by Chris Wright
Brandon turned the engine back on and the shudder-machine roared to life, rattling its occupants around like popcorn in a pan. They slowly drove off, careful to adhere to the speed limit.
They were completely unaware that they were already being watched, a close network of spies feeding back all their moves thanks to the connection the Elite had made to Ben and Danny. The friendly old woman across the road had been assigned the task of sitting and looking out the window, monitoring their actions. What she saw, the Elite saw, and yet she herself never even knew she had seen it. Brandon slowly continued to the East side of the city to the pickup point. The whole thing was starting to seem surreal, around him everyone was going about their daily business completely oblivious to the absurdity of their current existence. It was a sad sight to see, people stripped of their own full identity, mindlessly obeying the whims of the few. Brandon went to turn round the next corner, but the steering wheel was locked in place.
“What the?” He said surprised.
“What is it?” Samir asked.
Brandon tried turning the steering wheel again, but it wouldn't budge.
“I can't turn it, something's controlling the car” He shouted.
They all looked at each other worried, this meant that the Elite knew what they were up to. Panic set in instantly, they had all deluded themselves into thinking it would be plain sailing, and it was now dawning on them it wasn't.
“Is there anything you can do?” Samir asked frightened, to which Brandon shook his head in a defying no.
This was the problem with cars, they all had computers on board, as it was now the done thing. It made the whole system work better, from the wipers to the locks, but it meant cars could be hacked. They were essentially just another type of computer.
“I don't understand” said Brandon, “I made sure the cars system wasn't connected to any internet signal. I disabled it all, how can they have hacked it?”
Mateo was frantically typing away on his laptop, seeing if he could access the cars' system and override the hackers.
“It looks like there is a Trojan file buried deep in the system that the hackers knew was there” Mateo said, “I'm going to try and override their instructions. How long have you had this system installed?”
Brandon couldn't quite remember, he knew it was the last year or so, as the last one kept failing. He had such an old car that the computers that were integral to most new vehicles struggled with his antiquated set up, and often crashed. His last system locked him out of his car numerous times and often the engine failed to respond at all, so he had no choice but to buy the newest build.
“This year some time I guess” he replied, “why?”
Mateo continued typing away, shaking his head every few seconds, which alarmed everyone else, but not him.
“Well it looks like it was put there deliberately during manufacture, so my best guess is that it's another control mechanism. You disabled the system but the Trojan was unaffected, so all they had to do was locate you and, well, here we are” Mateo said, “Okay, I think I'm in”.
The car juddered from side to side, even more than it normally did and Brandon tried the steering wheel again. This time he could turn it and he quickly spun the car round, narrowly avoiding a series of cars. He turned back to get to the turn off he needed, laughing hysterically and thanking Mateo.
“I have to keep continually overriding them though, these guys are damn good” Mateo said, sounding a little frustrated, “I haven't got time to work on removing the Trojan, I'm constantly fighting these guys off”.
Brandon turned the corner finally and let out a large 'whoop'.
“You just keep doing what you're doing” he shouted to Mateo, “and I will get us there”.
“I'll do my best” he replied.
Mariam and Samir had nothing to do other than hold on, as Brandon increased the speed. They were already known about, so any form of keeping a low profile seemed rather pointless now.
“Mari” Mateo said to Mariam, “Could you reach into my pocket and pull my mobile out, I need you to let Sheryl know we have company. There's an icon on the screen that says 'photos', if you click on that it will connect you directly to an encrypted server that pings straight through to her”
“Okay” she said reaching over into his pocket looking confused.
“Other pocket, sorry” Mateo said.
She found the phone and promptly contacted Sheryl.
“Is there anything I can do?” Samir asked.
“You can stop chewing on your fingernails” Said Brandon, “That's so damn distracting in the corner of my eye”.
Brandon increased the speed again, trying not to give away that he was as panicked as everyone else. A car next to them suddenly swerved to crash into the side of them.
“Jesus” Brandon shouted, steering better than he thought he could manage to avoid it, “It looks like they've taken control of those cars too”.
He looked in his rear-view mirror to find a procession of cars following them, all speeding towards their rear. The people inside the cars all had blank expressions on their faces and didn't seem to be steering the cars
“Yeah I can't do anything about them I'm kind of busy here” Mateo said.
Mariam got off the phone after shouting their current predicament to Sheryl. She had told them to continue as far as they could and to update her. If they needed the extraction team to get closer, she could arrange it. This was all happening so fast that Mariam had no idea what would happen next. What did happen next was a complete surprise. All of the cars in front of them spun around and turned towards them.
“Okay, that's not good” Samir muttered.
The cars on the other side also suddenly turned towards them, and the traffic lights ahead began flashing from red to amber to green, and then back again in quick succession. Brandon was happy he wasn't epileptic right now or it would have meant sudden death for all of them. All of the cars began screeching their tyres on the road as they all accelerated towards the shudder-machine. They were being driven at from all angles, encased by a circle of angry cars heading right for them.
“Shit, what do we do?” Brandon shouted, “I have nowhere to go”.
Samir looked out the window, trying to find any small passage they could try and aim towards, but there was nothing. Suddenly an idea flashed into his head.
“Mateo, stop fighting the hackers” he shouted.
“What?” Mateo shouted back.
“Just do it, I think I know what will happen”.
So, Mateo did as suggested, he took his fingers away from the laptop and sat back, taking a deep breath, while Brandon and Mariam screamed at Samir to ask what the hell he was thinking. Brandon lost complete control of the steering wheel again and it turned and glided to the left, smacking against the front of three cars in the process. The rest of the cars hell-bent on destroying the shudder-machine continued their same course and they all hurtled towards each other, colliding with an enormous crash. Sparks flew in all directions. One engine caught fire, which set off a chain reaction, and the rest of the engines ignited in a series of pyrotechnical explosions. More cars crashed into the inferno creating the world's largest bonfire ever created, a crushed mass of steel and aluminium speckled with roasting flesh. Brandon's 4x4 had clipped three cars on its path and then started to turn again, the carnage all playing out behind them.
“Okay, now fight the hackers again Mateo, stop the car, open the doors and then we need to head straight for the subway there” Samir shouted pointing to the metro sign they were close to.
Samir had been nervous, his adrenalin kicking in and keeping his thoughts focused. It was the same feeling he had performing surgery now, and once he'd manage to relax into it, he could analyse and see the situation. There was no way out of where they were headed. While Mateo fought for control of the 4x4, the other cars were destined to plough into them, but then he saw the underground station and it all just clicked. The other cars we
ren't the priority, they were. If they relinquished control then the hackers would be taken by surprise and have to make a sudden manoeuvre with the 4x4. The split-second confusion would mean they took their focus away from the other cars to put it back on them, crucial seconds to hopefully avoid the main car onslaught. The rest was easy, they would miss the burning column of ex-cars, they would hack back into the cars computer and they would make a run for the underground train station. Mateo was jabbing at his laptop so hard it sounded like he was going to break it and then a second later the car stopped and the doors unlocked.
“Now the cars are all in a pile over there we should just carry on” Brandon said, to which Samir butted in with his finger, pointing ahead of them.
In front of them were more cars that were under the kill command. Brandon conceded and jumped out quickly followed by the others. The metro station was about fifty metres away and they sprinted furiously, the cars that were left around them edged closer. One screamed past Mariam, missing her by mere inches, others bearing down on them at a furious pace. They continued running to reach the safety of the underground station, diving in just as another car crashed over the side walk and struck the front of a building, crumpling itself into an unrecognisable mould of metal and human appendages.
They all filtered down the steps, jumping over the ticket barrier and pushing people out the way. Random citizens tumbled away confused before regaining composure and looking towards the fab four transfixed, as if hypnotized. Mariam pulled out Mateo's phone as they ran further down each escalator and tried to contact Sheryl again. There was no signal. Of course there wasn't, they were over one hundred and fifty metres below ground. She continued running, trying to keep up with the others, she wasn't the fittest out of her friends, but that was not stopping her almost keeping up with them.
They reached the bottom of the escalators and saw a train approaching so instantly ran towards it desperately. As they did this, they noticed that all the people around them were turning to look at them, not the normal look to see who is running around, but a deep inhuman stare. They all stopped dead in their tracks at the edge of the platform, the inhumans still staring, a stare that slowly altered into something much more sinister. Each one of them beginning to surround them.
“Is this what I think it is?” Brandon shouted to Mateo.
“Yep” Mateo replied, who had dropped to the floor and was typing in a frenzied way into his laptop, “They have just hacked all these people”.
They were all gobsmacked. They knew that everyone was to all intents and purposes a zombie, their daily lives controlled by impulses they couldn't override, but this was another level further.
“Can you do anything Mat?” Mariam cried, now completely terrified.
“Hang on” he said as the movies about zombie apocalypses suddenly started to seem less fanciful.
Danny
Danny sat in the back of the van watching the city whizz by to the point of making him nauseous.
“Do we have to go so fast?” He asked the guards in the front.
They took no notice of him and continued racing through the streets, the constant beep of other car horns at them now a continual event. They quickly turned a corner and were suddenly surprised to spot a drone appear behind them, slowly and faint at first, but eventually swooping in towards them.
“Well we got company” Said the guard who was driving.
“Great” Danny muttered under his breath, looking behind him to see the flying menace descending. As he looked, he saw that the front of it was beginning to light up, “I think it's going to shoot”.
The second guard looked and swore with a word Danny had never heard before. He then quickly pulled out his automatic rifle and took aim at the drone. An intense burst of bullets launched themselves towards their pursuer, sparking upon impact. They weren't enough to do any damage, but it knocked it off course enough for them to be able to take a swift left turn without it catching them. As they screeched around the corner, they saw a huge explosion in a building overhead. What was happening? They drove slightly closer to it to find that the building belonged to a large banking corporation, one that they knew was directly involved with the Elite. They pulled over briefly to try and take stock of what was going on. They all knew it must be something to do with the resistance, although probably just a rogue faction that wasn't connected to their network of teams. Any resistance helped though, anything that could dent the Elite's shield potentially weakened them a little.
Danny looked round to see the drone had turned the corner and he made an audible gulp as his words got stuck inside of him. Neither of the guards in front had noticed the drone and Danny was finally able to cry out, causing the guards to look back towards it in panic. Neither had time to aim their weapons before the metallic scourge was directly above them. They all braced themselves waiting for the impact and were shocked to find that it flew straight over them and towards the burning building. It was a lucky escape, the explosion down the street had become the drone's priority. The guard driving quickly spun the car around. He figured the original route would be safe for the time being if the drone had new instructions. They turned and headed back, watching how unreal things seemed. Just a block away a building was burning, panicked people running to get away from it, but here it was all normal as if nothing was happening. Everyone was going about their chores, mindlessly walking as if in a trance, and to a certain extent they were.
As they watched the surreal spectacle there was another explosion in a building they had just passed. They looked back to find numerous casualties sprawled around the exterior, desperate cries bouncing out of the flames. These attacks were co-ordinated, these resistance fighters were hitting back the only way they knew how. They continued on their journey without saying a word, so Danny decided to break the silence himself.
“So those explosions, I'm guessing they're nothing to do with us?”
The guard in the passenger seat shook his head.
“No chance, we'd be informed of any activity that would likely hinder our mission” He replied, “It will be another resistance cell. There's more than the Elite think, not all of them communicate properly with each other, so you don't quite know when one of them could pop up”.
Just then his phone rang and he tapped a few buttons to get a private secure line and answered.
“Christian” said Sheryl on the other end, “What's your status?”
“Joaquin and I have Danny, but we lost Ben. They were being followed, but we have it under control now. We're roughly forty minutes from the rendezvous point” Christian said.
“Ok, that's good. Where exactly are you, I can't seem to track you” Sheryl asked.
“We're on Central Boulevard heading east” Joaquin chimed in, “We're about three klicks from Highway 9”.
“Okay, can you guys take a diversion and head north to the Little Hill Metro Station, we have a situation and we need to get four people out” Sheryl asked, even though Christian knew it was actually an order.
Joaquin and Christian both agreed and she sent a file through to Christian's phone giving full details.
“You'll have back up if necessary by the time you're there, so keep me updated” Sheryl asked before ringing off.
Danny wondered who they were talking about and glanced over Christian's shoulder to see a picture of Mariam.
“Are they okay?” he asked Christian concerned.
“They're okay at the moment, we'll try and keep them that way” He replied as Joaquin immediately turned the van left.
Little Hill Metro Station
The inhumans were gradually closing in, Mateo still striking key after desperate key on his laptop when suddenly the lights began flickering.
“Okay” shouted Mateo, “Everyone cover your ears”.
They all did as he said as the speaker system sprang into life with a wailing high-pitched warbling tone. Even with their ears covered it was still almost unbearable, the sonic vibrations pound
ing their ear drums relentlessly. The inhumans around them began screaming and dropping to the floor as they clawed at their ears, blood beginning to ooze from them. It was the only thing Mateo could think of doing, he didn't know how to get into people's minds, not yet anyway, and the tannoy system was an easy hack. Blast the attackers with supersonic sounds, he knew they must have some adverse effect on the human body, but the bleeding ears was unexpected. So was the bleeding from other orifices as thirty people collapsed and haemorrhaged all around them. Oh dear thought Mateo, he'd accidentally turned himself into one of the world's most prolific murderers.
The sonic attack went on for a few minutes, by which time everyone on the platform, except those who had covered their ears, was writhing on the floor in a near-death stupor. Mateo could see a train approaching, quickly uncovered his ears and smacked a button on his laptop, causing the deadly sound-waves to stop. He motioned the rest towards the train and they all saw it just about to pull into the station. They dashed towards it ready for the doors to open and with only a few seconds to spare they looked round at the squirming mass of contorted groaning people. They all agreed it wasn't pleasant and turned to Mateo, who shrugged his shoulders and apologized.
The train came to a stop and the automatic doors slid open, as if it was just a normal commute. They jumped inside and pushed the button to close the doors. They quickly made their way to the centre of the carriage carefully assessing their surroundings. There were only two other people in the carriage, but their eyes had already started that 'stare' in their direction. They hoped they were just being paranoid, but one had the 'stare'. It gradually turned into a 'murderous stare' then a 'murderous stare while walking towards them' before ending in a 'murderous stare while being smacked over the head with a fire extinguisher'.
Brandon put the fire extinguisher down and glanced at the man on the floor, blood gushing from his forehead. He hadn't realised he had hit him that hard and felt a little guilty. The guilt was quickly whisked away as the second person, a woman in her late fifties jumped up and did an intimidating Kung-Fu display. Damn it, Brandon remembered, this woman was wired to the internet. If she was making Kung-Fu moves it meant she was now a grand master. The woman flew towards them, yes literally flew, crouching tiger hidden madam style, kicking Brandon to the floor, before turning towards Samir.
