by Ike Hamill
“The given instruction is contradictory,” the Center said.
Jim turned to Liam. The boy’s mouth was twisted to the side and his brow furrowed as he considered what the Center had said.
Liam couldn’t stand it. He was breathing through his mouth and panting, but he couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen into his lungs. He could feel himself dying. His heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it would burst through his ribs.
“Do something!” Liam said.
“Contradictory,” Jim said, rolling his eyes up in thought. “How can one instruction be contradictory?”
He turned and repeated his question to the mirror.
“It contradicts operator intention.”
Jim thought about that for a second and then turned to Liam.
“You have to sit down,” Jim said. He put his hands on Liam’s shoulders.
“What are you talking about? Fix the thing. Turn the air back on. We have to run for the control room. It’s our only hope. You’re faster than me, but you won’t be able to get in, will you?”
“Liam, sit down,” Jim said. He pressed even harder on Liam’s shoulders. There wasn’t much keeping Liam upright. All his energy was allocated to merely keeping himself alive. He let Jim push him down until he was sitting on top of the toilet seat.
“You need to calmly ask the Center to remap the physical button to restore atmospheric controls.”
“Me?” Liam asked.
Jim nodded.
Liam repeated the words that Jim told him to say. His shaky voice was barely audible. The Center rejected the order.
“The given instruction is contradictory.”
“Take a deep breath and believe it,” Jim said. “You don’t want everyone to die, do you?”
“No!” Liam said. He told himself that he didn’t. It was easy to believe when he looked at Jim’s calm face. This was a real person—he didn’t want Jim to go away. Liam thought about Merle and Amy Lynne. He didn’t want them to go away either. In the back of his head, he had an idea of some imaginary society that he wished would leave him alone, but that was just a metaphor. It wasn’t real.
“No,” he said again.
“Good. Repeat the instruction,” Jim said, and then he told him what to say.
“Center, map a physical button to enable atmospheric controls.”
The Center responded with a chime and a new button lit up in the corner of the screen. Once again, Jim didn’t hesitate. He reached out and pressed it.
“Good, now ask it this…” Jim said. He told Liam what to say.
They opened the door and Robby and Janelle were waiting by the bed.
“What was that hissing? Was that something you did?” Robby asked.
“Yeah,” Jim said. “The bunker wanted us to die because it thought that’s what Liam wanted. We fixed it.”
Robby raised his eyebrows, looked surprised and amused for a moment, and then he nodded.
“All fixed?”
“Yeah, and also we found out why the Center wanted to kill you and Janelle earlier,” Jim said. He went over to the bed and started to pick through the extra clothes that Liam had gotten. He held up a t-shirt that was way too big for him.
“Why was that?” Robby asked.
Liam answered when it seemed that Jim was too wrapped up in going through the clothes to answer his father.
“The Center saw you guys as outsiders. It’s like you said about the imprinting. It had latched onto me, and for some reason it picked out a number of other people that it didn’t like. You and Janelle were on the list. It also hated Sariah. Jim told me what to say and we purged out the names on the enemies list.”
“It wasn’t really enemies—just people the Center hated.”
“You’re sure that it’s fixed?” Robby asked.
“Pretty sure,” Jim said. “Did the door work for you when the air shut off?”
“No,” Robby said. “We tried to exit to the hallway to see if the hissing was happening out there too, but the door wouldn’t budge.”
“Well, see if it works now,” Jim suggested.
Robby went to the door and swiped it to the side. It slid open immediately.
“See? Fixed,” Jim said.
Liam wondered if the test was valid, but he kept his concern to himself. It could be that the next crisis would prove otherwise. Then again, as long as Jim didn’t go hitting any more random buttons, maybe they wouldn’t have another crisis.
“So, I guess you were right, Liam,” Robby said.
“Huh?”
“You ran up and said that the computer was trying to kill us. You were right. Come on, kids. Let’s go see if we can make ourselves useful. I know Mike will be trying to hook up some lights to grow vegetables.”
Liam blinked as he tried to remember. It was true—he had run to Robby because he thought that the Center was going to kill everyone on the enemies list. There was something else about the list that he was just remembering.
“Wait,” Liam said.
Robby paused in the doorway. Liam’s question was for Jim though.
“Jim, before, when I asked it to not consider Robby an enemy anymore, it told me that to reevaluate Robby, it was going to have to reevaluate everyone, including me. Then, it said something about leaning toward considering all of us enemies or something like that.”
Jim turned up his hands and shrugged.
“So, why didn’t it reevaluate me when you had me ask it to purge the enemies list this time?”
“It didn’t say purge,” Jim said. “It said it was going to clear the enemies list.”
“Okay, but why didn’t it reevaluate me too?”
“Maybe it did,” Jim said.
“So, I passed?”
“You must have, right?” Jim asked.
“I don’t know,” Liam said, shaking his head.
Robby put up his hands to make them stop and then put his hands on his son’s shoulders.
“Jim, do we have a problem?”
“Nope,” Jim said. “It’s all good.”
Robby looked to Liam, who could only shrug.
“Dad, this place is weird,” Janelle said.
“Yeah,” Robby said, glancing around. “It is.”
Chapter 82: Brad
Before he could grab the child, Brad was tackled. He didn’t know the name of the person who slammed into his shoulder, or the person who took out his legs. They were all simply enemies. None of them could be allowed to survive. Blows rained down on him—punches and kicks. Brad figured that he must be the biggest threat to the rest because that was the only explanation he could imagine that would make them work together to defeat him.
As he fell to the floor, trying to bite the arm that dragged across his face, he remembered the man’s name. It was Dave. He wasn’t an enemy. Somehow, things had gotten confused. Brad had tried to attack an enemy and had accidentally been tackled by Dave.
They pulled him to the far side of the room, roughly throwing him in a chair before securing him to it. His arms were wrenched behind his back and secured to the legs. His shoulders flared with pain. Brad knew this position. Sometimes he woke up, tangled in his blankets, convinced that he was tied to a chair in a burning building, listening to the screams of…
“Hey!” Romie screamed in his face. “Wake up.”
Brad blinked until she came into focus.
Romie said something to a person just over her shoulder. Brad couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“You there?” she asked.
Brad nodded.
“What’s wrong with you?”
He didn’t have an answer. He shook his head. Frustration made his heart pound and then he remembered.
“It’s the… There’s something in the air. It’s not something that you breathe, but something… I don’t know. I couldn’t control myself. Go over there and see if you feel it.”
Romie looked to the far side of the room. She was frowning skeptically when she looke
d back to him and then she straightened up.
“Be careful,” he called as she went over there.
Romie didn’t give it very long. While everyone watched, she pressed her back against the far wall and then carefully lowered herself to the floor. After a few seconds, she struggled to get up and said, “I don’t know, Brad. I don’t feel anything.”
“Maybe it’s because I was already exposed. You guys saw Pam.”
“That’s true,” Dave said, pointing at Brad. “We know what Pam was like and now Brad’s going the same direction. He told us so when he came back. We have to do something before he turns completely.”
“Turns into what?” someone asked.
“Into a crazy person,” Dave said.
“He may be right,” Romie said. “But there’s no real danger from him right now. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Are you kidding?” a woman’s voice said. She was so hysterical that Brad didn’t recognize the voice until she moved forward and pointed at him. It was Trish. Her daughter was Janelle’s best friend. Brad had spent countless hours talking with her while the girls played. “You saw how he tore off those tie wraps. He had no regard for himself and less for us. He’s too dangerous to keep around.”
Brad looked around the group. A lot of them were nodding along with Trish. They felt the same way that she did.
“I tried to tell you,” he said. Nobody was listening to him.
“Put him upstairs,” Dave said.
“Yeah,” Trish said. “That will be safest.”
For a fraction of a second, Brad was relieved that all they wanted to do was get him out of there. Then, he remembered Pam. She was up there somewhere.
“Hold on,” he said.
“Yeah, hold on, people,” Romie said. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“Better safe than sorry,” Dave said.
A lot of people agreed with him. They had kids to worry about. They didn’t want to split their attention watching out for Brad.
Trish and Dave took action. They moved behind Brad and tilted his chair back on two legs so they could drag him toward the stairs. People were already moving to dismantle the temporary barricade that was set up there.
“Wait,” Brad said.
They weren’t listening.
“Wait!” he screamed. “You need me.”
“Brad,” Dave said, leaning over. “We all know you and love you. This isn’t personal. We just need to keep safe until everything passes.”
Living through the end of the world had made a lot of people pragmatic and logical. Dave and Trish were both like that. They knew how to hold onto things, but they also knew how to walk away. The shame of it was that Brad liked to think of himself the same way.
“Hold on, though. Think about it,” Brad said. They resumed dragging him, but Brad knew he had Dave’s ear. “What happened to me could happen to any of you.”
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Trish said.
“Yes, but it’s cumulative. Pam has it worse than I do, and I have it worse than the rest of you, but everyone has it to some extent. Someone punched me when I was tackled. I was kicked, too. There’s a wave of violence, or at least there was. I think everyone has calmed down now. Maybe you’re a little more fearful than usual.”
A man named Ash moved to pick up the front legs of the chair. Brad raised a foot. He didn’t try to kick Ash, he just needed to delay him for a second while he pleaded his case.
“I’m the canary in the coal mine,” Brad said. “If I start to go feral again, you’ll know that there’s a bad wave coming.”
Trish stood up straight, letting go of the chair. She regarded Brad with new interest.
“He may have a point,” she said.
Dave tilted his head to the side. “We could leave him by the stairs and only get rid of him when he starts to thrash again.”
“Is it like a seizure, you think?” Ash asked.
The others, still clustered near the furnace side of the room, still looked skeptical. Brad suddenly understood—it wasn’t his argument that swayed them. The people near the stairway had moved into a pocket of empathy. He imagined that he could feel it, too.
“No!” Romie said. She shouted like she had just had a revelation. “It wasn’t a seizure.”
Romie was still over near the wall. She raised a finger to point at Brad as she walked toward him. The lights flickered but didn’t go out.
“It wasn’t a seizure. He is possessed.”
Romie was alone at the far side of the room with her finger still pointed at Brad.
“Come on,” Trish said to Romie. “You don’t believe in that kind of thing.”
“Think about it,” Romie said. “He and I saw the shadow and then he went back out on his own. We’re taking his word that Pam killed those others, but Brad has blood on him too. He’s possessed and he’s orchestrating all of this.”
“Oh, no,” Dave said. There was a mixture of fear and wonder competing for control of his face. “Romie has it now.”
Ash understood immediately. He began to circle Romie, prepared to rush at her.
“Romie, we’re going to have to restrain you for a bit. It’s no big…”
“Look!” she said, moving her finger to point at Ash. “It’s spreading. Don’t you see?”
“We’re not protected here,” Brad said. He looked up at Trish—she was the only one who would listen to him. “We need to be deeper underground.”
“There is no deeper,” Trish said.
“Romie, let’s talk about this calmly,” Wesley said. He broke from the group, leaving his kids so he could box Romie in from the other side. He and Ash were collapsing on her position.
“Everyone stop!” Brad said. “Don’t move!”
They didn’t listen. Ash and Wesley got closer to Romie. Ash seemed to stay committed to his approach, but Wesley stopped and straightened up. His face transformed from determination to sneering hate.
“You see?” Brad asked. “Look!”
His voice drew Wesley’s attention. Suddenly, Brad was the target of Wesley’s anger. When he started to stalk toward Brad, Dave moved around to put himself in Wesley’s path.
“Everyone, we need to all be near the furnace. That’s the last rational place,” Brad said.
His comment went unheard. Wesley rushed toward the chair where Brad was tied. He didn’t seem to care that Dave was in the way. Ash stayed focused on Romie. He lunged for her and put his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.
The bulk of the group stayed right where they were, collected protectively around the kids near the furnace. When Trish let go of the back of the chair, Brad was leaning back, hoping to avoid the scuffle between Dave and Wesley. The chair tipped and the world spun.
Brad slammed down on his back, crunching his hands beneath him.
Trish screamed, putting her hands to her face. Brad couldn’t see what she was upset by.
Dave and Wesley, hands clawing at each other, toppled down onto Brad, forcing the air from his chest. For several seconds, it felt like breathing was a trick that his body had forgotten how to execute. His lungs had collapsed and nothing he could do would inflate them again.
Wesley’s elbow came down on his head as the man slipped.
The lights flickered.
Some of the kids were crying. The room was silent except for that sound. Brad wondered if they had been crying all along. He could’t imagine how they had kept silent all this time.
“It’s okay,” Wesley said.
Brad couldn’t tell who he was talking to.
“I’m so sorry,” a gentle voice said. Brad couldn’t tell who was talking. In an instant, everything had changed. Everyone was apologizing or crying. Trish bent down and put a hand on Brad’s cheek. She was crying as she tried to lift him by the shoulders. Finally, when a couple of other people joined in, he was tilted back up to a seated position.
Brad froze when a pain shot up from his lower back. He d
idn’t dare move.
Fingers were pulling uselessly at his bonds until someone brought over a set of cutters and the tie wraps were snipped.
“Wait,” Brad said. “Are you sure?”
“He was right,” Wesley said.
“I’m sorry I said you were possessed,” Romie said.
“Stop!” Brad said. He didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but he knew better and he seemed to be the only one. “Everyone stop apologizing right now. This is another wave. The bad stuff could come back at any time. Please—everyone toward the furnace. That’s the safest part of the room.”
Dave looked shocked that Brad was yelling. He blinked rapidly until tears started falling down his face.
The last of the plastic was cut and Brad was free. He fought his own sympathy and grabbed Trish—she was closest. He pushed her, leaning hard on her to keep himself upright. She gave in easily and he maneuvered her over to the group of confused people who were standing near the furnace.
“Please,” Brad said. “Keep her here.”
One or two of them seemed to understand. They restrained Trish as Brad went back for another. Dave was the easiest to move. He was hunched over, sobbing, when Brad grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the others. One woman, Reggie, started to move toward Dave to collect him, but Brad waved her back.
“No! Stay there. You see what it’s doing to them.”
Brad didn’t know why he wasn’t as affected as the others. It could have been because of all the other feelings he had been exposed to. It could have been because he was flat on his back when the wave hit. It didn’t matter—all that mattered was getting everyone to a safe place. He only prayed that the area near the furnace would be safe enough.
Brad finally led Romie over to the others. They were packed together, huddling near the furnace, looking out at the room as if they might spot the next wave of insanity.
“You’re bleeding,” Trish said to Brad.
He glanced down at his hand. “I know.”
“Doesn’t anyone know what time it is?” Romie asked.
Wesley finally answered. “It’s an hour until sunrise.”
Romie sighed.
