by Blou Bryant
“I’ve got…” she said, with a smile.
Conversations about plans… that wouldn’t work, not with Joe listening. He waved her off. “I’m going to get something to eat,” he replied.
The trays were heaped with food. A square chef with a tall hat stood behind the beef, a knife in hand. “Thin and well done,” said Wyatt. He’d seen enough blood for the day, even if it’d only been a pinprick. “More,” he said after the first three slices, and the chef obliged. As he moved down the line, server after server heaped food onto his plate. The vegetables were bright green and red, the fruits a mix of colors, all fresh, making his mouth water.
Absentmindedly rolling up a piece of beef and shoving it in his mouth, he contemplated the fresh food and the many service staff, all dressed in white. Usually invisible, they suddenly stood out. There was at least a dozen in the room. Just this one room.
With a bite of cheddar, Wyatt thought about how there had to be deliveries, likely every day. Trucks, coming and going. And not through that one gate. An apocalypse shelter could be fully locked down, but right now, it catered to the rich, and they had needs.
Popping a grape in his mouth, he watched the workers. They didn’t arrive through the main gate either. Of course not, they weren’t residents. There were nothing more than hired help, likely to be discarded, locked out as zombie food when the day came.
He sat straight up, excited again. There was a way out, there had to be another entrance—and exit! The parking lot was full of cars, and there were likely delivery trucks. The service entrance would be down the hallway used by the staff—the rich who lived here would want to be separated from the people who delivered the food and many other items they needed.
That was his route out. How to do it was the question. He had to take Emm with him—she was the key to releasing the other AIs, according to Seymour. The other Dogs would have to stay. Would they be at risk? Jessica wouldn’t hurt them out of anger, nor would Joe. As he told himself this, he winced internally, praying that it would be true.
He turned to Ari. “I want you and Ira to watch the main hall.”
She nodded and ran through the crowd. Emm raised an eyebrow.
It doesn’t matter if Joe heard it or not. That’s what he expects me to do. Surveil, learn, consider, plan… it’s what I always do.
“I need information,” he said, wondering how he could ask questions. Was she able to use her connections to open doors? Would she be able to get them out? Are there trucks here? Is there a backdoor? Is it open?
“Well, if you’d only listened before,” she said, leaning forward. Her bracelets jangled as she affectionately put her hands against his cheeks. “Perhaps you can listen better now.” She came closer and gave him a small kiss on the forehead. At the same time, she moved her hands up the side of his head, and he felt a small object get inserted in his ear.
“Someone you know made arrangements,” she said, and pulled her hand back.
“Say nothing,” was the first thing he heard through the earbud Emm had placed. “I arranged for one of the staff to give Emmelyn hers.”
Wyatt sat still. The voice young, childish even. It was Mary, the AI they’d encountered only days before.
“He is listening and watching. You must be very careful.”
Emm closed her eyes to commune with the AI. After a minute, she opened them and grinned. “The body of a naked man is found in the desert, no footprints leading to it.” After this non sequitur, she put a finger in the air. “Wait…” and closed her eyes again.
That was one of Emm’s favorite situational puzzles. Give a fact and then answer questions with only a yes or no… and see how long it took the other person to figure out the puzzle.
Seconds later, Mary’s voice came over his earbud. “Emm is talking to me and through me. She says to put your hand flat on the table, and tap your fingers randomly, as if thinking.”
He did, curious.
“Keep tapping your fingers every few seconds. When I ask a question, tap once with your index finger for yes, and twice for no. Understood?”
Wyatt tapped his index finger once, for yes. Yes or no questions were the only way to figure out a situational puzzle. Had the man died from dehydration? No. Was he shot? No. Had he been healthy before dying? Yes.
“Emm can’t hear you now. She can only communicate through me. I can see you, but it’s intermittent, and my access to the building is occasional. He knows I’m here and is fighting me. Understood?”
Tap.
“Are you looking for a way out?”
Tap, tap. He knew the way out. He needed help using it.
There was a long pause.
“Do you want information about the inside of Palna?”
Tap.
“Residences?”
Tap, tap.
“Food areas?”
Tap, tap.
“The main hall?”
Tap.
“About the security?”
Tap, tap.
“The layout?”
Tap, tap.
A long pause. “Something I could control?”
Tap.
“Lighting?”
Tap.
“I can turn off the lights, is that what you wonder?”
Tap.
“It’d be brief, only a minute. Is that sufficient?”
A few seconds wouldn’t be enough, but a minute? Perfect. Tap.
“Emmelyn and I are extrapolating.” There was a longer pause. “You plan on escaping.”
Tap.
“Emmelyn wonders why you said you weren’t looking for a way out.”
He didn’t answer, it was a statement, not a question.
“You already know how you will escape.”
Tap.
After another pause, the AI continued. “You’ve asked Ari to watch the main hall, to assist in the escape. You’ve not asked me if I can disarm the main gate, so you plan on leaving through the service entrance.”
Tap.
Another long silence. “Everyone will go?”
His heart broke at the question and the answer he’d decided on. Tap, tap.
“More than five?”
Tap, tap.
“Three or less?”
Wyatt knew he couldn’t bring everyone. It wasn’t possible, and would likely get people killed. And he needed to surprise Joe, to do what the machine would expect him to do—abandon his friends. He tapped once.
Emm and Mary were silent as they discussed options. Eventually Mary said, “You’ll need a vehicle.”
Tap.
“There are vehicles. A truck arrives every day at eleven. It departs at noon.”
Wyatt didn’t have a watch or phone to check the time. It was still morning, that much he was sure of.
“You’ll leave tomorrow?”
Tap, tap.
“The next day?”
Tap, tap.
A pause. “Today?”
Tap.
“We only have thirty minutes.”
“Is it possible?” he asked. Emm didn’t reply, her eyes closed. Wyatt searched the room for cameras, but while Mary had said there was surveillance, he couldn’t see it. Again, he said, “Is it possible?” hoping that it’d be picked up.
“Stop. Joe can detect anomalous actions and speech.”
He stopped, waiting for an answer.
“Processing.”
Wyatt didn’t know what was down the long hall, or if the exit he was searching for was through the worker’s area. He’d only assumed.
“The loading dock will be open and accessible for another fourteen minutes. The lights will be off for forty-nine seconds at most. At a moderate jog, the hallway will take nineteen seconds. Take the last door on the right, into the staff lunchroom, stay left into the kitchen. Seven seconds to get through the lunchroom and another eight for the kitchen.”
He needed more information and had to risk one more question “Distances?” His two personal guards were staring a
t him. Joe was only hearing one side of the conversation, and must be confused.
“Eighty feet. Twenty-three feet. Twenty-seven feet.” There was a pause. “Who is going with you? No, don’t answer that. Am I—is Emmelyn—going with you?”
Tap.
“Anyone else?”
Tap, tap. Nobody else. Just the two of them. They’d escape, get the finished code from Seymour, finish Joe and return at the head of a Zone army to finish Jessica. He’d show the inhabitants of Palna what the apocalypse really looked like.
Wyatt stood up. “Let’s go for a walk,” he said. Emm’s eyes flashed open, and she stood up, fear broadcast on her face. Joe would read that, but he’d not understand it, not until it was too late.
Chapter 31
As they got up, a couple people stood to follow. Wyatt motioned to them. “Stay here, save our seats,” he said. They couldn’t be with him when he made a break for it. They’d follow, and either foul it up or get themselves killed. He took Emm’s hand as they walked by his guards, who were watching him warily.
Wyatt briefly looked to the entrance to the staff area, freezing the picture in his mind. A long white hall, a square entrance and two guards, one tall and one short. Closing his eyes, he pictured this, focused on it, and tried to access whatever the virus was doing to him. He visualized darkness.
He did this again, twice, and glanced at Ari. She gave him a brief nod, and the twins stood up from the seats they occupied in the middle of the main hall.
“Soon, me and Emm,” he pathed as best he could, and hoped they got—and understood—the message.
Wyatt led them slowly around the outside of the main hall. With a deep breath, he filled his lungs with oxygen.
They were halfway to the employee hall. It would take another twenty seconds to get there. Perhaps twenty-five. Wyatt slowed down, to let Ari and Ira get into position. They were in motion, moving through the other side of the room.
Emm took his hand and gave it a little squeeze.
“You’re still…?” connected with Mary, he wanted to ask.
“Yup.”
“I’ll say…” when you need to have Mary turn off the lights. Ten seconds. Ari and Ira had separated and were casually walking towards the hallway. Five seconds for them.
“In six,” he said.
The guards in the entrance were watching him now. He’d made a mistake, walking too directly towards them. His two personal guards were likely close behind, but he couldn’t risk a look back.
“In three,” Wyatt said, and his next steps had a bounce in them. Time to run. He tightened his grip on Emm’s hand. She was slower than him, and he couldn’t let her fall behind or lose her in the darkness.
Two. Mark where the guards were. There was four feet between them.
One. The left guard turned as Ari closed in on him, but he didn’t take any action, didn’t put up his hands or pull his gun. Why would he?
There was a pop and the lights went out. Without windows, the room was completely black. Wyatt stepped forward into the space between where the guards had been. There was a sound to his right, flesh hitting flesh, and he sped through the opening created by Ari and Ira. Behind him, he heard someone fall to the ground with a thud far too loud to be either Ari or Ira.
Run!
With Emm’s hand in his, he ran, his strides shorter than he could manage alone, but hopefully fast enough. He counted them out, they had eighty feet to go before turning, and no more than a minute to make it. Cancel that, now by his calculations, now they had forty-eight seconds.
Putting his left arm out carefully as they slowly—too slowly—ran down the hallway, he touched the wall and used it to guide him straight ahead. “Faster,” he whispered.
Forty feet now, perhaps fifty. There was a sound of light footsteps behind them. Wyatt considered stopping, but it was pitch black and any fight would take too long. Better to take out the pursuer once they reached light. “Keep going.”
Sixty feet, almost there. He slowed. “Wall coming.”
Emm caught up, but he didn’t let go. Seventy feet, he stopped running, took his hand off the left wall and held it in front of him. It wasn’t necessary, there was the sound of voices coming from the right. They were at the turn. “Going right,” he said, still whispering and listening to the footsteps behind them slow as well.
The sound of a click came through the black. It was Teri.
“No, you have to go back,” he whispered fiercely.
Click, click.
They’d taken over twenty seconds, he estimated twenty-three since the lights had gone out. Only thirty-seven remained. Perhaps a lot less. He stopped briefly. “Go back. The others will watch out for you.”
Click, click… ahead of him now. He cursed into the black, but followed, tracing the wall.
They were surrounded by voices now, and must be in the lunchroom. To his surprise, the people sounded amused, if anything, despite the dark, and the presence of so many Prats and Watchers in Palna.
Wyatt paused and attempted to visualize the room that he’d ate in a day earlier. Then a click came to his left, Teri was leading the way now. Emm now following the click, pulling at his hand. “Come on,” she said.
Thirty-four seconds… or more. His nose and ears led him now. The sound of talking was behind them and the smell of food ahead, or so it seemed. Click, a bit to the left. Emm yanked on his arm.
Forty seconds, they were moving too slow. Click, click.
“No? No what?” he asked. The time for quiet was over.
“Door,” Teri whispered, grabbed his left hand and pressed it up against a wall. No, a door, it swung slightly. She pushed through, and pulled at his hand, leading the way, Emm behind them.
He’d lost track, but knew they were almost out of time. They moved as fast as they could through what must be the kitchen, from the burst of smells that greeted them.
Ahead, there were three small lines of light, framing what must be a door to the outside. Twenty-seven feet later, she stopped again. It was over a minute. Time was up, or would be soon.
“Door,” she whispered, and pushed it open. Wyatt burst through, pushing her to side in case of danger, and came face to face with a giant, his dark black beard falling over a white chef’s uniform. Behind him were at last twenty other workers, gathered in the light, waiting for the power to come back on.
One minute. It had to be one minute, and he was so close—the truck was only twenty feet away, backed up to the loading dock.
So close.
Wyatt stopped and put up his hands as the workers turned as a group to look at the new arrivals.
Teri stepped ahead of him, one hand in the air. “No,” she said to Wyatt. “We want on that truck,” she said to the group. No, not to the group.
A pretty, young woman stepped forward, Olivia, Wyatt remembered. “You’re escaping?”
“Escape?” someone else asked.
“Of course, come, come…” Olivia said, pointing to the open doors at the back of the truck. “Get on, quick. There are several Prats about. They’ll be back soon.”
The black bearded giant took Wyatt by the arm, ignoring his still-raised fists. “Come, fast,” he said with a heavy Eastern-European accent. Confused, discovered, out in the open, Wyatt hesitated.
“NOW,” said Teri, following Olivia into the truck, Emm close behind.
“Guards soon, come,” said the giant, and Wyatt followed him onto the truck. Not one person out of the twenty yelled out for the Prats. Instead, several had moved to act as lookouts.
“Coming, one’s coming,” someone said, and Wyatt found himself hemmed in as six or seven people pressed in, using their bodies to hide him from view.
On the truck, Olivia pointed to four large bins. “Dirty rags. Get in, fast, fast.”
She didn’t know what he’d done, why he was being hunted, and were putting their lives at risk, at a moment’s notice. Wyatt complied, too confused to do anything else. As he climbed into a bin, he wat
ched the giant lift Teri up into another one.
Olivia pulled rags from the sides and covered him. “Safe trip, wherever you’re going,” she said. The doors to the truck slammed closed, and they were alone.
A minute and a quarter, perhaps a minute and a half, and they were safe, and almost free. Someone shouted out, “Power’s on.” Wyatt took a deep breath and immediately regretted it, the smell of the dirty linins filling his lungs.
Chapter 32
The truck started up a minute later and pulled out of the loading bay. None of them spoke as it eased up the hill leading away from Palna. It was another five minutes later when it stopped at the gate. Wyatt held his breath, expecting a search, but the pause lasted only seconds and they were on their way… somewhere.
Pulling the rags off his head, he carefully raised himself enough to see the front of the van. It was empty, driverless. “Emm…” he said.
“Shh,” she replied, poking her head out of her container. Teri followed suit.
The three came out of hiding, and Emm made a beeline for the front, and fiddled with the controls. “Okay, we can talk now. I’ve disabled comms.”
Wyatt took the driver’s seat and checked the instrument panel. They were heading south, back to the highway, hopefully.
“We need to take control. If I put it in manual, is that going to alert anyone?”
“It probably will, but Mary could disable the external stuff. Where are we going?”
Wyatt tapped his earbud. “Mary, plot directions back to the Zone. We need to get the last part of the virus and install it.”
“She can’t hear you,” said Emm.
“The bud doesn’t work?”
“It’s near-field only, works through local transmitters—just like a normal bud needs your phone to connect, this one needs a central hub. That’s back at Palna.”
“So… you can still connect to her?”
“It’s not as easy as that. Just because I can sense wireless doesn’t mean I can jump on at any point. I’m not a walking cellphone. I’ve got to hack my way into each network.” She sounded frustrated with him.
