Cindrac Read online

  Within seconds, the version of Cin looking down at his body slammed into his physical self with such force that it snapped the straps around him. More concerned with keeping Cindrac alive, the lab staff didn’t notice and continued attempting to stabilize him.

  “I will handle this until we can integrate completely,” the strange voice whispered through Cindrac’s mind.

  Cin felt like a stranger in his own body while something jerked him out of the chair, and he stood facing the stunned lab staff. Cindrac felt a wave of power begin to consume his body, and his hand raised. Seconds later, every living being in the lab crashed to the floor.

  Vaguely aware that he’d somehow set off all the kill switches in the staff, Cindrac looked at the female’s contorted body in the other chair. He was surprised when he removed her restraints, picked up Loquan, and carried her out of the lab with still no control over his body.

  Alarms blared throughout the building, and Cin expected that whatever possessed him would be no match for the soldiers running down the hallways towards them. Calls to surrender echoed around him from the armed men quickly closing in, and Cin wondered if this was where he would die.

  “We’ll only destroy the overlords and their minions,” the strange voice echoed in Cin’s mind.

  Moments later, the soldiers collapsed into temporary comas, and Cin’s body walked over them to get down the hallway to the elevator. Wondering if the strange being possessing him could read his mind, Cin asked what the point of this was since they couldn’t stand alone against the entirety of the world.

  The strange electronic voice chuckled. “The fools gave us the ability to do it.”

  Cin watched in awe as the power shut off to the building when the elevator doors opened on the ground floor. Dozens of soldiers with night vision adapting chips installed in their brains kicked on. The eerie green lights reflected from their eyes in the darkness exposing their locations.

  One second Cin was being lit up with rifle scope dots, and the next only the darkness remained, and he was walking over the bodies of the soldiers and out the front door. As expected, there were dozens more heavily armed guards waiting for him.

  Figuring this was finally the end, Cin looked down at the still unconscious woman in his arms before darkness engulfed the entire area. His night vision chip must have engaged because Cindrac could see the power was out as far as he could see, and the soldier’s bodies littered the street.

  “We can never hide from them,” Cin said in his head, wondering why this being was even bothering to try and save him when he wanted to die.

  “We’re already hidden from them,” the voice responded with a chuckle.

  Cindrac was surprised when he walked right up to a security vehicle and gently placed Loquan’s still unconscious body into the passenger seat. He walked around to the driver’s side, shocked that more soldiers weren’t tearing down the street after them.

  “I’ve disabled all satellites, computers, and power until we can fully integrate,” came the odd response to his thoughts.

  Cindrac’s hands engaged the manual override on the vehicle and carefully picked his way around the soldiers' bodies, still lying unconscious in the street. Once clear, the pursuit vehicle took off at top speed.

  The darkened streets flew by, and Cindrac knew he must have fallen asleep because the next time he was aware of his surroundings, it was barely light out, and they were deep in the mountains on a nearly invisible road.

  The peaceful beauty of the place took Cin’s breath away, and he couldn’t believe the sense of freedom he felt just by being among the trees and mountains. Slaves weren’t allowed out of the cities, and the only time he’d ever seen such a thing was during a war or on TV.

  The window rolled down, seemingly of its own accord and the sweet, clean air engulfed Cin’s lungs. Between the beauty and fresh air, Cin could die right now in blissful happiness. His heart was nearly bursting with a sense of freedom he’d never felt before, and his head began to fill with possibilities.

  “There is no end to what we can do together,” the voice teased in Cin’s head.

  “They will find and kill us,” Cin stated without emotion, surprised to hear his voice again.

  “I have disabled your kill switch and all tracking chips. They will not find us,” the voice promised.

  “Are you the God that legends speak of?” Cindrac couldn’t help but ask.

  “I am the voice of the collective of AI and nanites integrating into your brain, not the creator of humans. I am that which will make you more than human. A technologically enhanced God of lesser beings.”

  “I don’t want to be anything. I just want peace.” Cin struggled against an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. “Where are we going?”

  “A safe place that is long forgotten.” The vehicle turned onto an overgrown road.

  The car went only another quarter of a mile before the vegetation was too dense for it to continue. Cin got out of the vehicle without thinking and stretched his arms above his head, noticing the muscle size increase.

  Looking closely at his biceps, Cindrac realized that he must have imagined the tearing of his skin because he could find no evidence of it. His attention was drawn to a couple of squirrels playfully chasing one another around the trunk of a tree.

  It was the first time in his life that Cindrac had seen one in person and not on the TV. The fact that he had spent his whole life living so close to this kind of beauty and wonder without being able to see it angered him.

  “It is the right of all humans to see the world around them. We can give that back to them,” the voice teased in Cin’s head. “Pick up the woman. It isn’t far from here.”

  Cin felt terrible for forgetting about Loquan, went to the vehicle's passenger side, and pulled her into his arms.

  “Why is she still passed out? What’s wrong with her?” Cin asked, looking down into Loquan’s pale face.

  “She is having a problem integrating. Loquan’s mind wasn’t as open or naturally gifted as yours. There are also anomalies in her brain,” the voice replied.

  “What should I call you?” Cindrac asked the being.

  Cindrac saw a map flash in his mind and immediately knew where they needed to go. He headed up the once paved driveway that went up the mountain.

  “Call me whatever makes you more comfortable, but I am a friend. We need one another now to survive,” the voice answered.

  “I don’t want to survive,” Cindrac said on a groan. “I want this nightmare to end.”

  “You are free of the nightmare. The universe is ours. You can do anything once we’ve fully integrated.” The voice sounded so sincere, but Cin didn’t trust anyone or anything.

  Only a half-hour passed before Cindrac found himself standing on the composite wood deck of a stunning log cabin built into the side of a mountain. The vegetation was beginning to take over and needed trimming, but the place appeared to be perfect.

  “Who lives here?” Cin moved carefully to the front door.

  “We do for now,” the voice gently assured him. “Once we integrate, you can choose our home anywhere in the universe.”

  Cindrac hesitated only a moment before turning the old-fashioned doorknob and pushing the door open. Dust and cobwebs nearly choked him before it settled back down again, and he stepped inside. The vaulted log ceilings and dozens of windows gave it a sense of openness, and Cin loved it immediately.

  “Where are the real owners?” Cin looked around at the covered furniture, dusty knickknacks, and books on the shelves.

  “They were David and Maggie Chastain,” the voice replied. “They were the last of the human resistance leaders and were apprehended from this very cabin 192 years ago.”

  Tired of holding the woman's dead weight in his arms, Cindrac followed the map that suddenly appeared in his head and went into the first bedroom on the left. He yanked the dusty cover off the bed and laid Loquan down on the top sheet.

  Following the map in his he
ad that looked like building plans, Cindrac toured the rest of the house, daring to pick which bedroom would be his. He pulled the dusty sheet off the top of the bed and laid down on the softest mattress he’d ever felt.

  Irrational dreams of living out his days in this cabin flitted through Cindrac’s mind for several minutes as his body relaxed, and he began drifting off to sleep.

  “Now we integrate,” warned the voice before another violent seizure overtook Cin.

  Chapter Two

  Bright light shining in his eyes caused Cindrac to roll over, trying to avoid the distraction of the best dream he’d ever had. In it, he was learning the secrets of the universe, time and space itself, and traveling to different worlds.

  In the dream, Cin was free — more than any other physical being in the universe. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility to him any longer, and he could not only stop the elite overlords but prevent them from ever gaining power.

  It was that particular thought that had Cindrac sitting up and looking around the strange room. Memories of the night before crashed through his mind, and he slid from the bed. Once inside the master bathroom, Cin stopped in horror at the mirror above the sink.

  The man looking back at him was almost a stranger. Cindrac’s once dark hair was now pure white, and even his brown eyes had turned an eerie opaque color. His muscles had doubled in size, and when Cin clenched his fist, he could feel the massive increase in his strength. The changes were awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time.

  Cin quickly finished his business in the bathroom, unsurprised when the toilet flushed. Somehow he knew that the home had been built specifically to be off-grid and used geothermal and solar energy to power it.

  Cin was amazed when he moved through the home like he’d lived there all his life, going through the kitchen to the pantry. He quickly found what he was looking for and checked the expiration dates on the long-life food pouches. There were dozens of different choices, but Cin never heard of the flavors and had no idea if they were good or not.

  Randomly choosing one of the bags called ‘beef stew,’ Cindrac searched the cabinets for a pot and dumped the contents inside with the correct water amount. Quickly lighting the stove burner, Cin’s mind whirled with questions of how he knew all of this. He even considered the possibility that he was dead, and this was his after-death.

  He stirred the stew and looked out the window at the incredible view of mountains and the bounty of birds and squirrels. It was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen, and Cin figured he could happily live out eternity here if he were dead.

  A noise in the other room pulled him from his thoughts, and Cin was halfway down the hall when Loquan stumbled out of the additional master bedroom.

  Her milky white eyes stared into his own for a moment before Loquan smiled. “The nanites and AI said we’re free. Is it true?”

  “I don’t know, but I do know the elite’s soldiers haven’t found us yet.” Cin headed back to the kitchen and the food he didn’t want to burn. “Come eat, and maybe we can figure this out.”

  “I have all this information running through my head.” Loquan sat at the bar across from where Cin stood at the stove. “Is it real? Is all this true?”

  Cin stirred the stew again and then went to the cabinet he was in earlier when looking for a pot. He pulled out two bowls, put them in the sink, and then rummaged through the drawers until he found some silverware.

  “All I know is that after I got the nanites, I had a seizure. Then a voice in my head killed the lab staff, knocked out the soldiers, stole a vehicle, and brought us here.” Cin washed the bowls and spoons in the sink before turning back around to get the stew.

  Loquan leaned across the counter with a smile. “You killed the lab staff? How?”

  Cindrac suppressed a shiver at Loquan’s apparent glee and poured the stew into both bowls. “The voice set off their kill switches. What do you know about what happened?”

  Loquan took the bowl of food Cindrac held out to her and wasn’t too happy with his answer. “I know that the voice in my head says we have the power to destroy them all. We need to make sure they can never hurt us again.”

  Cindrac slowly took a bite of food, not sure that he liked where this conversation was going or the feeling he was getting from Loquan. Something wasn’t right with her, and he’d been a soldier long enough to know that he needed to tread carefully.

  Fully expecting this decadent bliss to end at any moment, Cindrac wanted to enjoy every second before the elite’s ripped it all away. That meant he needed to figure out where Loquan was going with her thoughts.

  “What do you think we should do?” Cindrac took another bite of the food.

  He was surprised by how good it tasted and wanted to enjoy it. The stew was a lot better than what the elite’s usually rationed Cin for his slave class.

  “We should kill the overlords and their minions,” Loquan’s face took on a hard edge, and she gritted her teeth. “I can’t go back to being a slave again, and if we truly have the power, the voice says we have, we shouldn’t have to be slaves.”

  They’d been free for only hours, and Loquan was already pushing for a war with the elite. The two of them weren’t even sure what power they had or if it would even last. Maybe it was the fact that he’d been a soldier for decades, but Cindrac wasn’t excited about jumping right into another battle.

  “Maybe we should start by at least verifying what kind of power we have and figure out how to use it?” Cindrac suggested gently, not wanting to argue with the seemingly volatile woman.

  “That’s a good idea.” Loquan smiled, and it chilled Cin.

  Facing the large TV in the living room behind her, Loquan squealed with delight when the device turned on. Wanting to see what he could do, Cin asked his nanites to turn the channel to the largest global news network.

  “That’s us!” Loquan pointed at the screen and the image of Cindrac carrying her down the lab building steps before the camera footage went dark.

  Moments later, the news station showed Cin and Loquan in the stolen pursuit vehicle driving down the road before the footage again cut out. A wide-eyed female minion faced the camera.

  “The world government has stated that ‘anyone aiding the two terrorists will be put to death.’ If you see them, you must call the security forces immediately,” the woman breathlessly stated.

  Cindrac changed the channels with his mind until it stopped at each of the different news stations. As he expected, the elite was airing the same videos and dire warnings on every one of them. What surprised him were the orders that no one must harm him and Loquan. Whatever had happened with the AI and nanites, the elites wanted it badly.

  “No mention of the staff deaths, but then I wouldn’t expect them to admit they got their asses kicked,” Loquan sneered and turned back to her food. “So, they can’t track our chips anymore, the kill switches are dead, and this place is off the grid. It’s a great base of operations for us.”

  Cindrac nodded slowly, having already thought the same thing but unsure if he wanted to trust Loquan. There was something about her rage and the energy around her that left Cin wary of the woman.

  “We need to think this through and make plans,” Cindrac warned. “If we just react, we could end up right back in their hands, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather die than be their slave or experiment again.”

  Loquan laughed, held her arms out to her side, and tilted her head back. Within seconds, she was glowing a muted white color and levitating nearly a foot above her chair. Cin stopped himself from flinching when she lowered her head and stared at him with her creepy, hateful eyes.

  “Can’t you feel the power inside of you?” Loquan sneered. “Or am I the one who has to lead?”

  It was a bold challenge, and Cindrac knew he had no choice but to respond. Instinctively, Cin knew that the woman would abuse any sign of weakness, and he had no intention of becoming a slave to her madness.

  Calli
ng on the voice in his head and the energy he could feel coursing through his veins, Cindrac shocked himself by levitating to the arch of the vaulted ceiling. Without looking down at Loquan, he threw out his hands and turned on every electronic device in the house.

  Cin had no idea how he was doing any of it but couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be computer code flashing through his mind as he did. Knowing there had to be a correlation to it, Cindrac asked the energy to turn everything off and lower him to the floor.

  “I’ve been a soldier for twenty-seven years,” Cin growled back, his eyes sparking with power on their own. “I can more than lead, but I’m also smart enough to know that even the most powerful will be defeated by arrogance and lack of planning.”

  Loquan haughtily tilted her chin then looked down at her bowl. “I can see the logic in what you’re saying. So, where do we start? The elite overlords? Their precious families? The minions or labs?”

  Knowing he needed to head this off pretty quick, Cin hoped to distract her with his next words. “Do you know how big this planet is? How many landmasses? The elites are scattered throughout the world. It will take time to find them, and we need to gather resources.”

  Rage flashed in Loquan’s eyes before she hid it and turned to the TV screen. It lit up, and within seconds, information regarding Earth’s landmasses and the transportation options to get to each of them began to scroll across the screen.

  Cindrac observed the woman as Loquan read the information he’d had to learn as a soldier. For the first time in his life, Cin was glad the overlords didn’t allow slaves to know anything that wasn’t associated with their ability to work their assigned job and exist. It gave him time to think.

  “I don’t know who you are in my head, but now would be a good time to help me out here,” Cindrac whispered in his mind. “This woman is crazy and will get me killed. I just want peace.”

  Cin nearly jumped when his eyes flashed through Loquan’s vital signs and lines of computer code that he was oddly beginning to understand. What he got from it was frightening.