Bludgeon Ball Genesis

Chapter 1 Good genes, that was what they used to call it. What they used to call people who were just a little stronger than the others. People who ran a little further. Those talented souls who ran a little faster and worked a little harder than the rest. It was all a very simple method of acknowledging them, those ‘talented’ few. But geniuses were getting smarter, athletes were getting more and more skilled, the rate of which had never been seen before. That was until what would later be called the Final Crash caused the world to pause, break apart. Many died, billions upon billions starved before being blown to shreds in war. The resources spent, the whole of nature’s wrath descended and left so few to rebuild but those who would work, worked. Those who would build, built. The stronger were ever still the stronger. Border lines were built anew, nations built anew, the skies became homes for the wealthy until they themselves disappeared, nature would not allow any to escape and the heavens became death incarnate. The super rich had thought themselves clever by trying to run away from the enemy. The enemy being the very soil itself, which had turned. Altering to- “Nati!” Nati looked up from the book she had buried herself into. In front of her stood old man Raditz, a remnant of the borderless White Heart Tribe. The man had bronzed skin, once a pale white that had been lost to the heat of the African sun. His long hair, turned silver by time and age, were pushed away from his face and warm green eyes fell upon her. She put the book down and an impishly sly smile formed on her lips. “It never crossed your mind that it just may be dangerous for you to stop a Xhosa girl with a book? We are a proud and dangerous breed.” The old man laughed, giving a grizzly chuckle before he extended a gnarled hand. Nati grabbed his wrist and was launched up to her feet with an ease that made her feel as though she weighed little more than a gnat. She beamed up at him when he winked. “You Xhosa women are already a proud and dangerous breed with or without a book in your hand.” Nati laughed and pulled back the old man’s silver dreadlocks to stare into his eyes. It was impossible to do anything but smile back with a lighter heart when one looked into them, and she would not be cheated of the experience. Well aged and gnarled fingers reached up and touched her cheek, her own dark cocoa skin coming naturally. His other hand lifted up past her head and her smile deepened before he pulled the steel splinter that held her bun. Her own mountain of jet black dreads tumbled down to her waist in a landslide of hair. She sighed. “I will never understand you old man Raditz” He kissed her forehead like she were still a toddler. “You will understand soon enough, you grow so fast.” Nati crossed her arms, her shoulders relaxing as she took a heavy breath. “It’s not enough. It is never enough. Your entire tribe was destroyed by the surrounding chieftains, what wasn’t destroyed of their lands shared amongst them-” “You’re what now? Sixteen years old? It all happened fifty years before you were born. It is beyond you.” Old man Raditz sighed but Nati didn’t ease up. “If I can still feel its effects then how can it be beyond me? It has to do with me because it is a part of you, your history. And you’re the closest thing to a father I have. You’re it for me.” Nati stopped when she saw the old man’s eyes widen and his brow furrow. “Shut up girl.” The old man snapped before he sighed, letting out a deep and heavy breath. “Just shut up. Okay? You never, ever listen but this time you will listen. I am not all. This world, this life, is not all.” Nati uncrossed her arms before crossing them, her fingers reaching out for her sides before she uncrossed and re-crossed them again. Unsure of what she was trying to grasp. Her fingers dug into her hair and she covered her face with her locks. Her fingers twitched and she turned away. “I hate it when you do that. There’s only the two of us but still, with the way you act. You act like I would judge you if I ever saw you cry. Fine, come. We have a long road ahead.” The old man scratched his head looking at her. She hadn’t looked back and still looked to be using her strength to fight back what emotions held her so tightly. “Hey, do you know what part of the world we’d be in if it weren’t for the Final Collapse?” Nati, with her back still aimed at Raditz walked away. Her bare feet sank into the desert sand, burning her as black shards of glass, once sand themselves, cracked and shattered beneath her toes. Her fingers dug into the sand and a rusted iron signpost was dragged out with little protest. “Bloemfontein, South Africa” She said, her voice still shaky. The old man grinned, “You’re a smart girl.” Nati didn’t look up, instead pulling two straps made from over a dozen pieces of string and wool from the sand. The cling and clang of iron chain just audible over the howling winds as she wrapped both straps around her fists. The old man rested his hands deep into the pockets of his coat after pulling up the sleeves of his collar. He walked past her and climbed into a once pearl white eighteen wheeler. The large truck had long begun to lose its colour, even the steel below had long lost its own silver sheen only to be coated with rust and held together by meter long steel strips. Bandages which kept the shape of its two rust coated containers. All wheels were a meter deep in sand. Nati threw off her own coat, bundling it up into a ball before unbuttoning her jeans and adding them to her mix. Leaving her in just shorts and a tank top. She hurled the ball at the old man just as he opened the door and a leather and wool mesh satchel was thrown to her. The satchel had a cork on top which she popped open before putting on the strap over her back and drank, taking in its contents before pouring more over her head. Almost immediately steam poured out her every pore, the water evaporating fast. The edge of her dreadlocks melted and burst into flame before being stubbed out between her bare fingers. The doors of the front cab opened and the old man stuck his head out, the windows long ago replaced with steel sheets. “You decide how you want to do it.” He yelled to her. “I hate it when you do this. Just pick. Open armed or to the chest?” “To the chest” He yelled. She nodded and turned away from the truck, she lifted the straps and opened her arms as though to accept the warmest of embraces. Her arms still spread, she took a step forwards and then forwards again. The clank of the anchor chains grew more pronounced as more were pulled up from the sand until they grew taunt and her footsteps became strained. Her arms pulled back and she pushed forwards, both feet digging deep before moving her forwards along with the eighteen wheeler which dragged across the sand to reveal wheels set upon steel tracks which acted as a ski. “I’m a rebel,” she laughed, picking up speed. ---- “There had once been a time when an African sunrise wasn’t a warning to hide but rather something to look forward to.” Came Raditz through a radio in Nati’s ear. She did little more than grunt back. “I am one hundred and ninety five years old, not as old as you’ll one day grow but I’ve lived life enough to believe whole heartedly that knowledge of ‘what was’ would define ‘what is’. How things on this part of the world, no, the whole world still amaze me. But maybe, maybe it had all happened before. Perhaps it had happened and some smart historian could have found the answer. Maybe realized the connection between the Final Crash and some civilisation that had fallen before and with that knowledge warned someone. Told someone.” The truck stopped moving and Nati took a deep breath, waves of steam radiated out of her flesh like a coal sprayed with water. “Old man, are you drinking again?” “What makes you say that?” He asked. “Because the only time you remind me that you are a hundred and seventy nine years older than me is when you drink.” “I couldn’t help it. I just feel bad whenever I upset you.” “Well please do not finish it all. You promised me you’d let me taste it when I got to the ocean. You said you’d make me stronger than I am now.” “I am positive I can, at the very least make you the strongest the world has ever seen. But it is up to you to know the reason why.” “You raised a Xhosa woman as your own without saying why. It’s only fair-” “Is there a reason we’ve stopped?” The old man said before she could say another word. Nati sighed shrugging her shoulders and pressing the chains to her chest before pushing forwards once again. “I’ll make a deal with you. I will pick up the speed if you tell me about super heroes once more” Nati sighed. “They weren’t real.” He returned, The girl nodded, “True, but they still count as history.” Raditz laughed at this loudly enough hurt her ears through the earpiece. “You are by far my favourite. Fine then, you win but I want a speed of eighty kilometres per hour and keep it by nightfall.” Nati took a deep breath through her nostrils, her eyes scanning the horizon. There wasn’t much left in the day but enough to leave her frustrated and exasperated at just the thought of it. It wouldn’t be eighty she’d be chasing, she would have to get a higher number, such as ninety or a hundred just to be safe because if she got tired, or even a little weary and she dropped to a speed of even seventy nine point nine, nine, nine, nine she’d lose her story. Her teeth clenched and her toes dug deeper into the soil. “Fine, you win.” The holes the truck had been churning into the dunes grew lighter. The sound became a light hiss as it sailed across the oceans of sand. All only ever broken when the metal behemoth hit a larger dune and took to the skies before smashing back down. The desert underfoot darkened becoming crystallized coals in the oppressive heat, burning up and bursting. Eventually the light started to ease and the cooling air pushed upon her flesh, her hair whirling in the wind as she drew to a stop. Parting her feet she pulled the truck up a dune and held it there while the old man, using rope, dragged logs beneath the tyres. There it held. Nati sighed, watching the world as it twisted and reformed right before her eyes. A violent medley of colour that made up for every piece of her piece of her reality, from the stars to the soil beneath her feet, tans, purples, browns, olives, shades so light they hurt the eye and pools of black, endless pits of night where sand had had the misfortune of bearing the sun’s fury. As she watched, the old man put on round goggles and fussed around the truck, placing funnel after funnel upon the base of the vehicle. It almost seemed funny how the old man would move. Clearly he was not having too easy a time of things and yet pride would not allow her a chance to help. The old geyser stretched his limbs, arching his back as he moved as if caught in slow motion, his face contorting with pain. “If you’ve got time to watch me, you’ve got time to get in the lab.” He growled. “You always say the nicest things. I’ll be going.” Nati said with a smile. “Don’t actually press anything until I’m there.” He yelled after her. She rolled her eyes and unhooked her bra before taking her clothes off. With one hand on her clothes she opened the door to the rear container. Milky white steam washed over her, making her shiver against the unnatural cool that hit her skin. White layers of crystal formed and flaked off as she scrubbed with a steel brush. In front of her was a wall of glass and from it green light washed over her bare skin. “Approved” spoke a mechanic device before the glass sheet pulled open, opening a path to a science facility. There were two tables, one chair and one a work desk that no one ever used. There was also a slab of white iron topped with a thick layer of clear pristine glass. On both sides were thick leather straps to hold down whomever was to lay upon it. She sat herself on what she called the dentist’s chair and placed electrodes upon her wrists, ankles, thighs, chest and forehead. Her every action felt blocky, mechanical as her body ran on automatic. By the time she was done the old man was in his own section of raised floor, looking down on her from the platform. It was a meter high, separated from the main room by yet another, even thicker, sheet of clear glass with a sphere of flashing lights dancing around the old man. He watched with critical eyes. Nati shivered before laying further back into the dentist’s chair, staring at the roof. Of all chores, of all tasks, these were the most difficult. Her body had a knack of putting up a fight where one wasn’t needed, when cautionary sensations, feelings, thoughts would attempt to interrupt her only to be beaten and pushed back. But never did her body fight or rally against her more than when she was in the lab. Electric currents and coursed through her body. Her lungs cried out in protest, her diaphragm threatening to fold in half but, to the naked eye, her only reaction was a thumb twitch. “Good news, it looks like you’re looking good. Still in good health but you shouldn’t be.” She burst out laughing, “What is that supposed to mean?” The old man grinned. “Exactly what I said. The body learns and gets smarter from what you put it through. A good example being how to tie a knot for the chains we use. You practice and practice until you can tie a knot without thinking. But strength is different Nati. With strength, you have to put in work your body isn’t used to or even understands to be good. When your muscles burn and hurt, when your head is telling you to stop. It’s up to you to let your body hurt, make your muscles feel like they’re going to stretch, snap and break because when it’s over, you’re going to be stronger than when you started. So hurt and burning are good even if your body disagrees. Only, I’m not detecting the hurt or burn you need to grow stronger, especially considering how fast you recover. At this rate you’re not actually getting stronger. I’m going to use both the anchor and the sails to see how much of a difference that makes.” “I thought the sails burned up in the sun?” she asked. Raditz’s fingers were a blur of activity and the entire container flickered on and off. Nati gritted her teeth and her fingers closed on their own. The current pumping into forcing her to cringe and ache. “See? You still cannot handle the external stimulation of the testing systems which proves it. If it were up to me you’d be pulling while I drove the truck backwards. We don’t have the fuel though and the Xhosa territories are a long way away. The San territories are the closest thing to a calm and quiet enough location to get any fuel or at the very least use the carbon converter in the front container without attracting trouble. We likely should not have gone through the Zulu territories but you wanted to see the beach so badly.” “Are you trying to guilt me?” She asked. Nati ripped off each individual electrode leaving patches of purple before throwing them to the ground. Never once showing more than her back while she picked up her clothes, hurriedly throwing them on. Her coat, top and left sock still n her hand, she slammed the door and the truck slid, trembling violently as the sand shifted to accommodate. It didn’t take long for the old man to climb out of his own little exit before yelling from the top of the container. “Hey, watch your moods okay? This tool has decades of work still to complete. I can’t have you causing me to lose all my hard work.” Nati glared back at him and scowled. “What for? What’s it all for? We walk through the harshest most secluded part of all the wastelands and for what? My development? What’s the point?” she was screaming now. “What are we doing here that can’t be in the cities, with other people? You said I could be everything you told me I could be, a super hero. I could have lived as happy as you did. Done more than all the people in those books you give me! Done more than you. But instead I’m here.” The old man glared back at her and turned away as if to pick something up between the two containers that she couldn’t make out from her side. Just as quickly as he’d turned away he turned back only to see Nati walking away. “Don’t walk away, you are-” His words died in his mouth when the entire dune started to shake. Violent rumbling made her heart skip a beat. The truck started to react in a manner she’d never seen before. It took life as lights started flashing on the upper edges. At first a blinding white light dotted the top before it turned red and then a shade of purple that pointed down towards the rest of the truck, illuminating the truck in an eerie midnight glow. The whole time the sound of buzzing and beeping assaulted her ears before it was replaced by a slow and continuous hiss and multicoloured smoke poured down from the top. Her heart, which had yet to start beating since the first flash of light disappeared into a black hole in awe as the whole truck grew fuzzy. This wasn’t mist as she’d seen it in pictures, this mist had colour, light in its infinite Abundance flowed through it and a living canvas of the world on the other side of the truck could be seen. It was disappearing right before her eyes! Old man Raditz appeared holding the biggest piece of electronic tubing she had ever seen. A solid stream of light burst out of the tube and into the inky night sky. There was an explosion and a heavy object fell with a crash into the sand. “What is that?” she yelled, pointing at him. “It’s a type of gun, a plasma missile launcher to be more exact. But that over there is a scouting vessel. We don’t have long until we’re surrounded, I’m gonna start the truck, Nati wait! Nati!” There was no point, he was already talking to her back. She was all the way down the dune and making good time as she raced towards the crashed object. She’d only seen pictures, videos and dreams of modern structures other than the truck and what she had been lucky enough to keep from being swallowed by the desert. Bursts of sand shot up from her bare feet as she sprinted to the mound of flaming steel. She picked it up with both hands without slowing and screamed dropping the heap. There was a blue fiery liquid dripping from the drone where she could only guess the old man had struck. Was this what guns did? Why did this gun burn where flame could not? With gritted teeth he lifted it up over her shoulder and sprinted back. Her calves ached as she ran, the roar of the truck could be heard but it was nowhere to be seen, only the trail of where she’d last caught sight of it. Her sprint was desperate. As she ran she saw the truck. It was making great time, the skis now acting as tank treads tearing through the open desert at a speed she didn’t know the metal behemoth had. Out of the exhaust she saw bursts of bright green flame, giving it a rocket like effect. The whole time the mist and lightshow managed to stay in tune with it. It hid perfectly against the naked eye as it sped on. It would have been jaw dropping, awe inspiring and simply amazing were it not for the fact that it was leaving. And leaving fast. She screamed for him to wait. The sound of rumbling caught her attention once more. This time it was heavier, more pronounced. She sprinted faster, her grip tightening on the vessel drone. Red light shone on the truck followed by a multicoloured burst which made her ears ache and the front cab of the eighteen wheeler exploded. The blast sunk the cab into itself, pushing down as the two containers were engulfed in flame. She, along with her new toy were launched into the air, back over the dune she’d just run down from and into the crevasse below. The sheer force throwing her into a world of black ---------- Nati wasn’t sure how much time had passed when her eyes popped open but the rumbling was more pronounced than ever. The drone sat over her head pressing her face into the sand acting as accidental cover. The rumbling was near, too near to allow her to stand up but restlessness could not allow her to stay still either. Her fingers dug into the drone, most of the sand around her face had turned muddy, sticking to her cheek. Unable to stand and on her stomach she screamed, throwing herself up to her feet with such force, one would have thought a bomb had just exploded under her. Her fingers gripped tight to the drone. Its alloy crushing in against the sheer weight of the hold, her body trembling with effort. The same light shone upon her and long tear stains layered with sand glistened brightly like glitter on her face. The same multicoloured burst that had fired before flew at her. Fiery death fell, only to smash and shoot right back up its original flight path when it was wrapped around the drone’s melted body. There was a burst of white liquid flame and then an orange and red explosion the filled that sky. White fabric glinted off the red sky to show what looked to be a parachute descending. Looking left then right, her eyes searched and scanned through the flickering light the flame provided for something, anything to throw. There was nothing but sand, sand and more sand. The white billowing sheets turned, moving in the direction of the truck and what was left of the old man. The idea, the thought, the flashing image of Raditz being touched by the same man who shot him made her howl, literally. A visceral roar gargling free from her throat rang until her lungs ached. She clenched her fists, her arms trembling with effort as she broke into a headlong sprint.