Normally two brothers almost always build a strong bond that prevails friendship and flourishes in the unconscious; blood is always an insoluble bond. Juan, on the other hand, would never have wanted any connection with Andres. He was the smaller of the two brothers (his sister had long since disappeared), but he had never lived under Andres' protective wing, indeed, every opportunity was good for his elder brother to always demonstrate his superiority in everything.
San Rafael was a country of few souls, and if one of these is also your hated brother, your life could only be uphill.
But the world changed. That huge, damn, bewitching cathedral fallen from the sky like a meteor, had created a huge bubble. Inside that bubble Man experienced evolution in first person.
It all started a few months after the First Contact. Although the technology did not work anymore, the DNA of the people who lived near the Bubble had begun to twist and swirl incredibly, something was changing inside the Venezuelans' body. Andres had begun to have severe headaches, no longer felt the scorching heat and the biting cold of the nights on the plateau. But above all, he heard a whisper. A feeble voice that crept into every corner of his mind, enveloping his every thought like a velvet cloak.
Later the first bodily changes began to appear: the arteries swelled up like a bodybuilder on steroids, the blood that ran through them gave off a sinister ocher-colored luminescence. The eyes were injected with the same color. Although he had not completely lost his cognitive functions, his mind looked further.
In that instant Juan realized that his brother was more important than he had ever thought, that blood never lies.
Although Juan weighed 70 kilos, Andres continued to run with his weight on his shoulders.
Behind them the murderous NNU beast didn't give up a meter, Juan didn't understand how a hominid made of steel, electric cables and who knows what strange technology could work inside the bubble. It was all illogical, the technology couldn't work in there. Instead, that kind of human machine kept moving, pointing its steel arm, getting the damn cannon out. They could only hear the explosions behind them, when Juan was finally able to see what was happening: that hominid was unloading bullets of luminous plasma which, on impact, destroyed everything leaving no debris, everything was imploding from inside!
He had no time to turn around that Andres lost his inhuman impetus capitulating to the ground a few centimeters from the last implosion. Andres's eyes shone more than usual and his hands clenched in fists. They too shone and vibrated like electricity. He turned to the steel man who kept moving forward and without warning he faced him with a lightning strike.
«Andres! The hell are you doing?! He will kill you!»
Juan's scream overlooked every sound but his older brother's ears could no longer perceive any language. The post-human of the NNU followed its protocol, no native could escape from the perimeter. Andres's fist was moving at incredible speed and he managed to hit the cannon arm of his enemy. The cannon managed to fire a shot: the noise was deafening and unnatural, a whistle vibrated in the air and smoke filled everything. Juan noticed that the arm of the post-human was left with broken cables, the cannon was destroyed and the hand of his brother continued to vibrate some powerful hooks against the body of the enemy.
He couldn't believe it, but Andres had pierced the metal body of the post-human. Tears of hope streaked Juan's cheeks as never happened to him...
Without warning, a beam of ruby light sprang from his eyes and hit Andres's face in full, which continued to punch like an automaton.
There was a few seconds of silence, and the body of the Hyperian fell to the ground lifeless, faceless.
«Primary objective: failed. I continue the mission by protocol. Secondary objective: recover native in incubation.»
The post-human got up with difficulty from the ground, touched his MTM on his arm but gave no more signs of functioning. He then resumed his advance towards the boy who waited motionless for twenty meters.
«Don't... don't... No! It is not possible! It can't be true ... Andreeeeeees!»
Juan's despair was the catalyst, in an instant the arteries of his legs swelled and started to glow with ocher light, his eyes became the same color and the survival instinct filled his head. Rising immediately, he bent his knees and leaped with all his strength toward the direction he fled. His hidden talents were coming to the surface. He jumped into the air for ten meters and spaced the pursuer another 50 meters in a few seconds, his legs moving like a cheetah and in a matter of minutes he found himself in front of a huge and dark wall. The boy managed to find a hole on the walls a few meters high, jumped up and entered the opening that led to a dimly lit corridor. He began to run inward when his leg was blocked by a steel cable that had been knotted around his ankle.
«Your escape is over, don't resist and I'll take you safely out of the perimeter.» The metallic voice of the NNU post-human boomed into the tunnel.
Like an animal backed up against the wall, in a suicidal rush, Juan prepared to lash out against the post-human using all his strength when an unreal mist began to fill the tunnel and make sight impossible a few meters away.
From Juan's shoulders popped two goat horns that anticipated a woman's face of rare and sinister beauty, a sinuous hand rested on the boy's shoulders and in an instant the faint voices in the young Venezuelan's head became immense and deep litanies that inebriated his mind and inhibited his fears. Juan lowered his head and relaxed his muscles pervaded by an inner peace, he even forgot his name. Attention then shifted to post-human:
«It's you P0, I was waiting for you.» A persuasive but profound voice came out of the red lips of the human figure that gave off an immense alien aura.
«You are the most interesting element on which I have been interested since I first lived on this earth. A human heart inside a cold body. You will be treated with care and respect.»
A sinister smile appeared on the face of the woman in the red robes.
P0 immediately tried to reactivate his MTM and trigger the red code, it was not expected to be activated during this mission. But a snap of fingers echoed in the tunnel and all its functions stopped working. He fell to the ground with a heavy thud and the silence pervaded the corridor for a long time.
«Tu-Tum, Tu-tum, Tu-tum.» A heart throbbed unreally inside a glass case.
See you soon with new stories!
[Photo © Stefan Keller]