After almost a week of driving, Vulay and the enforcers arrived in the Capital Region. They drove around the perimeter until they found a gap in the wall. This led them into the Industrial Zone. It was completely silent. All the buildings in view were badly damaged. It was not long before they encountered Sapien remains. Most were badly decomposed. They most likely died during the attack. A few appeared to have died more recently.
Vulay led a small group into the Agriculture Zone. It was easy to access, as the fence had collapsed in places. The rest continued to drive around the Industrial Zone.
There were a few Sapes wandering around. There were no signs of any living Linap or Sapiens. They drove past several Linap bodies.
‘These two were governors,’ said Vulay to Eugene, who was sitting beside her. ‘It looks like they died recently.’
‘This place is really creepy,’ said Eugene as he shuddered.
‘I expect the Commercial Zone is even worse,’ said Vulay.
They pushed through the inner fence into the Residential Zone. There were decaying remains scattered everywhere. Every building appeared to be seriously damaged. They drove around the town centre for about half an hour while avoiding remains and scattered building debris.
‘This is the worst place we have been to so far,’ said Vulay as she pushed her head against the steering wheel. ‘Are you prepared to take a walk around?’ Vulay asked Eugene.
‘Since we’re here, we might as well,’ he replied.
The moment they opened their doors, the stench hit them. In less than a minute, Eugene began to vomit.
‘Go back to the vehicle,’ said Vulay. ‘I’ll join you in a moment.’
Eugene scurried back to the vehicle. It did not take Vulay long to realise that none of these buildings were safe to enter. Nothing of value could be retrieved from here. Vulay walked back to the vehicle. She looked up at the mountain.
‘This is the only place where I might find anything,’ she said to herself.
Vulay ordered the enforcers to set up camp outside the region and wait for her to return the next day. She drove out of the region and around to the closest point to the mountain. She and Eugene organised their equipment to climb the mountain in the morning.
‘Have you ever climbed before?’ Vulay asked Eugene.
‘Only buildings and from the inside,’ replied Eugene.
‘It’ll be fun,’ said Vulay. ‘There are built-in rungs. So you don’t need to be a professional.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ said Eugene curtly. ‘I strive to always be professional.’
Vulay rested her head on his chest. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she whispered to him as she closed her eyes.
‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ said Eugene confidently. ‘I’m the toughest guy I know.’ Before long, they were both asleep.
Vulay got up early the next morning. She quietly got out of the vehicle so as not to wake Eugene. She grabbed her equipment and began climbing using the rungs.
The first part of the climb was easy, but as she got higher up, she found several rungs were missing. After about an hour, she made it to the main ridge. She saw lots of scrapes and scratches along the wall. There was also some blood spatter, but no sign of any remains. She kept walking until she found an opening. The entrance to the mountain facility was badly damaged, but Vulay was able to crawl through it.
Vulay did not need to crawl very far before reaching a large room. Some of the ceiling had caved in, and everything was covered in dirt or a dust-like substance. Vulay could hear a sound. There was some sort of generator that was still on and functioning. It appeared to be powering something.
Vulay continued walking. She reached a badly caved-in area behind the large room. Vulay could make out the wreckage of a helicopter. She began pulling small and loose rocks away from the wreckage. It was hard going, but Vulay needed to check if any of the 19CE was intact.
She had moved almost half the rocks when she heard a noise. It was footsteps. Vulay walked back to the large room. It was Eugene.
‘You shouldn’t be here. You could have hurt yourself,’ said Vulay in a slightly worried tone.
‘When I woke up, you weren’t there,’ said Eugene confidently. ‘I saw your footprints in the sand and concluded you had climbed the mountain.’
‘Well done. Nothing escapes your keen observation,’ said Vulay as she smiled timidly at him.
Eugene nodded proudly as he puffed out his chest.
‘I need your physical strength to move some heavy rocks,’ requested Vulay.
‘Lead the way. I’m always ready to go,’ said Eugene confidently.
Together, Vulay and Eugene moved most of the rocks away from the helicopter.
Vulay looked at the crushed trolley and the smashed glass that used to be vials.
‘Well, that confirms that we no longer have any 19CE,’ said Vulay.
‘Rocks are heavy, and glass is brittle,’ said Eugene. ‘This outcome was inevitable.’
Vulay sighed, ‘I was hoping maybe one or two vials got between the rocks and avoided being crushed.’
Eugene shook his head in disagreement.
Vulay pulled out her phone. She took photographs of the trolley and smashed vials. Both Vulay and Eugene walked back into the large room.
‘What are we going to do about the frozen lady?’ asked Eugene.
‘What frozen lady?’ asked Vulay in a surprised tone.
Eugene pointed to the glass container. Vulay moved quickly to the glass container. She rubbed the dust away. Inside, she could see Lily frozen.
‘Wow, she’s beautiful,’ said Eugene.
‘Do you mind going outside? I’ll be with you shortly,’ said Vulay as she turned to face Eugene.
‘I’m really strong. I reckon I could carry her down,’ said Eugene confidently.
‘Eugene, she is dead,’ said Vulay angrily. ‘Go outside and wait for me.’
Eugene shrugged his shoulders and crawled outside the mountain facility.
Vulay walked up close to the glass. She peered in at Lily.
‘Jennifer was in my head a long time,’ said Vulay. ‘She had access to all my thoughts, and she controlled my every move. She made me do some of the vilest things imaginable. I had to live through all of it, and I am forced to remember all of it.’
Vulay crumpled her face up in anger. ‘Jennifer didn’t just take from me. She left some information behind. Information relating to you.’
Vulay grabbed a chair. She placed it in front of the glass container. She climbed on it so that she could be at eye level with Lily.
‘You funded this whole programme on the pretence it was a “right”,' she said angrily. 'You pretended to be the hero. You pretended to die as a hero. You impersonated someone else who you killed off. You tried to regain all your power and some. "Rotiart" is "traitor" spelt backwards, and that’s exactly what you are.’
‘I hope you can hear me. I know you took some of the 19CE. Your ego is too big not to consume it. You want to live forever.’
Vulay pulled out a copy of Denise’s document. ‘My friend wrote this. She wrote it with love in her heart. I’m leaving it here for you or whoever thaws you out.’
Vulay placed the document on the counter. ‘Lily, I don’t hate you. I’m done with hate,’ said Vulay as she walked towards the entrance of the mountain facility.
Just as she was about to leave, she saw some words on the wall. She rubbed off the dust that was covering the words. It read, ‘Loop 12’. Vulay shrugged her shoulders. She went down on her knees to crawl back through the entrance to the facility.
Eugene was waiting outside for her. ‘I’m feeling hungry,’ said Eugene to Vulay as she got to her feet.
‘We have some chocolate bars in the vehicle,’ said Vulay as she began walking towards the metal rungs.
‘I ate them for breakfast,’ said Eugene as he followed behind her.
‘We have lots of dried food you can have when we get down,’ said Vulay as she began to climb down the mountain.
‘I would love a big bowl of fruit with some ice cream,’ said Eugene as he also began climbing down the mountain behind her.
‘No fruit or ice cream in the wastelands,’ said Vulay as she began to descend quite rapidly so she could escape Eugene’s grumbling about food.
A few days earlier, in the wastelands east of Downs, Denise had arrived at the place marked ‘L1’ on the map. It looked like a small mountainous area. Denise climbed up one of the slopes. She saw a large antenna sticking out of a rock section.
‘Maybe it’s down here,’ she said as she touched the antenna. She felt it vibrating. ‘That’s really strange.’
Denise climbed back down to her vehicle. ‘I’m too curious. I need to get into this place,’ she said to herself.
Denise grabbed some explosives and shoved them in her bag. She climbed back up to the antenna. She placed the explosives in the area of the antenna. She moved a safe distance away before detonating them. The rock section collapsed.
Denise waited for the dust to settle. She walked over to where the antenna was. She grabbed it again. It was still vibrating. She looked down to see that it was attached to a machine.
Denise climbed down the antenna to enter a cave. It did not seem like a religious site. It was a large room. It had an old, decayed table. There was a broken counter. There was a broken chair placed in front of something that stuck out of the wall.
Denise looked at the machine. It appeared that the machine was connected to the protruding object. Denise rubbed the object very hard. It was very thickly covered in dirt. Eventually, she realised that it was some sort of glass container.
Denise was even more curious and continued rubbing. The glass was very cold. As more of the dirt was rubbed off, Denise could see something inside the glass case.
Denise gasped in shock. She could see a frozen, humanoid-like creature. It was very similar in appearance to both Sapien and Linap, but somehow different.
Denise stood back to observe the humanoid. Denise believed the humanoid was female, as she was wearing a dress. Denise looked at the machine that was keeping her frozen. She rubbed the dirt away. There was writing on it, but she did not recognise the language. Denise pulled out her phone and took several photographs of what she had discovered.
Denise realised she had just uncovered another huge gap in their history. Who was this humanoid? Was she another kind of Linap, or did she predate the Linap? Many more questions quickly flowed through her head. She knew she would not be able to answer any of them by herself.
Denise gazed thoughtfully at the humanoid. ‘I’m sure Orcilla would want to meet you,’ she told her. ‘Sadly, I don’t have the equipment to bring you back. It looks like I’ll have to bring her to you.’
As she was about to leave, her foot touched something on the ground. It was next to the broken counter. She looked down. She put her hands through the dust to pick up a very frail and aged document. Denise gently placed it in a clear plastic bag. It was a message from the past. Denise was filled with a strange sense of déjà vu.
Denise then pulled out a copy of her own document. It was sealed in a plastic bag. She placed it on the broken counter. ‘I should presume nothing. Therefore, I leave this here as a sign of our existence and in exchange for the message that you have left behind. It is the story of our journey.’
She paused for a moment to take a last look at the humanoid. She felt a sense of hope. The frozen humanoid was like a sign that no matter how bad things might get, it is possible to find a way back. The document she had found further reinforced her feelings.
Denise climbed up the antenna. She made her way back to the vehicle. She sat in the vehicle, pondering her next move. She smiled to herself. Then she pulled out her map. ‘Let’s see what these other locations are hiding.’ She turned on her radio and drove off across the wastelands.
In a region in the east, one generator was still working. It was about to run out of fuel. In the office of the region’s rehabilitation centre, one computer was still on. A version of Jennifer was still running. As the generator ran out of fuel, the screen went blank.
At night, when viewing the planet Sapey from above, we used to see the lights of every region shining brightly. When civil unrest broke out, some of those lights faded. When the Sentray attacked, the lights of the Capital Region went out. Every night, there were fewer lights on. Over the following few weeks, region by region went dark. Until one region remained, these lights were the only ones that shone at night.
Years passed by, and still the lights of only one region remained. Until one night, in the east, a few lights appeared. Gradually, over the next few months, more lights went on. Lights even appeared in the west. As a few more years passed, the lights spread across Sapey. The lights from the east and the west spread to meet the lights in the centre. Had the next loop begun?
