THE CONDEMNED
Book 1 – Rowen
*Note: For purposes of this blog, the content here will be kept to PG standards. However, upon publication, the full novel will include more adult content.
Chapter 1
Discovered
The
downpour blanketed everything in dull shadows, for which Rowen was grateful.
Keeping his head bowed inside his slicker, he was able to hide beneath the veil
of heavy rain pounding him across his shoulders.
It was very
dark on this side of town. One lone streetlamp was barely visible where it shone
a block over. The High Assembly was very stingy about the use of electricity
around the city. Fortunately, this section was not having to undergo a
temporary blackout tonight.
He slipped
inside the building that had once been a grocery store many decades ago. If
anyone from the AP caught sight of him, they wouldn’t find it odd. Nearly all
of the buildings in this area of town had been converted to public housing ages
ago and were mostly inhabited by vagrants and the ultra-poor, which consisted
of the vast majority of the population now. This building, however, only had
tenants from the first floor up. Not in the basement. That entire below-ground
level was where he was heading.
Removing
his raincoat, he shook it over the rug someone had placed inside the front
door. Bypassing the elevator, he instead took the stairs. The elevator had been
“fixed” to prevent anyone from accidentally descending to the subbasement. Same
for anyone who might use the stairs. They had to have the security code in
order to get past the blast door. As such, the tenants of 1123 Cooper Drive had
no knowledge what existed beneath their feet.
Reaching
the steel-reinforced door, Rowen quickly punched in the code. There was a loud
click, and he easily pulled it open on well-oiled hinges. Here, the outer room
looked no different than the slums upstairs, but it had been intentionally left
that way. He bypassed the central hallway to enter a smaller room where he slid
open a closet door—and nearly collided with Jade.
The woman
gave a little shriek of surprise, then laughed in relief. “Row, we really need
to have some sort of window or peephole or something to let us know when
there’s someone on the other side.”
Rowen
snorted. “A window in a closet door might make someone curious enough to check
out why, and we both know we can’t afford the smallest crack in our defense.”
He eyed the loaded bags she carried across both shoulders. “Wow. That looks
like quite a haul.”
“Thanks. It
was.”
“When did
you go?”
“October,
nineteen sixty-five.”
He nodded,
eyeing her unusual outfit. It was regulation that they dress for whenever they
were to travel to so they wouldn’t draw undue attention to themselves. The
early to mid-twentieth century was a favorite locale. Plus they had plenty of
usable currency for that era. “Where are you taking the spoils?”
She tilted
her head to the west. “Over to Donegal Street.”
“I’m glad
to hear that,” Rowen confessed. “I argued with Rob the other day that we needed
to start concentrating on that area of town.”
She hitched
the bags up more comfortably over her shoulders. “Well, they’re going to eat
well tonight. I’d love to talk further with you, but I gotta run.” She eyed his
drenched appearance. “I hope the rain keeps up. Makes it easier to move around
undetected.”
He held out
his slicker to her. “Here. You’re gonna need this.”
“Thanks for
the offer, but I’ll pass. I left mine by the outer door.”
He stepped aside to let her pass.
“Take care out there.”
Jade
flashed him a smile and hurried away.
Going
through the door, he entered the auxiliary room adjacent to what he and the
handful of people who worked here referred to as Teleport Central. Rutger was
the first to spot him and called out a greeting. “Hey, Row! Glad to see you
didn’t float away in this rainstorm!”
Rowen
chuckled. “It tried to, believe me.”
Going over
to a locker bearing his name, he opened it but hung the sodden garment on the edge
so that the water dripped onto the floor and not inside the locker. It was a
good thing, too. A bag sat on the bottom shelf. His share for the day. The
travelers, as they called themselves, always “paid” themselves first after
every haul. They felt no remorse or guilt about it since they put their lives
on the line every time they went “out” to retrieve what they could. Whatever
was left was distributed among those who needed it most—the infirmed, the
elderly, then to families. Rowen resisted the impulse to see what had been
reserved for him. It didn’t matter. Most of it would go to his mother and
sister anyway.
He strode into the next room, the
heart of their endeavors. As he always did whenever he entered, he stepped to
the side and simply stood there, gazing at the teleportation device. The
conduit. Teleport Central. The culmination of years of work done in secret and
constant fear of being discovered. He noticed the machine was in wait mode. The
platform continued to glow, prepared to either send or receive. Spotting Reo
over by the controls, he called out to him.
“Reo! Anyone still out there?”
“Nope. Jade was our last traveler
for today, and she got back about half an hour ago,” the man replied. “I was
just about to power down. This rainstorm is playing havoc with the system. I don’t
dare send anyone else out until it blows through.”
Rowen gave a nod. “Yeah. The
weather tends to do that. Nothing we can do about it, either.” He glanced
around at the reinforced walls, knowing that behind them was only concrete and
brick. “How’s she running, Reo?”
“The system’s doing fine. Other
than the occasional hiccup, which is an outside issue, she’s purring along as
smooth as silk. Oh, just wait until you get the new numbers.”
“Oh?” Curious, he strode over to
the control panel and checked the weight. In fact, he checked twice. “Holy cow!”
Reo chuckled. “Yeah. We brought
back a record amount of food and medical supplies this past month.”
Rowen triple-checked the number.
“Imagine what that number could have been if we’d been able to bring back
refrigerated goods.”
“Yeah. Maybe one day you’ll figure
out how to remedy that,” the man suggested.
A scream came from the direction of
the front room. Both men froze in place. Rowen stared in shock as the door
flung open and two men dressed in black raincoats and carrying rifles burst
inside. Behind them, another half dozen armed men swarmed through the door and
quickly surrounded the teleportation device.
One officer marched up to Rowen and
shoved the barrel of his gun in his face. “Don’t move, or I won’t hesitate to
add an extra hole between your eyes.” Seeing that Rowen wasn’t going to give
him an excuse to follow through with his threat, he chuckled. “Good boy.”
Rowen resisted the impulse to
glance over at Reo, fearing the soldier would make good on his word. From where
he stood, he could see another handful of soldiers rush into the room, and
behind them one man entered holding Jade in a stranglehold. As soon as they
were inside, he shoved her down to the floor.
Jade’s wide eyes pleaded with him,
but Rowen wasn’t able to decipher what she needed. He wanted to tell her he was
as helpless as she was, but he was afraid Sergeant Itchy Trigger Finger might
not want him to speak, either.
He wasn’t aware that several of the
soldiers had vanished into the adjacent room until they reemerged with the
other three members of the team. Huck, Rutger, and Rob were also forced to get
on their knees on the floor and put their hands behind their backs where they
were quickly placed in immobilization cuffs.
The room suddenly hushed, and the
group of soldiers near the main exit parted. A short, thin man in a dark blue
uniform entered. Rowen instantly identified the guy, and his soul wilted. He
tried to keep a calm face as the Assemblyman General came straight toward him
and halted on the other side of the console.
“Dr. Taylor.”
“General Campanelli.” Rowen
silently cursed himself to hear how his voice shook.
The Assemblyman General didn’t miss
it, either and got right to the point, gazing around the room. “Well, I’ll be
damned. It really does exist. Do you know how long the High Assembly has been
searching for you? Looking for you and proof that your little…” He glanced over
at the glowing platform. “…contraption wasn’t some big fairy tale?” He turned
to face Rowen again. “When we learned people had been receiving food and aid
these past few months, we knew the High Assembly hadn’t authorized the distribution.
That was also about the time we started hearing about a group of, well, people
said they called themselves ‘travelers.’ People claimed these travelers could
go back in time and get all kinds of food and other provisions. Then the
travelers would bring the stuff back here and give it away. Give it
away. For free. Without proper authorization!” Campanelli gruffly
chuckled as he raised a hand to snap his fingers. One of the soldiers carrying
a black bag hurried over to him. Rowen recognized it as one of the bags Jade
had been carrying and realized how the men had gotten inside. They had to have
ambushed her when she emerged onto the street.
Campanelli waited for the soldier
to dip a hand into the bag and withdraw an object, which he handed to the Assemblyman
General. Campanelli stared at it for a few seconds, then held it up for
everyone to see. “Green beans! This is a can of green beans! When was the last
time you ever saw a real can of green beans?”
The soldiers looked at one another.
A few shook their heads. Canned goods hadn’t been available for nearly a
decade.
Campanelli tossed the can to Rowen
without warning. Fortunately, he was able to catch it before it struck the
console. He watched as the Assemblyman General casually moved over to the
platform and stopped short of stepping onto it. The man swiveled his head to
look at Rowen.
“We had the power company start
monitoring each block around the city, looking for more than ordinary usage.”
Rowen stifled a groan. Now he knew
how they’d been detected, even though they’d gone to great pains to keep the
surges undetected. Campanelli must have seen the disappointment on his face as
a triumphant smile lifted his nearly nonexistent lips.
“Once we were able to target this
block, we tried to enter. That’s how we located the security door in the
basement. Since we couldn’t blow up the door for fear we might accidentally
destroy this…contraption, we put a twenty-four-hour watch on the place, hoping
for a chance to catch one of those travelers red-handed.” He motioned behind
him. “Thanks to that little lady, when she walked out of the building with
those bags, we suspected we’d hit the jackpot.” He chuckled. “I was right.”
“Now that you’ve found us, what do
you plan to do with us?” Huck snapped.
“I thought you would have figured
that out by now,” Campanelli replied. “I have been given the authority by the
High Assembly to pass judgment on any or all participants using and taking
advantage of the illegal activities brought on by this…contraption. You there!”
Rowen was
aware of Reo jerking, startled by having the spotlight unexpectedly shine on
him. Campanelli strode up to the console and walked around to stand beside the
man. The Assemblyman General pointed to the controls. “Tell me how this works.”
“W-well,
uhhh…” The engineer touched the date display dial. “This regulates where in
time we send back the…the traveler. This is the send button. This—”
Campanelli
interrupted him. “Send back the traveler?”
“Yes, sir.
Back in time.”
“Why not
forward? Into the future?”
“We’ve
tried, sir, but so far we haven’t been successful in that aspect.”
Campanelli
chewed over that fact. “Where is the button that brings them back from wherever
they’ve gone?”
“There
isn’t one,” Reo explained. “The machine is locked onto whoever is sent. After
one hour, it automatically brings them back.”
The Assemblyman
General narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“Why?”
“You heard
me. Why one hour? What if the person isn’t ready to come back?”
“It’s a
failsafe built into the machine,” Rowen broke in. “In the event the person is injured
or in a dangerous situation, the conduit will retrieve them.”
“How does
it do that? What if it accidentally locks onto the wrong person?”
Rowen shook
his head. “Won’t happen. The conduit scans the person’s cellular structure and
commits that to memory. That way it will always target the right person.”
Campanelli
seemed to study the console. “Is there a way to prevent this contraption from
getting that person back?”
A darkness
began to boil in the pit of Rowen’s stomach. When he didn’t answer quickly
enough, the Assemblyman General whirled on Reo. “Well? Tell me. Is there a way
to prevent this machine from bringing that person back?”
“Yes, sir.
There is,” the engineer softly replied.
“How?” The
man rotated the numbers on the dial. “This way?”
“That’s
only sets the date for the destination,” Rowen told him. “Once the person is
sent, it no longer affects them.”
“Then how
would you keep that person from coming back?” Campanelli repeated. It was clear
he was becoming agitated from having to repeat himself. “Well?” Impatient,
the man gave a nod to the soldier who still had his gun trained on Rowen’s
head.
“You cut
off the power to the machine,” Rob called from across the room.
Campanelli
looked surprised. “That’s it? That’s all you have to do?”
Reo cast
Rowen an apologetic eye. “Turning off the conduit essentially reboots the
system.”
“What about
the data it collected before sending out the traveler? Isn’t that still
contained within its memory banks?”
“The memory
hold is temporary. It’s not a permanent store.”
A sick
smile came over the Assemblyman General. “So turning it off causes the machine
to purge that cellular data, correct?”
Reo slowly
nodded.
Rowen
watched with growing horror as Campanelli rubbed his chin, then glance over at
his four prisoners sitting on the floor a few feet away. It was almost as if he
could read the guy’s mind.
The Assemblyman
General was deciding who to condemn first.
The man
finally pointed to Reo. “Who built this thing?”
“We all
did,” Reo admitted.
“Then who
came up with it in the first place? Whose idea was it to defy the High Assembly
and break our laws?”
Reo turned
to Rowen, his face a sickening shade of white. “I’m so-sorry, Row. I’m—”
“It’s okay,
Reo. I understand,” Rowen gently assured him.
Campanelli
walked over until he was within inches of Rowen. Staring up at him, the man
whispered, “Was it your idea?”
“Yes, sir.
All of it.” Rowen indicated the others with a nod. “They helped me to build it,
but the idea, the specs, all of it is my brainchild.”
“Why didn’t
you approach the High Assembly and ask their permission to build this thing?”
Rowen
refused to back down. “Because I knew they wouldn’t grant it.”
“You know
what this means, don’t you, Dr. Taylor?” The guy seemed almost giddy with what
he had planned. Whirling around, Campanelli lifted his arms. “You heard him! He’s
confessed! He’s responsible for this!” Turning back to Rowen, the Assemblyman
General took a step back. “And so, therefore, by the authority given to me by
the High Assembly, I pronounce judgment on you. Dr. Rowen Taylor, you are
hereby sentenced to death for the crime of insurrection and treason against the
High Assembly.” The man paused to wait for the cries coming from Rowen’s
teammates to subside before continuing.
Campanelli
faced Rowen directly. “Said sentence will be carried out immediately.”
Rowen felt
the blood freezing in his veins as he eyed the nearby soldier with the rifle.
He wasn’t prepared to hear the Assemblyman General chuckle in amusement.
“Oh, no,
Dr. Taylor. You won’t be facing a firing squad. No, your method of execution
will be the very machine you created. Now, go prepare yourself before I order
you to be dragged over there.”
Trying to
remain resolute, Rowen walked over to the conduit and stood in the center of
the platform, directly above the glowing disk. Overhead, the transfer disk that
would scan him lightly pulsed in preparation.
He cast his
friends and fellow workers one final glance and a weak smile. He had a vague
idea what the Assemblyman General had planned, but he wouldn’t know for certain
until the man carried it out.
Campanelli
shoved Reo away from the controls and had a soldier place the engineer in cuffs
before making him join his cohorts on the floor. Going up to the console, the
man began playing with the settings, rolling the date display dials around like
they were some sort of child’s toy. Twirling them with glee as he even chanted
an old nursery rhyme.
“Round and
round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows!”
Then he
slammed his hand on the palm-sized SEND button.
Rowen felt
the familiar humming deep within his bones. The bright particle beam appeared
from overhead and pierced through him, sinking deep into the receptors beneath
his feet. As the beam widened and grew stronger, he gave the room one last
look, memorizing what would be his last moment.
And as everything around him started to fade from sight, he heard Campanelli order, “Shut down this machine. Now.”
TO BE CONTINUED
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