Millennium Chronicles Book 1 (Alternate Ending) by Anthony Perry - HTML preview

Millennium Chronicles Book 1

 

Expanded Edition Contains a New Ending

 

Copyright © 2010 Anthony Perry Jr. and Movie Length Book Publishing

 

ISBN 1452839271

 

EAN 13 9781452839271

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission or authorization of the author.

Printed in the United States of America

 

Millennium Chronicles Book 1

 

Expanded Edition Contains a New Ending

 

CHAPTER 1

 

THE BEGINNING

She looked at her little baby shivering in the thin hospital garment. Rising from her chair she moved to sit next to him on the examination table. Her hands drew his small body close to her to keep him warm.

“Mommy?”
“Yes honey?” She responded softly.
“What are they going to do with me if I am the one?” “Not a thing baby. They’re not going to do anything to you

at all.”

To comfort him she repeated what she told him a dozen times. “Remember I told you that ifyou’re the one, then they willuse your special code to help other babies.”

“How will they do that?”

She thought for a moment how she could describe First Trimester Genetic Patching to an eight year old. “Well, if a woman finds out she is going to be a mommy, then she will have a special procedure.

They will give her baby your special code, so when the baby isborn the sun won’t hurt them. The baby will be just like you!”
“Does that mean other kids will be able to go outside and play in the daytime like me?”
She laughed. “Yes sweetie! People will be able to play, live and workin the daytime and it won’t make them sick. Just like you.”
The door to the room opened and the team of physicians and genetic researchers entered.
Dr. Natas had a smile on his face. “We have good news Miss Reese!” He said excitedly.“Contained in the D.N.A. strand of our little Joshua is one of the keys to humanities salvation.We’ve determined that young Joshua is the perfect candidate.”
The other physicians and researchers that accompanied the doctor into the room clapped their hands in approval and celebration of the announcement.
The young Doctor reached out and patted the little boy on the head. “Josh,” bending over he lookedinto the young child’s eyes,“you’re going to be famous! People are going to remember you for a long, long time.”
Looking at her son she asked, “So what now Doctor?”
The Doctor looked up at Miss Reese, then back to the child. “Now little Joshua will have the best of everything. You both will have the best of everything. I will see to that. All of us here arewell prepared to protect our little investment.”

******* Today

The events of that day played in his mind, as if they just happened yesterday.
If only his mother could have seen into the future, then she would never have let them examine him. She would never have let them use his DNA. She would never have let Doctor Natas take control of their lives.
Then again, he knew how hard his mother struggled to provide for her little family. She needed the money to endure the economic chaos of the times like everyone else. All she ever wanted was to give him the best of everything.
People will go to great lengths to survive. His mother was no exception. Could he really blame her?
He didn’t blame her. She was a young single woman struggling to feed her family. She was in survival mode and Dr. Natas provided a way to alleviate all her worries and fears.
Doctor Natas, on the other hand, was a different story. The Doc knew what he had found in his DNA. It was the door to all of his selfish dreams of power and greed. He knew exactly what he was doing and he did blame him.
Josh was startled from his thoughts when a knock on the inside of his closed bathroom door caught his attention.
It was a signal that meant the children were ready for their lesson.
He knocked on his kitchen table twice in response. It let Rasha know he heard the signal and was coming.
Standing up from the table he walked over to the window near the sink to look out.
What he saw was nothing compared to the lush farmlands and wooded hillsides of his early childhood. It had become a sprawling barren landscape in comparison.
The climate changes, gamma rays, and solar flares had changed it so drastically over the years that it was beyond recognition compared to his earlier memories.
In the far distance the towering buildings of the world Capitol Megapolis Alpha loomed as it housed its placated masses.
Strewn between his old farm and the city were thousands of hydroponic green houses that fed the people of the large metropolis.
The sun reflecting off their glass made the wasteland before him look like a dead Christmas tree with strands of white lights. Megapolis Alpha was its star.
He couldn’t count how many of the green houses he had destroyed over the years. Each one he smashed to the ground in retaliation for the injustices against his people.
Years ago he set the standard. If one Underworlder was killed, then two greenhouses were emptied and destroyed.
One Underworlder life taken would cost the Upperworlders of Megapolis Alpha the food supply for twenty of its people.
It really wasn’t a fair trade. You can rebuild a green house and re-grow food, but you can’t bring a human being back to life.
He didn’t know if his policy ever prevented an Underworlder’s death, but it let Doc and his UWH goons know they weren’t getting away with the murder of innocent people without any consequences.
He walked from the kitchen window to the closed bathroom door from where the signal knock had originated.
Before he entered he gave one last look at the contents of the little farm house.
The day’s electronic newspaper was displayed brightly on his reader. Dirty dishes filled the sink. His socks from the previous night lay on the floor. The sound of the steam washing machine hissedfrom the pantry. “Yes,” he answered himself, “it has a lived in look.”
It was all a charade of course. It was meant to fool the Upper World Headquarters in case they ever came to search the little farmhouse.
The ability for the old family homestead to fool any visitors was the least of his problems today. He was more concerned with how much longer they could continue to outwit the Upperworlder’s advancing technologies.
He shuddered at the thought of the people in the Capitol waking up at this very hour to go to work on projects dedicated to locating and killing Underworlders.
He reminded himself of the few advantages he had in the situation.
The main one being he was the director of the whole UWH operation.
He had the final say over any technology to be designed and used.
His position also gave him many opportunities to personally sabotage their efforts before they even got off the ground.
But suspicions were growing. Many of them had been raised by his new personal assistant Dalton Graham.
Doc had placed him as his official aid in order to take some of the burden of his position off his shoulders. He had to find a way to get rid of him.
He opened the door and stepped into the windowless bathroom closing it behind him. He slid the door’s lock into place and turned towards the bath tub.
Running his fingers along the edge of the tub closest to the wall he located the latch. With a pull the fastener released and the swish of the air pistons sounded. The huge claw foot tub lifted to rest on its side.
He stepped down into the large opening the bathtub had covered and onto the descending stairway below.
He laughed. This is what Dr. Natas and the UWH had been searching to find for sixty years; the entrance to the headquarters of the Underworlders.
It was right under their nose and they didn’t have a clue that it was in the bathroom of the UWH’s second in command.
This is where his people lived and breathed, worked and played. This is where his people who lived in the dark plotted and prayed they would never be found.
He stepped down far enough to close the tub without hitting his head. He pulled down hard on the strapwelded to the tub’s bottom until he heard the sound of the latch locking.
He had counted the number of steps in the carved out stairwell hundreds of times. It was one of the daily diversions that kept his mind occupied on other things besides his burdens and worries.
With one step he began the long descent. Each time the metal plated tip of his boots contacted a stone landing a hallow clank echoed through the stairwell.
There was just under a thousand winding steps of varying depths. There were 987 to be exact, and they led to large caverns over four hundred feet below the earth’s surface.
When he reached the bottom Rasha was waiting.
She smiled at him. “That didn’t take you long. I heard you enter the staircase after me. You caught up pretty quick.”
“It’s because I have longer legs than you do Rasha.”
She chuckled and smiled. “You’re working with the youth in classroom 2 today.”
Joshua smiled in return and began to walk with her towards the class room. “Then we shouldn’t keep them waiting.”
Teaching in classroom 2 meant he would bein Brent’s room.
His eyes had already adjusted to the dimly lit cavern. They kept the entire area dim for a reason. They had to keep energy and heat signatures low to avoid detection.
If they didn’t, then satellite scanners or thermal earth thumpers could spot them quickly. It would mean the end of them all.
For obvious reasons there was only one room where a high amount of energy and heat was allowed. This was the greenhouse.
To keep scanners and thumpers from detecting the heat of the nursery they built it near a natural underground river. This was the standard building plan for all the Underworlder cities around the world
A special cooling canopy for the nursery routed the underground river’s cold flowing water. It spread the cool liquid equally over its entire surface.
This kept thermo-sensors from picking up the heat signatures and pinpointing their location.
It served a dual purpose as well, because it also provided warm water for the baths.
The water flowed directly from the canopy to the baths. From the baths it was pumped back out through drain pipes to follow the natural course of the underground river.
It was this very same river that provided water for all of Megapolis Alpha.
Rasha cleared her throat. She already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, but her unspoken fears and growing anticipation were getting the best of her again.
“How much longer do you think it will take Josh?”
Dr. Natas had asked him this question only yesterday. His answer to her would be the same answer he gave the Doctor, but for different reasons.
He told the Doctor it would end soon and the Underworlders would be located. He tried to assure him that the genetic misfits were running out of places to hide. It was a lie that sufficed the oldman’s frustration for the moment.
“It won’t be much longer Rasha. She’s getting close to solving Genesis’ secret. Once we have it, then everything will change.”
Apologizing for her inquiryshe said, “I know I am always asking you that question, but we have never been this close to our goal.”
“It’s alright. I think we’re all a little restless these days.”
They reached the carved out room of rock that served as classroom 2 and Joshua looked in through the small window of the metal door. His eyes canvassed the teens inside.
The room full of seventeen and eighteen year old students sat up straight when they saw him looking through the glass.
Today he was teaching the history of their survival, but tomorrow they would enter the battle for survival themselves creating their own history.
The odds were that half of them would not be alive in ten years because of stupid mistakes they would make. Many of them would only be remembered as a statistic of those lost in battle.
“I don’t see him Rasha. Where is he?”
She lookedinto the classroom. “I don’t see him either. He’s not in his seat.”
A voice from behind startled them. “Are you looking for me?”
Rasha quickly answered. “There you are Brent.” Thinking quickly she said,“Judicator Joshua didn’t want to start the lecture until everyone was present. Go on in and take your seat.”
“Yes Teacher Rasha.” The young man saluted her and Joshua then entered the classroom. The door closed behind him.
Rasha looked at Josh. “When are you going to tell him?”
“Sooner than I ever hoped I’m afraid. I wish I never had to tell him.
Becky is close to finishing the project and we need to get him in there soon if we’re going to pull this off.”
“I know you’re worried about their safety Josh.”
He looked at her, butcouldn’t deny her observation. The truth is he was worried. The odds for Becky and Brent were slim, but they’ve all had to make sacrifices and take risks when the odds were against them. It’s the only thing that gave them the advantage at times.
Rasha recognizing ground and spoke. “Well, good luck professor. They’re all yours.”
the awkward silence looked at the
Josh smiled at her. He was no professor, but he could teach some tough lessons every now and then.“No better time like the present.” He gave her an affirming touch on the shoulder.
She flinched at the contact and felt stupid.She wasn’t used to anyone touching her.
Again she apologized. “Sorry. I’m not used to spontaneous contact. When you’re done just send one of them over to the sanctuary to get me.I’ll be in prayer.” Rasha winked at him before turning to walk away.
He thought it was strange that faith in God came easy for her. He didn’t know why. If there was a God, then he had never seen any reason in their situation to believe a divine being cared about what they were going through.
He knew in what he could believe. He believed in being one step ahead of your opponent. He believed in striving for perfection, preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best. This had proved more valuable to him than any belief in a divine being.
Josh took a deep breath and centered himself as he opened the door to enter the classroom.
The talking inside the room hushed to silence. Closing the door behind him he walked over to Rasha’s desk, scooted an old text book to the side, and sat down.
There was a long period of awkward stillness, as the students stared and waited anxiously for him to begin.
With his thoughts gathered together he said, “I know that some of you will have some questions. I want you to wait until the end to ask them.
I also know that you’ve been taught most of what I am aboutto say in your studies, but I assure you that I’m going to offer you a different perspective than the watered down one you know.”
The students had only been taught what the teachers wanted them to know, but not the reality of the situation.
They had never been taught the pain, suffering, or anger that completed the story. They had never felt the injustice, or experienced the futility of life.
They were older now and they needed to know. They were going to need knowledge and experience that could change and inspire them if they were ever going to survive.
Facts were lifeless and unable to make a real impact. He had to make it personal for the students.
By manipulating the facts they had taught the teens a more palatable version of their history, but it could never inspire like hate, love, pride, hurt, and anger over the injustices endured.
They had never wanted the students to hate the Upperworlders for their situation and the things done, but if they were going to fight they would need something more than the watered down facts to drive them.
He had plenty of emotions and passion to share with them. He had plenty of anger to help ignite the lifeless facts into a cause that would impact their lives and motivate them to fight, and if necessary kill for their survival.
He began his lesson.
“Humanity in its selfish pursuit of wealth, ease, and progress raped our earth. They shamed her. They stole her life.
They robbed never thinking how their plunder and misuse of the world’s natural resources would affect our environment.
Selfishness sees and believes only what it wants for its own sake.” As Josh talked he allowed his anger and passion to grow stronger with every word. It was easy for him to tap into it, because he had so much within him.
“Greed and accumulation became a way of life for a small minority of the world.
The rest of the world lusted after this lifestyle and struggled to catch up to the technological advances and comforts of the industrial nations.
The upcoming crises caused by such aims became visible to only a few who cared enough to see what was happening.
This small minority saw the big picture of life on earth and the way it was catastrophically going to be changed if the world didn’t alter its ways.
Some were able to see what we know today. We had dug our hole and now we were going to have to lie in it. It was too late.
When the science of the day began to predict terrible disasters looming over the horizon, it became clear that the world would soon know great devastation.
One catastrophe after another made life on earth increasingly unbearable.
I have lived long realization that the life that I once knew is only going to be known and experienced again in my memories.” Josh became silent for a moment. It was a sad and sobering thought.
“Once people accepted they couldn’t undo what had been done to the world, thenhumanity’s focus changed.
They decided if theycouldn’t change the earth back, then they would change the human being to adapt.
They would genetically alter human life in order to survive in the unbearable conditions they had caused.
They began to search all of humanity for genetic anomalies. I was one of them. My skin could tolerate the burning and cancerous causing rays of space and the sun.
There was only one problem. The selfishness and greed that caused much of the world’s predicament remained.
enough to experience the strange
Only those who could afford to pay the huge price for survival were able to have their unborn children genetically treated.
People sold everything they had to see their children survive. In the end they sold control of their lives and their souls.
It left most of the world’s wealth and lands in the hands of a few. This greedy minority are the ones who now own and rule the Upperworld. They run and shape it for their selfish benefit.
This is where all of you enter the picture. Your families were unable to afford the treatments. Within the span of ten years your families were seen as inferior to the new and improved human race.
Your ancestors were considered burdens hindering the welfare and recovery of the earth. Besides this, no one wanted their sons and daughters to mate with your grandparents, or parents, or even you.
If the new and improved human mated with an inferior human and the child was born without modifications, then that child became responsibility. It became a liability.
Many of the infants born to poor systematically murdered by the government, or taken to the desert to die by ashamed parents! These are practices that are still used today in the Upperworld!
Sometimes I still find newborns in trashcans and alleys!” By this time he knew he was fuming, but someone had to yell and get angry about the injustices that had been seen and experienced. Someone had to help them become angry about it too.
“This opened the door for worldwide hatred. A movement of hate to eradicate the inferior humans began!
the enhanced an unwanted

families were

The few who now owned the world pulled the strings and manipulated the people they owned. Billions of lives were lost.
All over the world the poor began to go into hiding and they became known as the Underworlders.
You are the descendants of these Underworlders. The Upperworld still wants you dead, but we have something to say about this! We want to live!
We refuse to let the greedy rule us! They will not decide who lives and who dies, and as long as this world remains they will always have to deal with us!
Angrily he asked,“Are there any questions?”
The class looked scared and confused. He knew he was scheduled for an hour long lecture, but long speeches were not his style.
A young man in the back raised his hand. He was surprised that he didn’t recognize him.
“What’s your name young man?” Josh asked.
“I’m Andrew Judicator.”
“What’s your question Andrew?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. We are always told that we should focus on what’s best for all of life in our actions.
We are also taught to be open in our thinking and to strive to see things from the point of view of others.
If what is best for humanity is to evolve, or even manipulate our evolution so that the human racecan survive, then wouldn’t it make sense in such drastic conditions to do what the Upperworlders did?”
Josh’s anger was ripe for this question. He knew how he was going to deal with this attitude and thinking. It wasn’t the first time a youth posed a question like this.
He asked,“Do you have a best friend Andrew?”
Andrew smiled as he looked over to Jana. He had a crush on her that wouldn’t stop. “Jana is my friend.”
The classroom erupted into laughter. They all knew he was infatuated with her.
Josh lifted up his pant leg and pulled out a small weapon from a holster on his leg. “Let’s follow your line of reasoning Andrew.”
He quickly walked over to the young girl and placed the tip of the weapon’s barrel up to her head. She shrieked and the classroom turned into a tumult of screams and movement.
Josh screamed at the top of his lungs. “Sit down and shut up!”
The room became silent as fear took them captive. The youth had heard many stories concerning the Judicator. He was to be respected and dreaded. He was ruthless and a killer of traitors.
This added truth to all they had heard.
The young girl began weeping profusely.
“Calm down Jana. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m the one who wants you to live remember.” The young girl must have believed him, because she began to settle down.
“Now Andrew, would you like to come over here and take care of this genetic misfit. After all, by your reasoning, it would be the best thing for humanity if we just shot her dead on the spot.”
He continued,“You’re a genetic misfit too Andrew. Maybe afterward you can put the gun up to your own head and help take care of this problem for the good of all.”
Andrew didn’t know what to say. It had made sense to him before, but now he understood.
Josh removed the pistol from the girls head and placed it back into its holster. He then returned back to Rasha’s desk where he sat down.
“Jana, what were you thinking when I placed the gun to your head?”
She stuttered for a moment. “I was thinking that I want to live.”
Turning his gaze to the young boy he asked, “What were you thinking Andrew?”
Andrew paused. “I was thinking…” He paused longer this time. “I was thinking of how I could stop you.” His head dropped.
Jana had stopped crying. Wiping her face she stared at Andrew.
Josh shook his head. He had proved his point. “The desire to live and our ability to love others and care about them are what make us human.
No one should have the power to take these rights away from us. No matter how much some people think we are unworthy of both.”
As he finished these words his watch began to vibrate. Its frequency was aligned to sensors on the road leading to the farm house. Someone was coming!
“Jana, I need you to go to the sanctuary and get Rasha. I’ll have to finish this lesson later.”
Josh ran from the classroom to the stairwell leading up to his bathroom.
He wrapped his arms around a bar suspended over the entranceway and held on tight. He then kicked a lever on a nearby wall.
The lever released a lock to a spring loaded pulley system that catapulted him up the stairs to the top of the landing. The whole process took thirty seconds. He had less than five minutes before the visitors arrived.
He dropped from the bar, unlatched the tub, and made his way into the bathroom. Josh pushed the tub closed and turned on the water.
He quickly undressed and put on his bathrobe. Walking over to a shelf in the bathroom he turned the radio on and cranked up the volume.
Unlocking and opening the bathroom door he walked into his kitchen. He could see an outline of a person through the white curtains that covered the front door window. He controlled his escalated breathing as he walked to the front room.
He unlocked and opened the door. Laughing and shocked he said, “Well if it isn’t Doctor Natas himself and two of his elite UWH goonies.”
Smiling he unlocked the screen and opened it for them to enter. “Come on in Rob. Just let me turn off my radio and water.”
As he walked to the bathroom he began to wonder what in the world was so important to bring the paranoid old man out in the open.
He switched off the radio and closed the water valve. Wiping the sweat from his face with his bathrobe, he then took a few deep breaths.
Returning to the living room he noticed Rob had sat down in the plush easy chair. The goons had stayed on the porch and the front door was closed.
“So tell me Rob, what brings you out this way?”
The Doctor looking frustrated said. “I wish you’d level this place. You know I worry about your safety out here.
You’re like a sitting duck for the Underworlders. Besides, you have a beautiful house in the city. Why do you hold on to this dump?”
Josh smiled, “I know it’s a dump, but it’s my own personal and private dump away from it all. Besides, there are a lot of memories of mom here.
It’s the perfect place for privacy and you and I both know Underworlders don’t take lives; they take our food.”
“That may be so, but I believe that you and I are most definitely exceptions to that rule.”
The old man frowned, but it didn’t last long. The frown was soon replaced by a huge smile. “Now for the reason I came. I have news and I couldn’t wait! I wanted to tell you in person!”
Josh knew it must be important if the old man risked his own neck to come here. “Don’t keep me in suspense. Let it out!”
“We’ve got them Josh!”
Josh’s heart felt like it dropped in his chest as it began pounding rapidly. “What do you mean?”
The Doctor smiled. “Earlier this morning at the water plant one of the filter screens for the incoming water became clogged.”
“That’s nothing new to us. The screens get clogged all the time.”
“Yeah, but this time there was something else in the clog.” The doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a small child’s bath toy.
Josh’s heart wanted to leap out of his chest. He recognized the toy. All of the young children played with them in the baths. “I don’t get it Rob.”
“Think Josh. What in the world would a small child’s bath toy be doing in an underground river?
To make sure that my