Too Many Lifetimes Part One

Too Many lifetimes

Prologue

My name is Nathan, and I was born 700 years ago, when Earth was still a planet. Now it has become a mass of iron, plastic, and concrete. I miss the old days, when there was grass to see, real water to drink, and a sky above me, not a hologram. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself... Let me start over.

Part One

Clouds In The Distance

                   1

“NATE!  Get up NOW, don’t think I don’t know you have midterms today!!” Good morning to you too mom.

“Give me a sec!” I yell back as I roll out of the bed and look around for a pair of anything clean. Black T-shirt, jeans. Good enough! As I rush down the stairs I have to jump over piles of Marks toys, the kid never cleans up after himself, and honestly mom doesn’t have the time to do it for him. I walk into the kitchen and I’m assaulted by the smell of eggs and bacon. Hell yes I think. Mom sees me eyeing the food like ill die if I don’t eat. “Sorry hun’ you’re already late. This is dad’s breakfast.” I look at the clock it’s 6: 54. Shit. I sprint out the door into the blistering cold and thank God Dan’s still waiting for me. I hop in shotgun of his white suburban as Dan remarks “About time kid, I was giving you about thirty seconds before I just left your ass.”

“Thanks Dan, some friend you are.” I spit blandly.

“Haha get over it, I’m your neighbor not your friend!”

With the formalities over Dan turns on the music and speeds to school. 7:13, I’ve got time but just barely. Immediately as I enter the door Lauren comes running up to me beaming. “Hey Nate, you ready for today’s midterms?!?!” way too chipper for the morning.

“Lauren not now. Please. I woke up way too late and my mom refused to give me breakfast.” I remark as Lauren’s face changes from a huge smile to a mock pout.

“Fine Mr. Sassy pants. Don’t expect my help” She says jokingly while we separate.

I’ve only known Lauren since the summer, but she’s always been around for me since then, so I thought she’d be a friend forever, but I was dead wrong. She’d be long gone by the time I woke up.

As I walk to my locker I scan the crowded halls for Trisha, a friend of mine who is always close at hand when I need her. But I don’t see her at all this morning, I guess she feels she’s not needed. As I get to my locker Pat, Ty, Matt, Brennan, and Trevor all say their hello’s and then continue talking about Sunday’s game’s. I just zone it all out trying to push away my headache, just waiting for the day to finally start. As the homeroom bell rings I prepare for my last and probably easiest midterm, guitar. As I take the test noticing how while some questions are normal, others have answers like hello kitty=awesome. “Whatever” I laugh to myself as Nick and Andrew ask Doctor C. If he could just give them one test answer, or maybe six.  After a week of coughing up all the information I’ve learned so far finally I was done, and Nick and Andrew provided a nice distraction from the rest of the things bouncing around in my head. I finished my test in thirteen minutes flat and was happily impressed with myself. After finally being let out of the test room, I head to my locker grab my backpack and head to Trevor’s car. As we head home we talk about how great it is to be done with midterms and laugh about how crazy everyone’s acting now that we’re free for a bit. Neither of us can stop laughing, so neither of us notices the truck about to slam us. As the truck hits, metal sheers and glass flies. We are hurled into Kessler’s pond shattering the ice as we plummet into it’s depths.. As we sink down I struggle with the door. It wont open, I have no way out and I remember my last thoughts being “damn, now I can’t skate here tomorrow.” When we hit bottom both choking for air, how was I supposed to know that life wasn’t over. 

                   2

700 Years later

I opened my eyes to see a blonde kid looking down at me. Without even registering everything I rolled over and threw up more water than I honestly thought I could possibly hold. “..The… heck?” I managed to gasp out before I blacked out.

I woke up again with the same kid staring over me. “You know it’s kind of creepy to just stare at people kid.” I coughed out as I stood up shakily. “Who are you and where the heck am I?” I remarked glancing around at my unfamiliar surroundings.

“Well I’m Steve and welcome to West Bellville, who are you?” Steve remarked calmly. “Uhhm.. names Nate..” I said hesitantly as I looked around. All I could see was buildings, which wasn’t too far, there was thick smog surrounding us. I could practically taste it. Steve threw me a gas mask and I put it on no questions asked, I didn’t like what I was seeing, I didn’t get it either but this seemed like a “don’t ask” situation. The kid had to be around seventeen years old pretty tall and decent build, and he definitely had something to tell me, and he had to tell me now before I lost my mind, surrounded by all this steel and concrete. “West Bellville?” I ask. “This looks more like New York City. What happened to Wall?” Steve looked at me like my face was missing.

“Wall? Are you kidding me? You’re joking right? Everyone says Wall was a town that got wiped out about 700 years ago.. I heard that apparently Camp Evans was testing Nukes or something crazy and one caused a chain reaction that destroyed the entire state just making N.J. a huge crater.. Most of the world was soon to follow due to just idiocy.  You my friend were in that crater. Be happy the great freeze kept the lake frozen or you’d be long dead. So seriously you’re telling me you’re from Wall??”

“Wait, what the HELL are you talking about? Where the hell are we? A crater? Seven hundred years ago?? I… last thing that happened was.. Trevor got T boned and we launched into Kessler’s pond. Wait! Where’s Trevor??”

“Hey look man, all I found was you.. Nothing else.”  The kid began to walk away, leaving me no choice but to follow him down a small side street, or stay here lost in god knows where. So off I go, me following this kid who just pulled me out of a frozen crater. Some day this was turning out to be. Suddenly Steve slammed me up against a wall as a Cop passed.

“Hey what the hell?!?” I gripe

“SHH.” Steve spit at me. He looked around the corner to make sure the officer was gone and rolled down his sleeve. There on his wrist was a bar code with the words “Steve Warring” under it. “Sorry, but im really doubting your registered.”

“So what? My dad used to be chief here I’m sure I can get registered easy.”

“Yea not so fast” Steve said “The point of registering is so no one can get into the country without the government knowing about it, and to prevent families from having any extra children. It’s only one per kid household now, and if you have twins too damn bad, pick the cuter one.”

“Fantastic. So what do I do? Can’t I just go talk to someone important?”

“Like who? Bill Gates? Good luck getting an appointment with him. You’d have better luck getting a meeting with President Jameson.  You could maybe try Miss. Kinstler, the head of the registrations department.”

“Wait Gates is still alive?? Uh.. Whatever.. How can I see Miss. Kinstler?”

“There’s nothing I can really do... you’re on your own here, sorry. Take my opinion anyway, she’s not a woman you want to mess with. I’m sorry If my mom see’s me with an unregistered she’ll flip.”

“Cool Steve, real cool. What do you expect me to do now??”

Steve pulls out a thin piece of metal and hands it to me.

“Oh, why thanks Steve, Thanks. Just what I always wanted… A.. what is it?”

“It’s a thermal hibernator. You didn’t have those?”

“A thermal who-wha? What’s it do?”

“It creates a tent around you so your sheltered and it provides you with heat, trust me it’s going to be cold.”

“Cool.. I guess. Better than nothing, Thanks.”

As I walk away Steve grab’s my shoulder. I turn around to face him and he looks nervous, scared almost.

“Nate uhmm.. could you meet me here tomorrow? I need to talk to you.. but I have to run it by some other people first.”

“Uh.. Yea sure man, least I could do I guess.. See you then.”

As I walked away I thought to myself who is this kid? Why is he helping me? And what could he possibly have to tell me that he had to wait. Questions for another day I guess. I roamed the side streets looking for a place to lay this hibernator thing down, all while attempting to avoid the police and memorize directions amid a city that all looked the same.

                   3

After a good half hour of searching I finally settled on a small park area across from a massive pet store with things I’d never even imagined for sale. I was excited to finally feel grass under my feet again, only to discover it was astro-turf, the stuff they used on football fields back home. Home.. I wonder what I’ve missed in all this time.

I guess it’s another thing to just push back and worry about later. I milled around the park trying to waste some time and explore before it got too dark. I found an area roped off with a sign post reading “The last remaining piece of grass in the entire world. DO NOT TOUCH.” Inside was a little piece of yellowing dying sod. Wow. Guess the environment really did go to hell. What else had we done to ruin the world? Gotta stop asking so many questions I can’t answer, I remind myself.

          I decided to set up the thermal hibernator, and as I was doing so I realized just how right Steve was. Even with the gas mask covering my face I felt the biting cold. I pulled out the metal rod and pulled a small pin hanging from the bottom. Immediately a small orange tent-like building popped up emitting waves of heat. Thankful for any of the small graces I crawled in, only then realizing I was not alone. All around me entire families were setting up the orange tents and crawling inside. Guess even with all huge buildings there’s still people out on the streets. How wonderful this new era was shaping up to be.

      Feeling warm and a little bit safer I put my head down on the pillow and mattress already set up inside. Fantastic how some things just work now though. “PING. Air successfully cleaned of harmful contaminants; you may now remove breathing assisted devices.” A sweet female voice said to me from seemingly out of nowhere in my tent. Damn. They finally got the technology to work I though to myself removing the mask and putting it on the ground by my bed. I relaxed, but couldn’t sleep. I lay there thinking over the events that had just transpired. Had I really just somehow survived getting hit by a truck, and then thrown into a lake? All minutes before a ridiculous chain reaction of bombs went off sending the entire country into a nuclear freeze and keeping me from drowning? This was all too much to handle. All too.. Fake. I lay in my makeshift tent just waiting to wake up, drooling on my test paper asleep like a fool.

                   4

I woke up, but not in my midterm, but back in the cot in the city of West Bellville. Great, I thought to myself. This is really happening. I sat up and told myself I needed answers, and needed them yesterday. I rolled off my mattress, threw the gasmask back on and looked around for a way to dismantle the tent. After a bit of searching I found a tab labeled. “Pull to reseal.” I did as instructed and the entire structure around me collapsed into the small piece of metal in my palm. Cool I thought, stowing the hibernator in my pocket. Never know what this place could throw at me good to keep whatever’s useful I thought. I glanced around and saw a bunch of people waiting on a line in front of a cart, with smells of bacon, eggs, and sausage wafting out of it. Maybe things hadn’t changed that much, and I knew my taste buds sure hadn’t. As I reached the cart I realized I had no money. Great. Denied again. As I sadly told the pudgy, grizzly man at the cart never mind I couldn’t afford, someone grabbed my hand. I turned around to face a pretty smiling girl. “TRISHA?!?” I exclaimed excitedly.

“What..?” The girl said clearly confused. “My names Lacey..”

“Oh sorry.. Guess im still a little groggy.” Although this girl looked strikingly like Trisha, same blonde hair, same soft blue eyes, same smile, there was no way, if this really was 700 years in the future, she, and all my friends would be long dead by now I solemnly realized.

“It’s ok” the girl exclaimed adjusting the breathing tube on her nose and resuming her original excitement. “I just thought you might want a little help, I can pay for you today.” The girl turned to the man and said “Two Pork roll egg and cheeses please” as she inserted her bar-coded wrist under a machine and my mouth started to water. “Automated bank systems. Gotta hate em” She said merrily as a red bar scanned her arm and pronounced the price. Lacey smacked a few buttons and then turned to face me. “Ok all set, lets go sit over there!” she exclaimed pointing to a nearby vacant table. I thanked her and walked to the table to eat, I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. We talked easily, and I asked a lot of questions about what I had missed, I had no problem telling this girl I was over seven hundred years old, I thought it was still a joke. She didn’t seem too phased by this fact but I was too preoccupied asking questions to really notice. I did my best but it was hard to get any answers out of her, she seemed to be too preoccupied with talking about some “new” pet the doctors across the street had engineered called a bunny. Funny I thought to myself.. brought back by science, not like other things were more important. As we parted ways I said “See you around Lacey” honestly hoping I would, this place was scaring me, I felt lost and confused, and I really needed a friend.

I made my way back to the place Steve said to meet, it was his house I assumed, with a full stomach but a confused mind. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. As I went up the walk to Steve’s black and red iron house he burst out of the door and tackled me to the ground just as the air above me tore open with a startling crack, leaving only the smell of burnt ozone and a burn mark on the side of Steve’s house. Looked like now wasn’t the time to get answers either, as two men in black armor with huge pulsing weapons blew out the front of Steve’s house. Man I just love the future.

                     5

Before I could even speak Steve pulled me off the ground and started sprinting down a side street. Either follow him or deal with the armored men. I chose Steve and thanked Coglin for all the running I had done in cross country. As we rocketed down the alleyway people flattened themselves against the walls to avoid being hit by us. The cries of “STOP B.O.T.I” Caught my ears. I had no time to figure out what that meant as we rounded the corner, right into the arms of an agent. “Wrong turn boys.” The man snorted from under his mask. “Nah, just wrong day for you bud.” Steve said as he ripped the mask from the guards face, sucker punched him, and stole his weapon. “You picked the wrong kid today” Steve grunted as he whipped the man with the butt of the weapon. “Time to go Nate, it’s now or never” he said as he threw me the gun, looking like a bigger version of a sniper, except it had glowing green coils on the side.. Beats me. I glanced behind me and didn’t see the other two creeps, but still I felt uneasy. As I looked back Steve was searching the Guard. “Ammo” he grunted as he pulled off some slug like looking things from the man’s belt. Steve jumped up and said “time to go” Just as the same two men came hurdling over the buildings behind me. “SHIT!!” Steve yelled. “Pull the trigger you don’t want these guys anywhere near you!” I quickly turned to him and yelled “What? No way I won’t kill anyone!”

“JUST DO IT’ Steve yelled back, veins popping out of his neck. This kid didn’t look like someone I’d want to be with when he’s mad so I turned dropped to one knee and fired two shots. One hit the B.O.T.I agent right in the chest throwing him back as he rushed to us, and the other hit the agent in the shoulder spinning him like a top. Neither of the hits drew blood, and I guess Steve realized it too because from behind me I heard I sigh. “Phew, Non-lethals thank god.” I beamed and was about to say something about my lack of training when Steve pushed me and said “we seriously gotta get moving.”

After another solid twenty minutes of running through back alleys and side streets we came to a spot I was sure I recognized, or at least thought I did. The spot looked like my old high school, almost unchanged except for that it had clearly fallen into a state of disrepair. This was the building Steve took me into, and he took me to the offices and sat me down. “Ok Nate.” He said “This is it.. Wait here ill be right back, I got some people I want you to meet.” Steve left and I looked around, the office was the same as it used to be, scary and not at all inviting. After a few minutes Steve came back followed by two other people. The first I immediately recognized as Lacey, the girl who had bought me breakfast, and the second a huge guy of probably about 23 with muscles the size of my head. The latter was the one who approached me and shook me hand saying “Nate right? I’m Roland, Welcome to The Righteous.”

6

“Uh..? The Righteous? What’s that some kind of 70’s cover band?” I joked, not at all sure what Steve had got me into.

“Oh so Steve didn’t tell you why he brought you here? Typical haha. We are a ragtag group of mercenaries bent on proving that the registration system is flawed and keeping the B.O.T.I off people’s backs. I am open to any questions you may have. ” Roland said with a smile and a chuckle crossing his arms, with Lacey behind him beaming. I guess she was just as happy to see me as I was to see her.

“Well first” I said cautiously “what is the B.O.T.I?”

“The B.O.T.I is the Bureau Of True Identity. Their agents roam the streets scanning everyone they come across, looking for false barcodes or lack of barcodes entirely. They are an elite fighting force devoted only to bring down those who have “lied” to the government. So in other words, our biggest fear.” Roland explained without any doubt.

“So how come they were at Steve’s then? I saw his barcode.”

Steve stepped up and said “Mine’s a fake, all of ours our except for Lacey’s. I was an illegal third child and Roland escaped from an adoption center before they gave him a proper one, and I don’t blame him.” 

“Alright that makes sense I guess… But why’d you even ask me for help Steve? I don’t even know you, or anything about this place.”

“Well,” Steve responded with a smirk crossing his face, clearly avoiding my question “I didn’t think you’d be so ungrateful, we could just throw you out onto the cold street.” Steve saw the horror cross my face and gave me a quick wink. “I’m just kidding you kid, we need as much as you need us… Since...” Steve’s smirk disappeared and was immediately replaced by a look of sorrow “.. Since we lost Chris and Mackenzie.” Tears began to glisten in Steve’s eyes but still he went on, “We were all out exploring the ruins of Old Trenton for any refugees when the B.O.T.I showed up.. We scattered, me Lacey and Roland going one way, And Chris and Mackenzie the other.. We never saw them again. The worst we can assume is that they got taken by the Scanboys and.. Well thrown out. Like trash. We are all still hoping they just got lost somewhere out in the ruins and got in with some refugee’s.. but we don’t know.. Chris was my brother.” Steve turned and walked away, clearly not able to handle the explanation anymore. A rather somber Lacey approached me “Guess you were right, I would see ya around. What Steve’s trying to say is that we need all the help we can get.. He has a deep problem with Scanboys, our name for the B.O.T.I, and he won’t rest until the whole world realizes how wrong they are. What he means by thrown out is.. well.. I guess that’s something you’ll figure out on your own. I’m sure you’re exhausted from everything, follow me.” I said bye to Roland, who seemed absorbed in working on the gun me and Steve took, and he responded with a grunt. Lacey led me to a room with beds lining both sides of the walls. “These are the bunks, you can take the one over there, it’s an extra.” I thanked Lacey and went and lay down. Even before my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.

7

            I awoke next morning to the sounds of crashes and bangs. Not good I thought to myself, as I sprung out of bed ready for action. I sprinted out into the hall to see Roland and Steve fighting with long steel pipes. False alarm I thought to myself as I saw Lacey shooting down some targets off to my right. “Uhm Good morning” I say. Roland glances over at me and Steve takes that opportunity to hit his arm with a glancing blow. Roland looked down at the blood rolling down his smooth black skin and laughed “Thanks Steve, guess im not allowed to say morning to the new guy.”

“Sorry boss, just thought I’d take the opportunity to finally beat you.” Steve remarked with a smile while pressing a button on his pipe reducing it to the size of a ruler and stowing it on his belt. “Afternoon Nate. I’m assuming you slept well judging by that it’s past noon. Sorry we woke you but we had some training to do.” He gave a quick nod to Lacey who came over and handed me a small black gun with the same pulsing green tubes on the side. “Target practice” she said pointing at the targets. I turned shot six times and hit all six targets. Lacey’s mouth dropped. “Whoa there Tex, that’s some aim you got. Steve was right you are a better shot than me.” I blushed and let out meek thanks. “I used to play a lot of airsoft with my friends” I said, still blushing.

“That’s good, we need a good shot, because some of us couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn” Lacey remarked shooting Steve a wink as she pulled another gun out of the back of her jeans. “These are Evret Pistols. Not the best kinda gun out there, but the best we could get. Simple to use as I see you already know and no need to worry about bullets just gotta charge these every 10,000 shots, so you can go crazy. But let’s hope you don’t have to.” Lacey laughed to herself. “Sorry I never really said hi. We already met over breakfast but now that your one of us we can really talk, I’m Lacey Britts, I’m the weapons expert, Chris Daniels was our driver, Mackenzie Holiday was our runner, tiny but fast as hell, and Steve Carlson and Roland are melee experts. Roland is our leader, if you haven’t noticed haha, He doesn’t exactly have a real name, we just made it up for him, like the knight he sees himself as, protecting us. What about you whats going on with you, I don’t know much about you? Do I talk too much? Too many questions still? Are you to groggy and stuff?”

“Enough chit chat Lacey, we got to head out and search again, training is over, this is the real deal.” Roland remarked coming out of the bathroom from cleaning up his wound. “Mackenzie and Chris are still out there somewhere.”  We quickly gathered some gear, Roland threw me a bulky black vest and said “make sure he puts this on right Lacey, he’s still new and were not exactly going for a Sunday stroll” I caught myself from looking too scared but still couldn’t keep my voice from quivering as Lacey tightened a vest over my chest “uh what do you mean… where are we going?”

“Well” Roland remarked, clearly laughing at my expense “We are heading back into the ruins of Old Trenton, we gotta find Chris and Mackenzie, the more time they are out there the bleaker it becomes. And let’s just say that Trenton is uh… heavily guarded.”

“Oh.” I said trying to keep my cool. “Well uh let’s go then!” Roland ran around grabbing a few more items and tossing me the same rifle Steve took from the agent before. “You know how to use this one right?” I nodded keeping my nerves steady. Roland began to walk away and the other two followed him without a word, so I followed suit and walked with them. Roland lead us to a garage type area with a van that was more like a big rig than your usual family car. This black beast was covered in armor and the front grill was a mess of barbed wire and a massive chrome bumper. “This,” Steve remarked, jumping in behind the wheel “Is the Beast, Our vehicle of choice, clearly not for comfort. Chris is much better at driving than me but we gotta deal right? Lets roll out” Roland hopped in the passenger seat, me and Lacey got in the back and we were off. This thing roared out of the garage they had set up and out onto the main road. It moved faster than any vehicle I had ever been in but otherwise it didn’t seem too much different than a car I was used to, besides the size of course. We rode in silence, but not for long, the typical hour ride only took ten minutes. We were the only car on the road anyway. We passed a big faded green sign marking our entrance to Trenton, or what was left of it. I looked out the front window and saw nothing but a huge dune of rubble and dust. Great, I thought to myself, this looks inviting.

         8

We hopped out of The Beast and onto the dusty ground. “Can’t bring the Beast out any farther, we need to go on foot from here”  Roland remarked checking everyone’s gear over. He gave Steve a quick nod and we set out. Every step we took brought up a plume of dust that drifted away into the wind. We walked around what seemed like pointlessly for hours and came to a large red brick tower surrounded by a huge courtyard and high fences. The walls were crumbling, and I could smell something rotting inside. “This is where we were ambushed last time” Roland remarked “stay on your guard, and make sure your weapons are ready. I drew the pulsing rifle off my back and kept my finger hovering around the trigger. “Lacey, you and the new kid check the tower, me and Steve will check around the perimeter” Lacey and I entered the courtyard slowly through a huge oak door, we both grunted with effort pushing it open. As we walked in I found myself staring at Lacey’s backside and quickly snapped out of it scanning the area around us. The area was strewn with trees and shrubs, lots of places for cover. We took a few steps and I tripped over a thin wire. “Oh shit” Lacey said, become very serious, spinning around just to see the huge door closing behind us. “Tripwire, they knew we were coming! Get up, let’s go let’s go!” She hauled me up off the ground “Into the tower NOW” Shots erupted behind us, Roland and Steve had opened fire, or were opened fire on. Not good. We sprinted to the tower and I heard voices behind me “HEY, GET BACK HERE!’’ More shots of blue plasma exploded over our heads, ripping the air apart. I rushed through the doors of the tower took a quick right, and had just enough time to realize what I was seeing before a huge man in black armor drove the butt of his rifle right into my face. I heard Lacey scream. I felt blood trickling out of my nose. Down down down I went my eyes rolling back. I hit the hard concrete floor with a bang. Down and out.

         End of part one