FLOOR 21
Dark Angel
by
Jason Luthor
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
CONTENTS
Tommy’s Recording 01
Dodger’s Recording 01
Mike’s Recording 01
THE DARKNESS
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
01
Tommy’s Recording 02
Dodger’s Recording 02
Mike’s Recording 02
Tommy’s Recording 03
Watson’s Recording 01
Tommy’s Recording 04
PRELUDE TO WAR
Dodger’s Recording 03
Tommy’s Recording 05
Dodger’s Recording 04
Mike’s Recording 03
Tommy’s Recording 06
Mike’s Recording 04
Tommy’s Recording 07
Dodger’s Recording 05
Tommy’s Recording 08
NEGOTIATIONS
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
02
Mike’s Recording 05
Tommy’s Recording 09
Tommy’s Recording 10
Watson’s Recording 02
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
03
Mike’s Recording 06
Dodger’s Recording 06
Tommy’s Recording 11
Dodger’s Recording 07
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
04
IN FIRE
Tommy’s Recording 12
Mike’s Recording 07
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
05
Tommy’s Recording 13
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
06
Mike’s Recording 08
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
07
Dodger’s Recording 08
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
08
Mike’s Recording 09
Tommy’s Recording 14
Battle of Central Debriefing
Tommy’s Recording 15
OF OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
09
Dodger’s Recording 09
Tommy’s Recording 16
Mike’s Recording 10
10
Tommy’s Recording 17
Mike’s Recording 11
Jackie’s Recording 01
Tommy’s Recording 18
Dodger’s Recording 10
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
11
Jackie’s Recording 02
A GOLDEN JACKAL
Mike’s Recording 12
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
12
Mike’s Recording 13
Tommy’s Recording 19
Tommy’s Recording 20
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
13
Tommy’s Recording 21
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
14
Tommy’s Recording 22
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
15
Tommy’s Recording 23
Jackie’s Recording 03
Jackie’s Recording 04
Tommy’s Recording 24
Jackie’s Recording 05
A HOUSE DIVIDED
Mike’s Recording 14
Dodger’s Recording 11
Mike’s Recording 15
Jackie’s Recording 06
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
16
Dodger’s Recording 12
Watson’s Recording 03
Mike’s Recording 16
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 01
Excerpt from “On Purity,” by Yousef Suliman 01
Dodger’s Recording 13
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
17
Tommy’s Recording 25
Intercepted Broadcast from the Tank 01
Jackie’s Recording 07
Jackie’s Recording 08
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 02
Excerpt from “On Purity,” by Yousef Suliman 02
Watson’s Recording 04
Jackie’s Recording 09
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
18
Jackie’s Recording 10
Jackie’s Recording 11
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 03
Intercepted Broadcast from the Tank 02
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
19
Excerpt from “On Purity,” by Yousef Suliman 03
Mike’s Recording 17
Tommy’s Recording 26
Jackie’s Recording 12
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
20
Jackie’s Recording 13
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
21
Mike’s Recording 18
Jackie’s Recording 14
Jackie’s Recording 15
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
22
Tommy’s Recording 27
SECRET ON SECRETS
Tommy’s Recording 28
Dodger’s Recording 14
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 04
Mike’s Recording 19
Jackie’s Recording 16
Jackie’s Recording 17
Watson’s Recording 05
Mike’s Recording 20
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
23
Jackie’s Recording 18
Jackie’s Recording 19
Dodger’s Recording 15
Jackie’s Recording 20
THE DOGS OF WAR
Jackie’s Recording 21
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 05
Mike’s Recording 21
Jackie’s Recording 22
Tommy’s Recording 29
Jackie’s Recording 23
Tommy’s Recording 30
Jackie’s Recording 24
Tommy’s Recording 31
Jackie’s Recording 25
Tommy’s Recording 32
Jackie’s Recording 26
Tommy’s Recording 33
Jackie’s Recording 27
Jackie’s Recording 28
Jackie’s Recording 29
Dodger’s Recording 16
WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY
Highpoint Waystation Log 182,511
Erin’s Recording 01
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 01
Dodger’s Recording 17
Highpoint Waystation Log 182,512
Erin’s Recording 02
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 02
Dodger’s Recording 18
Tommy’s Recording 34
Personal Recording of Devleena Kuma
r 06
Highpoint Waystation Log 182,513
Dodger’s Recording 19
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 03
Tommy’s Recording 35
Highpoint Waystation Log 182,514
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 07
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 04
Jackie’s Recording 30
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 05
Jackie’s Recording 31
Tommy’s Recording 36
Jackie’s Recording 32
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 06
Jackie’s Recording 33
Dodger’s Recording 20
Jackie’s Recording 34
Last Testament of Ishara Suliman 07
Jackie’s Recording 35
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 08
Tommy’s Recording 37
Jackie’s Recording 36
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 09
Erin’s Recording 03
Jackie’s Recording 37
Erins’s Recording 02
Dodger’s Recording 21
Erins’s Recording 03
THE DARK ANGEL
Jackie’s Recording 38
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 10
Jackie’s Recording 39
Erin’s Recording 04
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 11
Tommy’s Recording 38
Erin’s Recording 05
Dodger’s Recording 22
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 12
Dodger’s Recording 23
Jackie’s Recording 40
Dodger’s Recording 24
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 13
Tommy’s Recording 39
Dodger’s Recording 25
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 14
Erin’s Recording 06
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 15
Tommy’s Recording 40
Dodger’s Recording 26
Tommy’s Recording 41
Jackie’s Recording 41
I AM THE FIRE
Jackie’s Recording 42
Jackie’s Recording 43
Jackie’s Recording 44
Jackie’s Recording 45
Tommy’s Recording 42
Jackie’s Recording 46
Tommy’s Recording 43
Erin’s Recording 07
Jackie’s Recording 47
Personal Recording of the President, Gabriel Branagh
24
Dodger’s Recording 27
Jackie’s Recording 48
Jackie’s Recording 49
Tommy’s Recording 01
Well, I guess it’s been a while since I recorded. Maybe that comes with the territory when you’re starting to build a new life for yourself. Also, to be honest, I just couldn’t stick with doing the audio recordings after leaving the Tower. Not after what . . . after what happened to Jackie. I just didn’t feel like I had it in me, whatever ‘it’ is. But, I guess we’ve been here in the city for a while now, and I don’t think that’s going to change. So, I guess it’s time I got caught up on this whole recording thing. Funny. Jackie would probably approve of that.
So, let’s see . . . First thing’s first, I guess. What happened to us right after we left the Tower. Well, we set out . . . west, I think. It’s hard to say. I’d never been out in the world before. None of us from the Tower had, so it’s not like we had a map or anything to go by. Plus, it’s so dark around the Tower. You don’t realize that until you’ve put some distance between you and it, but that fog—the Darkness—doesn’t actually cover the whole world. It fades the further away you get from the Tower, and we think that’s because of how concentrated the Creep is around it. What I do know is that it covers a lot of ground and makes it hard to see very far in any direction, but once you get out of it . . . Well, things aren’t great, but they do get better.
For the first few weeks after we left the Tower, we just wandered. The wrong way, as it turns out. The first week out, we didn’t actually have any sort of plan. We just took the nearest street and followed it. There wasn’t much alive anywhere we went, and honestly, it was pretty depressing. I mean, at least I had Dodger and Mike with me. Well, I guess it’d be wrong to ignore what Dr. Watson did for us. You see, the world outside the Tower’s in pretty bad shape. What makes the Tower so deadly is all that Creep trapped together in those halls. There’s plenty of it out in the streets, but it’s not so clustered together. At least, most of the time. You get a little deeper into the city, start going into buildings or alleys, and things can get pretty sticky. It’s a good thing that Dodger and Mike’ve really come together as far as keeping their heads on when things get tough. Mike especially. I mean, ever since the doc started giving him meds, Mike’s gone back to his old self, the way he used to be before he got all shook up with his powers.
Anyway, we had more than our share of shootouts just trying to survive once we got out into the world. The city’s got Pocket Space generators, just like in the Tower, so we were able to scavenge whatever we could while we were wandering. We were covering a few miles a day, so we were making pretty good time. At night, we’d settle in wherever we could. That’s where Watson really saved our skins. The guy’s . . . weird. He claims he’s a few hundred years old, but it doesn’t look like he can’t remember anything from more than a few years back. That doesn’t mean he’s forgotten how to use his tech. At night, he’d set up these poles. I’m not sure how they work, but they create a field that pushes back the Creep. The doc told me it’s how he survived in his lab for all those years. I don’t really understand all the details, but I didn’t complain about having a way of staying safe at night.
And staying safe wasn’t always easy. There are parts of the city where the Creep’s everywhere, and other parts where it’s thinned out. It’s easier to spot danger zones when you’re in the city, at least. You can always see them in the distance, these huge tendrils wrapping around towers and skyscrapers. They’re as thick as buildings themselves, but the Creep doesn’t normally get that big, so they’re easy to avoid. Still, when you’re out there, wandering in a dead city, of course you get nervous. Close to the Tower, you’re still under a black fog, even during the daytime. And when night comes, it doesn’t matter where in the city you are. It’s almost impossible to get around without a flashlight.
See, there’s no power running out there. Not for the most part, anyway. At least, in the Tower, you’d have hall lights on, or open wires sparking. Outside, when it gets dark, all you can see is the five feet in front of you that your flashlight lets you see. I’m not sure what’s scarier than seeing a Creeper rushing at you from out of the pitch dark. Yeah, they’re out there too. Lots of them. You don’t find a lot of them in the streets, but there’s plenty in the buildings. Anytime you start scavenging, it’s the one thing you’ve got to look out for. But, still, we survived. Thank the Builders.
Anyway, I’m not sure what I was expecting from the city. Honestly, it was impossible to make any predictions. We’d lived our whole lives in the Tower. Watson kept insisting we’d find people, but I had my doubts. Well, I’m pretty glad to say I was wrong. We found some.
We were walking for more than a week before the Darkness really started to clear. Once you get out of it though, things lighten up, and that’s when you notice the clouds. They’re there all the time, just this wall of red tinted clouds in the sky. Still, every once in a while, they break. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, you’ve got to take a moment and just appreciate it. The sun, I mean. It’s the best feeling in the world to suddenly feel your face warming up under clear sunlight. There’s never a time when it doesn’t feel amazing.
If nothing else, that kept us going, that little bit of hope that things were better out in the world than they were in the Tower. More than anything else, I was hoping we’d find people, but nobody lives in the shadows of the Tower. We found
that out the hard way, after wandering west for so long. We’d probably been wandering for more than a week before we stumbled on them. People. Well, it’s more like they found us. We’d been walking the streets like any other day when we started hearing noises. Suddenly, people were springing out of doors and looking down on us from windows. And, of course, they had guns. I’m not sure I wasn’t expecting them to be armed, but it’s not like it mattered. When we stumbled on the survivors living out there, we found a lot of them. We were easily outnumbered ten to one.
But, if you want to know the truth, then I honestly don’t think I was in any condition to fight back, anyway. These were the first people we’d met since leaving the Tower. They were men and women, their faces covered with scarves or goggles, and their hands covered with gloves that looked like they’d been passed down for a hundred years. But they were people. It’s what Jackie’d wanted to know all along. Was there anyone out there? Anyone who knew how this had all started?
Well, after taking us in and locking us up for a while, they realized we weren’t out to steal their stuff, and we realized they didn’t actually know a lot about how the world had fallen apart. As it turns out though, people were doing alright. We found out there was a whole community of them getting by. Dozens of colonies, actually, all across what’s left of the city, or what they called the Deadlands. They used the rooftops to travel whenever they could, and when that wasn’t possible, they’d learned how to survive on the streets. At night, they’d stay locked up in their buildings. These guys had full patrols and everything. Some survivors lived in single apartments, and others had whole blocks locked down. They traded with each other to get by. Still, there was one place in the whole community that everyone couldn’t stop talking about. It was the one place that really got the survivors excited. It was a part of the city they said was like nowhere else. Humanity’s last, real city.
Central Freedom.
Dodger’s Recording 01
Tommy told me he’d started recording again. I think it’s funny how it just made me want to do the same thing. It’s kind of like learning how to ride a bike again or something, you know? Like that fun hobby you forget for a while, but you never really forget about?
Yeah. It’s kinda like that. So. It’s been a while. Like, a long while. Like . . . eight months, maybe?
Damn. Nine months. Nine months since we said goodbye to Jackie. Since we left the Tower. And now we’re here, in Central Freedom. I guess I should explain that, right? Okay, so, Central Freedom’s this place, on an island. Well, it’s more like it is the island. All 13 miles are covered by buildings and skyscrapers. But really, when you’re talking about Central Freedom, what people really get excited about is the Green Zone. So, the Green Zone’s a few miles of what used to be a park but that’s now the heart of Central. See, a long time ago, the zone is where people met up when the city was falling to the Creep. It’s where they originally came together and organized.