Jake Carroway
June 20th, 2029
Deliverance is a word in which some people liken to formal speeches given by politicians, but I'm going to shine a light on another meaning of deliverance—the act of being rescued or set free. Depending on which context you use it in I guess it could be multipurposeful. For me, I liken the meaning to freedom. Our country was greeted by a deliverance after the fall of Jack Adata. We had been under a lot of stress and his oppression threatened everything we had left. In the few short months since the beginning of our newfound freedom, we have named our new capitol building after the freedom and rescue we sought.
A lot has happened to the world in the last twenty years. I don't believe there was any period of time where that statement wasn't relevant, but I felt confident using it now; for us it meant the death and rebirth of a nation. The end of a tragedy that consumed the lives of all that was touched by an overreaching shadow—a force so determined to see happiness stamped out like a raging fire. And from the remains of that fire we're now able to grow, to improve, to evolve.
Back in 2013 there was an assassination of the president of our Britain-occupied government by one Mason Radica. He was infected with the Radical-9 Virus. It was a terrible poison that overloaded the mind until the host was forced to kill themselves and others. It seemed to differ in how it affected each individual, but the end result tended to be the same. The increase in these dangerous tendencies is guaranteed with enough time. The end result of the virus wasn't just death of the host—it ended with the violent and oppressive explosion as the Radical-9 decayed inside of the host to create a blast so powerful it rivaled an atomic bomb.
Mason was one of the initial patient zeroes of the Radical-9 Virus when it had been incidentally created in 2008 as he was one of the scientists working under the Promethean project, organized by the same government that had fallen to the virus. The original group ended up falling prey to the virus—although some like Jack it took a lot longer for the end result to come out.
England had given up on us as soon as news of the assassination broke British shores and our government was left in shambles. Riots in the streets became commonplace in larger cities as people fought to gain control. They fought out of anger, sadness, depression. They fought to survive. They fought a lot. At the end of all the fighting people began to form their own safe districts that remained to try to continue life as it had been before all the fighting. They had to survive simply with what remained of the society that had crumbled before.
The original scientists responsible for the Radical-9 Virus disbanded and went their separate ways...except for one. Jack Adata and the first patient inflicted with the virus continued testing as he discovered that with the virus came potential. He grew supernatural abilities as the virus latched to his mind and accelerated his mental prowess. The overwhelming power of his abilities caused him to amass a large protective force of people that either wanted to be him or were afraid of him.
He used the children of the original scientists as test subjects by willingly infecting them with the Radical-9. Ten children were infected. Four remain alive today. Jack wasn't satisfied with the results of his work, so his tests continued. In 2018, he received communications from one of the children he had tested on...only they were communications sent from a different time entirely, the year 2042.
The message foretold of the result of a future where the world had perished to Radical-9 and the sender was the caretaker of the last of humanity's survivors. Jack was astounded at the variety of abilities that the Radical-9 had granted. The sender of the message used his abilities to bring Jack into his own time to speak with him. Jack met the man—older than even himself and taking the name Micah after shedding his own. Jack learned that this was in fact Gavin Daniels, one of the first children that had been tested on back in 2008.
Jack stayed in this future for eighteen years to construct the Infinity Core Amplifier for Research Under the Sun (ICARUS). It was an Infinity Engine that contained the power to recognize, view, and simulate the events of other timelines, as well as contain a database for logging a complete history of the memories uploaded by the current surviving humans. Once ICARUS was completed Micah utilized the machine to view a timeline that is his current's sister—one that has not yet been destroyed by the Radical-9 experiments. He sent an automaton—a robot built to look exactly like a human that is implanted with artificial consciousness from ICARUS—to this sister timeline in the year 2018 to kidnap the Gavin Daniels of that time.
The automaton, sickly enough, was in the form of Jack's firstborn daughter, Megan Adata. Although, since Megan originally passed when the Radical-9 experiments first went wrong, it was an approximation to what she would have looked like if she hadn't passed. Gavin's never told me exactly why Jack and Micah modeled the Automaton after her—he thinks that deep inside the corrupted mind of Jack's existed an underlying regret over the death of his daughter, and by creating a vessel in her image he can make himself believe that his exploits are for her memory. I think that his mind began to deteriorate faster the longer time went on, and he simply pulled from what he had available and that was that.
Gavin—being of course the Gavin that grew up in the sister timeline to the wretched future Micah existed in. He'd woken up in the First Republic Building in Denver Colorado with two strangers. These people were further relatives of people directly related to the Radical-9 Incident—Mason Radica's nephew and the daughter of one of the first reporters on the story. They worked their way up through the building, but only Gavin managed to arrive at the top alive. It was there he confronted the automaton that built to look exactly like Jack's deceased daughter, Megan.
She touched his forehead with a hand stained with blood infected by Radical-9 and his body overloaded. He panicked and threw himself off of the building. His body exploded and leveled Denver completely. However, his consciousness was dragged to Micah's universe because of the tainted blood. His mind was deposited inside an automaton shell that Micah prepared that looked just like Gavin's body when he was twenty one. Micah revealed himself to Gavin as an ally and warned him of Jack's nefarious deeds. He shows Gavin ICARUS, and said that he must complete his journey by investigating the memories of the surviving humans to piece together exactly how to fix the Radical-9 Incident.
In truth, he was buying time for Gavin's consciousness to become comfortable with his new body so that Jack can inject his own consciousness into the body and claim dominance. This would double the power that Jack could wield without the negative effects of the Radical-9, as since he was poisoned back in 2008 his body had begun to deteriorate at a much faster rate than normal.
Their plan failed as Gavin figured out their plan before it is fully underway and he managed to make use of newfound powers (such as the ability to draw in nearby electrical currents and use them to fashion weaponry, and the same ability Micah has mastered of opening rifts through time and space) to escape Jack's clutches in a battle that has them tumbling through time and different timelines. Gavin was deposited back in his home time-line, but four years have passed since he was taken. He was in the ruined city of Denver where he meets up with one of the original scientists, Jay Rein.
Jay wasn't alone, however, because in the car he had driven up in are three kids, two of the infected ten, Andrew Cress and Jennifer Adata, as well as Andrew's girlfriend, Lindsey Berrant, who he had met inside a virtual world. It turned out that Jack was deposited earlier in this same timeline than Gavin was by nine whole years. He shifted his plans to preserve his consciousness by creating a virtual existence named Elysium. He masked the experience as a video game to trick its players into becoming pawns for his amusement.
Andrew and Lindsey were two of the original players of the game who met up while inside, with Jen going in later to save her brother. It was Jay who helped from the outside in the end when Andrew clashed against Jack in the finale. They killed the system that kept everyone trapped and the four found each other in the real world to begin a quest to put an end to Jack once and for all.
It was when they met up with Gavin they learn that Jack had given Micah a mission to hunt down another one of the ten infected—Jay's own son—who had been hidden in New York to keep him safe from Jack. The only problem is that the couple Jay had given his son to had moved and now his location is a complete secret. The group leave determined to find Jay's son and end this incident forever.
Sometime in 2027 the federal government was reinstated on the west side of the country under a man named Oliver Avery. Seven years pass in total and there are no leads at all from 2022-2029. The group worries that he may have moved again and entirely out of New York, but Andrew catches sight of a name that interests the whole group. Micah has hacked several news stations across New York to broadcast threats about the end of the world to draw Jay's son out.
Andrew learned that a young boy named John Baker had been arrested for the gruesome murder of his gym teacher and both of his parents. Figuring the strange circumstances in the case could be a lead toward the person that he and the others were searching so long for he took the case—now as a lawyer for the past seven years—and finds out that not only is the accused the person they've been looking for, but the person who put in the request—a teenage girl named Sarah Newman is another one of the infected ten.
Andrew introduced himself properly and the rest of his group on the day of the trial and explained the importance of getting John acquitted of his charges. John expressed concern over dreams that he had that prophesied the end of the world in the coming months and a mysterious shadowed figure in his dreams who proclaims to be a god named Reinhardt. Through the trial it is learned that this Reinhardt is in fact Jack Adata, still kicking and determined to see his goals through, no matter what the cost. Before he trial can be finished and just before John is proven not guilty the courthouse is ambushed and John is stolen away by none other than Micah himself.
The group rushed out of the courthouse and organized a plan to follow Micah—who they believe is taking John to the new-found president's headquarters in California. Gavin traveled using his abilities alongside Sarah's friend, Iris, who has taken a liking to him. As he does not have room to take everyone, the rest of the group travels by car to their own workshop where Sarah is introduced to Jay, who has been working on a cure for the Radical-9 poisoning in the past seven years. He finally has a working prototype, and joins along in the journey to find his son.
They traveled as far as they can in one day until they have to make a stop at a nearby inn to sleep. Inside the inn Sarah has a dream of her own where she sees the life of a man named Friedrich Adata, Jack's Father, and consequently, her own grandfather. Friedrich is the originator of the entire Radical-9 Incident, as he was naturally gifted from birth with the ability of foresight. He understands exactly how the future will turn out, using this ability to his advantage he successfully flees Germany before they invade Poland and begin World War II.
It was during this time that Friedrich uses knowledge from the future to construct reliable spacecraft and befriends two unnamed assistants who end up venturing to Mars to find the mysterious elements that combine to create Radical-9, predating the British-American Government in 2008. Friedrich befriends scientists from all around Europe and Russia to entertain his own experiments on the Human Genome Project.
Friedrich discovered that mankind can ascend to higher power by altering certain chromosomes in their DNA. These experiments are called the Schröder Experiments, after the late Ken Schröder. The results of the experiment are the first known Automaton in Sonja Von Kleist, who has had most of her internal organs removed and replaced with mechanical parts. After Friedrich is tried for his crimes and killed in 1999 Sonja vanished from public view and is not heard from again. This killing in 1999 is as far as we know the event that created the split in timelines between Gavin's time and Micah's time.
Back in the inn the group woke up to a chaotic period where Lindsey committed suicide in the bathroom. Her previous untreated traumas had come back to haunt her and have forced her to end her own pain. Andrew freaks out at his wife's suicide and his own despair unlocks a new power inside himself from the Radical-9 in telekinesis. Unfortunately, he discovers this power by unleashing it on Jay—throwing him against a tree outside the inn and breaking his back, killing him.
Andrew and Sarah were the only ones remaining from the inn, they took the cure from Jay's pocket and buried the both of them with tears fresh in their eyes and continued onward to California. Gavin and Iris ended up in California immediately, but they didn't know where John and Micah could possibly be. They found a couple willing to let them stay the night as they gathered information. The two grew closer as the danger of everything around them closed in.
The couple ended up revealing themselves as automatons and the two raced out o the apartment as quickly as they could. Gavin took a blow to the head from one of the automatons and could not focus his powers to escape. They make it out the front door only to be surrounded by thousands of automatons standing and waiting for them.
Micah had sent them back from his time as a trap waiting to be sprung for them. Gavin mentally calls out for help which is immediately answered by Andrew and Sarah, who have linked back up with Jen after she split from them during the courthouse raid.
They picked the two up and begin driving to the new Statue of Liberty hanging on the remains of Alcatraz Island when they're stopped by Micah himself. There was an all out assault on the group until he turned his focus on Gavin, wanting a proper rematch with his alter ego. Gavin uses all of his strength to rip a hole in time and barrels through it with Micah. Gavin sacrificed himself to take Micah down with him—it's the last the group ever sees of Gavin.
The remaining moved on to the final showdown with Jack, who has been revealed to have hijacked John's body. When he was captured from the courthouse he was brought right to the Californian hideout inside the Statue of Liberty. It was there he met the remains of Jack, a withered body continuously hooked up to a massive life support machine With his body finally dying, he overloaded John with Radical-9 and injected himself in before his own death.
He created a barrier that only those of his own blood can enter, barring Andrew from having his final fight. Sarah and Jen, both his daughters from different mothers, walk in to see their father. Sarah has a gun loaded with bullets containing the cure that Jay had made to save his son. Jay seemed to have feared that John would be used as a vessel, so he prepared the cure to free John from Jack once and for all.
She tried to fire the gun at him, but Jack was much too powerful. He's able to fend the both of them off at the same time without breaking a sweat. He steals away the gun, but John inside him manages to pull one last ounce of will and fires the gun on himself, killing them both and neutralizing the Radical-9 inside their body to prevent an explosion that would decimate half the country. It seems to be too much Radical-9 to neutralize, but John managed to pull the energy all together forming a solid green orb the size of a baseball containing everything that John and Jack has used to be.
We took the orb and vowed to protect it—the kind of energy that could be released from it was too dangerous to let it fall into the wrong hands. Now that the threat of Jack had finally been taken care of we all took a long period of time to mourn our losses. We were determined to remember the fallen and not let what had happened ever escalate to that point ever again.
The government that had allowed such experiments to be taken place—the benefactors behind the funding. Our eyes turned toward England—the kingdom that had become the world's superpower after their victory in World War II. The Kingdom that had enacted dangerous tests in America and backed out when it backfired on them. The Kingdom that had been waiting in the shadows and working the puppet strings so that someone like Jack could come to power. The group could not rest until the world is at peace and they rebuild their broken nation, with the vote coming unanimously to elect Andrew as their new President.
~...~
I closed the book of our recent history shut and stood over it with a contemplative look on my face. I sat wondering at the kind of life I had lived up to this point and where it would go from here. I opted not to have my story shared in this book because I was ashamed of my part in the global scale. Those close to me know that in the end I came to the group's aid, but similarly know just how long I had been lost and unable or unwilling to do the right thing. The entirety of my adult life after losing Jen was too much for me to bear. Maybe that should have been reason enough to display it—so that nobody followed in my footsteps. But Andy was kind enough to keep it out. I think more than anyone he understood my hesitation and regrets.
"You can rewrite your own story starting today," he told me. Sarah was the one who wrote the book, so she was more than willing to oblige, but something about it all left a bad taste in my mouth. I needed to tell my story the right way—by telling the truth. And I don't think I would have been in the right mindspace to tell it when this book was being written.
My name is Jake Carroway. My father was the chief of police in Colorado and had since been arrested for being an accomplice to Jack Adata seven years ago when he brought out the virtual world Elysium. Due to Jack's overwhelming power he and the other officers in his department were to keep others from snooping into his business—from asking any questions—and from generally doing what Jen and I had done.
During those events I went with Jen to the Republic Plaza in Denver to investigate the origins of the game—partly because Andrew was one of the people that was stuck inside, and partly because Jen had asked me too. I realized that I probably wouldn't have gotten so involved if she wasn't already. I liked Andrew enough, but I hadn't known him as well as I do now back then.
Of course, those events turned out nasty for me. I was already suffering from some pretty nasty chronic diseases that limited a lot about my life. So going out on an adventure of sorts to explore the ruined city of Denver was pushing my luck, but the real damage came when my father came to investigate us. I had helped Jen get past the large fence surrounding the First Republic building, but while I was searching for my own way inside my father appeared on the scene. I had known I was in pretty big trouble looking on the look that was on his face, but I didn't expect him to shoot me.
I don't think he really believed he had done it either, I didn't fall unconscious until we started driving away. But as I hit the ground I started coughing up blood and I was able to see the look on his face as he froze in front of me. He had begun justifying it in his head and it was at that moment that I realized I had lost my father for good. He was always a strict man—not oft to talk about his feelings. Often he brought his work home with him, but that was a long stretch from shooting your own kid. That fact took me a long time to recover from—much longer than the actual bullet wound.
After that point, I was drugged so heavily the next seven years were a blur. I was groomed to be a district attorney around New York so I could be Micah and Jack's puppet. Sort out every single case they toss my way in their search for a boy I hadn't even known. The drugs affected my perception and beliefs, but most of all I had a terrible sense of regret that mounted into my worst side. It would be too easy to say I wasn't aware of my own actions. That wasn't the truth, and I don't ever want it to be confused for such.
I found the kid they wanted me to and I even found the people I had once known, but I considered them enemies. That was the only thing that made sense. To me, life only made sense in the context of feeling as little pain as possible from day to day, but on that meeting everything had caught up with me. All the pain I tried to escape came slamming into me like a freight train. I couldn't escape it, and my strings were finally cut. When that trial ended without a guilty verdict Micah stole away the kid and the drugs in me started to fade. I realized I was nothing but a pawn for the people I swore to help stop all those years ago.
The realization of the entirety of what my life had been building up to absolutely crushed me. The friends I had were fighting for justice and against everything I was standing for because of my own grief and inability to come to terms with what had been happening to me.
It had been too much so I ran. I wanted to kill myself—to stop my streak, but Jen...damn her goodness. She found me. We talked for a long time and she was never judgmental toward me. She never stopped believing that I was me deep down. But the most powerful thing that she told me was that what I had done mattered, but what mattered more was how I was going to fix it.
I tried my best to fix it.
Jen got a call from Andy when they were stopped in some hotel after Lindsey and Jay's deaths. I regretted not being able to apologize to them, but that was when I got the idea of stealing the police van. We detoured to Colorado and made it just in time to save them in California.
These three months that have passed since the end of the Radical-9 Incident with Jack's death I don't feel like I've fully made up for my actions. I don't know if I ever will feel that way, but the best I can do is keep moving forward. Keep pushing to fix things that were once broken. We've reassembled our country under the name of Deliverance because the people needed a form of rescue. I think I needed a Deliverance, too, because without my rescue I wouldn't be here today to be the same for others right now.
The book sat in front of me like a scornful watcher—its eyes on me eternally. I know what I have to do...it's just the act of doing it which has me so at odds with myself. In ten minutes I have to go out to the chamber and tell my story—tell our story. The act of doing so terrifies me, even if I know it is necessary. I think it's because I know how important it is my mind keeps on ushering in brand new waves of fear and paranoia. The people out there are...complicated. A lot of them believe our story and how it all happened, but that's the kicker—they don't know. They simply believe, and the ones who don't…
Well, I guess that's why I have to tell my side now. The people of this country cannot be called such if we are not unified, and so the past three months have led up to this—the election. The last part of the book here about Andrew's election was an author's creation. Sarah—she means well—but she jumped the gun in assuming everyone would see eye-to-eye with us about everything that happened and that needs to happen. We all thought that Andrew had the tact of leading us into a better tomorrow, but I admit we were naive into thinking everyone would feel this way.
So, our election now has another candidate—voted on by the dissenters themselves. His name is Matthew Avery—the estranged son of our previous president, Oliver Avery—who currently lay buried in the wreck of what used to be the Statue of Liberty in San Francisco. He was a few years older than Andrew and myself with gelled brown hair cut slick and dark brown eyes.
Altogether our Deliverance held five thousand people. We were operating out of Los Angeles for the time being since San Francisco was currently unfit for living. We hit all the major cities that survived the government shutdown and its after effects sixteen years ago and gathered as many people as we could find. Five thousand was not many for a country, but it was more than large enough for our Deliverance—built out of the remains of City Hall sandwiched between North Main and Spring Street.
It also eased up on the number of candidates for our election—the people seemed to agree to that—meaning we have a fifty percent chance of Andy getting elected. That didn't necessarily mean a fifty percent chance that our country re-birthed itself fully or not—I personally didn't know Mr. Avery much at all, but I'd be lying if I said that his father didn't inspire the greatest leadership for our country, working for Jack and all.
Don't forget your father worked for Jack too, you idiot. I sighed. It was true...and hardly a reason to not like someone. From his speeches he seemed like a well put together guy, but I'd also be lying if I said I felt like I'd be okay with him winning over Andy.
Either way I felt like somebody was going to be upset...I didn't know if I could bear to be complicit to the beginnings of another two party system...but right now it's all we've known...ah jeez it's my time up now. It's my turn to go and convince all of those people out there why they should believe in Andy like I do.
He was a strange guy...delegating his final speech to the same guy who fought against him in court just three months ago. I guessed it went to show his moral fiber. Me, I don't know if I'd have been able to do that—to be able to have forgiven so easily. I guessed that was my herculean task...forgiveness. The rest of them have been something special to me in my time of need. It was time for me to be something special for not just them, but for every single person out there—even if they didn't know it yet.
The door opened behind me, a calming presence filled the room and I instantly knew who it was. "It's time," Jen said. Her hair was done up in a way that looked unnatural. I guessed it was more out of obligation to the importance of the day because I knew she typically hated having her hair up. I looked back to her and a small, nervous look crossed my face. "You ready?"
I threw back a bigger grin, "Of course, what do you take me for, an amateur?"
She cocked her head, "No, I take you for nervous. That's okay, though. We all are."
My shoulders slumped and I let out a deep breath. "I can never hide anything from you."
"Yeah, what a shame," she rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. She's wearing a tight black dress. The last time I'd seen her this dressed up was when we met in court. As enemies. It was hard to keep from reminding myself of how things were and how different they were to how they are now. "Don't worry about it. Andy wouldn't have given the spotlight to you if he didn't trust you."
"It's like you can read my mind."
"Well, I may not have that talent per se, but I can read it on your face. You looked stressed for days. There's gotta be something that can help ease your mind before you go out."
"I just don't know how much I can help," I said, taking a glance around the room—anything but looking directly at her.
"You've got personal experience that none of us do, and you're the only one who hasn't gotten to share."
"I didn't want Sarah writing about me."
"That's fine," Jen put her hands up in a defensive stance. "Tell us now, in your own words. Tell it to them. Resonate with the people in that crowd and tell them of the world before."
"You really think it means that much?"
"One hundred percent."
I nodded slowly and felt the energy of the mumbled voices outside start to fill my body. I don't know how she does it, but she can make my own thoughts seem to make more sense with seemingly no effort at all. I take in a deep breath and feel it wash over me. The tension between my bones faded away. "Okay, yeah. I think I can do it."
Jen brightened to a smile and placed her arm on mine. "I know you can." We take one final look at each other and head through the doorway.