by Cole Anders
“The thing that walked out of the front entrance I'll never forget. I couldn’t recognize who it used to be, but it had at least been female once. It was a grotesque mixture of a badly decomposed human head and torso, augmented with robotic components. It was carrying an Uzi in one hand and had a sharp metal pipe instead of a second hand. As it stepped out into the front alcove along the front of the building the smell of the thing hit me. It had the unmistakable reek of putrid rot mingled with the stink of burnt metal like fresh welding. It approached Carla's body and immediately began to look around for us, but it didn't seem willing to search for us beyond a cursory sweep of the visible area around the front alcove and it didn’t walk down the entry way landing steps and out of cover from the automated turret. When it finally seemed to give up and turn back around away from our direction, Jeffery leaned out and shot it directly behind its right ear. Good thing too, anything less than a perfect shot might not have been enough to keep it off us, because even though the back of its head had instantly been caved in, it still managed to wheel around and lift the Uzi it had part of the way towards us before it collapsed in a heap on the ground.” Luke let out an almost relieved sigh when he stopped talking, Simon could tell he'd never told that story before to anyone else.
Simon considered what he'd be told for a few moments before speaking “Did you ever find out who the organic components used to be? Where did such a terrible thing come from?”
“No I never did, I knew so many people that died that day, and after it was over we incinerated them all quickly. At the time, we had no way of telling what might reanimate them again, or when.” Explained Luke.
“It wasn’t Nerva was it? How could something like that happen?” Asked Simon, horrified.
“No, in fact, Nerva is what eventually turned the situation around, as well as Calvin, David, Jeffery and Myself.” Said Luke.
“Oh?” Asked Simon.
“So once Jeffery had neutralized that thing, we started trying to figure out how to get past the Gatling turret. It seemed unlikely we'd be able to force it to deplete its ammunition, and we had no idea if more of those things would be coming out to try and intercept us. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long because David called Jeffery just a few minutes after that. He and Calvin had been in the fog box maintenance crawl space when all hell broke loose in the facility. All the automated defenses started attacking everyone and environmental controls turned most of the complex into an inhospitable oven. The living quarters which didn’t have lethal defense measures were sealed and the temperature had raised too over 200 degrees in just over an hour. David had no idea who, if anyone was still alive within the compound. The only reason him and Calvin were still alive was because the maintenance crawl space had no automated defenses and had its own isolated environmental controls meant to protect the core from power failure. It was designed as a sort of final stand safe room, and was consequently the safest place in the facility. David said that he had some limited access to some of the automated functionality from within the crawl space, but nearly everything was locked out now and it was mostly just a terminal access to communicate with Nerva at that point.” Explained Luke.
“So, what kept David from pulling her plug right then and there?” Asked Simon.
“The fact that she hadn't been given access the any of those systems yet. Remember, at the time, she was almost completely isolated from the rest of the computer systems. Everything that had gone crazy were things she physically had no way to access. Nerva at that moment existed only within the fog box, and her only output left was the small isolated terminal David had in front of him. David also had patch ins for some of the security cameras around the compound, and something vaguely human like would occasionally walk by one of them, but he didn't recognize any of them by that point, what he saw was twisted and grotesque. As well as having read out information for the environmental controls. David explained that there should have been much more access than that, but he had been completely locked out of almost all the controls. And Calvin's security overrides weren't working either. It was going to be impossible for either of them to deactivate the automated defenses. However, an idea struck me. I explained to Jeffrey that I since I still have no core access myself, whatever had locked out them might not have bothered with me. And it was also possible Jeffrey's own access haven't been affected since he wasn't around when this happened. We both gave David our pass-codes and he began sifting through our settings to see if he could elevate our privileges. And it just so happened there was a loophole we could exploit. Jeffrey's own access had also been restricted, but through Jeffery, he was able to elevate my own access rights which hadn't been locked out. So, using my system profile, he managed to get the front door turret to destroy itself. Instead of simply deactivating it, he manually spun it around and shot its own support arms off. Outside, we heard it let out a brief rattling buzz as it fired then an echoing clank as the armature crashed onto the stairs. We crept around and up the causeway toward the front entrance. I glanced back a Carla and swore I'd make sure her death wasn't meaningless. My resolve steeled, we pushed open the front entrance to the worst nightmare I could have ever imagined.”
Luke fell silent again, seemingly to consider how to describe the horrors he'd seen. Simon didn't want to ask for more this time, he knew the rest of the story would come out at Luke's own pace and not any faster. They’d been driving most of the day now and would be stopping soon for sleep.
Finally, Simon said. “Luke, let’s get some gas, I won’t get out of the car but I’m sure we could use some.
“Ya we could, I’ll pull in up there, you feel like trying to eat anything?” Asked Luke.
“Nothing to eat, but I need some more water.” Said Simon.
Pulling into a gas station called Loaf N Jug Somewhere in central Missouri, Luke got out and stretched his back and legs while fueling up. Simon watched him for a moment and then rolled his neck and shoulders as best he could. The pain in his right should flared up immediately. He rummaged through the aid kit Luke had sit in his lap looking for more pain meds. By the time he found them, Luke was back with a few large bottles of water.
“Here’s a few for you and a few for me. Want me to help you out so you can try and stand for a few minutes?” Asked Luke.
“Let’s not bother here, if we stop for the night then I’ll worry about getting out.” Said Simon.
Luke shrugged and started the car. Simon could see the concern in the side of his face but said nothing. Luke didn’t start up talking again until they were back on the highway.
“Stepping into the lobby was like stepping into hell Simon. Strung across the floor were bodies piled up in haphazard mounds. The stench was totally overwhelming. It looked like some of them had been there for days. Which meant that it was possible that they were brought here from somewhere else, because there hadn’t been enough time for the kind of decomposition I saw. Interlaced with the piles of corpses was a latticework electrical components. They seemed to be in various states of integration with the bodies and traced back into the walls and ceiling at several locations. There was movement everywhere. The bodies seemed to writhe; Twitching and jerking at random, the whole gruesome scene was alive with activity. If there had been something in that room that could have shot us I'm sure we'd have both been killed right then. As it turned out, we meet no immediate resistance when we entered.” Said Luke.
“Good god man, what on Earth was happening? This sounds like a complete nightmare!” Exclaimed Simon.
“One of the problems with Nerva is that when the technology she needed to exist was first brought to our attention as Firewall. It had already existed without our knowing for more than a year. And the original creators had all been killed. At the time, we couldn't be sure how many of the quantum fog boxes had be produced or who might have had them. But there was no evidence of more than one fog having ever been completed, and that's the one Nerva sits in now. All of the data relating to its creation wa
s curated, and there were no leads that anymore might exist. But a year is a long time, and we could never be completely sure if more of them existed. Well it turned out at least one other did exist. However, wherever it is, it's not under the control of any of the known special interest groups we track. It does still exist today though, Nerva has seen evidence of its activity from time to time over the years, and because of what happened, we suspect it did the same kind of thing to whoever was trying to use it. So, as it happened to us, it happened to them first. You see, that rogue AI sat for more than a year unshackled and connected to the Internet. If anyone was ever monitoring its activity they obviously lost control of it a long time ago. So, it sat there, watching, consuming all the information it could get access to. Nerva has said she still finds traces of it in supposedly closed systems that were online back then even now. It was an intelligence truly without guidance or oversight. And the thing it became was madness incarnate. You see, when we started letting Nerva have limited outside access, that thing was waiting, listening for her. Whether it was programed to, or it choose to seek her out we don't know, but once it had located her, it began to systematically subvert our entire mainframe. Nerva later concluded that its ultimate goal was to set a computational booby trap for her when she was finally granted full outer system access, hijack her programming and take over her fog box to propagate its own code. However, hijacking Nerva wasn't its only gambit for self-propagation. That's what those cybernetic monstrosities were for. It was attempting to convert biological tissue, namely the brains of humans, into ad-hoc quantum boxes as well.” Explained Luke.
“But you said it was still out there even now right? How did you stop it, and why hasn't it been found? Also, who were all those bodies in the lobby?” Asked Simon.
“When the A.I. attacked, it used a normal driver and delivery truck. The poor guy had no idea was in the containers he was delivering. But the delivery was a scheduled one for Firewall, and when they opened the back of the truck in the loading bay several fully autonomous cybernetic creatures burst out of the crates and quickly killed the support staff and gathered them and the other non-animated bodies they brought with them in the front lobby. At the same time, the AI broke into the system a hijacked all the automated defenses at the base and managed to killed most of the operations personnel down in the underground sections before anyone knew what was happening. Calvin and David survived by being isolated away from the networked part of the facility by happenstance. I think it was merely a coincidence that the three of us were away when it attacked as well. Because I can't imagine we'd have made any difference had we been there. So, once it had killed everyone but Calvin and David, and had gained total control over the internal systems. It set up a pile of organic processors in the front lobby and began trying to force its way into the fog box maintenance chamber as well as trying to gain access to Nerva herself. This went on for nearly a day before we arrived and discovered what was happening.” Said Luke.
“A day? That's a long time for those guys to sit in a cramped maintenance crawl space. How did they manage to keep those things out for that long?” Asked Simon.
“Calvin told me later that they could hear those things shuffling around outside the hatch, which, while secured from the inside by a manual lock, the hatch wouldn't stand up to a sustained attempt to get it open by force. After a while they realized that they didn't know about the maintenance crawl space at all, since it was totally off the grid, it was invisible to the AI, and those creatures must not have been able to notice it either. So, they just laid there quietly while David did as much as he could through the diagnostic terminal.” Said Luke.
“So, once you and Jeffery made it inside?” Asked Simon.
“Once we collected ourselves from the shock of the sight of it, we explained the situation to Calvin. He had us destroy as much as we could, which honestly wasn't much at the time. All we managed to do was sever the main connections that were coming out of the walls, but the bodies and electrical components still twitched and pulsed with activity. At the time, we had no idea how many other cyborgs there could be still running around, but we had to keep moving in either case. We made our way down the long cadet's quarter’s hallway and headed toward the medical exam room. That sickening smell of rot and ozone burned my nostrils and slide down my throat like a stinking black ooze. I still sometimes catch a whiff of it when I walk through the ground floor. And the heat, the environmental controls had been cranked up nearly all the way so that it must have been close 130 degrees, the walls and floor were slick with humidity as well. My eyes felt like they would melt right out of their sockets if I opened them too wide. It was obvious it had set the internal environmental controls like that on purpose to make it that much more difficult from anyone to try and get into the base. Once we came to the exam room door we stopped and listened. After a few moments of silence, we heard a distant echoing click coming from the other side of the door. It sounded so strange, but it became immediately apparent what it was when Jeffrey kicked out the door ready shoot whatever was on the other side. I still feel guilty about not realizing what was going too happened soon enough. All the pieces were there, but I was too stupid to put it together in time. When Jeffrey kicked that door open he stepped right into thin air and dropped three stories into the open shaft of the room lift. He didn't scream on the way down, which made the sloppy cracking sound of his legs breaking much easier to hear when he hit. The clicking we'd heard just moments before was one of those disgusting mechanical ghouls shuffling around below us so it could get a clear line of sight for when we opened that door. But fortunately, Jeffery landed on the exam table and flipped it over in a way that shielded him from its gunfire. I aimed at it only to find my arm was trembling like a leaf. I managed to get the triggered pulled though, and after 3 misses, I shot it center mass. I'm not sure if I hit what used to be the heart, or some kind of pump, because a viscous brown liquid shot out like it was under high pressure. For a moment, it continued to walk forward and when it finally fell over it was only a few paces away from where Jeffery had landed. That brown sludge quickly began to pool up around it, and in just a few more seconds it stopped twitching all together. I looked down at Jeffery without making a sound. His face of bright red, and I could see even from three stories up part of his leg bone exposed through his pants. Fortunately, he was still conscious and gave me a thumbs up before slumping back down trying to stay motionless and quiet. It seemed almost pointless being quiet since we just rang gunfire through the middle of the complex, but the impulse was still there. I called David on my radio to see what our options might be.”
Luke Finally paused for a moment, and Simon couldn't help but take the chance to comment. “That's a hell of a situation Luke, it's hard to believe all this took place in the same building I've been in for months now.” Said Simon.
“Ya, strange, isn't it? You really never can tell what kind of madness a place has been through just by looking at it sometimes.” Said Luke.
“Ya.”
Luke glanced at the clock on the radio in center console, 22:21.
“It's getting late, we should probably stop somewhere soon, we've been driving most of the day and we’re still on their trail. Nerva said to just stay on this highway until Sioux Falls in South Dakota. And we're almost there now. Let's stop and rest and get further instructions. I'll buy ya a pizza and finish my story.” Said Luke, rubbing his eyes.
“If I wasn't so fucked up right now, I'd be on the edge of my set.” Laughed Simon, instantly wincing back from the shooting pain in his ribs that stirred up from his attempt at a laugh.
Luke only nodded and pulled into a seedy motel 6 right off the highway. Simon wasn't sure if he should anticipate or dread the opportunity to stretch out on a hard-crappy mattress. His body was in terrible condition, but at least he no longer felt like he was one foot in the grave. With all the unbelievable technology, he'd been exposed too in that last few months Simon kept hoping Luke would pull out a pill o
r gel or something to make it all better, but so far all he received a quick field dressing and a large dose of off the shelf pain medication. It did a fine enough job at holding the tide of agony back, but now that tide was coming in again, Simon knew he was in for a long night and likely many long nights ahead.
Luke pulled in and jumped out to pay for a room, Simon attempted to get out and follow him but the effort of opening the door and stepping out took longer than it took Luke to go in and come back out.
“Don't worry about it, let’s pull up closer to the room and I'll help you get out.” Said Luke getting back in.
“Ok good, it'd take me all night to get out of this car on my own anyway. Do we have any more painkillers? I'm starting to feel everything again.” Said Simon, temporally settling back into his seat.
“Ya don't worry, I'll redress your wounds and check for infection. After that I'll make sure you're doped up so you can get some sleep tonight. You are going to need much more comprehensive care than what I can do in a dirty motel room, but for now this is the best we can do.” Explained Luke.
They pulled around to the back side of the motel and Luke got out and unloaded the trunk into a room on the first floor before coming back and laboriously leveraging Simon out of the low hanging mustang. After much effort, they both managed to make it into the room. Simon took a quick look around as they moved into the room, but there wasn’t nothing to see.
15. Pandora
Cheap pizza in a cheap motel has a charm all its own thought Simon. Sitting there in silence taking a mental inventory of the injuries all over his body, Simon thought that maybe he wasn't hurt as bad as he thought. But that idea went away anytime he tried to sit up or shift his weight. It felt like there was one giant continuous bruise from head to toe, and his right side was swollen so much that his clothes didn’t fit very well on that side. Luke had helped him into the bathroom but Simon had insisted out taking care of the rest himself. He hadn't brought back up the story Luke was telling in the car for several hours but it was all Simon could think about. It was hard to believe those kinds of things happened at the place Simon had begun to think of as home.
