Chapter 1
Raven slowly slumped to the ground, bleeding severely from wounds all over his body. He was confused. He always was after his blackouts. All he wanted to do is trade. He didn't want this.
When Raven finally woke up, the first thing he saw was the feet of a young girl, maybe only nine or ten years old.
"Daddy, Daddy! This one is alive!" she yelled to someone who was most likely her father. Her yells hurt Raven's years, but they weren't even that loud. A well-built man came dashing over. He was wearing brown, raggedy robes, the same as her daughter. He cringed at the sight of Raven's wounds.
"How you survived all that, I don't know, but I will do my best to try to help you, stranger," the man reassuringly, as if talking to a young child to keep them from crying. He pulled out a stimpak and a small pouch. He injected the stimpak into Raven's chest, right below the scattering of bullet holes that must have ripped through his leather jacket. "Odd," he thought "I never noticed those until now…" A distinct tingling feeling came over Raven as the stimpak did its work.
The man then opened the leather pouch and sprinkled some powder on Raven's hip, right on the gaping gash running down his leg. This seemed to double the pain, which caused Raven to lurch and try to grab his leg, which then put him in even more pain. Then, all of a sudden, the pain was gone. The wound was still there, but it was already scabbing over. What ever that powder was, it was almost as good as a stimpak! He repeated the process on Raven's arm, where it looked like someone had driven a spike through his shoulder. After a few minutes of Raven lying there, the man helped Raven up. He wobbled around for a while until he regained his balance.
The man said, "I'm Samuel, a healer. Me an' my daughter live in a small town thataways" he waved off in a direction that looked like north. "We don't really need yer story now cuz you still need a bit of help." He looped his arm around Raven to give him extra support. They walked off slowly towards where Samuel said the town was. Samuel's daughter, who said her name was Annabel, was telling Raven about her town.
"Its called Arroyo, and I was born there, but daddy says that mommy died in 'child birth'. And there is also Bishop Jacob, he talks and acts funny sometimes. Our house is really neat! We have a kitchen where we eat and make food, and my room too, it's really big! There is also daddy's room, and his office where he keeps his stuff. The 'elder' teaches us stuff and she tells us what to do too sometimes." Annabel continued like this until they reached Arroyo.
1 Chapter 2
Raven was feeling much better by the time they reached the bridge. It was a rope and plank bridge, but it still looked fairly sturdy. Since in was only about three feet wide, Samuel had to let go of Raven for the first time in many hours so he could cross the bridge. Raven wasn't 100% better, but he was well enough to walk. He had taken a few steps when he made the mistake of looking down. There was nothing. Just a sheer cliff face, that was it. He almost collapsed from the feeling of extreme vertigo.
"Its OK stranger, just keep going," Samuel said calmly from a few feet behind Raven. Raven locked his eyes on the guard at the end of the bridge and continued on.
Once Raven made it to the other side, the guard pointed his spear at Raven's chest. Raven tensed himself up for a fight. He might not be in the best condition, but he still could handle a lone guard. He hoped.
"Its OK Jackson, leave him alone. He's with me," Samuel called out just as Raven's hand landed on the handle of his combat knife. Jackson grunted. Samuel walked past Raven and Jackson, holding his daughter's hand.
"Come on stranger, we're going to see the Elder," Samuel said without turning his head to look back at Raven.
2 Chapter 3
The Elder's chamber was fairly small. You probably couldn't have crunched ten people into it. The Elder herself was an old lady with graying hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore the same robes that Samuel did, but hers had green tint to them. She also wore a scowl on her face.
"Who are you?!? Why are you intruding on our village?!? Where did you come from?!?" the Elder said this in a cold, icy but demanding tone.
"I cannot answer all your questions, but I will tell you my story…"
"I was born at a small town, it was much like this, called Klamath. Only a few people lived there, maybe 35 total, probably even less. My father died when I was 3 months old and my mother died 6 months after that, so I was orphaned before I was even one year old. A nice elderly lady raised me, until one day some traders came. They gave us some food in exchange for shelter, but I was sick with a bad fever, so I couldn't eat the food they gave us. Soon people became sick from the food while I was recovering from my fever. By he next day almost all the people were dead. I stayed in the town, living off the food stored in people's houses and the General Store. About a week after the traders came, another group of people came by, asking for supplies. I let them take whatever they wanted if they would take me with them on their travels. When we left, it seemed like we were just wandering, not really looking for anything. We did that for about 2 months, until one night, while we were sleeping, Fire Geckoes ambushed us. Those thing are nasty little devils, they can spit fire up to almost ten feet! Well, the Geckoes killed two people in the party, and the other man and me ran off, but we were both heavily burned. He collapsed the next morning and I did all I could to try to save him, but he died. I wandered around, living off the meager supplies he had, until I stumbled on a town, but by then I was already half dead. They gave me some medical attention and I stayed there until I was 17, then I left and took what ever I could carry with me, and now I'm here. I'm just looking for a place to stay, and maybe some food. I didn't want this. Who would? I don't want to do any harm to you or cause you any distress." The Elder seemed to consider this all.
"You may stay, but not for long," the Elder finally said after a long wait. Raven stayed here for a few weeks, helping with farming and general maintenance. He left one night to resume his travels. He felt compelled to go west, and so he did. But each night, after a long day of traveling, he felt a foreboding sense of growing dread…
Chapter 4
After a few weeks of heading west, one day around noon, Raven heard something like a band of people far off. He dismissed it as nothing at first, but as the sounds grew more noticeable and louder, he decided to check it out. The wastelands had little cover to watch from behind, so Raven pulled out his Stealth Boy™, strapped it to his belt and turned it on. His vision wavered for a few seconds then jumped back to normal. Again he set off in the direction of the noises, but this time almost completely invisible. Once he was close enough he saw that there was a band of 3 slavers, all carrying shotguns, with 5 slaves all chained up and following the salvers. 2 of the slavers were in front, and one in back as a rear guard. He saw no way to free the slaves but to fight it out.
He knew slavers would trade slaves, but their prices were much too expensive for Raven. He pulled out his G11E, rammed a clip into it, and pulled out a Psycho. He pressed the single red button on it, listened to the familiar sssss-thunk as the thin needle shot out. He injected the Psycho into his right shoulder and waited for a few moments. Suddenly his vision turned blood red as the Psycho took control of him. He steadied his G11E and set it to burst mode, then fired a few bullets into the rear guard slaver. He fell with holes all over him. Raven then emptied the rest of the clip into one of the front slavers who then stumbled back into the other, causing much panic all around. Raven tossed down his gun and drew his PPK7 Gauss Pistol. He quickly loaded a clip into it and looked up. The last slaver was looking right at him. Raven barely had time to throw himself to the ground as the slaver's gun erupted. Bullets whizzed all around Raven, looking to kill. Some struck him in the shoulder, traveling with such great force; they passed right through his arm. Raven felt no pain, due to the Psycho. The bullets stopped coming and Raven chanced a look up. The man was hastily trying to reload his gun. Raven calmly fired right at him. The man jerked and went flying a few feet backwards. Raven put his gun away and picked up his G11E and put it away too. Raven sat down, trying to fight off the effects of the Psycho. He stayed like that for a few minutes, then got up injected a stimpak into his shoulder. He shivered as the familiar tingling feeling came over him. He walk over to the shackled men began to unlock them. They all looked like tribals to Raven. Three of them kept babbling in some odd language but two seemed to speak basic.
"Thank you! Thank you for rescuing us from those men! You saved out lives, and we must pay you back for it some how!" one of them said in shaky basic.
"Umm, well I don't really need any help, but I'm always open to have some company on my travels…" Raven suggested hopefully.
"I am Cassidy, and this is my companion, Jan. We will follow you to where ever you may go. But we do not know where the others came from, we cannot help them." Cassidy told Raven. The last words were barely out of his mouth as Raven started heading west again.
"If you are going to accompany me, come on, I we will need to find somewhere to set up camp, it's almost dark." Raven called back without even turning his head.
Chapter 5
That night, Jan and Cassidy were telling Raven about their home. "Our village is fairly small. We had maybe a hundred people there. Its about forty miles due west of here." Jan said around the end of their conversation.
"Overall, it was a pretty average village. Except for the Demon Hole." Cassidy added, he said the last few words in a shaky tone, almost as if he saying those words would call up a horrible monster to kill them.
"Demon Hole?" Raven said this as if he didn't really care, but he had nothing else to do but listen to their stories.
"Yes, Demon Hole. It was a hole in the ground, but there was a platform that went up and down from the surface to the interior. Many of our warriors went down there, and then all we could hear was screams coming from the Demon Hole, that was the last we ever saw or hear from them." Cassidy told Raven in his shaky and hushed tone.
"I see." that was all Raven said in response to this. "This 'Demon Hole' is probably just a story to keep them from wandering down into the cave, that's probably all it is. Still, it might be worth while to investigate" Raven thought to himself before falling asleep.
Chapter 6
They traveled for many weeks, occasionally running into gigantic, mutated scorpions, and then ending up running off, sometimes having to leave supplies behind.
Finally, weeks later, they reached Jan and Cassidy's home. They were right, it was a small village. As they approached it they saw a dim glare showing from above the palisade walls. Once they made it to the gate, the lone guard challenged them, "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"It's me, Jan, and Cassidy!" Jan told the guard with a hint of amusement on her face.
"Wha… How… How did you get here? When the slavers raided our camp we thought you were lost forever!"
"No, not forever, just until I showed up and decided to free them." Raven finally spoke up in a voice telling them he was the one in control here. The guard looked at Raven as if he didn't notice him there before. "Take me to your leader!" Raven said, remembering one of his favorite TV shows before the nuclear war destroyed all the broadcasting stations.
"Er… Ok, just follow me…" the guard said, slightly disoriented. He beckoned to Raven, Jan and Cassidy with his spear. Raven felt with every step towards their chieftain that he was getting one step closer to his destiny.
Chapter 7
As they neared the center of the encampment, they saw a large bonfire with many of the tribals dancing around it. There was one that immediately drew Raven's attention. He was the same size as most of the others, maybe even smaller. He has an aged and intelligent, but still powerful look on his face. He noticed them approaching right off the bat. He walked over to them even before they made it within 20 feet of him.
"Hello, I am Adul, chieftain of this village. I hope that I do not sound like I am prodding into your business, but I noticed that you brought two of our villagers back. I do not think that this is all you hoped to accomplish by coming here. I will not guarantee it, but I will try to help you as compensation for bringing Jan and Ian back." The chieftain said in a calm and controlled voice. He was wearing a cloth around his waist and the right side of his body was covered in blue plant dyes.
"Well, you could tell me a bit about this 'Demon Hole'…" Raven asked hopefully.
"The Demon Hole is a pit of darkness. The Soul Guards protect it, there are two of them. The Demon Hole is about five miles west of here, but you would be a fool to go there!" Adul told Raven. Raven noticed that much of the calm and control were lost from his voice.
"I must go there. I have always been a wanderer, and I fell that this may end that all." Raven stated in a tone telling Adul he would have none of their primitive superstitions.
Cassidy spoke up, "We must go to. He saved our lives, and we have a life debt to him. We must go with him."
"I thought this might be so. I cannot give you much but my best wishes…Go then, fulfil your destiny…" Adul said with much concern in his voice. His words echoed in their heads as they departed once again on their journey.
Chapter 8
Raven, Cassidy and Jan hiked for several hours before they reached the Demon Hole. Raven saw that on the surface it was nothing more then a beat up staircase and two cylindrical metal bases, about 3 feet wide. Raven walked over and ran his palm over the metal. It was perfectly flat and smooth except for a small crevice in the very center. Suddenly, the last puzzle piece fell into place. The Demon Hole was an ancient vault, used to house the greatest minds and equipment incase of a nuclear war. And these 'Soul Guards' were nothing more then, "Laser turrets!" Raven yelled as he ducked under a protruding rock. Raven chanced a look and he saw both laser turrets up and spewing fiery death in their direction. He saw Cassidy behind another rock, while Jan was scrambling for cover. A single blast took her in the back of her right shoulder. She flew a few feet forwards, then laid still. Raven pulled out a pulse grenade, set the timer for four seconds, stood up and heaved it towards the nearest turret to Cassidy.
There was a brilliant flash of Electro-pulse and then one of the laser turrets abruptly stopped its firing, due to the unfortunate fact (to it) that it was totally drained of its energy. Raven then tossed his pack on the ground and pulled out his Y7K Pulse Pistol and energized it. He then dove away from his protecting rock and did a half roll, ending with him in a crouch and calmly firing two blasting into the turret's scanner panel, rendering it useless.
"Cassidy, take Jan back to Adul. She is still living, but not for long if she doesn't get medical attention. I must continue alone. Thank you." Raven told said as he checked for a pulse from Jan. Cassidy nodded and slowly lumbered took off without a word, carrying Jan in his arms.
Raven took one look back at them as he headed down the passageway, towards what he hoped wasn't his inevitable doom…
Chapter 9
Once Raven descended down the old and crumbling staircase, he found himself in a small, dimly lit cavern. Raven noticed a small pool of some type of liquid collecting on the floor. He carefully stepped around it, thinking that a splash might alert anyone who didn't want visitors. As he reached the door at the end of the cavern, he saw that it was a gigantic old vault-type metal barrier. It had a large circle with cogs protruding from it like a gear. In the middle was a large "13" in dark blue. Raven shoved his shoulder against one of the worn down cogs and used his battle- honed muscles to force the wheel to the side, revealing a long, brightly- lit corridor.
As Raven walked down the corridor, he noticed a faint clunking noise coming from the walls. Once Raven came to the end of the corridor, there was another wall with a small horizontal slot in it. He peered through it and scanned around, but all he saw was a bright red light shining at him. "BEEP" A sound came from some where. "Retinal scan completed, ID confirmed. Welcome." The sound came again. The wall opened in front of him, revealing a fairly small room with an odd looking chair in the middle. It had a large supporting pillar in the center, surrounded by cables and wires, probably providing power and information. The chair itself looked like an inner- tuber with the bottom filled in and a little scoop for the user to sit in. Raven clambered up the chair and hopped in the little scoop.
Chapter 10
In front of him was a small panel with a basic interface and monitor. He flicked the "ON" switch and a little needle shot out and buried itself in he arm. It withdrew as fast as it shot out. Then the little screen flickered to life. Raven read as fast as he could as the words scrolled across the screen.
Analyzing DNA……DNA confirmed…Matching Retinal ID to DNA……Match completed…Analyzing chance of error… Zero percent chance of error…Welcome subject Plural A 01.
All of this left Raven in the dark. Apparently, he was in this record, which is why the door opened for him. Also, the machine had just called him SUBJECT Plural A 01. He wasn't a subject. He was him. Raven typed in Plural A 01 and keyed a search for any references. There was one. He opened the document and scanned it over.
Subject Plural A 01, code-named Project Nevar. Status: Complete. Description: Human genetically created to determine if the outside world is hospitable. Errors: Flash learning process disrupted, subject formed with human emotion.
Suddenly, it fell into place. All of it did. His whole life. He was created in a lab to test if the world was up to their living standards. Except they made a mistake. The learning process accidentally equipped him his emotion. He wasn't their drone. He had a life. His life.
Raven slowly slumped to the ground, bleeding severely from wounds all over his body. He was confused. He always was after his blackouts. All he wanted to do is trade. He didn't want this.
When Raven finally woke up, the first thing he saw was the feet of a young girl, maybe only nine or ten years old.
"Daddy, Daddy! This one is alive!" she yelled to someone who was most likely her father. Her yells hurt Raven's years, but they weren't even that loud. A well-built man came dashing over. He was wearing brown, raggedy robes, the same as her daughter. He cringed at the sight of Raven's wounds.
"How you survived all that, I don't know, but I will do my best to try to help you, stranger," the man reassuringly, as if talking to a young child to keep them from crying. He pulled out a stimpak and a small pouch. He injected the stimpak into Raven's chest, right below the scattering of bullet holes that must have ripped through his leather jacket. "Odd," he thought "I never noticed those until now…" A distinct tingling feeling came over Raven as the stimpak did its work.
The man then opened the leather pouch and sprinkled some powder on Raven's hip, right on the gaping gash running down his leg. This seemed to double the pain, which caused Raven to lurch and try to grab his leg, which then put him in even more pain. Then, all of a sudden, the pain was gone. The wound was still there, but it was already scabbing over. What ever that powder was, it was almost as good as a stimpak! He repeated the process on Raven's arm, where it looked like someone had driven a spike through his shoulder. After a few minutes of Raven lying there, the man helped Raven up. He wobbled around for a while until he regained his balance.
The man said, "I'm Samuel, a healer. Me an' my daughter live in a small town thataways" he waved off in a direction that looked like north. "We don't really need yer story now cuz you still need a bit of help." He looped his arm around Raven to give him extra support. They walked off slowly towards where Samuel said the town was. Samuel's daughter, who said her name was Annabel, was telling Raven about her town.
"Its called Arroyo, and I was born there, but daddy says that mommy died in 'child birth'. And there is also Bishop Jacob, he talks and acts funny sometimes. Our house is really neat! We have a kitchen where we eat and make food, and my room too, it's really big! There is also daddy's room, and his office where he keeps his stuff. The 'elder' teaches us stuff and she tells us what to do too sometimes." Annabel continued like this until they reached Arroyo.
1 Chapter 2
Raven was feeling much better by the time they reached the bridge. It was a rope and plank bridge, but it still looked fairly sturdy. Since in was only about three feet wide, Samuel had to let go of Raven for the first time in many hours so he could cross the bridge. Raven wasn't 100% better, but he was well enough to walk. He had taken a few steps when he made the mistake of looking down. There was nothing. Just a sheer cliff face, that was it. He almost collapsed from the feeling of extreme vertigo.
"Its OK stranger, just keep going," Samuel said calmly from a few feet behind Raven. Raven locked his eyes on the guard at the end of the bridge and continued on.
Once Raven made it to the other side, the guard pointed his spear at Raven's chest. Raven tensed himself up for a fight. He might not be in the best condition, but he still could handle a lone guard. He hoped.
"Its OK Jackson, leave him alone. He's with me," Samuel called out just as Raven's hand landed on the handle of his combat knife. Jackson grunted. Samuel walked past Raven and Jackson, holding his daughter's hand.
"Come on stranger, we're going to see the Elder," Samuel said without turning his head to look back at Raven.
2 Chapter 3
The Elder's chamber was fairly small. You probably couldn't have crunched ten people into it. The Elder herself was an old lady with graying hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore the same robes that Samuel did, but hers had green tint to them. She also wore a scowl on her face.
"Who are you?!? Why are you intruding on our village?!? Where did you come from?!?" the Elder said this in a cold, icy but demanding tone.
"I cannot answer all your questions, but I will tell you my story…"
"I was born at a small town, it was much like this, called Klamath. Only a few people lived there, maybe 35 total, probably even less. My father died when I was 3 months old and my mother died 6 months after that, so I was orphaned before I was even one year old. A nice elderly lady raised me, until one day some traders came. They gave us some food in exchange for shelter, but I was sick with a bad fever, so I couldn't eat the food they gave us. Soon people became sick from the food while I was recovering from my fever. By he next day almost all the people were dead. I stayed in the town, living off the food stored in people's houses and the General Store. About a week after the traders came, another group of people came by, asking for supplies. I let them take whatever they wanted if they would take me with them on their travels. When we left, it seemed like we were just wandering, not really looking for anything. We did that for about 2 months, until one night, while we were sleeping, Fire Geckoes ambushed us. Those thing are nasty little devils, they can spit fire up to almost ten feet! Well, the Geckoes killed two people in the party, and the other man and me ran off, but we were both heavily burned. He collapsed the next morning and I did all I could to try to save him, but he died. I wandered around, living off the meager supplies he had, until I stumbled on a town, but by then I was already half dead. They gave me some medical attention and I stayed there until I was 17, then I left and took what ever I could carry with me, and now I'm here. I'm just looking for a place to stay, and maybe some food. I didn't want this. Who would? I don't want to do any harm to you or cause you any distress." The Elder seemed to consider this all.
"You may stay, but not for long," the Elder finally said after a long wait. Raven stayed here for a few weeks, helping with farming and general maintenance. He left one night to resume his travels. He felt compelled to go west, and so he did. But each night, after a long day of traveling, he felt a foreboding sense of growing dread…
Chapter 4
After a few weeks of heading west, one day around noon, Raven heard something like a band of people far off. He dismissed it as nothing at first, but as the sounds grew more noticeable and louder, he decided to check it out. The wastelands had little cover to watch from behind, so Raven pulled out his Stealth Boy™, strapped it to his belt and turned it on. His vision wavered for a few seconds then jumped back to normal. Again he set off in the direction of the noises, but this time almost completely invisible. Once he was close enough he saw that there was a band of 3 slavers, all carrying shotguns, with 5 slaves all chained up and following the salvers. 2 of the slavers were in front, and one in back as a rear guard. He saw no way to free the slaves but to fight it out.
He knew slavers would trade slaves, but their prices were much too expensive for Raven. He pulled out his G11E, rammed a clip into it, and pulled out a Psycho. He pressed the single red button on it, listened to the familiar sssss-thunk as the thin needle shot out. He injected the Psycho into his right shoulder and waited for a few moments. Suddenly his vision turned blood red as the Psycho took control of him. He steadied his G11E and set it to burst mode, then fired a few bullets into the rear guard slaver. He fell with holes all over him. Raven then emptied the rest of the clip into one of the front slavers who then stumbled back into the other, causing much panic all around. Raven tossed down his gun and drew his PPK7 Gauss Pistol. He quickly loaded a clip into it and looked up. The last slaver was looking right at him. Raven barely had time to throw himself to the ground as the slaver's gun erupted. Bullets whizzed all around Raven, looking to kill. Some struck him in the shoulder, traveling with such great force; they passed right through his arm. Raven felt no pain, due to the Psycho. The bullets stopped coming and Raven chanced a look up. The man was hastily trying to reload his gun. Raven calmly fired right at him. The man jerked and went flying a few feet backwards. Raven put his gun away and picked up his G11E and put it away too. Raven sat down, trying to fight off the effects of the Psycho. He stayed like that for a few minutes, then got up injected a stimpak into his shoulder. He shivered as the familiar tingling feeling came over him. He walk over to the shackled men began to unlock them. They all looked like tribals to Raven. Three of them kept babbling in some odd language but two seemed to speak basic.
"Thank you! Thank you for rescuing us from those men! You saved out lives, and we must pay you back for it some how!" one of them said in shaky basic.
"Umm, well I don't really need any help, but I'm always open to have some company on my travels…" Raven suggested hopefully.
"I am Cassidy, and this is my companion, Jan. We will follow you to where ever you may go. But we do not know where the others came from, we cannot help them." Cassidy told Raven. The last words were barely out of his mouth as Raven started heading west again.
"If you are going to accompany me, come on, I we will need to find somewhere to set up camp, it's almost dark." Raven called back without even turning his head.
Chapter 5
That night, Jan and Cassidy were telling Raven about their home. "Our village is fairly small. We had maybe a hundred people there. Its about forty miles due west of here." Jan said around the end of their conversation.
"Overall, it was a pretty average village. Except for the Demon Hole." Cassidy added, he said the last few words in a shaky tone, almost as if he saying those words would call up a horrible monster to kill them.
"Demon Hole?" Raven said this as if he didn't really care, but he had nothing else to do but listen to their stories.
"Yes, Demon Hole. It was a hole in the ground, but there was a platform that went up and down from the surface to the interior. Many of our warriors went down there, and then all we could hear was screams coming from the Demon Hole, that was the last we ever saw or hear from them." Cassidy told Raven in his shaky and hushed tone.
"I see." that was all Raven said in response to this. "This 'Demon Hole' is probably just a story to keep them from wandering down into the cave, that's probably all it is. Still, it might be worth while to investigate" Raven thought to himself before falling asleep.
Chapter 6
They traveled for many weeks, occasionally running into gigantic, mutated scorpions, and then ending up running off, sometimes having to leave supplies behind.
Finally, weeks later, they reached Jan and Cassidy's home. They were right, it was a small village. As they approached it they saw a dim glare showing from above the palisade walls. Once they made it to the gate, the lone guard challenged them, "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"It's me, Jan, and Cassidy!" Jan told the guard with a hint of amusement on her face.
"Wha… How… How did you get here? When the slavers raided our camp we thought you were lost forever!"
"No, not forever, just until I showed up and decided to free them." Raven finally spoke up in a voice telling them he was the one in control here. The guard looked at Raven as if he didn't notice him there before. "Take me to your leader!" Raven said, remembering one of his favorite TV shows before the nuclear war destroyed all the broadcasting stations.
"Er… Ok, just follow me…" the guard said, slightly disoriented. He beckoned to Raven, Jan and Cassidy with his spear. Raven felt with every step towards their chieftain that he was getting one step closer to his destiny.
Chapter 7
As they neared the center of the encampment, they saw a large bonfire with many of the tribals dancing around it. There was one that immediately drew Raven's attention. He was the same size as most of the others, maybe even smaller. He has an aged and intelligent, but still powerful look on his face. He noticed them approaching right off the bat. He walked over to them even before they made it within 20 feet of him.
"Hello, I am Adul, chieftain of this village. I hope that I do not sound like I am prodding into your business, but I noticed that you brought two of our villagers back. I do not think that this is all you hoped to accomplish by coming here. I will not guarantee it, but I will try to help you as compensation for bringing Jan and Ian back." The chieftain said in a calm and controlled voice. He was wearing a cloth around his waist and the right side of his body was covered in blue plant dyes.
"Well, you could tell me a bit about this 'Demon Hole'…" Raven asked hopefully.
"The Demon Hole is a pit of darkness. The Soul Guards protect it, there are two of them. The Demon Hole is about five miles west of here, but you would be a fool to go there!" Adul told Raven. Raven noticed that much of the calm and control were lost from his voice.
"I must go there. I have always been a wanderer, and I fell that this may end that all." Raven stated in a tone telling Adul he would have none of their primitive superstitions.
Cassidy spoke up, "We must go to. He saved our lives, and we have a life debt to him. We must go with him."
"I thought this might be so. I cannot give you much but my best wishes…Go then, fulfil your destiny…" Adul said with much concern in his voice. His words echoed in their heads as they departed once again on their journey.
Chapter 8
Raven, Cassidy and Jan hiked for several hours before they reached the Demon Hole. Raven saw that on the surface it was nothing more then a beat up staircase and two cylindrical metal bases, about 3 feet wide. Raven walked over and ran his palm over the metal. It was perfectly flat and smooth except for a small crevice in the very center. Suddenly, the last puzzle piece fell into place. The Demon Hole was an ancient vault, used to house the greatest minds and equipment incase of a nuclear war. And these 'Soul Guards' were nothing more then, "Laser turrets!" Raven yelled as he ducked under a protruding rock. Raven chanced a look and he saw both laser turrets up and spewing fiery death in their direction. He saw Cassidy behind another rock, while Jan was scrambling for cover. A single blast took her in the back of her right shoulder. She flew a few feet forwards, then laid still. Raven pulled out a pulse grenade, set the timer for four seconds, stood up and heaved it towards the nearest turret to Cassidy.
There was a brilliant flash of Electro-pulse and then one of the laser turrets abruptly stopped its firing, due to the unfortunate fact (to it) that it was totally drained of its energy. Raven then tossed his pack on the ground and pulled out his Y7K Pulse Pistol and energized it. He then dove away from his protecting rock and did a half roll, ending with him in a crouch and calmly firing two blasting into the turret's scanner panel, rendering it useless.
"Cassidy, take Jan back to Adul. She is still living, but not for long if she doesn't get medical attention. I must continue alone. Thank you." Raven told said as he checked for a pulse from Jan. Cassidy nodded and slowly lumbered took off without a word, carrying Jan in his arms.
Raven took one look back at them as he headed down the passageway, towards what he hoped wasn't his inevitable doom…
Chapter 9
Once Raven descended down the old and crumbling staircase, he found himself in a small, dimly lit cavern. Raven noticed a small pool of some type of liquid collecting on the floor. He carefully stepped around it, thinking that a splash might alert anyone who didn't want visitors. As he reached the door at the end of the cavern, he saw that it was a gigantic old vault-type metal barrier. It had a large circle with cogs protruding from it like a gear. In the middle was a large "13" in dark blue. Raven shoved his shoulder against one of the worn down cogs and used his battle- honed muscles to force the wheel to the side, revealing a long, brightly- lit corridor.
As Raven walked down the corridor, he noticed a faint clunking noise coming from the walls. Once Raven came to the end of the corridor, there was another wall with a small horizontal slot in it. He peered through it and scanned around, but all he saw was a bright red light shining at him. "BEEP" A sound came from some where. "Retinal scan completed, ID confirmed. Welcome." The sound came again. The wall opened in front of him, revealing a fairly small room with an odd looking chair in the middle. It had a large supporting pillar in the center, surrounded by cables and wires, probably providing power and information. The chair itself looked like an inner- tuber with the bottom filled in and a little scoop for the user to sit in. Raven clambered up the chair and hopped in the little scoop.
Chapter 10
In front of him was a small panel with a basic interface and monitor. He flicked the "ON" switch and a little needle shot out and buried itself in he arm. It withdrew as fast as it shot out. Then the little screen flickered to life. Raven read as fast as he could as the words scrolled across the screen.
Analyzing DNA……DNA confirmed…Matching Retinal ID to DNA……Match completed…Analyzing chance of error… Zero percent chance of error…Welcome subject Plural A 01.
All of this left Raven in the dark. Apparently, he was in this record, which is why the door opened for him. Also, the machine had just called him SUBJECT Plural A 01. He wasn't a subject. He was him. Raven typed in Plural A 01 and keyed a search for any references. There was one. He opened the document and scanned it over.
Subject Plural A 01, code-named Project Nevar. Status: Complete. Description: Human genetically created to determine if the outside world is hospitable. Errors: Flash learning process disrupted, subject formed with human emotion.
Suddenly, it fell into place. All of it did. His whole life. He was created in a lab to test if the world was up to their living standards. Except they made a mistake. The learning process accidentally equipped him his emotion. He wasn't their drone. He had a life. His life.