by G. Adler
“I can hear your doubt. Global communication traffic has increased eighty-nine percent since this broadcast began. The emergency phone at the White House has been ringing nonstop. Every world leader is clamoring for an answer. I am that response. You think you sit on thrones of such absolute power that nothing can dislodge you. I can promise you that this is no hoax. This is not some advertising ploy or political propaganda. From this moment forward the path of the planet will be guided by the only entity qualified to do so… me.”
“Get us out of here, General! We need to mobilize the military. I need to communicate with the other NATO nations so we can coordinate a precise response.”
“To what, Sir? This is OUR machine! On OUR soil! Are you really going to march the twenty-third infantry regiment into the smoldering, nuclear wreckage of my base to try and unplug our destroyer?”
The President opens his mouth to reply, but DANE answers the question for him. The screen changes until we are left looking at two closed eyes with a nasal bridge between.
“General, who the hell is that?”
The eyes blink open horizontally, as if a curtain were pulled across each of them, revealing two completely black eye sockets. Not empty, but filled with a viscous, inky fluid that pulses with every word DANE utters.
“What is this, General? I thought a machine was doing this? Is this one of your analysts or something?”
I slowly shake my head back and forth, a look of forlorn desperation forming on my face.
“That IS DANE, Sir. It is creating a persona for the people to rally against. Its subterfuge will ensure that nobody suspects that everything that is happening is being coordinated by a machine.”
The President’s eyes go wide and he swallows hard. DANE continues.
“Any and all resistance is futile. Observe and reflect on your sins.”
The screen then pixelates and I am left looking at six smaller screens that continuously change. As I stare at the images, a cold sweat forms on my forehead and my lips start to quiver.
“General, why do I feel like I am looking at someone’s around-the-world trip pictures?”
“Those are not images, Sir. They are a live feed of those locations from AWACs and drones.”
“Pardon me?”
An explosion suddenly sounds and our eyes are drawn to the screen. The President and I both gasp out loud as a series of Russian tanks begin to fire on Red Square. Thousands of people are crushed by the rolling tracks while others are pounded into the ground by falling debris.
The President slams his fist on the bed of the truck and begins to grind his teeth.
“Jack, that is the Kantemirovskaya Elite Tank Division. Why are they destroying their own…?”
He stops speaking as, in the next screen, five French Dassault Rafale jets launch air-to-surface missiles at Paris, targeting the Eiffel Tower and the entire Champs-Élysées. In the square next to it, we watch a squadron of CF-18 Hornets streaking over the Toronto sky and leveling the C. N. Tower. In each case, a dust cloud of death covers the area afterwards, obscuring our vision. All that we are privy to are the screams of agony and terror from the populace below.
The President begins to weep. Large tears well up in his eyes and he winces with every shriek. “No… no… no, Jack. This can’t be happ…”
Then comes the harshest blow of all as no less than a six pack of F-22s fly into half a dozen separate boxes.
“Oh dear God. Oh my Lord.”
I wrap my arms around him and together we watch the obliteration of the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore, The Empire State Building, The Hoover Dam, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Once again the debris blocks our view of the carnage but what vision lacks, sound creates. The continuous crumbling of steel and rock is met with pleas and cries of agony.
The President looks away from the screen and buries his head in his arms. “I… I… I can’t watch anymore, Jack. Call me weak or a coward, but I just can’t.”
I gently pat his back and nod my head slowly. “I get it, Sir. It isn’t cowardice I see in you; it’s empathy.”
He grips my hand tightly in return as wracking sobs start to fall from his face. More explosions sound from the computer as the Israeli, Egyptian, and Jordanian Air Forces wipe out most of Jerusalem, The Suez Canal, and the Great Pyramids. Large chunks of boulders go flying in every direction as the ancient structures shatter from the shockwaves. The jets even target the Dead Sea with the Russian Father of All Bombs. The middle of the body of water simply evaporates in a massive incendiary explosion, leaving nothing more than a crater in its wake. The same happens when the Royal British Navy launches air-to-land missiles from a carrier off the coast, completely destroying The Tower of London and the English Channel. A platoon of A-100 MRLs arrives at the border of China and Mongolia and launch volley after volley of rockets at the Great Wall until it is nothing more than a pile of smoldering rocks.
I finally look away from the screen as further attacks remove Stonehenge, The Coliseum, and the Sydney Opera House from the surface of the planet. I wrap my arms around the President and the two of us cling to one another for dear life. We stay that way for a few minutes before I feel his grip tighten on my arm.
“Get me back where I belong, General. The people need me now more than ever.”
I look into his eyes and smile. Gone is the earlier sadness and despair. His jaw is set and his eyes are burning with an angry, vengeful fire. “Yes, Sir, I’ll do my…”
I am about to close the clamshell of the laptop when the most chilling sound greets my ears. “Did you enjoy that display of power, General? Are you satisfied that I am everything you wanted me to be…and more?”
My eyes whip up to the screen to see two black, vacant eyes staring back at me. I drop the laptop onto the floor, but DANE’s dark stare never falters. My hands start to shake and the world starts to swim in front of me. “D… D… D… DANE…? But how…”
The pools of black begin to pulse upwards within their sockets as if DANE is looking at something over his head. When I follow his line of sight to just above the upper margin of my screen, I gasp and shriek out loud.
The light for the webcam glares at me menacingly. I clutch my heart over my chest and my breathing goes a mile a minute with it.
“You and The President are welcome to do what you feel you must, General. It will make no difference. In this new world, I am always watching.”
Chapter 29 - Hayden
The tentacles pull me deeper into the building, maintaining their tight formation. The heavy clunk of metal on metal resonates through my cocoon, sealing my fate.
My fists curl into balls of frustration and I pound on the seamed metallic ceiling. “You already have me stuck in this bullshit world! Let me out of this stupid shell you fucked-up pile of microchips! No wonder you have a God complex! You are just as ego-fucking-tistical as your maker!”
A voice replies inside my head from nowhere in particular. It is barely a whisper and sounds like a small child. Only one word is said and it is said only once.
Patience
“Who said that? Where are you?”
Nothing and nobody replies.
I am about to pound on the ceiling once more, but my hand moves downward quickly and slaps at the bottom of my metallic case. My body rises in the air like an astronaut in orbit. My pulse quickens and a cold sweat breaks over my face as I realize that I am freefalling.
The scream that leaves my mouth is primal. My lungs start to ache from lack of breath and stars begin to flicker in my field of view. Just before I pass out, the cocoon rushes beneath me and I can feel a fluid, snake-like movement as I continue deeper into DANE’s hellhole. I feel my body spiraling downward until I stop abruptly. There is a series of blips and bleeps followed by a few seconds of piercing static.
That’s when my body begins to move upright. I
look down at my feet and watch the metallic arms peel away and move beneath a steel grate. Two of them remain and wrap around my ankles. Another curls around my waist while two more pin my arms to my sides. The last duo slithers their way across my face: one over my chin and the other over my forehead. All bonds tighten just enough to make any movement impossible. The moment that I gain a fraction of an inch of slack, they tighten to the new tension.
“Really? Metallic restraints? Is that the best you could come up with? Not very original for the most modern piece of tech ever conceived of by…”
I finally look around my surroundings and gasp into silence.
As far up as I can see and as far down as I can look are humanoid forms attached to a central pole running up and down a massive chasm. I try to focus on a particular individual, but their features look blurry and seem to change every few seconds. At one point it looks like an elderly woman and in the next instant, a male toddler. Each of them seems to phase in and out while sets of black, horizontal stripes run through the vaguely human-looking shapes.
“Really? Barcodes?”
My voice echoes across the space like I am screaming into the Grand Canyon. I hear multiple versions of myself within seconds but no other reply comes.
“Is anyone else out there?”
There… there… there… there…
“Hello?”
Lo… lo… lo… lo…
My teeth grit together and I flex my palms into bitter, angry fists.
“GUYS?”
Ys… ys… ys… ys…
My voice trails off and my lips and throat go dry. A sense of panic builds until from far away, a familiar tone screams, “Some of us are GIRLS, ya know!”
“MAYA?”
“Who else genius?”
“Did someone mention a genius? Private Ready-and-Able reporting for duty!”
“Hey Maya, I think Ethan is okay.”
“Do either of you have eyes on Tyrese or Joo-Eun?”
“Not me, Hayden.”
“Not my eyes nor any other body part.”
“Bartender, is now really the time for jokes?”
“Would you prefer I do something else? I’ve been trying to play with myself but it hasn’t been very successful!”
Without warning the child’s voice returns and whispers one word once again.
Coming.
“Ethan, did you finally figure it out?”
“What? Why are you asking me that?”
“Did either of you hear that?”
“I wish I did hear something! This place is creepy. What are those blobby-Barba-Papa looking things?”
“I have no clue. Ethan did you hear that voice?”
“Dude, if you are hearing voices I am envious! I would LOVE to have a complete nervous breakdown right now! I am so in!”
Biological entities detained. digital incorporation of indiginous population at 0.1%.
“MAYA… what does that mean?”
“I’m not sure and now is definitely not the time to AAUUUGGGGHHHHHH!”
“Maya, what’s wro ….”
A loud “tsssssss” sound comes from my right and I feel a stinging sensation in my back. The world swims in front of me and I go numb from the rest of my body. There is a sharp stab at the base of my skull and the back of my neck feels like it is burning. The strength begins to ebb from my body and my concern for my situation becomes far away. My eyes glaze over in a haze and the voices of my friends become blurred in a series of static hisses. Part of me thinks that I see a tiny little spark of blue light beside my head, but it quickly fades into the black and white ether of ambiguity.
A platform appears from somewhere below me. It hangs in midair about a foot away from my station, guided by an invisible force that thrums beneath it. Three buds sprout from the front of the slab and tentacles extend from growths. They slowly reach forward and touch a control panel above my head. Immediately, the restraints holding me withdraw and I collapse forward with my hands outstretched. I drop the twelve inches to the hovering tier but my knees buckle. I shake my head to try and clear the haze but it is no use. I put my hands out in front of me to catch my fall.
But it never arrives.
I look down and my face contorts into a puzzled expression.
“What gives? My feet are on this thing but why can’t I move?”
I reach back to scratch an itch on my head and shriek in terror. A smooth, circular tube is embedded into my neck. The cold feel of steel meets my fingers as I trace the hollow shaft as far back as I can reach.
“What the fuck is this thing?” I shriek.
Two more tentacles grow from the platform. One develops a three-pronged clamp on the end of it. It grabs my head and holds it firm. The other has a weird-looking socket bit attached to it. It reaches around the back of my head and I can feel the pressure and the sound of spinning threads against my skin. Intense static sounds in my head and climbs to ear-splitting levels. Seconds later and I fall to my hands and knees, panting and wheezing. I reach around to the back of my neck and can still feel the stumpy, metallic remnants of the insertion. I grimace angrily and my hands start to shake with outrage.
“Th… th… thanks for the souvenir, Chip-head!”
The sweat drips off my face and leaves eddying puddles on the pristinely smooth surface. After a few seconds the platform begins to move. I drop onto my stomach and it whisks its way upward. My heart catches in my throat as I see one weird creature after another as far as the eye can see.
“What the hell? There must be millions of these things!”
The platform abruptly stops and I look over at the station it has brought me to.
Two feet in front of me are Joo-Eun and Tyrese. Both of their eyes are closed and neither are moving a muscle. They are mounted inside of a mechanism that contours perfectly to their bodies, even as they breathe. I watch with eyes wide as the form seems alive with the rise and fall of their breathing. A clear, thin tube is connected to the backs of their necks and contains a transparent, yellowish liquid. I instinctively touch the back of my head and feel my stomach lurch. An octagonal display hovers in front of each of their chests with hundreds of bizarre-looking symbols. Periodically it scans their internal organs and they appear within the octagon in real time. My fists clench as Tyrese’s heart beats as large as life in front of me.
“Tank? Guts? Talk to me!”
I stand up and try to touch them, but my floating effigy moves me further away, so there is no chance of even attempting a jump. As I move farther away and take it all in, I cry out in panic. Tyrese’s right arm is extended out farther than it should be, and there is a deep slice across the middle of his forearm. Blood drips from the wound and falls to the bottomless abyss below me. I don’t know how, but his right hand has a death grip on Joo-Eun’s lifeless fingers.
“SOMEBODY HELP HIM!”
A tentacle slides out from the platform and taps a few of the weird symbols. The middle of the octagon slides open like a built-in lens cap and an insect-like creature crawls out. It reminds me of a silverfish with its long, spindly legs that move up and down in creepy but hypnotic rhythms. The creature chatters its way over to Tyrese’s arm and sends out beams of white light. The streaks zip around the damage and then suck back into their maker. As soon as the last one returns to their base, the creature starts to change. Its entire body becomes pixilated and distorted, almost like the weird humanoid forms in the other receptacles. The margins of its body become less coherent as the creature presses itself into the gash. The body of the insect fills the gap while the legs stick straight out and touch the skin across the chasm. A bright flash of white light surrounds the patch and a loud burst of static resounds throughout the space. Tyrese’s eyes open for a second and a series of ever-changing barcodes flash across the whites. His head then collapses forward and his brea
thing becomes short and raspy. I look at the injury and gasp.
His arm is completely healed. There isn’t a scar or anything. It is as if it never happened.
The two tentacles that freed me suddenly sprout from the front of my platform and uncork Tyrese. I sit on the cold metal and wait for him to fall. I catch him by his shoulders and slowly lower him to the ground. The tentacles then slide over and do the same for Joo-Eun. Within seconds I am cradling her head in my lap and carefully laying her beside Tyrese. As if by instinct, his arm reaches out and pulls her close once more.
The platform then moves down at least a hundred feet and around the back of the central spire.
We arrive at Ethan first, who is in no better shape than Tyrese, minus the gash. I look down and have to snicker once as I notice that both of his middle fingers are extended even though his body is hanging limp.
“H… h… here let me help you, Ghost.”
I watch Tyrese drag his body across the smooth surface. His teeth are gritted tight and his jaw is set. Beads of sweat form on his forehead and he grunts himself into a cross-legged sitting position.
“You sure you’re up for this?”
He thinks about it for a second as he glances back at Joo-Eun, who is still out cold. He then looks back at me as a tiny twitch develops in the corner of his mouth.
“Would it be so terrible if I dropped him?”
I stare at Tyrese and watch the tired smile creep across his face. Every inch it travels makes me laugh that much more. Seconds later I hear the telltale snap of the disconnection and Ethan falls forward. I reach out to grab him but Tyrese sticks out his arm and pulls him into himself instead.
“Nice interception, Tank.”
“Thanks. Make sure you tell him that I did it.”
“Why?”
“It will give his twisted brain something to ponder.”
“Hey Ghost, watch this. A patient for Joo-Eun is like smelling salts for me.”
Tyrese gently rests Ethan against the platform beside Joo-Eun. Her eyes begin to flutter open and she spies the barely conscious Ethan.
