chapter 26
TEAM 2, YEAR: 2016
Time Remaining: 149 Days
Owen arrived at the lab after what had been a long and painful meeting with his interior designer. He expected this meeting to be a quick discussion in which he would instruct the designer to choose the same furniture and building materials the house featured prior to the explosion. However, it turned into a gauntlet of wood samples, floor tiles, colour schemes, kitchen cabinets and furniture. To make matters worse, when he chose something that clashed with elements he had already chosen, he got a lesson in colour theory or textures and patterns. He drove back to the lab happy the meeting was behind him.
Owen found Riley and Finn huddled over the testing tank setting up the two additional ray guns. The second and third guns were outfitted with diffusers that Owen had fabricated by a local machine shop, as his father’s tools had been destroyed in the blast. Like the first, Finn coated the new diffusers and guns with a protective coating called Irrefragable Compound so the highly destructive zeno rays did not disintegrate them on contact.
“Seven minutes and fifty-three seconds,” said Finn after their fifth experiment using the three guns, all circling the brick.
Riley tossed her pen aside and rubbed her eyes in exasperation. Owen took the piece of neutralized Elevanium out of the tank and set it to the side with the other spent bricks. Finn was ready with the next piece and placed it in the tank.
“Okay, something’s not working,” said Riley. “Five tests, five extremely inconsistent results.”
With three guns, less time was needed to completely neutralize the Elevanium, but it still took too long. Additionally, the inconsistent results made it impossible to predict how long the process actually took.
“Do you think we’re losing too much of the ray output to empty space? I wonder what kind of an effect that’s having?” asked Finn.
“Add to that, you said the tank is designed to absorb the rays, correct?” asked Owen.
Riley nodded. “But I don’t want to limit the range of the diffusers because we just don’t know exactly how big of a space we’ll be working in, or what shape the deposit is.”
Riley crossed her arms and stared at the brick of Elevanium in the tank. She glared at it with contempt, like a pest that resisted extermination. “You guys might be on to something. This experiment is being conducted in a very different environment than what it will actually be like underground. All this space,” she said, motioning to the empty space above the brick in the tank, “won’t be there. We’re going to be at the bottom of a tunnel way below the surface. There’s going to be a stone ceiling, walls and floor.”
“True, but they’ll be coated with Irrefragable Compound so the ceiling doesn’t collapse when the rays hit. If the Irrefragable Compound blocks the blast, it should then reflect the rays I would think, but who knows,” said Finn.
“I wonder if the composition of the surrounding environment makes a difference? For example, would a more reflective surface bounce the unused beams back, or would they be absorbed the same as if the surroundings were non-reflective?” asked Owen.
Riley shrugged. “It could make a difference. Can you estimate how reflective the stone would be?” asked Finn.
“You said this was found in a mine shaft, right?” asked Owen. Riley nodded.
Owen thought for a moment. “That’ll be hard to figure out. I mean, if the deposit was encased in typical bedrock, that would be one thing. But, if it was found in a mine, chances are there’s a high concentration of nickel, copper or other metals, and that makes calculating reflective properties practically impossible if you don’t know even a rough composition. I think we need to learn more about the mine this Elevanium was found in.”
Up next on Finn’s list of things to eat was seafood and The Beach never disappointed. Its seaside decor made for a novelty atmosphere in a city where the biggest body of water in the vicinity was a river. Old fishing nets, antique fishing lures, fake fish and other seaside paraphernalia adorned the walls of the restaurant. The weathered patio, where Owen, Riley and Finn studied the menu, was constructed to look like an aged pier overlooking the river.
A large group of women dominated the far side of the patio by the makeshift dance floor. Their laughter and shrieks of excitement were infectious and other patio-goers watched with amusement as the women handcuffed a woman, wearing a white t-shirt with “Bride” written across the chest, to the wrist of a mostly naked inflatable man.
The waitress returned to their table with a metal bucket containing six ice-covered beers as Finn’s eyes danced around the menu. “I can’t decide what to order. I’m definitely starting with a shrimp cocktail, then I think I’ll follow it up with some mussels…no. Wait. Maybe calamari. For the main course, I think I’ll try the ‘Surf and Surf’—lobster and king crab.”
When the waitress returned with their orders, the entire table became a sea of red baskets lined with red and white, checkered waxed paper, each heaping with food. Finn’s response to Riley’s comment about wiping out an entire ecosystem in one meal was to hang several calamari tentacles out of his mouth and make high-pitched, muffled screaming sounds.
Finn’s desire to experience everything 2016 bordered on obsession. With dinner long since passed, and with ten drinks in his system, he dove into the nightlife of 2016. Owen returned to the table from the washrooms to find Finn on the dance floor. He was surrounded by the women from the bachelorette party, dirty dancing with the maid of honour and wearing a glowing, green plastic penis around his neck.
Owen laughed as he took his seat across from Riley. “He’s going to get mauled over there.”
“I don’t think he’d mind too terribly,” said Riley, rolling her eyes.
Their table grew as Owen’s friends dropped in and out throughout the night. All week, phone calls had poured in from his friends wanting to check in and offer support as word about his house had spread. Instead, he invited them all out for a few drinks so they could see with their own eyes that he was still in one piece. Owen had introduced Riley and Finn as vacationing cousins; their alibi of being a couple no longer fit as Finn had been adopted by the pack of women and barely made an appearance at the table all night.
Beer in hand, Riley relaxed in her plastic patio chair as she took in the atmosphere. She had to admit to herself that the early century had its charms. There was something about the relaxed pace and simplicity of 2016 that she found homey and inviting. She looked around the patio at the different groups of people, laughing, dancing and having a good time. White strings of outdoor lights hung from the tall, weathered posts and zigzagged across the open air ceiling, giving the patio a cozy and romantic feel. She watched Owen as he laughed and talked with his friends. She could not help but notice how the warm patio lights enhanced his already handsome features, and when he smiled, the sparkle in his eyes seemed to open his soul, revealing his warm, genuine nature.
Riley was interrupted from her thoughts by Finn, who had escaped the clutches of twenty-three heavily liquored women. He called to her casually as he approached the table; though she detected urgency in his tone.
“Hey Rile, I think I’m going to head back to the hotel.” He forced a yawn.
His ghostly pallor gave away his plight, but she gave him the gears nonetheless. “I saw you hitting it off with the maid of honour.” She looked across the patio at a girl wearing a baby pink t-shirt that read, “Maid of Dis-Honour.” The dot on the second ‘i’ was a crooked halo and growing out the bottom of the ‘r’ was a devil’s tail. She leaned heavily on the bar and threw back a shot of something blue like a seasoned pro. “Let’s see. Are you leaving because a) you’ve picked her up, b) you’re too drunk, or c) you have food poisoning?”
Finn looked at her slyly. “Well…” He held up seven napkins and on them Riley saw names and phone numbers. He began to back away. “A little of all three, and I’m definitely guttered but…well, let’s just say that’s not the issue. Right n
ow, there’s only one place I need to be.”
Owen’s friends, the bachelorette party and the other restaurant-goers gradually left and soon Riley and Owen had the large patio to themselves until a server came by and mentioned they would soon be closing.
Owen looked at his watch and saw it was nearly midnight. “I guess we should check on Finn, eh?” asked Owen.
“Oh, he’ll be fine,” laughed Riley. “I saw how much he drank. I don’t want to go anywhere near him.”
Owen smiled. “Fair enough. I have an idea.”
They left the restaurant and Owen led Riley to the river’s edge. A stone footpath followed the water further than the eye could see in either direction, winding its way through the city’s downtown. The path was a favourite any time of day for joggers, tourists and people looking for a leisurely stroll, and tonight was no different. Despite the late hour, many couples and groups could be seen in either direction, the path lit by antique street lamps.
Owen looked up at the many high-rise buildings through the gaps in the trees that lined the walkway. The buildings appeared very much alive with many of the office lights still on as cleaning crews worked their nightly magic.
“So what is the city like in 2097? Is it much different than it is now? Does everyone have hover cars and eat pills for dinner? Does everyone live in bubble-shaped buildings on mile-high stilts?” Owen laughed as he threw at her every cliché from every movie or TV show he had seen about the future. “Where’d you park your DeLorean?”
“My DeLorean?”
Owen chuckled to himself. “Never mind.”
Riley laughed; she had seen enough classic movies to have a pretty good idea of what Owen’s perception of the future may be. “The city’s about four times bigger and the buildings are much, much taller. The hover car to road car ratio is about seven to two. Hover cars came into production in the mid-sixties, but they didn’t really catch on until the late seventies, early eighties when the costs became more reasonable and the safety records became a little more, shall we say, attractive for paying consumers. In the beginning, air traffic merely drove above the regular streets up until the mid-eighties, when it became too much and the city developed designated air routes with proper layering, lighting and guidance systems.”
Owen could only imagine the chaos the transition from road to air travel would cause. “Are there a lot of collisions?”
“No, not really. Most cars, regardless of whether they’re hover or wheeled have pretty accurate anti-crash sensors, unless they’re exceptionally old or you’re driving too fast.”
“What are the buildings like?”
“Oh, they’re much bigger. Some of them will take up three or four city blocks at the base and are easily about four or five times the height of what you have here. Plus, they look quite different. You don’t see too many boxy buildings like what you see here,” said Riley, looking at the office towers in the distance that made up Tricity’s skyline. “There was a big craze for wavy and geometric-shaped buildings around the fifties, so there’s quite a few of those. There’s kind of a neat ring-shaped building with flared balconies. From a distance, it looks like feathers. There’s also one that resembles a narwhal tusk. That’s City Hall. Some are tall and narrow like three cylinders grouped together, and that’s just in Tricity. Around the world, you almost can’t believe some of the architecture. In Asia, some of the buildings actually move with the seasons. There’s one built like a Ferris wheel. It takes about a year to go around, so at least one day a year you get a top floor view.
“We still have the subway, but the infrastructure is crumbling and the city isn’t planning to fix it when air transit is so much more efficient. When the air is your road, road maintenance costs are much lower.”
Owen thought about how crummy some of the roads were around the city. The wide range of seasonal temperatures of Tricity meant annual repairs for streets and other infrastructure when compared to the milder temperatures of the cities on the West Coast. It was nearly impossible for most cities to keep up with transportation and public works infrastructure maintenance in balanced climates, let alone one as diverse as Tricity.
Neither Riley nor Owen were in any rush to end the evening. As they meandered down the path, Riley told Owen more about the future when no one was within earshot. Owen wanted to ask what his neighbourhood was like in the future but decided not to, fearing the answer would be depressing, like it had become a shopping mall.
After a moment of silence while a couple of bicycles passed, they found themselves on a dark stretch of path. Owen was unsurprised by this—springtime flooding frequently ravaged the path. Often, sections were unlit or completely closed off for repair, forcing pedestrians and cyclists up through the bushes, onto the road to detour the damaged area. He squinted and made out the triangular construction signs stacked neatly along the trees that lined the path. Seeing that Riley showed no signs of hesitation, he continued down the path through the darkness.
As they neared the centre of the darkened area, Owen heard a scuffle to his right. With his eyes somewhat adjusted to the darkness, he saw someone try to grab Riley. Before he could reach out, Riley flipped her assailant over her head and onto the ground, pinning his neck down with her foot. The man sputtered and coughed under the pressure of her foot.
Owen’s mind was blown—he was completely startled by the attack, impressed with Riley’s lightning-fast reflexes and awed by the ease with which she had been able to defend herself. He felt emasculated for not protecting her himself. More footsteps came running up behind them. Another dark figure lunged at Riley. Owen stepped between Riley and the man to intercept him when he saw a dark shadow move out of the corner of his eye. He paid for this distraction as the man charging toward them threw a punch at Owen. It connected poorly and deflected off of his cheek. Owen felt only heat on his cheek—adrenaline blocked the pain as his fist connected solidly with the attacker and laid him out on the ground. Sounds of footsteps surrounded them and the darkness made it impossible to tell by how many people. They were being swarmed.
Riley heard footsteps all around her. Although she was visually unable to tell how many people there were, she used her other senses to tally her attackers. She lost count after eight distinctly different sets of footsteps, the sounds becoming too many to distinguish. She knew her back faced the water and Owen stood to her right, easy to spot in a white polo shirt. She counted three people to Owen’s right, at least three to her left and two or more in front.
Riley released the body she had pinned down; he had stopped writhing and she assumed he had become unconscious. She felt a large pair of hands around her neck and she stomped hard on the insole of their owner. The man howled in pain and in one fluid motion, Riley grabbed his arm, wrenched it backward spinning him around, pinned it behind his back and knocked him to his knees. She aimed a kick at his right kidney and let him fall completely to the ground, groaning in agony.
The scene became chaos and Riley concentrated hard on what she heard, felt and smelled around her. Scuffling footsteps were everywhere. She heard nylon track pants which had not been part of the original eight attackers, which meant at least one more new assailant. She felt two pairs of hands on her as she got a glimpse of Owen, his white t-shirt more visible than anything else in the darkness. He fought hard against two smaller attackers and seemed to be holding his own. She disposed of both her assailants as effortlessly as she had the first two, and one of the men attacking Owen switched his focus to her.
“Who is this chick? Superwoman?” asked the small attacker rhetorically as he dashed toward her. His voice was nasally and abnormally high for a man. “She’s killed that giant ape!”
“He warned us that she’d be hard to take down,” said a deeper, raspy voice.
The nasally man and two more dark figures lunged at her, which was quickly followed by the sound of bone cracking, popping cartilage, blood-curdling screams and feet kicking the ground in pain. Riley heard scuffling on the p
ath as the nasally man crawled out of reach after being kicked in the jaw.
Owen could not believe the madness surrounding him. He fought blindly at his attackers, trying desperately to get to Riley, but as soon as he threw someone off, another person would appear. He had no idea how many people were attacking them and it seemed never-ending. The darkness made it impossible for him to focus on anything that moved. The attackers appeared to focus on Riley, and Owen was impressed with how well she held her own. Then he heard something that made his stomach turn.
“This’ll knock her out,” said a deep voice in front of him. Owen heard a click followed by the electrical zapping sounds of a taser. His eyes frantically searched the scene and he saw the dark outline of a thin body hit the ground. He broke free of the arms grabbing at him, lunged toward Riley and fell to the ground as something blunt hit him hard in the ribs. Owen’s eyes focused just enough to see the darkened figure of one of the largest men he had ever seen in his life, snatch Riley up like a ragdoll. He stood her in front of him and pinned her arms behind her back. Riley seemed unnaturally still and Owen hoped to hell she was only unconscious. Desperate to get them out of this mess, his mind raced for an idea as a pair of hands dragged him to his feet.
“Stand still,” ordered an even deeper, male voice from behind him. Owen pretended to acquiesce, then broke free and lunged at the man holding Riley, unsure of his strategy as the man stood a full head taller than himself and probably the same amount wider.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said the nasally sounding man. His voice was different now, like he spoke through a clenched, perhaps broken jaw.
Owen heard the metallic clicking of a gun cocking and he froze mid-stride.
“Give me everything you’ve got!”
Owen had a different plan. He looked both ways down the footpath to see how many other people were around. He saw no one and realized this was what had made them such appealing targets.
“Don’t got all day, Buddy. Give me everything, or I might mess up your girlfriend’s pretty face.” Owen saw a glint of light reflect off the gun’s barrel as he pointed it away from Owen and at Riley’s head.
Owen pretended to reach for his wallet in his pocket but instead grabbed his VersaTool. Still on the MOVE setting from the last time he used it, a red light shot out and Owen aimed it at the centre of the little man’s chest.
“What the hell?” Distracted, the man wildly aimed his gun back at Owen, not taking his eyes off the red light on his chest.
Owen pressed the button and the man’s entire body glowed red. His high-pitched shrieks pierced the night as Owen raised him off the ground and manoeuvred the frantic, flailing man over the centre of the river. He gave his wrist a flick as he released the button. The red beam disappeared and the man flew up into the air before falling into the river, the gun splashing far out of his reach. He resurfaced moments later and Owen heard him swearing as the cold, swift current carried him down the river.
The iron grip holding Riley loosened as the giant thug became distracted by what he had just witnessed, and Riley tried to wriggle free. Refocused by his escaping quarry, the man grabbed her even harder and jerked her backward, away from the water’s edge not wanting to be next. Owen lunged at Riley’s captor and landed his fist square on his jaw. The man’s grip loosened and Riley broke free. She turned, kicked him in the groin and kneed him in the nose when he doubled over. His body hit the ground with a dull thud. Riley listened for more footsteps and heard three sets running away from the scene. Like it had been timed, the path lighting flickered back to life and Owen surveyed the scene. At least eleven bodies lay at their feet. Some were beginning to stir. Owen grabbed Riley’s hand and pulled her off the path and ran through a row of trees and bushes and onto the nearest road.