Survival

by Chris Wright

  Chapter Eight - Nano-Nano

  James house

  James received the same call, went through the same process of watching the phone explode, smiling at the absurdity of it all and started walking to the meeting point. It wasn't far and he would be there in under five minutes. He placed his headphones on and started playing music on his normal phone, he figured he'd look less conspicuous this way. He scratched his chin and there was a sudden interference through the headphones, a strange part crackle, part beep. That's weird, what was that? He shrugged it off and continued walking, humming along to his favourite parts.

  It was less than a minute later when he noticed that there were other people walking behind him. Probably nothing to worry about, but he needed to be cautious, so he decided to take a slightly different route. It wasn't as quick, but didn't take him out of the way too much. He continued to monitor what was happening behind him, casually, continuing to hum along, like humming made him look completely innocent. He noticed a couple of them behind him were still walking in the same direction, not all, but enough to make him nervous. He crossed the road and scratched his head, wondering if he really was being followed or not, or whether it was his paranoia getting the better of him. As he scratched his head, he heard the same odd part crackle, part beep sound. What the hell was it? He touched his face again and there it was. He lifted his arm near to his headphones and a crackling sort of beep sound followed, again and again. What could be causing this, he wondered. He saw two men still following, so he decided to take a sudden detour through an underpass. As he did this, he put his arm up to his face one last time and the beeping crackle came back. He came to the horrified conclusion that somehow, he had some kind of tracking device on him, which was causing the interference.

  He came out of the other side of the underpass and sat on a bench, checking his raised arm scenario a few more times trying to figure out where the device could be. He pulled his jumper off and placed it next to his head to find the noise there again. Without the jumper the noise never appeared. Damn it, somehow, he was being tracked by his jumper. He had only been given this the other day by Tom, which he found odd as Tom rarely gave things away. He said he didn't like the style or something, so James said he'd take it as he loved the design, he had similar styles. So, was Tom working with the Elite? Or did he not know? He must have known, it seemed too much of a coincidence.

  “Shit” James muttered under his breath.

  He looked over to find the two people he thought were following him walking away in a slightly different direction. Maybe they weren't following after all, but there was definitely something in this jumper. He started thumbing around it but couldn't feel anything, it must have been too small. All he could do was carefully place each part next to his head, seeing if it crackle-beeped in his ears or not. Eventually he found the area and examined it carefully, putting his glasses on to do so. He had near perfect vision with his glasses on, if there was something there, he would see it. It took him around twenty seconds to find it, a tiny nano-bot sat in the sleeve, clinging to the fibres within it. How the hell did this get there? It must have been Tom. He quickly threw it in the trash can and stood up to get to the rendezvous point. In the corner of his eye he noticed that the men behind him also turned. Now he knew he wasn't imagining it, they were tailing him. His walking got faster, and eventually he decided to sprint to the corner he was heading to. He had to tell them he was being followed, but he shouldn't be phoning anyone, as it could give away more information. He got to the corner and turned, standing against the wall wondering what to do. It was worth the risk he thought, it had to be. They may call the extraction off, but at least then the others would be safe. He dialled Jarrah and the phone rang for what seemed like forever. Finally, Jarrah answered confused.

  “Why are you phoning on this?” He said anxiously.

  “Sorry man, I just needed to get through to you, they're following me, and they’ve been tracking me”

  “Tracked? How?” Jarrah asked.

  “I found a Nano-bot in my jumper, it must have been tracking me for the last few days and sending information back”

  Jarrah sighed, this wasn't a good thing. If it had been sending information back for days, they could have been compromised in so many ways.

  “If you found one, the chances are there are more on you, you know that yeah?” Jarrah said, “Look, I will speak to Cheryl, unless we get back to you with any other instruction then get to the extraction point. Hopefully the team there will be able to check you for any more”.

  Jarrah put the phone down in a rush, leaving James jumper-less and fraught. He was right, there could be more on him, they wouldn't have just put one in the jumper, and any others could have spread. Why did Tom do this? He had known Tom for years, ever since he and Gina met. He wouldn't have done anything to betray her, it just didn't make any sense. He continued on quickly, aware that the same two men had appeared around the corner. His walk once again turned into a run. He was less than a minute from the extraction point, and he was determined to get there as fast he could. He turned another corner, then another and saw the vehicle ahead waiting, one guard stood outside, the other sat in the driver's seat. They saw James running towards them and the driver jumped out the car and raised his gun in James' direction. The guard stood outside raised his gun at the exact same time.

  Tom and Gina's House

  Tom sat there confused, holding his phone in his hand. He had been sitting like this for a good ten minutes. Gina had turned her phone off, it wasn't like her. Why was she doing this? They would have been safe, she didn't have to do anything except keep her head down. There was a knock at the door which Tom didn't register straight away. It was by the third knock that Tom came to properly, his incoherent thoughts suddenly taking a back seat. He got up and answered, confronted by two men in suits.

  “Hello Tom” one of them said. Did he know these men? He didn't recognise them.

  The one who greeted him had a weather worn face, wrinkles that held stories, lines of experience. The other shorter gentleman seemed half his age, with slicked back hair that no one had had for around thirty years.

  “Can I help you?” Tom asked.

  “It's about Gina” Slick back replied, “May we come in?”

  Tom knew he shouldn't let them, he didn't recognise these men and they were probably trying to find Gina, but for some reason found it impossible to resist. They entered and sat down, seeming to know the house, as if they had been there before.

  “We understand Gina has contacted you” Story face said.

  “How did you know that?” Tom asked surprised.

  “That doesn't matter Tom. We know it must be a shock, so we're here to help. We need to find Gina” He replied.

  “Why? Is she in trouble?” Tom asked, sensing that she must be. These two men were clearly agents of the Elite.

  “Only if she gets away, we need to borrow you for a minute” Slick back said.

  Borrow him? What did that mean? He objected to this straight away.

  “Well we have two choices” Story face said, "Either you do it voluntarily or we do it by force”

  He said it with a glint in his eye and Tom knew that he wasn't kidding around. But Tom had been around a bit, he knew how to handle himself. He could take out Story face with one punch, he was close enough, and then it was just a matter of pot luck with Slick back.

  “I wouldn't do that Tom” Slick back said.

  How did he know what he was thinking? This alarmed him, but despite this, Tom jumped to his feet and started flinging his fist towards them. He stopped in mid-air, his fist hovering motionless, and the rest of his body frozen. His thoughts were racing around, scurrying from one side to the other trying to understand what had happened to him.

  “You had to make it difficult didn't you” Story face said shaking his head.

  He pulled out a small device and held it to Tom's head, it seemed to be scanning his brain. What was it looking for? Co
uld they scan thoughts now?

  “See, it doesn't hurt, and all you did was make things unnecessary” Story face said with a condescending grin. He pushed a few buttons on the device and it made Tom inch back, his arm flop to his side and his body slump back into the chair.

  “How are you doing this?” He asked terrified at the loss of his own free will.

  “You asked this last time” Slick back said turning to Story face, “Maybe we shouldn't wipe his thoughts every time, then we don't have to keep repeating ourselves”.

  Story face looked over at Slick Back, dismissing his words with a raise of his eyebrows.

  “Oh dear Tom” Story face said, “You're not as free as you think you are. Gina is, she isn't wired into the Neuro-Net, but you are”

  “I can't be, I never had it implanted” Tom objected.

  “We implanted it for you, like so many others. The scientists that have their own complete free will did well to convince us that their partners needed to be free too, but we knew that a lot of these scientists couldn't be completely trusted. We had to implant the Neuro-Net into their partners, well most of them, it's been a busy week so far” Story face explained.

  “But when? I don't remember”

  “Of course you don't” Slick back replied.

  “With you implanted we were able to log all your conversations and experiences with Gina, all the little plans she was making. We must admit that she managed to keep you out of the loop, so you appeared to know nothing, but when we analyse the data we receive, we analyse it thoroughly. Every little detail could hold a clue. Every overheard phone call, every facial gesture. We knew something was happening with Gina” Story face said, “We got you to help track her friend Tom too, without you even knowing. With Gina, we wanted to know her whereabouts, any little differences in what she did would flag up alerts, but she was clever. Clever enough it seems to have got away from our clean up team, and hence why we are here”

  “I don't know anything” Tom cried.

  “Of course you don't, and if you did you wouldn't tell us, which is why I had to download your data from your earlier phone call with her, just to see if there are any clues to help us track her. It takes too long to process the chain of data back at the office so it was better we came here and isolated the section of your memory we wanted” Slick back said, pleased with himself.

  “You can't do this” Tom shouted angrily.

  “We can do whatever we want” Story face replied

  “Take this fucking thing out of my brain now you fucking assholes” Tom screamed hysterically. He couldn't believe this was happening, he had no memory of any procedure, he had no after effects or pain to suggest anything had happened to him, he didn't want it there.

  “Very well” Slick back replied walking towards him and pulling out a knife.

  Tom screamed as Slick back sunk the knife deep into his skull with a twisting motion, slicing through bone and tearing at brain matter indiscriminately trying to find the implant. Tom's surroundings went numb, before the intense pain floated away and he dropped his head. Slick back pulled the implant out from where it was resting, ripping parts of Tom's brain out with it viciously.

  “There you go” Slick back said throwing the implant on the floor, “as you wish”.

  “You didn't have to do that” Story face said shaking his head, “He may have had some use again, you really need to stop losing your temper. You should see a counsellor”.

  “Yeah sorry, I just don't like it when people shout, it gets me all wound up” he said walking away to the front door, “Let's check the download”.

  They both left, closing the front door behind them. Tom's body sat there lifeless, his own self whisked away from his shell and thrust out to a new realm. It started with confusion as it all happened so quickly, then he started to relax and realise what had happened. Any anger dissolved away to acceptance as he was spirited away through a kingdom of souls.

  James

  James was running, faster than he thought he had ever ran before and the two guards fired off a series of rounds. The bullets swept past James and behind him. He turned to see his two assailants hit square on, the bullets fracturing bones, shattering organs, both their bodies collapsing to the floor. James continued his sprint and reached the two guards.

  “Hey, thanks” James said when he finally got to them.

  “Don't mention it” one of them said, “Ms. Rogers said you might be compromised. We need you to remove all your clothes quickly”.

  “What here? Now?” James said, “Its broad daylight, anyone could see me”

  “Just like anyone can see those two bodies over there, so hurry up” the second guard said.

  James could tell they weren't in a sociable mood, so did as they said.

  “Have you got anything I can change into?”

  The second guard handed him a large flowery dress.

  “What the heck is this? A dress?” James said bewildered.

  “Yes, it was the only item of clothing we could get at short notice” The first guard replied. James knew that somewhere there was a bewildered overweight grandmother now wandering the city in her underwear. He had no alternative so quickly slipped it on and climbed into the car. The two guards jumped in the front shortly after and they sped away.

  “Did you see any more following you?” Guard number one asked James.

  “I thought there were a few earlier on, but they seemed to disappear” He replied, “Do you think they could still be on us?”

  “Anything's possible. Better buckle up, we're going to be doing some fancy driving”

  Guard number two was driving, carefully scanning the scene around him for anything that looked out of place, fully focused on the road.

  “So, what's your names?” James asked.

  “I'm Antony” said guard number one, “This is Gabriel”

  “Nice to meet you” James said. It wasn't really that nice, but felt he had to say something pleasant.

  They continued through the city, careful to not stand out, all the people around them doing their own thing almost robotically. It was now that James saw the impact of the Elites work evidently. Everyone busying themselves, but not really acting like themselves. Their self-expression had been rubbed away and replaced with a set of instructions, each person a cog in a wheel that turned the Elites world. This is why they were taking these risks, to free these people, make them human again. James' phone beeped and when he looked down, he saw that a message had popped up from Jarrah. It instructed him to throw his phone away over the next bridge, making sure the river took it. It was too risky for any of them to have any phone that could be tracked, it was imperative to destroy them. So, James did just that, tossing it with all his might into the fast-flowing river below, the phone smashing against rocks as it was pulled downstream. To James' relief the rest of the journey was uneventful. They kept a low profile, and within an hour they were nearing the point where they were to meet and group together for the last leg of the journey.

  Ben’s Apartment

  Danny sat in Ben's apartment, both of them anxiously awaiting the call.

  “Do you want another cup of coffee?” Ben asked him.

  “No, if I have another cup, I think my head is going to explode” Danny replied.

  Ben and Danny had met at college, they were both in the same Maths class and struck up a friendship straight away. Ben was the kid from a rich household, teased by most at college but welcomed into Danny's group of friends with open arms. Other kids resented his wealth, and used any excuse they could to make it known, from making rhymes up about his unusual curly hair to mocking his overly-pale complexion. Ben had a thick skin though and eventually had the last laugh when one would-be bully tried to make the teasing physical. The bully was unprepared for Ben's after-school Taekwondo and went home red-faced, not just because of the embarrassment, but also because of the blood.

  Danny's phone suddenly chimed with a message, as did Ben's. They were bot
h told to destroy their phones immediately, as they had been compromised and it's possible they could be next to be traced. Everyone had already taken precautions from the onset, deleting any social media accounts, and staying away from the internet. They had needed their phones as they still had to generally look like they were living normally, but now normal had completely gone out of the window they did seem unnecessary. Ben took both of their phones, placed them into the microwave, set the programme to high and watched them spark themselves to death.

  Then the other phone rang, the phone.

  “Hello” Danny said.

  “Danny?” Sheryl said, to which he confirmed it was, “The meeting point is underneath the bridge at Old West Lane. There will be two guards waiting for you in a silver car, you must go now”.

  Danny put the phone down, flicked the self-destruct and called Ben over.

  “Dan, put that thing down” Ben shouted.

  “Oh, damn, yeah” Danny shrieked, throwing the phone at the floor shortly before it burst into a few discreet flames, scorching the carpet, "Sorry, I was trying to remember where Old West Lane is”

  “It's about twenty minutes away, along High Street” Ben replied, “We got to go yeah?”

  Danny nodded as he stood up. They both pulled their coats on and collected what little bits they needed. Danny took his lucky watch and out of habit, his credit cards. Ben took two small boxes, something he had been working on lately. He was an expert in Nano-technology, it was a science that was getting more and more funding lately, his own research especially. Originally, he had no idea who the benefactor was, but with the events of this week he was guessing that it was probably Sheryl, as she knew an awful lot about his work when she contacted him. They were making small robots smaller and smaller, so that they were able to get to those places that humans couldn't reach. Clever programming allowed them to make simple decisions for themselves. As long as they fell within a strict set of parameters, they could choose what outcome was needed, it was exciting stuff. They were also so versatile, being able to be shaped into all sorts of forms, a colony of Nano-bots could take on practically any appearance if programmed correctly.