The Birth and Times of Mr. Dystopia: The Chronicles of Monkeytown, #1

M.R MAZE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

APOCALYPSE AT HARPERS LANE

Chapter 1

-EARTH 1969-

Chapter 2

-COMPOUND PARADOX-

Chapter 3 

-HOUSE OF A THOUSAND BROKEN DOORS-

Chapter 4 

-APOCALYPSE AT HARPERS LANE-

Chapter 5

-TRANS-DIMENSIONAL COMMUNICATION-

Chapter 6

- SLIPSTREAMS, BLACK HOLES AND KILLER HOBOS-

Chapter 7

-DADDY’S GIRL-

PART II

THE SEVENTH FLOOR

Chapter 1

-SEVEN YEARS LATER-

Chapter 2

-THE GOLDEN NUGGET-

Chapter 3 

-A SOBERING REVELATION-

Chapter 4 

-MISTAKEN IDENTITIES-

Chapter 5 

-FLOORS ONE AND TWO-

Chapter 6 

-WELCOME TO DYSTOPIA-

Chapter 7

-OUT OF INK-

PART III

BLACK DOOR

Chapter 1 

-JIM-

Chapter 2

-ROCK BOTTOM AND BEYOND

Chapter 3

-DETACHMENT-

Chapter 4 

-GRAND CONJURATION-

Chapter 5

-POETIC JUSTICE-

Chapter 6

-TRANSCENDENCE-

PART I

APOCALYPSE AT HARPERS LANE

Chapter one

‘EARTH 1969’

SILGA AND HER MOTHER Annabelle had little to be grateful for while living in the slums of Serbia. They had food, but within their culture unrest and violence was emerging. Silga's family was no different.    

-Enough! You're scaring Silga. Why don’t you just explain to me, calmly, what it is you've gotten yourself into this time?

-Now you listen here, woman—the day a man needs to tell his wife all of his business is the day I take a pot of boiling water to my testicles. You just keep your god damn trap shut and be grateful you’ve got food and a home to eat it in.

-You know I'm grateful!  I'm just worried. I'll starve; I'll live on the streets and still be happy so long as I have my family with me... I'm worried about you; I'm worried about Silga's future and if she's going to have a father or not!

-You blabbing your mouth isn’t going to help that cause, Annabelle. Just clean and fuck like a good wife and accept what I have given you.

On that note the man leaves, slamming the door on the way out. Annabelle consoles her daughter, who, having been sitting quietly on the stairs until then, had heard everything. 

-What's going on, mommy... Is daddy in trouble?

-Maybe dear, maybe...

This was the last time they saw Silga's father. In Serbia, governments were as blatantly corrupt as gangsters - which meant there wasn't much that crime organizations couldn't do. Nonetheless, for many people the government would be their only option in times of need. And so, the thin ice they lived on would sometimes break, as it did for Silga’s father. It has been three days since they heard from him. Police came to the door; told the mother in private how a man running the loader at the landfill had seen the body. How if it weren't for one remaining finger, they would never have identified him. The officer almost seemed cheerful as he explained what a stroke of luck finding the decapitated finger not far from the body was. Annabelle, however, did not find this as amusing. 

-Oh, and Ms... Noel?

-Yes?

-Yes, I just felt it necessary to warn you, the people your husband dealt with, the people he had wronged... They're some of the more vicious kind. The kind of people who put everything on reputation, as they have before. The kind to come after the wrongdoer’s family and set an example. Do you understand?

-Yes, I believe I do. You're telling me we're in danger.

-Correct, ma'am, you are in danger.

-What am I supposed to do then? Are you taking us into protective custody?

-What? Oh, no, that’s not-, the budget only allows protective custody for severe cases, such as threats to diplomats and what have you... I'm afraid the budget simply does not allow for every suspected dangerous case to qualify for these services.

-Well, do you not think we are in sufficient danger?

-Good Lord, I'm surprised you're still here if I'm to be honest. No, you ought to leave as soon as possible, and I mean right away. We can't help you because, well, to be frank, because you're poor.

-I see... Thank you, officer. You may go now.

And the officer does just that, albeit slowly. The moment the man had left, Annabelle looked into her daughters so and so eyes and felt her resolve crumble, falling into a nervous frenzy. She panics, rushing for her anxiety pills, though these pills would fix nothing - only numb her long enough to think of what to do next. They were her last pills and so they must count. 

Now fully numbed, a sense of euphoria even, Annabelle embraces her daughter, consolidating her. She then remembered one of her strange sounding uncles who came from and lived in Montreal. Rushing through the house, she eventually finds a book with a number scribbled on it. One calling, she began to feel anxious again, thinking What if he did not answer or What if this isn’t even his number anymore. He does, however, answer. And not only that; he also, to her shocked relief, tells her she is very welcome. 

Silga and her mother pack up and quickly head to a shop to sell what wares they had. They then proceed with their travels, from trains to ferries. Finally making it. albeit penniless. to the west coast - Vancouver Island. Here, this tragic family would endure the most; forced to beg on the streets, Annabelle’s mind slowly left herself, unable to cope with her conceived failures. It was also here they would encounter the most important person in their lives; a young Professor named Charles D. Isaacs. This young, adventurous spirit always had a fascination for tragedy and the lifestyles they would then emit. He studied this among other practical sciences such as theoretical cosmology, quantum physics, and experimental psychology. He, too, believed that various mental abnormalities, such as dementia, were portals to alternate dimensions which, once understood, could become just as real as waking life. 

The professor also was a fool for tragic eyes, and both Annabelle and Silga Noel carried the most tragic he had ever seen. Inside, he could see vast universes dimming as their very source faded into antimatter. Sweet, sweet, Antimatter the Professor would ponder as he gazed upon these pitiful creatures. In his perspective, they were truly magnificent.

-Dearest, why on earth lay you on the streets? And what is wrong with your mother's eyes? It would appear that the life has been sucked out of her. 

Young Silga stared at the strange man incredulously. What a funny man... funny, and strange.

-My father he... We're quite poor, sir. My mother... Mother is sad.

-Well, well, well. I don't suppose being out here on the streets is going to make matters any better, yes? What do you say you bring your mother inside and we get her a cup of tea? And how about a hot chocolate for yourself, wouldn't that just be... sweet?

-My mother needs something to eat, sir.

The strange man hummed, a twinkle in his eye at the girl’s response.

-Ah, there's still a fire burning in you yet, isn't there, dear? Yes, come with me and I'll make sure both you and your mother are well fed.

And so, the Professor did just that. But for now, onwards they went over the years; the professor adopted this family as his own as he projected a sense of proprietorship. He connected the darkness of their existence to negative nature of antimatter. This gave him motivation to pursue the truth about the mysterious substance but also absorbed him into his family. Though he had not yet succeeded in any real tangible discovery, he had the world on its toes, eager to see if he would deliver on his promise to materialize Dark-Matter. He knew that if he didn't come up with results, his funding would be canceled - and then how would he support his family? His love was pure, but his mission will always be primary.  And thus, some years down the line, the professor found himself where every man finds himself once hope has turned desperation:  obscured morality. 

The budget was tight, but this new pressure in some ways released Isaacs. No longer did he worry about the experiment. Now, it was all about the results. Isaacs now was moving unto human experiments. He had it all planned out, having thought about it in those days of overwhelming frustration. The homeless. Yes, it makes perfect sense. Who will miss them? Capture them, drug them, and send them off to space! Isaacs will get his results! He promised them, afterall.

Annabelle's mother, despite her progressive worsening, had the occasional conscious days. Thus, the day Professor Charles Isaacs walked into the house bloodied and distraught, she grabbed her daughter and took the first train to Montreal. She arrived at her elderly uncle’s who accepted them with ease. It was simple, it was generic, and most of all: it was safe. 

Finally, at the loss of his new and only family, Professor Isaacs loses his mind too, slaughtering every one of his precious experiments. Once finished his massacre, he packs his things and leaves for Montreal, where he knows Annabelle's uncle resides.

Arriving at the quickly growing city, Isaacs was finally calmed down by his only friend and former college peer; Doctor Frederic Ulrich Nelson. The professor confided in the Doctor as to why he was there and why those he sought had left. The Doctor had become much more interested in why they left. Nelson then told Isaacs what the two of them could do, to re-vamp his operations there in Montreal. He told him how there were plenty of homeless to be taken, that it would be a service to the city. He told Isaacs about the abandoned school he bought the deed to, made of bricks and barred windows to keep children from falling out. Finally, he told him he would help him with his experiments so he may achieve success and ultimately win his family back. 

They did all as agreed upon - until one homeless person turned out to actually have had a home. The family called the authorities, who then tracked the man’s beeper. The beeper which he had stashed inside his rectum before stripped of all his belongings; for this was a clever man. It was merely his poverty that which him to the doctors' lab. It was as easy as that, just like the Doctor said. People without money will do anything for money. And so, this clever man with his clever beeper stuffed inside his rectum was found, his capturers caught. But this was not before they performed their most important experiment; Project Compound Paradox.

This project was simple, the Doctor and the Professor had consistently dabbled with variations of psychoactive compounds, attempting to create the most potent one while extracting hyperactive brain matter from the patient’s pineal gland. This was so they could administer a significant dose along with a second dose of neuro-phasers (a highly potent compound that induces sleep) that would combine to create the most stimulated pineal gland ever to be recorded and scientifically observed. Finally, when they got the hallucinogen just right, Isaacs went under. While under such a stimulated sleep the Doctor then produced a large syringe, piercing the Professor’s skull, through the grey matter and into the pineal gland. As the Professor twitched and kicked about, Doctor Nelson extracted the Compound Paradox. As he did so, he witnessed in amazement the now glowing liquid that resided within the syringe.

The police raided the school as the sun rose. Isaacs, too, woke and as he watched the scene unfold before him, he experienced the first side effect of their experiment: for, once active, the participant reacts most violently to the sun, driving them mad with energy while seemingly being tortured. Now, with dreams and infinite potential condensed into one recipient, the homeless subjects they had experimented on became addicted to the sun to the point of violent outbursts. 

This would quickly become widespread news. Silga and her mother discovered this by people recognizing her. Annabelle had just gotten better when the famed crazed