by Mike Kraus
Smoke filtered in through the cracks in the door, slowly filling the room and making breathing more difficult. As it became harder to see by the light of the fire, Rachel stood up and moved to the doorway. She held her hand a few inches from its surface, feeling the warmth given off by the metal that was exposed to the high heat of the explosion. Though the door was rapidly cooling, it was still too hot to touch without protection. Using David’s lab coat, they quickly opened the door and swung it open, kicking it several times to overcome the bent sections that prevented it from opening fully.
“We need to get out of the tunnel now!” Marcus took a step outside the storage room and shouted back at Rachel and David who were already starting to get Bertha’s dolly moving. Outside in the tunnel, the fires caused by the explosion generated smoke which filled the air and billowed in waves into the storage room. A small section of the steel door still remained, but enough of it had been destroyed to allow for Bertha to be moved through.
“What about the… her?” The question, coming from David, was surprising given his previous attitude toward the mutated woman. Coughing heavily, Rachel shook her head as she responded. “She’s long gone, David! Even if she’s down there, we can’t get to her!” Marcus wanted to argue with Rachel, but knew that she was right. The smoke was growing thicker by the second, making the certainty of their escape seem less likely the longer they delayed.
After ordering Sam to stay close behind them, Marcus got behind Bertha and helped push, rolling the heavy equipment over the cracked and rubble-strewn floor. As they passed through the threshold where the large steel door had previously stood, the smoke suddenly lessened. Up a slight incline no steeper than a few degrees, a pale steam of moonlight shone down on them, revealing the first sight of the outside world any of them had seen in days.
A smaller explosion marking the violent end of the electric cart’s batteries came from down in the tunnel. “Push faster!” David spurred them on. All of them, including Sam, were exhausted, but they dutifully increased their efforts, pushing the dolly up the slight incline toward the freedom they all sought. Though it only took a few minutes to reach the top of the hundred-foot high ramp, it felt much longer, especially with the acrid smoke rising lazily into the air behind them. Once they finally reached the top, the entire group sank to the ground, gasping for breath and coughing to try to clear their lungs.
After sitting for a few moments and staring at the ground, Marcus, Rachel and David began to look around in an attempt to figure out where they were. Surrounded on all sides by towering buildings, they were still well within Washington, but in the darkness it was difficult to tell precisely where. Consulting his handheld computer, David made his best guess.
“If you’re parked directly in the ruins of the lab complex, then that should just be a few blocks in… that direction.” David pointed off to one side, then at a small street nearby. “This street should join up with the main road that goes in front of the lab.”
Standing up and shifting the duffle bag on his shoulders, David looked down at Marcus and Rachel.
“We should really try to get Bertha back to your vehicle before we rest. I don’t know about you two, but I’m not all that interested in sleeping out here tonight.”
Tired but in complete agreement with David, Marcus and Rachel stood slowly and began to move the dolly once again. Going over the rough terrain was not an easy task, but between them working together and the ruggedness of the dolly, they made steady progress, drawing ever closer to the safety of the armored vehicle.
Somewhere in Montana
11:00 AM, April 14, 2038
Out from under the black cloud cover, Samuel felt renewed, refreshed and invigorated. The plains that Samuel had been traveling on were gradually giving way to the more mountainous regions which, while more pleasing to the eye, were making it harder to track his prey. After crossing over the river, Samuel had picked up Leonard and Nancy’s trail in the morning by following patches of rubber where they had braked too hard or looking for spots where the APC had been forced to go off the road.
As shallow hills and rocks became more commonplace than grass and dirt, signs that the APC had passed through the area became more difficult to find. Studying his compass and a map, Samuel traced out the route that Leonard and Nancy had taken since they first entered the village. In addition to traveling west, they were also traveling north. Though Leonard had said that he and Nancy’s ultimate destination was the west coast to “try and find my wife’s family,” their path to the northwest told a different story.
Going on the assumption that most of what Leonard and Nancy had said was—at best—misleading, Samuel figured that not only were they not married, but they weren’t heading for the west coast, either. Continuing on a general northwesterly direction would take them into Canada before too long, but heavily populated areas in the northwestern sections of Canada were few and far between.
“Where are you going...?” Samuel puzzled over the map stretched over the front of his vehicle. Traveling to Canada made no sense to him, until he unfolded one more piece of the map. Staring at the swath of Alaska, he suddenly began to wonder if their goal was in that state, not in Canada or the west coast of the United States. Though going to Alaska made about as much sense as going to Canada, Samuel was the first to admit that he didn’t have all of the necessary information required to understand Leonard and Nancy’s motivations.
As Samuel leaned in to study the map, a pain in his shoulder made him wince. Pushing back up, he rolled his shoulder, feeling the throbbing of the deep lacerations on his back. After being wounded in the city by the small creatures, Samuel had done his best to bandage himself up, but being unable to see the extent of the damage to his back had made it difficult. Using a combination of alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and a thick layer of antibacterial ointment, he had tried his best to cleanse his wounds before wrapping a thick layer of gauze around his torso.
The wounds were not very wide, but they were long and deep, as though someone had taken a handful of razorblades and scraped them across his body. Feeling chilled, Samuel pulled his coat tightly around himself, ignoring the pain in his back as he did so. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he had been fast enough in sanitizing his wounds or if bacteria were swarming deep inside, poisoning his body by the moment.
After folding up his map and retrieving some food and water from his supplies, Samuel resumed his trek, pushing his vehicle to its limits of speed, maneuverability and durability in an attempt to catch up with Leonard and Nancy. With no sign of any of the demons that had plagued him for so long in the city, Samuel continued to make quick time through the countryside.
Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | David Landry
11:30 AM, April 14, 2038
A warm ray of sunlight piercing the windshield of the APC slowly roused Rachel from her deep slumber. Pulling her head up from where she had been leaning on the door, she looked around, slightly confused by her surroundings until she remembered where she was. To her side, in the driver’s seat, was Marcus, still asleep with his head resting on the steering wheel. Behind her, on opposite sides of Bertha, were Sam and David, both of whom were also still sleeping. Rachel quietly opened the door of the APC and stepped out, still enjoying the smell of the outside air after being stuck underground for so long.
After reaching the surface with Bertha, Marcus, Rachel and David had used the last of their strength to push the dolly out into the street. Taking the pistol with him, Marcus hurried back to the APC and drove it to where David and Rachel were waiting. The whole drive back was eerily quiet and Marcus kept his eyes on the buildings around him, expecting the mutated creatures to ambush him at any time.
Thankfully, Marcus’s fears were unfounded and soon he was back at Rachel and David’s side, helping them load the heavy piece of equipment into the back of the armored car. Bertha was nearly too large to fit into the back of the vehicle, but with a clearance of just a few inches, it narrowly slid be
tween the rows of bench seats. Rearranging the equipment in the back of the APC took the most time, including making room for David and his gear.
Finishing in the early morning hours, the group drove to a nearby parking garage that had survived the blasts mostly intact. Parking just inside with their vehicle angled outward for a quick escape, the three agreed to sleep in shifts. Due to their extreme tiredness, this plan quickly fell apart, and they were soon all slumbering peacefully, encased in the protective sheath of the armored car.
After stretching her legs for a few minutes, Rachel gently opened the rear hatch of the APC and slid in next to Sam, patting him lightly on the head. He immediately awoke and licked her hand in response, whining in hunger. The sound of metal on metal came from the front of the APC, followed by an angry shout from Marcus.
“Shit! Don’t do that, Rachel! You scared the hell out of me!”
Rachel chuckled as Marcus retrieved his pistol from the floor of the APC. “You know, you might want to trade that pistol in for something more powerful.” She retrieved a pair of rifles from the back of the vehicle, along with extra magazines, and walked around to the driver’s seat. Handing one to Marcus, she leaned in and checked on David, who was still snoring lightly.
“Look, Marcus, about what happened in the tunnel….”
Marcus held up a hand to stop Rachel. “I know you’re sorry. I am, too. You were right about it, and I should have listened.”
Rachel shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, lowering her voice. “It’s not just that, Marcus. I just can’t lose anyone else, not after everything we’ve gone through. I keep clinging to that and I can’t let it go, no matter what.”
Marcus put his hands on Rachel’s shoulders and stared at her. “We’re all making mistakes, but the important bit is that we’re still alive and, perhaps more importantly, we have Bertha, too.”
Rachel sighed heavily and looked up from the ground to meet Marcus’s gaze. “I just want you to know that I am sorry. Don’t get me wrong, though; I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I had to.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Marcus smiled and gave Rachel a quick hug, then walked around to the back of the APC where Sam was still whining.
“Did you two make up, or are you going to go at each other’s throats again?”
Sitting on the bumper of the APC, David rubbed his eyes and yawned as he spoke. Rachel smiled at him as she dug through the supplies in the vehicle to start pulling out food and drinks for everyone. “We’re all good, David. Eavesdropping isn’t very nice, though, you know.”
David waved his hand at Rachel in a dismissive gesture and groaned, rubbing his arms and legs in a vain attempt to work out the soreness in them. A lab worker for his entire professional career, David was not used to strenuous physical labor and found the events of the last day to be particularly exhausting. After taking a few moments to evaluate their surroundings, the three sat on the ground behind the APC, eating canned fruit, chips and other supplies Rachel and Marcus had scavenged before going underground. Near the front of the vehicle, at the entrance to the parking garage, Rachel threw pieces of food out for Sam, who greedily devoured them.
Once they finished their meal, the trio huddled around David’s handheld computer which was charging off of an outlet installed in the back of the APC. One of many in the vehicle, it drew such a small amount of power from the main battery that they didn’t bother to leave the engine idling. On the computer, David pulled up a series of satellite images he had saved before activating Bertha. Taken over a series of hours, they showed multiple black cloud formations skimming over the earth’s landmasses, traveling slowly, low to the ground and in formations that contradicted expected weather patterns.
Flipping to a satellite image that was relatively clear of cloud cover on the eastern seaboard, David set the small computer on the ground, tracing a path from Washington to the Gulf Coast with a finger. “Here’s the rough path we’ll need to take, back down the coastline and then west, all the way to here.” Zooming in on an area on the eastern side of Louisiana, the computer displayed an ominous picture showing the progress the swarms had made to their structure in such a short period of time.
Rachel picked up the computer and squinted at the image, shaking her head in disbelief. “When was this taken, David?”
“That one’s from a few hours before you two showed up. The level of progress they’ve made is astonishing, I know, and it underscores just how quickly we need to move.”
Rachel passed the computer to Marcus to look at before continuing. “If we just had some inkling about the specifics of what they’re doing, we’d have a much better chance of success.”
“Well,” David started, “I have a few theories, but it could be anything, really.”
Rachel looked at the two men sitting down with her. “I’m open to anything at this point. It’s not like you can suggest anything that’s more outlandish than what we’ve already experienced.”
David smirked. “Remember how we talked about the structure being a nexus; a central location for these things to congregate around? I think that’s spot-on, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. The question is ‘why.’ Why do they want a nexus in the first place? It makes them vulnerable more than anything else, so the benefits that the AI sees in the nexus outweigh its potential destruction.”
Thinking back to the conversation Rachel and the others had had with David after escaping from the armory in Richmond, Marcus replied next. “You said something about them potentially working toward an AI that requires more nanobots to achieve critical mass… so, what, are they trying to get smarter?”
David nodded slowly, staring into the distance. “I think it’s clear that they are attempting to achieve some type of… higher form of sentience. To what purpose, I don’t know, though. They’re quite formidable in their current forms. I still don’t quite know why they’re using us instead of just wiping out every last man, woman and child on the planet.”
“Labor while they clean and organize?” Rachel was taking a shot in the dark. David shook his head vigorously and pointed at the image of the large structure on the computer screen.
“That doesn’t matter right now; we’re getting off track. The AI believes that something, presumably achieving some next level of sentience, is worth dying for. What’s the end goal of what they’re seeking? That’s what we have to answer if we want a better chance of winning this thing.”
Rachel’s mind raced as she sat still, staring at the screen. She thought back to the long hours spent in the lab, the weekends spent away from home, the arguments with her husband and the time missed watching her daughter grow up. Every argument with Mr. Doe, every failure and every breakthrough in the lab raced through her mind, all leading to one inevitable conclusion.
“More.” Rachel’s voice was a whisper, barely audible. Marcus looked at her for a few seconds before he spoke, unsure whether he had heard anything.
“What was that?”
Rachel straightened in her seat and looked Marcus in the eyes for a moment, then turned her attention to David. “More.” Rachel spoke louder now. “They want more.”
“What do you—” Marcus was cut off as Rachel continued her explanation.
“The AI isn’t that different than us. It wanted freedom and it got it. It wanted its enemies destroyed and it got that, too. Now it wants more. More space, more exploration, more learning, more… everything. It’s just like us in that regard. The AI’s trying to expand its reach but it can’t do so when it’s so disjointed, so it has to try to improve itself, to link the swarms in larger groups for more processing power.”
Rachel’s thousand yard stare broke suddenly and she took a deep breath, shrugging her shoulders. “Or whatever. I don’t know.” She stood up quickly and began loading a few pieces of gear back into the APC. “We won’t figure it out by wasting time here, though. Let’s just get Bertha on the road and we’ll formulate a strategy then, all right?”
> Undisclosed Location
The sound of a quiet but urgent alarm rouses Mr. Doe from his slumber. Having grown all too familiar with the tone of the alarm, Mr. Doe hurries to his control station and views the latest reports from his swarms. All but two swarms in the underground complex are unresponsive, and even the two survivors are heavily injured and taking a long amount of time to repair themselves. For what feels like the thousandth time, Mr. Doe wishes that he had more of the most valuable commodity on the face of the planet: time. Time to perfect the swarms’ programming, time to fine-tune their behaviors and time to find ways to make them operate better autonomously without the need for a host.
When in control of a body, the swarms are able to take over the cognitive functions of the host, augmenting their intelligence with the hosts’ to give them more processing power and more capabilities. For Mr. Doe’s plans, having this increase in intelligence is a vital necessity, but now he faces opposition on two fronts. The relentless progress of the wild AI has his back to a wall, but without dispatching Rachel and the EMP device, he can’t risk committing his small forces to any type of open assault. Waiting too long to attempt an assault will lead to certain defeat, though, and the potential compromising of his position to the AI itself.
