Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  With gloved hands, the doctor feels the back of Zach's ear, pressing to feel for the chip he claims to have. Although he can feel a small little grain of object, he can't be sure if it is a chip. It can be just fat deposit or something else. The doctor then moves his hand down to Zach's throat and presses against it. There is absolutely nothing that he can feel.

  "What kind of chip and what is it for?" the doctor asks, a little skeptical.

  "It's a spying chip. Please just remove it," Zach replies.

  "Are you with the military? If it's some kind of -" the doctor continues to ask.

  "Just take it out for God's sake!" Zach bursts out before the doctor can finish.

  "I can't," the doctor replies bluntly, tired of the pair of white couple who obviously have no respect for him and his team.

  "Why not??" Zach demands, turning to face the doctor, furious and desperate.

  "Not until I do a scan to determine its exact location," the doctor explains his reason for denying.

  "Then just do the fucking scan and take it out before I die!" Zach almost shouts.

  "You need to control yourself or I can refuse to treat you," the doctor warns with his finger pointing against Zach's face.

  "What the hell is that?" one of the male nurses gasps loudly, staring at the direction of the entrance.

  Zach turns his attention to the same direction and the expression on his face turns from angry to fright. What resembles a silver, remote control helicopter is flying in through the entrance. It does not have any blades to fly with and is hovering in the air towards them fast.

  Zach's gut feeling tells him to run and just as he jumps off the bed, a panel on the bottom of the device's silver body slides open to reveal a window with five black barrels in it. The barrels rotate along the sphere body to take aim at Nikki, who is too dumbstruck to react.

  "Nikki!" Zach shouts as he lunges at her. The both of them falls onto the floor as the drone shoots a continuous string of bullets from its barrels, hitting the Chinese doctor all over his body instead. The doctor collapses onto the floor immediately, dying on the spot.

  Everyone in the emergency room screams and run for their lives. The drone has been set to target Nikki alone and will shoot her based on facial and voice recognition. Meanwhile, it is also programmed to track her based on the location of Zach's chip. As long as they stay together, the drone will be able to kill Nikki.

  Zach pulls Nikki into the cover among the crowd and forces their way out of the entrance. Sensing its target on the move, the drone follows Zach but does not shoot as it doesn't detect Nikki among the crowd. Once outside, they run as fast as they could for cover among the densely parked cars. The drone hovers to the air before them and screening their faces immediately locks onto its target. Now that it has found its target, it automatically overrides the tracking of Zach's chip and switches to lock onto the target before him. Swiftly swishing its barrels to aim at Nikki, it sends out another string of bullets as the both of them ducks just in time into the space between two parked cars. The bullets miss them and shoot into the side of the red car beside them instead, shattering the glass over them.

  The drone, after every failed attempt will recalculate its next move to have a higher killing success rate. This time, after calculating that shooting at an angle is not its best option hovers up the air, directly above them. Having a clear view of its target running within the maze of parked cars, the drone takes aim. Zach looks up and sees their compromised position. He knows there is not enough time for them to run or hide. Without thinking, Zach throws himself over Nikki, pushing her onto the road. Lying over her, he is prepared to take the shots. If it is his life against hers, it will forever be his to let go.

  The drone's shooting mechanism immediately halts as his target disappears under Zach. Anticipating a grievous death, Zach shuts his eyes tightly waiting for the bullets to shoot into his back as Nikki screams for him to get off, "No Zach! NO!"

  However, instead of rampant shooting, nothing happens. Not daring to move, Zach forces his weight over Nikki as he kisses her goodbye on the back of her head, "I love you Nik. More than anything in the world."

  "No Zach! No!" Nikki cries in a scream and then, there is a loud bang. "No, no, no, no, no," Nikki cries painfully thinking her husband is dead.

  Zach turns to look up into the sky. It is an explosion. Someone has shot into the back of the drone and now the drone is free falling in circles from the sky with smoke trailing after it like an injured bird. Zach looks for the shooter and sees a tiny Asian woman with a gun in her hand and sunglasses over her eyes, with her upper body outside the front passenger window of a black subcompact car. Nikki, realizing that Zach is still alive, turns around to check on him and sees the drone hit the ground and explode into bits and pieces.

  Zach gets off Nikki and helps her up and the first thing Nikki notices is the black subcompact car zooming their way. Kaew waves at them to board the car urgently as she slips back into the car shouting, "Quick! Up! Up!"

  Zach hesitates but Nikki dashes forward and pulls Zach along. Seeing Nikki opening the door and clambering in, Zach has no other option but to follow.

  In the front of a black, box van parked along the roadside of the hospital, Chin watches on his laptop the life feed from the drone's digital camera as it crashes to the ground. He knows it is going to happen but sacrificing one drone to lure the women out is more than worth it. He has four more to kill them with.

  "Initiate drone B," Chin instructs his leech and a metal panel on the roof of the box attached to his van slides open.

  Drone B hovers up into the air and traveling at a speed of more than 200km/hr with its target locked onto Zach's chip, it is gaining fast on the black subcompact car.

  Back in the black subcompact, Zach asks, "Who are they?"

  "They are the ones who saved me," Nikki answers as Kaew turns around from her seat to show a wide grin.

  "Me, Kaew," Kaew smiles at Zach before pointing her finger at Yuna, "She, Yuna."

  Kaew then raises the puppy before introducing, "Tucker."

  "Thanks for saving us," Zach utters.

  "Wel-com," Kaew replies on everyone's behalf.

  Nikki turns around to stare out the windscreen and from afar she can see another drone coming after them and it is gaining speed on them crazy fast.

  "Another one is coming," Nikki warns, frowning with fear as she grabs hold of Zach's fingers. Her hand is ice cold, her face is so pale and white it seemed like it belonged to a dead woman. With the kind of heavy traffic they are traveling in there is no way they can escape the drone again.

  "It's targeting Nikki. We need to hide her," Zach says, looking around the small car for a place to hide Nikki.

  "What do you mean?" Yuna asks, honking at the cars to move aside.

  "When I threw myself over her just now, the drone stopped shooting," Zach answers, getting more and more nervous as the drone closes in.

  Yuna stares at the traffic before the crossroad. The cars before her are slowing down to the red light. She looks into her rear view mirror at the dot that is closing in on them.

  "Hold on tight!" Yuna instructs to them as she suddenly swerves the vehicle to the left crashing onto the curb grazing pass the rear bumper of a sedan waiting at the red light. Yuna immediately veers the vehicle left at the crossroad and forces her way onto the rapid traffic. The cars coming from behind screech to a stop, honking blatantly as they try to avoid crashing into the reckless black subcompact.

  Once on the main road, Yuna floors the gas pedal and speeds off in the direction of an underground passageway hoping to loose the drone.

  "It’s still behind us!" Zach says, looking out the rear windscreen. Terrified, Nikki turns to check. The drone is now just one hundred meters behind them and detecting the target inside, the panel encasing the barrels slide open.

  "Oh shit!" Zach curses watching as the drone shoots at them. Without delay, he pushes Nikki down onto the car seat and tries to protect he
r using his body.

  Hearing Zach's reaction, Yuna instinctively swerves the car into the adjacent lane escaping most of the bullets with some hitting the right side of the bonnet. Thanks to Yuna's rapid reaction, both of them escaped unhurt but the drone will not stop at anything. However, having programmed the drone to lock on three targets - Yuna, Kaew and Nikki, the drone will not shoot if it doesn't detect its targets' faces.

  Watching the pursuit, Chin manually overrides the drone's control from his box van. Seeing his chance to kill all three of them at once, Chin is not going to let them escape again. If the randomer is killed, he can easily brush responsibility off his shoulders by not admitting to the fact that he knew that Zach was on board the vehicle. Chin shoots rampantly at the car but Yuna negotiates the car out from the lane. The bullet hits the side of the rear windscreen, shattering the glass but misses the passengers again.

  Chin continues to pursue ferociously and shoots again this time aiming to puncture her tires.

  "Give me the gun!" Zach shouts. There is no way they can loose the drone. Kaew immediately throws him her gun. Just then, Yuna negotiates a curve throwing Zach off his seat and falling onto Nikki. The gun falls into Zach's foot compartment and gets swished under Yuna's seat.

  Once Zach regains balance, he immediately tries to find the gun but with his tall physic, he can only bend that low in the small car. "Shit, I can't find it," Zach curses as Nikki squeezes herself into the foot compartment to find it.

  "Take mine," Yuna instructs and sits slightly bent forward. Kaew immediately reaches her hand to the back of Yuna's pants and pulls out her handgun. This time she makes sure to pass it into Zach's hand.

  Zach quickly takes aim at the drone and pulls the trigger. He misses and before he can shoot another time, the drone fires another round at them. Zach ducks over Nikki onto the seat just in time. He then retaliates with a couple of wild shots and misses the drone.

  Meanwhile, Nikki finally finds the gun. She immediately pulls it out and springs back up into her seat before firing a shot at the drone. It is indeed a lucky shot. The bullet hits into the side of the drone and penetrates through its hovering system causing the drone to loose flight. It drops immediately onto the road and explodes as it hits ground.

  "Nik," Zach utters, surprised that his wife can shoot like that.

  "Lucky shot," Nikki shrugs with her lips pursed.

  "I hope that's the last one," Yuna says as she exits the highway towards the smaller city roads to seek shelter from the surrounding tall buildings.

  Chin watches as his second drone gets shot down. Frustrated and determined, Chin instructs to his leech again, "Initiate drone C and drone D."

  The two drones hover out from the box van's roof and speed towards the location of Zach's chip.

  The black subcompact car takes several turnings and eventually ends up on the other side of the city center. Feeling safer, they start to believe that they have finally lost the killer drones.

  Nikki, still skeptical, keeps her eyes out the rear windscreen and to her dismay, she spots two dots in the sky.

  "I think there's another two coming," Nikki cries with worry.

  Zach immediately turns back to look and indeed the two drones are rapidly gaining speed on them.

  "How the hell do they know where we are??" Yuna utters, feeling frustrated.

  "I think it's the chip in my neck," Zach suddenly answers, remembering about the tracking device.

  "Yu have cip in neck and now onli yu say???" Kaew shouts in exasperation.

  "Let me off," Zach demands.

  "No Zach! They'll kill you!" Nikki objects.

  "No. They still need me to complete a task. You will be safer without me," Zach tells her.

  "Can we remove the chip?" Yuna asks.

  "We have no time for that. Just let me off now!" Zach demands.

  "Zach please..." Nikki starts to weep again.

  "Promise me you'll find me," Zach holds Nikki's hands tightly as he makes her promise.

  Nikki can only cry and nod unwillingly.

  The drones in the meantime are closing in, only eight hundred meters behind the black subcompact now. Chin immediately manually overrides control of drone C. Chin sets the drone to lock target onto the black subcompact and his finger is about to hit the missile button when suddenly the black subcompact turns sharply into the south entrance to the basement parking of one of the largest malls in the city center. The drone looses sight of the car and target lock for missile launch is disengaged automatically.

  Without slowing down, Yuna rams the car pass the parking entrance’s boom gate with Kaew shouting as she shields her face with her hands. The lightweight boom arm breaks and splinters off instantly hardly grazing the car and its windscreen.

  "Get ready Zach" Yuna instructs from the front and Zach pulls his fingers off from Nikki's grip. She is most reluctant to let go.

  Zach holds her head between both his palms and kisses her lips before saying, "Promise me you'll stay alive."

  Just then, Yuna screeches to a halt. Zach opens the door and skips out, slamming the door shut after him. Meanwhile, the drones hover into the car park tracing Zach according to his location.

  Zach runs to the nearest escalator leading up to the mall above and races up the escalators. He needs to divert the drones away from Nikki.

  At the same time, the black subcompact speeds towards one of the several exit points of the parking. Yuna drives the car to the north exit and crashes out the boom gate and speeds back up onto the surface.

  Loosing sight of the black subcompact, Chin locks his target back onto Zach's chip and the drones immediately hover towards the escalators but he senses something amiss. He immediately hacks into the mall's surveillance system and looks for the black subcompact but misses it by just a split second through the north exit's camera.

  Meanwhile in India, Goda is just back from a meeting with the Architins and the moment he is back at the workstation he is shocked to see the many alerts of Zach's location. He has traveled out of range of the action plan and looking at the time, Zach has to be back at his hotel immediately, or he will not be able to start his last task.

  Goda sets the current to fifty percent and hits the electrocute button on screen. Zach has just reached ground floor and hasn't even turned left or right when the chip in his neck emits a sharp pain that shoots through his nerves, crippling him instantaneously. He drops to the tiled flooring in pain, a burning sensation shooting through every nerve in his body. Goda would so love to torture him more but with no time allowance, this will have to do to tame the randomer.

  Go back to the hotel immediately and resume your task if you don't want to die.

  The same woman's voice instructs through Zach's ear chip. Zach clambers to his feet feeling burnt on the inside as his eyes tears from the heat and pain. He can confirm he is safe now. They won't kill him just yet. He is just hoping that Nikki has safely escaped the drones too with the other two women.

  Chin is not stupid, the moment he sees through the surveillance cameras that Zach has fallen to the ground he knows the Hive must have paralyzed him. He pulls the drones in retreat just before Goda can notice of their deployment.

  Back in India, another alarm has been flashing non-stop on Goda's workstation and it is warning against Zach's behavioral deviation since he has reunited with Nikki. Goda watches Zach's GPS location on his screen as he boards a taxi and heads back to The Axis. The corners of Goda's lips then turn down into a frown as he taps his finger onto the warning flashing on screen.

  If only Goda goes through Zach's thought log he will read how the lurker has lost his hostage causing the whole action plan to crumble apart and how Zach will no longer be tamable, as he now knows that his wife is safe and that hope is out there. However, it is Chin's pure luck that Goda has no time for that. Goda has less than half an hour to force everything to go back on track or this ripple will cause the failure of their main action plan.

  Goda watches intent
ly at the screen as Zach finally reaches the hotel. Exhausted and dehydrated, Zach pays the taxi driver and starts dragging himself back into the hotel lobby with the little strength he has left. Every time the chip electrocutes him, the shock will render him weak and being electrocuted twice in a matter of less than two hours gap can do a lot of damage to a person.

  With his blue T-shirt soiled, his black jeans torn at the knees, his blonde hair ruffled into a mess with two tiny glass chips nestled within the unruly spikes and his right cheek stained with dirt, Zach looks absolutely horrible.

  The guests and the receptionist are shocked at the state of the man trudging towards the counter. His lips are pale and his face is flushed from white to almost green. The receptionist gazes towards the sickly man and immediately recognizes it as the guest who had fainted in the lobby earlier.