Red Strike

The year is 3020. My name is Zen and I have been living underground for five years. I certainly would be dead if I had not been rescued and dragged to a secret bunker. Walking over one hundred miles through swamps and rocky terrain, my handmade aluminum suit provided me with enough coverage to be completely undetectable by eliminating all revealing signals of my location and vital signs transmitted by a single micro-chip embedded into my brain. After the anti-cell phone movement in 2075, the government needed a reliable tracking system, as many people refused to be connected to a network and went off the grid. The practice of micro chipping at birth was aggressively passed into law, however, this was the least of our worries. There were explosive and volatile riots that took place all over the country and many of us died fighting to stop it. The new order military task force introduced itself by stepping in and used sophisticated and destructive weaponry on us that made every other weapon of existence known to mankind look like child’s play. They were able to overpower us and gain control very easily. Most of my family died in these riots. I lost almost everything.

The soldiers are grown and raised in high-security government labs. They are hybrids of extra-terrestrial genetic material harvested from Mars and human DNA which have been strategically modified to create a species with superior combative reflexes and motor skills. They are resilient and their skin can only be cut by a specific frequency of a red laser beam that must be aimed at their heads. I discovered this by accident as I was crossing through town and saw one bent over next to its truck which resembled a cross between a rocket and an armored vehicle. It was looking for something that it must have dropped. There were four more of them in the distance, and they were playing in what appeared to be a game for entertainment. Standing in a circle, one would shout out something loudly indiscernible and the others would screech in a terrifying unison of delight. Their circle would ignite into a vibrant spectrum of bright beams. After a moment, the lights would fade and there would be one less soldier inside the circle. Each one was quickly incinerated to dust. Helmets rested on the ground where their feet once stood. Looking away, I moved closer towards the distracted soldier, I did not set off any sensors, as I was wearing my aluminum suit that covered my entire body. I crept up behind it and managed to slip my hand into my pocket and grasp my grandmother's locket. It was all I had left of my possessions, and I had tinkered with it to make it even more special. I traced my fingers all around its heart shape until I felt the opening groove and I positioned myself to get a better range when I pulled it out of my suit. I was directly behind it, and I rapidly yanked the locket out of my pocket and flung the clasp open in midair. A red laser fired out of it and hit it on its back. Nothing happened. The soldier was still bent over and was completely oblivious to my actions. I was confused and frightened. All the work that I had put into making this weapon and it was not working as it should. What could I have possibly done wrong? At that moment, I realized that my time and experience in engineering and quantum physics had failed me. I shut the locket. My grandmother would be so disappointed. She always took so much pride in me and all my accomplishments and said that I could change the world someday. I was ready to show her that I truly could wage a war and take a stand against these creatures. I understood the technology that was needed to destroy them and was ready to build and train my army. First, I needed to find a place to rest and gain some strength. As I slowly started to back away, I heard a loud snap of a twig under my shoe. The soldier swiftly turned around and glared at me. I had never seen one so close before. Its eyes were piercing black, and it had grey skin that was covered in pointy scales. It lunged towards me and shoved me hard. I flew backward and the locket opened again with my arm over my head. The red laser beam shot out of the locket and landed straight on its cheek. I could smell something burning as I tumbled to the ground. The soldier cried out in pain and cupped its hand over the burn wound on its flesh. It fled down the hill toward the one remaining soldier left from the earlier game. I took this opportunity to get back on my feet and run as fast as I could.

My aluminum suit added some weight, however, I constructed it to be light enough to give me the ability and agility for speed. My grandmother would have been proud of me now. I still had the locket in my hand, and I put it back in my pocket. As I ran, I was frightened but even more ecstatic that my weapon had worked and could do some serious damage. I kept running until I collapsed on a patch of grass, overcome with extreme fatigue. My muscles and joints ached with such pain. It was intensely unbearable to withstand. Then I met Charlotte. She was picking blueberries off a bush in the field and placing them in a wicker basket draped over her left arm. Her long auburn hair billowed out in gentle waves behind her. She stopped and turned around and spotted the large silver oddity that I had become and gingerly made her way in my direction. Her contemplative gaze was warily fixed on me for a few minutes. I thought about how pitiful I must look to her laying on the ground. The sun was beating down on us. A bead of sweat dripped from her forehead. She then abruptly kicked me in the side. The aluminum suit looked enormous on my small frame which was withered from dehydration and starvation. Her kick felt like the force of a thousand boulders coming down in an avalanche into my rib. "Ouch," I yelled. "I thought you were dead," she responded. She knelt next to me and removed a canteen from her basket and positioned it over my mouth so I could drink some water. "Why don't you come with me, and we will get you some food" she offered. The idea sounded fantastic in my blurred state of consciousness. I could barely open my eyes and then I immediately remembered the locket and frantically searched for it. It was still miraculously in my pocket. My grandmother had to be watching over me and wanted me to succeed in this mission. "How can they not sense you?" I said to Charlotte. "You are not even covered." "My dad was a brain surgeon, and he removed my chip when I was little" she stated. "It took him ten hours to get it out and it is impossible for me to be traced" she smiled. "C'mon, let’s stop wasting time, we don't have far to go…my bunker is only less than a mile from this field." I grudgingly sat up and became disoriented as I watched everything spin around me in a haze of orchestrated vertigo. I fell back down. “Just leave me here” I mumbled. Charlotte had other plans. Grabbing both of my legs tightly in her arms, she painstakingly pulled me through the overgrown grass and weeds. We reached the bunker and I sat up again. Determination crossed my face as I attempted to stand on my wobbly and sore legs. I had just enough strength to follow Charlotte’s lead down the ladder and navigate through the tight and narrow dark space. There were several cases of neatly stacked bottles of water on one side and cartons of granola bars, chips, and cereal on the other wall that led up to the ceiling. It felt strangely cozy. "Charlotte, do you want to be a part of my army?” I asked bluntly. "We can beat them and change the world" Suddenly, I felt my grandmother's spirit enter the space as I pulled the locket out of my suit. The gold heart glistened under the dim light illuminated by the tiny flashlight that was propped up against the far corner of the wall. Charlotte watched intently as I opened the locket. The red light darted across the bunker with razor-sharp precision and flickered along the wall. "We need to make more weapons and fast" "There isn't much time" I whispered. She nodded in silent agreement and began to walk briskly towards the back of the bunker. I could only make out her slim silhouette in the shadows of the room. Scraping noises and glasses rattling were heard as items were being shuffled around and out of place. “Here they are” she yelled. Cradling a large metal toolbox in her arms, she excitedly walked out of the darkness and gently placed it on the table. “These were my father’s surgical tools…he died fighting for our freedom, and he would be honored to know that we will be using them to make more weapons.” I opened the lid and inside of the box were tweezers, scalpels, a metal file, medical tape, and other purposeful instruments for the intricate work ahead of us. We needed more supplies, but this was a good start. The locket flashed in my pocket.