Project R

By Samuel A Mayo

Adam has never felt as though he belonged in the little commune nestled in a back corner of the megacity. Life is easy enough. He is respected and admired, but his sense of purpose eludes him. When he and a group of scavers—the provision gatherers of the commune—break down the door to corridor fifty-eight in search of more supplies, they unwittingly release a horde of nightmarish creatures. Adam is thrust into a journey to save humanity and discover the truth about the megacity, the creatures, and, ultimately, himself. The trouble is, Adam isn't sure he's ready to face any of it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Tapestry Press
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393277569

Samuel A Mayo

Sam Mayo was born the day after Christmas in 1982. He currently lives in the Midwest with his family and their weird pets. He writes stories of adventure that mix science fiction and fantasy.

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Copyright © 2011, 2016, 2020 by Samuel A. Mayo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at the email address below.

Dark Tapestry Press

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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Cover image Copyright © Tithi Luadthong.

Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com.

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Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

Project R / Samuel A. Mayo. – 3rd ed

-  For Michelle and Marie  -

1

Commune

THE DAY THAT EVERYTHING changed started just as boring as any other day. At least, from Adam's point of view, it did. He sat in the corner of one of the high balconies that overlooked the commune, mulling over his thoughts. The balcony was ideal; being near one of the back corners meant that little light from the Ceiling reached it. Even better, few people bothered him up there.

From a few steps down the stairs that led to the commune came a voice, Adam, are you up here? The voice belonged to Johnny—the closest thing Adam would consider a friend.

Adam groaned. If he didn't answer, Johnny might give up and go away. But, Tom and Janice's words telling him to stop pushing people away floated to the surface of his mind. Their lecture had irritated him, but they had a point. As much as he might look down on others, he needed them. He only wished they didn't annoy him so much.

Yeah, I'm here, replied Adam.

Johnny panted as he climbed the rest of the way to the balcony. He worked in food processing like his father. Consequently, like his father, Johnny had put on a lot of weight.

Why do you always hide way up here? Johnny asked between breaths.

Who says I'm hiding?

Hey, I'm the one they always send to find you. Couldn't you stay closer to the ground to do your thinking?

Adam smiled. You could try not sneaking food while you're working.

Johnny's face reddened. I have an important job here, and I have to make sure the food is good for eating.

Adam chuckled and got to his feet. He stretched his long arms and legs as he yawned wide. His lean frame, like his intellect, was something that came to him naturally. While Johnny would gain five pounds by merely glancing at a sugared bun, Adam could put away two whole meals in one sitting and not gain so much as an ounce of body fat.

It helped that he was a scavenger, scaver for short. They had the most physically demanding job of anyone in the commune. As far as scavers went, Adam was among the best of the younger crew. He could carry almost as much as the older, stronger men and he was fast.

I'm just poking fun, said Adam. You do have an important job. He eyed Johnny. I’m guessing you came up for a reason?

They're about to start another run. Johnny swallowed. It’s corridor fifty-eight.

Oh really? A corner of Adam’s mouth turned upward. The old farts finally decided to do it?

Don't be smug. I still think it's a bad idea. We don't know what's in there.

Just like we didn't know what was in fifty-seven or fifty-six or any of the others before that. If we don't go into more corridors we'll run out of supplies, and we can't have that happen. He tapped Johnny's belly.

Johnny brushed Adam's hand away and said in a low voice, Tell that to Ken.

Adam rolled his eyes. Everyone keeps freaking out over that story. Look, it happened years ago. As I heard it, Ken wasn't paying attention and didn't follow the guidelines. That's what killed him.

I think there was something in corridor forty-seven that killed him.

What, like a monster? Seriously? That’s kid stuff.

Shut up, Adam. You don’t know everything.

No, but in this case, Adam's right, said a new voice from farther down the stairs. It belonged to Kanko, the lead scaver. She was slightly taller than Adam, about as thin and all muscle. Remember Ken's story if you ever go out there, Johnny. If he had stayed closer to the group and used his comms properly, he might have survived.

Sorry, said Johnny. I get nervous every time you guys open up another door. We don't know what's going to be there. They never did find what killed him, did they?

No, but most likely he triggered an old security system.

Don't worry, big guy, said Adam with a wink. If we do find any monsters, I'll make sure they go for the food first and not you.

Johnny’s face reddened as he said, Turd wipe.

Lard butt.

Boys, boys, said Kanko putting out a hand to quell the argument. She regarded Adam. If you're done screwing around, we have a door to breach.

I'm coming, I'm coming.

Adam descended the spiral staircase, walked out onto the courtyard and slowed. He glanced toward the residences and watched as scavers came out with their uniforms and equipment. A few other people came out as well to see them off. Breaching a new corridor was always a major event in the commune.

His eyes went to a pair of children sitting near the small makeshift building that served as general storage where the quartermaster rationed out items such as clothing, blankets, pillows, and, on rare occasions, books, pencils, and paper. These last three were hard to come by, so the commune leader, Davin, always had the final say on their distribution. As with all things found in the corridors, if the recipient ever abused the gift, they lost privileges, sometimes permanently. What the children drew suggested what they imagined a door breach was. Adam couldn't suppress the smile that worked its way onto his face.

Kanko's voice stirred him, You coming? We're about to start the brief.

Yeah, sorry.

Try not to get lost in your head while we're out there. She gestured toward the main door. You’ll end up like poor Ken if you're not careful.

Adam did his best to keep from rolling his eyes. He wasn't Ken. Ken made a mistake. Adam would not. Sure, the corridors were dangerous. Sometimes scavers accidentally re-activated an old security drone or fell down a dark shaft and paid for it with a limb or even their lives, but that only happened you didn’t know what you were doing.

Kanko left Adam's side and went to a small platform situated between the gathered scavers and the main door and called for everyone's attention. Kanko gave speeches like this before every venture. They were supposed to instill pride as well as provide a stern warning about the dangers of their work. As if they needed to be told yet again.

And then came the prayer. It was a tradition started who-knows-how-far back to offer thanks to the Maker. As Tom and Janice explained it, the Maker was a being who lived above the Ceiling and watched over the commune. Adam always wondered why no one had ever seen this Maker, but he never got an answer that satisfied him. However, tradition brought with it a sense of familiarity, of comfort. Far be it from him to argue against that, no matter how silly he thought it sounded. When Kanko finished, the scaver leads gathered their teams and performed an equipment check.

While Adam was undoubtedly one of the best scavers in the commune, he had only been one for a year and, to lead a team of your own, you had to have experience, at least ten years’ worth. Thankfully, his group leader, Carl, was the best. He had to hand it to Kanko; the woman knew how to stack up the teams. Carl had almost as much experience as Kanko, and his face and body showed it. He was, except for his pudgy midsection, well-muscled, a solid mountain of a man with dark skin and dark hair with flecks of gray showing.

Carl finished pulling on his dark gray suit and zipped up the front. He then held out his left arm, grabbed the small finger-sized ring in the middle of his sleeve and pulled it straight out. As he did, a translucent, light blue screen unfurled from his forearm. White letters appeared on the paper-thin screen as it came alive, and Carl read off the list of items that every scaver knew—or should have known—by heart.

The routine was yet another thing that Adam sometimes found redundant and trivial. If you know how to pack your bag, you shouldn't have to do a re-check, but he understood that it was better to be safe than sorry. As it turned out, Phil, the other young scaver on their team, forgot his headlamp, an absolute necessity in the dark corridors beyond the commune. Carl made him run back to the residence and checked each one of his batteries too, just to be sure. With the equipment check finished, the group shouldered their frame packs, and Carl announced that his group was set to go.

Kanko nodded and said, The fastest as always, even with a forgetful scaver. She gave Phil a wry look. I want your team on point when we breach the corridor. Don't worry about picking anything up along the way unless you spot something worthwhile. Bruce's team will be your secondary.

Carl nodded in response. Adam caught the faintest hint of a grin on Carl's face—a rare sight—and his excitement rose. To have your team considered for breach duty, and as primary, no less was an honor among the scavers. It was no secret that Carl would be Kanko's pick to succeed her as head scaver.

The primary team's job was to push through the door and scout out the new corridor, with appropriate caution, of course. The secondary team stayed near the door and maintained contact with the primary, ready to assist at a moment's notice. Bruce was a good lead with a good team, so Adam was glad to have them as the secondary. He was eager to get moving and had to keep himself in check mentally.

The rest of you, said Kanko, I've assigned each of your teams to various areas throughout the other corridors. Take it slow and easy. Be thorough. Kanko glanced at Bruce's team as the last member put his pack on.

She turned to Carl. Bruce and his guys are ready. Let's get this hunt underway. She motioned to the main door and said, Maker be with you.

The commune had a huge door with a small access hatch near the bottom left-hand corner that the scavers used on their runs. The larger door had never actually been opened as far as Adam knew. His team lined up before the hatch with Carl in front. At a signal from their leader, Adam and Phil pulled down their breather masks and turned on their headlamps. Kanko and one of the scaver trainees undid the heavy bolts around the hatch and opened it, revealing nothing but darkness on the other side.

Another signal from Carl and the three of them set off through the opening, into the black.

2

58

ADAM, PHIL, AND CARL moved through the corridors swiftly, familiar concrete walls and steel frames breezing past them. Each corridor had a large number painted in a deep red on the access door and several sections of the wall, serving as markers left behind by previous scavers to aid future hunts. The corridors had been placed in sequence. The Maker, or whoever built the megacity, hadn't bothered to put shortcuts between the earlier corridors and the later ones. What's more, each corridor had a different layout and no two were alike, as if each one had been designed by a different architect. If there was a Maker he was terribly inefficient.

As the scavers moved through the halls, their headlamps bobbed quickly side to side, each of them performing a quick check for anything that previous scavers might have been missed or something new that might have appeared. That was something that intrigued Adam: there was always something new found with every hunt, even in corridors that had already been searched thoroughly. While the elders in the commune might have said, Through the Ceiling, the Maker provides, Adam thought the answer had to be much simpler. More likely, someone or something else was alive in these tunnels. Or at least resembling alive.

The trek to the access door to corridor fifty-eight was a long one, twenty miles or so of winding tunnels. As excited as he was to be part of his first breach ever, Adam grew bored. This happened whenever his team went to one of the deeper corridors. To stave off the monotony, he liked to think of the day several years ago when he and Johnny ventured into the megacity after lights out—something strictly forbidden. They used a bit of chalk they found to mark their trail and stumbled upon a dank shaft that led downward. Of course, it had to be investigated.

As they traveled among the cold wet pipes, they became aware of a rhythmic humming. As soon as Johnny heard it he wanted to leave, but Adam's curiosity won out and they wandered farther in. The longer they walked the darker and warmer the tunnel became until finally, they saw horizontal lines of light coming through a grate.

What they witnessed through the grate was unlike anything they had ever seen: a vast white room, pristine, and busy with activity. Adam's mind, though new to the sights, told him that he saw robots. Some worked at computer terminals, checking translucent orange screens with scrolling letters. Others carried white storage boxes similar to the ones in the commune only much cleaner. One robot busied itself with a console station that pumped a fluorescent blue liquid through clear pipes.

It was in the midst of this organized chaos that Adam saw him: a tall man, broad-shouldered and well-muscled with dark hair that draped down his shoulders and back. Adam could not explain it, but he was somehow familiar. Beside him stood two humanoid robots, each one as tall as the man. Adam wanted to stay longer, but he was worried that Johnny's whining would give them away, so they went back to the commune. Caught sneaking back in, they earned a harsh scolding from almost every adult in the commune. They had been confined to their rooms for the next few days. Later, Adam made one more trip down the shaft without Johnny in tow, but someone had sealed the grate.

That first trip had stirred something within Adam's mind and soul, and he always liked to return to it when he ran out of things to think about. As he studied every facet of the memory, the same questions always arose. Where did all of those machines come from? What was their purpose? He'd recognized a few of the devices, but many of them he couldn't. The biggest mystery that he continually came back to was the identity of the man. He was clearly the maestro in charge of the symphony of machines moving all around him. Adam reasoned that if he could figure that out, the answers to the rest of his questions would fall into place.

He was exploring one of his favorite theories—that the man was the creator of the megacity—when Carl stopped so abruptly that Adam and Phil almost ran into him.

Whoa, Carl, said Phil. A little more warning next—

A hand motion from Carl cut Phil off. The lead scaver's fixed his helmet’s light beam on something up ahead, but Adam couldn't see what. It looked like a normal hallway. The three of them stood motionless for several minutes though it felt longer.

Finally, Carl moved, but his body was tense as he looked back at the other two.

In