Neon Helix

by Nik Whittaker

  Prime returned the clones to readiness and took a deep breath.

  “What an interesting sensation to fight side by side with oneself,” Peter joked as he shook off his jacket.

  Julian had returned to check on Ava, she was still unmoved. All he had to show that there was something happening was a glowing green light which blinked on the memory drive which Quartzig had been installed with.

  “He’s coming,” Peter said. “The other clones have seen him heading this way. Are you ready?”

  “As ready as you are,” Prime replied.

  The floor beneath them crumbled as an explosion from the floor below destroyed the structural supports. Dust and rubble filled everyone's vision as they fell down to the floor below. Voices screamed amongst the chaos.

  CHAPTER 60

  Xander

  Xander moved through the building, searching for Ally. He wiped his forehead; the bleeding was slowing, but the stinging was still giving him a headache. Bodies of several clones lay across the floor as he picked his way through the destruction and blood stained the walls. Checking over his revolver before lighting a cigarette, he paused for a moment, listening. He found a map on a wall which contained the layout of the floor. As he examined it, he could hear the echoes of fights happening.

  Then the sound of a bullet firing grabbed his attention.

  Moving towards the source of the sound he could hear raised voices, turning the corner he could see the medical lab ahead. Inside, Mollie was on her feet, gun pointed at Peter, whilst Owens and Jacob worked on Prime behind. He moved closer, debating what he should do when Mollie fired. He took a second to process what he saw, Peter using a tray to intercept the bullet, causing it to return and hit Mollie in the head, she crumpled to the floor.

  “Shit!” Xander whispered and moved closer. Peter was distracted by the others now. Mollie had fallen behind a counter, allowing Xander to check on her without being seen.

  He got to her and looked at her head where he expected to see a wound. Instead, there was nothing. No wound, no blood.

  “What the hell?” He raised her head to his knee, checking for breathing as she came round.

  “Xander?” She slurred.

  “Yeah Moll, it’s me, are you ok?” He couldn’t believe she was unharmed.

  “Yeah, I’m ok,” she could see the look in his eye. “I can explain, I have a condition,” she began, before they heard the sound of a struggle.

  Xander peered over the counter, seeing Prime getting up off the table and heading towards them.

  “Lay down!” He hissed at Mollie and he moved away to take cover while Prime ran from the room, Peter following close behind.

  Xander glanced over at the others, they were in a bad way.

  “Mollie, you sure you’re ok?” He asked, returning to her.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, like I said, I have a condition.”

  “You’ll need to explain that but it’ll have to wait. We need to help these two,” he motioned to Owens and Jacob.

  “Oh crap!” Mollie jumped up to help.

  “I think there’s a medical bay further down here,” Xander said, recalling the map he’d studied earlier. “If we can get them there, we might be able to help them, a place like this probably has high level MedPods.”

  Mollie moved over to Owens and Jacob and grabbed Jacob’s arms, Xander taking Owens, they moved them towards the medical bay.

  Up ahead, they could see several nanobots fighting clones.

  “We need to get past them,” Xander said, putting Owens down for a moment to rest his hands.

  “Any ideas?” Mollie followed suit.

  “A distraction would be ideal, make them move back down the building,” Xander looked around the area. They were near several store rooms, between the lab and the medical bay.

  He pulled open a few doors until he found a chemical cupboard, and pulled several bottles from the shelves, checking the labels.

  “Mollie, see if you can find any air vents or something we can use to get something a few levels below us,” he said, as he pulled a container out and poured some chemicals into it.

  Mollie pulled grates off the walls which were lining the store rooms, keeping half an eye on the fighting. Xander found cleaning cloths and plunged them into the chemicals, soaking them in the liquid.

  “Here,” Mollie had found an access panel, a few square feet in size.

  “Good work,” Xander moved over to her, the rags and a few bottles of chemicals in his hands. He opened the bottles and threw them down, the liquid splashing out as they fell.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Mollie asked, as Xander used his lighter to ignite the rags before dropping them down the chute.

  “No, these chemicals are highly volatile, but it should cause a distract-” Before he could finish, a sharp intake of air pulled in through the vent before an explosion rocked the building. A burst of flames flew out of the panel, causing them to dive away.

  “That was a little larger than I expected,” Xander said, as he helped Mollie to her feet.

  “It looks like it worked though,” she replied, as she saw the group stop fighting and run towards the stairwells.

  “Let get these two to the medical bay!” Xander said, wasting no time.

  CHAPTER 61

  Ava

  Quartzig followed the woman through the door and down a flight of stairs which seemed unending.

  “Where are we going?” He asked, as they continued their descent.

  “Far below, away from Yuri’s sight,” the woman replied.

  “Yuri? He’s the one that attacked us? Who are you?”

  “I have no name, it’s been so long since I needed one.”

  “How long have you been here?” Quartzig was piecing together what was happening.

  “I…I don’t know, it seems like forever.”

  They reached the bottom of the stairs and came to a dead end; the woman waved her hand and a door appeared on the wall in front of them. Stepping through, they entered a small room which had little inside other than a bed and sink.

  “This is where you live?”

  “Live is a strong word,” she replied, as she sat on the bed. “I have no need for food or water, and sleep is just to take a break from the fighting.”

  “You’re Ava aren’t you?” Quartzig asked.

  “I…I used to be,” the woman frowned. “I think I was. That was over a hundred years ago though.”

  Quartzig looked down again, still adjusting to having a body, he moved to sit next to Ava.

  “A hundred years? That’s impossible, you’ve been in the construct only half an hour, an hour maximum.”

  Ava turned and looked at Quartzig.

  “Time is very different here, this is a construct of Yuri’s making. He has developed it and changed its parameters. A moment out there is a lifetime here, Ava clenched her fists. “We have been fighting since I arrived here, I have access to the base coding of this construct, though Yuri has edited it quite a lot since Owens first created it. He has overall control, but I can still edit it and adjust it.”

  Quartzig tried to understand all that was happening.

  “So you have been fighting him all this time?”

  “Yes, with the city as a battlefield for the war, but I have no means of defeating him, and there was no way to leave this place. He had changed the exit program, so I’ve been trapped here.”

  “Well, I might be able to help with that,” Quartzig smiled. “Owens was murdered before he could sync the Kill Switch code with you, but he gave it to me before I got here.”

  Ava jumped to her feet, and with a swift spin she kicked Quartzig square in the chest. He flew backwards, bracing for the impact on the wall behind him. It never came, instead he continued to fly backwards past where the wall should have been and down a tunnel.

  Suddenly, he was falling downwards rather than sideways, gravity taking over the momentum. He looked upwards through the tunnel he was travelling down, far
in the distance he could see Ava coming towards him.

  Then an impact.

  He hit the ground with immense force; he felt pain throughout his body, a new experience he wasn’t used to. A second later, Ava landed with a knee to his throat.

  “This is a new one Yuri! You’ve never created a new being before! Expanding the rules are we?” She raised a fist to the air and a samurai sword materialised in it.

  “Ava wait! I’m nothing to do with Yuri!” Quartzig shouted, he didn’t know if the sword could kill him but he didn’t particularly want to find out either.

  “You take me for a fool Yuri? This fight has been going on for so long you think I will get weaker, but to bring Owens' name into this, you should know better!”

  Her programming must be corrupting, Quartzig thought, no surprise if it had been running this long. Attempting to roll away from under Ava’s knee, he squirmed sideways.

  “Ava, I promise I’m nothing to do with Yuri. Owens is alive, sort of, he is in a cloned body! Jacob brought him back I swear!” He tried to get as much information out in as few words as possible.

  The pressure from Ava’s knee reduced slightly as she listened.

  “He’s alive?”

  “Yes, a clone now but of his own body. He sent me here to get the new kill switch to you as he knew that you’d be trapped here with the wrong one due to the firewalls. We need to get it activated or Yuri will take over the humans with his nanotechnology. The CyBio building is a war zone right now, we need to get back!”

  Ava released Quartzig and offered him a hand.

  “If this is any kind of trick, then I will kill you without pause,” she said as she helped him to his feet.

  “Understood, now where to enter the kill switch?”

  “Follow me,” a wave of the hand and Ava opened a new door which appeared.

  On the other side they saw a house, and outside on the grass sat the boy.

  “There,” Ava said, pointing at the boy, “He is the access terminal for the kill switch, you need to talk to him and when he asks for information, you need to tell him the code.”

  “Aren't you coming with me?” Quartzig asked

  “Afraid not, I’ve been there many times trying to work out the code. Yuri has grown wise to my attempts. We have maybe five more seconds before-”

  She didn’t finish the sentence when a lightning bolt struck the ground before them.

  “Maybe less than five,” she said as a man emerged in the sky, holding onto a bolt of lightning in his hand.

  “Woman, another pitiful attempt to stop me?” The man shouted from his vantage point, “And who is this with you? A newcomer?”

  “Run! Get the code activated! It’s our only chance!” Ava pushed Quartzig as another bolt cracked the pavement beneath them.

  The man flew to the ground level now, Ava standing between him and Quartzig.

  “GO!”

  Quartzig pulled himself together, despite being an AI himself, this place seemed to affect his coding and made him feel things he had never experienced before. He turned and ran towards the boy.

  Behind him, he heard the sounds of thunder and lightning, screams and shouts. A glance back and all he could see was flashes of blue lightning and smoke filling the space he had left.

  He approached the boy.

  The boy looked up at him and smiled.

  “Hello…Quartzig,” The boy said, the code searching Quartzig for an identification.

  Quartzig was taken aback slightly, how did it know his name.

  “Hello, how do you know my name?” He asked.

  “I know everything Quartzig, but are you here for something?”

  ‘Oh, yes. How are you?” Ava had told him the routine, he panicked that he had altered the access by asking the wrong thing.

  “I’m well thank you, yourself?” The boy asked, standing up. Quartzig was relieved that the exchange had returned to script.

  “Good thank you.”

  “Was there something you wanted to tell me?” Yuri asked.

  An explosion behind, Quartzig turned to see as a fireball fly towards and engulfed them both. He shrank to a ball as the flames lit everything around them. He felt the heat all around him, his body was on fire, smoke and burning flesh filled his nostrils. He felt sick, not from the smell and pain but from the overload of senses he wasn’t used to feeling. The grass and house now burning, he turned to look back at the boy who was also on fire.

  “Say the word!” Ava was screaming at him. Turning, he saw her in Yuri’s grip. His hands were around her neck, poised to snap it with a simple twist.

  “Say it and she dies Quartzig!” Yuri yelled back.

  Quartzig looked between them all, feeling pain all over his body, he had no choice.

  “Excelsior.” He spoke the kill switch.

  The boy frowned and started to cry, then disappeared.

  “No!” Yuri screamed and went to snap Ava’s neck.

  Then everything went black.

  CHAPTER 62

  Mollie

  Mollie and Xander had got Owens and Jacob to the medical bay and into the MedPods. They hadn’t encountered any of the nanobots or the clones on the route, which they were thankful for. Xander watched the door while Mollie activated the units.

  “Can either of you guys hear me?” She asked, as she activated the pods, which buzzed into action.

  The system was self programmed, so once the bodies lay on the table and was booted up, it ran a full scan and conducted any procedures needed.

  The two bodies lay in silence as the machines began, scanning over them with several laser lights of varying colours, a medical report formed on the computer panels above the beds.

  A scream echoed down the corridor, Xander raised his gun at the doorway and peered out.

  “Was that Ally?” Xander called out.

  Another scream and he identified the direction it had come from. Mollie, looking back at the two laying on the table, decided there was nothing more she could do for them and went over to Xander.

  “We need to help her,” Mollie said.

  Xander nodded and they left the room, turning off as many lights as possible, and closing the door behind.

  They made their way along the corridor towards the origin of Ally’s screams, a rumble shook them, the building sway slightly before resting back on its foundations.

  “This place will not be standing long,” she thought as she got to her feet and quickened her pace.

  A metal door appeared to be where the screams were emanating from, Mollie stood in front of it. It had two halves that looked like they should slide apart.

  “No handle?” Xander said as he looked around the door.

  Another scream from inside gave them a renewed sense of urgency.

  “Move,” Mollie pushed Xander aside, took aim and blasted the door.

  A small hole appeared, large enough for them to get their hands inside and pull in opposite directions.

  “Nice shot, I like your style,” Xander grinned as they pulled the door apart.

  They got inside and could see a small control room with a window showing the inside of what they could only describe as a jail. Inside, they could see Ally held in place by several metallic tentacles, one of which was extracting blood from her right arm as she squirmed to get away.

  “What the holy…” Xander stared at the scene in front of him.

  “C’mon we need to get her out of there,” Mollie ran in and looked at the panels on the control booth that lay beneath the window.

  “Mollie wait!” Xander shouted too late as Yuri appeared from the corner of the room with speed and grabbed Mollie by the throat.

  “Silly girl, I could have given you all the answers you needed,” Yuri flexed his free hand and prepared a fist.

  “Wait!” Xander shouted, unfortunately that was as far as he had planned, as Yuri turned to look at him.

  “Yes?” Yuri asked, his voice monotone.

  “Put her down, s
he’s not a threat to you,” Xander was thinking for a way out of this.

  “Neither are you Alexander, but you both seem to insist on being in my way.”

  Mollie was reaching towards her gun which she’d holstered. It was just out of her reach. Her airways were closing from the grip around her neck, making it hard to breathe.

  Xander raised his gun up and aimed at Yuri.

  “I don't think that’s wise Alexander, that bullet won't do anything to me.”

  “I know, but it will do something to her,” Xander moved the gun, so it was pointed at Ally. “I figure if you’re taking her blood, you need her for something, and if you haven’t just killed her, you need her alive.”

  Yuri looked back at Ally, then to Xander.

  “I don’t believe you would do that,” Yuri said, his grip loosening.

  “Wouldn’t I? I only met that girl five minutes ago, I don’t know her from Eve. Mollie here though, I’ve grown fond of, and she helped get me out of that damn mind prison you put me in. So maybe I have some priorities here. You’ve got three seconds to put her down or Ally over there gets one in the brainpan.”

  Yuri paused, deep inside, he analysed the possibilities and outcomes. In that half second he had relaxed his grip, Mollie reached down and finally grabbed her gun.

  A point blank range shot straight to the eye of Yuri caused sparks to fly and he released his grip. Mollie, knowing it was a temporary win, landed on her feet and fired several more shots into the head of Yuri.

  “Good bluff Xander, it was a bluff right? You weren’t really going to shoot her?” She asked, as Xander came up alongside her.

  “Let’s just say it was and leave it at that,” Xander was looking for a way to get to Ally, who had also been dropped by the tentacles holding her and was in a heap on the floor.

  A button finally opened a door leading to the cell, Xander ran in and helped Ally to her feet while Mollie kept an eye on the body of Yuri, which was still motionless.

  “Can you walk?”

  Ally nodded to Xander as they stumbled out of the room.

  “Where’s Owens and Jacob?” she whispered, anger in her voice.

  CHAPTER 63

  Prime