FLOOR 21: Judgement (The Tower Legacy Book 3) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Jason Luthor Writing, Houston, 2017.

  Table of Contents

  CAPTURE

  Tommy’s Recording 15

  Dodger’s Recording 25

  Mike’s Recording 03

  Jackie’s Recording 15

  Jackie’s Recording 16

  Tommy’s Recording 16

  Mike’s Recording 04

  Jackie’s Recording 17

  Tommy’s Recording 17

  INDICTMENT

  Anna’s Diary

  Jackie’s New Recording: One

  Jackie’s New Recording: Two

  Anna’s Diary

  Tommy’s Recording 18

  Mike’s Recording 05

  Jackie’s New Recording: Three

  Dodger’s Recording 26

  Mike’s Recording 06

  Tommy’s Recording 19

  Mike’s Recording 07

  Tommy’s Recording 20

  ACCUSATIONS

  Anna’s Diary

  Jackie’s New Recording: Four

  Dodger’s Recording 27

  Tommy’s Recording 21

  Mike’s Recording 08

  TRIAL

  Anna’s Diary

  Jackie’s New Recording: Five

  Mike’s Recording 09

  Jackie’s New Recording: Six

  Tommy’s Recording 22

  Jackie’s New Recording: Seven

  Jackie’s New Recording: Eight

  Mike’s Recording 10

  Dodger’s Recording 28

  Tommy’s Recording 23

  Jackie’s New Recording: Nine

  JUDGEMENT

  Anna’s Diary

  An Unknown Recording

  Jackie’s New Recording: Ten

  Tommy’s Recording 24

  An Unknown Recording

  Dodger’s Recording 29

  Mike’s Recording 11

  Tommy’s Recording 25

  A Recording of a Memory

  An Unidentified Recorder

  “They sow the air, and reap the whirlwind.”

  “I saw something new today.

  I, ah, don’t get to see much that is new anymore. Not after all this time.

  But she was . . . Heh. She was amazing.

  Just, a truly gifted fighter. Relentless. And so courageous.

  It was like witnessing the spirit of vengeance given form.

  She was fury. She was justice.

  She was a dark, avenging angel.”

  - An Unknown Recording

  CAPTURE

  Tommy’s Recording 15

  Hello? Is this on? I’ve been trying to stay on top of making these things ever since Jackie told us to keep records of what we’re doing down here. Not that this is exactly my favorite thing to do, but I mean, I think I can manage to do Jackie a solid. So, first thing’s first. Things’ve been getting pretty rough on us since we left Commander Abbott behind. Honestly? I don’t think there’s any way we could have stuck together this long without Jackie filling in. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we all do our part. Everyone’s good with a gun, and we’re all used to fighting Creeper monsters by this point. Thing is, it just wouldn’t work without Jackie. She’s the heart and soul of the team, you know? But, what would you expect? Being down here’s all her idea, really.

  After we saved Mike from getting butchered by that mad doctor, David Marshall, I had a feeling she’d want to keep going deeper into the Tower. I mean, she’s stubborn. You’ve got to give her that much. She’s also tough as nails. That’s why, when she said she wanted to keep trying to find ground floor, we all lined up to volunteer. I knew Mike would. That guy would follow her anywhere. I wasn’t sure about Dodger though, since she’d only met Jackie after we started our Scavenger training. It kind of goes to show you the sort of personality Jackie’s been growing. I mean, we trust her.

  Not that things have been easy on any of us. I mean, come on. Between David Marshall throwing his Cultists at us, scavenging for food, and surviving the Creep, times have been tough. Sometimes, I don’t know how we’re getting by. Jackie’s just gotten great at watching out for everyone though, and it makes me wonder how she can be the same person I knew growing up. She still is, mostly. I mean, when you talk to her, she’s still insecure. It used to be worse, but I still see her shiver when someone calls her the leader of the team. It’s what she is. She’s just had a hard time actually believing that. All that’s still pure Jackie though. She was never a great people person. She’s gotten better, but there are still plenty of times when she’s exactly the same person I remember: a tough girl who doesn’t know if she’s saying the right things to people or how they’ll react. I really think, deep down, she’s still worried we’re all going to turn on her or something.

  Sure, sometimes it gets easy to wonder if we did the right thing following her, but then you have days like yesterday. Alright, so, for a while after we left the commander behind, things were cool. The Creep was around, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. It’d only been a few weeks since we’d fought off Marshall’s mutant Creeper and rescued Mike. The Tower was the same as it’s always been: vaguely weird.

  We’re basically seeing the same things we’ve been seeing for weeks, which is a bunch of abandoned labs and apartments. For the Tower, it’s nothing too unusual. That sticks for about ten floors. But after that? That’s when we get below Floor 50, and now we’re not seeing apartments or research labs anymore. Now we’re finding nothing but office space, and every room is packed with desks, busted computers, cabinets, that sort of thing. It’s exactly what we don’t need, because apartments are the only places for us to get supplies from. The offices we’re finding aren’t really big on stocking food.

  So, I shouldn’t have to say it, but things start to get dicey for a while because we basically run out of anything to eat. I mean, it’s interesting to see how the Tower’s changing, but we’re all a little more focused on food, you know? At the end of the day, we’ve got to dig deep into the emergency rations we’ve been hauling around since we left the top floors. Now, I’m not saying this is a dire situation or anything, but we do need to resupply. We’re munching on the bare minimum to get along, and I’m a big kid. I can’t speak for Mikey, but this guy needs to eat.

  Thing is, that’s about when the attacks start coming. It’s almost like David Marshall was waiting until we were all too hungry to put up our best fight. We were going on a few days of running on empty when the shots started happening. The group was just doing its thing, rifling through a boardroom and looking for anything important, when a line of bullets tore open the wall near my head. I was about six inches from death. Guess I’m lucky. Anyway, that sent our whole team hitting the floor. All of us went into alert mode, because we all knew it had to be Marshall’s Cultists, and soon it was a firefight. You could tell it was them by those gas masks they wear. Luckily, they didn’t stick around long before it was all over. Honestly, I don’t think they were expecting to find us. It felt like they’d just stumbled on us or something.

  That would’ve been fine if that had been the end of it. After that though, they started hounding us. Everywhere we went, they weren’t far behind. Sometimes the
y’d take pot shots at us from down the hall, or they’d plan real careful attacks that would almost wipe us out. Jackie got smart to the whole situation and started planning for them, and soon we were pretty good at hitting back before they could do any real damage. What got to us wasn’t one attack here or there, though. Nah, what got to us was the pressure of getting attacked day after day. You can’t deal with that constantly without it wearing on your nerves, and I really thought we were going to crack for a while there. We couldn’t even be sure it was actually Marshall leading the attacks or just the Cultists coming out for revenge. The last time any of us had seen David Marshall, he’d practically been carried clear through a doorway by the biggest Creeper I’d ever seen. It was the same one he’d created to kill us. Personally, I’d thought he’d bit the big one. Even with all the attacks coming our way, I was still really confident about my theory. I mean, the Cultists were organized, but it’s not like Marshall himself was ever there with them. I figured they’d just regrouped and were trying to get back at us.

  Anyway, weeks of this starts grinding us down, and the lower we get on food, the worse everyone’s feeling. Through this whole thing though, Jackie just keeps talking up everybody. I don’t know how she finds the energy to do it, but she manages to say the right things to keep us going. It’s like she digs real deep and finds this, I don’t know, this courage or something. That’s the best way I can describe it. You can tell she’s tired, but she never stops believing that we’ll get through it all. She’s always the first one up in the morning, always the last one asleep, and she’s so good with her rifle that her aim is unreal. I didn’t think she could be any more impressive than she was being.

  That’s what I thought. Then, one day, we drop down another floor and everything changes. Suddenly, we’re not wandering around hallways anymore. There aren’t any offices, apartments, or labs. When we jump off the ladder and through the elevator doors, we land in this . . . place. That’s not real descriptive, but it’s hard to really put it into words. I’ve never seen anything like it except in the movies I used to watch. We’re on the second level of this giant room and there are all these, I don’t know, I guess they’re stores? There are all these stores that look like they’ve been closed for forever. From what I see, there’s no power on in any of them. Below us, all these tables are set up in this courtyard, and I think what looks like restaurants are all lined up against the far wall. The walkway we’re on heads off in all sorts of directions, and it honestly looks like you could spend the whole day exploring the place.

  So, we’re just standing there, gawking around like we’ve got all day, when this blue light pops up on the railing in front of us. It just blinks a few times before we start hearing this buzz, and then more lights start firing all across the rail. Not all of them turn on, but enough of them light up that it starts to give us a pretty good view of the area. It really looks a lot like the malls we used to see in our movies back home. Anyway, I’m standing around gawking when I stare up, and I see this light cracking to life over our heads. It’s smack above the middle of the courtyard and looks like a huge, rotating TV screen. The thing is, it’s not a screen. It’s just a floating image as big as a store. You’d probably be able to see it from the far end of the building.

  When it comes alive though, what gets me is the image I see. It’s that symbol the Cultists use, the infinity symbol in a wheel, the same one we’d seen on the computers higher up in the Tower. Now, it’s been a long time since we’ve caught sight of the logo, but we all remember it. We just never figured out what it meant. So, of course, we all come to a stop. Dodger’s mouth is practically hanging open, and Mike’s doing his quiet stranger bit. Jackie’s being . . . well, serious, I guess. Point is, we watch as the symbol spins for a few seconds before the word APEIRON appears in big, blazing letters. They stamp themselves above the symbol as this lady’s voice starts speaking out of thin air, like there are speakers built into the walls around us.

  “From the weapons that defend our country to the discovery of Pocket Space that has made our lives easier and more convenient, Apeiron Technology has worked to improve the quality of life for countless people. While you’re out shopping today, remember to pick up a new earpiece Apeiron music player, or talk to your spouse about purchasing a new, industrial strength Pocket Space generator. For more information on these and other exciting new products, visit us on the web at Apeiron.liv.”

  The commercial only plays once before the screen starts flickering, like it’s getting ready to die. It manages to hover there for a few more seconds before blinking out, along with most of the lights lining the railway. It almost feels like the mall had enough energy to spit out a few more seconds of video before going back on life support. Things get nearly pitch black again, and then we just stare at each other. That’s when Jackie turns over to me and says, “Apeiron. Looks like we’re going to be putting up with that name for forever.”

  “You think?” She smiles back, but I can see she’s got things on her mind. I know Jackie by now. That’s my girl. Well, not ‘mine.’ It’s not like I own her. I’m just a little protective of her, is all. I mean, she’s like the little sister I never knew I had. A little sister who is, ironically, also my boss. “So, what’s the plan, commander?”

  “Someone forgot to tell me I’d been promoted.”

  “Well, I don’t exactly know what else to call you. You’re the one in charge of things around here.”

  “Don’t remind me,” she jokes. She looks like she’s about to keep talking when her head suddenly snaps sideways. Whatever she hears, none of the rest of us do, but then she’s screaming, “Everybody down!” And just like that, we’re diving to the ground while the wall above our heads is getting lit up like it’s the holidays. Bullets are everywhere, and I’m just thanking the Builders that I’ve been trained for all this. My rifle’s up, and I’m trying to stay behind cover, but it’s Jackie taking the lead. “You all, cover me!” she shouts at us. “I’m going to grab their attention, then you take your shot.”

  And I don’t even get a second to protest, because Jackie springs into action before I really know what’s happening. So, we’re keeping these guys distracted by, you know, doing our thing. I’m ducking beneath the railway, keeping my head low so I don’t take a bullet between the eyes, and firing off my rifle to keep the Cultists’ attention. The whole time, Jackie’s slinking off. I know she’s not abandoning us, but it’s weird seeing her vanish the way she does. She just disappears into the shadows at one point, and that leaves the rest of us to keep returning fire.

  Every time I poke my eyes over the side of the rail, I can see more than a dozen points of gunfire, and in my head, I’m finally realizing that the Cultists really brought the heat for this one. Meanwhile, I’m kneeling there, rifle barrel balanced on the edge of the rail, and I’m just thinking to myself, how the hell are we going to get out of this? And then I hear some guy scream from below. When I peek over, I see the direction of the gunfire turning, but every few seconds I hear another one of the Cultists scream. You can’t make out one guy from another, but I can tell from all the shouting that Jackie’s getting hers. You can’t see her, but she’s lighting these guys up at a distance from her position in the dark. That’s about all the signal I need, and I motion to Dodger and Mike to push up. It gets easier to see where the Cultists are, and I give the two of them a nod. After that, we start laying down the lead. Soon, I’m seeing bodies falling, and it only takes a few more minutes of focused fire before the last of the Cultists decides to high tail it out of the courtyard.

  Our guns are still cooling when I start scanning the area, looking for any sign of Jacko, when I see something moving along ground floor. My rifle’s tracking it when it steps into what little light there is, and I realize it’s only her. I can’t resist giving her a big thumbs-up while Mike and Dodger keep an eye out on the courtyard. No need to jump the gun. Literally. Anyway, I’m already moving to the stairs when a burst of static nearly send
s me over the railing. The air above us practically cracks alive again, and suddenly that big, rotating screen is back on. “Damn it, commercial,” I basically scream, which I’m happy gets a laugh out of Dodger. For a second, it’s all in good fun, at least until I notice that Jackie’s the only one not laughing. She’s down there, staring at the screen. Something has her attention. It gives me this sick feeling in my stomach, and I have to force my eyes to drag into the air and see what she’s seeing.

  It’s David Marshall.

  I don’t know how, but the guy’s jacked himself into the feed. We all recognize him. He’s got that thin hair that falls past his nose, and his head’s covered in that torn up hoodie that almost covers his eyes. Still, I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s off. It’s in his face. Something looks wrong around his jaw, but it’s hard to tell because he’s kind of staring down, like he doesn’t want to look into the camera. When he finally does look up? His eyes are still covered by shadows, but you get a pretty clear look at the rest of his face, and I can tell he’s done something to himself. His skin looks the same color of orange that the Creep is, and the skin around his cheeks looks like it’s starting to stick to his bones. Down his neck, you can kind of see small lumps that looks exactly like Creep tumors.

  Then he opens his mouth, and his voice thunders out of every speaker in the building. He sounds like death. “Jackie Coleman.”

  Jackie take a step back, and I can tell she wasn’t expecting him to know who she was. We barely met the guy a little while back, but that was enough to make him stalk us for a few weeks. Anyway, I see her fists ball up, like she wants to punch him in the face. “David Marshall.”

  “Daughter of the so-called brilliant Doctor Coleman.”

  “How do you know who I am?”

  “Reasoning. Deduction. Gifts most people are not acquainted with. Your father has them, in small amounts. You seem to have fallen a bit far from the tree though. You’re different. A brute. Just another tool for Edward Pygmalion.”