Total System Failure

by James Hightower

  “Here,” Tara handed him the weapon. “I can’t babysit you forever.”

  With that, she leapt in right in the midst of the two giants. She dodged a foot from the Boss and vanished.

  Alec rushed to follow. Some instinct moved him. He dove to the grass. Just as a boot crushed the spot he’d once been standing. This must be the feeling a bug got in the path of some squash-determined child.

  He rolled again, the ground thundering after him. Get up. He leapt to his feet. The barrel of the rifle knifed his ribs, but he kept running anyway. On his feet, he moved faster, but he could feel it was not going to be enough.

  A crash clapped against his ears.

  He turned. Just in time to brace himself as a wave smashed into him. He tumbled and bounced and thrashed in the water. He lost track of time, and all sense of direction vanished. The best he could do was fight to the surface and stay there. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but the moments stretched like hours.

  Then, just like that, his fight for survival ended.

  He coughed and spat up water. Mud caked the spaces between his fingers, and he lay there trembling more than an autumn leaf, but at least he was on solid ground. Just a few steps away, the sea crashed hungrily against land. Could’ve been much worse. He gasped for air that wouldn’t come quick enough and surveyed the devastation.

  The giant versions of Marcia’s boss and Gray were gone. Judging from the mammoth-sized footprints along the shoreline, they must’ve fallen into the water.

  “No!”

  Agent Square’s scream cut over the dull rumbling sky. Alec followed the android’s eyes expecting the worse of horrors but discovered nothing that distinguished itself from the rest of the tsunami-blasted land. The wooden carcass of the table was gone. As was the bag of clothing. No evidence remained from their meeting with the Boss.

  The android screamed and pulled at his hair. His wild eyes blazed with hatred as they landed on him. “You! You cost me my freedom. I’m going to kill you!”

  The android closed the distance with startling quickness.

  Alec glanced around for a weapon, but the rifle was nowhere in sight. Super Strength: Active.

  Better than nothing. Still, he visualized the red shield in his hand, willing the Weapons feature to appear.

  “Your mother never birthed you,” Agent Square said through gritted teeth. He produced a knife from his suit jacket. “She created you in a lab. She created all of us.”

  Chapter 21

  The knife gleamed like a river on a summer day. Alec stared at it, dumbfounded. His thoughts traced back to his shoulder, and the same glint of metal that had shone there. He is telling the truth. Even as the blade flashed in his direction, he still couldn’t quite believe it.

  &Shield: Activate.

  In a shower of sparks, silver collided with ethereal light. The blade skid away as though coming in contact with a brick wall.

  Agent Square stomped a leather shoe in the mud. “You can’t run.” A fork of lightning struck across the sea. “Not forever.”

  His shoulder burst with pain, but Alec raised his shield anyway. Just as Agent Square rammed into him. They stumbled back together, tripping in the slough that’d once been a pristine tropical garden.

  Battery: 27%. He wouldn’t last much longer like this.

  On one knee, he scooped up a pile of mud and flung it at the android. It splat on Agent Square’s face with a dull slap. Instead of being angry, the android laughed, great heaves that seemed to match the rhythm of the storm. The unexpected reaction gave him pause, but he shot forward, propelled by a sense of desperation and newfound strength from his abilities.

  Agent Square sidestepped. His side erupted in heat. His momentum brought him past the android, but not far. Fresh blood leaked warmly from his new wound, a horizontal slash just below his armpit.

  He squeezed his eyes shut against the agony and whipped around to face the android.

  Despite the grayness of the storm, his mother’s necklace sparkled looked like a shard of sunlight. Agent Square dangled the jewel in front of his face, eyes wide with awe and hunger.

  “Now you know the truth,” the android said. “I can see it in your eyes, but you still want this.” The jewel vanished into his palm. “This isn’t your mother’s necklace because she was never your mother. She never loved you as a son. Not truly. She made you for a purpose.”

  “Liar!”

  He charged again, instantly realizing he was making a grave error. His back went hot. His shirt felt slick with blood now. He fell to his knees. Only twenty-percent battery left.

  The ruby light vanished, and with it, it was as though the last bit of light had vanished with it. Gone. And yet, Agent Square still held the necklace. There was power inside it. Alec could feel it. He just needed to take it back from the android.

  “This is the problem with humans.” Agent Square stalked forward, knife in hand. “Emotion. You simultaneously detest and crave it. The best of you can only regulate your emotions. If you were more machine than human, our creator might still be alive today.”

  The cry that ripped from his throat sounded like something a wild animal would make. Kill him. His head swam with the two words. He repeated them over and over until they rang in his skull. Alec vaulted forward, fingers closing around the hilt of the knife.

  Stumbling around in the wreckage and mud, they struggled for the knife. Strength flowed into his limbs. He forgot about his wounds and focused all his energy on the task at hand.

  Mud stained Agent Square’s cheek and square jaw. A vein bulged along the android’s forehead. Alec imagined the android shutting down just like with the android. It could work. It’d worked before.

  The split of attention cost him. With a great heave, Agent Square threw him back. “Think you can just overpower me?” The android laughed again and wiped mud from his face. He glanced down at his suit, eyes going wide as though just noticing the stained and shredded clothing. The android spat and glared at him. “You’ve cost me my freedom. Now it will cost you your life.”

  “What makes you think you deserve freedom?”

  Alec found himself surprised at the words. Just keep him talking. He needed to regain some strength. Perhaps in time for one of the others to come help.

  “You,” the android began, face bunching in fury. Then, the android went placid, like a gale at sea blown off course. “You cannot live.” A note of satisfaction entered his tone. “My employer cannot let someone like you exist without regulation. There must be rules.”

  He straightened, wracked by waves of pain. He shivered at a sudden chill. He’d lost too much blood. Any more and his system might shut down before he even reached low battery.

  A rifle cracked. The shot reverberated in his chest. For one wild moment, Alec thought he’d been hit. Instead, Agent Square spun around at the impact. Two more blasts burst over the thundering storm.

  He sank back to one knee, clutching the oozing wound under his arm. One of the guards? Unlikely. So, Marcia or Tara. Which woman would it be?

  Marcia? Tara?

  No response.

  He regained his feet, but now the island tilted and swayed like a drunk. He needed to find his mother’s necklace.

  His legs spasmed in protest and he nearly fell for a third time.

  “Your mother created a masterpiece,” Agent Square said, jealousy tinged in his voice. The android bent over an upturned boulder near the ruined shoreline. “You really think like a human, don’t you? It’s amazing.”

  Tara was nowhere to be seen.

  Marcia limped towards them, rifle cradled against her chest. Bruises and minor cuts covered the girl from head to toe, her clothes barely covering her. Alec didn’t know how she was still standing. She leveled the gun at Agent Square.

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “You’ll be dead in a few seconds.”

  The gun fired. Once, twice, then a third time. With each impact, Agent Square bounced back until he tripped in
the sand and toppled into the sea. The waves crashed hungrily, and the android disappeared. But the necklace. He stared at the spot where the android had last been. What was he going to do now?

  “Finally,” Marcia said. “I will redeem myself.”

  The gun angled in his direction.

  Alec gaped. “Don’t do this. You can let me go. We’ll leave together.”

  The gun didn’t waver. “The Boss will be back soon,” Marcia said. “This is my chance.”

  Alec stared around at the blasted island for some advantage. Giant craters pockmarked the land from Gray’s fight with the Boss. The shoreline was empty, and the closest downed guard was about fifty meters away.

  Marcia noticed him looking. Her eyes sharpened to a glare. “Don’t even think about it.”

  Could he bring himself to fight her? If the Boss was coming back soon, that meant he didn’t have much time. Like a flip switched in his mind, something changed.

  &Weapons: Activated.

  The ethereal shield throbbed a deep red in his fist. His entire body trembled from its energy. Could he bring himself to fight her?

  “So nothing was real between us then?”

  Partially the words were to delay the heartbreak, partially because he ached for an answer he wasn’t going to receive.

  Marcia’s face contorted. Her gun shook ever so slightly. “You know nothing.” Her voice was soft, and he barely heard the words above the rumbling storm. It might’ve been his imagination.

  He charged, careful to keep the shield in front of his entire body. Beams of concentrated light rebounded off the shield to ricochet into the mud around him. Each shot seemed to pierce his heart. She would kill him if she had to. The knowledge carved something out in his chest and reopened a wound he’d worked so hard to pretend wasn’t there.

  As he neared, Marcia threw the gun down and darted forward. Heat blossomed along his other shoulder. Sweat stung his eyes as he fought the girl he’d dreamed about dating. This can’t be real.

  His leg spasmed. Marcia’s elbow found his ribs with a heavy-sounding thud. Your mother created a masterpiece. He fell back against Marcia’s onslaught, tripping along the roughshod mud. Strange that Agent Square’s words would come to him at a time like this. The words rang through him, cutting neatly through the pain and burgeoning dizziness from blood loss. If he wasn’t human, then why did his sides burn for oxygen? If he was truly a frame of hyper-strong metal, then wasn’t the limit of his strength only in his mind?

  “The necklace,” Alec grunted.

  Marcia was the picture of cold calculation. “The necklace is gone.” She aimed a kick at the side of the shield. A feint. He absorbed the contact and leaned his weight against the counter-blow.

  Marcia’s limbs blurred, but it no longer seemed impossible to keep her at bay.

  “The necklace was a test,” he said at the last impact.

  Alec squeezed something in his mind and the shield burst apart like shrapnel. Marcia’s eyes widened, then she was lost in illumination. The explosion threw him back as well. He landed flat on his back, sinking slightly in the mud. He lay there, panting.

  &Weapons: Deactivated. Battery: 10%. Low Power Mode. &SuperStrength: Deactivated.

  His vision blurred even as a shadow fell over him. The ground trembled. Once, then twice. Hope soared in his chest. Could it be Gray?

  “I told you not to kill the boy,” a voice boomed. Thunder punctuated the Boss’ words.

  A weak voice mumbled a reply. An apology, an excuse? Marcia? The girl was still alive?

  A scream. A woman, but not Marcia. He tried to lift his head, but it was as though his body had been turned off. Someone was speaking in angry tones. It sounded a lot like Tara. He struggled to sit up. Finally, his body obeyed. His vision cleared just in time to see his guardian hugging the Boss’ giant shoe like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Except her skin pulsed with a hot-white aura that webbed her entire body.

  Some instinct moved him. Using the last reserves of his strength, he curled into a ball. Heat erupted in waves all around him. He squeezed his eyes at the light, but it burned hot against his eyelids. All sense of place and time disappeared. Scorching wind whipped his back. The denotation rang in his bones, through his arms all the way to his skull. Even his multiple wounds dwindled to the background.

  When the flash subsided, it was as though the last reserves of his strength had gone with it. He stared up at the color-drenched sky. The island, the beach, the sea, it’d all been swept away.

  Death, with its skeletal brush, painted his vision.

  Chapter 22

  He floated in a sea of nothingness. No sense of movement or space or time. Well, not exactly nothing, color splattered across his vision. And pain brimmed in his body like boiling water. He clutched onto consciousness but faded in and out of awareness.

  Images of what happened played through his mind. Tara and the Boss. The explosion. She had sacrificed herself. Through the numbness, grief tugged at the hole already in his stomach, in the core of his soul. His guardian tried so hard to protect him. In the end, she sacrificed herself in the attempt. He was surprised to find tears trickling warmly down his cheeks.

  What now? Walking clearly wouldn’t get him anywhere. He switched his system off. No change. His breathing came easier, but the same formless colorful sky persisted. He left his system off as he turned the problem over in his mind.

  Every atom inside him screamed that Agent Square still lived. If the Boss had survived the water, then Agent Square almost certainly did.

  He lifted a trembling fist. One more chance.

  All he needed was an escape route. Alec restarted his system, his body jolting with the wash of energy.

  Now that he focused on it, he could feel the circuits coursing through his body, like veins delivering information and energy instead of blood. Everything was a lie. He resisted the rising tide of self-pity. Think.

  He opened another public screen. He toggled through his settings. Nothing worked. He changed variables, switched modes on and off, even added some code. Nada.

  He stepped forward and backward and side to side. The backdrop did not alter, but a fresh wave of dizziness hit him. No, movement would only disorient him. His escape was tucked away in his own system. It’d been worth a try.

  The public screen didn’t help, but perhaps he could layer it. He opened another. The shapeless sky went a bit more transparent. His heart stuttered. Could this be the solution? He added one public screen after another, the backdrop dimming more and more until he stood in a translucent void. It made him want to empty his stomach. He closed the public screens.

  What about a private one then? What did he have to lose at this point? He opened a private screen. Nothing. He opened another, and another, letting each layer on themselves. Desperation stuck to the back of his throat like bile. What did he have to lose now? With each layered screen, the blob around him faded into darkness.

  An absolute darkness shattered the void. Terror filled his chest as all sense of gravity vanished. He hugged himself and squeezed his eyes shut. This was infinitely worse than before. He floated in the sea of darkness. Then hot air pricked the back of his neck, like the breath of some great beast.

  From the heart of darkness, a voice rumbled in his head. WERE YOU NOT WARNED?

  His head shook with each word. Whatever it was, it spoke with total, unequivocal authority. Was this the Boss’ boss?

  I was trapped.

  YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE, the voice thundered. Tears streamed hot trails down his face.

  I apologize. I had no choice.

  THERE’S ALWAYS A CHOICE. The entity considered, its thoughts like sonar buzzing in his ear. Power emanated from the voice. Whereas Gray’s presence had been underwhelming, commanding at times, this creature overawed absolutely. IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE ONE OF YOUR KIND HAS VENTURED SO DEEP. YOU CAN BE OF USE TO ME.

  Can you…can you help me? Alec didn’t think asking it for help was a good idea,
but what else did he have to lose other than his life? No one would ever discover him here. Surely death was better than sitting in a void forever.

  YOUR PREY IS SEEKING ESCAPE FROM THIS WORLD. GO TO SATELLITE CONTROL. THE WAY HAS BEEN PAVED. BROADCAST MY MESSAGE BEFORE YOUR HUNT OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.

  The entity uploaded a file in his system files. His heart drummed against his temples as the entity finished its instructions. The darkness burst into a million shards of light. He cried out at the sudden illumination and shielded his gaze, but it was too late. The brightness punctured him, the heat mushroomed in his head, and a new energy zipped through him.