The pain is only temporary. Ignore it."
Tarif ignored her stare and continued to drive, giving a wave to the driver next to him. The driver gave him an ok sign, before dropping behind him to guard his six.
Tarif noticed a broken sign leaning off of its post. The aluminum, scratched surface had the word Kuran emblazed on it with spray-paint.
Looking up, he squinted and saw the mountains covered in fog in the distance. Coughing, he cleared his throat and said to Annika, "Kuran Mountains, about three-four hours."
Annika slid back to the cabin, her cybernetic leg soundlessly maneuvering through piles of ammunition. Tarif looked back to the road and watched yet another flaming village pass by. He sighed.
WHUMP!
The shrieking humanoid-thing slid under the truck, scratching the bottom with clawed hands even as it was destroyed.
Tarif looked up with a pounding heart. He hadn't noticed the infected, but they could have leapt out of the small forest area and begun attacking the truck.
Looking in the rearview, the truck behind him was beginning to slow down, the driver shooting at bleeding, decayed things that were smashing on the armored truck.
"Dan!" shouted a voice. The civilians in the back were loading pistols and firing out of small slots cut into the side of the vehicle.
Tarif slowed, seeing if Dan had fell down to the road. Luckily, he hadn't.
"Armor up!" shouted Annika, who was dragging Dan down the turret hatch. The top of the truck was bolted down and it was secure. Until the Infected smashed holes into it.
"Hang on to your barfbags!" The men and women began to lock up several slots, firing a last burst before closing the windows.
Tarif smashed down the lever marked EMERGENCY PURPOSES ONLY and began accelerating. The truck began to buzz as exposed wires on the outside turned into an electrical fence, causing the Infected to shriek and fall off as electricity shot through dead nerves.
The truck behind them was now crawling, almost completely stopped. The driver was fending away one which smashed through a window with a shotgun as another woman attacked it with a pike.
Tarif shook his head and accelerated out of the screeching patch of trees. Annika looked at him before taking a vaccine. "Is the gain worth that?" said Tarif softly.
Annika hung her head slightly, eyes shadowed. She left slowly.
Well, that's my new version of Brave New World, and it's now called Dark Matter.
I think this is better, but I still need someone to read it and tell me more about it.
I think it's pretty cool. Plus, maybe giant robots will come into it later.
*insert favorite Matrix-Zion Last Stand scene*
Next chapter coming up in a bit.